City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress. Good evening everyone and welcome to the city council regular meeting for this Monday evening, March 2nd. I now call this meeting to order. Please rise with me for 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 under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. City clerk, can you please call the role? Certainly. Mayor Lorraine. Council member Diaz Nash here. Council member Sphere Gaditzki here. Deputy Mayor Fernandez here. Mayor Lorraine here.

Council member Nome here.

Thank you and welcome everyone. We're excited to be here in person with options for those who are not here in person to still participate virtually. Thank you for your cooperation and for helping us maintain an efficient and accessible meeting environment. There are several ways to participate tonight. For those attending in person, you can complete a request to speak slip and hand it to the city clerk. If you are participating remotely, you can use the raise your hand feature in Zoom and you will be called on at the appropriate time. If calling in via phone, please press star 9 to raise your hand. And when you're called upon, please press star six to unmute. These options for public comment will be available until I close public comment periods for each specific item. And for members who may be watching us on YouTube, uh if you wish to provide live public comment, please note that we don't offer that on YouTube at this time, you'll need to join the meeting through the Zoom webinar instead using the access information listed on our agenda, which is available on our website at cityofonteo.org. We'll begin tonight's meeting with a ceremonial item uh celebrating Women's History Month and uh we have a proclamation. We also have some esteemed guests with us. I'd like to invite to the podium, Eileen Castanetto and Megan Croll with Sanonteo County's Commission on the Status of Women. And uh thank you very much for being with us tonight. Uh, I could read the proclamation and then turn it to you or if you'd like to start us off. I'd be happy. Very well. Just indulge me for a moment while I read this proclamation. Whereas Women's History Month celebrates

the contributions women have made to the United States and recognizes the achievements of women over the course of American history in a variety of fields. And whereas this year's theme set by the National Women's History Alliance is leading the change, women shaping a sustainable future to encompass financial stability, community resilience, leadership succession, and intergenerational equity. And whereas this theme affirms that shaping a sustainable future means fostering systems that support both people and the planet. And whereas women who have devoted their lives and talents deserve to be recognized for the barriers they've broken and the challenges they've overcome. And whereas women across all cultures serve in roles that are central to the advancement of society. And Women's History Month is a time to reaffirm our commitment to achieving gender equality, reflect on progress made toward resolving workforce disparities, and recognize that much remains to be done to improve the status of women and girls. And whereas societies where women are given opportunities for equal participation are stronger. And in order to achieve peace, security, and full respect for human rights, women must never be denied a voice. Now, therefore, I, Adam Lorraine, mayor of Sonteo, and on behalf of the city council, do hereby recognize the month of March 2026 as Women's History Month. Thank you very much and thank you for being with us tonight.

Good evening, Mayor Lorraine and members of the city council. Thank you for your leadership and service to our community. And a special acknowledgement to um Deputy Mayor Nicole Fernandez who knows uh firsthand the work of the commission on the status of women and the impact it has across our county. My name is Eileen Castanto and I live here in San Monteo. Women's History Month brings visibility to voices that have historically been under represented and reminds us that recognition helps create pathways for participation and opportunities to write ourselves into a world and a future that we all want to see.

Thank you.

I'm Megan Croll. I'm also a CMT resident. Um um I'm also the commission's newest commissioner. So on behalf of the commission on the status of women, thank you for issuing this proclamation. When we formally recognize women's history month, we are not simply making time on a calendar. We are affirming that the contributions, leadership, resilience, and innovation of women and girls in our community deserve to be seen, celebrated, and supported. For our underrepresented groups especially, visibility is powerful. It signals belonging. It tells young people that their leadership is possible. It tells working mothers, entrepreneurs, educators, and advocates that their contributions are strengthening our entire community. And it reminds us all that equity requires intention. And if I can just add one small plug, women's the women's hall of fame celebration is um Friday night, March 6th at 4:30 in the Fereralon room at Skyline College. One of our honores this year is Allison Suzuki who lives in San Mateo and her leadership and service exemplify the very spirit that we are celebrating tonight. So we hope that you will be able to come join us. Thank you again for this commitment.

Excellent. Thank you. And if you'll stay just a moment, we can have a a photo commemorating the event with the city council. Thank you everyone for that moment. We are now going to move beyond the ceremonial portion of tonight's meeting, which includes the business items being considered by the council tonight. For that reason, I would just like to remind all in the room and online that we will be enforcing rules of decorum from this point forward in the meeting. As such, we do not allow for cheering,

jeering, or booing during the business portion of the meeting, as this tends to put a chill on public comment. Our goal is to ensure that all perspectives are heard. Our motto is give respect, get respect, and we appreciate your cooperation with this. Mr. City Clerk, can you please read our consent calendar? Certainly. All matters listed under the consent calendar are considered by the council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion without discussion. If discussion is desired, that item may be removed and considered separately. Item number two, 2026 City of Sonteo legislative platform approval. Item number three, reclassification of administrative technician position to housing specialist to position approval. And finally, item number four, park and recreation commission appointment subcommittee appointment recommendation. Thank you. Is there any member of the council who would like to pull an item from the consent calendar? Seeing none, if there are any members of the public who wish to comment on any consent calendar item, now would be the time to make your comment. This would be for consent calendar items only. City clerk, is there uh are there any public comments on consent calendar items?

Mayor Luren, we have not received any requests to speak on the consent calendar. Okay, thank you. Then I will close public comment on the consent calendar and ask for a motion from councel to approve. So moved. Second. Thank you very much. City clerk, may we have a roll call vote, please? Certainly. Council member Nuome, yes. Council member Diaz Nash, yes. Council member Sphere Gaditzki, yes. Deputy Mayor Fernandez, and Mayor Lorraine, yes. The motion carries 5-0.

Thank you. And before we move on to general public comment, uh, as this item was just approved in the consent items, uh, of council, I would like to invite, uh, Maya Ray Osi to the po podium and take an oath of office if, uh, so desired with city clerk Martin McTager. Congratulations. Constitution of the United States, Constitution. As far as the duties, Did you see? Excellent. Now we have uh a new youth commissioner and

I appreciate everybody's indulgence on that. I I realize I said a little speech about not clapping, cheering and jering and then we had something that was kind of worth clapping for. So at this point though, at this point we're going to have serious business. Um next on the agenda is general public comment. So, members of the public who are wishing to comment on any item that's not appearing on our agenda tonight may address the city council at this time. State law prevents council from taking action on any matter not on the agenda. Your comments, though, may be referred to staff for follow-up. This public comment section is generally limited to a total of 15 minutes. However, that's subject to council's discretion and can be extended if council wishes to do so. If needed, an opportunity for additional public comment may also be provided later in the agenda. City clerk, can you please tally the total number of requests to speak on general public comment?

Certainly. Um, if you're in our chambers and wish to speak on items not on the agenda, please provide me with a request to speak slip. Um, we will be closing the request to speak period momentarily. Um, likewise, if you're in our virtual environment, please raise your hand. Now, I will give you just a few moments to do so. Mayor Lraine, there is no request to speak on general public comment.

Uh, thank you. I will close public comment for general uh comment and move on to the next item of business which would be item number five 668 East 3rd Avenue multif family residential development PA2025-20 or 025 that's what I get for saying that and uh we have a present presentation from Elizabeth Gagliardi, our associate planner. Good evening, Elizabeth, and thank you.

All right. Good evening, Mayor Lorraine, city council, and members of the public. Um, I'm Liz Galliardi, associate planner with the community development department with tonight's uh staff presentation. So, this item is for a proposed eightstory multifamily residential building located at 668 East 3rd Avenue. It's also referred to as the Gateway Project. Some quick overview before I dive in. Um, I'm going to cover the project background, then move into a code and policy review, wrapping up with a summary of public notice and our recommendation to the council. Starting with some project history. This application came in originally um with a preliminary application under the Housing Crisis Act or Senate Bill 330 on November 13th, 2024. Then the applicant held their neighborhood informational meeting on March 19th of 2025 followed shortly by submittal of the formal application on April 2nd. Um since then it was reviewed by city staff and refined by the applicant to ensure compliance with local and state laws. The project is exempt from SQA or the California Environmental Quality Act under Assembly Bill 130, which is a newer SQUA exemption that I'll cover some more later in the rest of the presentation. This map shows the project location um which is highlighted in blue. As you can see, it is just east of downtown Sano and also close by just to the southeast of the downtown Cal Train station. Zooming in a little bit, the project site, which is highlighted in yellow in the middle there, is bounded by East 3rd Avenue to the north, South Delaware Street to the west, South Elorado Street to the east, and East 4th Avenue to the south. Um, the project site currently has an existing one-story commercial

building, which will be demolished. Um and to the south there are two parcels on the same block which are not a part of this project scope. These contain an existing office building and gas station which will remain. Um also wanted to highlight here block 21 on this slide which is a across the street from South Delaware. Um this is a project with an improved entitlement that has not yet been constructed but just wanted to add that context as well. Um so in addition to block 21, there are several other um either recently approved and built or um soon to come in the pipeline projects in this area. So just wanted to highlight here um the proximity of some other projects downtown to the project site and happy to come back to this if we'd like to explore any of those in more detail. So, now that we've looked at the project location, I'll dive into what's proposed at the project site. Um, as I mentioned before, this is for an eightstory multifamily residential building with 73 covered parking stalls. Those stalls are split up between one level of belowground parking um, and garage space internal to the building on the ground floor and second story. That garage entrance for vehicles to both enter and exit is off of South Elorado Street. The upper floors of the project are entirely made up of residential units. Um, a total of 128 of them. And the project includes residential amenities such as a fitness room, some amenity ducks on the third and eighth floor, and a common room for the tenants on the eighth floor. This chart just shows a little more detail for how the 128 units are broken up. Um, as you can see, it's a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom units. 108 of those will be market rate, and 20 will be

affordable units. So, of those 20 affordable units, 10 are at the very low income affordable level, and another 10 at the moderate income level. This shows a site plan of the proposed building. Um, this is the ground floor layout. As you can see, the driveway access is off of South Elorado Street there to the right. Um, and parking is oriented towards the back of the building with units oriented um on that main frontage along Third Avenue. Moving into the entitlements for this project, there are two planning entitlements required. The first being a site plan and architectural review for that new multifamily building. This does go to city council for approval because it is over 55 ft in height and also a site development planning application for the removal of major vegetation. So there are nine trees that will be removed um from the site including four protected trees and the project proposes replacement planting of 16 new trees. In addition to that local context, there's also several state laws that come into play with this project. The first being state density bonus law. This project does include a stacked density bonus. So, it's receiving a 50% density increase for the first 10 affordable units and another 50% density increase for the next 10 at the moderate income level. Under state density bonus law, the project would be eligible for up to three concessions and unlimited waiverss. And the project takes advantage of um the full allowable density increase available under state law. So it effectively doubles that base density of 64 units to 128. Um the applicant has not requested any concessions but has identified several waiverss from different development

standards which I'll dive into a bit more next. So the site has a general plan land use designation of mixeduse medium 2 which establishes the base height and density standards. Under this general plan designation the maximum density or base density is 99 dwelling units per acre and the maximum height up to six stories. As you can see what's proposed is a little bit over that which um is achieved through the density bonus doubling the density. Um and it also includes a waiver to exceed this height limit going up to eight stories. The project is in the central business district support zoning district and also within the gateway sub area of the downtown area plan which establishes the specific setbacks and development standards which are summarized in this chart. Um the big things to note here are that the project does include waiverss to setback and stepback standards. Additionally, um this project is exempt from minimum parking requirements under Assembly Bill 2097, which I will, um explain a little bit more in the coming slides, but does still provide 73 parking stalls, and it does meet the local requirements for bicycle parking and loading zones. This slide includes a summary of all of the waiverss that are included for this project. So, I won't get into these in much detail now in the interest of time, but happy to come back to any of these um if there are questions on what waivers are being requested um from the objective design standards, zoning, um any of those. So, in addition to local policies, there as I mentioned before are several state laws that apply to this project. Um, the first of these is the Housing Crisis Act or Senate Bill 330. The main thing to

note here is that this project is vested to the date that the preliminary application was submitted to the city, which is November 13th, 2024. So, this freezes the development standards and fee structure in place at that time for this project. As this is a housing project, it is also subject to the Housing Accountability Act or HAA, which limits the city's ability to deny the project, reduce its density, or render it in feasible if objective standards are met. Um, additionally, as I mentioned before, Assembly Bill 130 or AB130 is a newer SQA exemption for um qualifying housing projects. this project does qualify and is therefore exempt from further environmental review and subject to an expedited review process. Additionally, um, state law under Assembly Bill 2097 removes the minimum parking requirements for any project within 1 half mile from a major public transit stop. Um, so since this project is within a half mile of the downtown Cal Train station, it is exempt from providing minimum parking. The project also satisfies the city's local below market rate affordability requirements for the units. um stacking the 10 very low-income units with an additional 10 moderately affordable units both to meet local requirements and achieve additional um density under the state density bonus law and those um below market rate units are distributed throughout the project to meet local requirements. So moving on to the design review. This project meets several key elements of the city's objective design sta design standards and it also includes waivers from several of these standards that would otherwise prelude construction of

the building. Um the project is designed with influences from Mediterranean and Spanish revival styles with a contemporary expression along East Third Avenue. The project has four town home style units which you can see here are integrated into um the main facade. These have separate entrances from the rest of the building as well as decorative balconies and planter boxes. So, while the project does include some waivers from the gateway um sub area design standards, they have integrated the design to be more pedestrian scale and fit with the larger context of the building. This view here just provides another look at those town home style units along East Third Avenue. You can see the planter boxes and entry features. And this is a view of the lobby entrance at the corner of East Thirdrd Avenue and South Delaware Street. Um, as you can see, they have included several arch features, decorative tile, a cornice above the arches to really distinguish that entry feature. Um, in addition to that entry feature, there are balconies or Juliet balconies proposed at each unit. um and several other features to get at that Spanish style. Zooming out a little bit here, we see the full view from East Third Avenue. Um the project does include a waiver to some of our massing standards, one of which is to provide a distinct base, body, and top. Um, as you can see, the top color change and material change does not span the full facade of the building, but there has been an effort made to um, address that standard and still break up the massing a bit within the context of the building. Here we see the view from South Delaware Street and another corner feature. This is at

the corner of East 3rd Avenue and South Elorado Street, one of the town home units. And this has been designed to meet the local objective design standards. This is the view from South Elorado Street. And finally, the rear elevation. Um, this does include a blank wall, which is something that is a waiver request from the objective design standards, which otherwise don't allow blank walls. Um, but there has been effort made to orient this towards the interior of the project site to minimize the impacts of that blank wall and also some stucco relief added along that. And this um only spans the first two stories where that parking garage is located. So, finally, a summary of the fees. Um, I will note that these are estimates. Um, in total, the project provides somewhere around $4.2 million in impact fees. um that's excluding some of the calculations that require um more information when we get the building valuation for public art in LO fees. Um but the project does contribute um to all of these fee categories. As I mentioned before, the project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under the new Assembly Bill 130. Um this law came into effect June 20th, 2025. It also includes some requirements for tribal consultation which have been met as a part of the application procedure for public noticing. The project did hold a required neighborhood meeting prior to their formal submitt back in March of 2025 and all public noticing requirements were met in advance of tonight's hearing. The project went before the planning commission on February 10th, 2026 and was recommended to the city council for

approval by a unanimous vote with one commissioner recused. The planning commission did add a recommendation to provide flexibility for the applicant to propose a more colorful decorative tile at the project entry feature. And if the council would like to include um a condition to address that recommendation, we've provided some draft language to add that additional flexibility for the tile here as well. So that brings us to our final slide. The staff recommendation to adopt um a resolution to approve this project um finding it exempt from the California Envent environmental quality act pursuant to Assembly Bill 130 with um the required conditions of approval. So that concludes my presentation. Thank you and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. And I believe before we go to public comment, we will now uh hear a presentation from the applicant.

Do you have the slides? Okay. And Liz, you can go to the next one, actually. Okay. Great. Uh, good evening, Mayor Lorraine, uh, Deputy Mayor Fernandez, council members, and, uh, city staff. I'm Don Peterson. Uh, I represent Prometheus, uh, owner and developer of the subject property. I'm joined here this evening by Jonathan Stone. He'll be the lead, uh, development director for the project, and we're very pleased to be with you. uh project team's also represented here tonight uh led by Alan Jones of Jones Architecture and um he'll be up here momentarily to walk you through the project design. Um other members of the team are here uh they can be called upon as necessary if there are any questions uh that come up. Um we very much appreciate the opportunity to be here and discuss the project proposal located at 668 East 3rd Avenue. A big thank you to staff uh for covering quite a bit about the project in both the staff report and in the presentation. Um this project has taken on various iterations uh over the years even before the current application which just came in in 2024. Uh but in the end we we're very pleased to have settled on this multifamily housing application uh that's before you tonight. Um before turning the presentation over to Alan I did want to provide a brief word on Prometheus. As you know, we're active locally uh as owner, investor, and developer. We're a family-owned private real estate company. Our history dates back uh over 50 years. And over those years, our primary focus has been housing. Um we're a longtime provider and operator of rental housing here in San Monteo and throughout the South Bay. And also, we typically develop for the long term. So we remain uh vested stakeholders in the developments with within which uh or the communities within which we develop. Um this commit commitment is no better

exemplified than here in Sonteo. We've maintained a headquarters here locally for decades and we do feel our most recently constructed brickline building with its mix of uses and tenencies uh will serve as a catalyst um for further investment and economic activity in and around the downtown. On the screen, we've included um several of our properties and planned developments in and around downtown uh including Brick Line and also we show the Metropolitan Apartments. That's one of our earlier developments in the city and that property as mentioned is located across El Dorado uh from the subject property that we're discussing here tonight. Again, pleased to be with you. Uh and with that, I'll turn the presentation over to Alan who will uh cover the project design in greater detail. Thank you very much. I'm Alan Jones, Jones Architecture. I'm pleased to be with you here tonight. Um, it's a project we're very excited about. Um, the slide up on the screen right now is a map taken from the 2040 general plan. The project site is indicated with a leader with a blue dot. It's located, as Liz mentioned, in the mixeduse medium 2 zone. Um the dashed um radiuses are half mile radiuses from the Cal Train station. You can see that it's within less than a quarter mile of a Cal Train station. Go to the next slide, Liz. Um the site truly is a gateway site shown here in red. Um the blue line is the vision of Gateway. Um the pink zone is the downtown plan area and it's adjacent to the historic downtown. The significant item here is that the vision of gateways um prescribes a Mediterranean Spanish revival style architecture which the team has taken to heart. Um the site is also located directly adjacent to um major transportation routes.

Um an overall rendering of the site where you can see the the Spanish Mediterranean style revival architecture that's consistent with the objective design standards. We've really taken that to heart. Um, it's an eight-story building. The parking is fully concealed within the heart of the building. Um, as you can see on the corner, there are arches that open up to the lobby and a corner plaza. To the left are the groundstory town houses that Liz mentioned. On the right, the bumpout is of the parking garage, which is fully concealed behind simulated windows. The third story has terraces that open up, covered terraces for the units. the top of the building. The cornice lines are varied, accentuating the modulation of the different portions of the building. Again, more covered terraces, overhangs with texture and exposed rafters. Let me go to the next slide. So, a little bit more detail on the contemporary Mediterranean architecture. Um, the body of the building is a is a light colored stucco. The windows are bronze colored, elegant proportions. There are inset balconies that have a border, a deep opening around them. Um the third story covered terrace you can see here with a exposed framing kind of the colonade that covers the units. The groundstory um town houses are clad in brick. Um deep porch opening that has decorative railing. There's an inset balcony on the second story. You know, a lot of variety with kind of materials and detailing. the planters that Liz mentioned with the landscape buffering from the sidewalk. If you can go to the next slide and then the ODS um requires that the project complies with 13 out of seven or seven out of 13 standards. Um, the project in our minds complies with eight of those, including multi-level roofs

that I mentioned, the asymmetrical massing, arches, ornamental details, the multi-pane windows at the townhouse units, decorative tiles which are in the niche of the courtyard near the lobby, ornament of door and window srowns that are located at the Juliet and the balconies, and then deep recessed openings where all the windows are set deep into the facade. Even though the project is an urban site, um the the building is pulled back. It's fully buffered from the sidewalk with a landscape strip all the way around. Um you can see the corner plaza opening up to Third and Delaware with paving that matches the the crosswalks. Um, and then go ahead and list. And then a final rendering that is a little bit closer of the lobby where you can see the tile in the corner plaza, the arches that open up to the lobby, the townhouse units to the left, and then the variety of um, roof lines. Go to the next. And then a little closer vignette where you can get into the quality of the detailing with the deep openings, the brick, the multi-pane windows, the decorative railings, the overhang with texture. You know, it's a building that really comes down and meets the pedestrian real realm, I think, in a nice way that we're really excited about. So, with that, I go to the next slide. Um, we have lots of plans and exhibits and technical details in the appendix that I'm happy to go to if there are questions, but I'll leave it there. Thank you. Okay, thank you for that presentation. And at this time, I would like to open public comment. So, if you are here and you'd wish to comment, you can hand a speaker slip to the city clerk. If you're online on your phone, please raise your hand. And city clerk, do we have any requests for public comment?

We do. Mayor Lorraine. Um, as Mayor Lorraine mentioned, if you're in chambers, please provide me with a request to speak slip. If you're in our virtual environment, please raise your hand. Now, I will give you just a moment or two to do so. Mayor Lorraine, that is two requests to speak. Um, so that sets the timer at three minutes per speaker and we'll begin with our inch chambers request to speak from Darwin Darren Clark. Darin Clark, please join us at the podium.

Good evening, mayor, council members, staff. My name is Darren Clark. I'm a field rep for Carpenters Local 217, representing workers across San Monteo County. Projects like this one has potential of being a great development and is another example of the city of San Monteo doing the right thing when it comes to meeting its residents need for housing. Doing the right thing includes selecting a responsible contractor for the job. one who is committed to upholding and supporting labor standards such as a livable wage for its workers, promoting state certified apprentichip programs, providing accessible health care, and pursu participating in local hiring practices. This again is only possible when we encourage contractors and developers to do the right thing. As you know, a livable wage is fundamental for workers to support their families and to thrive in Sonteo. Establishing a fair wage standard can also help alleviate the fa financial strain on public support systems and reinforce economic stability within our city. We must consider the cost of public safety net resulting from low road employment practices common in residential constructions. Supporting state certified apprenticeship programs are also crucial for encouraging the next generation of skilled carpenters. Investing in this incentive will ensure a skilled and safe work force for years to come. And access to health care is not a luxury but a basic human right. Construction workers work in one of the most dangerous industries in our country and they deserve quality health health care to safeguard their well-being and that of their dependent. Lastly, by prioritizing a local hiring practice, we strengthen our community by reinvesting in local talent and business. Favoring local hires will foster economic growth and create a more inclusive workforce

reflective our of our city's diversity. These factors are curtail on all developments. So, I urge you to advocate for a responsible contractor on this project. Our d door is open and we welcome dialogue with the developer and contractors alike. Thank you. Thank you. We will now move to our virtual environment where our speaker will be Amy Wong. Amy, please go ahead and unmute your mic.

Hello. This is actually Ben uh Ben Tai and uh I effectively or my family effectively lives across the street from this development. Uh we're we're very happy to see that this development no longer includes offices or office space. However, we're very disappointed that it adds to the very long and growing list of small businesses that have been lost in the in downtown. Um it's it's common to have developments requ have a requirement for some type of public good and to hear from the developer in the neighborhood meetings for them to say that retail space um is not economically feasible is very disappointing. um unlike other public good requirements such as parks or or um I don't know other fees uh the a retail space would provide them with income. Um, so I urge the developer to reconsider providing reasonably cost uh retail space and I also urge the city to start thinking about how it can uh update its master plan or any ordinances to require large developments like this who are taking away small businesses to include a requirement to replace it before not only the charm of downtown is lost but it's soul. as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Miller. With that, uh, we have conclude public comment. Thank you. And thank you to those who gave comment. At this time, I'd like to ask my council colleagues if they have any questions or comments. Council member Diaz Nash. Yeah, I just have a Deputy Mayor Fernandez.

Uh, through the mayor, um, would, uh, Mr. doll or the city manager be able to talk to us about uh in addressing the last comment about what restrictions the city can put on a on a project like this which is being which is an AB-130 project. I guess we would need to understand a little bit more about what you're you're interested in, but in general, we're very limited in the type of um conditions or requirements we can add unless they are supported by an objective standard um that's already on the books as as of the vesting date for this project.

Okay. So, we just to clarify, we can request that the developer include some of those um items that may other that community members or neighbors have suggested such as preservation of small retail, but but they don't have to they don't have to comply with us. Is that Yes, that that would be correct. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Diaz Nash.

Thank you very much, Liz. Thank you for the presentation and uh thank you to Prometheus for being here tonight and working with the community. Um I've got a bunch of sort of miscellaneous questions. I would appreciate could you take us through I guess this is directed at Prometheus how you came up with 73 parking units which Yeah. Yeah. which is about what.5 per Yeah.

Happy to address. Uh good to go here. onion. Okay, Jonathan Stone with Prometheus. Um, happy to address the comment and question. So on part all things parking uh for this project um we studied uh throughout our portfolio and a lot of data what the best um or our understanding of what the usage profile was in projects that are in close proximity to transit specifically CAL train stations. And throughout a portfolio we have a good amount of data of what that uh utilization is and it's roughly um a 0.5 ratio. So at the time of this application came in we had I think about 44 spaces. So it would be less than a 0.5 ratio. Um throughout the course of the project we added to that um with significant cost going down a whole level um of subterranean parking. So getting to 73 which is roughly a 63 64 ratio that gets us to and above the 0.5 parking ratio that I referenced earlier. Um and again that's in line with the usage that we're seeing. So just one example the brickline project the former track site the residential portion there is parked at a 1:1 ratio. Uh but the usage that we've seen since it's opened has been at uh 0.5.

Okay. So that's how we got to that number. And the Metropole would be similar. Well, the Metropolitan was built 20 years ago, okay, and has a much higher more, I would say, suburban of that era, um, parking uh, requirement. And so there's vacancy that is present there. And so the usage is more in line with the 0.5 that I referenced previously, but in an older type of product, the units are also bigger there. Right. Correct. More. Okay. Thank you. You might as well stay here. Okay.

Okay. So, you don't have to go up and down and up and down. Um, let's see. In terms of, you know, I I very much appreciate the the design, Mr. Jones. You know, the look of the building. Um, I'm wondering if there are other opportunities to maybe add a little more color to the building. I I definitely am in in favor of the uh Excuse me, this is my phone. My bad. Um, go away. Um, but I I definitely take the planning commission's recommendation about looking at color tile in the entry. And was there ever any review of the back the blank wall and including any kind of tile on that? Understanding it's a garage, but

sorry. So the tile at the entry on third and Delaware. But that's one thing I was saying. I I like that. I like putting color on that. And I'm wondering if there was ever any discussion about trying to break up the blank wall on the back with any kind of I'll take an initial stab. So the the blank wall in the not too distant future um just given the proximities and our familiarity the familiarity that we have uh there will be redevelopment of of those in the not too distant future. So that blank wall and any monies that went into um make it more beautiful than it already is um would probably go away and those monies might be spent

elsewhere. Um so the the tile on the corner u we have a tile that is in place there certainly is opportunity to make that tile better or different and we're certainly up for that conversation. I think the condition of approval or the language towards that is something we're open for and we'll continue to explore.

Great. I think the only thing I wanted to add to that was the in in keeping with the Spanish, you know, Mediterranean style architecture. Um it's typically characterized by you know light colored stucco fairly um the walls are almost the backdrop and and the like the the ornamental features on the building the railings and the overhangs which are warmer and add color and warmth to the building are really where the interest comes through. Um I also think landscaping is a good opportunity to bring color in. Um, I know it's something that the landscape architect's been working on to let I think let landscaping, the decorative tile and those things come forward and then have the pallet of the building be a little bit more neutral in keeping with the historic style.

And I would very much encourage the the landscape architect to think about planting that is Spanish Mediterranean. Yeah, we've talked about like bogania and like bright bright pops of color. So, totally agree with that.

Yep. Yep. That's great. Um, and and given the fact that that part of town there's a lot of discussion about the neighbors wanting more public lighting, you know, overall, I mean, we we certainly in part of the city were doing that. What kind of discussion have you had about what kind of lighting you can add to the project? So the lighting topic was brought up at the neighborhood meeting roughly a year ago as as mentioned u by Liz. Um and in that a number of comments came up but lighting was brought up um lighting will be for the project uh implemented per city standards. The full phototric analysis takes place during the building permit review process. But the lighting standards that are in the off-site plans currently are representative of the standards and codes that are in place currently. But again, that'll be further um vetted out during the next phase of drawing development. Um with regards to the comments that were received a year ago, um I think which seem to be more represented broadly of uh the the neighborhood and and several blocks away. Um it seems as though there may not be the lighting that uh people who live throughout that neighborhood may or may not want. Um and I think that's more of a conversation with public works department. Um we have heard recently that in a I believe it was a city council study session as of late with regards to the neighborhood to the north um that discussed uh both bicycles and street lighting that three various concepts were presented. So that may be something of worthwhile to continue the conversation in the immediiacy of this project.

Yeah. Great. And I I would encourage the lighting that you do as part of your external to really be warm as opposed to, you know, safe and unfriendly. We we certainly agree. Okay, good. That's um and then let's see. I noticed in the plans that the only actual studio as opposed to an urban studio was one of the BMR very low units. How did that get decided? So the just more broadly in terms of how we define small units, the term urban is technically a studio, right?

Um it's just a larger studio and it's a studio when we know that studios are desirable or part of the there's a need in the marketplace. This is a design towards that effort that we find is very successful um and sought after. So the single one that you see is um is is really just a product of how the design laid out. But the intent was that is captured in the overall targeted studio number. But with regards to how the city picks up and spreads their uh mix of units at each affordability level that that single unit gets captured into that calculation. So that's one way to answer that.

Right. But that single unit was a studio as opposed to an urban studio. Correct. But the urban studio is still a studio. Um through the mayor, I can also pull back up the unit breakdown if it's helpful to look at that.

Um so can we reshare sorry? Okay. So um yeah, here we see the unit breakdown. So the just to clarify on the BMR units, the very low income which are in the VLI column, that first one there, those are the units that are counting towards the city's inclusionary requirements. Um, so the studio, the one studio unit is included as a an affordable unit, but it's at the moderate level. Um, and a distinction here, those moderate affordable units are will still be managed by the city through the BMR program, but they're beyond the requirements of the city's inclusionary program. Um, which just requires 15%. Um, so that those additional 10 units are used to achieve the double density bonus, but they're not um counting towards the city's local requirements, if that makes sense. Um, so that one is identified as a moderate affordable unit and then the studio distribution is really what or sorry the very lowincome distribution is really what we were looking at um to satisfy the local BMR requirements.

Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you for that explanation. Um, let's see. Uh, just one last question about the the trees and could you talk a little bit about what you're taking out? But I understand there are four protected trees that will be going out and what will be going in.

Sure. And Charlie um our landscape architect I believe is on the line. But the um we are intending to replace older trees, many of which are not in the greatest um health condition with trees that are representative uh of the guidelines of the city. so that there will be a uniform um tree canopy throughout the city in line with the goals that are set forth by the city arborist. And so while there are four protected trees just due to their size, they're not the healthiest of trees along that corridor, I think, is the easiest way to answer that question.

Okay, great. All right. Well, in general, I am very supportive of this project. I think you've really done a great job with the design um in trying to all of you trying to con make a contemporary building still hearken back to the neighborhood and to the types of buildings and I I hope we see more examples of that as we get buildings coming forward. So, thank you. Those are my comments and questions. Thank you very much. Uh council members,

thank you. Um, this I guess is for city staff or the developers. Um, so there's multiple waivers being requested for the design and the development standards. Could you walk us through which ones are being waved and why?

Sure. So through the mayor, I'm pulled back up the slide which kind of this is a summary of all of the waiverss that have been included with the project. So um it is there are numerous um so happy to kind of dive into any of them in more detail if there's further questions but I'll go through them kind of one by one. Um the first is for the loading birth requirements. So um there are specific dimensions for loading stalls um and distance from the intersection that need to be met. Um this has been waved although I from what I recall the the distance is close um despite the waiver. Um, and this was reviewed w together with our public works department to ensure that it's still going to be a functional loading zone and meet the needs of the project. So there's no concern um for health or safety, but they are um requesting a waiver to that. The next one, turning radi has to do with the um radius of the ramps within the internal parking garage. And again, was reviewed together with public works to make sure that those will be functional, but they are slightly different from the city's uh listed requirements for turning radius. Um building height is a little more straightforward. They're requesting an eight-story building where six would otherwise be required. Uh the blank walls is kind of that portion of the building along the rear facade and a little bit on Elorado I believe. Um the objective design standards do not allow blank walls over 20 ft in length which this is. So that's a requested waiver. Um for the massing brakes I believe I touched on this a little bit with that base body and top of the building. um it is close to that standard but doesn't achieve it across the full top of the building. So that's a requested waiver. Um they've also

requested waivers to the facade design. Um this has to do with particularly the town home style units. Um the design standards for this portion of the downtown plan are geared more towards a lower scale like town home style of development. So there were several standards that were just in congruent with an eight-story building um and have been waved for that reason. um setbacks and setbacks are similarly um written to kind of that town home style lower scale development in this area and the building is a bit closer to the property lines um than would otherwise be required. So that's a requested waiver for residential entries. This also ties into the um objective design standard requirements in the gateway sub area specifically which is written to require very specific residential entries for individual units. Um so they have made efforts to incorporate aspects of that particularly for the town home units but there are several um details of that that are being waved. Um and that also ties into the ground floor residential entry piece. And then with architectural style and materials um similarly there are standards that are really geared more towards like a low scale town home style unit which this is not. So there there are waiverss requested with that as well.

Thank you for that. So what other alternative design options were explored before we landed on this? Um so through the mayor I can speak a little bit to what we saw with the staff review and perhaps the applicant can give context as well. Um throughout the iterations that staff reviewed there were some some changes made to kind of further articulate the base body and top as well as the entry feature. I believe the first iteration we reviewed did not include arches along that entryway and then some changes to refine the entries of the town home units and define that feature. Um but otherwise the the building is more or less similar to what was first submitted although I think the design details have come a long way. Um another big change that we saw from first submitt to um the final iteration was the driveway um design. So the project originally had two vehicular driveways on um Delaware and Elorado streets um but the driveway off of Delaware was removed because it did not meet um city requirements. They're not supposed to be driveways on arterial streets if there's an alternative option.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Nome. Thank you through the mayor. Thank you first off for a great presentation um and also for spending some time speaking with me last week. Uh overall, I I really like the design. I do have a couple of questions if you would not mind approaching this podium. Just Thank you. So, I we talked about this last week. Thanks again for that. Yep.

Um I understand that there's 171 bedrooms with 73 parking spaces and overall you guys believe that that should be uh sufficient. One of the things I heard when I was talking to some of the central neighborhood uh residents was that you had mentioned that if it wasn't, there could be an opportunity to have overflow parking at the Metropolitan because you guys have spaces in that that are not utilized. Is that is that true?

Uh that had been I think discussed at some point or or mentioned. Um it's not the intent right now to as part of this application but there is as mentioned previously that project is overparked because of its parking requirement from decades ago and the the utilization now is not corresponding to that. So there is uh there there are underutilized spaces that are there and that's something that could be considered. And how will parking work? So 171 bedrooms, 128 units, 73 spaces. Will they be charged for a parking space or most likely that's typically how it and then takes place desire and wish to have a space.

The PMRs will be given complimentary parking spaces or how does that work? I forget that detail exactly but whatever our standard practice is is what we would follow. Yeah. Okay. in in in Bay Meadows, we had some challenges in that um when they when when the property managers were charging for the parking spaces, it was putting the BMR rental over over the rental unit. So, I just want to make sure Yeah. No, there's specific language on that and I can't recall it at this moment, but we follow it. Brickline would be the example that's most recent. Uh, I didn't hear very much and I I'm curious. Is this a completely green building, meaning no gas, all electric? It is a all gas building. We will be following the

all electric. All excuse me, electric building. Um, we following the city's current codes because these codes are are ever changing and there are reach codes that are in place. Um, there are EV charging stations built in per those current codes. Again, that's a that's a moving standard. So, um I believe we have 12 uh in place level two chargers and then it's um EV ready for an additional 58 spaces of that total 73 that's planned. Fantastic. But again, that's that that is a continuing moving or expanding goal. So, that could change.

That sounds great. Now, in the picture, it looks like the four town houses on third are slightly stepped back, meaning the building sets back a little, but does it really, or is that an optical illusion the way it's designed? You're asking if the upper story step back further from the town houses. Absolutely. If you look at the third story, there's a there's covered terraces there with a roof that slopes over them. The columns in front of that covered terrace are in plane with the front of the town houses. So it steps back a full terrace depth.

I think that's incredible. It looks really good. And that's one of the things when I talked to the neighbors over the weekend, they were asking for and it really shows. So, thank you for that. U the neighbors are also thrilled that there's 140 bike spaces. So hopefully people won't need more than 73 cars on on the space. Um, I guess my last question would be, do we have any concerns with the radius of the turning radius um in the parking structure for access for fire and and ambulance?

Uh, no. Through the mayor, that would not be they wouldn't need to go into for that access. Um, it was reviewed by those reviewing departments and that's not a concern. Okay. Is any of the parking at at ground level or is all of the parking subterranean?

No, there is a there's a parking deck at ground level. So, if possible, um, and you guys will probably want to review this, but initially try to have the electric be at ground level so that you can have more natural ventilation if possible. Because one of the concerns our Sanato Consolidated Fire has had with new building developments is that the electrical uh, charging stations if they catch fire, they're basically immediately putting off toxic fumes. And so if you're, you know, if you're, if you can, please try to design into it so that there's the maximum amount of ventilation.

Yeah, completely agree. And then I on Delaware there, the second level of the of the parking garage is open with like simulated windows. And so there's cross ventilation from Elorado to Delaware with

That's fantastic. That's great design work. And again, loved the design. And the neighbors in central are very picky about the design of new buildings. And for them to say that they like it means you you did a great job. Uh the last idea was the blank wall which I understand there will be development at some point in the future. U the idea was asked by some of the neighbors and I said I would float it was to put up some green screens meaning some trellis that you could have growing you know plants on at least it would be a little more color than than a white wall. So I don't know if you can make that design aesthetic work but that's something the neighbors had mentioned as well. And beyond that, um, overall I'm in support of this project and again I I commend you on the design. It was very well done.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Very good. Thank you. Okay. I think uh due to some great questions from my colleagues, I have maybe just one to add uh which would be that we heard from a member of the public who um advocated for uh the the carpenters and um certain labor practices. And I wondered if uh the applicant could just speak a little to current plans related to um those who would construct the project and whether you'd be interested in uh speaking with the the carpenters.

Sure, happy to. So where we currently stand with the project is we're at in the entitlement phase. So our plans are at what's called schematic level design. Um from here we move into working drawings, DD and CD level drawings. That's the time when we typically as an organization engage a general contractor. So we haven't moved into that time yet, but we are open for all dialogues and I believe we are currently uh in discussions and communication um with representatives uh on other projects that we have in Sonteo. So those that communication is underway. Um but on this project, we're just not there yet.

Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. at this time. Uh I would just like to Yes.

Um just uh closing back with the com the question that I had earlier about AB130 as we have you in front of us. um if there could be consideration of commercial space for the tenants that might be losing space or for um those that would that would be very uh welcome if that is a possibility. Um so yeah on that topic I think one of the um best ways that we like to discuss the topic is any project where we have retail tenants um if they are expressing concern of any sort which we have had in several locations this being one of them. Uh some of that due to lack of uh customer support if you will. We've worked with them as best we can to keep them uh in place. Um that has been done here. um to a certain extent. Um and tenants that wish to uh stay in place, we work with them as best we can both um if they know something is going to be redeveloping, we have a broader network of uh space that is available and then our contacts within the brokerage community in order to find a home if it can't be found within our portfolio. So all of that communication is in place and underway and will continue.

Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you for that. And I think I'll just um Sure, Council Member Nome. Thank you. Um thank you through the mayor. And just to kind of echo C Deputy Mayor Fernandez's comments, can we make sure that the city does an outreach to all the tenants and if they're not able to find new properties through Prometheus, if we could help uh try to facilitate finding them new locations in the city? uh just as an outreach, we can gauge interest and do some outreach through our economic development team. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, I appreciate that. Uh council member Fukadiski, if you have something to add.

I was just going to move to approve.

Well, um I appreciate that. Um before we go there, um I'll just note I I would just like to add a quick comment that uh I appreciate uh Deputy Mayor Fernandez, Council Member Nuome, um engaging with the applicant on on the subject of of retail uh current uses and and the possibility of making sure they remain within the city in some way. Um uh that said, I I do feel like this, uh project, while it it may uh seem large depending on the the the beholder, I I think is also, you know, from what I see in in a somewhat confined space and is in using its footprint for a an impressive massive number of residential units and I I do think that's um important as well and uh we may not be able to get everything we might uh hope for in every particular project and uh so I appreciate the effort to do what we can about uh what is there today but I also appreciate what is being brought before us and uh and and the positives that uh can come from this number of of units of housing near the downtown train station. So I just wanted to mention that first. Um, I also think I wanted to um ask for clarification on the motion, but uh I see the city attorney may wish to chime in.

Yes, thank you. Briefly, so during the presentation, there was a proposed condition of approval relating to tile work. Um, so I think that council it would be appropriate for the council to weigh in on whether that you wanted to include that condition and I think uh it would be beneficial to hear from the applicant whether they were amendable to that condition and uh have them state uh either way on the record. We'd be open for continuing the conversation on tile selection and color and design throughout the working drawing development. And and I think that's in line. The condition simply says the applicant may propose an alternative. It doesn't really impose any particular requirement. So it just builds into the conditions of approval this this possibility. And perhaps it pans out, perhaps it doesn't. But

Sure. And just to put it on the record, we will most likely between now and working drawing, building permit submitt come up with two or three options that can be discussed with staff ahead of that submitt. And I would just like to put in my own particular voice that I think that would make it an even better building to have some color in the tile. So I would support that. Thank you, Council Member Shukazi. As the person who was thinking of motioning there, how do you feel? Yes, with motion with the um option to have this council weigh in on tile.

Well, I think the I think the motion is the staff recommendation with this proposed condition of approval that's on the screen. All right. Accept what Pana just said. Second. Well, just just quickly checking in on this. It sounds like we have two affirmatives. I also support the tile discussion. Excellent. All right. So, it sounds like we have at least three affirmatives. Now, I believe we can continue. I motion. Second. Thank you, city clerk. May we have a roll call vote, please? Certainly. Council member Sphere Gaditzki, yes. Deputy Mayor Fernandez, Council Member Diaz Nash, yes. Mayor Lorraine, yes. Council member Nuome, yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you very much. That will close this item. Thank you for those who came and presented. Thank you for those who spoke. And we now have item number six, reach codes for the 2025 code cycle ordinance introduction. We have a presentation from our sustainability analyst, Andrea Chow. Mr. Mayor, could we take a threem minute bio break? Yes. Uh, thank you for your patience, everyone. We'll take a brief recess in between these items. Let's come back at 8:15. No, just like five minutes.

Yeah. Okay, that sounds fine. 8:15 is our target. We'll be back as soon as we can. Thank you. Are you

Okay, thank you everyone for your patience. We have returned and we will now begin item six, reach codes for the 2025 code cycle. an ordinance introduction. We have Andrea Chow, our sustainability analyst, and we have some other guests uh tonight. Taylor Taylor, managing research consultant with TRC, and Blake Hershop, building electrification programs manager with Peninsula Clean Energy. Thank you all and good evening.

All right. Good evening, Mayor Lorraine, Deputy Mayor Fernandez, city council members, and members of the public. My name is Andrea Chow. I'm the sustainability analyst for the city and I'm also accompanied by two others that I I do want to afford the time to provide their introductions. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and honorable council. Thank you for having me here today. My name is Taylor and I work for TRC, an environmental consulting company. I am an engineer and I specialize in building reach codes and I have been assisting city staff with the technical elements of this policy. right here.

Hi. Uh my name is Blake Hershft. I'm the senior uh building electrification programs engineer for Peninsula Clean Energy. I help manage our this technical assistance program that we sponsor um and also uh help design our rebates along with a couple colleagues in the room. So happy to answer any questions if you have something on programs. I'm also a licensed engineer if something gets a little technical. Thank you.

Great. and I will be leading today's presentation with PCE and TRC staff available for fielding questions. Tonight I have for you staff's recommendation on the slide which is to introduce an ordinance to amend Sonteo Municipal Code Chapter 2324 energy code to make specific energy conservation and efficiency amendments that are written there on the slide for you. These amendments are often referred to as reach codes and staff's recommendation also includes the adoption of resolution making findings. I'll start with some reach codes background and the city council direction that shaped this ordinance. The California Building Standards Code standardizes the construction of residential and non-residential buildings in California. And the state building code is updated every three year with three years with every local jurisdiction in California required to adopt the new building code, which the city did last fall. Local amendments to the state code as related to sustainability and energy specifically are known as reach codes as they reach beyond the state's requirements. Our previously adopted reach codes expired on December 31st of 2025 as we entered a new code cycle that just began on January 1st of this year. Putting it this into context of the city, the city has a climate action plan with ambitious targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions. And addressing energy use in buildings um is critical because our emissions inventory shows that residential and non-residential buildings make up 38% of communitywide emissions. Reach codes are a policy tool that allows local governments to be leaders in our climate solutions and the city of Sanonteo has a strong history of adopting reach codes that help meet our climate goals. The city first adopted reach codes in 2015 and has continued to

explore and adopt reach codes since that year. The electrify Sanonteo sustainable building strategy effort was completed in July 2025. And as part of that discussion, there was discussion on reach codes for renovations and what city council directed staff to do broad community outreach on that topic. And so that is what staff did and completed that outreach effort in fall 2025. And those engagement results were presented as part of the November 2025 study session on reach codes. The Bay Area Reach Codes Group is a collaboration that's supporting jurisdictions in the adoption of reach codes around the Bay Area. Peninsula Clean Energy is a co-leader of this group and they're also Sano Countyy's not for-profit locally led electricity provider. So through this group, PCE offers technical support in the form of model reach codes and staff reports as well as access to technical support like through TRC. and TRC and PCE were critical in supporting the city's reach codes engagement efforts that were with stakeholders and the broader community. These model codes and resources make it easier for staff to evaluate reach codes, but they also help with adding consistency of reach codes across jurisdiction boundaries. So this November 3rd, 2025 reach code section reviewed the four reach code options that were provided by the Bay Area reach codes group. And this discussion went into great depth of detail of the cost effectiveness analysis, the estimated GHG reductions, the potential number of permits impacted each year, as well as cities with similar reach codes. This presentation and report also summarized the broad engagement and outreach that was conducted including through community and contractor meetings, the

distribution of flyers throughout the community as well as through our online social media channels and it reported back the feedback we heard from this engagement as well as the feedback we heard at the sustainability and infrastructure commission uh about these for reach code options. And so at this November 3rd city council study session, the council directed staff to develop an ordinance that included all four reach code options. And so what are those four reach code options? Those components include cooling upgrades and requirements for single family homes, duplexes, and town homes, a similar requirement for non-residential buildings, and then flex path and electric readiness requirements in single family homes, duplexes, and town homes. And so while the November study session really went into depth of the analysis behind all of these reach code requirements, this presentation and my next few slides give a pretty highlevel and brief summary of the ordinance requirements. Starting with our cooling upgrade requirements for single family homes, duplexes, and town homes. This impacts projects where there is a new or replacement air conditioning system. A property owner can opt to install a new heat pump system and there are no additional state requirements or they can install a traditional air conditioning system and have to comply with additional energy standards uh such as attic insulation or duct insulation. This requirement does not impact gas furnace replacements or repairs. The ordinance also requires more stringent energy standards for when a property owner is replacing a 5 to 20 ton system in a non-residential

building. Again, very similar to the last requirement, there is no additional requirements beyond the state minimum for a heat pump installation. uh but there is a more stringent energy efficiency standard uh for an AC system installation. The flex path requirement requires that when a property owner opts to do an addition or alteration of 1,00 square ft uh in a single family home, duplex, or town home, this proposed ordinance requires the project to incorporate energy efficiency measures or electrification upgrades selected from a menu to achieve a target score of 12 points. And so there's a variety of different energy efficiency related measures that the homeowner can choose from. Uh the name flex path is really derived from the fact that this is allowing the homeowner to elect the the energy efficiency measures or that best fit their projects or their own priorities. And so for example, they would get points for a heat pump that was installed in their home. And then the different measures have different points associated with them. The types of projects that would be applicable to the flex path requirements are elective major residential additional addition and renovation projects that may include plumbing, mechanical, and electrical upgrades. Uh, and I'll also uh remind the council that the study session helped define the project definition. And so that's where that 1,00 square f feet is coming from as well as this target score of 12 12 points which was discussed and deliberated at the uh at that last city council study session. And then finally, the last component of the reach code ordinance is electric readiness requirements during specific

addition and alteration projects really focused on requiring pre-wiring for gas cooking, water heating, clothes drying, and outdoor appliances to reduce future retrofit costs. The proposed resolution includes express findings in support of the local amendments to the California Energy Code edition code 2025 edition. And it also makes findings that the local amendments are reasonably necessary because of local climactic, geological, and topographical conditions. And pending city council approval, the staff will file the reach code ordinance with the California Energy Commission and the Building Standards Commission. And so there are two approvals necessary before the city can enforce this ordinance even if adopted. And so it can take several months, I'm hearing upwards of three or four months before getting an approval. So there is a delay even if the city council introduces and adopts the ordinance in the next um by the next meeting there will still be time in which staff will have to file the ordinance and wait for those approvals. After the approvals, staff will educate the public about the reach codes that were adopted. And this includes by providing information on our website as well as through our customer self-service portal and then developing various checklists and guides and forms that help our contractors and community members navigate the city's permitting process as well as reach code regulations. And annually staff monitors and evaluates reach code implementation and will typically provide a report out during our climate action plan progress report which comes before council typically in June of each year. And this

is my final slide with the staff's recommendation for this evening.

Okay. Thank you for the presentation and at this time I'd like to open this item for public comment. If you're in person, you can fill out a request to speak slip and hand it to the city clerk. If you are online or on the phone, you may raise your hand at this time. The city clerk will be uh tallying public speakers. Mayor Lorraine, we have a total of 13 requests to speak on this item, which sets the timer at two minutes per speaker. U so we'll begin with our request to speak in chambers first. And when I call your name, if you could please line up to my right, that'll help make sure we receive all of your comments expeditiously. Our first three speakers will be Gerrard Manning, followed by Harry Moody and Terry White. Good evening, council. I'm Jared Manning and I'm a neighbor of yours from Berling game. So, I can't petition you as a resident, but I can tell you that if you implement these energy codes changes, you'll have massive support from residents and from cities throughout the entire Bay Area. Uh your leadership will have a hugely amplified impact. So, what you do will count for a lot. Um, as you've known in the past, this has happened with many innovations in reach codes that started right here in this chamber and now have spread to dozens of cities in the Bay Area. Um, I work with several climate and health groups who engage with the air district and as I said, dozens of cities throughout the Bay Area to improve both air pollution and climate emissions. These are active, really dedicated groups that constitute kind of a small army of concerned residents and citizens who are really waiting to hear good news from Sato taking a step forward, particularly on

the AC the heat pump to be able to do the same thing in their cities. If you pass this ordinance, not only will you be representing your residents who want to improve air pollution and climate impacts, but you'll be doing the same thing for people throughout the Bay Area, and the the improvement in clean air throughout will be to everybody's benefit, not least to your very own residents. Thank you very much for considering this.

Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Harry Moody, followed by Terry White and Elaine Salinger. Thank you very much and I particularly appreciate what the preceding speaker said about the importance of what San Mateo represents. I lived most of my life in New York City and in Washington where I was vice president for AARP. The last time I was here was two years ago. I was speaking in favor of reach codes then and I'm here to speak in favor of reach codes now. Why am I here? Why am I here? Since that time, I've published the first book, Climate Change in an Aging Society. First book on the subject of climate and aging. My 81st birthday was last week. My grandchildren live in South San Francisco and come here every week to a swimming pool in our backyard at 10 Scenic Way. Why am I here? Because I care about my grandchildren and I care about people here in San Mato. I care about the future. That's why I think we have to pass those reach codes to support the ordinance change. We heard her earlier speak in detail about that. In detail, the ordinance codes for cooling upgrades are important. They're not important to me. I don't even have air conditioning. I don't want air conditioning. I don't care about that. But I care about my grandchildren. I live in a condo. I don't live in a single family house. But I care about my friends and neighbors, including the ones you'll hear about later, like the White Hairs. They live in a wonderful house, which exemplifies everything we need to know about climate change and taking care of the future. I'm proud that they're my friends, and I'm proud to be here in in San Mateo. Time's running out for me, not just on that screen, but in our society, in

California, on planet Earth. We can do it here in San Mateo. We've done it before. Do it again. The time is now. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Terry White, followed by Elaine Salinger and Brian Schmidt.

Thank you. Um I'm a longtime resident of San Mato, uh over 40 years. Thank you. And I'm extremely concerned about the climate crisis. That's why I work with elders climate action to activate el thousands of elders across the country. But I think it's important that what you are doing as a council to support and do action at the local level for climate crisis. So, I support the adoption of the proposed ordinance and especially with the support of the adoption of the electric readiness standards uh because they lead to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and prepare us for the air district no standards. They will also allow residents to be prepared should gas prices go up, which they predict they will. And I just want to close to thank the mayor and the council for your strong leadership in this area and your strong action. We are very proud of Sam Mateo and our council. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Elaine Salinger, followed by Brian Schmidt and Robert White.

Well, lucky you. I thought I only had a minute to speak, so maybe I'll slow down a little bit. Uh, so good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Elaine Salinger. I lead the Sanonteo County chapter of citizens climate lobby, and I am here speaking to represent the over,200 members in the county and over 200 members who live inside the city limits. Um, first I also want to thank you for your leadership and on climate action. Uh, this is really important. We are in dire need of strong leadership especially in light of the dis destruction and distraction that's going on in Washington. Um, so let's talk money because I think that's what's really the big concern. Everybody wants cleaner air, you know, everybody wants to electrify, but what you're concerned about is money. So, let's talk about money. I want you to pass the reach codes because the price of electricity over time will go down and the price of gas will keep going up. So, why do I say this? It's going to go down because of cap and invest, which is the new name for cap and trade. Um, and this will they're going to inve they're cap and and invest will apply rebates to the customer's electric bills, but not their gas bills. And the California um air resources air resources board carb um plans to go ahead and endorse this. And it will also go down even more if the make polluters pay bill is passed because most of our increasing electricity cost is because PG&E is passing on the cost of the lawsuits for the wildfires and for undergrounding their electric wires. Um, and so if the make polluters pay bill

passes, the large companies that are importing and extracting the oil and gas. Thank you, Elaine. Oh, is that two minutes already? Thank you. Okay. Well, I just wanted to thank you. Um, thank you. for choosing courage over complacency. Thank you. Our next three speakers will be Brian Schmidt, followed by Robert White and Sema Patel.

Uh, good evening. Brian Schmidt from Menlo Spark. Uh we work on climate issues throughout the county with a special focus on Menlo Park. Um and here to support the staff recommendations which follows the recommendations that you the council gave in November. I wanted to mention that I was here in the city on Saturday attending a program about interfaith focus on climate and and religious needs for working on on climate change and environmental issues. And at at one point um someone was asked, one of the leaders in the discussions was asked which city in the county is doing the best job on electrification and they said at that point they said Menllo Park and uh I got up and afterwards I talked to the the person who provided that response and I said I'm going into Sanonteo on Monday and there might be a change coming Monday. So that there I would at least say that Samale if you follow this recommendation you'll be one of the cities at least maybe a little bit ahead ahead of Menlo Park. I'm meeting with the sustainability manager for Menlo Park tomorrow. So I hope I I can say hey you guys got to step it up a little bit because of uh the leadership that is being done here. The other thing I just want to add is uh the previous speaker talked about decreasing electricity costs. You might have noticed a jump in the cost of natural gas over the weekend due to international developments. So there there is a definite risk with gas and there's a a good reason to move forward to electrification. The American natural natural gas prices are significantly lower than international standards. We are exporting a lot more natural gas. That those prices are going to equalize. It's going to become more expensive. And so for both reasons of economics and reasons of of national security and international peace, there's good reason to electrify and take this action to fight climate change. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Robert White, followed by Sema Patel.

Good evening, Council Mayor Lorraine. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. First of all, I want to thank Rob, Council Member Nuome for bringing up the issue about electrification on the last item. That's a good thing to clarify and a good thing to remind everybody that we are moving forward with electrification and all new projects. I applaud the council and staff. I also applaud Peninsula Clean Energy and Blake and Taylor for all they're doing and Andrea for all the great work they've done over the last five or six years on reach codes. At your November 3rd, 2025 meeting, you considered and gave direction on building reach codes for existing buildings. Those are awarded before you tonight. They included cooling upgrades for residential and non-residential and the flex path and residential and electric readiness. I support cooling upgrades for residential properties, including the alternatives spelled out in the in the document. I propose that cooling upgrades for non-residential properties have an upper threshold of 20. That's also in the ordinance. and I support the flex path score of 12 of 12 and then the 1,00 square foot threshold. That was thoroughly discussed at the study session. I would like to see some consideration being given to it in the future, maybe raising those, but I think an alternative might be is I asked this be revisited in the year to see how the 12 points and the 10,000 square feet have worked. I support electric readiness. It's a good way to be prepared. Other members have talked about the price of gas. They've talked about the times that come to other things. It's it's time to electrify. So, thank you for all you do and have done for reach codes. You know, we've been at this all of us together in for the last five or six years or so and it's been a really fantastic change in the attitude of electrication around the city because of all the fine work that you all have done. Thank you.

Thank you. And our final speaker in chambers will be Sema Patel.

Good evening, city council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. Um, I currently serve on the planning commission, but I am speaking tonight on my own behalf as a resident. Um, I think as we all know, climate change is an existential threat to humanity, and it requires us to take big, bold steps now to address the problem while we still have time. San Mateo historically has been a leader in this area, something I'm very proud of as a resident here. And so, um, I would encourage you to adopt this ordinance as drafted. I think it makes a lot of takes a lot of reasonable steps um towards addressing climate change and it gives property owners a lot of flexibility in how they meet these requirements. Um I know it's important to me and a lot of other people that San Mateo is a place that our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren can thrive in. and I think that this will go a long way in helping to ensure that our city and our planet remains livable for the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving to our virtual environment where our first speaker will be Dasha Leads. Dashel, please unmute your mic.

Hello, Mayor Lorraine and city council members. My name is Dasha Leeds and I'm the conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club LMA Prieta chapter. The Sierra Club strongly supports the stack staff recommendation of this ordinance including all four code options. I'm filled with gratitude tonight. We're all fortunate to benefit from the work of the Bay Area Reach codes effort, including PCE, to bring us excellent model reach codes. Thank you to council for your November 2025 direction to explore these four code options. Thank you to Andrea and staff for a thoughtful and open drafting process. And a special thank you to the community members and advocates who contributed to this process, asked difficult questions, and pushed hard for the city to arrive at this excellent code. The policies before you tonight are urgently needed. Every new gas appliance that is installed in San Monteo is a missed opportunity to electrify. The AC to heat pump language in this ordinance encourages residents and buildings to electrify at opportune moments, such as when they replace broken air conditioners with the vastly more efficient electric heat pump. Every new gas appliance that is installed lockso into more fossil fuel infrastructure that the city is committed to moving away from. That's why it's so important to future proof our infrastructure by pre-wiring buildings to support future electrification when additions and alterations make those upgrades pragmatic. This ordinance sends a strong signal to other municipalities and agencies that electrification is still a local priority and that cities can lead the way in creating and implementing effective climate policies. We need this leadership now more than ever to improve our air quality and reduce emissions. We hope you adopt this ordinance tonight, including all four options. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Wendy Chow. Wendy, please unmute your mic.

Hello. Uh, good evening, Mayor Lorraine, Deputy Mayor Fernandez, council members, and city staff. My name is Wendy. Thank you for hearing all of our comments this evening. As a resident of San Mo and a staff member at Ecttera Action for a Healthy Planet, I fully support staff's recommendation to introduce the ordinance for four reach code options. Reach codes are flexible, cost-saving measures that will lower bills as people transition away from fossil gas, also known as natural gas. PG&'s fossil gas prices rose sharply in 2025 and are expected to continue their upward surge. And today's latest geopolitical instabilities and armed conflicts are only worsening future fossil fuel prices. But actually the main reason I support reach codes is that as a parent of a young person, I am concerned about indoor air quality. So much so that we run a filter paired with a box fan most of the day and especially whenever we are cooking. Even though we cook on induction, we do like to be careful. Burning fuel like gas indoors leads to higher loads of particulate matter and produces many different harmful chemicals that gets into our lungs. Running electric appliances means cleaner air for us to breathe. Because of the clean air question, even though I'm a renter, my family chooses to use only electric appliances in my home. We have a gas furnace we don't turn on and a gas stove that we leave permanently off. We installed an electric heat pump water heater last year and are enjoying how efficient it is. I love being a resident of San Monteo and I salute this council for not just supporting greener new construction but also approving policies to improve existing buildings. There are so many more existing buildings compared to new buildings. So addressing these reach codes will create a much bigger sustainability impact. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Michelle Hudson. Michelle, please unmute your mic.

Good evening. My name is Michelle Hudson and I'm a longtime San Mateo res. I'm also co-leader of the 350 Silicon Valley Sonteo climate action team. For a number of years, I've been deeply concerned about the worsening climate crisis and the detrimental impact of climate change on our community, particularly on our youth and future generations. I urge the city to continue taking strong action at the local level. One of the most effective ways cities can do this is by passing policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our local building stock. As such, I fully support the city's adoption of the proposed reach codes ordinance. I also request that the effectiveness of the flex path component of the ordinance be revisited in one year. Specifically, the council should consider lowering the square footage threshold and raising the target score. Thank you for your continued climate leadership and for your attention to this important issue. Thank you. Our next speaker will be Natalie Diaz. Natalie, please unmute your mic.

Hello, council members. My name is Natalie and I'm a junior at San Mo High School. I spoke on the adoption of the reach codes in November and I want to reaffirm my support here of the four additions to the reach code plan. These codes are not only in line with Sato's commitment to sustainability, but also establish us as a pioneer for ambitious climate measures. This ordinance benefits youth like me who want to live in a clear sky ad asthmafree San Monteo 50 years from now. I look forward to living in a cleaner San Monteo and I'm excited to see this ordinance pass. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker will be Bruce Nagel. Bruce, please unmute your mic.

Hi, my name is Bruce Nagel. Uh, as mentioned previously, there are a number of environmental groups and I'm Chris and some of them as listed before. I think there are a couple of interesting things that have happened. One is the excitement and vibe in this chamber is electric and we need to make sure that we bottle that and get it out to field so that people understand that there's a real need for doing this. The second thing is that we've got um some real things are going to continue to develop. One of the things that's going on on the side is these uh plug-in panels for solar on balconies. And it doesn't contribute a whole lot at this point, but it may be a way to get some of the apartment buildings to have the ability to do um their own electric in their in their homes from the sun. And I think the important thing is is that each of these things contributes more positive energy to moving forward with things. and you've heard it across a number of different groups. Um, some of which, you know, are groups that that I'm involved in as long as people are here. So, I I urge you to continue to move in this direction. I think there's a lot to be done and you've got a good team working on this and you know, other places like Mountain View also working on things. So, we need to keep moving everybody forward and make sure that the successes in one place can be brought to another. So, I thank you for the opportunity to speak and um go on forward. Thanks.

Thank you, Mayor Lorraine. Oh, excuse me. We have one final speaker with the screen name SV YCA. Please unmute your mic.

Hi. Good evening, council members. My name is Emma and I'm a student at Aragon High School as well as a co-lead for Silicon Valley Climate Action. Um, I'm currently 16 years old and excited to graduate from high school, pursue higher education, and maybe even someday settle down and start my own family here in St. Mateo. But at the same time, my peers and I are deeply concerned about the future of our planet. The climate crisis has touched so many of our lives personally, and we anticipate it only getting more frightening in the future. So, we ask that tonight you once again choose to prioritize our city's long-term sustainability and well-being. Our team supports the adoption of this reach code ordinance, including all four options. We also hope that you will revisit the ordinance in a year to review its effectiveness. We're incredibly consistent support for climate action. Thank you for all that you do for our city.

Thank you, Mayor Lorraine. That concludes public comment. Thank you. At this time, I would like to ask uh if any council members have questions or comments. Council member Diaz Nash.

Mine will be Nicole Fernandez short. Um, I am supportive of everything that was presented tonight in the recommendation. It is what we asked for when we did our study and I appreciate you interpreting it. The one thing I would request is with the flex path that in all the outbound education materials, whatever else we can do that we have an actual chart that gives examples of how do you get to 12 because as I mentioned to Andrea earlier when I looked at that first and I said, "Oh, there's a heat pump water heater. We have one of those. I'm already at 12." It was a very real understanding. I could tell my neighbors this is not complicated. This is easy. So please chart your way to great success and thank you very much.

Thank you. Anyone else? Council member Nome.

Well, I'd like to go like call out that in previous discussions of reach codes, we've always had people coming in and opposing. And what I think is a definite sign of progress is that no one has spoken out to oppose the reach codes. And to me that is fantastic. Uh I I think well I can't speak for all of us but I am definitely in support of these reach codes. I really appreciate staff's work to get us here. And the only other uh questions I had were um or I guess I'd also like to throw down or throw throw support for the revisiting of our reach codes progress in one year. Um can we can we put that on in our just revisiting the effectiveness in a year? want to see a majority council

and we can provide an update in a weekly update if you want or you know a weekly update. Okay, that's fine too. I just want to make sure. No, that's fine. We can go ahead and do that. I I have a related question, council member. Um so after your comments perhaps we'll get to expand a little more on that. Just go ahead. You've already

Okay. Um, thank you for your indulgence. Uh, Andrea, I I wondered if I could hear from you on um any any thoughts or recommendations you might have on what might be uh the most effective time to revisit uh progress following that. You mentioned for example in the presentation that even if we approve all codes tonight, there will be some time from this date in which we need to uh effectively apply to the state for them to be established and and so uh given that and the fact that these building code cycles are three years long um I I'm curious of your your thoughts on sure

the best possible time to revisit. Yeah. So, I'll summarize again that after the city council uh introduces and adopts a reach code ordinance, the required process is for building standards commission and California Energy Commission approvals. And Taylor and the team have been tracking other jurisdictions moving through the process right now and it's seeing it's seeming like it's taking a minimum of four months uh or so for that approval. And so we have to add you know four months from nowish to the start of enforcement of the reach codes. Uh and then after things are being enforced sometimes there's it takes time for projects in which are relevant to the reach codes to come in and we can track and monitor that that progress over time. But it might not be that in that first week there are x number of projects related to the reach codes. It it's hard to say. And then to Mayor Lorraine's other point, these this ordinance is tied to the 2025 edition of the building code. And Taylor, I'm looking back at you to see if there's any clarifying about kind of this the term of the reach code effectiveness. That's right. Okay. Thank you. And maybe just to follow up on that, um assuming we have uh you know another reach code process, another building code cycle uh that that might be uh on a similar timeline as with other building code cycles and and we might consider new reach codes. Um, am I do I have it right that we would be maybe looking at those in 2027 for the

28 code cycle? Yes, that that's the typical time frame.

I see. And so I I guess to me I'm I'm seeing the the bookends of of the the potential for uh this to be most effective to be kind of closing in. Um I I mean frankly at the moment I'm sort of of the mind that revisiting it may not be terribly productive for us because um even if we were to revisit and then come to the conclusion that we want to change it then we would be changing it not for three years but for about a year or so. Does that sound about right? Yeah, from a process standpoint there is this delay of you know a ordinance drafting um which might go quicker right if the depending on the amendment uh and then again waiting for those approvals before enforcing the new amendment.

Yeah. I mean that said um the city has done that before and um and so I I suppose I wouldn't want to throw away an opportunity. Um, so I I guess having had that conversation, it sounds as though um we would maybe if we were to revisit or get some kind of update, um I I it sounds like the timing of that might be a little more than a year from tonight, for example. Um yeah, I I don't mean to poo poo that. So I I think I I I suppose I I I'm I'mable to a

So how about this? We'll go ahead and we'll do a check and it sounds like this will probably go into effect July 1st from this point in time if we're going about four months out. So we can do a within a written report to the council of just where we're at one year out. But then really the public report would be as we are looking at the next round of code updates in 2027 to really display how effective this has been over the past years. Does that kind of sound okay? Yeah. Okay. I'm seeing a majority of nodding heads here. Okay, we have direction. Okay, any other questions or comments? Sorry. Yeah, returning to Council Member Nome.

Yeah, I I did hear something that one of the public commenters, Bruce, mentioned, and I was actually reading over the weekend, especially in Europe that and and now starting to see in Latin America, there's a lot of these smaller solar installations that you can hang on your balcony, you can put in your backyard. And it's really exciting because it it gives a new, you know, much less barrier of entry uh for someone to put some sort of a solar system on their house without having to redo their roof and put solar on the roof. And so I'm really excited about the progress of this. And they're seeing tremendous fast growth in Europe. And I just would ask that as a city we try to uh the only concern I have about it is a safety perspective as far as attaching it to the homes electrical. So I would ask the city that we try to keep an eye on that as we move as it as that technology comes forward quickly. I don't know that we can wait 3 years before we looking at how that connectivity of these small solar you know kind of DIY uh systems uh will attach to your home. And so I just would look for the city to kind of uh keep a keep a pulse check on it so that we don't have some surprises where we're seeing home fires and challenges like that. Okay, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Any other questions or comments?

Um, I think this is great. I think we should proceed. Do we have anyone else that wants to Yes, Deputy Mayor Fernandez.

Um, I just wanted to thank uh thank all of you for your hard work in putting this together. And I do want to echo um Council Member Nome's comments that we didn't have any um opposition showing up. Um and I think that's in part because of what the work that uh the city has done to ensure that this is not a hardship for lower income residents. So I just want to call out the fact that I really appreciate the fact that this is a voluntary only program. There is um there is a hardship clause exception. we there's a repair exemption when we're needed and there are you know uh supple but you know there are there are not grants but there's possible money to help folks who want to opt into this. So as the person who represents the part of the city with maybe the maybe the lowest average income um I just want to thank you for that while we can still expand on on the good work and and work on behalf of our community. I also want to congratulate um Ela Salinger for being named the sustainable sustainability award winner for sustainable Sanato County. You do a lot of amazing work here and I'm really proud that you're a Samato resident. Congratulations.

Excellent. Thank you. Um I I certainly echo those plaudits. Uh they are welld deserved and um just want to thank those who uh presented tonight. Uh thank those who gave public comment as well. uh for ongoing uh work on this uh over the years. Um this is a milestone achievement for our city and I I think particularly so this time um it's uh always important to consider next steps that uh you know in the case of reach codes are cost-effective and a vetted pathway toward a more sustainable future. Um, and I I really appreciate being in a city that uh considers that to be part of its its mandate. And as I've noted during our discussions related to our electrify Sanonteo exploration, this this has become business as usual in our city. And that uh was particularly important this time because as people may remember uh last year there was an assembly bill 306 that actually our city ended up writing uh a letter against uh because it threatened the possibility of reach codes in the entire state. Um and uh then uh some of the elements of 306 ended up getting folded into a bill that did pass and get signed by our governor AB130 which we heard a little bit about earlier. Um but it contained exceptions for cities with language already in their general plan already with targets in their climate action plans and because of that we are allowed to continue and so it's because of the work that we had already been doing for the last decade together uh we are able to continue to make progress um amid

headwinds and and other challenges. So, I I want to thank Andrea and and staff and and previous councils in this council for making that possible. I want to thank Peninsula Clean Energy and the Bay Area Reach Coats for modeling the way literally and for making it possible for our city to more easily take vetted cost-effective next steps um and uh in a fashion that allows for other cities in our county to do the same. um if if they are inspired to do so. Uh because indeed uh you know we can do it here. I I'm I'm proud and privileged to have represented our city at last year's uh California Energy um Commission Summit um to to share that at that time our city was exploring the the ACD heat pump code uh a version of which we are we have before us tonight. Um so I I I just want to appreciate that uh no step forward can be taken for granted especially now and uh you know really it is those who are putting in the work on a consistent basis who are going to lead the way and I'm proud to be part of a city that is doing so assuming this passes and with that I would take a motion.

I motion second. Sorry. Thank you. And may I have a roll call vote please? Certainly. Council member Fo Gaditki, yes. Council member Nuome, yes. Council member Diaz Nash, yes. Deputy Mayor Fernandez, yes. Mayor Lorraine, yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you very much. This concludes that item. And we now have another item. Item number seven, operation of leaf blowers. Ordinance introduction with a presentation by Andrea Chow, sustainability analyst. All right. Good evening, Mayor Lorraine, city council members, and members of the public. My name is Andrea Chow, the sustainability analyst for the city, and my presentation tonight will review a proposed ordinance prohibiting gas leaf blowers. So, the recommendation for city council to is to introduce an ordinance to amend the Sanonteo Municipal Code Chapter 1080, operation of leaf blowers. And I'll start by providing some background on the topic and the direction received at the October 6th city council study session on leaf blower regulations. Here on the screen, we have the city's current regulations, which are also attached to the staff report, but they limit the use of gas of leaf blowers, 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays and 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays. And the hours of operation apply to residential zoning districts in areas bordering and areas bordering residentially zoned neighborhoods. So, essentially, our current relief floor regulations really have these hours of operation um on use And then I'll also put into context that

as of 2024, state regulations require new model years of 2024 or later leaf blower equipment to be electric. H and remind you that the state's requirements do not impact existing gas equipment. At the October 6th study session, city council directed staff to develop an ordinance to prohibit gas leaf blowers. This can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address air quality impacts. And additionally, the city council provided direction on when to begin enforcement and how to assign penalties on the uh on on gas leaf blower operators. So, what you have before you is a proposed ordinance that includes an effective date of January 1st, 2027. This is a clean start date that is roughly nine months after the ordinance adoption if the ordinance is introduced at this meeting. And over these na next nine months, staff will prioritize outreach and engagement with the community to promote compliance with the new regulations. And then as directed at that study session, the proposed ordinance allows the assignment of penalties to the gas leaf blower operator as well as to the property owner who hired or employed the services of person or business using gas leaf blowers. What is needed for um direction this evening when introducing the ordinance is selection of one of the hours of operation options uh for electric leaf blowers. So again reiterating that the gas leaf blower proh prohibition is citywide and these are hours of operation restricting electric leaf blower use uh once gas leaf blowers are prohibited. And so the three options to consider option one retains our current regulation regulations which would mean comma community members and landscapers would not need to adjust

their current practices. Uh but I'll also remind you that option one only applies to residential zones and areas adjacent to residential zones which means that other areas of the city do not have these limitations. Option two applies a more blanket city-wide approach and would apply hours of operation to be citywide. This would likely have an impact on commercial businesses and even city operations where leaf blowers are used to clear debris from parking lots early in the morning. This is usually to avoid uh interference with businesses. And so uh the city does this in our downtown garages and also in our park parking lots and one could envision this is true of existing commercial and office properties uh that are sometimes located very close to housing. Uh th this approach would be pretty simple to communicate as there would be one set of hours of operation citywide and then following on that city council direction to provide another option for hours of operation. Option three establishes hours of operation that are citywide but then has a specific carve out for specific uses which includes commercial office and industrial use or city-owned property and in those specific uses these areas would have extended hours of leaf blower use beyond what is allowed citywide. So, this approach ensures that we've got consistent hours of operation um in areas where people live, where community members live. Uh but this approach would result in some slightly different hours of operation on neighboring parcels within the same zoning district, which may create some impacts in some cases and could complicate enforcement. So, these are the three options before you. And the staff recommendation tonight is

to introduce an ordinance to amend the Sanonteo Municipal Code Chapter 1080. Uh but again, you need to select one of the three options for hours of operation for inclusion in the ordinance. Thank you for the presentation. At this time, we'll take public comment on this item. If you are in the chamber and you wish to speak, you may complete a respect uh pardon me, a request to speak slip, hand it to the city clerk as Mr. White is doing right now. Uh if you're remote, you may raise your hand. City clerk, please tally the speakers and let me let us know how many we have.

Certainly, Mayor Lorraine, we have received a total of four requests to speak in chambers. Um currently no hands raised in our virtual environment. So that will set the timer at 3 minutes per speaker. So when I call your name, if you could please line up to my right. Um that'll make sure we get through all of our comments tonight. Um our first speaker will be Carol Wilhelm, followed by Jared Manning and Nancy Goen. Dear city council, to ensure success, an ordinance must be strong and enforced, and its purpose must be understood by the community. The purpose of the leafblower ordinance is not to address complaints. It is to protect the health and safety of our community. This point can be clarified in the purpose section 10.80.0100 010 of the municipal code upon receipt of code violation reports during the 9-month period leading up to the enforcement date of January 1st, 2027. City staff is encouraged to send courtesy notices to property owners and businesses. This will enable a quicker and more successful transition to cleaner tools and should ease the enforcement burden on the code enforcement department once strict enforcement begins. Portions of this process can be automated. A successful ordinance must be equitable. Please adopt the ordinance citywide with no exceptions or exemptions and add Junth National Independence Day to the list of federal holidays on which all leaf blower operation is prohibited. Please consider adding the language, no

person shall operate or authorize the use of an internal combustion generator to charge batteries for or provide power to leaf blowers. Please incorporate language in the ordinance now that will prohibit the use of gas powered string and hedge trimmers starting January 1st, 2028 or sooner. Don't leave this task to a future city council. And last but not least, allow us members of the community to aid in this healing transition to better health for workers, businesses, residents, and visitors in our city. Thank you to the council and to city staff for doing the right thing, protecting our health, safety, and quality of life.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Jared Manning, followed by Nancy Goan and Robert White.

Hello again. I'm Jared Manning. back again your Berling game neighbor. I support the the proposed ban and for once Berling game is taking the lead here. We've had experience for almost a year now with a leaf blower ban and it has been fantastic. It is quieter, it is less noisy, it doesn't stink when I go for a walk and it seems to be finally working really well. Uh the electric machines are quieter and they are healthier. And in particular, I want to point out something that isn't said much. The gardeners are exposed to an enormous amount of unburnt gasoline and toxic fumes eight hours a day, every day of the week, every week of the year. I used one of these things when I was 20 for a summer and I barely survived it. They are very, very dangerous. If OSHA regulated these things, they wouldn't exist. And so I strongly encourage for that reason because we are dumping you know a heinous amount of health impact on the most vulnerable and the most poor and people who frequently don't speak English to understand well enough their health impacts. That's really a travesty. Um I've talked to several gardeners in Berlingame uh about the transition and they all kind of grumbled a little bit about having to get new stuff for which there were rebates and finding out how to charge but basically whatever needed to be done they did. So, it's been a as far as I can see as a as a resident, it's been a very smooth transition and I congratulate you for for taking this really important action. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Nancy Goen followed by Robert Whiteer,

mayor, deputy mayor, and city council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. Um, for years I have expressed to the city council in various I should put my glasses on. in various communications my support of a leaf blower ban both gas and electric for many reasons. I would like to focus briefly here on one of the key underlying major issues and it's very short what I'm going to say. Um the issue is whether we have to wait until another type of noise nuisance becomes widespread and then have years of efforts by residents to fix it. What could the what can the city do to prevent the future proliferation of other noise nuisances especially in neighborhoods? Um, similar to what the first woman spoke about with um, gas, I would you call them a hedge trimmers. There's a lot of other equipment that could be potentially nuisances. And it appears to me that the city's code section regarding noise violations, I think it's um, section 730, failed us. So, I'm wondering, can we amend that somehow so that we do not have to wait until another noise nuisance is out of control. Thank you.

Thank you. And our final speaker will be Robert White.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, thank you for the opportunity. I was not going to speak about this until I saw the three options. I'm asking for option one. And the reason being already the the gas leaf blowers are are not following the current code. I live next door to Burough Middle School within earshot. And I mean really earshot. Every Monday morning the gas leak blowers start before 7. And I think I fall within the there's a distance and the decibel rating. I believe my home falls within that. We're going to pursue that. What I would suggest is that you do option one now. And if we find out that the we think the electric leaf blowers will be much quieter, that might be an impetus for gardeners to take them on. So I really urge you to follow option one, not three, because they're already violating it because I I know it's quarter to 64 quarter to 7 sometimes 6:30 in the summer. I hear the gas leaf floors. Whatever you can do to merge those two together, I'd be really supportive. Thank you for doing this. This is another great example of what the city is doing to make the quality of life here. And I thank Andrew for all the hard work she's put into it. And thank you, council members, for all you're doing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Lorraine. That concludes public comment. Thank you. Uh would any council members like to ask questions? Council member Diaz Nash.

This seems to be where we are starting tonight. Thank you, mayor. Uh, I am personally so thrilled because this was one of my blue sky objectives a couple of years ago. So, thank you to staff. Thank you to my fellow council members for bringing this forward and I am thrilled to see it coming to fruition. Thank you, Andrea. Um, a couple of questions based on the comments we got from the public. Uh number one, it would seem to be a good thing to add that very positive reason as to in the purpose of the ordinance as to what we're trying to do here to improve health and not just to enforce. Is that a problem adding language like that to the purpose of the ordinance?

You could. I mean, the purpose section already refers to air pollution, so I don't know if that addresses your concern or not, or if you wanted to be more specific. Um, do we have I I don't have a screen share of the purpose. I could read it for for you right now. That would be great. It says, "It has been found that leaf blowers cause considerable noise and air pollution and have been the source of numerous complaints by Sonteo residents. This chapter is intended to regulate the use of leaf blowers to minimize noise and air pollution in the city.

I think that that's fine. Okay. I agree with what you're trying to say. Um number two, um the idea of sending out courtesy notices prior to January 1st. What are we thinking about in terms of how we educate the owners and the the leaf the you know landscape operators? I think education will be key. I'll I'll just reflect on the 20 the fall 2025 print newsletter that was sent out citywide where we announced that leafblower regulations are upcoming. we saw a surge in electric leaf blower rebate applications from residents and you know unfortunately I didn't see that same surge in our community businesses and so I think you're making a very valid point that education is really important and we'll have to do a lot of different ways to reach our community members and our landscaping businesses uh whether it's letters and other types of media to make sure that there's multiple opportunities to see the information about the new regulations.

I would just encourage you to try everything that that make sure it's as effective as possible. Um, now in terms of the the holidays, don't we already include Junth? Isn't that sort of on our our calendar? So the ex the leaf blower hours of operation listed specific holidays in the ordinance and it does not include Junth as listed. So that is something we could we could amend and add. Yeah, I would think that would just because we do it for everything else. So yeah. Yeah. So that could be part of

ask my fellow council members. I would support that. Um, and then finally, I would agree that keeping the existing hours as it is is what we should do because we are going to be educating on so much having to talk about Oh, we're changing the hours, too. That's one more thing to confuse people. Number two, I I I think the the businesses are gonna have a lot to deal with, and I don't want it to be the case where leaf blowers go down the streets of our downtown at 8:00 a.m., you know, or because they they have to they can't do it earlier. I think that would just be an a negative to our businesses and to our our all of our business areas. So I would strongly um advocate that the maintaining the existing hours is what we should do for simplicity for everyone. But I am very much in favor of this overall. Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you. Who else would like to ask other questions? Council members. I am also in favor and I agree with Lisa. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Nome. Yeah, I agree with everything Council Member Diaz Nash said. Um, one question that I did have or a few questions I did have was that this this ordinance is only applying to leaf blowers. And in talking to Persona today, I learned that other gardening equipment doesn't fall under the same restrictions. Meaning, I can get up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday and turn on my lawn mower as long as I'm not using a blower until 9. So, I I think that not necessarily today, but I think that as a council, we should we should look at this and we've heard this from public outreach today that we look at um at some point maybe after this has been in place for a year, applying this to all outdoor gardening equipment uh so that we have the same rules and regulations and enforcement can be standardized. Um, the other thing that I thought was interesting in reviewing is is that, you know, we have one rule for Monday through Fridays and another rule for Saturdays with the no usage is supposed to happen on Sundays. Uh, I live in Sunny Bray and people are constantly using their blowers on Sundays because they mow their lawns on Sundays and there's no ordinance to say you can't mow your lawn on Sunday. So my only thing with with one and that's where I lean is to use the option one is to consider making it be the same for Saturday and Sundays. Um that's that's my feedback on that. And the other thing that I talked about with Persona a little today was that mixed use is not defined. Meaning as we have new and new buildings being built where the first level is retail and the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh are all housing, there is no, you know, no requirement. So it would most likely fall in those cases as uh commercial hours as opposed to residential hours. And so that might be something again,

not that we have to address today, but that when we revisit this down the road, we want to look at saying, you know, if if we have seven levels of of housing above retail, we'd want the same housing, you know, residential rules to apply. Does that make sense? So, all in all, I'm very supportive of this. Uh, thank you so much for the whole city's effort and staff's effort. It's great work. And, uh, that's all my comments. Thank you. Uh, very good. Uh, Miss Council Member Newsome, did I hear you say at this time you're favoring option one or did you have a favored option?

I favor option one and I asked the council to consider making it Saturday and Sunday as opposed to just Saturdays.

Okay, thank you for that clarification. Uh, I believe we have uh assistant city manager horseber would like to comment. So, if I may, I would just make the clarification that I think two clarifications. So, I would say that as far as the equipment that's not banned, it would still be subject to our noise ordinance. And so, it's not the equipment, but it is the noise that's regulated. So, there is there there are controls in place. It's just not equipment specific. Um, and so it's a matter of enforcement and it is difficult to enforce during off hours regardless what the source of the noise is. Um, and then in terms of option one, I would consider that residentially zoned districts would include mixeduse districts where residential uses are allowed. So I do think that those would be captured. But if you wanted to make it even more clear, I think an easy amendment to the ordinance would be to say zones where residential uses are allowed or something like that. We could we could make that language so it's more specific.

Thank you for those clarifications. Uh yeah, actually frankly I think that would I that seems to me like an elegant way to I think bring in a little bit of some of the concerns I feel like I heard from council last time with regard to where this would uh where this would apply. I I think if we were to make that that change, um it would end up applying to a decent portion of the city at least, uh that I think would have folks nearby who have something to say on the matter. Um for those who uh were in favor of option one, I I think I'd like to hear your thoughts on on that.

Uh yes. Um,

sorry. I guess from a just thinking about what it's going to mean for a business downtown or anywhere in the city that if um suddenly you're not going to be able to do things earlier, you know, when when the businesses normally clean out the leaves, you have to do it during business hours. And that that's going to cause problems for the businesses. It's also going to cause problems for the people who are wandering around wanting to do their go grab their morning coffee or buy their bagels or whatever it happens to be. So I think I'm assuming that one of the reasons why we started having different rationale for commercial is that we wanted to get it done so that the days could sort of function as to make San Mo downtown or 25th or 42nd as attractive and welcoming as could be and not be full of leaf blowers. So that's my case. I I appreciate that and frankly I am convinced. Uh and and so for what it's worth, I guess I'll I'll throw my my coin in at at this moment and and mention that I I think um I think it might be uh simplest and easiest to begin this process with option one sort of as written. Um although I appreciate the efforts made to uh try to um hear all uh possibilities. Um so I I I I'll just mention that I I think I agree with Council Member Diaz Nash's uh assessment. Um and do support uh everything else she said as well. Um Council Member Sodki, how do you any change? I agree with Lisa. No change for me.

Okay. Um, any final thoughts? I'm down with whatever. So, we're going to go with one, but nobody do. We have two more people who would be interested on Sunday 9 to5 as well. Yeah. Second. I am not down. I think we should keep it as option one. Try it and then if we need to change it, revisit. Okay. As all good things in the city. Thanks. Uh yeah, just to that point, would it be I guess it sounds similar to the previous item. Maybe we we have some sort of um update given to the council.

So we we can do that, but it this is going to start January 1st of 2027. Um so we can look at we can provide a report out if we receive many complaints. Happy to bring it back uh and entertain that. So let's see how it goes. uh start off with and then we can bring it back. That sounds good to me. Uh very good. Do we need Yes, we do. Uh a motion. I would entertain one. Second. Mayor, can I Oh, just interject for one moment. So, I think the motion would be the staff recommendation. I heard a discussion about Junth.

So, uh I understood the motion to be the staff recommendation. Option one, add Junth to the list of holidays. Is that correct? That's what I hear. I'm seeing some nodding heads. Can we confirm though that that's the only holiday that is is not on the list right now or is it Memorial Day not on the list right now? I can through the mayor. I can just read the list of holidays so everyone's on the same page of what is included. Uh New Year's, MLK, President's Day, Memorial Day, Junth, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Those would be the ones.

Sounds like that was the only one that was overlooked. So that's great. Excellent. I motion plus the holidays. Second. Thank you. And option one. And option and option one. I motion the ordinance and the holidays and option one. Thank you very much. Uh, city clerk, may we have a roll call vote, please? Certainly. Council member Spirro Gitzki, Deputy Mayor Fernandez, Council Member Diaz Nash, yes. Mayor Lorraine, yes. Council member Nuome, yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you again. Okay, one more item. Item number eight, boards and commissions, establishment of annual appointment subcommittees and vacancy process with a presentation from Martin McTagert, our city clerk. Good evening, mayor and council members. Martin McTigert, city clerk. I'm here this evening to present on the proposed establishment of the council's annual appointment subcommittees and to outline the vacancy and recruitment process for the upcoming spring boards and commissions recruitment cycle. This item is intended to provide staff with early policy direction in advance of formally launching the 2026 boards and commissions recruitment cycle. First, regarding incumbents with expiring terms, we are seeking clarity on council's preferred approach, specifically whether eligible members in good standing should be considered for reappointment or whether all interested incumbents should reapply and participate in a competitive interview process. Council's direction on this point will shape the recruitment timeline, application materials, and outreach efforts. Second, with respect to appointment subcommittees, the rules establish a default structure. Council may confirm that structure this evening or provide direction to modify assignments or broaden participation amongst council members. Any adjustments will need to be finalized prior to opening the recruitment to allow staff to efficiently conduct interviews. And finally, we welcome any additional guidance regarding outreach. If council would like to expand recruitment efforts, encourage applications from speci specific communities or prior

prioritize certain skill sets or lived experiences. This is an appropriate time to provide that direction before materials are published. For the 2026 annual boards and commissions recruitment cycle, the city will be recruiting for a total of 25 positions. This includes 16 regular commission seats, nine youth commissioner seats. By advisory body, the expiring and newly created seats are as follows. Community relations commission, we have two commissioner terms. Library board has one commissioner term with two youth commissioner terms. Park and recreation commission has one youth commissioner term and one excuse me one commissioner term and one youth commissioner term. Personnel board has one member term. Planning commission has one commissioner term. Senior advisory commission has one commissioner term and two youth advisory commission terms. Sustainability and infrastructure commission has one commissioner term and two youth commissioner terms. Measure S Oversight Committee has two commissioner terms. Mosquito and Vector Control District has one term and the Civic Arts Commission has five newly created regular commissioner seats with two youth commissioner seats. With respect to eligibility, two commissioners have completed two consecutive four-year terms and pursuant to section 6.05 of the city charter are therefore not eligible for reappointment. Additionally, one youth commissioner on the senior advisory commission will turn 18 prior to the expiration of their current term and therefore will not be eligible for reappointment under the youth commissioner criteria. And finally, because the Civic Arts Commission was established by ordinance 2025-10, all five regular commission seats will be open during the cycle. The initial term lengths will be determined by lot at the commission's first regularly scheduled meeting to establish staggered terms moving forward. This slide summarizes the incumbents

whose terms are expiring and who are eligible to serve an additional term as outlined in the city's council's rules and procedures. The city clerk's office administers the boards and commissions recruitment process for those with expiring terms. Our office notifies each commissioner in advance of their term expiration, verifies whether they are interested in continuing to serve, confirms eligibility under the city charter and applicable term limits, and coordinates the recruitment process, including outreach and community engagement. The information presented on this slide includes each commissioner's name, the advisory body in which they serve, and the length of time they have served in their current role, and whether they have indicated an interest in continued service. This information may be helpful to council in determine whether to authorize automatic reappoints for any eligible incumbents or whether to require all interested incumbents to participate in the standard application and interview process as part of the broader recruitment cycle. Just a brief note regarding the council's default process as determined by council adopted rules and procedures. The default approach is for incumbent commissioners to participate in an interview if they wish to be considered for reappointment. Alternatively, the council may approve an automatic reappointment by majority vote or consensus based on outstanding performance or the value and continuity in the role and other factors that may such may necessitate such an action. In 2025, the council directed that all interested incumbents reapply and participate in the interview process. Just to provide a little bit of context uh as we're going into the 2026 cycle. Um in 2025 spring recruitment cycle resulted resulted in a 78% increase in applications from the year prior which expanded community participation awareness and created a more competitive selection process. Staff also received feedback from some

incumbents, including those that were originally appointed to partial terms, regarding the requirement to reapply within a relatively short time frame uh following their initial appointment. This slide provides a 4-year snapshot of application activity by board, commission, committee. As you can see, there was a significant increase in applications in 2024 with 60 total applications and an even more substantial increase as was mentioned in 2025 totaling 107 applications citywide. That represents nearly a five-fold increase to 2023 and reflects the heightened community awareness and engagement in the recruitment process. Several commissions experienced particularly strong growth in 2025 including the library board, community relations, sustainability and infrastructure and planning and notably the youth commissioner recruitment which uh on its own received 20 applications and this upward trend suggests that open recruitment has meaningfully expanded participation and competitive competitiveness for appointments. This brings us to council's first question for direction tonight. Um and that is does the council wish to authorize appointment automatic reappointment for any eligible incumbents or require all interested incumbents to reapply and participate in an interview process. And there may be some uh policy considerations that may help guide council's decision-m on this tonight. Um as was mentioned um there is there may be a benefit in terms of expanding community participation. Uh contrast that with um the benefit that may be received from having continuity on boards and commissions including institutional knowledge provided by those who have some service on those bodies. As as was mentioned earlier, we did receive some constructive feedback from some of our partial term appointees who are required to interview again um that that may have uh an impact on them disproportionately

um as well as other factors including performance and attendance um at meetings. We'll now move to the next topic for council consideration which is our appointment subcommittee establishment. Um appointment subcommittees play an important role in this process serving on interview panels, reviewing applications, providing appointment recommendations to the full council and they also address both the scheduled vacancies and unscheduled vacancies that can occur throughout the year. Under council's rules and procedures, each appointment subcommittee must include the mayor or the mayor's designate, the council leaison to that respective commission may and it may also include up to five council members. Tonight, we're requesting council's direction on this structure and any adjustments council may have. In 20 just a few notes as far as policy considerations for this topic. In 2025, a majority of the council um three or more council members participated in all appointment subcommittees. Um when a majority of council serves on an appointment subcommittee, um the interviews themselves essentially constitute a special city council meeting. And as a result, um there may be some additional noticing requirements that apply and additional staff coordination. Um, in the past, historically, smaller subcommittees were designed with the intent of providing some greater scheduling flexibility to avoid convening additional full city council meetings um, solely for the purpose of conducting interviews. And with that context in mind, we are seeking council's direction on the preferred structure for the 2026 cycle. Which brings us to question two. Does the council wish to confirm the default appointment subcommittees as identified in table two in the staff report or modify assignments and or expand participation? We'll now shift gears and talk a little bit about outreach and recruitment. Um, as uh was mentioned, in response to prior council direction, staff conducted

research into best practices among city clerk's offices statewide and aligned our recruitment efforts um to conform with the city's diversity, equity, and inclusion strategic framework. As part of that framework, we refined and expanded our outreach methods to broaden community awareness and participation. Um we're very proud of our boards and boards commission committee outreach and uh recruitment success plan that has been updated for 2026. It details at length community events where flying and um applications will be made available um throughout the year or throughout the recruitment period. Um the next tomography study is scheduled to take place in 2027 which will provide additional data to further inform these efforts. Looking ahead to 2026, the proposed outreach and recruitment success plan will incorporate any feedback provided by the council this evening. And we'll just a brief note regarding some feedback we received from council during our um our last um discussion on this. We also introduced digital uh recruitment ads which were very successful. We received over a total of 250,000 display impressions during the 2025 recruitment cycle. The council also directed us last year to look at opportunities for individuals to indicate interests serving in these roles through our request to speak slips and we've been gathering those um over the course of the last year and we'll be reaching out to those individuals who've indicated that interest. One of the other pieces the council provided some direction to us during our uh last demography study in 2025 was um to not only provide survey methodology that impacts current serving commissioners, but also to reach out to those who've applied to serve in those roles. And we did receive some um feedback and some interest that will help us refine our recruitment strategies. And it's broadly summarized on this on this slide as you can see. Question number 14 gives us a little bit of an insight into where people are hearing about these opportunities and also maybe indicates areas where we may

need to do some work to help really bolster and have a more targeted approach. Overall, the feedback that we got from the applicants um in terms of their interest and reason for applying was respondents reflected a broad age and residency diversity indicating communitywide interest in civic participation. Some of our um applicants provided some suggestions for improvements to the process um including things like providing um more detailed information um during the application period about the scheduling of the interviews themselves um and also just advanced information about the process and how to apply. Um applicants indicated their motivation for applying to be um strongly motivated motivated by desire to serve and contribute meaningfully to the community. Um and it appears from our research or surveys that email notifications on the city website appear to be the most impactful community channels. So this brings us to question council question number three. Um and staff would welcome any direct additional direction from the council regarding outreach strategies, recruitment methods or any performance metrics for the 2026 recruitment cycle. Building on the expanded data from the 2025 demography study the and the enhanced outreach efforts currently underway. This is an opportunity for the council to refine expectations and further strengthen the recruitment framework. In particular, the council may wish to provide guidance on key areas such as targeted outreach, identifying specific communities, demographic groups or professional sectors where additional engagement may be beneficial. Also just a brief note regarding the application and interview process. As was mentioned, we did receive some feedback as far as just upfront information available to prospective candidates about the scheduling. This is an opportunity for console to also provide some impact input on um the application and interview process itself as well as any considerations as it

relates to post interview process and any expectations um for communications with applicants and staff are prepared to incorporate um that direction. And then just to summarize our next steps council um tonight we'll have the recruitment discussion um moving forward on March 22nd. The application period for boards and commissions will begin and then that'll close on April 24th with our plan to conduct interviews through May 5th to May 27th and ultimately coming back to the council um on June 1st to um provide those appointment recommendations. To close this discussion, um staff would like to return to the three key policy questions presented at the outset of tonight's item. Council's directions on these matters will help establish the framework for the 2026 recruitment cycle. Those questions again, reappoints. Does the city number one, does the city council wish to authorize automatic reappointment for any eligible incumbents or require all interested incumbents to reapply and participate in the interview process? Question number two, does the council wish to confirm the default appointment subcommittee structure or modify assignments and or expand participation? And finally, question number three, outreach and recruitment strategy. Does the council have any additional direction regarding outreach strategies, recruitment methods, or performance metrics for the 2026 recruitment cycle? And that concludes my presentation. Thank you for the presentation. Uh at this time we'll open public comment on this item. If you are in chambers and want to give a speaker slip to the clerk, you may do so. If not, uh if you're remote, you may use the raise your hand feature in Zoom or on the phone. Deputy city clerk, do we have any request to speak?

No, Mayor Lauren, we don't have any request to speak. Okay, I will close public comment for this item and ask for questions. Deputy Mayor Fernandez, I just want to give like mad props to the city clerk's office and all of staff, including our city manager and city attorney. Uh just the amazing way we've expanded outreach has just I mean the numbers say it all. I'm just so proud of what you guys have been able to accomplish just given like

Yeah, sorry. like we gave you literally like 10 cents and some twine and you figured it out and we thank you for for your efforts in that. Um so I'm just going to go straight to the questions. Uh number one, no. Uh I do not want I would like us to interview all of the incumbent uh applicants. Sorry if you were appointed midstream. Come on back. Uh two, uh does the council wish to confirm the default appointment subcommittee? So, I'm down with the ones that are there, but I would like to make sure that we singularly call out or name PL planning and s and SNI as the five council members are invited or default for the five council members.

Can you put up that slide of what we're appointed to five? That one. Thank you. So for for me I would like to see all five US us man not mandate but like invite uh for planning and SNI um and then what was the last question? Any other outreach? Yeah, outreach or um just to do with the recruitment process in general.

It was great. I love the creativity. It feels like it was successful. Thumbs up. Um I'll go next. Um, number one, I agree with Nicole. Um, we should rein everybody and we should all be on uh planning and SNI. Um, number two, if I look at that expanded list, Martin, can I see that again? Of course.

Thank you so much. I would like to be on the CRC interview as well. Um, and honestly, just because it becomes a special meeting, if this is very specific, assuming the council agrees, but because it becomes a special meeting for CRC, I'm happy to bow out of CRC. Okay. Um, and then, yeah, I just want to make sure um I'm on planning and SNI. I would be interested in civic arts as well just because there's so much appointment to be done like we're basically picking a whole committee. Um and then number three on outreach. I think you did an awesome job. Um just one additional thought. Um and I don't know if you're doing this already, but a lot of the high schools have um like newspapers and things like that. like if the city wants to I don't know what the rules are, but ask them if we can use the high school newspaper to publicize that we have these vacancies. Um, and then this isn't really a question, but it is just a comment on our youth commissioners. Um, I've been thinking a lot about this and also thinking about the existing recruitment process and I just wonder if we should like consider maybe not now but in the future adjusting the ordinance to have it be targeted at like 15 to 18 instead of 13

high school just because we have a couple under 15 right now and they're not really making it through. they're like missing meetings and it's really like working with the parents to get them there versus when you're in high school you're starting to manage your own calendar. Um so I think actually logistically it might be better but I'm open to discussing that at a different time. That's all. Thank you.

Excuse me everybody. Could we maybe uh restore a little decorum and ask the mayor if you wish to go and take turns the way we usually go. Thank you very much. Thank you council member.

Okay. Through the mayor. Um thank you very much. Okay. Number the first question. I actually disagree with my colleagues because on the first one because I was very enthusiastic about having everybody reapply who's been on a commission. Um, we went through so many interviews with people who had been on the commission for six months, for eight months, for nine months, and it really I don't think it was fair to them, and I don't think we learn they could really contribute as much because they'd only been on for six or eight months. So, there wasn't a whole lot different than they would have to say. So, I would say where I would prefer to go is anyone who's served a full term. You absolutely have to come in for a an interview just like all of us can't say we want to be on city council again. That's it. We have to go out and run for reelection. I think you know having an interview for but it's incumbent. I think it's that's that's my reason for saying that. So, that's what I would advocate for. Uh also I agree with uh council member Schwicker Gaditk's comments about so in when we can I guess in the next cycle having it be high school and not below because I think there are a lot of unique challenges and um I think that just makes makes more sense and we're doing this and learning along the way so we have to refine what we're doing. I also would say that if there is anyone of any age who is not meeting the attendance records that no matter how long they've been whether it's three weeks or three years um that they should have to reapply because I think if for whatever reason if you're not interested or something and you're not showing up at meetings you're not fulfilling your responsibility. Um, so that's sort of

that. In terms of the default appointment subcommittees, I have no need to be on anything other than what I'm doing, but I think it's fine to say if you want to, you're more than welcome to, and I'm more than happy to have anyone come and be on any of the commissions that that I'm doing. Um, but I would say let's make it a an invitation to apply rather than we all have to be on it because I think that turns into a scheduling nightmare and and I know staff went through a lot of

stress last year trying to make it all happen. Um, and then in terms of the third question, u beside the fact that you've done an incredibly wonderful job, I would just say what new things can you do in terms of social media since that's been so incredibly successful. And even in 12 months, I'm sure there have been incredibly new things you can do on social media that we haven't done. So, I would just keep experimenting, trying, keep doing it. You're you're doing a great job. So that's my comment. Okay. Thank you very much. And I do apologize for my tone, Council Member New.

No problem. And I was going to say, let's get your permission, so I didn't intend to apply imply otherwise. Okay. Um, as far as number one, uh, I I'm I agree with making everyone reapply. Uh I I guess I also hear what Lisa's uh comment was about um partial terms. Do we have an idea of how many of the commissioners are currently on a partial term that are coming up for renewal?

Certainly. Um so currently we have a total of four um commissioners who fit into that category and I can just um briefly run through those. So in community relations commission um Jennifer Kim is currently on a partial term. Library board. Allison Jolie is on a partial term. On park and recreation, Peter Witcher is on a partial term. And on Measure S oversight committee, William Yang is on a partial term. Well, what about sustainability infrastructure? Mayor, what? You know, I I believe that there's a commissioner on sustainability infrastructure who's three years and 10 months.

It looks like um Commissioner Michael, I think is who you're referring to, um is currently in the middle of her first full term. So, she's not technically in a partial term. She's she was appointed to a full term. Oh, so she's not up for reappoint. Okay, then my mistake. Uh, I mean maybe the compromise is um instead of all four of them, maybe we have them if you know they've served less than a year, we make it be they have to they don't have to reapply. So that would currently only apply to one commissioner. Allison Jolie is the only would fall under that category.

Okay. Um, next thing as far as the council, um, I agree, um, with council member Fernandez comment, like I I think all five council members should be invited for both SNI and planning and I would want to be um, as far as comment number three. Okay. Um, I guess one more thing before I move on to number three. On number two, uh, I was the mayor last year, as you all know, and I did not sit I I I I punted on only two and so I would like to make sure that I extend that offer to you, Mayor Lorraine. Um, if you would like me to cover another one for you, for example, personnel board or something that you might not want, I' I'd extend that to you because, um, I think in the month of May, I was only not in um, city meetings like three of the 20 business days. And so, I want you to know that I I support you if you need uh, me. I would be more than willing to cover more than one or two that I'm already um, applied to. Um, and then the last one is, let's see. All in all, I think the recruitment has been incredible. I mean, the numbers speak for themselves. So, great work to you all. Um, I did hear from my daughter Mara, who is on the publicity committee for Aragon High, and she was disappointed that her father did not communicate to her about this last uh uh park and wreck opening. And so my suggestion uh actually her suggestion is to make sure that we reach out to all three of the high schools and maybe Sarah as well and if they have a publicity committee or uh newspaper or what have you newsletter morning

announcements that we put that in the cycle um uh she was mad and we may see a future applicant um down the road which I will recuse myself if she does. Uh then what else? Um the only other thought was you know and I know we don't always have time but and not all these all these groups will meet before the application period but whenever possible I think it's it's important to try to tell them you know hey there's there's an actual planning commission meeting you know twice before or once before or what have you. So trying to communicate that as part of the process I think is very helpful and encouraging them not just to watch it online but if possible to come in person because it's it's it's a very different experience to sit through an hour and a half meeting in person as it is to watch it to speed on on YouTube. So uh those are all my suggestions and feedback. Thank you Mr. Mayor.

Of course. Thank you very much. Um, on the subject of number one, um, and I apologize, Martin, I I feel like you you answered a question from Council Member Newsome on the the partial terms and and how much how partial they were. Um there was some discussion uh at the council, some some nodding of heads about potentially I think what I heard is uh being okay with uh considering reappoint for those who had not yet served a one-year. Um I I was curious if you could remind me from what you just mentioned uh how many of them who have a partial term at this point have uh I was I was thinking of something like two years maybe as like a half a term and and did would that change the math at all here?

I can I can run through um just the individual commissioners serving a partial term. So Jennifer Kim um at the um point of the expiration of her current term would would have served two two years in that seat. Alison Jolie as was mentioned would be less than a year. Um Peter Witcher um would be almost three years and um William Yang will also almost be three years. Okay. So it doesn't it sounds like it wouldn't um in this particular instance. Um, I I guess I would like to uh ask council if if they had any issue with potentially extending it to from one year to two years.

I just think this is about fairness, right? Like we're asking people to go through a process. So if we cut some people and not others, like you know, then why are we having everyone interview again? like we if we're wanting to be fair and reinter, everyone should go through the process equally. Um, okay. I guess though I I wonder if if it seems equal for those who are not getting a full term because I think when people interview for a term, that's one thing.

I understand that. But we have a new council. We're trying to, you know, verify that everyone's adhering to the code of conduct and maintaining the highest ethical standards. We're trying to really uplevel, you know, what our commissioners do and how they comport themselves. Um, that's where this came from last year through Deputy Mayor Fernandez. And so, if we want to continue that, you know, education or re-education, then everyone has to go through the interview process. Uh, yes, Council Member Diaz Nash.

Thank you through the mayor. Uh, I guess I would also I would be concerned about doing it too frequently because I think we would see a drop in the number of applicants applying if they know they applying to partial terms. If they're only going to be on for six months and then they've got to reapply all over again, that might be a a downer, you know. Yeah. So, yeah, if I may,

please. but they're reapplying and then they go through a 10-minute interview during one hour of their lives relative to, you know, it's not like they're going through a, as someone that does recruiting for a living. It's not like they're going through a full interview process, you know, 60 minutes for 5 days meeting each of us. They're literally 10 minutes between two to five people. Yes,

it it does seem at least with number one, it does seem like we have a majority on that item where we do want everybody to reapply. So, I don't necessarily know I and and to I don't necessarily know that the discussion is is needed. Yeah, that's I'm just trying to see where the majority because as I'm looking at it, I heard Rob, you wanted to reapply, but she wanted to have some carve out for the reappoint for one year. Yeah, for one year. Then I heard Lisa saying she wanted a carve out of a reappoint. Correct, Lisa? You want them to have a carveout to allow them

if they don't have if they have surgical? Yes. And then I hear also the mayor saying they wanted he want he wants to have some type of you know process of someone who's mid you know allow people to not have to reapply mid tier. So that's the three that I was following here for majority on number one just on number one just to put it in perspective. So there's 25 candidates we're literally talking about four people. So 21 of them are going through the full interview process. We can interview four more.

Well, actually, I wanted to add to this conversation, unfortunately, for some um because I I feel like among those are youth commissioners, and they are uh given a one-year term with an option uh to I guess effectively reapply for a second one-year term. And it seems to me that even that seems a bit excessive. Um given that you know I I mean I think uh I it would seem to me I was going to propose that there might be an option to uh allow for those who have served a term in good standing uh to maybe have something like a separate uh discussion with the border council liaison and the staff. leaison um to just kind of check in and get a sense of like whether this is uh mutually valuable to consider a second year and if so um potentially avoid opening an interview process for the the second one-year term. Any thoughts on that?

Yes, through the mayor. I believe there's only two youth commissioners right now that need to be There's five. Oh, there's five. Just bring up the list. But three are new, correct? So the current um youth commissioners um who fall into this category are Oliver Baker, um Dalia and um Prrenov, Zachary, and Advika. I apologize.

And yes, I I apologize for earlier. I think um you know, we we seem to be engaging in in a discussion here and I I don't mean to have decorum get in the way of a discussion. I uh I I think I think I will yield and retract my previous statement and just ask that we maybe keep looking at each other and Fair enough. Thank you. Fair enough. Fair enough. Um, you know, in terms of the youth commissioners or or any of them, would it make a difference? I think you mentioned in the in the staff report that there was an issue with attendance by one of them. Yeah, currently we just have one youth commissioner that are there are some noted attendance issues.

So, in that case, I would say and this this was something we didn't talk about as a group. If there was an attendance issue, then I would think it should be a requirement to reapply. I mean, absolutely from the the get-go. I don't know if that makes any difference to anybody. I see three nodding heads on at least three. Do we all have agreement on that? I see that. Okay, we'll add that. I think that makes sense. Um,

and just looking at I'm not going to die on this hill. So, I'm I'm happy to compromise wherever the group wants to go. I I was just most concerned about because I saw this last year and I I experienced it. People had been appointed for six months and they've got to come back and do it all over again. And I know you say it's not so many people, but I got a lot of really poor feedback about the process from people and I think we need to be sensitive about that. But 6 months versus a a year is a very different thing or two years. So, yes, Nickel.

Um, I'd be a I if I understood Council Member Nome's larger motion, I would be fine with a one-year cut off if that's if if I So, that's three. But this is not this is this is not specifically youth commissioners. It's all commissioners. No, this all commissioners. That's what I've heard. Okay. for for number one. Basically, what I've heard is that everyone has to reapply um unless you have served less than a year. Yep. And if you're a youth that has attendance issues, they need to reapply an interview. Anyone with attendance issues in this case.

Okay. Anyone, but in that case, it was a youth. Yep. Just could we just put in the notes for whenever it's possible? I know we can't do it now, but that we examine what council member was saying about making it a high school as a sort of a minimum. I saw majority asking for that review in the next time. Very good. Um let's let's go then to number two. I I feel like I heard um from at least Yeah, I think I heard from three council members interest in having all five uh added to sustainability and infrastructure and planning commission. Um yes,

invited to participate, right? because I I'm going to, as an example, I'm going to have some travel schedule problems in May and I don't want to bollocks up the all of these interviews if it's sort of we have to fit it around my schedule. That's all I'm saying.

Uh well, I appreciate that and and my understanding I'll ask maybe just a quick question of the city clerk to confirm it. It seems to me that right now all of these are open uh for all five council members to potentially participate, right? Correct. I think tonight we're looking at um establishing the appointment subcommittees. I'm hearing for um planning and SNI. There's an interest from a majority of the council that that those appointment subcommittees be extended to include all five council members. If there's a scheduling conflict, um that council member can be recused or not attend the meeting, be excused from attend from the meeting

through the mayor. I would also like to make sure that the ethics question stays as one of the six questions that we ask. Thank you.

I see three or more nodding heads on that. So, um I appreciate what council member Nuome said on this uh because to me, uh while I can appreciate that we certainly want to have at least two members on appointment subcommittees, um you know, the the idea that the mayor necessarily has to be involved in all of them I I think is one that I I I frankly disagree with I I think the the five council members are, you know, largely equal uh and would represent equally in any of these appointment subcommittees as far as I'm concerned. Um I think it is important to have the border council liaison um because that that member would have uh assuming the greatest amount of understanding of what's going on in that border commission at the time and has likely had some interaction with the members etc beyond the other members. Um, so I think what I just wanted to uh offer here is that uh if there were uh a council member interested in uh being a part of any of these uh that they're not currently a part of. Um I think deputy mayor kind of hinted at this with community relations commission. And I would I would second that and just note that uh I I think if as long as we have two members in the appointment subcommittee. I would offer to opt out of ones that have an additional uh member such that uh we don't necessarily have a special meeting for those uh and still have the requisite number. Yes, deputy mayor.

Uh Mr. Mayor, would you be able to tell us which ones you would be willing to opt out of or would don't you know so that we can we can attach ourselves? Do you have any in particular?

Um, no. No. Um, I that not necessarily. I think um it it it's not I to me I think it's fine for the mayor to be the the back stop to make sure that we have a filled appointment subcommittee for for any and all. I to me it's more like I I seem to recall last year for example we had a number of uh additional people interested and so I just wanted to I think I'd rather pivot it that way and see like who had I believe uh council member speaker Gdiski mentioned some interest in civic arts commission and perhaps some others. Yes, I definitely want to interview for CRC. Okay.

And civic arts would be nice. Um, and then I definitely want to be on planning and SNI as well

through the mayor. Just so I understand the direction provided to staff. So you what you're essentially saying is if you would opt out if there's at least two council members attending. So for example, Civic Arts Commission, you've been effectively replaced with council member Sphereitzki. Likewise for civic community relations commission. Does that am I understanding correctly? Uh well, you know, I don't mean to over complicate this. I I I I was offering I I think especially where I'm the mayor as opposed to the liaison. So it it just so happens that as COC I am the liaison. So um that's what I think Deputy Mayor Fernandez was getting at. Um it was a similar offer and idea. Maybe the most effective way to go through this would be just to go down the list.

Yeah, sure. Sure. Um, civic hearts commission. I currently have council member Spco Gaditski and council member Diaz Nash. Or community relations commission. I have Mayor Lraine and Council Member Sphere Gaditzki. Library board. I have Mayor Lraine and Council Member Diaz Nash. Okay. Park and Recreation Commission, Mayor Lraine and Council Member Nome. Personnel Board, Mayor Lorraine and Council Member Sco Gaditzki. Mayor Lorraine, I'd be willing to take that if you would like it. All right. Uh that so yeah, that yes, that sounds great. I thought you'd appreciate that.

Thank you. Then planning commission. I heard earlier that all five council members will be invited to participate as members. However, scheduling conflicts may mean that certain council members are unable to attend the interviews. And that also applies for sustainability and infrastructure. Yes. Senior advisory commission. I have Mayor Lraine and Deputy Mayor Fernandez. Measure S, Oversight Committee. Mayor Lorraine and Council Member Croco Geritzki. Mayor Lorraine, I'd be happy to take one for the team for Measure S if that if you care one way or the other.

Uh I I would be happy to. Yes, I I think if you don't mind. And lastly, Mosquito and Vector Control District is Mayor Lorraine and Deputy Mayor Fernandez. I would also be willing to take that one if you want, but wow. You're entirely welcome to it. It's It's very difficult to uh It took me half the year last year to get the one applicant, so I don't know that we'll have a lot of people to interview. Well, it sounds like we're going to have at least one. So, um I mean, yeah, I'm I'm I am definitely going to say yes to any offers to take these and I appreciate that. Sorry, I should say. That's going to be Newsome right there. Sorry. Excuse me.

Fernandez and Fernandez. Fernand. Yeah. I am but one woman. I think that completes it. Excellent. Are we okay? Yeah, I think we are. Are we okay? This is great. All right. I I I want to Martin, thank you and thank thank uh my fellow council members for uh negotiating that. I think I think we ended up in a good place and I appreciate this. on number two and number three.

Um I think I I I uh team I I did want to uh mention something else. Um let's see. Firstly, um I did just want to ask Martin um do we have can you just remind me do we have an email list for board and commission openings? Yes. Um, so part of our outreach will be to um You mean like a subscriber list for people who are interested in applying for those positions? Yes, we do.

Okay. Um Okay. I did want to bring up a different sort of related topic um which is um I I think I am in support of current outreach and I appreciate the the comments that have been made by others on that but I I was interested in in uh diving in a little bit to the interview materials and questions. Um, and I I feel like it's it I'm not going to be able to do that effectively tonight with with current council. Um, just because for example, I'll just note that I shared um the county has a an evaluative rubric um and specific questions that are targeted toward uh trying to increase its diversity among those who represent its boards and commissions. And I I had shared this earlier um with uh with staff, but I I think um it has not necessarily been brought back before all council members at this time. And uh Deputy Mayor, do you want to add something?

Oh, I was just wondering uh Mr. Mayor, perhaps um we could create a subcommittee of maybe you and me to go over the 2026 questionnaire and we can bring that back to council in a timely fashion. Well, I I think that's a great suggestion. That was actually something I was planning on suggesting because uh frankly, we we had a a subcommittee for liaison assignments and I I thought we had a great discussion that uh with with Martin that led to I think you know an update uh to the process that will come before council that I think was is fruitful and and I um wanted to consider the same. And so, uh, if I, if other council members are immunable, I I would appreciate that opportunity.

So, just to jump in because I also want to look at workload for our staff overall. So, um, that'd be bringing a whole another item to the council to have another discussion on u maybe alternatively, would it be okay for the subcommittee to do this work and then we provide a report out to the rest of the council and if they have any issue, they can come to me to talk to me about that. Would that be okay instead of having to schedule a whole another item? Yes, but through the mayor I But I heard ethics for everyone, right? Yeah, I'm adamant about ethics. I I heard the majority already. I promise you you'll get ethics. That doesn't I don't think that's an issue. I heard a majority on that. Is that okay with that approach to save staff time and council meeting time?

Okay. I appreciate the suggestion. I appreciate everybody's um willingness to try this. Um Okay. Excellent. That that is th those are all my comments. Yes, Council Member Newsome, I'm sorry. I meant to ask this and this was actually a question. Can you go back to the slide of the the effective outreach in the past? Um, wait. Yeah, that one. No, one more. That one. So, um, I couldn't help but notice that 50% say other. So, I don't mean to give you more work, but can you help us define what the other is because because that's far and away most people are finding out about it and so

Yeah, absolutely. So the majority um that selected other with responses um noted email notifications from boards and commissions and the city city website family members school counselor school district um and those are the the main avenues that people have gone and it's consistent with the direction that we have from council as well as relates to reaching out to school counselors. Great. Yeah. The only suggestion I have for next year when we do this again is if there's one of those that's you know that's the majority of that 50% that should just be its own category. Word of mouth. Yeah. Thank you. That was all I had. Okay. Very good. I believe that closes this item. We have our direction. Thank you.

And now uh we have reports, announcements, and committee updates. Does any council member have any council members? Just two quick ones. Um, so Friday, uh, March 13th is the Samaritan House Gala. You can still get a ticket. Um, and then I believe March 20th is Lights and Sirens. So, make sure you check that out through PAL. Thanks. Good night.

Thank you. Does anyone else? Yes, Council Member Diaz Nash. I just wanted to report out uh to the public that our mayor sent a letter following up on a request that we had made last week to the president of the Sanonteo County Board of Supervisors requesting that the county hold an in-person community meeting that we would help to publicize about the proposed 101 North El Camino Royale project, the Behavioral Health Recovery Center. And so, thank you very much, mayor and staff, for getting that out the door in such a timely manner. And we will follow up. Very good. Thank you. Anyone else?

Okay. It's only been a week, so

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'll just um throw out a quick one that I uh represented our city in the Peninsula Clean Energy Board uh meeting this last week and I just wanted to give a quick uh note or two on what we discussed. Firstly, um you may recall last year there was some discussion about um and in fact there was action taken to replace the community advisory committee of Peninsula Clean Energy with a quarterly that turned into a bimonthly um community feedback forum series. And uh the the first of these uh will be this Wednesday uh in Halfoon Bay at 5:30. Um, and I heard that there's already uh pretty pretty good attendance and so look forward to um learning how that goes. It's uh one of the main topics is on batteries and resiliency uh which is of course an important topic in the coast. Um so um additionally they're going to be uh cutting a ribbon at uh the Sanonteo Community College District's sustainability hub um around 2:00 at at CSM. and if I can make it, I will try my best to do so. Uh because that sounds like a great occasion. Um, additionally, there was a bit of discussion on a uh community solar offering that Peninsula Clean Energy uh has and uh there's been a bit of of shifting in how exactly it participates. uh it gets some allocation through the um through the CPU um to get reimbursed by investorowned utility money. Um so this is effectively a free expansion of uh solar that can benefit folks who might not otherwise be able to install their own solar renters uh and other

vulnerable customers can can participate in this program. Um at first we were sort of buying the allocations from uh Marin Clean Energy who had their own sort of uh procured project. Um and it it it sort of qualified for this. So we were able to participate in a joint manner there. But we have since uh reached an agreement with a uh a a project that is in Los Banos or Los Manos um which is actually um part of Peninsula Queen Energy's uh agency jurisdiction is true. It's uh so it's it's just the city of Laspanos. Uh not quite all of Merced uh county at this time, but um it's been uh it's been beneficial. So, uh, it was great to learn about, um, how we're continuing to expand on that, um, and give, uh, through participation discounts, uh, on generation to people who, uh, already qualify for Care Farah and Peninsula Clean Energy discounts. So, just wanted to share that um, as a bit of what we discussed. And uh I guess I'll leave it there. But uh thank you everybody for uh a good evening and uh with that I will adjourn this meeting.