City Council - meeting_joint_regular

2 o'clock, so we're going to call today's meeting of the Rules of an Open Government Committee to order. So let's start with roll call, please.

Candelas.

Here.

Dwan absent. Foley.

Here.

Comey.

Here.

Cohen.

Here.

Mavacorm.

Great. We are going to start with the review of Tuesday, September 22nd, council meeting with a 9.30 closed session and a 1.30 regular session. Consent starts on page 5 and continues on page 6. and page seven. In section three, we have the 2026 IGR report, the status of open audit recommendations, and our annual employee turnover audit report, or just our annual employee turnover audit report. Section six, stormwater management annual report, 8.1 is dropped, and 8.2 is our consolidated annual performance and evaluation report. No land use, do we have any public comment?

Brian. Brian.

Sorry, it didn't show up. Um, can you hear me? Okay.

Yes.

Okay, I wanted to talk about the e-comment section on page three and page four. And you go to the Legistar section on the city calendar, and there is no e-comment. I called the clerk's office, and they were very, very, very nice. I must commend them. They were very, very nice person I talked to. And he said he was going to talk. I just thought I'd mention it rules and comp rules too. that I used to use the e-commons a lot. They haven't been on there for a while, and they haven't been able to be used for a while, and just thought maybe you should either update the agenda or have people have access to those. Thank you.

Back to committee.

Okay.

Move approval. Second.

All right, I don't see any other comments, so let's vote. The motion carries 4-0. And now we'll do our first review of the council meeting for September 29th. That one has a 9.30 closed session and a 1.30 regular session. And consent starts on page five and continues on pages six and seven. Section three, the economic development cultural affairs performance measures audit report. The status report of measure T. The return of the temporary moratorium related to detention at custodial facilities. And section five, elevator replacement project at the airport. Parking meter and garage rates and hours. Section six, First Amendment with Santa Clara County for the Household Hazardous Waste Program. And one item on land use consent. It looks like there's also a Joint City and Financing Authority item for Wastewater Commercial Paper Program that will be heard on the agenda. I don't know when this one gets heard. Is it heard right after it's closed, or is it?

We'd actually like to hear it right after consent, because we'll have consultants there.

Right after consent. That's what I meant, right after consent. Okay, so this one will be heard right after consent is joint council financing authority meeting. All right, do we have a public comment?

Yes, but as a reminder, speakers must comply with the city's code of conduct for public meetings. Please direct comments to the body, limit remarks to the agenda item, and observe the time limit. Conduct that materially disrupts the meeting or interferes with others' ability to participate may result in muting or removal as authorized by law. Please go ahead and speak, Brian, followed by call in user one.

Just to let you know that mute thing isn't showing up as quick. over that one. I'm looking forward to when you say after consent, that's the consent here. And then you have that meeting with those people right in the same at the dais there in the main main meeting room. Is that okay? That's all I have on that one. Thank you.

Call in user one.

Yeah, this mute button's not working too good either. Anyway, another thing needs to be fixed down there. By the way, elevator fixed at the airport. How about six foot one in City Hall that was broken when I was there last night? Last time I was there. I hope it's been fixed. How about the clock that still says two minutes when we only get one minute? We need to either fix that clock or get rid of it. And what you need to do is you're going to start raising rates on the parking meters, which I've got to be the most ridiculous thing on the planet. Fix the parking meters. They don't work. You can't even see the screen because of the solar panel and the digital letters and numbers and letters. You can't see when you're trying to put your money in. You guys need to fix a lot of things. And like I've always liked to say and end this whole thing is, You got some potholes to fix, people, among other things. But fix the parking meters first, could you please? Thanks.

Back to the committee.

All right, thank you. Do we have any comments?

Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second on the agenda. And that motion carries 4-0. And we have four items on our consent calendar today, and we'll go to public comment first.

Brian, please go ahead and speak.

This is just for the – did you get me all right?

Yes.

Okay. Sorry, I still haven't shown up real quick. On the public record, it doesn't really – because a lot of – I know I do, and I'm not sent to complain because you get a lot of emails. I get that. What – I mean, I've asked this question in the past, and I'll ask it again in a minute. It's not really quick enough to answer – to get it. And I didn't get an answer to the last question I had too. What do you do as far as like, what happens to these public records? Are they just, because a lot of us, I know I do, I spend hours on the emails because I am concerned. And like I said, one minute isn't enough time. So sending things into the public record, are they looked at? Is there any kind of accountability on your side that they have been looked at? Just if you could answer that question. Thank you.

Call in user one.

What we can only just talk about public records right now, or can I talk about anything?

This is on anything on consent on 1 of the 4 items on our consent calendar today.

So, I can speak about the real estate association meeting. You're going to have there.

No, that's not an item on our consent calendar today. You can speak about that. Oh, is it? Oh, that's the, the, um, the return to use. Yes. Sure. You can do that. Let's reset the calendar.

I want to know why. I want to know why the city taxpayer has to give the real estate association free space. They're real estate agents. Nobody has an office or a real estate space to go do their own thing. We as taxpayers get to host them. Do I get to go to the party, whatever they're having there? I think that's ridiculous. And I mean, who's putting this thing on? I think we know who it is. We know who's putting it on. I'm not going to say her name, but she knows. Right. The real estate people, the people who are making billions of dollars here in Silicon Valley. We need to host them for free. Talk about corporate. Talk about business welfare, man. That's ridiculous. Meanwhile, the parking meters are broken. Anyway, thanks a lot, everybody.

Back to the committee.

All right. We have a motion on the consent calendar.

Second.

All right. Let's vote on consent. Okay, motion carries 4-0. And now we're on to our action item for today. This is a memo co-authored by myself and Councilmember Condeles on self-checkout safety standards for grocery and drug retail stores. I'll let Councilmember Condeles give a brief introduction before we go to public comment.

no thank you chair I also appreciate your support on this item and you know there's only two signatures on the in our memo because of Brown Act considerations because of the folks who comprise the Rules Committee but in my district I represent a lot of seniors and they ultimately feel like shopping is no longer an easy task they find themselves having to confront technology with little to no support and it's become a growing challenge just to get groceries so many of them you know, they don't necessarily see this as helpful. It's more frustrating to them. And we've experienced going into a store where merchandise is locked up, self-checkout machines are stalled, and there are fewer employees available to help. And you're waiting for assistance just to purchase everyday items. And, you know, for our folks with disabilities that that can that experience could be even more frustrating and you know last night we we heard on the focus area reports with regards to public safety continuing to be a top issue for for our city especially the the issue associated with retail theft which is a real and growing challenge and according to the Public Policy Institute of California shoplifting in California increased nearly 14 percent in 2024 and was almost uh 50 percent higher than it was in 2019 and so there are other categories of property crimes that were declining but shoplifting uh continues to move in the opposite direction and so um self-checkout is not the sole cause of retail theft uh and we but we have to recognize that there are areas that are that It's creating where it's creating shortage of staffing and additional opportunities for theft for other issues. And so that puts our workers in a difficult position. And we're asking our employees to monitor and troubleshoot and do that with several station, unlocking merchandising, helping customers, and at the same time identifying and responding to potential theft. That's a lot. And so what we're striking to do is find a balance. Other cities have done this. In the memo you will read Long Beach, Costa Mesa, and Santa Ana are all wrestling with these same issues and have looked at these standards around dedicated self-checkout staffing Um, and, uh, and certain safeguards. And so, um, uh, hoping to do this in partnership with the county we've, we've engaged the county, uh, as part of recommendation number two and, um, and worked, uh, and, and worked with the administration to figure out a good pathway forward. Um, uh, especially as it relates to staff workload. and obviously this will go for a workload analysis that should be coming back to us fairly quickly given the flexibility that we provided in the memorandum and the direction to ultimately prioritize this when it comes to resources as part of the budget process and council priority setting. early next year. So that being said, thank you for listening. Thank you for your co-authorship. And with that, I humbly ask for a second after I move our memorandum. Second. Correct.

Okay, thank you. We have a motion and a second to move to workload analysis, but we'll now go to public comment first.

As I call your name, please go ahead and make your way to the podium. Christopher and Yvonne, please go ahead and make your way to the podium. Do I begin any time?

Hello, my name is Yvonne Saavedra. I work at Lucky's. I've been a member with Lucky's for 35 years. I'm representing Local 5. I want to thank you Council Members Condales and Cohen for bringing this issue forward and recognizing that technology changes the way we shop. Our policies need to keep pace. Self-checkout can provide convenience, but it needs to be implemented responsibly. Technology should support workers and customers. Worker safety is a major concern. One employee should not expect to monitor several checkout stations, assist customers respond to machine issues, unlock merchandise, and confront potential theft all at the same time. Adequate staffing is also an important tool in combating retail theft. Employees need to be able to actually monitor self-checkout areas and intervene appropriately without being overwhelmed by compelling responsibilities. Retail theft affects everyone. It hurts businesses, put workers in difficult situations, contribute to merchandise being locked behind cases, and can ultimately make shopping more frustrating experience for customers.

Thank you. That's your time.

Go ahead.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Chris Bonton. I represent UFCW Local 5. I currently also work at Lucky's, and I've been there for 36 years. Just wanted to talk about some of the research and facts that are going on. Research demonstrates that SCO machines have a shrink rate of 3.5%, which is more than 16 times higher than the traditional cashier lanes, which is 0.21%. Industry data estimates roughly 33% of all retail store transactions occur through SCO machines. San Francisco sales for grocery, retail, and pharmacy grosses between 5 and 6.2 billion. Here in San Jose, our total sales for grocery, retail, and pharmacy are between 2.6, 3.1 billion. In California, sales tax does not apply to sales on these items. Baby formula, cooking wine, energy bars, food product, granola bars, kombucha teas, fruit juice, non-carbonated sports drinks, and bottled water.

Thank you, that's your time. Moving on to virtual speakers, call in user one, followed by Brian.

If anyone lives where I live, I shop over at Safeway on Almaden and Cherry Avenue, and those workers are overwhelmed. The store sales have gone way down because there's a homeless encampment underneath the Guadalupe overpass there on Branham. They're still down there. And then there's the tiny homes that we did not want that has attracted a lot of people who are not all with it mentally, unfortunately. I mean, what do you do when there's a half-naked woman covered in her own feces? They got to deal with those kind of people at that Safeway. There's always people trying to sell things outside. There's aggressive panhandlers that have accosted my mother. You go in there on a Friday night, you got people who just got out of jail who are in there. It's a horrible place. I can't imagine having to work there. And they don't have as many workers now because they can't afford it because of the theft. And when things are locked up, people don't buy it. I buy a lot of my kind of things.

Brian? I'm sure this is a character flaw on my part, and I've been told that. But do you remember how it used to be? and you can't go in a store now without having something locked up. You go through the checkout line. And if it makes a mistake and workers risk their lives and people have been killed, workers have been killed trying to stop. And I know the company says, don't try to stop them. And I, you know, it's, I know we're that, You can't incorporate everybody and all that kind of stuff like that. But things have really, it's just really hard for us to obey the rules and laws. And for some reason, that's also a character flaw in my part. And it's made clear on both sides of the aisle. These people walk between the raindrops and it's really sad. Thank you.

Back to the committee.

All right, thank you for the members of the public who weighed in. Do we have any comments from the committee? If not, we have a motion to get a workload analysis and come back to rules in a couple weeks, so let's vote. Okay, motion carries 4-0, and that brings us to our final item today, our open forum.

Brian?

Yes, I want to reiterate that. You know, you look at, we have an election coming up. I don't think that election is going to be fair. Um, and I hope I'm wrong. I really, really do. I hate to be a negative person about things, but there's just too much involved. And, um, I don't know. You just see people and I'm not saying anybody there, but just, you know, we live our lives seriously, trying to follow all the rules, follow, stop the red lies, go the speed limit, which you take your life in your hands when you do that. People get so mad and pass you on the wrong side. And at times, pass you on the sidewalk, pass you in the bike lane. And it's just, it's us too. You can't stop all this. It's not fair to put it on you. It's just the way it is. And I don't believe it's going to change. I'm sad to say that, but I don't. Thank you. Have a good weekend.

Call in user one.

Okay, let's just start off with the huge pile of dried leaves that makes it a driver hazard right off of Cherry Avenue on Speak and Lee Chasey. Pam Foley, could you maybe tell Kyle to put in an order for that? It's a massive pile and it's causing driving ability. And, you know, we have to have poles and speed cameras and red lights. Well, guess what? Red light cameras get rid of all those things. And start scooping up all this debris that's all over the place. And it's not just on that corner, okay? Get rid of the flock camera. And I'm glad you haven't deployed like it's a military operation, the speed cameras, please. Yeah, get rid of the cameras, people. We don't need to live in an Orwellian society. This city can't handle anything. And now they're supposed to handle millions of dollars worth of software and tracking devices and everything else. they can't even come out for a call or put out a fire they can't even remove a pile of leaves but you're back to the committee okay we are adjourned at 2 20. thanks everyone