City Council - Regular Meeting

Good good afternoon. It's 01:30, and I'd like to call this meeting to order. And I see that some of our counsel are here and some are not. So would you take the role, please?

Kameh? Here. Campos? Tordios? Here. Cohen? Here. Ortiz? Present. Mulcahy?

Here.

Duan?

Here.

Candelis?

Here.

Casey? Here. Foley?

Here.

And mayor Mahan is absent. You have a quorum. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Now I'd like if you, are able to join us in the pledge, please stand and join us. I pledge allegiance 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. Good afternoon, everyone. Today today's invocation will be provided by father Hugo Rojas of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. And council member Ortiz, please tell us more.

Thank you so much, vice mayor. It's my pleasure to introduce mister father Hugo Rojas, pastor at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in the Mayfair neighborhood of East San Jose for today's invocation. Born in Tuniu Yan, Mendoza, Argentina, father Ugo was ordained in 1997 and spent a decade serving as a missionary in Taiwan, bringing faith and connection across the cultures. Since arriving in the diocese of San Jose in 2008, he has served communities in Gilroy and at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Joseph, always with a deep commitment to service. Please join me in welcoming father Ugo.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you. Lord god, father of peace, source of all wisdom and truth, we come before you today with humility, recognizing that all human authority finds it deep its meaning in service to others. As we begin this session of the San Jose City Council, we ask you to pour out your spirit upon the major and all the members of this council and upon all who are gathered here. Light in their minds and heart as they carry the responsibility of serving this community.

Grant them prudence to deserve what is right, justice to give each person they do, fortitude to act with courage and temperance to carry out their duties with balance and integrity. Amid the diversity of perspectives, may there always be mutual respect and sincere willingness to engage in dialogue. Help them to listen attentively, to speak truthfully, and to work together in seeking solutions that uphold the dignity of every person cared created in your image and likeness. We entrust to you in a special way the most vulnerable in our city, families striving to make ends meet the poor, migrants, the unhoused, the sick, and the elderly. May the decisions made here today reflect a true commitment to them, and may no one be forgotten.

Bless, Lord, the city of San Jose, its neighborhoods, its families, its workers, its leaders, and all who call it home. May peace, justice, and solidarity flourish within it. Amen.

Thank you, father. Now would council council member Ortiz please join me as the at the podium as we recognize and proclaim May 5 as Cinco de Mayo.

And my colleagues are welcome to join as well. Thank you. And if I could have, the members of the Cinco de Mayo Committee to please join us down here.

Right up.

Thank you so much, vice mayor. I wanna start by thanking our incredible host committee. This event doesn't happen without you. So many of you gave your time, your energy, and your heart to make this possible, all on a volunteer basis. What you created for our community is something truly special, and I hope you know how deeply you are appreciated.

This year's Cinco de Mayo Parade and Festival was nothing short of incredible. Thousands of residents came out to celebrate families, small businesses, performers, car clubs, all coming together in a way that truly reflected the spirit of East San Jose. It was vibrant. It was joyful. And most importantly, it was safe and welcoming to our community.

This event has now become a meaningful tradition in our city. As noted in the proclamation, it honors the resilience in history rooted in the battle of Puebla. But here in San Jose, it's also about celebrating our culture, uplifting community pride, and creating a space for families to come together. I want to specifically recognize the United Lowrider Council for their leadership in preserving and uplifting Lowrider Chicano culture, not just as art, but as a powerful form of community connection and identity. To everyone who helped bring this event to life, especially all of our committee members, our partners, our sponsors, our volunteers, and the many community leaders, thank you for continuing to invest in our neighborhoods and our people.

It is my honor, to present this proclamation alongside the council and the mayor, recognizing Cinco de Mayo in the incredible work of the host committee. Congratulations, and thank you all for what you do. I'd now like to invite mister David Polanco, who represents the United Lowrider Council, to share a few words on behalf of the Cinco de Mayo Committee.

Thank you. Thank you, Peter, for that the kind words and all the recognition. So my name is David Polanco. I'm president of the Low Rider Council, Born and raised in San Jose, local three thirty two IBW member. Gotta throw that in there.

You know? But, you know, I think today, I really wanna speak on the growth of this event because, you know, this is only our third year, and it just continues to grow. And and the following is just just just going nationwide. I can honestly say that now because we have people that are attending, getting flights, and coming out here to attend our event. And along with that are coming to artists that wanna participate in that.

I believe we had around a 150, artists, come from all over The United States and locally. So, I mean, that's something that really that really touched me this year that that that they feel that they gotta be here. You know, we did grow the event as far as having from one to two stages. That was a big thing. You know, it just keeps growing.

And I and I I think I honestly say this year, the parade route was probably the most filled that it's ever been. And then I I mean, my wife and I bagged up candy for the kids, you know, and we ran out near the end. We just made it, but I think just having that interaction with those kids is really important. You know? I mean, I said this in my speech earlier, at the event.

You know, I was one of those kids. You know? I was born and raised in San Jose, so I've seen all those Cinco de Mayo's downtown, and then it went away. And now we've brought it back, and it that's a very prideful thing for me and a lot of the members of the Lowrider community and even people that are not part of the Lowrider community. So this this I think there's a lot of pride on the East Side that that when this event happens, it's their event.

And and and now it's they were sharing that with everybody. I mean, the lowrider community is from all over, you know, San Jose. But, anyways, I just wanted to give a special thanks to mayor Matt Mayhem for his his contributions, Rosemary Camay, Pamela Campos, David Cohen, Domingo Candelas, and and vice mayor Pam Foley, and especially Peter Ortiz for believing in what we're doing and and also all the the sponsorships that we received. And and a and a big shout out to all the committee matters commit committee members who dedicated themselves, you know, for months and months for meeting and multiple times a week to get this done. And it's a it's a passion of love, and I appreciate everybody here for supporting the Lowrider community and our culture.

Thank you. Now

the vice mayor will present the proclamation, and then we'll join for a picture.

Council member Duan, please join me at the podium as we recognize and proclaim national fallen firefighters weekend. Firefighters, please join us.

Today, we come together in recognition of a solemn observance honoring the bravery, sacrifice, and lasting legacy of American fallen firefighters. Firefighting is more than just a profession. It is a commitment to run towards dangers when others are running away, to put the safety of others ahead of your own, and to serve a community with courage that often go unseen until it it is most needed. In the line of duty, many have made the ultimate sacrifice. They are remembered not only as a firefighter, but as a parent, spouse, children, friends, and neighbor who absence, it deeply felt.

I myself as a retired fire captain, and this cause is deeply personal to me. I have worked alongside men and women who answer every call without hesitation. And I carry with me the memory of those who never made it home. Their name, their stories, and their sacrifice stay with you forever. The National Fallen Firefighter Foundation create light tonight for fallen firefighters to ensure that these heroes are never forgotten.

Across the nation, community paused together in reflection and gratitude. From May 2 through May 3, landmarks, including the tower and rotunda, are eliminated in red, a powerful symbol of both the fire they once fought and the courage they carry into every call. It is a reminder of the risk firefighter face every day and the lives behind the uniform we honor. I'm proud to present this proclamation and sponsor the light of the tower and rotunda over the past weekend from May 1 to May 3 to recognize this national firefighter fallen firefighter day. Thank you so much.

And vice mayor?

And our last commendation is by council member Campos. Please join me at the podium as we recognize and proclaim May as National Foster Care Awareness Month.

Thank you. Today, I am proud to proclaim foster care awareness month to uplift the community partners and foster families that provide San Jose youth with safe, loving environments. Their work has created an ecosystem of care and support for our most vulnerable youth, and their service provides stability and a trusted adult to keep our children grounded in times of difficult transition. Currently, our county sees a disproportionate number of Latino youth entering the foster care system. Right now, it's seven in 10 children that are served by our foster care system who are Latino even though the Latino community represents only about a third of the county's population according to the Latino health assessment.

So in other words, Latino children are severely overrepresented in our foster care system, and addressing these inequities will require deep collaboration and partnership. I'm honored to be joined today by advocates and community partners who are committed and engaged in this work. When I was a student studying child development at San Jose State, I first learned about CASA, the child advocates for Silicon Valley. And I learned that you had to be 21 to volunteer. So as soon as I turned 21, I was in the room learning how to become a CASA, and that experience taught me the importance of mentorship and the growing need for volunteers who support our youth.

The opportunity to serve has deepened my commitment to being a champion for youth in our foster care system while serving as the district two council member. And I hope that you are inspired and encouraged to share the message of the work that is needed to be done to help stabilize and support the youth experiencing foster care in our community. And with that, I'd like to welcome Lauren from the Child Advocates of Silicon Valley to share some words.

Thank you so much, council member Campos. My name is Lauren Salsicia. I'm I'm the director of development with Child Advocates of Silicon Valley. This year in 2026, Child Advocates is celebrating our fortieth anniversary of serving foster youth throughout the county of Santa Clara. We certainly have seen a lot of ups and a lot of downs with foster care in the county.

We have served more than thousands of youth as well as supported thousands of CASA volunteers. CASA volunteer is a court appointed special advocate. What sets us apart from other mentorship organizations is our ability to advocate for the youth across the board. There's a court order in place that allows us to do so. So we our our volunteers have access to teachers, foster care placements, even the doctor's office.

So counselors, all things like that. A lot of our kids have individualized education plans, so a lot of our CASA volunteers hold educational rights so they can advocate for their youth in the school setting as well. Right now, there are more than 150 kids on our waiting list hoping to have a CASA volunteer in their corner, helping them throughout their journey in the foster care system. The need is great these days, as I'm sure you have seen in the news. So please share with your networks, make sure everyone knows about the court appointed special advocate program so that we can try to serve all of these youth to the best of our ability.

We serve three main roles, a mentor, advocate, and voice. We mentor the youth in all the ways they may need mentorship. We advocate for them in all the places where they need advocacy, the courtroom with foster care placement as well as in the school system with the doctor, and we lift up their voices in court. We have the court order, as I said, so they're able CASA volunteers are able to tell the judge, hey. Kiddo is doing really well. Or we talked about counseling six months ago. Counseling still hasn't happened. How do we make this work? I wanted to thank the council member once again for issuing this proclamation. It means a lot to us, and we really hope that we'll be able to serve those over a 150 kids on our waiting list. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Lauren. I also wanna thank our partners from Bill Wilson Center, Sacred Heart, and our supervisor, Adrenas, who we know is a familiar champion and voice for our children here at city hall, and her work helped get us the Latino health assessment that I referred referenced in my remarks. So now vice mayor will present the proclamation. Thank you.

Okay. Moving on to the agenda. I under orders of the day, item 3.3 has been requested by the applicant to be dropped. We do need to have a formal motion to drop it from the agenda. Would a council member care to make that motion?

I'll move to drop item 3.3 from the agenda.

Second. Great. I have a motion and a second. Seeing no hands raised, let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously with one absent.

Thank you. So we will drop that from the agenda and move to the closed session report. Which we

The closed session was canceled today, vice mayor.

Very good. We had this morning and we we're very happy to have that. Next is the consent calendar. Are there any items on the council that council wishes to pull from consent? I know that council member Mulcahy would like to pull 2.9. Are there any other items that need to be pulled? Okay. So let's address two point nine first and separately, and then we will address the rest of the consent. Council member.

Thank you, vice mayor. I need to recuse myself from item 2.9 on today's consent agenda as Clear Channel is a source of income through a lease agreement on one of my properties. And as a reminder for my colleagues under a new rule from the FPPC regulation eighteen seven zero seven three a allows me to stay in chambers for items on consent that require my recusal. This item will need to be heard and voted on separately from the balance of the consent agenda. Thank you, vice mayor.

Thank you very much. So let's address two point nine first. Is there any members of the public who wish to speak on 02/2009?

Yes. So we have a few speaker cards. I as I call your name, please make your way to the podium and you don't have to speak in the order in which you're called. We have Brian, Jason, John, Les, and Paul.

Thank you. I this this is about the signage, and I'm oh, I have this thing. My eyeballs are not doing real good today. I have I have glaucoma, so sorry. I wrote a really detailed report that I sent in email.

I don't know how much that really rates to me. No offense. But it seemed to me that this item changed quite a bit, and it seemed to me that there wasn't a real robust discussion about it. And maybe it's something people might wanna reconsider because once you build it, it's there. And so what I read is that you're doubling the sign the sign with the sign height, and it's those signs that are blaring.

We've already had a vision zero. And if you look at the traffic accidents that have happened over the last few months, tragically, we're not going that direction. And this could be a major contributor to that. And just a lot of this stuff I put down came from, like, four or five different studies that were peer reviewed about these kinds of signs. Everybody says they're data driven. That's the data that I sent to you. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon. I'm John Miller with no digital billboards. Why did Clear Channel initially submit plans for smaller, lower billboards and after approval is now submitting plans for larger and higher billboards? Even though you should just say no, a Clear Channel knows that city council is inclined to accept this bait and switch. They believe the council has been more responsive to the billboard industry than to the people of San Jose, who don't really wanna become a captive audience to unsolicited commercial messages for which there is no off switch.

Despite the public's opposition to digital billboards, you have repeatedly implied that the city will make more money from allowing digital billboards than you know will be the case. You have repeatedly stated that significant numbers of existing conventional billboards will be removed to allow digitals to go up, but when, when you know that this is not true. You have repeatedly stated that digital billboards will transform downtown by generating something called urban vibrancy that no one in city government can really define. This entire process has been conducted off the public's radar without sufficient public outreach and with increasingly limited transparency and accountability. Please don't go down in the record books as the consul on whose watch the city of San Jose lost its architectural integrity, its historic character, and its natural environment by selling out to the city's by selling out the city's unique identity to the billboard industry.

Please say no to Clear Channel by not approving their bait and switch. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Jason Hemp, District 3 resident, also a member of NOW Digital Billboards. Many of you were on this in this chamber last year approving the billboards that we're talking about for this agenda item. What's being proposed today on agenda 2.9 by staff is significant changes. If you haven't already read it, it's increasing the size of the displays, one of them by 50%, and also increasing the height almost two times from 40 feet to 85 feet.

And if you look at the overhead projector on the left is a rendering from the original report for the Maybury location showing how high from the freeway it is. And then the image on the right is showing how far from the freeway to Wilson Park, Watson Park. It's a quarter mile, less than a quarter mile, and the Cody Creek is just right in front of that. Also, in the report, it mentioned that there was a hearing posted to anyone that was within a thousand feet of this proposal. However, if you see some of the houses just off Jack Street, they're just beyond that, like 1,300 feet.

So I don't know if they actually got the notice, but they may notice the billboard once it goes up. I mean, you probably wouldn't wanna see a big digital screen in front of your front porch day and night if you had a nice house in front of that park. So maybe just keep that in mind on how the residents might feel. You might get a few not happy emails about that. The last thing is this feels like a bait and switch and irregular process. I mean, they're not trivial changes. They're not like 10% change or 20% change. Right? They're really increasing the size of this. And I I just recommend that you take extra consideration and maybe ask staff why Clear Channel asked for these changes in the first place. Thanks.

I am Les Levitt from the No Digital Billboards Group. My message to you is simple. This resolution related to the billboard contract with Clear Channel should be denied. Securing approval for smaller, lower height billboards and then coming back a year later, seeking approval for much larger structures, and characterizing the change by burying it in the consent calendar as routine is in effect bait and switch. Increasing a billboard height from 45 to 85 feet is not a minor change.

Increasing an already giant screen by 66% is not a minor change. If Clear Channel and the city intended to construct taller and larger digital billboards, that plan should have been presented in 2025. Contract approvals in the consent calendar are usually routine. New contracts, minor amendments based on unforeseen circumstances, but the contract changes here are significant. They're significant enough to be considered what are called cardinal changes, meaning they create a fundamentally different project, and there's no unforeseen circumstances here.

If you approve this revision, you're handing one firm an advantage and that amounts to an anticompetitive contract manipulation. This is the same thing that happened in 2023 with the Clear Channel Airport case where a judge voided the deal based on the city not following competitive bidding rules. The choices here are either stick to the 2025 agreement or restart the RFP process because the project scope is radically revised, Handing a gift to Clear Channel through a post approval private negotiation should not even be an option here.

Hello. Paul Lyonen from the University of California Observatory's Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton. Since 2018, you've heard a lot from me in written communication and in spoken contribution. I'd like you to join me today on a thought experiment. Suppose in all the arguments that have been made to you, we've been wrong on almost every one of them.

Suppose that the effects of light pollution on astronomy that we've argued are void. Suppose that the effects on flauna, fauna, and the environment are void. Suppose our arguments about the change of sense of place are void. But allow me and 30,000 other scientists in public in 10,000 publications, one allowance, the causal connection between hormonal cancers and exposure to light at night. Council members have repeatedly supported billboards arguing that they'll remove bite.

Admirable. But as we've seen in certain cases, some applicants have not been allowed or given a free pass on removing billboards. Other council members and some of the same have also argued that deserving projects within their districts will benefit from the income from these billboards. Admirable, laudable. The promise is $1,000,000 a year.

One case of breast cancer costs between 40,000 and $150,000 in the first year of treatment. $1,000,000 be divided by 11 districts gives you 91,000. You'll barely cover the cost of a breast cancer treatment. The typical representative value for a breast cancer treatment in the in the first year is $83,000. What pro billboard members and evangelized staff misapprehend as a vehicle for the public good shall in time be considered a public menace. Thank you.

Thank you. Back to council.

Thank you for the members of the public who spoke on this item. Do we have a motion or anyone care to comment? Council member Tordillos.

Thank you, vice mayor. I wanna just thank everyone who came out and also those who wrote written comments on this item. I know there's been a lot of it over the last few weeks. I had a couple of questions for Blagge. If you could come down just to kind of confirm, you know, some of the details of this given what we've heard. The first one, as you're coming down, wanted to confirm that with the proposed changes, the new, dimensions and sign, sizes being proposed, you're still compliant with city council policy six four, and also with the original, terms of the lease agreement signed last fall. Is that correct?

Good afternoon, council members. Blag is the law chief deputy director in the city manager's office of economic development and cultural affairs. Yes. This the currently proposed sign sizes still fall within council policy six dash four. Council policy six dash four says 1,200 feet 1,200 square feet of maximum sign size, and this is just over a thousand square feet.

Thank you. And then there was also questions as to, you know, the revenue projections for the city as well as the questions about, you know, are we actually gonna see legacy billboard removals? My understanding is that the removals have to actually happen before the new signs go into actually advertising and that we have revenue minimums that we're are kind of guaranteed as part of these contracts. Could you speak to that a little bit?

Yeah. Yes. Correct. Written into the lease agreement is that there will be a billboard a static billboard face removal at the six to one ratio. So actually, proposed originally proposed 19 faces to be removed throughout the city. And at the same time, we have a minimum annual guarantee. For the first and the initial ten year agreement, it will be 6,800,000 for the over the ten years.

Thank you. Those were all of my questions. Again, appreciate that this has been a controversial item. I wanna thank everyone for coming out, but did wanna kind of focus in on what we're actually reviewing today, which is solely the addendum to the environmental documents that were prepared last fall. You know, I reviewed all of the materials from when this can be council last year. I reviewed the addendum. I reviewed the terms of the lease agreement that the city entered last fall. And from those, just don't really see any valid grounds to reject the addendum at this late hour. I And do think that there are still some good benefits for the city as we have our ongoing budget challenges with this guaranteed new revenue stream alongside the fact that we will be seeing a good number of billboards being removed, including several in District 3 in fairly close proximity to these two billboards in particular. So thank you for confirming those details.

Council member, would you like to make the motion?

I would move acceptance of the staff report

or staff

recommendation. Yeah. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Council member Kamay.

Thank you. I have a quick question because I know that I got comments about the the lighting and all of that. Is this and just remind remind us, was this one of the billboards that would go dark at certain times or be less bright that it wouldn't affect?

Yes, council members. So written into our lease agreement is that these billboards must go dark, completely dark between the hours of midnight and 6AM. Along with that, there was a lighting study, that was done as part of the CEQUA addendum, and we do have environmental staff in the audience if

you want more detail on that. And that will be maintained. Correct?

Excuse me.

That will be maintained?

Correct.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Seeing no other hands, let's vote.

Motion passes nine to one with Mokehi recused. Oh. Mo nine to zero with a recusal from council member Mulcahy. Thank you.

Thank you. Next item is the rest of the consent calendar. Do we have any members of the public who wish to speak on that?

We do not.

Okay. Then is there a motion?

Move to approve

Okay. The consent calendar. Okay. We have a motion and a second on the rest of consent. And mister council member Mulcahy, you're back to vote on this one. So let's vote. Motion

passes unanimously.

Now we move to the report from the city manager.

Thank you very much, vice mayor. I do not have a report today.

Okay. Then moving to item 7.1, library facilities and customer experience. I believe we have a presentation. Jill Born, our city librarian, and Margaret Sullivan.

Alright. Good afternoon, vice mayor, members of council. As the council is aware, the San Jose Public Library System is comprised of the unique doctor Martin Luther King Junior Library, 23 permanent branch libraries, and the Mount Pleasant Bridge branch library. Library branches serve many functions for our system and our city as neighborhood anchors and networks of spaces that make the city's knowledge resources, public technology, educational programs, and community connections accessible to all. Each day, our libraries welcome more than 10,000 visitors, loan 23,000 items, answer 1,000 actual reference questions, and host a variety of groups and organizations holding meetings, offering programs, and conducting outreach.

The library currently has more than 635,000 library card holders, and a library card is not required to visit and use library facilities. Oh, I need the clicker. We are keenly aware of the importance of these community assets. Throughout the past year with the support of the San Jose Public Library Foundation, we engaged Margaret Sullivan Studios to help shape a plan that is informed by both analysis and community. And I'm pleased to introduce Margaret Sullivan herself.

Nice to see many of you all again. We brought forth an inclusive design process that incorporates progressive library planning with the best practices of community economic development to position the library as a citywide growth partner. We gathered both qualitative and quantitative data to inform these comprehensive and evidence based recommendations that we are presenting to you all today.

The resulting plan captures the programmatic or service elements of the library's future, identifies improvement priorities and opportunities for future library capital, and considers potential funding and development strategies. The community and data driven approach for the development of the plan heavily emphasized community involvement, including nearly 3,000 survey responses, a 180 community partners, and San Jose Library and Education Commission, the San Jose Youth Commission, additional focus groups, and interviews with civic and community leaders. A key summary finding was that our libraries are trusted and heavily used, and yet our facilities are undersized relative to the demand and best

practices. And what we learned with this feedback is that not only our community members invested in seeing the role of the library as city as classroom deepened for lifelong learning, they are eager to see the library take on expansive roles as the center of social, cultural, and civic life. This is great news for the city. The library, with its facilities optimized, will be a powerful partner for the city's quality of life objectives and the leadership that you all are stewarding. It is an opportune time to build on the momentum of this work to create the vibrancy that fosters safety, feels welcoming, and enhances the diverse neighborhoods that makes San Jose so special.

We called it the soul of San Jose.

Critical buildings oh, jeez. What is wrong with me? Critical building systems typically have an expected useful life of between twenty and thirty years before extensive renovations and replacements are required to maintain safe and welcoming facilities. Currently, 11 of our 24 branch locations, which is 45%, are more than twenty years old. Six libraries or 24 are between 18 and 20 years old, and seven libraries are between seven and 17 years old.

High usage, of course, contributes to wear and tear, requiring ongoing investments to maintain aging infrastructure and everything from automated doors to elevators to flooring to furniture. Now to determine library facility performance and growth potential, the plan drew from industry benchmarking research while recognizing the fact that effective service to surrounding communities is impacted by the correlation of dedicated branch library space to the size of the population in the area. This chart shows the comparison of library spaces per capita to their individual surrounding service area populations. The dark blue shows the current square feet per capita by branch library. The midway dotted line serves as a visual reference showing the benchmark of point five square feet per capita.

The upper dotted line shows the best practice of point seven five square feet per capita, and the green bars show the difference between our current state and the national best practice benchmark, which is theoretically the potential growth goal. The city's general plan currently articulates a goal of point five nine square feet per capita, and 20 branches are currently not meeting that goal. Only one branch exceeds the point seven five square feet per capita threshold. Another lens by which we analyze the need for library spaces and services is the library's equity index, which integrates social, economic, and mobility characteristics of surrounding neighborhoods in the prioritization of library spaces. This high level view shows that neighborhood disparity analysis with branches overlaid by their per square footage per capita status that was shown on the last slide and then attached in the executive summary brief.

This plan will be a dynamic and will be dynamic and responsive to be aligned with sustainable citywide development strategies. We got to put on our developer hat in this project. Specifically, we did an analysis of population shifts, library parcels, and the city's general plan and area specific plans. This enabled us to identify opportunities to expand branch square footage and add library branches in targeted areas where population is expected to grow and where we foresee library services may be co located or be in alignment with new development. The plan's multiple scenarios will provide flexibility for future fiscal conditions and opportunities.

And I think what's gonna be really great for all of you all is that this will enable you all to make strategic decisions in response to opportunities, but also enables you to strategically forge opportunities where needed.

So the plan provides an aspirational vision for potential long term growth and renewal with a corresponding investment framework to allow the maximum flexibility for room and creative opportunities. Three scenarios are proposed that reflect where investment will have the greatest impact, prioritizing targeted improvements to existing facilities and strategic expansion opportunities across the system. The three categories are to renew and sustain, which prioritizes targeted reinvestment in eight existing facilities. The growth on-site, which allows for expansions or additions where merited, and the idea of colocating or building new to meet service population needs. This map is one of many in the plan, which shows an ultimate growth possibility in which we utilize these strategies according to population need and development opportunities.

So libraries are facilities, but they function as platforms for customer experience with, yes, books, but also so much more. And so in that vein, one of the exciting aspects of the plan is the opportunity to learn from best practices, and not only development of library spaces, but how library development can offer solutions to support broader goals in the city and provide amenities that the communities want and need. This image, for example, is from Hartford Public Library. It is a vision for their development that is centered in a library, but also features a childcare center, a food pantry, a culinary kitchen, a coworking space, and even a neighborhood bank in addition to multiple services that libraries provide. The opportunity of colocation can include high priority services, businesses, and also housing.

And this example also represents what we learned from your community members that folks are really craving for all of community amenities to be colocated and convenient. So as a result, we know that this work cannot happen overnight, and we have identified a four phase approach to address the most immediate needs for investment based on the age of facilities, the community needs, and in particular, with the example of Valdiso, immediate development opportunities. The plan identifies an option of renew and sustain to invest in the existing square footage and the aspirational growth option of either expanding on-site or building new or co locating where optimal. This enables investment and the flexibility and the customer service experience principles that can scale where financial opportunities are available. The second phase in the group is again another layer of basing the recommendations on facilities age, community needs and identified development opportunities.

Phase three are relatively young in terms of newer builds and have received more recent renovations. And then even phase four are the buildings that have had more recent investments, as well as identifying some of the aspirational long term growth locations.

Now the full facilities and customer experience plan outlines the status of current library facilities and creative options for growth and renewal that will continue to meet the needs of our residents. Adoption of the plan provides a framework to guide future renovations, system wide growth strategies, and associated funding considerations. And with that, you have a copy of the executive summary. The full plan is linked to the staff report, and we are here for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you for for that presentation. It's exciting to see the opportunities that we have before us with our library system. Do we have any members of the public who wish to speak on this issue?

Yes. We have, four members of the public, Brian, Don, Kat, and Christie. Please make your way to the podium.

First, an apology. That set that nine point or the 7.2 on your consent calendar, the fact that it shows that you guys sorry, you guys. The ladies and gentlemen did I did it nicely. Read, and I appreciate the fact that you did that. And sometimes it's easy to be negative.

As for libraries And she was. Because of some eye issues and the fact I have dyslexia, I had to learn to read twice three times because when I lost my sight and when I had to read Knowing how to read is probably one of the most precious gifts you can have. I can tell you how frustrating it is when you can't read and how, to be quite frankly in our society, people become extremely angry with you when you can't read. If you're not quick enough, if you're not fast enough, if you can't respond pretty much faster than instantaneous. We've as a species, we've had reading and writing for maybe six thousand years.

We've been around between 2,200,000 depending on what how you classify us. Without reading, we wouldn't have memory past one or two generations. If that's not precious, I don't know what is. And the primary focus of a library is to carry on our memories. And I hope that we can I wish we could fund a library for every corner? Thank you.

Good afternoon, honorable vice mayor and council members. I'm Dawn Coffin. I'm the CEO of the San Jose Public Library Foundation. And I come today to speak in favor of the wonderful facilities and customer experience plan that you have in front of you. If implemented, this plan will transform the library system into one that has sufficient space and flexibility to provide high quality, responsive and equitable access to information, ideas and programs to everyone in San Jose.

The recommendations in this plan are grounded in substantial community and partner input about what people want their libraries to provide at every stage of life. One of the most striking things to me that came out of this project is the extent to which the branches are currently woefully deficient in space relative to the residents demands. The plan recommends adding 400,000 square feet, nearly doubling the amount of space that is now offered in the branch libraries. So when you consider that 95% of city residents highly value the current fabulous programs, resources, and services provided by the library. Just imagine what they could look like with double the space capacity.

Imagine the incredible consequences for residents in everything from literacy to cultural celebrations, arts to workforce development. So on behalf of the staff and board of directors for the San Jose Public Library Foundation and as the major funder of this project, please adopt it as the guide for council to align the library system with service demand, best practice standards, and operational excellence. So that the library can support the city's classroom, as connected communities, as cultural connector, and as civic activator. Thank you.

Good afternoon, honorable city council members. My name is Christie, and I'm a resident of District 4. I also serve with the San Jose Public Library Foundation. I'm here today because I was raised by San Jose Libraries. Growing up in Eastside San Jose, libraries provided me with the resources and the safe space that helped shape who I am today.

Because of what the library means to me, it is difficult to see my own district currently underserved. In District 4, we only have two branches, Berryessa and Alviso. It has been twenty one years since Berryessa's last renovation and twenty seven years for Alviso. Currently, our two branches have the least amount of square footage of any in the entire city system. Living in an underserved neighborhood means seeing firsthand that we simply do not have sufficient library services to meet the needs of our community.

The library facilities and customer experience plan is a terrific road map because it finally acknowledges these gaps. The recommendation to build a new branch in District 4 is an important step toward equity. It recognizes that residents in my district deserve the same level investment and access as the rest of the city. At the foundation, we are proud to help fund this plan and as a plan. And as a resident, I'm excited to see the city and library partner to bring it to life. I urge you to support this plan and the residents of D 4. Thank you.

Hi. Good afternoon. I'm Kat Cloud, chief development officer of the San Jose Public Library Foundation. And today, I urge you to adopt the library facilities and customer experience plan. This thoughtful equity driven framework reflects what residents told us they need.

Safe, welcoming, and flexible library spaces that support learning, connection, and opportunity. San Jose's libraries are essential civic anchors. They provide free access to information, technology, workforce ports, and community space for thousands of residents every day. Many buildings are aging and require investment to remain safe, accessible, and flexible for evolving community needs. Adoption of this plan gives the city a practical community informed road map to guide future decisions and partnerships. Please adopt the plan so that we can responsibly steward our library system for current users and future generations. Thank you.

Back to counsel. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I really am excited about the opportunity of improving, expanding our our libraries. It's just it's it's one of my happy places is the libraries, and every time I go, it makes me feel happy and smile.

Just recently, I was there with the city manager when she was doing one of her intentional interruptions at the, Cambrian library, and there were so many little children lined up to hear the firefighters who have a station right next door read to them that day. It was just delightful. There's nothing more joyful than seeing children who wanna listen to someone reading to them. It's just a wonderful way to start their lives is having people reading to them. With that, I'll turn over to over to council member Cohen who I know is d as equally as passionate about libraries.

Yes. Well, thank you. And I was fortunate enough to serve on the library commission when we opened many of these libraries, and it's hard to believe it's been over twenty years for all of them. And so I still think of them as new buildings, but they really aren't anymore. So I appreciate the roadmap that we this roadmap that would tell us what we should be doing in the future.

Now the roadmap is just that, and it's only as good as the funding that doesn't exist. But we need to be thoughtful about what we do in the future. Can we put slide 11 back up just because I want to reinforce the comments that were made by already about District 4. And while that's going up, I will say that I am making my Mother's Day contribution to the Library Foundation at this moment. On slide 11, it just shows the stark reality for District 4.

You can see the Berryessa Library in the Southeast, which is actually the busiest branch library in the system. And Alviso Library in the North, which is the smallest library in the system. And the one that has been the longest since it's been upgraded, renovated sort of, you know, we worked on. But that large gap between those two branches is the area of the city with the farthest distance from where people live to where a library is. And coincidentally, it's the area that the general plan and housing element call for 32,000 housing units to be built.

So we're going to build twenty, and twenty four thousand in the current housing element in that sort of blue area South Of Alviso will be built, but there's no library at all, and especially since Alviso is so small. And you could see also on the previous slide, which I won't ask you to go back to, but that the two branches with the smallest per capita size are Berryessa and Alviso. So there is a problem. And you know we've been talking about this, the colocation idea is something that I've been discussing since well before I was on the council. And so I just want to kind of ask a question about how we might be thinking as we move forward about identifying places in North San Jose.

We're my theory is we're not going to build a standalone library there, but we're going to build it into a development that occurs. And I feel like there's an opportunity for collaboration or for some coordination, I should say, as planning gets projects coming forward to be able to have visibility to say, this project might be a good opportunity for us to build a library space into it. But if we don't get on top of those things early, those things, that can happen. So is there some discussion about that?

Yes. Thank you for the question. I think that part of the acceptance of this report today by council gives us kind of the marching orders to develop the strategies that are listed in the report. One of them is around colocation, and so we would love to you we're tracking developments that are happening by district. And I think that, you know, having a strong direction from at the city leadership level that the city should consider putting libraries in some of these developments, I think, could help us in those conversations.

Certainly, ongoing operations is a is a concern in when we're having tight budget years as a city, but it is something that we need to to figure out. And if we can work with strong partners that can help, at least with the development of spaces, that's a start. So we we are looking by district, and I think that the council could take a a stronger role in that.

Yeah. I'm I I guess what I'm sort of suggesting is often in our the way we our departments operate is kind of they're kind of insular. Right? They they're on their own, and there's a lot of opportunities where if there were sharing of information, plans that are that So if you I mean, so for you to know what projects are coming that might be appropriate, it's also kind of my role maybe as a council member to to sort of help guide that conversation. But I just it's just sort of a general comment for the city maybe overall to say, in order for us to really be effective in all the things we do, all these departments should be working together in terms of how do we think about some of the gaps in some of the services that we have in parts of the city, especially as we are building out our general plan going forward.

So I'll leave it at that. I'm excited by the ideas in here and hope that we'll be able to find ways to start moving, especially into phase one. Thank you for calling attention to some of the needs in our in our system and for continuing to run what I think is the greatest public library system anywhere. And so I'll move acceptance of the report.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Thank you for your comments. Council member Casey.

Council member Cohen sort of stole my thunder there with the colocation topic. So we have a lot of existing ground floor retail throughout the city that's underutilized that potentially could be a site for a library. But to council member Cohen's point, especially where there's going to be more development by definition, there's gonna be more population and more demand for libraries. So I guess a direct question is what do we need to do in terms of directing staff to identify those opportunities, maybe provide even incentives to developers? How can we initiate this conversation to kinda get the ball going?

I just offered that to our assistant city manager. He turned it down. No. I think that I think we can start the conversation. I would say that it is universally true that developing library spaces in in developments that are already happening, sort of colocation, will be more efficient as a city than us going through the process of, you know, buying land, building stand alone libraries, building all the parking, like, all that stuff. It seems like it is the least efficient way to do it. So I think that if if there's a sort of endorsement of that strategy, we'll work with the city manager's office and our partners in planning and other departments on, you know, potential next steps forward.

Let me force Lee onto the mic. Lee, if you

can give

us for the call out council member and city librarian. Appreciate it. I don't know that we need specific direction, obviously, if the council wanna direct us to to look at that. I think, you know, when it comes to development, especially with city services, flexibility and kind of the flexibility that the council's given staff to be innovative and look at different ideas. Obviously, it comes to brand new development, I know from the library's perspective and from a city perspective, if we can co locate places and save on land, save on parking, and have some synergies, that's great.

At the same point in time, especially with, you know, the way development is right now, it is it is hard to break ground and build units, you know, whether it's residential and commercial, and have them pencil out as is right now. That doesn't mean that this is an eitheror, and we can look at some creative financing, you know, in some specific areas. And so kind of the the flexibility to be innovative and look at some of those financing tools, I think, is really important. So again, I don't know that we need direction so much as if we know the council has an appetite for that. I think we're happy to kind of explore those things.

I mean most of the developments they're ground for retail they're writing that off anyway.

Correct.

For the most part and the fact that we could potentially come in with a lease. I think that would help out ultimately with the financing, maybe a symbiotic relationship, a win win. Eric, any?

And I think with the ground floor retail, a lot of that does get written off. Some of the times, you know, and again, it's different in each development. The way that it's written off, they'll they'll choose to have that vacant for a period of time. Whereas, if we're going to do something and put a library there or put another city service there, our intent is to keep it there for the long term

Yeah.

So that we then don't have to take something away from the community. So I think, again, from a a development development standpoint,

when

we have those needs, it's definitely something that we can look at, like, on a project by project basis.

Right on. Thank you.

I like the way this council is thinking about this right now. It makes me think that when we have a mixed use development, a developer comes in, they have a ground full of retail, they don't have a tenant yet, but they have a financing package that comes in. If they have a financing package that includes the city of San Jose renting the space, leasing the space as the library, that could be attractive to their bank or their finance package packager and enable them to actually break ground quicker if we are the tenant. Just just a thought. I have some other thoughts about that, but I will defer to council member Kameh for the moment.

Thank you so much, and and thank you, to our librarian, Jill, for all that you do and your staff and, the foundation. We couldn't do it if it wasn't for the tremendous staff and energy that you put into it. So thank you so much. This is very exciting. I participated in the workshop and, you know there was so much energy there and to think about how we can transform some of the spaces into something that is a little bit more updated and usable and what the community wants.

So I understand that the libraries are so much needed and given that even in some of our schools who have closed libraries due to budget cuts and what have you, This is an opportunity to think creatively and I like what I heard from my colleagues, council member Cohen and council member Casey because I think that colocation may be a way to go especially in areas where there's new development and there are opportunities to do things. I also think that it's an opportunity for when we're providing funding for even affordable housing and all of that, You know having that community space becomes critically important. And I think that it allows people to come together and perhaps not be able to reach a library that is not close to them and have access. So access for me is critically important. And I'm excited about looking at the future and other opportunities that may come across whether it's different departments coming in being able to expand the library as well as looking at how the libraries currently can be configured.

So I wanna thank you so much and yeah. Very excited to continue supporting the libraries.

Thank you. Council member Tordillos.

Thank you, vice mayor. Just wanna thank staff for the presentation. It's great to have this road map really outlining the the need, of our library system over the next twenty years. Excited to see the upcoming investment in the Biblioteca, which obviously alongside Alviso is one of the oldest facilities that has not seen a significant amount of investment in recent years. So glad to see that moving forward.

Like my colleagues would just up level all of the comments about colocation and the opportunity to get different community serving benefits located alongside our libraries. I think things like childcare are a good option here. And particularly in a lot of our growth areas, our urban villages, places close to SB 70 nine transit hubs, hopefully a lot of opportunities to integrate affordable housing into some of these developments. Know, libraries tend to be fairly low slung structures. So particularly in some of these growth areas, partnering and trying to get affordable housing incorporated into some of these developments seems like a reasonable approach.

And I know it's something that other cities, you know, New York, Chicago, even locally Santa Cruz have done successfully. So hopefully some good opportunities there. I know it can be a little bit difficult just because the city's kind of pivoted to having our dollars be the last dollars into these projects. So we're not necessarily looped in as early in the process where we may be able to have more of a kind of guiding function in terms of some of these colocations. But if there are opportunities where the city owned land, maybe we have a ground lease, or even just opportunities for the library and other city departments like housing to really collaborate closely to identify those opportunities for colocation, I think we could get to some good outcomes here. So thank you.

Thank you. You know, many times we're criticized by the public for not having enough outreach. But the fact that you reached over 5,000 community members is really incredible. That really shows how successful you were in the outreach, but also how important the libraries are to our community and why they participated in in any outreach effort that you had. Over 2,200 community partners and commission members and city staff, that's really an impressive outreach effort and and you too are to be commended Jill for your efforts.

This is a blueprint that will really help us move forward. While I wanna We've already know that Alviso and Barriessa are the two smallest, right next to that is Pearl Avenue. And Pearl Avenue doesn't really have an opportunity to go up or the the footprint of the land itself is very small. So I'm I will be curious what comes out of a plan down the line. I know it's not in the first tier, not even sure it's in the second tier, but it it's a a beloved and well used little little library in District 9.

I'm proud actually to have one of the most utilized libraries in the city in the Cambrian library. Over a 190,000 materials circulated annually. That's actually an incredible number and I already mentioned about the firefighters coming in and and reading to them. It probably had nothing to do with the fire engine that they brought over there as well, but you know, it goes hand in hand. Libraries truly are barrier free gateways to information, technology, and educational programming serving as critical inclusive community hubs used by our seniors, our youth, and every one of our residents.

They are a critical resource which is why I'm adamant that access to our libraries must be a top priority and I'm happy to see that they are in the budget too. We'll see how it goes forward as we we move forward through the budget. Just a little bit more about co locating and schools closing. Jill, you and I talked about this a little bit and it may not be ideal but we have several libraries that are closing in the schools that are around San Jose Unified in particular. So I'm wondering if there's an opportunity to work with those school districts on their libraries to, if not keep them both open to somehow use their collections or merge their collections or somehow gain volunteer assistance from their their libraries Two of those schools are in my I actually have three schools in my district, one Sarteret, Canoes, and then Terrell are all closing but there are other schools that are closing throughout the city.

So, and I'm sure they're considering what can they do with their collections. They may be moving them to their other schools that are staying open, but these buildings will be vacant so there might be an opportunity to create a larger library of these schools that are really just right across the street from from Pearl as an example. So with that, thank you again for your presentation and thank you for the vision of where we are going or where we can go. I know we're a long way from it because we need the funds to go with it, but the idea that you're putting this kernel of inspiration out there and road map is really helpful and and truly exciting. With that, let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Wonderful. Thank you all. Next is items thank you for the presentation. Next is item 7.2, approval of the park master plans amended turnkey parkland agreement and park naming for two city chartered parks. And I understand we have a ten minute presentation by Raymond, Leonel, and Mary Beth.

Good afternoon, council members and vice mayor. I'm Raymond Constantino, the deputy director over the capital projects division within Piranes. I'm joined, here by the my colleagues, Leo Tapia, planner three, and Marybeth Bowman, planner one. We're here to present on the park master plan approval, and park name approval for two new parks within the Communications Hill development. And Leo will kick off the presentation.

Thanks, Raymond. Good afternoon, council and members of the public. My name is Leo Tapia, and I'm a planner with the Parks Department. And today, we're going to talk about an exciting park opportunity. So just to orient folks here, the project site is located in the Communications Hill neighborhood, which is just south of downtown near Highway 87 and Hillsdale Avenue.

As part of the next phases of development, there will be two new city parks, one within the phase three development and the other within the phase four development. As you can see in the images, the phases three and four will be built primarily on the eastern side of the hill. So the parkland dedication requirement for the 799 units that are part of phase three and four is to dedicate 6.7 acres of parkland or pay $9,000,000 in park fees. Since one of the smaller residential areas within phase three needed to move a little bit sooner than the rest of the phases last year, the developer and entered into an agreement for those first 58 units to pay their park fees. And now today, the developer and city are amending that first agreement to satisfy the remaining obligation for the remaining units.

And this amended agreement includes the dedication and construction of the two new parks, a one acre park in phase three and a 1.7 acre park in phase four. And the timeline to to complete and dedicate both parks is by June 2028 for the phase three park and December 2029 for the phase four park. And just a quick overview here of the public outreach that was performed for this project. It included two community meetings and two online surveys where where we received feedback from the community regarding the park designs and the park names. And based on the feedback we received as well as a pretty limited park budget, here are the two park master plans for your review.

So the Phase 3 Park, the one on the left side of the screen, is primarily envisioned as a dog park with two dedicated large and small dog areas as well as a picnic area. And then the Phase 4 Park primarily consists of a large multipurpose lawn space that can offer a range of activities and programming to take place. The park also includes a walking loop, picnic areas, and then also a cornhole gaming area. And both of these parks will complement the existing parks in the hill and create a balanced park system with a range of amenities and experiences. And with that, I'll pass it to my teammate, Marybeth, to go over the park naming.

Thank you, Leo. Good afternoon. I'm Marybeth Bowman, part time planner with Parks Recreation Neighborhood Services. I'm managing the park naming for this park site. As you know, the park naming process has two parts. Part one focuses on public engagement via two online community surveys. First, a name suggestion survey followed by a ranked choice voting survey. For part two, staff conducts analysis and makes a recommendation to the decision making bodies, which is why we're here today. Before the second survey voting begins, staff research and vet name suggestions against city council policy seven five. To qualify, options must meet at least one of the council policy criteria.

The online surveys considered a list of names for each of the two park sites. Survey number one presented staff name options and allowed participants the opportunity to offer additional name suggestions. In survey number two, participants had the opportunity to rank five name suggestions for the two park sites. These included Beach Hill Park, Acevedo Park, Communications Hill Park, Kell Ranch Kell Ranch Park, and Columbic Park. Staff recommended recommends the name Communications Hill Dog Park for the smaller phase three park site.

The name conforms with city council policy seven five by referencing the geographic location of the park. It also references the hill's namesake in the telecommunications role of the hill. Next slide, please. For the larger phase four park site, the name Acevedo Park conforms with council policy seven five by referencing a deceased individual, Manuel t Acevedo, and the Portuguese American dairy traditions of the of the Acevedo family. Manuel t Acevedo's stewardship of the American Dairy Company led to the Dairyhill namesake. Next slide, please. And with that, I'll hand it back to Leo. Thank you.

Thanks, Marybeth. So in summary, we're seeking council's approval to approve the two park master plans for the two future city parks. Also, approval of the amended turnkey parkland agreement between the developer and the city, which includes the dedication and construction of both parks, the payment of city design review fees, and the return of approximately $8,000 in previously paid park fees. Staff is also requesting that council adopt the name Communications Hill Dog Park for the phase three park as recommended by staff per the public outreach process. And then for the phase four park, staff is recommending the name Acevedo Park as recommended by staff, the Parks and Recreation Commission, and as a result, the public outreach process.

And then lastly, staff is recommending adoption of the following appropriation amendments to the Park Trust Fund as listed on the screen and in the staff memo. And with that, that concludes staff's presentation. We're happy to take any questions. Thank you. One

last thing I'd like to mention is that the Parks Commission did make a recommendation for a name. However, that name was not consistent with the criteria nor was nor did we go out to the community to to vet the name. And although they did vote four yeas, four nays, and one abstain, staff did not put forward that recommendation, and that, description is in the staff memo.

Thank you very much. Thank you for the presentation, and it's exciting to see two new parks come our way. Let's go to members of the public. Anyone wish to speak on this topic?

Yes. Brian and Jose, please make your way down to the podium.

Thank you again. I'm glad to have two new parks, like vice mayor Foley said. I just wanted to make it if it I wrote a long letter, which I'm sure after a while, Just making it easier I'm really glad that they are naming one of these parks after that gentleman. He seems like he's well worthy of it, and we wanna remember people who've done so much for our valley, but also making it easier to remember people, groups of people. And I just mentioned that in the letter.

And right now, believe it requires that you have to have a special vote. I might be mistaken about that. But if, like, you wanted to name it Care care provider park or something like that, just as an example, that it would be part of the process and that because that that might have more of a track for all the people who've made our that area and our what parks are supposed to remember more substantial to the community. Thank you.

Yeah. My question is, how is this gonna actually help out the the community? I've seen the houses on Zillow right now. They're, like, $55,000,000. The houses right now, they're not worth that much. You see you see all these contractors, they're just putting up makeup on on houses, and they're they're not even, like, fixing out foundations, like, actually going into the actual problem. They're just covering it all up. All these houses, they're all they're all crumbs, to be honest. And you guys don't give me the actual license to actually be building houses that are actually gonna be in good conditions, that are gonna be cheap and living conditions. All these houses are they're all terrible.

And, like, the this is not gonna help out the community at all. The all of this is just bullshit, to be honest. Just taking time, but thank you.

Back to council.

Thank you. Council member Duan, I believe this is in your district.

Yes, vice mayor. Thank you so much. I'm I'm really excited. Thank you, staff, for the presentation. And I'm I'm just thrilled that we have two extra parks in District 7 where is is is needed.

I'm really grateful and excited that these two parks coming to District 7 And I know it's it's been a long time of of hard work to put this bringing this forward. The the resident, you know, my resident in in District 7 have felt overlooked when it come to investment in amenities. And and and so this is a very meaningful progress for the citizen in in District 7. These parks aren't just a project on paper. It's where family, friends, kids, neighbors, they gather, stay active, and and build the community together.

I also appreciate the level of community outreach that went into these two parks. The resident had a voice in shaping what these parks will look like and how they will be used. And it's also encouraging to see the development that was thoughtfully and involving our community centre amenities along side with these housing, if you will. I'm especially glad that we're moving forward, both active and passive space. So there's something for everyone in the neighborhood.

And I know these two park of of add on the aesthetic value right up there in Calm Hill, which, you know, I believe the population up there is gonna be around when we finish out the bill. I think it's, like, 8,008 residents. So overall, you know, I really appreciate the hard work. I appreciate the investment from the builders in District 7, and I'm very proud to support these amendments to to build the two parks. So move to approval. Thank

you, council member. We have a motion and a second. It it is exciting to have two parks in in the Communication Hills development area. I have a question though. We had a study session regarding in backlog infrastructure and maintenance, and I'm wondering how these two parks will be maintained. What's the what's the plan for ongoing operation and maintenance?

Sure. Every time we do we build a new park, we also take into consideration the maintenance component. And so we do a worksheet five. Maybe you heard of that in some of the one on one meetings. And so both these parks will have that process done, and we allocate we make a request to the budget office to allocate funds for the maintenance. And so that's part of our standard process.

Okay. Great. Thank you very much. I'm I'm excited that that you're gonna have those two new parks in your district. Let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Okay. Moving on to the next item which is thank you very much for the presentation and and the brand and the two new parks in District 7. Next is item 8.1, final public hearing and approval of fiscal year twenty six twenty seven annual action plan for US Department of Housing and Urban Development. I don't believe we have a presentation. Do we have any members of the public?

We do not.

Okay. Anyone on council? No hands raised. Is there a motion?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor? Oh, let's vote. Sorry. Getting excited trying to break a record here. I can tell.

Motion passes unanimously.

Okay. Thank you. That is the final part of our printed agenda. Do we have any members of the public who wish to speak?

Yes. So we have two open forum cards, Brian and Pachucho. Please make your way down to the podium.

Thank you, everybody. Again, it was two point nine. You really did your research. I appreciate that. I I it's so easy to sit up there and think nobody listens to me, and it makes it quite easier for us to have this gap between us.

A lot of us I don't know if you've ever heard of the great disappointment. People thought the world was gonna end, the lord was gonna come back. It was in the eighteen forties, I think it was, and it didn't happen. There was another time in 2011, I believe it was May 21, that was gonna happen. I knew some of the people who sold their homes, separated from their children, And when you could hear them cry, I've seen crying a lot.

I've been around parents who've lost children. My own mother lost two of her children. You know, cry I've been in pain, been burned, have this glaucoma, arthritis. Nothing hurts like spiritual pain. Nothing. These people thought the world was gonna end. They sold it, and then and the crying you hear, anything we can breach because there's a people that are very afraid in a very scary world. I don't know. Isn't this scary? We might be at at war any minute. You know, there's several places. Here is where people at least there's some sense of community and some sense of stability. That's what you represent to us. Thank you.

Pachuco, would you like to speak?

Oh, okay.

Policy counsel.

Thank you. Before I adjourn the meeting, would just like to recognize that this is officer Rachel Bowen's last meeting here as she gets shifted to a new new duties within the department. You've been here for eight years. That's remarkable. Thank you so much for your service.

And I'd like to turn it over to council member Kendallis.

Yeah. Rachel, just wanted to wish you, all the best in your transition back to patrol as you rotate out, and and, our community is fortunate to have you out there. And, appreciate what you've done here at City Hall in the chambers and, everything you'll continue to do on patrol. Stay safe out there. Thanks.

Thank you. With that, we stand adjourned at 03:01.