City Council - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat.

Okay. Hey, hey, hey.

Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Welcome everyone to the special open session to hear public comments before close session. May we have roll call, please?

Council member Brown, here. Council member Vana, I'm here. Council member Jimenez presente. Council member Wilson here. Vice Mayor Robinson here. Mayor Martinez here.

And for the record, Council Member Zapeda is absent. During close session, council will discuss the following items. Item C1 is conference with labor negotiators. Agency representative Chiron Taylor, Jack Huge, and Lisa Charbonet. Employee organizations include SEIU Local 1021, full-time and part-time unit, IFT local 21 mid-level management and executive management unit, Richmond Police Officers Association, Richmond Police Management Association, AF Local 188 and Richmond Fire Management Association. Item C2, conference with real property negotiator property located at 1324 Canal Boulevard agency negotiator Nette Beichchum and Charles Gerard negotiating parties Moss Bridge under negotiation are price and terms of payment. We have one speaker. We have one speaker. If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address a council during this open session, please raise your hand at this time. You'll have two minutes. Cordell Hendler.

Thank you. So, good evening, Mayor Martinez. Council, for the record, I am Cordell Hendler and I'm here to talk about the unions. So, all these groups have done an outstanding job for our city. So when you go back in there, think about all the contributions that they have made to make our city an enjoyable place to work and to play. And and um I had my comments for the um the other item, but I'll save that for the regular meeting and it looks like that was our only speaker. Okay, since there are no other speakers, public comment is closed and we will now adjourn to close session.

Thank you everyone for uh approaching and attending. Uh we will now start the regular meeting of the Richmond City Council. We'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. 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.

Roll call. Council member Bana. here. Council member Brown here. Council member Jimenez. Council member Zapeda here. Council member Wilson here. Vice Mayor Robinson here. And Mayor Martinez here. Our next item, statement of conflict of interest. Are there any hearing? None. Our next item is agenda review. I do not have any changes. Okay. Um, and

I I would actually like to um let's see. Yes. U Mr. Mayor, I would like to ask that the item regarding Pullman Park be moved forward in the study session. We have um members of the Pullman Neighborhood Council here tonight to speak on the item. Um, and it'd be great not to have them very very out very very late if possible. U, Mr. Mayor, I would like to suggest item Q6 to be moved up on the agenda if possible. We also have people from here.

Everybody would like to move their agenda item up. So, obviously, yes, let's move them all up. what the items that uh where the residents play a role in it usually are moved up but the staff items are lower right uh can Q5 is also uh at work of the residents and is I would like to move it up as well.

Yes. Well, um actually I am only going to allow Q 4 to move up since we have uh uh senior citizens here who have come out. Um and um so so Q Q4 will become Q1 and all the others will move down. Okay. Our next item is a report from the city attorney of final decisions made during close session.

Good evening, mayor and council. No final decisions were made tonight during um tonight's close session.

And then our next item will be a report from the city manager. KCRT, can you please put up the slide deck? Um, I would like to start my presentation this evening. Chaser Curl, Richmond City Manager. Uh, good evening, Mayor Martinez and members of the Richmond City Council. Uh, I would like to thank Riseze for hosting the Be a Kid event on Friday. Um, I attended it was great fun and it's always a great annual event. So, I want to thank them for all the work that they're doing in our community and for hosting a a wonderful evening. Um, also want to acknowledge and thank the um NAACP. They had their Harlem Comes to Richmond event on Saturday and unfortunately I was unable to attend um but I'm sure it was a great event and fun was had by all. Next slide.

Uh the slides aren't moving.

Next slide. Next slide. Oh, right there we go. Thank you. Um, so many residents um have noticed that solar lights are being installed throughout the community. Um, this is a photo of the Richmond Parkway. Uh, I would like to thank the public works building maintenance unit. Um, electrical services in particular. Um that work um is led by um in addition to to Daniel Travaria, our public works director, and our um assistant deputy um director Darren um CJ um Clarence Johnson, who's been a long-term city employee um who metriculated up through the department, has been helping lead this work, and just really want to thank him for uh his leadership and really getting things moving with our facilities in our electric shop. Um, and so this is uh an illustration of the lights that you've seen going up throughout the community, also on Carlson and other uh locations um in in Point Richmond as well. And so uh also on Pennsylvania. So um want to thank them. Uh the other areas that I I want to note are um on Gertrude Avenue, Hinsley um and a total of 48 solar street longs uh street lights along the Parkway will be installed. And then looking ahead there it will include um work at 27th Street, Clinton Avenue at Tiller Park uh Point Petrurero and Ccliffe Drive um and Carlson uh as well. Next slide. super excited to have new lights. Um, also throughout the city, um, we've been conducting, uh, inspections of our city parks. And so from time to time, you'll see this yellow caution tape go up. And when you do, um, we are trying, our public works staff, the parks unit is trying to be as responsive as possible. When you see

this yellow uh, tape, that means that um, after an inspection, there's been something damaged or something needs to be upgraded. And this is an an example of the repairs uh to the playground bridge at Tiller Park. Uh this is located at Kil Key Boulevard in Clinton Avenue. And this work restored the structural integrity and safety of the bridge element within the play area to ensure uh continued safe access and play opportunities for children and visitors. So this is an example of the work that's happening in our community that's part of our um new operations and maintenance uh strategy that uh we are now able to operationalize. So, just want to thank uh Daniel and Darren and and Jason in the uh and all the uh the the crew in the public uh in the parks unit. Next slide. It's also paving season, which I get really excited about. There's nothing better to me than nice paved streets and clean parks and bright lights. So, also want to highlight that um you're going to see lots of paving happening in our community right now. Um paving is um commencing at 7th Street and so uh between Barrett and Ripley Avenue. Um this is a great enhancement to the roadway because you can see that the before pictures there was a great deal of of degradation and so you're going to see a lot more uh paving happening throughout our city o over the coming months until the rainy season commences again. Next slide. Upcoming um the Richmond Commission on Aging and Arit invite residents to the third annual senior transportation workshop and town hall event. This event is free and will provide valuable information, resources, and is an opportunity to share input on transportation needs for older adults in our community. It will take place on Thursday, April 30th from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Richmond Auditorium. And you will hear from mobility experts. You'll get you'll have an opportunity to connect with local service providers and

help shape solutions that support safe and accessible transportation for um our aging population. For more information, please call 510-620-6793. Next slide. As many residents are aware, the city of Richmond is partnering with community organizations to host know your rights immigration forms. Um this form will be held at RISE. It's being hosted by the city of Richmond, Rise Youth Center, Reimagine Richmond, Catholic Charities of the East Bay, the Multicultural Institute, and East Bay Sanctuary Covenant. Um, this event, it will provide free legal consultation, travel right information, and family preparedness planning and a resource for connecting residents to local immigration services. If you have questions, please call the city manager's office at 510-620-6512 for more information. Next slide. Um, also the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community celebration is scheduled on May 2nd um from 11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the auditorium. This event is designed to foster solidarity across diverse Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities, including West and Central Asian communities under the theme culture as power, recognizing cultural expression as both heritage and a source of cap cultural capital that strengthens community well-being. The program will include cultural performances, a community resource fair with approximately 20 partner organization, youth engagement activities, including a talent and fashion show and cuisines representing the AAPI community. The city of Richmond reaffirms its commitment to racial equity and inclusion through this celebration. Next slide. Also on May 3rd from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm um the Cinco de Mayo Festival will take place. It will take place between RE and Clinton Avenues. Um it will we

are appreciative of the work that the 23rd Street merchants and all of their sponsors do to support this event. This is a wonderful activity. Um, tens of thousands of people normally turn turn out. Um, and it's an experience to experience a full day of live music, cultural performance, authentic Mexican cuisine, artisan vendors, and family-friendly fun um as we come together to honor rich traditions in the spirit of our community. Please don't miss this exciting opportunity to connect, celebrate, enjoy um with loved ones. Please bring your family, invite friends, and be part of the festivities. For more information, please call 5100-620-6512. And in particular, I would like to acknowledge um the police department, the fire department, and the public works department uh for all of the work that they do. Um so, and community service department for all of the work that they do to prepare for these festivals. Um they they take a lot a great deal of time to prepare to make sure that the events run smoothly and to make sure um to try to ensure that everyone is safe. So, just thank all of the city staff for their support and for for doing a great job uh working with our community- based partners. Thank you.

Point of order. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, city manager, for this wonderful news. Thank you for your work. Um I have one question and it's about the pavement. we had been always advocating were the idea of having doing pavement um combined with some of the street calming projects. I wonder if that is happening and how this happening and and in which intersections

we can uh that's a great question. Um Daniel Travaria, director of public works is planning a comprehensive presentation um as part of the May 5th uh budget presentation. We're going to start the evening with um presentations from public works, community development, and the police department on May 5th. And so the department's uh directors will be presenting and I will make sure to ask him to highlight that information. Thank you. You're welcome. Next item. Um mayor, we need to move back to agenda review. Evidently, there was a request to remove item 04A from the consent calendar by Miss Citrorum.

And was the conversation had with the appropriate people? Uh, she Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Thank you. Yes. She emailed staff. Uhhuh. So staff should be aware that she requested. Okay. So that was Tamara Walker and Luchanda White. Okay. 04 A, right? Item 04 A. The bike item ebike item. Ebike. Which one is it? 04 C. 04 C. Okay. Okay. 04. The same p

04 C. That is the contract amendment number three with Charleston Mobility for electric bike share operations. And that will go to the end of the agenda. Yes.

Okay. Our next item is item M1 and that's proclamations honoring Asian-American and Pacific Islanders. It's a proclamation declaring May 2026 as Asian-American and Pacific Islanders AAPI Heritage Month in the city of Richmond and recognizing the AAPI community celebration at the Richmond Auditorium. We have one inerson speaker. There's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council on this item. Please raise your hand at this time.

I'm sorry. I was trying to call the office of staff. The physical proclamation is missing, but I'm going to use my colleagues laptop to read it, and I would like to ask any council members who would like to join me over there um to read the proclamation. No, it's is not of concern. One second. Let me get the mic. No, we haven't.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Hello everyone. My name is Soa Bana. When I came to America, I told everyone I'm from Asia, but they looked at me and said, "No, you're not Asian." So it's about like 40 years later I identify as Middle Eastern North African but today we are celebrating Asian Pacific Islander culture in America. The reason why we're doing it is not that they have any specific highlight over other cultures. It's just to highlight the fact that we're all humans coming from different cultures. Race is a social construct, but culture is a beautiful thing. And despite all our differences, we would like to just emphasize on our solidarity, togetherness, belonging rather than otherness. So if there are any Asian members, especially those organizing the API celebration, please join us as we reading this and uh we'll have the copy for you soon. So, I'm going to start reading it and we're going to share reading it. So, honoring AsianAmerican and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and celebrating community resiliency in the city of Richmond. Whereas May is nationally recognized as Asian-American and Pacific Islander AAPI Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the diverse cultures, rich histories, and significant contributions of the AAPI community to the fabric of our nation and the city of Richmond. And

whereas the AAPI community celebration on May 2nd, 2026 is an is an opportunity to celebrate the diverse cultures within the AAPI community, including those of West and Central Asia and is designed to build relationships and foster solidarity across AAPI groups and communities. and pass. Whereas this event recognizes culture as power, acknowledging that cultural capital is an asset that shapes political and economic systems and further recognizes that at the individual and community level. Cultural expression preserves traditions, sustains connections to home, and can itself be an act of resistance. And whereas this celebration is made possible through the sponsorship of the city of Richmond and the collaborative efforts of a dedicated coalition of community partners including the safe center, the office of racial equity and social justice, the center for empowering refugees and immigrants, community health for AsianAmericans, Eastbay Center for the performing arts, NAMI contraosta project second Chance Contra Costa Libraries Stand Together Contra Costa Diversity in Health Rot Immigration Institute of the Bay Area Jubilee Legal Legal AsianPacific Environmental Network Latina Center and one that

it's okay and Latina

whereas the festivities showcase Aed this the festivity showcased the vibrant cultural spirit of Richmond through a resource fair, a talent show by local artists, a fashion show by the Latina Center and Nepali children and performances by the Sakura Kai Tao drum drumming group, the Nam Nam um Kais Kael, I'm sorry, Katel Tibetan folk folk dance team. um the East Bay uh Boio Lao Kumu Dancers and the uh Rose Nepali Youth Dancers.

Now therefore, be it resolved that the Richmond City Council does hereby proclaim May 2026 as AAPI Heritage Month in the city of Richmond and encourages all residents to join in this celebration of culture and community solidarity. Be it further resolved that I, Eduardo Martinez, the mayor of the city of Richmond, commends all participating organizations and performers for their dedication to building a more inclusive Richmond where every immigrant and minority community is seen, heard, and supported.

Thank you. I would like I would like to ask Susan Kim who's organizing May 2nd event from the safe center to have a word on behalf of the Asian community. Wow, that's a big job. I get to represent all of our AAPI residents and community. So, thank you so much. Har is not joining us. So, you're the only

and there will be others who could join me uh if you identify yourself as AAPI residents. And I think I really want to thank you all for this recognition because this is really important to us because we AAPI residents and communities have faced uh the experiences of invisibility and being otherred and isolation. But that's not the only thing we focus on. I think on Saturday, this Saturday, you are all welcome to join us to share joy, the sense of joy in this very difficult and tough times we are all experiencing. Um, you heard about our program. It's going to be wonderful. I guarantee it myself. And it's free and we're going to offer also free food to anyone who comes. And we're going to offer cuisine from Aritria, Afghanistan, and Nepali. really showing our our multicultural talents we all share in our community. Also, I must uh share that we are here in solidarity with other people of color who have shared the same struggles and who have also shared the same commitment to belonging. So, that's what this is about. Please come this Saturday. I'll be there at 9:00 a.m. bright and early and we would love to see you all there. So, thank you. I I would like thank you Susan. I would like to add one more thing as an immigrant. So when you come to America, you don't know anything about the history of America. I mean I come from a country with 2500 years of history and here to that 250 you know is you don't know much details but one thing every immigrant knows about is the civil rights movement. And one thing all of us new immigrant continue is that uh uh tradition of resistance of standing up

for our rights and that's why we are seeing the indivisible movement today in solidarity of all the immigrants and all of us. We are one nation after all. Thank you very much everyone. Thank you everyone. Okay, we have one in person speaker Cordell Hendler.

Okay, so good evening, Mayor Martinez, Council Cordell Hendler. I'm I am so excited about this event and I want everyone that means you all council to show up to this event. You heard what was being proposed. Free food from all ethnicities. It's going to be wonderful. So, thank you, Susan. I will be there also. So, that's all I have to say.

Okay. Our next item is open forum. And open forum is an opportunity to address the council on items that remain on the consent calendar or items that are not on the agenda. If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council under open form, please raise your hand. At this time, I will be doing a total count of how many speakers. Um, let's see. During open forum, dialogue between the council and the speaker is prohibited. Okay. So tonight we have 10 speakers. So the amount of time allotted to individual speakers shall be determined based on the total number of speakers. The time allotted allotted to each speaker will be as follows. 15 or fewer speakers. You'll have two minutes to address the council. 16 to 24 speakers a maximum of 1 and a half minutes 25 or more speakers maximum of 1 minute. Okay. So we have 11 speakers. So each speaker will be allowed up to two minutes. Okay. We'll start with the in-person speakers and then move to the online speakers. There's one online speaker. When your name is called to address the council, state your name and your city of residence is optional. Please terminate your address to the council when your time expires. City of Richmond welcomes your comments and requests that you present your remarks in respectful and appropriate manner within the established two-minute time limit. First group of speakers, Cordell Hendler, Don Gosny, Sedania Delora, Ryan Laauo, Claudia Citrorum, Mark Wasber, Zoe, Chris Taft, and Juliet. Okay.

Mark, call me sorry. Cordell Hendler.

Wow. So, good evening, Mayor Martinez. Council, I am not Mark Wasber. I am Cordell Hendler. So, so that's a little slip. So, I have some items to bring forward to you all. So, for the last meeting in May, I want to see the Celisian College Preparatory Service Day proclamation because these young students have done a lot for Richmond. They have organized after school programs. They've worked with churches. So I am I am asking you to put this on the agenda for the last Tuesday in May because they're going to be they're having their graduations 4 days after that. So that's one. Then the second thing is um if you recall um last week at the meeting I said if I had $550 million I would hire a consultant to fix our streets because if you go outside this door you'll see that 27th and 11 is horrible because I almost got hit myself just that quick. So my money should be invested in our streets because you have a lot of community members have crossed the streets and they almost got hit. So, I am begging that that money should be allocated towards fixing our streets because neighbors have been complaining. They said, "Why doesn't the city fix our streets?" I told them, I said, "You got the money from Chevron, so now you got the money, so now here's what I would do. I would put money allocated for our streets." So then the second thing is I'm hiring consultant because as it was stated last week, we are in a staffing shortage right now. We need we need officers for our streets because we feel a lot safer when we have officers there. So with that, I have if I had $550 million, I would add more police because they make our streets a lot safer. So with that, I'll give my time to Don Gosney.

Don Gosney.

Good evening. You know, I've said it once, I've said it a gazillion times. As a community leader, how can you claim to speak for the people when you rarely speak with the people? At last week's meeting, there were quite a number of speakers visibly upset because they came in assuming they would have two minutes to speak, but then you cut them off. Same thing the week before. The agenda packet clearly states that we have as many much as two minutes to speak, but then your council policy states, the hidden policy, the one is incredibly difficult to find on your this website. It states that for any item on the agenda, and by the way, public comment is on the agenda, a speaker may have two minutes. Later on, though, the policy addresses public comment, saying that the allocated time will be limited to as little as one minute depending on the number of speakers. Both of these though say that this only applies to in-person speakers, suggesting the special privileges are given to Zoom speakers allocating two minutes, but they are not in person because they are not in person. I for one come in with a two-minute speech timed to the second only to learn that I may have to cut out every other word. Can you see how confusing this might the public might be? Which are they supposed to believe? What they see on the agenda packet, the first item in your uh your policies or the second item on your policy? Because they all are different from each other. Okay? We are where we are not confused is in reading the message coming from the council. Unless we are your friends or allies, there's nothing that we might say that you want to hear and that you would much rather that we just shut up and sit down.

Not the way we like things. You might take a look at the way the school board operates on something like this. They allocate one quarter of their allocated time. They've got a 4-hour meeting. So, one hour is devoted to public comment. You're allowed 2 minutes. After that, if they decide to go with that with more speakers, they're cut down to one minute. But you know that going in because it is clear everywhere that they read what the policy is. We may not like it, but at least we know what we're getting ourselves in for. Thanks

sor. Hi, good evening, mayor and city council. My name is Sat Obsal. Um, I am a Richmond resident and a former Tesla auto pilot engineer. I'm here tonight because I submitted a proposal to the city manager and the public works team to run a phase one AI safety pilot on the Carson and McDonald routes. I built variable AI smart glasses to help prevent accidents and protect our city drivers. Most importantly, this pilot is built to collect the exact firstperson video and data Richmond needs to win the upcoming SS4A federal grant. But we aren't stopping there. This data will also be perfectly set up to help our city win California state grants and Contraosta County Measure X safety funds. I'm here to make sure Richmond becomes a true leader in city safety. I look forward to working with your team to bring those federal, state, and county grand dollars directly to our streets. Thank you for your time. Irania Delamura.

Hello. Uh, good afternoon, city council. Uh, so I want to comment on what this gentleman just said when he left. I'm I'm not in agreeance with the high surveillance of drivers. I think that should be left to the police, which you all need to hire more of and stop paying them overtime. I think they make like what $500,000 a year or more because they work overtime and you guys are undermployed of police officers. So instead of putting up cameras to put us all in jail for any little infraction, just hire more police officers. Thank you very much. And I don't want to live in a city with super high surveillance where I'm being watched like a slave in a prisoner in my own city like they do in China where they're treating minorities like garbage and harvesting all their organs. Unless you guys want to be just like the Communist Party in China, don't do it. And they're also doing it in India by the way. You can look it up. And then secondly, I'm going to be there at the Cinco de Mayo Festival and I really hope all of you go. I'm going to be singing and I'm going to be passing out information on me and also I'm going to have two copies of my book for sale and I want to read you all a little bit of the book that I wrote. It's called Justice Noir. I think I've read the introduction before. It's about the 1791 Haitian Revolution in Haiti and it's a fictional historical book. This is a story about a young man named Andre who was raised with intentions of one day becoming a great soldier and he succeeds. He excels in academics and sports and gets sent to Haiti where he encounters a French colony made up of mostly black people in and mulatto. He is also a mulatto. His mother is one-third black and his father is a white man. So being a good man, he sympathizes with the mistreatments the mulatto face and I will be selling that book. And I use terms that were used in that time. So if you know anything about the history, you will know that those terms were used at that time. And thank you very much. And Audrey was a real person. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Brian Laauo.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Ryan with AC Transit. I'm here to share a critical update regarding the future of our service. On Wednesday, June 10th at 5:00 p.m., the AC Transit Board of Directors will be considering two scenarios to potentially reduce our service due to significant budget shortfalls. While a state loan has stabilized our immediate budget this year, AC Transit is facing a $200 million deficit over the next four years. Without new sustainable revenue, we're facing the possibility of reductions of up to 16% of service and a loss of 300 jobs. AC Transits uh started to prepare for the worst case scenario. Uh if there's no new funding secured, service reductions will likely take effect uh as soon as June 2027. I want to be clear, there have been no uh specific decisions about lines, but every uh line is up for review. While our it's our priority to preserve the service at current levels, um we just want to be transparent about um the challenges that we do face. Uh AC Transit board of directors will consider two uh potential uh service reduction scenarios on Wednesday, June 10th at 5:00 p.m. And we are also having an open house to review the possible um service changes uh directly prior to that meeting um at our uh downtown Oakland offices at 1600 Franklin. Um we will definitely be sharing more information to come uh that we hope you will share out to your communities. Thank you,

Claudia Citroen.

Let's stay on the topic of finances. Um, service cuts will come more and more often on your table, whether it's BART, whether it's Contra Costa wanting uh five 4% uh uh taxes on sales or I'm just asking that you prioritize what really is necessary. I know I uh I can't speak about the bike program. There's a bunch of things on the agenda tonight which I can't name right now, but I'm just asking you to prioritize. We need the fire department being funded. We the police budget always gets being slammed. Also, the biggest part there is the lease. It's time that you start thinking about building police headquarters. Um and it's time to also think that uh Richmond Moves is a highly successful program. That grant is about to run out. So instead of running five different uh you know on on on a on a nail and tooth pick those programs which are successful. There is um I in one of my emails I gave you data on seniors. If a senior loses the spouse, they lose their second social security check. If they get $1,800, that is their rent. Full stop period. Think about housing. What is more important? You know, support the seniors or have a yurt that is $200,000 a calculated or have the art fund ask for another 15k. Even so, the uh city manager says any overrun needs to go through a forensic audit. So, there's just um you know, wrap your brain around the budget season starts. That's all I'm asking. Thank you. I yield my time and

thank you for um letting me move the item. Zoe. Hi, my name is Zoe Rivka Penagopoulos. I am a voting resident in district 2. I'm speaking on uh item 5D on the consent calendar and I just wanted to thank uh the mayor and the city council on behalf of Richmond Jews for Palestine and Richmond for Palestine for your work on the sister city program with Sebastia and on uh the work today to establish the sister city commission and we look forward to working with all of you to help uh get some people on that commission. Thank you. Chris Taft.

Good evening, council members. Thanks for this chance for me to address you. My name is Chris Taff. I'm a resident of Richmond uh District 5, and I want to thank uh you, Mayor Martinez, and the council for moving Sebastia as our sister city to the consent calendar tonight. Richmond has a history of internationalism, of sister cities, of linking our communities as people connected to other cultures in solidarity, as proclaimed uh earlier tonight uh with the Asian Pacific Islander communities. That's why it's very important for us to affirm and protect our link with Palestine, especially West Bank, the West Bank village of Sebastia. Especially so because Sebastia with roots back to the early 9 th000 900 BC is threatened with complete obliteration. Furthermore, this destruction will be paid for with our tax dollars. So I want to commend the mayor for his advocacy and for connecting our city with people who need our support as you all have done. And uh thanks to the city council for affirming the arms embargo to Isra uh on Israel and for keeping Richmond as a world citizen. Thank you for your time.

Our next speaker is Juliet and our last speaker will be Mark Wasber.

Hi, good evening. Um I'm a resident of District 6. I just wanted to also um like my colleagues from Richmond uh for Palestine and Richmond Jews for Palestine thank the mayor very much for moving this item forward. It's very important uh for our city um for our citizens to connect internationally in this way particularly with um people who are experiencing um oppression and um and uh um and hardship. Um I think it's really wonderful that our city has a sister city um commission. I know that we have three other sister cities and now we have Sebastia. So thank you for we uh we look forward to working with the commission and supporting them in their work. Um and um yeah, thanks very much.

Our last in-person speaker is Mark Wasber. I said, when you break the law, law enforcement has every right to go after you no matter where you go. And if you're an illegal immigrant, you already broken the law by being in my country. So if they try to hide somewhere, if they try to hide here in city hall or anywhere else, ICE is going to come after you and your free zone is not going to stop them. So I don't know where you get this dumb idea that you're going to stop ICE from arresting criminals if they run on city property and that's pretty stupid. You you know that's not going to work. Now to get a warrant, I said law enforcement has to build a case. Once that build a case, they have the judge sign it. The judge will sign it. Then we'll they'll arrest you. Then it'll go to the district attorney and it's up to them if they want to press charges or not. This is how our system works. You don't go around passing laws that you can't even enforce stopping law enforcement to protecting illegal immigrants. This is the most stupidest thing I ever seen in my entire life. And it's not going to work. You know that. It's just a bunch of stupid politics and you know it. And then the United States was founded on Christianity, not a God from Iran that's going to be chopping people's heads off, throwing them off buildings, terrorizing the world, killing innocent people like they did in Israel, massacred uh was it 1300, burning babies in ovens. That's your religion in Iran. Sure, we have problems here, but the United States will always be a Christian nation. Not no phony gods that these people are talking about. You got

it? And if you can't respect our laws or our God, you have no business being in my country at all. Now, she says she comes here in God we trust. What God do we trust? Well, we know the United States was founded under Christianity. That was our last inerson speaker. Now we'll move to the online speakers. Benio, please unmute yourself and you may begin.

Good evening. Benio, president of the Richmond Police Officers Association. Um, recently I've become familiar with the kind of rejection of Rafelis uh matrix and the grand jury staffing findings amongst some of the council members. And I want the council to think about who is actually paying for the price of understanding or sorry the price of underst staffing and understanding its role in Richmond. It's not the consultants. It's not uh the grand jury. It's not the elected officials that are in this chamber. It's the domestic violence victim who calls 911 and waits because the only available unit is across town or on another priority call. It is the family of a homicide victim whose case sits in Q because investigators are carrying case loads that no professional standard would consider manageable. It's the sexual assault survivor who follow up inter whose follow-up interview gets pushed back a week, then two, then a month because there aren't enough detectives to do the work and work the case the way it deserves to be worked. It's a robbery victim whose suspect is never identified because no one had the bandwidth to pull a video canvas the block or run leads when they were still worn. This is what understaffing looks like in real life. It's not a line item on a budget. It's justice delayed, justice diminished, and in too many cases, justice denied. Rafellis told this council, Matrix told this council, the Contraosta Grand Jury told this council. Three independent professional bodies, one consistent finding. There are some council members who said they will not support these recommendations. I would ask them publicly and I will later on the record to explain Richmond v victims why their cases are less urgent than the political calculation behind that decision. Richmond residents deserve response and the victims of Richmond deserve justice.

This city needs to be staffed with police officers in the 170 to 180 range. Anything less? Thank you. Your time is expired. And that was our last speaker.

Our next mayor, if I may, um I know the time is over, but we have over 16 people. Many of them are senior residents and in different physical conditions. Can we move item Q6 to be the second item on the agenda, please? No. Can we take a vote or can you have some considerations? There are many. Could people raise your hands, please? They've come from long ways all over Richmond.

Can we take a vote, please? We already went over agenda. I make a motion that we take a vote to have this item after the first item to be the second item. Please second. I'll second. Thank you. And then council member Brown. Sorry, just clarification. You said first item up. No, just so we already decided Q4 becomes Q1. I'm asking Q6 to become Q2. Okay. So it will be the second item on the agenda tonight. Council member Brown. Yes. Council member Council Member Bana. Yes.

Council member Jimenez. Yes. Council member Wilson. Yes. Vice Mayor Robinson? Yes. Council member Zapeda? Yes. And Mayor Martinez? No. The motion passes with Mayor Martinez voting no. I'd like to know how many people are here for the Red Oak Victory Ship. Could you please raise your hand? Oh my god.

So, we have uh as many or more people for the Red Oak victory ship. So, I would like to move that uh to the second position. So after after the one that was moved to P4 So so I wanted it to be Q Q2. So do I have a second?

Okay. So can can I do it like an order? No. Okay. So we have Q4. So So actually as as chair I can just move it. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So right right now we have Q1 which is the one I mean well Q1 is Q4. Uhhuh. Yeah. So okay and then we have Q Q3 Q2 is Q6. So so it will be um then Q can't we just said the order? So Q4 is order one

and then right now we're debating or the mayor saying I'm I'm moving the railroad 50 ship to be the second one. So Q Q3 to second to second position is what you're saying. Yes. And then Q Q6 will be the third position. Right. Uhhuh. Okay. Thank you. Where is it now? And then it'll be Q1 followed by Q2. Q1 is the fourth position. Yeah. Q2 is the fifth position. Q5 is the sixth position. Okay. And then Q5 is the sixth position. Okay. Okay.

I just want to make sure because I don't know that we're going to get to all of them. Mr. Mayor, if I may, so that way people that are towards the bottom of the new list that you kind of know you're either staying with us till almost midnight or you might come back next. Not not even midnight. Till 11. 11:30. Almost midnight. 11. 11. Oh, 11. Right. Mayor, mayor. Yes. Um, just point of clarification. So, the BART director is here. Do we want to ask um the BART director if they would be amendable to coming back at a subsequent meeting? Good idea. Okay. Is that okay? I we apologize. Thank you. Okay. Where was that? H

we were about to take a vote on the consent calendar. And as a reminder, the consent calendar vote will exclude item 04C. That's the contract amendment number three with Charleston Mobility for electrical bike share operations. So, we need a motion. I'm sorry, I'm confused. I move the consent calendar. I second it. Council member Brown, did you move anything around? Yes. Council member Bono, yes. Council member Jimenez, yes. Council member Wilson, yes. Council member Zapeda, uh, yes. Vice Chair, Vice Mayor Robinson, yes. And Mayor Martinez,

yes. The vote is unanimous. Okay. Madame Clerk, just for clarification, will you mind reading the order again after the consent calendar?

Okay. Okay. Order is item Q4 is now item Q1. Item Q3 is now item Q2. Item Q6 is item Q3. Now item well item Q1 move to item Q4. And it looks like they're going to come back. Um, item Q2 is now item Q4 and then item Q5 is now item five. Q5. And then 04C at the end. 04 and then 04C is at the end of the agenda.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, our next item is item Q4. No, P P1 P1 P1 budget stuff.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'll skip completely over. Item P1 is under budget session and that is to receive an update of community engagement efforts related to limited term revenues. Approve and authorize the city manager and city attorney to negotiate and execute a contract award with Dolberg Advisors is subject to approval as to form by the city attorney. There's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council on this item, please raise your hand. At this time, we have two in-person speakers. Checkmate.

Good evening mayor and the council members. My name is Abinh Nadan, finance manager too from the finance department. With me I have Nikki Maste, deputy city manager, internal services and Emily Combmes, our finance director. Tonight, I'll provide a brief status update on the community engagement and financial strategy RFP tied to the limited term revenues. Before we proceed, I would like to thank all the city staff that was involved in the RFP process to get the RFP out and evaluated. It was a great collaborative effort. and uh a lot of hours outside of normal duties. So I'd like to acknowledge all the staff. Thank you. See, I prepared for next slide and I'm presenting so I'll try to avoid that. Um, the recommended action tonight is to receive an update on the community engagement efforts related to limited term revenues, approve and authorize the city manager and city attorney to negotiate and execute a contract award with Dalbeck Advisers subject to approval as to form by the city attorney. Per your direction on January 27, 2026 the consultant through the RFP process will run robust engagement with staff council stakeholders together input on holding and releasing

funds and develop a transparent equitable expenditure framework. work with financial advisory input on maximizing earnings. Tonight's update closes the loop on the plan and timeline you asked us to bring back. Council's 2024 decision to withdraw the ballot measure resulted in a 10-year $550 million settlement with Chevron, guided by principles to reduce fossil fuel dependence and improve community quality of life. The engagement process will help identify community priorities across the five goal areas as shown on the slides. These elements establish the foundation for developing an expenditure framework that aligns both with council direction and community input. City staff thoroughly ensured that the RFP was in line with the council direction on January 27, 2026. The timeline shown the timeline shows sequence of events leading up to the this evening's update. We adjusted the timeline to ensure a thorough evaluation in interview process ahead of contract award. The RFP was structured for an advice only scope. This means that that it includes facilitation, documentation and strategy and not direct fund allocation or investment management.

The RFP reach was quite strong. A total of 1,170 vendors were notified through our online uh bids online portal. 51 firms downloaded the RFP and 11 proposals were received. All proposals were evaluated against the criteria set out in the RFP and ranked accordingly. The top ranking firms were selected for the interview process. Evaluation and interviews involved staff from the finance, internal services, city manager office, public works, community services and community development departments. Dalberg advisers were identified as the top ranked firm. Dulberg Advisers was the top ranked firm in both the evaluation and the interview process. They demonstrated strong track record with restricted or settlement derived funds and clear neutrality in facilitation role. They bring Richmond specific experience. For example, developing a strategy for rapid a Richmond rapid response fund and a comprehensive and inclusive engagement plan aligned to equity and just transition principles. Their technical proposal demonstrates California public sector governance, experience and advisory discipline. Delbug's engagement model is designed to ensure broad accessible participation

across the city. The goal is to gather meaningful input from residents, particularly those most impacted through a mix of in-person engagements, targeted discussions, and accessible online tools such as mobile first portal. The structure emphasizes language access, logistical pro support and smaller facilitated conversations so that the feedback is both inclusive and substantive. This approach gives the city a clear understanding of community priorities to align into developing the proposed expenditure framework. Next steps. Staff will return with contract award for council action within two months. Dalbug's proposal milestone indicate a seven-month engagement period to conduct a robust community engagement including at least one formal update to the city council and a final report to the council on the two deliverables. one, the proposed framework for expenditure of the limited term revenues and the proposed strategy for holding and releasing funds to maximize earnings. All recommendations remain advisory only and subject to council approval during the community engagement process. Transparent updates will be published on a landing page on city website. To recap, the recommended action this evening is to receive an update on community engagement efforts related to

limited term revenues, approve and authorize the city manager and city attorney to negotiate and execute a contract award with Dellback advisers subject to approval as to form by the city attorney. And I would just like to add, mayor, um we appreciate all the work that the city council um and the community put into negotiating uh this agreement and receiving these funds. Um by way of background, just for for full transparency so the community is aware, the first five years um there will be $50 million provided uh per year and then the second uh five years of the 10-year agreement will be 60 million a year. And this provides significant um near and midterm support for the general fund. But it's very important that the council and the community are aware that when we look at um cash flow coming over a term of 10 years, we have to also think about um the discount rate. And this is something that we'll talk about more in detail um on May 5th as part of the budget and coming trying to come to consensus around what discount rate the council wants to consider because when you're looking at a stream of revenue over 10 years that means the present value of that 550 million today is more like 380 to 466 million. And so we tonight, you know, this is a a limited uh item that we want to talk about in terms of community engagement, but we want you to know that on the 5th, we want to have a more broader discussion around that and the assumptions because that will um help frame uh the community engagement as well and and should be part of the budget discussion. So, just wanted to to bring that up so that the community is aware that we do need to be very mindful of the present value of the dollars and how much it's it's worth in present value and then again coming to an agreement on what discount rate the

council wants us to use in our budget projections. Thank you. Do we have public speakers? Yes, we have three inperson speakers. Cordell Hendler, Claudia Citroron, and Emba Ishi. So, good evening again, Mayor Martinez. Council, for the record, I am Cordel Handler and I have I like this presentation. So, thank you, Avananish. And um I I would move the item. That's it for full transparency. Just move the item. Claudia Citroen.

So, I appreciate the cultural awareness the city brings in with uh having items bilingual. I do think uh it needs to be actually triilingual or quadrilingual. We just had a you know presentation for the Asian Pacific um uh residents. There is nothing in Chinese. We need to start putting things in. Uh this is on the Dellberg.

Yes. And um they said they want to do the things in Spanish and I'm just requesting that it is being you know multilingual not just Spanish but also Chinese or um you know what are the ma major other languages are we need to get more conscientious about um those people as we heard than in the shadow and non-existent. Um, please become culturally aware. Thank you. Emma is

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Martinez and city council members. My name is Emma and I'm the local policy coordinator at AsianPacific Environmental Network. And um as you were mentioning as a call back for 2024, it's just important for people to understand the context that APEN along with a coalition of community organizations and residents fought and won the polluters pay campaign bringing Chevron to the table helping to secure this $550 million to invest in our community in Richmond. Um, I just wanted to say that our members are really eager to see these funds spent um on both community needs that um they see every day in their neighborhood, but also preparing to diversify our economy for the eventual closure and transition of the Chevron refinery. Um, yeah, we also really want to see the city council select a consultant to run the process that shares the values that Richmond actually put forth in the intent resolution. And we want to see a firm that has a thoughtful plan to work with the community um particularly those most impacted by ongoing pollution and disinvestment. Um just so uh you get an idea of what that may look like and the robust engagement um meeting at existing community gathering spaces, virtual options, which is great to hear. Um but also really getting that um smaller conversation facilitated feedback from groups like youth and students. Um yeah, and also I just wanted to really call out I think it'll be really important for the um consultant to make sure they uh get input on what oversight for this funding looks like. As you all were saying, it's going to be lasting over 10 years. So it's important for us to consider that. Um, and I just wanted to note too, um, on the addendum that, um, it'll be important to break down the

financial options for the community so they understand that. I know I'm at time, but thank you for your consideration. That was our last speaker. No online speakers. Okay. Fantastic. All right. Then, uh, I will open this up for questions and conversation. Uh, council member Jimenez,

thank you so much and thank you for responding the questions. Um, it will be great um to have this for also the public. I I have a question based on your answers. So the the three ranked firms was Dalberg advisors, the second was Karns and West HR and a advisor called money advisor and third just cities. Can you um talk about particularly what was the difference between the one and two just for us to understand why um Dberg is the is the best option for us. Um Emily Combmes, finance director. I'll I'll respond to this as I was on the review and on the interview panel, but I think there were some others that are in the audience as well if they want to speak to this. Um, with Dollberg specifically in the number one spot, I think what we noticed throughout their um, answers was like their kind of inherent flexibility. We noticed and um, this is one thing that was brought up by the panel. They talked we said, "Well, how many sessions are there going to be?" And they said, "Well, you know, it depends." Like they had the most flexibility. it seemed like they were going to kind of customize as they went along. They weren't just going to say this is this is our plan and we're going to go in with six meetings. They said it could be more. Um so I think that that was kind of what um I don't know if you have anything more to add, Avanesh, but that was something that definitely um had them score higher than the others as well as their experience.

Any other questions? Yes. Okay.

Before All right. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for the the great work and for bringing this here forward. Um I looked up their their website and uh just by by browsing through it, they seem like a very good like you've given us a very good recommendation. Uh I think you've done great homework. They look like a great u partner for the city. It looks like this fits right into their wheelhouse. Uh from what I am seeing from there, they're already looking to connect communities. They're looking to connect environmental communities with other communities and environmental justice. So, this just seems like you just they just they just picked Richmond right out of stuff that they're already doing. So, it's a great fit there. So, thank you for that. Um, and then regards to if if we're able to I think they're asking for how do we shape the meetings and more meetings I think would always be great. Uh, meetings at different times, different locations, different days because we know we have individuals that are not going to be able to make Saturdays. So maybe it's an evening meeting. Uh, but then giving opportunities to different community members. uh my annual strategy meetings that I do in district two and I just had my fourth one I guess hence my fourth year. Uh I moved it around. All right. It took me four years but I moved it around and sometimes we got some of the same feedback but sometimes it was very different and very tailored to that corner of wherever my meeting was and it spoke to that community. So making sure that we're listening and I know we can't go to every every every every corner even though we want to but let's try to go to as many as we can and then also looking at uh doing something with small businesses, right? Doing a strategy meeting around with the small businesses to see what

their needs may be as well. They're part of the community and they may they may or may not be able to go to the other community meetings, but we want to have a little special ear for them because their needs are going to be different, right? The regular community members might be focusing on one thing. One, the small businesses might be saying like, I need, and I've heard this in my strategy meeting with the business community last year, they need small grants to just help them stay afloat one more month, right? right into they can pick themselves up if something happens. So just having different structures of meetings and more meetings again uh would be great. Um would also love to see feedback from Richmond residents, right? If you're a small business, you might be coming from outside. So that makes sense. But making sure that the feedback we're getting are from our residents. This is our money. It is our community. Making sure everyone should be welcome. But then kind of figuring out who's telling us what, right? And if it's our residents, that should go way, way higher because when they open their front door, we need to know what that issue is because they live here day in day out. So very important for that. And then uh looking at I'm sure they're already going to be doing this, but kind of looking at breaking apart the different feedback in terms of citywide issues, districtwide issues, community issues, which might be different from the district issues, right? Again, you open the front door. I see that as more of community. And then looking at the council approved goals. Now knowing that those council approved goals we approved about four years ago they might need refreshing but for now that's what we have. So making sure how do we fit in the different goals as we're having the conversation with the community and I think the goals if I may say so myself because I was there I

think we did a great job in and making sure that we touch in a lot of different things that happened around Richmond. So how do we fit it everything in the conversation around the goals and incorporating that into the conversation. So I think it also will allow the community to have some guidance sort of where they as they're brainstorming what issues they the the goals will help direct that as well but then just being very open to the community is bringing in any of their own perspectives. So but thank you so much for this uh think great job in bringing this over. Thank you. Any other speakers? Uh council member Brown.

Yes. Thank you for the presentation. Um, yeah, I was pretty reluctant when we first had the idea of bringing on a consultant just because I feel like we have extensive reports. Again, the council's priorities and other documents that um solicit everything that one would want to see in the report. Um, but I guess this is a more comprehensive effort. So hopefully there's some actual movement. um because I want to move away from studying the problem to actually addressing it because we are um a city where many residents you can go out right now and ask them what are like the top three five priorities they'll tell you. So I haven't seen the message really deviate. It's really been consistent. Um, so are we able to use, my question is, are we able to use any of the funds or do we have to wait until the outcome of this study? Uh, meaning how long are residents expected to wait before they actually see tangible benefits from this settlement?

Ultimately, that's uh a policy decision of the city council. I think one of the things that the council may want to discuss during um the the budget process is um looking at our 5-year projections with theou increases that have been approved and some of the key initiatives that you have directed us to work on and then um making uh an assessment at that time. For example, um you know, I'm not going to be shy. I have been a proponent of uh sort of more along the lines of an endowment approach, right? Assuming like a 4% rate on of return on hund00 million, right? We're going into year two. That could give the council $4 million um you know, next budget cycle to appropriate and then that could help augment with things like staffing and supplies or grants and things of that nature. Um, and so I would I would hope that the council uh probably waits until this process is commenced, right, and and culminates unless we have some sort of um significant financial um event. Um I mean right now the we're in an unprecedented time financially like the things that are happening are so beyond what certainly I studied in economics. Um it's this is an unprecedented time with the rate with with the way the market is and so I think it's important that we remain nimble but then also um not just start spending um because there are so many priorities and you'll see from the staff presentation staff are going to be presenting on the 5th and the 19th all of the things that staff would like to be doing um and so hopefully that will also help inform the conversation.

Okay, thank you for that. And also like I'm looking at we've already received the first dispersement approaching receiving the second. This study um you mentioned is going to take about another 7 months. That looks like we're going to be going into like the third dispersement of it. So like when will the community actually see something from the settlement? I understand we want to wait. We want to make sure that we're making um smart investments, but when you're walking outside and you're seeing all these things that um this money could help alleviate, one could only think like when do we start to like actually put, you know, words, reports, documents into action. So, I'm just wondering at which dispersement time will the community be able to see some actionable things. One one thing I do want to remind the council of is we have over $27 million worth of ARPA funding, right? And so we are trying to judiciously expend that as required in the grant in the grant guidelines. And then we have over we have about $280 million total with ARPA of grants. And so what we're trying to do is e spend down those grant funds, right? Continue to look. We've got about another $50 million of grants in the pipeline. and so um appropriate and expend those funds very thoughtfully um and not be in a race because I think if if we try to rush and do to things too quickly um then staff can't provide the proper level of oversight and so we want to make sure that we really um implement things incrementally and I think what what the council has been seeing and what I was trying to highlight tonight in the weekly report is that we are making improvements to the built environment. um we still have a a long way to go and and through the budget process for example if the council sort of unilaterally said okay one of our priorities for fiscal year 2627 is we're going to focus on parks right um that

kind of like intentionality regarding like oh here's the three priority areas we're going to focus on as part of the budget could then fold into this conversation here um and I think could provide some positive momentum in terms of getting clarity on where the council wants expenditures But right now we just we have a a lot of different requests from a lot of different stakeholders. And so we think this we need to finish this process before we say oh we should make an appropriations because there's so many requests like I I know personally myself the mayor a lot and council members a lot of people have come to us and said oh can you fund this? Can you like there was a nonprofit that wanted new office space and they're like oh can you fund our new space or can you give us a loan? Yeah, that's because everyone's like,

you know, we have this settlement and it was it was it was sold to the residents in that in that way. So when they're asking like about the settlement money, it should it just be it's set aside until I mean just the question comes up so often and it's it's so recurring when it's like so if you could do anything with the settlement money or if the settlement money if you had $550 million what would you do? And there's a hundred things folks could do. So, are we saying that we're going to set aside that money until the conclusion of the study and everything comes back before even if we're like dispersement four, five, whatever?

Yeah, I think two things would be extraordinarily helpful. I think one thing, finishing theou negotiations, right? We still have three bargaining units that are outstanding, right? So, finishing those negotiations so then we can update our 5-year forecast and have real numbers there. Um, and finishing this uh, proposed scope of work would put the city council, I think, in a position where you could make informed decisions. I think not having yourus finalized, right? Not having your updated 5-year financial forecasts and then starting to spend money puts you in a position where you're potentially being reactionary instead of um, able to sort of plan forward. So if the council were to ask me, I would say yes, we should wait until yourus are negotiated and this process has commenced. So then we know that the community has bought in.

Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Vice Mayor Vice Mayor Robinson. Thank you. I just wanted to um circle back to a couple of things that you said that I I think I understand, but I want to make sure I understand them correctly. Um we've received one or two dispersements so far. one one one dispersement and another one is going to come in July. Yes. And um and when we put that money where that money is in some kind of an investment account, correct? Right. It's just it's basically like LEF. So it's it's like four 3 4% depending on the market. Yeah. So it is earning interest and you and you were saying that that interest would be estimated at what amount?

Like so if we were planning for next fiscal year, right? If we said, "Oh, we're going to get another 50 million, right? So then you have a hundred million." Yeah, then the council could safely say, "Oh, we have 4 million you could expend without using the principal, right? Without using the principal." So, we would still have the 100 million, right? And we would have 4 million that we've earned that we could use towards general fund budget items. Yes. Yes. And that money that we earn, the interest income, is that considered short-term funds or is that considered long-term? It's earned income, right? It's earned it.

That's a good question. Um, I think it depends on if the city council makes a commitment to set it aside to continue to earn interest, right? Um, that that's um that would be the policy decision.

So, if we don't set it aside to earn interest, but we say that we're going to use that interest earned, I'm not saying that we're just going to say that. I'm just trying to understand if the interest that we earn would also be considered short-term revenue or if it's considered general general fund revenue. Yeah, I I I think it depends on if you make a commitment to continue to invest the hundred million for in excess of 10 years, but you could hypothetically, right, you could say uh and I'm just talking out loud here, right? This isn't um you could say, "Oh, I'm going to fund

X, Y, and Z in the programmatic approach." Yeah. Right. Or you could say, "Oh, you know, park maintenance. We have three new parks coming online, and we want to continue to renovate more parks citywide. So, we want to increase, we want to maintain these three parks that we have coming online at a high level because we just invested, you know, several millions of dollars in renovating these parks and we want to have um increased staffing to support those parks and then we want to start renovating additional parks.

Right? So, in the short, even though we may be waiting to use the money, that money is earning more money that we can put to use if if we so decide as a council. Yes. So, we're not just sitting here not nothing happening. are actually getting more money from the money that we have gotten. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Um any other speakers? Uh yes. U council member Jimenez.

Yeah. Thank you. Um I just also want to clarify that the idea of having this community approach is to get input from the community about what are the needs and because we we are starting spending that are we going to make the right decision without hearing the community. Um so that will help us to make more informed decisions. My question to you is about I know we are talking about some I always think about these 500 millions in these three categories. One is listening to the community. Um also the other is an strategic financial investment and the third one is to recognize that there is a historic under investment in parks and renovating parks and and and all the infrastructure that because we haven't had the money is getting old right so for instance you say like the park renovation of the park so I think this is the three I I wanted to ask how in terms of the like one part is well knowing how to engage the community, listen to the community and pull that together but other part is the financials uh strategies that we can have because one thing is well we can have the money and an endowment hold this like in in ter I I don't know if I agree in having the money just to have 4% gain or if there will be some strategic investments that can be gain more than that or in in the long

term. So I just want to make sure that it's something that this consulting will be also developing to show the community and to show us. Yes. Aish, do you want to respond to that?

Uh, yes. So, that is correct. So, the consultant will develop a financial strategy framework uh on how the settlement funds can be or the limited revenue funds can be um maximized uh with earnings, right? The the settlement the consultant will not hold or manage the investment funds. They will only it's advisory only. So when they propose the framework, it will be up to council direction to how how to uh invest the funds.

Okay. Thank you. No, and this is good to know that this is why we are having these consultants because it's not just only about listening the community but also putting together some financial strategies and frameworks for us to see how we can expand the life of the of that funds uh to get it for longer so it can become in some ways an ongoing source of revenue. so we can fund ongoing expenses. Thank you.

Let's see. Uh, Council Member Bono,

thank you. I make it very quick. So, it's great following up um my fellow council member Himenez's talk about the consultant bringing some uh ideas to us. Are they going to present that to the public too when they receive them or just out of the blue they ask for feedback or are they going to provide uh some calculated options for them? So they can the the public can can they make like educated um wishes for lack of better words on my site or they just you know throw ideas around like I want pavement, I want park, I want this, I want that or they would be given an option for example if we invested in OPIP you know this much we save if we do you know different options with calculated analysis just like the council O is going to make u needs the um needs your work to educate us on the performance of each choice in the future to make a good decision. I believe the public should have in a very simple way that picture too.

We did not get into that great of detail. I can't say for sure through their proposal, but we can certainly um distill that as part of the negotiation process. I suspect that is part of the proposal, but that that's that's a great question and that's very specific. So, we would have to follow up um with Dolberg specifically on that. Thank you. As long as the the public receives the big picture, they don't have to be, you know, given charts or I don't know. Right. But yeah, no, I I completely understand and and definitely just through this process and the interview process or reviewing proposals is definitely an art that they do. Um, so but we can definitely that's a great question and we can we can we can figure that out.

Thank you. Then that would bring our decision close to the public's because we we are given the same you know premises of making a decision. Thank you. If I may, mayor, the the reason why the agenda item is framed the way that it is though also is so that as the council is providing feedback this evening and in the in the form of your final motion as well as your your comments, that will help the city attorney and I um work with finance staff to finalize the scope of work. So that's why it was not attached to the contract um for this very purpose. Thank you. Uh Council Member Wilson.

Yeah. So along those lines, so I appreciate that clarity. I went back and looked at sort of what this process is. And my understanding is is that that what we're going to authorize you to do tonight is to go back to the vendor, the potential vendor, and negotiate with them to to have a little bit more specificity. And so it's great that people are raising, and I think I agree with most of the suggestions folks have made. And so one of the things that I want to highlight in terms of a suggestion to for something to take back to them is to make sure that they understand, you know, and you I think you put this into the RFP correctly that part of what we ask for in the RFP is that the conversation engages specifically with the concept of a just transition and a post Chevron world. And so it's not just, you know, I think it is very important to just sort of say like, you know, sky's is the limit. what's everything you would like to spend money on and and I do want to hear the feedback and I think most of us probably from our emails have some sense of what those answers are going to be but that also that there has to be some really careful attention to thinking about what if you had you know $50 million a year what are some of the things you could do to to to expedite a just transition and lower reliance on fossil fuels and fossil fuel corporations and so I I don't have the expertise to know what those questions should be and you know I'm sure the staff can make those connections if necessary because I'm not sure. Do you do you feel like the the vendor brings that experience to the table themselves or is this something we're going to have to provide them?

I absolutely think they have that. Um I feel confident that they do have that level of expertise. Thank you.

All right. Um, I uh feel comfortable enough to say that I'm going to vote no on this. And the reason I'm going to vote no on this is because uh as I've said from the very beginning, this money is general fund money. It's not special fund money. And when we start looking at the budget as separate issues, we tend to have a budget that's skewed uh and not and not holistic. So it's it's it's kind of like the three blind men feeling the elephant and one of them feels the the the leg and says, "Uh, we need socks." And then uh the other person feels the ears and says uh uh we need I don't know we need ear muffs or something and someone feels the trunk and says that he has a cold uh because uh and so so we need to buy him the medication. Anyway, we're we're looking at parts of it instead of the budget as a whole. And from the very beginning, I've said that if we want to look at monies, we need to look at it holistically. I would like the community to look at the entire budget, not just $50 million, but the entire budget so that we can have a better idea of how the money is spent, where the money goes. Um, so, uh, if if I could, you know, uh, uh, I would change the agenda to to have Dellberg look at the entire budget and have a community discussions around the entire budget, but since that's not on the agenda, I'm not able to do that. So, um, uh, I think we end up looking at at this problem problematically because

we're looking at it as if there's special funds to be spent for special items um, and not as general funds. and and you know, if we spent $50 million on on the shoreline, who's to say whether it was from the special fund from from the 50 million or from some other part of the uh city budget? So, so it's really difficult to say that this 50 million is from is from uh the funds or whether it's from some other part of of of earnings that we get for utility taxes or property taxes or sales taxes. So, um uh I I think I think um this item is looking at the budget in a wrong way and that we should look at the budget holistically and uh I hope that uh Dalberg, you know, if and when they are u elected uh look at the entire budget whether or not they're speaking to Mayor, if I may uh make a suggestion, and it would be up to the the the council um to to help uh inform this, but one way that we could potentially address your concern is say in the background section of the usually when you have a community meeting, you have background. And so, um, it might be in instructive, uh, for the for the community to have a sense of, um, you know, some of the slides that we shared during the, um, the presentations that were done on the overall budget. And so, if the if the council is inclined to want to do that, we're happy to do that. If the council is not inclined, then we won't. I'm just trying to figure out if there potentially is a compromise. We as staff are happy to move forward as directed by the council. Um, but just wanted to to try to see if there was a way to compromise.

I would like to make a motion to accept this recommendation. I'm sorry. Can I have a quick comment? Uh, Mr. Mayor, very very quick groups, youth, labor, immigrants, blah, blah, blah. The elderly and aging group is missing. So, if you could add that, that'd be great. So, um I believe your motion is to uh is to approve and authorize the city manager and city attorney to negotiate and execute a contract award with Dolberg Advisors. That includes all the feedback tonight, right? That includes consideration of the feedback tonight. Is that That's right. I just want to make sure that

that is our intention. I I don't know what council member Bono was referring to when I'm looking at P1. It it doesn't on page eight it says focus groups. Oh page eight. Okay. So I would like um the seniors and elderly would be considered as a focus group because there are a large group of the community and needy. Thank you. We thank you.

Just a point for clarification. The the review of the entire city budget was not a scope of the RFP. So it will not be a deliverable. No, no, we're not including the review of the entire budget, but we would what I think what I'm talking about is that there was a lot of I think helpful feedback on different ways and inclusion in terms of language um small group meetings including seniors, things like that. So, working with them to make sure that the community engagement is robust um and gets to all the corners of the community that we can that is that's reasonable. Of course, we don't we can't.

So, we'll we'll um work with the clerk's office to look at to receive the the notes from this discussion, and that will help inform the um next steps with the RFP negotiations for the scope of work, which will come back to the council for approval. With that, I would like to second this item.

You ready? Ready for? Yes. Council member Brown. No. Council member Bono, yes. Council member Jimenez, yes. Council member Wilson, yes. Vice Mayor Robinson, yes. Council member Zapada, yes. And Mayor Martinez. I would love to see the whole budget looked at this way. No.

The motion passes with Council Member Brown and Mayor Martinez voting no. Um, mayor um I would like to propose that um the item five I don't think we are going to have time to discuss it tonight and if we can move it to the next agenda and be the first one I will really appreciate that. Will that be okay? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. So item Q5 is continued to May 5th. May 5th.

May 5th and it will be the first agenda item to discuss. Thank you.

Okay. Our next item is item Q4. And that item, hold on one second, please, is to direct staff to work with Pullman Neighborhood Council to explore acquisition of parcel number APN513-025-001-1 comprising a vacant lot at South 27th Street and Florida Avenue to evaluate feasibility, funding opportunities, and development pathways to establish and develop a neighborhood park that serves Pullman families and to return to the city council with recommendations and a proposed timeline within 90 days. We have five in-person speakers. If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council on this item, please raise your hand at this time.

If I could, Mr. Mayor, can I speak on this item? Yes. Um,

great. So, I'm really excited to bring forward this item. Um, uh, Pullman Neighborhood Council is, uh, one of the one of the councils in my in my district and, you know, I meet with them regularly, have for a long time. And one of the issues that their beautifification committee has been dealing with for over 20 years, let me say that again, for over 20 years, is wanting a park for the kids that live in this neighborhood because there is no park. Not only is there no park for um a neighborhood that has 9,000 residents, 25% of them are under the age of 18, but this neighborhood is bound by three very dangerous roads. Cutting Boulevard moves very fast. Carlson Boulevard, one of the most dangerous roads that we have in Richmond, most fatalities. Um, and then the BART tracks on on their on their northern side. Um, and then 37th Street, which is also a pretty fast street. People drive pretty fast. So, it's locked in. So, if any kid wanted to walk to any of the closest parks, which would be Borman Park, which is over Carlson and over the railway tracks, again, where many people get killed on that railway track. Um, and that park is actually closed right now because it's being reconstructed. they would have to venture across very very dangerous roads to get there. The other park is Nickel Park. They would have to go and all the way down to the overpass at um many many blocks down, you know, something that's not super safe for a child or walk all the way around the BART tracks and up the, you know, up the road like over a mile to get to a park.

um or across 37th Street again, which is a very fast street and it's on the edge of the community. Um this has been something that that is that has been a need for a really long time. It's one of those things that not having a district representative in the city council has made it so that no one was to speak, no one was here before to speak for this lack of park space, this to speak for the community and advocate for it. So I feel really honored to be able to bring this forward and to um request tonight that we just look into this. Um, so this particular parcel, the way I first actually came to know about this parcel is because I was getting lots of calls because there are many, many incidents of people who are unhoused living in this parcel around this parcel, parking, having lots of human uh, waste um, packed on the sidewalk around this parcel. This parcel has been uh, just a sore spot in the community for a very, very long time. It's been a hard story. We've had to work with lots of people to try to find them other housing um at at this particular location. Um so not only do they not have a park, not only do they have one of the densest populations of young people, people under 18, not only are they they barred in by very dangerous roads, so in order to get to any other park, they have to take their lives into their own hands. But the place that they have that's very open, it's actually two parcels, um has been plagued by dumping, by all all kinds of other activities um that have just really just plagued the neighborhood. And the solution that Miss Naomi has been bringing forward for over 20 years is we should make it into a park. Um, so I took some time and I found the parcel and the parcel numbers and I shared that with the city and um came to a point

where in order to look any further into what steps might even be possible, we need council support in order to do anything else. So I want to make it clear tonight that I'm not asking for the allocation of any funds to make any acquisitions. I'm not asking for the allocation of any funds to build any parks. What I'm asking for is the first step to consider this location and to examine what it would take to make this make this a city park so we can understand what the steps might be and what staff might recommend in order to move this project forward over time. That's what I'm asking for tonight. um asking for a pathway forward, what that pathway might look like and that that in order whether or not we would actually move forward on that pathway would be a decision of this council that would be h that would happen at a later date. Um so I wanted to just say all of that and then uh move on to public comment.

Do we have any public speakers? Yes, we do. We have five inerson speakers. speakers are Cordell Hendler, Clarita Griffin, Mary Stewart, Jonas Julen, and Naomi Williams.

So, good evening, Mayor Martinez, Council. For the record, I am Cordell Henland. I'm a member of the Park Plaza Neighborhood Council, and um thank you, Vice Mayor Robinson, for bringing this item forward. It's been over 20 years. I pass through that that parcel on a regular basis and it's like it needs a park because there are a lot of school children that will be perfect to go to these parks. So I'm just I would say move this item so so we can open up a clear pathway as I like to put it. Open up a clear pathway. So with that I'll yield my time to the next person.

Larita Griffin. Thank you. Um, good evening, Mayor Martinez and Council. Um, thank you for moving this agenda item. Thank you, Vice Mayor Doria Robinson and Claudia Jimenez, Council Person Claudia Jimenez in sponsoring this agenda item. Um, I'm Claria Marie Griffin, vice president of the Pullman Neighborhood Council. Um, I'll begin with, did you know predominately white neighborhoods have 44% more park acreage per person than neighborhoods of color? Did you know lowincome neighborhoods average 42% less park space per person compared to highincome neighborhoods? And this is why we are here because Pullman Neighborhood falls in both categories. We are grateful to stand by our Pullman Neighborhood Council President, Miss Naomi Williams, who has been advocating for decades that Pullman Neighborhood needs a park. We are we are a diverse community of bluecollar, lowincome, and essential workers of all ages. And Doria, you were spot on with the synopsis of the obstacles of the obstacles that children have faced for decades in being able to have access, fair access to the park. A recent study showed urban parks are essential for public health from physical mindfulness, nature appreciation, social and cultural. We asked to do the right thing and vote in favor of creating a park in Pullman neighborhood in the name of fair and equity for all. Thank you,

Mary Stewart.

Hello, council and mayor. Um, I have been uh I'm a member of the Pulman Neighborhood Council, former officer, but now not so much. Um, since I bought my house 24 years ago, I have watched the number of children in the street expand exponentially, and it's many, many, many more. They're playing ball in the street on my block and there's a lot of traffic. Now there is the closest park by as the crow flies is nickel but you have to go up these steep stair. You have to walk through these steep stairs, go over the tracks and down the other side. It's suboptimal at best. And I saw the the lot that we that we were talking about before. It seems like that's more in the heart of where we live. So you don't have to walk a mile to go to a park. There's too way too many kids out on the street. It's heck it's hecka dangerous. Anyway, um I think it would be better for them to have a park that they can walk to that's not so far away instead of playing soccer in the street. Thank you for your time. Our next speaker is Jonas Julen and our last inerson speaker will be Naomi Williams.

Hello council. uh Jonas Julin uh Pullman uh neighborhood council. Um it's not a secret uh the US has some of the worst health outcomes uh for the amount of money that we spend. Uh preventable diseases in the US are the worst they've ever been. Mental health uh and suicides are at crisis levels. Uh I'm not suggesting that this one park is going to solve all of our problems. Um but we know that human beings need access to uh the outside. Even a newborn baby will not develop um certain metabolic functions without exposure to sun and fresh air. Um so it's medicine and Kaiser and other providers are prescribing time for outdoors. Saturday was a fantastic uh park um prescription day. I don't who went to that? Anybody? Anybody go? Sweet. Yeah, it was amazing. Um and uh we know it. Um so let's uh let's help reduce the swiping in Pullman. Let's help reduce screen time in Pullman. Uh my niece and nephew call themselves screenagers, not teenagers, screenagers. Let's help reduce the screen time uh and let the deskkilling of our kids. Um we don't know what this park's going to be yet. We have no idea. But let's encourage kids to play catch, kick a ball, chase butterflies, lay in the grass, have a picnic, watch the clouds, uh watch the sunset, look at stars, blow bubbles, fly a kite, grow veggies, swing on a swing, slide on a slide, climb a structure, throw a frisbee, play tag, roller skate, skip, whatever. Let's help parents reduce the screen time. Um, it's not that they don't want their kids to be on the screen, but they don't have options. As we talked about, there is nowhere for kids to go in our neighborhood unless they want to risk their life. there's really only one green space left in the neighborhood. It's kind of a no-brainer. You could you could say we need development. Um what would New York be without Central Park? What would San Francisco be without uh Golden Gate Park? It helps uh property values. Um and it uh and it will make the the

neighborhood more livable. Nickel Park's awesome. Marino Bay Park's awesome. Pogo Park's awesome. Let's add Pullman Neighborhood Park. Your time is expired. Medicine cabinet. Thank you. Our last speaker is Naomi Williams.

Good evening everyone. Can you hear me? Yes. Come a little closer. What about us? Oh Lord. Can you be There you go. Okay, that's good. Yeah, that's even much better. I can hear it, too.

Okay, the park is very important to us as members of the community and the rest of Richmond. It's a community park, but it's for Pullman. I have been begging for a park for over 20 years, as Dora said, and I haven't gotten any help from anyone. So now I'm glad that we are at least living on the south side. You know what that part is? That's where they want to throw everything they don't want and things that they do want, they put it on the other side. North, east, west, but not south. So now this park is very important to us, the members of the Pulman neighborhood. We have meetings once every other month. We changed the meeting days. So last election time was in February. That was our first meeting for the year. And we had an election. And I'm now, no, I was the only president in Pullman, but now I have a helper. So, we have a co-president, which makes sense since I'm of age to retire.

And that's what I think I'll do pretty soon cuz not only of age is so much work for us to do. I hate to cut you off but your time is pardon me. I hate to cut you off. Your time is expired. Wait a minute.

I hated to do that. I don't I don't I don't get to stand up here but once every moon blue moon now purple moon but now we have you know what we will come to Pullman and listen to you you won't I will what do you mean this is business yeah we can do business there

oh Okay. Um, I have help all over. I've been in different positions and I've had uh wars for all of them. But this one, I don't know what we will do. Uh, you will do as city council and we will be very thankful. Mrs. Williams, I can assure you that you have 100% behind you on this council. Oh, not up there, but behind us. I'm sorry. I uh I Okay, according to the mayor.

That's right. Uh I made a seven vote count. I mean, a sevencount vote. Okay. I have help all over the city. I go all over the city. I might be the president of the Pullman, but I'm in every almost every neighborhood. I have a lot of room to move around. But now, because of my not so fast walker, I have to take my time. So,

and I would like to thank some of my family for coming. Did you you going to say something else to interrupt me on my time? No, it's it's past your time. You you Oh, okay. You know what? Uh I'm going to make you stay late so we can do our selfie. Pardon me. I'm going to make you stay late so we can do our selfie. Wait a minute. Hold it. I'm going to stay late anyway. Okay. Well, then

Okay. I know most of you guys up there on the on the podium and you've been very helpful for us. You have agreed and disagreed with some of the things we say, but this is for the community. So therefore, we you need to take a second vote or the third vote to change something on that sheet that you guys always agree on and disagree with each other. Maybe to to say, "Okay, let's do this for the neighborhood."

Okay. Thank you. To satisfy That was our last speaker. Yes. Thank you very much. And Naomi, we love you.

He said, "We love you. Next speaker. That's it.

That's it. Okay. Uh I want to say that um uh we have a lot of business to take care of and uh I know that all of us could wax uh endlessly on how wonderful uh Naomi Williams is and on how much this uh Pullman district needs a part. Uh but uh I would like to make a motion to approve. I just have a quick question, Mr. Mayor, if I may. Has this been item because um Miss Dorenson Robinson Doria Robinson shortly? Vice Mayor.

Yeah, Vice Mayor Robinson is the leazison to the parks and recreation. Has this item been to the parks and recreation and suggested by them or not? Overall, I think it's an excellent item. We should have more properties purchased by the city turned into parks, of course. Excellent idea. But just a question of technicality. Yeah, I would love to get a recommendation for the pathway forward for this project being considered by the city. And a part of that recommendation would be, you know, what's the pathway? Who would we need to bring it to? What what we're asking for is for the city staff to recommend a pathway forward. And that would include who we would need to bring it in front of, what what is what are the steps,

right? And and recommendations can come from either side. They can come from the uh parks and recck commission or they can come from the council. Yeah, sure. I I was just wanted to clarify because uh that's what you know she usually recommends. Yeah. Uh I make a motion that we pass this motion. I made a motion. I need a second. I'm going to second the motion. Okay. I have a question. All right. Thank you. I'll start off since Miss Naomi, you're standing there still. You you mentioned you have a slow walker. I think you need a faster walker. Something's got to keep up with you.

There we go. We're going to have to work on one of those. The electric glide. Yeah. Uh but I want to thank the vice mayor because Miss Naomi, as long as I have known you, we have always talked about that particular location. Okay. Uh, and it has been something that has I know you have talked to every candidate that has ever come to Pullman.

And it's not until we had district elections that we hear you more unfortunately. But unfortunately, when we were at large, nobody cared or seemed to care enough to do something. And everyone knows a big I'm a big proponent of district elections. And again, this is a perfect example of the reason why because we have to go into every single corner of our districts and really making sure that we're uplifting everyone together. So, this is a really great project. I I look to see what else we might be able to do uh with this area and other areas around Pullman. You need a lot of help there uh and a lot of resources. So, thank you for continuing being an advocate uh for your community. even when it seemed to have gone into deaf ears, you continued. And so, thank you for that and thank you for being here tonight as well. So, thank you.

What was your question? You said you had a question. If she's going to get a slow walker or fast walker. Oh my god. Okay. Uh, Council Member Wilson. Yes. So, I want to start off by saying I also want to have a park in Pullman Park. And I think both council member Robinson and the community have made an incredible presentation of exactly why there's an opportunity here and then that that there's a need.

But sort of building on the idea of needing recommendations from the staff in terms of paths is that I do have a concern that there might be other parts. You know, if you look at the the park master plan, there's a triangle in the center of the city basically between the two highways that's been identified as park deficient. And the recommendation is is that, you know, and I know this is a document that's 10 years old and h not much progress has been made, but it does lay out the recommendation that we look at this whole sort of corridor. is kind of the central corridor of the city which is park deficient and find ways to obtain surplus land in order to create new parks and it talks about uh doing an inventory. And so I'm not looking for ways to slow down the development of a park at Pullman Park, but I would sort of like to yes and this and say is there a way that we can use the energy and I don't know if this is a budget conversation, but I'd like to sort of at least start it off here is that yes, we should have a new park or we should explore whether we can have a new park in in Pullman, but can we also start a process that explores to see if there's other opportunities? And I realize like from the little I've learned about it, there might not be like there's places which need parks but don't have the the opportunity with the with the vacant land and I I just would like to have a little bit of staff attention towards looking at you know uh you know the various parts of that c center of the city that might also have similar problems and maybe an opportunity. So, I guess what I'm asking for is with that con like is there a way for me to like address my concern in budget season or what's what's a path here that I can follow?

Yes, I think it would be helpful um for the for council to bring that up. When when we present the budget, we always ask the the council we essentially develop a checklist um and then we aggregate those items over the the series of meetings and then we try to figure out how to to balance them and fold them into the budget. Um, and there's also an existing uh list. Um, and maybe Council Member Robinson would want to speak to that.

I I think that our parks and landscaping team um uh Darcy in particular is very interested in updating the parks master plan and a part of that could be should be identifying opportunities for new parks and and defining what what parks would be a part of our system of parks. Um, I think that we're getting to the point where we can get there. But we had a lot of staffing and other issues within the department to deal with before we take on a an update of the master plan. But as you say, in the master plan, it already calls for what I'm asking for us to start exploring tonight. And then, you know, if we bring the park master plan forward on the schedule that works for staff, um, and include in that what you're talking about, um, I think that we can get your answer as well. Council member Jimenez,

thank you. Um, I'm really um excited about uh co-sponsoring this. Thank you, Doria, when she called me and said, "Will you co-sponsor?" And I say, "Yes." Um, I was saying, "But are we going to jump the line?" And she was like, "No, this is a process." So, I think uh what I want is is that process. And I think what is also I agree with council member Wilson that there is um I glad that we are bringing this item tonight because it it starts open that conversation because a lot of of this triangle is in the central area is district one district three part of southside and district five and so it's all these communities that also uh don't have enough uh green space of park parks uh to do that. So I I think that is something that uh with this first step I am hoping that we will continue and to advocate for for these opportunities and I hope that uh council member Robinson ch uh champion that as well um with in collaboration with council member Wilson so we can have this process um so other communities like Pullman get into uh the queue to really start um having adequate spaces for recreation. So, thank you.

Anyone else?

No. Well, um I guess uh I'll get in the flow of things. I was really hoping that uh we could just vote on this and it's been a rich conversation. I think that the ideas that's come up are ideas that we need to consider and u uh I just uh I I've been I've been by that lot many times. I've been there when there was trash. I've been there when there were uh homeless people encamped in their cars around around the street. and and I've I've I've helped to move those cars and to clean up the trash. So, I know it's been a problem and the way to solve that problem is to make a park. So, um uh I know that we had put rocks rocks on uh on the way in the way to keep trucks from from going going up on the lot and and and leaving trash. So, so it's something that we have tried to to deal with, but uh I want to commend council member I mean vice mayor Robinson for going the extra step of looking at the property and finding out what the lot numbers were so that we could actually start looking at it more uh more uh u clearly you know with with with plans and um uh I could go on but I won't because we have a lot to do uh I would like to make a motion to uh

maybe that's right see we we have we have gone so long on conversation that I've forgotten what we've done. Anyway, let's vote. Okay, we had a motion by Mayor Martinez, second by Vice Mayor Robinson to approve item Q4. Council member Brown, yes. Council member Bana, yes. Council member Jimenez, yes. Council member Wilson, yes. Vice Mayor Robinson, yes. Council member Zepeda, yes. And Mayor Martinez, yes. The vote is unanimous.

Who could say no to Miss Williams? Nobody. Our next item is item Q3. Oh, I'm sorry. Q6, actually. No, it's not Q3. I thought we moved to Q3 in front of your Oh,

item Q3 is to receive a presentation from Rosie the Riveter, World War II Homefront National Historic Park and approve a contract with Lifton Consultant, Inc. in the amount of $299,797 for planning and preliminary design of the relocation of the Red Oak for a term ending June 30th, 2027. If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council on this item, please raise your hand. Now, we have 12 in-person speakers, and I'd like to get a count of how many speakers um are online. Thank you. uh good evening, mayor, uh city council.

Yes. So, it's Q3.

Yeah. If uh KCRT will be using uh the Q3 uh presentation. Uh good evening. Um Charles Gerard, um board director for the city of Richmond. Uh I'm uh joined by Elaine Jackson Ratando uh and Isabelle Ziggler from the National Park Service. So, thank you for your interest uh ongoing interest in the port and providing the opportunity to update this discussion from the initial February 3rd discussion. Uh first, I would like to make a brief uh mention that we learned yesterday um that the Port of M Richmond was selected by Department of Transportation for an 11.25 million uh grant that will be used for our birth seven uh remediation and repair. So, I just mentioned that because it's good news, but also just to highlight there's a lot of different initiatives underway at the port. Some near-term, medium-term, and uh long-term. The topic we're discussing tonight is sort of a long-term uh project discussion. Uh as a recap of the previous council discussion, uh the port was seeking approval to enter into a contract with Lift Consultants for planning and design services for the relocation of the Red Oak Victory. Uh the port had completed an RFP um with the the following work directive. Complete an existing conditions assessment. Uh complete cost analysis and value engineering to identify the most cost effective relocation and warf construction option. uh complete a permitting pathway analysis uh and complete uh preliminary engineering to the 15% design level uh to support preparation of a SQA compliance application. Uh in closing the February 3rd presentation, uh Mayor Martinez had several questions regarding uh the National Park Service uh role and responsibility over the ship and over shipyard number three. Uh the mayor had made a motion that we return with uh NPS

representatives to discuss their authority over the ship and the historic assets uh in shipyard number three. Uh and so the questions were how much responsibility and authority does NPS have uh and do the port and city have authority to make decisions on moving the ship forward? So um our partners here from National uh Park Service will present uh information on their positioning in the history of their engagement within shipyard number three or or point Peter Marine Terminal. Um I'll just reiterate that we acknowledge that the the funding is not on the table to uh build this facility. Um we're in exploratory stage regarding what the cost uh the cost and considerations would be. Um the study by lift will give a clear picture to the parties involved regarding those costs and uh the effort needed. Uh and one final comment before I hand it over is the um port enter this is a port enterprise fund uh project. It's not a general fund fund project. So as soon as we get the presentation up we can we'll get started.

Both of our computers are not bringing up anything computers for some reason. Does this go from here to the to the other panel? That looks like it.

Good evening, Mayor Martinez and members of the council. Thank you for the opportunity here tonight. Um, as Mr. Gerage said, I'm Elaine Jackson Rando, acting superintendent of Rosie the River, World War II Homefront National Historic Park. I'm here to provide uh some background on our partnership, how it was established, how it works, and where we go from here together with an emphasis on questions currently before the council regarding roles and responsibilities for historic shipyard number three and the SS Red Oak Victory. Um, also joining me as Mr. Gerard said is Isabelle Ziegler, our lead for culture for resource management and planning. Tonight we will address five questions that came from conversations with port staff and reflect areas where some clarity would be helpful. We'll cover how the park was established, the benefits it provides, what the general management plan directs, MPS's preference regarding the Road Oak Red Oak Victories location, and who is responsible for what. Our goal is to give you the foundation you need as you consider future decisions about the historic assets under your stewardship. Let's get started with how we got here. In 1998, Congress authorized a feasibility study that concluded Richmond's World War II resources are nationally significant and that quote, "Richman offers the best opportunity for a civilian versus a military homeront site in the Pacific Coast states and may be the most logical site nationally." The study specifically cited Richmond's critical mass of intact historic structures, most of which were quote in public ownership and accessible. And the study emphasized that the city of Richmond is very supportive of the potential designation of a National Park

Service unit and is willing to commit to a partnership with the National Park Service. Two years later, President Clinton signed public law 106-352, establishing this historical park. I want to highlight a few key provisions of the law because they define the nature of our relationship. First, the statute requires that the general management plan be jointly developed and approved by the city. This is a shared vision. Second, NPS, National Park Service, is authorized to enter into cooperative agreements for interpretation and technical assistance. That is our core role. The legislation also authorizes the acquisition of certain historic properties from willing sellers. But and thirdly, the statute prohibits National Park Service from spending appropriated funds on the operation, maintenance or preservation of the vessel SS Red Oak Victory. Finally, NPS owns no land or buildings here. This is what makes us a partnership park, a term you'll hear, though it's not in the statute itself. The feasibility study made it clear that quote, "It is not feasible for the National Park Service to acquire, manage, and or retain the massive structures nor the open spaces, parks, trails, and memorials." The entire park model rests on the premise that quote, "A partnership between the National Park Service and the city of Richmond and private developers can preserve the area to support this designation as a national historical park. Before the park was even established, Richmond had taken action. In 1997, this council authorized pursuit of national

register and California landmark status for shipyard number three. By 2000, shipyard number three was listed on the National Register as a historic district, was designated California historical landmark 132, and incorporated as a core resource of the new historic national historical park. These designations reflect Richmond's leadership in achieving historic preservation goals. Over more than 25 years, the council has passed a series of resolutions reinforcing the city's commitment to the park and to historic preservation. I won't read all of these, but I want to highlight a few. Resolutions 46A-0000 and 64-0000 directed that shipyard number three development be compatible with preservation and public access. Resolution 100-07 directed the city manager to pursue adaptive reuse of the historic buildings consistent with the GMP and cited the city's obligation to prevent demolition by neglect under municipal code 6.02. 02. And most recently, resolution 7319 approved our most recent cooperative agreement, cooperative management agreement, which is due for renewal. The city's general plan 2030 goes even further. Element 15 commits the city to full development of the national historical park and designates shipyard number three as a catalytic project. This is a remarkable record of sustained commitment. So what has that commitment produced? National parks are economic engines. Visitors spend money at local businesses, restaurants, hotels, and retail. Our most recent data shows $3.3 million in economic output in the local gateway community. That's the combined

direct and secondary effects of park visitation. By the numbers, national park status helps make Richmond a destination. It attracts investment, supports adaptive reuse projects, and creates jobs in tourism and hospitality. But this isn't just about economics. Shipyard number three is the only surviving Kaiser shipyard that retains that remains intact. The other ones here and in Oregon and Washington were either demolished, liquidated, or converted to modern industrial uses. So Richmond owns the only one where you can still see the buildings, basins, and infrastructure that tell the story of wartime ship building. It's a nationally significant embodiment of American industrial achievement and the diverse workforce that made it possible. And it along with other World War II era buildings in town is why the national park was established here. For residents, this is about identity. Knowing that our city played a pivotal role in one of the defining chapters in American history, Isabelle will now talk about the general management plan, our shared vision, and what it actually directs. In 2009, the National Park Service um the National Park Service and the city jointly adopted alternative B of the general management plan. This council concurred through resolution 25-09. Alternative B defined shipyard number three as a historic engagement area, a place where visitors can explore World War II sites and structures to experience the scale and complexity of the homeront story. The plan directs that historic structures be managed to retain their World War II era appearance. Some interiors may be rehabilitated for interpretation. Others

continue contemporary uses, balancing both preservation and economic use. The GMP specifically addresses the Red Oak Victory. Alternative B retains the ship re at its current location and highlights its role in conveying the scale and significance of wartime ship building. Importantly, the ship is not a standalone artifact. It is part of the historic ensemble. The vessel, the buildings, the basins, the whirly crane. Together, they convey the authentic setting of World War II ship building. That's what makes this site so powerful. Separated from context, the ship tells a smaller story. So, what is the National Park's position on the ship's location? NPS has an interpretive preference grounded in the GMP and the city's general management plan for the ship to remain at shipyard number three. The rationale is straightforward. The current location of the ship provides authentic context. Visitors experience a real World War II shipyard setting, not a ship in isolation. We remain interested in continued pursuant of general plan policy NP1.2, two, which calls for expanding transportation options and prioritizing access by transit, bicycling, and walking. But we want to be clear about our authority. NPS can express a preference. We cannot, however, direct physical management or relocation. That authority rests with the city and the Richmond Museum Association as owners. Which brings us to the core question that Elaine will answer. Who is responsible for what? Thanks, Isabelle. Here's the division of responsibilities. The city and port own shipyard number three assets. That means

primary stewardship responsibility rests with you, including the obligation under MU m municipal code 6.02 O2 to prevent demolition by neglect, ensuring development is compatible with historic preservation, maintaining public access, and implementing the GMP commitments made through council resolutions. MPS provides interpretation and education, technical assistance on preservation, joint planning within the cooperative agreement framework, and collaboration on GMP implementation. We als we're also a consulting party when federal undertakings affect the site and again NPS may not spend appropriated funds to operate, maintain or preserve the red victory that is statutory. We understand that you have specific questions about section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and in general we refer you to city staff with expertise and responsibility in this area including legal counsel as they will be best suited to help you navigate the city's responsibilities and management options when section 106 is involved. But for a very brief overview, I will say that section 106 applies when there's a federal undertaking, something federally funded, permitted, licensed, or needs approval. When it applies, the federal agency must identify historic properties, assess, assess effects, and consult with stakeholders, which would include the National Park Service. But section 106 does not give National Park Service regulatory authority over city-owned assets. It does not require the city to seek NPS approval for nonfederal actions. Let me close with this. For more than a quarter century, the city of Richmond and the National Park Service have been

partners in preserving this nationally significant landscape and ensuring the public can experience the World War II homeront story. That partnership has been built on shared commitments. Commitments made by pri prior councils and honored by subsequent ones. Part of the current task is to evaluate future actions in light of the plans and agreements we've developed together. We welcome additional opportunities to strengthen our partnership, including executing a new cooperative management agreement. Thank you. We're happy to answer questions.

There's just a couple additional slides that I'll cover uh as part of the presentation. U just to recap some of the questions. Um, at the at the end of the day, can the port move the ship without the Richmond Museum Association's consent? Um, yes. The answer is the port can decide to move the ship. And and to recap in the context of that question, um, there there's the port that is looking after this. There's the Richmond Museum Association, who is the owner of the ship, and we're joined by National Park Service. Uh, but that was a a question uh related to the Richmond Museum Association. Um there was another question. Uh RMA was supportive of the study but they were not supportive of moving the ship. Uh that was a question and and in discussion with RMA uh similar to the port they want to understand the cost and effort required uh permits and and the permitting pathway and um how the site would be developed before making that decision. So um I wouldn't say that RMA is is not supportive of moving this the ship. they just have not made a decision or a determination. Um what would the time frame look like to move the ship? You know, at a high level, we estimate five years. Um that's not 5 years from today. That would be 5 years after um the analysis done and the cost estimate is done and there's a decision um you know probably collectively about the move of the ship. Once those milestones are met, then it would probably be a five a five plus year project. Uh there was also a question just about the costbenefit analysis. What so one comment is the study that we would undertake would really give us the cost side um of the analysis and that's what we're looking for. Um the Red Oak Victory uh crew who is a subset of the Richmond Museum Association and the volunteers that look after the ship uh

provided this estimate. So in in a nutshell, at the current location through their revenue generating activities, they're getting about $150,000 a year. Um they're they're forecast if the ship was in the Ford Point location, they would get upwards of close to a million uh dollars a year or a million or more. And then just as a reminder, the um uh the council uh request was to approve a contract with Lyft Consultants uh in the amount of 299,797 for planning and preliminary design of the relocation of the Red Oak for a term ending June 30th, 2027. Uh I'll pause there.

Um do we have public speakers? We have 12 inerson speakers. We do not have any online speakers. Okay. So, with 12 speakers, they have one minute, but if we two minutes. Oh. Oh, two minutes. Okay. All right then. Okay. Speaker. Speakers are Robert Ball, Greg Velasquez, Mark Eper, Murphy Carr, Fred Clink, Tom Lions, Charlie Moran, Ail Maloney, Mark Wasper, Claudia Citrorum, Kim Abbott, and Alan Burns. Please line up behind the speakers podium. You'll have two minutes to address the council. Robert Ball,

press the button. Press the button. There you go. and speaking the mic.

Uh, good evening, mayor, councilman. Uh, my name is Robert Ball. I'm a resident of Shen Rafale. Um, I've been a crew member on the Red Oak Victory for 24 years. I work in the engine room doing maintenance and repair work. The argument for keeping the Red Oak where it is somewhat compelling, but irrelevant. In a few years, the Red Oak will not be in the current location. It will either be moved to a place where it has greater public access, greater revenue, and more opportunity to recruit volunteers, or it will be hauled to the scrapyard. Right now, in our current location, with our funding and personnel, we're on a trajectory to failure. Please vote for this study. Thank you,

Greg Velasquez. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and council members. My name is Greg Blascus. I'm the chief engineer on the Red Oak Victory. This is my 19th year on the ship and um just want to let you know the ship's in pretty good shape and but we're not getting the exposure that we should be getting at uh at the present dock and it's uh a financial uh situation basically. I'm sure you all know that um that we do move the ship to another location. We have exposure to the public and we want to operate our vessel in San Francisco Bay. So, I would appreciate it uh if you would vote yes on this survey so that we can at least get started because this is the very first beginning um to to move the ship. Um thanks for your time. I appreciate it.

Our next speaker is Mark Eper followed by Murphy Carr.

Good evening, Mayor Martinez, council members. I'm Mark Eperson, the director of the Red Oak Victory, and I'm here for ask asking your support to fund the feasibility study uh the lift tech by submitted by uh port uh director Charles Gerard. The MOVE and the feasibility study has some broad community supported by Congressman Garam Mandi, Mayor Martinez and Charles Gerard the port putting forward the study to see the feasibility cost of moving the Red Oak Victory for a number of good reasons. The Red Oak Victory has been already demonstrated its value as a national and international tour tourist asset, generating press coverage from outlets including the Los Angeles Times on the front page, CBS News for the America's 250th anniversary, the BBC World News, and a piece soon airing on PBS during this recent revival efforts that we did last year. This level of national and regional attention positions Richmond not only as a local destination but as a globally relevant World War II heritage site anchored by the last surviving ship built in the historic Kaiser shipyards. The ship plays a central role in attracting cultural tourism and linking multiple historic assets across the region. Continued visibility investment in the vessel directly supports long-term tourism growth. waterfront activation and heritage preservation. We need to capitalize on the massive amount of basically great press that we've had the media coverage preserving and strengthening Red Oak's victory assets and presence in Richmond

aligns with both economic development goals and a city's identity as a center of American homeront history. Thank you. Our next speaker is Murphy Carr. He'll be followed by Fred Clinkury what he said basically what I was going to say. Okay. Our next speaker our next speaker is Fred Clink. He'll be followed by Tom Lions.

Good evening, mayor, council members. I'm not here representing myself. I'm here representing 60 crew members who signed a petition over the last couple of days. And you all received a copy of that in uh a digital copy of that earlier today. And that uh petition asked you to approve the contract with Lyft uh to look at a preliminary design for relocation of the Red Oak Victory. The reason the relocation is so important to all of us who work on the ship and understand the daily operation of the ship is primarily financial. As uh port director Gerard mentioned, we're looking at about $150,000 income in our present location in shipyard number three. We feel very confident uh that we can do close to a million dollars in uh income if we were to move to the new location at Ford Point. the um uh the Ford Point location gives us much better public accessibility uh much better public visibility as far as the Rosie the Riveter Park, the ferry build uh the ferry uh passengers, the Craneway Pavilion, the Ford plant building and so on. Uh it's also an area which is served by AC Transit which our current location is not. um the new pier and the associated infrastructure that go along with that pier will be a much more inviting uh and visitor friendly location than the current shipyard number three is. Uh and so I just want to say uh thank you to all of the crew members who signed this petition. And I want to close by saying that these crew members put in last year alone, 2025

alone, 15,000 hours, all donated, no paid staff at the Red Oak Victory. 15,000 hours make the ship a uh a viable attraction. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Tom Lions, followed by Charlie Moran. Good evening, uh, mayor and city council members. My name is Tom Lions. I'm a resident small business owner and most importantly tonight, uh, a board member of the Richmond Museum Association. I'm here today to respectfully ask for your support in voting yes on the feasibility study to relocate the SS Red Oak Victory. The ship is not just a relic of the past. It is the last remaining vessel built right here in Richmond during World War II. It stands as a powerful symbol of our city's history, resilience, and collective spirit that put Richmond on the map during that defining moment in the nation's history. But more importantly, the rest the SS Red Oak Victory is not only about history, it is about community. Every year, the ship serves as a gathering place for residents, families, veterans, and visitors. It hosts educational programs for youth, offering hands-on learning experience that brings history to life in a way no textbook can. It inspires curiosity, pride, and connection, especially for young people who deserve to see themselves as part of a larger story. Location is critical to the ship's long-term success. This feasibility study will help determine the impact of relocating the Red Oak to a higher traffic area near the ferry terminal and within steps of the Rosie the Riveter World War II Homefront National Historic Park. That proximity would be a meaningful upgrade, placing the ship alongside one of Richmond's most visited desk uh destinations and increasing access, visibility, and community use. I understand the concerns that these funds could be used more directly to address immediate needs. That concern is

valid, but this investment is not an opposition to our community. It is an investment into it. This study is about ensuring that we strengthen a resource that already gives back to Richmond in meaningful ways by supporting this event, this effort. Your time is expired. Please vote yes. Our next speaker is Charlie Moran, followed by Ail Ail Maloney.

Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Charlie Moran. I'm a volunteer on the Red Oak Victory. I'm here today to urge the council to support the relocation of the SS Red Oak Victory and its current isolated position at Basin 5 to a new home directly adjacent to Rosie the Riveter's World War II homeront national historical park. The Red Victory is not just a boat. It's a monument to Richmond's legacy. Built right here at the at the Kaiser Shipyard, it is one of only three victory ships left in the world. and the only one that survived of the 747 built in Richmond. However, tucked away at the end of of Canal Boulevard, this treasure is often missed by the very people coming to celebrate the city's history. Relocating the ship to the Rosie River Museum creates a homeront campus that makes sense for four key reasons. First, economic growth. By placing the ship where the tourists already are, we are see a massive increase in foot traffic for both museums. When the museums thrive together, they profit together, ensuring the long-term stability stability of the historic landmarks. Second, preservation. As one of the last three of its kind, the ship is a fragile piece of global history. Bringing it to a high visibility, hightraic area ensures that more people values its existence, making it easier to secure the grants and donations needed for its upkeep. Third, civic pride. The red oak victory belongs next to the museum that tells the story of the men and women who built her, who completed the nar narrated of the uh home front uh way to static. Anyway, um

moving a victory ship will be a win for Richmond's history, a win for Richmond's tourism industry, and a win for the city's bottom line. Thank you. Our next speaker is Oil Maloney, followed by Mark Wasber.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Oil Maloney. I've been with the ship for 13 years. I've been in the engine room for 11. Thanks to chief engineer Greg Velasquez and Robert Ball and Charlie, I trained with them. It took me five years to get my firemen and water tender and oiler endorsements. If the vessel was a running vessel, it would have only taken me six months. So, I'm proud to tell you I'm the only woman that has a merchant mariner credential and a fireman and water tender and oiler endorsement. And so, we need to get the ship running to have the trained mariners to continue to have a succession plan to keep these vessels running. Right now, you have the Jeremiah O'Brien Liberty ship that's running. We got the ship running for the first time in 50 years up at Valleo. Uh Robert Ball and myself, we were in tears when we saw the chief engineer light off that port boiler for the first time and get it certified. This is so important for so many reasons that have already been identified. and thank you so much for your support and we appreciate if you could please come for a visit and come to our pancake breakfast and we would just be thrilled to serve you a mimosa Charlie and I thank you Mark Wasber followed by Claudia Citrorum. If it wasn't for these ships, we'd be speaking Japanese and German. It shows the power of the American might in the

military that we defeated the chaps and the Germans. Said my father sold those ships from 1941 to 1947. Went to all the major campaigns, the Philippines, and in Europe. I said, "This is American treasure." And so when I look at that liberty ship, I see the power. One of the most strongest militaries in the world. We'll defeat anybody. Now, we're defeating Iran. We're defeating terrorism and hate. And uh this city council should do everything to support this ship. This this ship should be a a place where people could see from generations to come. And uh it's a great thing with that this ship was built here in Richmond. Actually, the Fastest Liberty ship was built here in Richmond. It only took four days to build it. I think it was 4 days and about 24 hours. What they did was they took one part here, one part there, one part here, and they put it all together. Within 4 days, it was out sailing out in the Pacific or wherever it need to go. And if you want to be a real true American, you will support this ship. So, I want you guys to go over there and look at it. I want you guys to walk through it. Maybe maybe you might think of well this is a good thing to do but just remember something. That ship saved America. All right. So just think about how many service people died protecting this country and how many merchant seamans died when they was torpedoed by the Nazis. I used to watch all these war movies. I I still watch them. I mean these Nazis was just picking them off one by one. I mean, they they almost lost the fleet. So, if you're a true American, I think you support the Red Oak. Our next speaker is Claudia Citroen, followed by Kim Abbott, and our last

speaker will be Alan Burns.

So, let me start off with it's I find it extremely egregious and deceptive from the port um to say, well, let's discuss about buying a car, but let's not discuss the price tag. you know it's a 100 million to 200 million plus price overrun. Why would you do a feasibility study without actually including the price tag? You know the price tag and to assume that it will be a million dollar income. We know how pickle ball ball worked on the cranway public. So this is speculative. I agree with the mayor saying earlier any spending needs to be put in the context of the entire budget. But the entire budget means knowing that the port building is a mil 100 million to 200 million at least. Plus the second that feasibility study is a nice pitch of the park service trying to get funding so they can pay their employees and they can hire their employees. It's all about this. Um, it's simple and it's a hard truth. I'm all for the red oak victory. I'm all for supporting it. But the whole idea of you to supporting a feasibility study is to move this darn thing. But if you want to move it, there is a budget attached to it. And to exclude the price tag of this when you decide is I don't even know all the English words for it. I'll let you fill them in. Um and I yield my time. Thank you. Kim Abbott.

I'm gonna pass any better. Is that Kim Abbott? Yes.

Okay. Alan Burns. Good evening everyone. I'm Alan Burns and I'm the chief dosent on the Red Oak Victory. I've been on the ship for 12 years and I give a lot of tours to both adults and a lot of kids. Tomorrow, for example, we're getting 30 kids coming from the um John I forgot the name all of a sudden. Anyway, they're coming from a Sacramento high school. It's going to be fantastic. Uh last year they brought 60 kids. What I want to talk about though quickly is accessibility and visibility and children. You know we are located. You know where the National Park Service is located. I'd say about half of the people that come on the ship are referred to us by the National Park Service at the Rosie Center. But a lot of those people don't make it to the ship because they have to have a car and they're willing to drive for 15 minutes and go the 4 and a half miles to get to our ship. If our ship is located at Ford Point close to where the park service uh the Rosie Center is, it'd be very easy for these kids to walk four and a half minutes to get to our ship instead of being bust from our that four and a half mile uh drive. When this other stool came in last year with 60 kids, there's a lot of driving because we have to take half of the kids, take them to the Rosie Center, drive the other half to our ship. They have a tour on the ship and there are programs at the visitor center. Then the buses have to drive one group over to the other side and the other side to the other venue. So, it would be a lot better for the kids as well as better

for us if we were moved. Um, last year I think in 2025 the Rosie Center had 38,000 visitors. We had that's 100 a day. Um, we had about 30 a day. So if we were over there and we get 20 30% of the people would come. Your time is expired. We'd double our revenue. Thank you. That was our last speaker. Okay. So there are no uh light speakers.

All right. In that case, um I I would like to uh start this conversation off. Um uh because moving the red oak victory ship was an idea that came to me during the Bloomberg leadership training for our city staff. Uh and we focused on revitalizing the port. So in order to revitalize the port, we need that space. So, the Red Oak victory ship must move for us to make use of the port the way the port should be used. So, the question is, do we send it to the scrapyard or do we help find a home? I wanted to help find a home. So I came up with the idea of moving it over next to the ferry building, next to the Rosie the river river museum so that they could increase their patronage and increase the amount of money that they made. Now, I know that um right now they're they're basically uh getting the space for free. And if they moved, uh that would probably be the same same thing, but they would be making more money and able to to begin paying the rent. Um, another idea that I had, we had um, officials from South Korea come to the city of Richmond. They wanted to buy the Breto Victory Ship. They wanted to buy it so that they could fix it up for their historic museum because uh, a victory ship uh, actually helped them during the Quidian War and they wanted to salute that, to celebrate that. So my idea when they came was to share the ship. They were willing to tow the ship to South Korea, fix it up into mint condition and share it six months

versus and six months in South Korea, six months in in in Richmond. So if we did that, uh it would free up that landing for other ships to use and we could collect m we could collect rent from other other ships during those six months. Um, we also w could create two special days in the city of Richmond. Uh, when the ship came when the ship leaves, we would have a ship leaving celebration. When the ship came back, we would have another homecoming celebration. This would be uh uh extravaganzas celebrating the victory ship and what the victory ship means to the city of Richmond. Um I uh toured the victory ship. I saw what a wonderful uh ship it is and how important it is. Um and I uh uh also saw the opportunity for training youth uh on these trips to South Korea, back from South Korea. We could use that as training grounds for our new maritime populations. We need young people to invest themselves in the maritime industry and this would be a good way to do it. So those are the reasons why I support this 100%. So other speakers. Okay. Uh council member Bano.

Um thank you the presenters and thank you very much everyone talking about your experience. I'm very touched, very impressive uh the amount of work uh you have put into the ship and the passion you have for it. Um I really care a lot about the history. I had been to San Francisco to see the submarine there. I never knew about Red Dog Victory until I became a city council member and then I was invited and my husband and I have been there for pancake breakfast a couple of times and been there. Just wanted to let you know a friend of mine went to Europe and sent a picture uh of them in a very expensive hotel that used to be um it's a historic building used to be a prison and I'm thinking if we move the ship it can be a nice hotel you know at least some rooms of it and people would be interested. It's a nice location and I urge some of you to please stay and listen to the next item. It could also be a community resiliency center. The current one that we have cost $30 million and it's still more money, but it's there.

Excuse me. I want to interrupt you just just for a tidbit. Uh when I was there, I I learned that the Red Oak Victory Ship has a radio that is uh usable. So, so in an emergency, that would be a perfect place for a resiliency center. I just wanted to

Awesome. Thank you for information. So um yeah, I think it's uh it's an interesting idea. Actually, before I was hesitant and I was thinking, you know, why we could spend the money on other things. Uh but um I don't have any question. I'm just excited about it. And uh yeah, especially thinking it also could be a community resiliency center. All that money that um instead of going to building one, a portion of it could be into maybe fixing it. Thank you everyone. Council member Jimenez.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for um residents comment and advocate for that. I just have a couple of questions. Um we are going to pay for this um report and the report one of the thing is the goal is to move the chip right and I agree that it will be better if we put it in a location that more people can access to how much money will cost to move it because last time what I heard it was that to build the deck will cost over $20 million. Is that correct?

Yeah. So, in the last presentation uh in early February, we talked about the cost. Uh the estimated cost in the presented in the staff report was 16 to 20 million. So, um we recognize it's a it's a major undertaking. Um there would have to be a a a fundraising effort uh and some allocation of uh who who is going to fund that move. Um, we are not stating that the port will fund that move. We're not stating that the city would fund that move. Uh but we've had the discussion with Mayor Martinez uh our congressman Gar Mendy uh the Red Oak Victory Ship and and in order to advance the discussion about how to raise those funds uh or how to generate those funds um the intention of this initial study was to just give us a more accurate uh figure and essentially sort of a road map of of how to progress. Um and then the the funding part, yes, that would have to to be determined uh before there was any final decision to move the ship.

Yeah, I I wanted to say, yeah, we we might have this study, but I think I I I want to come back with a commitment. I think if um Representative Gary Mendy is advocating for that. I see one of his staff here advocating for that. I think like he should be advocating for getting us the $20 million of the total cost because uh I feel like the city uh is it will be in a difficult situation. I don't think like we can commit uh to move that and to put all that money and particularly I we were discussing the craneway pavilion to bring it back and many people were talking about uh why we wanted to get it back uh when it was costing us so much money and now we want to to move these without thinking about the cost of that. So I I just want to make sure that this council is aware of the cost of moving this that and that uh the commitment is for uh I hope Gary Mendy's office to bring significant resources for that to be able to happen a be a reality because if they are counting that we are going to put all that money I don't know if this council will vote for it since we already like they already voted not to bring the crane weight back to the city uh because it was too costly was so I just want to make sure that um what we are committing uh is realistic and that uh it happened because at the end of the day what we want is that the the cheap move

and the investment that it needs to happen is is there but I think is also be clear that we cannot undertake all that responsibility.

No, I I I understand and and and two quick comments. So, uh Congressman G Mendy is very supportive of the port overall and in general. Um uh as you may know, he recently was releasing or or seeking applications for community project funding. Um that funding could be used for infrastructure and other projects. uh it could not be used in support of nonprofit groups. Uh but the port submitted an application to use that funding for uh some warf repair at birth five and six uh adjacent to the Red Oak building. Uh our application has advanced within Congressman Garand's office. So it hasn't been finalized, but um uh the congressman and his staff are very supportive of the project we submitted uh and helping to fund that. Is that project uh is is this project like are we going to build with that project the the

No, no, no, no. The the the the the project funding available today uh would be used for infrastructure. We would use it for the war for mediation at birth five. Uh the reason I mention this is just to highlight uh Congressman Gar Mendy's support of the port uh and his interest in in helping No, I I agree and I think it's great. Uh but one thing is upgrading the port infrastructure that we need and how these competing resources are going to be between the port and other things like building a new uh infrastructure to for for the ship.

Right. Understood. And then my the second comment I would make is with um um with a better understanding of the cost and the time frame and the parameters. Um again, I'm not I'm not stating who who would pay for it, but you know, we would work collaboratively with our friends at the Richmond Museum Association. Uh we would probably lean on them to be the uh the party leading the initiative to to to determine the funding.

Yeah. because I think like what we are approving here is an study and we had been uh funding a lot of studies and then nothing happened. So what I am pushing for is just to have a clear and real plan that comes to us with the money and who is going to pay and what I am I I am talking is that potentially we can now afford to pay for all of these if we have other priorities. we have 200 something million dollar that we had to spend to make the poor uh 21st cent century pork. So I think that is is what I am like I don't want that the community feels that because we approved this tonight to move it then it's a done deal that is going to be moved and is it's a it's going to be a lot of work and I expecting if John Congressman Gary Mendy is advocating and pushing us for doing that that then he recognize that he has to be part of funding this so we can actually make it happen. Thank you.

I understand.

Yeah. Um in my conversations, um the uh Richmond Museum Association is not under the impression that this means that the city will build a new um space for them. They they know that this is just a study and is to help us understand uh what it takes to to uh move them to another place. Um, and I I think the other thing that that we seem to not keep in mind is that uh the Red Oak Victory Ship needs to move. So, it's going to move. We It needs to move for us to uh revitalize the port and I consider this as part of the re revitalization of the port. Okay. So, uh Council Member Wilson.

Yes. Thanks. Can you put the slide back up with the revenue projections? Is that Do I have to yell at KCRT? There we go. Okay. So, the estimate you have here for visitors is 20 to 30,000 for the first three years at $20 a visitor with uh so that would be a revenue of $400,000 to $600,000 per year. Is that what the estimate is from visitors? That's correct. Okay. What is that based on that? What what how did you calculate that?

Yeah, the the this analysis as I mentioned came from the um the folks at the Red Oak Victory. So, can maybe we speak to Mark. Yeah. I just would like to show your work if you can show your work of how

I I do need the slide though. KCRT, can you put that uh the those stats came from the visitorship? We can't we we can't get a real number from Rosie the River, but it came from anywhere from 70 to 100,000. Is that about right on since uh

since the uh pandemic? I mean before the pandemic and slowing the visitors because we took I took I took uh 20,000 visitors. I mean uh if now the Rosie the Riverer is free. All right. Half of those people that we get from them come over to the Red Oak Victory. And so interpolating we're going to get probably 20,000 for that the first year if if 50 60 or even less 48 50,000 people go we're probably going to get half of those visitors. So that's 400,000 the ships uh stores.

Wait, I'm going to before you move on to the stories but I'm going to challenge something about your assumption. And I think what you said is true is the Rosie the Riveter Museum, a person can go there for free. That's right. And I think it's I I I would not assume that such a large percentage of the people who visit a free museum would then spend $20 to visit the the associated ship. And I guess I

well they come over to the Red Oak Victory and pay the money to get in. And so we're so this this is actually I think this is kind of in the ballpark. We're going to be making 400 to uh 600 maybe a million because store sales are usually 25% of uh a museums. So you put those together then we have events and then we have fundraising. As Charles said, it's going to take five years and that fundraising is going to start as soon as we we get some approval that we're going to move forward.

Okay. So, thank you. Thank you for answering the questions and I guess maybe this is a question for the port director. Is this normally the way to like I I appreciate that that he's making the best estimates he can and I appreciate you being trans. I have a little I have a little background on this. I was a CEO of the USS Hornet. All right. We get annually 40,045 because of our location. If we were over in San Francisco, the Hornets revenue is about 3 and a.5 to 4 million a year. If we were in San Francisco, it'd be over 50 million. Location makes a difference. Okay. Do you do does the port sign off on these number? Like do you agree with the analysis here?

Uh yeah. No, I don't have the um uh all the the detailed analysis. We didn't undertake the study. We ask for that input from the red oak victory. Okay. And and and at the last council meeting when we moved this forward, I advocated a demographic study just to come and see exactly what the ballpark figure would be. Okay. Okay. So, thank you. So, I I agree with and and actually my questions for you are done. So, you can return to my questions for you are done. So, you can Okay.

Go back to your seat. Thank you. So, I shared the concern with some of with one of the public commenters today that I don't see a p Oh, let me back up. Last time that this came to council, I remember saying that I though I think the ship is really cool and I actually am very touched by the passion and the dedication that the volunteers, you know, many of whom have been doing this for for decades clearly have. Before I'm ready to say, "Let's spend $300,000 on a study for moving it," I wanted to be told at least a possible funding path that would allow the port to pay for the creation of the new warf, which as you said would be between 16 and 16 million and 20 million. And although I I I I guess I I don't have enough information to know whether it is realistic that the moving the ship will result in $1 million a year in revenue. Um if I remember correctly, the largest amount that Congressman Gami Mendy mentioned and it wasn't a commitment. It was just a number that was floated in conversation was about it was less than 5 million. Is that correct?

That's correct. And so that leaving, you know, what I'm seeing is a $15 million gap uh in the construction of the warf and then the ongoing costs of maintaining and operating that ship. You know, maybe that would be covered maybe that would be covered by the what what was cover come coming in. And I hear what you're saying that you want us to sign off on the study so that we can go out and find out if someone will fund this. But I feel like what I was hoping to have in this presentation was a list of here are some organizations or individuals or you know federal funds that go towards this sort of project. And in the absence of that, I don't have a lot of confidence that I I think we're going to end up spending $300,000 for to reach a conclusion that I'm sort of reaching tonight is that we people love this ship, but nobody's coming forward to pay for it. And I don't think it's the Port of Richmond that should close that gap on paying. So, I know it's not a popular decision in this room, but I'm not comfortable putting forth the $300,000 for the study tonight. Sure. I I understand. I I think the um uh and I understand your request and we did discuss that in February. I I think before someone puts their name on um potential funding, they need um the the group collectively has to do some homework and some framework about what they would be investing in, how much it would cost, uh what the path forward or what that journey would look like. So that that that's the way I look at it. But I I do understand your your question and comment. Council member Sepeda.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, thank you for a presentation. I I have been to the ship many, many, many years, even prior to being elected. Uh, I love going in and getting in line and having my little ticket to get the breakfast and then listening to the music and then just getting lost in the ship because there's so many different great places to go and explore. And then you see all the pictures and the history. And as I was waiting my turn, I went to go look up a little bit more of the ship's history and on on the on the website. And I have a question here in a minute, but I just want to share this here. and and the it was the ship was decommissioned in the 19 in 1946 and then it was brought back on uh in 1947 uh carrying emergency grain ship into Pakistan and India and then it was brought back uh again in the 1950s for the Korean conflict and that's just telling me this ship has always been there for our various communities ready to go ready to help and I think the least that we can do is try to pay that back to this ship who was there in our community and for all of our communities year after year and it was there whenever we called upon it. Um for the port director in the presentation it lists adequate parking. I want to make sure that I understand parking because in that area we have parking in different locations. We have what we call the WEDA parking right for the for the ferry. Then we got other parking. Can you explain when we're discussing adequate parking where is that located?

Um yes. So uh the the first thing I'll say is the predominance of uh of visitors are probably on the weekend and there's plenty of uh parking in that area on the weekend. We certainly have received the question and comment about parking in the area and and again this is a this is of the projects we're working on. Um this is a longer term uh journey project. So we have to evaluate the Monday to Friday parking uh both for the uh the ship's crew that volunteers and comes during the weekdays and the visitors that come on the on the weekday. Um yeah so I don't have an immediate answer for that but we know it's one of the elements that needs to be studied uh under this under this program.

Thank you. I think that to be very very important as we are all trying to we just had the conversation about the craneway trying to also figure out parking for that. So everyone's trying to use and there's only so much space. So that's going to be a big component of this here as well. But I know that we've got lots of time. The first step is to study or not to study. Um the my next question here um the lease can you remind me how long is the lease at birth five left for how many more years do we have on it?

Uh where where they are now is in basin um five. Uh it's a there's there are three 5-year um renewals on that lease. Um so the next renewal is in 2028. Um they can re they can renew for 5 years. So that would take them to 2033. Uh, and that's the term end of the current lease, 2033. Perfect. Thank you. And then after that, we they I been mentioned, but they may not have a home anymore if we decide to not lease it anymore. But we Yeah, we would have to cross that bridge um in in in the coming years. Yes.

Thank you. And then um can you about how much money is the congressman's office uh providing for the community funding? Uh I requested 5 million. Uh I understand I will not get that much. Um so we'll have to see. I think he has um uh 13 million but other constituents and organizations that are competing for that funding. Now you also understand is somewhat tied to whoever sits at the presidency. So if that was changed, we potentially get a couple more books.

Um yeah, potentially. Uh the environment would be different. I'll say that the um the community project funding is coming from the same bucket of funds that we're receiving the the PDIP the port infra infrastructure development. Some of the funds and the 480 million allocated under MARAD and Department of Transportation uh is is allocated across all congressional members. So they have some discretionary spending on where they uh where they spend that money. And my understanding uh is I think the congressman has about 13 million.

Perfect. Thank you for that. And I I was also questioning sort of the numbers that was in the presentation telling us how much they potentially could make. So I went and I looked into the other ships. And this is a really good business. The other ship is making $1.28 million. And the majority of it is just in people coming in. And it is about location, location, because who wants to drive all the way around to the other side, right? I know it's district two, but it's on the all the way on the other side. What ship is that? This is the uh Liberty ship. The I'm sorry, the S is Well, it's Liberty Ship. The S is Jeremiah. Okay.

Uh according to their uh annual reports in 2024, they made $1.28 million. Um the uh the victory ship ours made according to this pres this here uh a little bit over half a million dollars. Um the US Hornet made 2.5. Granted the US Hornet is in San Francisco so they see a lot more people but I think or actually it's not Amita. Thank you. Thank you. The other one's in San Francisco. Thank you. So, I think giving it the opportunity to be seen by more people, I could see how those numbers could increase because you're going to see a lot more eyes, a lot more accessibility. Uh, and then there's more routes. Uh, AC Transit mentioned earlier that they might be cutting some routes. So, I doubt we're going to have a new route going to that other side. Um, but I think that I'm I'm I've been in support of this and I and I will continue being in support of it, especially hearing the volunteers when every time I go onto the ship and I had the opportunity to get a tour and again I mentioned this last time as well that the ship cannot be turned on because of the s that it could be releasing and damaging the new cars. And from what I understand from the volunteers, nobody's really volunteering to fix a ship that can never be turned on. So, we want to move it to a place that it can be turned on and then it could go onto the water and we can rent it out or do other stuff. That's where the um some of the other ships make a lot of their money. the Jeremiah uh during fleet week, it makes $150,000 just that weekend alone because of the tours and people coming into it. So, I think there's the opportunity there. Thank you,

Council Member Brown. Yes, thank you for the presentation and thank you for answering those questions because those were the questions that I had from last time of um not having the consensus from the board um not being totally committed, you know, just saying that they're in support. And so I was like, well, why should we spend this amount of money on a study if you're not in support? Um, but it seems like you've all um created a more comprehensive uh outline here in tonight's presentation as well as more supporters and just a broader understanding of the significance of this report. It's not just like a typical report, but it's a report that's going to lead to um potentially garnering more funding. And I just think from just hearing everything that happened today um this evening and as well as everything that council member Zapeda mentioned that this is historical. So it goes beyond just being an ordinary ship. Um it has so much significance and so I don't doubt for a second that you all will be able to obtain the funding uh to support your efforts and I think there's a lot of time too on the clock in order to do so. Um, and so what I have to ask about the funding, so I know you mentioned that it's port funding, so it's not like it's a hit to the general fund. Is this something that will negatively impact the port funding in a in any type of way?

Uh, no. No, it will not. And and and a few months ago, we also presented the port um enterprise uh fund financial plan. And um I think you you understood from that plan that uh the the the the port's in healthy financial um uh condition. Uh I I think it's uh well-managed and there's a little bit more of a spotlight on it now than there has been in in years past. Uh which is good. And I and I often mention um the number of projects that we're working on. You know, some are near-term, medium-term, and long-term. Uh th this project we're discussing tonight's a near-term project, but really it's uh you know potentially play parlays into a longer term project um that's in alignment with the with the mayor's comment about transforming the port and utilizing the port uh down the road for other purposes and more uh productive and revenue generating purposes.

Right. Thank you so much. And also it's just to, you know, it's very disheartening to hear the mayor say that if we don't move this ship, then it's it's going to go somewhere. And so for it to be uh coupled with other in a historical way where you know it could be further utilized and more exposure and of course I believe that the uh numbers will definitely increase if you don't have to take that long drive because it is discouraging once you finally leave Rosie the river. It's like, oh, okay. So, I'm definitely in support um of supporting moving this study forward so you all can get to work and um on what really matters.

Thank you. I I would just add one related comment and and one of the speakers alluded to the fact that with the more visibility, it's not just more visitors, but more participants and volunteers um will see and and and can get an interest in the ship. Yeah, absolutely. nothing's guaranteed, but just I mean the level of commitment of the volunteers and staff folks here today that's committed 15 20 years into um into the ship is is commendable within itself. So thank you. Uh Council Member Wilson can go. Yes. Okay.

Quick question. Um I just want to make sure that I'm understanding correctly that the the money that would be used to do the study is port funds is not general funds. Correct. It's will be coming from the port enterprise fund.

So it wouldn't be available to use for any of the myat of things that we need in the city. No, no. The the port enterprise fund um remains distinct from the general fund and the port enterprise fund is uh um funded by our activities um at the port or leasing and uh terminal operating agreements. Uh and it can only be used for port related uh projects. And I guess as a corporate director, you're bringing this forward and you personally think that from your vantage point that is something that's good for the port to investigate. Is that correct? Yes, I do. Okay. Thank you.

Council member Jimenez,

yeah, I have a couple of question. I I think I am in support of studying it, but I want to make sure that when you bring back this, you have a clear path how this is going to be funded and a clear path that like is is also not competing with resources. I don't I think like you say that it's not competing but if you are going to ask for grants or for money to reinforce or do something and the poor will that be competing with like if you need the money for building the space to get the relocation and then we need money for the poor to reinforce the poor to do other things. Will that be a competition in resources?

Um I'm not 100% clear on the question, but let me let me comment um

uh on the first I on one item that came to mind as you were speaking. This project to study is sort of separate and distinct from actually having uh a funding plan. So this study we're going to undertake isn't going to define or make a commitment around the funding plan. It's going to give us a again a roadmap, a preliminary design, a cost estimate of moving the ship and creating the infrastructure to hold the ship. The the the uh the initiative by the interested parties to pursue funding to make that move is separate and distinct from this from this project. So I want to be clear that this this project is not going to outline uh who is funding uh and how much they're committing to the fund.

Okay. So it's an study and then we it will eventually had the money or not. So right. So it's a council member Wilson. Well, I can tell from public comment I'm in the minority here, but I just want to make sure that the record corre is correctly reflecting a couple of things. Um council member Zapeda listed some very large numbers that other ships and other cities make but as revenue. But I want to just sort of say what we've what's been reported to us is the number 1.2 2 million in this presentation

and and not those large numbers and even those numbers are questionable. I also want to clarify that um uh Congressman Garmendy has lots of money that he allocates but he has not made a commitment to allocate any money to this project. Correct. Thank you. All right. Can I make a motion to pass the item? Yes, you may.

I'll second. Okay. So, the motion is to approve a contract with Lifetch Consultants Incorporated in the amount of 299,797 for planning and preliminary design of the relocation of the Red Oak for a term ending June 30th, 2027. And may I can I do quick question on the date for clarification? Point of order. I know that this was continued uh since February. Is June 30th, 2027 still a good end date or do we need to push that? Are they going to Are they making up the time?

No. No. Yes, we it's uh we we chose the end of the financial year um in the previous part of this process to give us some cushion and we still have cushion to complete this project. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Brown. Yes. Council member Bana. Yes. Council member Jimenez. Yes. Council member Wilson, no. Vice Mayor Robinson, yes. Council member Zapeda, yes. And Mayor Martinez, yes. The motion passes with Council Member Wilson voting no.

Thank you. Our next item is item Q6 to receive a presentation from leading experts, the UC Berkeley Seismology Lab, Berkeley Center for Smart Infrastructure, Community Emergency Response Team, CERT C, Emergency Community, and West Contraosta Fire Safety Council. How many speakers? We have one inerson speaker. There's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council on this item, please raise your hand at this time.

Do they speak now or after the item? After the I thought they would speak after the presentations.

Thank you everyone. May I ask the presenters to be here and may I ask KCRT to please u make sure those who are presenting on Zoom have access to mic and start the slides please. Thank you. Um um so I would like to start by um saying that the Rocky, David, and um Diane, you may want to take your seats. Um yes, other presenters will be on Zoom. Um a couple of weeks ago, um two council members and myself along with the fire marshall, his deputy um our library director, someone from the public works uh had a visit um to uh Harbor Hall Community Resiliency Center that has been established by Pogo Park. Uh community resiliency center is where after an earthquake the community may go to receive um food, shelter, uh access to power and everything. So um the I would like to continue that discussion after the presentation uh to see why it's so important. It's not just a phobia that some people have from a possible earthquake. It's absolute science. I've been in touch with some UC Berkeley researchers and scientists for months preparing for this presentation. So, may I ask um Suresh Shaman and Sierra Boy to please start your presentation? KCRT, could you please start the slides? Thank you.

Yeah, thank you everyone. Thanks for having me.

My name is Suresh. I'm with the Berkeley Seismology Lab along with with Sarah, my colleague. Um and yes, California is all that it is cracked up to be. We're going to talk uh about the earthquake hazard in the on the Hayward fault in particular. The next slide, please. So, we have uh myself and Sierra. Sierra is a seismologist with the lab. She's been there for a long time, so she can answer really tough questions about uh seismology. I am a um engineering uh lead for the My Shake earthquake early warning application. Next slide, please. These are some quick facts. Um, you will most most likely know this. These are the major earthquakes that people are aware of in in California. The the biggest one is 1906 7.9. Luma Priya is the famous one. Uh, but the most expensive one was 6.7 the smaller one of those. Uh, but it was the most expensive earthquake in the US. And uh there have been seven such similar earthquakes similar to the Northridge earthquake or or bigger than that in the last 30 years. So you can imagine an earthquake like that happens maybe every four years somewhere in California. Next slide please. So this is uh the next set of slides simply going to introduce some terminology. When we talk about earthquakes, there are two major uh things uh we say when we talk about earthquakes, the shaking intensity, this is what people feel and this is what will cause the damage to buildings. And then there is the magnitude which is a measure of the absolute power of the earthquake. So next slide please. the uh the shaking intensity scale right also called the modified marcali

intensity or the MMI scale for short again describes the the shaking or the damage so this is a scale from 1 to 10 it's described here I will bring your attention to basically the larger numbers 8 9 and 10 right so starting from 8 you have considerable damage to buildings 9 is worse and 10 is of course complete destruction So the I will point out the the scenario under which we can expect to see MMI 8 or above for Richmond. I will do that later. So next slide please. The other measure of the earthquake is the absolute power of the earthquake. This is this is the energy released by an earthquake. So this is like a a bomb that goes off the amount of energy that's released. So that is um that is the uh what we call as the moment magnitude scale. We we're used to calling that as a recctor scale but it's technically not true anymore. It's a different scale. And uh go ahead and advance the slide to maybe reveal only the final part to this. Maybe I can go back one please. Can you go back one? Okay. Okay. Got it got it got okay never mind. Go back to the slide. Thank you. Okay. just stay here. Um I'm sorry the it's it's it's kind of the animation got a little bit uh jumbled here. So but but just to make it short the the the magnitude represents the energy release of the earthquake and that is a physical property which is you know you can think of it basically if I if the fault is like this where two plates are trying to move um when you when you're trying to move them apart you'll feel a little deformation happening in your in your in your palm and that is the rigidity measure that is that is mentioned in the equation and then when it finally does slip a little

bit the area of contact which is the area of the palm that's a second measure and the amount by which it slipped that is a third measure. So putting those together you get the magnitude of the earthquake. The rest of the numbers here are basically to make it align with the original RTOR scale which everybody is aware of. So that's basically a FYI about how the earthquake magnitudes measure. Next slide please. Now go ahead and reveal reveal everything. Uh I got I got to try to make up the time. Oh, did you can can you go back? Did it reveal the whole slide? Okay. Uh it's supposed to reveal the other part as well. Uh so so then never mind this. We we'll move on. Okay. Next slide please. the uh so I talked about the MMI the shaking intensity and then I talked about the magnitude now ignore all this equation stuff here just look at the table that's presented for an earthquake of magnitude 7 or higher we can expect an MMI shaking of 8 or higher okay so that's that's kind of the main message from this slide so we can relate the the earthquake magnitude to the maximum shaking intensity we can ect and and let's move on. Next slide please. Now we talk about the Hayward fault. So the Hayward fault this is outlining the major history of the fault. The last notable earthquake was a 5.8 which was probably a late aftershock of the previous magnitude 7 earthquake that happened in 1868. Was a pretty long time ago. Um it uh according to the you know the the data that we have we have we have information

about the last six major earthquakes on this fault they happened you know at a pretty broad span of interval between 95 and 183 years an average of 150 years. Now we're currently at 157 years. So are we are we due? Yeah it certainly appears so. Next slide please. This is a a committee that um that's you know came together to create various scientific fall structure models for all falls throughout California. I'll I'll just cut to the chase here. So next slide please. One more. So yeah, so all the scientific minds that that you know took into took into facts the existing faults, the slip rates and so on predicted a probability of 32% for a rupture at the Hayward Rogers Creek fault together. So either of if either of those falls rupture um we could have big shaking in u in Richmond and the prediction for that the probability is 32% for a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake before the year 2044. So this is hard science. Okay. So remember that remember that number. Let's move on. So we talked about so the the previous slide was showing you the probability of a big earthquake that could affect Richmond and then there's another committee that came together and did a composite of probabilities of any earthquake that could occur that could affect Richmond and uh next slide please. according to their assessment which focused primarily on shaking. Right? So they they you could go to the website I listed earlier in the in the

the earlier slide and and do this yourself. Uh the the the shaking hazard for Richmond is is is what you see on on screen over here. It's it's uh eight or nine MMI 8 or MMI 9. So considerable ra damage or substantial damage. So this is their prediction for what Richmond could experience as a shaking hazard in the next within within a within a long time frame but you never know when it's going to happen. So that is the problem with earthquake prediction. U next slide please. Richmond also had liquefaction susceptibility. Liqufaction is when the soil cannot hold the weight of any building. So the building would essentially sink into the soil like quicksand. So the liquefaction suscept susceptibility for parts of Richmond it is very high as well. So next slide please. I come to the end now. I think there are other presentations. So we could I don't know you know if we're going to do them all if if we're going to cut for questions now. So

thank you very much. Uh let's move on and then have all the questions at the end if you may. I would like to invite uh professor Kenichi Soa of Berkeley Center for Smart Infrastructure to please join us. So thank you very much. I'm Kenichi Soa. I'm a professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Berkeley. And first of all, thank you very much for having me at this council meeting. Uh, is there a slide that you can show? Shall I show my slide? Oh, there you go.

Oh, excellent. Thank you very much. Um, uh, I'm the director of Berkeley Center for Smart Infrastructure, which you see in the middle as a logo. And the reason why I'm very excited to present here is that actually our center is situated in Richmond field station which is in the city of Richmond. So so uh we do large scale experiments and then test variety of things under large deformation during earthquake or after earthquake and we really want you to come over and see our lab and see the experiments that we do. Our center is really a partnership between infrastructure owners, academia, industry, regulators, and local governments to address our most pressing challenges such as aging infrastructure, climate change, water supply, natural resources, and emergency and community preparedness. We work closely with East Bay Mud where your water comes from, PG&E, uh, uh, US Army Corp of Engineers, Calrans, uh, and, um, other agencies. We would like to work with Port of Richmond. So, so that would be great to work with. But what I really want to say is what we also do not only physical testing of our infrastructure, but we also do many simulations. and Suresh kindly sort of introduced what the Hayward earthquake will Hayward fault earthquake will happen. What you see on the left is a road network of the Bay Area. There are 7 million 7.5 million people living in the Bay Area. Every there there's a 15 million trips. We can model every 50 million trip, move the cars around every day and see if the Richmond uh bridge uh sort of become not functional after an earthquake, what's going to happen to the traffic and how can we recover and what are the things

that we have? We work with counts. What other bridges are important? Ensure that uh community has access to hospitals or uh fire station or police station immediately after an earthquake. What you see on the right is a water network. It's a East Bay Mud water network. Uh city of Richmond is um uh getting water from East Bay Mud. We simulate uh pipeline damage. when an earthquake uh uh happens on the Hayward fault, what's going to happen to the pipeline systems and then we do a simulation of how many people will not get water and then what are we going to do? And these are things that we look at immediately after an earthquake, what may happen and make sure that we have a mitigation or reinforcement of our infrastructure to cope with such a large earthquake that may potentially happen. As Shesh mentioned earlier, the issue is that many organization will look at their own systems but local government like Richmond really need to look at what is system of systems, how the systems come together and then how we recover together. So if you go to the next slide, this is not rich Richmond but this is Alama Island case. What we do is that we look at if an Hayward earthquake uh happens what will going to happen to the building. So you can see on the right top the shaking of the building. The bottom shows ground shaking and what kind of soul liquefaction will have in terms of ground movement and what kind of damage that buildings in Alama Island will have at the same time road will be get blocked or road will be damaged and then water network will be damaged as well. So the question is how do we recover to what we call functional recovery? How long it will take? What are the supply and demand in terms of

goods or people to make the um Alama Island back to what we call functional before the earthquake happens. So if you go to the next slide, what we do is we simulate for example what you see on the top is some sort of damage state of each building. From the census, we know what kind of building we have on Alama Island. If there are certain shaking, what are the damage of each building? On the left bottom, we can see how much pipelines going to break and or leak. And then on the right bottom, we see what kind of transportation infrastructure like bridges and tunnels and roads will get blocked due to the damage. And then we look at supply and demand of how goods and then um labor and for workforce will come back to recover the Alama island. It may take 30 days, it may take 150 days and if you see the next slide if you can see what are the issues that may come up. So if you look at the top on the recovery stage you see a waiting rapid infection financing contractor mobilization site preparation all the things that we need to do to bring it back to the green which is a functional. You can see that after 150 days perhaps the pipeline and then the uh bridges and tunnel may be recovering as you can see but we can see the simulation but the point here is by looking at different systems together we can see what are the bottlenecks when we want to have a functional recovery and these are things that we do uh at center for smart infrastructure. Thank you for listening. Thank you very much, Professor SOA. Um, KCRT, could you please advance? May I ask our CERT and emergency communication experts here, Diane

Richmond and David Swanson, continue the presentation, please?

Okay. Thank you. Uh, I'm David Swanson and this is my wife Diane and this is Rocky Sanders from um, Brickyard Cove. We're u long-term residents of Richmond and been working at disaster preparedness for more than 20 years uh since the beginning of this cert uh cert development. Uh I just want to instill some sense of urgency among the members here and of all the people enrichment of what's coming. You got a general idea from the seismologists. Those are the people that know what's coming. They've measured everything and they've timed everything and they have a really good idea of what's going to happen and it's going to be very serious. People can't get enough effort behind them to do this because they underestimate what's going to happen. It's a huge devastating once in a-lifetime event that's going to be critical for the city of Richmond and other cities. But we're going to focus on Richmond because we have unique problems here. the amount of devastation we're uh going to face, especially financial ruination of the city, how we're going to recover, how long it will take, how long much money it will take. The more we're prepared now, the more work we do now, the less it will cost for recovery and the sooner the recovery will happen and hopefully the fewer injuries will happen. As you can see,

next slide.

As you can see on this slide here, this is an earthquake that happened here and it did happen when it happened was 1989. And when our earthquake will happen on the earthquake hybrid fault, we can all say very soon. That's all we can say. And we will all know when it happens. It'll be a shocking thing. All these lights are going to go out. We're going to be devastated for weeks. But the initial process, next slide, is uh the recovery process after all this damage. How long it will take to to save lives, how how we're going to train people. And uh the more we train now, the less it'll cost in the recovery and that more's lives will be saved. Next slide. As you can see by another earthquake that happened in 196, all these people are standing around watching their city being destroyed. We don't want to be in that situation. We want our uh city to recover as fast as possible. So we need to organize now and plan now and put some money into the effort ahead of time. There's always been a lot of work done already, but these people as you see standing around in this city are watching their city being destroyed because they don't have any training. They don't have any communication skills and they don't know what to do. So, they just lost their city. Next slide. We train in the city of Richmond for emergency communications. That's one of the first thing that falls apart and will fall apart right after the earthquake. The cell phone won't work. Your internet's not going to work. You got to talk to somebody. You've got to have instruction on how to use handheld radios and we train uh exclusively for communication for two-way communications. Next slide. We also the search classes are really uh if anyone can take certain their neighborhood I suggest it. Uh it's a process that's really worthwhile and these people standing behind me sitting behind me have made a volunteer effort pay all the work that they do for themselves. It's all volunteer and they made the effort to be trained. You get

training in search and rescue, medical, search u uh communications and uh shelter and special needs. All these things you need to help to recover the earthquake immediately after the disaster because you'll be alone after the disaster. The help won't be coming from the city services, fire, police. It'll be days before you see people come to help you because it's going to be so widespread. Like they say, from Santa Rosa to San Jose, everybody's in the same boat here at the same moment. So, we're going to have to retain. We're planning on surviving on our own in our own neighborhoods. That's what CERT is about to teach people to survive on their own in their own neighborhoods and get teams formed together. Next slide. The This is an example of a location called an incident command post in neighborhoods. All neighborhoods should have a meeting place to go to right after the earthquake. You should all decide this on your own in your own personal neighborhoods where that's going to be so that you can group up and function in your neighborhood to take care of each other and take care of anyone that's injured, help put out fires and uh do the search and rescue yourselves. There's needs to be more training for this. This is an example of an instant command post on the left with an ham radio operator operator in it that can communicate with the emergency operations center in downtown Richmond. There's a map on the right of the uh some of the established instant command posts throughout the city of Richmond we have now. We're wfully behind in this. We need 10 times as more neighborhoods to be set up and ready to go. Next slide. This is an example of the flowchart for the uh communications flowchart from the neighborhoods. You see these teams on the bottom will be the teams going out from the incident command post which is your neighborhood area location that you've decided ahead of time to operate from. And those teams, the search and rescue, the medical teams will call back on what are called F FRS radios with the information to get into the instant command post. If the instant command post decides that the there's a fire, we can't put it out in the neighborhood.

We're going to have to call for help from the city, we'll use the ham radios to call to the emergency operations center in downtown Richmond. And thanks to the help of a lot of people in Richmond, including our great mayor, Martinez, who volunted get the antenna installed on the city hall, we have now operating radio at the EOC and we have an antenna on top of the city hall building so we can communicate directly with all the neighborhoods throughout Richmond that have ham radios in their instant command post. And that's where all the information, the uh damage reports, all the status reports can come into this fire department immediately after the earthquake as soon as people can staff their neighborhoods. And that way the fire department will know where the biggest disaster is, where the worst problems are within a short period of time because the city is quite right widespread and the fire department is woefully understaffed and uh compared to a huge event like this, they'll be very they'll be going to the worst areas first. Most of the neighborhoods will not see firemen for days. So the sooner we get a hold of the firemen, let them know what the situation is in our neighborhoods, the better. Next slide. This is sort of the flow of command for communications that we they've established throughout the state. It starts at the instant command post level. On your left, this is the field teams reporting to their instant command post all the problems and taking care of themselves in their neighborhoods. This is the key to survival for Richmond, the instant command posts and the neighborhood organizations. So everyone in their neighborhood should be responsible for themselves in that in this aspect. The next level is up to the city hall where will what's actually the in uh emergency operations center is the basement of city hall and that's where the communication goes back and forth by ham radio to them. Further on the city will take care of transport trying to get communications to the county and a county if they can't handle the situation. If they need more help they'll call out to our outside region and further on to the state for help. Next slide.

Uh this is the most important thing to help uh reduce the cost and de devastating uh loss to the city after the earthquake. If we prepare now and we can recover quickly, the losses will be much reduced. So we what we need from the city uh with the help of Sir Labana is to uh uh get a budget going to help with supplies for this neighborhood instant command post caches of equipment and such as tents uh you know cs medical supplies radio equipment also um more more training needs to be done uh the cert training is a great opportunity but it's not uh going to cover everyone anyone can be a responder in In fact, you all will be first responders right after the earthquake because right after the earthquake, you'll be going out of your house and everybody will come out in the street and you'll all have to take care of yourselves. So, you'll be the first responders. So, the more training you get, the sooner you get it, the more organized you are, the less loss in lives and property. So, we need more money for emergency training throughout the city of uh Richmond. And the instant command post structure is the main focus of this whole structure. So with more money we could get supplies and more training for the city of Richmond be regardless of whether they're cert trained or not. So we can go there. Next slide. You see this map here is some of the instant command posts located we have now. But we need much more than this. And their neighbors helping neighbors and communicating with each other is critical and we train in those classes and we'll need more training but there has to be more funding for that purpose. Next. Next slide. Okay. And the sooner we do this, the better. Uh be remember this is you have to have a some kind of a sense of urgency that this is really going to happen. It's really going to happen and it's really going to be serious. It'll be a shock and surprise to everybody and everybody will have to be ready to work

on it ahead of time. So at least start thinking about it and planning for it in your own neighborhoods, in your own homes how to organize. And there's plenty of training available, but we need more money and more professional trainers to do this. Thank you. Thank you very much. May I ask um Rocky Roy Saunders please from West Contraosta RSF council to continue the presentation. Good evening everyone.

No, there you go. Thank you. Well, good evening uh mayor uh council members. Uh first and foremost um well first of all my name is Rocky Saunders. Uh I live in Point Richmond. Uh and I am on the board of the uh West Contraosta um fire safe council. Um I would first like to recognize uh city council member Bana for her steadfast commitment to emergency preparedness. Uh David alluded to that. I've seen it. And um I am just amazed quite frankly at her steadfasted commitment to this subject and I appreciate that very much. Uh David made um a lot of great points and I'm going to just simply uh uh double uh down on some of these points.

Next slide please. Thank you.

First and foremost, as David said, all of us you, your family, your nextdoor neighbors, and I'll even say your constituents, speaking your language, are first responders. You are the true first responders. No matter the size of the emergency, it doesn't matter whether it's your flat tire on a on a city street or the big earthquake uh on the on the fault, it doesn't matter. you are your first responder and we love our fire departments and our and our police departments and they are our first paid first responders but you are going to be the first one to respond to your emergency. So this philosophy of neighbor to neighbor is essential to support uh the work that the firefighters do and the work that the police department do uh during an emergency and also to support the work that certain will do. Not everybody's going to want to be assert, but everybody should know something about emergency preparedness in your community because they are the ones who are going to respond possibly to to you uh your neighbors. And so the neighborto neighbor philosophy is taking hold in California, thank goodness. And I think it should take hold even in a big way here in Richmond. It's a very simple idea, but we can uh parallel the work uh that the fire department is doing. We can parallel the work of shirt and we can be a for force multiplier, a true for force multiplier in your communities during an emergency and during a national uh natural disaster. And this is an all hazards uh philosophy. It it

will apply wonderfully in a any size of emergency whether it be the earthquake, a fire or anything else that happens in your community. So this type of uh awareness, neighborto neighbor awareness is essential and it is a allows you to um have neighbors who are somewhat prepared and somewhat uh uh equipped. better is better than not being prepared and so that they can serve your needs and your neighbors needs in that golden hour right before uh right after the emergency. Next slide. So this is an investment end to end is an investment in the leveraging of your citizenry. It has a a broad-based uh informationational and and personal benefits. It can deliver disaster response, first aid, coordinated evacuations, uh effective neighborhood response, etc. Just like the certs are talking about as well. And also it'll be building community awareness. We have heard many re uh presentations tonight just about that community awareness and gathering the community together on a purpose. And so this is also about creating an informed citizenry. So investment in N2N is an investment in your citizens. So thank you very much. Thank you very much. Um I would like to continue uh my story of visiting um Harbor Hall Community Center after all these facts that you shared with us. Thank you very much. So uh Harbor Hall is a beautiful gorgeous hall. uh is going to have a kitchen. It has places for us to go and charge our batteries or

uh battery wheelchairs, those kind of devices if an earthquake happens. Um it has an emergency communication room, the staff are search trained, everything. But I noticed it does not have water. Uh there is a need for water storage. So I suggested why don't you have water storage? They hadn't thought about it. maybe um I put him in touch with East Baymud. The general manager of East Baymud kindly said he'd be willing to visit and take a look and see what they can do. that takes uh some collaboration from the city to I would like to invite you know our public works director and others to be at the meeting when they visit and discuss but I cannot as a council member I can only take one hour of the city staff time and already did it during the first hour so what's the solution I would like to suggest that our mayor please uh appoint an ad hoc committee tonight that look into all these things. What does it take for example to have a neighborto neighbor scheme? We have block captains. We have firewise communities. We have neighborhood councils. But we do not have that neighbor to neighbor planning uh to help each other.

I need to interrupt you to extend time. Okay. I move that we extend time until this irony is heard. Right. at least until actually um the the um the BART people are still here and yes they are Mayor I think we should the BART director we should continue until the end of the next item we had said that they were moving to the next meeting and then because we also have they respectfully requested that we hear them this evening so we passed the mayor note so is the sidewalk vending or we have staff here for the sidewalk vending ordinance amendments as well as outside council

and the side sidewalk vending is going to take a lot of time. I I think to do the sidewalk sidewalk bending justice, we should move it to the next meeting. Okay. Thank you. Are there people here for sidewalk bending? Oh, they've been waiting and it's it affects their businesses. So, oh yeah, that's these are small businesses being affected. And also, we have a staff transition in the city attorney's office. I mean, in the city um engineers uh team, so he may not be available. Mr. Armyo. So, if the council would want to hear both, that would be optimal if you're so inclined. Can we speed it up? Yeah, certainly.

Let's Can we just move um past the item to extend the time? Well, we have to vote on the expend extending time. So, let's need to vote on extending the meeting, but we need to name which items we're going to hear. Oh, I uh decided we can extend it until 11, right?

So, can I can I make a motion to extend the time? And we're going to do Q1 and Q2. And we must finish the uh current Q6 within the next 5 minutes. And then Q1 and Q2 with a total of about 10 to 12 minutes each cuz then we'll be reaching 11:30 and then we'll be done. We can only get to 11. Oh, sorry. 11. So Q6 was moved to another agenda. No, we're on Q6. Q6 is what? Q on now. Q1 was moved to another agenda. Okay.

But they're here. So, we're going to listen to Q1 because they're here. The mayor wants to hear them. So, Q1 and Q2 because we have to hear Q2 because that's the vendor sidewalk. So, if we finish Q6 within the next couple of minutes, then Q1, Q2, and we can give them and we're going to 11. Sorry, I didn't see the time. So, we're going to 11 then that means we have uh maybe If we go extend the meeting to 11 total divided by the two. Can I just move them to extend the meeting to 11? Yeah, let's just move to extend the meeting to 11 and we'll do what we can do. Absolutely. That's my motion. If I move to extend I second it. Thank you.

Okay, that was a move by Council Member Bonner, a second by Council Member Brown. Either way is fine. Actually, it was moved by Brown and seconded by Bana. Yeah. Okay. Council member Brown, yes. Council member Bana, yes. Council member Jimenez, yes. Council member Wilson, yes. Vice Mayor Robinson, yes. Council member Zapeda, yes. And Mayor Martinez, yes. The vote is unanimous.

So to expedite this, Mr. Mayor, um I'm asking you to please appoint an ad hoc committee. I'm volunteering myself. I'm requesting at least one more council member to volunteer, maybe two. I've talked to the city attorney. It's okay. We can do it. Okay. Well, I would suggest council member Brown for this if if Brown is interested. Um, I will volunteer myself to do that. Okay. Yes. All right. Uh, the three of us. Sure.

Awesome. Thank you so much. I really Oh, we need to take a Oh, it doesn't need a vote. You your you appoint. Yay. Thank you. So, we'll be working on it and bring suggestions, policy, budget requests to the city council hopefully soon. Thank you very much, sir people. Thank you so much. Thank you for waiting so long. Appreciate it. Thank you, Suresh uh and Professor Soa. I really appreciate your collaboration and is staying up. Good night. Um I I need to confer with uh Chia Osario regarding the timing of this if that's okay. Okay.

Um given his existing workload and the ALS work that we're moving forward expeditiously. So I'll I'll send an email to the council after I confer with him. Thank you. One speaker regarding what this item. Yes. Um ad hocs have to have staff liaison like somebody has to support the the ad hoc. Yeah. We would like our public works to be our leaison, not fire department. But we'll we can talk about that later. Okay. Thank you.

Come on up. Our next item is item Q1 and that is to receive a presentation from the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District director regarding BART's recent service improvements and the transit fiscal crisis due to work from home. KCRT, can you please put up the slide deck? Thank you. Thank you. Turn on your mic, please.

Does that work? Okay. Thank you so much. I was going to say good evening, but it's past that. Uh, but I appreciate uh you all having us on the agenda and the opportunity to present today. Um, I'm uh Bernali Goch. I'm the one of the board directors and I represent district 3 which includes Richmond. Um many of you on council we've had briefings with we've had conversations with and I think you're familiar with a lot of the information but we are doing our part to make sure we come to your city and uh we know you have a lot on your plate. So we want to make sure you have everything you need to be able to talk to your constituents about what's uh going on with BART. It's a really critical time um for the region and for BART. So before I go into that, just to talk about uh if I could have the next slide um what new BART the new BART that we're talking about that's safer, cleaner, easier to use than ever before. Safety and cleanliness took a real hit during the pandemic, you know, with low ridership and it it continues to be our focus along with providing reliable and frequent service. uh running all new fleet of the future trains. The legacy cars are gone. We've doubled our rate of cleaning. The next gen generation fairgates have broughten a lot of improvements. Uh it's reduced uh staff time on corrective maintenance within the paid areas of the station. Uh we also have both sworn and non nonsworn personnel riding our trains more. Um and overall crime has plummeted 41% in 2025 compared with the previous year. And the folks who are riding our trains uh have noticed that our trains are cleaner and safer and nearly nine out of 10 of our riders are satisfied with our service. Uh next slide please. Uh we're also working on making sure our station

improve uh improvements are ongoing. Um bot staff likes to call them glow-ups. Uh so LED lights being installed. These are, you know, both for energy efficiency and also to have our stations feel more welcoming. Uh, replacing escalators is ongoing. And we're also, uh, next slide. Um, oh, I left our tap and ride, but have folks had a chance to use your credit card on BART? Um, it's a real improvement, especially, you know, with infrequent riders. You don't have to think so much before you jump on the train. You don't have to spend time like getting a clipper card. can just tap and bart was the first to have it and now we have it across all the agencies. Um and then we're doing everything we can to bring people back to the system. So that includes like art and culture activations whether it was sketchfest or the glow anime uh festival that happened. Um we're working on innovative uh fair products like Bay Pass. Um this is something that big businesses or institutions can buy into. Uh UC Berkeley students for example voted to pay a very small amount and with the Bay Pass they can ride all our transit agencies um for free after that and it's the wrership at downtown station has really shot up. So, if you're in contact with with, you know, folks in your district who are who have businesses and are wanting to support transit for their writers, especially writers who use many different ways um to to get to work, um not just one agency, but various agencies. Um also, we've been paying a lot more attention to how we sync up with other agencies and this is something that has happened due to the pandemic. you know, trying to reduce transfer times between AC Transit and BART or AC Transit and Cal Train. This is something that agency staff meet at

least twice a year to sync up all our schedules. So, for the rider, it feels like you're riding one system. You're not scared of like missing the train just because the bus arrived uh was scheduled to arrive um later or earlier. Um, next slide, please. and everything is kind of going well. However, um this doesn't take care of the deficit that we're looking at and uh big part of that is because um before the pandemic, before COVID, uh B dependent on fairs to pay about 71% or 2/3 of our service. 71% that's an unheard of number uh in the public transit world. Um the Bay Area however still trails behind most major cities in return to office rates which means our wrership is down which means our um revenue from fairs is also down. Um while total ridership is down we're still serving the same number of people. They're just taking board fewer times a week. So 76% of a wrership is back. We know this from Clipper data. But they're maybe only going to work once or twice a week. And that is reflected in uh why we have the deficit. So fair revenue is down 300 to 400 million compared to the prep pandemic forecasts. So BART faces a deficit over 370 million per year beginning in the fiscal year 2027. And while we are working and need to continue to grow our ridership and control costs, that is clearly not enough. BART needs a new funding model that is similar to how transit is supported elsewhere. Um, next slide. Even as we seek funding, BART is focused on running efficient service. We have one of the lowest operating costs per

passenger mile uh for peer transit agencies and our operating costs are growing below inflation and at the slowest rate uh of peer agencies. Uh, but BA costs are largely fixed. So cutting service produces limited savings and because a substantial part of our revenue depends on the service we run. If we cut service and we lose writership, we also lose revenue. Um so there's not a service cutonly scenario that helps us close our budget gap. So the solutions we will discuss combined service, non-service and revenue um related actions. So um next slide. One of the things that I'm very happy about is that we also have real accountability at board. Board is uh the only Bay Area transit agency that has its own office of the inspector general. So we have our own auditor. Uh so accountability and oversight are something that uh both myself and other vote directors really care about. I also sit on the audit committee. Um when it comes to our police, we also have our office of the independent police auditor. So even as we're increasing presence of police on our B trains, we are paying attention to uh the fact that uh we are watching to make sure that there is independent oversight of the police department. Uh next slide. Now there is um great uncertainty as we plan for multiple futures and just to say that um this is something that folks might have heard about you know because uh BART is not the only agency that's facing a deficit. So lawmakers in Sacramento recognize the need for a reliable long-term funding source for transit operations. And so what we have um as a solution before us is a fivecount sales tax measure that was

authorized for the November election and if approved it would provide 310 million in operating funds to Bart annually. Now that doesn't help us close our deficit but we are used to some deficit being able to manage that and hoping for writership to continue to increase. Um but the 310 million would go a very long way in in helping Bart survive. Uh some there was a lot of coverage of the state loan. Um the stage loan is a good thing. However, BART uh we would only touch it if the measure passes because if the measure doesn't pass, we wouldn't really have a way to pay it back. Um the reason the state loan exists is if the sales tax measure passes, there's going to be a gap in the revenues coming in. Um so this would help us maintain our service while revenue from sales tax measure comes in. Uh this provides funding for other transit agencies. I think Ryan was here earlier talking about the AC transit um uh deficit as well. Um, so this is basically a regional effort to allow all of our transit agencies to survive and it spans Alama, Contraosta, San Mato, Santa Clara, and San Francisco County with uh four of the counties paying a 5 cent uh 0.5% sales tax and a 1% sales tax in San Francisco. Uh, next slide. Now, like I was saying, there's great uncertainty as we plan for multiple futures. Um, at the core of everything, we are going to continue our efforts to provide highquality service and increase ridership using the emergency funds that we have. Um, our December ridership was 13.5% higher than a year ago and wrership continues to trend up. Uh, every 5% increase in wrership translates to about 13 million in new fair revenue.

uh that however doesn't close our structural deficit unless ridership doubles uh by 2027 which we do not see happening. So moving forward we're looking at two scenarios. One is if the measure passes you know then things kind of move along uh we still have a small deficit to overcome. However, if the measure fails, um we at BART decided that we needed to be clear about what that plan might look like if the measure fails and communicate that to our writers a and to um uh uh the general public and to folks who who live in the region because it doesn't affect just writers, it affects the whole region. Um, next slide. So, um, the budget work needed to be done by July of this year and, um, the board gave direction to staff on how to plan for the future. So, what we've initially approved is an alternative service plan that outlines the very specific cuts and financial strategies that would be needed to close the 7 $376 million deficit. And this plan was not easy to develop. Uh, I myself moved here as an immigrant, you know, over 25 years ago. I depended on BART and AC Transit to get around and making these kind of decisions is not why I ran for the BR board, but we felt that very strongly that it was our responsibility to communicate what happens if the measure fails. Um, so I'm going to walk you through a little bit of what the cuts look like. Um, next slide. So the plan includes a combination of cuts. each of them are needed. Uh again because rail has high fixed costs um you know every time we cut service it also we lose riders. So the plan right now um does sort of this balancing act between

maintaining service where revenue is higher than cost uh and also helps us retain as many riders as possible. So when the election results are out in November, if the measure does not pass, the very next day we would meet with our lo labor partners to implement these steps. Uh the first of which would happen in January 2027. So the plan right now is to close at 9:00 p.m. 7 days a week. That's because running service after 9:00 p.m. costs bought more money than fair revenue can bring in. Weekend service still exists again because the fair revenue uh from weekend service actually allows it to run though it would be for a shorter time. So it would open at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday instead of 6:00 a.m. Uh this map shows what service would look like. It's somewhat similar to what we currently run in the late late evenings. It's kind of a threeline service where only yellow, blue, and orange lines are running and many riders have to transfer to complete their trip. Um, this will only be in the peak direction during peak hours where you see the dotted red and green lines. Uh, that's because we want to provide some direct trans service during peak weekday hours, but that won't be throughout the day. Next slide. Once these January cuts take effect take effect, we will be closely monitoring the impacts to ridership and revenue and our bottom line. We will also monitor the performance of all district functions to determine if we can safely and legally um uh implement them and we will be preparing for FY28 and at that point with no new revenue we will need to make more cuts. Um so what we're looking at is really an existential crisis. um the this this level of cuts and station closures have never been done. We're looking at, you

know, in the second half closing up to 15 stations. Just to be clear, we have not decided what those stations will be. Um but that's kind of the number we're looking at, both stations and segments. Um, and once we've done all this, we we're still not confident that we can continue to maintain this kind of service uh just because our revenue is still so tied to ridership and when you make these kind of cuts, it's very likely that you will bleed riders. So, it calls into question if it's even safe to run service with so few resources. So, if at any point it is determined that BART can't safely or legally operate without available resources, we will need to stop passenger service. So, I know it's late and I'm sorry for this being such bad news. Um, but I think we just need everyone to understand and for you to be able to talk to your constituents about what's at stake. uh if BART is not able to receive funding and right now the only solution that we have in front of us is um hopefully a ballot measure getting on the November 2026 ballot. Um and with that last slide that has uh our contact information and I'll stop and see if there are any uh questions or comments.

Do we have any speakers? We have one online speaker. All right. And that speaker is uh device CN. Please unmute yourself and you may begin.

Please unmute yourself and you may begin. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes.

Great. Uh my name is Sarah Caner. I'm a Richmond resident and um thank you so much for that presentation. I think that BART is an extremely extremely important part of our regional infrastructure. Um really hope that the the ballot measure passes. Um you have my vote. Uh the thing that I wanted to name which feels like it um sort of pales in importance compared to the impending uh potential cuts if this ballot measure isn't passed is at the beginning when you were talking about improvements that you've made to stations and uh cars and the lines. Um just wanted to add an additional piece which is elevators. I am a wheelchair user and would love to be able to ride BART more often and it is at this point just not a reliable way for me to get around because the elevators break so frequently. Um, and even though I can check on the status online, you know, for example, once went to the Richmond station, took the elevator down to the um the gates, couldn't get through to the trains, and then on my way back out, couldn't get back up to the street because the elevator to go back up to the street had broken in that like 10-minute period. Um, so there's a whole population out there of people who require mobility devices um in order to uh get around and who need those to access BART. And so once this ballot measure passes and you all have the funding that you need, I hope that some of that will be able to go towards making sure that BART is accessible to

all and um being able to be adequately uh relied upon as a form of transit for disabled writers. Thank you. Thank you. And that was our last speaker. We do have one inerson speaker, Cordial Hendler. I don't know. Don, did you sign up too, Don? Signed up, too. Tomorrow. Okay. Okay. You okay? You okay? Let's go.

So, good evening, Mayor Martinez, Council. For the record, I am Cordel Hanland. I'm a Richmond resident. So, thank you, Director G, for that presentation. So, as Sarah Canto just pointed out, I ride BART periodically and the elevators are are in the worst conditions. So, um I am just concerned like, you know, from a a transit point of view. And I do like the um the the BART police though. I do like that. But the one thing that I don't think it was mentioned about the um the the proposed hours, I don't like the idea of shutting it down at 9:00 because you got people that are like coming back from events. When 12:00 hits, they got they have no way to get back home. So, I'm thinking like closing at 9 seems a little bit daunting. So, that's just my opinion. So, I like the presentation, but I'm hoping that this measure passes because we need funding because you depend on writership because I ride Bart every now and then and it'll be great if this measure passes. So, I love the presentation, but I still say keep the 12:00 time open. So, that's it.

Don Gosny,

thank you very much. Yeah, I really appreciated this presentation. and it was full of great information. Okay, we all have elected representatives sitting on the BART board of directors, but like most of our elected representatives, we have no idea who they are or how to get in touch with them. They never come to meet with their constituents to learn what they we might think about how BART is run and what we would like to see. I like to know my elected officials. I really do. But that's the first time I've ever heard your name. How is that? Have we had town hall meetings? you come reached out to the community to find out what we think about BART. Okay. But just so on behalf of this BART writer, maybe you can pass along a few thoughts to your fellow directors. First, if you haven't already done it, you're pricing yourself out of the market. What you provide for what you're charging us is becoming cost prohibitive. Second, this goes for your parking, too. When people are ticked off about the cost of your parking, raising the fee is not the way to win us over. and then selling off our parking spots for residential people. Again, it just you're just piling it on. This is threatening to close 11 BART stations, threatening to stop the trains at 9:00 p.m., threatening to mothball your fleet on weekends. All that does is tick us off, too. If your board thinks that this is the way to win us over, you've missed that one badly. And closing the restrooms and turning the elevators into de facto restrooms is not a good business model either. On the other hand, I love the new turn styles. Really, I hate scoff laws when I'm paying the full bill. But most people don't ride BART, so expecting millions of non-riders to subsidize those that do, it's going to be a tough sale for you.

All right. Um, Council Member Bonn, I just have a quick question. Thank you for the presentation, useful information, and I'm sorry to hear the bad news as you said. great to see you. But anyway, um if there is a flyer you can share with us or a link or something we can share with our constituents, I cannot, you know, pass everything. So, if if you could email it to the city council, I appreciate that. Uh and I mean it's soft flyer, not a hard copy, so we can email.

Um we have these really great fact sheets and I'll have um Henry is here from our government community relations and he'll make sure to send them to you. They're very easy to read both about the improvements and and the budget related um challenges. So happy to share. Also, if there is a URL for more information, please. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And I will also be at the seniors commission uh community meeting that they're having on Thursday to meet more people and answer some questions. We'll have senior clipper uh cards and all of that. So, but um yeah, we'd be happy to get you this information.

All right. Uh and U let's make sure that uh Mr. Gosy makes it to that senior uh presentation so that he can meet all of the transportation people. U just a quick comment.

I really appreciate your presentation. Yeah, it was full of really helpful information. It's really um pretty devastating to hear this. Um I I wanted to bring up one comment and kind of leave it with folks is you know I think for the last 10 to 20 years we've been focused on transit oriented development and in that transitoriented development you actually do not allow for enough parking so that everybody would have their own car because it's dependent upon having transit systems that people could use. um if we lose our transit systems, our whole our whole philosophy around development falls apart and we've created a a whole slew of kind of design problems in our cities. Um we're already starting to see that with all kinds of parking problems and other things and I think it's just going to get worse. Um, I have long been a proponent, especially, you know, when we know where we have climate change. We know this is facing us, that the use of more cars can't be the solution.

Yeah, if I could just reflect on that. Thank you, Council Member Robinson. Um, I come to transit as a climate activist primarily. Um and also thinking about it from a global perspective, you know, being an immigrant and having family in South Asia. And also I think transit is one of the solutions we have in front of us. Without good public transit, we cannot solve our climate crisis. And I'm here talking about BART today. But because BART's the backbone of the of the transit system, um all other systems connect to it. We're really in this together. So if BART fails, our bus systems also struggle. And that again serves so many people. Um, and you're right, there is no transitoriented development without transit. There's also our air quality suffers across the region. There's more congestion on our freeways. So even for folks who may not ride transit and and love driving, um, we don't see their lives becoming better if there's no transit. So, it really is a regional effort um to allow those who want to ride transit, need to ride transit to be able to do that and that helps the entire region. But, but thank you for your comments. Um yeah, I don't know if there was a question in there.

Well, just just one more. I think my my question is is I wonder, you know, in New York City, they say they highly supplement the their system, their subway system. That's why it's so inexpensive. That's also why so many people use it. Absolutely. And Bart, you know, we just heard a commenter talk about the costs. It's because BART for the first 50 years has been so dependent on rider revenue. It's not been subsidized to the extent other transit agencies are subsidized. So therefore, the cost is also high. So this is an opportunity for us, the 14-year sales tax, if it passes, to look at a different kind of fair model uh that does reduce costs for writers. Uh we are looking at

sorry that that is my question though. I wonder if the BART board has considered going in the opposite direction of actually dropping the cost of fairs. We would love to do that but as you nothing's free right the money has to come from somewhere. So right now without the the without the ballot measure without any additional funding we're actually looking at raising cost by 30%. Which is which is horrible. Which is horrible. It's a death note. Like that's it. exactly what Mr. said.

Um I think some of the things we would like to consider if we're in a healthier position is looking at passes. We've never done like a monthly pass on BART. Uh we know that with Clipper 2 there's better discounts when you transfer between agencies. So overall the costs will be reduced uh for riders. Um, also we do have really great like senior passes, youth passes, low-inccome passes, all of that, you know, continues to stay. That's like 50% for for youth, uh, 62.5% for seniors. So, we're really committed to that, but that also means the general cost tends to sort of be higher than usual. Uh, so we really hope we can look at different models where

I appreciate your time. I I want I'm really cognizant of time and I want to move on, but just the last statement is I really I appreciate BART so much. I feel like it was the way that I got to know the whole barrier as a kid. Birchman BART was in walking distance of the house and I used it to see and be a part of the whole barrier and um it I just am heartbroken and I feel like we need to do everything you can to save the system. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your presentation and I have a lot of comments but I'm going to save them because we have a another important item that we need to get around to. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, happy to reach out individually. We're here. The contact information is there. You know where to find me. Please don't hesitate if you have questions or your constituents have questions. And please tell your constituents about me and have them send me their complaints and their compliments. Thank you very much. Okay. We shall. Next.

Our next item is item Q2. and that is to introduce an ordinance for first reading amending chapter 7.42 of the Richmond Municipal Code side cyborg vendor ordinance to update administrative procedures, waiver provisions, and enforcement mechanisms. We have two inerson speakers. If there's anyone joining us online that would like to address the council on this item, please raise your hand at this time. Great. Uh, good evening, uh, Mayor Martinez and members of the city council. My name is Robert Armiho. I'm the deputy public works director and a city engineer. And tonight we're going to be um presenting uh our annual update on the sidewalk vendor program and uh walking through a um sidewalk vendor ordinance update that we're proposing. Next slide, please. Um it as I mentioned before we are um going to uh introduce an ordinance amendment to chapter 7.42 of the Richmond Municipal Code. Uh this will uh update our administrative procedures, waiver pro provisions and enforcement mechanisms. Um and uh also give uh council the opportunity to provide direction to staff before a second reading. Um in the interest of time, we're going to go through these slides faster than anticipated. So I'm let you read what's on the slide and uh we'll move on to the next slide.

And now I'm uh one thing I would like to mention is that um I'm going to pass off the presentation here in a second to our senior engineer Andy Cho who does run our sidewalk vendor enforcement program and doing a wonderful job. But we also have um available um online on Zoom our consultant Civica who helped draft the um amendment to the ordinance as well as Forleaf who's been providing the uh actual enforcement of the uh ordinance. So having said that, I'm going to turn over the presentation to Andy Cho um who's our senior engineer and like I said, he's in charge of this program. Hi, good evening uh Mayor Martinez and council members. My name is Andy Cho. I'm senior engineer and overseeing the sidewalk vendor program and I'll try to get go very quickly here uh best as I can. So I'll start with the background of this program. uh 2018, Senate Bill 946 was passed and it discriminates sidewalk vendors and you know limits our uh uh enforcement mechanism as a uh administrative fines and in July 2024 council adopted the RM uh Richmond municipal code 7.242 two 42 provide a permit mechanism and standard for locations and operation rules and some uh enforcement mechanism also. Follow that we launched enforcement program with the assistance with the forip and mobile vendor plaza opened in September 24 uh inviting those uh vendors to the permitted

permitted location where they can do their business uh safely and legally. and 2025 we provide a annual update to you uh to to to you with the uh numbers and you know we ask for direction at the time you were given that you know we have to look at the ordinance and refine the ordinance um to help the vendors and you know make it better and in the meantime October 20 uh 2025 uh Senate Bill 635 was passed which um limits any uh release of the personal items personal information to the public or any im immigration office office uh protecting vendor's information. And here we are with the first reading for the uh amendment to the sidewalk ordinance as per your direction. Next slide please. So just to give you updates, uh we have updated our SOP and we continue uh coordinate with the other agencies like uh county health department and as I said the lot was uh started and we are expanding the lot uh allowing the mobile vendor to operate safely and enforcement has been uh matured from the outreaching to more uh systematic approach like notice of violation. And here we are uh with the ordinance review and we are trying to amend the ordinance to make it more flexible and you know um make sense for everyone balancing business and the sidewalk vendor. And to update, we have a continued uh communication uh with the 23rd merchants and last two meetings uh we have uh received uh positive feedback

from them and we have a less complaints from the 23rd merchants. Next slide please. Give you some data and trend uh for last two years. Um I'll let you read all these numbers but and next slide please. And I just want to point out uh last three quarters we have an increase in encounters and NOVs. Just want to point out these are mainly for the repeaters. Uh so we go out there and when we see the violator we issue notice violations. So we know the locations where they're operating but because of the limitation of the uh enforcement mechanism that's limiting to the admin administrative fines we have a challenging situation to handle them effectively at this time but we know the location it's not like a scattered around the city and so that's the difference that I want to make sure that you know bring to your attention. Okay, next slide please. So for operation consideration uh we we have a full lift uh full-time uh managing the enforcement and we have a daily coverage uh as a staggered uh schedule manner and we continue monthly inspection with the county for escalated uh enforcement and we have a weekly uh meeting with them to go over uh you know the data that we have collected. during the uh enforcement effort and there's con constraints uh as I mentioned before we have a limited source for the enforcement which is limited to administrative fines so we have a hard time identifying the vendors and finding

has been somewhat impractical until now slide please. So lesson learned uh we have achieved um like there there there has been decrease in complaints also there is increase in permits so that's a good sign we are going to right direction but as I mentioned before we have a challenging situation with the repeated offenders with the limited source of the enforcement mechanism next slide please so we are proposing ordinance amendment that includes waiver process ability to pay where if they have a hardship we we can give discount I'll give you more details on this and another one is enforcement priority permit procedure confidentiality and SV 635 compliance next slide please so what is waiver uh we want to have a little more flexibility to our um location and operation rules. But I want to point out that this will require review and approval from by the staff and we want to make sure that you know any waiver that's given is not jeopardizing health safety or um welfare problem. So for example uh we will review and approve a vendor who has a larger equipment granted that safety of uh you know pedestrian is not uh jeopardized. That is just one of example and like I say it will require review

and approval from the city staff for all the waiverss. Next slide please. SB635 compliance will make sure that we don't release any sensitive personal information to public or any immigrant uh officers like ICE ability to pay if there's if the vendor violate and they cannot afford to pay the fine we can give some discount to the vendor or they can do the community service instead. Confidentiality uh again we will keep uh the information uh confidence uh uh confidential and we are not releasing any personal information to the outside. Next slide please.

Okay. Um back to me. So, um we're showing uh council here some um items for policy consideration uh that um involves um our level of service for enforcement fine collection. Uh the scope of our waiver and administration and then also um uh if you want to uh discuss um the mobile vendor plaza expansion. Uh we we touched on it very briefly, but the lot's been very successful. There's actually a um a waiting list to be able to uh get on the lot. Next slide. So, uh just a process. So, um we did get we as I mentioned before, we gave a um an annual review of the program in general. also discussed a our proposed um ordinance update and uh this slide focuses in on the process of how a uh ordinance update works. So this particular meeting is what we'd call the first reading. So this is introducing the ordinance. Uh council can provide direction. After this meeting there would need to be a second reading. Uh this could be um this could be done I I think by uh a consent calendar item or it could be in an open session again if council so chooses. And then once the second reading is uh passed then um then there's a 30-day waiting period for the um uh ordinance to take effect. Next slide. So, uh, it's staff's, uh, recommendation to introduce an ordinance amending chapter 7.42 of the Richmond Municipal Code, the sidewalk vendor ordinance to

update administrative procedures, waiver provisions, and enforcement mechanisms, and uh to provide direction to staff. Next slide. That's the end of our presentation. So, we're happy to um answer any questions or um entertain any discussion. Thank you. Do we have any speakers? We have two inerson speakers, Stephanie Sanchez and Claudia Citroron. Stephanie, you'll have two minutes to address the council.

Press the Press the button

there. Okay. Well, I will say good night from but my name is Stephanie Sanchez. You might remember me from last year. I've been coming to these meetings since June of 2025 trying to follow the process and and to do everything that's required. I'm here representing my family's business, Super Chururos, since June 13, 2025. We've been working on the curb of Andrade Avenue. That is about 10 months and 15 days ago. For the past 27 years, we're about to be 28 years now. Uh we've been working on um my family has been serving the community from the same location. Council member uh Mr. Zapetta has personally come to see the location where we currently operate. So our situation has not just been heard, but has been seen. And this is not something we say. Our impact has recognized publicly. We've been featured on local news including Richmond Standard. Great View Independent sharing our story. This is not a question or rather we belong here. We already proven that we do. We stay patient. We came to meetings. We did everything we did the right way and we're still here waiting. At some point patience needs to be met with the solution. That's why today we're asking to be prioritized to be grandfathered in our original location because we have been already show consistently commitment for this process. We don't just sell food. We also show up for people. We supported Richmond PD, San Pablo PD, local firefighters, schools like Richmond High, Wilson Elementary, Downer, and Helms. We donated to children's hospitals, charities, and other people in need. But we need the city to meet us halfway and recognize the history and work that we already put in. Because this business is not just a job. It's my family's livelihood, reputation that we've been serving 247 years in Richmond. It's everything my parents have built

and supported us and given us in this community. I'm standing here today not just as a business order for next generation, but as a daughter asking to be recognized. We're asking for a fair opportunity to return to our original spot and we're located for 27 years almost 28 next month and to be granted to be your time is expired. Thank you. That's all. Okay. Next speaker is Claudia Situan.

Oh god. Yes. All right. So, um, do we need a motion? We have an online speaker. Oh, okay. Okay. That speaker was late, but go ahead. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, please unmute yourself.

Okay, so that's Claudia Citro. I went home. Um, so I really like the vendor program. Um, I did go there and there's a gazillion generators running. Now, you have the bike program where you tout how many gatillion metric tons of uh exhaust you're um uh avoiding. This uh uh vendor program needs solar panels. It needs either electric access or solar panels as it runs now, especially if you uh in u expand it. Um gasoline is expensive. That's why vendors can't pay their fines. Um I'm just kind of urging you to use some common sense and create a bit more of infrastructure which makes it actually really a model. And uh I'm sure that Chevron is more than happy to actually uh sponsor a solar station for that particular station next to Bart station. Um so I just think you should um include some improvements as you discuss the um this ordinance. And also I find it ridiculous that it's being suggested that the second reading goes into the uh consent calendar. That's exactly what we are trying to avoid. This is now 11 o'clock and um the public will not necessarily know about this whole thing and I think the public should have a right to be part of the conversation and part of your conversation. So I yield my time and I want to mention I had my hand raised for the BR um issue as well but I was not not called. So I'm disappointed. I twice was cut short today with my opinion and my public uh engagement. Um I just want to have that on public record. Thank you.

Council member and that was our last speaker. Council member Sepa. Thank you Mr. Mayor. You were just mentioning because we're running out of time. So maybe we can make a motion and then discuss it as we with whatever time we have left. but to accept. So, first off, thank you for the presentation, but to accept the first reading and uh also to see if we could define solicitation with it and I've been communications with the city attorney for the wording solicitation. So, just finding that in the ordinance. Uh, and it sounds like we need more staff. So, we should add more staff and um

your motion is getting too long. figuring out the exceptions. So not just give exceptions for everything but I think we need to have a cap. So figuring out what the capbook exception otherwise we'll be we wouldn't need an ordinance. We'll be accepting everybody. So what is the motion now? So the motion is to to accept define the word solicitation in the ordinance uh figure out a cap for exceptions and uh get more staff. Can I ask a question? Can you respectfully um it would be great mayor if I may that if we consider the staffing issue in totality of the overall fiscal year budget please. Okay.

Can I can I ask a question if we if we it pertains to the motion. So if we pass the motion tonight it would it be possible to explore issues that we have with the proposed amendment and change the amendment or do we have to accept the amendment as is? you you'd have to make amendments to the amendment tonight and pass that language. Otherwise, if you on second reading make other changes, you have to go back to first reading. Is that your question? Yeah, that is my question.

Yeah. So, so I my understanding is that your motion is that we accept the proposed amendments, staff's proposed amendments to chapter it's late. Hold on one moment. Uh chapter 9 uh or 7.42 42 with one amendment and that is in section um 7.42.010 we add the definition of solicitation and I can read that into the record. One moment

and the exception Lauren do you have it? Would you like me to read it? I have it. Okay. What section is it? So, we're just adding and under the definition sections of 0.010 the def he wants to to define solicitation and that is defined as

solicitation means any act gesture display communication or conduct by a sidewalk vendor intended to attract, request or encourage the purchase of goods or service. Solicitation includes, but is not limited to, verbal offers, signage, hand signals, or physical positioning designed to draw attention. Solicitation also includes conduct directed toward occupants of vehicles on an adjacent street or roadway, including facing, signaling to, or otherwise targeting vehicular traffic for the purpose of attracting patronage, whether or not transactions ultimately occur. That's the definition there.

So, it's to approve the proposed amendments 7.42 as outlined by staff in addition to the definition of solicitation. We don't we haven't had a time to really discuss this. I feel like I haven't had a time to bring forward the things that that I've been hearing from my constituents. I feel like we're rushing to this to this ends and I don't I don't under like I feel like this process is flawed because I'd like to bring up some issues that I've been hearing from constituents about whatever and we don't have enough time. maybe just run down the clock.

Does would the council uh respectfully like to cons uh continue this item to um the u May 5th meeting? And if you're so inclined, I don't want to anyone to feel rushed. Um Mr. Arerodondo and Deputy City Manager White were here for an item that was pulled, I believe. If the council wants to undertake that, uh Lashand Gabina, what was your item? ebikes or do you want to have a discussion about that in in six minutes? No, no. I'm I'm saying it was pulled. Do you want to have a discussion or do you feel comfortable potentially moving it on consent? It was pulled. Uh I'd like to have a discussion. Okay. We'll see you next week.

All right. So then we're right just coming back then because my other amendment was to also figuring out the for the exemptions. We have to come back. We need to discuss I think that'll take too much time. So, so if mayor, if you're so inclined, if you would like to continue this item to to May 5th, right, Pam, that's the proper way to continue the discussion. Is that right, Shannon? Yes. One suggestion, and maybe I'm out of my lane here, but it may be helpful for us and staff to hear some of the questions that you have to be prepared for the fifth. Um, so you know,

I also can just send an an email and and kind of get into it and and we could do it offline in between now and the fifth and hopefully come to a resolution. Sure. So we can we can keep it moving. But yeah, I have some deep concerns about the set, you know, extending the setbacks from doors and and some of the other things that are being proposed. Okay. So shall we um Um yeah, we have we have five minutes. Uh would five minutes be enough to uh uh do 04?

No, it's not enough for anything. Okay. Well then, uh in that case, I guess we're adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. The slow