Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Can we call the roll?

Yes. Casey Daly, Ward 1, is absent. Scott Olson, Ward 2, is absent. Angela Torres, Ward 3. Here. Ward 4 is vacant. Andy Garcia, Ward 5. Present. Ricky Van Johnson, Ward 6. Present. James Albert, Ward 7. Here. Timothy Prince, Mayor's appointee. He's here. and Leticia Briggs, mayor's appointee. Here. And you have a quorum.

Okay, very good. We start off with comments from the public. Dolores Armstead, you have three minutes.

I'm going to read a letter that I wrote to all the council people and the mayor. I attended the Charter Review Committee on Wednesday, June 10th, a special meeting. The agenda had six items that were supposed to be reviewed and discussed. There were no discussions on any of the specific items. The committee was chaired by Mayor trans appointee Tim Prince for two hours. Mr. Prince only wanted to discuss placing all his proposed amendments on the November 26 voting ballot. Mr. Prince yelled at committee members, told the city attorney to shut up several times, stating her input was irrelevant, loudly disrespected committee member Ricky Van Johnson, and basically stated the information Mr. Johnson submitted was garbage and irrelevant. He also falsely stated the commission had already approved the items in their April meeting. I have a copy of the... There was no approval in reviewing the April 22nd minutes. Item one states the committee reached a general consensus that due to current time constraints and a shared desire for a highly deliberate and comprehensive charter development process, they will not seek to place amendments under 2026 ballot. Also on previous March 25th, no actions were taken. February 25th, no actions were taken. November 23rd was the last meeting. No actions were taken. None of the six items were discussed in the June 10th meeting and several commission members expressed their concern regarding no discussion or clarification. Mr. Prince stated he did not see the need to discuss the items as he felt the items were discussed at the April meeting. Commissioner James Albert requested the ballot date should be in the primary 2028. Moving the date would allow for community forms to which several commissioners agreed. The city attorney then read the existing charter item pertaining to elections, which did not have a deadline. It appeared the city manager was too intimidated to take charge or control of the meeting at that time. That suggestion irritated Commissioner Prince to a higher level, and he continued yelling to have the items on the 2026 November ballot. Towards the end of the meeting, Mayor Tran presented that she endorsed granting the mayor sole authority to nominate a city manager candidate, then falsely stated she had no voting power. As a former planning commissioner, the meeting was very disturbing on several levels. As a commissioner, I was made aware any time I spoke out of context. This committee chair was able to disrespect fellow commissioners. The chair totally disrespected the city attorney because she was female. because she was black and I know he would never disrespect a white male the same way. Prince also attempted to have the city manager support false statements. Thanks to the other commissioners, the majority agreed to consider the amendments for the 2028 ballot, providing ample time to present the amendments to the public for forms and outreach. The city charter is too important and vital to be approved without citizen input, especially with the past issues of the city's leadership. The proposed changes need to be vetted for pros and cons with community input. to approve as presented is too vague, raises red flags, and leaves the city open to corruption again. An additional concern is that the meetings are not recorded or transparent. I don't know if they are. I don't know. The charter commission is too important. The way this meeting was conducted is a prime example of why San Bernardino is held in such strong disrespect nationwide. We are asking you as council members to make this better. Sir, I do remember that you said your father was a city attorney that raised red flags to me It's not necessarily a good thing.

Thank you Andy Fuentes Good evening

What else can I say but agree with Ms. Armstead? That meeting was a disaster. And the chair was really rude to the city attorney and to other committee members. I didn't see the whole thing. I wasn't here, but I was able to watch it. And the way you were rude and shouted and tried to pass this fast was really rude. It was really weird. And this letter that was written by BVNK says that this is inconsistent. So why do you still want to push it? This should be in the power of the people. And you should have brought this out. And you should have had meetings about this and forums. And you guys have had the same outreach thing on the agenda multiple times every single meeting. And you guys have not had a plan on how you guys are going to do outreach. You guys haven't had a plan on how you guys are going to let the community know what the charter is. Because if you go around San Bernardino and say, do you know what the city charter is? Nobody's going to know what it is. So I feel like you guys should really pass this and do something about it so you can have outreach in the community before you try any of this. Because people are going to see us on the ballot. They're going to be like, what the hell is this? Because nobody knows what the charter is. Thank you.

Okay, comments from committee members. Should we start with Angela?

Hello, everybody. Thank you for coming. I'm glad to see you all here. I wanted to say something regarding Andy's comment right now. I understand the frustration that's going on. I believe it as community members. community members, we have frustration as well. So given that opportunity was outspoken right now, I kind of feel like, yes, you are right in some shape and form. We do need to get this. I'm one to say, let's get started. But we have budgets, we have policies, we have guidelines. And sometimes we cannot break those barriers. So it doesn't only lie on us. It lies on everyone. the constituents, the city, city mayor, city attorney, city everything. So, trust me, I'm hoping that this is ending soon because I want to tell you I've been here trying to settle things and sometimes it's not getting settled. So, I'm with you guys and I think we need to hear more of this and I agree with a lot of things that's going on, but you have to understand our limitations as well. We can only do so much. We can't pass certain guidelines. We can't. I mean, I understand people get frustrated and you're going to see that because there's a lot of anger going on right now. And so I don't blame anybody. I think we just need to be united and get the problem solved. So thank you for speaking.

Ms. Briggs.

Good evening and thank you again for coming. I just want to echo the comments from Angela that we are trying our best. We are trying to come up with a plan that would be best for outreach in the community. That is a big move. factor in what we hope to attain. And yes, we have limitations. We can't just say, okay, we're having a meeting. This is a date. This is a time. This is a place. We have to have approval. We have to have different things. Other agencies, I mean, other areas of the city have to be involved in this. So it's not something that we can just set in stone at this moment. So we do appreciate your patience. We do appreciate your continued showing up to our meetings. Please share with your friends and your neighbors to come in and voice their opinions and their concerns regarding the charter. And hopefully we will get going on those outreach meetings as soon as possible. All right. Thank you.

Good evening. Thank you all for coming and for those watching online. First off, I want to say a happy belated Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out here in our community. And again, like my colleagues have said, I look forward to working with my colleagues here and creating outreach within the community. That way, everybody gets a better understanding of what this committee does. Thank you.

Mr. Johnson.

Thank you. The Charter Review Committee is tasked with completing a periodic review of the city charter to identify potential amendments that enhance clarity, efficiency, and the principles of the council manager form of government. That's our mission. We are composed of at least nine members with different worldviews. As we come together, I feel that we should be able to meet and scrutinize items without the meeting involving into chaos. I also believe that the committee chairperson should lead discussion with fairness, neutrality, and address conflicts when they arise. At the last meeting, I felt that the chairperson utilized his position as a bully pulpit and created conflict by not allowing staff to participate in the dialogue. I also felt that the chairperson unfairly attacked staff as well as committee members. There is nothing wrong with the chairperson having an opinion. I just don't believe that it should count more than any other member of the committee. With that said, I propose that we consider placing the selection of a chairperson on the next meeting agenda. Thank you.

Mr. Albert.

I just want to echo what my fellow Charter Committee member, Mr. Johnson, just stated. But I also want to thank city attorney staff for disclosing the information that wasn't provided to the public here at this meeting. I think it's a big help and a good step in the right direction. And I do would like to see, and I know it's on the agenda here today, but I would like to really take some significant amount of time in ironing out our community engagement plan and hopefully adopting it either at this meeting or the next meeting, because I really feel like this next six months where we're going to see a changing of the guard on the mayor and council, this is definitely the time for us to get to work and build those bridges in the community and do the education that's necessary to making this committee work for the people. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Albert. This is always a difficult year for the city of San Bernardino. When you have elections going, you have people lining up behind different candidates. It's hard to remember that we were all members of the same city. We all care about our city. We all, in most cases, love our city. Many of us, most of us have a long history in this city and we we've seen many better days in the city. So frustrations run high and At the last meeting, we discussed mostly the timeline issue. And I see both sides of that issue. I see the need for reaching out to the public. That was never contemplated to be eliminated. What we were discussing is if we could do it on a very shortened timeframe. And majority rules around here and the committee decided that the timeframe was too short. and that we needed to set our efforts back two years. I'm sure a lot of us feel that that's a cost to the city, that we can't make changes and adjustments to our charter for two more years. We lost a lot of time because the city manager shut us down without our consent. So there's reasons for the frustration. But as far as I'm concerned, that decision is in the past. And we all need to go forward in a united fashion to discuss these important changes. And we'll do it on the more relaxed timeframe. But that doesn't reduce the urgency of these changes. We have a documented history of dysfunction in the city. And to say that we should do nothing about it is not acceptable to me. And I don't think it's acceptable to the majority of of our citizens. There's vested interests. There's a lot of things to consider. There's certainly differing viewpoints. We need to consider all of those and do our best to try to come up with some improvements to our charter that will help this city become the all America city once again. So with that, we'll go ahead and discuss our potential charter amendments for the 2000 and 28 ballot.

Mr. Chair, I think we do need to approve the draft minutes though, is that correct?

Yes.

Did we skip that? Yes. Okay, do I have a motion to either amend or approve the minutes?

I approve.

I think the minutes are fine. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Okay, any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. And opposed? Passes unanimously. And now we have 2028 ballot proposal amendments.

Mr. Chair, may I offer a suggestion? Sure. I would like to see if we can start with agenda item two, city charter public outreach first. I know we've taken a lot of time and talking about the other item at the last couple of meetings. And I really hope that we can spend some significant amount of time at today's meeting about agenda item number two. I'm hoping we can start there.

I totally agree with you. I was hoping the discussion on number one would be brief and the discussion on two would be our focus today. Because now that we have time, we need to start with both public education and input. Is that agreeable to the committee?

Yes.

Okay. Mr. City Manager, do we have any updates on what might be available in the way of resources for public outreach?

Not specifically, but what I thought would be helpful for the city manager is for you all to come up with maybe a draft plan of elements that you'd like to see in your outreach strategy. If you remember from the May meeting, you asked me to kind of look back and see what the committee had done in the past. And I did that. I gave you an outline of what happened back in 2015. There were various elements to the outreach strategy. And then I also provided some additional information on uh the cost and feasibility of sending out an insert in the water bill and so um if you'd like I can just quickly review some of those things and then maybe you can see what elements you'd like what things you'd like to add to it I can go back to the city manager and see what's feasible what those costs would be and you can discuss that in greater detail and maybe finalize something at the next meeting sounds great okay So back in 2015, there were a couple elements to their outreach strategy. One was a public survey. And so they sent out a public survey. It was a questionnaire. It was a hybrid collection method. So there was online as well as paper versions for everybody to fill out. The survey consisted of 12 direct questions rather than open-ended comment boxes. It relied on a fixed response option so staff could actually quantify it and collect it. There was a multi-select checklist. There were yes and no. There were direct comparison questions. And then there was also three choice options. And staff also tracked some of the undecided. So, for example, their survey included an uncertain option. So folks could see on the committee if people maybe did not have as much insight into that. And then the questionnaire was organized to move logically from the broad constitutional questions that are related to the charter down to specific operational details, including like the election schedule or whether key officials should be elected or appointed. So it had some very good elements. And if you look back at that, I'm sorry, May 27th report, you should have a copy of that actual survey. It was my third staff report for that meeting. So it was a very good survey and they provided it both in paper form and electronic form. And then second, they had outreach forums. Just to double check the numbers, there were seven forums held between late 2015 and early 2016 at local middle schools and high schools. I think the idea was they were able to go out into the wards and hold something closer. We could do something like that, or we could hold something maybe at the library. We just have to check with the library director about dates. The format was presentation and then large group polling. So the meetings normally open with a brief slideshow explaining the charter reform process, some early recommendations, and then it followed a group discussion on some high priority topics that the committee had predetermined that they would like the public to focus their group discussions on. Then they also had breakout sessions. And then I thought this was interesting. They also had a plan for low turnout. So if attendance was too low, they would just move everybody to a single focus group.

Sorry to cut you off, but when you're saying they, who actually held these forums and who did these meetings?

I was going to get to that, but they did have a facilitator.

Okay.

So the committee went through a process of identifying a volunteer facilitator, but then they were provided resources by the city council, which I think was unique in that situation.

Okay.

Sorry. Because the council was tasked by the city charter to come up with a periodic review of the charter, the mechanism they used was creating the charter review committee. And for that initial charter review, they provided resources directly from the city council, and they used those resources to hire a facilitator. So the facilitator not only helped them kind of look at some potential charter amendments, but they also facilitated the discussions at the breakout groups.

Would funding for this come from the City Council or the City Manager's Office? Who would we ask for funding for this or would approve it?

The council could on their own decide to bring up an agenda item and say, we would like to direct staff to allocate X amount of money from the budget specifically for a task performed by the charter review committee. Alternatively, the city manager could assign some funds from either their budget or another part, maybe general government, something like that. So there are several options that the city manager has at their disposal and the council has at their disposal.

In the past, the GPAC had a facilitator, so I'm one of the commissioners on that division as well, and I thought that was a wonderful idea. I kind of think we should reflect back to that, only because they're thorough, they know what they're doing, and I was even part of it, just like the other commissioners, and I can tell you, I think that was a good breakthrough. And that would be great. They hold the group meetings at several locations, depending on the divisions. And I honestly thought that was a good turnaround. So we may want to consider another facilitator, like I had said earlier in this time. That's probably going to be the best because who else is going to engage in that authority to pull all this crowd together? But someone professional.

And specifically you're speaking about the general plan advisory committee and the city received a number of different sources of funds to complete the task of updating the general, I'm sorry, the general plan. And so my suspicion is that staff use some of those resources to hire a facilitator to put on those workshops in the community.

So can we kind of do the same? Rob Paul to pay Peter kind of thing? We need to do something. We need money. Yes. I understand. Can't do it for free. So unless someone wants to volunteer some million dollars here, then I guess, you know, we'll knock on some doors or I don't know. But we do need to get at it in a different format than maybe just public advertisement. Maybe we do need to hold meetings in certain wards to get the attractions and Get it out there. And that way you can get the hands-on voice opinion from the public, the people, which is the dominating factor. Because we're here for them. We're here for all of them. I'm not here for me. I'm here for all of you guys. So we do need to do something fast.

And then the next element that they... that you guys could take advantage of is what you had suggested at one of the previous meetings, which is a water bill insert. And I looked into that. When we sent those out for other different things, for example, we sent one out when we wanted feedback for the one-stop shop. I believe there's also one going out to inform the public about the new rules surrounding fireworks. Um, and so when I spoke with the water department, there are approximately 4,800, I'm sorry, four 48,000 active households on their books. Um, the total project could cost somewhere around $3,072. That would include printing and production at around 23, I'm sorry, $2,600 and then mailing and handling. labor around $480. And there could be a good response rate, or at least some information passed on by sending out a water bill. So that is something that you could incorporate into your outreach plan. And then finally, I already touched on it, but there was a public facilitator that helped the committee at the last time, and that was funded by the city council. So those are just some elements that you could incorporate into some other ideas that you may have. and then we can present the city manager with an outreach plan and have him weigh in on what's feasible and what could be done to allocate some funds on it, whether he would like to take that recommendation to the city council or do a discretionary.

I have another question.

Is it possible that we can get that data from the census and start sending, like, surveys through their emails or texts that we're trying to get a hold of you as a resident? We need, you know, a few minutes of your time to fill out the survey. That way, if they don't want to attend, there's another source of way that we can get to the public. Because that's just it. Unless we stand outside and start saying, vote. I don't know what else to say.

can check on um how we can use publicly available data or not and i can get back to you um perfect what i will say is that the last survey that was released from the charter review it had 452 participants um i think that a lot of it was um developing the survey and then letting folks know at council meeting after council meeting and also the council members sharing it amongst

their constituents that there is a survey it's available for you providing it at the various commissions i think there's a lot we can do to let the public know but i will check on that for you i also have a um advertising tool called captivate which we create our model whatever we want to advertise and it comes out in every television gym stores, dental office, medical offices, anything of that sort of nature where they have captivate, it announces. So that's another source besides the social media. I think we could probably reach the public somehow, someway, and I'm determined to get that done because without them, we can't. We can't. It's impossible.

In regards to sending out the questionnaire in the water bills I noticed that there was not a cost associated with the return postage envelope I feel that if the person that gets the water bill takes the time to read the insert That means they're somewhat engaged and I think that they would be comfortable. I would hope they would be comfortable replying to an online survey

Yes. So what we have done in the past is we included not only the URL, but a QR code that they could quickly use their phone. It would link them to the survey. They could fill it out that way. We could also make them available at City Hall. We could provide a number and say, if you would like to fill out person, please come down and we can give you a paper copy.

Perfect. What about having the neighborhood associations put something in their newsletters? Is that something we could partner up with them as well?

Absolutely.

Absolutely. Perhaps we could look into doing something like that as well.

Yes. When we got responses for the one-stop shop, we also attended some of the neighborhood association meetings and did a short presentation. But the city staff are always in communication with them, and so we can utilize their mailing list as well and ask them to share any information we have.

Another one would be the emergency management system that's connected to everybody's cell phone. That way, when they relay a message, it gets relayed to everyone in the area with a certain demographic location. That would be another concept that we can consider there as well.

Thank you. Any comments on the city manager's report?

Sorry, I was hoping to get some more time on that, Tim. During the last process, did you have like a public PowerPoint presentation that could have been disseminated to community-based organizations for them to utilize through this process. Obviously, I know we're going to be limited in how many forums we can do, but I think it'd be helpful to at least come up with a PowerPoint presentation that they can utilize and kind of disseminate how they wish to usually be those trusted messengers in this process. Because what I'm concerned about is putting all this money in terms of doing PSAs that you know, just kind of come through our periphery, but don't actually meaningfully engage with. And this is something like the charter that I think we really need to have deeper connections and conversations on because of the nuance of the nature of the topic. So I'm just kind of curious about any insight on that.

Yes. As part of my staff report, I included a couple of attachments. This is from the May 27th meeting. The first one was the survey results. The second one was the agenda that they used. It was a draft agenda from their public forum. But the third one was the actual PowerPoint presentation that they presented at those. And I think that that would be a very good template for us to start from. I'm sure I can work with the city attorney to make sure that it is appropriate for public dissemination, it's unbiased, and that's something that we could develop at the staff level and also disseminate, yes.

Yeah, I think that's a great suggestion. A PowerPoint would help us not only start the discussion but educate the public as well. I think one of the public comments I, in part, agreed with that the public doesn't know a lot about the city charter. It's not something that you discuss at the dinner table or at the barbershop. And so we've got to get basic education about the charter out there and then invite the feedback because I do think people have opinions. It's just, they might not have those opinions fit within the true framework of our current charter and what some of the other options are.

I would definitely market it on my end if I have that ability, that link, that PowerPoint presentation where I can get it out in so many ways. I already deal with that. I know how to market. Now, the texture on it is what's the vital importance, what we're going to put up there. So, that's another concept to consider, how we're going to handle the surveys that are needing, what exactly are we going to target and how we're going to minimize it to maybe less than 10 questions. That'll be easy. Maybe that would be something we can all share amongst our fields and possibly get out there somehow.

Yes. And that's why I included those three attachments after I did some research. I thought that those were well thought out documents that the committee back in 2015 developed. And it's a good springboard for you all to look at the survey questions, see which ones you like, which ones you'd like to update, look at the agenda that they put together, see what you'd like to update about that. And the same with the PowerPoint. So hopefully that's helpful. As you guys look at those documents, you can reflect and provide me some input and we can put it together.

Where can we get a hold of those? How can we get a hold of those?

I can give you a physical copy or I can send you those documents electronically. But if you check your email, it's from the May 27th agenda. But I can check with you after the meeting and make sure you have those in your inbox.

That would be perfect. Thank you.

Would all the committee members be willing to take a PowerPoint presentation out to community groups and lead discussions? Or maybe teams of us could do that? Yeah, I think it would be something that wouldn't have a great cost. Right. And I think would produce a lot of initial helpful feedback. And we could all agree to take copious notes on what the comments are and report back at the next meetings.

I agree about the PowerPoint presentation going out because that way we're all speaking the same language when we go out if we adhere to the PowerPoint presentation. And there's already places that we can go to neighborhood associations and those things that almost throughout the whole city, each ward probably have at least one or two or three. And we can take it there and just, like I said, take notes and see what the public have to say. You know, this is what I'd like to see in the changes made to the charter. But if they don't know what's in the charter right now, they don't know what to change, what changes that they would like to see. And so as educating them and people to say, you know, we don't know what's in the charter. You know, probably about 75, 80% of the people in our city don't really probably even higher than that truth be said don't know what's going on in the charter so the more opportunity we have to educate people uh be better uh for us when we come to talk about making changes and people buying into those changes and uh if i may just want to add to uh i definitely want to uh iterate the importance i'm not sure if the city has

been doing virtual community-based meetings, but I do think it's important that we include that in this process, given everything going on right now in terms of accessibility to those meetings. We can put on all the forms we want, but just people's fear of even leaving their houses is something that can deter them from coming. So I would like to see that as an option, as well as making sure that we have translation services available for that and be prepared for that.

Is there any way we could have somebody tape the PowerPoint message and have it run on Channel 3?

I can definitely ask about that. Yes, I will ask and get back to you.

Because if I may, Corey, if I recall, 2015 was right at the beginning of the social media's rise, and I'm not sure if social media was included in that plan previously. So I'm interested to see how we can incorporate that kind of going forward. Wonderful.

Taking a look at this PowerPoint from 2015, it was well thought out. I mean, it's very well put together. Minor changes that we'll have to make 11 years later, but it's all here. So there's no reason to recreate the whole PowerPoint. I said minor changes to it. And like my colleague said, yeah, putting it on our website and then social media and give the whole public access to this PowerPoint would be great. That's the starting point, in my opinion.

I'm not sure if you all have a copy, but are there any sections that you don't think we should include in an updated PowerPoint?

Well, I think the focus was a lot different before. We were deciding as a city what type of government to have, what type of charter to have. There was a huge... range of options on the table. So I don't see the exact presentation from 2015 as something that we want to do, but there certainly are parts of it that would be directly usable. So maybe if we could have an outline of the best that our city manager office thinks that would apply today, given our discussions, and we can go from there at the next meeting if we want to add or subtract topics or give further input.

Be happy to.

And I think, too, what I think would be important, too, is to identify exactly what powers the mayor has versus what powers the council has and how those kind of interrelate. I think it's important that we include that in the presentation so that we're at least all on the same page in terms of the starting point.

Yeah, we definitely want to include our discussions, which I think have been pretty specific on the six points and some other options as well. We don't have to limit ourselves to that list.

I should have said also the city manager, what their role is too.

A question for the committee. Would you like the PowerPoint to be more informational or would you also like it to cross over into some of the potential charter amendments that you're thinking about? Or would you like to save that for the questionnaire? How would you like to break up the informational educational piece from some of the ideas that you're bringing up for the next cycle?

I say additional. an additional format, not all in one. So the questionnaire should be after the education.

Well, this PowerPoint has both. So towards the end, if you look at it, it's got the questions of what do you think? One of the slides here is should the mayor of San Bernardino be able to vote on matters of city business like the common council members? Yes or no? And why do you feel that way? So there's a little bit of both on this PowerPoint.

Well, I think what's important to understand about the contrast between the 2015 version versus our version is like what Mr. Prince said earlier, is that we're confined to what the council has given us direction on in terms of how we move forward. It's not whether we go back to a strong mayor system or our council manager system. Our purview is how to improve upon a council manager form of government. So, I mean, I think that's something that as a charter committee, I think we're going to constantly be having those conversations about that I think once we kind of find a consensus and identify what are the actual problems that are going on in our city and what those solutions may be, I think that it would be fine with including that in a PowerPoint presentation, not saying putting our bias into it, but just saying, here's some ideas that are coming forth. Because obviously, it is a complex discussion. And so it'd be nice to have some kind of framework to say, You know, this is what's been going on in our city. We've had this new charter for, what, just a little over 10 years. We've got to be real about what's been going wrong and what are we doing to try to address that.

I'm of an opinion that the PowerPoint should just be on the existing charter. Period. And then at the last, maybe that slide at the end of the say questions, you know, but just the existing charter, because this is going to be playing, you know, on different media. So what we're trying to do right now is educate people on the charter. And what the changes that we make is sold and separate, I believe. I think the first step we need to make is just educate people where we are and then take it since we got a lot of time. This is where we want to go. That's just my opinion.

I think some of the best discussions are when you educate, you put a couple of facts out there, and then you ask the questions, and then you get the public to give their feedback, and that might not be appropriate for every forum that we go to, but I wouldn't be in favor of relegating the questions to the end with one slide. I would say The focus towards the beginning of the presentation should be informational, but we can ask questions along the way. Are you happy with the role of the mayor? Do you think that the mayor has the opportunity to accomplish meaningful goals under the present charter after they're educated, get their feedback? I don't think it should be, okay, you've heard 20 minutes and now it's your turn. I'd like to see more of a, back and forth discussion.

I would agree with what Mr. Johnson said. I think educating the community on what the charter does, if we focus on that for a few months and educate as many people as possible, and then getting feedback from the community. And then from there, we could kind of formulate our questionnaire to get into the water bill as far as questions as what kind of changes the community wants. But I think the first step is educating the community. So we could focus on that for say a quarter of the year, the next quarter, get community feedback. And with that feedback, we get our questions and then we insert into the water bill and kind of get a survey that way.

I think Mr. Andy just said it. That's actually the blueprint and that should stay that way for that same reason. You educate first and then you get a little feedback and then you present a survey and you get the answer. So, I think that'll work. I honestly think that'll work.

Yeah, I agree. If we're going to do a peer survey, that needs to be after the public outreach efforts and education. So maybe the city manager's heard some discussion on that, and since you are the professionals, you probably have some better ideas and can put something together, or maybe some options, and we can look at it next meeting.

And just to check that it's a consensus, just so we know what to draft in this PowerPoint, that it'll be largely informational, focused on the current city charter.

Right.

Okay. Yes.

We're also including the purview of the current charter committee, right? Yes. Identifying the difference between 2015 versus where we're at right now.

yes um I'll probably take some elements from your binder talking about the scope the history of the committee and then we can most likely move into the city charter form of government so those general things that you all are aware of so the the public can kind of see all of the variables that are mixing together to make the city government will we be able to review this before you publish it um

What I had in mind was maybe just an outline for next month, just like a list of topics without putting them to the burden of doing a whole PowerPoint that maybe we want to have some more input before you go to that trouble. So maybe just start out with like a general outline of what the PowerPoint might cover and what the options are.

Okay, I can do that. I wanted to avoid any Brown Act issues with sharing a document and you all providing me input on it outside of a Brown Act meeting. But I can put together an outline. And if you're comfortable with an outline, the meeting after, I can have a full presentation for you all to approve as an element of the outreach plan.

Thank you. Okay.

Did anybody go to the Brown Act training at the library?

I did.

How was that?

It was good.

Good.

It was very good.

I thought I knew the Brown Act and how it worked and what our role was, but I learned a lot. So I'm glad I attended, and I encourage the others, if they have another meeting, to attend. It was very informative.

They definitely are going to send us again. I apologize for changing.

My only request is that it would be a little bit longer than an hour because there is a lot of substance in that. And I don't think we quite got to everything. But yeah, I was definitely glad I was there.

And just so I can give clarification, and maybe if you think it's appropriate, Chair, for a quick vote, but the elements of the outreach plan for the Charter Review Committee that you'd like the city manager to evaluate and provide some input on what resources outside of staff time he could allocate or he could bring to the council's attention are a questionnaire, a PowerPoint presentation, And this is just at a high level. I'm not going to go into specific details. Community workshops, potentially with a facilitator. Correct. In-person and virtual with translation services available. And then a taped message specifically on the city charter for YouTube.

And if I may also just add one more thing, a press release.

I can add Channel 3. I can add Channel 3.

press release so that it gets disseminated to our local media publications.

I also would like to see on the public events that we have, they should be able to have something there explaining the city of San Bernardino is conducting whatever event and therefore please feel free to stop by and give us an opinion on the charter review once we get it out there. Because first we do have to educate. Once it's out there, then of course get the feedback, get the answers that we need to create what we need to get them satisfied.

Okay.

Got that. Okay. Anything else on outreach? okay well we're about 50 minutes in um is there anything else that the committee members would like to discuss within the parameters of our agenda cory i just have one question after translation services what else was on that list i'm sorry my apologies um you

I apologize for the microphone issues. You had all discussed some type of taped message for the community, whether that is utilizing the PowerPoint. I'm not sure what format that might be, who might deliver such a taped message, but you did want to explore it further as part of the strategy, if I'm correct.

And if we advertise something like that on TV3, that would be at no cost?

Just outside of staff time, I will have to double check if there is an additional cost to that.

Is it possible that we can include our materials or promotional information at the city-sponsored events like the Farmers' Markets on Tuesdays that the city is a vendor at or those things? Because I really think that we can really get a lot of community buy-in at those things if we have a presence there too.

Yeah, what I would suggest is once you all agree on an updated, please inform yourself about the current city charter document. PowerPoints are great, quick ways for folks to get that. We can disseminate that at all city things. And so, yes.

Is it possible we can get input from our audience as to what they would like to see?

I'm sorry would you might would you mind repeating that for me would it be okay to ask the public as to what they would like to see as far as outreach I would just give the discretion to the chair if you'd like to invite anyone to speak further I don't have a problem with it does anybody yeah why don't we would any member of the public like to address our outreach efforts and discussion

Mr. Fuentes?

Can I put a smile on?

What you all discussed was great, but in part of your package, are you going to do a presentation at each of the wards, a couple of presentation at each of the wards, like at a local neighborhood watch or something where the community gets together? Is that part of your list? That's important because they're not going to come downtown. That would be one because the people are not going to come downtown. Most of them are not. So you have to go out to the wards.

I'm sorry. That's why I suggested a facilitator because they create all this. and we don't really have to do anything we just give them the tools and they go ahead and announce it go to the neighborhood association meetings they will just create all this event to go ahead and publicize it which that's what we need that strength i feel i just know that people aren't going to come downtown you got to go out there yeah

I just want to also comment, though, that I think that when the city is most engaged, though, it is during a mayor and council meeting, which is, again, downtown. And I would like to see if the staff would be open to seeing if we can get on a mayor and council agenda just to dedicate maybe 10 to 15 minutes about what we're coming up with to really reach that audience, because that's when, again, most community members are engaged with ongoing discussions. And if we can get again not a significant amount of time but maybe 10 to 15 minutes to kind of say this is what where this is what we're doing this is the progress we made and please feel free and engage from there mr fuentes

I'd like to see more meetings in the wards. And I know you could do it on Zoom, too, because there's people can't make it. Like Mr. Roberts said, people are scared to leave their homes. So you could put this out on Zoom and just relate to the public because, again, some people in the city just don't care. But we can make them care by informing them about this, the issues and the charter, because that's what our city runs on. And there's a lot of people who like to say, well, the mayor doesn't do anything. The mayor does. Well, yeah, because that's our charter. You know, she can't go against the charter.

Thank you. Okay.

Can I ask Andy how old you are? Not to get personal, but you're the smallest one in here and you have a drive that maybe we should send you. Oh my goodness. Great job, son. Great job.

Student at San Bernardino High School.

Yeah. Maybe we need to go to the high school.

Yeah. Anything else, committee members? Okay. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Anything else you want to discuss?

Well, I did, in my comments, propose placing an item on the agenda about choosing a chairperson, and I know just one person can't put an item on the agenda, and so I just don't know the process.

can we get clarification from staff on like what the timeline is on the standard term for chair and vice chairs of the committee uh yes it's one year

If you don't mind, we'd like to discuss it further and we can get back to you via email on putting that item on the agenda.

In the meantime, I would like to get ideas from our people. Before we close, if anybody else wants to speak, go right ahead. I said I would like to hear you guys speak. For that same reason, we need more input as far as your thoughts on how it should be ran, the outreach program. So I'm sure all of you have different opinions, different ideas, different thoughts. I would lay it out just to see right now is a perfect time because we're constructing what we need for our charter. So speak forever, hold your peace.

or come back at the next meeting next month.

Can you hear me? I came in late, so I apologize. I'm not quite sure what you, I didn't even get a chance to look at this, but with what you just talked about regarding outreach, I didn't hear anybody talk about the NAC. How come you guys aren't making use of NAC? Neighborhood Association Council.

We discussed that. Oh, you did? Okay. We discussed going out to all the neighborhood associations and making presentations to all of the groups. And that would be all of you here on the board, right? Either us or a presenter.

So personally, I would like to see you come out because... I tried to get onto the video for this meeting and it's not up. So they don't even know that this meeting's probably happening. They might know, but if it's not on YouTube, I couldn't find it. And then there's not really a lot of people that actually watch this particular one. There might be more, or maybe I'm just missing it. So I would say since NAC is really making a concerted effort to collaborate with the city government and trying to work together, I think that would be your best bet. I do agree with Ms. Dolores. People don't want to come down here. I take the back way, and that's pretty quick. And it's a pain. I just found out, it seems like the lights, the stoplights, they've made them slower. I'm not sure what's going on. Just letting you know, it could be my imagination. But there's no traffic. There's no traffic. And it took me a minute to get here. So I'm like, OK, what's going on? So anyways, I digress. So I would encourage NAC. I would love to see all of you participate in NAC. as well as someone else if you want someone else to present but i think it's really important that the people see you because you're our representatives correct i mean i was so glad to see you mr garcia at councilwoman canasa's community meeting there weren't a whole lot of people there but the point being you were there and you were throwing out ideas um and Something definitely, like Ms. Dolores has said, something has to change. Something has to change. We're all tired. We're all tired. But you know what? If we want to see things change, we're just going to have to keep pushing forward and working together. And again, I'm going to bring up NAC. I think that is one of it. Channel 3, I think, is the one that needs to go on there. Farmer's Market. It's another avenue, but I haven't been out down there, so I don't know. That's going to take a lot of paperwork, a lot of standing out there. And with the summer coming, I don't know if people are going to be so inclined. But again, I haven't been down there, so I don't know. So definitely, please consider NAC.

Ma'am, could you state your name for the record?

Oh, I apologize. I'm Dorothy Nevarez. I'm Fifth Ward.

Great. If you provide that information to staff about the meetings, I'm sure we'd all like to know.

The meeting's actually being streamed on sanbernino.cablecast.tv right now. You could check it out. If you go to the city website and you scroll down, it'll show community videos, and you could go on there. But she just gave a great idea about the council member from the Fifth Ward and her community meeting. You guys can collaborate with the council members because they hold community meetings to kind of project what the Charter Review Committee is doing. um you know sort of have that meeting um with their council member to kind of give out the information that's happening thank you good suggestions anybody else don't be shy now

Any further comments from committee members? Yes. Lastly, since people do have a hard time trying to find this on video, is there an email that the community could email possible feedback, remarks that would come to this committee?

Yes. On every agenda on the cover page, there's an email address. It's crcpubliccomments at sbcity.org. So crcpubliccomments at sbcity.org. I monitor that inbox if anybody sends in a public comment by four o'clock of the meeting date. I normally distribute it to you all and I also monitor it for comments and I can provide you any feedback that is sent to that email address.

Yes, sir. I would encourage the community, if you're watching this a day from now, a week from now, and you have an idea or something you want this charter to do, to please go ahead and email it to that email.

It is on the cover page of every single agenda, and it's crcpubliccommentsatsbcity.org.

And usually these meetings are available on YouTube. The last meeting, however, I could not find it, but the prior meetings to that one, I did, I was able to view them on YouTube. So I don't know what happened with that glitch, but.

We are correcting that, but it is also, the meeting is available on the homepage if you just scroll down to the bottom at community meetings, but we will fix the YouTube link shortly.

No, I myself try to avoid the comments section for my mental health. But I would, I mean, I do think it's important that we put like some kind of disclaimer in the YouTube section saying this is how people can make those comments there if recognizing that, you know, some of us or me myself, I'm not going to be looking there if they're putting some good feedback.

I will ask staff to see if we can add that. That's a great idea.

Any other questions? No.

Motion to adjourn.

Second. Okay. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Have a good evening, San Bernardino.

Have a happy Fourth of July, everyone.