City Council - Regular Meeting

The Regular City Council of Monday, July 6th, taking place on Tuesday, July 7th, 2026. The council met in closed session today starting at 5 PM and discussed two matters and there is nothing to report with respect to the closed session. We're going to go ahead and proceed to the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm going to ask our Public Works Director, Daniel Gonzalez, to lead us in the pledge. Please rise if you are able. allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Great. Thank you so much for that. We are going to proceed to public forum, and this is an opportunity for members of the audience to speak on an item that is not on tonight's agenda. If you would like to speak on a matter that is on the agenda, please reserve your comments for when that agenda item is called. The purpose of public forum is to provide the public with an opportunity to be heard. However, if your comments do not address a topic that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city, or if your comments are disruptive, I will provide a warning. If the warning is not followed, I will direct the city clerk to cut off the microphone. Each speaker is usually given three minutes. This time may be adjusted at my discretion based on the number of speakers or number of items on the agenda. If you ask questions during public forum or during public comment with respect to an agenda item, those questions will not be answered during your allotted time. However, a member of the council may, at the conclusion of public comments, direct your questions to staff for a response. Pursuant to state law, the council may not discuss issues brought up at public forum the council members or staff may provide brief responses to statements made. So I'm looking at our deputy city clerk to see if we have any speakers for public forum.

We have two. The first one is Ani Antony.

Great. Three minutes each since we just have the two. Thank you. Welcome. Oh, no. I'm so sorry.

First of all, I'd like to thank the council for all their great work they do for Piedmont. It's amazing what you guys do, it really is. I don't think anybody knows how much time you put into it. I am offering or asking for your consideration regarding my request. I would like to propose a change in the current off-leash laws. There are many small dogs in our community and currently there are very few acceptable areas where they can run off leash. Blair Park is troubling because of its location to Moraga Avenue. I've witnessed only large dogs running on the property, and there is no sense of community where owners could sit on a bench and engage with neighbors. Piedmont Park is dark and basically offers a long concrete pathway which winds down a steep hill, no benches for people to sit on, and certainly no real ability for dogs to play with other dogs. Dracaena Park is another challenge for small dogs, as 75% of the animals there are very large, who run roughhouse with each other, kicking up dirt and wood chips that cover the ground. My two Westies are frightened of them and tend to sit under the bench. I, too, am frightened that one of them could knock me over. The park is dark and heavy. dense canopy of trees where little sun gets through. It is also very narrow. Because of the environment, many dogs together and no sunshine, my two Westies contracted kennel cough there about 10 days ago. One of the wonderful aspects of the City of Piedmont is enjoying our beautiful parks where citizens can sit on benches and engage with neighbors walking by while watching their dogs play. I am proposing that the Council consider allowing dogs under 30 pounds to play at Crocker Park from 1 to 4 every day off leash. It is a park that is not heavily used. The goal here is to allow a great experience for all the dog owners of small dogs in a fair and balanced way since off-leash alternatives are not good. I would also propose that people that want to do that obtain a dog tag and verify their dog is 30 pounds or under and pay a pretty large fee to the city for that privilege. I fully support Piedmont's leash laws and city's commitment to keeping our parks safe and enjoyable for everyone. My goal is simply to explore whether there may be an opportunity to create this designated off-leash option for small dogs, allowing owners to remain in compliance with local regulations while providing a safe place for small dogs to exercise and socialize. I have lived in Piedmont my whole life

I'm sorry to cut you off. I think that's been three minutes. So I think our timer was malfunctioning. I've got one sentence. I'm just looking at our deputy clerk. Was that the time? Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for coming in and sharing your comments. And please, if there's something you didn't get a chance to say, please email us because we do- Pardon me? Please email us. If you didn't say everything you wanted to say, we do read our emails.

It was just my final sentence.

Okay, great. Thank you so much for coming in to speak with us. Next speaker, please.

Next speaker is Sunny Bostrom-Fleming.

Welcome.

I think we're all agreed how blessed we are to live here and for the debt that we owe to all the people that have gone ahead of us. For over 100 years, there's been a law in Piedmont which says fireworks of any kind are prohibited. Most other cities don't have this. During D-Day, which was the biggest aquatic invasion in history, where the people, 170,000 of them, went to Normandy, crossed 1,000 feet of beach to the sheer cliffs and were being fired on by enemy troops. There were tremendous injuries, as you can imagine. But in America, on the 4th of July, we had more injuries than the Allies suffered on D-Day. The greatest overland invasion in history was called Operation Barbarossa, when 10 million German soldiers, all kitted up and uniformed, decided on the same day to invade Russia. Never a good idea. You can imagine the sustaining injuries on an adventure like that with 10 million men crossing over a border to invade another country. We in America had more injuries on the 4th of July to our people than were lost during Operation Barbarossa. During the first day of Gettysburg, with the tremendous losses that were sustained injury-wise on the 4th of July, we had more people wounded. Now, the main difference between American wounded on the 4th of July holidays, which is more than just the one day, is that 40% of our wounds were children. They weren't soldiers. They were children, some very tiny. The most common, 15,000 people during this holiday were taken to emergency rooms. Imagine that cost in tears and in cost. The main loss being the loss of hands and thumbs and fingers. I'd like it if you could think of ways we could extend the law we have to other states to make our citizens of America safer like we are in Piedmont.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I was just going to ask clarification from staff, just confirming that fireworks are illegal in our city.

They are illegal in our city and in all of the cities of Alameda County.

Okay, thank you for that confirmation. Thank you for the comments. I'm looking at our deputy city clerk. Is that all of the public comments this evening?

That's all the public comments that I have.

Great, thank you so much. We're going to go ahead and close public forum. And we are going to continue on with our presentation this evening. which is bittersweet. It's a proclamation recognizing our public works director, Daniel Gonzalez. So we will read a lengthy proclamation. So everyone should get really comfortable. If anybody brought popcorn, this is now the time to eat it. And then Daniel, I don't know if you want to say a few words, but I do know that we have people in the audience who will want to say a few words as well. So maybe we'll let you go last. All right. You may want to sit down because this is long. I'm not kidding. Whereas, City of Piedmont Proclamation. Whereas, after more than five years of dedicated service to the City of Piedmont, Daniel Gonzalez will conclude his term as Public Works Director on July 10, 2026. And whereas Daniel began his service with the city of Piedmont in December 2020, bringing invaluable expertise as a civil engineer alongside a proven track record of visionary leadership. And whereas during his tenure, Daniel expertly oversaw the management and maintenance of the city's infrastructure, including storm and sanitary sewer systems, streets, sidewalks, trees, parks, and playgrounds, highlighted by the repair of over 8,586 lineal feet of sidewalks just since July 2023, as well as the trimming of more than 1,000 trees in 2025 alone. Whereas, in addition to routine municipal maintenance, Daniel successfully managed a diverse portfolio of projects that significantly improved the functionality, accessibility, aesthetics, and enjoyment of our community, including, but not limited to, a new lighted stairway Trees and landscaping at the Highland Guilford Steps. New pathways and ADA accessibility improvements at Crocker Park. New pathways and ADA improvements at the Drisina Park off leash area. A practical and beautiful replacement pedestrian bridge in Piedmont Park. New dedicated pickleball courts and an inclusive top lot playground upgrade at Linda Beach Park. Pedestrian safety improvements on two major thoroughfares, Grand Avenue and Oakland Avenue with secured grant funding and active plans underway for Moraga Avenue safety upgrades. Beautiful new green infrastructure installations at Grand Avenue and Fairview Avenue. new batting cages for both baseball and softball at coaches' fields. And whereas Daniel's technical acumen was instrumental in achieving city compliance with the US Environmental Protection Agency's consent decree, and in finalizing the designs for the phase six and phase seven sewer repair projects. Whereas under Daniel's leadership, the city celebrated the completion of two highly anticipated landmark projects, the remodeled state of the art 911 dispatch center and the grand opening of the brand new all electric Piedmont community pool. And whereas Daniel has consistently demonstrated a deep commitment to the City of Piedmont, tirelessly maintaining, improving, and beautifying our community while upholding the highest standards of integrity and professionalism in municipal service. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that I, Betsy Smagle Anderson, Mayor of the City of Piedmont, do formally commend and honor Daniel Gonzalez for over five years of exemplary service, and on behalf of the entire City Council, extend our profound gratitude and appreciation for your monumental contributions to the city of Piedmont. Thank you. Okay, we have some folks in the room, some dignitaries who want to say a few words, and I'm going to welcome to the podium first our former mayor, Jen Kavanaugh.

Thank you. Daniel, from the time you moved here with your family, you have become an integral part of the Piedmont family. And our mayor listed off all the amazing accomplishments that we've achieved under your watch. which doesn't account for all the amazing plans we have in the works yet to come. So I won't revisit that, but what stands out to me the most is who you are as a human across your department and how you've integrated yourself into the leadership team, both among the staff as well as how well you have supported the council What I think of when I have worked with you, you have a professionalism, a clarity of thought in your recommendations. You're prepared and you're open and flexible in how you think about how we approach problem solving in our community. And as a council member, I can say that was one of the things I valued the most about working with you because I didn't know a thing usually about what you were talking about. But you were able to break it down for me in a way that I could then explain it to my constituents and others in the community to say this, it isn't always the best path forward. It doesn't mean we have the resources to do what we would love to do and yet it becomes the right path forward because you get behind it and support it in such a way that we're able to move forward. So it's a tough job. You had really big shoes to fill. I think our former director, like the amount of stuff he actually had in his head that you couldn't extract when you took over this position was real. And I know that was something we all held very closely. And yet you strolled into that position like you've been doing it for years. And I know that you'll work with us to find a replacement, but I can't imagine how we will find someone to fill your shoes. So thank you for everything you've done for our community. It's meant the world to me.

Okay, I don't know who else is, I saw our former city manager come in. Is that who I should call up to the podium now?

There is Sarah Lillivand present to speak.

Yay, Sarah, thank you for coming down to speak with us tonight.

Well, thank you for having me. Good evening, Council Rosanna. Daniel, I had to be here tonight. I'm definitely not in Council Chambers attire, but I had to show up because showing up is what you do. and what you've done um in such a remarkable way we didn't get to work together for maybe as long as you thought we would or as long as i we i thought we would um but the time i was here and then following your work since uh it's just so impressive you do such a hard job um i think the director of public works maybe, and the planning director, both. You said you've been here a little over five years, but I think that gets, it's like dog years. You get like a 7X multiplier for your job. It's really hard, and most people don't know. They see the things maybe that got listed there, and they might appreciate the sidewalks or the trees, but you take a lot of heat in that job, and... I would describe you as unflappable. Not just up here where the cameras can see you, but back there as well. And it's gonna be really, really hard to fill your shoes. And Piedmont was so lucky to have you. I was so lucky to work with you for the little bit that I did. And I guess the last thing I'll say is beyond all the great work that you did and the enjoyment for myself working with you, probably my best moment was More than a year into Daniel's time at Piedmont, we realized that my mom was Daniel's second grade teacher at St. Leander's in San Leandro, and my dad coached his sister in basketball. And it's just such a remarkably small world that on paper, we didn't have any connection. There shouldn't have been any connection between us. And it was, you know, quite a while into our working together, we had that moment. And I'll never forget that. It was a really special part of my time working with you. So thanks for all you did for the city and for me. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Sarah.

No other speaker cards, but I do know there's members in the audience who want to speak.

Oh, wonderful. Please, yes, come to the podium.

Good evening, Council. Nancy Kent, Parks and Project Manager. It's really hard to believe that this is Daniel's last city council meeting. And the city, and especially Public Works, is really going to miss his leadership and vision that he brought to this position. Speaking on behalf of the public works staff, Daniel believed that we could always do better, and he gave us the tools and encouragement to improve. Much has been said about the many projects he managed, but speaking as the parks and project manager, he also moved forward the city's first tree inventory, replacing a program that was over 35 years old, and we now have an inventory to track over 8,000 public trees. He also supported staff efforts to make our parks more sustainable, something very near and dear to my heart. And understood that managing our resources required that the city first examine how we manage our parks and and evaluate how we are doing that, and then look ahead for guidelines for future decision making. So there's more to come on that report tonight. So we hope you will stop by Public Works and discuss current sports, especially soccer, and trade travel tips, and we all wish you the very, very best.

Okay, does anyone? All right, so maybe we should let you speak, and then I'll let council have the last word.

Well, I'll keep it short and sweet. I think the greatest professional honor of my life is becoming a public works director. And I will say anything that we've accomplished, and I'll always say we, is because I have a great team. Most of the people that you do not see are the ones doing all of that work. um i appreciate the support thank you sarah for your trust um thank you council you know only the mayor is part of that original group but it's uh i appreciate your trust and just know the decisions and everything that we do i wish i could say yes more often to everyone i always wish that was the case but um but certainly you know every decision that has been made has always been made with the best interests of piedmont and piedmontures at heart and so that's that's always been the goal And that will always continue to be the goal. And I will always describe this community as we because it's always going to be near and dear to my heart. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Okay. So now counsel my colleagues if they want to say anything. Yes, go ahead. I'll go. Okay.

Microphone, please.

I said Daniel and I both arrived in City Hall at the same time December of 2020 and I have to agree you came in knowing everything. I was eyes wide open and I was a listener to everything you said and I remember being on certain site visits with you and there would be in one instance Down at Beach, there was an irate resident. And I remember thinking, he can't speak to Daniel that way. Why is he speaking to him that way? And you were poised and so articulate and so smart and always such a problem solver in any circumstance. And I thought, you nailed the virtuous public service role model. And then I got a message from Daniel one night, and on my phone it translates. and it said the message was from Danger Gonzalez, not Daniel Gonzalez. So you leave tonight, and it has been for me. I think of you as that Boy Scout who was out to solve problems, who was going to make everything better than you found it, and you have. But there is still the Danger Gonzalez that nobody wants to mess with.

That's awesome. Thank you. I also remember I wasn't on council yet, but I was part of the interview panel that brought you on that team. And I remember thinking in the interview, wow, this guy's a rock star. And you have not disappointed. You have one of these jobs that's like foundations and things and such where people are like, huh? But you and your team make it interesting and important. And it's something people don't notice except when it's not going right. The crack in the sidewalk, the tree limb that's fallen, all of these different things. And the pool on top of all these things that you've been doing. And you've done it so eloquently. And quietly gone about the business of making sure the quality of life for people in the city is very high and that those basic things are functioning well. And you've set us up for success in the future with the inventories and the list of projects that can carry on. Once you leave us, but I know your future is bright. And I just thank you for your commitment and enhancing the public trust, right? Because there are a lot of projects that people want done. that are important and you've always been able to articulate very clearly why a project is moving forward. And so thank you for enhancing that public trust and for enabling us to be better messengers about why certain projects get done. Thank you and wish you all the best.

Okay, Council Member Ramsey.

There's a lot. You know, I'm gonna just simplify this. You know, of all of the capital projects discussions or any capital project budget, Anything that's built in the city, I'm always a lot more comfortable when you're in the room because not only of your knowledge, I know you're prepared, but the way you deliver information too just makes everybody more comfortable. So, you know, if you notice, I always, if some subject comes up, I always look around to make sure, okay, Daniel's here, good. We're in good shape. And I also, you know, I was thinking maybe I'll just, you know, text you every year when the PCI number comes out so we can, you know, because we need to have that discussion every year. I don't know if anybody else can really step into that role like you have the patience to talk to me about that every year. So thank you so much for your service.

I agree. Thank you for your service. And the one thing for me that really has stood out about you here is it has been very clear to me how much you enjoy the engineering side of things. Like I remember doing a site visit over at the pool and you were like nerding out over the curb construction. And, like, you were clearly excited about it, which is infectious, you know. So I was happy to learn what I have been able to learn from you, and I really appreciate all of your thorough answers to my questions during council meetings. And I know you are on to other great things in your future, and I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you.

I just want to echo all of my colleagues and the speakers this evening and just say, you know, you've done some amazing projects before you came to Piedmont, and I know you'll do incredible projects after you leave Piedmont. But if you're ever having a bad day, please come back to Piedmont and just walk around and just tell yourself, I did that, and I did that. And you can say we if that makes you feel better. But really, it's you. I mean, the amount of work that you have completed in five and a half years is just, I don't think we'll ever have another period like it. I mean, it just really was sort of our renaissance of public works here in Piedmont. And I just cannot appreciate you enough. Thank you. Okay. Let's go ahead and take a picture. And anyone who wants to be in the picture can be in the picture.

Thank you. Thank you. He's here.

Okay, thank you all for that. Usually my favorite part of the meeting, but it's a little mixed emotions this evening. Okay, before we move on to our consent calendar and our regular agenda, I'm going to go ahead and introduce. our acting city attorney, Denise Bazzano. And she, I don't know if you want to say just a few words about yourself, but you're going to be our go-to here for at least a little stretch.

Correct. Thank you, Mayor. Denise Bazzano. I'm a partner with Burke William Sorensen, and I provide public agency services throughout Northern California. I'm happy to be here at least until the end of the year, filling in for Deepa while she's out on leave. Thank you.

Great, thank you so much and we're delighted to have you. Thank you. Okay, we're moving on to our consent calendar. It consists of items one through six. I'm gonna go ahead and just highlight them here. The first item is approval of minutes from our meetings on May 18th and June 1st of this year. The second is going to be an approval of an award of contract for the Piedmont ADA Improvement and Swing Improvement Project to Modernscapes Innovations and the amount of, well actually you can read the description in the staff report, I'm sorry, in the agenda. Item number three is going to be an approval of an award of contract for the Hampton Park Artificial Turf Replacement and the rest of the description is on the agenda. Number four is approval of the purchase of an administrative command replacement 2026 Chevrolet Silverado EV vehicle for the police department. And the fifth item is approval of a renewed certification with Alameda County regarding the collection of taxes. And the sixth is an approval of a modified resolution designating projects for Senate Bill SB1 road maintenance for fiscal year 2026-27 and authorization for the finance structure to modify the budget to reflect anticipated SB1 revenues. And that is going to be exempt under CEQA guidelines when it comes to adoption. Okay, do any of my colleagues have any items they want to pull from our consent calendar items one through six? Seeing none, do any of my colleagues have any questions about our items on the consent calendar? Okay, looking at our deputy city clerk, do we have any public comment? Now is the time if anybody wants to comment on items one through six.

I have no comments regarding the consent calendar.

Okay. I'm going to close public comment and bring it back to council. If there are not any other comments at this time, I'm looking for a motion. I'll move consent. Great. So moved by our vice mayor. Mayor? Oh my goodness, okay, I can do this. Second invite council member Long. Sorry, okay. Okay, let's go ahead and vote.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Okay, items one through six passed unanimously. We're moving on to our regular agenda, item number seven, which is a consideration of the appointment of Richard Cunningham as interim public works director and authorizing the city administrator to execute an employment agreement.

Thank you, Mayor Anderson. On the heels of the departure of Daniel Gonzalez, we have a need to both conduct a recruitment process as well as bridge the distance between that recruitment and appointment with an interim serving in that capacity. So this evening on tonight's agenda is an action item that will allow for Richard Cunningham to serve in that role. Mr. Cunningham comes to us with more than 35 years of professional experience in various municipal settings, including the city and county of San Francisco and the city of Albany. In addition to that, he has assisted the city on a number of critical projects that are actually very important from a timing point of view in this moment as we transition. And those include our consent decree, sewer related improvements and the closeout of our pool project. Mr. Cunningham has been a really important fixture inside of City Hall for actually some time as a part-time employee working to fill a project's manager role on these key efforts and he has agreed as an annuitant to come and join us in a full-time capacity until the appointment process is complete for the permanent replacement. Mr. Cunningham is with us here this evening and is happy to introduce himself as well. If you have any questions, we are here to answer them.

Great. Welcome.

Those are the big shoes we're talking about here behind. And so I think that, first of all, just a little bit of background. I've served in various capacities for Piedmont Public Works for 14 years now. under three directors uh... from larry and chester and daniel working on all different kinds of things like what rosanna was talking about and so it's been a pleasure to do that uh... in many ways uh... people say well what why are you still doing this you know kind of thing you know is no other thing and i say i tell them that there's there's a vibrancy and a commitment to community that exists in Piedmont almost uniquely, at least in the East Bay. This whole place, city government and the town is one big beehive. Something's always in motion, something's always happening. And Daniel, thank God, has had the horsepower to step in and put the resources together to make that happen. and in kind of a chief of staff role working behind Daniel, it's been a real pleasure working with him all the way through. I think probably Rosanna hinted at this, my most important job during this interim director's position appointment will be to try and get somebody who can match that level of expectation. Because that's one thing about Piedmont and its citizens and its government, is high expectations. And so there's going to be a lot of effort put into that. And then when the selection by you of the new director comes through, then I'll be glad to be that bridging person because it's unbelievable the level that's engaged in And so I'm glad I've got 14 years behind me, you know, so that I understand how it all works and all the really wonderful staff that's in the city of Piedmont. So does anybody have any questions?

I don't have any questions.

Offhand, I don't, you know, I'll be working full time. I know everybody, you know, on the whole bit. And Roseanne and I work really well as a team. And so... Thank you. I appreciate the appointment.

Good night. Wonderful. So this is an action item. So let's pause here and see if we have any public comment at this time.

I have no cards in the chambers and no one online. Please raise your hand.

Okay. Okay. Before we move on for a motion, I just want to express appreciation to Rich for being willing to serve in this role for us and I think I love the sort of the metaphor of the bridging for public works, bridging between directors. So I appreciate the importance of that role and I'm so grateful to you. So do we have any other comments or we'll take a motion at this time? Okay. Motion made by Council Member Long. Second? Second. Second by Council Member Plumier. Let's go ahead and vote.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We are moving on to Agenda Item Number 8, which is consideration of approval of an exception to the 180-day California Employees Retirement CalPERS waiting period, who are retired annuitant under government code, lots of code sections, and authorization to execute an employment agreement with Rachel Perez to fill a critical need in our police department dispatch.

Great, thank you Mayor Anderson. So also on this agenda tonight is a second appointment reso and What's maybe a key feature of these action items, it's required by CalPERS that when we're using annuitants in a role that it be on a temporary basis and that it be part of an action that comes before the council on a regular agenda. So this item is specifically pertaining to an annuitant that was previously with the City of Piedmont as a dispatcher. And we are within a six month period inside of this window that would require council action to allow for a person to return inside of the six month moment of departure. So given the unique expertise that is associated with this employee, we have prepared an item for your consideration tonight. And Chief Chavies is here to talk through any questions or concerns you may have relative to training efforts underway and the key role this individual will play in preparing our future permanent staff.

Absolutely. Thank you for your consideration on this matter. We, as most of you all know, are experiencing high turnover in our discussion, but we have a number of really incredible new hires that are here. And due to a set of extenuating circumstances, we had an employee who retired recently but is looking to assist in our training efforts. Bringing this annuitant back on after 180 days gives us the opportunity to train new staff that we will hopefully have for the long term and send folks out to calls when fire is dispatched. Because the majority of our- It would be nice for that to happen. Yeah. But no, we are grateful for the ability, for this individual to be willing to come back and help us. And again, she had been with the agency for 23 years. It served for quite some time, and dispatch has given us a ton, and we're asking just a bit more. So I'm asking that the council adopt this to give us an extra 960 hours with her.

Wonderful. Great. Thank you so much for bringing this to us. Do I have any questions from the dais? No, no questions. Okay. Do we have any public comment on this item?

We have no public comment on this item.

All right. Bringing it back to council, again, just appreciating your role in making sure that our department is staffed to address the needs of our community within the 911 dispatch center and appreciation to Rachel Perez for being willing to come back and serve in this critical function. Thank you so much. Yeah. Can we have a motion at this time? So moved. Okay. Motion made by Council Member Long. Second. Seconded by Council Member Premier. Let's go ahead and vote.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Vote is unanimous. Thank you. And we are now moving on to Agenda Item Number 9, which is consideration of the acceptance of the Sustainable Park Management prepared by WRT Design. Just to clarify, this is not an action item this evening, this is just an informational item, is that correct?

The action that is part of tonight's meeting is actually accepting the request.

Just accepting, okay, okay. Okay, but obviously if we have questions, if there's items that we feel like we wanna follow up on, that is all quite appropriate.

Yes, and the project has been a long time coming. We have a great deal of content that we'd like to cover with you this evening, and a number of very special guests in the audience as well. So with that, I will hand off to Nancy Kent, our Parks and Special Projects Manager, who will walk through some introductory remarks before the presentation begins. Great.

And will you help me with the computer when we need it? Yes. Okay. I don't need it just yet. Okay. Good evening, Council and Mayor. Tonight we have our consultants. So just to repeat, tonight we have our consultants WRT here to present our sustainable parks management plan. They will give a brief overview of what's included in that management plan with an emphasis on chapter five implementation guidelines for future decision-making. So as a review, the Park Commission began discussing sustainable practices in Piedmont parks at various meetings in 2024 with a recommendation to City Council to allocate funding for sustainable parks management plan in fiscal year 24-25 budget. In May of 2225, city staff invited proposals for preparation of the plan, and the plan was, the contract was to perform the services was awarded to WRT on August 5th, 2025. Community outreach and public engagement started in the fall with the Harvest Festival, along with four pop-up events in our parks following in December. We launched a survey at the end of 2025 and concluded it the next year. The consultants will go over some of the results of that tonight. Park Commission received presentations by WRT at their February 4th. and June 3rd meeting. The recreation commission also received an update from city staff on the sustainability plan on June 17th. So city council last discussed this management plan at their meeting April 6th of 2025 where they requested that the final report also consider impacts of recreational uses on park resources. So, as stated in the staff report, the goal of the management plan is to establish best practices to protect the spaces and landscapes that make our park so special, improve the systems and practices needed to care for them, and ensure these spaces continue to serve the community for generations to come. So our hope is that this report will provide recommendations for how the city CAN ACHIEVE THESE GOALS. SO WITH THAT, I'D LIKE TO INVITE WRT TO MAKE THEIR PRESENTATION TONIGHT TO COUNCIL. WE DO HAVE YOUR SLIDES ALREADY PRELOADED.

Good evening, Council. Pleasure to be here before you today. We're putting our slides up. I'm John Gibbs, principal at WRT, and with my team, you'll be introduced to Madison, Meryl in just a moment, and Gabrielle Castrellati, a resident of Piedmont as well. The whole team was so excited about the work on this project, I think the good work that was done on this project. We wanted to see it all the way through to you tonight. And we work for various cities and municipalities across the state nationally. And we come to this moment in a project where we've started from inception and arrived here. And this is one of those plans that we just feel really good about. It started with just a very thoughtfully written scope of work that was really well defined. There were some good challenges. You guys grilled me and asked me some really tough questions when you hired us. And we have moved through just a really successful process, gotten really important feedback, tough questions from the community, really good work by your commissions. And here we are today with a plan that we're really proud of and we're so appreciative of the guidance from staff to get us here today. So with that, I can start clicking because I think we're all set up. Let me see if that... No, not yet. Well, we can do it manually too. No worries, we'll keep rolling. It's a short presentation. It's one of those things that it either works or it doesn't work. Very good. So why this plan? You guys gave us an important direction to understand sustainability, to understand management of the park system. This is not to rethink our park system. This isn't to reprogram our park system or change how our parks look and operate. But it is to recognize how important parks are to the Piedmont community. for everybody that uses parks. And it really, these are intergenerational spaces from our youth to our kids, seniors going out for walks, dog walkers, athletics and sports, such an important central part of community life. And with all that popularity comes a lot of challenges, a lot of heavy use, sometimes infrastructure that we have to continue to maintain and manage and to fund. and that creates challenges. And so a plan is helpful to guide that, guide some of those priorities and guide how we operate and manage the parks in our community. So the next slide, that sort of sets out what the plan, setting out to do. How can I go ahead? There we go. And so this plan looks at, well, we started with how are we currently taking care of our parks? What are those inputs? We wanted to align our maintenance practices with The best practices that are out there, and I'll talk a little bit about what those are in just a second, we wanted to understand what our community values are to make sure that we have good public comment to guide the kinds of recommendations that we're going to make. There's a lot of engagement that was completed and is really well written in this plan that I hope guides the use of this plan down the road. Madison's going to speak specifically about some of the strategies and guidelines, and there's an implementation framework. And I think as I said a minute ago, this plan is not about designing new parks or designing new facilities or making specific changes about parks. We're steering clear of that. This is a management and a higher level vision. Next slide. So the planning process, this is about an eight-month process. In August, we got kicked off. The top bar is the different phases of the plan, and the bottom one is really all the important phases of the engagement, the listening exercises, the pop-ups out in the parks, numerous engagements with park commissions, and here we are. Really nice, efficient process. The plan is organized as such with really clear chapters. We're really interested in the usability of this plan, usability by staff. We think that it invites the community and the public to read the plan and to become champions, and certainly our elected officials, all of you, to understand what's really important about how we guide our parks moving forward. So really nice, clear layout. Next slide. And then, so we started with this assessment process to understand through research what are those best practices, what are the legal guidelines from the state of California that are really important to understand and to make sure that we're following, but also to integrate this plan into city policies. You have a general plan with a with an open space element. You have a climate action plan. You have lots of other things. So it's really important this plan fits into those other frameworks. Also really important work with the community, which I'll talk through in just a second, lots of visits to all the parks. We visited each of them, walked through, made a lot of our own observations. And then we had some really great meetings with staff and with the maintenance team, including your maintenance contractors as well. So it's a really comprehensive set of inputs that really shaped this plan. The next slide summarizes, as Nancy did a minute ago, just some of the engagement. Over 500 people engaged overall through all the various pop-ups, through online surveys, and got a lot of good feedback. And so there's some things that we heard that we incorporated into this plan, so that's part of the published document. And two that show up right at the top, dogs and the need for off-leash dog areas, but also the natural beauty. And those are important themes and drivers for this plan as it moved forward. So some of the key findings, you guys are doing a pretty great job, and that was reflected in the high values and the high marks even that Daniel heard just a moment ago. Just a lot of really good work that happens here. And so those core maintenance practices are strong, but we also really found that there's a lot of demand for your parks. They get a heck of a lot of use, and out of that demand comes a lot of wear and tear. And sometimes, and we've seen this happen where the park, starts to fall apart or uses start to have conflicts with each other. And so we definitely recognize that and are offering some strategies and largely for how to better manage and maintain and where additional resources sometimes need to be applied in order to align those resources to that demand. So that becomes an important thing. Irrigation, our irrigation systems and our water conservation strategies, those were recognized. Erosion, stormwater management, slope stability, that became an important point. Our climate is changing. Daria from Bartlett, she's an urban forester, really important contributions, just understanding the importance of trees and how trees and the species that we're planting, how that is probably going to change over time as our climate changes. And tree is there for 50 years, 100 years, 200 years. We have trees that are older than that. So we need to be thinking ahead to that kind of tree succession. So that's really clearly documented in the plan, as well as some consistency around some of the rules and things within the park system. for some of our findings and that translated into some of our strategies and recommendations.

Thank you. So with that, I am going to go over the recommendations in the plan. So Chapter 4 is the home of all the recommendations and really the meat of the document. They are divided into three key categories. The first is system-wide guidelines that are more high-level guidance that's meant to be applied to all of Piedmont's parks. then there's many specific guidelines and then there's also park specific guidelines park specific recommendations that apply the guidelines to each of piedmont's individual parks so i'm going to give a high level overview of these but i encourage you know all there's a lot of great detail in the document to be referenced um so actually if we go back one slide that's okay So the system-wide guidelines are divided into these nine topics as shown here, and each of them have their own associated policies and actions. Some of the key highlights include expanding slope stabilization for slopes that are specifically impacted by erosion, restoration of sensitive areas by removing invasive species and supporting wildlife habitat, transitioning to more drought-tolerant and climate-adaptive trees and plantings, and reducing resource use through more efficient lighting, low-carbon materials, and zero-emission equipment. So that's just a taste, but the plan has a lot of actions for each of these categories. Next slide. So one of the key ideas of this plan is the idea of management zones. And the idea is that within Piedmont's parks, there's a lot of different landscape areas that have different attributes, specifically the comparison of natural versus manicured and also high use and low use areas. And that the way we manage the parks should be reflective of those attributes. So for example, natural high use areas such as perhaps Piedmont Canyon or the Dracaena Ravine, these areas may need more slope stabilization or more durable plant material to support the existing uses. Where more natural low use areas is where we can really prioritize restoration and removal of invasive species. Manicured high use areas include things like sports fields and play areas. This is where we need strategies like resting natural turf areas that are high use and worn or adding additional comfort amenities to support the users that are using those spaces. And this is compared to manicured low use areas where those areas are where we have perhaps opportunities to reduce the use of turf and have more low water use and low maintenance landscape treatments. Next. So the next level of detail is the amenity specific guidelines So these are specific design considerations for key park amenities that are particularly relevant to Piedmont These include play areas picnic areas sports courts dog parks and off-leash dog areas And these are really to help ensure that existing and future amenities Respond to both the community's needs and also the patterns of use in the park minimize impacts to natural systems, respect the neighborhood context and also the park's character, and also support long-term maintenance and durability. The guidelines provide guidance around siting, where it makes most sense to site these amenities, what design considerations should be taken into account, how comfort can be supported for users through shade, through seating, through things like that. how to ensure these amenities are both accessible and compatible with surrounding uses, and then also other maintenance and operations considerations. And so the third part of the chapter four, the recommendations chapter are the park specific recommendations. And so these take the more high level guidelines and applies them to Piedmont's individual unique parks. There's an array of recommendations, but they include things like updating irrigation systems, integrating low water use plant material, stabilizing slopes, resting worn lawns, and more. And a lot of these can be implemented through ongoing maintenance, but some will also require capital improvements, which would also need further planning, design, and community engagement. So that brings us to chapter five, which is the implementation chapter, which is intended to help serve as a roadmap for implementing the actions in the plan. It starts with these implementation priorities which is designed to be more of the high level of guidance for what the city should focus on moving forward. These are based on the community input that we receive, the conversations with staff, our assessment of all the parks and management strategies. And then if we go to the next slide. This is then followed by an action plan, which then provides more detailed guidance for implementation. So this takes all these system-wide actions and applies an implementation horizon to each based on how much the action supports sustainability and also how easy it is to implement. So we have short, mid, long-term horizons, and then also ongoing for actions that require ongoing implementation and yeah this is meant to be flexible guidance to support planning and budgeting but can always be modified And with that, just to conclude, the sustainable park management plan is meant to ensure that Piedmont parks are resilient, efficient and sustainable. It will really require a lot of coordination, sustained investment and thoughtful trade offs. But in the end, the hope is that the landscapes that make Piedmont special will remain vibrant for generations to come. So with that, I'll open it for questions.

Great, thank you so much. So I do see that we have our parks chair of our parks commission as well as a member of our parks commission. Vice chair? Chair and vice? Oh, the chair and the vice chair. And I would just invite you to make comments at this time if you had comments that you wanted to share with us. Thank you.

Thank you all. And a really big thank you to city staff, Daniel, Thank you so much for this and your last meeting here. And thanks to WRT for putting together a great report. As was discussed at the beginning, Parks Commission initiated this idea and the thought there was that we do a lot of what needs fixing now in our community because things break and we have to fix the things that break. And we were very interested back in 2024 with the idea of what can we do and what actions will benefit the city now and into the future with respect to the parks. And I think the most important finding of this whole process is that the community loves its parks. and uses them for many different things, many different activities. Obviously the outreach that was done by WRT in developing the plan showed how many people, we almost love our parks to death, as I think one of the major conclusions there. Speaking for myself, I think I am very pleased that the report is comprehensive, lays out priorities. And it will guide city staff in management practices and future budgeting. And those are very important considerations going forward. There are a few key items, some which are probably obvious and some which are less obvious that need to be budgeted, including irrigation improvements and slope stability projects that were identified. Certainly some of those were known and I know is already budgeted the city the irrigation system at Maine Park, but I'm surprised to learn there were other irrigation improvements that are also necessary. And longer term, that recommended shift in management practices to emphasize sustainable climate adaptive species, it's not gonna significantly impact the cost of the city, but it will add a great benefit to the city now and into the future as we adapt to the future climate. And as we have vegetation, beautiful parks that are going to meet the needs of our future climate. So thank you all for sponsoring this, putting this in the budget. So thankful to staff and WRT for getting this done. Thanks.

Great. Thank you. Thank you for coming to the meeting and sharing those comments and shepherding this process along. And please pass along our appreciation to the entire Parks Commission, because I know everyone was quite involved in that. Okay, so now we're going to open it up to questions, unless there's anything else. Okay, so questions now, and I'm sure this is, I mean, it was a very comprehensive report, so there's a lot of different topics that were touched upon. Now is the time if we have any.

I more have comments than questions. Okay, go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you so much for this report, these recommendations. There were so many interesting aspects of what you unpacked. I mean, the first is just the amount of policies that are impacted by what happens in our parks, right? All the things. So there were a few areas. One was the tree canopies, which I was interested to learn from you all are from staff, like when we talk about replacing trees and species of trees, can someone speak to what that looks like and sort of what's the runway for that kind of replacement?

You're asking me to speak for the trees?

They do talk.

Too easy. Yeah, I think it's important that we think about trees in their lifespan as opposed to thinking about trees in a big action because trees grow to this stature and this presence over such a long period of time and you have to think in that time scale of trees. It's like geologic time for the earth and it's like there's a time scale for trees. And so you got to be proactive because that tree is going to be there for 80 years or 150 years until it's not. And then you got to replace it. And so ideally, you're thoughtful about not doing that all at once in a park. So you have no trees and then you have all of a sudden all trees that are that are perhaps in peril so that that sort of that blend of that timescale becomes really just so important. And we also heard from the community how important trees are to their quality of life. And we hear that when there's tree controversies and things like that, it's why people really show up to speak for the trees. So I think the plan is is helping us recognize that that process and recognizing the the threat from climate change to a lot of our trees, and so we need to be thinking about species that will grow to that similar size, have that same kind of a presence, but are going to be trees from a different geography. We're not going to be thinking about Portland, Oregon trees as much as we might be thinking of Central Coast or or other Mediterranean climate. So we're going to be looking to different inspiration for some of our species, but ideally not lose that effect.

Okay, thank you. And then sort of, Because to your point, they're 80-year-old trees, and when we talk about replacing them, is that like replacing them with a baby tree? Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Yeah, more specifically, so how do you do that? So Crocker Park is a great example, full of big, mature trees who we recognize some are going to be at the end of their life in some future date. Maybe it's... 10 years, maybe it's 20, maybe it's 30. So now's the time to start planting those newer trees so that they're able to get to some size. Trees don't all come down at once, ideally, unless there's some really catastrophic thing. But you may start to see the decline of some trees. So as trees are coming down, newer trees are growing up. And it's that blending that's part of that management practice that we want to encourage here.

Okay, thank you. I also, no, no, please.

Well, I was just going to say that one of the interesting things about this study is you start thinking about park planning differently than we did 20 years ago. And for the first time, at least in my career, and I will say it's over 30 years, so it feels like a long time. We are thinking about planting trees now that will be vibrant in 50 to 100 years, and with the current climate change, we need to plant trees now that are adaptable to what we think are going to be warmer climates in the future. So there's a lot of studying going on right now about looking at species that are in more southern regions, and that those southern regions are actually moving north. And so trees that, what we've seen in Dracaena is a die off of three species, firs, pines, and cedars. those trees planted 50 years ago were happy. They're not happy now. So we're looking at, as John said, staging replacement, but we're also looking at trying new species. One of the species that's my current two favorite, the Quercus tomantella and then the Quercus lobata. These are trees that the Quercus tomantella is from the Canary Islands. Channel Islands, and then Labada is more from the Central Coast. So as we lose trees, we're infilling with some new species and seeing how they're adapting locally.

Yeah, it's impressive. Just the thought process of saying, hey, I mean, just like the one in Crocker that, what was it, lightning hit it and, you know, I mean, And so thank you. Thank you for that. Another aspect, I mean, and there are many, was the trying to have more cohesive signage and communication within the parks. Could you talk to us more about what you mean by that? Obviously, lots of different uses. So can you just expand on what you meant by that?

Sure, I think what we were coming to find was that Rules and what a community member can do in a park differed greatly between the parks. And something that we heard from police on the enforcement side of things, as well as staff and trying to manage these parks, was it made it very difficult to enforce rules in parks when they were so different. whether that's time of day or the things that you can do in the park. And what we find in so many communities that we work in is that staff resources are tight. There's limited resources and that amount of time to kind of go out and try to engage and try to talk to people is really difficult. It's difficult for community members to know, well, I can do this here, but I can't do this here. So is there the ability to create some more consistent rules? And then you need to post those rules because that's the other key part of enforcement is an officer that may be called and is not doing something else, but is coming out to a park because there's you know, maybe a low-level problem, it makes it a lot easier to refer to some kind of a posted rule to say this is actually the rules here and it's the same all over and therefore that clarity translates to the ease of enforcement, but ideally also the ease of a community member to understand those rules and not require, you know, any other kind of actions.

So I'm going to ask a follow-up to that. Because I'm curious if one of the things we might want to, as council, ask our Parks Commission to do or to look at is, is there a way to kind of standardize our park rules across the parks? And I know this is not a new question. This is one that prior park commissions have looked at. And the rules, you know, come from somewhere. They weren't just made up out of whole cloth. But I would be curious if there are ways to help our public kind of know what the rules are and that it sounds like consistency would be a big part of that if we were able to accomplish that.

I think that's right. I think I could speak to one other thing, which is, you know, there's some parks which are heavily impacted by by, you know, receive a lot of demand and a lot of uses. And there's some other parks that are really just don't have a lot of uses, don't actually offer a lot to the public either, except maybe a bench. I think it's also possible to use rules to just even things out a little bit, take a little pressure off of some parks and allow a little bit more use in some other places. If there's you know a play area in this park and there's no play area in this other park and one's really impacted it's like maybe we need two play areas or at least a tot lot for kids and and nannies and parents to sort of be able to hang out with their kids you know that might actually take a little pressure off so i think that was another observation that's embedded in there yeah thank you for that because i think one of the things that occurred to me while reading this was are we are we thinking about

our parks in that sort of whole system, like this park serves this need, this need. So consistency may be a little bit more difficult if you're saying, hey, this park has this use and serves this purpose. And so the signage is going to be different, or is it... We recognize that we have parks that feel different needs, but the consistency is the language we use in each of the parks, right? Like every park has the same sign, has the same sort of at the entry, at this, other things that would provide a level of consistency other than just actually specifically the rules.

Yep, I think that's what I'll say.

Okay.

Thank you. Vice Mayor. Thank you for this report. And I want to thank our Park Commission, any of us on council who have had the privilege of working with the Park Commission know how focused and resourceful and brilliant the folks who serve on that Park Commission are and how your enthusiasm for our parks is infectious. And anyone who sits in those meetings or watches them walks away with that. with that enthusiasm. This report is phenomenal. I am so appreciative of it. I feel like we support a lot of these policies already. They're in progress, but there's so much food for thought and opportunity going forward for us to explore. So my question really is for Nancy Kent, because you had harnessed the enthusiasm of the Park Commission and we had had some conversations. And I think my recollection is you said, Conda, really, we need to get a consultant. We need to look at it holistically. We need to get some input. So you pushed council. You suggested to council that we fund this report, and we did. So my question to you is, did this give you the guidance that you were looking for when council funded this report? Do you feel comfortable? What are your thoughts on this report?

Well, I think that what we wanted was somebody to come in and look at and really give us a clear-eyed look at how are we doing as a city. And I think sometimes the views of a consultant can look at things a little bit differently than staff. And I would agree with you that I think a lot of the maintenance things that we're doing are moving in the right direction, but I think this document challenges us to do better. And I would say the biggest change that I've seen in our parks over the last 10 years is that we can't manage them the same way we did 10 or 20 years ago. There's so many competing needs now from making sure that we have green infrastructure when we have certain compliances or managing our tree canopy or making sure our walkways are accessible. And to the point about signage, we also need our departments to be working together with us. So I know our police chief would love it if there was one ordinance for all of our parks and their staff knew that every park was managed with some minor changes, but the uniformity or the making sure that we collaborate with all those different departments, I think that's so important. So for me, this report exceeded my expectations in terms of giving me or giving the whole staff management tools and ways to prioritize and look at some of the things we haven't looked at before like erosion and really being clear-eyed that irrigation has to be a priority because that's one of our and of course our our Park Commission chair is a real advocate for that so I think there's a lot of things here that we're going to use that are going to make our parks better and I think there's also this goal as there's a lot of landscape architects in this room and our charge is to be stewards and we really want our parks to be vibrant in the future and with some of the changes I think we felt like we need to come up with some rules some guidelines so that we know that we're managing them now so that they're vibrant in the future so I'm really grateful to WRT for their hard work and how they really anchored this report. So it's very Piedmont centric. You know, it very much relates to what we have here as a city.

I think that's very validating for all of us to hear. And I'm hoping that you'll come back to us with specific budget requests that we can move forward on, on some of these priorities in the future.

That would be great. Yeah.

Uh, yeah. echo everything that was said here, but I want to pick up on two additional things. One is, you know, it's not just the work product here. That's a wonderful too, but the process too, it was very thoughtful, very inclusive. Uh, and, um, you know, it was fun to hear little parts of it too, as, as you guys went through this. So I want to call that out. It's not just the product, but the process too. Uh, there was also, there was some talk of this too, and there was a word that was used to describe this that I really like, and it was usability of this. And I wonder if you could, and my question is, could you talk a little bit about it? Like, say, as you prepare a budget or priorities next year, you know, how that's going to be different and impacted now that we have this, as opposed to a couple years ago, and then how we can keep using that in the future. Because I think it's important to know that, you know, this isn't a book I'm assuming here it's not a book that's going to be done, a report read kudos put on the shelf. But if you could talk just a little bit more about the usability of this, you know, and the value of this, not just as we, you know, uh, review it today, but, but in future years.

Right, so I think there are maybe three main buckets of how we're going to use this. I think one is there are things that Public Works, our staff, can incorporate immediately into our practices. Those are better use of some of our materials, better use of some of our equipment, ultimately getting battery operated, you know, maintenance equipment in all of our parks we're doing that at the pool we need to you know make sure that we can get some of those things citywide I think there's some policy changes that may come forward that's sort of like the second bucket talking about signage or regulation I think it would be really helpful for the city to look at our park ordinance and really clear-eyed loop in recreation loop in police and really understand what is our capacity for enforcing some of these rules that apply to different parks and also looking at the priorities that have been expressed in this guidance and then the third which is I think what you're really talking about our capital improvement projects I think looking at their implementation strategy we might each year grab one or two of those projects and say, this is what we consider our most urgent project, and can we ask council to fund it? The two that come to mind for me right now, besides our irrigation, which we do have funding to start the study in the main park in 26, 27. The other is really trying to come up with some techniques in our parks for eliminating erosion. And there's a whole realm of things, whether it's slope stabilization or replanting or rethinking. how we protect certain vegetation. So I think it's going to be hard work on the staff's part to prioritize which ones we want to do first, but I think it's flexible enough that you know, if an opportunity comes forward like a grant, which they never seem to be available, but if we could find a grant, we could move, you know, different priorities forward. So I am hoping each year that the Public Works Director will say to the Parks and Project Manager, what do you think are the key things that we should ask for funding this year, along with hopefully the Park Commission in their annual report saying, these are the priorities that we would really like funding for. And maybe we'll get a couple of those in the budget.

That's great. And one follow-up, where can the, oh.

Council Member Ramsey, if you don't mind.

I feel so comfortable, he's in the room.

I will just add, I think that's an excellent response. I'll just add a few things to that, that there are so many competing priorities in our parks and for all of the needs for capital improvements for budget. We know that what this document does is it gives us guidance on how we should be proceeding when we look to prioritize and bring projects forward. And I think that's really, really critical because we know that We are constantly asked for different things in our park spaces and we know we have limited resources. And so many of the projects that we look to bring forward, we always want to check those projects against these guiding principles to make sure those that have the highest compatibility with the recommendations of this plan should be the projects that we're looking to bring forward first. And to make sure that we can explain how those projects are compatible when we ask for funding. Certainly there will be things that maybe are less compatible that we might have to bring forward at some point. But we should always be viewing it through the lens of the recommendations that are in this report. If it's not consistent with that, then we need to check and recheck why we are prioritizing that type of project. And that should always be a continual thing that we're doing during budget, during internal discussions. The real value of this is that it frames our priorities so that we could make sure we're prioritizing the right types of things.

Follow-up, could you remind us where the public can take a look at this?

So it's posted in, if you, there's a link in the staff report. It's also posted on our website under park sustainability. Piedmont.ca slash sustainable parks. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We'll put a link to the report on the city landing page. Yeah. Okay.

Just as a quick follow-up to that, are we able to give a hard copy like this? We have some organized stakeholder groups in Piedmont who are very big investors, both time and money-wise, in our parks. It would be great to give them a copy of this as well as the high school for their sustainability units that they study.

Happy. We can definitely do that. Thank you.

Yeah. Okay.

I have some questions. Did you have any? Okay. Go ahead. It was more of a comment along those lines, which is it does seem like some shortened version of this in the papers and I know we've talked about it but like would be great because I think that our community really does care and love our parks and if they understood better the issues of erosion and how those uses are wearing on the parks, I think it would be very helpful and I think people would internalize that. The other thing that I thought was interesting and helpful was just some of the suggestions around you know, creating barriers or protective areas between uses that seem like things that, to your point about how we're maintaining the parks now, how can we move in the direction of these protective areas? And even with signage of like, hey, this is going to, you know, erode the hillside, so please keep your pets or whatever it is. And I think people can relate given what's happened in some of our parks already, so...

thank you okay great um i had a couple questions uh one i wanted to follow up on the topic of irrigation so and i'm just wondering it seems like this is a high priority irrigation in piedmont park and we've talked about it for several years now and i'm wondering how we can help as a council to help that project along is there anything you need from us um to for next steps on that

Well, I believe you've approved funding for the first study. So I think when we think about the irrigation in Piedmont Park, it is 30 plus years old and it's been kind of bubble gum together and different things have been upgraded. So this is a chance for us to look at the complete park. and actually create a system that responds to the topography. So if you know anything about irrigation or water, it runs downhill. So the system that is at the base of the hill should be run differently than maybe at the top of the hill. We need to have different systems for trees and shrubs and all of that. So I think the first step is to have staff get an RFP out for a irrigation designer to look and do a master plan. The thing that I really think is going to be challenging is when do we start the installation? Right. Because the ideal time would be like maybe Christmas when people aren't using the park, but that's when it's rainy and wet and you're digging trenches or whatever. That's a challenge down the way. So I think for right now, maybe just making sure the Park Commission stays on staff to get that RFP out and track it and make sure that we move that forward as soon as we can in fiscal year 26, 27.

Great. And then it sounds like once we have that plan in place, then we can figure out the very tricky bit about timing. Because as we were just talking, people love our perks. And it sounds like the park would have to close, at least the parts being worked on for irrigation would have to close during the duration of whenever.

We could do it in segments. Probably not during Fourth of July or after that. I mean, one of the things you think about with irrigation is where do you use your water the most? And that's for lawn. And so we want to be as efficient as possible when we're using that. So that's going to be really exciting for staff, probably boring for the public, but exciting for us to see a modern system in play. There's a lot of new technology, too, that we can use.

Awesome. Okay, and then I had another question. As we heard in public forum earlier, and I know some questions have come up, in the Parks Commission about dog parks and specifically a request for fenced dog parks. Although today earlier we had a request for just some off leash dog time at a park that does not currently allow that. So I'm curious if someone can talk to the impact of dogs on our parks And why or why not was that? I mean, it sounds like you said from the beginning that we're not talking about new uses in this report. We're really talking about sustainability of the parks as they exist. So I'm just curious about how a conversation about new uses might come about in the future. So twofold, one impact of dogs and then the second would be like if the Parks Commission or the Council wanted to talk about alternate uses, kind of what would the process for that be?

I think we recognized just intense use of parks. And sometimes that's kids. Sometimes it's dogs. We tried to think broadly. So yeah, intensive use by dogs is similar as kids. Trampling. uh vegetation is is trampled which it tends to expose the soil so you then would need to add mulch and cover if you're on a slope that's going to exacerbate that kind of a challenge we don't i don't like to pick on dogs because it's not the dog's fault and and actually dog areas are really important for owners let's let's i think that's kind of the reality it's Certainly it's for the dogs. They're our dear friends. But the socialization of people is really important. So we see the effects of trampling, and generally we see erosion. Sometimes we see conflicts between users, and we heard from the public. dog owners that really enjoyed going out there and seeing their dogs and interacting with each other. And then we saw other people who were fearful of off-leash dogs in that area. So we heard a lot of conflicts between some of those users. So that kind of separation is important. The other piece to your question, just prompt me on that one again.

It's just really the question. So the sustainability report is really focused on our properties kind of as they are and making sure they're resilient and the community can continue to enjoy them. But when we get requests from the public, and I'm not necessarily saying that we're just receiving the report tonight, but in the future, I'd just be curious to know if, for example, someone comes to us and says we want to put in a sand volleyball court or want to put in a fenced dog park or, you know, there's lots of ideas, right? There are no end of ideas. Then how would that... And maybe this is a question, yeah, for Daniel and for staff. How would we- Add in maybe if you want to add.

So I'll go ahead and start and then allow perhaps John to add on. So I think one of the key things is that there's existing uses and new uses. And I think that's part of what you're asking about and describing. So for new uses, one of the things we would always say is that it has to go through a planning process. We can always modify space. I'll say this. This is coming from the engineer and the person who loves construction and loves building things. It was the kid who built with Legos all the time because I like that stuff. Putting up fence and putting down pavement is always the easy part. It's usually the planning process to make sure we're meeting the needs of the community, the surrounding community. We're thinking about impacts, that is the hard part. And so as we spend time thinking through what those impacts might be, we want to be very thoughtful about it, especially with any change of use. And so I think that's the consideration. If it's an existing use, it tends to be something we can address through maintenance. Anytime you're looking at introducing a new use, usually my recommendation would be to have some form of planning process. So we're very deliberate and we give it real consideration. We understand impacts. We understand if there are potential issues that have to be mitigated, we can figure out how to appropriately address those. And so my recommendation would always be to go through that, to understand what those are, so that when we proceed, we have real confidence that we are addressing whatever issues might arise.

One of the things that I thought was really an aha moment in this report was that we have limited resources, our park system is not going to expand. So if we are going to introduce a real modification or say a new use We need to be really clear eyed on whether we have the best management practices to manage that resource. So one of the things this report did is it said if you're going to have this picnic area, here are some of what the National Recreation Association of Parks, there's an acronym for that. Here are the things that they say ideally you want to consider if you're planning this. So I think in some of the high use activities that might damage parks, like say a group picnic area or even a fenced in dog area. If we can't, let's just say we don't have the space or It's really a lot about space and context. To develop that kind of resource, then what we have to do is commit as a city to more resources to make that thing that we've sort of shoot, we've kind of fit into the system. How are we going to make that work? So that might mean if it's an intensely used small space, we're going to have to make sure we budget accordingly to take into account that use. So I think what I loved about this report is it sets some standards. We as a city, if we can't meet those, and these standards are like management practices. If we can't meet those standards and we still want to go forward, then we have to as a city commit resources to make that thing fit into the system. So I Just supporting what Daniel said about a planning process, there also has to be a recognition of capacity and what can we handle and what is it going to take to manage and maintain that space. Great, that helps.

That's really helpful. Thank you. Did you want to add on to that?

I do. I read this several days ago. But there was some discussion about challenging residents to be good citizens too, right, and to show respect. respectful use shared spaces, which we have to do. So it is the city primarily, but it's also encouraging our citizens to be good stewards of the park along with our leadership and share the spaces in a respectful way and understand they are inclusive.

Great, and that is good lead into my last question, which I was really excited to see in this report, which is about picnic tables. Could we talk about picnic tables and why? Because we've never had those really formally in the city. And because I saw in a couple different park areas, it was contemplated that we might want to think about picnic tables. And so I'd just love to hear more about why that was included in the report, what benefits we might I hope to receive from having picnic tables and then what might be the downsides and kind of what would be next steps for thinking about that.

As you might imagine, picnic tables are pretty normal things to have in parks. They're a great place to sit with some other people and socialize. And they're very accommodating and they're very low cost. And sometimes we see cities try to discourage certain people from sitting, and so we remove all the benches. So perhaps over time, there was a reluctance to actually allow a lot of people to come and to hang out in a certain park space. So we didn't put those in, but I think that this plan is recognizing that people do want to socialize. They want to sit in these parks. We have rules against bringing outside seating into parks, which is kind of in recognition of some of that demand. And maybe it's time to take another look at that and to allow that to happen in a reasonable way.

That's great. No, I love the idea. So we haven't talked, it's not agendized to talk about that specifically this evening, but I'm just curious about how, if we had a majority of council members interested in this, how would we move forward with talking about picnic tables?

I think as we assemble all of the possibilities that are associated with the plan, the lowest hanging fruit like this one is very much likely for us to move forward on a rapid basis because it is items that we can advance the goals of our management plan with. So we would love to come to you in the very near future, this fiscal year, with some changes on low hanging fruit items like the picnic benches. These, I think, for staff come with a lot of satisfaction that we can move forward, plan elements. Some portions of this take really, really significant financial resources. For those that we can move on on a more near-term basis, we'd love to get behind that work and bring some action items to you in the future.

And historically, there are several picnic tables in the city that were done through donations. So we're running tight on benches, so maybe we can have a, I need to discuss it with some other organizations, but that may be, maybe we have an option of having memorial picnic tables.

That's a great idea. Yeah, can we put a ribbon around the picnic tables? Have a ribbon cutting? Sorry, that was a joke. Okay, Vice Mayor.

No, I actually was gonna suggest the same thing, that there would be naming opportunities. Sorry, and also not just picnic tables, but I think game tables would be great. People could play dominoes in the park or all kinds of activities like that would be great. And I think you would get a lot of enthusiasm for donations.

Okay, great. Thank you. Any other questions before we move to public comment? I think we've asked a lot of really good questions. No one's questions were better than anyone else's questions. We all asked equally good questions. Okay, do we have any public comment at this time? We have no public comment on this item. Okay, no public comment. So now we're bringing it back to the dais to any final thoughts before we potentially move to accept this amazing report.

I would like to say something.

Yes, please, please, please.

I normally have questions because things are not clear to me, and this report was amazingly clear. I was very impressed with it. And it feels to me like a guidance for the Bible of our parks in Piedmont and something that will be really useful in the future. So I was very excited to hear what both Daniel and Nancy had to say about... look into the future and how you expect that we'll be using this report. So I'm excited for all that future work. And I assume that based on what you said, that there will be the taking of this consultant's report. And often consultants say, oh, we came up with all these great ideas. And everyone's like, oh, what great ideas. And then it doesn't get from the great idea to the implementation. So I know that from what has been said already, that you already have plans for implementation. And I look forward to seeing that. come to fruition and to be able to like these are things we were going to do anyway let's look at our report for the parks and get ideas and suggestions about how to do them more effectively and efficiently and in a way that will be better for the climate and sustainability of the parks moving forward so those are my thoughts about the report and thank you for your work on it

Great. Anybody else? So I would just add that I have been stopped by strangers and thanked for the parks in Piedmont. So I just want to acknowledge that our parks are obviously used and well-loved by our residents, but they are a resource for our broader community. and that I'm particularly proud of. I think it's really wonderful that we can share these spaces and that we highlight, especially Piedmont Park, when we have community events like Food Fest and the 4th of July that we just had. It just makes me so happy that we can use our parks to bring people together from not just Piedmont, but from, as I said, around our broader region. So I want to thank the Parks Commission. I want to thank PBF for all their help and continued help with our parks. and WRT for putting together this amazing roadmap, snapshot of where we are and where we're gonna go together as a community, so thank you. Okay, if we don't have any other further comments, oh, and I wanna thank Nancy Kent, thank you. Thank you. Yay, and all other staff who worked on this, it's really great. Okay, so if there are no other comments, let's go ahead and I'll accept a motion to accept the report if that's where we're headed. Okay.

I would like to enthusiastically accept this report.

Great. So moved by Council Member Ramsey. Second. Seconded by the Vice Mayor. Let's go ahead and vote. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. The report is accepted with much appreciation and gratitude. Thank you. Okay, moving on to agenda item number 10, which is our second reading and consideration of adoption of ordinance 792NS, retitling and amending chapter 20. And thank you to the folks leaving. Article 4 of the Piedmont City Code to provide for an increase of the real property conveyance tax, aka transfer tax. to $17.50 per 1000 of sales price or 1.75%. This is related to the next agenda item, which is number 11, which is a consideration of a resolution related to the placement of this measure on the November 3rd, 2026 general municipal election ballot. But right now we are focusing our attention on agenda item number 10. Go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor Anderson. So we are returning to you today after direction that we received in early June to proceed with the further development of both policy language and a ballot statement, a proposed ballot statement as reflected in item 11. A great deal has happened since we were last before the council and I think as we both participated in advocacy on behalf of the city along with with you as council members in advancing the importance of the real property transfer tax. We have also kept our ears to the ground with reference to the work of the legislature and what was afoot with a statewide ballot measure that very much shapes or has the potential to influence the direction for both us and 26 other charter cities in the state of California. So what we have brought to you today are these two items, both to take a second pass at ordinance language associated with ordinance 792 currently on the books. And to also take the time to hear from the public about potential language for their consideration. Leaving our last meeting and direction received from both the Budget Advisory and Financial Planning Committee, as well as Council, keeping track of what was happening at the statewide level, what we are bringing to you this evening includes language that proposes a particular rate structure that is in keeping with the parameters that had been defined by Council. So what I'd like to do is both walk through the proposed language change frame for you how this fits into the status of discussions at the statewide level and also at the same time kind of prepare for a ballot language discussion that is influenced by this final form of the ordinance so With that, just as a recap, we are currently at a rate of 1.3% on every sales, every sales transaction occurring with real estate in the city of Piedmont. As you're aware, there was a constitutional amendment that had been placed on the ballot to potentially restrict the way charter cities can grow revenues or develop revenues for the benefit of their city services. Since we last met, what has taken place is that particular ballot measure, the statewide ballot measure, was removed from the ballot in a compromise with legislators, the governor's office, and the proponents of that prior constitutional amendment. And where that leaves us is what is a an agreement that will later be penned in legislation that we believe, to the best of our ability to predict, will focus on closing a loophole that currently exists in state law for a tax to be placed by citizen initiative onto the ballot without a a two-thirds majority. So the compromise, if I can maybe state it more clearly, is to, you'll hear it talked about in the news as close the upland loophole. So what that's going to do is raise the voter threshold required for citizen-led tax initiatives. Now what does that mean for Piedmont? Probably not a great deal in that the compromise took different shape than was previously the focus of the written constitutional amendment that was scheduled to be on the statewide ballot. And what that has opened up for us is the ability to potentially change our framework from the 1.3% level to a level that is consistent with staff's direction from all of you. which was to find a landing place between where we are today and 1.8% to be consistent with both the budget advisory committee's recommendations and begin to look at how we can more strategically build our facilities capital fund to improve our ability to address maintenance and capital needs in the future. So what is before you today intends to present an action item that would allow for the increase from 1.3 to 1.75%. We are here to take feedback from you and also share that this type of an approach, our average sales price in Piedmont is approximately $3 million when we look at the last three years. And when we compare ourselves as a city of Piedmont today to our neighboring jurisdictions, we find that our current transfer tax rate is actually below that of our neighbors. So that is a very important dimension, we believe, that is to be considered as we look to change the potential to change our transfer tax rate. Are there other things you would like to add at this time? Okay. So with that, you'll see contained in the staff report on page two of that staff report, a table that looks to identify additional revenue that would be generated by the recommended 1.75%. And should the council proceed with adopting or approving the second reading of this ordinance, the 1.75% level would land us at an estimated $1.5 million in additional revenue each fiscal year. So when we were last in front of you, we talked about that figure and we're keeping our eyes open as to what might be happening with a state compromise. We now have As much certainty as we could have at this time, which is constitutional amendment was removed by the deadline. So that is no longer the threat it once was. The timeline that we're working on is a timeline to submit necessary information to the Alameda County Elections Department. And we are on course this evening to be within that timetable for submission.

Can I ask a question? Yes. So because we don't get any extra credit for doing this early. Correct. And in fact, there's still a little uncertainty. And maybe the uncertainty won't resolve between now and when the materials are due. But I'm curious about an option. I just want to flag to my colleagues about having a conversation about this tonight, but continuing this item and potentially the next item to our next meeting in July to give both the public another chance to weigh in, but also to see if we have any more clarity with respect to the state. I mean, again, we might not, but if there's no advantage to sort of finalizing early, I'm somewhat tempted to wait as a body. And I'm gonna look at Denise and see if there's any legal, is there any legal reason why that is not a good approach?

No, so thank you mayor for that question So the items could be continued to the next meeting and I think you would still have sufficient time to Finalize the documents and then submit them you want a little bit of a gap You want a little bit of leeway in preparing the items for submission to the county, but I think that's plenty of time So yes, it would be acceptable legally to continue the items

Great. Okay. Thank you. So I'm just planting that seed right now. Go ahead.

I think, and correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think there is a July 20th deadline for opposition and support of ballot measures to be published.

I don't know if that's something that matters to- I think that's a self-imposed deadline, and I'll let Denise answer that question.

Right, so if we continued the items to that July 20th meeting, then those dates for the primary arguments and the rebuttals, those would have to be changed.

Okay, that's a Piedmont deadline, that doesn't come down from the county? Correct, yes. Gotcha, okay, thank you.

I think the county deadline is the 7th, am I correct, of August?

Yes, so the deadline referenced by Council Member Plumier is a 14 or 15 day distance from the adoption of the second reading. So that date that shifts self-imposed is a city clerk established timetable where the obligation to submit the arguments is a function of a period of time following the approval of the second reading. So we would shift it back to reflect a new date on the calendar as long as it's prior. And we have cross-checked it.

Yeah, I mean, as long as it can make it onto the ballot materials, that's all that I care about. Yeah.

Okay, I do have some questions. I wanted to just talk a little bit about our neighboring communities and kind of where they fall on this spectrum. And right now, what I'm looking at is materials prepared by the League of California Cities. And we're all aware that Piedmont is surrounded by Oakland. And so I'm curious looking at this, you said the average right now the past three years of home sales in Piedmont is 3 million. And kind of how that compares to, if you're buying a $3 million home in the city of Oakland, kind of what that would be for a transfer tax rate. And I think it's 1.75, if I'm reading this correctly.

Yes, Mayor, it's 1.75% for houses up to 2 million, and then between 2 and 5, it's 2.5% in Oakland.

Oh, maybe this is, okay, I might be looking at something wrong here. Okay, because the one I have, it says between 2 and 5.

Sorry, sorry, you're right. So it's 1.5% for 300,000 to 2 million, and then 1.75 for houses between 2 million and 5 million, and then 2.5% for houses greater than 5 million.

Right, then they have a tiered approach, which we have talked about previously. Okay, and then I think the other community that we sometimes look to is Berkeley, because they're not too far away. And where would a $3 million sale land in Berkeley? Maybe I should say this year and next year, because I think it's changing, right?

It will change, yes.

So this year, it looks like it would be... Oh, boy. 3.5%? 2.5% greater than...

greater than 1.6 million now. And then it's going to be, I think, closer to 3% greater than 1.7 million starting next year. So it's significantly higher, even with the increase that we are proposing.

All right. Thank you for that. And then those are my only questions, I think, right now on this item.

I would like to offer that even if Council did not take action today, it would be great to hear feedback on any dimensions of what's contained. If there are any other areas you would like us to research or bring additional information back, whether it's on this item or item 11. I think that could be a very helpful exercise for us.

I'm looking at our acting city attorney. Can we talk about both items right now or should we keep them sort of distinct?

No, we can talk about them together. It's just we would need to make sure that we take public comment collectively or separately if we're going to do it. But it's better to do it collectively so that everybody has an opportunity to speak before council considers the whole. Okay.

So should we just take a pause here and do public comment?

We can. Before we do that, though, I do want to mention to the council that there is a redlined ordinance at the dais for your consideration this evening. There were, after publication of the agenda, we realized that there were some edits that were inadvertently omitted from the version that was included in the package. Primarily edits that are in the red line are edits to pronouns to make it more universal. And then also there were some changes to the first section, the the finding section of the ordinance, yes, the finding section of the ordinance, some additional language was added about the purpose of the section. Okay.

Great. And then I had one last thing before I move on. Oh, I see. Thank you. Average versus median. Okay. This is a finance director question. So we said the average of the last three years is $3 million.

Do we know what the median home price is in Piedmont over the same period of time?

I do know it, but I don't have it in front of me.

Okay, I apologize.

I have it in Excel. Can I bring it back on the 20th?

Okay, we'll continue on. Let's look to see, do we have any public comment on this agenda item, which is agenda item number 10? i have no public comment on this item okay closing public comment on agenda item 10. um can i go ahead and ask for public comment on agenda item number 11. yes you can do that if if and if you want to discuss item 11 before you take public comment that's acceptable as well okay um so we're sort of mushing these together we're going to make sure our deputy city clerk keeps us on track and Reminds us to do public comment on agenda item number 11 here in just a minute. Number 11, it looks like, is the actual language that we're talking about, placing on the ballot, so what voters would see. It used to be that we used to punch the thing, but now it's filling in the oval. Maybe we do both now, I don't know. Okay, any... Any questions about the language?

Go ahead. I apologize. It's not downloading for me, and I only have it on my laptop, but I did read it, and I was comfortable with it when I read it.

I actually went ahead and pulled up the language from 2020 because I was curious. Our current language is so much better. It's so much more clear than the way we wrote it in 2020. So I was kind of laughing at my former self. Because you thought that language was great at the time. I'm sure at the time we thought it was fabulous. We understood it. Yeah, I'm sure we thought it was fabulous. But I think this is an improvement. But obviously, we can be open to even more improvement if there are things that folks think we should be adding or deleting.

Isn't there a rating system for ballot measures that's done? Yes. Could you talk a little bit about that?

So this is a grand jury group that convenes to evaluate the transparency associated, the clarity and transparency associated with ballot measures. And if I am not mistaken, in the last maybe three months, we have seen a report come out from that body weighing in on measures countywide and our school district received very high marks for the straightforward, transparent quality of the language as it relates to representing what was really being voted upon. We also were a beneficiary when we last had the municipal services parcel tax on the ballot. We received high marks as well for the city's work. And this council may recall that was over several meetings, revisions to the ballot language to kind of arrive at a final form that had the council's buy-in to reflect in the clearest way possible what the city was aiming to convey so voters understood what was before them as a decision to make.

Is there any preview process or something?

I do recall that there is a Piedmont representative who has historically served on that countywide body. There is no formal preview, but there may be opportunities to have some dialogue with them. Yeah, we could reach out.

Yeah, I mean, if we do your suggestion of continuing this, I think that would be a helpful thing to do, continue and still publicize this to the public.

Mm-hmm.

Give it a stress test. Great suggestion.

Yeah. I think this is written well. I might change the word order a little bit just to say, shall the measure to increase the real estate transfer tax from 1.3 to basically provide Funding for the city Piedmont's essential city services such as police, so forth and so on. And also be in alignment with East Bay. I would put what we're doing up front. So I would just say what we're doing is increasing the transfer tax versus saying the other things first.

So shall it measure that increases the real estate transfer tax from X to Y? Yes. In order to provide funding for the city of Piedmont's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And to be in alignment with neighboring East Bay cities and generating blah, blah.

Yes.

yeah the the only reason i would say that because it just it's just direct like you understand right away what is it that we're asking what are we asking for but it's but yeah i mean i understand that there's also the like the sandwich of this is why you want to do right yes because of all the great things your city does and then on either end like and we're also in alignment with neighboring communities like yes you're paying more taxes but these are the great reasons to do it yeah

I mean, either way I think works, but that was when I read it, I thought, well, this would be another way to...

Absolutely, and that's the way we did it last time, and it didn't pass. Okay. So I'm not trying to not be clear, but I do think if you start with the need, maybe it captures people's attention rather than starting with the number.

You know what I mean?

Like start with explaining the need first. people keep reading. It's less than 75 words, so hopefully folks will read the whole thing. But I think that was my thought in terms of the order of it, trying to get people to focus on why we're asking.

Good job remembering.

I also wonder about the word align, too, if you can interpret that different ways, too, even though I think that's important to do that comparison. I don't know how to wordsmith that properly into the... into the measure, you know, because it doesn't align. It's a little less than one. It's aligned with some.

Well, it doesn't align because they have tiered, right? Yeah. They have tiered.

Is there a better word?

What are we trying to convince people of with that word? Right.

Well, just that we're not we're not trying to do anything crazy that other cities are not already doing. Yeah.

Right. And in fact, we'll still I mean, honestly, we're still going to.

Yeah. By the way, I looked up the median and it's $3,510,000. Really? So it's higher than the average? So it's even higher than the average.

Wow. Wow. Okay.

Yes, yes, yes, ma'am. I favor keeping the need first. There's an emotional response. I think we all have paying taxes, like no new taxes. people are more likely to vote for taxes if they know they're getting the services. So I would speak to the services, and these are the services we're funding with this tax. And then you're asking for it. I also think that this was workshopped before it came to us, and that having maybe Mr. Henn look at it before we meet on it again is probably enough.

And I can say one of the improvements over four years, six years ago, whatever it was, six years ago, is that in that language, it was a blanket statement of what the money could be used for as if it would be used for it. And here our language says it's for essential city services, which one would hope all of our city services are essential, such as before it lists the list of... So it's a more accurate description of the use of the funds.

And I don't know about alignment versus another. We could look at a thesaurus, try to figure out, right? Because it doesn't line up.

You also want to be like sixth grade meeting level students. so that people don't have to think too hard.

And then my other question was with East Bay Cities, I mean, should we just call out Oakland and Berkeley? Or is it more polite just to say East Bay Cities? Neighbors.

You can just say to be more in line with.

Neighboring cities. In line, yes, that's better. In line. In line with. And it could just say neighboring cities. Our neighboring cities.

We're still the low price leader.

We're still the low price leader. Come shop at Piedmont.

I really like that more in line. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I think I've written down to better align. That's worse. All right. So that is some feedback from the dais, right? But any more on that? Have we taken public comment on that? Let me just make sure. Have we done public comment on agenda item number 11, which is language? There is no public comment for item number 11. Okay. We may go out and seek some public comment.

And can I just confirm with the clerk that, assistant clerk, that you're checking both the online and in person, obviously. Okay. Just wanted to confirm.

Speaker cards in the chambers as well. That's right.

And then since it's back to the council, just want to confirm what I heard from the council. There was a majority to change alignment to in line with more in line with our neighboring cities. Got it. Thank you. We do need a motion to continue, and I would recommend it be to the date certain so that all the notices follow.

Great. Okay, so I think we need two motions because these are two separate agenda items, right? So we're going to go back to agenda item number 10. which is that second reading of the ordinance that would establish this. And so what we're seeking is a continuance to our next meeting date, which is July 20th. Does somebody want to confirm that? Is that correct? Next regularly scheduled city council meeting is Monday, July 20th. So that's the motion that we're looking for at this time.

So moved. Thank you.

Moved by Council Member Long. Second. Seconded by Council Member Plumier. Let's vote. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay, so number 10 is continued to a date certain. And now we're looking at number 11, agenda item number 11, which is the specific language of the ballot to which we've made some suggestions this evening. We're going to seek some additional input. So now I would be looking for a motion to continue this agenda item also to July 20th, 2026. That's amended. A motion made by Council Member Long? Yeah. Okay, great. And seconded by Council Member Plumiere. Let's go ahead and vote. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

So both agenda items 10 and 11 have been continued to July 20th, and we'll see if we have additional information to discuss at that time. Is that right? Okay, thank you so much. And now we are moving on to what might be my favorite agenda item of this evening, agenda item number 12. Which is, I don't know why- We've got 45 minutes to talk about it. I know, I'm having a hard time keeping track of my documents tonight. Okay, all right, I give up, I give up. It is about procedures, here we go. It is consideration of an amendment to city council policy number 25. That's so specific. To establish a 9 PM curfew for considering council agenda items with an overall city council meeting curfew of 10 PM. Boy, this is exciting.

Thank you, Mayor Anderson. Staff has returned this item to you at the council's request or at the request of an end of last council meeting where a discussion briefly occurred about interest in this policy and the chance to have it revisited by the council. So one of the things I think that's most key to focus in on on this policy as it stands is back at the time that the council had a start time, much later than it is today, of 6 p.m., a policy had been established for addressing meeting management. And what we have done as staff is taken some liberties with the draft for your consideration here tonight. We are looking specifically at the continued start time of our regular meetings at 6 PM. And suggesting that there may be some changes that you you consider and if you look to page seven in the agenda report, you will see red line changes that are meant to capture some of the comments that were raised at the last council meeting. So with that, I'll hone in on a number of key areas. One is relative to the time limit on meetings and consideration of agenda items. What is being proposed is that no meeting extends beyond 10 p.m. except by a majority vote of the City Council. This would replace the end time of 11.30 that was previously referenced. And in the event that the meeting's not extended, any agenda item not called for consideration by nine would automatically be continued to the next council meeting unless the council chose to take a vote and direct otherwise.

Great, sounds like an amazing policy. So we're gonna go straight to public comment, see if we have any public comment on this item. And then we'll bring it back for questions and discussion.

We have no speaker cards in the chambers and there are no hands raised. I was hoping for a filibuster.

Okay. So bringing it back to council, I really appreciate everyone's consideration of these changes. My first meeting, I'm sure you've all heard this, but my first meeting went till 1.30 in the morning. And I just don't ever want anyone to have to go through that ever again. It's just, it's too, your brain turns off. And I don't think as a body we're able to make good decisions after a certain, certain time. So I'm really grateful that our meetings start at six o'clock now. I think it makes sense since they start an hour and a half earlier to have the end time be an hour and a half earlier. I have a question though about kind of how this gets implemented and I'm gonna be looking at Denise for guidance on this because my recollection of the old policy is we had to keep re-voting every 30 minutes. Lisa, do you remember this? Like every 30 minutes we'd have to re-vote to extend the meeting. Is that some other rule? Because I don't see it written in this policy. Is that, or can you just vote to extend the meeting without any time limitations?

Yeah, that may have been just a practice that was implemented previously or maybe in the moment there was just a continuance every half hour because that was the only extension that council members were given. A council member will only extend for a half hour because I'll give you a half hour more, but that's it. But then when you get to that end of the 28th minute, you realize, no, we need another half hour. And so it just- It's like soccer. Right. It can get very tedious, but everybody wants to get out of there. So they're only giving a little increment. But for this policy, there's no check-in every half hour required. Okay.

Question, does this apply to other commissions too? Because I remember a planning commission that went to 1.30 in the morning.

The war stories were coming out.

I know. As presented, it is only for council. It could be applied to future bodies if that were the direction of the council. I think one thing to consider. It may have become a practice, but one thing to consider is if we have difficulty recruiting, for instance, for commission vacancies and such, if one of those reasons is the time commitment associated with late night meetings, it might be something the council considers adopting for all bodies.

Commissions, though, only meet typically once a month, though. So having something move to the next agenda is just going to create backlogs.

That's a good point. Although I'm sorry for your troubles. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get you therapy. Right. And did you have a comment? Because the other thing I was going to mention is I feel like this also creates certainty for staff who want to get home to their families. have to turn around and come right back to work the next day. So I do think having this idea of I'll know by 9 o'clock if my agenda item is going to get called or not tonight, I think that creates certainty for staff. So if your agenda item number 12 and the council's only made it to agenda item number 10 by 9 o'clock, you can be pretty certain that you're going to go home and be coming back in two weeks or three weeks, depending on the schedule. So I think that is also nice for the folks that we work with here. Um, okay. Any, we already did public comment. Any other comments, questions, questions about implementation? Nope.

I mean, I guess the one question, the one comment that I have, which I assume would happen anyway, but I'm just going to say it out loud is that anything that would need to be decided by date certain would be earlier in the agenda and that the items that were later in the agenda were items that could potentially be moved to the next meeting.

Would be happy to work with staff to accomplish that. In general, we do focus with placement on the larger topics likely to have either consultant time that is costly to the city or be of significant interest to the public. We try our very best to have it at the front end of the regular agenda.

Great. Okay, super. So if we're all in alignment on this, we can go ahead and entertain a motion.

I was going to ask if we could break protocol, have the mayor make the motion for this.

Oh, I'd be delighted to make the motion. That's pretty exciting. I move that we approve an amendment to City Council Policy Number 25 to establish a 9 p.m. curfew for considering council agenda items with an overall City Council meeting curfew of 10 p.m. Second. Second. Okay, the mayor made the motion. It was seconded by Councilman Ramsey. Let's go ahead and vote. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. That is so exciting. Okay, so we are done. We made it through our consent and regular agenda, and now we are moving on to announcements, reports from council members, and discussion of future agenda items. Who would like to go first? Council Member Long looks ready. Kind of.

Okay, on Tuesday, August 4th at the Isidro, there will be the National Night Out. Sergeant Nicole Casuevo will be coordinating with our community partners to help ensure the event is a success. This is an excellent opportunity for the department to strengthen relationships, engage with the community members, and continue building trust through positive and meaningful interactions. Additional details will be shared as we get closer to the event. So that's August 4th. And then on Friday, July 17th, from 6 to 8 p.m., there will be our first ever food truck in Piedmont Park. So please come, gather with friends, family, and neighbors for a fun summer evening filled with great food, music, and community. And choose from a variety of savory and sweet food trucks. Spread out a blanket or bring your favorite lawn chairs and enjoy a picnic at the park with DJ Kev. Keeps the good vibes playing with music throughout the evening. This is a free community event. Everyone is welcome. Food and beverages will be available for purchase from participating food trucks.

Okay, that sounds super fun. Definitely. July 17th, Friday. And DJ Cab is super fun.

Yeah. Yeah. Very fun.

Awesome. Okay. Thank you. Who else would like to make announcements? No?

No. I will just add that Scott Haggerty, who was a, were you going to speak to this? No. Oh, okay. Please, go ahead. Who was a local elected for over two decades and passed away, I think, on July 3rd. I just want to acknowledge his commitment to public service. And I serve as the representative of Piedmont on the Alameda County Transportation Commission. So he is very well regarded and remembered as someone who worked consistently and constantly to improve public transportation as a way of improving communities. So I just, I want to.

And I want to follow on. I mean, he had such an outsized impact on his time as an elected official and representative. He is the reason that AVA Community Energy exists as a joint powers authority. He was the reason he was a supervisor and got everyone together and said, Alameda County needs to do this. We need to have our own clean, green energy. Joint Powers Authority, and in his honor, while he's still alive, the wind farm, all those big windmills that you see, the big turbines as you're driving over the hill into the valley, it is the Scott Haggerty Wind Farm. Maybe not all of it, maybe just part of it, but it's huge recognition to the incredible positive difference he made, and what an inspiration, really, to all of us.

Yeah. Thank you for mentioning that. Any other announcements? No? Okay.

I would like to extend a very special thanks to the 4th of July Committee for delivering an amazing parade and our rec department who just...

you know, brings it across the finish line all the time.

And it was a lot of fun this year with our theme and so happy to feature so many local community leaders in the parade as well. It was a blast and really grateful for all the hands that make it work every year.

Absolutely. Tons of volunteers. And we thank them by name in the park afterwards and just really appreciate so much. And I know Kathy Kelleher is stepping down as chair, but she has kind of gone over and beyond for more years than I can count with respect to the parade. And so just deep appreciation to Kathy and all the volunteers who helped make it happen. Okay, so tonight I'm actually going to close the meeting in memory of Tam Heggy. And I'm just going to say a few words. Tam Heggy, I actually knew her growing up. because her children were the same age ages as myself and my brother, and she served on the Piedmont School Board for two terms. She served on the Piedmont Planning Commission for two terms. She served as president of the League of Women Voters here in Piedmont several times, I think not once, twice, but maybe three different times. She was just an amazingly committed community volunteer and very much dedicated to empowering people to vote. That was just a big kind of core cause for her. She always had an opinion about whatever we were talking about, and she was not afraid to share it. So she's just such a great role model, I know, for myself and Council Member Plumier, as well as many, many others here in town. She was married to the late Dr. John Heggie. She's the mother of John Heggie. Peggy, Laura, and Ann. And as you may remember, her son, John, was a member of the Oakland Police Department who was killed in the line of duty in 2009. And the backstop at Hampton Park is named in his memory. So, Tam, I just want you to know we appreciate you. And I hope you rest in peace.