City Council - Regular Meeting

there. Thank you for your patience. I hope everybody's doing well tonight. Um, we're going to go ahead and start with the pledge of allegiance. And I've asked Sai and Sarahu and the young gentlemen in the second row to come on up. They're going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. So I'm going to ask them to face the flag over here. Come over here, young guy. No, you can stop right here, girls. You know, that just demonstrates we have not choreographed this opportunity here. All right. Ready? Anytime you're ready, guys? I pledge allegiance to 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. Recording in progress. them to come up one more time and we're going to do the pledge of allegiance again. Okay, let's start. I thought we did a pretty good job. You know, it's it's the it's the Olympics. I gave us an 8.5. Let's see if we can get a 9.5. So, we're going to do one more time. Okay. Face the flag. Oh gosh, we got lots more kids. There you go.

Got three. All right. Ready?

I aliance to 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. [applause] It's always amazing to me the number of firsts that I'm able to experience as our mayor. That's probably the first time in our history that we've ever done a redo of the pledge of allegiance. But again, um, anytime you have children involved in civic government, you want to make sure you leave them with such a positive message as to what government's all about so that uh, you know, years from now they remember. You know, I was at a city council meeting and I had the opportunity to lead the pledge and that's why government and participation is so important and uh, when we get them at a young age, we hang on to them, you know. So, congratulations to them. It's really my opportunity to commend the Macaka Swag Dance Group. If I could have them come forward [applause] [applause] and I want to introduce Vi and

RK

R. See, they made it so simple for me. [laughter] We're not only going to recognize the MAC, is it Macaka or Matcha swag dance group, but also these outstanding choreographers who dedicate their lives to inspiring young people in terms of understanding the importance of dance, but not only is it good for them physically, it's good for them mentally. You know, they they they enjoy these opportunities. and uh we want to make sure that we recognize the matcha swag dance which was established under the leadership of these two fine individuals and has become one of the Bay Area's fastest growing Indian dance schools now operating in eight locations including New Park Mall in Newark and serving over 500 students whereas the matcha swag dance specializes in high energy dance Indian dance styles including I'm going to let you help me out here

that's ku ku Folk, Bollywood, hiphop. I understand hiphop. Don't ask me to do it, but I do understand it. Bangra, Bangra,

and Garba. Thank you. The school takes pride in creating an inclusive environment that supports children, adults, and families of all backgrounds. Matcha Swag Dance programs promote physical fitness, confidence, building, emotional well-being, and cultural education. Whereas in 2025, Matcha Swag Dance achieved several remarkable milestones, including leading 65 dancers in the Golden State Warriors NBA opening ceremonies, [applause] performing halftime shows for the Sacramento Kings, and earning multiple first place awards at the Festival Globe competitions. Matcha swag dance has also collaborated with leading Indian artists and has been recognized by the consulate general of India in San Francisco and various Bay Area media outlets for advancing Indian culture. And whereas Matcha Swag Dance continues to support the newer community by offering accessible dance programs, youth development opportunities and cultural showcases such as the annual year-end event Pa Maha

Pa Matcha. Pa Matcha. And what is that scheduled for? Do you know at this point? Uh it's on May uh 24th. 24th and it will be here locally. Uh it's in uh we are still looking for the place location. Okay. Well, make sure you let us know. Yes. Because I know there's a lot of folks that are very much interested in your success and they certainly may want to uh attend. So therefore I Michael Hen the mayor on behalf of my colleagues because it's my colleagues that support this as well. uh do want to thank you for the dedic for your dedication, community and uh creativity, engagement, and cultural as cultural ambassadors for Newark and the Bay Area and wish you continued success. Thank you. So, I'm going to go ahead and award this to you. This is to the school.

Thank you. And then, of course, because of your outstanding involvement, uh you're going to be recognized by the city as well. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. [applause] Did you want to say a few words?

Yes. Um good evening everyone and uh thank you Mr. Mayor and um all the city council member. Uh this is something huge. Uh this evening it's um uh not just recognizing our journey. It's actually the community community that supports uh businesses like ours and also the culture and art um that we spread across the community. So which is something huge and uh we are extremely proud uh for this recognition and honored to be here and um thanks to all our MSD family. Uh we actually we were supposed to call all of them here. We would love to have our uh MSD family here. um our fra parents, friends and family for all their support. Without their support, especially the

I'm going to ask my colleagues to come down and Oh, that would be that'll be great. Photo colleagues. So, um yeah,

congratulations. Thank you. Listen. Hey guys, just stand in front of the podium. Sure. Yeah. This is not an invitation.

All right. So, one, two, three. Do this one.

Perfect. [applause] [cheering] Congratulations. Thank you. Time in my day. It's a crazy day. [laughter]

We have one more comment. Go ahead, my friend. Uh, welcome, namaskarum and uh, good evening for everybody here. Um, thank you mayor, city council member and everybody here. Um so I quit my IT job last year. Um taking uh I mean I was earning really good in IT job and I took a call to quit it and join uh fitness I mean not fitness a dance school. Um so as a choreographer I joined here and the reason I did is it's my passion and whenever I'm working in IT job also my heart is always wanted to support my community and always to be like to help and to do something with dance. So with that uh now I'm proudly can say that like we have around like thousand plus students in Bay Area uh in eight locations and uh city is recognizing this is one of the biggest honor for our dance school and for our students. So this is completely dedicated to our students like everyone whoever supported in our journey. So thank you. Thank you all. Thank you all my students. Thank you for that. And uh [applause] and thank you mayor always supporting like whenever we need it just like he's always there like even if I text him at night he's responding. So thank you mayor for being so supportive for our dance school and we'll uh we are performing again in April 1st and April 5. Uh for Golden State Warriors, we are doing halftime. And for Sacramento Kings, we are doing um we're doing

pregame plus halftime. So there are again 100 plus dancers are performing in it. Uh so we have like lot of events coming up also. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for everybody again. Thank you. Thank you city. Thank you. Yeah. [applause] Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. We'll take on group picture. You and me. Sure. Sure. I know actually he's part of MSD. He comes to all the classes.

Thank you. Congratulations. the next proclamation. And I'm going to ask Kayla Gupta, Maria, Maria Nunees, and Garrett Cordez to come up and join me, please.

You know, this is really an important proclamation. Um, and it's really near and dear to all of us in the newer community. Um, as many of you know, we lost our executive officer for the Chamber of Commerce tragically back in December at the age of 61. Um, I don't know the actual cause of his passing, but I believe it probably was something like a heart attack because he was in such great spirits the Thursday night when we did a um meet and greet at a local hotel um to welcome chamber me members and he was just shining that night and then passed away the next day. So, I truly believe it must have been a heart attack as it happened so suddenly. So, it's so important for us to recognize um our own health, you know, because on any given day, you know, we're all susceptible to, you know, to um tragedy and our families are going to unfortunately have to suffer as a result of that. So, it's it's my pleasure to issue proclamation 1961 declaring February as American Heart Month. Whereas February is recognized nationally as American Heart Month, first established in 1964 to raise awareness about heart disease and promote cardiovascular health. Whereas heart disease remains a leading cause of death in the United States, making prevention, education, and physical activity vital to community health. Whereas regular walking has been shown to improve healthy hearts, reduce the risk of chronic disease, and support overall physical and mental well-being. Whereas Washington Health, the city of Union City, and the city of New York share a commitment to equitable health and selfless opportunities that encourage healthy uh habits. Whereas the Heart Smart Walking Challenge promotes physical activity, heart health education, and community connection.

Whereas this program and partnership align with the city of Newark's mission to support public health, community connection, and long-term wellness. Now, therefore, I'm Michael Han, the mayor. on behalf of my colleagues on the city council do declare February American Heart Month and proudly recognize the city of Newark's first time participation in the Heart Smart Walking Challenge with Washington Health and the city of Union City, encouraging residents to take steps toward a healthier community. So, it's with great pleasure that I award this proclamation to you and certainly want to learn a little bit more about the event coming up, I believe. There you go. My pleasure. [applause]

Thank you so much, Mayor Hannah. And I also want to give a very big thank you to my colleagues from New York and Union City in the back, Becca and Robert, for making this partnership a reality. You know, we complete our community health needs assessment every 3 years and heart health has always been a concern for us in the tri-ity area. This program was built out of the results that we saw in that report and it really is a way for us not to just talk the talk but literally walk the walk and make a difference in the health of our residents uh for our residents. I would like to invite you all to join us at our next Washington Health Walk. These run the first Wednesday of every month where you can join us for a mile walk and learn some education as well. Our next walk will be on Wednesday, March 4th at 9:00 a.m. It will take place at Kennedy Park in Union City. And our topic will be hearthealthy nutrition. So, I hope that you join us. You are all invited. If you log on to be part of the challenge, you can win prizes every month and connect to learn all about great walking locations and fitness tips along the way. So, thank you for this amazing partnership. [applause]

Sure. Can we have Angus? Yeah, sure. [clears throat] Thank you. Oh, excellent. Excellent. Nothing that we have to declare on our form 700, by the way. I understand. Absolutely.

Well, this is an opportunity for me to boast. Not that I'm ever shy about doing that. Um I have a golden lab and a golden retriever and they both insist on a walk in the morning individually and a walk in the afternoon individually. So I am now averaging six miles a day. you know, unfortunately it's not showing where it should be showing, but uh you know, [laughter] um there's no healthier thing that we can do and it's so easy just to go out and walk. And uh not only is it physically good for you, but just for your mental health, you know, when you have a tough day, you know, and you go out and walk with your dog, if you have a dog, that dog doesn't think about anything other than I want to go on my walk, you know, and it's a great opportunity. So, the next proclamation that I'd like to issue, of course, is for Black History Month. And I'm going to invite Miss Jean Ficklin and Marian Langford to come up and join me, please. [applause] This is a Newark treasure, by the way. Jean Ficklin. [applause]

She does.

She finds out, she says, "Can you [laughter] pick me?" It's my pleasure to issue proclamation number 1963 declaring this Black History Month. But before I do that, uh I just want to read the proclamation because there have been so many significant black Americans throughout our history that have done amazing things. And uh you know, we need to remember that it's not something that we just simply celebrate because they are an important part of our community, but they have made such a significant difference in what makes America great today. And I know these names are common place uh to to most folks, but you know, when you look at politics, you know, our first black American president, Barack Obama, you know, who thought that in our lifetime we would see a black American be president of the United States. And we did see that especially because some of us are old enough to remember the conflicts of the 60s and thought when were we going to get to a day and Martin Luther King talked about it all the time about the character of the person and not the color of their skin. Um there's so many sports legends, so many science and innovation leaders, uh so many historical figures, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas going way back, Martin Luther King, you know, these are people that Rosa Parks, you know, who took the challenge, you know, I understand what you're saying. I can't do, but I believe I should be able to. That takes courage. It's not like that happened in San Francisco or New York City, right? that happened in an area where they didn't feel that recognition and she stood up and said you know what I need to be recognized for who I am and I am deserving of the same rights that everybody else deserves. So a big big

appreciation for all those great leaders and community members um that we have had and that we continue to applaud. So in 1969, the idea of Black History Month was promoted by black students and educators at Kent State University, followed by the first celebration of Black History Month on campus and local surroundings one year later. Whereas in 1976, President Gerald Ford praised Black History Month, urging all citizens to seize the opportunity to honor the too often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history. Whereas Black History Month is celebrated to recognize and honor the contributions, achievements, and history of Black Americans who have often been overlooked and minimized in mainstream historical narratives. Whereas the 2026 Black History Month theme, a century of Black History commemoration honors the significant achievements and contributions of black Americans over the past century, reflecting on how these commemorations have shaped culture and identity. Now therefore, I, Michael Hannon, proudly on behalf of my entire city council, proclaim February 2026 as Black History Month in New York and urge residents to celebrate and honor these profound contributions. Um we we need to move in the right direction and as we continue to recognize the contributions of anybody living in this great country irrespective of their religion or their culture or their ethnicity or their whatever the case may be just recognize their contributions that's what will make us a great country. So it's with great honor that I present this to Miss Fickland uh for Black History Month and Miss Langford. Would [applause] you like to say a few words, Jean? Did

you want to say a few words? Yeah. In fact, I think Jean has a birthday coming up, don't you, Jean? Yes. And what day is it, Jean? March 4th. March 4th. And you will be 95. 95 years young. [applause]

Good evening. Uh we are very excited about this month what we have been doing and on Saturday Valentine's Day we will be at the Joy Sllamon Center beginning at 12 noon uh ending at 5:00 p.m. We have some exciting things that will be happening that day. So please accept the invitation. We do. Thank you. [applause] Chief, can we get a picture in [applause] the front? Colleagues, you want to come down for a photo? This is worthy.

Sure.

We welcome you back to Newark. You know, New Mexico starts with new. Good.

Okay. One, two, three.

I'll see you Saturday. I'll see you Saturday.

Okay. My pleasure. I'll see you Saturday. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, you're probably wondering again, this is probably the safest room in the entire city of Newark because we have some of Newark's finest here tonight. And it's with great pleasure that I uh invite Captain Brian Simon to join me. [applause] [applause]

Just remember I grabbed your Tesla. Yeah. Okay. Somebody go get that ticket. [laughter]

I'm so honored that Brian had the opportunity to write his own uh script here. It's about a page and a half. So, no, I'm just kidding. You know, we have such outstanding police officers. When I see and hear what happens across our country in terms of, you know, defund police or do this with, we've never heard that in our community. Our community recognizes that we are partnering with public safety because at the end of the day when you call 911 your only your hope and expectation is that there's going to be somebody there quickly to address the concern that you um are going to be raising. And our police department and I think the chief told me this. They respond to every call. An officer will be at your home on every call. Now, it may not be in five minutes, maybe a half hour because of other priorities, but someone's going to be there because the relationship that this community has established with our police department is that important that they want to demonstrate your call was important to us that we want to be here and hear what you have to say. Now, the issue may have been resolved, uh, but they want to make that connection. And that's why when we survey our residents, our police department receives such glowing uh remarks and such high scores. And we don't rest on our laurels. We know that we work hard every day to continue that relationship and partnership with our community. And this gentleman here exemplifies that. He is an outstanding public servant. Uh he loves the work that he does. He loves engaging all members of our community because again the role of public safety is education because once people understand the rules and things of that nature, they're going to take care of business and they're going to comply. But also understand there's going to be consequences. So if you do something that you shouldn't be doing, there's going to be a consequence. But he's going to do it so that there's a clear understanding as to, you know, why we're

taking the action that we're taking. So, um, I'm so honored that we continue to promote from within our own organization. Okay? We're building the bench. We don't have to look far for those officers that exemplify outstanding public service and we promote them from within. We don't need to go outside our city to bring somebody in. We know where the talent is. It's in our own house and we and we promote them accordingly. So Brian Simon was promoted to the rank of captain on December 29, 2025. Captain Simon brings 27 years of law enforcement experience, beginning his career with the Union City Police Department in September of 1998. After nearly a decade with Union City, he continued his service with the Oakland Police Department in 2008. Later joined the Pleasanton Police Department in 2011. In January 2014, he began serving with the city of Newark as a lateral police officer. Captain Simon was promoted to sergeant in June of 2017, where he supervised a busy weekend patrol team and served as the frontline supervisor during multiple major critical incidents. He later oversaw the New York traffic unit where he played a key role in securing and managing more than 500,000 in officer office of traffic safety grant funding thereby strengthening the department's datadriven traffic safety and enforcement strategies. Our police department has had that opportunity many times. They recognize that, you know, there's a lot of competing uh departments within our own city organization looking to provide quality service and wanting those dollars. Our police department looks at grant opportunities outside the city of Newark. And when there's an opportunity to grab money, they're there to do that. And I appreciate that. Throughout his career, Captain Simon has demonstrated a broad organizational perspective through leadership roles in patrol operations, traffic, crime analysis, SWAT, field training, use of force, internal

affairs, policy development, and community engagement. As a lieutenant, he served as the tactical commander for the SWAT and crisis negotiation teams. While serving as acting captain, he led the departmentwide technology mo modernization initiatives, including LEFTA, crossroads collision reporting, electronic citations, firearm training systems, and patrol rifle replacement. His leadership in crime analysis and strategic deployment has supported effective crime reduction efforts while maintaining strong community trust. Now, the most important part. A lifelong Newark resident. There we go. Captain Simon is was born and raised in the community, has lived in Newark for more than 40 years. He graduated from Newark Memorial High School, holds a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice administration. He's earned postmanagement level certification, completed numerous advanced leadership and supervisory courses, and graduated from the FBI National Academy class of 2096. His leadership philosophy is grounded in the 21st century policing principles and New York's pride values with a strong emphasis on accountability, officer wellness, innovation, and community engagement. Outside of work, Captain Simon enjoys spending time with his wife and children, riding a motorcycle, and camping. Let's hear for Captain Simon on a well-deserved promotion. [applause] That was pretty good. No, I'm good. Excellent.

[clears throat]

Ladies and gentlemen, you may be wondering uh the next item on the agenda is the New York Unified School District presentation. And and the reason I put this on the agenda, uh, like many of my colleagues, I have the opportunity to watch the New York Unified School District board meetings, um, every every time they do meet because when you think of community, the first thing that comes to your mind is the quality of your schools and the quality of education provided to our New York residents and our students. And I do believe in New York, we have some of the most some of the most outstanding teachers in our community who work hard every day to provide the quality [clears throat] education that our community demands. Uh when you look at people that move into the community, one of the things that they look at is the quality of schools. And and I really want to applaud both the superintendent, Miss Farakar, and the assistant superintendent, Miss Allard, because as I looked at that pre as I heard that presentation about the test scores improving in the New York schools, it really demonstrated to me that those teachers working hard in cooperation with the administration and parents uh really has started to turn the corner in terms of starting to see an uptick in the scores for our schools. So, it's unusual for us to invite, you know, representatives from the school district here, but I thought this is an important topic for the community to hear and so I would like to invite Miss Allard to come forward and give the same presentation that she gave to the school board minus a couple of issues that really aren't relevant here tonight and welcome you to our city council meeting. Let's hear from Miss Allard, please.

Thank you. [applause]

Thank you for the opportunity to present to you this evening. I'm excited to highlight the academic progress that took place across Newark Unified School District as we continue our collaborative efforts to close the opportunity gap in NUSD. These achievements would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of district staff, site administrators, certificated and classified staff and volunteers in our classrooms. Thanks to their unwavering quip commitment, I am proud to share a different narrative than in previous years. Last year, four g four key goals guided guided our efforts across the district. Aligned with our three-year LCAP, these goals were widely recognized as a driving force behind our initiatives to improve student outcomes. In my presentation this evening, I will only be focusing on our first goal. Goal one, increase academic achievement, our number one priority. The ESPback measures student progress in alignment with the Common Core State Standards for the subject of English language arts and math. Every spring, the ESPback is administered to students in grades 3 through 8 and in grade 11. There is also a California science test referred to as the CAST or C that is administered to students in grades three, five, and eight and once during high school. I'm excited to share that for the first time since the 2015 2016 school year, Newark Unified made growth in all three administered assessments. There are four achievement levels on the ESPback. Level one represents students who do not meet grade level standard and level two indicates students who are close or who nearly met grade level standard. In tonight's presentation, the shared results will indicate the percentage of students who met or exceeded grade level standards. Let's start with English language arts.

It [clears throat] has been seven years, not including the pandemic, as students were not tested, that 49% of our students met or exceeded standard for their grade level. It is also exciting to note that from 2023 to 2024 school year, we increased 5% from 44% to 49%. In math, since 2015 2016 school year, we have 39% of our students been or at above grade level. From the 2324 school year to 2425, we increased 3% results that have not been again accomplished in over seven years. And for science, we increased by 1% from 2324 to 2425, heading back in the right direction from the 2122 school year when we achieved our highest results of 31%. This comparison slide shares results from the California state of California, Alama County and NUSD in English language arts and math. The state of California are the top light blue bars. In the middle is the county and NUSD are the darker blue bars at the bottom of the slide. For the state of California, 49% of students met or exceeded grade level standards in English language arts. the same for NUSD. For math, the state of California, 37% met or exceeded grade level standards, 2% lower than NUSD as we achieved 39%. Again, the middle two bars represent Alama County. The county of Alama scored 56% in ELA, 7% higher than Newark Unified, and in math, 48% 9% higher than our district. This provides us with a

challenge that we are ready to tackle and working on this school year. Now, as [clears throat] you get to know me, there is a competitive side to me. So, I reviewed some of our surrounding district results. While I didn't review all districts within Alama County, for the ones I did take a look at, NUSD had the highest growth out of all of them. Some had 1% or 2% growth, others flatlined, and some declined. We are proud to highlight the outstanding achievements of various student performance groups. Our African-American students demonstrated remarkable progress with 12% increase in English language arts and 6% increase in math. Hispanic students also showed strong gains achieving 5% increase in ELA and a 4% increase in math. And additionally, white students made significant improvements with 11% rise in ELA and 3% increase in math. It is also important for us to highlight some individual site achievements as there were many bright spots across our district. Notably, several sites have demonstrated significant growth, including Birch Grove Intermediate, Schilling, Lincoln, and Newark Middle School. For example, Lincoln saw a 13% increase in Hispanic student achievement, while Schilling experienced a 5% growth in English learners, the highest in the district. Additionally, Birch Grove Intermediate achieved a 6% overall gain in ELA and Newark Middle School saw an 11% improvement in English language arts scores. These successes reflect the district's ongoing progress and commitment to student achievement. I also want to highlight our district's academic results on the California dashboard. The California dashboard was designed to move beyond simply looking

at test scores to offer a more holistic view of student success, focusing on academic performance and school climate. Alama County Office of Education provides school district with slides sharing California dashboard results from all districts. The left hand side of the slide lists all districts in the county. Moving over to the right, results in English language art arts by district are listed. Green indicates growth, red a decline. NUSD results are circled. As you can see, we had the highest results in English language arts with a 14.7 point increase, the highest in the county. For math, NUSD is circled in green. We had the seventh highest score out of the 18 districts in the county with an increase of 4.8 points. Going to skip these slides for a moment. Thank you for allowing and celebrating our students growth from last year. NUSD and is in the midst of deep trailblazing work. For families who may be watching this evening, don't over outlook us because we are outperforming the county in many areas. As a district, we will continue to take bold steps and build a generation of students who will reach their fullest potential and emerge stronger, more resilient, and equipped with the skills and mindsets to succeed starting in transitional kindergarten and as high school graduates. Thank you. And this concludes my presentation.

Thank you for that. Any questions? Comments? Yes. Uh, Council Member Little, I just want to say thanks for coming out and showing this. This is really, really good information. This is one of the big things people are always asking us. Thank you, Tracy, for what you're doing, the hard work. And as a teacher myself, I know we have two teachers on city council, and we both want to say thank you so much. And it's it's really nice to see the hard work. You never know until you see the work showing like this. So, thank you again for what you guys are doing. I really mean that. Thank you so much. Council Grindall.

I just want to echo the comments of my of my colleague. Um, hang on. Sorry. I want to echo the comments the comments of my colleague. Really do appreciate you keeping us up to date and I I hope we can we can hear from you as you as you continue this growth and uh the quality education. So, we want to be your partners in that. So, we really appreciate you coming here and talking with us. Thank you. Thank you. And just to Yes, Council Katanio.

Thank you, Miss Allard. Um, I really enjoyed your presentation and I'm really appreciative of all the work that you're doing and all the work that the teachers are doing with the families as well. Um I did have a question regarding whether or not there's any plan for targeted intervention um for specific grade levels if we see that that's really where um we're not making the growth or where we really could use more um assistance. Is there any plan for that?

Yes, data drives everything that we do in the district as well as learning about every student's story in regards to why they have gaps in their education. So all sites do have some type of intervention taking place whether it's at a different tier than what they are being able to accomplish but that is a major focus so that we are closing those gaps so they can move forward in their learning. Okay. Thank you. I also did notice um that there was a breakdown on race um but I didn't see AsianPacific Islanders that were mentioned. Is there any particular reason? I just chose several student performance groups. I could share that information with you as well as I do have all of them.

Okay. I appreciate that. Um, I did have one last question regarding the increase uh in the percentages, especially compared to other neighboring schools in other locations. Um, is there any anticipated um belief that maybe we might see a change in rankings anytime soon with any of our campuses? I'm not sure. I'd be optimistic and hope so that with the growth that we're seeing that we definitely should. Okay. Okay, I think that would be perfect. Thank you so much. Of course.

And again, thank you for the presentation and as as we the council uh take a great interest in what's happening in our schools because it's an important part of our community, uh I will continue to invite the school district to come back and present information to us that I think is really an important opportunity to shine as to what's going on in our various schools. So again, thank you for coming tonight. Greatly appreciate your efforts, Mr. Carr. Greatly appreciate your efforts. And uh to all the teachers out there that may be watching, keep up the good work. know that you're appreciated for the hard work you do every day. So, thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to take a fiveminut break real quick.

public comment section. This is the opportunity for the public uh to address the city council on any item that's not listed on the agenda. Public comments are generally limited to 5 minutes. Mr. Speaker, please note that the state law prohibits the city council from acting on non-aggenda items. So, we may not be able to comment, but everything you have to say to us tonight under this section is important for us to hear. Is there anybody that would like to speak under the public comment section? Please come forward. Good evening. Good evening.

Peter Friedrich. In October, I stood at this lectern and told this council who the Hindu swamakong is. The American arm of India's RSS paramilitary with nine cells in Alama County had a decade of proclamations and photo ops at your police department. I asked you to stop platforming them and you have not. HSS is the overseas wing of a paramilitary whose members have carried out massacres of religious minorities, whose own guru called for India to model its treatment of minorities on Nazi Germanies, and whose ruling party's intelligence officer, the DOJ, has indicted for plotting an assassination on American soil a few years back. I told you that in October, and so tonight, I'm here to show you where your proclamations go after they leave this room. The Nation magazine investigated the HSS proclamation operation in 2023 and found that across just four consecutive Yogathons, HSS collected 439 proclamations and that in most cases, no one ran a background check on the organization and that the group itself drafted the text. HSS writes the proclamation, walks it into city hall, you sign it, they photograph the ceremony, and they carry that stack to the next city on the next city on the next city and say, "Look who already endorsed us." Every new signature makes the next one easier to get. Newark has been part of this operation for over a decade. Your signature is not a courtesy. It is a supply chain. And the supply chain does not stop at city hall. It terminates in Sacramento. The HinduAmerican Foundation, HAF, operates alongside HSS and uses that wall of municipal endorsements to lobby at the state level. HAF walks into the capital carrying your name and the name of hundreds of cities that never asked a single question. And that is the legitimacy HAF was wearing when it led the campaign that killed Senate Bill 509

last year. SP 509 would have trained California law enforcement to recognize when a foreign government targets people on American soil. The G the DOJ had indicted that Indian intelligence offer off officer for directing directing a murder for higher plot for trying to assassinate someone in America for speaking out against the Indian government. The police chief's association endorsed the bill. The Senate passed it unanimously. The assembly passed it unanimously. HF killed it and celebrated the veto as quote a victory for civil rights of all Californians. The organization that benefits every time that Newark hands HSS a proclamation is the same organization that made sure your police department never receives that training. The 19th annual Yogathon ended two weeks ago. Three weeks ago, Solon, Ohio signed a proclamation using the same HSS drafted language. Three Californian cities have rescended their HSS proclamations after learning what I told you in October. Newark, however, is going on over a decade of continuing to issue such proclamations. Did this council sign another one during the Yogathon? And if not for the Yogathon, then for Raksha Bandan when HSS ties bracelets on your police officers and photographs it or for Hindu Heritage Month. After what I told you four months ago, another signature is not a courtesy. It is a credential. And it does not stay in Newark. It travels to Sacramento where it arms the organization that killed a law enforcement training bill. And it travels to Washington where it arms the organization that a sick temple in Fremont four miles from here has asked the federal government to investigate under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. That organization being HAF. I stood here in October and showed you the names behind the proclamations. Tonight, I am showing you where the proclamations go. Your signature is not a formality. It is ammunition for these organizations. Please stop supplying it or own up to what it's being used for. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else that would like to speak under the public comment section?

Thank you for those comments. Um the next item is our consent calendar. Consent calendar consists are considered to be routine and may be approved by one motion. And there will be no separate discussion on these items unless there's a request from a council member, staff member, or a member of the public to remove an item uh for separate discussion. Uh normally I would ask if there's anyone that wants to speak to these items. What I think I'm going to do in the in the future is I'm going to actually read the item so you know which items you can uh ask to be pulled and comment on. So the consent calendar is one, approval of the audited demands. Two, the approval of the January 22, 2026 city council minutes. Three, approval of the February 5, 2026 city council minutes. Four, wave further reading and adopt an ordinance amending the contract between the city of Newark and the board of administration of the California Public Employees Retirement System. Five, adopt a resolution approving an amendment to the contractual services agreement with MNS Engineers Incorporated for an additional on call public works construction inspection services and amend the 2024 2026 banual budget and capital improvement plan. Six. Wave further reading and adopt an ordinance amending title 17 of the New York Municipal Code to amend chapter 1726 1726040 accessory dwelling units generally affecting development standards for the constructions of accessory dwelling units and junior accessory dwelling units and to amend chapter 17.45 and 17.45.010 010 residential uses generally affecting the use classifications for accessory dwelling units and junior accessory uh accessory dwelling units. Is there anybody in the public that would like to speak on any one of those items?

Assistant city manager, any item that you would like pulled to discuss? Not this evening, your honor. Great. Colleagues, any item you want pulled for discussion? No. May I get a motion to approve the consent calendar, please? So moved. Moved by Vice Mayor Jorgens, second by Council Member Canio. Please vote. That did pass unanimously. I saw the green lights. It passed unanimously. 5. Boy, that was quick. That was That was probably me. Time to move on. [laughter] Thank you colleagues for that

ordinance of [clears throat] the city council of the city of New York authorizing amendment to the contract between city of Newark and the board of administration and the California public employees retirement system an ordinance of the city council city of Newark amending title 17 zoning of the New York municipal code to amend chapter 17.26 section 17.26040 accessory dwelling units generally affecting development standards for the construction of accessory dwelling units and junior accessory dwelling units and to amend chapter 17.45 section 17.4510 45.01 residential uses generally affecting the use classification for accessory dwelling units and junior accessory accessory dwelling units.

Thank you. Uh ladies [clears throat] and gentlemen, there are no public hearings tonight. So the next items are our uh other businessformational report regarding playground design at Birch Grove Mirabu [clears throat] and the Jerry Rabber Ash Street parks. Assistant city manager. Thank you your honor. Good evening city council members. Council may as council may recall in November, staff provided a presentation that included introduction of four park playground replacement projects. At that meeting, council requested that staff return to report on the outcome of the community input sought on the proposed playground amenities. [laughter]

City Engineer Mickey Suburba is back tonight to provide you with that report and seek any additional feedback you may have on the proposed design features before staff solicits construction proposals, a process we will begin as soon as final feedback is received. You'll notice we have two reports tonight to allow for a council member recusal on the second item. I'd now like to to introduce our city engineer, Mr. Mickey Sabuda. Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, and council members. Uh Mickey Sabot, city engineer, and we are thrilled to be here. This is the first of two presentations to talk about four exciting playground replacement projects. So, as mentioned, we're going to cover three of the projects, Birch Grove, Jerry Raber Ash, and Mirabu uh parks. Uh the purpose of the presentation tonight has already been covered as is really to share community feedback that we heard about the proposed design for the three parks. Um if you haven't seen them yet, we're going to share that design with you uh council members and of course to receive council feedback. Uh this is anformational item. There's no formal action, but again we welcome any feedback uh council has. So, for some project background, uh, back in late 2000, or sorry, 2024, city council approved the citywide parks master plan update. This was a comprehensive strategic, uh, long-term document, uh, involved extensive committee engagement and outreach. Uh, there was a safety audit reviewing all the city parks and, uh, ultimately culminated in a comprehensive prioritized list of projects, um, for the city council and for the city. uh middle of last year, staff reviewed that list. Uh we were in the process of planning for the upcoming five-year capital improvement plan, which is a new process. Uh staff felt that we should probably expedite some projects. So, we went through and we picked a handful of

projects that we felt that we could achieve substantial work on or completion in the fiscal year before the uh instead of waiting for the 5-year CIP to come. Um, in October of 2025, we had a special city council meeting looking at amending the CIP to include these park projects. Uh, also in October, we did get a a special $1 million state funding from uh, Senator Dr. Aisha Wahhab uh, to help pay for the Jerry Rabber Ash Street park improvement project. So, that was fantastic. And then November, the amendments to the capital improvement plan uh, were approved by city council. And again, through that discussion, what we heard from city council was to make sure uh to bring innovative designs for the parks, make sure they have different themes, uh make sure we engage the community to get feedback and come back to city council with those results. Um afterwards, I just want to note uh we did go out and we did solicit various vendors to come up with different designs. Uh we hired uh Verde Design Group. They're a professional civil engineering and landscape architecture firm to help us through this process and they're currently helping us uh with the bidding process. I do want to give kudos to our entire communications and public engagement team. Uh they were instrumental in helping us out um in in really outreaching and community uh engaging the community on the proposed design. Um some of you uh came to the tree lighting ceremony and saw uh the proposed design. Uh we received a lot of good feedback uh at that event. Uh you can see the the posted sticky notes from commenters. We spoke to a lot of citizens with and got their feedback. Um again thanks to the fantastic team behind me. Uh we had a survey posted online. We posted the design on our website. Um we blasted uh a survey on our website. We hit social media. We hit Facebook. um next door Instagram invited people to provide

their comments and their feedback on the design. Uh we had A-frames posted at the parks so that people could use their phones and uh use QR codes to post their results. Uh this was a fantastic effort. We got uh over 200 written comments from about 80 or so uh different commenters. uh you know to cut to the chase, a vast majority of the comments were very supportive and positive and excited about uh these upcoming projects. Off to the first project. So this is Birch Grove Park. Um I do want to say that in general both the existing parks playgrounds as well as the new playgrounds are generally the equipment and the um uh the playgrounds are generally catered to two different age groups. So you've got 2 to 5 and then you've got 5 to 12. So you may hear me speaking about the younger kids playground and then the older kids playground. That's what I'm referring to. So as as an example, the photo on the left, that's the playground for the younger kids. Uh the photo on the right is the playground for the older kids at Birch Grove. The other thing I did want to note is that uh you may see and I'm sure you are hearing about the need of improvements of at park facilities are beyond just the playgrounds. Good example, the photo on the left, you see the the water play feature. Uh the photo on the right, there's some some additional benches that are needed. We're well aware of the other needs that we uh need at these parks beyond just the playgrounds. We know that restrooms, restroom improvements and new restrooms are very high on the priority of the community. Um we are incorporating and looking into that as part of the upcoming CIP, but our focus is really just on the playground replacement uh tonight. Uh so for the proposed design for Birch Grove for the younger kids, um this is a wildwood forest theme tot structures. We got rock tree, a giant

frog to climb all over. We got stone steppers, we got bridges, climbing nets, um toddler swing sets. Uh and all our parks are going to showcase uh new rubberized uh flooring, safety flooring. So, we're going to get rid of that uh that bked mulch surfacing. For the older kids at Birch Grove, again, we've got a variety of of great features. This is a more of a daring geometric exploration theme. Uh so, we've got your standard swings. We've got ADA spinners and rockers and play cubes and uh a couple different freestanding net and rope climbing facilities. uh different kinds of slides. Um and of course we've got our new rubberized surfacing as well. Uh the feedback that we got from Birch Grove, we received approximately 75 comments, written comments. Again, most were overall just positive comments about the design, really excited about the park. Um we did get some specific comments. Uh people were excited about the swings, the climbing structures, and a common theme among all the commenters was that people provided comments about what they wanted to see at other parks, not necessarily at the park in question. So we did get a lot of comments about that. Uh second park, this is Jerry Raber Ash Street Park. This is on Enterprise next to the city senior center. Again, the photo on the left is the uh younger kids uh playground. Photo on the right is for the older kids. Uh, one thing unique about this playground is we did get um that $1 million uh state legislative grant. Uh, the original estimate for just a playground replacement was around $824,000. So hopefully we'll be able to do um a lot of great things with that money. [clears throat] Uh the proposed design for Jerry Raber Ash Street Park, this is unlike the um the angular geometry of Birch Grove.

This is more focused on a dynamic, you know, modern arches and curves. Uh, again, we have a lot of dynamic climbing dynamic curved climbing structures and steppers and swings. We've got tactile uh panels that are set at um 88 heights. We've got spinners. Um, we've got uh we have acoustic stations out here so that kids can play drums and other devices. Uh, a great feature on this particular park is a new shading. And of course, you've got the rubberized flooring. This is another view of the proposed park and some of the a close-up of some of the features. Um, one thing I did want to mention about uh the additional funding, we do have and are placing bid alternates for other improvements that are needed at this park with additional funding. So, fingers crossed that we get good bids from contractors, but the additional improvements include uh facilities like benches, bike racks, things like that. Improvements to the trailway. There is a softball field at this park, so we're looking at possibly including a new clay infield with bases back stop. Uh there's an existing volleyball court at this park we're looking to refresh. Uh and if there's still money left over, there might be an opportunity to install a botchi court or two as well. So again, we're including all those as bid alternates. Um and hopefully we'll get good contractor prices on this. Uh we received about 35 written comments on this park. Uh again most comments were positive about the overall design. A lot of people were excited about the shading and again we got the same list of suggestions for other parks. And then finally Maribou Park. Uh photo on the left is the existing uh younger kids uh play structure and the right is for the older kids. This is uh this park is located off of Haley and Mira Drive. Let's see. Uh this this site was a

little bit more challenging. It had a smaller footprint of uh for the existing playgrounds, particularly the younger kids um playground. Um but this theme is looking for more of a futuristic uh angular geometry um with a dash of futurism. Um we've got some exciting climbing structures for the older kids in the middle and then we've got the younger kids on the right. We've got [clears throat] uh tactile tactile facilities, swings, slides, all the fun features of a great modern park or playground. One thing unique about this particular project, uh the photo on the left, we are looking to install a new climbing boulder. This boulder is approximately 11 ft tall. It's not going to be in the playground per se. It'll be nearby um across the trailway. So, we're excited about installing this as well. Uh this will be a fiberglass composite um climbing structure. Received about 55 written comments on this particular park. Again, most were overall positive and excited about this new park and playground. Uh we did get comments about uh people excited about the rock climbing feature, the improved safety and flooring, uh the slides, spinners, and swings, and of course suggestions for other parks. That concludes my first presentation. Uh next steps is for us to go out bid and hopefully come back to city council with recommendation for construction award. And we welcome feedback.

Great. Thank you. Before I turn it over to the council for comments and questions. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to comment on the presentation on the first three parks? Colleagues, questions, comments? Council Kanchio. Thank you so much for your presentation um as well as your enthusiasm. I think that we're all really excited about parks, especially for families and kids. Um I did have a few questions. Um one was how many parks does Newark have total? Approximately 14.

So we have 14 parks. And then I noticed that you were mentioning for these three parks you continued to mention that we have the rubber for floor plan that's going to be different from the mulch. What's the lifespan of the rubber? Do we know like just off hand if you happen to know? I don't have the exact uh time frame for but we can find out for you. Okay. I think that'd be great. I think that it would be a a nice improvement too for the students and children

um to have the rubber floor. I just was wondering because I'm thinking about maintenance especially because we're thinking about we have 14 parks. We're focused right now on three which actually leads me to my other question. Um you were mentioning if there's extra money then maybe we could do something else at those particular parks. What happens with the extra money? Like would it specifically stay with those parks? Does it go back to the general fund? What what happens with the exception of Jerry River Ash Street, the remaining parks are being funded by park impact fees. So to the extent that we don't use it, it just goes right back into the pot. So our goal is to maximize its use and we will have several bid alternates in the event that we get low bids.

Okay, I think that'd be perfect. I did have one last question. Um I noticed that you were mentioning that when the community was interacting that they also had suggestions for other parks. Do we also have a specific maintenance budgets um that we could pull on to maintain the quality of the other parks? Let's see. I believe that we do have maintenance budgets for the other parks. I don't know if we are you asking if we can pull from those to pay for these projects.

Not necessarily. I guess what I'm thinking about is I know today we're primarily focusing on those three parks, which I think is marvelous and that's fantastic. I'm just thinking that you have 14 parks minus the three. So then you have 11 other parks. Um and so when we're thinking about the community as a whole, I just want to make sure that we're also maintaining other parks as well. Absolutely. And again, we are looking at the improvements at the other parks as part of the 5-year CIP. [clears throat] So I'm very excited. Hopefully in the next several months when we come back with the 5-year CIP, we'll have other park related projects.

Okay. I think that'd be perfect. I think more specifically, I was also thinking Newark also has one of the parks um happens to have a lake there. So, it could also mean um to have different a different dynamic for that particular park. Then maybe other parks also have different things too that need specific maintenance. Understood. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, I want to thank you for the presentation. It's uh clear that uh the result here is the you know result of a lot of work and a lot of community outreach that's you know been kind of folded straight into the project and you know that's really clear. I think these projects are going to be great for the community. So I have no other feedback other than you know very well job done on this. Thank you Council Member Little. Um so I have a couple quick questions. As some know I'm a huge parks and recreation professor so this is phenomenal. So thank you so much. Um, quick question. So, these parks, I know they all have different timelines, but when did we kind of start building the original parks? In the 20s, in the 30s, in the '8s. Oh jeez. 1860s. Just

at least 20 years old. At least 20 years ago. I don't have an exact date. At least 20. Okay. Um, and then when do we I know this is a magical question, but when do we expect these to be done? 2026, 2027, 2078? This is subject to council approval and no significant comments on changing design and subject that we get great bids. Our plan is to come back to council this spring for recommendation for construction award and then we would start construction constructing this summer. Our goal is to get this done this summer.

Awesome. That's what I want to hear. Awesome. Now I'm going to talk about the thing nobody wants to talk about bathroom concerns. I know that there's been some requests for some restrooms. Um but at the same time restrooms do bring a little bit of riff raff in plus a lot more maintenance. What what are we I know that was part of the feedback that we got. What are we looking at doing? [clears throat] Restrooms are actually identified as top priority in the parks master plan and we're looking at incorporating those as part of the 5-year CIP. So, we we are well aware of the restroom concerns. Okay. And last but not least, um how about So, I saw the climbing wall. I love it. But as a scout mom, I see liability craziness. What do we do for a bunch of kids jumping up and running up and falling down kind like Humpty Dumpty? What are we planning to do to bring it all back together again?

We Well, all our playgrounds are going to be uh inspected by certified playground safety inspectors before we open it to the public. And I do want to open this up as well that even though it's not part of my job description, I fully intend to make sure that they are truly safe and may have to test out several of the swings and the slides and other fun features. Um but for the for um all the playgrounds in addition to the rock wall, we are going to make sure that we have adequate fall protection. That rubberized flooring, they're very specific specifications for the thickness of the rubberized flooring. It's a function of the height. We'll make sure all that is installed. Is the climbing wall open for all or is it one of those things you have to like book a reservation or a permit to use the climbing walls? The the plan is to leave it open for all.

Okay. And one last question. This is to the mayor. Are we going to cash this check or are we just going to leave it here for a while? I I'm going to I'm going to walk down to the bank tomorrow. Okay. I'm just saying it's a really big check. Literally walking down to the bank. I mean, this is a really really big check. So, I think we should consider cashing it. So, no, this is this is great. And honestly, I'm I'm glad to hear we're talking this summer versus 2075 or 2092. So, thank you so much. I really appreciate that.

And we the council did uh approve an item on consent. I believe it was last month related to approving documentation so that we can effectuate [snorts] cashing that check. I I I did love city attorney when Mickey is really asking us for he's going to sign I guess a release of liability. Is that what he's going to do to ensure that he's not subject to any lawsuits um as a result council member? Yes.

Thank you. Um thank you for an excellent presentation. Very informative and really appreciate the work you've done to get community outreach and get community input. that's it's very important to me and I'm sure the rest of the council as well. Um I do have one, you know, and I I don't want to get into too much detail and I and I don't want to be delaying these projects by by making major changes, but I do have one sort of concern. Um particularly with Birch Grove, the the there isn't much there isn't much thematic connection between the small playground, the the little kids playground and the big kids playground. Uh they seem to be almost two separate sort of themes. So um I I kind I kind of would like to see the a little more connection between the sort of forest that you had and the other and the other which is more geometric. So with without throwing everything into the into a blender um I am concerned about there being a little more connection visually and architecturally between the between the small kids and the and the big kids playground. Um, and that's true, I think, of of all the play of all the play areas, but but it really it really pops out at me when it comes to that one. Um, so that's my that's that's my only real issue. Um, I do I do think that the um rubberized ground is actually has a low has a better maintenance record than than the than the cedar chips does and it's it's certainly safer. So, um, I'm glad to see that. And I noticed the my last point is that I noticed in some of the pictures you you have handicapped children using this. Um is are these playgrounds going to be magical bridge type play playgrounds? Are they going to be um are they going to be available and thinking about the ne neurode divergent um population and seeing if there's any way we can we can help them or is that

coming as a as another project? Uh yes, the playgrounds will meet all ADA requirements. They will incorporate various types of the all-inclusive that again we'll talk about as part of the newer community playground, but there are different elements that will be incorporated as part of the design. Okay. Thank you. I think they're outstanding projects. Um really appreciate the fine work that's gone in. Um the designs, the color schemes I think are very attractive and will be certainly well received by the community. The um splash pad, is there intent or hope that the splash pad will somehow be able to be utilized in the future?

Yes, the splash pad was identified as one of the priority projects as part of the parks master plan. Good. Um I know that uh we have quite a number of uh park uh plans for the future. I think if I recall in your staff report there were like 37 different projects in the parks. Am I did I get it that number correct? Well, there are over a hundred projects identified in the master plan just as to on the parks. Yes.

Okay. And what is the current budget as it relates to park amenities and improvements? What do we currently have in the budget? Uh let's see if my memory serves me. I believe we have somewhere between seven to eight million ballpark and parks impact fees. And again that's a fluctuating number is fully subject and depend on development activity. So if development activity picks up we'll get more revenue. And again this may be a question for our finance director. Uh how much do we uh annually receive as part of development fees for parks? Is that a is that a number that's fairly stagnant in terms of the annual revenue that we That's highly that's highly 100% develop dependent on development. So it can be it can be highly fluctu

do dynamic. Assistant city manager are there cities that have specific and revenue uh sources other than developer fees that go to help pay for parks? And if so, is that something that we uh are going to consider as we move forward? Because as mentioned, we have, you know, quite a number of park uh improvements and amenities. And when you think of community parks is always one of the things that most folks are concerned about because they're in the neighborhoods. Are we looking at maybe a street u a revenue source simply to pay for park improvements uh in the near future?

Uh we have not discussed a specific revenue source to be uh restricted to use for park projects. Um however we are not limited to using the park impact fees for projects. So uh the other funds that we use to uh fund the capital improvement program uh those that are not restricted funds can be used for park projects as well. Are are we aware of any city that have developed specific other revenue sources other than developers fees to help pay for park amenities? Are we aware of any other city that's been a little bit Okay.

Not aware. No. Something maybe we need to consider. Um, it's such an important topic for our community and uh, I think as mentioned by council Canio, not only are we looking for park improvements for for park maintenance and things of that nature and those all add up and if we could come up with a strategy for a streamlined revenue source for simply our parks, uh, that would certainly be something to consider and maybe when we do our survey of our community residents in the future. Um, you know, we we have our lighting and landscaping districts where money goes specifically for those purposes. Maybe we talk to the community about whether or not there would be support for a specific revenue source tied specifically to parks and see what kind of um interest there might be in the community for something like that. Any other questions? Yes, Council Gundall. And I I apologize. I didn't ask this question before. And also you may not know the answer and that's okay too. The um to what extent are the are the price of of this work is going to be impacted by the tariffs that were that were in place. Um do you do you have an idea of that? And would would there be potential savings if the Supreme Court were to overrule the the the administration on tariffs?

It's uh unlikely that tariffs will impact the price of these projects. Uh most if not all the parts are from or made in the USA. Thank you. Good. And to answer I just Googled the typical life of park rubberized floorings. 10 to 15 years. How many years? 10 to 15. Now were you googling that during my thoughtful question? I was not. Absolutely not. [laughter]

Again this is anformational item. Thank you very much. Um, the next item is a presentation on the newer community center. And as I understand, council member uh Little will need to recuse herself due to a conflict of interest. Council member, this is when all the fun's going to begin. You know that. I know it's and it's the park next to my house. That's the problem. That's why I have to recuse myself. So, make sure to pitch it well, please. New community banner. Um, so I do have to recuse myself because I do have real estate property lease hold within proximity of Community Park. That's where I walk my dog. So I do have to head out for this um part. Thank you.

Assistant city manager, do you want to make any preliminary comments? No. Okay. Please.

Okay. Great. Honorable mayor, vice mayor, and council members. It's um it's great to still be here to present the second presentation. Again, this is the the second of two presentations focused uh solely on the Newark community park. Same purpose, share committee feedback, share the design, and of course receive council feedback on this particular project. Same general background as well. Uh this is this project is tied to the citywide parks master plan update amendments to the CIP uh last year and the approval of amendments to the CIP last year. There is one notable difference about this park compared to the other three parks and I know we had discussion about salvaging or recognizing or appreciating the monster which is the existing concrete sculpture in the small tot. So we'll talk about that as part of this presentation. [clears throat] Uh again, same kudos to the entire um communications and public engagement team for helping us out on the public engagement efforts for this park. It was tied with the other three park uh projects. Again, over 200 uh uh comments from 80 or so different commenters. And I did I did want to caveat um we do know that a lot of the people that wanted to comment either couldn't reach uh or couldn't write. So, we know that a lot of the commenters uh were actually from parents interpreting on behalf of their children. So, keep that in mind. So, photos of the existing newer community park. This is a a photo of the the older kids um playground. This is a photo of the younger kids playground. You notice the monster is the sculpture on the left hand side. Uh, one thing else to note is that the monster does take up roughly a third of the play area of the younger kids um, playground area. Um, this is the overall image of both

play areas for the newer community park. The theme is whimsical garden. And I had to look up whimsical on the internet. And what I found was that it's playfully fanciful in an appealing and amusing way. And I can vouch that this park design is truly playfully fanciful in an appealing and amusing way. We've got oversized dragons and rabbits and flowers and a very normalsized monster that we've incorporated as part of this design. Um the concept of garden is is also very important when you think about like a community garden. It's a location where people of all ages of all abilities get together, they gather, they socialize, they connect um they cultivate and they grow. So that theme is very important um as part of this design. Closeup of of of the park itself. Uh notice on the left uh we talked to a vendor to see if they could do a customized uh replica of of the monster head incorporated as part of the design. So we've got the monster head is attached to what we call a cozy cozy domes, a set of three cozy domes with custom tunnels connecting the two. Um I don't know if the image does it justice. These these domes are massive. They're about 6 feet in diameter, about 3 feet in high. Uh unlike the existing monster on site, kids and adults, I guess, can climb on top and inside the monster and interact. But we have a whole range of of fun and exciting features. If you look on the photo on the right, we've got spinners and slides and um all sorts of fun things. I'll I'll explain in more detail on the next slide here. So, we've got some Oh, geez, we've got all sorts of crazy things going on here. We've got both standing accessible spinners. We've got sensory tunnels. Uh we've got uh

we've got the dragonfly climbing struct structure. Uh the photo on the right is for the older kids. This is actually a threestory uh extremely whimsical multi-pathway challenging climbing tower. It's got multiple slides. It's hard to see in this photo, but there's actually a mesh netting that goes from the ground, so you can actually crawl your way all the way up to the top. But there are multiple ways to get up to the top. You also notice that there are multiple slides. So depending on your fear of height, if you only want to go up one story, you can still slide down. Two stories, slide down or go all the way up to the top and be crazy and slide all the way down. Uh [snorts] another view of this is for the younger kids. Um so we've got play structures, spinners. We've got acoustic acoustic devices and drums and panels and balance beams. We've got sway gliders for ADA that are ADA accessible. On the far left, we've got a a semi-seluded clubhouse with sensory activities inside. Uh, one thing I did want to note on this photo, if you look on the dark green patch that's underneath the rabbit, that's a rough footprint of the existing monster. So, it gives you kind of a scale of where uh it exists. So, as you look at these are actual photos as opposed to renderings. Uh the park's master plan did identify this park to be uh the best candidate for an all abilities uh playground based on programming, based on the available space, based on the future space for expansion and and all abilities. Even though there's no uh legal or technical definition of what constitutes all abilities, in general, the concept is to uh create an all-inclusive engaging wide ranging challenge to promote uh children of all physical uh sensory and cognitive abilities. And the goal is really to foster inclusion uh empathy and

understanding. Uh again, this is all consistent with the the growth theme of this particular park. Uh so when you think about typical playgrounds, you know, typical playgrounds do challenge uh kids and adults on their uh motor skills. So you've got a range of motor skills. They challenge upper body, lower body, core strength, there's fine motor skills, agility, flexibility, um hand eye, hand eye and feet coordination. Those are all typical of a typical um playground. This park in particular will also focus on a range of sensory systems that are engaged. So these are auditory, tactile, visual and vestibular which is uh space space orientation and balance. So certainly there'll be many opportunities as you can see for kids to run, slide, swing, climb, yell um and have a lot of fun. But likewise there's also opportunities for kids to seek uh comfort, calm. There's some cozy areas and solitude for both phys physical and cognitive rest. The playground design also challenges a range of cognitive abilities. So these are things like um strategic thinking, problem solving, risktaking. Um the tower is a great example. You know, can challenge if if you've got a little bit if you're a little bit, you know, afraid of heights, you can go up a little bit and slide down the first slide. Again, you can challenge yourself all the way to the top. And ultimately the the goal is to um really expand on the range of social skills. So this is how kids interact with other kids of different abilities. So this is really to promote cooperation um imagine to play social skills development. Um the best example that I could think of is um I don't know if there are any Disneyland fans up at Das. I'm a huge Disney fan. I would argue that one of the best rides at Disney is in fact the teacups.

You know, if you if you're like dealing with kids that I do on a regular basis, and you're tired of dealing with kids, it's certainly fun to ride in a teacup by yourself, having it spin you around. It's for me, it's very therapeutic and calming. Um, but there's a whole different experience. I certainly more entertaining experience if you can see how many of your kids, your adult kids, you can cram into a teacup and see how fast they can spin the teacup because it's just a lot of fun. Um, so likewise here at this park, we've got all sorts of spinners and sliders and and uh exciting things that involve interaction. So certainly it's fun to, for example, to play drums by yourself, but it's also more entertaining and interesting when you play drums with other kids. Um, the cozy cone cone cozy dome photo on the bottom, like it's certainly fun. And I'm sure it would be fun to climb on top of one of these cozy domes, but imagine interacting with kids or maybe even adults inside the in the dome itself. Uh on this particular project, we received about 55 written comments. Again, most were uh positive about the overall design. People were excited about the slides, the spinners, the floorings, the swings, uh incorporation of the large animals into the design. And I will have to note that uh what I've highlighted the bulk of the comments that we got, but we did get a small handful of commenters. I believe one family provided multiple comments to save the monster. So I I want to make sure I shared that as well. And that concludes this presentation. Again, I welcome council feedback. Thank you very much. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to comment on the presentation? I'll start to my left. Council Grindall.

Thank you. Um the um I I like the animals too. Uh I like a lot of the comments. Um I am going to I am critical of the monster. Um I I don't think that the way it's been sort of the there's a reflection of it in this thing. I don't think it really honors truly honors what the monsters what's the monster is about. I would I I I think it's it's almost um I'm trying to think of the right word, but it's almost mocking it in a way. So, I'm not I'm not a fan of that that approach. Um I understand what you're trying to get to, what your architects are trying to get to, but I don't I honestly think we could do better. Um, I'd I'd rather see I'd frankly rather see it um digitized and um and be able to recreate it at some point um even with private donations or something along those lines rather than um rather than this attempt. Frankly, I personally um would would rather just ignore ignore it alto together than to do it sort of in a in a in such a weak way. So, um, so sorry to be blunt, but, um, I I do I do think that it's sort of a miss. Um, otherwise the the the design looks beautiful and I I I agree. There's a bunch of stuff going on there. Sounds like it' be something for every child. So, um, I'm I'm excited about that. But I but I do think that we can we could take another shot at how we how we address the monster. Thank you. the site. Council member Canio.

Yes, thank you so much for your presentation. Um I actually really like the idea of the inclusivity of it's not like a separate park to say, well, this is this is the park for um all abilities and here's the park for others. Like I like the fact that it's incorporating everyone into one space and one social spot. And so I think that's really um important um to celebrate diversity and inclusivity. Um additionally, I like how you're mentioning that there's also the threetory climbing tower and so you see the progression of the children from one age group to the next and it still stays within a theme. Um, I am I'm actually a proponent of the monster footprint. And so I realize we can't save the monster from its doom and that um it's inevitable that we just cannot have the monster that's currently there. And so um at the very least I like the idea that you've already incorporated an idea of the footprint um specifically to the current monster design and the architects that are working with you. I I think that it's um perhaps still work in progress at this particular point only because as a teacher and educator I'm thinking like this is 6 foot um tall. It's kind of enclosed in a way. People are going to be on top of it and underneath it or inside it. I'm a little bit concerned about the cleanliness of it or if people are gonna or children sometimes want to climb not not because they're supposed to but just because they're curious and they might be climbing on the interior of it while other students are children are climbing on the exterior of it. So it might be dangerous in in that way. I'm but I'm sure that you're working um directly with architects and I'm sure that I'm going to leave it to your discretion with that particular piece of it but I'm just thinking out loud. Um but overall

um I did have one question about the numeric capacity of the structure itself. Like is there a limit of how many children about can use it at one given time? I I don't have an exact number, but we'll make sure there's adequate signage noting the maximum capacity. Okay, wonderful. Thank you so much. Can you go ahead and pull up that slide just so that as council member made reference to, we we can see what that looks like in terms of the um the monster uh substitute. Oh, the monster substitute. There you go. Good. Council member Vice [snorts] Mayor Jorgens.

Yeah, I think um [clears throat] like to kind of echo a lot of my comments on the other parks. This is job very well done. Really um seems like there was a real effort to fold in all the community comment that shows um on the monster. I I do like the idea of kind of recreating it even if it's a little different. Um but you know as a work in progress to you know navigate some of the challenges here. I do think if whether it's a recreation of a monster in some way or you know a kind of a different large animal that we decide to go with. I do think uh we shouldn't call like Newark monster 2 or something we should encourage [clears throat] staff come up with a new name for it. Let's have something exciting for something new. Um, so you know, whatever we do end up with in that space, let's make sure it's [clears throat] um, you know, it is its own thing. You know, if it wants to call back to something old, but let's make sure it's its own thing as well. Um, and then maybe doing something kind of honoring the uh, the original New York Monster um, is maybe something the public art committee can take up once they get rolling. I'll agree with my council member Katancho. I like the fact that the park is just one park because currently, as you know, we have the small kids park and all small kids like small dogs. They want to go play with the big kids. So, it's nice that this is all inclusive for all the kids to to be able to enjoy. I do like the footprint for the monster. This is where it used to be. I I kind of like that idea. Whether we keep this design or come come up with something different, uh I love the rabbit. I love the wasp, you know, I'd be okay with just coming up with an entirely different animal if need be. Um, and I'm okay with that. Um, this park's been around a long time. My kids are in their 40s going on [laughter] and they've been playing at this park, you know, since they were little. Um, you know, the little rock caves that my kids used to bump their heads into all the time, you know, we'll certainly see those. I hate

to see those go. All the kids running across the rocks at the top, waiting for any one of them to fall at any given moment. Uh this is certainly going to be a much safer park [laughter] for the kids and I think for the parents are going to appreciate that as well. Um so I have no uh real comments other than what I mentioned already. Um I would like to see us as the vice I mean as the assistant city manager knows city manager knows I would like to see somehow that we preserve some portion of the monster snake whatever we want to call it because it's really part of our history. you know, and once you get rid of part of your history, it's gone forever. And it whether we put that in, you know, we we remove part of it, you know, the head for example, and we put it in a library, put it in the city hall, or and we put a, you know, rope around it to kind of identify what is this and why is it here. Um, I think that's what makes, you know, Newark unique is just simply an appreciation for for our history. And u, I'll I'll certainly leave it to your creativity to figure out how that's going to happen. And uh so I know that there are going to be some challenges and I know there's been some discussions about you know coming up with a mock you know kind of serpent head you know because we may not be able to remove this concrete or separate the concrete. I'm certainly open to any of those ideas and I look for your creativity coming back to the council in terms of suggestions you might have in that regard. Uh other questions or comments?

I was calling it a worm. You shouldn't call it a worm. Monster [laughter] a worm. If if I may not with my IT director here, right? We don't want to be calling it a worm, right? [laughter] Yes.

If if I might one of the options we are looking at and and considering and listening to council feedback. If if council does not like uh the design of the monster 2.0, we can certainly remove it and put back in uh standard play items. Um, one of the things we're looking at is possibly having a bid out an item for the contractor to take the mon the existing monster and relocating it. We may have to cut it up in pieces, but literally relocating it at another uh location within the park itself. So, we can certainly include that as a bid alternate, come back to council with either that or other recommendations. Great. In order to keep this project moving forward.

Great. And I I want it to move forward. I don't want uh my suggestion uh or colleagues suggestions regarding the importance of preserving that feature to hold up this. I want this to move forward. Uh and whether or not you go with this current uh monster 2.0 or something as mentioned by I think council just a completely different animal. I mean I love the rabbit. I love the wasp. Maybe there's a another animal out there that would serve the same purpose. Not a worm though.

Not a worm. Uh so I'm not I'm not wedded to any of those. Um use your creativity. I think they're, you know, it could be a, you know, a bee, it could be a, you know, a lion, it could whatever you want it to be. It could be anything. So, um, I I would be okay with that as an alternative. Other question? Yes. Council member Gundle. No, I just want to say I'm I'm happy to I'm happy to see you're thinking about like a like a a bid alternate um process because potentially I mean I wonder if it's possible if whatever that comes out that the community could actually fund raise directly to if we wanted to we wanted to do something between the between the Rotary clubs and the Optimus clubs and the community in general. Maybe there's a way for us to um sort of augment the funding to make that happen. So by putting it in as an alternative, we'll we'll we'll find out what the damage would be, whether that's something we would want to think about. So I applaud you for doing that. Thank you.

Thank you. And as to that bid alternative, again, uh break it into segments. You know, the the entire monster worm, whatever we want to call it, is this. If we simply separate the head because it's important for the community to at least be able to identify with it, that's this. You know, come come up with options. I think that's that that would be fine with us. Yes. Council Kanchio,

thank you. Um, I also did want to comment because in thinking of what you're stating now as this alternative um, idea of preserving the monster head or a portion thereof of the body. I think that would be really helpful for the community. I know that when I was younger, I used to play on the monster. As I grew up and got older in the community, then I had my own family and then my my child's playing on the monster. And eventually, you know, I do feel that community members do have this connection and they remember it. And so, if we could find an alternative way to preserve it rather than have the 2.0, it might be okay as well. Okay. Understood. Great.

Okay. This is anformational item. Thank you for the hard work. We're excited about this moving forward. Thank you. Yes. May I suggest if you can take public comment? I think I did. I asked for public comment at the beginning. Was there any public comment on any of the items on the parks? Thank you. [clears throat]

Man. All right. Thank you for that presentation. Um, parks are important to our community. City manager reports city manager Havora.

Thank you, your honor. I have a few exciting things to share with you this evening. First, we'd like to congratulate one of our recreation coordinators, Danielle Cranon Jones. She's been selected as an honore for Assembly Member Alex Lee's Black History Month celebration this Saturday, which is occurring just before uh the event we discussed earlier this evening that Gene Fickland's group will be hosting. So that's from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. at the Emanuel Baptist Church in San Jose. And we want to congratulate Danielle for all the great work she's done in our community uh including in our schools as well as the Junth event that the city now hosts annually. Uh next we have a Lunar New Year celebration. Uh this is hosted by the library and it will be held uh at the Sllamon Center. So we are a co-sponsor as the city. It's from 12:30 to 3:30 on Sunday, February 2nd, and we are inviting all of the community out to celebrate. It is in a free event that is open to everyone. There will be non-stop music, dance, and cultural performances as well as cultural arts. Oops, excuse me. And next is the Black History Month program that Miss Ficklin invited us all to earlier this evening. Uh again, that is this Saturday, February 14th, starting at noon, also at the Sllamon Center and another free open uh to all. Uh there will be food available for purchase as well as vendors. And there are timed events at 12:30 and 2:30. Uh and that is seating to hear those guest speakers. And then finally, I would like to share

with you how proud we are to once again have earned an AA+ rating from Fitch, one of the top credit rating agencies in the country. In addition, the city's outlook was upgraded from stable to positive. A variety of factors go into this rating. And what it tells banks and investors is that our city manages its money responsibly, pays its bills on time, and plans carefully for the future. Because of this strong grade, we can borrow money at lower interest rates for major projects like roads, public safety facilities, and infrastructure improvements, which ultimately saves our taxpayers money. This AA plus rating reflects disciplined budgeting and financial practices, healthy reserves, and steady leadership. It's great news for our city today and also for our long-term financial future. [snorts] I'd like to commend our staff and in particular our finance director Kristen Lee and her team for the tremendous work that they do to ensure the city's financial resiliency. We will be sharing this in few information with our community as well. And that is all I have this evening. That's such an important recognition. Um, you know, we read about other cities that are struggling with their budgets and uh what services may need to be cut and what uh programs need to be cut and what staffing may need to be cut. Uh we're not in that situation. We historically have had um somewhat of a conservative budget, but that allows us to get these ratings and be able to provide the fiduciary responsibility that our citizens expect from us. So, congratulations, city manager, Miss Lee, congratulations. Job well done. Council Little, council comments.

Um well, I just want to let you guys know it's is going to be the third annual Mission Peak Yo-Yo Day. I know everyone's excited. I see everyone's faces ready to go get their yo-yos out, dust off a little bit, and get going. Um, this is being sponsored by Duncan Yo-Yo, myself, and uh, Scouting America, as well as the First Presbyterian Church where it's going to be at in Newark. It's a free event come out, and we are having the San Francisco Spin Doctors come out, which is the professional yo-yo league. They're going to be coming out. Uh, they get they uh, compete in regionals, nationals, and international levels. I'm trying to get in Ian Smith. He's won three out of five awards nationally in his yo-yo tricks. So, he gets fed on pizza and drinks. So, that's what I'm going to do to get him over here. So, I think it's be a lot of fun. Please invite everybody to come out. We'll have a couple yo-yos for sale. We will have some kits that are being, you know, done brought by Duncan. We'll have individual butterfly yo-yos. Um, but yeah, come on out and learn how to learn how to do more than just walk the dog. You'll have a really good time. And of course, this is part of my big goal that I'm working on, which is getting kids out electronics and coming back outside and doing fun stuff. So, let's get out and do some fun tricks.

And that date, the date is, thank you for asking. It's going to be Saturday, February 28th. Uh, it's not going to conflict Julie's event. Don't worry, I got you. Uh, it's going to be from 2 to 5:00 at the First Presbyterian Church. We're hoping to do it outside in the grass because yo-yoists when they fall on the ground, they don't want their yo-yos to break. So, Gotcha. Excellent. Looking forward to it, Council Member Gindall.

Yes. Um, thank you. Um, I'm going to be having my monthly coffee with the council member um meeting on Saturday the 21st at 10:30 a.m. at the Starbucks at Four Corners. That's at 35040 Newark Boulevard. Um, so anybody who wants to come out and just say hello and and have a casual conversation um or an intense one um come on out. [laughter] Um, thank Yes. Bring your bring your yo-yo. Show me what you learned on that. No, actually that's going to be after. So, sorry. We'll do that next month. Thanks, Council Kanchio.

Yes, your honor. Thank you. Um, on February 28, which is Saturday from 12:00 to 3:00, I'm going to be doing Lunar New Year jointly with Senator Dr. Aisha Wahhab and Assessor's Office. We're going to have it's free for all. Um the lion dance, drums, uh and Ernie Ray's karate is going to come out to do a demonstration as well. And the reason why Lunar New Year is such a special time, especially for many individuals who celebrate it worldwide, um as we know, is really when we think about the rotation of the animals, we're always thinking, well, there's 12 animals, so we're going to see the same thing like every 12 years. But actually it's every 60 years because there's an element that um that we have that cycles every two years. So you have the same element every two years. So that's 10 years on a rotation for the element compared and then combined with the animal itself. So this year is um going to be the fire horse is what we're celebrating and that doesn't come up again for another 60 years. Okay. And so when we also really think about our community, I just wanted to put it out there that everyone's welcome to come um to this event. And of course uh just as Miss Little has said as well to also to go to Miss Little's event, Council Member Little's event um directly after. So I think we also want to promote both events as well as I know that the city has another Lunar New Year event the week prior and I will be in attendance of that as well. Over the weekend, I also went to East uh Bay Realtor's annual gala, which was a very positive event with other community leaders and also um the Filipino National Historic Society is asking for

photos from anyone in the Bay Area from 1920s to the 1980s um for their second um his history book that they're working on. So, if you do have any photos from the Bay Area, they're asking for everyone to please send those in. Thanks so much. Excellent, [clears throat] Vice Member Jorgens.

Yeah. So, I uh we'll continue to share some uh stories from New York history to celebrate the uh 150th anniversary of the founding of the town of Newark in 1876. And we talked a lot about, you know, some plans for our recreation spaces today. So, I thought it'd be good to talk about one of Newark's first of such places, which is Swiss Park. Um but to go back um so in 1876 when Newark was founded one of the you know bigger industries was a dairy on the Mayhew ranch which stretched from about Jarvis Road to about Thornton Avenue and they had 500 cows. They're looking to grow their operation. Um and they owners started to engage with uh Swiss immigrants who I guess had a reputation for expertise in milk and cheese production. Um I guess that was correct because from that start the Swiss community in Newark uh grew in 1925 came together to form the social social organization called Alper Group and in 1935 under the leadership of Ben Inderson they built Swiss Park. Swiss [laughter] Park served as a place uh that held uh the swingfest dances, wrestling match ches and traditional Swiss dinners. You know, Newark's always prioritized having great places to gather as community. And there's few better examples of that than the Swiss community coming together, calling Newark home and uh building Swiss Park, which is, you know, essential to the fabric of the Newark community over the past 91 years. And I'm glad we're able to continue in that tradition a little bit and aspiring to build, you know, high quality recreation spaces for our residents. Why am I fearful that at some point uh the vice mayor is going to quiz us on the uh the information that he's passing on to us to find out which one of us have or have not been paying attention. So [laughter] um let's remember uh Valentine's Day is this Saturday. Um let's make sure that that's one of the those of us that have been married a long time, you know, every day is Valentine's Day. You know,

we certainly recognize that. Um my wife did not ask me to say that. It's it's actually true. Um so let's remember those folks that are meaningful in our lives. It could be our spouses, it could be our children, it could be our parents, you know. Let's take that opportunity to recognize them. Um had an opportunity to attend uh last week uh the high school had an a listening session where the kids got together and and talked about some of the issues going on nationally. And uh I really got to tell you, I was really impressed with how articulate and how smart these kids are to be able to explain and uh identify how these issues that are going on nationally are important to them and how they in affect them and their families. Um I think our leadership in this community is strong when I listen to these kids talk about these impacts. So real credit to the Newark High School students for uh being engaged uh understanding the issues that um we and they confront on a daily basis and uh taking the opportunity to participate and uh again there's no more important reason to encourage our young people to remain active and uh certainly encourage them to vote because that's how their message is heard. Um, thank you to my colleagues for the events that they're planning in the near future. Um, I certainly am, uh, grateful to hear from my colleagues on any event that goes on in our community because I think it's our responsibility to attend those functions to not only support our colleagues, but to show our community that whether it's a religious festival event or just a fun event that we're there to support our community in a variety of different ways. um I know they appreciate seeing us at these events and uh I know that we've all taken an active interest in attending. So with that being said, uh unless there's anything further, this meeting is adjourned.