City Council - Regular Meeting

meeting. Today is March 3rd, 2023, excuse me, 2026 at 700 p.m. Just seeing if you're paying attention. We're all ready to go and nowhere to go. Uh, and we'll call this meeting to order. Uh, Council Member Tessa, if you can lead us in a pledge, and if you could please rise if you're able, please. Ready? Begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. Can we go ahead and have roll call, please? Council members, present. present. Nybert,

here. Ta here. Mayor Balch, present. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, we're going to proceed uh according to the agenda. Report on closed session. City attorney. Thank you, mayor. There were two items discussed in closed session tonight. Uh in the first item, the council unanimously gave me conditional authority to initiate litigation. Uh and in the second matter, the council unanimously gave me authority to initiate litigation. Uh the details of both of those matters will be made available to the public uh once those actions are filed. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much on that report out. Uh any agenda, excuse me, agenda amendments? Any agenda amendments by staff? Thank you, mayor. No changes this evening.

Okay. Any agenda amendments by my fellow council members at this time?

Okay. We'll proceed with the agenda as posted. And with that, we're going to go to consent calendar. Items on the consent calendar. It's only one item. Uh are considered routine in nature and may be enacted by one motion. If discussion is required, that particular item will be removed from the consent calendar and considered separately. With that, uh, any clarifying questions by my fellow council members on the consent calendar at this time. I I would like to I don't want to pull it for full discussion, but I'd like to ask staff to emphasize the portion that identifies it as a regional um project. Can I ask you to do that?

Yes. Uh thank you for the the question. our housing manager, Steve Hernandez, is here if we need to get into it any further, but uh this this is an ongoing commitment that the uh it's it's basically a rehabilitation of existing domestic violence shelter in the Tri Valley. Uh the city of Pleasanton has been a longtime supporter. Uh and we certainly have Pleasanton residents uh who use the facility, but it is available across the Tri Valley.

Okay. And the reason I wanted what I wanted emphasized is that in the staff report it does say but I think it's important to um because we have heard concerns in the community that um this project will serve um residents from the Tri Valley, Pleasanton um Liverour and Dublin and that um it is intended and this funding is intended for um all residents from all of the cities. Is that correct?

Yeah, it's it's actually capital funding for as part of our CDBG program that allows us to invest in projects like this one. Okay. Okay. I'm good. Thank you. Okay. Any additional clarifying questions by any fellow council members at this time? Okay. Seeing none, I have no speaker cards on consent. If you would like to speak on the consent calendar consisting of item one and you haven't turned in a blue speaker card, go ahead and please approach the podium at this time. Would anyone like to speak on consent? Miss Christine Dilman, welcome. Sorry, I should have done a speaker card. I apologize. That's okay. Thank you. Not your first time.

I know. I should know by now. Um, so I really appreciate your question. I just wanted to tell you my name is Christine Dilman. I'm the executive director of Tribaly Haven. Um, I just wanted to share a story about a Pleasanton resident um, who came to our domestic violence shelter. And to protect her identity, I'm going to call her Carrie. And Carrie is a Pleasanton mother devoted to her teenage son. And like so many survivors we serve, she never imagined she would one day need to flee her home to stay safe. But when the abuse escalated and her son became witnessing the violence, Carrie made the most courageous decision to leave. where uh nowhere else there was nowhere else to safe to turn. Carrie came to Trial Haven's confidential domestic violence shelter, the only confidential domestic violence shelter serving the tribe alley. In that moment, the existence of a safe undisclosed location right here in the community meant everything. It meant she did not have to uproot her son to another county. It meant she could remain connected to his school, to local resources, and to the community she calls home. It meant she and her child were safe. At our shelter, Carrie found more than just a bed. She found dignity. She found advocacy. And she found hope. Through comprehensive case management, trauma-informed counseling and legal assistance, our advocates walked alongside Carrie as she navigated restraining orders, custody concerns, employment challenges, and the deep emotional aftermath of abuse. She was not alone in court. She was not alone in rebuilding her confidence. She was not alone in imagining a different future. Carrie was also carrying a heavy financial burden. She had recently lost her job and I had fallen behind on essential bills. Starting over was not just emotionally

difficult, it was financially overwhelming. With targeted support, Trially Haven helped carry with overdue utility payments, car registration fees, and storage cost so her family's belongings remain secure. That breathing room was critical. It stabilized her during the most fragile moment of transition. Within one month of ret receiving Tribal Haven's assistance, Carrie secured new employment. Step by step, she rebuilt her independence. Today, she and her son are thriving in their new home. Her son is doing better in school. Carrie is working and planning for her future there. She is grounded in safety and strengthened by resilience. When one Pleasanton family safely escapes domestic violence, the impact ripples. Her son is no longer living in trauma, which means he is better able to focus in school and build healthy relationships. Neighbors are no longer hearing violence next door. Police officers are no longer repeatedly responding to crisis calls at that address. Employers gain a stable, reliable employee. Health care systems see fewer emergency visits. Our community becomes safer and more stable. Domestic violence affects children's development, public safety resources, local businesses, schools, and neighborhoods. But when a confidential shelter exists, when comprehensive services are available, the cycle can be interrupted. Tribally Haven shelter is a lifeline. It is prevention. It is public safety. It is economic stabilization. It is child abuse prevention. It is community well-being. Carrie story is a reminder that Pleasanton invests in safety for its residents. You are not just helping

one survivor, one family. You are strengthening an entire community. When survivors are given safety time and the right support, they do not just survive, they thrive. And they th when they thrive, Pleasanton thrives. and thank you so much for your support. I really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you for the work you do. Are there any additional speakers that would like to speak on the consent calendar at this time? Okay, with that, we'll close public comment and bring it back to the council. Looking for a motion or action. I will make the motion to approve the grant funding for this very critical and very important aspect of our community. I'll second. Beat you to it.

Motion made and seconded. Any further conversation before we proceed to a roll call vote? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Council member Gados, I. Ta, I. I Mayor Balch, I. The motion carries unanimously.

Outstanding. Thank you so much. And that concludes the consent calendar. So now we're going to go to meeting open to the public. I've got quite a lot of members of the public here. I don't know if you've been here before, but if you would like to speak on any of the items on the agenda, you will fill out a blue speaker card. They're located outside on their credenza and then turn them into the box by the city clerk if you would like to speak. Uh with that, we're going to proceed to item number two, which is presentation of award by Tri Valley Haven. And right back to you. Welcome again.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of the Pleasanton City Council. My name is Christine Dilman and I'm deeply honored to serve as Trialy Haven's executive director. Together we gather to celebrate the groundbreaking of Trialy Haven's new expanded domestic violence shelter. This is more than the start of construction. It is the beginning of a new chapter of safety, hope, and healing for generations of Pleasanton families. For more than 40 years, Tribal Haven has operated the only confidential domestic violence shelter in the Tri Valley and the only shelter in the region that welcomes teenage boys as part of families. Thousands of survivors and their children have walked through our doors carrying fear and uncertainty. They left carrying strength, stability, and renewed hope. The shelter was almost always full, but after four decades of consistent use, the building itself was falling apart and could no longer keep pace with the growing needs of our community. The investment in Trial Haven shelter rebuild was a true collaborative. The city of Pleasanton, Liverour and Dublin, Alama County, private foundations, corporations, and community members contributed. Local survivors deserve safety, dignity, stability, and a space designed for healing in their own area. Because of the city's leadership and funding, we will increase our capacity by 50% from 30 to 45 beds. That means that more survivors, more children, and yes, more teenage boys will have a safe place to sleep at night. It means fewer families forced to choose between staying in

danger or leaving their own community. It means Pleasanton families can remain close to schools, jobs, and support networks while rebuilding their lives. Your funding strengthens not only the physical structure but the comprehensive services within it. Counseling, case management, legal services, permanent housing. It ensures that when a Pleasanton resident makes the courageous decision to flee abuse, there is a space ready for them. And the impact extends beyond the walls of this shelter. When one family finds safety, children are able to focus in school. Survivors are able to to return to work. Law enforcement can intervene knowing there is a secure place for families to go. Neighbors live in a safer community. The cycle of violence is interrupted. This is not just a building project. It is public safety. It is housing stability. It is child welfare. It is economic resilience. It is community well-being. This project proves that it is possible for local government, philanthropy, and community partners to unite around a shared purpose. The city of Pleasanton did not just help build a shelter. You invest in the community for the next 50 years and beyond. Tonight represents a powerful promise. Survivors and their children are not alone. The Tri Valley community stands with them. I would like to recognize the extraordinary civil servants who made this possible. Our mayor, our vice mayor, and our city council leaders. I want to especially acknowledge the incredible city staff who dedicated countless hours to this effort. In particular, housing manager Steve Hernandez has been instrumental to the

successful planning of the shelter. Steve worked collaboratively with the city of Liverour, the city of Dublin, and Alama County, ensuring that Pleasanton families will have access to a local domestic violence shelter for generations to come. On behalf of Trialy Haven and on behalf of the survivors who will walk through the shelter doors, thank you. It is my great honor to to present Tribally Haven's Light the Way award to the city of Pleasanton in recognition of your generous investment in this shelter rebuild and your steadfast commitment to the safety and dignity of Pleasanton survivors of domestic abuse and their children. Thank you for believing that everyone deserves a safe place to live free from violence.

Thank you very much. We'll we'll come down and we'll take a photo. Yeah, we'll come down. Is Heather Heather's here, right?

You got to stand. Thank you so much. outstanding. And uh staying with the theme of people helping others in need, it is my extreme humbled honor to introduce this next item, which is the presentation by our own Alama County District Attorney, Ursula Jones Dixon. Welcome and thank you for coming to Pleasanton.

Thank you for having me. Um just wanted to double up on how important it is to have a shelter that takes teenage boys. I mean, I know you all know that. I don't know that the community always knows that. any place for substance abuse. Um, generally boys aren't allowed and I'm the mother of a boy and so that it always touches my heart. So, great work. Thank you. And thank you so much for having me today. Again, I'm Ursula Jones Dixon, Alama County District Attorney. I'm here today just to give you a quick overview of kind of what is going on at the District Attorney's Office. Now, um, and I'm just going to move through this presentation fairly quickly and allow you all to ask me any questions you'd like. Our mission at the DA's office is to ethically prosecute those who commit crimes, uphold the rights of victims, and provide them with compassionate support, protect communities that we serve, collaborate with justice and community partners, and foster policies that prioritize public safety and restore public trust. We also are uh moving to reinforce innovative programs that provide opportunities for rehabilitation as well as reintegration and to enhance the lives of the residents in Alama County. And district attorneys also have a mandate as well. There's certain things we're required to do. It's our position that the DA's mandate uh is to represent the people of the state of California ethically, professionally, and with integrity in criminal, civil, as well as juvenile matters. Now, the DA's office will always pursue the truth, demonstrate commitment to fair and equitable justice for all, and ensure that victims of crime are treated with respect, dignity, and empathy. It's our position that uh what is at the center of the work that we do as victims of crime. Yeah, I mean, this is me. I just introduced myself, so I'm going to keep going. Okay. But I the only thing I'll say is that um I'm from Southern California. I came to Berkeley to come to school at 17 at University of

California at Berkeley. go Bears and went to the University of San Francisco law school. Um, fell in love with this guy in college, married him. 35 years later, here we are. We've been living in Oakland in the same house for 25 years. So, I've been in Alama County for many years. And my entire legal career has been in Alama County. Um, before I started uh here as the DA, I was a judge for 11 years. Miss Carrie right there used to come to my courtroom on a regular basis. And then before that, I was a deputy DA with that guy when he was a very, very young lawyer, and he's still young to me, but I'm happy to see him here. So, that's a little bit about me. Now, here are the branches at the DA's office. We have multiple branches. Renee C.Davidson is the big courthouse by the lake. Um, the Consumer, Environmental, and Worker Protection Division is out by Oakland Airport. East County Hall of Justice is in Dublin. Juvenile Justice Center is in San Leandro. Fremont Hall of Justice. Clearly in Fremont, the victim witness assistance program is housed all over in each of our courouses. Um, we have individuals who are trained, and I'm talking to you guys, but also talking to folks out here, um, who are trained to help facilitate victims as they move through the criminal justice system. And so it really is just someone who's there to help you with your court date, there to help you sit in court while you testify, there to help support you through the process. And so we have individuals from our victim witness advocate program that are at each of our our uh courouses. We have our family justice center which is in Oakland um between on 27th between like Broadway and Telegraph and then Wyman Emanuel Courthouse which is right down uh by the Oakland Police Department. I should also say that the DA's office has over 400 employees. So, we have over 150 lawyers and then other staff. And

so, it really is like a large law firm. So, it's kind of a lot to juggle. We're working on rebuilding community trust and in doing so, we're trying to strengthen the DA's office. We launched a regional organized retail theft task force. Clearly, retail theft uh has been a huge issue in Alama County and across the nation, actually. And so, we've established a countywide organized uh retail theft task force to address repeat organized offenders. We've also bolstered our operations by filling leadership positions and relaunching our dormant grant and consumer protection initiatives. We began a top-to-bottom fiscal review and uh those actions create more transparency as well as accountability for our office. We also restored our prosecutorial capacity. We removed the bottlenecks for charging in our uh courouses which allows prosecutors to uh to handle cases, review them, charge them and then handle them whether that be way of resolution, way of diversion or trials more quickly. and we were reviewing over 22,000 referrals which are from the police department. So police bring us referrals which are just police reports. We review those, decide whether or not to charge those based upon whether or not we can prove those beyond a reasonable doubt. And we're receiving so many cases, so many cases to review. We have so many lawyers who uh have the institutional knowledge to review those cases, but I have to say that those referrals are up significantly as well. So, we are we're keeping pace to try to keep ourselves out of the u bottleneck of charging. We've also reaffirmed our commitment to fair and equitable justice focused on consistent community informed decision-making rooted in public trust, service, and legal integrity. So, our goal ultimately is to serve survivors and support public safety. We've advanced a gun violence prevention program. We worked to ensure that our

county was one of only four counties selected uh pursuant to AB 1344, which is a gun violence restraining order pilot program, expanding collaboration with law enforcement and providing prosecutors with a vital tool to intervene before tragedy occurs and to get a restraining order if in fact someone should not own a gun. Um strengthen community stakeholder engagement. We convened many conversations with business owners, with uh survivors, with faith leaders in the community um to hear directly from the community as to what they felt their needs were from the DA's office and what their concerns were about public safety and also protected resources. We've been fighting really hard to hold on to our grant funding. Our entire victim witness advocate program is funded by grants. And so as grants start to dry up, both from the state and from the feds, we are making sure that we're fighting very hard to uh assure that we have the funding to protect victims and support Alama County Family Justice Center as well as our trauma recovery center, which provides uh therapeutic interventions for individuals who've been victims of crimes. So justice by the numbers, here we go with the data. All right. So, referrals reviewed. Again, that's when police bring reports to our office. Hello, by the way, to your chief of police. I didn't get a chance to say hello. Um, those referrals are just police reports. So, we're looking at the years um from 2022 through 2025 and also February 18th uh which is when I was appointed through December 18th of 2025. We received 12,962 referrals that were misdemeanor and 5,856 felony referrals. Those numbers are up significantly um over the last couple of years. My my expectation is that those will continue to come up. I think that

the issue had been when we walked into the door at the DA's office, we had a huge backlog of cases that had not been charged. And I think to some extent police were a little um upset about that, a little disenfranchised. And so we saw that more cases were coming in as we are actually handling those cases. Just know that each case that we receive, we don't charge. We only charge what we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt. But I think it's important for both the officers who are doing the work and working up those cases as well as the victims to know what's happening with their case. So looking at the referral outcomes, if you look at the referrals from misdemeanor, so police reports charged compared to police reports given an alternative action that might be diversion for example and then police reports not charged. As you can see, not every case that's brought to us is able to be charged. And those numbers are really important because I think people have the assumption that there's this automatic sign off when cases come to us from the police department. It is not that. We have an obligation to review those reports to determine whether or not we think we can prove those beyond a reasonable doubt and then we charge accordingly. Some of those cases we also try to move to away from the criminal justice system by way of diversion. And so those numbers are listed there both for felonies and misdemeanors. Also, just to take a look at the number of referrals that we have with uh gun charges. I mean, these are significant numbers. I think we look here, it says the unit of measurement is the police incident number. So, we're looking at, for example, cases that may have more than just a gun charge. They may have, I don't know, a shooting charge. They may have a domestic violence charge. But just the fact that illegal guns are often times involved in some of our more serious crimes and that we see those numbers are going up significantly over the last um year or so.

So theft related property crimes in 2025 uh the number of theft related property crimes filed is 4,627 up significantly. There has been a major push as as recently discussed about um organized retail theft and of course after a proposition that the public supported but the governor's office does not um it's hard for us to kind of charge those cases and have the other piece of that puzzle in place which was supposed to be treatment because it was never funded by the state. So what we find ourselves doing is trying our best within our county with what resources we have to to provide the treatment as well as charge the cases. I have had so many meetings with business owners specifically in Oakland. Um but across the county about how they're getting hit with the retail theft. Um I was in Union City last week and there was a whole like strip mall. Every store had been hit. Everyone. And so we are trying very hard to remind people. Um, as I was at a 7-Eleven this weekend talking to them about the four times a day that they were being hit. Um, now it's down to maybe four times a month, but there were 7-Elevens in Oakland that were being robbed four times a day. And so, you know, cities are losing businesses, specifically cities like Oakland, at such a high rate, which makes it more difficult for people just to survive. You don't have a place to go buy food. You don't have a place to go get gas. there are less places for that. So, we're working really hard in trying to create um a more organic conversation about how we assist realizing that we like the DA's office is is not going to be the one that is in a place to make a decision, but we do encourage city councils, um the state, the county, invest in early childhood education, invest in families on the front end so we don't find ourselves here on the back end because we realize economics is, you

know, some of the issue as to why we're seeing some of of these theft related cases. Um total number of theft related property filed. This is really the same numbers. We'll go to new victims receiving services. So again, the DA's office only exists because victims exist. So our whole focus is victims of crime. And that is because as everyone here should know um defendants have lawyers, right? And we are the people's lawyer. like we still are involved in making sure that the process is fair, but victims in our state have constitutional rights as well. It's called Marcy's law and we're lucky in California to have that. Not many states have that situation. So, as a result of that, it is our job uh as a mandate statutoily to make sure that victims have what they need. And so, this statistic is probably my favorite because we want every year these numbers to go up. the number of victims that we're serving as a result of all of the services that we have. We look at we offer services to all crime types and on average we provide a total of 39 services to each victim between 2022 and 2025. I think those statistics are amazing just for the community, not for us, but that we're here to serve the community in that way. What's the work ahead? So, fair charging, safer communities, key priorities for the DA's office, developing a hate crime unit. We have a um a grant that is still in place for hate crime unit. And a piece of that grant is specifically to educate people about the difference between a hate crime incident and a hate crime um that we can charge and also why we want both to be reported, but also to make sure that we are charging those cases and prosecuting those with attorneys who are trained to do so. We're also restoring our human trafficking, wage theft, and

labor exploitation efforts. Human trafficking in Oakland is a huge issue. It has been for many years. It is one of the few areas left in California that is like an open air market. So, there's an area in Oakland where um you can just drive down the street and you see young people being trafficked. And so, because of some changes in legislation, the police have a few more tools to be able to try to assist in moving young people out of that situation. Um, but it it has become a huge focus for the city of Oakland, but also a huge focus around our county because it's just not the open air market. It is also online. It's also the massage parlor. So, we're working for that and also making sure that we are cognizant of the fact that there are so many people who are experiencing wage theft and labor exploitation as well. We're also improving and expanding our victim witness services. Again, our victim witness advocate program is robust, but we're making sure that the individuals who work in that program are trained accordingly. Um, and also that we are expanding. Like I love bringing in young people who are exuberant about helping other folks. We're trying very hard to make sure we're bringing in young um, you know, passionate young people who want to help other folks to do this work, who have the training and experience to do so. We're also launching our inaugural annual report which was released. You can scan that if you want to take a look at it. Has some information about what's been going on at the DA's office. We are rebuilding community trust. We're doing that by way of um town halls and safety forms. If that's something you want here in Pleasanton, let us know. We'll come out and engage the community if they have questions about public safety, about anything going on at the DA's office. We've done a lot of listening sessions within the community and we continue to do that and are open to doing that for any of our cities here in the county and continual conversations with local leaders like

you all about what the needs are of your city and your community. We're also partnering to promote safety and justice. So neighborhood organizations are essential partners in this work. Um the involvement strengthens the legal response and our service to the people of Alama County. We work together. Please ask us, host a listening session or safety forum. Encourage within your community crime reporting. We're asking you to ask folks in your community, please report your crimes because we want the statistics to be accurate. And we also want to know where to focus our energies and our efforts and our resources as we help people through whatever um whatever victimization they're experiencing. And also, we share DA resources. is we have a bunch of resources that are on paper or able to be accessed online and so we can provide that to you as well. This is contact information for each of our divisions at the Alama County DA's office. And for questions, you can reach out to these two who work for me, LD Lewis, as well as Austin Brockner, Coreo. But I'm also open to questions. Anything from you all first? Thank you very much for the presentation and for coming to Pleasanton and letting us know about that. This is a true honor. So, yeah, we'll open it up to uh questions from the council. Maybe I'll start on my right instead of my vice mayor. So, Council Member Aker, uh questions of our district attorney.

I really don't have any questions, but I do have some comments if that's all right. Why? We'll do it all. We'll just do a run. Okay, perfect. I do want to thank you for the work that you've done in the past year. Uh there's been a remarkable turnaround uh and I think it's notable in our community. Um so thank you very much for that and uh we appreciate the good work that you've done. Uh qu I guess I do have a question. Um do you have the resources you need to effectively pursue the job that you're doing right now compared to when you first came in? I mean

that's a good question. So um two separate types of resources I'd be most concerned with financial resources and then human resources. Right. From a human resource perspective I think the one thing I cannot do is microwave a lawyer. Yeah.

And I think that we have lawyers who uh as um as you train a lawyer in the DA's office, you train them to be what we call fungeible. That means that they can handle every type of case, a misdemeanor, a preliminary hearing and a felony. It takes about maybe six years, sometimes a little longer to get people to a point where they're funible because of CO and because um two years before I got there, there weren't a lot of cases being tried. The attorneys just didn't get the repetition that they required and even desired, right? And so now we're back to square one, making sure that we're starting from some real basic training. Um, I had a clerk stopped me in the courthouse the other day and said, "Hey, can you talk to your lawyers about how to mark exhibits?" And that's something I mean, you should know by now, but it is clearly something that was missed during this 5-year period of time. And so, we are taking in information and trying to figure out what we're training our young lawyers on. Um, but I would say with the human resources we have, they are they're willing. They're like sponges. They're willing to learn. They're they're taking those reps. They're enjoying um like if somebody gets a guilty verdict, I always email and just let them know that that we're watching that, you know, we we want people to do well. If they got a hung jury or not guilty, that's the way it was supposed to be. That's fine, too. But just putting in a lot of work. This is hard work for lawyers. It's not easy. Um and I I want to be very cognizant of the fact that it also involves taking on vicarious trauma, right? So, we're also taking care of our lawyers, checking in with them, making sure the younger ones are okay, they know how to take a break, that they don't have to feel like they're unbreakable, all of those things. So, do we need more lawyers who have that institutional knowledge? Yes. Uh many lawyers left the office uh before I got there. I got at least 13 of those lawyers back. I'm still working on bringing others. And that is over 500

years of experience that we brought back to the office. So, that's the human resource piece. the budget piece is is, you know, always a disaster for everybody, every city, every county. I mean, um, things have changed in such a way. For example, we have over 260 murders in our county that are waiting to be tried. And each of those murders requires a pathologist to testify about how the person passed away. It cost us between 10,000 and 30,000 per pathologist testimony. So that didn't happen before. We used to have a pathologist in the county. We had a contract with them. But now we are having to build that into our budget and make the argument to the board of supervisors that we need more money in the budget because we are required to do this work. This is our mandate. And so we are looking at our budget a little differently. Things that we didn't have to worry about ear, you know, when I was a DA 100 years ago before now, um, are now big deals. And so short answer is, you know, everybody has budget issues. I think ours was um particularly precarious because uh when when I came in in February, we walked right into budget season and there were a lot of issues to contend with. We are we're afloat again. Um but we still it's going to take us some time to get ourselves out of the mud. So if that answers the question.

No. Very well. Thank you. Um, are there ways cities like ours can help you other than we're in our own financial issues right now, too? So,

yeah. So, I think for me the biggest thing is communication. Like, I want to know what's going on with the city on Thursday. I'll have a meeting. We have a meeting every once a month with all the chiefs in the county just to see what's going on. Like, if there issues that come up that the DA needs to be aware of. I also need to know from you all if there's something some type of crime that's happening that is unusual or something has cropped up again. We want to know that because we want to be in contact with the police department and find ways that once those cases are coming to us maybe uh we can make sure that we're we're pushing to get those cases out to trial. I like to think of the DA's office as kind of like um even though we can prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt, it doesn't mean that a jury is going to find that a person is guilty. And so this is a conversation that we've had in Oakland a bit about uh with the prostitution cases. These are going to be test cases to see if people outside of Oakland have a problem with adults buying sex. and and there is a huge people living in that community are struggling with this happening on the streets in front of their homes. It's terrible for their kids, but if you don't live there and you don't see it, when you sit on a jury, it may not affect you the same way. So, those are test cases. I want to know what the the community has an appetite for and then we can start moving our resources in those directions as they're limited. So, keep us aware of what's going on here so that uh we can work with your police chief to figure out ways to try to curb any crimes that are coming up that are unusual or things that have come up again.

Well, I I definitely notice you guys are charging a lot more cases and you are constrained on resources to do that right now and I appreciate that. And you know, it'd be nice to see in all of our communities to we get back to a point where you walk into a store and half the products aren't locked up and you have to get somebody to go unlock the

Yeah. whatever the cage to get to get something. I mean, it's that's not an acceptable environment for for the way our country is and shouldn't be. and and that's because we weren't dealing with the problem where I think we need to start going back to addressing the problem and uh so I think uh you've taken some initial steps on getting us back to that place and uh I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Council Member Ta.

Yes. Well, I would like to you made several mentions of diversion and I'd like to understand we've heard a lot about care court in the media and it hasn't been a real um positive and yet I did go to a meeting uh recently with um behavioral health alama county behavioral health and and they had glowing reports about care court. Can you share how your what your perspective is? And I will say it's not just care court. There are so many different courts of diversion of course. And um I did hear from an attorney a few years back that um we there were a lot of cases that were eligible for the diversion and there weren't always the resources. So what are your thoughts?

So a couple of things. I mean, I think um there used to be quite a bit of diversion programs, right? Um and there still are some, but I think in some ways 101.36, which is the mental health diversion, is kind of cannibalizing those other diversion courts. And when I say cannibalizing, I mean that uh the statute is basically set up so that the judge makes that decision without any other input. We can object, but we can't stop someone from going into a 1,0001.36 mental health diversion court. The reason that's of import is because up to an attempt murder can go into a diversion court. So I do see that there is some push back from community members specifically victims of crime on diversion because what is happening is you may have someone I have a victim who was shot in the head uh by someone and he had a mental health um just a DSM diagnosis. It doesn't have to be anything significant. It could be ADHD potentially. Um and this person was on the street and she's like how is this possible? So what I see us having some growing pains in diversion, right? Like we have a veterans court, we have um care is different than care court. So um I think there's some building up around those programs, but I also think that there is some push back from the community because the crimes are becoming more and more violent that are finding themselves into the diversion courts. So um I think there are some some resources there. I think that there is a lot of effort behind diversion, but it's not the same as it used to be. It is it's kind of all over the place. Like we have a behavioral health diversion, we have a 101.36 diversion, we have a um veterans court, all these other courts, care court, and even um honestly, we have a lot of

treatment courts that are substance abuse treatment courts that kind of um also include that mental health piece. So in my head, if I had it my way, if I could wave the magic wand, what I would like is one type of diversion for certain types of cases so that we could handle all these in one place and infuse resources into the court and send referrals out from that court, right? But I just don't know that we can simplify it in that way right now based upon all the things that are out there. And I think that would help us to kind of hone in on all of the things that we talk about government waste, you know, where we're spending our money. Maybe we could just concentrate on one space, one type of diversion court where we could create resources for that court. So to answer your question, I think all of the diversion courts right now are kind of struggling to find their identity, for lack of a better way to say it, because of 101.36 people are in them. Um, we're working through that. Uh, but I I also feel like it sometimes is too complicated. There multiple courts that somebody could be in. Maybe the resources aren't there, the treatment's not there, etc. And I think that when we get serious about treatment in this country, not just this county, then we can have a a set of diversion courts that are very successful. But I don't see where all the treatment is. I think some of it is baseline treatment. I don't think that there are a lot of um they're very serious mental health issues out here that we're sending people out on a mental health diversion saying go see your therapist and take your medication and come back in a month when they shot somebody in the head. And I don't think that's sufficient. So I think we bet we need to kind of build some some um safety nets and supports around those courts. That answers the question.

All right. Well, thank you. I will just say that I was invited to sit in a couple of different of the diversion courts and I was very impressed with the caliber of the judges and there was one where the judge said very clearly to the attorneys your client is not eligible for diversion and I I thought okay this is not um this is a thoughtful process but all right thank you

I agree with you I think that there are some judges who are able to um to make those decisions, but I also think mental health professionals should be involved in those decisions. I was a judge for 11 years and I had a um collaborative court every year that I was ever on the bench. So, I believe in collaborative courts and I'm I'm a strong proponent of them. As Carrie would tell you, I had a family treatment court for many years and it to this day I still show up to that court from time to time. Um but I also feel like there is um the resources that are available even if we put people into right a diversion court is the issue right

so we we make decisions I'm saying we as judges an old judge still a judge retired all the same we make decisions based upon what we have in front of us but we don't necessarily know where these folks are going for treatment or what the safety net is and all we do is pray that it works right because that's all we can do right um but I agree with you. I think there's some great programs that were some of them built out of the DA's office, diversion programs built out of the DA's office that have have stood the test of time. Thank you, Council Member Nybert. Comments or questions?

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for being here and for the informative presentation. I appreciate it. Um, I especially appreciated the focus on victims of crime that you mentioned in your presentation. And uh I would just mention from personal experience uh victims of crime are not always human beings. I myself served on a jury for an animal cruelty case involving dogs. And uh if there you know there are difficult things that jury members see in all kinds of cases and uh it doesn't it's not just people, it's also dogs and you know cases like that. Um but one question I was wondering about as you were speaking, you mentioned the referrals that you get from um police departments and those are then looked at to determine whether uh to make a charge charging decision. Um where do investigations come into play there between the time of the referral? Is there investigation that goes on before the charging decision or is that left to the police department before referrals? How does that work?

Overwhelmingly, investigation is with the police department. Um, and honestly, if the DA delves too much into investigation, that becomes an immunity issue. Like you you we're not investigators. Yeah. Right. And so there are some cases that were involved in the investigation. Say for example, in our consumer division, a lot of those are civil. Um but overwhelmingly we are not unless something we're tasked with an investigation. So if it is uh you know police department has an issue with the case a conflict and they ask us to do the investigation sometimes we'll do that. So the investigation should happen on the front end. When somebody's looking at that case for charging and we figure there's something missing here or maybe there's something else we might need for this case. We can say to a police officer, hey, uh, we if we had this information, that would be helpful to us. Um, we and that's not investigation. It's just kind of letting them know that we can't charge this case yet. We need further information to do so. But overwhelmingly, the DA is not generally the investigator. Once the case has come to us, we put them together for trial, but that's based upon the evidence that's been provided to us. We're not generally the evidence gatherers, if that makes any sense.

It does make sense. Yes. Thank you. Um and then you also mentioned um the need to invest in families on the front end including early childhood education and I was very pleased to hear you emphasize that because that is such an important factor in in um you know not only uh heading off crimes and preventing crimes from occurring um but you know going right at the the very source of uh you know societal issues. Um so many things can be um solved or improved by an extra emphasis on early childhood education. And I'm I'm pleased to hear you mention that. And I was wondering is there anything that as the DA or in the DA's office um any inter action with early childhood education advocates um that we that we should know of? So, no, not generally. I'm an old teacher, so that's always going to be where where I start is early childhood education. Um, I mean, in our juvenile division, most of the resources flow from probation, right? So, the probation department or community- based organizations that are affiliated with probation will infuse resources into families. The other side of that that is not a criminal case is the dependency um court where I spent 10 years of my career as a judge. And so that is the CPS cases when kids are neglected or abused, right? They're also then services that come to them through social services. So generally speaking, those are the services that are are kind of um vetted through those two organizations and provided to families. The DA's office does not I mean specifically with our budget, we don't really have anything that would be moving in the direction of early

childhood education. We do have programs for youth who have been victims of crime or their parents have been victims of crime. We used to have a camp that we would do for young people whose parents have been um victims of crime or the children. Um our biggest what we what we do there at the DA's office is more of a we do some forensic interviewing. So more of the things that get children ready and prepared to go through the criminal justice system as a witness or a victim, right? And and I have to be honest, I'm real big on keep the main thing the main thing because our expertise is what it is. I don't think everybody's equipped, having been a teacher and spent a lot of time with young people and also being in a courtroom where children were in a courtroom daily. I don't think everybody's good at that. I don't think everybody should be doing that work. And I also don't think certain organizations should be doing that work. And for the DA's office, I think it's important to know that yes, we are there for victims of crime, but when we start taking our resources and giving them to other spaces and places, then we leave out yet again the victims of crime who often times feel like they're not being heard, not being protected, not all of the things that were required to do. So, I support it and I speak loudly about that support for early childhood education. I also speak loudly about the support for families, specifically families with low means. Um, and I think the earlier we do that, the better chance we have of not being here in my system. And I think that I look I sit on um a committee here in the county that gives money to nonprofit organizations to deal with people who have been, for example, formerly incarcerated. And in the back of my head, I'm like, I'd much rather spend that money on the front end,

right? So that maybe we don't get to the back end, but that's not a call I make yet. Okay. Thank you so much. Um, one other concern or question I have is uh you mentioned that you want the uh community to you want to encourage community to report crimes.

Yes. And um one of the things that um has come up in in localities and as on the city council um and with our police department is the desire to have everyone in the community report crimes. And with the recent um escalation with ICE and uh Border Patrol, um people, you know, people parts of our community are really scared and the tendency I imagine is to, you know, not report crimes, to stay, you know, stay out of the crosshairs or, you know, stay hidden. Um and are you seeing much of that in your work? I think the point is we wouldn't see it, right? I I think do I believe it's happening? Yes. But we wouldn't see it because if they're not reporting the crimes and it's not coming to our attention.

I do think that we've had, you know, some conversations with victims um explaining to them that we don't discuss anything with ICE. We don't even ask for a defendant's status because honestly the only way that information comes to us is if a defense attorney generally the way it comes to us is if a defense attorney says to us my client um their immigration status is this because we have to take that into account when we're making offers to people right how that will affect their status here in the US but I mean all we can do is tell people here we don't we don't engage ICE we don't let them in building in our side of the building. I can't speak to a public building, but they can't come in the DA's office. And so, that's the best that we can provide to people. I mean, I think where my heart is is to say out loud, we'll go to the mat, but I'm also looking at what happened in Minneapolis, and I don't want to encourage people to believe that um that that things aren't crazy right now. They're upside down. Mhm.

And I think the sooner we start saying that out loud, I mean, every day I turn on television and there's and I try not to cuz I got enough bad stuff happening in the job that I have, right? And then I turn on the TV and I'm like, seriously, it got worse. And then I call my 91year-old father who is living independently, who's so involved in what's happening politically and watches the news daily, and he gives me the update on what the craziness of the day was, and he leaves optimistic. And so I have no right to be upset, sad, angry, all the things because he's seen much worse than I've seen and probably than most of us have seen. So then we make a plan how, you know, when you fight how you fight and I'm one to um plan my work and work my plan. I'm not, you know, one to just fly off the handle. So I think we are having conversations in our office, in the city, in the county about what all of this means. But what I know for sure is that the last time I homeland security dropped down in the Bay Area um will not be the last time, right? The first time won't be the last time. And so we just we stand ready. But I think that we need to let victims specifically know because those are the folks that we're responsible for day in day out that we're here to support you through this process and we are not engaging ICE about anything that's going on with that. best I have unfortunately.

Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate that. That's, you know, gratifying to hear and um you know, I just uh wish you the best and uh appreciate you being here. Thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Tread carefully, I would assume, at this point. I'm thinking I'm thinking the same. I don't have any questions.

When does this performance review come out? Um, I will say this from my seat and thank you very much for joining us tonight. um from my seat which can be described as either in the first row on the 50ard line or standing on the 50ard line having worked at the district attorney's office in Alama County for near nearly 18 years and uh when I was in private practice handled cases on the other side of our DA worked alongside her as a prosecutor appeared in front of her as a judge and now work for her. Um, I think I want to commend her for um, giving up what she did to come into a challenging situation. She was appointed to the bench. She had a pension and a clear path to do that for the rest and have a very distinguished career on the bench like she had in the DA's office. And when the opportunity arose um to put her name in or when um the right people convinced her to put her name in um me being one of them, I think uh to come in and uh offer to come run an office that had experienced what I would call unprecedented turmoil uh for what we've ever experienced in the Alamy County DA's office. Um and through the process of many many uh capable leaders, the board of supervisors made an excellent choice. And what I see from that seat where I sit now and working every day is a DA who's leading proactively, a DA who is leading not from a place of fear, uh but a place of experience and class and empathy. And I think the policies that you've seen out tonight uh and what's going on in the office now every day and building on that is a focus on purpose, a clear strategy for what we're doing

and positive culture and that to me is the recipe for positive results and that's what we're seeing and I hope uh that your tenure commit uh continues for many many years and you certainly have my support in doing so. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else from you all? No. Typically the mayor goes last and I'll just How do you follow that? I was going to leave. Yeah. How do you follow that up?

No, I will I will not uh supplant that comment. I I will agree wholeheartedly and uh I'm sure many in the room and those who will watch this would just like to express our uh our sincere appreciation for the hard work you're doing and the hard work your team is doing that you're putting together for the victims for Pleasanton. Uh we are part of this community, this county, and we truly appreciate it. So, thank you very much and thank you for coming out.

Thank you. Uh I have to be careful because they don't have a mic for public comment. Okay. So maybe what I'll do if you don't mind um is we'll let them take down the information for how to contact you and maybe we'll conclude the presentation part now if that works for you please. That's perfect.

Okay. So with that we will conclude this item. Thank you so much for coming to Pleasanton. Appreciate it. I feel you. There may be some public comments that are going to be right up the uh alley for our district attorneys. So, with that, we're going to proceed to item number four. This is public comment on items that are not on the agenda. We have quite a large house and this is about the end of the meeting. So, I'm hoping that this is why you're here. If you would like to speak, you'll fill out a blue speaker card. They're located outside and then turn them into the city clerk here. um and then we'll call them in order. I like to usually read this as we proceed to uh this portion of the meeting so that you're aware. So, uh good evening and welcome. This is an opportunity for members of the community and public to address the Pleasanton City Council and on any matter 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, please reserve your comments for when we get to that. There are no items uh further items. Although if you would like to speak on uh the presentation we just heard, you can do that at this time. That is what we're going to proceed to. Uh as I mentioned, you can fill out a blue speaker card. I ask our community members to be respectful and help maintain the quorum. Speakers may have different opinions and we want to hear all perspectives and viewpoints. To that end, please no clapping, booing, or other disturbances. If you would like to show your support or agreement with what the speaker is saying, simply raise your hand and we will understand that as 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 at the conclusion of your time or at the conclusion of the entire public comment period. Speakers are hereby limited to three minutes. We have

several speakers, so we'll begin. Our first speaker is Paul uh Hammonds and you'll be followed by Renuku Dwal. Welcome. Hello. Thank you for having me. If before you start, I took the liberty of making a packet for each one of you. Okay. And you can just hand the details, maps, charts, case law, studies. In the one for you, mayor, I put in a thumb drive so you can electronically distribute the PDF to your discretion. Okay. Thank you very much.

You can begin.

Okay. My name is Paul Hammonds. I'm a resident of Pleasanton for about 17 years. Uh background, I was a journalist for NBC, CBS, and ABC News for 35 years. And after that, I was a college professor teaching journalism for 12 years. Um I was driving down I was having a taco at Taco Bell. Don't jud don't judge. And I was driving down Santaita and I saw a pop-up stand along there at night. I went, "That's weird." So I called the police department, not knowing who to call. The police department was wonderful. The dispatcher and the police officer called me right back and said, "That's a code issue." Okay, fine. So I called Mark uh what's his name? Mark Dennis. Okay, wonderful guy. He says, "Well, I only work till 4:30. I'm homogenizing everything you'll see in a packet." He says, "I'm somewhat handcuffed because I'm here 4:30." Da d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d but if you have a problem see it again call the police department. So I called the police department about a week later after going by there. I did not buy anything because I'm not a hypocrite. So I called the police department and the officer called me right back and said, "We've been told it's a police department." I said, "Wait, you got you got police problems here. You got blocked sidewalks. You got blocking a driveway, you know, and issues that are enforceable by the police department. Why? And he says, "Well, we're told it's the code." So, being a journalist, I said, "Who who gave that order?" And how was that order given? Was it a meeting? Was it a a memo from the somebody? So, my journalism kicked in. So, then I said, "Well, let's see what's going on here." And so, I said, "Okay." So, I called the fire department. Having been around the block, I know sky marshals. Sky fire marshals. I worked with them. So, I called, got Kim on the phone, the assistant fire marshal. I said, "You got open gas cans. You got a gas generator. You got open flames near vegetation. The canopy in the in the place does not have any kind of certification for being fire retardant. You're risking problems. You're the fire marshal. You should go

up there and talk to them. I'm not perview to say shut them down. That's not my purview. It's the agency's perview to do that." She said, "Well, we're gonna have to have a meeting." I said, "What do you mean have a meeting? There's a problem with public safety right now. Why don't you go up there?" Well, we got to talk to Rucker. Uh, Marshall Rucker. I said, 'W wait a minute. Don't you have I know you have the resp the ability to go up there and shut it down like any fire marshall can for anything. Blocked exit, whatever it is. Don't you have a responsibility and a duty to go up there? Well, we'll have a meeting. I'll get right back to you. Two weeks ago. Haven't heard from her. All right. So, then I go, let's look into this. So, I go down the line and I go on a city's website there. This this this uh taco stand has no business license. There's no there's no special from the planning department. I tried to get on the planning department site, but it was down to find out whether there was some kind of ex, you know, exemption for the debt for the time and all that stuff. Nothing. So, there's no name of for this address for this name and all that. There's nothing. So, I went out there again, found out that the guy, they come about six o'clock at night in a truck from a company that doesn't have a business license, even though they advertise that they do have one. They don't. It's It's been expired. I did my research. So, I'm going, "What? What's going on?" So, I called the county health department. You got workers, no toilets, no water. You got vegetables and sauces out with no coverings, no spit guard, no nothing.

Mr. Yes. I apologize, but that concludes your time. That's it already. It goes quick. Okay. I will I would like to follow up if you'd like to follow up after reading this with the pictures and the mass and all this. Thank you. There's a lot of things going on. Do you mind emailing us? And I'm sorry. What? Can you email us? I can hand email you what? Uh if you'd like to follow up with anything further that you weren't able to say today, I can hand you my card. Yeah, most all of it's in that packet, but I will take your card. Okay, perfect. And maybe we maybe you and I should have a meeting.

Hand that to Okay. Thank you very much. By the way, just so you know, if you go into this, I have contacted Kosha. I've contacted the franchise tax board. I've contacted the IRS to go down those roads to make sure that these people, there are 16 Mexican restaurants in this in this city. Competition, what's the deal? Okay, they pay. Thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

Okay, our next speaker, Reuka, uh, you'll have to pronounce your last name. I'm so sorry. And you'll be followed by Miss Lori Karduchi. No problem. My name is Renukadwal. Good evening, mayor and city council members. Um, as I said, my name is Renukadwal and I am a resident of the Valve Vista community in the city of Pleasanton. Tonight, I'm representing approximately 10 to 15 families um who live within 100 ft of uh Valve Vista Park. Um, I'm here tonight because a small peaceful neighborhood activity has recently become the focus of repeated police enforcement while several more pressing safety concerns in our neighborhood remain unresolved. A little background. Um, in 2021, like many uh families during that time, we adopted a dog and during evening walks at the Val Vista Park, our dogs started playing with another neighbor's dog. And pretty soon, uh, other owners of dogs saw this and joined us. And we've become this small group of families gathering for about 30 to 45 minutes between 5 and 6:30 p.m. depending on the weather, typically with four to six dogs present at any time. Um, these are friendly, wells supervised family dogs, uh, ranging from golden doodles, golden retrievers, and Labradors. Um, and they play under direct supervision of their owners, and there has been zero incidence of aggression or injury. Recently, however, we have become uh we have begun receiving regular visits from police officers due to complaints about off leash dogs. Let me be clear, we understand there's a leash law. This is not about re ignoring rules. It is about proportionality and priorities. We did attempt to relocate to Murewood Dock Park across

the freeway. However, it soon became very impractical to do so due to the distance and other related issues. What is our ask tonight? We have our ask is twofold. We ask that you designate a limited 1-hour off leash window in the early evening with a defined area in the park. Cities such as Mountain View have implemented similar approaches. I believe it's called Dola Dogs off leash area and the city of C Fremont is considering the same. Alternatively, consider converting the unused fenced area near the trail at Val Vista into a small dog run area. This increased enforcement by the police um what to monitor the dogs that are off leash uh we feel is not proportionate to the safety concerns of our neighborhood. Uh some of them being speeding. We see speeding in incidents have probably increased in our community where we have one of the speed one of one speeding vehicle hit one of the neighbors uh sideyard damaging their sideyards and part of their house. Um, we also had thefts uh jewelry thefts in broad daylight off of pain cord uh where we live and um also thefts uh like the catalytic converters that happened a few uh months ago where my daughter's car was also part of it. um you know these um these incidents after these incidents we've have never seen an increase in policing in our community but yet now because of these few dogs that play together policing has increased you know enforcing the uh speed and preventing thefts would greatly benefit the community and also a better use of our city's apologize but that is our goal is collaboration not conflict thank you for your consider Okay, thank you very much. Uh, interestingly enough, uh, so I'll maybe mention since I'm a prior park and

wreck commissioner, this goes through, if we were going to do something, and I'm calling it yappy hour because it's been suggested many times, it would have to go through our park and wreck commission with a public hearing process because you represent one contingent group and there may be a different community uh, perspective that would also need to be evaluated. So, we'll take the to-do. Uh, but the park and wreck commission is going to be the first step uh to see if there's an appetite to suggest to the council actions. And city manager, you want to add anything further to that?

Uh, yeah, this has been a request that's been made in different neighborhoods across the community. So, it's it wouldn't just be a Val Vista conversation. There are several other parks uh over time. So, I think this is something that is going to have to be uh framed up to a certain extent by staff if there's direction from council to do that.

Okay. So, I'm going to keep going a little bit further for you, although we're in the public comment period and I understand that it's not a back and forth, but the council is going to be evaluating priorities of how to direct staff resources actually at our very next council meeting, March 17th. It starts at 4:30 p.m. And that's where that's one opportunity where council may do it. In addition, at the end of this meeting, there's matters initiated. If there's three council members that wish to uh start something, they would do that at this time. There may not be or not at right now, but we'll just leave it there for you. So, you know, our kind of our next couple of things. No matter what though, you can definitely take this to our park and recck commission uh as a place to maybe start another conversation with a bit more fruit. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Our next speaker is Miss Lori Carduchi and you'll be followed by Holly Sanders. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm Lori Carduchi, and I just wanted to start by thanking the district attorney. Um there was just one short little entry on the uh agenda. Who knew we were going to get so much great information? So, I really appreciate that. Um, I was last here on February 17th and I spoke during public comment regarding federal immigration enforcement, the city's response if ICE uh conducts mass operations in the Tri Valley, and I had questions about the city's use of flock safety. During that meeting, the city manager stated that city staff had received training related to situations that may arise on city property and that staff would follow up with the council on outstounding questions, and I appreciate that response. Um, additionally, Chief Avalar also stated that Pleasanton PD has increased audit frequency regarding flock data access and the city manager stated that flock the flock contract prohibits data sharing without consultation with the city. I thank you for those responses as well. Um, and reviewing those statements alongside information available through the flock transparency portal which lists a significant number of outside agencies with access to Pleasanton PD data. I'm just seeking clear understanding of how those policies and oversight mechanisms operate in practice. At the end of the February 17th meeting, there was discussion about placing these topics on a future agenda. However, there was not clarity about what that agenda item would include, and as a result, there was no agreement to move it forward. I'd like to clarify what I am requesting. I'm not asking for a presentation on what the Alama County Board of Supervisors has done. Um, I referenced the county only as an example of public public transparency. Um, and was able to kind of read those documents myself to get a better understanding. What I am requesting is specific to Pleasanton. First, I'm asking the council to agendaize a discussion regarding how the city will respond if ICE conducts operations here with the goal of producing clear publicly adopted written guidance. Specifically, what guidance

currently exists for residents and staff? What is the city's protocol regarding use of city property including staging or operations? Will clear standards such as ice-free zones be established? Second, I am requesting a public presentation from Pleasanton PD regarding the city's use and oversight of flock safety, including uh what contractual data safeguards are in place and are there any additional ones that should be considered when the contract is renewed? How access permissions and data sharing settings are reviewed. how access history is audited over time and how misuse by partner agencies is prevented or addressed. Because a police department safety presentation is already scheduled for April, uh this flock oversight discussion could potentially be incorporated into that agenda item. Thank you for your time tonight.

Thank you very much. Uh I will just mention that the uh public safety meeting is going to be May 5th. Uh, so there was a slight change in the calendar. Just you can tell we don't have a lot of agenda items tonight. So things are slightly moving around. So May 5th is currently our public safety presentation uh slated night, not the end of April as mentioned. Okay. Um,

I'd like to respond briefly and I I think that um our DA made a little comment that really um Lori, when I saw you were in the room, I I'm sure you picked up on it also, but I thought it was very um responsive and saying we don't want to encourage um understanding how crazy things are. Don't want to mislead our public into believing or encouraging activity that could be um dangerous. And I I just I thought that was a um an insightful comment. And anyway, thank you for coming again, Lori.

Okay. Uh, and our last speaker card that I have, if you you would like to speak, uh, please fill out blue speaker is Holly Sanders. Welcome.

Good evening. My name is Holly Sanders. I'm a 23y year resident of Pleasanton. And one of my favorite places to go in Pleasanton is the library. I've always loved books in the library. and I was compelled to volunteer after hearing about the 20 plus employee lays layoffs in August of last year and I absolutely love every minute of it. Every walk of life is there and so much is happening. A parent reading a book to their toddler, a child learning to read, teens not on their phones but interacting with one another about a homework assignment or chatting about life. tutoring of all types, genealogy searches, catching up on the news with actual newspapers, and so much more. I highly recommend everyone, everyone in the community to take 10 minutes on a Tuesday or Wednesday night when it's the most active, and you'll be inspired by the hive of activity and also literally see how beneficial the library is. I will be back to other meetings to share my experience there because I seriously have been so inspired. Sometimes I have tears in my eyes just again watching children excited about reading. Um but I know budget planning is always in the works and so today I'm going to focus on one function of the library which is cited under the emergency preparedness on the city of Pleasanton's website during heat waves. The website lists only one cooling center recommendation for our city, which is the library. For power outages, the website says go to a community location like the Pleasanton Library. Heat waves and power outages are extremely impactful in our community and are not going away. There is a reason why the library became listed as a resource during power outages and as a cooling center. It fits the need. But

one problem is the hours. the library isn't open uh isn't sufficient due to the budget cuts. Now, there are only two nights a week. The library is open till 900 PM. So, that leaves four nights a week plus the Sundays where community members don't have access to the library when there's a power outage or heat wave. While I can't expect the hours to go back to the previous days due to all the budget constraints going on, please highly consider building this point into your plans and budget for emergency preparedness and is another reason to keep the hours where they currently stand. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Uh, city manager, if I just may, I believe we did talk about the cooling center function of the library and if the need occurred, we would try to find contingency dollars to keep it open. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. Uh in an in an emergency situation or if we were reacting to uh one of these heatwave events or frankly even just warming uh we we could certainly stand up the library and we would use uh salary savings or other sources to do that for that duration of time.

So that uh resident's concern, Miss Sanders concern was something we did actively discuss. So thank you so much for bringing that up to our attention. That is my last speaker card. If you would like to speak to on matters uh uh excuse me, items not listed on the agenda uh and have not turned in a blue speaker card, please approach the podium at this time. Hearing none, seeing none, we'll close public comment. Thank you very much. And we're going to go to matters initiated by council. Any matters initiated by my fellow council members at this time. Seeing none. Well, I I would like one. May I? Yeah, please.

Okay. Uh yeah, I would like to um suggest that to the council that uh we have the topic of a an increase in our sales tax brought forward again for our discussion and consideration. um to surface that topic again now that we have all of the history behind us with measure PP and what we have gone through as a council with um all of the budget cuts that we have made. So I would like to uh ask for support in bringing that topic uh back to the council on a future agenda. So you're saying in addition to the toot and the other elements

in addition to yes any support for that I'll I support that any additional support I don't support it fails for lack of support. Okay. Any additional matters initiated by council at this time?

Yes. Um, I I would like to suggest that we um have a discussion about yappy hour because several neighborhoods have asked for it and um I think there could be good potential that would benefit our dog owner residents. Uh, if I may, so I I support the concept of vetting the idea through a public process. I don't think the council should be the driver. I think it's got to be down at the park and wreck level personally, but I um I maybe tried to imply that at our priority setting meeting or workshop next meeting. Uh, it could be an item we put on the list. City manager, do you have any comments?

That that would be the recommendation from staff as well. I I I hear the the request. It's happened uh in a number of neighborhoods over the last couple of years. Uh there's a lot of interest in um in creating more off leash dog space in the community. I think there's um there's some there is another side to this uh in terms of use of public park space hours uh and and risk and liability relative to the city. Uh and so we want to make sure that we put all of that out there uh for the council's consideration. And I think the Sorry, I'll just if I just finish this last little bit. I appreciate the opportunity um to be able to uh put it into a list knowing that is this isn't something that will just happen. There is going to have to be staff time associated with it in our parks department and our police department and probably our city attorney's office. So, we want to put it into the whole package.

Yeah. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. I thought we were done. Uh if I may, Council Member Ta, I I think the concept needs to be discussed further as well. So, I I'm supportive of that concept. I just think the council shouldn't do it. I think it should be a work plan of the park and recck commission, frankly. So I I think that's why I was willing to look it as a priority at the next workshop. So it would it would be a priority for not council. We're not um Yeah. But identifying priorities for other commissions at that meeting. Are we

It's a city priority and I think that if there's council direction to to pursue this to explore it further, uh that that's what I'm suggesting and that would naturally go into our our park and rec commission uh if there's direction from the council to to move it up in the list because all of those different departments that I just talked about are working at capacity currently. And that's the conversation we've been having around strategic plan priorities and the projects associated with them. Uh, I've heard a lot of interest over the last few months from from various council members and as a whole as a body in exploring and prioritizing new things that we haven't uh that we don't currently have in our top two tiers of our work plan. Uh, and so the the meeting next week is a workshop starting at 4:30 p.m. and we'll be taking input from council and then coming back with a revised works plan. And so if the dog park yappy hour makes the list, then that that will be uh what we move forward with.

Yeah. So, and it's a city priority. It's not about the commission versus the council versus staff. It really is just how do we make sure that we move this through our public process in a way that gives you all ultimately the decision-m um uh the the the ability to make an informed decision at the end of it. Last time we did the priorities, just clarification, um there there were we did the dots and there were things that were identified. So we didn't have a category of add something to this list. So will this then be one of our dot options?

We're going to we're going to add it to the list. And we did actually offer you the opportunity to add things that weren't on the list in the last process as well. But I'm sure you're right. Yeah. and and really this is your opportunity to set the direction in terms of allocating resources and then we'll come back with you with what we can realistically achieve because um I know our our there there's the the list is usually longer than what we have capacity to do uh in these conversations. So again, we'll we'll come back uh after the workshop for an action item for the council and it'll happen. It's a pretty tight turnaround for us. We'll be able to look at what you'd like to do and come back with a recommendation on how to do that. Okay, I'm good. Thank you.

Okay. Any additional matters initiated by council at this time? Seeing none, we'll go on to council reports on brief reports attended, seminars, etc. Council member Iker, lead us off. And

on February 23rd, I attended a lofta projects and services committee meeting on the 24th uh youth and government day on behalf of the mayor and assisted with the mock city council meeting session. Uh it was a really great day watching the youth of our community uh engaging each other as if they were city council member and staff. Uh very enlightening. Uh also later that evening I attended a Pleasanton Connects meeting. On February 26, I attended the Alama County Transportation Commission meeting and later that same evening attended an East Bay Division meeting of the League of California Cities. And this past Monday, I attended a Lofta board meeting.

Thank you very much, Council Member Tessa. Um I I uh had three Lofta meetings. Um, and I know I had others, but I that's all I have to report.

Council member Nyber, since the last meeting, I have attended the uh board of directors meeting for the Livermore Amidor Valley Water Management Agency. I've attended a liaison committee meeting for the Pleasanton and Zone 7 uh water um committee and also attended a meeting of the East Bay League of California Cities. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. I think the only reportable is the stop waste meeting I attended on Wednesday, February 25.

Okay. Thank you very much. Uh I was ill so I uh my meetings all fell which was interesting but the one that I did attend that I want to report out is zone 7 city of Pleasant and liaison meeting that uh council member Nyinberg just alluded to. Couple of quick uh comments there. We talked about the wells project at our three parks. We also talked about how zone 7 is looking at aligning a pipe 41 inches long that will go along Vineyard Avenue, Vineyard Road in Pleasanton, traversing from the chain of lakes all the way out to Liverour, which would be a pretty significant road uh adjustment or roadway uh work to bury that pipe of that size. I mean, that is almost 4 feet in in diameter. So, that's a big pipe. Um, so just want to make sure my colleagues are aware of that. And then, uh, we talked through our east side and they expressed their concerns with the chained lakes and preserving the groundwater quality and we appreciated that information. So, uh, that's where we're at. Okay. Uh, the city manager section isn't on here, but, uh, city manager, did you have anything else you would like to add this?

I'll be I'll be really quick. Uh, I have one, uh, organizational announcement and a couple of community announcements. So, I want to uh ask you to join me in welcoming Nicholas Ailoon to our uh to our Pleasanton team. He is our new assistant director of utilities and environmental services in public works. Uh it's been a long time coming. Uh Nick joins us uh from the city of San Jose. He has 15 years of experience uh most recently as a division manager uh in the environmental services department with San Jose. uh he led financial operations for uh for that division and supported environmental protection and sustainability efforts and he will be stepping in to help oversee our water, wastewater, storm water, and sustainability programs. Uh we're happy to have him. It's been uh it's been a while since we've had that position filled here at the city of Pleasanton, and we're looking forward to working with Nick. Uh and we'll make sure he get he can get here to a meeting uh soon. Uh the community announcements are um should be of interest to everyone who has to pay for insurance. Uh our Livermore Pleasanton Fire Department earned a class 2 insurance service office rating. So an ISO rating class 2. That puts our our Livermore Pleasanton Fire Department uh in the top tier of fire agencies nationwide. Fewer than 5% of departments achieve this distinction. Uh the rating reflects how well the department performs across the board with training, staffing, communications, equipment, water supply, and emergency preparedness. Uh and for residents and businesses, this is the punchline. Uh both Pleasanton and Liverour, it really what it means is that we have stronger fire protection and the potential for lower property insurance premiums uh because of that rating change. Uh so that's uh that's part one. Part two is uh just an appreciation, a thank you to our staff, our partners, the performers, and the community members for a wonderful Black History Month celebration last Saturday at our Pleasanton Library. Uh we had afternoon uh story time, inspiring performance by several groups, and we're really

grateful to everyone who helped make such a a vibrant event and welcoming community event. That con concludes the remarks for this evening. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, Council Member Tessa, can you take us out? The Pleasanton City Council adjourns the meeting with a tribute to our nation's men and women serving in the military and with gratitude for every US 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. Thank you.