City Council - Regular Meeting

Go ahead and call the meeting to order. Today is Monday, August 17th. The time is 6 p.m. This is our regularly scheduled meeting of the Piedmont City Council. We will go ahead and start, as we always do, with the Pledge of Allegiance. So please rise if you are able.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

Okay, this evening we are joined by our city attorney, Karen Murphy, who is sitting in for our interim sitting attorney, who is filling in for our city attorney who is out on leave. So thank you so much for being with us this evening. We're going to continue on now to public forum, and this is a time in the agenda. I usually have an objection to read, which I cannot find, but I can just kind of wing it. Now is the time for public forum. This portion of the meeting is when members of the public can speak to the council and any item that is not on tonight's agenda. Pursuant to state law, the council may not discuss issues brought up at public forum, but the council may or staff may, at my discretion, provide brief responses to statements made. Do we have any folks in the audience or online for public comment this evening?

Madam Mayor, I have no public comment in chamber or online.

Okay, we're going to go ahead and close public comment. Our public forum is now closed, and we are moving to the consent calendar, which is really pretty meaty this evening. We have six items that are on consent. We have the minutes from the meeting of July 7th, as well as the meeting of July 20th. We have the appointment of our vice mayor as the delegate, and myself as the alternate for the League of California Cities conference that's coming up in- September. We have approval of resolution updating our conflict of interest code. We have approval of resolution cancelling the election to be held on November 3rd and before anyone panics it's only with respect to the school board election as we have two candidates for two seats and those can be filled by an appointment as opposed to an election. Our fifth item on the consent calendar is approval of resolution requesting and authorizing the county of Alameda to levy a tax on all real and personal property in the city of Piedmont with respect to the general obligation bonds from Measure UU. That election was held on November 3rd, 2020 for the funds necessary to build the Piedmont community pool. And then finally, we have approval of a resolution amending the design review permit for 139 Luxford Road to extend the expiration date, I believe, by a year. Is that correct? Okay. Looking at my colleagues, does anyone have any item that they want to pull from consent?

I have two. Thank you. I have two questions for confirmations on just a question on each one. Can I just do that without pulling them?

Yes, you may.

Okay. The first one is item four regarding the election. Could you confirm that there's a budget savings for that, for pulling that?

The budget savings associated with the change in the election is a benefit to the school district. They will not incur a cost associated with the election cycle. Instead, the city will bear the full cost for that process.

Okay, thank you. And then the last one on item number six, could you confirm that the only change is the expiration date on that?

For item six, the only change for 139 Lexford Road is the term, which is a one-year extension.

Great, thank you. That's it.

Okay, I'm now turning it over to the clerk to see if we have any public comment on any of the consent items. These are agenda items one through six.

I do have one speaker card from Christopher Van Gundy regarding item six.

Yes, please. Now is the time. Please approach the podium. Thank you all. Please come down to the podium so we can all hear you. My voice is loud enough. I don't need a microphone. And if you could make sure the microphone is green. Can everyone hear me? No. Okay.

Does that work now?

Okay. Okay. So you have up to three minutes. You don't have to use the full three minutes. Great.

Probably have two minutes. So I'm Chris. I live at 132 Lexford Road and item number six is what I'm speaking on here now. It has to do with the extension of a building permit for 139 Lexford Road. As the council, I think, is aware, there was some underlying litigation that was settled. with the assistance of the council and the city attorney and I can't speak for the neighbors but I was one of the litigants and I've but I've spoken with the neighbors and we do not oppose the measure at all and the reason I'm actually speaking here is I want to thank the council and particularly the city attorney's office for all their great help it was This has been going on for a long time. We have a good settlement. And the city attorney's office has been very communicative. And if when the building permit goes forward, I just want to say, please, let's keep the lines of communication going open. It's very complicated. It's very long. I'm not a real estate lawyer. And we just want to say thank you. Okay.

Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate your comments. Any other comments at this time, either in the room or online? Okay, I'm going to go ahead and close public comment with respect to the consent calendar. And at this point, if my colleagues want to either make a comment or make a motion, I will entertain either.

I'll move consent calendar items one through six.

So moved by the Vice Mayor. Seconded by Council Member Long. No comments at this time. All right. Thank you, staff. And let's go ahead and vote.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. The consent calendar passes unanimously. We are now moving on to our one regular agenda item of this evening, and that is a presentation on youth e-bike and electric motorcycle use. I'm turning it over to our city administrator. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Smeagol-Anderson, council, and members of the community. This evening, we have a presentation coming forward with our police chief, Frederick Chavies. We'd love to share with you a topic that's near and dear to the community and to our police department and public safety personnel. We're very interested in exploring a number of dimensions with you, and this evening is the kickstart to that public discussion. So with that, I will hand off to Chief Chavis.

So good evening, Mayor, Council Members. Tonight's presentation is just informational. This is not asking for any legislative action, rather just an opportunity for us to spend a few minutes discussing some issues that I've seen and that many of our community members and members have also seen something that's becoming increasingly visible in our community. It's the use of e-bikes and e-motorcycles, and it's not just our community, but it's something that's growing throughout the state of California, particularly among young riders, and the importance in education and parental awareness and basic safety parameters is something I want to talk about tonight. And so just the spring season, Attorney General Rob Bonta, in partnership with a number of or several Bay Area district attorneys, they issued a too fast, too furious consumer alert reminding manufacturers, retailers, and consumers about most importantly parents and About the safety laws regarding the sale and the use of electric bicycles known as e-bikes So I want to begin by making one thing clear. I know when we started our meeting Councilmember Plymouth said that she rode her bike here. This is not a an anti e-bike conversation you bikes provide young people and adults in our community with mobility independence recreation and alternative form of transportation. They also can reduce vehicle trips. They provide families with alternative ways to get around our community. The concern is not the technology itself. The concern arises when young or inexperienced Riders are operating a device that's capable of significant speed without fully understanding the rules of the road. When a parent may not completely understand what type of vehicle that they have purchased for their child, or when a vehicle is being marketed or described as an e-bike, when in all actuality it's a powerful electric motorcycle. Generally, California recognizes three classes of e-bikes. A Class 1 e-bike provides a pedal assistance up to 20 miles per hour. A Class 2 e-bike may use a throttle or provide a motor assistance up to 20 miles per hour. And then a Class 3 e-bike provides motor assistance up to 28 miles per hour and carries additional requirements that also include the minimum rider be of age 16. But that's only a part of the issue. Some of the vehicles that we're seeing in our community and throughout California are – these are vehicles that look like – or they – Right. It looks similar to bicycles, but they're substantially more powerful. Once the vehicle exceeds the legal parameters of an electric bicycle or lacks operable pedals or has modified throttles or energy to increase its power or speed significantly, then we are not talking about e-bikes. We're talking about e-motos. California DMV now specifically recognizes off-highway electric motorcycles or e-motos as off-highway motor vehicles subject to certain OHV requirements. That distinction is important because parents may see two wheels, an electric motor, and reasonably think, I bought my child an e-bike. But what they actually purchase may have capabilities much closer to a motorcycle. Our goal is, like I've said in recent months, our goal is education before enforcement. There's some good examples around California of communities trying to address this through Education First. Several local agencies have initiated public education campaigns that emphasize knowing the class of the bike, where it can be legally ridden, Most importantly, a helmet and passenger helmets and passenger requirements and that modifying any bike can change its legal classification. I think that it has the potential to be a particularly useful model for us as the Piedmont community. Other municipalities in California have also passed ordinances stating that children under 12 may not operate Class 1 or Class 2 or Class 3 e-bikes on roadways, bike paths, trails, parks, or boardwalks. Our objective is not to write tickets to children. Our objective is to change behavior before someone gets hurt. And so the city of San Diego and San Diego PD officials, they report that hospitals across the county have seen approximately a 20% increase since 2021 in e-bike and electric motorcycle injuries, including head injuries, torso trauma, spinal fractures, rib fractures, and extremity fractures. And so that leads directly into why I've asked Dr. James to Crawford Jakubiak to join us this evening. And so police officers typically see these incidents after something has gone wrong. Our medical professionals see what happens next. And so they see the head trauma. They see the orthopedic injuries. They see the consequences of speed, the lack of protective equipment, inexperienced riders, collisions between young persons on a bicycle-sized vehicle and a full-sized automobile. So I thought it was important that tonight's conversation simply not come from law enforcement. So Dr. Crawford Jakubiak is both a medical professional and, more importantly, a member of our community. And so I asked him to share his perspective with the council on these types of collisions and what they look like medically, particularly for young riders and why prevention and education are so important. So I'll turn it over to you.

Is the green light on?

There we go. Thank you, Chief Chavis. Again, my name is Jim Croft-Jakubiak. I'm a parent here in Piedmont and a pediatrician at Children's Hospital Oakland, which is the region's largest pediatric level one trauma center where I've worked for the last 30 years. I'm really happy to be able to be here tonight to share with you the reality of a rapidly growing and preventable source of incredibly serious injuries to kids and adolescents. We are seeing increasingly young riders operating increasingly powerful electric bikes and electric motorcycles on our public streets. And I think that our community in particular has an opportunity to recognize the problem early and reduce prospectively the risk to our kids. As a former motorcycle rider myself, until I crashed my bike and then I stopped because my learning curve was a little flat, I absolutely get it why kids want to ride these bikes. They're fast. They're incredibly fun. They get them out of the house. We like it because it gets them out of the house. And I think we all get that part of it. But because of what I do for a living, I wanted to share with you The things that I see that most of you, thankfully, do not see. At our trauma center, we are seeing a dramatic rise in increased serious injuries involving kids riding these vehicles. We see severe head injuries, lots of major fractures, abdominal trauma, spinal cord injuries, kids who require emergency surgery getting sent to our intensive care unit. And some of these are injuries that are literally life altering for the rest of these kids lives. We see it every week and many weeks we see it every day where there's a new admission. It doesn't take a particularly unusual set of circumstances for kids riding these vehicles to have injuries occur. They hit cars, they hit other pedestrians, they lose control at speed, they misjudge an intersection, and often they simply just don't know how to stop something going that fast. And then they hit a parked car, they hit a pole, they hit things that are not moving. So it's not like people are hitting them, they're often the ones doing the striking. Compared with little kids or adolescents injured on traditional bikes, e-bike injuries and certainly e-motorcycle injuries are substantially more serious, and they usually look much more like a motorcycle crash than a bicycle crash. And there's a reason for that, which is that these are not simply electric bicycles. The name really is a misnomer. Traditional bicycles have a built-in learning curve. Kids develop the ability to ride faster. And as they do that, they gain experience steering, braking, judging distance, responding to traffic. And e-vehicles change that completely. Kids who have never ridden one of these could literally, the very first time they're riding, be traveling 25, 30 miles an hour or faster with no real meaningful understanding of how to operate the vehicle. And while the vehicles can give kids speed, it obviously does not give them the judgment or experience that they need to manage the speed. And the physics are also quite different. The e-bikes weigh 50 or 60 pounds, roughly twice the weight of a regular bicycle. And if you combine that weight with the speed they're traveling, many kids not wearing a helmet, or if they're wearing a helmet, it may not even be strapped to their head. I think all of us who have kids know that that happens pretty often. the potential for serious injury is just completely different than a regular bike. As all of us, I think we've all experienced seeing the kids in our community riding e-bikes. And while a large number of kids ride very responsibly, I'm sure you've seen the same thing I have where sometimes you have little packs of kids riding very quickly, riding without helmets, blowing through stop signs, riding too close together, or simply operating vehicles that may not even be legally permitted for them at their age to be riding in the streets. And I think that last point is really critical because a lot of the highest risk vehicles that we are seeing that are the result of these injuries, families consider them to be e-bikes. That's just kind of the generic term. But as the chief said, they're often not, you know, depending on what people purchase. And they're vehicles that are already subject to age, licensing, registration, helmet, or other requirements. I share the Chief's statement that I am not advocating at all against responsible e-bike use. Many kids and many families use e-bikes very safely and very appropriately. And I also agree that the answer is not a broad punitive enforcement What I think we need to do is focus on the vehicles and the behaviors that are most likely to result in serious injury. And this, to me, starts with helping parents understand what their children are riding, what they're buying for their children, and what is and is not legally an e-bike in California. A lot of parents simply don't know that some of these vehicles are already subject to these restrictions. And I think we can combine that with an education-first approach for young riders and their families, clear community expectations about safe operation, and as the Chief said, targeted enforcement focused on the highest risk vehicles and behaviors. Nobody wants to just write kids tickets for riding an e-bike. And again, as a pediatrician, I genuinely hope that we can recognize the potential and the seriousness of the problem now rather than only after someone in our community is catastrophically injured or worse. We all recognize that tragedies sometimes will happen despite our best efforts, but when we can prospectively identify something that we can potentially do something about to prevent risk in advance, I think we should do what we reasonably can to reduce those risks. So that's kind of the end of my prepared statement.

Thank you for that, Doctor. I think just the final area that I want to discuss you touched on is just parental awareness and responsibility. So there have been several recent California cases that demonstrate how seriously prosecutors are beginning to view situations in which parents knowingly allow children to operate high-powered electric vehicles illegally. One of the most relevant examples occurred just here in Walnut Creek. So in March, Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office charged two parents with misdemeanor child abuse after their teenager was severely injured while riding an Emoto, a bike that we frequently see in our community. Prosecutors allege that the parents permitted the young person to repeatedly operate the Emoto from approximately ages 14 to 17. Despite citations and repeated warnings from law enforcement, the teen ultimately collided with a minivan and suffered severe injuries. Those allegations remain obviously subject to the criminal court process. But there's an even more serious case that's currently pending out of Orange County. So there are prosecutors allege that a mother continued to allow her 14 year old son to operate a high powered electric motorcycle after previously being warned about the dangers. And the illegality of doing so. In April, the teenager struck an 81-year-old pedestrian while allegedly performing willies. The pedestrian subsequently died. The Orange County District Attorney then upgraded the charges against the mother to also include felony involuntary manslaughter, along with child endangerment and other charges. So again, these allegations, these are just allegations, and obviously the defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but it's important not to frighten parents, but to suggest that not every e-bike incident creates criminal liability, but we also have to demonstrate Just a fundamental understanding of what we are allowing our children to ride and what we're purchasing for our children. And so parents should know whether a vehicle travels 20 or 50 miles per hour. They should know whether it's legally an e-bike or actually an e-motorcycle. They should know whether their child is legally old enough to operate it. They should understand that allowing a child to repeatedly operate an illegal or dangerously modified vehicle can have consequences far beyond a warning or a citation from the Piedmont Police Department. And so what's next for us? The first step is obviously education. And so we'll be working with our communications officer on a public education and outreach campaign that will roll out in the near future. This will provide messaging targeted toward both parents and young riders. For parents, we want to help them make informed purchasing decisions and talk to their children about safety while riding. And for our riders, we want to ensure that they understand the rules of our road, the importance of helmets, the risk of unsafe behavior. Our goal should be voluntary compliance and safe behavior. If we can educate a young person before a collision happens, then it's infinitely more valuable than any citation that we could write. So e-bikes are not going away. And it's not our objective to make them go away. Our responsibility is to adapt as technology changes. And so for me, this is ultimately about providing families with accurate information, setting reasonable expectations for young riders, preventing the phone call that no parent wants to receive. So I think we can accomplish this. through education and collaboration with our schools. I know that they will be, we've been in communication with the school district, both the board and the district, and certain parent groups. It's important that we continue to engage with parents involved our medical community and have clear conversation or communication about the difference between legal e-bikes and high-powered e-motorcycles. And so tonight, we're hoping to begin that conversation. And so I want to thank Dr. Jakubiak for his time. And both he and I are here to answer any questions that the council may have.

OK, thank you so much. I'm sure we do have questions. Start with the vice mayor.

I know that this is a moving area of law. There's a lot of introduced legislation in Sacramento trying to find more definition in what's allowed and what's not allowed. For smaller communities, cities, what is it we can do waiting for that to happen? And obviously we're all following how the legislation is evolving. What can we do right now knowing that there's a lot that hasn't been decided or defined yet?

There are other communities that have introduced ordinances and have changed their many codes to address, to put some rules in place, some parameters around who can ride, when they can ride, obviously a helmet they should be wearing. And so there's opportunity for us to introduce ordinances that will make it, I don't like to say, that would... There are ways that we can make certain riding illegal.

Are they riding safe?

Yes. Well, the goal is to make it for all of us to be safe. But there are some ordinances that we could put in place for traffic and e-bike safety, especially around our youth.

Thank you. So I'm just going to follow up on that question. Are there any ordinances in Oakland? Since we do share borders with the city of Oakland, and sometimes I'm sure riders don't know when they're in Piedmont and when they're in Oakland, is there some opportunity for alignment in terms of the policies that we are putting in place?

I don't believe, unless this occurred within the last year, I don't believe that Oakland has any ordinances around e-bikes. Just, I mean, during my time in Oakland, and I'd have to look at the numbers, but they unfortunately suffered far more traffic fatalities than we do, and I know that a lot of them was because of speed, and we try to have our officers out and provide citations and enforcement and education and warnings where appropriate, but the goal is for reduced speed. I can... I can collaborate with Oakland with their traffic office to see if they or with not necessarily police department, but with DOT, Department of Transportation, to see if they are looking at implementing any new ordinances.

Ultimately, I think the state needs to provide an open-ended roadmap for us all to follow so there's consistency in between all jurisdictions. But in the meantime, potentially there's an opportunity to work together with Oakland. Absolutely.

Thank you.

Okay, Council Member Long.

Thank you for the presentation, and I know this has come up in our public safety meetings. Can you talk a little bit more about sort of what the schools may be doing? I know they have a strong biking community. I don't know if they've already started any campaign with back to school and any information that's gone out to their community around.

So leading up to the start of the school year, I know that there was conversation around implementing new rules around e-bikes on campus. And so they were seeing e-bikes being ridden throughout campus. And I know that there are some I haven't seen it yet, but I know that there will be implementing new rules around riding your bike to school, whether or not you have a place to lock it up. you have a helmet uh so that when you leave school you are riding safe and so i'm again still in communication with the school district and hopefully this is the start of of much deeper conversations and even implementing it so talking about implementing ordinances there's also rules that we can implement around our schools that i think could also be a start to keeping us safe for our children safe thank you great counselor

Sort of a follow-up to that, I know there are some trainings, and I think you had a picture in one of your slides of some bicycle training, and they use the school parking lots. Is there a way to beef that up or do it more frequently and include the materials on e-bikes and the dangers of e-bikes?

We can. So the bike rodeo is actually put on through community, and so we've partnered with community. there's definitely room to have conversation about... I know that it's done annually, maybe biannual or even quarterly, just to get the word out and to invite some of the older kids that are already riding e-bikes to try to educate them, because the majority of what we see are our Piedmont biking groups, but then also we get young people, young children that are just beginning to ride bikes, kind of what the doctor talked about. But if we... reach out or provide some sort of outreach to our our e-bike riders and we even do something around, you know some sort of Sanction space where we can allow them to have some fun, but also learn I think would be a great opportunity One other question the two cases that you talked about from the other communities are

They both mentioned history of citations, and I'm curious whether, like, what are our current laws? How do we, does the Piedmont Police Department ever give citations to bikes? Is it easy enough to find them? I know with hills here, I feel like people, zip out of the way and then you can't give them a citation versus a more flat mall type place where kids would be tooling along?

Well, kids tool along Highland Avenue. Okay. I would have to refer to data to see how many tickets we've issued or if we've issued any, but I think just anecdotally, We've seen young people flee from enforcement stops. And that too is something that we are weighing enforcement versus overall community safety. And that's why I think parental assistance would come in handy. We also don't want to be the cause of some young person in our community being harmed. because they thought they were getting a citation when really we're just trying to communicate with them or they may have been getting a citation. And so that's something that, again, we'll be having conversations with parents. Yeah, I'll leave it at that.

And I'm curious, so that would be like if you saw a kid riding a bike without a helmet or whatever, or too fast.

Or doing willies up and down Highland.

Okay, something noticeably unsafe. Are there current laws?

Yeah, so there's exhibitions of speed. We see young people riding against... Our very few one-ways in town riding against our one-ways, specifically up and down Magnolia, riding along the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic on Highland.

What about for ownership, like the parents owning the bike that's clearly sized for their kid?

There's...

Restriction on that?

Yeah, there's restrictions. There's also opportunity to impound vehicles. But again, our goal is to educate first and talk with parents. We've created a small group of young kids who, on their own, after having a conversation with them in the park, have come up to us. We've just been to school for a week, come up to the gate on a, after school, asking questions, trying to get a better understanding, and I'm appreciative of that, and I hope to grow that type of interaction.

Thank you. This is probably more of an area for our school board partners, but I am curious about the peer pressure element of this, right? We have talked about how sometimes the speed and the behavior is impacted by having a group of kids together on e-bikes. So I'm particularly curious about how we can change the coolness factor, right? And make it more enticing to be safe, right? In terms of wearing a helmet, like maybe we can have cooler helmets. I don't know, but just like things to do that maybe can help the kids engage in this type of behavior that they want to engage in with their friends, but in a much safer way, obviously. And I was just going to add, you know, this is real, and I just want to uplift your comments about what's happening. A friend of mine was driving in a different community, went through a green light, and was hit by a young kid on an e-bike who was trying to catch up to his friends. So he ran the red light and hit her car. And then he ran off, like he kept going, the bike kept going. And so she was like, what just happened? And like $10,000 of damage to her car, this hit and run from a kid on an e-bike. Like it was just like, did this really just happen? So yes, this is happening. Thankfully in that instance, it seemed like he was okay since he got up on his bike and rode away. But I'm trying to think about how we can maybe work with our partners over at the school side to change the culture of this activity. in a way that would make it safer. And then I really like the idea of kids working with other kids. There was an article in interviews on scouting the other day, and that's where we've met is through scouting here in Piedmont. But I like that model of sort of the older students teaching and modeling for the younger students. So if there's an opportunity, as you mentioned, to do that in this realm, that would be amazing.

I agree.

Thank you. Vice Mayor.

Is it part of your plan? I'm going to guess you're going to tell me yes. that you two, because I'd love for you to join, would go to a school board meeting and say that this is something that's come to council and there's a lot of interest by council members to back you up and look for ways to make this safer in our community because it would be good for them to have it at one of their meetings so it's more public and they start talking about it.

Absolutely, yes.

Thank you.

And then the last question I had was really about this delineation between what's an e-bike and what's not an e-bike. And is there a certificate of title for one that is not for the other? Meaning, like, is there an actual legal categorization that is maybe a high-level flag to the parents that maybe this isn't safe for their children, like if there's a

dmv certificate gee maybe my 14 year old shouldn't be driving this thing no there isn't but there's i mean there's there's classifications and there are i mean i know some of the names we were talking about this earlier i know the names of some of the bikes and so uh they don't have to get them registered uh with dmv but in the parents i mean you can buy them at uh big box stores i'll just say that and and parents are doing it my i have a a preteen or 12 or 13-year-old that was extremely sad that they weren't able to get one of these bikes. And I asked her over the weekend in preparation for this presentation, what was the name of the bike that you were adamant about getting late last spring? And the name that she told me are the two bikes that were ridden both in Orange County and Walnut Creek in this specific instance.

And then a follow-up to my own question. My colleagues will indulge me. Do we have any licensing here for any kind of bike?

We don't.

And do other communities have that? And is that kind of another way to maybe get a handle on who's riding what is to require some kind of licensing for bicycles?

I definitely think that's something we could look into, for sure.

Okay, thank you.

A follow-up to that line of questioning about... more of an idea. You know how parents with new babies will bring in their car seats in the car? Can you check and make sure this is safe? Correct. Can we do something similar to that?

I think that that would be... We'll check out your e-bike and we'll give you... That would be an awesome campaign and I have some traffic officers that would love to participate in something like that.

I would like to agree. I would like to move forward with some kind of Standards on licensing for what vehicles are safe and at what age because I know that's what's being discussed in Sacramento And we don't need to sounds like we don't need to wait for them I mean our laws might change once they set a precedent but But I think that we would favor having some kind of framework around what's allowed in this city for our students. I

And then another question on this line in terms of thinking about bike helmets, and maybe this is a question for Dr. Crawford-Jakubiak. Are all bike helmets made the same? Meaning that do we oftentimes, and I don't know if you're able to maybe approach the podium and tell us kind of the different types of bike helmets. Because I could see a parent thinking, oh, my kid's wearing a helmet, but it might not be the right kind of helmet.

Yeah, the short answer is no. There's kind of a range of stuff. With that said, I'm not a helmet expert. But often, parents will go way out of their way to do the right thing and buy the right helmet. But then if it's not attached... it doesn't do any good.

It's like the car seat not being installed correctly.

Exactly. Yeah, it's decorative. Or it's around their chin, but it's not attached the correct way, if you will. So even if you have the right helmet, they still have to use it as if you weren't wearing a helmet.

All right, thank you for that. Any other questions? Any thoughts from our city attorney and or our city administrator on next steps?

This is the beginning of a conversation. Most certainly you can expect to hear from us in the future about the campaign that we are working on. And I think this particular subject matter intersects with so many disciplines throughout our municipal operations from both how we manage the movement of cyclists on our roadways to how those riders interface with pedestrians and drivers. There are many opportunities for us to work on this topic from a sustainability lens at the same time. is thinking about the safe movement of residents and riders. And so we really look forward to working with the community. And I want to thank Chief Chavis, as well as Council Member Plenier for bringing this topic forward and asking us to really hone in and focus some resources on this subject matter.

I just have to say the thanks goes to Dr. Crawford-Jakubiak, who was the one who approached me and got the conversation started from the get-go.

Thank you so much, and I know this is, as I said, the beginning of the conversation, and hopefully you can tell from the dialogue tonight that our Council stands ready to engage in these next steps as they unfold. And we are going to be on this journey together for the safety of all of our residents as they move through our beautiful community. So thank you so much. This is not an action item. This was an informational item only. And I should ask for public comment. I forgot to ask for public comment. Thank you. There's none. Okay, public comment. I know. Okay, so that is the end then of our regular agenda, and we are moving on now to announcements, reports from council members, and discussion of future agenda items. Thank you, and thank you, Chief.

So I have an announcement. Yes. We have Coffee, Cars, and Cops on September 26th. So please come out. It is a community favorite event. So come join us. See all the amazing cars and meet our wonderful officers and folks that keep us safe. Great. Thank you.

Any other announcements? Council Member Ramsey?

Yes, I have two park construction project updates for you. Very exciting stuff going on. The first is at Piedmont Park, the ADA Path and Swing Project is under construction and moving along. The swings have been ordered and will be installed as soon as they arrive from the manufacturer, so we are on our way. That's exciting. The second construction project is Hampton Park Artificial Turf. infield installation starts august 24th so the infield will be closed during construction and we're estimating approximately three weeks to complete so exciting things that's it

Great. Council Member Pommier, nothing?

Can I add on to that?

Yes, absolutely. Council Member Ramsey said I have several friends who are grandmothers bringing their little ones up to walk. They are so invested in this swing, and I'm getting sent videos. The swings will go here, and they want to help pull the dirt out and make it happen. So the little community is very excited that this is all happening.

That's great. Thank you. Any announcements?

No.

Okay, so I was going to announce that the vice mayor and our city administrator and I attended meetings on Friday with our elected assembly member, Buffy Wicks, as well as our state senator, Jesse Ergen, and we were with all the municipalities, I think all the municipalities in their jurisdictions, and the topic was transfer taxes. And as you may recall, there was a whole lot of activity over the last several months statewide with respect to potential for some transfer tax rollbacks that then got kind of put on hold. And there's some other various legislative things moving forward for this November. But this was a conversation with our peer cities about why transfer taxes are so important. And one of the things that we all had in common was transfer tax, which are real property conveyance tax, we've obviously talked about them here, make up 7% to 10% of the general fund balance of pretty much every city that has them here in Alameda County. So if they were to go away through any type of state legislation, it would be catastrophic, not only to the city of Piedmont, but to all of our cities here and so that point came across loud and clear to our state electeds and hopefully those statewide initiatives will remain on pause but if not then we can expect to have many more conversations in the future about this important funding source for all of our local municipalities. I'm looking at those who are there with me. Thank you so much. Does that capture the conversation.

Thank you, Mayor and Vice Mayor, for attending. I think it was a wonderful opportunity to meet in person here in East Bay with our state legislators and hear firsthand. You know, we put together fact sheets. I know Mayor Anderson had the opportunity to have audience with Senator, excuse me, Assemblymember Wicks in Sacramento, but to be part of The peer group and Charter Cities, I think it was a powerful moment to convey the weight of this topic and really appreciate your time.

Yeah, absolutely. And I also want to give a shout out to the League of California Cities. That is the member organization that all of the cities here in California belong to, and they were the ones who arranged these meetings and made them happen. So I want to just give appreciation to the League and encourage our continued involvement Because these topics that they're talking about and advocating on our behalf are really, really important to us here in this community. So thank you. And I wanted to give an opportunity to our city administrator to make an announcement about a new director who's with us this evening.

I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our new planning and building director, Leslie Mendez. She is now in our operations. We're delighted to have her. And if you'd like to share a few words, Leslie, we'd love to hear from you.

Yeah, well, as mentioned, I'm Leslie Mendez, and I'm very excited to be here. And I'm really glad to have had the opportunity to meet you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the Council individually. There's a lot of work to do. I'm excited to learn. We have a very talented staff, so I want to thank everyone. And I look forward to working with everyone as we move forward. So thank you.

thank you welcome i'd also like to extend a special thanks to jeff bond who uh really filled an important role for the city as our interim planning and building director we've got him assisting with our transition and it's allowed for a much smoother handoff so much appreciation to him yeah absolutely and uh most of our meetings are not this short

so they usually last a little bit longer. And then the other announcement I think we may have missed was movies in the park and food trucks. I think we have some coming up. I don't have the dates in front of me, but I know those are a big draw for our community. Oh, we have Eka Schneider, communications officer. Thank you, Eka. And Eka, if there's any other announcements you want to make at this time, please feel free.

Yes, our next food truck Friday is this Friday. We heard from the community members that they wanted to start earlier, so it is. It's from 5 to 8, and that will be followed by our first movie in the park. The movie is Flow.

Nice. Wonderful. Thank you so much. So that is a good segue. These community events is a great segue to maybe I should check. Is everybody, we're done with our announcements, future agenda items? Okay, cool. So I want to take a moment to acknowledge two community giants who passed away this summer, Mark Feldkamp and John Morrison, each of whom made a positive, significant, and lasting difference in our community. First, I'm going to talk a little bit about Mark. He served as the city of Piedmont's parks and project manager for 20 years. He was the successor to our very own Nancy Kent. I think he was here from about 1995 until his retirement in 2015. And whether we know it or not, we are witness to his legacy each and every day as we enjoy the beauty of our tree street canopy, as we move through the lush green landscapes that define our small city. Mark was instrumental in the creation and implementation of nearly every landscaped triangle throughout the city, including the Ramona Renata Triangle and the Linda Kingston Triangle, where there is a bench in his honor. We all know how much our residents and visitors to our city love Piedmont Park where we have movies in the park and food trucks. Mark was a key player in the beautiful expansion of the Excedra Plaza by adding a fountain and gathering area behind the Excedra as well as the McGee Overlook. I see these spaces, we see these spaces being used and enjoyed every day by members of our community. As a landscaper, Mark also selected trees and plantings for our urban forests and parks, and he created, I believe he created the welcoming entrance to City Hall, and I'm looking at Nancy, because I think we walk through his genius every day. Mark served as the liaison to the Parks Commission, as well as to the Piedmont Beautification Foundation, where he was instrumental in numerous public-private partnerships that made many of these projects possible. So second, I'm gonna talk about John Morrison. He also served our community for two decades as the beloved principal of the Piedmont Middle School. He was well known for hiring amazing teachers, including my mother, and staff, and building a strong sense of teamwork and belonging. After his retirement, he continued to stay active and supportive of our district and our community. John was also a prominent leader in the antique car community serving both as the regional president for the Bay Area Horseless Carriage Club and the national president of the Horseless Carriage Club of America. My colleagues may know him best as a longtime volunteer for our 4th of July committee. Year after year, John arranged all of the antique cars for elected officials, both city council and school board, to ride in for our annual parade. John's Memorial is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, September 12th, appropriately to be held in the John Morrison Gymnasium at the Piedmont Middle School. So I'm going to go ahead and close tonight's meeting in memory of Mark Feldkamp and John Morrison. The time is, oh my gosh, a new record, 6.51 p.m. Thank you.