Remarks by Roxanne Stephens
310 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 9 of 13
- Play at 2:32:08
“Okay, go ahead, Vice Mayor, then I'll...”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:35:29
“Okay, yeah, thank you for that. And I just, I have a few questions myself. And by the way, just as a reminder to the public and others that are here, that Mayor, Vice Mayor DeAnda and myself were Animal Services Ad Hoc Committee. And then that was a year. And then we remained involved in that and have met and are in frequent contact with many of our community members related to animal services. services and concerns that they have. So can you just go back to a couple of questions, I mean, a couple of comments. So specifically about the behavioral assessment. So are the behavioral assessments,…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:37:14
“So the behavioral assessments that we conduct are strictly related to the dangerous dog assessments and those are conducted by the animal services officers.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:37:26
“An initial one as they come in. Okay, so there's that. And then when there's a concern, then what happens and I'm not okay, so let's separate the dangerous dogs. There's just other behavioral concerns, then what happens with those other dogs?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:37:44
“Yeah, if you separate those out, those assessments, you're doing the initial assessment, there's some duress that the dog is, or some behaviors of concern. And again, not the dangerous dog ones, but the other ones, then what possibly could happen with those to intervene with the concerns that have been identified?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:38:21
“That's not my question, though. It's not about the assessment itself. It's like once in that assessment, the conclusion was that there's something of concern, then what could happen?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:39:09
“Okay. Okay. I just wanted to clarify that just because I thought I'd miss her. I think I've misheard you. And so thank you for clarifying that. And the reason that I wanted to address that one particular point, because that is, uh, One of the issues that we've heard about is that we could do, we can do better in that. And certainly this means more resources. So I, so I appreciate your point about limited resources. However, this may be an area in which we can see some improvement. And by the way, if I can just on a personal note, we have, I have my dog at home, one of my dogs at home. uh…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:42:29
“okay okay so thank you for that i just wanted to make sure that we were clear about that because that's an important distinction between that was just like 10 years ago so i just want to be clear and then finally i just wanted to check in with you about the volunteer program because um you said that the grand jury report uh praised it it was very clean all this and that it was a really it was a great program i have to be really honest with you i have heard like almost the complete opposite that it's an arduous application process. The background check is like it will happen or it doesn't…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:44:39
“Can I just like give you like a different way to think about this? I don't think that it's necessarily a misconception in how the process is. It was their experience and I think it's really important that when we hear that from our community that that was their experience even though we know that we have a certain process. that we listen to their experience. Because I think what's on paper and the way the process works and what's currently the experience of the eight volunteers that we have now compared to others who had tried that and that their experience was the opposite. It's important…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:46:56
“Okay, great. Okay. Well, that's all I have for now. And then I'm going to see if there's any, go ahead, Council Member Morales.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:55:25
“And I wonder if I could just add. So I so, you know, like Vice Mayor and myself, we've been part of the ad hoc and we've been connected with dog owners, cat owners, as well as the community. We have this most recent. However, this is not what triggered this conversation by any means, by any stretch. This has been an ongoing conversation. It's just simply that this is the more recent case in which there's a lot of public concern that has been raised. However, it's been something that's been ongoing. But I do think that there are areas where we can improve. This is an example, but I have a very…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:58:02
“Sure. I mean, that's one way, right, to be transparent, but I think there's other ways as well, but sure.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:58:30
“I think finding examples like that of how we can be more transparent, that's one example. Maybe there's others. If that is not possible because there's a legal, maybe there's some privacy rules around it, but also there's other ways in which we can be transparent, but I think that's just something for us to kind of think about more. Okay, well, thank you for that. Well, with that, I'm going to go ahead and go to public comment, and then we can come back and continue this discussion. How many speakers do we have on this?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:59:01
“OK. Let's go ahead. Can you say who the first speaker is?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:01:36
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:08:20
“Yeah. And I and just to your point, I specifically said that, that it was because of the staff and how they cared for him that he was okay. Yeah, exactly what you said. Next speaker, please.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:08:42
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:11:47
“Thank you, Ms. J. Now it's your, okay, I'm going to ask that audience, please not, we're going to just continue. Go ahead, you're next, yeah.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:12:07
“Double, okay. Except for we have 13 speakers. So I think we'll stick with the three. And if she needs a little bit more time, I'll allow one more time. Okay, go ahead. Go ahead.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:12:24
“Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because we can't hear you. We want to make sure that we hear every word. And we're going to start the time all over for you. But I'd like for you to speak it. Yeah.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:15:34
“If you need a little bit more time, go ahead.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:17:08
“Thank you for your thoughts and your ideas. I think they were great. And thank you. Yeah. Keep coming and talking to us. Appreciate it. Okay. Next speaker.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:20:38
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:25:15
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:31:36
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 8, 2026