Remarks by Dean Johnson
82 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 4
- Play at 1:38:39
“i think deputy mayor johnson's next on the list thank you yeah thank you mr mayor um yeah i'm looking over your your uh you know draft which i think is good um When I too look at this, it is, I mean, I've been on the council 10 years. And again, it's the same thing. I've only seen two handed out. So it is kind of an exception. So there's already a built-in screening that is taking place kind of organically without necessarily having criteria that qualifies. I'm not against some criteria. I'm just wondering if it's necessary. When I look back at looking at this criteria, I guess some of the…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:40:04
“Yeah, so... Yeah, I think, you know, I don't have any problem looking at it. I guess my thinking is... If it's not broken, why tie it up more? I don't feel that we've loosely given them out like candy. So I feel like there's been a lot of discretion going on. It does take a supermajority. So it's not like even a majority of four can do it. It has to be five or more. So I think that in itself, and most of us up here, you know, pretty much know people in this area. So our ability to discern that kind of organically with a super majority of five or more, I think, is there. But I'm open to…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:44:19
“MR. Yeah, this is a discussion, so that's why I'll have some short spurts to kind of help respond and understand, whittle it down. Again, I'm OK with this guy. I certainly would want to maintain the supermajority. What I don't want to do, and I would absolutely caution, say don't go there. Get into a debate on an individual publicly out in the open like this on some kind of vote, that's just not right. It puts people on the spot. It debates their character. It should be much like a proclamation. It's all done transparently under public record, but there should be a process that gets the five…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:54:09
“Yeah, I think I'd like to Make a recommendation if not even a motion to adopt this guide that's been presented to us with the contingency that we add some autonomy, as Council Member Castema, we add some verbiage that would include autonomy for discretion, as well as a process similar to our proclamations that they would not turn into a debate of how someone measures up or doesn't measure up through a legal process. Either you have the supermajority votes that are supporting it, without debate through the email communication. And then that would be brought forward as we'd have proclamations…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:56:58
“I mean, I can make that motion as stated, but if we wanted the staff to work on a resolution to make it to crystallize what our understanding I think is, so it's in writing, then we could formally do it then. But I'm okay with making a motion if we're comfortable with understanding what the criteria is here and they'll just bring back a resolution. I'm open to it, Mayor. I'm just... trying to figure out how we get there. Or, just kind of pausing, if in fact the nature of this document doesn't need to be formalized, if all of us agree that this is our guideline, we don't have to adopt it in…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:07:39
“You're going to look at some crash data, is that correct? Find out where hot spots and issues are? Correct. Will you also look at... opportunities that would kind of highlight if we need more lighting, like stoplights and things like this where potential safety could be happening. I mean, that's kind of kind of an important one right i mean uh but lights are expensive but would this provide data that might highlight hey there's some areas in the city that probably could use some lights here and would that criteria only be because there's crash data or could it just be you know this is just a…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:08:55
“Yeah, I guess I'd like to look at it from this perspective. One is, you can come in and assess scenario safety improvements based off of a reaction of data, but could you come in from a perspective that's proactive? Listen, we don't have the data in this section or area, but this all indicates that this could be a problem. So getting in front of it, versus reacting to it. And I'd like to see that in the study it's holistic, not just the obvious that we know. Our city staff can look at crash data and say, hey, we've got to do some improvements. So I appreciate that. But I'd sure love to see a…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:10:29
“Delving a little deeper on the proactive. I mean, car accidents are awful, right? But sometimes there's some protection around that. Again, I'm thinking about proactive, even around school zones, these kinds of things, right? So we don't want to wait for some data on that, right? And maybe we're fine. I don't know. But again, I would want some objective eyes looking at some of the safety issues around our schools, both elementary middle and high schools. And again, looking at, hey, maybe it doesn't have the data that shows accidents, but as schools grow and as traffic grows, we want to get…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:32:12
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Three things. Two fairly brief and one just a little over brief. Concert in the Parks Series concluded. A tremendous smashing success. I want to thank the Parks Department for putting on another great series of concerts. Virtually every band that came out was fantastic. The crowd engagement was over the top. I don't know if there's any data, but I suspect that If we have some data, it'd be nice to look at that. I heard with the Journey concert, there was probably numbers of over 4,000 people, they thought, coming out and attending. I even got comments that there was…”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 36:39
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to support first reading of item 4A as presented tonight. Second.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 37:43
“Mr. Mayor, I'd like to offer a motion to accept the recommendations for these volunteer boards as indicated by our city clerk, Dan. Second.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 45:29
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. One of the wonderful things about getting great staff on board and people who are professionals in their expertise areas is trusting their judgment and discernment. To what I've heard tonight, it seems like a very responsible thing to do. So I'd like to make a motion that we trust our finance director, Barbara Lopez, to institute this resolution. And I'd like to make a motion towards that outcome.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:05:37
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate that. Dan, what stood out to me was that picture of all those boxes with files of paper. Is that an active picture or is that one from years ago? Is that currently what we're looking at in terms of storage?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:05:56
“Okay, good. With that in mind, Moving forward, let's say this point forward, there should be less boxes of paper accumulating versus this that goes back probably a few years, right?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:06:27
“Yeah, great. When can those boxes begin to diminish with legal Discarding of those do we know some time frames?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:07:13
“Good. Well, I like the idea of kind of cleaning house per se, especially if there's no requirements beyond what the state allowances are to keep those getting as efficiently. I do like the idea of moving forward, seeing less of those boxes and everything more digitized so there's more efficient I do want to go back into a comment you made about AI. And you seem to have a, since you came on board here, you seem to be very personally and professionally focused. I won't say that we're passionate, but certainly looking for ways to streamline and make things more efficient. So since you first came…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:11:23
“Fantastic. I support it. I do support it. There are some folks that are against the AI, which of course are tied to data centers in terms of its ability to function. And if we're looking for government efficiency, then certainly city government certainly should be implementing these modern procedures. to provide transparency, documentation, and be more efficient with city staff time to be able to accomplish more with the same amount of staff. And so I'm glad that you're doing that. I support it. And I believe that all of our departments in our city probably will find that in the near future,…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:16:33
“Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I had a follow-up question that triggered from Council Member King that I would like to build on. So Dan, you mentioned Council Member King answered the question on how long would it take to digitize the whole thing and then the vault, and you gave a couple of answers for the whole city at four or five years or whatever, then the vault at three months or whatever it was. Would there be any advantage of efficiency if there was a concerted effort, let's say by council to provide funding or find monies for you to get this thing all digitized, put it behind you and…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:19:48
“Great. Well, then I'd like to suggest, Dan, in consultation with Talika, that maybe a post-conversation after this meeting and this teeing this up, at least myself, that maybe there's a brief discussion on, you know, if we were able to get those digitized and completely put a concentrated effort on that, what that data of efficiency would bring across all departments. And if we equate that as highly efficient, freeing up more time versus the cost of doing it, it might be something to invest in and take a look at finding some fundings. And if so, if you felt that it would bring across All…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 1:35:03
“Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to share a story that I think it would be helpful for perhaps others. And it's a story about finding freedom from harboring emotions that I have sometimes on things that are political. There's two things that move people pretty passionately. Typically, it's politics and religion. And people hold those very passion and some that disagree on a take and get very emotional. And emotion is not a problem. But I recently had an opportunity to encounter an elected official recently that I politically disagree with on most every policy. But I had a chance to hear them speak…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 38:03
“Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we approve second reading of item 4A as we've successfully passed on the first motion to make this official.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 39:15
“Mr. Mayor, I recommend that we approve second reading as listed on 4B.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 41:57
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Maybe city manager, could you clarify the process of this. Maybe it's not here. Maybe, Hans, you could talk about the process. The adoption for a public hearing is going to be coming forward. Tell me the process. A public hearing will be held. Would it be held here in this chamber with the council? Would it be held with some other stakeholders? Give me an idea of the process. Once that public hearing takes place, then what would be the course of action beyond that? And then what would happen for a potential adoption? Walk through the process. We understand what kind of…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 43:09
“And that would be held here in the council chambers with the council here to listen to the public hearing and give comments, ask questions at that time?”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 43:18
“So there'll be a chance to comment on that. Yeah, certainly I agree with the public hearing. It should happen. There hasn't been an official public hearing, but there has been some, I understand, some public interaction at some point in various settings, community settings. Is that correct?”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026