City Council - Regular Meeting

Good luck with that. Good evening everybody. Thank you for being here this evening. It's May 14th, 2026. I'm going to go ahead and call the New York City Council meeting to order and I'm going to ask Riley and Scout to come up here and lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Please stand. I pledge algiance 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.

Thank you girls.

Play ball. Let the record show that all city council members are here this evening and we're going to go ahead and move on to item one where we are going to recognize the Kennedy Elementary School for their athletic prowess. And I'm going to ask Principal Lewis Lindsay to join me along with the girls team and their coaches, Andrew Chang and Billy Lopes. Girls, stay seated. This council loves to recognize both academic success, which I know these girls are all successful in that endeavor, but we also like to recognize athletic success. And so, uh, we're going to go ahead and issue a commendation to the Kennedy Elementary School. And then I'm gonna have the coach call each girl up individually to accept their certificate. Okay. Whereas on February 15, 2026, the Kennedy Elementary School girls soccer team brought home the New York Cup championship trophy in incredible fashion by going undefeated in the tournament. Four wins and no losses. where the Kennedy Elementary School soccer team played together and fought hard every game, winning their first Newer Cup championship in a long time. Whereas the team came together with only one month of practice and despite the

team having girls with a wide variety of soccer experience, each player worked hard and helped one another to get better. Now therefore, I, Michael Hannon, on behalf of my New York City council, will recognize each one of the girls that are here tonight on their outstanding win and for bringing the trophy back to Kennedy Elementary. And I do want to say thank you to Coach Andrew Chang and coach Billy Lopes. It's here for the coaches. So, coach, if you call the girls up one by one, we'll make sure we get them certificates. Yep. Yeah, I got it. So, first up, we'll go Anisha Agaral.

You can go in. Stand over here, honey. Emma Bingham,

Katherine Binkley, Alana Coranza,

Sophia Coransza,

Kayn Chang, sorry, Charlotte Chin, Ja Johi,

Malia Lopez, Riley Monlux, Giana Natal, Ari Ortiz Esparza,

Scout Pagar, Elena Rodriguez, and last but not least, Rachel Seran. And I just want to say I'm super proud of these girls. Um they're a blend of third through fifth graders. One thing I'm super proud of is we're I think one of the few teams that didn't do any cuts. So we took everyone that tried out. Um they all each some had really good experience, some didn't have a lot of experience in soccer, but they all helped each other. So it's really cool to see that new work spirit come together. Um and Kennedy spirit. So thank you.

Present one to you. OH, THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

WELL, I just want to say thank you to the coaches and to the parents and especially the girls for all your hard work. We really appreciate you going out there representing Kennedy, representing this community, and we just and we just appreciate the opportunity just to be here and to share this experience with you. Again, thank you to the coaches. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

And my holiday colleagues, you want to come down for a photo, girls, why don't you stand here in the front, get a nice photo of the council. Okay. Some of you may need to kneel at the front. All right, we're gonna start over here first and then Okay. So, one, two, three. Winners. Winners. One more time, guys. One, two, three.

Winners. Do you girls want to put one finger up like number one? Number one. All right. Thank you. CONGRATULATIONS.

Thank you. Are there any representatives from the boys soccer team here tonight? You know what they they they say no so quickly, but you know what the boys are all doing tonight? They're all home doing their homework, right? How many of you believe that?

I do want to take a moment though. I want to take a moment to recognize the boys program though as well. Whereas on February 15, 2026, the Kennedy Elementary School boys soccer team brought home the New Yorker Cup championship trophy in incredible fashion by going three and one in the tournament. Kennedy Elementary School soccer team played together and fought very hard every game, winning their first New Yorker Cup championship, also in a long time. The team came together with only one month's worth of practice despite the team having boys with a wide variety of soccer experience. Each player worked hard and helped one another. Therefore, Michael Hen the mayor on behalf of my colleagues on the city council will leave these accommodations with the principal and request that he distribute them to them at the school at some point. Certainly, if you'd like the council or us to be available when those are distributed, we're happy to do that. Just simply ask you to coordinate with the city manager. Okay, let's hear for the boys.

Yes,

these are all thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, it's now my pleasure to proclaim AsianAmerican, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander ANPI Heritage Month. I'm going to ask my colleague, Council Member Julie Del Canonio, to come down and join me. And I'd like to request representatives um from the various organizations. The director of life of Aloney College, uh Hing Potter, Burge Grove Primary School teacher, Denise Noen, uh the president of the Filipino National Historical Society, Linda Canales, and city staff are present to accept the proclamation. City staff, please come up. Council member.

Thank you, your honor. Whereas the month of May is identified as Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month to pay tribute to the generations of Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America's history and are instrumental in its future success. And whereas AHPI Heritage Month commemorates the beginning of Japanese immigration to the United States on May 7, 1843 and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869, made possible by Chinese immigrant railroad workers. And whereas originally a week-long celebration initiated in 1977, it was expanded to a full month by President George HW Bush in 1990 and signed into law in 1992. And whereas in 2021, the observance was officially expanded to specifically include Native Hawaiians, reflecting a broader commitment to recognizing the full spectrum of AAHPI identities. And whereas California is home to over 7.3 million Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander residents, this population represents one of the state's fastest growing racial groups with over 25% growth between 2010 and 2020. Ah PII individuals represent approximately 15.5% of California's total population. Mayor,

thank you. Therefore, I, Michael Han, and the mayor of the city of Newark, on behalf of my entire city council, want to take a moment and proclaim May of 2026 as Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander, AAN, HPI Heritage Month in Newark and encourage all members of the community to engage in efforts to learn and request the history, uh, respect the history of the Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander communities and take part in local cultural events. So, let's recognize these organizations and these folks. Thank you, your honor. Um, before I have them speak, I wanted to say a few words about Denise Newan. Uh, she has 25 years of teaching experience in Newark Unified, mostly at Birch Grove Primary, formerly known as Bunker. She's also the youth coordinator for the Vietnamese youth group. She has two students here in Newark at Lincoln Elementary. She's been school site council leadership representative, alumni scholarship reader, amenities committee, science presenter and coordinator, gate teacher, intervention math teacher, master and mentor teacher, served as panel to interview principles, taught grades 6, 5, 3, and one, and currently teaching grade two. She also got her teaching credential at Cal State Hayward and she was the GED teacher at Valenci Valencitos, a vocational school for Hayward and Berkeley prior to coming to Newark 25 years ago. Additionally, uh we also have Linda Canales from a nonprofit Filipino National Historic Society which started in 1982 which is a nonprofit representing not only the tri city area

but also nationally. It contributes to the National Panoi Archives and perspectives and perspectives of Filipino American history. From Maloney College, we have King Potter of Student Life representing Associated Student Senators uh who are also present. We have some Maloney students.

Thank you, council member. I just want to take a moment also to recognize further the Filipino National Historical Society continues to be the primary resource for documenting the 400 plus year history of Filipinos in the United States providing extensive volunteerrun records and historical, cultural, and educational opportunities. And so therefore, we're going to recognize the Filipino National Historical Society by giving this proclamation and thank them for sharing the history, culture, and contributions of Filipino Americans in variety of fields including arts, science, education, medicine, politics, civic engagement, activism, and emerging technologies, and encourage all New York residents to learn more about this rich culture and contributions. So, I'm going to go ahead and first present to Linda this commendation for the Filipino National Historical Society. Linda, I know you want to say a few words. Let's get a picture first. June. Thank you so much. Uh your your speech was almost similar to mine. would you Julie ask uh to share with you the impact of the Filipino National Historical Society? We actually have 45 chapters all over the United States and we have we have our group have the East Bay here in um this part of California. So thank you so much for organizing this and I will share just a few of the impact of um fonts with the community. Uh they include the following uh preserving history by documenting and archiving immigration stories and ensuring that contributions of the Filipino American Americans to the United States history, culture and economy are not forgotten. They also include strengthening and

promoting cultural identity, bridging generational divides by hosting community events, educational programs, and cultural exhibitions. This organization fosters a robust sense of identity and belonging for Filipino Americans and awareness of Filipino-American culture to our broader comm community communi broader community. It also include bridging generations by linking older immigrants with the younger ones US-born generations through oral histories and storytelling ensuring that heritage history and traditions are passed down. And lastly for tonight, by enhancing visibility and actively combating the eraser of Asian-American and Pacific Islander experiences by leading educational efforts such as the National Observation of the Filipino American History Month every October. Thank you so much. Mr. Porter, you wanted to say a few words? Thank you everyone. Um, I don't have much to say other than the fact that I'm standing here with some of our amazing, bright students from Aloney College who do a very good job to represent um, our student body, the the hard work that they do, especially this last year with uh, the Senate and uh, just making sure that they're inclusive of their experiences, which obviously includes the uh, Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander communities that we serve at Aloney College. Um, we're proud to be doing the hard work, proud to be out there in the community with everybody, making sure that everyone has the support that they need to be uh, academically successful in and outside of the classroom. Um, and I'll just say that uh, you know, we're we maintain uh,

the ability to be top five transfer uh, community colleges here in the Bay Area, and without the support of our students here, uh, that would not be possible. So, thank you. And I know Miss Nen wants to say a few words, but before I allow her to do that, how many of you in the room are educators? Let's hear for the educators in our room. Council uh member Eve Marie Little is a professor. Council member Terrence Grindall has been a teacher at some of the grammar schools on occasion. Our former city manager was actually a substitute teacher back in the day. And of course, uh, well, he could only handle kindergarten. And of course, council member Julie Delcantio is a teacher currently. So, last week was teacher awareness uh month or week. Is it week or month?

Month.

Month. So, uh, year. It's such an incredibly difficult job. Think of the responsibility our teachers have to start with young people as young as four and five years old to try to put them in a position to one day not only they going to be athletic champions on the field, but they're going to be academic champions in the classroom as well. That's what teaching is all about. It's transitioning kids to an adult life where they're going to be significant contributors to all of our communities. And there's nothing you young people can't do. If you set your mind to it and you work hard every day, there's nothing you can't do. One day, one of you students will be sitting here. Which one of you will be sitting mayor next year in a year? Not next year. Back there. Not next year. You never run against the mayor currently. So, I want to take a moment to recognize Miss Newan and and provide her with this accommodation thanking you for over 25 years of teaching. I think she started at the age of nine

and uh you're the reason why New York schools are moving in the right direction. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Council Member Del uh Katacasio. Thank you, Mayor Hanan, and members of city council. Um, thank you so much for this meaningful recognition as we celebrate API months. I'm truly honored and humbled to receive this commendation. Next week, I will be also receiving my 25 years pin from the Newark Unified School District. And I'm proud to say that I have spent all 25 years of those years teaching Thank you. Teaching at the same school, Vice Mayor Jorgens's uh can attest that because he was actually my fifth grade students.

I like to think that I taught him well since he's sitting right here with all of you. I also want to thank my family for coming out here tonight. Uh this is the first visit to city hall and I'm especially glad that this could witness firsthand how this city council uh recognizes and value the contributions of API comm community. Thank you again for this honor and celebrations for our community tonight.

Council, let's get a picture of the folks. Come on down. As long as you can still get your red button.

All right, everyone over here. One, two, three. Okay, let's do this one. All right.

Where are my notes? Oh, here. No. I don't know what these all are. I can take this. Yeah. Where's my notes that you gave me? This is done. This is done also.

Oh, here it is. I guess we're taking Thank you. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to return back to the proclamations. Uh, so today is proclaiming bike to wherever day and fix your bike day. And we're going to handle this in two different processes. First of all, I'm going to ask management analyst Morgan Peterson, associate civil engineer Gerald Yang to, and I'll present the proclamation to them. Let's hear IT FOR THEM. WHEREAS BIKE TO work day started over 30 years ago in 1994 to celebrate biking as a fun healthy commuting option and to uh inspire non-cyclists to give it a try. whereas bike to work uh day was officially um rebranded as a bike to wherever day encouraging everyone to use their bike for more than just commuting. And whereas the bicycle is an economically and environmentally sustainable mode of transportation, an excellent form of recreation, and an effective means to conserve energy actually to improve my waistline. Um, but that's a different issue entirely and pro and improve the livability of

communities. Whereas creating bicycle friendly communities has been shown to improve residents health, well-being and quality of life, boost community spirit, improve traffic safety, expand transportation options, reduce air pollution and street congestion and an integral part of the multi-m module transportation system plan both at the federal, state, regional, and local transportation governmental agencies. Now therefore, I Michael Hen on behalf of my New York City council. uh proclaim bike to wherever day in Newark and urge all Newark residents to ride their bicycles whether it is for commuting, running errands or recreation. So let's welcome and thank those that bike today. Did you say? And if you do not know, May is bike month. And to make your ride a little bit sweeter, we are uh launching a bike to Boba Newark Boba trail. Uh you can pick up your passports out in the hallway, get discounts to boba, uh get stamps, and get entered into a raffle uh for the next two weeks.

Thank you. Thank you. Well, in conjunction with bike to wherever, you need a bike that actually works well. So, this is going to be fix your bike day also. And I'm going to ask the following folks to join me up here. I'd ask uh Win to join me. The Fremont Freewheelers Bicycle Club. Win.

There you go.

I would ask uh Mr. John Becker to join me from the Violet BL Community Center. Andreas to join me from the bike Fremont also to join us.

You'll notice with this mayor if there's any difficult last names we go on a firstname basis. Did you notice that? Did not get that. This guy's really a true hero for the community. By the way, uh I used to sit on the um uh stop waste and it's an organization that looks to, you know, improve recycling, reuse, and things of that nature. And our organization presented a I think it was a $9,000

to uh assist Wyn and his organizers to fix bikes and uh they went through that entire grant. I can only imagine how many bikes you were able to get back working in working condition in that period of time. But uh all of them. All of them.

Good answer. So, thank you for that. Uh and as to Viola BLE, uh every year Violet Ble gives out, you know, thousands of pounds of free food and clothing to those less fortunate. And every Christmas we give out gifts to children that are in need. And oftentimes those gifts include bicycles. and to see the smiles on kids' faces when they receive bicycles. And I know that the police department has been instrumental in in donating funds to help us with that program as well. Whereas a healthy community requires cyclists to be able to ride their bicycles properly. Whereas proper bicycling also requires bicycles to be in good repair. Whereas I loved that when I was a kid. How many of you have gone down a steep hill when you were a kid and all a sudden the chain came off? Does that ring ring ring a bell? Oh,

sure. As you're making decisions, do I hang a left, do I hang a right, or what do I do? I remember those days. Um,

yes. Whereas being in pursuit of bicycles in good repair requires outlets for individuals to be able to access and to afford these services. Whereas equipment and supplies procured through the Viola BLE community service center with Fremont Freewheelers, Bicycle Club, Bike Fremont, and funding from Stop Waste Organization will benefit this community long after the initial grant is concluded. Whereas the hardworking and dedicated volunteers provide the faces and hands to those in need of free bicycle repairs, adjustments, tune-ups, flat repairs, and counseling. The city council recognizes the leadership and dedication that leads to successful monthly fix your bike day bicycle events. Now therefore, Michael Hen on behalf of the Newark City Council do proclaim today to be fix your bike day and urge all Newark residents and Tri City residents to keep their bicycles in top working conditions. So, it's with great pleasure that I approve and um award these certificates. I would. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Hannon. And this fix your bike day program wouldn't exist if it weren't for Mike to prove a point that with stop waste the money can be funded to southern Alama County and to John Becker and Vile Ble community services to make me aware that they decided they wanted me to apply for the grant at stop waste which in less than three three weeks we were able to acquire. So the fix your bike day program of this one in New York is probably the second largest in the country already. It's that successful. And you can measure this by in terms of people attending, the amount of waste diverted from the waist stream or the amount of bikes that we fix. And so this is pretty incredible, right? Because it's just a volunteer effort. But it's more than that because if you need a job skill, right, you can become a bicycle repairer and to learn that skill, you can come and volunteer with this program. And if you do this for about one year, you'll be ready to start your own sole proprietorship repairing bikes on your own. I figure the city of Newark can support 14 of these bike repairers and uh you would earn a substantial income much better than through retail outlet. Okay, what I'd like to do is bring my volunteers up. We've and we can take some pictures, but thank you very much Mayor Hannon and the city

Great. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you,

Mayor. Thank you. My pleasure. So, I didn't pronounce his name correctly. The city council got their hands dirty today. They got their hands dirty today. We were out there planting a tree, weren't we? We were planting a tree today. And uh so today we're going to issue a proclamation declaring Arbor Day. I'm gonna have Dan to come up and join me. and

Dan has been a longstanding outstanding employee for the city of Newark and uh we're really proud of the work that you do around our community. This man is a tree expert when it comes to our parks and our facilities. And uh when we have tree planting days, and I know a lot of my colleagues on the city council have joined me on tree planting days, Dan and the crew are out there preparing the land for those trees to be planted. And if I recall correctly, I think Yoyo told me that since 2000, I think we have planted I'm sorry, since the year 2000, I think we've planted over a thousand trees if I recall correctly. and um it creates a healthy beautiful environment. So Arbor Day whereas the first Arbor Day was celebrated in 1872 to promote the u reforestation of the plains of Nebraska and that was the year and by the year 1920 more than 45 states and territories observed Arbor Day whereas Arbor Day will be observed in the city of Newark on May 14th. Whereas trees in our city increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of business areas, enhance the environment by prov providing habitat for animals, purify the air, and beautify our community. Whereas Arbidate promotes tree appreciation, conservation, tree planting, and tree care. Whereas the city of Newark has been recognized the value of thousands of specimens of trees within the city limits and has consistently supported the planting and maintenance of approximately 13,000 trees on public property. Now therefore, I Michael Han on behalf of my colleagues on the New York City Council proclaimed today Arbor Day in Newark and urge all residents to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and to support our city urban forest program. So it's with great pleasure Dan I present you with a certificate.

Can you take the officer here first? It is true you hold the best for last and um you know we've talked at this council uh over the years um how proud we are of our Newark Police Department, the quality of the work that they do, the fact that we are such a safe community and that our residents expect us to continue to provide that safe community. But we do so because of the outstanding individuals that work on our police department led by their chief, Chief Arguo. Chief, are you here? I'm really proud that I'm able to announce the police officer of the year, Mr. Thomas Dale. Thomas Officer Dale, Officer of the Year, Detective Tom Dale, now has been with the New York Police Department for nearly

three years. I remember introducing officer Dale here when he first came on to the city as a new employee and in three short years he's our officer of the year. We knew then what we know now. We hired an outstanding individual, an outstanding person to patrol and be a detective in our community. In that short time, he has earned the respect of his peers and proven that what impacts one makes impacts one makes are often a reflection of the work ethic of the entire police department. Officer Dale grew up in conquered where he graduated from Ignatio Valley High School. After high school, he served eight years in the army as a counter intelligence agents agent. He was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003 and four to recruit service sources for intelligence and operations and interrogations. While in the military, he became proficient in speaking Persian Farsy after completing the language course at the Defense Language Institute of Monterey. Boy, your kids are proud of you. Your kids are proud of you. Officer Dale's final station was in Hawaii. You know, when you served in Afghanistan and Iraq, where do we send you? We send you to Hawaii.

Not a lot of Persian Farsy speakers. Yes.

Where he served as a counter intelligence agent responsible for investigating espionage and terrorism. After completing a service in the army, he returned to California to attend college. He received a bachelor's degree in politics from St. Mary's College. Go Gales. And a master's in public administration from USF. Go Dons. After completing college, Officer Dale worked for 10 years in the tech industry where he held his final position as director of customer service. Officer Dale has three children, ages 1, four, and six. He enjoys playing sports and helping coach his children. You're in for the long haul, my friend. You are in for the long haul. Outside of activities with his children, he enjoys playing tennis, cooking, and traveling. So, it's with great pleasure uh that I present this award to you, Officer Detective Dale, as our officer of the year. And I'm going to give the chief an opportunity to say a few words first. Here you go, my friend.

You know, it's it's not uh easy to gain the uh respect and uh admiration of your peers in such a short amount of time. Uh I've, you know, been here nearly 30 years and I've yet to see an officer um get this honor from their peers in in that amount of tenure. Uh so it it speaks volumes of uh Thomas' just uh tenacity and I I usually refer to it as investigative tenacity. Uh we uh had the opportunity recently to honor him at an optimist uh breakfast uh that's for the officers of the year for the whole Tri Cities and uh Thomas couldn't be there. So Tom Dale couldn't couldn't be there and and you know why? Because he was out literally doing the work that uh got him um selected by his peers. It was tough really tough competition this year. I I won't uh go over the stats I went over that day, but the the data shows it. Uh but the officers uh made that selection before they even had that data available to them. After they made that selection, we pulled the data. uh we had already awarded him a gold award for his uh investigative tenacity where he was nominated by by one of our supervisors for that award. Uh that was at the halfway point of his tenure. And so we had pulled the the new data at the three-year mark. Uh and uh the level of search warrants, uh Remy warrants, uh arrests and criminal investigations. The number of investigations he had done in that short amount of time uh was was just uh just reflective of the impact that he really has. uh you could see it on dayto day if you're there watching him, but this was what you could go back and look and go, "Wow, that's that's there's proof in that data." And so that morning he was uh basically quarterbacking as the case investigative agent uh a multi- agency operation that uh you know sometimes you'll see our press releases or news releases and and we detail that information when we're sharing that after the fact. And um that's what he was doing that morning where he got up at I don't know probably you would probably know 1:30 in the

morning uh for operations that were occurring across the Bay Area and he was the quarterback as the case agent. So while we were there having breakfast honoring him with his pitcher uh he was out doing the work that really deserved the recognition. So um we're tremendously just proud of him and and so happy to have him. I tease uh he he actually lives uh very close to another police chief. uh they're they're literally neighbors on the same street and I see that chief uh multiple times a year, probably like at least twice a month at at uh uh Bay Area events and and we always uh have our little banter. Uh but you know, I keep telling him don't don't think about it and and so uh we're we're super happy that he doesn't get recruited there and that he's here with us and and uh thank you and it really the support you all give him to do that work uh is key. No one can do that level of work uh without having a really strong support network with uh the family at home and and just really being understanding of of that type of uh commitment. So, thank you. Thanks, buddy. Thank you. Dan, I'm gonna ask you to come back up again because this is National Public Works Week.

I'll also ask uh Gerald Yang to join us up here as well. Gentlemen, let's get a photo before we do the proclamation.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is public works services provides the work that they provide to our community. um integral part of the citizens everyday lives. Whereas the support of an understanding and informed citizenry is vital to the efficient operation of public works systems and programs such as water, sewers, streets and highways, public buildings, parks, landscaping and equipment maintenance. Whereas the health and safety and comfort of this community greatly depends on these facilities and services. Whereas the quality and effectiveness of these facilities as well as their planning, design, and construction is vitally dependent upon the efforts and skills of public work officials. Now, therefore, I Michael Hannah, mayor of the city of Newark, on behalf of my New York City council, do proclaim the week of May 17th through May 23rd as National Public Works Week in the city of Newark. And I'll call upon the community to recognize the contributions which public works officials make every day to our health, safety, comfort, and quality of life. Ladies and gentlemen, um as you drive around our city or walk around our city and you see those city trucks with folks working out there on the streets, the sidewalks, the parks, you know, take a moment to say thanks. Thanks for what you do. A lot of those folks work in anonymity and don't get the recognition that they deserve for the hard work. We are sirly sirly ceiling 88 streets right Howard 88 streets and uh it's because of the hard work and the dedication of our public works staff. We're going to take that number one issue that our residents recognize in terms of the quality of streets and make it number three. So u big thanks to the public works folks that work hard every day to make sure that the things that we take for granted, water, sewage, and these other things are provided to us without hesitation. Thank you.

Thank you. Great. Thank you. I'd like to ask Alama County Fire Deputy Chief Ryan to join me. Battalion Chief David Nuen of Engine 29, Captain Nick Pendley, engineer Matthew Hamilton, firefighter Aaron Brown here to accept a proclamation. Are they all here? Yes. Actually, there's some and then and then some. And then some. Yes. Yes, please. Yes.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Ryan Nishimoto, Alama County Fire. We had a little switch up. Uh the crew that actually the mayor just named, I'm sorry, mayor. They're actually back at the station and I brought two other crews. decided to bring my two favorite crews, so we switch it up on you. Um, Battalion Chief David Wyn is uh just outside using the phone, I think. But we have next to me, Engine Company 27 with Captain Dan Burke. They're all mixed up here. Engineer Ton Law, firefighter Joseph Manow, and then we have our truck 28 crew with Captain Jesse Bllelock, engineer Darren Murphy. They're all They're all mixed up. This is great. And firefighter Philip Stevenson joining me today. They did that just to see people hold their legs. It's a good test.

And I know that this is National Emergency Medical Services Week, but I want to take a moment upon my my council will join me to thank the hard work you do day in and day out. We recognize the majority of the calls that you respond to today are emergency calls. And when citizens call 911, life is in jeopardy. uh the quicker you get there, the more likely we're going to save a life. And this city has been committed to the Alamita County Fire Department in terms of the service you provide. We recognize the quality of that service and I and I see the the hard work you do day in and day out. I had the chance to share this with folks. I'm getting to more on the fire side than the emergency services side. When I walked upon a fire on Thornton Avenue before the fire department got there and when I saw the precision on how they operated to put that fire out and to make sure that people were safe, it was really like almost an orchestra with the band leader dictating how the crew was going to respond. And uh similarly, they respond to emergency situations the same way. They all have a role. They all have a responsibility and their primary goal is to make sure that they save that life.

No, no. Keep up the good. Let's hear it for these guys.

You know, if the mayor quit chitchatting, we could have got through this thing. Whereas emergency medical services are vital public service. Whereas the members of the Alama County Fire Department are dedicated to providing exceptional life-saving care to those in need 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No days off. No days off. Whereas emergency medical services providers are dedicated to saving lives and limiting suffering, often under challenging circumstances which often require personal sacrifice and risk. Whereas immediate access to quality emergency care dramatically improves the survival and recovery rate of those who experience sudden illness or injury. Whereas emergency medical services teams engage in specialized training and continuing education to enhance their life-saving skills. Whereas our community benefits on a daily basis from the knowledge and skills of these highly trained individuals. Now therefore, I, Michael Hannah, a mayor of the city of Newark, am proud to proclaim May 17th through the 23rd National Emergency Medical Services Week and thank all emergency personnel for their dedication and professionalism. So, when you see these folks shopping at Newark stores, by the way, I love to see the Costco I love to see the firefighters from Fremont in my Newark Costco stores. I thank them every time. But when you see them shopping, take a moment and say thanks. Thanks for what you do because it's a hard job. They may get called at any time of the day and their only responsibility is I got to try to save a life. It'd be it would be interesting to know on the number of emergency calls for service, how many lives are actually saved on an annual basis. I would imagine that the number would just be astounding. And uh every life that you save is not only important to that person, but think about their family.

I saved a grandfather, a grandmother, a mother, a father, a child. So their life-saving techniques are not only important to the person, but to their extended family, and they're grateful for that. So it's with great honor I present this proclamation to the deputy chief, and uh thank you for the great work that your staff does and give you certainly an opportunity to say a few words.

Thank you very much. Well, again, good evening everyone. Uh, thank you city for and mayor, council, city staff for this award, for this proclamation, I should say. Um, we take great pride in being able to provide this city with EMS services. Um, we work hard. We have a robust uh training and EMS staff that trains our paramedics and our and our EMTs. So, we keep our EMTs certified, our paramedics licensed. And just to give you some numbers that happened here in um Newark, we ran last year in 2025 3,926 calls and 67% of them, as you said, mayor, quite a bit. 67% solely were for medical aids. That doesn't include the calls that were vehicle accidents, fires, um any hazmat or rescues that included a medical component, too. So, it's a major thing we do, and we take great pride in doing it. We appreciate the city for trusting in us.

Thank you. Thank you. I I do want to take one moment and thank uh council member E Marie Little who sits on the fire commission representing the city of Newark. Colleagues, come on down. Let's take a photo with the with the firefighters.

City manager

my city. Good work. I'd like to invite our chief back up to join me as this is also National Police Week. Chief and any of your colleagues, feel free to come on up. Go twice.

Yes. I don't want anyone in the community who might be watching on TV to believe that this is my security on a daily basis. Uh, as I talked about the fire department, uh, make the same comments about our police department, as you heard when I was talking about Detective Dale. These folks put their lives on the line every day. Every day. They don't know what they're going to be responding to, but their sole responsibility is to make sure they protect and preserve our community, to make sure that our residents not only feel safe because we have an outstanding police department, but are safe. Um, you look at our crime statistics last year and over the last several years, crime continues to go down in the city of Newark in a lot of areas and it's because of the hard work and the dedication of these folks. I'd want residents to know when you call 911, you're going to get an immediate response from our police department. They're going to be caring. They're going to be professional at all times. And they're going to make sure that whatever service you're seeking, they're going to provide the quality of service that you would expect from public service. And public servants, I love that notion, public servants, because we are servants of the community. We don't do it because we get good pay or good this or good. We do it because we have a desire to serve the public and the community and nobody exemplifies that in our city in my mind better than our police department. Um so I'm really proud as my colleagues are behind me um of our police department. So it's with great honor that we recognize National Police Week. Whereas Congress and the President of the United States have designated May 15th as police weeks, Memorial Day and the week in which May

15 falls as National Police Week. Whereas the and let me digress for just a moment. I worked in San Jose and soon after I started, we had two San Jose police officers that died in the line of duty. And it's funny to to this day, it was almost 40 years ago. It hasn't escaped me that they gave the ultimate sacrifice to the community. You know, they woke up that day thinking it's going to be a normal day and two families were left without fathers, husbands, and children when they died. And I haven't forgotten that. And we need to remember every day these folks put their lives on the line. And uh it's it's hard to conceive of that, but that's in indeed what they do every day. The members of the New York Police Department play an essential role in safeguarding the rights and freedoms of the residents of the city of Newark. Notice I said residents. I didn't say citizens, voters. I said residents because we're a welcoming community in the city of Newark. It doesn't matter what your immigration status is in this community. We want you to call 911 if you feel you need police services. And we've worked really hard in the community to make sure folks feel free to call 911 knowing their immigration status will never become an issue. It's not going to be an issue that's going to be discussed. You called us, you're requesting service. We're here to provide it. It's important that all residents know and understand the duties, responsibilities, hazards, and sacrifices of their law enforcement agency and that members of the law enforcement agency recognize their duty to serve the people of the community by protecting the innocent against deception and the weak against oppression. whereas a New York Police Department remains dedicated to serving the community and continues to receive high approval ratings from the public,

including the last scientific survey conducted by a third party consultant that reflected positive assessment. Whereas the members of the New York City Police Department unceasingly provide a vital public service. Now therefore, I Michael Hannon, mayor of the city of Newark, proclaimed National Police Week in the city of Newark in honor of the law enforcement officers past and present who have rendered a dedic and dedicated service to the community and do further proclaim May 15, 2026 as peace officer Memorial Day in honor of those law enforcement officers who through their courageous deeds have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their community or have become disabled in the performance of their duty. So, Chief, I'm proud to present this to you and thank you again for leading such an outstanding department.

Just a couple comments. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, uh, City Council, and City Manager Bon, Assistant City Manager Havorca, and our Newark community. Uh, we really want to thank you for this, uh, meaningful, uh, proclamation, uh, honoring, uh, National Police Week. On behalf of the men and women of the Newark Police Department, we accept the proclamation with great pride and appreciation of of the gesture. Uh, National Police Week is an opportunity for us to honor the service and the sacrifices and the professionalism that our law enforcement professional across the country make every every day. uh and to remember uh those that have paid the ult ultimate sacrifice in giving their lives in order to protect uh others in their respective uh communities and while serving in the line of duty. Uh we also especially the are proud of the the department personnel, the members uh that every day continue to serve our community with honor, integrity, and a commitment to our our pride values here in Newark. as you mentioned, uh we're we're grateful uh for that representation and we'd like to also thank our members of our honor guard who uh attended the Alama County uh peace officer memorial uh just last week where we gathered to honor uh all the fallen officers in Alama County and pay respects to their families. uh they they've not been forgotten. And as you said, that that'll uh always stay with you when you've attended uh services for law enforcement members, someone that uh you think that that could have been me or that could have been my family in that situation and and it really hits you. I still think back every every year um to the first funeral I I attended. uh and they are uh they're a great reminder and so thank you for the recognition and and uh it's a it's an honor for us to serve the community and partner with the community uh every day uh to keep Newark safe. So thank you

chief

council Congratulations. Congratulations. Okay, this is the part that I really love. Um, could I have Myra Smith come up to join me? Myra Smith was hired. These are new employees, though, by the way. Myra was hired as a public safety clerk on February 23rd, 2026. Myra was raised in Newark. That's attended Newark Memorial High School. Yes. and continued her education at Los Pacidas College in Liverour where she pursued coursework to support her professional development. Myra brings a diverse background in both public service and private sector leadership. She most recently served the records division with the Pittsburgh Police Department where she held roles including warrant clerk, subpoena clerk, police activities league ambassador. In addition, she was actively involved in the city of Pittsburgh employee events committee, contributing to employee engagement and organizational culture.

Prior to her work in law enforcement, Myra spent several years in retail leadership with Nordstrom, serving as a general manager for both the Walnut Creek and Pleasanton locations. In this capacity, she oversaw operations, team development, and customer experience, building a strong foundation in leadership and organizational management. Outside of her professional responsibilities, Myra enjoys cooking, spending time outdoors in the sunshine, and taking spontaneous road trips with her 11-year-old son. Congratulations.

Is your son here? He's not. Okay. Yeah, this is nice.

I got you. I hear you. How about Officer Ryan Johnson? Officer Johnson. Officer Ryan Johnson was hired as a lateral police officer on March 30, 2026. I love lateral police officers. Gosh, they come in with all that experience. Officer Johnson was raised in the city of Newark and knew his career path at a young age while spending four years as a police explorer in the Newark Police Department. I love the explorers. That works, doesn't it? After graduating high school, Officer Johnson served four years of active duty in the United States Marine Corps in an infantry capacity and was stationed in several places, including Japan. In 2001, after fulfilling his Marine Corps commitment, Officer Johnson was hired by the Sonteo County Sheriff's Office as a correctional officer and was soon promoted to deputy sheriff where he worked in the county jail and various patrol areas within Sonteo County. Officer Johnson was hired as a New York police officer in 2007. He has served as a patrol officer, school resource officer, and traffic officer. He also had served collateral duty assignments including honor guard member, crowd management team member, field training officer, and citizen police academy instructor. Officer Johnson has been recognized for multiple awards over the years, including City of Newark Pride Award, Silver Award, Employee of the Quarter Award, the 2013 and 2015 Newark Officer of the Year Award. Congratulations. Wow. What happened in 2014

and was awarded the 2016 New York City Employee of the Year award and is a fivetime recipient of the 10851 award for his efforts in vehicle theft recovery. What an outstanding officer. Thank you for your service. In 2023, Officer Johnson returned to the Sam I was wondering where that lapse in time went all of a sudden. In 2023, Officer Johnson returned to the Sanont County Sheriff's Office as a deputy sheriff for a short time and was mainly assigned to the San Carlos Police Bureau as a patrol officer. Officer Johnson is happy to work be working for the city of Newark again and looks forward to collaborating with the dedicated men and women of the New York Police Department as well as partnering with the city staff and community service. In his free time, Officer Johnson enjoys spending time with his wife Juliet, daughters Analia, Analysis, how do you

thank you. I apologize. uh and son Aiden riding um anything with two wheels and a motor, fishing and going on family trips. Let's welcome Officer Johnson back to SAN Lieutenant Yama. I ran into the lieutenant. What was that? A few weeks ago.

Yeah.

And I said, um, acting lieutenant goes, "No, no, no, no. It's now official. I'm now the lieutenant." Um, you know, it's it's amazing to those of us that have been in the city of New York now for a while. You know, we see the growth in our police department and the promotions in our police department. When I met Officer Yama the first time, I thought this this officer is going places, staying in New York, but going places. And uh um not to my surprise um he was the acting lieutenant and now has assumed that role as lieutenant. Uh again, it just shows the growth within the department that if you work hard and excel in your responsibility as an officer, there's nothing you can't do. And uh he is promoted to the rank of lieutenant on April 12th, 2026. The lieutenant brings over 19 years of law enforcement experience, having begun his career with the New York Police Department in 2007 as a police services aid before being hired as a police officer recruiter recruit and successfully graduating from the police academy. On August 26, 2008, he was appointed to the position of police officer. Lieutenant Hamaya,

correct? Close. You got it. All right. All right.

Was born and raised in Hayward, California. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science with a minor in pre-law from Cal State University Hayward. During his tenure as an officer, the lieutenant served as field training officer and a member of the SWAT team. His exemplary service earned him a department gold star as well as two mothers against drunk driving awards. On March 1, 2017, he was promoted to police detective, serving in the role until his promotion to police sergeant. On May 1 of 2018, as a sergeant, he held several key assignments, including SWAT team leader, disease infection control officer, and supervisor of the first aid CPR AED program. On June 16th, 20209 2019, the lieutenant was appointed acting de uh detective sergeant and was later selected as the permanent detective sergeant on November 1, 2019. He served in that capacity for nearly 5 years pursuing before assuming the role of acting police lieutenant on September 9, 2024 as the acting lieutenant. He oversaw a wide range of critical operations including patrol teams, the traffic unit, the detective unit, use of force review, the firearms range program, unmanned aerial systems, UAS, the crime scene investigator team, the first aid CPR AED program, disease infection control and crime analysis. We need to hire more police officers. It would have been easier for me to say what he wasn't doing. The lieutenant is a graduate of the Sherman Block Supervisory Leadership Institute, compete completing the program in June 28, 2026. Outside of his professional responsibility, the lieutenant enjoys maintaining physical fitness. Gez, I wouldn't have guessed that. Spending time with his family and

exploring his appreciation for coffee. Congratulations. Welld deserved. Thank you. Thank you so much. We're going to present this certificate uh personally because Krishnan Nurion was not able to join us this evening. Um senior analyst for the city of Newark. Um he was our employee of the year in 2025 and we're going to make sure we present this certificate to him in person when we get a chance to see him again. Okay. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to return to the agenda and the first item is going to be public comment. This is an opportunity for anybody in the public to speak on any item that is not on the agenda this evening. Is there anybody that would like to speak to any item not on the agenda? Former mayor Lily May from the city of Fremont, please come forward.

Ben and Ben, please come forward. Five minutes. Okay, we're gonna combine. Well, how much time does Fremont give folks? Two. Two. No, it depends on number of speakers. Speaker cards. It's two. Okay. Welcome.

Good evening. And I just wanted to say first off, thank you for allowing us to come and share with you this evening. I really appreciate all the different areas that you're able to celebrate in your community, whether it's the heritage, the contributions of the people. And that's what we wanted to share is that um while we are your neighbors and uh we certainly appreciate that honor and that privilege, we wanted to um give something back to the community. As a public servant, I also often tell the students and we had those children here that you don't have to be elected to make a difference. You just have to care. And so that's one of the things that we were really privileged and we want to thank your staff and the partnership because we know that um for this past weekend we held an event at the New Park Mall um for Asian Heritage Month and we wanted to bring people together. We had um 100 vendor booths, 21 performing acts um six car dealerships, Pebble Mobility, um Stanford University Stanford Blood Bank um

and 12 food trucks. Yes, 12 food trucks too. So, we just wanted to bring um the new into New Park and to New York and that we really hope that we can try to bring people together. I think right now is what we're seeing there is enough divisiveness and I often joke at this time period of the year. Um it can be silly season and there's many things that people will use to pull us apart. But I'd like to think that, you know, the whole best word of community is the word unity. And so we're really really pleased to be able to have this opportunity to bring all the people together. And I'll let Ben speak for a little bit too. I want to get the stats. Yes. And then want to thank a whole list of people because Sure. So it, you know, for those that don't know, we were the one of

Oh, the drone show. Yeah. We did Yeah. Don't forget about drone show. We're one of the three people that helped them,

you know, with this whole Asian Heritage Festival for the New Park Mall and trying to as neighbors trying to help our neighbors. But I want to kind of give you a little bit of stats. We had an estimate of about 5 to 7,000 people that actually attended the event. Um, and the drone show alone, we estimate there was like 2 to 3,000 with about 10 to 15,000 online watching it. Um, and that was launched at the Macy's parking lot. And like I said, it takes a village to make something like this happen. So, I want to thank there's a whole list here. So, of course, Fremont Mayor, we, you know, Lily May, we have Alex Woo from the Bay Area Hong Kongers, uh, Kayn Dawkins, Sheenan Edwin, Russell Tezac, and Spencer Sins of the Brookfield Properties who owned the New Park Mall, Elliot Gabay of Charles Company who owns the former Macy's parking lot. I also want to thank a couple people that are behind me, Angela Sway and Chief Jonathan Arguo from the city of Newark. If without their help, things couldn't have happened. And of course, we have two people that actually asked us, Mayor Mike Hannon and your former mayor, um, mayor, Mayor Ammeritus Al Naggi, who initially asked us, can you share the love from Fremont?

Yes. And so, I just want to thank everyone from the city of Newark that made this all happen. And I hope for those that actually attended the festival really had a good time. Yes. So just in final closing I think with again um we are not the CEOs of this effort. We I jokingly said that we're the CHO which is the chief hope officer and so hopefully that we bring good hope and goodwill to the community and that we can bring everyone together because there's much more things that I believe we can do to make a better future for all of our communities. So blessings to all of you and wish you all a wonderful meeting this evening.

Thank you and I do hope uh working with Mr. Mr. Bon, at some point at a future council meeting, you were able to put together some kind of a five minute video montage of the event because some of us were out of town and not able to attend, but I heard nothing but glowing remarks about the event and uh you know, thank you for your leadership in this area. We greatly appreciate it. That's what makes the Tri City area who we are. We work together. We we have the same goals because our goals is to provide quality of life for all of our residents. So, thank you. When we do that, we'll also have slides to show the sponsors who helped us make this happen because this wouldn't have been able to happen without the financial support of businesses who are are not just making a profit, but they're making a difference in your communities every day. So, thank you.

Yes, Councilman Grindall. I just wanted to I just wanted to echo the mayor's comments, but also ask if you're going to do this again next year. Well, I I would say you It's funny you should ask that. Over the years, I've danced in our Nutcracker for the last 14 years, and I've been dancing long enough. Every year they assigned me husband and children. This year, one of the my husband assigned to me was one of my was one of the children years ago. So, as long as I'm able to, and with the support of all of the people that are here, I would love to do it again. Um, like I said, I hope to be able to spark more things that are traditions and opportunities to help people celebrate. That's exciting. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And before I forget, when I did contact Brookfield, I asked them about the businesses. Did any of them have sales increase? They're very happy. That's probably why they want us to do it again. Every single business within New Park Mall also sales increases that day. Excellent. I'm glad to hear that Brookfield was so supportive. Please feel free to invite them to a council meeting. I'd love to have a conversation with them. We will too. We will. No problem.

Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other folks that would like to speak under public comments? I'm going to go ahead and close the public comment section and I'm going to go to the consent calendar and just to um because we have a long agenda tonight. We have seven items on the council uh consent calendar. These were all posted outside. Is there the city manager? Any item you want to pull from the consent calendar? Not this.

Colleagues, any item you want to pulled from the consent calendar? Is there anybody in the public that would like any item pulled from the consent calendar? Can I get a motion to approve the consent calendar? So moved by Vice Mayor Jorgan, seconded by V uh Council Member Delcantio. Please vote.

I'm five. Five eyes. Thank you. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to go to the public hearings and we have a number of items under public hearings. But before I before I get there, colleagues, I just want to make a couple comments. You know, we honor the police department tonight, the public works department tonight, the the emergency services tonight. We recognize a lot of outstanding public employees, and it doesn't escape me that this will probably be the third council meeting in a row where we go past 10:30, close to 11:00 at night. And I just want to take a moment, Mr. Bon, to thank you and the staff for all the hard work they do day in and day out to present to us quality information with the notion that our goal is to provide the best service at the least expensive cost to the community. We we don't take for granted the privilege that we have of the tax dollars that are given to us and the expectation from the community that we use those dollars wisely as we improve our streets and hire quality employees and and do all the other fine work we do. But we often times take for granted the the really hard work the staff do to bring these presentations to the council. And as some of us have longtime New York residents know, the the notion has always been that the Newark way is to be celebratory. That we're here to celebrate success. We're here to uh make sure that staff recognize the that we appreciate the efforts that they bring forward because at the end of the day, we share the same vision. We share the vision that we want to provide quality living experiences, recreational experiences for our community. So on behalf of uh myself and the council, I just want to make sure Mr. Benoon, we we don't take for granted all the hard work

that staff have done these last several meetings and bringing these items to us and uh want staff to know that um their efforts are greatly appreciated. Thank you for the kind comments. So that stated u the first item, Mr. Manoon and folks in the audience is a study session on the Newark's industrial lands study report. Mr. Afternoon.

Yes. Good evening, your honor and members of the council. Item F1 is a presentation for our consultant regarding industrial lands here in Newark. If the council may recall, back in November of 2024, the East Bay Economic Development Alliance included its resilient bay, East Bay Industrial Land Study. It focused on industrial landscape in Alama and Contraosta counties. uh that study did not contain any specific information related to the city of Newark.

As such, in 2024, the city contracted with strategic economics to conduct an assessment of Newark's industrial assets and market sector and to identify recommendations to strengthen Newark's industrial resiliency moving forward. Tonight, the consultant is presenting her findings to the council. Uh no action is required. However, if there are certain recommendations that the council would like staff to follow up on, uh, then we'd be happy to do so in return with further analysis and recommendations at a future city council meeting. Uh, the consultant who will be presenting tonight is Miss Dina Beltzer. A little bit about Miss Beltzer. She is a founder and president of Strategic Economics. She has over 30 years of experience working in urban economic issues. She's a key speaker at various conferences including those hosted by the Urban Land Institute and American Planning Association. She has a bachelor of arts degree from Pitzer College and a master's degree in city and regional planning from the University of California at Berkeley. Miss Beltzer, you have the floor.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. It's nice to be back here with you. The last time I was here was in February to talk about New Park Mall. So, I'm glad to hear sales increased with the event. It's very cool. Uh I'm a huge fan of New Park Mall. Um so, uh this um presentation is really uh the kind of um uh update of some information that we presented to you all in 2024 at the beginning of 2024. Um and so it's great to be here again this evening. Tonight we have three topics. I also want to uh introduce TJ McCernin from my staff who worked on this presentation. And if I have any detailed questions, I'm going to uh he's my detail guy. Um um so tonight we're going to talk to you about giving the context for Newark's uh market position with respect to your industrial land. Uh what is the condition of your existing uh industrial building supply? And finally, what uh zoning do you have in place and how could that be uh part of a strategy for attracting uh further industrial investment? So, just starting with Newark's re uh real estate position, one of the things and you can see on this slide, Newark is outlined in red and one of the things that makes Newark a really interesting place and gives you a a robust industrial market is where you're located. you are really lo located at the core uh of two different sort of uh industries that are really vibrant in this region. One is from the south. That's all the tech hardware sort of semiconductor related activity that extends from PaloAlto down through Mountain View, Santa CL, um,

Sunnyvale and comes up around through North San Jose. And the other is the life science industry that's centered in San Monteo County. And because of your proximity to both the Dumbartan Bridge and the um San Mateo Bridge, people can from any of those West Bay communities come across the bridge and be in Fremont uh in New York. What am I where am I? Um so this really means that you are able to capture uh demand from a number of different industries and that makes you resilient. So when life science was really strong, you were getting life science industries and now you're seeing more interest potentially from the semiconductor industry. Um new work uh is generally part of what we call the south uh 880 real estate market. So this is a little different from the tri cities but not completely. It includes uh Hayward as well. So it's Newark, Fremont, Union City, and Hayward. And what we mean by existing um competitive uh supply is if I'm looking for a place, these are the cities I'm going to consider. Um if I'm looking for a different kind of place, I might be considering a different set of cities.

Oh, sorry. No, sorry. I always forget about that microphone thing. Um um so when we talk about the market area, this is what we're talking about is these four cities. Um so in terms of the inventory of built space in the market area the industrial building supplies is characterized by three building types. And I'm going to come back to this point again and again which is that building type should not be confused with building use. They are distinct and we'll come back to this point again in a minute. But uh CoStar which is a private real estate database that tracks uh activity in all commercial buildings. So office, retail, uh manufacturing, warehouse and distribution. They differentiate between manufacturing space and warehouse and distribution space. The manufacturing uh space tends to be a little more specialized. Warehouse and distribution is a term for a box. It's the most generalized kind of space uh that you'll see in the market. Um um and then research and development which is again even more specialized. So what's interesting about this is the the the colors represent the cities. So the dark blue is Newark at the bottom. Um and um in terms of the proportional share of buildings that you have, Newark has a lower proportional share of warehouse and distribution uh buildings and a higher share of manufacturing and R&D buildings than the market as a whole. So that's the combination of manufacturing and R&D is greater than the sum of your warehouse and distribution space. Um but again these don't represent um use they are building types and you see that in the market area almost 60% of all the spaces in

this warehouse and distribution type. Now we've spent a lot of time talking to a lot of different brokers developers and as you'll see in a minute analyzing the data on who's in these buildings. Um and one of the points that we want to make is that modern industrial buildings are built for flexibility. And that's why you tend to see more applications coming in characterized as warehouse space. Um, but these are modern class A buildings and they can serve both advanced manufacturing and warehouse and distribution functions. It's very important to remember that advanced manufacturing relies on warehouse and distribution. So when we talk about warehouse functions or uses, we're not just talking about Amazon uh last first mile fulfill order fulfillment. We're actually talking about where different businesses store their inputs before they use them in the manufacturing process and when they store their finished product when they're getting ready to send it out to their customers. Both use types uh have uh increased energy demand. The manufacturing buildings have a minimum dock door ratio. They have clear heights uh that are not always available in older buildings. It's important to remember that these buildings are generic and flexible because they're built for a 20 15 to 20 year lifespan. And what happens after that 20 year lifespan is actually kind of interesting. We've been looking at older industrial buildings up in Union City that have been repurposed for life science activities. So sometimes the clear height is the ceiling height makes a difference. Sometimes the users are not as concerned about that. So some but after 20 years sometimes buildings can be demolished and uh uh reconstructed. The site layouts are a little bit

different in that manufacturing uh spaces sometimes require more employee parking and distribution warehouse spaces have more um uh user uh more uh dock door requirements. Um but as we'll touch on in a minute um the dock doors can be closed up and the parking space can be reconfigured uh either for the trailers or for employee. So uh these things are not necessarily mutually exclusive and they're not fixed right. Um the other thing is that increasingly industrial uh yeah so I'm going to I'm going to go to the next slide. So manufacturing sector requires supply chain. So I just talked about this advanced manufacturing does require warehouse space. So in Silicon Valley when we talk about these warehouse functions we're also we're often talking about them as part of the supply chain or the ecosystem that's absolutely necessity for advanced manufacturing and some of the big manufacturers like Tesla have a 4hour just in time supply chain and so they need when they're ready for uh components they want them there within 4 hours. So this really incents uh their suppliers to be close by. Uh and this is why you get this warehouse function, right? Um but then cities also attract um in industrial investment by recognizing the need for buildings that can be flexible um and where they can move quickly to develop projects without requirements that are too deeply tied to use. Okay. So we'll we'll come back to that again. Um so just in terms of the market trends, the inventory of warehouse and distribution space increased um at roughly the same ratio in New York New York as it did uh in the general market

area between 2016 and 2025. So the top chart here so shows the change in the percent um percent change in the supply for Newark is in green and the market area is in this sort of orange color. And then what's happening with vacancy rates of industrial space? So you can see that Newark's uh vacancy rates for warehouse and distribution space were very low. They've uh gone um back up some in the last couple of years, but some of that is having adding uh new some new space. Um but you still remain well below the vacancy rates in the market area. Um uh in terms of the manufacturing space, again, New Works inventory increased in 2020 with the completion of several new buildings along Martin Avenue in the city's west central sub area. Um and you're adding supply uh at a at a much greater uh percentage rate than the market area. Um you see a big spike in your vacancy rate which reflects this new uh spike in supply. But um now the vacancy rates have modulated and are more consistent with what you're seeing in the market area and they're still well below 10% which is often considered an equilibrium rate. Um with R&D the in 2020 uh again you had the uh 7300 Gateway Boulevard in the Pacific Research Center opened and this single project increased Newark's R&D supply by 12% which is a big bump. Um and uh the market area also added R&D space between 2022 and 2024. Vacancy rates in the bottom chart are higher for R&D than they are for the warehouse or manufacturing space based on the long-term trends. So it's important to

remember that the more again the more flexible the building is, the more uh uh open it is to a wide range of tenants and that really helps property owners. So that's why the warehouse vacancy rate is lower than even for the R&D um which is now almost at 19%. Just a rent comparison here. This data is taken from Collars and they organize their market a little differently which is why we only have a rent for Fremont for the warehouse space. But the other two kinds of space Fremont is categorized in the in the um Silicon Valley market. But the Collier's market report provides a comprehensive list of these rents. And you can see that um um uh that Newark's R&D rents are higher than any place else in the market marketplace. Your warehouse rents are a little bit lower, but still competitive, and your industrial rates, uh rental rates are a little bit higher. So, right in there, uh in a competitive way. Um, so good to know. Additional market findings is that Newark's location, as I said earlier, is very important. You're kind of in the center or core of the region. So, to the extent that people are wanting to build warehouse space or whatever these kinds of buildings are here, they are building it to be part of the Silicon Valley supply chain. We heard this over and over again. They are not building space here to do distribution. uh uh and logistics for order fulfillment for groups like Amazon. You do have an Amazon distribution center here, but um most of the warehouse space is not being used for that. Um and that as industrial supply fills up in other cities, notably in Fremont, Newark is likely to capture more of this

manufacturing activity. And when we talked to some of the brokers and developers about the Newark niche in the market, they said that Newark uh es and flows with Fremont and that you two uh actually provide a very uh kind of a unified market for each other. So over time it is true that Newark's building stock will need to be modernized uh to include uh the higher ceiling heights, adequate um power supply and to update some of the exterior finishes. Um but as again as the market es and flows you'll see um uh buildings either be remodeled and there's a tremendous amount of remodeling of older u industrial spaces in Fremont. You'll see that here in New York as well as some uh strategic demolition and then the warehouse and distribution activities again are an important part of uh the supply chain. Uh and one of the interesting things that one of the developers that we spoke to told us was that the employment densities for advanced manufacturing and for some of this warehouse space are similar uh and that the wages are similar. So that these warehouses are generating good jobs. So the highly automated warehouses that are paying lower wages tend to be these million square foot distribution centers that are located uh further to the east out in Tracy and Stockton. Whereas the wear a lot of the warehouse space here is very much a part of the um again the logistics supply chain and that also affects the who works there and the number of people who are working there. Um so we were interested to hear this uh from the developers to whom we spoke. So in terms of uh Newark's current industrial building inventory when we started this work in 2024 with Anne Stadler and her uh staff uh she uh felt

that it was worthy to divide the city into 11 sub areas. In this more uh recent analysis, we included uh an additional sub area, the Cedar sub area. And you see the colors on this map repre represent what the zoning is for these. So there are three areas, the areas in blue that are the technology park zone sub areas, mostly the Pacific Research Center and the Eureka Business Park uh at both ends of the city. Um and then um the the darker uh gray are the general industrial areas and the lighter gray are light industrial. We'll talk a little bit more about what that means in a minute. So we looked at uh how the supply of um buildings was uh distributed by year built. Uh overall Newark has about 12 million square feet of space. West Central has the largest amount here. I'm going to go back here and point out where West Central is. For those of you who are watching on this screen, this pointer is only so so. Um, but West Central, you can see, is the biggest sub area. Um, and it is central to the area. So, not surprisingly, uh, it has the greatest supply of inventory. Um, but also most of the space was built between 19, uh,75 and 2015. And then you can see the blue at the top is the everything that's been built in the last 10ish or so years. So in West Central, in Pacific Research Center, etc. Uh we picked 1975 as the breaking point because that's what your um building department thinks of is when buildings become sort of functionally obsolete. Um so uh but you can see that most of most of the space in the city is built subsequent to that uh 1975 year. In

terms of the inventory by square feet, you see that West Central has the greatest inventory of both manufacturing and warehouse distribution, which is not surprising. Pacific Research Center is mostly R&D space. That's what it's that's what it's intended for. Um, and then you can see the smaller areas have more of a mix of the warehouse and distribution and manufacturing space. Um what we did was then we took a look at the variety of businesses that are located in these building types. And when I say that we do not want to necessarily conflate use and building type, uh this table really uh chart really illustrates that the variety of business types in industrial park buildings demonstrates the versatility of the stock. the build the the numbers in these three bars are the numbers of businesses. We don't have the number of jobs because we don't have uh the data for that but the business count comes from your business license database. Uh and you can see uh that in the warehouse and distribution space you have 24 um manufacturing businesses, 40 professional service businesses and then 28 household serving businesses and it goes on. The the lighter blue, the sort of teal blue is construction and then the manufacturing space has 31 manufacturing. So it's not a huge difference given the difference in inventory. Uh and the other thing is that the the transportation and warehousing there are nine transportation warehousing businesses in the warehouse and distribution buildings and there are 13 warehouse and transportation businesses in the manufacturing businesses. So you see the crossover uh between the two different kinds of building categories and the kinds of businesses that are are located there. Yes.

I just have a quick question. What exactly is household serving? Those would be retail businesses, the dance studios, the things like that that are are more that residents are purchasing the goods or services than the business than they're serving the business community. Yeah, thank you. Good question. Um, other key findings, the smaller industrial or warehouse buildings, so say in the 10 to 20,000 square feet, tend to be the ones that accommodate a wider range of uses. And that's because they're better suited to accommodating things like uh martial arts studios or um other kinds of things like that. In the Cedar sub area, which is up at the eastern edge of the city, that's where you generally tend to see the greatest mix of non-industrial uses that are uh in this industrial area. But when we talked to one of the uh brokers who's primarily responsible for leasing represents most of the buildings in this area um she said that these uses are not incompatible. That was one of the questions is is there a conflict between some of these household serving uses and the kinds of industrial activities that we are hoping to see and the answer is no. In fact, that mix allows the owners to sort of go back and forth and take advantage of different market cycles and different market trends. Um, and allows the owners to avoid uh expensive tenant improvements prior to when they have a tenant who might want them. Um, the older buildings may be more challenging to lease due to some of the zoning standards that require these minor unconditional use permits for specific users. So this is where things like recreational uses, certain kinds of automotive services or small warehouse

spaces uh require a minor uh use permit uh conditional use permit. And even th that kind of permitting um can be perceived as a barrier or a hindrance for someone who wants to get their building their business into a building quickly and they'll go someplace else where the zoning is more flexible. So in terms of your industrial zoning um industrial zoning you have three industrial zoning classifications. Limited industrial which serves as a buffer zone sort of between the general industrial and the residential neighborhoods. And this is where the non-industrial the household serving uses are allowed. Uh and again these light industrial uses are in the light gray on this map. Um, uh, there's not a lot of it, but again, it's it's intended to buffer because some of these areas go right up against res residential areas. The general industrial allows the broadest range of industrial uses, but non-industrial uses are not allowed. And then the business and technology uh, parks focus on advanced manufacturing, research, and development in a campus setting. That's part of the idea here is you have the amenities of a campus setting and in these settings you're allowed to have complimentary uses to support the employee population. So restaurants uh things like that. Um so uh this chart shows the again the kind of mix of uses based on businesses for each of the three industrial types. So you can see the business and technology part um has not very much transportation and warehousing. It's not really intended there. They have mostly manufacturing, wholesale trade, etc. The general industrial has some of everything, right? They have transportation and warehousing. They also have a significant share of

manufacturing, wholesale, trade, construction, life science, and those things are all interconnected. uh a a robust construction sector is providing services to to your buildings uh particularly for the life science building that need to be commissioned and then maintained. uh the the construction services are an important part of facilities management and then finally the limited industrial are the ones that have the highest share of automotive services, professional and technical services, retail trade and then the educ educational services things like that right so uh we thought this was an interesting uh chart in terms of what the actual mix is between the general industrial and limited industrial So finally uh Newark zoning is currently presenting some challenges for attracting new investment in the industrial areas and these use restrictions even with the um minor uh use conditional use permit create uncertainty uh and they uh anytime anything can be pulled and brought to the city council where there's a public hearing it creates uh some uh um risk for the investor or for the business who wants to go there. Uh and therefore if there is a hurdle like that if possible the business will look elsewhere. The warehouse and distribution and recreational facilities are uses that face hurdles mostly to locating in these industrial areas. And again we heard that these kinds of facilities are not creating uh land use conflicts. They're not incompatible. Um but instead some of these things particularly the warehouse and distribution are an important part of the supply chain for the success of this region. Uh and then some of these recreational facilities are ways in

which property owners uh can have sort of the ability to pivot or flex back and forth. Um um and then the no zoning uh district permits warehouse by right. And that's important because as I keep saying, warehouse functions are an important part of the supply chain here. The other thing to keep in mind about these warehouse buildings is they're easy to convert convert back and forth to industrial buildings. And um we have some existing some interesting examples here including Vector Laboratories here on Mauy Avenue was in a it is in a building that was characterized as warehouse. It's a life science business, right? Okay. In um Union City, there's a building that was being used as a warehouse for scrap uh um electronics. Uh and apparently it was pretty nasty kind of place. And then Tanaya, which is a life science company out of South San Francisco, bought it, completely redid the building. And now they are also manufacturing life science. uh and they're they're functioning uh up to the higher standard of conditioning for the building that's required for um pharmaceutical manufacturing. So there are several other examples of this from um uh the the tri city area that show that um um buildings having this flexibility uh doesn't work against the city's long-term goals necessarily. So anyway, finally, uh the city should consider regulating um more through development standards. So what does the building look like? What uh what's the site layout? What are the site uh requirements? And less through use and and to the extent that there are specific uses uh or high impact users

that you don't want in the city, identify them specifically. So examples of that would be fulfillment centers, this first last mile delivery, uh enterprise data centers which are small data centers. I'm sort of neutral on data centers, but some communities as you know are fighting data centers. But the those are also the big uh data centers that are serving the huge corporations like Amazon and Meta. But uh there are also many many of these smaller data centers. The enterprise data centers are actually leasing racks of um uh chips to a lot of different users. So that's a small enterprise data center. But if you decide you don't want data centers in the city, call them out specifically. Um and then uh consider reszoning the Cedar sub area to allow more uh recreational uses by right. That's the one place where there's a lot of interest in going back and forth between these uses. Uh and then just uh uh to wrap up um proactively removing red tape and approvals is something that we think will really boost business business activity. Fremont and San Jose are recognized for their ability to uh simplify approvals. They communicate frequently with their major businesses and um development uh and and development community to attract investment. We've heard uh stories about the fact that the economic development people in Fremont stay in touch with their major employers and that sometimes they know ahead of the brokers and developers what's happening, where change is coming. Um, and that's important and that's kind of a a symbiotic relationship between the public sector and the private sector that helps everybody function more smoothly, right? And then Newark should also explore proactive solutions to providing more power more quickly for industrial buildings. This could include

deploying micro grids or exploring strategies for onsite power generation to boost investment opportunities. Um so again I know cities are starting to h work on having these proactive relationships with PG& otherwise uh um um individual businesses rely on PG& to uh hook hook them up once they've gone in and as we uh uh have been hearing it takes PG& sometimes more than a year to bring to power to a particular building and that's really a huge challenge not just for Newark but for every city in the Bay Area. area, but uh um business parks like Bishop Ranch are starting to install large solar fields um and micro grids. We're working with the Port of Benicia on installing a micro grid there um in order to be able to boost their power uh supply and to meet the power needs of their users. So with that, I'm going to stop and answer questions. I know this is a topic near and dear to um some of your hearts. So, I'm looking forward to

Thank you for the presentation. Is there anybody in the audience that has questions, comments on the presentation that you just heard? I I was expecting the police people to come forward with questions. Just kidding. I want to thank you um once again for your presentation and thank you for really the hard work you did at New Park Mall

and we recognize uh that that's going to be an issue that we're going to continue to work on and appreciate the recommendations that uh you put forward to the council. One thing I noticed um again because of our proximity and you highlighted that to the Dumbartan Bridge, we are in such a great location and we're seeing that not only with the demand in housing as we've talked about at this council. Uh folks want to buy homes and when Menllo Park, Redwood City, and PaloAlto are not building homes that are affordable, they're now looking across the bay to Newark and we're building those homes.

They're less expensive. They're not cheaper, they're less expensive than you would find elsewhere, but it gives folks that first opportunity to buy a home here in Newark. And and I kind of look at the same way when it comes to industrial businesses as well. We are in competition with every other city in the Bay Area to provide space for those that uh desire to establish a business, create a business. And I've noticed um as my kids have gotten older that uh many cities and I'll look to Union City for example have become very proactive in looking at industrial spaces and how can we make them more recreational friendly.

When my kids were invited to birthday parties and I'm driving into some industrial area and it's this industrial building. I thought what a great reuse of that building and you highlighted that point right from the get-go in terms of the need to be flexible. 15 to 20 recogniz the permitting process needs to be improved so that they can um quickly change maybe what the original business model was to the current business model and uh

those recreational spaces uh in those industrial buildings as long was Mr. Benoon. They come with a bar and a restaurant. I'm absolutely fine with those things. But uh we we need to be creative. We need to be creative. And I was really pleased to see that uh Newark has actually done quite well in terms of its vacancy over the years in terms of some years we had zero vacancy. And uh boy, that certainly makes Newark a competitive place for those that are looking to invest uh because they're going to get top dollar for those spaces. So uh thank you for the presentation. Um, I'm excited about this moving forward and um, I'll look to my colleagues for comments or questions. Council Canio,

thank you so much for your presentation. Um, I did have two observations. Um, one, it seems that the flexibility of warehouse buildings of advanced manufacturing seems to enable more tenants as you were mentioning to be willing to be here in Newark. M and so that's really it seems really important um especially to be part of that industrial supply chain. Um I think though when the mayor speaking I also remember some birthday parties myself at place like pump it up or um gymnastics and so I like um also too um the pivoting ability

and so that's the second observation because it if you have a space that could easily convert to different things throughout the years um then it allows owners renters and the community to really benefit. So thank you so much. Absolutely. Vice Mayor. Yes. I want to thank you for your uh presentation. Um I I think the points made about flexibility and uses make a lot of sense. So, you know, as as we go forward, hopefully that's something that we can take a look at these recommendations very seriously on the flexibility. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. It's good to know all this information.

Great. Council member Uell. Yes. I have a couple questions. Um, first of all, we've we've often had a problem here of defi defining what vacancy is because we have a number of buildings. For example, for many years, the Pacific Research Center was rented to to you to uses that were not using the space at all. Um, and um, so

how do you get to the usually in the real estate industry if if the if the owner is collecting rent, they count that as being occupied. That's correct. But but from the city's perspective, we want to see vibrant activity going on, not just a a closed building. So, how do you address that part of it?

We don't, right? We don't we we're we're only as good as our data sources are. And the data sources, as you know, have challenges, right? Um, but also, as you also know, it's very challenging for a city to get a private property owner or a company who's leasing space to change what they're doing. We saw a lot of this. We used to see a lot of this with uh grocery stores that would close a grocery store, but they would retain the the lease because they didn't want a a competitor coming into that store. Boy, do we know that,

right? And I think that you know uh there was a you know when that problem was really rampant in say the early or late 90s there was a lot of talk about eminent domain and condemning but cities just don't have the resources to do that. So, um I think that the the um best you can do is really focus on what you can change and uh work with the businesses and uh property owners who are open to really helping the city on its vibrancy. Uh and this is why I think really building these relationships and I've been talking to Miss Suie about this. She's terrific at this kind of thing, right? to to think about how to how to do that and how to maintain those relationships um and then really look for where you can grow and expand and focus on the businesses and not so much on the buildings.

Great. So, one um one point I was going to make which is it's really just for the for the community. Um we have great staff here in the city um who do an even better job than Fremont of staying in touch with our um with our businesses. So, Angela is doing a fantastic job of that. is doing a fantastic job. I know you didn't mean to imply otherwise, but

No, no. Well, no. I mean, I I I'm a huge fan. Uh I was only concerned that I didn't wear high heels tonight because I admire her so much. Um um and uh and she she's really good at this. I agree. I think you have a terrific staff. And um but when you look at the press, you look at the real estate press, when you talk to the brokers, and we talk to real estate brokers all over the region, they point to Fremont, right? So, um I'm just I'm this is not to disrespect your I love your staff, believe me. I really like working here. Um but um it's just a matter of really getting that word out, getting the image out, etc., etc. Well, we're just we're much smaller and they literally literally surround us.

That's right. All all of the above. In fact, many many brokers don't even see it as a different market at all. So, that's exactly right. That's what I was saying earlier that you guys are really uh in a very symbiotic relationship and that's why kind of thinking about your building supply as sort of part of their inventory also because to the extent that their advanced manufacturing is successful and growing, it's going to grow here into Newark. And that's also what we heard um from brokers and that some buildings that are now in New York using being used for warehouse are anticipated to begin to accommodate also some advanced manufacturing functions.

Okay. And now I I do want to um address one issue which is that um it may be a ma a matter of definition but fulfillment centers um which is how you're referring to them create massive amounts of truck traffic and very few jobs. So um

and and not only that they occupy space when long-term leases, in fact they usually have very long-term leases because they have a hard time finding their locations once they get it. They want to lock it down. Um but so they they take up some of the space that could otherwise be more productively utilized. So I I I'm certainly open to the idea of um narrowing it down so that we really target the use that we'd like to discourage, but I think it's perfectly okay for the for the city to um to discourage uses that are bad for the city. So, um, even if they are overall needed in the in the ecosystem, um, I I I think I think that the city needs to needs to have a lever to make sure that high truck usage, low low employment density uses are discouraged. And I and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Um, I I certainly think that narrowing that focus so that you're not just um you're not you're not um swinging with too big of a net um I think makes a lot of sense. But um I just I just really wanted to call that out because I really think that's important.

Right. I I'm just going to give a counterpoint to that because um I feel like we've been having this conversation for years. um the the um what's good for the region is actually good for Newark and um the a significant percentage of your residents don't work in this city and that will always be true. So to the extent that advanced manufacturing jobs are being created in Fremont, in Union City, um in Hayward, that's creating employment opportunities for your residents. And so the things that you can do for your for that supply chain to ensure that those jobs are available not just in New York and you guys are a tiny city

um is important to keep in mind. So you may not want them because these kinds of warehouse activities because you feel like they generate too much truck traffic or they this or that. They um but I would uh say that it is not just about the jobs they create because they indirectly create and support a lot of highwage good quality jobs. So that's something to keep in mind and a bit of a counterpoint.

No, I understand the the truck traffic is not a small issue. It's a it's a major one. So, um, so in addition in addition, um, I I for one don't and of course we're going to be looking at implementing this study, um, you know, in in the future, but I for one don't necessarily have a problem with data centers for the same reason. They generate no trucks, right? Um, and they don't generate a lot of traffic at all. They just kind of sit there humming. Um, so we'll we'll talk about that when it comes to implementing, but you said that cities go back and forth. I I I for one am not necessarily opposed to um data centers for the reason that I indicated.

Yeah. Know there are a couple of advantages to data centers that I want to underscore. One is that they that they do generate a lot of property tax revenue. Um and they also do generate jobs because somebody has to service all those tiers all those banks of chips that are humming away. Um and then other businesses are attracted to be close to data centers. So small data centers can be a business uh a good business attraction strategy for the city. And finally, PG&E has a special program for fasttracking power to communities that have data centers. So if you have a data center, you get the uh knock-on effect of getting a faster service from PG&. So I too am not adverse to data centers, but there are a lot of communities that are concerned about that.

I understand. So um and lastly and thank you appreciate the comments. I'm interested by the micro grid discussion for for the reasons because PG& is um service is um uh is is so slow and so so challenging um and it just this the cycle of doing a deal and leasing property that and then you tell somebody well PGD might deliver the power sometime in the next two or three years. It just doesn't work. Um, so I'm I'm interested in um if you could expand at all on what communities are doing to create micro grids. Is it is it just solar? Are they bringing are they bringing peak power plants in or

No, it's at this point I think a lot of it is solar or it's co-generation. So we've waste a water treatment plant that's creating sludge that then can be co-generating a source of power for a source of energy for a micro grid. That's another source. Um but in the case of say Bishop Ranch, they're using solar. They're putting solar on everything. So New Park Mall is a good place for looking at doing um a micro grid because you have a big parking field out there that could be converted into a uh you know that you could have solar panels on the the um parking. Uh I live in Berkeley and uh Bayer manufacturing the pharmaceutical manufacturer has solar panels over its entire parking uh field. So and also it's a big building that could take a lot of solar panels.

Well, while we have you here, let me pick let me dig a little deeper into that. How how does the obviously solar power is generated during the daytime and during sunny days. The micro grids have a big battery and storage. That's the main thing about a power a micro grid is it's actually the the storage. Yes. It's not necessarily just the generation, but it's actually the storage. So you don't necessarily have to rely on PG& as that power backup. You there is there are ways of doing it. That's correct. Separate. That's correct. And then you can uh smooth out the supply uh to match demand. Great. Well, thank you. Thank you for letting me dig into your experience on that. Absolutely.

And secondly, well, and I should have led with this. This is an excellent presentation, excellent information. It's highly valued our to our community. So, thank you so much for what what you've done. Great. Thank you. Just a couple comments just to um a counterpoint to use your terminology. It's always fun to use the term fastrack whenever you talk about PG&. I'm simply not sure how we define fasttrack when it comes to PG. That'll be an interesting conversation. Um you you referenced the city of New York is tiny. We're not tiny. We are small and mighty. That's what we are. We are small and mighty. You punch above your weight.

We do punch above. The only question I had and I found it interesting because you don't allow uh we don't allow light industrial in general industrial areas. Is that what I understood? Yet we allow commercial in general industrial areas. Did I get that correct in terms of a zoning issue? Let me let me go back and look that we we had wanted to put the entire zoning ordinance that kind of surprised me and then everybody would have been asleep. Um, I can help. Council member Gindal, since I wrote the ordinance, um, the um, let's ask the expert.

Well, let's be careful. Um, it commercial that supports the the on-site retail. So, okay. Um, a cafeteria, a restaurant that supports the retail, not an not a standalone. All right. Again, thanks for the presentation. And the the other point I thought you made was a good point is we need to focus on the development standards for the properties that we're looking to revitalize. Mhm.

I look at that enterprise central area where there's a lot of really old metals, you know, industrial buildings that have long outlived their usefulness and whatever we need to do as a city to kind of encourage new development of those industrial spaces to give more flexibility to those owners that it doesn't have to be an automotive repair business here. It can be whatever you want it to be because we're encouraging that flexibility as you move forward with development. I think that's something I know our staff supports that that suggestion and proposal um as does this uh this council. So, thank you again. We look forward to your presentations each and every time. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to take a fivem minute break. Thank you so much.

Adopt a resolution to approve a firsttime home buyer program guidelines and authorize the city manager to enter into agreements to provide direct financial assistance to firsttime home buyers and to amend the 2024 2026 bianual budget and capital improvement plan to appropriate funds from the housing impact fee fund to fund the firsttime home buyer program. I love that term firsttime home buyer program. Mr. Benoon.

Yes. Good evening your honor members of the council. Uh if the council may recall last month the council received a report from our housing policy program manager Mr. Michael Culum. Uh, summarizing our progress to date on our housing element. As part of that presentation, Mr. Culum reported that staff is finalizing plans for the city's first ever firsttime home buyer program. Uh, tonight, I am pleased to report that our analysis is complete and we are now prepared to recommend a first-time home buyer program for our community. The existing affordable housing work plan recommends appropriating $2 million towards this program. Uh in light of the growth of the housing impact fee fund and increase in home prices the past few years. Staff recommends increasing the allocation to $3 million which would support a minimum of 15 households. Tonight staff will present a summary of the program. Um that staff recommends the council adopt and approve. Once the program guidelines are finalized, then staff will begin marketing the program, including developing multilingual outreach materials and advertising through our traditional outreach channels. Uh we will also notify community agencies and nonprofit organizations in our community. For tonight's presentation, we turn to our housing and policy programs manager, Mr. Michael Culum. Mr. Cool.

Good evening, honorable mayor and members of the city council. My name is Michael Kulum, housing policy and programs manager in the community development department. Uh it's my pleasure to present to you this evening recommendations for implementation of the city's first-time home buyer program. I'll begin this evening by introducing the project team and the underpinning policies for a first-time home buyer program, our affordable housing work plan, and our housing element. I'll then introduce the program's goals and objectives as adopted by council per the housing element before discussing the pro proposed program in detail. Finally, the project team will preview related policies and programs that advance our goals of expanding home ownership and housing stability in Newark before presenting the final recommendations, next steps, and accepting questions from council. I'm joined this evening by uh Mr. Steven Turner, community development director, Miss Jennifer Duffy, president and CEO of Hello Housing, and Miss Sarah Shimon of Hello Housing. Hello Housing is a nonprofit organization based in Alama County. With council's approval, the city entered into a contract with Hello Housing in September to design and administer a first-time home buyer program and a below market rate home ownership program. Hello Housing provides these services for other jurisdictions throughout the Bay Area and has already supported three households to become homeowners in New York through their administration of Alama counties program EC boost. I want to start off this presentation by framing housing opportunity within its context in the civil rights movement. Housing law and policy have at times been used to produce enforce and preserve segregation within our country. Alama County has been a leader in challenging those forces and advancing housing opportunity for all. Beginning with the Rumford Fair Housing Act, authored by local legislator Byron Rumford in 1963. This preceded the federal fair housing act in 1968 and the first establishment

of Cal California Housing Element Law in 1969. Uh, housing element law recognizes that the civil rights movement is still ongoing and requires local governments to adequately plan to meet the housing needs of everyone in the community at all income levels. As we know, however, California has a severe housing shortage. Addressing that shortage is essential to meeting our community's needs. Newark has a target of permitting 1,874 new homes by the end of the housing element cycle in 2031, which is less than we permitted in the last housing element cycle, but still significant. Another way of visualizing this challenge is by looking at the mismatch between housing supply and housing demand. In the last decade, from 2010 to 2019, the Bay Area economy took off. New York included. The city added both jobs and home permits at a higher rate than Alama County as a whole. The number of new jobs in Newark outpaced housing permits by a factor of 3 to one. Jobs created demand for new housing, but the supply of housing did not keep up at the same pace as those jobs. That mismatch in supply and demand is one of the biggest factors impacting rising home prices and displacement. This chart, which you've also seen before, visualizes the change in the cost of home buying in Alama County. The red dotted line depicts the median household income. The dark blue line depicts the income needed for a bottom tier mortgage, meaning a smaller, probably older home in a less desirable neighborhood. Some people might consider that a starter home. And then the lighter blue line shows the income needed for a mid-tier mortgage. several years um going back to the year 2000, a household making the median income could afford a bottom tier mortgage or a starter home in Alama County. But by the middle of the last decade, we see prices begin to rise, outpacing income growth around 2017 2018

and then really diverging during the pandemic. So the cost of home buying in Alama County uh increased by 64% between 2020 and 2025. Uh meaning a household um with one of those bottom tier mortgages could expect to pay about $5,400 a month in housing costs. That's their mortgage, insurance, taxes, and utilities, which is approximately twice the cost of the average monthly rent. A good logical next question is what is the median income in Alama County? The state and federal governments publish median incomes for individual areas, specifically counties. The area median income for Alama um county in 2025 was just shy of $160,000 for an area of four. Um the num um HUD uh the numbers in this table represent the upper limit of each income band. Um so what I've highlighted is that median income at 100%. Um but what's considered me uh moderate income um a fourperson um household making $125,000 in 2025 was considered low income. So a moderate income household would make between $125,000 and $191,000. Um so that is highlighted in the red box there. That's what's really the the lower end and the upper end of moderate income. Um, so incomes may still seem relatively high, but many moderate income households are still not able to afford most homes in our area. Southern Alama County has some of the highest rates of out migration in the whole Bay Area with people predominantly going to San King County communities like Tracy, Stockton, and Mntika where home ownership is more affordable for a Bay Area buyer. Uh the city's adopted 2021 2023 affordable housing work plan recognized

this calling for the city to establish and fund a first-time home buyer program using revenue from the housing impact fee fund. And then the 2023 2031 housing element was adopted really as an affordability strategy. Um one um the housing element recognizes that affordable doesn't just mean low income, but that our housing market should be one that meets the needs of all members of the community. lower income, moderate income, above moderate income. We all need homes. Um, and we need to have a a range of homes affordable at different prices. So, goal five of the housing element aims to increase our access to this big umbrella affordable housing. Within that goal, um, the program within that goal, uh, program H5.1 calls for the city to establish that first-time home buyer program and policy H5.2 two um calls for the city to also establish a below market rate or BMR home ownership program. The city's updated inclusionary housing ordinance that city council adopted in January would create the pipeline for those below market rate or BMR homes. The objective of the first-time home buyer program, as stated in the housing element, is to assist at least four households each year to become homeowners with a focus on recruiting black, indigenous, and other households of color into the program. These households have historically lower rates of home ownership and are more vulnerable to displacement pressures. To date, we know that three households have become first-time homeowners in New York thanks to the county's first-time home buyer program, AC Boost, also administered by Hello Housing, as I mentioned. And again, uh, city council approved a contract with Hello Housing in July, and we entered into that contract in September. Since then, we have evaluated Newark's housing market and designed a responsive, accessible, and equitable program to meet the city's goals. Uh, the city's contract with um, Hello Housing includes design and administration of these two different

programs. The first is the first-time home buyer program which we're representing presenting to you today and the second is that BMR home ownership program. Uh and so with that foundation, I'd like to introduce uh Miss Jennifer Duffy, president and CEO of Hello Housing to introduce herself and her organization and the proposed first-time home buyer program.

Okay, I'm just getting familiar with the computer for just a second. Okay, thank you, Michael. It's a pleasure to be here this evening. Um, I've, um, really been looking forward to having a chance to bring all the work that we've been doing together with your city team to think about the right balance of a first-time home buyer program and how to bring that forward for the city of Newark. Um, I've had the privilege of working in the affordable housing sector for many years. uh uh as both the president and the co-founder of Hello Housing, we've been working with local governments uh for 20 plus years now to try and help design new and innovative housing programs that really support our communities, find sustainability and longlasting um experiences in their communities. As both a developer, excuse me, as both of a developer ah see this is this is this is my thing. Hold on. Here we go. Okay. Um, as both a developer of brand new first-time home buying homes as well as an operator of below market rate housing programs, we've designed a number of first-time home buyer programs across jurisdictions. And we're excited to bring that knowledge forward. Um, throughout our tenure, we've administered numerous down payment assistance programs u for local jurisdictions that have created affordable pathways into home ownership. We have a strong history of both designing, retooling, and administering below market rate housing programs throughout different local jurisdictions in the Bay Area. And we've also worked really closely with inclusionary developers all throughout um the the Bay Area, helping them bring forward new housing that meets the affordability goals of each city. Okay, there we go. Uh so the hello housing process, we really try and pride ourselves on um making complexity simple. these programs can get pretty complicated pretty quickly, not only for those that are trying to lead these programs and administer these programs, but also for the public. So, our way of working is really trying to break those down in

really transparent ways. And it starts with program design. So, we partner with um local jurisdictions to try and ensure that the policy goals align with the program design and that the information is translated into clear guidelines that are transparent and available for the public. Our process involves developing educational materials in multiple languages, hosting workshops uh to ensure stakeholders and communities are well informed about the new opportunities and how to access them. And we believe in data. Um it helps to inform our practices, identify new trends that may impact policy decisions as well as issues that may be affecting the portfolios that we serve. And we do this by maintaining a There we go. This is sensitive. We do this by maintaining a Salesforce database and allowing us to make sure that there are reports that are available at a touch of a button that we can do live and make sure that we're bringing everybody along on how the portfolio is doing and things that we might be able to do to improve it. And then finally, it's really important to us to have strong customer service. We want to make sure that those who are engaged in the program are able to reach us, to have the ability to ask questions, understand what they need to know in order to access these programs, to understand these programs, to promote these programs, and to support these programs, not only as participants, but also as partners such as lenders, real estate agents, home buying counseling agencies, etc. Okay, so an overall summary of the services that we're here to provide for the city. Um, you know, it's essentially everything needed to take the program from concept to a working ongoing operation. And we break it down into five steps. So, once again, we're here to help design the program not only for the first-time home buyer program, but the below market rate housing program. That starts with creating guidelines, implementation manuals, as well as working to design loan documents, deed restrictions, all of which promote the

structure by which these programs will operate. Uh we work really intensely on outreach and marketing. Uh we want to make sure that we're able to reach um households that may not know or know how to access these programs. We want to make sure that we're working with city channels that help to promote the information and make sure that it's broadly known. Um we are very key on applicant support. So once again, back to being able to be accessible to the public. We want to make sure that we're available to help inform uh any kind of questions that might be coming up. what the program, how the program works, how the program can support you, the kind of questions that come up that are both personal in nature when you're thinking about buying your first first home as well as technical in nature. Um, we also do loan administration. So, it's the heart of the transactional core. We're going to not only originate the loans, but we're going to make sure that they're all closed and we handle that end to end. And then finally, ongoing compliance monitoring. Um, the work doesn't end at closing. We handle program monitoring and reporting and manage new sales and ongoing sales of below market rate portfolios, keeping these homes um within your community affordable for the long term. Our services are designed to be endto-end support not only for the city but participants and program partners. Okay. So the single biggest obstacle standing in the way of many families and homeownership is the monthly mortgage. It's not the monthly mortgage payment. It's truly the upfront cost of coming up with a down payment and or closing costs. Many people can comfortably afford and manage the monthly housing payment of a mortgage, but simply can't save the money that's necessary in order to create a down payment and or cover the closing costs. So, it's this gap that first-time home buying programs are designed to close. This assistance is supposed to act as a bridge, helping qualified buyers get over the upfront

cost of trying to be able to break into home ownership. These programs are primarily built for moderate income households. Moderate income was defined um in an earlier slide from Michael between 80% of area median income and 120% of area median income. So in Alama County, that's about $125,000 to $192,000 a year. Um, the key point is that these families can generally handle the ongoing costs of an affordable mortgage, which includes the mortgage payment, taxes, insurance, and upkeep once that initial down payment barrier is resolved. It's important to also share that these programs don't fully solve the program for lower inome households. Um, after covering essential expenses, lower income households have less money left over, which makes it harder for them to meet the income qualification requirements of a first mortgage lender. Um it's also exposes them to challenges as it relates to rising costs whether it comes to insurance premium, property tax increases, utility increases, all creating risks that if not careful can create a really negative situation for somebody trying to break into home ownership that might not be able to afford it. So we look at the program design in a way to try and keep the balance in mind. We want to extend access as widely as possible through the design of this program while also making sure our families we serve are set up for lasting success in affordable home ownership. Okay, there we go. So this slide is a representation of the median sales price across different types of housing throughout the city. So, when you look at this layout, you see that based on the sales price data that we were able to collect, town homes and condominiums are the most likely to

be affordable for first-time home buyers, especially with assistance from the city. This next slide goes in a bit deeper. This slide shows what our market analysis found when we compared what local households can actually afford against what different types of homes cost. So each of these four scenarios there are two bars. On the left is household affordability limit meaning the most a home mo the most home that they can finance and on the right is the actual price of a home that fits their needs. The blue is what's within reach. The orange is the unaffordability gap and the green shows the effect of financial assistance. So single family homes represent the largest affordability gap. Even for a household at 120% of area median income, which is the upper end of who these programs are here to serve, the gap that exists far exceeds what's affordable. The gap increases to well over 600,000 for the same home for a family of four earning 80% of area median income. However, a three-bedroom town home is affordable to a family of five earning 120% of area median income without assistance. And a two-bedroom condo is affordable to a family of four earning 100% of area median income with the assistance of $100,000 in down payment. The big lesson that we've learned from this market analysis is that assistance works best if it's paired with the right housing type. Down payment assistance can't close a $600,000 gap, but it can absolutely close a $100,000 gap on a condo or make a town home achievable. And this is why our program design focus on a focuses on a realistic attainable home home ownership by matching the right buyers with the right home and the right type of assistance. In both these achievable options, there are households who will benefit from assistance based on income, household

size, and other factors like their overall debt to income ratios. So, what we sought out to create is a program that would help households earning 100 120% of area median income or less access a level of down payment that would minimize that gap and therefore the barrier to accessible home ownership. So to support the maximum buying power of low to moderate income households, we're recommending that the loan is a silent second deferred payment loan, meaning that there are no payments that are due during the term of the loan, allowing for the borrower to obtain a larger mortgage. The repayment is based on either a proportional share of appreciation or a 3% simple interest rate that is acrewing on the principal balance. The city's share would be the greater of these to two calculations. The maximum loan is based on a tiered structure. A maximum of 200,000 is available to households earning 100% of the area median income or less. And a maximum of 150,000 would be available for households earning greater than 100% of area median income but less than 120% of area median income. The required down payment would be between zero and 3%. By allowing for this flexibility, we remove the additional barrier to accessing home ownership, which is having both a personal down payment and closing costs. Based on our experience in supporting and managing a number of down payment assistance programs, we have learned that the typical 3% personal down payment and the 2 to 3% in closing costs has been a significant barrier for the ability for these households to even apply for programs like down payment assistance is offering. So in order to try and remove that barrier, we've definitely are recommending that we stick with the flexibility of 0 to 3% down so that households can actually access these

programs and not have the barrier of not only not having the down payment assistance that's personal, but also the closing costs assistance can only be used um oh, excuse me. Um, the loan term would be a 30-year loan term. That is the same requirement of the first mortgage, which must be a 30-year fixed mortgage. Eligible applicants would need to be first-time home buyers with limited exceptions. And there will be a preference for applicants who either work or live in the city of Newark. So, to implement the live work preference, there will be two lotteryies, a preference lottery and a general lottery. Applicants who demonstrate that one that they meet one of these city preferences will be placed into the priority lottery and available funds will first be made to these applicants in rank order. Once this list is exhausted, available funds will flow to applicants in the general lottery in rank order. Assistance can only be utilized to purchase a city within the city of Newark limits. And then finally, repayment of the loan is due at the end of the loan term, upon the transfer of title if the home is no longer being occupied as the household's primary residence, and upon a desire to do a cash out refinance. So, those are the triggers when thinking about a first-time home buyer program design. A goal is trying to find the right balance between asset building for the home buyer and long-term ongoing affordability that maximizes the public investment um over time. And there are various approaches that have different outcomes on this continuum. Subsidy forgiveness strategies, so think grants and substance recapture strategies, think silent second loans, um are on one end of the continuum spectrum. While shared appreciation loans and subsidy retention strategies like deed restricted BMR programs um lean more towards long-term affordability goals, working together to find the right balance for the city of

Newark has been built in the program design considerations and we believe mirrors the city's affordable housing goals. So a shared appreciation loan works differently from traditional second mortgages. uh instead of interest, instead of charging interest only, the loan is repaid based on a share of how much the home's value grows over time. When the homeowner sells or refinances the home, they pay back the original assistance plus a proportional share of the appreciation of the home. This model has some real advantages and it also has some trade-offs. So, first, shared appreciation loans do a better job of preserving the buying power of the public funds with subsidy forgiveness. The money is essentially gone over time. With recapture, you only get what you put in, but inflation erodess the value. Shared appreciation lets the public investment grow alongside the market so that these dollars can help the next family. With a simple interest loan, the dollars repaid are fixed to the original loan amount plus a modest interest rate. But California home prices have historically appreciated faster than typical loan interest rates. If a program lends $100,000 and gets back $100,000 plus simple interest a decade later, I'm sorry, a decade later, uh the repaid money buys far less of a home than it did originally because the home prices outrun the the interest that is being earned. A share of appreciation option lets the public investment grow at the same rate as the market is operating within. So when the funds revolt back to the program, they can still meaningfully help the next buyer. In a high appreciation state, this is the difference between a program that slowly erodess and one that sustains itself. Second, it aligns with a basic sense of fairness. Everyone contributing

financially to the purchase of the property is also able to reap the benefits of how that home is doing within the market. We share the upside as contributors financially. And if the homeowner benefits from the rising prices, so does the program that helped open the door for that homeowner to purchase. And third, there is no compounding interest. The balance isn't growing year after year, regardless of what the market does. The repayment is tied to actual home value, not an everinccreasing interest charge. However, there are definitely drawbacks. The most direct trade-off is that homeowners will walk away with less equity at the sale than they would if they kept the all the appreciation for themselves. They're sharing the gain in exchange for the help that they received up front. There's a shared risk dimension that cuts both ways. If the home loses value, the lender shares a loss proportionally, which actually reduces the borrower's downside. So, while they give up some upside, they're also protected on the downside. Finally, there is less certainty about the payoff amount because repayment is tied to the home's future value and neither the homeowner or the program can predict how home values are going to play out over time. So, being able to know the exact dollar figure in advance is harder. The bottom line is shared appreciation loans ask homeowners to trade some future equity for upfront access, but in return, public funds stretch further and the risk is shared more fairly among everyone. Our goal in the program design has been to maximize the program impact. The program is designed to be compatible with other local and state down payment assistance programs as well as grants that are provided by various lenders. Should the city support the independent sale of accessory dwelling units through

Assembly Bill 1033 or Senate Bill 9, the assistance could further unlock the starter home in California, which has largely been absent in California for decades. A dual repayment structure helps to ensure that the public investment grows with the market while remaining fair to the homeowner who is benefiting from the assistance. And having both the both options of a shared appreciation calculation and a simple interest calculation creates a backs stop should the market take a turn that none of us can predict. If the market should turn and the home loses appreciation, the simple interest calculation can still protect the public investment. Okay. Oops. Let's back up. So, very briefly, the application process. I just want to run through it so there's some clarity on how it works. Uh it begins with the marketing of the program broadly throughout the community. This includes working with the city marketing channels as well as community groups and employers operating locally. We'll develop a marketing plan. That marketing plan will be approved by the city to ensure that we are identifying the right channels by which to reach the best possible outcomes for the community to learn about this opportunity and how to apply for it. Following the marking period, we'll begin with an online pre-application where we gather stated information about the basic household eligibility as well as information that will identify the applicants who meet the city pre preferences. All eligible pre-applications are then invited to a mandatory application workshop where they learn not only more about the program, how it works, but also how to submit a full application that will include supporting documentation that helps us underwrite for program eligibility. Oops. Let's back up. Okay. Uh, let's see. Uh, all eligible applicants are then invited to Oh, excuse me. Um, scooting a little

bit further down. All applicants who attended the mandatory workshop are then placed into a lottery. Both the priority lottery and the general lottery and ranked in lottery position. And then we invite the top ranked applicants in batches to submit full applications and all supporting documentation for underwriting. When there's an eligible applicant, they are sent to the city and a conditional approval or reservation of funds is issued and this allows that homeowner to start shopping for a new home. Once that home buyer is in contract with a potential home, we begin to start working with that entire team. So, the real estate agent and the first mortgage loan uh provider and we are there to make sure that that first mortgage loan provider is meeting the program requirements for for the lender standard. Once that mortgage loan is final is finalized and approved, then we submit that documentation and a recommendation for the final down payment assistance approval. Once the loan is approved, we are involved. Our team is responsible involved for all activities that are associated with closing the down payment assistance loan. So, we'll be educating the borrower on their obligations within loan documents that they are signing, which also includes information and education on property tax obligations, special assessments, HOA requirements, and insurance requirements. As mentioned in the previous slide, we're going to continue to make sure that senior loan that's providing the first mortgage meets all the program guidelines as we process uh and as we proceed. We'll route city loan documents for borrow and city signature and route executed documents to title for the title company's processing and recording. And we will collect indig and we will manage the escro process end to end ensuring that the city's escro instructions which we will prepare are completely fulfilled before authorizing any wire of funds. And then finally we will collect and

digitize all recorded documents and certified loan documents for city records. And we will enter all pertinent mortgage information and data into our CMR database so that we can look at it over time and uh do long-term tracking. And then finally, program compliance monitoring. Uh this is important and is around the long-term success of these programs. Every year, our team will out will reach out to down payment assistance borrowers to ensure that they are meeting the program requirements, which include living in the home as their primary residence. This involves collecting affidavit signed by the owner, reviewing property tax, homeowner exemption status, utility bills, and other documents that we deem are important for that for that status. We also ensure that the insurance continues to be in place and that the city is named through a proper mortgage e- clause. We ask for the most current mortgage statement as well as HOA statements if applicable to determine if there are any delinquencies and if found we work with the owner to try and address these issues by supporting them in accessing various and local resources as needed. We also utilize the monitoring opportunity to share new resources and encourage homeowners to reach out with questions around their loan, what it might look like to pay off their loan, what happens if they want to try and refinance for a better interest rate with their first mortgage lender, and knowing that we are here to help them with any of those issues and questions. And with that, I will pass it back to Michael and I'll close with how excited Hello Housing is to be at this stage with the city. we know how much work has gone into to play to try and get to this moment and we're excited to to be at this place to start seeing this program move forward. So, thank you.

Thank you, Jennifer. Um before I make staff's recommendation, I do want to uh call out one element in the room, which is the availability of starter homes for this program. Um we do have another program in our housing element. It's program H2.8, 8. Missing middle housing, which aims to identify and remove constraints to encouraging small multif family developments and smaller homes more generally effectively to produce those starter homes that first-time home buyers and also older seniors who want to downsize but stay in their community can afford. Uh we have engaged MGroup which is a planning cons consulting firm we had on call to evaluate those potential constraints and support community and stakeholder engagement. Uh we were out at state of the city telling people about this work and we'll attend more events this summer and we have a community survey open now. Um and finally we we anticipate having a planning commission study session later this summer. Uh missing middle is really no one thing. This diagram was prepared by the Bay Area design firm Opticos and it shows that um missing middle can be anything from a smaller single family home or an ADU to a duplex. um a uh forplex, town homes, row houses, or even a 68 or 12lex building. Um historically, these types of housing were much more common in cities across the country, but regulations and development patterns really started changing significantly in the 70s and they became less common. A lot of the middle housing that New York does have predates our incorporation. Um so, like I said, we have a community survey open now. Um we're keeping it open right now until May. uh 29th. It's available in both English and Spanish. Because missing middle can be a lot of things to a lot of different people, um we're trying to figure out what that appropriate definition is for Newark so that we can present uh to you and to the

planning commission um a housing type and a program that meets our needs. So, to round out um the first-time home buyer program, uh the proposed source of funding for this action is the housing impact fee fund, which has a total balance of $49 million. About $29 million there has already been committed to other projects or programs, which leaves us with $29 million available and unencumbered. The affordable housing work plan anticipated allocating $50,000 to uh design of the program plus 5% of the fund for program administration or about $2.3 million. Given the fund's growth and the increased cost of home buying since 2021, we are recommending increasing the value of that direct financial assistance to $3 million and approving a budget adjustment to fully fund uh the contract for Hello Housing that was already approved. So, at staff's recommendation that city council adopt the resolution approving the draft program guidelines as Miss Duffy explained the program, a budget amendment allocating the $3 million in direct assistance for down payment loans to qualifying first-time home buyers and to fund Hello Housing's contract and authorize the city manager to enter into agreements with eligible home buyers to make these funds available. Uh if council approves and funds the program, staff in Hello Housing will move forward with developing application and marketing materials, including conducting outreach to key community stakeholders, including um but not limited to the school district chamber of commerce, the promators. Once the program is launched, we'll process requests for assistance and make loans to eligible home buyers. Hello Housing will perform that regular monitoring to ensure that homeowners remember and comply with the terms of their loans and protect the city's investments. And we will return to city council at regular intervals to report on program outcomes and modifications if needed to make the

program a success. And so with that, we welcome your questions. Thank you, Michael, for the report. Jennifer, thank you for being here tonight uh to provide some additional information. Is there anybody in the audience that has questions, comments on what they've just heard in terms of this presentation? Yes, please, sir. Come up forward. Welcome.

Hello. I like the quote small and mighty inside joke. Uh, I was looking at the guidelines. Um, I'm excited for the program, but I'm automatically disqualified. one because I inherited a home from a dead grandparent. So, I think there should be certain exceptions for certain individuals. Yes, I'm being selfish, but um if they inherit it from a family member and you're also discounting uh only children of only children whose grandparents die and they can only leave it to their grandkids. So, there's some small exceptions that those potential home buyers uh should be eligible for. Um and then under the asset calculations and inclusions um there's a few points where uh I guess for number five for the insurance settlements um try to put an exception there especially if someone gets into car crash they got a settlement because later down in the list it says 60,000 to 225,000 they have to deplete everything from 225 down to 60. That's what's written. So, if they get a heavy settlement, then that shouldn't be included in this cost. Um, and then just a clarification on number seven on that regard, retirement accounts. Um, try to be a little bit more clear that it doesn't involve your active workplace retirement account. I kind of got confused because um uh it says if it's eligible uh to withdraw prior to separation or retirement. Um because we all know if we withdraw from our retirement accounts, we get penalized 10% and an ordinary income

that's more expensive. But if all that money is going to pay the down or be eligible for the uh the down payment assistant loan um then they also have to pay to the IRS. Um but so those are few points to consider. And lastly the 60,000 and 225,000 figures. Uh I think the 60,000 should be raised a little bit just in case one or maybe both spouses I don't know the exact eligibility criteria if one of them loses their job then a little bit more cushion to stay in that home should be allotted. So whether that figure is 80,000, 100,000, um just a little bit extra from the 60,000. And uh lastly, uh for the value of their uh stocks, I think if someone gets really lucky, like if they went to SanDisk or Bloom Energy and it skyrockets and they don't want to sell, they shouldn't be penalized for that either because the next day it could come right back down. Um, so those are just a few points about that. Uh, excited for the program. It's going to help out a lot of people. Uh, especially I think teachers. We met a few teachers earlier. I've had a few high school teachers. They commute from Half Moon Bay, Berkeley, and uh, one commutes from Tracy. If they can move down here, saves a lot of time. I used to do that commute reverse traffic, but nonetheless, super long. But uh thank you for your time and uh like the previous consultant said, I'm one of the Newark residents who has to commute down to San Jose for work. So I bid you good night and uh thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Minute. I don't know. Do you want to have staff comment on those or do you want to take them under adisement? What's your preference? Mr. Cool. Uh I mean I certainly can't. Um

thank you for your comments. uh I think there they are all real realities that various applicants are going to face. I think for when I look at you know the asset uh tests that we have in place where after the close of escrow we're seeking that you don't have greater than $60,000 in post in in liquid assets. That's trying to make sure that we are supporting home own home buyers who don't have the funds to be able to buy a home. And if they have a lot of assets greater than 60, we may be seeing that more public funds are being utilized to subsidize a whatif scenario versus a scenario where those 60 that $60,000 can be used as a buffer. When we look at the front-end assets, if you have assets greater than 200, I think it's 25,000 that we have in our program design, then we want to see that those funds are being put towards the purchase of the home so that you can utilize less assistance. Um, it's not saying that you can't qualify for the program, but you're going to have to put that money forward. Um, as your ability to be able to break into the market is better than somebody else who doesn't have those assets at that level. Um, when it comes to being a first-time home buyer, there are exceptions uh that are in place. They tend to be related to being a uh trustee. uh so that if you are supporting a home that a parent has that it's gone into a trust you're not penalized. If you are a co-signer, you're not penalized. But if you've inherited a property, that essentially means you have a home that you've inherited. And so it's hard to break through being a first-time home buyer if now you have a a property that you've inherited versus not being able to break into the market at all. It's hard to

find the right balance, but I think it's always worth listening to these kind of comments and thinking how they might continue to shape the way that we think about this program rolling out. Um, when it comes to retirement accounts, those are not liquid assets. They are not counted as part of your income. Even if you can withdraw those funds, you are penalized. So, we don't consider those as part of the eligibility criteria. Those are protected. We're looking at liquid assets. when it comes to overall income eligibility requirements. So,

thank you very much. And uh I guess at the end of the day uh there's no downside in somebody submitting an application and going through that process in hopes that they qualify. And if they don't for a variety of reasons, they'll certainly understand through that process, you know, where where we think you have those assets necessary that allows you to in essence borrow for your own home without the need of our assistance. And I appreciate that. Y any other comments from anybody in the audience on this issue item?

Well, let me let me just start by saying and I have a number of questions, but I'm going to defer those till later. I love this program, you know. I love this program. $200,000. Who would have thought we'd be in a situation today where you need $200,000 as a down payment? I'll just simply use my own example. When I first bought my home back in Newark back in 1983, uh the house was $85,000 and we were able to assume a loan when you could assume a loan back then and my down payment was $25,000. So, I was fortunate that I had a family that was able to assist me with a down payment of 25,000 because at that time that was a reasonable amount to be able to assist a family member. If my kids were to come to me today and say, "Dad, I just need a quarter of a million dollars to help me meet the down payment." I'd say, "I'm sorry, you have the wrong phone number." It's it's it's a different environment. And it and it finally occurred to me when I saw these prices uh on homes escalating at such a rapid pace to the point where $150,000 $200,000 is needed just to make the down payment. Not to mention the PMI that goes along with that if you don't hit that 20% threshold. Um, so I do really am sympathetic to firsttime home buyers and we heard nationally, if I recall correctly, the average age of a first-time home buyer is now 40 years of age. So that American dream, you know, I I got out of college, got my degree, ready to start a family, start a home, you know, unless you're in one of those careers that Mr. Mr. Miguel mentioned there's a lot of stock options available to me. Uh it's going to be a while and uh what compounds that problem is the fact that we're not building any houses. You showed that chart. We are for every year I think it was since 1996 if I recall the chart that I saw once.

We've been downsized in terms of the number of homes needed to meet the demands throughout the state of California. Um we're we're nowhere close to building the number of homes that we need to build. Um, I love this program. It's a great start. You know, we may be able to help 15 home buyers, but when I consider last year we helped no home buyers, 15 is the step in the right direction. And I'll be honest with you, I I like the shared equity approach. One, we're deferring the interest. You look at a second mortgage today, I need to go get a second mortgage to make the down payment. 8.99 up to 12.99 just on the interest on that second mortgage. And those numbers may be conservative. Um, so if I'm borrowing a down payment on a second mortgage or I'm getting the owner to finance that second mortgage, I'm looking at a substantial interest rate that I pay now. It's not it's not deferred. I'm paying that now. So, the fact that we're going to defer this interest until such time as the property sells, etc. What a incredible opportunity for folks. And I like the shared equity because we're a helping hand. We the city, we're help we're extending our hand to help you become a first-time home buyer. And now by sharing the equity, you're saying, you know what, you helped me. I want to help that next person. So, I'm willing to share that equity because but for this program, I don't own a home. So, I want to be able to give back. We talked about that giving back. This is an opportunity for someone to give back to somebody else that wants to be a home buyer. And so I like that that uh that suggestion. I have a number of questions, but I'll defer those questions uh to my colleagues for their questions and comments. Council Kachio,

thank you.

Thank you also for the presentation. Um I really am a strong advocate of first-time home buyer programs. I really just wish we could do more than the 15, but as would was said by our mayor as well that 15 is a good start and we do have a lot of people that really need the program. I am a teacher. I do also understand um just being in the community there are a lot of teachers that commute here not only by um BART but also by trains and they bring their bikes with them and then they keep commuting the rest of the way. And so this will give people opportunity. Um, and of course, I mean, Newark graduation is just around the corner and we really want to influence even our New York graduates once they graduate to be able to stay here so we could have more success stories like Miss Newion was saying, "Hey, my fifth grader is now grown up and right here still in Newark." And so I really love this idea and the opportunity. I mean, also I'm a recipient too of the firsttime home buyer um federal tax credit. um that was given out previously. Um so that it was interest free for the first year and then um that was something that was able to assist us when we were first starting out as a young family. And so I really do enjoy the idea as well as the shared appreciation loan because it's kind of like people are joining with Newark as the family figure or the parental figure in a way. And so I mean it's going to ride with the market up or down. And so if there is equity, I'm assuming there will be equity of course um that it should be shared as well and that way people could give back to the program. So thank you so much,

Vice Mayor Jorgens. Yeah, I want to echo my colleagues comments. Um I think uh my first meeting or first or second meeting on this council uh we talked about different uh you know housing initiatives and the this first-time home buyer program was um one of the you know priorities at that time and um you know I'm really impressed with the work that's been done over that time. This is uh you know I think going to be a really good program for our community and really glad to see it come forward in this form that's going to be such a strong you know asset for our community.

Council member Little I've just been absorbing the information. It's it's really really interesting. I think the thing I found most interesting was just how quickly the jobs have grown but the housing is not and that was really evolutionary for me. I really found that really interesting. But um sadly I think the whole thing sucks. This whole thing is just horrible that we're having to do these things that no one can buy their own house. And it's just sad. And I'm glad to see that the city's stepping up and doing something. But the whole thing this whole housing situation is very very difficult that like you said the beginning first age is 40. That's ridiculous, you know, and that's really really sad. And I really appreciate you guys stepping up to put some ideas and together. I love the shared equity idea. I love it. You know, you go in, I make some interest at the end, you make some interest at the end. It never touches your pocket. I think it's great. So, from the bottom of my heart, I mean, this the whole situation is just very disappointing, but it's great to have a little more information about why, you know, the the job situation and things, and I appreciate you guys attempting to do something versus just sitting back and twiddling your thumb. So, thank you,

Council Gall. Yes. Thank you, M. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, sorry. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I have a number of questions. Um, first of all, it is ex it is it's extraordinarily difficult to thread the needle on these issues. And I think you've done um a really good I may disagree with a couple points, but I have to acknowledge that you've done really between the between the consultant and our staff, I think you've done a really great job of crafting this program. Um, and uh so I just I just wanted to compliment you on that. you can you can always have arguments about what dials you you turn and um but I think I think you've done a good job and of course we can adjust this program going forward if we discover problems and and we want to we want to look at that. So so I'm um with one exception I'm pretty much not inclined to go into too much dial turning at this point. Um, one thing, um, one thing I wanted to in terms of the, um, application process, um, I've seen in the past, um, homeowner education early in the process, like the first step, because if people have a bad credit report that they can get corrected, it's going to crush them when it when it comes down to getting the bigger loan. If we can address that early on, I assume I'm assuming assuming is dangerous, but living may not assume. Does Hello Housing is could do you do you have that kind of capability and and could we conceivably adjust our um our program to provide some of that homeowner potential homeowner education?

Uh really good point and going and working with partners like home buying counseling agencies that are HUD approved will be part of this program. In fact, it's a mandatory process before somebody can actually move forward to the full application process and and be approved for a loan. One of the things that we have found to be really helpful to really address that issue that you just mentioned where credit can really get repaired if they know about it, they understand it, they understand the limitations on how it may prevent them from moving forward with a mortgage loan is when we're marketing the program to have our home buying counseling partners identified and named so that we can share that information as we're marketing the program so they can start connecting with home buying counseling agencies earlier in the process um even before the application. period opens,

right? I would even think doing it kind of in concert, it's a way of marketing the program in in both ways, right? You can market this program by having a captive audience to talk to and also you can market that program by having the the the hope of a home buying program at the end. So, so I hope it can be integrated in that way because absolutely because and we've got great home buying counseling agencies that we've been working with for years and so it's uh it's it's a easy way for us to keep bringing them along with other programs that they want to support.

Thank you for that. Um can you give a little more detail about the preference um the preference that for Newark residents and um and I a little more complicated questions let me just start with that a little more detail about that in particular. What do you do about someone who um is a long-term resident, right? And they're they they moved, you know, they moved across the border into the that other town that we don't like to talk about um to find an apartment and now they're they want to be back in and back home and they can't. Is there is there any way of us recognizing sort of um that that's is there is there any way to do that? Maybe that's something that we look at in in an later iteration, but is there

Yes, absolutely. Could be looked at. So, in AC boost as well as some other down payment assistance programs, we look at displacement. So, if a long-term resident has been displaced and they're able to show that they lived in the city for x amount of years or just show a lease, uh that has been considered a a way by which they can meet those preferences. uh because we all know that people are being displaced from their communities and this is a perfect example where that could be a consideration. It's really up to the city on how they want to look at that.

I'll I'll just add that the preference policy as it's been designed into this program is modeled after the preference policy that the city council adopted in January. Um and so um for for parody sake um I would suggest that you know we we consider any changes that are made as part of this program be applied citywide to other future programs um for affordable housing.

Um that makes perfect sense. Um so um the um and I I do want to stress it's sort of built in there, but I I do want to stress that above and beyond um preference for local um the the the whole marketing of this program should be based on people who have roots in Newark. Um and um because it's our money, not federal money, we can provide preference. Um and so I so really part and parcel to the whole marketing program really should be aimed at helping Newark residents and people who work in Newark. Um and um so just wanted to it's it wasn't exactly clear in your presentation that that that would be sort of handinand so that that's really more of a suggestion than a question. But and then the other issue is just and I've I've dealt with first-time home buyer programs in the past and it often becomes the the shared equity approach becomes highly problematic. It's first of all um it retards the sale of the home when the house when the house sale sells that money the the the the money plus the 3% comes back into the program. If if the if the home buyer doesn't get all the equity that's developed, they're going to be boxed out of the of the the unassisted market. So that they're going to be there going to be much less opportunity for them to go. So you'll actually have less churn in the program um because of that. So that's problematic. Um, one, two, um, it's always a question. I think you indicated in one of your slides, um, there the home home buyer quickly forgets that deep in the documents that they were

reading that they were reading about that they agreed to give up a large portion of the equity that that comes forward. So they they've got a mindset that that that that value in the home is available to make the move to the next to the next home. And when they when they get into the market, they sometimes get way down the road before they be that becomes clear. Um and it becomes very problematic. They come they come to city councils telling a a tragic story about how they lost their house of their dreams because they they couldn't do it. Um, and I I I I hope to not have to hear those kinds of stories. So, um, so it sounds like my my colleagues are are are okay with it, but I'm I guess I'm I'm I want to be able to reserve the right to say I told you so. Um, because I think it's a it's a it's a challenge. It's a challenge program and it doesn't create that much benefit. And um so maybe do you want to address do you want to address that or

um no I I I guess I just have the comment that when we think about the role that we play in not only educating these home buyers up front, the ongoing role that is played during the monitoring is about helping them remember what they've signed up for. Um it is about sharing those loan terms and a program well-managed should be sharing that on a regular basis. Um, we've often even provided copies of loan documents to the borrowers during the monitoring process for that very reason because it people lose their documents. They're not reading them on a regular. But we want to make sure that they're regularly informed because what's really important to us is that the affordability isn't lost through being encumbered by refinancing and taking equity out. That's not equity that's ready to be shared. Um, and we want to make sure that they feel like there is connection to the city, uh, through your administration, whether it's directly with the city or with your consultant administrator, that there's ongoing and clarification that there's there are obligations that they've signed up for. Um, I think programs that don't have any touch points with their borrowers for long periods of time, there are definitely problems that come up that are even far greater than what happens at the end when they're trying to claim their equity. It's also important to note that this is a proportional share of what you invested in. So it's not an equal split of equity. If you put in 10% then you have a 10% proportional share of of equity versus versus not. Uh so that equity stance I feel there is definitely a benefit that plays out to the the home buyer. Not only are they paying down their mortgage regularly, which is building that equity, but the proportional share is is really something that I think does still bring the fairness to it. You're not getting more equity than what you contributed in proportionally.

Great. Thank you. Um I like I said, I do I do just philosophically disagree, but um but we'll leave it at that. The um the next the next question I have which is which is I think for Michael and maybe for the city manager. Is there is there any reason is the is the is the budget that we have in the in the housing fe fund um spoken for to the extent that we couldn't make this a $4 million um because the number of the number of of houses is sort of sort of low. Is there is there any reason we couldn't consider doing that? Is that money all all spoken for?

Thanks for the question. Um, no, not as of this time. As I presented recently to city council, we are in the process of updating the affordable housing work plan which will include an updated investment framework with other ideas for the use of those funds. Um, there's, you know, we we don't have other uses approved by council at this time. Um, that would just be a further a further increase from councils have considered in the past. So, let me ask a just clarifying question, Michael. So, this would be an annual budget discussion, I would imagine. Yes. In terms of we're setting aside $3 million now, is this an opportunity at the next budget session, we could look at where the programs at, how much money's been encumbered, and whether or not based on the current uh balance in our housing impact fee, there's some opportunity to provide additional funding. Is that something we could look at on an on an annual basis during the budget process?

Sure. We provide regular updates as to the implementation status of the city's affordable housing work plan. As a part of that, we can certainly look at the allocations in ter more appropriation necessary. Um, I would like to invite our community development director to provide some additional color commentary. Mr. Turner,

great. Thank you. Thanks for the question. Steven Turner, community development director. As Mr. Kulum mentioned we are working on a new affordable housing work plan that mirrors and is consistent with our um work with implementing the housing element. Part of that is coming back to council with uh an analysis of the have how we could invest our existing affordable housing impact fee funds for other types of projects. For instance, we may want to a council may want to go out for another notice of funding availability like we did for the Saha project and provide a set amount of money for a developer to work with the city to develop new affordable housing. There could be also opportunities to work with the school district in partnering them with them with their land and our money to help develop uh affordable housing opportunities on school district land. So, uh, we have a lot of great ideas and we want to kind of put them together in a proposal that we can then bring to council and that also could include it putting more money for the first-time home buyers program. U, but that would some be something that we would put together with the staff recommendation and have council provide input for that.

Can I just sure add one point? Sorry. And I know council member Little has a question too.

Um, when the understood No, no, that's that's fine. It's this is a comment, not a question. Um the uh it's it's understood that you know there may be future needs but when you kick off a program um with with such a small number of of opportunities it it lowers the it lowers the buzz that you can generate around the program. So given the the balance that we have I would like Mr. Mayor to make a motion to to make it $4 million if you if you'd allow me to to do that at when it when the time is time is right. And my only comment on that is, you know, we're venturing into an area that we've not been we've not had a home first-time home buyers program. Um, I want to I'd rather be as we traditionally on this council have been somewhat conservative when it comes to the use of our funds. Um, I want to be continue that conservative approach on how these funds are allocated. I I fundamentally agree with you. The more money we put in the program, in my mind, the better. But I'd rather wait and see how it goes for that first year with the $3 million and then revisit and see how the programs going and see if there's opportunities to provide additional allocations down the road. So, that would be my my suggestion. Let's see how it goes initially and then maybe next year when this comes back for an update, see if there's opportunities to uh make further contributions to the program. But I'll certainly um entertain your motion when that comes uh around. Council Little. So, I have a quick question just real quick, real quick. For the lottery system, is it like you're going to rank it like if you're at this level and you get ranked up like, you know, you're at 86 points, 75 points, or is it literally a lottery the people who have made the the the list, someone puts their hand in and pulls a name out? I know I'm I'm genuinely asking. I mean, is it like

It used to be We used to have one of those things that you turn and it sort of felt like the lottery of California. Yeah, I learned at love bingo. But now that the lotteryies have gotten larger and larger because we have more and more people applying for these limited programs, it is now all done through an Excel formula. So, everybody who meets the preference of living or working in the city is going to be in this bucket. That bucket's going to go through an Excel formula that randomizes everybody's unique identifying number and then ranks them based on that randomized number. And we do it, we we record it and we post it and we share it.

So when you say randomized number, it's a randomized formula. So you you apply for the program, right? You are given a unique identifier because we don't want your name. You know, you know, unconscious bias of any kind entering into the application process. That unique identifying number is then placed into an Excel spreadsheet. a randomized number is assigned to that that a randomized formula is utilized against all of the unique identifiers. So, it's still a lottery system. It's still very much that it's just now digital. So, it it's easier to run. Do

you see what I'm asking? Like, you know, if you get this, you get three points and the people who are the top 10 people, we don't do that. So, much much more simplified than that. I like the old ball system, you I I did too, but when we when we had 6,000 applicants in our last round of AC boost, that became a little too hard to my uh grandfather uh homesteaded up in Tuli Lake, California, and it was based on a lottery system.

Uh they lived in Richmond, California. And the criteria was you needed to commit to farm the land for a period of time. And uh this was back in 1931. and he was fortunate to be one of the first to get a homestead up in that area. So, there's a lot of folks that are going to benefit from this. Um, I'm I'm excited about this. Council member Gundal, did you have further comments? I I did I did have a random question. Um, because it may come up. The would would someone's immigration status disqualify them from applying for this program?

No, it would not. It's going to be more of an issue with the senior mortgage lender, not with the city's program. And based on your experience, Jennifer, would that be an issue for the lender?

It can be an issue for some lenders. There are other lenders that work really well with IT 10 uh documentation. And so that helps to support some individuals who might be in that situation. But not every lender has the team or the skill set to do it. And that's really what I love about uh your program uh is that you take them from the beginning throughout the entire process providing counseling, information, instruction to the end of the product. It's not good luck

because as mentioned when you are a home buyer there's so many uncertainties and you mentioned these will be my questions uh Michael and Helen. Uh you talked about the long-term commitment that folks need to be aware of increase in property taxes, increase in insurance, increase in HOA fees. Do you do you counsel them that you need to be mindful of these increases and this is historically what they will be over the next 5 10 years? So you need to make sure you have the savings set aside or the money set aside to be um ready for those increases in those accounts. So that's a big part of the work that these home buying counseling agencies do at the very onset is to think about the short-term and the long-term budgetary planning process of being a homeowner. Um I mentioned in the presentation that one of the things that we look for are trends. So, for example, we've been seeing a tremendous amount of um issues with supplemental um taxes related to homeowner associations. Um some of that has been related to deferred maintenance that hadn't been addressed for a number of years. Some of it's related to new state law around common space and we call it the balcony law and there's work that needs to be done for condos to remain certified. All of that has turned into special assessments that are affecting homeowners. So, when we start seeing those trends, we start working with partners that we know have um expert skills in not only supporting homeowners in connecting with their homeowner associations, but advocating for themselves and being able to read the budgets of their homeowner associations. So, it's it's a way of working collaboratively with other nonprofits who have specializations in different areas that we see, whether it's insurance, homeowner associations, or other kind of housing related issues that can affect those who are in a home

ownership process or a homeowner currently. So, that's one of the things that we like to do. It's one of the things that we've brought forward regularly in all of our programs. And it is about being able to spot those trends and be proactive about it and start bringing in opportunities like workshops uh to make sure that those things can get discussed that education can be provided and the resources that might be needed um are forthcoming. So

my my last two comments and and vice mayor mentioned this this council worked extensively on the live work preference in the city of Newark and there were a number of hurdles that we had to kind of overcome. Um, and think, you know, thank you to the city attorney and and staff for helping us get in to that point. Um, but it's something that we've long strived for. Um, I'm excited about ADUs at some point becoming an opportunity for a first-time home buyer because the uh sale price of an ADU on a property is significantly lower. We might be able to have a lot more people. Um, Michael, your your expertise in the housing area. Um, my wife and I are fortunately we have a condominium up in Portland, Oregon, which was an apartment complex converted to condominiums. Do you see that trend ever kind of cropping up again where apartment buildings will be converted or can be converted to condominium uses?

Thank you for the question. Uh that has been a um a concern actually of some jurisdictions in the past who have been concerned about losing their rental stock. Um it's been happening much less frequently in this current market here in New York. Um so I don't anticipate that being a phenomenon here anytime soon. So um we have a recommendation from staff. Um are there any last comments? Uh if not, um I'm going to take it separately if I may do so. City attorney, the uh council member Jorgens has suggested that

I'm sorry, Councilman Grindall has suggested that we look to raise the amount of um funds uh from the housing impact fee from three to four, reminding my colleagues that it was two and we raised it to three. Uh I'm not going to support the motion for the reason I mentioned. I think I'd like to see how it goes for the first year. It's not that I don't agree with the notion the more we can loan the more folks can participate. I just want to see how it goes for that first year. So, uh I'm not going to support the motion. Are there any other comments on the motion before we take a vote? Council member Gindal. Again, I wanted to the reason the reason I think it's important at the get-go is so that the program has some fireworks at the beginning. It draw it draws more attention to it and so but but yes, that that is the motion that I'd like to make.

Okay. Okay. Any other comments on the motion before we vote? I have a question. If we at the current amount of3 million, is that 30 houses? It's 100,000 each, right? Thank you for the question. It's up to $200,000. Um, so if everybody if every loan was made for $200,000, that would be 15 loans. We don't expect um that to be the case. We do expect that the average loan will fall somewhere between 100 and $200,000. 15 homes is really just the the first year would be 15 homes max minimum. 15 years. Okay. 15 minimum. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions on the on the motion? Please vote.

There should be a second on the motion. I'm sorry. Is there a second on the motion? I'll second it. I agree. Okay. We have a motion from Council Member Grindall, second by Council Member Little. Please vote and that fails on a one to four vote. The motion then before the board, the council rather is to accept staff recommendation. Can I get a motion in a second?

Happily moved by Vice Mayor Jorgens. Seconded by Council Member Canio. Please vote. And that passes unanimously. Again, thank you uh for coming tonight. Thank you for all the hard work you do. Um I'm excited to hear how many folks uh participate in the first lottery here in Newark. I can only imagine. Um but uh we look forward to this. Um so thank you. The next item, ladies and gentlemen, is item number three on the agenda. Wave full reading and introduce by title only an ordinance of the city council of the city of Newark repealing and replacing chapter 2.11 election campaigns of the Newark municipal code. Mr. Benoon.

Yes. Good evening, your honor members of the council. Uh this is a recommendation from city staff to the municipal code as it relates to uh elections here in Newark uh particularly financing. Our presentation tonight will be provided by our city attorney councelor.

Thank you Mr. Venoon. Uh good evening your honor members of the city council. I'll be providing presentation this evening. As the council is likely aware uh the municipal code um well I take it back. The municipal code has a provision in it um related to uh campaign contributions and voluntary expenditure li ceiling limits. I'm going to cover those details in a moment. Um one thing that came to our attention is that this provision as crafted is most likely inconsistent with the uh US Constitution as it establishes a penalty for not accepting the city's voluntary expenditure limit. As a result, we recommend an amendment to the municipal code pursuant to the proposed ordinance. So the current code provides that the council candidates have uh two options. They can accept the voluntary expenditure ceiling or um reject it. If they accept the ceiling, which is established at $1 per resident at each election, so approximately $45,000, uh then they can raise up to $500 from uh an individual or corporation, etc. If they reject the expenditure uh ceiling limit, then they are limited to $100 per individual, corporation, etc. Um, and when I say voluntary expenditure ceiling, what that means is that the candidate agrees that they will not spend more than that dollar amount um related to their candidacy. So, advertising, signs, etc. So, as a result, there are potentially different contribution limits depending on whether a candidate agrees to uh limit their campaign uh spending on any given election. Uh the ability to utilize funds in support of their campaign is thus restricted based on their acceptance of a lower campaign contribution threshold and courts have um universally held that government imposed mandatory expenditure limits are

unconstitutional. um and particularly uh expenditure limits that uh or I'm sorry that uh that establish different campaign contribution thresholds um depending on acceptance of those limits. So, as a result, staff proposes that uh the city council consider the proposed ordinance. Uh the ordinance would establish a campaign contribution of $800. This is an increase of $500 for those candidates that accept the C the under the current ordinance that would accept the voluntary expenditure limit. Um that $800 would reflect the CPI adjustments since the last update to the municipal code and would be consistent with um both Union City and Fremont uh in the tri-ity area. Union City is at $800 and Fremont is uh just slightly over at approximately $850 per individual. Um, seven of the 10 comparable Alama County cities have no local campaign contribution limit and thus default under state law to a limit of $5,900. So, um, in most cities in Alama County, you can raise up to $5,900 per individual. Um, the c the contribution limit apply for the full election period. So, for city council members, that would be four years. For um, the mayor, that would be a two-year period. uh there is no limitation on candidates using their own funds. This is um consistent with first amendment principles and courts have also ruled that it is not constitutional to limit an ability of an individual to use their own money to um express themselves or uh support their candidacy. And as I discussed earlier for uh in order to comply with constitutional provision uh principles the ordinance would eliminate the voluntary expenditure sealing provision. Some other uh technical aspects of the ordinance is that aggregated funds may

be would be treated as coming from the same source under certain circumstances. So, um, if an individual and a business were the same entity or same person, it could be treated the same under, um, under under most circumstances. That's just one example. Um, loans and debt would not be considered campaign contributions unless, uh, unpaid for one year following the election. And uh the ordinance would also provide that debt retirement committees uh contributions made for debt retirement committees would um be limited to the $800. Um so it still counts as a count contribution even though it's beyond the election period. And uh for if a candidate inadvertently accepted excess contributions, the ordinance provide that that candidate has uh 48 hours upon becoming aware of that excess contribution to return it um and not be in violation.

So to return the contribution or return the excess amount of the contribution. Yeah, the excess amount. Okay, that's correct, Mayor. And uh with that, the uh recommendation is to uh wave full reading and introduce by title only the proposed ordinance. And I'm certainly glad to answer any questions. Great. My comments before I open it up is uh I'm certainly willing to accept the $800 per candidate um so we can hopefully move this item forward. Any other questions or comments? Is it $800 per candidate per family or per person? Per person. So, uh, for instance, um, husband wife, you could get $800 from the husband, $800 from the wife.

Okay. It still seems like a lot of money. I'm okay with the 500. I just I don't want So, one of my concerns with with increasing the cost, and I don't want to waste a lot of time because everyone's tired, but one of the big things is I don't want this to be a who's got more money type of campaign. I don't want people to judge people on campaigning on what they're doing and their attitude and things like that. Once you start putting a lot of money in, similar what you're seeing a lot of stuff going on with a lot of campaigns, quarter of a million dollars, $300 million. I mean, three a quarter of a million dollars, 250,000, 350,000. It's almost like who's buying it. So, I I actually prefer to keep it at 500, but I mean, if that's Council,

I was going to say the same thing. Um, but I was going to first ask a question. Has there been any pro historically, how long has How long has this limit been in place? And have there been any pro push back or problems with the $500 uh limit? Um, it's been in place for I think almost 20 years. 15 or 20 years, I forget. The $500 limitation has been in place for almost 20 years. 2007, I believe. Excuse me. Was it 2007? I believe it's 2006.

That's 200 around 2007. And and the one comment that I'll make in that regard is that um the courts have also held that uh the the limit can't be too low um because then you're also infringing on first amendment rights because the ability to speak includes the ability to spend money to get your message out or raise money to get your message out. Um and so you know there is one other city that has $500. Um that's that's Dublin. um if that were uh I think that would be okay. But again, I think my recommendation would be to revisit it in the near future to or or consider um at some point inserting a CPI adjustment in the future to account for that. Um because obviously, you know, um $500 in 2007 is not the same as $500 today.

Yes. Although I do I do agree with Council Member Little. I think since we really haven't had any problems with it, I think we should keep it at 500. And and at the end of the day, I'm okay with that as well. Any further comments on this item, Councilman Kachio? Although at the end of the day, I'm also okay with that idea. I'm just thinking um that when we're hearing from the city attorney as well that $500 20 years ago isn't going to buy you the same thing. And so it's going to be more difficult um as the campaigns continue. Ideally, we could also adjust it today. Thinking about inflation.

Yeah. And my my worry would be that you know five we we have 20 years of experience of $500. We don't see those uh scenarios uh that we would be worried about. And I worry would be keeping a uh campaign contribution limit much lower than everywhere else in Alama County would create a situation where only people who are able to self-und their campaigns uh would be able to run. I don't think that's a a good circumstance to be in. So I I would be more concerned about that and would like to see us more in line with what other cities in Alama County are doing. So your suggestion would be more along those lines of Union City and Fremont raise it to the 800.

Yeah, let's keep it there. we have, you know, 20 years of experience of, you know, about that and we haven't seen any issues. And um I I would worry about if we keep this limit this bar too low, the only uh people who would be able to run for um would be people able to self-und. And I I don't think that's a good uh situation to put ourselves in. I have a question before we Yes, ma'am. continue. Um I had a question regarding whether we know how much is $500 worth from 20 years ago to today. Do we know the inflation rate around about we did do the this this essentially matches about CPI. I think the assistant city manager did do an adjustment and so this is just about CPI. So

okay $500 in 07 is $800 today. Is that is that about right using that on the conservative side? Okay. Well, then with that um clarification, then I too would be amendable to going forward with our neighboring cities and moving it to 800. Did you want to I still I still don't agree with that. I just think because you can ask them for 500 and them for 500 and them for 500. Right there you're at 2,000. I just would prefer just to focus on our campaign on what we're doing, not how many signs we're going to throw away in a couple of months. I I really think we need to focus on the issues, not that much money. my two cents still. Council Rand Doll.

Okay. Uh I'm going to support the suggestion that uh with the fact that we haven't raised that rate in 20 years and it's consistent with what the dollar valuation would be today as opposed to what it was back in 2006 because it does cost a little bit more money to run a campaign. And though uh we've all at this council here have run very frugal campaigns and and that's good for us because I think to Council Member Little's point, we recognize if you want to get elected in New York, you better be knocking on doors. And uh as somebody wise told me once, nobody votes for a sign. They don't vote for signs, they vote for people. And uh so I'm going to go ahead and make a motion that we raise the amount to $800 per uh staff's request. Can I get a second? I'll second the motion, but I believe on the motion we also need to have something about the voluntary um the uh the voluntary expenditure ceiling and getting rid of that.

Okay. Is that correct, city? We need to eliminate the voluntary So, we need to have two parts of the motion. One to eliminate So, the Yes. So, if the if my understanding is correct, uh, your honor, is that your motion is to I mean, the or the the ordinance that's drafted has eliminates the voluntary expenditure ceiling and has an $800 campaign contribution limit. So, if the desire is to move forward with the ordinances prevented, you um the motion would just be to um accept accept staff staff's recommendation to wave full reading introduced by total title only the proposed ordinance. And that'll be my motion. And I'll second the motion.

Second by the vice mayor. Please vote. And that passes 3 to2. Ordinance of the city council of the city of Newark repealing and replacing chapter 2.11 election campaigns of the New York Municipal Code. All right, ladies and gentlemen. The last item on the agenda is consider a resolution amending the master fee schedule to aquatic center non-resident user fees or accept staff's recommendation to take no action. Mr. Benoon.

Yes. Good evening, your honor and members of the council. Uh if the council may recall at previous city council meeting, uh the council approved an update to the city's master fee schedule. Uh the schedule excluded recommendations to most recreation and community service department fees as a comprehensive fee analysis is currently underway. This analysis will review our fee structure across all programming, facility rentals, and passes. A significant part of this process is determine the cost of services and to adopt a policy that would establish the appropriate amount of subsidy for recreation programs and services. The council directed staff to return at a future council meeting with options to increase the daily passes at the Silan Center for non-resident users, setting them at either 20% or 25% above resident user fees. Staff has prepared two resolutions for council's consideration. However, staff does not recommend modifying any recreation fees until an analysis is complete. As will be explained by staff this evening, modifying the fees now and then modifying them in a few months after the study is complete could create confusion for our public and our community. All while we are working to simplify and streamline our fee structure. As such, staff recommends not taking any action this evening and instead deferring any decisions until comprehensive analysis is complete. Uh, and then at that point, we can amend the fees. For tonight's staff report, we turn to interim recreation and community services director, Miss Roya Gonzalez. Miss Gonzalez.

Thank you, city manager. Good evening, your honor. Members of the city council, uh, well, city manager covered majority of my report, but I will review what I have prepared for you this evening. Um, as city manager um mentioned at the April 23rd city council meeting, council requested staff evaluate the non-resident aquatic fees equal to 20% and 25% above resident rates. To provide a little bit of background, the um Silon Activity Center has 22 non-resident user fees right now. that includes drop-in rates and a variety of different pass options. The admission fees provide access to the aquatic center, the fitness center, and the gym. There is no standalone aquatic center fee. Um the existing differentials range from 0 to 26% between resident and non-resident fees and the average differential is 14%. So this slide summarizes uh the two interim fee options. The proposed changes would impact pass categories differently. Some uh senior passes would actually decrease uh while the majority of other pass fees would increase at varying levels. Under the 20% differential, uh projected additional annual revenue is approximately $2,700. And under the 25% differential, it's approximately 8,600. Um, it is important to note that the single day rate for the drop in admissions is not included in this um projected revenue because we don't currently um track non-resident and resident drop-in fees. In evaluating these fee scenarios, staff

identified several key considerations for this interim increase. These include the ongoing comprehensive fee analysis currently underway, operational impacts with the interim implementation, and um broader market and customer considerations. I will review a few details about each one of these on the next few slides. So as city manager Benoon mentioned um the department is currently conducting a comprehensive fee analysis. This analysis will evaluate the recreation and community services department fee structure as a whole. This includes sports facility rentals classes and admission fees. We'll be looking at the cost components both personnel and non-personnel. We will be uh doing a cost recovery analysis and looking at policies. We will also be analyzing neighboring agencies to make sure that the costs remain competitive. We do depend on non-residents to fill some of our classes. Some preliminary analysis shows that most agencies do not charge the non-resident differential for drop in admissions. Um, and as I mentioned earlier, we have 22 fees alone just for admission. So, we're also going to be looking to really simplify and streamline our fees. And we uh anticipate presenting the final um recommendation to council in September of 2026. So another consideration um when looking at implementing these interim uh non-resident fees uh before the comprehensive analysis completed is the operational impacts. The most significant operational impact would be the added step of resident verification

at the drop in um for dropin fees. It would impact weight times, impact front gate operations especially during peak periods. The implementation would also require updates to the point of sales system, website, and public materials, signage, and staff training. These efforts would then likely be duplicated after the completion of the full analysis. There are also several community considerations. This includes maintaining the competitiveness with comparable facilities. As council is aware, the aquatic center is currently closed for maintenance until June of June 22nd. And during this time, many users may be exploring alternative facilities to use during the closure. And we want to ensure that we remain competitive to avoid those barriers um that could discourage users from returning once the facility reopens. The interim fee changes may also create customer uh confusion or frustration, particularly if additional fee adjustments are recommended following the comprehensive analysis. These temporary changes could complicate the future fee restructuring efforts and create additional administrative burden associated with the implementation. And so with that, staff recommends that city council receive the information presented and take no action on any fee adjustments at this time. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Great. Is there anybody in the audience that has questions or comments on this item before? Okay. Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and begin if I may. Uh again, I I don't support um raising the fees at this time. I didn't support it the last time this came to us for the for the sole purpose that staff is currently preparing a comprehensive fee structure for the entire aquatic center and I think it behooves us to wait for that study to be completed for the reasons that you articulated. Um I would hate to see a fee increase that would then go into effect in a month or two and then come back and have to raise the fee again based on that analysis. coupled with the fact that we do rely on nonresidents to supplement the revenue necessary to provide a lot of the programs and services that we do provide at the Silman Center. My worry is that by raising the fees, uh it may discourage folks from coming to the Silman Center because of that fee increase and looking at alternative um locations for them to get that training or education or whatever the case may be at another facility which could create a situation where we are either not enough in the class or having to cancel the class. So that worries me. Um, I did find it interesting in all honesty that some of the fees would actually go down uh based on the uh the recommendation uh by the council. So that that surprised me. Um so I I'm not going to support uh raising the fees at this time. I'm going to I'm going to go along with staff's recommendation. Let's wait for the comprehensive study to be done. Let's look at the data. Let's look at the data once and let's make an informed decision and not be bouncing back and forth in terms of what we think is in the best interest of the community

at this time. Council member Jorgens, I mean, sorry, Grindall, I'll get it right. It's late.

The um um so couple questions. Um uh first of all during the discussion of the council last time I I I settled on on focusing only on the um on the dropin fee. So um so I I think I I think the rest of the fee should stay the same. The um there was a differential in the the historically there's been a differential in the in the cost um for non-residents and residents that changed relatively recently. I can't I can't pin down exactly when um but it it it has at some at some point in the not too distant past there was a differential. Um Fremont charges more for non-residents for their water park. Um and by the way Fremont's charges a um charges their own residents um $24.99 to to enter to their water park. So, we are we are quite a bargain already in that. I can't see that they that Fremont would be highly competitive with what we're offering. Um, so I I I think it's unconscionable that Newark residents are are paying in their taxes dramatic amounts of money to subsidize the operation of the aquatic center and the Solomon Center and that they're waiting in line with people paying the same. Um and this and the if if if we were to wait for that program to for that an analysis to be done, the entire summer peak season would have would have expired. So, I I think we should raise the we should raise the rates of we should add um $2 to the non-resident fee. Um which makes it

about um a 15% increase um over over the resident fee. Um, and I think we should do that as quickly as we can. As you know, as the as the pool opens, we can help help to offset the the again the massive subsidy that we're providing for other for residents of another city. Thank you, Council McDonald. Other questions, comments? Council Canio?

Yes. Thank you for um the commentary and all of the numbers actually in the presentation. Are you uh explaining that if we did increase the drop in fee now that potentially we could also have to revisit it and increase it again? As part of the uh comprehensive analysis, we would be looking at all of the fees, including the drop in admission fees um to make sure that it is in line with a cost recovery policy that we will be recommending to council.

Okay. And that makes sense, too. Um it sounds to me like we would need the full comprehensive um analysis. And I noticed that you were mentioning that we currently are doing reconstructive um things right now until the end of June. And then we're looking at doing the comprehensive analysis. Is that in July? And then we would get a report in September. So staff have already begun the comprehensive analysis. We just need a couple of months and with the August recess, a reasonable um time frame we we believe is September to be able to bring that comprehensive analysis before council.

Right. Okay. And I'm just trying to understand it a little bit better like when we're thinking about other options that people might have and if they're shopping around. Um in your current analysis so far, have you seen that there's a potential that people might not come back?

Uh yes, we've actually heard from a few um customers. Um most our our biggest competitors are actually not Fremont because Fremont's water park um is a outdoor true water park. Um there's people that that attend the Silon Center that use it just for lap swim. So they pay the um $13, they come in, they swim their laps, and they leave. They aren't spending the whole day at the water park. Um so they're looking for much simpler um aquatic centers that just have a drop in rate for a pool. Uh so they're most likely going to Militus um or Hayward. Do we know Militus and Hayward's rates yet or is that

um they are lower than Newark's seven and 11 and I can't recall which one's which. Um and they do not have a differential between resident and non-resident rates. Okay. So it sounds like what you're saying is if we do this approach then potentially we could lose customers potentially. Okay. Thank you. I have more little

I have I have mixed feelings on both sides. I see both sides. I really really do. So, it's a I'm It's a tough one. You know, it really is. I can see both sides to it. And I think I can see points, but I also see Terren's point of view of jump it now while we're getting to renovation. Hey, we renovated. By the way, the price went up. Yay. So, I I don't I don't know. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Any comments? Okay. Um, yes. Council, can I make a motion? Uh, no. I want to make comments first. Of course. Um, I meant in time. Yes. Let me think of my comments now that I got to get my mindset back uh together. Um,

are you anticipating when you come back with a comprehensive study that you're looking to raise the uh daily check-in for non-residents? Are you looking because of the logistics associated with trying to navigate 50 kids in line as to which ones are New York residents, which ones are not Newark residents, are are you looking at a differential on the daily drop in rate at this point? Are you just simply looking at maybe raising the rate for Newark or non- Newark residents for the daily drop in?

That's a great question. Thank you, mayor. Um, at this point, we are looking at all options. Um, and that's uh why we need to take a look at the neighboring uh jurisdictions and seeing what they're doing. I can tell you that like I mentioned, there are a few other cities locally that do not have that differential. Um, and then again, thinking about the community and the impact that it'll have to to check in. Those those are two key considerations, but without having done a full analysis, I'm I'm I think it's preliminary to to say right now

I don't want to see Mr. Benoon, this is directed to you. I don't want to see city staff spending a lot more time on now implementing a uh separate fee schedule for a 60 to 90day period of time. Uh knowing that we're going to get a comprehensive study back that may change those rates across the board. We have 22 different fees that we're looking at. Um it's an incredible amount of time just to prepare the work that was prepared this evening. If if we didn't have a comprehensive study coming forward, I would agree with Mr. Gindal, Councilman Gindall, we need to make sure because I've always felt non- Newark residents need to pay more than New York residents. I've always felt that and I still agree with that. But I don't want to do something on a temporary interim basis knowing that I'm going to get a comprehensive study on all of these fees and the simplification of these fees uh when the study comes back to us in September. So again, I'm going to suggest to my colleagues that we take no action at this time. We do it the right way and we wait for the data and the study to come in before we move forward. Um Council Member Gondall wants to make the motion that we do what? that we No, it is not that we raise the non-resident fee drop in only for to $15. That's my motion. Okay, I have a motion. Do I have a second on the daily dropin fee which is currently how much?

13 14 14 to go to 14. Yeah, I'm sorry. 13 to 15. Does that sound right? 13 to 15. Yeah. Sorry about on the daily drop in rate. Uh, is there a second? Seeing no second, can I get a second motion? Any further action? Oh, we we don't need a vote on staff's recommendation, Mr. Benon. No, mayor. Uh, fees would stay as is. Okay, great. Thank you for that. Let's go on to council matters. Uh, Mr. Benoon, city manager update.

Yes. Good evening, your honor, members of the council. We have three updates for you this evening. There's the slideshow. Uh the first item, uh tenant protection program is now in effect. Rental registry is now open. Newark's tenant protection ordinance uh is now currently uh the law of the land. Landlords must register the rental units with the city by July 1st. Additionally, landlords must provide tenants with the notice of tenant rights by July 1st of 2026. Registration and required materials can be found on the city's website listed there on the screen. Uh second slide, bike to Boba Trail. Now through May 31st, the city of Newark is partnering with Boba shops and restaurants to bring Newark's Boba Trail an opportunity to explore the community and support local favorites. Uh public is encouraged to visit any of the participating shops or city hall to grab your passport, purchase your drinks, and collect stamps along the way. uh submit your passport with at least one stamp by Wednesday, June 3rd to be entered into a raffle and one lucky participant will receive a special prize. And last but not least, Newark Gardens 2 wait list is now open. This is a 50 home senior living community located uh at Cedar Boulevard. Uh they are now accepting applications. They must be submitted uh by May 20th at 5:00 p.m. Eligible applicants must be 62 years of age or older. residents, excuse me, rents are income based and subsidized by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. There is no minimum income requirement. Maximum income limits apply. Applications are available on SA's website listed right there. And that concludes updates this evening.

Thank you, Mr. Manoon. Council member Little.

Yeah, I have two quick events. Just want to tell you guys that tomorrow, so this month May is brain awareness uh month for people that have way brain cancers and brain tumor. And the Jammer Strong Foundation, which is a local Newark resident uh foundation here for brain tumors, is currently having a fundraiser tomorrow at Panda Express. So if you guys online order and you can use code, everyone write down real quick. Write it down. Everybody see if I write exactly 9015245. What's that number again? Sure. 9015245 just in case. And the money that you spend, 28% of it will go to the Jammerstrong Foundation for um the money that stays here in Newark. So big thing is shop Newark, eat Newark, and please help out the Jammerstrong Brain uh tumor foundation. Second thing is I've had a lot of parents reaching out to me and they want Pokemon Day again. So, I backed by popular demand, we're doing Pokemon Funday. It's going to be all kids are welcome to come. It's Newark kids Pokemon meet and greet. It's going to be at 88 Card House right next to Lazy Dogs. It's going to be the first Saturday of June, so June 6th from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. And we are having Pokemon actually sending us some big door prizes. So, we're going to have some fun again. It's going to be great. Um, but it is a free event for kids to come out to get off electronics and get outside and have some fun and start trading cards. So, the number 9015245, I thought that was your lottery number for our firsttime home buyer program.

My number is 867539. Thank you very much for that, Council Member Grindall.

Yes. Thank you. Um so um I as we discussed at at our last meeting um I I strongly believe that we need to be moving forward um to improve the coordination between this the this the schools and the um between the schools and the city. I um was criticized for not having any details um on the proposal. So I went ahead and prepared some. It's on my website at terren4newwork.org org. Yeah.org. Um, so if people want to see that, um, and I'll be continuing to to bring that forward, I will be submitting I'll be submitting my proposal to the city manager and asking him to attach it to the staff report when we consider the CF May 28th.

Excellent. Thank you. Anything else? Yes. Um, Newark Memorial is doing a um, night market tomorrow night. Um, order order Panda Express first. Is it only tomorrow? It's only tomorrow. Friday. Only Friday. So, lunch at Panda Express and the night market that you got it. Yeah. It's all in my head.

They're doing a night market um in in in the in the employee parking lot um in the in the evening. I believe it starts at five o'clock. I lost it though. Sorry. Um it you can check the website Newark Memorial Night Market. You can find out all the details, but I believe it starts at 5:30. They have numerous booths. Um the the uh money goes to support the the school. So ple and then the kids. So please get out there and enjoy um a night market. Um secondly, I'm um I'm going to be having a a coffee with the council member um str differently than usual. It's going to be a Monday night at a Starbucks f that's at the Starbucks on Cedar. That's 39201 Cedar. Um that's near the high school.

Um so I'll be I'll be there. Please stop please stop by. Um and uh we can talk about anything that any any resident wants to talk about in terms of how to improve the city. Um if you don't if you can't make that, feel free to give me a call at at 510-936-3670. Thank you. No, thank you, Council Megan. I think it's important that uh not only your coffee get togethers with the community but all of us reaching out to the community to hear them and take in their uh concerns and issues and um suggestions is important. Council Kanchio.

Yes. Thank you, your honor. Um, I was able to attend at New Park Mall over the weekend the A&HPI um, festival and while there I was able to buy food, buy new shoes um, and see their performances as well. And it was a really exciting time I think also for a lot of Newark residents. Um they were all asking about the drone show and we were able to um all head outside and there was uh a lot of entertainment that was there too. And uh additionally I was able to be a reader for a lot of the scholarships for Newark Memorial High School. Their big massive ceremony was actually tonight and so they sent their regrets for not being able to also be here with us tonight as well. Um, next week there are going to be two board meetings. Uh, one for Ava Energy. I believe Vice Mayor Jorgens is going to be coming in as alternate because I also have another meeting that day. I'm going to be at Alama County Water District's meeting and then I'll report back. Thank you. And remember to shop Newark.

Vice Mayor.

Yeah. So, uh, uh, so prior to this evening's council meeting, we went out and planted a tree. was a coastlive oak. Uh this is a departure from what planting trees would have meant in the early days of Newark as a town where planting a tree would have almost certainly meant planting a eucalyptus tree. So the first eucalyptus trees came to the Bay Area in the 1850s during the gold rush where wood was needed for everything. And eucalyptus grew well in porcelain, maybe a little too well. Um and then the eucalyptus came to Newark almost immediately after the founding of the town. uh the railroad had inherited plans for a town site that included significantly more uh parkland. They kind of took that out and instead of doing that parkland they said okay we're going to plant thousands of eucalyptus trees. Um you know they didn't quite get to that number but you know by 1885 there were you know many that had grown to 50 to 60 feet and you know the eucalyptus trees became a common site throughout Newark in the late 19th and early 20th century. And you know, all the coastlive oak we planted today might not have been in line with the desires of the New York residents of the 1870s and 1880s. You know, I think we're still in that historic tradition because, you know, as a native tree, the coastlive oak would have been a common sight here prior to the 1870s and, you know, should serve future residents of our community well. I have no fond fondness for a eucalyptus tree. uh the fire up in the Oakland Hills, a lot of that was u extended by the eucalyptus trees that are basically um you know torches that are exploding and uh so I don't have a lot of love for eucalyptus trees. Um thank you for the historical perspective. Um couple reminders folks that May is motorcycle safety awareness month. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 6,335 motorcycle kil motorcyclists killed in traffic traffic crashes in the United States in 2023, representing 15% of total highway fatalities that year. In

California, there were 583 motorcyclists that were killed. So, be safe. And if you're not driving a motorcycle, you're driving a car, be on the lookout for motorcyclists who like to split lanes. and it's certainly permitted in the state of California. But if you're a driver, you know, check your mirrors, blind spots before changing lanes. Do not allow do not follow a motorcycle too closely. Always keep a safe distance. I was coming down 101 years ago uh in the fast lane from San Francisco and uh a CHP motorcyclist uh put on her lights and sirens to pull over a car in front of me. The car panicked, hit the brakes, and I watched that officer in slow motion lay that motorcycle down and and get up un uninjured. Uh they they she knew how to handle the bike. Um if you see a motorcycles with signal on, be careful. Be sure that the rider is turning before moving ahead. So just be mindful of motorcyclists out there as we need to be aware of bicyclists out there in our community as well. And last, big thanks to um the folks that do tree plantings in our community. We did a tree planting at Miraabou Park. We had over 80 volunteers. The number of volunteers planting trees at our parks grows every occasion that I'm out there. We planted 26 new trees. Big thanks to those folks that um continue to look at opportunities to make our community greener and more environmentally friendly. So, with that being said, um again, thank you for the patience tonight. Mr. Manoon, thank you to all the staff for all the hard work they did. And this meeting is adjourned.