City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to your Pleasanton City Council meeting. Today is Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 at 7 o'clock p.m. Our first meeting of 2026. Before I go too far, I just want to confirm that Council Member Nyber, you can hear us. I can hear you. Perfect. Thank you very much. Okay, with that we will uh begin with the pledge of allegiance. Council member Iker, if you don't mind leading us and please rise if you're able. I pledge of allegiance to the flag the flag of the United States of America

to the republic for which it stands for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. And uh as our community has probably gathered, uh Council Member Nybert is joining us remotely, so we'll be kind of working through this and appreciate [clears throat] everyone's patience. We'll go with roll call, please. Council member Aker present. Gados presert.

Council member, thank you. Council member Ta here. Mayor Balch, present. Thank you. Okay. Uh so with that, we're going to be going to agenda amendments. Any agenda amendments by staff at this time? Thank you, Mayor. No changes from staff this evening. Thank you. Any agenda amendments by any of my fellow council members at this time? Council member Nyber, do you have any agenda amendments? No, I do not.

Thank you. Okay, we'll proceed with the count uh the agenda as posted. We're going to go to the consent calendar which is items number 1 through 11. Uh apologize. I just wanted to make a quick announcement. You may notice the council's been transitioning to electronic agendas uh and voting. We are there. So uh this is our first meeting. We all have computers or we're all up here. Uh so we don't have paper printouts of the package. So just so everyone is aware of that. And as noted, council member Nybert is joining us electronically which does then allow the public to be afforded the same opportunity. So, if you are at home and watching by Zoom and would like to speak, you'll just simply raise your hand at that time and the city clerk will let us know if we have anyone virtually joining us to do that. Uh, okay. With that, we're going to go with the consent calendar. Consent items are considered routine in nature and may be enacted by one motion. If discussion is required, that particular item may be removed from the consent calendar and considered separately. Consent is items number 1 through 11. Any clarifying questions by my fellow council members on consent items one through 11?

I have none. No. Council member Nybert, do you have any questions on consent? Okay. Thank you very much. No, I don't. Appreciate that. Sorry, I I realize I've got to take a minute for the delay. So, appreciate that. Uh, with that, I have no speaker cards on consent. If you would like to speak on items number 1 through 11 and you have not turned in a speaker card, please go ahead and approach the podium at this time. Hearing none, seeing none, are there any public comments online? You would raise your hand. Okay, thank you. No speakers online. Uh with that, we'll close public comment and bring it back for the council consent items 1 through 11. Looking for a motion. Move approval of the consent calendar.

And I'll second that. I have a motion made and seconded. Any conversation or discussion before we proceed with a roll call vote? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Council member Gados, I. Council member Iker, I. Council member Nybert, hi. Council member Ta, I. Mayor Balch, I. Thank you. The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you very much. We'll just count council member Nybert once. So there. [laughter] Okay. Uh, with that, we're moving quite uh, quickly along. We're going to item number 12, meeting open to the public. This is for public comments for matters that are not on the agenda. I have speaker cards. I'd like to go ahead and read this little bit. It's kind of my dooady. Uh, good evening and welcome. This is the opportunity for members of the public to address the city council on any matters that are within the council's subject matter jurisdiction but are not listed on the agenda. If you wish to speak on a matter that is on the agenda, we ask that you please reserve your comments for when we get to that item. If you would like to speak now or on any future item, please fill out a blue speaker card and turn them in to the city clerk. I ask our community members to be respectful and help maintain decorum. Speakers may have different opinions, and we want to hear all perspectives and viewpoints. To that end, please no clapping, booing, or other disturbances. I know we have a lot of staff and not a lot of public here. Uh if you would like to show your support of what the speaker is saying, simply raise your hand and we will see that as visually additional support. Please know that this is your time to be heard. If you do ask questions, those won't necessarily be answered unless taken up by a council member after the conclusion of your allotted time or at the conclusion of public comment. Overall, speakers are hereby limited to three minutes. And with that, I have two speakers. Uh, our first speaker is Miss Kelly Cousins, followed by Miss Jan Coleman [snorts] Knight. Welcome.

Thank you. [clears throat]

Good evening. Um, mayor, city council members, and staff. Um, I'm Kelly Cousins, and I'm pleased to share a community announcement on behalf of the Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council. The Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council ex is excited to announce the return of the annual Youth Excellence in Arts, known as the Yay Awards for 2026. [clears throat] This respected program celebrates and supports the remarkable creativity of Pleasanton High School students in grades 9 through 12. The Yay awards recognizes [clears throat] outstanding achievement and artistic merit in three disciplines, music, literary arts, and visual arts. Selected students receive cash awards and grants

[snorts]

um funding. The funds range from $100 to $1,000, helping them continue in their artistic education, uh purchase of materials, and pursuing future opportunities. Over the years, some Yay uh awards recipients have attended the city council meetings and to share their artwork and help uh receive a city proclamation that recognizes the importance of the arts, creativity, and culture in Pleasanton. These moments reflect not only individual achievement, but the city's broader commitment to nurturing creative expression and youth leadership in the community. The Yay awards have also directly support the goals of the Pleasanton Cultural Arts Master Plan by [clears throat] encouraging youth participation in the arts, fostering creative talent, and strengthening the cultural v vitality of our community for future generations. For students pursuing music, there's an additional category, the Don Lewis Say Yes to Music Award. Um, these awards or grants recognize musical excellence while also acknowledging a desired wish to fulfill a dream or ensure an opportunity to talented its students with a musical passion. The Yay Awards and the Say Yes to Music grants are made possible through the generous support of the Rotary F Club of Pleasanton along with the contributions of members of the Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council and past endowments. These partnerships demonstrate Pleasanton's shared investment in arts education and youth development. Applications are now open and available on pleasantarts.org.

or and each uh artistic discipline has specific directions and for the application and students are encouraged to carefully review the requirements. The application deadline is March 1st, 2026. Visual arts submissions are adjudicated on March 7th and 8th and the award and grant recipients are expected to attend the Yay award reception on the afternoon of March 22nd at so we encourage parents, educators, counselors, and community members to help spread the word so that every eligible student with a passion for the arts has an opportunity to apply. On behalf of the Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council, thank you for your continued support of the arts education and helping Pleasanton remain a community where creativity, opportunity, and young voices truly matter. And I have a flyer here for [clears throat] each individual council member. And we will be having a display case um at the library for the month of February.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right, our next speaker is Jan Coleman Knight. This is my last speaker card on item 12, meeting open to the public. If you would like to speak and haven't done so, please complete a blue speaker card. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor Balch, city council members and staff. The city council is a legislative governing body and exercises its authority through the adoption of ordinances which carry the force of municipal law. Any creation, amendment, or suspension of an ordinance must appear in a public noticed agenda, be subject to public input, and follow the required enact process. Ordinance number 2278 remains duly adopted and fully enforced since May 2024. Administrative action and inaction by staff does not constitute a lawful suspension of an ordinance. Under California municipal law, staff may not override, negate, or selectively disregard an ordinance or council policy through an action. The city council motion adopted on July 15, 2025 did not suspend the civics art commission. dissolve or pause any commission, amend or repeal ordinance number 2278, or direct staff to cancel or stop calendaring commission meetings. No action was taken to suspend or amend ordinance 2278. It therefore remains fully operative. As a result, the cancellation and failure to calendar civics art commission meetings lacked legal authority and place the city out of compliance with its own ordinance. There is work to be done. The civics's art commission needs to meet, review, and discuss many things. It the city council has approved the public art that is the Don Lewis harmonic symphony. It's anticipated for installation in spring

2026. Additional matters including firehouse theater programming, cultural celebrations, percent for art, and public engagement through QR codes requires commission input. I respectfully request that the city council direct staff to comply with the ordinance number 2278 by calendaring the civics art commission meeting on February the 2nd, 2026 and by scheduling the six meetings required for the calendar year. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay. Uh, if you would like to speak on item number 12, please approach the podium at this time. No further speaker cards. Okay, I'm going to close public comment and staff, could I ask the city manager to just comment on that item or the ordinance item? Yeah, I I haven't heard the background on this, so I'll gather some information and get an update to the council on the last year. Okay. I do know that we were as a council looking at um just the cadence of some of our subcommittees. Was this one of those committees in that cadence review? Correct.

Okay. Okay. So, we'll look into it and get some more information and go from there. Uh, any further questions from any of my fellow council members on public comment? Seeing none, we'll close item 12. Thank you very much for that comment. We appreciate it. All right, we're going to be moving on to uh public hearings and other matters. If you're following along with that, uh we are going to proceed to item number 13. Accept the audited financial statements of the city of Pleasanton, including the annual comprehensive financial report and the other related audit reports for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025. And welcome.

Thank you, Mayor Balch, members of the city council. Uh just wanted to very quickly uh appreciate our finance department staff. We had a clean audit this past year. Uh also want to just make it clear that this is uh a look back. It's uh July 2024 to June 2025 and the work that we did during that period of time. Uh I want to thank Mayor Balch and Council Member Iker for their work on the audit subcommittee uh and uh in their pre-review of these materials. And then finally, I want to acknowledge that we have a significant amount of uh financial discussions coming up uh in the month of February. We'll be looking at our midyear uh work uh budget work. We'll also be looking at our updated financial forecast. And then in March, we'll be talking about uh pension and pension strategies. Uh so I'll just I'll put all of that out there uh at the front of this presentation. I'll turn it over to our finance director, Susan Shame. Thank you.

Thank you, Jerry. Good evening, mayor and council members. Tonight, staff will present the audited financial results for fiscal year 2025. Um there are several phrases uh phrases um involving the annual audit including uh the interim audit that took place in June last year. uh closing of the books uh working on the audit schedules, working with the auditor to complete the fuel work audit uh preparing the financial statements and presenting the reports to the audit committee. Um that's why we are here tonight to present you the year results and I also want to add that it usually takes agencies uh several months to complete the entire audit process. The audit committee comprised of Mayor Bouch and council member Iger uh reviewed the annual comprehensive financial report or effort and other compliance report in early January. The engagement partner from the city's independent audit u firm um the PR group also attended the meeting. During the meeting, the committee asked questions and discussed the audit process, audit results, financial results, uh significant accounting policies and significant estimates included in the financial statements and the implementation of a new accounting standard pertaining to uh compensated obsessence. During the meeting, the audit committee um asked the engagement partner if um the assumptions used for the city's financial statements were too conservative or too aggressive. the engagement partner comment on um the general liability and workers come compensation claims liability. She indicated that um the assumptions the city use were aggressive in which we only recorded the minimum uh liability. Uh many agencies are recording the liability at the 70% confidence level. I

do want to uh let the council know that uh recording the uh minimum liability meets the uh accounting standard requirement. Uh at this point the audit committee is not recommending any changes. Uh the committee directed staff to continue to monitor the budget and uh make adjustments uh to the budget in future uh budget cycles if necessary. Uh at the conclusion of the meeting uh the audit committee accepted the effort and other compliance reports to meet legal and uh accounting requirements. The effort consists of several key components including the transmittal letter, the government finance officers officer um uh government finance officer association award certificate, the independent auditor's report uh management's discussion and analysis, financial statements, notes, supplementary information and statistical data. This different sections provide an overview of the city's profile, local economy, uh financial results and financial trends. As Jerry mentioned earlier, the city received an unmodified audit opinion on the effort and the compliance reports that it's um a clean audit opinion that is the highest level of audit opinion that CPA firms can uh issue to agencies. I do want to point out that the management's discussion and analysis presented in a narrative form. Uh it's usually easier for uh reviewers or readers to understand the information. Um the MDNA discuss the uh city's financial transactions on acral basis. Um that is similar to the private sector accounting and on modified acral basis. Um that it's at the fund level. uh when financial transactions are presented on full acural basis uh capital assets and

other long-term liabilities such as loans, unfunded liabilities and uh retired medical liabilities are also included in the financial reports. That is why uh in some years the unrestricted net position uh can be a negative number because liabilities exceeds uh assets on modified acral basis. We focus on near-term resources. Uh what is available for the cities to spend uh capital assets are not recorded in the financial reports. Uh costs incurred for capital assets are reported as expenditures. Long-term liabilities um including loans uh pension uh liabilities and unfunded medical liabilities are not report uh reporting the fund statements. The MDNA also uh discussed financial and general budgetary highlights. I uh also want to share with the council and the community that the city received an award from the GFOA for uh excellence in financial reporting for the fiscal year 2024 report. We also re received an award for the public annual financial report. The uh paffer is a simplified uh citizen friendly version or summary of the city's main financial report. The 2025 report is also included in tonight's uh agenda packet. On the next few slides, I will report the city's um consolidated assets, liabilities and net position based on acural basis of accounting. uh the consolidated assets and deferred outflow of resources total over one uh billion increased by about 15 million from the prior fiscal year. Our largest category of assets is capital assets uh totaling over 680 million. Our second largest category is cash and investments uh totaling over 340 uh

million. Cash, investments and receivables represent over 30% of our total assets. We have sufficient liquidity to support operations in the new turn. The consolidated liabilities and deferred inferral of resources total over 340 uh million increased by about 11 million from the prior fiscal year as noted in the staff report due to the implementation of um a new accounting standard related to uh compensated absisence. The liability increase significantly from the prior fiscal year long-term they also increase uh due to the recognition of the 12.8 8 million in new Costco loan associated with the transportation imp uh improvement cost incurred in the economic uh in the Johnson uh drive economic develop development zone. Um net pension liability and net uh OPAD or retired medical liability are decreased slightly from the prior fiscal year uh due to the investment gains from fiscal year 2024. The city's consolidated net uh position total over 780 million increased by about four million from the prior fiscal year. The increase is uh primarily due to the water rate increase and higher development fees generated in the general fund uh and uh impact fee funds such as the uh part impact fee and transportation and um uh traffic impact fee funds. Large development projects result in one-time revenues and this resources will be used to fund projects in future years. There are three categories in the uh in the net position uh including net investment in capital assets uh restricted and unrestricted uh net position uh net pos uh net

investment in capital assets account over 80% of the total net position um at about 640 million. Uh I just want to point out that the resources in this category are non-spendable because uh buildings, facilities and other city infrastructure are used to uh serve the community. The restricted category accounts for over 15% of the total net position at about uh 137 million. Resources are committed for uh special projects, housing projects, uh pension funding, debt service and capital projects. The unrestricted net position is over five million including a positive net position of 73 million from enterprise funds and a negative net position of uh 68 million from governmental activities. Uh due to the recognition of uh the pension and retired medical liabilities, we end the year with a negative net position. Uh meaning liabilities except uh exceed um available assets at the end of fiscal year 2025. Uh this is uh I would not say this is normal but I would say that uh we also see negative uh unrestricted net positions in some uh other agencies uh financial reports. In terms of general fund fund balance, uh we achieved the 20% reserve target calculated based on uh unassigned fund bounds uh set by the city council. As noted in the staff report, uh the general fund reported 4.9 million in net change in fund bounds um uh in the effort including 3.6 million in unrealized investment game. uh because unrealized investment game is not cashy that's a cash that's available for spending uh cities cannot account for

the resource for budgetary um uh purpose uh we also cannot include amount for reserve calculation when the 3.6 6 million in unrealized investment gain is excluded. The net surplus in the general fund and the uh fiscal year 2025 it's 1.3 million. We must retain the 1.3 million in the general fund in order to meet the 20% reserve target otherwise we will not be able to meet the target. Um the recommended minim minimum reserve by the uh GFO is 17%. There are also other three categories of fund balance in the general fund. Uh for the committed category, we have about 6.6 million in capital reserve that will be used for uh future projects. Uh besides uh other program reserves such as strategic implementation and emergency reserve. In the restricted category, it's uh basically uh pension funding associated with the conservative portfolio. uh in a non-spendable category. Um the $500,000 is related to advances to other funds. For enterprise funds, the consolidated net position was over 200 million uh increased by about 8 million from the prior fiscal year primarily due to the water rate increase and a transfer from the general fund supported capital uh project fund um to the storm drain fund. Uh please note that over 130 million uh represents net investment in capital assets that is not available for spending. A significant portion of the net position is in the water fund, sewer fund and storm drain fund. Uh as you can see from the chart, the uh net position for both the water and sewer fund um are comparable over the last three years. Next, I'll present the city's pension

and retire medical liabilities. Um, as presented here on this slide, uh, the unfunded liability for pension and retired medical uh, total um, over 180 million at the end of fiscal year 2025 when accounting for the assets in the past pension trust um, uh, account. uh without the assets in the pension trust the liability it's about 240 million. Next we'll take a look at the investment returns in our uh past uh trust accounts for the capital growth portfolio. The five-year annualized return um it's over 9% compared to 8% for Kalpers uh which is slightly higher. uh for the conservative portfolio it's uh close to 4%. For the inception today returns uh the conserv uh conservative portfolio gen generated slightly over 4% and the capital uh growth portfolio uh generated close to 8%. Um those are pretty good return. We are not stri uh you know striking to to bit the cow purse investment return. The goal is to have resources accumulate um in other accounts. So over time we can pay down the unfunded liabilities. Uh next steps uh in February uh I would say the second meeting in February we'll present the MIA budget update to the council. Jerry mentioned early about the pension strategy. We are planning to present that to the uh council in March. Um the midyear um or the midterm budget update will take place in May. Um, and in the next several months, we'll be working on a citywide organizational assessment. This concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer questions.

Okay. Thank you very much. Uh, so if you'd like to uh speak on this item, please fill out a blue speaker card. They're located outside at the credenza and hand them in to the city clerk. Uh, we'll get to that in a moment. We're going to go to clarifying questions and I'll start with uh council member Iker since you sit on the subcommittee. any clarifying questions on this presentation? I know you've heard it before, but

uh [snorts] yes and no. I I am going to ask a few questions and it's it's more just just to get make sure the information gets out there uh versus uh my own understanding from from our prior conversations. Um, so I'm see pleased to see the city's net position has increased by 11 and a half million. Uh, the general fund saw property tax revenues increase, sales tax revenues increase, and uh, some other taxes like licensing increase. But can you explain to us how the one-time development revenues impacted our year end?

Sure. So we had some large development projects in fiscal year 2025. Um actually many of them came in um in the last quarter of the fiscal year with a significant portion of the revenue that came in in the last month of the fiscal year. Uh with those you know um revenues coming in it helps us to end the year in a positive territory. Uh of course we all know those are one-time monies. We don't get you know uh significant projects every year. um and those resources will will be spent on future projects. Um but we cannot use the restricted money in the impact fee funds to fund general operations. I just want to make sure you know the public it's aware of that they can only be used projects that are impacted by the developments. For example, uh the fees received in a par development impact fee fund can only be used for par related projects. We cannot take the money out and use it for uh this council chamber for example or for u police operations.

So for the public's uh edification, what's the par? Park parks. Parks. Parks. Okay. Yeah. [snorts] Um my next question is the uh uh California governmental accounting standards board uh implemented new sta new accounting standards for this particular budget cycle. How does that affect our budget?

Uh so in terms of our liability it increase our sifi liability by about 7.4 4 million for the private fiscal years. For the fiscal year 2025 impact um it's about 1 million in total. So our costly increase because of that implementation um for the general fund and other funds such as the enterprise funds. So there is a cost impact. Uh although we don't expect to pay out uh cash or sick lift liabilities, we don't plan to fund that 7.4 million. there is a budgetary impact on an ongoing basis relate to adjustment for the liabilities for each fiscal year.

So, so basically we're we're doing an accounting of it versus it's really uh of the liability versus it's actually a detriment to us at this time. That's correct. It's not necessarily a negative impact, right? The 7.4 4 million because we don't need to identify funding to fund it. Um it's there's no budgetary impact in terms of that 7.4 million. Could I just maybe clarify? It's a it's an acrruel accounting adjustment, but it's not a cash flow until the employee takes the sick leave. That's correct. Yes.

So the budgetary c when she's I believe and maybe I can just clarify staff. Uh so when you're saying not a budgetary impact, you're just saying the cash flow still we can retain the cash until staff will take the vacation or sick time and and utilize the the liability. Right. and and also in terms the total liability for the private fiscal years, we don't expect to collect money from the general fund and other funds because sick lift liability is different than vacation liability that you don't pay them out as employees leave and they go away for the most part.

So, so really the reason behind this is to sunshine that potential liability so the public knows what is sitting out there, right? So it's more transparent for agencies to report all their liabilities. Okay, perfect. Um, [clears throat] so in the I noticed that there was a a a decrease in the in the PERS uh unfunded pension liability uh due to a greater rate of return. And that that's based upon 2024's return. That's correct. That affects us in 2025.

Yeah. So with with the increase in return in 2025, we should expect another decrease in that in 2026 at the end of this budget cycle. That's correct. Unless Kalpers makes changes to their assumptions in the actual report in terms of uh life expectancy for example cola for retirees if the changes are significant enough to offset the reduction in liability you may not see that reduction which I highly doubt at this point. Okay.

Yeah. There there should be some reductions. I the next question I have is um do these uh are these adjustments always tied to the stock market is or does PERS normalize what that looks like over time? It it's mostly tied to the stock market so that those rates can go up and down every year. That's correct. We have seen that in the past too. Um there were years that actually the liability decreased quite significantly then it went back up. So fluctuations are expected from time to time. Okay. Thank you. Any further questions?

Okay, we'll just go down the line. So, Council Member Ta, any clarifying questions as staff, please? Um I I had an opportunity to have my questions answered, but there's a couple that I'll just reinforce because I again I think that it's important for the um community to understand. And I do have um a lot of questions and and thoughts that I'm going to save for our future discussions with pension and um and budget. But I've actually received a couple of emails congratulating us on our budget surplus and um with the better returns from Kalpers's uh suggestion and and um an awful lot, you know, increased um sales tax and property tax revenues. news there's an assumption that hey great all everything's solved um I think it's important to um it we've said it we've explained why the surplus doesn't mean that we are out of the woods from our structural deficit but I think it the whole summary needs to be restated and we have to keep saying it because people really don't understand so can you explain explain how the um it all works together with the structural deficit.

Sure. Um I I'll focus on the general fund. That's the area where we can, you know, spend the money uh a little bit more freely. Um whereas the funds in the enterprise funds, special revenue funds um and and capital project funds such as the development impact fee funds, we don't have the ability to move the money around and uh like many other cities uh President has um many competing needs. Um just name two things unfunded pension liability and also our defer maintenance. Those are the common challenges that city face and you know it's not unique to Pleasanton. Even though we may end the year with a positive result, it doesn't mean we have resources to fund all our needs. Um as I mentioned during the presentation, even with the 1.3 million in net surplus in the general fund, we have to retain that 1.3 million in in the general fund in order to meet the 20% reserve target. Without that we will not be able to meet that reserve target. It will be below the 20% reserve target set by the city council. And the recommended minimum minimum reserve from the GFOA is 17%. It's not like we are significantly higher than the minimum reserve requirement. Um and another area it's the insurance program area. for example, the workers comp fund uh for the city's workers comp fund and 50% of our LPFD or fire workers comp fund altogether we have a negative fund balance of 3 million. Um the the the audit committee did not recommend that we um go with the auditor's recommendation to adjust the liability at 70% confidence level. If we do that, it would increase our liability by another 1.2 million. That's a

significant impact on the general fund budget going forward. So we have a lot of needs that are not accountable on the books. Um and when you look at our full acral basis accounting for our financial reports, you end the year with a negative net position meaning you don't have enough assets to offset your liabilities. So in other words, if we operate like business in the private sector, we don't have enough resources to cover all our needs.

If I could add to that, uh, Council Member Ta, and I I think our finance director did an excellent job. Um, I, you know, the nutshell for me is that, um, a surplus is not unusual in a city budget. It's actually an indicator that we're minding the store. uh the we don't budget for all of our needs and Susan gave some specific examples. Um but to to the the surplus point um the city council has an adopted policy. We call it excess fund balance or surplus. And we talk about how we want to deploy those funds when when these situations arise. And just to give a sense for um uh for for how we do that, we we don't use it for recurring expenses because it's it's extra at the end. We don't want to start a new program or try and run a new service into the well into the future. Uh we have a second tier of uh of recommendation in that policy that says that we're going to transfer it to our CIP to fund general needs uh capital needs across the city. Uh and then the third might be uh to look at preunding pension or retirey health or some of these other internal services that we have. So uh we we aim to finish a little ahead. Uh we did that this last year because we had pumped the brakes on spending pretty hard. Uh you'll recall that we were uh headed into uh tougher budget situation and we stopped uh we stopped filling positions. We froze positions, held them vacant on purpose, which ended up yielding significant savings for us uh in part of this this year that's under review currently. So, there's a number of reasons that we got to the surplus. Uh some additional revenue also helped uh at the end. That project was 10 years in the making uh and actually just came across the finish line right at the end of that fiscal year, which helped us. Uh otherwise, we wouldn't be talking about it tonight and we might be talking about a different scenario. But uh our goal is always to uh to not sp spend more than we bring in

because that creates issues for maintaining our reserve and operating our city effectively. So I wanted to just add that additional context. Um I've heard the question a number of times and uh there's really a significant number of factors that go into how all of this comes about. But if you just think about the the fact that cities like Pleasanton and other cities in our county uh just simply don't budget for all of our needs as we we pre we present a balanced budget to our elected bodies. Uh and and just you see the um you you know where that you know where cities are ahead right now and you know where cities are not because you're all reading the newspaper and seeing how other cities are moving through these challenges. So uh put that out there. I don't know if Susan would add anything else, but I'll conclude my comments there. Thank you.

I I just want to add that many cities uh end their year with positive financial results. Um this is not an exception in Pleasanton because legally we're not allowed to uh spend more than what the council approved. Um if we end up in a negative um position every year, that means we're using up our fund balance, right? We'll be in trouble pretty quickly. A 20% reserve is not much money. And oftentimes when people hear about um you know a budget deficit is not simply a budget deficit. It's a cash flow challenge that you have to think very quickly and you know do you have to you know sell your investments at a loss just to get enough cash to support operations and do you have to consider selling other properties just to support your services. So there are many many concerns and impacts, you know, when cities um u consistently run into uh you know uh a negative territory.

Okay. Well, thank you. That's all I have. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh Council Member Nyber, do you have any clarifying questions of staff? I guess I do. Thank you.

Just a couple of questions. um maybe technical type questions for the Kalpers um returns that you discussed with council member Hiker's uh questions. Uh is the Kalpers discount rate something that could change um on a fairly frequent basis? Has it changed recently? Because I know that uh has a great impact on the uh declared investment returns. uh based on the presentation um uh uh provided by Calper several months ago, that was not the indication. Uh they don't have plans to change the discount rate at this point, but things can change as they re-evaluate their investment strategy and the funding uh status for the plans.

Okay. Thank you. Um as you were talking about net investment in capital assets, I was just wondering um do does the accounting uh for those assets in valuation uh I mean specifically follow a depreciation schedule or is there another method by which those assets are valued?

Yeah, those assets are valued based on original cost. So it's not based on the replacement cost. Um and it's also net of accumulate depreciation expense. That's why it's um it's you know it's over 600 um million when you heard um join the plantation from our SS management plan. It was um a much higher number. It was like 4 billion right that's the difference and this are original cost historical cost from many many years ago. It can be from 50 years ago 40 years ago. Mhm. Some of those may have been some of those assets may have been entirely depreciated by now. Yes.

Um [snorts] and yet the actual need is much much higher. That's what I hear you saying. Right. That's correct. And some of those have been fully depreciated. They are still sitting on the boats because they are still in operation. For example, okay, streets. I want to thank council member Ta for asking her questions as well. Sorry, did I interrupt you? No, no, not at all.

Okay. Uh, yes. I I also had a chance to ask questions ahead of time and um I thank staff for their answers provided to me. Uh, Council Member Test's questions were um on my mind as well. So, I'm glad it elicited the discussion that went before. I appreciate that. Um I did want to ask in comparison to last year uh I remember late in4 we're talking about the FY2420 um you know audit uh we as a council and perhaps you as finance director faced um requests from the public for preliminary financial information un audited financial information. As I recall, we as a policy do not provide unudited financial results to anyone. Um, and you know, there was a reason why the council received that kind of request. Uh, did we receive any similar requests this time um that you're aware of uh to uh provide some type of preliminary or unodudited results?

I'm not aware of any requests for this year. Okay. So, um let me ask about the timing of the process this year. My recollection is that in general it's the same timeline that we followed in [snorts] years. Um there was no unusual delay. Uh it's pretty much the same as one year ago and prior to that. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. uh this year uh for the fiscal year 2025 financial results, we presented the information to the council in November. We usually uh do it in November or December.

Okay. Um so nothing unusual in regards to the timing as compared to previous years. Um uh let me look at my remaining items here. I think they're duplicates of what was asked before. So I'll end my questioning. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Gatos. Vice Mayor Gatos. Sorry. Thank you. No clarifying questions. My inquiries were satisfied outside of the meeting and with other questions. So, thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much. Uh having served on the subcommittee myself, uh a lot of my questions were asked and uh staff brought up the too conservative or too aggressive conversational point that I raised earlier. I did have a few that I thought would be clarifying for our community. Can staff outline and it's probably more related to the actual investments how the city is taking a uh policy or process of relieving low performing or low uh interestbearing assets and reinvesting those at higher earning assets. Could you outline that please?

Sure. Um just to provide some background information um to the public in 2024 um the audit committee revealed that the contract with uh Chandra SS management um to handle the city's um portfolio a portion of of our portfolio and the council approved a contract and so what we have been doing is working with the investment manager to sell the uh investments um that we purchased you know prior to co uh at low interest rates at a loss with the goal to achieve higher yields in the long run and uh we we have made pretty uh good progress uh so far and um the investment manager presented to the audit committee in early January showing the uh improvements and the returns uh even though our year-to-day return is still slightly be below 2% um as reported tonight um as one of the consent items um but if you really look at say the monthly return is it's above 3% at this point. So we have made some really good progress towards you know selling investments that are not generating a lot of income and uh trying to you know lock in with investments that will uh provide uh larger returns in the long run.

Thank you very much. Yeah, I guess I could have brought it up at item five on tonight's agenda. The other part of this question that I wanted to ask staff is uh we're doing that and achieving that in still in light of overall Fed policy reducing rates and all of that on the on the larger scale because we were so significantly lower on our rates that we were locked in at. Right. That's correct.

Okay. So that was the first question clarification. The second I wanted to ask about which um you mentioned in the it's mentioned in the Afar is the credit card processing fees was one action the council took. The second action the council took at the very end of 24 was updating the development impact fees from our prior 2018 fee schedule to a more advanced or u updated um uh I just forgot the process for sitting setting fees but a more uh attune yeah fee schedule. So did that yet impact it or not? I guess so I'm asking two parts. The credit card processing fee change and the development impact fee update.

Yeah, the credit card fees were uh effective pretty much immediately after the council adoption. So um the fees helped to offset some of the cost we incur fiscal year 2025. Uh so that took place for the development impact fees. the significant impact it's expected to happen in this current fiscal year 2026 and future years because the fees will adopt the uh in in mid part of the year not at the beginning of the fiscal year some of the uh the rates were lacking u for some of the development projects previously

yeah okay perfect uh and then my last question is uh I know staff has outlined that we need to keep that 1.3 million approximately in the general fund to achieve the reserve at 20% but I do want clarify the council can change that reserve target that that is what staff has to work for because that is the council policy but if the council so chose I think actually vice mayor goatos brought this up years ago or a year ago but if the council chose the reserve policy be 19% then staff would work towards that target that's correct and you're you have clarified just for point of clarification 17% is the uh the minimum yeah the minimum right so our range is uh 17% to 25% and our target is 20%.

Yeah, [clears throat] we have been lower than that. I just want to assert but no problem. Okay, so uh any further clarifying questions before I open it up to public comment by any of my fellow council members at this time? Seeing none and taking a pause for council member uh Nybert. Okay, so with that we will uh go to public comment. I don't have any speaker cards, but if you would like to speak on our audited financial statements, I know it's an engaging topic for everyone at 7:52 p.m., but please approach the podium at this time if you would like to speak on item number 13. Hearing none, seeing none, how about online, city clerk? None online. Okay, we will close public comment on item 13 and bring it back to the council. I think staff's looking for a motion to accept the Afar and the related financial reports or any further comments. Same order, same starting position. Council member Aker.

Well, I'd like to start off by thanking staff for their diligence on this. Uh this is a tremendous amount of work to get through all this uh accounting work in uh in the six-month time frame that they had and uh putting it together to tell a story for the community I think was huge. Um, so thank you very much for your hard work on this and uh um with that I'd like to make a motion to approve staff's rep recommendation to accept the audited financial statements including the annual comprehensive financial report and related audit reports for fiscal year 2425. Okay. Thank you. Council member Iker or excuse me Ta.

Um yes. Well, I'll second that um motion and um again also thank staff for the the work and another clean report and two awards and um very proud of our staff for the work that they do. And I I have to comment I the um what is the the supplemental one I'm looking for? The popular the which popular

yeah it it is such an interesting um document. It has so much in it about our city and um I I I know nobody would Yeah. the popular annual financial report. It has so much um information about details like um what our total residential units or our how many parks we have or how many um I think it says how many stop lights somewhere and just the detail and it's it's fascinating. But my absolute favorite part is always the org chart because at the top of the org chart are our citizens, our residents. And I think that that's really important to remember that that's what this is all about is our residents. And I've actually been um complimented in the past um with from colleagues of other cities who I don't know how they happen to see our um um annual report, but they commented that we put our citizens at the top of the art or chart because not everyone does. So I think that's really wonderful. So thank you for all your good work. Okay.

Thank you, Council Member Nyber. Thank you. I'm going to uh look down so otherwise I see myself speaking from three seconds ago and I can't process that. Um the uh clean report is something to be celebrated. So I congratulate staff on that. Uh quite an achievement. Uh I know there's a lot of work that went into it. The uh beautiful words that uh everyone who under goes a financial audit looks for are that it uh complies in all material respects the city's financial situation in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. So I know that's music to your ears and um it is to mine also. So I want to congratulate you once again and uh I have uh no further comment. Thank you.

Okay, Vice Mayor Datos. Thank you all. I'll echo nearly all the comments made.

I believe it's on. Um and I want to say that the uh sheer size of this report is um is impressive. And I'm going to the table of contents now just so we can see the mouse isn't working so excuse me for a second. But the actual report is included in the agenda for tonight, which is over 600 pages, but in itself is 288 pages. Uh that's due once a year. And um you know I I know I've learned where to look and I know that members of the community sort of know where to look and council knows where to look, but there's a lot in here. Um and you know if there was ever a discussion that could be had about, you know, trimming the sheer size of this thing down from 288 pages to save some staff time on this. um that might be a a a discussion we can have because this is a behemoth of a document for a once a year program. So, uh it's very well done. It's very informative. Um you know, and and it's very thorough and it it's a great um a job well done, but it's very very comprehensive. So, congratulations on that. And those are my comments. Yeah, I I just want to add that um in order to meet the legal and accounting requirements um the size of the effort is pretty big for almost every city. But I think we do have an opportunity to make maybe cut down couple pages in the MDNA section. There will be a new Gatsby uh to be implemented in this fiscal year uh to make the uh explanations um more concise according to uh Gatsby.

I know it's it's based on state law and you know but it's a it's a big document for you guys have to do. It's almost one page a day for the whole year. So So thank you very much.

Okay. Thank you. Um I'll just conclude saying the same uh echoing my fellow council members. Thank you to our staff and the auditors for putting this together. Uh an audited financial statement I think for Pleasanton right now goes to improving transparency, public trust, accountability, all of the goals that we advance for our community. Um, from my view, I think our community is more in tune with our budget than it um almost any time I can remember in in recent memory. And that's a good thing. So, if you don't understand this or you have questions, feel free to reach out to us and make sure you do understand it because if you if we haven't explained it well enough, then we haven't done our job to serve you fully. Uh, and I believe that. Um, one thing I want to point out is that an audited financial statement sometimes doesn't make it clear what assumptions are made by the accounting. How big is our receivables? How much money are we owed? Are we likely to collect that money? Where are we being aggressive or conservative in our assumptions? Are we going to have to pay a certain amount? those types of um qualitative and quantitative information is contained in this report in what we call the MDNA section as well as footnote number one if you're following along. Um, and I think it's important to know that the subcommittee really asked those and that's why staff presented the where the auditor had a recommendation about what might be too aggressive or too conservative and we talked about it in detail so that we would be comfortable with what staff is doing and why we felt that that position was there and adequate. It will be proven in time. Any assumption in an accounting situation typically is about a future event and that plays out in time. So, for example, if we find liabilities greater or less as they are actually paid out, then we can adjust the accounting going forward. Um, I'll try to be a little brief here. Normally, I

recap specific things, but I'll mention in page four of this report, it already does a good job of doing it. Our general fund reserve balance grew to 66.9 million, which is an increase of 4.9 as staff outlined. A lot of it is restricted. A lot of it is known for where we're going to be spending in the future and a predominant number is for our future pension costs. Uh in our 115 trust, we have what we call the unrealized gains of 3.6 million just like any of us that may buy stock that may increase. Hopefully, we all bought Nvidia, but it doesn't mean it's cash until you actually liquidate it. And so that's where staff keeps talking about this because it is a reconciling thing that has to be discussed between cash flow and uh profit and loss statement. And then lastly, our 115 trust fund, the money that the city controls that we have not yet remitted to Kalpers currently stands as of June 30, 2025, so it's already grown since this number is 56.3 million. And that is a great um thing for us to be able to control and support uh how we will dispense that out. And so we I just want to be very clear with our community. We have a surplus, but as staff outlined, a lot of that surplus came from development dollars paid in the last month of the fiscal year. I want to mention that we took our community through a budget committee process from January until approximately June I think it was June 3rd or 4th where we adopted the budget. So this did occur or that process did occur before those dollars were known and I think our community is asking well what was cause of that change and we've talked about it a lot here but other things that have occurred that I'll mention is we've directed staff to look at withdrawing $3 million from the 115

trust a million in the first fiscal year and $2 million in the second fiscal year. However, when we got the update on these results in November, we put a pause on that and it will come forward to look at if we will do that or not and staff is uh going to bring that forward. So, when I talk about the financial health of the city, I want our community to try to be as informed as possible where these decisions are and this report I think does a good job of it. Um, the last thing I'll highlight is that the pension obligation is significantly tied to the stock market, right? And as council member Iiker has already alluded to, uh, we are seeing those um, strong fiscal years helping us reduce the overall obligation while still growing that 115 trust balance. Um lastly, some other things we've done as we've talked about the credit card processing fees uh policy change that we implemented as well as those development impact fees that we have changed and as staff said we're only in effect for approximately half of this year and we'll see probably the full cycle of those as they play out in the next fiscal year. Um, so I just kind of went through a bunch there, but I want to make sure that the community knows that you can approach any of us and I'm sure staff would ask answer any questions related to this, trying to make sure we're as transparent as possible and why we're making certain decisions. Lastly, I'll just suggest as we've talked about, you know, property tax did increase, but it didn't increase 3%. it increased less than 3% which is something that we had historically uh budgeted on 3%. So that's a big change and when I talk about those assumptions but all of it suggests that we need to be focused on continuing our economic growth we've talked about in the past economic development plans stone mall downtown um and then how we partner with our other organizations to reduce costs and

deliver services. Um, lastly, I'll mention as exactly as council member Ta said, the popular annual popular annual report. I don't know exactly how they pronounce it. Uh, is an excellent summary. It's not very long and it does a great job of explaining the city's finances. So, um, it's, if you're looking at the PDF, it's page 628 to 645 of the PDF if you download the council package. So, thank you very much, staff. We have a motion made and seconded. Let's go ahead and take a roll call vote, please. Council members Aker I. Ta I. I. Nybert I. Mayor Balch I. The

motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Okay, that concludes item number 13. We're going to be proceeding now to item number 14. receive an update on utility system activity advancing the one Pleasanton strategic priority investing in our environment.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. While our public works director gets seated, I'll just quickly note um continuing along the theme of transparency. Uh this is really the the hidden work that we we do in the city. Uh we we do so much around critical infrastructure and utilities. Uh we used to call this our water activities report and we've expanded it to be the utility system activities report. Uh it really deals with water, sewer, and storm water. Uh and there's a myriad of regulatory requirements and changes that are before the city. And so I think I hope that you found and I hope the community if uh folks have reviewed this report have found this to be a comprehensive overview of where we are with this really important work. uh we did issue bonds and have bond funded projects. And so I think it's important to keep the community apprised of that as well as we continue to talk about rates, infrastructure, utilities, and and the work that we're doing here. Um I'll I'll conclude my introductory comments by really appreciating our public works department led by our our public works director, Su Chin Yang. Um, Director Young has joined the organization and really uh is knitting together a team of people who are delivering these important projects for the city and helping us to make sure that we stay legally compliant, advancing our accountability, environmental stewardship, and really uh enhancing the long-term resilience of our overall system. So, I'll turn it over to Director Young, and we'll get into it tonight. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, U. Mayor, council member, city staff and residents, we are presenting tonight an update on utilities program and projects supporting the city water su sewer and storm water system. The report highlight progress on the water system management plan, sewer system management plan and storm water management plan summarizes key regulatory requirement and implementation efforts and provides a status update on current bond funded project. Last year, public work utility division had taken multiple heavy efforts and initiatives to improve operations structuring our funding and investment in utility infrastructure. Our efforts are in alignment with city council priorities in strategy number two, asset management planning. Strategy number three, fund and implement PAP's water supply solution as well as strategy number four, complete the water systems management plan. Strategy 8, update the sewer system management plan. And strategy nine, develop storm water management plan. Our goal with all the initiatives and effort is to is to protect the public health and the environment, ensure compliance with state and federal regulation, maintain critical infrastructure reliability and plans responsibly for long-term system sustainability. We thank the council and city manager for your continuous guidance and support in our operation. The key takeaway of our current efforts and initiatives are as follow. Regulatory programs are being fully implemented. Long-term infrastructure needs for water system is secured through the water rate study and adjustment starting January 1st, 2026. Long-term infrastructure need for sewer system required future rate adjustment

is under study. And um most important for us is sanitary sewer system. Um, we have a zero overflow in 2025. In 2024, the council approved staff to acquire $19 million water bond with 4.11% of interest rate to support the capital improvement investment in water system. To date, staff delivered approximately 13.7 million of water capital improvement project under this bond and has a remaining of 5.3 million of project value to deliver by June 2027. Staff is on schedule to deliver the entire 19 million project value under the 2024 water bond. In this fiscal year, the city budgeted 11.5 million um investment in the water CIP. Staff is on schedule to deliver the budget of CIP project for fiscal year 2526. In addition, city also budgeted $ 38 million to support water operating budget. The operating budget supports water supply uh purchases which is about $25 million routing repair and replacement um of $800,000 of water distribution system lift station booster pump station and other water related expenditure like personnel salary transportation and training DEP services regular operating maintenance utility billing and business services and water conservation services. This slide summarized the key water capital improvement project for fiscal year 25 26. Staff has completed three CIP projects to date and on schedule to deliver five additional projects. Three projects were on hold to accelerate um the water meter um and AMI um replacement project to meet the commitment with zone 7 and the water system emergency power improvement

project to meet state regulatory requirement operation needs. Staff also determined that the recycle water system is still in good condition and investment can be postponed until a comprehensive recycle water management plan can take place in fiscal year 2728. During the water rate study, staff have presented to council multiple occasions on the increasing and ch changing in requirements on water system operation. In a staff report, staff has completed a detailed report on all the regulations that the city must comply to continue operate water distribution system in city of Pleasanton. In the report, we have defined the regulations, the key milestone, current status of implementation and the impact of the regulations to the city, businesses, and to the residents. We encourage the residents to refer to this report to understand how the regulations will impact their property. We're happy to answer any question and to come back to council to present in detail on any of the regulation requirement that resident or council like to discuss in detail. There are nine total water regulations that the city is currently working on to implement timely to meet state requirement. PAS monitoring reporting and management making conservation a California way of life regulation. Water loss control program, urban water management plan, AB1572 non-functional turf ban, cross connection control program, Latin copper rule, annual water quality report or the consumer confidence report as well as public notification for example um the TTHM or HA5 uh which is a byproduct of uh um organic substance in water that exceed limit at Kilare area. All of this information can be found in our uh water website. Um residents are uh welcome to

uh read more and have uh check out more on our uh city of Pleasanton water website. This slide shows the timeline of delivering the top five water regulatory requirement. As you can see, there are a lot of regulatory deliverables in the next five years for the city to continue certified and compliance in water delivery and distribution to bring quality water to our resident. The water system management plan and the new water rate will be the key foundation for success in the next five years. With properly funded program, the city has the resources to meet compliance. Again, we thank our water customers and council for your full support in our water rate study. We acknowledge that this is not an easy discussion and the discussion to uh increase the water rate. Your decisions bring stability to our water system and ensure sustainability and quality in our water. Next, we'll be going over our sanitary sewer system. Last year, staff presented to council the city's sewer system management plan that is used as the foundation for our current sewer rate study. With council approved SS SMP and sewer CIP program in November, staff is on schedule to bring uh to council in February the financial plan to support our sewer system for the next five years. Similar to water rate study, staff plan to bring a series of presentations to council in the next few months to present our result in the sewer financial plan study, sewer rate study, and the cost of service analysis. Ultimately, our goal is to start Prop 218 process by July with the goal to start new sewer rate by January 1st, 2027. In fiscal year 2527, the city invested close to $6 million in sewer CIP and $19 million in sewer operating budget in

which 14 million is to pay for sewer treatment and 5.3 million to support sewer operation and RNR. As I had previously stated, public work div uh uh utility division had taken major initiatives and effort in 2025 to bring the city into compliance in accordance to our approved sewer system management plan. Some of the key and critical effort are sewers pipe blockage control program or the fat oil and grease program which we call it faulk program. The regulation requires the city to implement measures such as public education, inspection of food services, establishment, enforcement of grease control devices, and maintenance of high fault area in the system. The city continues to inspect and assess the condition of our sewer system. With 253 miles of sewer pipes, it takes the city approximately seven years to complete one cycle of inspection of the of the closed circuits television CCTV uh process. We are currently completed over 30% of the inspection and have set up programs and resources to continue with this effort. Next is the requirement on force main inspection program. A force main is a sore pipe that mo moves waste water under pressure from pump station to the treatment plant. A force main inspection is simply checking the condition of this pipe to make sure it is not wearing out, cracking or leaking. Because these pipe are buried in an uh and full of flowing waste water, the inspection is done using special tools such as camera, sensor and pressure test to look inside of the pipe and detect any problem at at the early stage. As outlined in the state approved SSMP, the city also required to complete lift station inspection program. A lift

station is facility uh with pumps that move waste water from low areas up to a high higher sewer pipe so it can continue flowing to the treatment plant. Lift station inspection is a routine check of this facilities to make sure the pumps, electrical system controls and safety equipment are working properly. The last main uh uh sewer system requirement is to complete sewer siphon inspection program. A sewer siphon is a section of sewer pipe that goes down and back up to pass under things like creeks, rivers or roads. A sewer siphon inspection is a check to make sure this uh special pipe is not clogged, damaged or wearing out. Because siphons are underwater or buried deep inspection use inspections uses cameras, flow tests and other tools to look inside of the pipe and confirm waste water can move through freely. All of this program is very critical as it prevents blockage and sewer backups, reduce the risk of sewer spill, protects creeks and the environment. The city is on the right path in meeting compliance and taking actions to set up programs to maintain and upkeep our sanitary sewer system. All of the hard work that staff had put on in uh 2025 brings a positive result. The city accomp accomplished zero sanitary sewer overflow in 2025. This is an important accomplishment to the city. Many cities that did not undertake this effort that Pleasanton had taken in 2025 resulted with a sewer consent decree from the state that mandate those cities to follow a strict operation program and CIP investment program which in many situation restricting the city and and on the operations and budget needs. I'd like to shout out to the public work utility operations and engineering team who worked through a tough year in 2025 to bring the city into compliance and

put a structure for the city to have a program that will allow the city to make continuous delivery and compliance with the state. Although the sanitary sewer CIP investment is less than the water program, staff has undertaken several major CIP project. In this slide, it shows a summary of all our key sanitary sewer CIP efforts. I'm happy that staff has completed three major CIP including Danker Drive emergency repair which is an unplanned project that put a sudden demand on staff resources to restore source services to the neighborhood. Staff is on schedule to meet deliverable and uh goals for the remaining four CIP projects. Last summer, our public work utility operations team conducted a routine CCTV inspection on Danger Drive. During that inspection, the crew identified what initially appeared to be a small section of collapsed pipe. However, once the line was open, the situation proved far more serious. Approximately 300 ft of sewer pipe had completely corroded and was at the risk of immediate uh failure. Because the issue was detected earlier, staff was able to act immediately. The engineering team um issue an an emergency contract and repair were completed before the pipe failed, preventing major service disruption, environment impact, and significant inconvenience to the surrounding neighborhood. This is a clear example of why routine inspection and proactive maintenance are so critical. As outlined in our 2025 sewer system management plan, early detection allow us to address problems before they escalate into major emergency, protecting both our infrastructure and our community. Next, we're going to uh present on our storm drain system. Unlike our water and

wastewater utility, storm drain system does not have a dedicated enterprise fund or user fees. It is funded primarily through the general fund. Because the general fund supports many essential city service, storm water funding is limited and must compete with other priorities each year. As a result, the program operates with constrained budget and limited staffing, which affect how quickly we can perform maintenance, inspection, and long-term infrastructure replacement. Staff continues to focus resources on public safety, regulatory compliance, and the highest risk areas, but the current funding structure does uh place p uh practical limit on the level of service we can provide. Recognizing the need, the city is currently conducting a comprehensive storm water management plan that is expected to complete by 2028 and follow with seeking revenue source starting 2029 to support the city's storm water infrastructure. In fiscal year 2526, the city invested $12.84 million in storm drain system CIP and $1.7 million in operating budget. Our staff is currently working on 11 CIP project under the storm drain system program. We have completed construction on one major project to replace the storm drain system at Pury Court. The project is at final cleanup and closeout phase. There are seven FEMA projects currently in design. These projects were initiated from last 2022 storm. The project schedule for these project are heavily relying on FEMA review and approval timing. As previously stated, storm [clears throat] water system management plan is in progress and target to complete by 2028. For the last two item, annual storm water repair and replacement and annual in installation of trash capture devices

are reserved emergency funding for staff to address emergency unplanned need in storm drain system. There are no project planned under this two program. The city is currently operating under the municipal regional storm water permit issued by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. The permit emphasized green infrastructure um naturebased solution and equity focused investment to reduce flooding, improve water quality and protect re uh receiving waters while also increasing coordination among cities to deliver cost-effective regionwide compliances. Some of the key efforts that the city is performing on daily basis to ensure the city meet compliance include maintain maintaining 100% trash load reduction through full trash capture devices, enhancing street sweeping and hotspot cleanup. Implement green infrastructure strategy in public and private projects to improve storm water quality. conduct business, industrial and construction inspection to ensure storm water uh best management practice compliance. Respond to and enforce el illicit discharge. Coordinate regionally through the Alama County Clean Water Program. We completed 60 cash basin cleaning and addressed 53 hotspot locations. We inspected and cleaned all 140 full trash capture devices and also ongoing winter storm maintenance to reduce flooding and protect water quality. That concludes my presentation and a summary of the effort that we have undertaken in water, sewer and storm water and happy to answer any question.

Thank you very much. And if uh if you wonder what public works does in Pleasanton, here's a great uh summation of a portion of it because there's quite a bit more. So, thank you very much. Okay, so uh we'll go for clarifying questions. I think I'm getting a speaker card here now. Same order, different starting position. Council member Ta clarifying questions on item 14. Oh, okay. Um [clears throat] I'm I'm I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting to be first, so I apologize. I'm not ready. I'd like to be later in the discussion. Okay. Council member Iker, clarifying question. Oh, excuse me. I'm same order. Council member Nybert, uh, clarifying questions of staff.

Yes, I do. I just have a few. Uh, first of all, those are very significant accomplishments, uh, over the past year that, uh, you've just described. So, I want to thank you and thank your staff for, um, you know, those great accomplishments and for this presentation. Uh, I wanted to ask you uh about the $25 million that I think you mentioned in water purchases by uh by the city, I believe, and I believe the city is the largest user of uh water in Pleasanton. And so, could you describe what kind of um city usage um has perhaps resulted in um reductions in the usage over the past year or so? Uh, Council Member Nybert, we may have to get back to you with the specific numbers. Uh, our finance directors here and may be able to pull that up from our system, but um, in in general, uh, we are the largest water water uh, excuse me, water purchaser in the city. We're the largest account uh, within our water program. I just don't have those specific numbers for you this evening. Okay, that's fine. I appreciate that. Uh, and look forward to receiving those. Um the water loss control program that you referred to at one point um is that the program that is intended to comply with recent state law in the past few years that um requires the city to clarify um and categorize all of the city's water customers in 28 different categories. Could you clarify what that is and the intent of that?

The water loss program is a requirement where the state um set up a target goal of what is um our target goal for the city to comply with uh what is the maximum amount of threshold for water loss. Um so in our report um under the that section it talks about um what is the uh what is the the requirement and where are we um as far as meeting those requirement but that is to reduce um the water loss in the system.

Okay. Is that the same thing I'm thinking of where our water department needs to categorize every single customer in the city as to um you know their type of use and I recall the number 28 different categories. Um I have to work with the staff and then get the answer to you. I'm not sure about the 28 categories.

Okay. Yeah. I think the overall objective of that law um is to achieve reductions in use by every customer in the city and it's taking a u kind of a a fine comb to the efforts that are required to achieve that. So yeah, if you could get me uh some information on that, I'd appreciate that. We'll do. Um okay, those are all the uh questions I have right now. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you. Um my questions are more about the um specifically some of the proactive maintenance that's going to be done for both the sewer and water. Um and Adam, this may require you so get stretched out here maybe. Um the I recall the failure or the impending failure of the sewer line on Danker Drive. It was an emergency. It was something I think the city manager had to do an emergency contract for well above what maybe it would normally cost to do it in a routine. But I noticed during the presentation you mentioned that was discovered in sort of a routine look at the the pipe, right? And I understand that a routine inspection of a sewer pipe can discover an emergent situation, but at the same time, isn't the the idea behind doing the um you know, routine look through the pipes to as look at find things that we can we can treat proactively rather than an emerent basis. I mean, you know, on that situation, you know, I I want to make sure if that as that repeats in the future, we're not going out of our way to discover emergencies essentially and trying to do it in such a way where we can, you know, contract that for for lower amounts than than emergent. So, I mean, I guess in that situation, what what was discovered? How long was that pipe in that condition? And, you [clears throat] know, why was it such that that needed to be done and in such an emergent fashion? So the the effort that is undertaken in the last two years is really the department has set up the program um and strengthen the program to do the inspection. So this is uh for Danker Drive. Yes, it is an emergency but it's a controlled emergency in in in which that we found the um section of pipe that has issues that has collapsed and as we are opening up we found that it's

it's not a 10-ft section pipe failure. there is a 300 uh feet pipe failure but it's in um all the resources is there already and it's ready to mitigate the problem versus a real emergency is we didn't know know about it and it collapsed in the middle of the night and all those it's start to have sewer spill and it spill everywhere become a health hazard right

so it's the in the best uh case scenario if once we run through the program like I say the CCTV takes seven years and we are at roughly about o over 30% of completion right now. As this program mature over times you will have less of emergency because now you have data that you can base on the data to set up a program and to really have true proactive um uh maintenance program. Right now we are at the at the beginning stage of it as you and this is an example where you know yes it's it's not as ideal to to have an emergency but at least this is a first discover issue and it's under a control environment that we mitigate the issue.

Sure.

If I could if I could the you know the first round will likely be the most painful. We we have not had a comprehensive program like this in recent years. And so what happened and what uh director Yang has sort of um you know elegantly walked with here is we the reason that we're doing so much of this work is because we came under the microscope for state regulators and this was work that we needed to get after more proactively to be able to ensure that we weren't uh creating the environmental issues uh that um that director Young had mentioned. So what we're trying to do now is uh is walk at a pace that keeps us out of the crosshairs from a state regul regulation perspective which means that we're not able to uh you know we we don't want to we don't want to turn the other cheek and wait for the emergency. We need to get through uh the seven-year cycle of all of our pipes to then be able to start again uh and to be able to stay on top of uh the maintenance and camera work that we need to do. How was this done, you know, prior to this implementation of of how we're doing it now? Like in the last 10 or 20 years, what was the what was the process for going through and looking at these things?

Um, it it's done not with a organized structure method. It's it's it's it was uh this the staff uh periodically will do whatever they can with the resource that they have and and um the budget that they have um for just like what the city manager had mentioned that we have put together um this sewer system management plan with a um more structure and organized operation and maintenance program and a CIP program that um bring the staff to a more structure and organized manner stop doing um the work that we need to be doing.

Sure. What I mean was there closed circuit, you know, monitoring? I know to go through every sewer pipe, you you got to fish a camera down it and see the integrity of the pipe. There's no other way to do it really. Um but had that been done in in you know decades past?

It's it's done but it's not in a structure organized method. Is there I mean you know that's not an inexpensive process to do. Is the data available from those prior you know inspections and is that uploaded into sort of the plan we put together with asset management and you know is there a way to comb through that data and you know check it against what we're doing now? Uh yes it's it's collected um the data [clears throat] is collected and it's go through a sewer AI process that it will rank priority one two three four and um staff look at priority one and that's the highest priority and and uh prioritize those and program it either either on the uh repair replacement or anti-CIP replacement.

Great. Thank you. I I just find this kind of fascinating. So once this starts happening, I'll follow up outside of the meeting. I'd like to take a look at how that data gets, you know, put into a screen for an employee. But um other than those specific comments about the presentation tonight, um thank you for, you know, everything that you're doing and um I'll seed my my questions there. So Okay. Thank you. Uh Council Member Tessa, are you ready? Um yeah, I Mike.

Yes. Thank you. Okay. Um I guess I just wanted to highlight the um new rules, the um restrictions on the POS MCL's um and because we were proactive in um shutting down our wells, um it doesn't impact us at this point, but um all of those wells would currently be exceeding those new um targets. Is that correct? That's correct.

Okay. And um I do look forward to the feasibility study that we will soon be getting a report on. I think um zone 7 is doing something tomorrow night that um they're going to be having a lot of discussion about um where what has been found with the wells. Is that what's they're doing? Yes, that's correct. um they are going to present the uh result of the feasibility study to the board and we are planning to bring the same presentation to council in February.

Okay. So we can get kind of a preview tomorrow night if we watch their meeting. Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, so the only other thing is I thought it was great that um we had no um um for 2025, what was it? Spillovers. What did you call it? Sore over spill.

Okay. and you because I've been genuinely concerned as we've kind of changed some policy and um I was worried that the I see so many piles of leaves and had always heard that um the removal of the leaves were so important because to prevent clogs but we had a successful year. It wasn't problematic. Yeah, the the leaves um affect the storm drain system generally they don't affect the sewer system. So this year we have um we have we are still learning we are going through as a learning curve but we have good collaboration and partnership from the residents and understanding our leaf program. Uh there is no leaf program but it's um they pick up the the leaves and we we also help educate them about the the leaves how to handle the leaves. So, so far um we don't have we don't have an incident related to uh fall leaves.

Okay. We do still do some um gutter and leaf removal, don't we? It's just not the extensive and repeated that used to be available. Right. So, any leaves that is uh fall on the city right away naturally uh we we are still doing street cleaning. We are still picking up all the leaves. Um the the type of leaves that um we don't handle is um the property leaves that swept out to the street.

Okay. And yet I see it often on uh social media people complaining that these are the city's uh trees they're making us pick up. But um so there's still a learning curve going on there. But that that was good to see that we didn't have any. All right, that's all. Thank you. Okay, Council Member Aker, clarifying questions.

I really didn't have any, [clears throat] but after uh Council Member Gatos's conversation with you, it did bring up a couple questions. Um, in regards to our sewer pipe, so we're 30% through the inspections as we're moving forward. Has the city prioritized which pipes we're inspecting or which neighborhoods are being inspected based upon perceived need?

Uh uh we we have some input into it and and in general we know where um we always get service call and where the hotspot is. That's where we prioritize first. Um and um our uh manager has a system that they work with um the program to to uh program the the seven-year program to make sure everything is inspected. So, so based upon how we're going about doing our inspections, odds are we're going to pick up those uh potentially uh damaged pipes early on versus towards the end of this, we wouldn't expect to have as many because we've hit those hot spots. Correct.

On the front end of this. Correct. And we also work very closely with the engineering CIP team. So whenever they have a major project for example um we're going to have the west lo pacidas projects and we will prioritize the CCTV crew to CCTV the system to make sure that if uh since we are opening up the road if there's any uh pipeline that needs to replace we do it all at once and in um instead of two different projects we're trying to be efficient. Okay, that sounds good. I just wanted to clarify in that because it I'm sure you had a plan. and I just wanted to get it out there and to see what it looked like. Thank you. Anything further?

Okay. Uh I just have a few quick questions if I Well, probably not terribly quick. So, u maybe I'll point out for our community and public that all of the elements you outlined are in the staff report in more detail. So that actually leads to my question which is I read the report and between inflationary pressures that we face in any CIP project and the regulatory that is now uh clear and present in front of me uh what do we control or or because the regulatory we don't have the control over the regulatory that seems like a very significant um factor to the cost of this is that more than inflation now or you know how are we factoring ing that in and which one's the primary driver for cost inflation regulatory or it's a bit of all of it

probably uh both of them right it's um it's it's it driving the cost there's the inflation and also the regulatory requirement the the requirement there is there are several requirements is continuous update and changes from the state so what we know today is what we are implement today but things might change. For example, lead and copper regulation. Um we know what the state require today but the state is still continuously developing that regulations. So adding with time um inflation will play in a factor into the cost. I think unfortunately and I don't think it was in intentional or malicious but unfortunately a lot of the state regulations hit cities in 27 28 and 29 so there's also this compression that happens where you know we we have a lot of moving parts on a regular basis and then you add you know four five six seven new things for us to do and they all have to they all have to be delivered in that window of time. Uh that is creating um some additional management uh skill that [laughter] needs to be applied to to get us um uh to get us to that point where we're able to comply or to understand fully the implications of not being able to comply and make those decisions eyes wide open if uh if we're presented with that that scenario. So there'll be more to come uh in terms of future updates on our on our overall utilities program and how we're doing. Uh, but I think in addition to the cost, there's just this sort of capacity, resource, community understanding, communications component that needs to go with a lot of these because they'll affect not just the work that we do, but what happens to with homeowners and business owners in the community as well.

Yeah. Uh, let me ask it like this, right? Our community knows when we're bringing on or talking about bringing on the east side and development impact fees for expanding the system. In fact, when we talked about development impact fees for even for water, we talked about are we in a mature system, expanding system, or a contracting system. So, that's one aspect, but that's not even a principal driver. It sounds like it sounds like it's inflation and and regulatory compliance. Is that a correct assumption? I'm trying to confirm my understanding when I read this report.

I'll say yes. I mean, that is that's what we're dealing with. These are expanded regulatory requirements and growing costs year on year. And um so the reason we do rate increases in shorter intervals is because we know what we know in this period of time and we know what we're trying to accomplish and we're just going to continue to roll forward. Um it doesn't mean that every year is a rate increase, especially now that we're we're more or less caught up in the water world. Uh but uh as you look at sewer, you'll see that rate discussion coming in the in the in the next few months. uh we expect the dollar amounts to be a lot less than what we saw with water in terms of uh increases, but you can see the scope of the system that we're trying to manage. And then unfortunately, as as our director mentioned, uh storm water in Pleasanton does not have a funding source. Um there there's a minor funding source that comes on your property tax bill, but it's very uh it's very small uh and is not taking care of the need. um which has forced the council to depprioritize other general fund priorities in recent years to manage storm water needs in the community. So uh it is uh aging infrastructure is is a serious thing for us to be considering and it's why we're doing asset management. It's why we're doing these infrastructure plans because the only way to really get our arms around it uh in addition to all the new state laws is to have a plan to to deal with it.

Yeah. I I'll just uh I'm going to breach protocol about clarifying question, but you know, as we talk about rate increases for our community, uh them understanding why these increases are coming about via rate uh or regulatory or inflation, I think will matter. Uh my other question is exactly the one that you've walked to, which is so we've got a sewer master plan that we're starting. It used 30% uh of the pipe estimates to estimate the cost. So if we're at the hot spots now, I worry that you know or maybe we'll see some benefits to that plan fiscally in its outline and that was one of the questions I asked at that meeting. But then you have the water master plan which we've already completed and moving on. So now we've got all these plans. So I understand that. So now when we bring it together tonight and we have a presentation on all of these is staff looking across the silos to make sure we're prioritizing across the silos if we have a major problem in sewer that is of a higher need than some high priority in water but individually they would each look like high priority. So are we are we are we staging I guess I don't I want to make sure we're looking across our systems given the aging on all of them.

Yes, we are. Um that's what the asset management program is is fantastic. It's tied into the GIS and what we are collecting the data that we we have right now is also tying into the GIS where we are looking at it as not just individual utility system but as a system as whole. So a a good example is west Los Pacidas. When we develop the project is is we look at the s the project as a whole and look at all our system as a whole. If there is um we check our water system, we check our sewer system, we check our storm drain system, we check our fire hydrant and we check all the utility system to make sure and identify what are the uh needs uh of repair that is out there. So when we are doing the projects that's what the engineering CIP team um um do uh best is to take the individual needs to see how is best program um the uh the CIP that deliver the project in the most cost-effective way.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh any further clarifying questions of staff before I go further? Seeing none, uh Rich Cunningham provided a card but only if we had questions. I don't presume you want to uh Okay. Thank you very much for being here. By the way, he was here to answer questions related to uh sewer compliance. Okay. With that, uh if you would like to speak on item number 14 and have not completed a blue speaker card, please go ahead and approach the podium at this time. Seeing none hearing none. Any online? None online. So, we'll close public comment and bring it back. This is anformational item. So, uh same order. Closing comments. Council member Tessa, if you're ready. I'll just say I mean reading the report um I often think being on this council we there are so many um things that I never would have thought that I'm I need to be knowledgeable about our sewer system and and the the extensive um process access for our water and all of the things that operations does. So, um it I just feel very grateful, appreciative for the work that is being done that um it is um being done well and that we are serving our community in the best way possible in the most costefficient manner possible. So, I'll just thank you for this report and everything that you guys do for us. Thank you.

Okay, Council Member Nyber.

Yes, thank you. Um, I'll just start by reiterating that the one of the highest priorities of our city council is uh water and uh that is the delivery of safe, reliable and quality water uh to our community as well as um our sewer facilities and proper maintenance um and not to mention storm water facilities. uh very high priority in managing all of those facilities. Hence, you know, an asset management program um and one of the purposes of the asset management program as uh I believe I've mentioned earlier is uh bad news early is good. So um I just want to say that uh to ensure the high performance and reliability and the required maintenance um you know for our city infrastructure is a a really expansive and detailed effort. So I want to extend my appreciation staff. The um also taking um the serious emergency situation on Danker and resolving that um shows that uh you know our our inspection program um is is working as you said that it will take some time to reach maturity over a number of years. Um the you know comprehensive and proactive inspection and maintenance is on its way to becoming a way of life for our city for our public works department. Uh it's encouraging to see the storm drain projects. Uh 11 of them I believe are uh on schedule and on budget with their

designs. uh what we are seeing uh and the conclusion that I can draw from all of this is the uh you know the result of the comprehensive planning programs for maintenance, inspection and repair and replacement that this city council and the previous city council directed the city manager to put in place uh since he began his tenure in Pleasanton. And what city staff is doing under these uh new programs is to my knowledge unprecedented in Pleasanton. And so what we're seeing from the public works department is a significant improvement in how we do business. And I'm very encouraged by what I see and hear here. And uh I want uh would like the uh public works director to extend my sincere appreciation to all of her staff. And again, congratulations.

Thank you. That's all. Thank you. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor.

Thank you. Um I echo the comments of the other council members um thus far here and and just thank you for the presentation and I know this is a uh you know pretty monumental task and I hope that you know as we ask questions along the way and kind of poke and prod like we did that um you know we want to make sure that you know while we're doing things different we're mindful of of any information from the past that can help us learn how to go forward. Um I realize that you know technologies advanced and other things that advanced but um you know I do want to make sure that you know if we are talking that we're doing things truly in an unprecedented way um that we make sure that that um is you know is taken seriously and and you know we use the resources from the past to the extent they are there to learn how we how we've done and how we could go forward better. So thank you. Okay. Thank you very much, Council Member Aker.

I want to echo the comments of the prior council members. Um staff has done a a remarkable job with this. Um I think this is a this this report demonstrates to the community the amount of hard work and dedication that our city goes into to make sure that the city's running smoothly without interruption. And uh I don't think folks see this side of government all the time. They don't see the things that we're trying to take care of before it happens or before they're impacted by the issues. Um and that takes a lot of effort. Uh so uh kudos to staff for being on top of this stuff and moving these projects forward. And you know, from what I've seen, this is a lot of projects in a very short period of time. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you very much. Uh same as all of my prior council members expressed uh the thanks to the staff uh rank and file that are doing this day in and day out. Um I personally do appreciate the consistent theme that the council and staff and senior leadership have taken about moving away from reactive fixes to proactive. Uh and it was a good uh it's good to understand that we're still looking across the silos between the water system, the sewer system, the storm drain to prioritize because I I know we're doing each plan individually. So making sure that we're still looking at which one in the overall because they all there they all matter. Uh my other comment is I do believe this helps our residents understand that we are trying to be very cognizant of the costs to them so that we continue to do this efficiently. Um, to that end, when I look at the report for the water system and the non-functional turf, I've mentioned it before, but as more and more uh uh properties or areas are going to have to convert to comply with state law, how we interact with our own building department or planning department so that we can complete design review applications if required as timely as efficiently as possible because this is going to be a lot of applications. the same thing for um uh natural gas water heaters going away under 70 gallons. We need to think about how we can serve our residents and set up processes to make those uh regulatory implementations as uh where Pleasanton is is being a partner to our residents right for other areas. So I I know staff's thinking about it. Um, I'll just maybe give uh the public a concept that to think about outside of inflation and regulation and aging infrastructure, which is think about the reliability problems of power we have in our city at different times to pump clean water, but to make

sure the black water goes down the drain. So, uh I I know there's we talked about the uh emergency outage projects in this um given the vastness of the distribution system that can't be an easy task. So again, true appreciation for what you're doing. Um thank you. Okay, so that is our presentation for item number 14 and concludes item number 14. We truly appreciate it. Uh and thank you very much. Okay, with that, uh, we are going to proceed to the rest of the agenda as posted. Matters initiated by council. Does any, uh, council member have any matters initiated at this time? I do.

Council member, I'd like to, uh, have council revisit the downtown ground floor use restrictions. I at a future council meeting.

Sorry, I just put a mitt in my mouth. I'll mention that I talked to the city manager about this today and uh not knowing you were going to bring it up and [snorts] I believe that there was a plan to talk about that priority or how to prioritize. Do you want to elaborate first? Yeah, if if the council is willing to um uh be a little bit patient, by about a month and a half, we're going to bring back the city council work plan and look at where uh downtown plan review fits with uh the other priorities that had been uh initiated prior to the uh in the last round of work planning that happened with the council. Uh there's also some discussion that we're going to enter into around our civic center and some opportunities there which could factor in. So, uh, I'd respectfully request that we, uh, we we move that discussion into the the more comprehensive program look at what we're doing. Uh, if if there's willingness to wait a few weeks on that,

I I think that'd be fine. That's reasonable. Okay. Thank you. Any additional matters initiated? I do. I have one. Um, we had mentioned this during the commission and committee assignments, but I wanted to I don't know if we need to agendaize it, but um, make formal the request to try to select someone from the energy and environmental commission to head up the community monitor spot for that committee. I talked to the city manager about that today as well. And, uh, it is on slate for the spring recruitments and I think you have them, right, Jocelyn? Uh, yes. So right now the spring recruitment is still planned to go forward at the regularly scheduled time

which is approximately March or February March February February through March. Um and then we'll have that vacancy um available for applicants. Okay, great. Yeah, I think it just, you know, if somebody has an interest and they have the tech technical and scientific training, I think that might be a better representative of our community than someone without too many letters behind their name. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, and we have that on the recruitment for spring and we'll make sure that they're aware of the recruitment so they can apply and then it's an appointment just like others. Appreciate it. Okay. Any other

Can I dovetail on that just real quick? I I think it would be worth looking at some of the other assignments that have the ability to be um a community member instead of a council member just to know what our options are in future because there are several other assignments that um are often community members not council members. I um mosquito abatement comes to mind. Um and I think um council member Nybert is serving there and enjoys serving there, but it would be nice to just identify the different ones that could be an option in future that aren't necessarily council.

Right. Well, we can at least we're all appointed now except for this particular one. So maybe we can bring it up for the process so we know which one has to be an elected versus not. Yeah. Okay. Uh council reports. So uh I before we jump into this, you'll note city manager updates have now been added to the agenda. That was uh after talking with the city attorney and city manager. So that's going to be something we're going to try at that section so that there can be a download kind of like uh each of us serve on a other groups and you see the executive director may report out. So, we're going to try that out for 26 and see how it goes. Uh, so council reports are for our side of the house. So, council member Iker.

Okay. So, December 17th, I attended the police department's promotional and swearing in ceremony here at the council chambers. January 5th, I attended a lofta board meeting. January 8th, uh, I attended a scheduled audit subcommittee meeting. January 13th, a close session of the city council. January 15th, I attended waste and recycling meeting as a check-in regarding contract negotiations. January 16th, I attended the Alimont landfill open space meeting as Council Member Nybert's alternate. And on January 17th, I attended the Make a Difference Day here in Pleasanton.

Thank you, Council Member Ta.

Uh, yes. Let's see. I also attended the same lapa board meeting and I attended actually a zone 7 turn on your mic. No, I'm not on there. week laugh board meeting, zone 7 flood management meeting, which given our discussion tonight, it was um there was a lot of um crossover and I often have a hard time understanding the difference in and discussed with um um members of zone 7 where their responsibility on flood management is versus our responsibility on flood management. ment. So, um that was an interesting uh community workshop that was to answer questions for members of the community about what kind of what areas are at risk. Um, I attended a wheels community meeting um on bus route changes for our downtown given our um success of our uh the dairy and the traffic um issues that it's created for our buses and wheels is looking at whatter alternatives might be more long-term because um everyone's ex um accepted that it is not simply a seasonal um issue any longer that it needs we need to have some permanent alternatives. So there are two proposals right now for and I will tell you our writers are not happy about it. Um, I also [clears throat] attended the closed session and thoroughly enjoyed as always

the make a difference day. So that's it. Okay, Council Member Nybert.

Thank you. Um, after the holiday uh kind of slow period for the agencies that I'm on, there were a couple of uh of items I can report. First, I want to thank Council Member Aker for attending the Altimont Landfill Open Space Committee for me while I was away. Um, I attended a meeting of the Alama County Mosquito Abatement District last week. Uh, there were lots of minor business items on the agenda which the district took care of. Um, one thing that uh the uh members from all the various cities in the county are asked to do is uh whenever new projects come up in the city to take a look at them from a mosquito abatement viewpoint um and uh inform the mosquito abatement district or at least uh within the city itself point out items that you know could become breeding grounds for mosquitoes uh or have that potential. um also attended the close session and I believe that's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Uh just since after the holiday December 8th, uh stop waste points and authorities meeting, close session on the 13th, the PUSD city liaison meeting on the 13th, um community monitor on Wednesday the 14th, and waste and recycling subcommittee meeting on the 15th. And that brings us current to today. So, thank you.

Okay. Uh, on the reaching back a little bit, December 17th, uh, Pleasanton Unified School District had a forum on youth apprenticeships with Assembly Member Liz Ortega and, uh, State Senator Jerry Mcernney. Um they the our Pleasanton Unified School District has apprenticeships in cyber security and robotics and is looking to expand it and having the um representatives there along with myself and uh school representatives was very good. It was a community forum. The PPD promotion ceremony always something good to see our force strength. On the 17th as well, LAFCO had a meeting and just as I've reported out in the past, LAFCO has now transitioned from being under a county using county services to an independent agency in its own right with its own staff and that was to try to resolve the last bits of contracts there. Also on the 17th, what a busy day, AVA Community Energy. Something I want to just report out is um there's a financial adjustment underway at AVA. So basically as we are expecting lower energy costs from uh a variety of factors in 2026 that will just mean AVA will be fiscally challenged as well. Um so they have moved to maintain the 0.5% bright choice discount but the there will be an increase on the renewable 100 premium to 1.75 cents per kilowatt hour and um the agency is a slight reduction on its renewable energy procurement targets for the future budget to balance its budget. Uh on the 8th of January, the audit committee meeting as mentioned on the 12th of January. I was spoke at an AI panel with uh former Fremont Mayor Lily May. Uh Union City Council member

Jeff Wang and uh Mayor Raj Saw from Fremont was there, but him and I passed in the night on smart growth, strong communities. It was a panel discussion with AI as a as a implementer and uh fiber cellular strength all of those things for growth and energy reliability kind of the three main infrastructure things required. On the 13th PUSD city liaison meeting we talked about a variety of issues and uh went from there. On the 14th, Ava had another meeting for executives, uh, energy, excuse me, AVA, community energy executive meeting. The call center bid went out and they're going to stay with SMUD, which is a utility that provides call center services for Ava. Um then on the 15th uh we the people had a subgroup called project citizen uh showcase at our vets hall uh spoke at that along with supervisor uh Halbert and then on the 17th make a difference festival. Truly one of the highlights to kick off the year. Okay, so with that uh we're done. Thank you very much for your patience. Uh city manager, your first update item on the agenda. Welcome to 26.

Thank you very much. Uh, happy new year. And I want to thank uh, Mayor Balch and our our our city attorney, Dan Sodigran, for uh, working through the rules and creating this opportunity. Uh, um, and I also want to thank the council for indulging me. I know most nights with this time slot, I'll be between you and your next meeting or possibly bed. So, I'm going to try and keep it uh, informative and appreciate the opportunity to share what's going on in the organization and what's going on in the community in a way that hopefully is helpful to you and the community. So, I'm going to kick it off tonight with an announcement. uh first public announcement that I've been able to make uh welcoming Aaron Lacy as LPFD's fire chief. Aaron stayed here uh this evening and I want to congratulate him. You all know you've read the press release, but Chief Lacy brings over 20 years uh with LPFD. Uh and he's really looking forward to and I'm looking forward to working with him. Uh Mariana Burch is the co-executive director uh for LPFD and it was a decision that we're both really happy with. So uh start with that. Our utility discount program uh on Wednesday uh January 28th uh the city's hosting a utility discount program with application assistance at our public works uh courtyard. It's 3333 Bush Road and we're available from 8:00 a.m. to 700 p.m. that day. It's Wednesday, January 28th, 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. to provide hands-on help for residents who uh qualify for the utility discounts. Uh we have our spring and summer recreation and library activities guide uh that is now available. Uh Pleasanton residents uh get first dibs. The registration opens on February the 11th. Uh and that's an important deadline because a lot of our programs fill up quick. They're in high demand. So uh mark your calendar for February the 11th. Uh just uh Director Young was here tonight, did the presentation. I just want to again uh acknowledge the

work. Uh having zero sanitary sewer spills in 2025 is uh an accomplishment. We haven't achieved that in quite some time. Uh so I want to give another shout out to uh to our public works team. And then I'm going to wrap up tonight with the point in time count. Uh it's Thursday, January 22nd. Our police department leads that effort in Pleasanton. that's a little bit unique, but because we have the alternative response unit and we work with clinicians, we have a pretty good idea of where our homeless populations are. Uh we partner with Cityserve, our local nonprofit. And so, uh unlike a lot of communities that need a lot of volunteer support, of course, if the council's interested or a member of the community is interested, we're happy to have a little extra help, but we have it covered uh between our police department and city serve. and we're looking forward to um getting this year's numbers. Uh this is, for those who aren't aware, the point in time count is a count of homeless individuals, youth, families uh in our community. It's required every two years by the Department of uh Housing and Urban Development. It's a federal government requirement. Uh and it helps us to uh have an accurate count to be able to receive resources to support those individuals in our community for the the coming years. Uh that going to that concludes my remarks for this evening. I really appreciate you all listening and giving me the opportunity and uh yeah, thank you. I'll turn it back to you, mayor.

Okay. Thank you very much. Uh any questions of the city manager's updates while we're here. Okay, seeing none, we are moving to a German. Council member Iker, can you take us out? The Pleasanton City Council adjourns this meeting with a tribute to our nation's men and women serving the military and with gratitude for every United States veteran who has bravely answered the call to serve. Further, we wish to honor the memories of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in conflicts both past and present in defense of our country. Have a good night. Thank you.