City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good afternoon and welcome to this city council meeting, which I'd like to call to order. This is the afternoon of September 1st, 2026. Tony, would you please call the roll?

Kamei?

Here.

Campos? Present. Tordillos? Here. Cohen? Ortiz? Present. Mulcahy? Here. Dwan? Here. Candelas? Here. Casey? Here. Foley? Here. Mahan?

Here.

Yavakorn?

Thank you. Now, if you're able, please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Today's invocation will be provided by Jai Indra, dance school, and Councilmember Condellas will tell us more. Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon and happy September. I'm excited for District 8 to host Invocation this month and especially excited to kick it off with Jayendra Kalikendra Dance School. Founded in 1989 by Suganda Iyer, Jayendra Kalikendra is dedicated to preserving and sharing Bharatanatyam. Sorry, I probably messed it up. But the classical dance tradition of South India. What began as a class of just one student has grown into an institution with teaching centers across the Bay Area, including right here in San Jose, as well as locations in India. Now celebrating its 37th year, the school has trained more than 5,000 students and helped more than 125 dancers complete their solo recitals. Today, we are joined by two talented students, Ashkara Sayani and Ashkara Rajesh. Their dance honors goddess Shivak Shakti, the Divine Mother, and celebrates strength, compassion, and protection. Please join me in welcoming them for today's invocation. Take it away.

Shivasakhi Thank you. jiva jati jati jati karmakarama jiva jati jati jati karmakarama jiva jati jati karmakarama Shiva Shakti Shiva Shakti

Thank you. Oh Shiva Shakti Shiva Shakti Shiva Shakti

Oh

Thank you. Shivasakhi Shivasakhi Shivasakhi Shivasakhi is is

Shiva Shakti Shiva Shakti

Thank you.

Thank you so much. We really appreciate you joining us today and sharing your talent with us as we begin our city council meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council Member Condales, for arranging today's invocation. We're going to move on to our ceremonial items. Council Member Ortiz, if you would join me at the podium, we will recognize and proclaim September 6th as Lowrider Day. We'll invite our guests down as well.

Yes, and if you help sponsor Lowrider Day, please join us here. Hello, everyone. As a representative for East San Jose, I'm no stranger to a lowrider or a cruise. For years, I've joined in these celebrations alongside our brothers and sisters as we've cruised down Santa Clara Street, Alum Rock Avenue, and, of course, through the iconic intersections of King and Story, an area in which I'm proud to represent. For me, Lorain has always been about so much more than cars. It's history, it's family, and it's cultura. It's something many of us grew up around, and it represents the creativity, ingenuity, and pride of generations of families here in San Jose. That's why 2023 was such a special year for me. I had the opportunity to work alongside the United Lowrider Council to bring the first official Lowrider Day celebration to the San Jose City Hall Plaza. It meant something to see our lowriders and car clubs come together at the heart of our city and have this tradition officially recognized and celebrated. And every year since, we've continued building on that celebration. This Sunday, September 6th, will once again fill City Hall Plaza with cars, music, and cultura for Lowrider Day 2026. I want to thank my colleagues, Councilmember Kamei, Councilmember Campos, Tordillos, Mulcahy, Candelas, Casey, and our Mayor for joining in sponsoring this important event. And of course, I especially want to thank the United Lowrider Council who's here with us today. Your work goes far beyond this one celebration. You bring our communities together. You preserve the history of lowriding and make sure that history and pride are passed down to the next generation. I've been very proud to work alongside the Lowrider Council over the last few years, and I'm grateful for the partnership and friendship that we've built together. So today, alongside the Mayor and my colleagues on the San Jose City Council, it's our honor to present a proclamation to the United Lowrider Council and officially declare September 6, 2026, as Lowrider Day in the City of San Jose.

Thank you for all the kind words and all the support the city's always given us. I look forward to continuing this relationship and this partnership in expressing the lowrider culture with everybody. I know I've said this before, but it's just really amazing how much or how much support we get out of San Jose to our events. And, you know, it just seems to keep growing and growing. And we are on the forefront of this lowrider culture that's rolling through the country. And San Jose is definitely one of the leaders. And you guys should all be proud of that. And I appreciate your support. Thank you.

And that was David Polanco, president of the United Lowrider Council. Thank you. Let's go over here so we can take a picture. Let's go this way, to the left. Did you get in there? Okay, all right, all right.

All right, thanks.

All right, Councillor Condellas, we are now going to recognize and proclaim September as National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Thank you, Mayor. So September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a time to recognize the incredible courage of children battling cancer and remembering the young lives we've lost and standing alongside the families whose lives have been changed forever. Childhood cancer diagnosis affects so much more than one child, it impacts parents, siblings, caregivers, friends, and quite frankly our entire community. This month reminds us that we all have a role to play by raising awareness, supporting families, and advocating for the research and resources needed to develop better treatments and ultimately find cures. That is why I'm proud to proclaim September as a National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month here in the city. and recognize the tremendous work of the Matil Prasad Foundation. The foundation was created by Matil's family, Sarva, Prasad, and Rachna, in his loving memory. While battling DIPG, Matil asked his family to do more for kids like me. They took those words to heart and turned an unimaginable loss into a powerful mission that continues to bring hope and support to families everywhere. Since 2018, the foundation has raised more than $1 million to advance critical DIPG research and support children and families facing this devastating diagnosis. My connection with Sarva began a couple months back when she was nominated as an inspiring woman that should be recognized during our Women's History Month. That nomination gave me the opportunity to meet her and her family and learn more about the story of Mateel's legacy and incredible work. that their foundation has established. I also had the opportunity to stop by their inaugural Meet Awesome Run at Hellyer County Park in May, and it was inspiring to see so many people come together to raise awareness and raise funding for a critical message to bring Matilda's message forward. I'm incredibly proud to have Sarva as part of our District 8 community. In fact, she lives right up the street from my house. And she's truly shown what it means to turn love into action and even the most difficult experiences to create a hope for others. So with that being said, Sarva, I'd like to invite you to share a few words before the mayor presents the proclamation.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council Member. Thank you for this opportunity, and thank you for shining a light on childhood cancer this September. As Council Member said, my son, Mithil, passed away from DIPG, a deadly pediatric brain tumor just at the age of 13 years old. And our foundation raises money, which was created in his memory, raises money for DIPG research and patients. Cancer is the number one cause of death by disease for children in the US, and two out of three survivors face life-threatening chronic illness from treatment. So that's why we have to increase research for childhood cancer so that we can find cures for cancers where there is none. And also to find better treatments with less toxicity for survivors so that they can live a full life. Children should be worrying about homework and play dates, not chemotherapy and hospital visits. So let's prioritize childhood cancer by raising awareness, advocating for them, increasing funding, and of course supporting families in every which way possible. So if you want to know more and want to know how to get involved, please reach out to us or any number of childhood cancer organizations that are out there. So together we can definitely change the outcome for children with cancer. On behalf of children who have passed away from cancer and children who are going through treatment, thank you Councilmember Canales and Mayor and everybody here for listening and shining a light on us today, thank you.

Thank you, the Mayor will present the proclamation.

and your story and everything you do. We're grateful. All right. Thank you to everyone who brought forward a ceremonial item. We're on to orders of the day. Council Member Mulcahy, I understand you want to move to defer an item?

Yes, Mayor. I'm requesting that we defer item 8.2. and want to acknowledge Eric and our housing department for their efforts to help us work a bit tighter with the community as we bring this back in September 22nd for that meeting, three week delay.

Great, and I know Eric is aware of and on board with the essentially two council meeting deferral. So this would be till the 22nd? Yes. Great, and we have a second, I heard? Second. Okay, great. Any other requests to change the printed agenda? Okay, I don't see any. Tony, do we have public comment on orders of the day specifically?

I have no comments.

Great, thank you. Coming back to the council, let's vote.

Motion passes nine to zero with Cohen and Ortiz absent.

Okay, thank you. Moving on now to the closed session report.

Yes, Mayor and Councilman closed session this morning to go over the items listed on the agenda and there's nothing to report at this time.

Great, thank you Susana. We are on to the consent calendar. Are there any items Council would like to pull from consent and I believe Councilor Campos has one, go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to pull 2.11 for comment.

Great, and potentially a motion.

And potentially a motion, yeah.

Yeah, okay. Any other requests? Okay, Council Member Kompas.

Thank you again, Mayor. And I want to begin by appreciating the work of the city manager's office and PBE staff to ensure that the city is in compliance with the state law. Item 2.11 is an amendment to city council policy 6-14, our guidelines for child care. And I also wanna thank and share gratitude to the mayor and council member for Dios Cohen and Casey who joined me in submitting additional recommendations that will increase the accessibility of childcare to families throughout the city. Our council policy 6-14 imposes requirements on childcare and has not been updated in over 20 years. And the proposed amendments provide some additional clarity. What our memo does is provide a pathway for future zoning code amendments to allow childcare as a permitted use and no longer requiring a special use permit in commercial zoning districts where Council Policy 6-14 currently encourages them. However, I do want to thank my colleagues for also supporting me on an earlier version of this memo. In that version, we recommended immediately repealing council policy 6-14 entirely and directing the city manager to make childcare a permitted use in commercial zoning districts at the next zoning code amendments brought to council. In our review of the council policy, we connected with Dr. Matt Tinsley from the Santa Clara County Office of Education with Dr. Kristen Anderson and other technical experts and found that our council policy 6-14 includes requirements that are subjective, needlessly prescriptive, or unnecessary and already addressed through the state licensing process. In San Jose, our child care centers are subject unique in that they require both a special use permit and are also regulated by a council policy as we know a special use permit already requires extensive and rigorous analysis and the council policy 6-14 only imposes additional and undue burdens that discourage childcare operators from doing business in this city. I heard from one comment, why not eliminate special use permits entirely for childcare facilities requiring SUP and thus CEQA causes 10 months of processing and over 100,000 of additional costs. So this speaks to the volume of this issue and why repealing the council policy makes it easier for these small business owners to locate in San Jose. and it helps the thousands of families in our city that are struggling to find accessible and affordable childcare where it is convenient for them, including many parents who are working here at City Hall. But we are working in good faith with the city administration in advancing these changes, and while I personally don't believe that extensive analysis is needed, especially since extensive analysis is already done by these business owners working to get the special use permit, and especially since the council policy itself already encourages childcare and commercial zoning districts. I do look forward to collaborating with my colleagues and to continue to work with the city administration to make these small but very impactful changes. I am grateful for the city manager's office who is working with my office to find the resources that will remove these barriers. to accessible and affordable childcare in San Jose. And with that, I move to approve the memo that I've submitted along with the Mayor, Council Members Tordillo, Cohen, and Casey.

Great, thank you, Councilmember. Appreciate your advocacy and work on this. Thanks to all the colleagues who signed on. Any other comments or questions? Oh, I'm sorry, Councilmember, do you mind including the rest of the consent calendar in your motion?

Yes, and also move to, motion to move the rest of the consent calendar.

great so we'll add that to the motion okay thank you is that okay with the seconder great all right i don't see any other hands tony do we have any public comment on consent yes matt matt tinsley come on down followed by brian and kristen online

Good afternoon, Mayor, council members and staff. My name is Matthew Tinsley and I serve as Director, Education Initiatives and Policies at the Santa Clara County Office of Education. I'm speaking in support of item 2.11 on the consent calendar, the proposed changes to streamline the approval of child daycare centers in San Jose. The Santa Clara County Office of Education plays a critical leadership role in advancing early learning opportunities for children and families throughout the county and city. Every day, we see the challenges families face, finding affordable, high-quality early care and education. Access to childcare is one of the most significant barriers to kindergarten readiness, workforce participation, and economic mobility. Today's proposal is a practical and important step towards addressing that challenge and treating childcare as a public good. This approach strikes the right balance between expanding access to childcare and maintaining compatibility with surrounding neighborhoods. The repeal of council policy 6.6-14 and the incorporation of clear standards into the zoning code also.

Thank you, that's your time. Brian. Yes.

Thank you. make people aware. I sent a letter in on the consent calendar and I hope everybody had a chance to read it. Thank you.

Kristen.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Good afternoon, honorable mayor and city council. I'm Kristen Anderson, child care planning and policy consultant based in Redwood City, where I was city child care coordinator for over 25 years. I knew at least two of your city coordinators before the position was eliminated. I'm here to speak in support of your recommendations to repeal policy 614 and amend the zoning code as stated to facilitate the siting and development of newer expanded childcare centers. I would suggest that the guidelines in policy 614 be converted to a guidance document for potential providers that distinguishes requirements in codes versus desirable conditions or features there's some useful planning information in there and that that would be a good addendum to the planning department's two-pager that's on the city's website that appears to be the only other specific child care planning information thank you richard come on up

Good afternoon.

Recently, I... Is this related to a council item? It's related to San Jose.

But is it related to a consent calendar item? Oh, I thought it was a public... No, it's not that yet. Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. I was looking at your card.

We will have open forum at the end of the meeting. It's no problem. Thank you, Tony. Any other questions or comments on consent? Seeing none, let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously great.

Thank you. We are on to item 3.1 report of the city manager. I

Thank you very much, Mayor. I do have a 3.1 today. I want to talk about Clear the Shelters. Clear the Shelters is an annual nationwide pet adoption and donation campaign led by NBC Universal Local. The campaign always runs through the month of August with one important goal, helping shelter animals find loving, forever homes. Since the campaign began in 2015, Clear the Shelters has helped more than one million pets find their forever families. The San Jose Animal Care Center has been a proud, long-standing participant in Clear the Shelters. Throughout the entire month of August, we waived adoption fees for all available pets to help make it easier for members of our community to open their homes to a shelter animal. Since the campaign began on August 1st, ACS has celebrated more than 460 adoptions. including happy the chihuahua mix that I had the pleasure of hosting last Wednesday. And I'm pleased to share that Ocho, Council Member Kendellis' acting policy officer, is in a foster to adopt placement. This year's participation has been especially meaningful thanks to the support of our mayor and council members. They helped shine a spotlight on shelter animals by taking some very lucky pets out into the community as their special policy officers. giving them a chance to meet residents and show just how wonderful shelter pets can be. And again, I also joined in on that fun. I want to do a special thank you to Tasha Dean, the mayor's chief communications officer, for the creative idea to have us foster pets from ACS for the day, to provide an opportunity for these deserving pets to meet new friends and show them just how special pets can be. And while the Clear the Shelter campaign is officially ended, our work to connect shelter pets with loving families continues. I want everyone to know that our shelter is still at capacity, and we need our community's help. Adoption is a wonderful way to make a difference, but if you're not ready to make that commitment to adopt, there are other ways you can help, including fostering a shelter animal. I have adopted three, so I know everybody can do it. Fostering gives shelter pets the opportunity to decompress while they wait for their forever family, and fostering fits into different lifestyles. Whether you can just open up your home for a few weeks, a few months, or even just a few days, it is so appreciated. every pet deserves the chance to feel safe loved and cared for if you can help we encourage you to consider adopting or fostering and getting in contact with our animal care center thank you very much and thank you to all of the the mayor and city council for for showcasing our animals and having them be with you for the the half day or so and some of you did it twice so thank you very much

Thanks, Jennifer. I enjoyed my day with Sinatra. He's quite a dog. And I saw other council members out there with their dogs. Thanks for your ongoing advocacy for our animals. I know it's something you personally really care about. We will move on now to our next item, which is item 3.3. This is the amendment to the contract with the California Public Employees Retirement System, which would allow employees in the Deputy Chief Investment Officer classification within the Office of Retirement Services to enroll in CalPERS retirement benefits. There's no staff presentation, so we will start with public comment.

Brian?

I WAS ACTUALLY TRYING TO DO IT WITH THE REPORT ABOUT THE DOGS, BUT I ALSO AGREE WITH THIS. THANK YOU FOR FOSTERING THE ANIMALS AND FOR THIS TOO.

BACK TO COUNCIL. THANK YOU, TONY.

SECOND. GREAT. MOTION AND A SECOND. ANY OTHER HANDS? TONY, LET'S VOTE.

MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY.

Thank You Tony road item 3.4 a grant of franchise to Tokay energy storage one LLC for electric services for public rights of way no Staff presentation, so we'll start with public comment Roland.

Come on down I

Hold on, Roland. There we go. We'll start your time over. Your mic, let's make sure it's on. It doesn't look on.

Can you hear me now?

Yes. Go ahead.

So I have one slide, and I want to let you know when the slide is up, I can't see my timer. So very quickly, at the top in this red box, All these RVs are gone. We're going to have 145 battery trailers, 10 foot, each one with 48 battery packs. Total capacity 100 megawatt. Two hotels at the top, three churches at the bottom, a complete street mall to the right. I don't think that's the right location, but anyway. Now how are we going to connect it to the Santa Teresa substation? We're going to rip, rip. Senator is a bulldog. How are we going to get in and out of there? We made another proposal, which is a green line, which is the same connection as a hummingbird. I don't know if that's possible. And finally, we are asking if this goes through to have an initial $1 million in the coming... That's your time?

Thank you. Back to Council.

Okay, thank you for the public comment. Going back to the Council, I'm going to go to Councillor Casey first.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to let Roland know I sent you an email earlier today. I don't know if you've gotten it yet, discussing it. Take a look and happy to discuss further later. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Great. Thank you, Council Member. I don't see any other hands. Do we have a motion on this item?

Motion approved.

Second.

Great.

Okay. Tony, I think we're ready to vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Great, thank you. All right, we're on to item 8.1, alternative financing recommendations to spur affordable housing production. We have a staff presentation, so Eric, as soon as you're ready, please proceed.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. So Eric Sullivan, Director of Housing, and I'm joined today by Deputy Director Banu Son to walk through an update on the Council referral regarding alternative financing matters. I'll just go through an initial set of slides here. that kind of brought us through some of these considerations, and then Bonnie will walk through more specifics of how we're thinking about this work. Today, what we're bringing forward is the initial set of concepts. so that we can receive direction to go and explore these concepts and develop some pilot projects so that we can bring them back for council to approve those initial set of projects. Similar to how we took an alternative view to financing the FAY and we're taking that similar model and applying it to lower down the AMI scale for different projects looking at different ways in which we can take existing streams of work that come in by the inclusionary housing ordinance to expand out affordability what we seek today is the authorization to try some new things and to take the very limited pool of funds that we have and invest them in alternative ways and then come back to council for authorization on a project by project basis. And then we're gonna evaluate what those outcomes are from those projects and then continue to report back as we're trying to think through different ways in which we can better utilize our limited pool of resources to expand our public private partnerships. And so some quick history on this, as we think about the focus area on building more homes, we know we have our global rhino goals of 62,000 by 2031. As we've reported out through the focus area work, we continue to lag on that overall production, though we're making a lot of strides. particularly in our market rate production as well as continuing the success we've had historically around affordable production. We're looking at this more globally over the next four to five years, how can we potentially energize and catalyze some of these projects into construction knowing that we're facing a series of economic headwinds in getting these projects to finance. So where we can identify and address some of these market factors to energize and move these projects forward into feasibility, that's part of the work that we were looking at in thinking through these alternative financing plans. And so we're looking at the current environment. Right now, San Jose, across, you know, all of the AMI streams, we're looking at supply at all income levels. How do we think about, ways and strategies we could bring this financing down to roughly 50% of AMI. We do a lot of work already in the 30% AMI structure in the past. There's also some challenges with some of the properties that are 100%, just 30% AMI, so we're looking at ways in which we can further diversify those income streams to create more mixed income properties. And so as we look at the March 2026 info memo that really talked about the cost burden families that exist throughout our properties, we begin to think about ways in which to address those challenges. Internally, as we look to preserve and we have deals coming through the LIHTC system that are looking to recapitalize their existing units, we are working with developers to find ways to reduce the number of cost burden households within their developments. that includes a particular focus on those households that are paying 50% or more of their income. So where we can take that existing challenges within our portfolio and pull different tools together to think about alternative ways to get projects to go both in new construction or in preservation that's a lot of what this work encompasses because as you see from our second quarter housing market report update the city is now experiencing a record low vacancy rate three percent across all class types uh per our quarter to 2026 report usually you want a lot more flexibility within that portfolio typically five percent so we're seeing a very supply constrained marketplace and so we want to identify ways in which to increase more supply. so lastly as you think look at production over the last two years we've had some good and effective programs the incentive programs have really gotten market rate production going we had last year a 50 million dollar nofa that helped move affordable housing projects going so that continues on a steady rate path And overall, we're seeing a significant jump in overall production as we continue to move the bar forward. But now, given our limited resources and economic headwinds, we need to find ways in which to continue to energize and catalyze these projects going forward. As we shared in the cost of residential development study session in December of 2022, when we look at the entitlement picture of all the units that have already been entitled, a significant majority of them are just not feasible. So what are ways in which we can take those that sit on that line of feasible and infeasible, similar to the incentive program's work of specifically targeting some of those projects in our urban districts through the multifamily incentive or office to residential conversions in the downtown, where can we market target some of these tools to bring together to get more of these projects into feasibility? Because as we look at the existing economics, the construction material pricing continues to trend upward. And based on current geopolitical trends, we're likely to see increasing costs to both borrowing as well as inflationary impacts due to the inconsistency regarding tariff policy. So we're now in a trend where we have to continue to think creatively if we want to keep the production wheel going forward. And so now, Ben, I'm just going to take you through some of our considerations.

Good afternoon. This slide is showing what our current financing tools are at the moment. And these are independently managed. And the oldest one is the gap financing where we publish our notice of funding availability as frequent as we can as we have funds available. And that is our primary financing tool in supporting the development of affordable housing construction and rehabilitation. And that goes hand in hand with the private activity bonds, the low income housing tax credit program. So the city issues bonds to support these projects. And then more recently, our master lease financing methods to help subsidize highly vacant apartments that are out there in the city. Inclusionary housing ordinance, that's the obligation for micro rate developers and whether they pay a fee or provide a certain percentage of affordable units within their market rate developments. And then the most recent incentive programs which have really shown to be successful, market rate production has skyrocketed and we've been able to move forward 2,000 units just through the incentive program and we're seeing exciting projects downtown as well as conversion of office to residential. So these are our standalone various financing programs currently in the housing department to support production of housing. And this is messages that we've been giving through our Building More Housing presentations and discussions. And basically, we always talk about linking land to capital and what do we really mean by that. And we're trying to find different ways in which we can support production in both market rate as well as affordable. We've done the cost of development study and seen that certain structures are financially feasible through incentives, but towers and wraps still aren't, for example. So the cost of construction study has really revealed a lot of information in the trends in the market in terms of cost challenges and other problems that we're dealing with when it comes to development. San Jose is still an expensive place to build and we are therefore continuing to evaluate a variety of innovative ways in which we can finance development. So our four primary objectives, we need to bring in capital, public and private capital, and therefore continue to develop unused land and support developers in their land acquisitions and plans, continue to build our private-public partnerships, county as well as developers and investors, to bring in new capital and then we will continue to produce housing across the whole spectrum of AMI levels from 40% all the way to 120 and workforce housing. So public dollars alone are not enough to build housing and we really need to strategically use public resources to create innovative ways of financing overall development. And this slide is what our alternative financing models are. So really cross-financing methods, innovative ways to spur production, pairing the various programs rather than running them standalone. And you can see sort of the cross methods that we have here. combining gap financing with inclusionary housing, bonds with master lease financing, production incentives with master lease, and inclusionary housing. So these practical financing methods, combinations can be tested and it will allow us to use public resources more strategically in an effort to increase production faster, more cost effective. So this is really an opportunity for us to try different concepts. So we're here today in council to ask for an approval regarding these concepts. And we're going to be testing and learning a lot from these different methods. and then reporting back to council around March of 27. So we really have a set of pilot projects that we'll test these on and come back with in regards to their successes. And we hope that these will lead to a much higher production of housing in San Jose. And that concludes our presentation.

Great. Thank you so much for the presentation. Look forward to the discussion. Let me turn to Tony for public comment first.

Oscar Castro, come on down.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Oscar Castro, Working Partnerships. We'd like to thank staff for all the work and for the council members that brought this memo before previously at rules. And also would like to lift up some of the work that has been done around what's being known as the Working Families Housing Initiative. This has been a multi-year effort that has been co-designed along a broad work group of over 70 individuals. We've had the opportunity to present some initial findings uh... with many of you here and we want to think both counsel for their direction previously in the budget this year to uh... begin to look at this work and for staff for their ongoing coordination uh... with looking into this there's a lot of alignment between looking at working families housing the opportunities to create uh... faster cheaper makes income union-built housing uh... and then also trying to find ways of attracting new forms of capital into this conversation and we look forward to both encouraging these new strategies of alternative financing as well as other forms of thank you daniel and allison come on down hello daniel alvarez with an orco state company union uh

This is a good way, right? We're trying to make all this to get all this money for all these projects. But we also, we don't forget about the workers, right? Because we're getting all this money from everywhere, but at the same time, we need to make sure responsible contractors build these projects. Because at the end of the day, like you mentioned, it's a very expensive city to live and to build as well. So we need to make sure we're taking care of our workers. That's pretty much it. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, Alison Singalani, Director of Policy with SV at Home. We need new homes at all income levels, so we do not oppose these alternative rental housing financing structures on principle. However, most of San Jose's renters have low incomes, and most of these renters live in homes they can't afford. San Jose's average rents are affordable to renters at about 65 to 70% AMI. The people who need help with housing the most are San Jose's residents with the lowest incomes, many of whom are living right now in overcrowded conditions and paying far more than they can afford. We need a clear strategy focused on meeting the housing needs of San Jose's residents who can't afford market rents. Thank you.

Brian?

Yes, I'd like to reiterate what the speaker before said, and thank you for all the hard work on this. Thank you for that chance to speak.

Back to Council.

Great, thank you. Just as we come back, I want to offer a couple of high-level comments and then turn to colleagues. First of all, Eric Bonney, thank you for all the research you and your team have done and the presentation today. I also want to thank my council colleagues, council members, Campos, Tordillos, Cohen, and Ortiz, who co-authored the memo that we brought forward to rules to initiate this latest round of work. I would argue that The work we're doing, and it takes many different forms, there are so many facets to our work related to making it easier, faster, more cost-effective to build housing at all income levels and in a wide range of typologies, really is the single most important strategy we have for addressing the high cost of living and the affordability crisis so many of our families are facing. This is our single biggest bet as a city to address affordability for working families because it's where we have the most tools. And we don't have total control, as was pointed out, whether it's tariffs or the high cost of capital. The city only has so many tools, but land use, local fees, approval processes, gap financing, some of the other tools you mentioned are levers that we can pull. As you pointed out, we have a historically low vacancy rate three percent lowest in 18 years which if you didn't otherwise believe we're in a housing supply crisis i think makes that pretty clear i was also struck by slide six and i don't know if we can put slide six back up but just the number of units that want to get built and these are entitled correct eric I just wanted to make sure that was very clear to everyone, just to dwell on this slide one more time, because I thought it was one of the most important in the presentation. This council, and the council before us, and probably before that, I would say over the last decade or so, has been very pro-housing. We have said yes, typically unanimously, to virtually every housing proposal that's come before the council. The challenge we face today is less about zoning or height limits. It's more about cost of construction. And this feasibility chart shows very clearly that there are... 20,000, over 20,000 homes that could be built today that we've already said yes to that simply aren't penciling. And that's why I think as you pointed out in one of your other charts, as we were willing to open our minds and think differently about fees and some of our requirements such as the unfunded inclusionary requirement that sounded good in theory but was actually reducing housing supply, we have suddenly seen an uptick in housing production of both market rate and affordable. And we're now seeing, I think, the latest year, over 3,500 homes actually under construction, which is a meaningful increase over the prior year. So I think we are getting creative, getting out of our comfort zone. I want to applaud the council for that. The reality is there's no single solution, but we've got to pull every lever we've got and encourage the state and others to do the same. I also just wanted to highlight, I was really struck in the memo earlier by the example where a developer may propose meeting our inclusionary ordinance with 5% of the units at 60 and 80% AMI each. If we add some gap financing, we could get 10% of the units at that lower 50% AMI threshold. And what's interesting about that to me is the city doesn't have to be the primary funder of the project. We don't have to compile tens of millions of dollars. We can effectively buy down deeper levels of affordability for the families who need it most while actually increasing the feasibility of the project because we're bringing some dollars to bear to buy down that affordability and that really is a win-win that should not only get us more affordability but make more projects pencil and get us more overall units including the higher amis that would be part of that mixed income project and i think that's the kind of more flexible approach we're going to have to take in the future if we're going to see housing production at scale and across different income levels given how hard it is to finance these projects. So I won't go into any more detail here, but I just appreciate that you have laid out the strategies we've got, the creativity we can bring to bear on the problem, and that as you put in your second to last slide, I think, how we're going to pilot, test, and evaluate, and this is truly an iterative process. Maybe I forgot which slide it was, but you kind of outlined how we'll be iterative in our approach, which is important because there's clearly not a silver bullet here. So anyhow, that's all I wanted to say to frame this up. Again, thank you to the colleagues who co-authored our group memo some while back, and now I'll turn to Councilmember Ortiz.

Thank you, Mayor. First, I just want to thank Housing Director Eric Sullivan and the entire Housing Department for continuing to work with our office and council to identify new pathways to develop affordable housing. I support the frameworks being proposed today. We know the traditional financing model alone is not producing housing at the scale or speed that we need. So being creative, finding creative ways to leverage existing tools and move more projects across the finish line is essential. These frameworks give us greater flexibility to support mixed income projects and potentially expand affordability across a broader range of incomes. At the same time, as we explore these new approaches, I want to make sure we are protecting the limited resources available for low-income and very low-income housing. We should be careful that those resources are not stretched too thin in order to make more market rate or more moderate income projects feasible. Both gap financing and master leasing rely on limited eligible city funding, so maintaining the right balance as these programs are implemented will be important. And I don't deny that building more housing in the long run may make housing more affordable, but our residents need intervention now, and so we can't lose our site over that overall goal. With that, I just have a couple of questions for you, Eric. as part of this broader effort to find new ways to finance housing we've also uh... have the discussion going around working families housing following the direction we provided through the budget uh... can you speak a little bit about how the housing department is coordinating this effort

Yes, so thank you, Council Member. So as Wescott had mentioned, we've been working with working partnerships to look at and get into some details as to what financing options could look at, both with, you know, a... direct interpretation of what was put forth by the partnership to look at city county collaboration, as well as what alternatives to that that still target a similar am I group that's still Union built that is still. utilizing alternative forms of building and financing. And so we continue to iterate on that financing model to see if we can get a project to feasibility. And the department has offered as part of this consideration some potential public lands that the department controls to make a project really work so that we can ground it in something real and really discuss through some financing opportunities using a piece of dirt where we can scale it to an x number of units and see what we can get to in terms of a project feasible that's that's exciting so just i want to make sure i understand so there's some potential leads where we could actually hopefully implement the working families hasn't okay correct and not in its exact form an iteration of it because there's obviously in working through uh joint powers agreements you need powers on you need agreement of all sides and so there may be some challenges uh and working through that so we're pursuing that as well as different ways of funding that type of housing Great. And one follow-up question.

I know we're, my understanding is we may get an update in December in regards to this, the council. Correct. So is there anything you could share about particularly around the developing the financing plan or coordinating with other jurisdictions that may be interested in participating?

so in coordinating with other jurisdictions part of the proposal included a partnership with the county for the formulation of a joint powers agreement we're continuing those conversations and as those conversations go forward we're also pursuing simultaneously some alternative ways to finance the project if in the event the cross jurisdictional collaborations do not bear fruit in moving a project forward so that we were taking a couple of paths simultaneously in order to see if we can get to a feasible project i think what was laid out in the use of pension funds is something that i have done personally in the past we did it in philadelphia so we know how the financing structure needs to work uh but you know there's always a give and take and a compromise that's needed across all parties so how do we kind of continue to move that forward is the charge that we receive so looking at it with cross-jurisdictional collaboration and also without in order to continue moving the conversation forward.

That's great. Glad to hear that you personally have experience doing these type of projects. I know that we have the right person for the job here, Eric, so I want to thank you for your leadership. That being said, so December is when we have an update. How far away do we feel we are from actually having something like a tangible project we can work on?

So in working with the team, we've provided to Waskar and Jeffrey and the team a model for how we think this can work. We're getting feedback on that, making some adjustments to it. I'm hopeful that by December, and Waskar can tell me, we can say, hey, we think we have something here that's feasible so that we can come back to council with a much more ingrained update that says here's kind of what the scheme is here we're going to use these tools to try to get something out we're going to use this type of construction build and materials it's going to be built with labor and it includes or does not include some cross jurisdictional work okay all right thank you so much eric and i guess i'll i'll move the item

great thanks council member i also i just want to echo your comments i meant in my opening comments to also thank kwaskar and the and the team we've had uh really productive conversations over the last year or so now about the working families housing initiative i know it's something we continue to explore which is in parallel to your point being explored with count with the county as well which would need to play a key role in this so we're continuing to have those conversations in parallel it's maybe less baked than something like gap financing that we've been doing for decades at the city but um i think it's very much worth exploration and glad that eric has direct expertise in other cities with similar models so appreciate you flagging that um let me go now to counselor casey

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, I had a chance to meet with Working Partnership over the last year, year and a half or so, too, and it's really exciting to see some of the financing tools they were considering. The JPA, I wasn't able to get my head around how that would work with the county. That seems like a challenge, but the impact would be meaningful, so it's worthwhile to pursue. Still not sure necessarily how it would play out. That seems rough. public equity revolving fund, and then also the pension funds getting in and providing financing potentially, I think is really exciting as well. So I would just encourage us to continue those conversations with them and identify as many financing tools as we can. And I just wanted to give a shout out to Council Member Ortiz and the, what was it, Instagram post or whatever with working partnerships where you were featured prominently. And I thought it was cool. But I look forward to seeing what you guys are able to do together. So I would just encourage the engagement. Thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember. Let me go now to Councilmember Tordillos.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Eric, Bono, the entire team from housing for all of the work that's gone into fleshing out these recommendations. I think that as we continue to grapple with both the gap between housing demand and housing production, you know, the limited number of or amount of public subsidy that's available for affordable projects, and also trying to find ways to advance those projects that are kind of sitting right at the bubble of financial feasibility and get more shovels in the ground. I think that there's a lot of promise with these recommendations, and that they'll advance multiple city goals, including both increasing the production of affordable homes, but also doing more to promote mixed income communities. I think one exciting opportunity here is, as you said, the opportunity to develop affordable housing at scale, but in a way that keeps more properties on the property tax assessment role and hopefully safeguards some of the long-term fiscal health of the city in the process. I have one quick question for Eric, which is just that the recommendation seems to lay out kind of four models that are combining these existing financing tools. I'm curious if you think that there's any additional combinations that could, you know, have value here. I think in particular looking at model number one, which as I understand it uses GAAP financing and IHO to increase the number of deeply affordable units. It seems like there could be potential to combine that model with model number four, which uses mass-release financing to buy down the affordability of some of the market rate units. And then potentially with those two combined tools, you know, get more affordable units overall and also kind of a broader range of income levels. So just curious if, you know, the recommendations that we're moving forward today are limited to just these four or if you also have the flexibility to look at other combinations on a project by project basis that might make sense.

Yes, thank you, Council Member. Yes, we have the flexibility to look at all different types and kind of mix and matching as best we can. A lot of it obviously is driven by how creative our partner is in doing this as we're gonna explore really new frontiers and how do we finance affordability to drive it down as low as we can while also maintaining the project feasibility for going forward. And the target here is always how do we keep it on the tax rolls? We acknowledge that a lot of tax-exempt properties declines the city's future financial stability. So where do we keep production going, maintain project feasibility, and continue to finance the city going forward through tax revenue generation?

Sounds good. I'm glad to hear that we'll have the flexibility to really be open-minded about combining these different tools. I'm glad you spoke a little bit more about the property tax angle here. That was going to be my final comment, is I think that given the benefits of keeping these properties on the tax rolls, I think there's also an opportunity moving forward to be really intentional about geographically where we aim to leverage some of these tools. I know that coming up later this fall, we have the study session on enhanced infrastructure financing districts. We'll discuss this more then, but obviously those districts rely on the total assessment value within the district bounds continuing to grow in order to generate the increment that then finances infrastructure projects. One of the challenges with the traditional models of affordable housing development is that you do end up with these properties that get removed from the tax rolls with the welfare exemption and then can Drop the overall value of the district and kind of almost work in the opposite direction of what you're trying to do with the EIFD So as kind of the city's downtown EIFD plans come into further, you know clarity I think there's an opportunity to potentially leverage some of these models in particular Model number two with the private activity bonds to again generate mixed income properties But ones that could really be synergistic with what the city's trying to do with some of the EIFD work So very excited about all of this.

Thank you Thanks councilmember return now to counselor compass I

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you to Eric for this report and all of the staff who worked on this. I have one question, and I want to echo Councilmember Ortiz's remarks about making sure that we are being inclusive in how we're developing housing. So what is the city's strategy for ELI and VLI housing?

So ELI and VLI housing continue to be funded by the city. We brought forth a number of projects that continue to invest through the gap financing program in those projects with a limited set of resources and the amount of average resources that these projects typically need. it is difficult within the small pot as articulated in the memo to see how future production is going to be maximized. There are just the subsidy levels required for a lot of those projects, which also tend to be, at least in historic trends over the last three years, tend to be 100% ELI, which creates challenges around sustainability of the projects. part of what the work we're doing now in stabilizing. And so a lot of the funding that we have reserved is going to be to stabilizing a number of these projects. And I'm going to be coming back around the preservation strategy, which is part of our focus area of work. 3.4 goal, I believe, is really looking at ways in which we can take some of those 100% ELI projects and create more stability for them financially going forward. mainly because these projects were financed through a tool, low-income housing tax credits, that wasn't really designed in 1986 to finance 100% ELI projects. The way tax credit is designed, the rents have to go up 5% to 8% a year, and a lot of ELI households don't have wage increases to that level. And so it's created enormous structural imbalances to at least six to maybe eight of these projects that have already been funded by the city that we now have to go back and provide a form of stabilizing capital. So we're going to continue to preserve those units because that's a critical part of our overall housing continuum, but also looking for different ways in which that we can finance those projects in order to ensure fiscal stability. We've just been through this cycle where we invested a lot into ELI and 100% ELI projects and are now are on the turn of that cycle, which is we're in years five through eight of their tax credit compliance period, and they're not financially stable. So we're having to invest and recapitalize them in order to ensure we can keep those units preserved for affordability for our lowest of income families. If we want to look at other ways in which to fund ELI units, my recommendation would be let's figure out how do we as other cities do, cost subsidize those units by including them 40% and 50% AMI units. So that way the development itself can help subsidize those rents to have a building that's financially stable going forward. And that's where we see just some of the challenges, but also opportunities for devising some strategies to keep those buildings preserved while also looking at new production that's gonna allow for those units to be stabilized by some higher income units in the same building.

Thank you for that response. And I appreciate all the work that our housing department has done so far. There are two concerns that I want to share, which I hope will inform the work going forward. And the first is around AMIs, which continue to increase. And we know that extremely low income no longer means chronically unhoused or people who need significant assistance. The area median income for a family of four is over $200,000. That means an extremely low-income family of four makes nearly $62,000 per year. And these are working people, right? These are people who clean our buildings, our homes, they watch our kids, they prepare our food. And an affordable housing strategy that does not include ELI housing is incomplete. And it risks leaving behind tens of thousands of hardworking people who need housing in our city. Again, as AMIs continue to climb, more and more working people are not going to be served if we focus on moderate income housing. And secondly, as we heard with public resources so limited, we prioritize the funding that we do have for the lowest income. AMIs. The area median income for a single person in Santa Clara County is nearly 144,000. That is the 100% AMI level for a household of one. And a person with that income has many more options, and market rate housing is more accessible to them. Even someone at 80% AMI or earning $113,000, that's a person with options. What I'm concerned about is focusing too many of our limited resources between the 80% and 110% AMI where people really do have the means and the options. Instead, what I'm asking for consideration in how we move this forward is how can we ensure that our limited resources can be preserved for 50%, 30%, and 0% AMI households where there are few, if not no, alternatives available to them. So those are my comments. Thank you.

Thanks, Councilmember. Any other comments or reactions, colleagues? I appreciate those points, and I do think the data should guide us. I think, to Eric's point, one thing we do have to keep in mind as we do our best to expand the very low-income supply of new housing is the number of projects we have that are imbalanced. And now, to your point, Eric, requiring additional dollars that are taken away from new units because they are not feasible they are in disrepair they are not meeting their obligations and so we do need enough of an income mix in each given project for it to actually exist and not need more public subsidy or have to be taken offline, as I think we're likely to see for at least one site in the city very soon. So it's a real challenge to balance this. It's also worth noting, I think, and Eric, if you could bring... Whatever analysis may be available, if we have data, I know that part of the value of even a unit at 60 or 80 AMI is that it does help over time. It does help to reduce the pressure on conversions of existing naturally affordable products. units at lower income levels which i think right now our limited resources mean that we can't build enough new units to keep up with that conversion pressure of very low income older units getting updated and then put back on the market at a higher income so we're losing very low income or at least product available at a low lower income level faster than we're building new potentially in at least some sub markets Because we don't have the supply and a higher AMI because it's all kind of one dynamic market So I do think more data and research for the council would help make help us make the best decisions Okay, appreciate all the comments. We have a motion Tony.

Let's vote Motion passes unanimously Thank You Tony

Okay, that was item 8.1. Rhonda, item 8.3 is a reminder for those following along. Council deferred item 8.2. So on item 8.3, this is the exclusive negotiation agreement and right of entry with LH Housing and or Property Works LLC for the development of affordable housing at 71 Vista, Montana. Eric, back to you.

Thank you, Mayor. So Eric Solowon is Director of Housing. So I'm going to go through a brief presentation here regarding the RP process and selection and recommended award for the redevelopment of 71 Vista, Montana. And I'll kind of start out here just with a quick background on this project. So a couple of years ago, the city had invested in this site and had brought forth two projects that could not get to the financial closing line. And so we repositioned this project and put out an RFP for both this site and then the now deferred Arena Motel site to look at different ways in which we can fund eventual production at this site and asking developer responders to think about this work differently. since the city has very limited resources we want to make sure that we are able to number one recoup our investment in this site which is 23 million dollars that the city had put out for this so whatever proposal was going to make it to the end had to demonstrate to us that there was a way to pay back the city for this work so that way we can recoup those low-income moderate fund dollars to invest in future production? Then two, how do we look at ways in which we can maximize density at the site while keeping rents affordable? And we had given an affordability range of up to 80% being the top and going downward in order to ensure we can have a mixed income strategy for production. And so the response that Banu here will go into details about that we selected through this process was from LH Housing, who demonstrated that through their proposal, they can repay the city. They can have a quick build modular construction for this site that has been demonstrated as a feasible product type in other cities in California. They have a history of being able to deliver as one of the requirements for this RFP was that they shall stick to a three-year development schedule. And if they fail, it is within the department's determination to then select the second bidder as an incentive to the first respondent to produce and to deliver on the committed interest. UNITS AND WHILE ALSO RECOUPING SOME OF OUR FUNDS. AND SO THE SELECTOR IS LH HOUSING AND THEIR PARTNERSHIP WITH GENESIS COMPANIES AND CLOUD APARTMENTS WHICH IS A MODULAR FABRICATION PARTNER THAT IS COMMITTED TO MOVING THIS PROJECT FORWARD. AND SO BANU IS NOW GOING TO GET INTO SOME OF THE MORE PROJECT DETAILS.

Thank you, Eric. The proposal put forth by LH Housing proposes a four-phase project and an overall number of units around 572 homes with an area median income of up to 80% AMI. and 440 parking spaces with no city subsidy request. So the developers will be putting in their own 100% equity capital into this project and have put together a financing proposal where they will be paying us back on the investment we've made on this particular land. So every phase they will be making a payment for that investment in four parts. The units that are proposed are a mix of studios, one and two bedrooms. And besides private equity, they'll also be taking out conventional debt. So it's basically equity and debt structure. but not really any tax credits requested. And the developer has extensive experience with this type of financing in regards to these kind of developments and has a lot of experience building over 200 units on average across California and on public land. So Eric mentioned the schedule of performance. We have a very strict requirement that this land needs to be developed as soon as possible. It's been sitting around for a long time and we really need to get a development going on it. So in our RFP we were very specific about the timeline we requested and when construction would need to start. So LH Housing proposed that they can start construction even earlier than what the RFP requested, which was around 36 months. And they proposed to start hopefully within 15 months. So we're excited to see whether they can hit that. But if they are not able to meet these timelines, as we can see in this table, we have a very strict requirement that we'll be moving on to the next second ORD, and the ENA will be, inclusive negotiations agreement will be terminated. And this is the summary of what I just mentioned. Property Works is the second proposal that was selected and scored well. Their proposal is 426 apartments in two phases, 100% affordable or units at or below 80% area median income. Their financing model includes tax credits, your usual low-income housing tax credits, and potential city financing requests and some private capital. And theirs is also a modular construction proposal. So they're the second-ranked respondent, and LH Housing was selected to be the first, and we'll be executing an E&A with LH Housing upon approval of this request today. And that concludes our presentation. Thank you.

Great. Thank you very much. Tony, do we have a public comment?

Brian?

Yes, I'm glad to see that we brought this forward, and we definitely desperately need this housing. And I just want to thank everybody for doing the hard work for this. Thank you.

Back to council.

Great. Thank you. All right. Colleagues? I know this is District 4, but do we have a motion or comment? Okay, motion from the Vice Mayor, second from Council Member Kamei. Thank you. I don't see any other hands. Toni, let's vote.

Motion passes unanimously.

Great. Thank you, Tony. Thank you, colleagues. We're on to open forum, which is an opportunity for members of the public who have comments on city business that was not on today's agenda to speak. So, Tony, I'll turn it back to you.

Yeah, I'm going to start with the people in the building. I have Jen Grilly, Richard, Roland, and Elena. Come on down. You have one minute. Then I'll move on to Brian online.

Great. You all can come down in any order. Whoever's first may just begin. You'll have one minute.

I was told two minutes, so I'll try to make this fast. Good afternoon, Mayor Mahan and council members. My name is Jen Grilly, and I reside at 17th and St. James. I'm here today to discuss a specific issue that I'm having with the Department of Transportation. During the pandemic, the DOT underwent changes to its policies as well as its duties of parking compliance officers that unfortunately left neighborhoods feeling disregarded and in some instances unsafe. We currently have a car that's been parked in front of our home for two weeks with a handwritten note that reads abandoned vehicle and no one knows where it came from. Upon trying to report the abandoned vehicle on the 311 app, I found out that the DOT no longer deals with abandoned vehicles that don't appear non-operational, leaving my neighborhood with no honest recourse. Unfortunately, homes in my neighborhood are being divided into multiple apartments, legal or not, and some have 7 to 10 cars on the street at all times, abandoning them, leading to our parking issues, not to mention we're one block from a large low-income development with extremely inadequate parking. Back in May, in broad daylight, I was threatened to... I'm sorry, that's your time?

We will follow up. Stephen, would you mind connecting? Yeah.

Rudy, come on down.

Yes, thank you. Right there, yeah. Thank you, Lee.

Okay, I'm going to go quick. Good day, everyone. My name is Richard Monty Kinsel III. My pen name is Monty Brocco. I recently had a foundational physics paper. I recently just released a body of mathematical framework scientific papers. And one of those papers got put on the foundational physics page, like next to Einstein. It's literally the biggest discovery since Einstein. It finishes our algebra. Yeah, and please don't take my word for it. Please go to Google it right now. Foundational physics, academia.edu. Also, because of this, I created an academia account. In 10 days, I'm the top 1% viewed account. You can go to sjsu.academia.edu slash B-R-O-C-C-O. This is what I want to talk to you about. The mathematics that I still have not released, I have superconductor predictions.

Thank you. That's your time next speaker.

Thank you. Maybe Steven over there could get your contact info. We can find a way to follow up.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Elena Churchill. Pam Foley, in your district, your Apple store is selling counterfeit hack products. I would like a resolution to why it is you're not doing anything about it. A recent packet was sent to you, Mayor Matt Mahan, and social workers at the social services agency are filing fraudulent disability claims on their advocacy's behalf, meaning I had someone file wrongful information to disability and I'm not receiving my benefits because of their misconduct. They wanted me to file a complaint form. This is a criminal matter. The fraud, the extortion, I am living off of $300 cash a month and I have been doing so for three or four years. I can't do it no more. I have come to you time and time again. I need action, please. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker.

Honestly, I didn't know that I would only get a minute to speak. You know, I guess mine is a little too much to explain, and so it would have been more preferable to have more than a minute. So sorry for wasting your time.

Not at all. You can submit letters to the clerk or our offices. You can email any of our offices. Our contact information is all on the city website.

Yes, if you want to wait until after the meeting, I'll talk to you about it.

Thank you. So just to remind you that if I have slides, I don't get a timer, so maybe we could... You want me to count down at 10? We could have that one. That would be great. Now, data centers, I get it. Actually, the IBM data center on Bailey is the reason why I migrated from London to San Jose 40 years ago. Now, I also know they need power. Guess what? We're looking at 2 gigawatts. Where are we going to get it from? If we don't go nuclear, we've only got two options. It's either gas turbines or batteries. I get it, totally. But let's just be reasonable. Let's not go around putting battery plants in neighborhoods. Now, last thing, I attended the first workshop yesterday which says data center and large energy project, uniform standards. Right of the battery stall, we've got 15 items here, and no, we're not discussing battery plans. That's an issue. Thank you.

I'm going to move to the people online. Before I do that, I just want to remind that speakers must comply with the city's code of conduct for public meetings. Please direct comments to the body, limit remarks to city of San Jose items, and observe the time limit. Conduct that disrupts the meeting or interferes with others' ability to participate may result in muting or removal as authorized by law. Brian, followed by calling user one.

Thank you. I don't know how he did it, but he was not able to run. Where people bet I drew a blank anyways, tariffs are household taxes. They are direct driver of inflation. They destabilize financial markets. Supply chain bottlenecks and port and shipping grid blocks. This person casinos was able to drive actually go bankrupt on casinos is now running our country. God help us. Thank you.

Call in user one.

Good afternoon, everybody. The one minute rule really is a joke. San Francisco gives you three minutes. Other cities give you five. They used to give you two minutes here. Now it's one. What are they afraid of? There's not a lot of people here or calling in. But what I'm calling in about is the pile of weeds that continues to grow and be a hazard in District 9, where I've called numerous times, Pam Foley, are you listening? It's a hazard right at Speak and Lucezi off of Cherry Avenue. The pile continues to grow. It's a huge, huge hazard for driving. The grass and the leaves are all dried out. People start piling their trash on top of that stuff. There's a homeless camp that's developing over there. It's not safe. And this is the people who brought you the road diets, which make driving impossible. Road diets. really terrible it wasn't uh vision zero it's zero vision when you have to deal with back to council all right thank you all we are adjourned