City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress

Thank you.

Mayor Mrakas, Welcome everyone. Mayor Mrakas, We regular meeting of the city council and Monday march 2 2026 i'll request the city clerk to call the roll.

City Council Chambers. City Council Chambers. City Council Chambers.

City Council Chambers. City Council Chambers. City Council Chambers.

City Council Chambers.

City Council Chambers. City Council Chambers. City Council Chambers.

Thank you. Good evening. No reportable action was taken in closed session.

Thank you. Well, here we are in March. Hard to believe a lot going on in the world these days. I especially like to thank staff for all their hard work, as you've seen in the agenda tonight. this is the beginning of our ramp up to budget planning um so it's a not only are the staff working on their day job they're also now working on their future what's happening so it's a lot and really appreciate everyone's time and effort that it takes into to running the city

um like to invite the clerk to say a few comments regarding tonight's meeting thank you tonight's meeting is being recorded and streamed live to youtube for members of the public wishing to provide public comment displayed on the podium and the projector as a timer to help you stay within your two minute time frame you're invited though not required to introduce yourself and say what part of centerfell you live in or if you're from outside of centerfell viewers may request a reasonable accommodation to provide public comment virtually for more information about that or if you're experiencing any technical difficulties you can email me at city.clerk at cityofcenterfell.org thank you

Thank you. This time we'll open up public comment for 10 minutes. If there's any comments from the public on topics not on tonight's agenda, I have two cards that have been submitted. I'll start with those. And then if there's anyone else who'd like to make a public comment, we will go ahead and do that. Please.

Some people have asked to have an item from the consent calendar. And that would obviously affect whether we speak at that time before it's public or not.

City Council Chambers, I'll have the city clerk address that.

City Council Chambers, At this moment we're taking public comment on items that are not on the agenda, but once Mayor Pro Tem Kurtz calls the consent calendar to order at that point. City Council Chambers, You can come up she'll request if any Council member wishes to have an item held from the consent calendar and then there'll be an opportunity to invite public comment on the consent calendar as well.

correct right thank you i'd like to um invite up elena garsh garnishe thank you for doing that yes good evening my name is elena garnishe and i have been asking pleading begging

unsuccessfully for two and a half years for stop signs on Smith Ranch Road in Yosemite. It's a T intersection and there is an extreme amount of traffic and it's like jumping rope. It's like, can I go? Can I not? Can I go? Can I not? And when those sports fields open up for soccer, it really is insane. We get a lot of teenagers in their souped-up hondas, and they're just going down the road, 50, 60 miles an hour. They're teenagers. And then there's a lot of people that aren't children. There are 16 places of interest at the end of that, besides the golf course. There's a bus stop, and there's the flights thing, and then there's the soccer fields, and there's the golf course, and the mini golf course, and the soccer fields, and the tennis courts, and the trails. And there's a lot that draws a tremendous amount of traffic. I'm not asking for lights. I'm asking for a stop sign. on both sides of Smith Ranch Road, east and west, and that will help tremendously. I'm on the board of directors for the HOA at Contempo, and it is unanimous with everyone that comes to the meetings that a stop sign would greatly be appreciated and for safety reasons needed. I'm tired of seeing dead cats and skunks and raccoons and things on the road for the people that are speeding. all we need is one really good fatality and maybe that will get something going but it's it's very dangerous and i would really appreciate i even have a little video to show that how much traffic there is especially during rush hour because there's no rushing so oh what if i have time if the speed limit is 55 from around civic center on Why don't you paint 55 on the road because people coming from the 75 from the 65 miles an hour that are going 75 miles, thank you are right up on me, and if it was painted. Then they might not be because they may not see a sign i'm tired of having people flipping me off right on my tail trying to rush me Thank you, you know, thank you, thank you.

Joe Joe small business administration.

Here we go. Good evening. Yes, I'm Jo. I'm with the Small Business Administration. Thank you so much for allowing me to speak at this time. I have some packets, if I may. The Small Business Administration is in the area to notify homeowners, business owners, renters, and small nonprofits that Moran County was added to the disaster declaration for California, Declaration 21431. And with that declaration, it allows eligibility for homeowners, renters, business, and nonprofits to seek disaster loan assistance from king tide floodings from early December, or end of December, early January, the king tide floodings that came in. With that, there's an application deadline for physical disaster loans for April 6th and for economic injury disaster loans for November 3rd. For the physical disaster loans, it helps assist homeowners replace, repair, rebuild home property, vehicles, boats, anything that's considered personal property. And for economic injury disaster loans, if there was a loss of capital during that time, we would have to close doors because of the storm and a decrease in business, also a loss of equipment and things of that nature. They can seek assistance with the loans it's for homeowners can be as low as 2.875 for business owners as low as 4% and the key takeaway is there's no interest or payments due for the first 12 months. And so homeowners, renters, business and nonprofits can use those loans in order to assist the repair and rebuild while waiting for maybe insurance to go through and get it started and have it paid off before the 12 months with no interest. And so if there's any questions, I'm here. I'll be in the area until mid-March. To answer any questions, my business cards are in the folder. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Appreciate it. And a vice mayor like to speak to public comment on items not on tonight's agenda. Not on tonight's agenda. You're welcome to state your name and where you live.

Good evening, members of the Council. I'm Stephen Bingham from Tara Linda. And I bring you good news. You may or may not know that the state legislature last fall, SP 707 meant amended the public records act. The brown act to now require that public agencies provide public comment on zoom and i'm going to hand.

This out there's one.

there's one copy with a complete section and then for each of you just the specific section it's not effective until july 1st however this is something i've been arguing about for many years as and particularly because of my involvement going to pac meetings where there will be a very few people and nobody's allowed to make any comments online line aside from democracy and open government it's also a disability issue i'm mainly i'm going blind i can't drive at night i have a very hard time even seeing all of you up here clearly to know who is who and i can perform as other disabled blind people can much better with uh on zoom and i strongly urge you to implement this new section immediately and not wait until july 1st it is really important for those of us in the community who want to participate thank you thank you anyone else

Hello, everyone. Heidi Merchant. I just want to echo what the last speaker said, that in alignment with city values of accessibility and equity, it's really important for folks who don't have access to transportation and who have disabilities to also be able to participate when the meetings are happening, not just be observing online or not just be watching meetings later where they can't actually get their voices heard. So I hope you'll strongly consider implementing that as soon as possible before it's actually mandated.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. I think we're close to our 10 minutes, but okay, go ahead. Why don't you go, Lindsay, where are we at on our 10, another minute or so? Okay, why don't you go ahead and then public comment will continue at the end of the meeting.

I'm just going to talk and then stop me when I run out of time. Minor issues not even issues minor minor comments. I used to use click fix a lot too. I walk around the city a lot and I like to see things and I like to report the things that they see that might be of benefit if they were changed and fixed. And recently when I tried to use click fix I was required to register which are kind of felt a little bad about because then I'm tracked and I really don't want to be tracked. So I'm wondering if that could be changed. And if it can't, it can't. I just wanted to bring it up as a as an objection for myself. With that in mind, some of the things that I might report are this is more self-preservation. But in my area, they've replaced a number of the sidewalks, sidewalks that had recently had red painted curbs. But after the renovation, they no longer have red painted curbs. would mean that people are parking in areas that were originally designated as how it is for the individuals living in the places. So I'm wondering if there's a wait and I would have used click fix to say hey could you look at that to see if in fact having a red painted curb is still a requirement and if so could you restore this particular one so that driving out of a space, you weren't running the risk of being a site's T-bone, I guess is what they call that. That's one. And recently, or last year, I guess it was, there was an effort to reduce the number of street vendors, but it seems like the street vendors have figured out that at a certain time of the day, it's okay to come out and sell their stuff in front of Safeway. And that would have been another item I might have put it into click fix to say, hey, these guys are getting pretty brazen about what they do they have, you know, the same vendors show up at the same spot, almost on the same point in time that sort of coincides with the time that the city hall is closed. And others have made reported this, but the streets are getting damaged. There's holes are potholes everywhere. And I think it has to do with all the partially not completely the PG and E trucks that are working through Bayview. If you drive down Bayview, be careful because it's becoming very treacherous.

Thank you. If the Council will allow me, I think we have one more public comment if you'd like to come up, so you have.

My name is Christian of the Barack we have four scouts here tonight, who are working on their communications mayor badge which they need to attend a public meeting, and I hope you all have public debate upon something as they have to write about three different opinions, thank you.

Huh. Okay, thanks. we'll work on that. All right, we'll go ahead and move on. To the any comments from the public, and we have their city manager and Council member reports. start with. councilmember bushy. Oh, city manager. Thank you. Hello.

The first item I had was actually the information that was shared in public comment by the representative from the Small Business Administration regarding the disaster loan program available to those impacted by the King Tide incident. I will just add that city staff is working with our community partners on outreach for that program and more information is available on the city's website. As well as through the sources that was that were presented here this evening. Our summer activity guide was out recently and registration actually started today. So there's a usual diverse array of learning recreation and community enrichment opportunities available to members of the public, and we encourage folks to check them out and register early and register often. We noted last meeting that the city issued again the RFP for related to the North gate specific plan and just noting that those responses will be due on March 16 and then processing processing them accordingly again more information is on the website. I think this has been mentioned, but we will. It was anticipatory. The city has now transitioned to our new updated city permit system. Open Gov. That went live, I believe, last Monday. And so, in addition to being a kind of new and improved platform for both staff and those accessing our permitting process to work on that online, it consolidates several of our existing permitting between building planning code enforcement, but also fire prevention public works. Again, information is on the website, and I believe we're open to feedback and constructive feedback on how we can continue to refine that. I will also note that for permit applications that were filed prior to February 23 those are still in the old system and will be processed through that system and all new permits going forward are now in the new system. That concludes my comments. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Council Member bushy

I attended 3 meetings on February 20th along with the Mayor. I attended the Board meeting of San Rafael Sanitation District. It was a big meeting for us. We approved our operating, a draft operating agreement with the Central Marine Sanitation Agency. That will be a big change for SR San. On February twenty-third, along with Council Member Hill, I attended the Measure P subcommittee meeting. Very happy news across the boards there, and also a heads up to the rest of the Council that Griffin Structures will be bringing forward their facility program and budget, as well as a proposal on the delivery method for the structure for the new library, which may include a design-build option. Just so we're informed about that. And lastly, today, along with Council Member Lorenz Gladi and I, we attended the Marin County Transit Board of Directors meeting. City Council Chambers, We both had an opinion that the upcoming fair proposal on change, which will will encourage the use of clipper cards because discounts are available there. City Council Chambers, Would should be accompanied by an aggressive education policy so that everyone will know to use their clipper card.

City Council Chambers, Very good, thank you, Council member hill.

City Council Chambers, Thank you, Vice Mayor. I have two meetings that I want to report down. Councilmember Bush already mentioned that she and I attended the measure piece subcommittee. The only thing I would add is that the conceptual statement of probable cost for the community center library is currently at one hundred and five million, which it's a it will be a great library i encourage everybody to watch the video for the full readout from griffin structures i also attended a meeting on wednesday uh february 25th uh with the vice mayor and mayor kate uh we attended the marin county council of mayors and council members speakers included assembly member connelly as well as canal alliance ceo omar carrera thank you thank you council member laurence black

Yes, thank you. On February 17, I attended the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce Economic Forum. Actually, our vice mayor was one of the panelists, and it was very, very well attended. And it's always very interesting to see if they are going to be right or wrong about the economic forecast for a year. I also attended on February 19th, the Canal Promise Neighborhood Steering Committee meeting with Mayor Kate, and that's our focus in the canal, just to see how we can improve specifically youth and families living in the canal. Also attended the MC board meeting that day, looking at the budget for next year, and we are looking into reducing rates For next year as well. Today I had the executive committee for Mc. Again, a lot of discussions around budgeting and and the marine transit meeting with Council member Bush bushy, and one of the highlights they were talking about some of the changing and upgrading for like bus stops. There is going to be a new one on East San Rafael and Midway. So that is going to help people not to have to do the entire loop to get out of the bus. So that's just one example, but we always encourage you to take a look and see what Marine Transit is doing. So that's my report. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll just add on a couple items. I had the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority board meeting. We had the retreat that was added on to that. The only thing that came out of the retreat is that we need to have another retreat because we did not get through, and the next one is actually going to be probably a half day, and that one will be scheduled probably in March or in March. So yeah, March and I attended with Mayor Kate, we had our homeless subcommittee and then I had the MCC MC. Marin County Council of mayors and Council members are legislative meeting where we look at potentially new policy items that will be coming forward at the state level. Okay, if i'll open it up to public comment if there's any public comment on the city manager or Council member reports here, welcome to. come forward. Okay, seeing none. we'll move on consent calendar, are there any items to be held from the consent calendar. Seeing none. Are there any comments from the public on the consent calendar.

Their troop leader did ask for items for debate. I am asking tonight that you remove item G from the consent calendar. After the police beating of Julio Jimenez Lopez, this council created a PAC, Police Advisory and Accountability Committee, to bring transparency, trust, and accountability to SRPD. One of the PAC's primary duties is to make recommendations to the city council regarding police policy, procedures, and best practices. But it seems the PAC is being deprived of this important power. In 2025, the PAC seriously explored the issue of San Rafael policing disparities, which was at the core of community concerns with Mr. Jimenez-Lopez's case. The PAC held two full hearings on the RIPA data and act, Racial Identity and Profiling Act, it carefully studied San Rafael, stopped demographics, and it overwhelmingly adopted four RIPA-informed recommendations. The recommendations target practices that evidence showed are causing substantial policing disparities for Black and Latinx people in San Rafael. Staff told the PAC it could submit those recommendations to the council through the annual report. This was not even halfway through the year. But the annual report that staff prepared neglects to even mention San Rafael policing disparities. The report completely conceals the substance, purpose, and operations of the PAC's recommendations. Then the report is placed on the consent calendar, leaving those of us that attend every month wondering what's happening. This dismissive approach dishonors the PAC and buries the vitally important issue of racial profiling disparities in San Rafael. And Be Free has offered a supplement to the annual report containing the information the Council needs to understand to approve the PAC's recommendations. Please adopt these RIPA best practices and protect our community.

Thank you. You're welcome to state your name and where you live.

I'm Tammy Edmondson. I am the principal RIPA data analyst for MVFree, here to answer questions the Council might have about RIPA and the PACS-related recommendations. I do want to make three important observations. First, RIPA is the law of our state. It provides a scientific approach to the emotionally and politically charged issue of policing disparities. It doesn't erase the politics or the emotions, but it does empower us and in fact, it commands us to look beyond them. Second, San Rafael Ripa data clearly and reliably demonstrate serious racial policing disparities for black and Latinx people in this city. THE GOOD NEWS IS THE DATA ALSO ALLOWS US TO PINPOINT THE CAUSES OF THOSE DISPARITIES AND THE STATE RIPA BOARD PRESCRIBES RESEARCH-BASED BEST PRACTICES TO ADDRESS THEM. THAT IS WHAT THE PACK'S RECOMMENDATIONS ARE. Third, unfortunately, law enforcement in this community, as in many communities, remains deeply resistant to RIPA and its requirements. EnvyFree's efforts to inform and support the PAC in the face of that resistance have cast us in a seemingly adversarial position with respect to the San Rafael Police. So let me be clear. The policing disparities in this city are not unique to San Rafael. They are the same systemic black and Latinx disparities that plague all Marin County law enforcement agencies and over 90% of California police agencies. San Rafael has a hardworking police department and they have a lot to be proud of, but that does not absolve the agency or this council of their legal and ethical obligation. What does that mean? That means taking appropriate action like the PACS RIPA recommendations to eliminate the proven and serious racial policing disparities in our city. Thank you.

Anyone else like to speak. Welcome to say your name like.

Good evening, my name is Edward ruski. I am a member of mb free i'm speaking as such, and also as an individual. i'm. Racial policing disparities in San Rafael are no joke. Despite what police unions and their lobbyists like to claim, the evidence available under RIPA is clear and indisputable. If you have any doubts, please read the document that was provided to each of you entitled REPA reliability, I might add, please read the document addendum to the annual report which was provided to you. Neither of which appears in the packet I don't understand that. But please don't be distracted by what really matters here. Heidi reminded you of what led to the formation of the PAC in the first place and what RIPA and the PAC's equitable policing recommendations are all about. What are they? Black and Latinx people right here in San Rafael are suffering and have long been suffering from serious racial policing disparities. I'm not saying this to attack or even embarrass the SRPD. A lot of factors, including systemic ones, contribute to racial policing disparities, and some of them have nothing to do with officer bias. But the good or bad intentions of police don't change the way people of color experience San Rafael policing. centerfell's black and latinx community members are subject to police practices like pre-tech stops as much as 15 times as often as whites they feel the weight of the constant cloud of suspicion and they live in fear for their loved ones afraid of these two frequent encounters with heavily armed police These are the harms RIPA and the PAC's RIPA-informed recommendations are meant to correct.

Thank you.

Please don't close your eyes to these painful truths. Thank you.

Welcome.

Good evening, Jason here. Please pull the PAC year-end annual report from the consent calendar at the May 2025 meeting and be free presented a detailed analysis of San Rafael's RIPA data. The findings showed clear racial disparities and included four specific policy recommendations to address over-policing of minority residents. The pack voted in favor of all four recommendations. That is a matter of public record. Yet the report before you tonight describes these same recommendations as merely under consideration. That is an inaccurate. It erases the committee's formal vote and misrepresents its actions to this Council and to the public. whether the police department ultimately adopts those recommendations is a separate issue pac's role is advisory its duty is to deliberate and forward its recommendations to you when the community committee votes the vote must be accurately conveyed downgraded adopted recommendations to under consideration materially changes the record I have served on advisory committees myself. I've seen staff sideline and dilute recommendations that were uncomfortable or politically inconvenient. This is not a technical error. It goes to transparency and public trust. Advisory bodies only work if their decisions are conveyed to you fully and without revision. If San Rafael is serious about accountability and addressing documented racial disparities, then the record must be corrected. Please pull this item and ensure the report accurately reflects PAC's vote before it is approved. Thank you.

Are there any other public comments on the items on the consent calendar?

Good evening again. Stephen Binger, Carol Linda. I want to second the comments that have been made and focus particularly on the procedural issue here. What the staff has done in presenting this report this way to you is a real insult to the members of the PAC. For a long time, they weren't even allowed to vote, as if there was some rule that advisory committees can't vote. They finally won the right to vote, And lo and behold, on a critical issue in this annual report, they conveniently left out this recommendation, the four recommendations that MV3, and I really congratulate them for the work they've done. They should really be hired as experts on RIPA by the city. but the specific thing we're asking is that you pull this from the consent calendar which if it's on the consent calendar you just vote up or down and then we go on to other business we want to continue a debate here you need to treat this as a non-consent item so that all of you can participate It's serious business to treat volunteers who volunteer to work on the pack to treat them this way. And I fully expect that you're going to pull this from the calendar so we can have further discussion this evening. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment for items on the consent calendar?

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council Members Daniel. I'm a pack member. I want to thank the opportunity to be able to serve my community. I appreciate that I've been chosen to do this very impassioned work, and I take a lot of pride in it. I'm very grateful for my colleagues that I work with the city staff and also the police department. I think we have formed a really collaborative and productive relationship. With that said, I, too, would also be remiss that this is our hard work has been put on the consent calendar. I do respectfully understand that is not normal. We did have our first ed report presented in a fashion before the Council, but I think we have a lot of important work that we would really like to publicly discuss. I do want to highlight a few things that I really want to make recommendation of police culture was a topic that we talked about, and it is my recommendation that we have at least an employee engagement survey, so we can measure and continue our discussion on police culture, and I really highly encourage console to find funding and city manager to Uh, and so a police engagement survey, employee engagement survey. It's a gold standard of a man measuring their own organization. Also, I think we would greatly benefit from a community survey, so we could have a combined discussion. Also, I would like to mention that I was the lone no vote on approving the report before you. I do feel that it was an inequitable presentation on the RIPA data versus the subcommittees group following our vote on the RIPA data. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments on the consent calendar? Okay, seeing none. I'll bring it back to the Council for a motion.

I move that we adopt the consent calendar. Is there a second?

Second.

First and a second.

Okay. Roll call, please. Councilmember Bushey? Aye. Councilmember Hill? Aye. Councilmember Yadine Scalati? Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Kurtz? Aye. That motion passes 4-0.

Moving on to other agenda items. We have the canal neighborhood active transportation enhancement project. And you have director Miller. Getting set up.

Right, thank you.

City Council Chambers, Hi April Miller director of public works, I just want to kick off this project so we're here tonight to talk about the canal neighborhood active transportation enhancement project and what's before the Council tonight is to to action items, one of them is to. City Council Chambers, To approve the findings for the project for seek for seek with the California environmental quality act. City Council Chambers, The findings that we found are exempt Gray will go into that more later, but that's the first action item, and in order in order to release the funding for the next phase of the project caltrans requires us to. City Council Chambers, have findings under sequel prior to getting funding, so the Council, a few months ago, approved the first set of funding which was environmental and preliminary engineering and which was a small bucket of money compared to the. City Council Chambers, The contract that was approved by City Council, so now we're here to request Council to approve the next set of funding, so we can continue to study the scope and the project. and just want to clarify what's not being acted on tonight and so this gray will go over an informational item for for the project however tonight council is not approving plans specs estimate we're not You guys are not approving lighting elements on this dark weather path, whether they should be included or not. And this project or this presentation in action are not going to talk about the art installation on peoples of canal, and there's no decision that's being made. So we just want to be clear on what's part of the tonight's agenda, and what is not part of tonight's agenda. So now i'm gonna turn it over to the gray.

hello gray millgard senior civil department public works and the project manager for the city for this project we do have an informational presentation with these two items a brief history project overview the sequel analysis that director miller mentioned some data on the existing path use some of the feedback that we have already received from our community and some of the next steps for this project So just really quick brief project history so it's kind of a conglomerate of a bunch of different planning documents the 2018 bicycle and pedestrian master plan identified the need for bike boulevards and secured bike parking. 2022 canal Community based transportation plan identified the need for pedestrian bicycle and transit upgrades in the neighborhood. And then 2022 had some lighting workshops with Dominican voices to canal canal alliance and identified some key lighting routes. brief project overview, so we have pedestrian bicycle transit and lighting pedestrian facility improvements we're talking crosswalk enhancements sidewalk gap closures and curb ramp improvements bicycles are those bike boulevard treatments. and secured bike parking at pickle we park transit stops with our transit partners so shelter enhancements at five separate locations and a new transit stop at corner boulevard and nevada street. And then lighting improvements to separate sides lighting improvements, both along roadways and along pathways. Here's just a general overview of the project, this is also available on the project's website if anyone would like to take a closer look, but just shows the extent of the project and where the proposed enhancements are contained. So sequel status. So this evaluation was done by Lsa. Who's an environmental consultant working with Bkf. The project engineer in September of 2,022 is a little background. Senate Bill 288 was signed into law by the governor, providing statutory exemptions for projects that are related to pedestrian and bicycle facilities. The project qualifies for a statutory exemption under public resource code 2108025 subsection and meets the specific criteria as specified in that same 2108025 subsection and . Additionally, the project also qualifies for a categorical exemption as an existing facility that's class one, consistent with the provisions of the state CEQA guideline sections. That's 15301 and 15300.2. LSA's analysis and memorandum was included in the agenda packet, and they go into a lot more detail over each of those sections and how it applies to the project. The project sequel status is not the only environmental action. So the project sequel status will be valid with or without the inclusion of the lighting improvements along start weather path. staff are already working with and will continue to work with other agencies for required permits so that's the San Francisco Bay conservation development Commission bc DC. As well as the water quality control board department of fish and wildlife and the US army corps of engineers for any required environmental permits studies that may need to be done as part of that process. I just want to give some additional information. So the pathway lighting that's under consideration, the proposed locations were identified in the 2,022 canal community based transportation plan. The proposed types, the overheads are the bollards, and the extensive where those lights ended were provided by our San Rafael Police Department as part of a crime prevention through environmental design or step Ted review. So this image, which is also on our website for those interested, shows the separation between overhead and bollards in the proposed areas near Pickleweed, Baja Vista Path, and along Starkweather Shoreline Path. Just as an example, the overhead versus bollards that we're talking about the overheads are small 15 foot small area lights with down shields to direct light directly onto the pathway. The bollards are three and a half feet tall with back shields to again draw that light into the Center of the path and not allow light spill off the pathway, and these are just two examples that we have the actual model may vary, but just wanted to give a visual. So we also looked at some of the existing path use. So the data that's being showed here was taken in mid-February. This is showing an aggregate average over the last 90 days of when the path was in use. So you'll see dawn right around 620 and then dusk right around the 530 mark. Majority of visits are in that time between dawn and dusk. We do have some pre-dawn use at 377 and some post-dusk use kind of around the 5, 6 p.m. mark. And so, then we want to talk about the feedback that we've already received so the city has hosted to date three separate Community meetings for this project. Some of the main themes of concerns that we heard from residents were ongoing and future maintenance needs regarding the stark weather path increased nighttime activity with the inclusion of lights on stark weather path. Concern over impacts to wildlife in the media area, as well as impacts to potential nearby residents. Some main themes of interest for residents that we've received kind of the flip side, more active transportation opportunity and more interest in active transportation. If safety and accessibility conditions improved in the neighborhood, lighting being improved along the path is important. It was closely tied to the perception of safety. and lighting will help improve access to target jobs other amenities and a major emphasis that the path is one of only two local recreation spaces in the neighborhood available so just want to make sure that that was here So in terms of community engagement, we do have a survey that is open. It is open tonight. It will remain open until March nineteenth. The qr code on this page will take you directly to that. We're really trying to understand how the stark weather path is currently being used and just general thoughts on the project. How folks feel about it. We also do have This is on our website. The QR code is here. And then we also have flyers out on the path itself. So if you're walking and you run into one of those, feel free to scan and take that survey. so just some next steps for us so continuing our community engagement continue the conversation the environmental phase will continue with the bcdc permit and other agencies as required we'll continue to update the project's website with any different additional information or questions that come into staff we will begin the advancement of the project's plan specifications and estimates phase of work and then continue evaluating potential project elements like lighting this qr code and link is just to the project website if anyone is interested in that so in regards to tonight's action staff's recommendation as director miller said finding that the project is exempt under sequa pursuant to those public resource code sections and section 15301 and then authorize the city manager to execute an agreement with caltrans to release the next phase of funding for the psne phase work of the project

is all i have happy to take any questions thank you gray and director miller i'll move it to the council any questions councilmember hill

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Gray, for the presentation. I was curious, because I didn't see this in the packet, because you mentioned the septet. Does that contemplate that it's recommended because it's believed that the configuration would result in increased safety, or is there a numeric expectation of increased safety? I'm just kind of curious how septets work. I'm not familiar with. that long acronym which apparently means crime prevention through environmental design. I think I've heard it before, but I'm curious what goes into that report.

Yes, absolutely. So it's, you know, the Septed report can be started with an analysis of activity or crime in a given area. But traditionally, Septed or crime prevention through environmental design is leveraged for new development, new design, new projects coming up in the city or for improvement. So in the case of this lighting project, the septet review was based on will the path be more usable, more safe if the lighting properly designed is added. And the position of our septet expert and the position of the police department is that better lighting would make the path more safe. Does that answer your question?

It does. But it's clear that there's no expectation that it'll make it, say, 20% more safe or anything.

No, I don't think you can put a percentage of increased safety to it, nor can we guarantee that no crime will ever happen again, right? But it's just a better design, a more predictable outcome, more light, less crime. There was some controversy about this. There was a lot of question from the community on Well, won't more light attract people at night, but you know nefarious activity typically happens under the cover of darkness, right? It doesn't happen on a well-lit path. It doesn't happen in well-lit areas. You know the lighting in the path will make it easier for police officers who are coming and going, trying to get out there to patrol it to ease to more easily see what's going on out there less shadows for people to kind of run between or run from us so. But the more light, the more safety I think you'll experience out there, they get you smaller.

Thank you. Yes. PB, Lupita D Montoya- yeah Thank you so much for the report, so I think you have already mentioned this, but I just wanted to clarify again that the decision that we're making tonight. PB, Lupita D Montoya- is to request the funding, whether the lighting project gets approved or it doesn't this is for like the improvements in the canal.

that's correct so the action that's being requested is the sequa and then the authorization for caltrans the decision on if lighting is included or not is not up for discussion tonight thank you i just wanted to

PB, Lupita D Montoya- triple check and. PB, Lupita D Montoya- What was the other question I had. PB, Lupita D Montoya- And right now, the process where we are, we are still with Community engagement, as you mentioned, through the questionnaire or the survey and the different meetings that we're still going to have with the Community is that correct.

Yes, so the survey is still open that will close march 19 staff will look to aggregate that data and probably present it in some way shape or form just on whatever comments we received findings we received from that. we've had our three Community meetings. And.

City Council Chambers and we've also updated the website based on. We have frequently asked questions. So when we've received questions during those meetings or via email, we will update the website to include responses to those. So at this time we don't have we are in the community engagement phase. But yeah, there's been no decision that's been made. We still need to have good discussions on if that comes back when that comes back to the City Council. At what point I mean for sure it comes back when we need our next set of funding. for construction. But whether it comes back sooner than that, we still need to figure that out.

Great. Those are my questions. Thank you.

Thank you. I just have one follow on question, and the items you'd listed of that you're gathering additional. You had research already completed on other projects and forums. The pickleweed project, the park in the field. Is there any data from that that's also going to contribute to this project? Or are those really two separate?

The Pickleweed Park project was recently completed. This is kind of a separate conversation specifically around just lighting in the parkway that came from, I think, some of the lighting workshops that were held. Perfect.

Okay, great. Thank you. All right. Anything else? All right. I'll open it to public comment if there's any public comment on this item.

hi um I might be putting the cart for the horse, but you guys have done a lot of analysis regarding the flooding in the canal and my only thought when I filled out your survey great survey, by the way, was that. If there's going to be sea level rise are we putting the cart before the horse, in other words, should the berm, which is what the start weather path is not be raised first that's all.

Right, thank you will take your question and staff will be able to answer it following.

I didn't read your report, I apologize, so you may have answered this question, but but for lighting is the lighting to be on all night, or is it one of those situations where like 4am it shuts off so, then the area is dark again that's my only question right, thank you any other public comment on this item.

All right, bring it back question around the sea level rise in the berm.

Yeah. So the sea level rise topic has come to City Council in the past, and so that there's a long-range plan and lots of funding that needs to be secure prior to any sort of raising of the pathway or the next steps for that project. We're looking at, we have funding now to provide a safer pathway, and so we're looking at it as, you know, we could install the lights now and while we wait for someday getting the funding to raise the path itself. The lights could be, you know, depending on how long that time goes by, could be relocated if we were to receive funding soon to raise the path. There's a lot of outreach, a lot of permits that need to happen before we would get to that point of raising the levy. So at this point, you know, if the Council chooses to install lights along the path, then we would do that now ahead of any kind of raising.

And then I'll address the question just on operations. With the sept head review that came from the police department, the hour proposed hours of operation were all night.

Okay, thank you. And again, we are not considering this is just around sequa. Exactly. All right. Any other comments?

Yes. So thank you again so much for your work. I know that I'm personally going to continue my engagement with the community, with the neighbors of the canal, neighbors of the Spinnaker Point, Bay Point. I wonder, and I should have asked this before, but I was thinking it might be helpful just to showcase where the lights are going to be, I guess so the neighbors maybe can see it. But anyway, I know that there are more conversations to have. I'm very happy that we are following our process of the, first the concept, then the community engagement, then the design So we can make sure that we are going to install something that that is going to be helpful for the neighbors, although not everybody's going to agree on it, but something that hopefully we can find some consensus there so so yeah so with that I will. i'll be happy to make a motion when the time comes.

Thank you any other comments councilmember health.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Director Miller. Thank you, Gray, for your report. And just to underscore, this matter does not include any decisions on lighting or artwork installation. So thank you for that. I do want to acknowledge that the community has reached out. Many folks have made comments about this, so that will continue to happen. So irrespective of what we are deciding tonight, that is still on the table. So thank you for bringing it before us. This is, on balance, a very great opportunity that we were able to receive this funding and take action to create opportunities for more safety in the area. Thank you.

Councilmember Bushey, any comments? I concur with my colleagues. Very good. I do as well. It's around CEQA. We need to move forward. All right. Councilmember Lawrence, go ahead.

City Council Chambers, Thank you make a motion to adopt a resolution finding that the canal neighborhood active transportation enhancement project is exempt from the California environmental quality act sequel pursuant to public resources code section 21080. City Council Chambers, 25 be one and section 15301 of the state sequel guidelines second.

We have a first and a second. Roll call, please. Councilmember Bushey. Aye. Councilmember Hill. Aye. Councilmember Yankovic. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Kurtz. Aye. That motion carries.

PB, Lupita D Montoya- Okay, and we have a second one.

PB, Lupita D Montoya- Sure i'll make a motion to adopt a resolution approving and authorizing the city manager to execute a program supplement agreement with the California department of transportation. PB, Lupita D Montoya- Caltrans for $630,000 inactive transportation program ATP funds for the project.

Second.

First and second, roll call, please. Council Member Bushy. Aye. Council Member Hill. Aye. Council Member Idan Scolati. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Kurtz. Aye. That motion carries.

Thank you very much, and we're moving on. City Council Chambers, We have now the fiscal year 2025 26 mayor mid year budget update. City Council Chambers, And we have. City Council Chambers, What are you this right now. City Council Chambers, City Manager navazio and also finance director navazio Thank you.

City Council Chambers, sliding over to the director chair. All right. So before you this evening, this is item three. B. On your agenda is the fiscal year, twenty-five, twenty-six, mid-year budget update, largely an informational report. But there are some related action items. So to summarize the staff recommendation before reviewing the highlights of the report. is to, number one, accept the FY25-26 midyear budget update. This is the report that presents revenue and expenditure results through the first half of the fiscal year, updated with some projections for general fund revenues and expenditures through the end of the fiscal year. There's a recommendation to adopt a resolution that would authorize supplemental budget appropriations as part of this report, totaling $569,085 across various funds, none of which involve general fund appropriations. But we'll summarize those here quickly. We've also would like Council to consider adopting a resolution that would authorize the city to effectively pass on credit card processing fees to for selected transactions where our residents constituents are paying the applicable fees via credit cards and the city's been absorbing some now significant processing fees and so we'll touch on that. and seek Council consideration of this resolution. And then we'll wrap up with a resolution addressing personnel classification changes and salary resolution updates that we're bringing forward as part of this report. So with that I will start to go into the report. All of this information is contained in the staff report. I'm just going to summarize that through the first six months of the fiscal year, being December thirty-first, on the revenue side, the City had recorded revenues of $97.16 million. Or 49% of our amended revenue budget of 198.4 million and table one from the staff report in attachment a kind of summarizes it by our different And the expenditures through the first half of the year totaled $103,055,000 and change. When you add to that encumbrances, which money not yet out the door, but this represents commitments that have been made. um attributable to uh contracts and purchase orders that the city has executed that are in progress. We've essentially spent and or committed just under fifty two percent of our all funds revenue through the first half of the fiscal year. This is our revenue general fund forecast. I'll just title being a little bit covers. This is the general fund revenues through the first 6 months, and we have recorded about 40% of the revenues, so 42.9 million against the budget of 106.9 million. This presentation and a brief description in the staff report also suggests that based on results through the first six months, we are projecting our general fund revenues to, if current trends continue to come in, just above our budget by about $410,000. primarily there's another slide on this, but it's primarily driven by our sales tax revenues tracking slightly better than our budget estimate, and that applies to both the base sales tax as well as revenues from measure E and measure R. I think on the next slide we'll also note that property transfer tax is coming in slightly above budget, as is through the first six months transient occupancy tax. I would note that through the first quarter the transient occupancy tax came in much stronger than expected, but in the second quarter has sort of tapered a little bit. So where that ends over the next two quarters will depend largely on obviously what we have yet to see. But we've downgraded that projection a little bit, but it's still tracking slightly above budget. Some of these favorable results are offset by a few areas where we're seeing revenues tracking somewhat below budget. The main one in the report is our interest earnings. It's under a category of use of money. This is one that is J. has exceeded our budget projections over the last couple of years, so we've been increasing our projections, but it's also a function of sort of the volatility of the interest earnings to fluctuations in the market. You know, pretty hard to project, but we're tracking it, and we'll continue to report those results here to the Council. On the general fund expenditures through the first six months, expenses of 58.85 million, encumbrances just under 2.1 million combined. Those reflect expenditures and commitments of about 52.8% of the amended general fund budget. of one hundred and fifteen million. Table five and table six from attachment A in the staff report present the expenditures both by expenditure category and then expenditures by department. This, however, is something that I want to highlight here in the next slide that based on the results through the first six months, the general fund expenditures are actually projected to end the fiscal year slightly over budget by about an estimate of 1.7 million. Summarizing the bullet points here and the narrative in the staff report, Of somewhat of concern is our personnel costs within the general fund are tracking at about 2.7 million dollars over budget, and we're anticipating that non-personnel expenditures as they have done typically to offset that slightly. So about 2.7 over on personnel, a million under on non-personnel. for about 1.7 million. And we note that by comparison, last fiscal year and fiscal year 2024-25, the Council will recall we reported somewhat miraculously the personnel costs were almost exactly on budget, within 100,000. But that follows a number of years where the City experienced significant salary savings based on level of vacancies. The two main factors that we are actively tracking and managing to contribute to the trends, particularly in personnel, is our fire overtime. It's not the only area that we're tracking, but the most, I guess, impactful. They're tracking just under about $2 million over budget, primarily, well, due to a couple of reasons. Number one is, I should note that in the fire department fire services, most of the overtime, the vast majority is directly attributable to backfilling that's required to maintain our mandatory staffing levels per our station and apparatus configuration. We're always gonna be exceeding the overtime budget, but often that is offset by savings from the vacancies that require that level of overtime. What we're seeing in the current fiscal year, as we have done a pretty good job of filling a vacant position, so there's always normal turnover and attrition. We are tracking a I guess a significant increase in the amount of paid leaves from injury to sick vacation parental leaves that just require overtime and at a rate that exceeds what we had contemplated in the budget. It is not helped by the fact that the overtime budget for both police and fire, and I think across all city departments was budgeted flat from year to year. So there was no increase built in, even though the underlying cost. So all those are combining to this. I will note that the fire chief, fire management, HR department, risk management is looking at all sort of the underlying causes for this that will hopefully result in somewhat of a kind of tapering of the trends that we've seen through the first six months, but equally importantly, provide the information that we need to accurately and confidently build the budget for 26-27 so that we can really capture The you know the costs that need to be factored in. The other thing that's contributing to the personnel costs tracking ahead of budget is the Council will recall that the budget includes an assumption of roughly a 3.5% vacancy factor, which translates to coincidentally $2.7 million. So if all positions were filled and the budget went according to perfect, which it never does, we would have a $2.7 million gap. So departments, with the exception of what was just noted, are generally tracking within budget, but we are not seeing the salary savings that we had anticipated um in part because we've been filling uh positions also just the um rate of pay at which those positions are coming in um and again this is something that we're tracking not just to see um where we would end this fiscal year, but it suggests the need to also evaluate where we land on the salary savings factor going into next year's budget, particularly as it relates to public safety departments where oftentimes overtime is required to backfill for those vacancies. It's highlighted in the report, but I do want to mention it here. The Council's aware that as a result of what we're seeing here, the city has instituted a hiring freeze. Board of Trustees Meeting, presently for the current fiscal year, largely excluding public safety sworn personnel. But part of the reason for the hiring freeze was to sort of tap the brakes a little bit and see if we can, at least in the short term, change the trend line as it relates to our current year personnel costs. Board of Trustees Meeting, I'll be summarizing here quickly. When you combine the revenue and expenditure projections within the general fund, we're looking at potentially a net drawdown of fund balance of about 1.3 million. This is less than 1% of the overall budget, but it's still significant, in part because over the last several years we have ended the fiscal year with some significant favorable general fund results. And so what I included on this slide is just a reminder that it's those favorable year-end balances that have enabled us to, through the budget process, reappropriate and reallocate available excess fund balance for the priority needs as articulated in the Council's general fund reserve policy And so, as we note in the staff report, should this result manifest itself at year end, we would not have much in the way of excess fund balance to then continue to add to the needs that this You know your imbalances have been supported. So this is all being factored into the long term kind of framework for fiscal sustainability that we have, you know, shared and will continue to work on with the Council and provide updates to the finance subcommittee as we work on it and then bring you updates through this upcoming budget process. The other last financial piece, if you will, of the presentation in part because of our new financial ERP system that we're still fine tuning. We're presenting here. This is a We're able to present the Board of Trustees Meeting Board of Trustees Meeting, with the carryover of prior year capital and some additional Council actions since July 1 our current amended capital improvement budget is 34.2 million, and with the expenses and encumbrances we're about 34% of commitments on the Cip. Of course, these come in big chunks as projects come forward for contract award. We're hoping that in future reports we will be also be adding an additional attachment that actually presents this summary by individual projects. So you'll see the projects that are you know, completing largely expended, aka almost completed. Those are in process, and those that are continue to be pending. I mentioned again the resolution in attachment B in the report. This is a summary of the supplemental budget appropriations that are being included that cover reappropriations or supplemental in the paramedic special revenue fund, the library fund, our recreation revolving fund, Board of Trustees Meeting, also some adjustments to one of the assessment district funds for the Loch Lomond marina and a request for an augmentation in our traffic mitigation fund to update our traffic mitigation program guidelines that nets to 569,085. This table highlights that almost 425,000 of that is offset by corresponding revenues. And so really there's just a about $140,000 that would be coming from available fund balances for these funds. And then while it doesn't have a net budget impact included in the resolution, we came before the council a few meetings ago, got approval for a supplemental budget appropriation related to the MTC One Bay Area Grant. We recommended and process that appropriation in our development services fund and our accounting staff is noted that that is appropriately to be re appropriated through a grant fund because we're tracking it as a grant fund so we're just going to. reduce one and offset the other. Board of Trustees Meeting, briefly on the credit card services fee. Just one slide again. Staffs recommending the option of a resolution consistent with authority under the State applicable government code section that not only allows city councils to authorize the acceptance of credit cards for payments to the city. But not too long ago was amended to also allow local agencies to pass on the related credit card processing fees for these transactions. So the resolution would authorize the staff to assess a credit card processing transaction as proposed. It would be up to a not to exceed amount of 4% or the actual cost to process whichever is less. So effectively, it's the actual cost not to exceed 4%. So we're capping it there. At this time, we are asking that this is somewhat permissive as opposed to prescriptive because we have a multitude of different credit card processing systems, each with their own characteristics and the fees. May vary. We also have departments that have already incorporated the costs of these processing fees into the fees that we are charging. So we wouldn't be double. So we are going to be looking at how to implement this as intended. As I noted earlier in the city manager comment, the timing of this is before you this evening, so that should council support this recommendation, we can implement it concurrent with the OpenGov permitting system where a significant amount of transactions, dollar value, a significant amount of credit card processing, and therefore a significant amount of fees that the city has historically We note in the report that for fiscal year 2425 the city incurred over $600,000 of credit card processing fees 180,000 within the general fund, but nearly half a million dollars in our development in the fiscal year. But each will have a little bit of a nuance in terms of how we implement it. So that's what's before you. I would be remiss if I didn't note that any of our residents customers partners can clearly still avoid paying a processing fee by paying through a means other than credit cards. The last item is the mid-year personnel changes. It's really limited to two items. One is the creation of a new job classification, which is also included in the packet. Board of Trustees Meeting, proposing to add a new classification of principal engineer slash traffic to distinguish it from the more generic principal engineer position, particularly as it relates to our efforts to staff up our traffic engineering Board of Trustees Meeting, department. And so, and in doing so, the staffing competent within the Department of Public Works, essentially senior civil engineer position has been upgraded Board of Trustees Meeting to this new classification, and with that we would need Council approval to update the salary schedule to include this classification. Also, there's the resolution included with the personnel changes would authorize Updating the salary schedules that pertain to temporary seasonal retiree salaries merely to reflect the minimum wage increases that went into effect with this fiscal year. So just to recap, we have the acceptance of the mid year budget report once all your questions and public comments have been taken. Adopt a resolution for the supplemental budget appropriations of $569,085. Adopt a resolution authorizing the including of a credit card processing fee where applicable and appropriate, and a resolution approving personnel classification and salary resolution updates. Concludes the report. Thank you.

City Council Chambers, Thank you, direction of asio finance director of asio. City Council Chambers, All right, i'll open it up to questions any questions yeah Councilmember bushy.

City Council Chambers, I have two on big picture questions and one more focused on on the big picture, it seems to me that the the two. I want to say errors, but unexpected results with interest rates not returning the level of interest income we anticipated, as well as staff vacancy rates being Do you want to say better? Not being what we're expected is that we're sort of living in the past and need to update. And I'm wondering if that is your plan or what is your perspective on those two factors in the budget?

Yes. Thank you for the question. I maybe wouldn't characterize it as living in the past. What I would say is This, among other areas, are areas that we need to, you know, assess and better understand as we make future forecasts because we weren't necessarily budgeting based on past trends. but um you know it's only been two years three that we've built a salary savings factor in into the budget and um as we go forward you know one suggestion on that one for instance instead of having an across the board you know vacancy factor maybe there's a different vacancy factor for you know sworn public safety for instance versus certain classifications But I don't want to minimize the fact those are both areas that we would be looking at to and our candidates for refinement in the assumptions that we build into future budgets.

I like that candidates for refinement, particularly in the vacancy rate when we're working very hard to bring that down.

Yeah. So yeah, I would note that what makes it a little bit not challenging. Interesting. Is it the on pure numbers? The vacancy rate is floating around the You know, probably a little over 3% and, as you know, we will be reporting on the vacancy rates and future reports with ring the budget, but just the value of those vacancies. is not just the average pay for a given position, so we need to just be a little more thoughtful and building that into the budget.

Janet Callahan- Candidates for refinement moving on to the specific question. I'm a little bit concerned about your proposal to have permissiveness in the credit card fee. Where the credit card processing fee is embedded in the cost of the service there's a cross subsidy between credit card users and non credit card users. So if we're going to decide that it's our policy that we're going to allocate those fees to people to the people who use those credit cards, then that should be applied consistently and across the board, so it sounds like your anticipation is that the rollout will be.

Maybe I can play back the phrase. I just said candidate for refinement. I guess my point is in implementing it. Presently, if the Council approves this, because certain fees have this embedded in it, and some don't, we can't just we. Board of Trustees Meeting 06. I believe that it's appropriate to apply it where we could and should, but we're not in a position to apply it across the board. But as we potentially bring forward our master fee schedule for this upcoming fiscal year, and we look at these areas a little bit more closely, It would be ideal to work towards consistency. Across this was just to be sort of fully transparent that you know how do you handle it with a parking meter charge, for instance, you know you pop in put 20 minutes on a card and there's a you know charge for that transaction which. City Council Chambers, wipes out a chunk of the fee so there's some policy things that we still need to work out to arrive at the consistent application of this, but in the meantime there's some significant costs that we think are appropriate to. City Council Chambers, recover through this fee and so that's why we're asking for the council's permission to apply it. On a case by case basis until we get to a place where we can be consistent.

Well, or to adopt the strategy of assessing these fees to the users and to implement them as feasible in an orderly way. Right. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Acting City Manager and Finance Director Navazio. I hope that becomes simpler to say in the future. On the going going, this is i'm going to start at the at the low and then pull it back my first question is on the to T performance in Q4. Is it that it's not performing well and that's unexpected or is Q4 often a time when there are lower to T there's lower revenue and to T performance.

Ann Marie Buerkle Yeah. So just so we're clear, because we're talking about the fiscal year, we're showing results through the Q. One and Q. Two as a fiscal year.

I mean, Q.

Four count apologies. This may not answer your question satisfactorily. What we saw was significantly higher than expected receipts in the first two quarters, and because we're already into March, and we've been have a glimpse at what's ahead. That trend is not continuing. Gotcha.

And we would expect it to based on performance in calendar.

Right where their seasonality in any of these revenues we use that information in our projection so that we're not straight lining or you know missing what's happening when you have cyclical or seasonal nature in receipts.

Thank you. My second question is on over time, and I picked up on the word trending. Am I to infer incorrectly that we're seeing if it's about 2,000,000, and over we're projecting 2,000,000 over time that we're already seeing a 1,000,000, and over time that we are anticipating that another 1,000,000, or am I inferring incorrectly?

City Council Chambers, What I would say to that is, if we were to straight line. City Council Chambers, The current trend for overtime, it would actually exceed the system, so what we are building into the estimate is an expectation that we will be. City Council Chambers, able to kind of rein it in somewhat but it's not going to wipe it out entirely because we need to staff our fire apparatus.

Dave Kuntz, understood yeah and I do know that you had said that there's some amount of research and analysis that needs to be done to figure out the reason the root causes.

Dave Kuntz, It would be from one person's perspective, a little bit of a concern or alarm if this was the new normal. Dave Kuntz, That we would have to factor in so you know you're always going to have some of these spikes and anomalies, but we need to be continue some work on it to assess what's.

You know we can manage what's within our control or what's underlying absolutely yeah, and I think you know at least one factor, I saw bought that one there was a contribution of. What seemed to be a an uncharacteristic confluence of six sick people being sick and parental leaves that are. That are, at least in my opinion, transient in nature, I would love to hear the full analysis when it comes out at least understand if it's something whether we control it or not, if it's a transient condition.

Yeah, and I think also the other factor without, you know, getting into it is the heightened incidence of work related injuries, because that's not just a cost issue, but that's a safety issue for our staff. It's also impacts potentially our, you know, service delivery. So getting a handle on and trying to manage incidents of work related injuries is probably top of that list.

Thank you. My next question is on the is on the credit card fee policy. So I I am supporting it, and I appreciated Councilmember Bush's questions around what it what it would mean in its rollout. I am six hundred and eighteen thousand dollars is is a six a significant amount for an annual in currents that we've been paying, and I work it out to about seventeen hundred dollars a day. That is substantial over time. Obviously some transactions are going to City Council Chambers, create more but essentially what i'm hearing and I appreciate the both the accuracy and the transparency of it, but that is a significant amount of money i'm glad that we are coming to this is coming before, so we can. City Council Chambers, correct it I. City Council Chambers, How soon do you think we would effectively be able to at least start to move downward from 618 would be after this evening, or would it be take some time to roll out.

I think we would be implementing it as intended, probably right away if approved, for instance, in the OpenGov system. That's just a little toggle switch. But we also want to make sure that we're communicating transparent with the customers so that they know what their options are. The balance of it will depend both on how the various different credit card processing systems sort of interface with our billing system. And then again, as we said, you know how the fees were set to begin with, because some will include them and some would not. City Council Chambers, I would just note that used to be not too long ago that cities were precluded from passing these fees on which led to what Council member pushing noted, which is there was a cross subsidization because everybody was paying a little bit more to cover those fees, so this is just a step towards. As we do with most all of our fees is you know where we're looking for full cost recovery, what is the actual cost well in some cases, it depends on how it's paid and it's obviously much more significant for a you know $100,000 plus permit application than it is for an $8. You know single one off swim lesson. You know the percentages might be the same, but the magnitude is vastly different.

Dave Kuntz, Actually, one more question, and it was it is on the. Dave Kuntz, The classification i'm noting that. Dave Kuntz, And maybe i'm imagining a connection between with attracting and retaining top talent and with respect to traffic engineers, this is that is this matter related to making certain that we can attract and retain the very best talent for traffic engineering absolutely is yes, thank you.

That's number one.

Yes, thank you. Actually, I had questions about the credit card fees, but I think it has all been answered. So thank you. I would just say what you mentioned that I think as long as we communicate with our customers, so they are aware of it. I think that would be important, but thank you.

Thank you, my question sort of along the same line around notification on the credit card fee, I know our resolution is to give authorization at this point. And i'm curious in terms of how the Community will be notified or if there is a legal requirement, because I know today. There you know as as i'm using my credit card that will come up and say fees are included processing feeds are included, or would you like to include processing feeds as part of that transaction. I don't know if that is a legal requirement in terms of how we have to do that. Don't need to answer it now, but i'm just curious if we're, if, as we go forward from a notification perspective, if we need to actually notify at time of transaction, or if that's not necessary, and I was trying to look up at Park Mobile, because that's the one that we use for downtown for the metering and and other things. So who actually gets those absorbs those fees. So that was sort of my question around that piece. The second one is the use of money, which I find is a really interesting named category, but the investment strategy. And in the state of where we are in the country right now, do we anticipate that we're going to have to reevaluate our investment strategy? Or is there a concern enough that we go relook at the investment strategy?

Let me answer it this way. I think it's appropriate to always review the investment policy size strategy on a regular basis, because it's never a just set it and leave it. That said, what we're seeing so far this fiscal year. I just clarify it is, I think, more reflective of what I said earlier, sort of some volatility in interest earnings. particularly with the timing of certain investments maturing and then reinvesting. So if something at a higher interest rate matures and you're reinvesting it in a lower interest rate environment. Also, for a number of years, the city has been accumulating fund balances and cash balances are invested. So part of this is also does reflect sort of using some of our cash balances as we're advancing projects. And lastly, and I want to be careful on on saying this, I work with our finance team on this gap and gatsby now require us to also record as interest earnings just like the paper. We talked last time I think when the numbers were very positive it's sort of like a. Board of Trustees Meeting 05-11-2022 Board of Trustees Meeting 05-11-2022 Board of Trustees Meeting 05-11-2022 Board of Trustees Meeting 05-11-2022 Board of Trustees Meeting 05-11-2022 Board of Trustees Meeting 05-11-2022 So there's a little bit of Apples and oranges when it comes to The cash involved with the interest earnings and the your financial statement reporting of gains and losses moment of time.

All right, great. Any other questions, comments. All right, open it up to public comment. If there's any public comment on this item. seeing none all right bring it back any other questions or comments from the council yes

City Council Chambers, Thank you, Vice Mayor, thank you, acting city manager and finance director invasio for that report. That was very helpful. It's always great to have the opportunity to hear your characterizations of both facts in your testimony and opinions about where we are. So I appreciate that very much, and I look forward to making the motion to advance at least the first one forward.

City Council Chambers, Okay, we have four motions on this one we'll take each one separately. City Council Chambers, Councilmember how would you like to start i'll start off.

City Council Chambers, move that we accept the fiscal year 2025 to 2026 mean your budget update presenting revenue and expenditure results through the second quarter of the current fiscal year through the accounting period ended ended December 31 2025.

Second, first and second roll call please help them or bushy I can't summer hill I can't remember you didn't go on a I America or starting mayor pro tem Kurtz. habit. Thank you. All right, second one.

Mayor Mrakas, i'll keep going move that we adopt a resolution authorizing supplemental fiscal year 2025 to 2026 mid year budget appropriations tolling 569,085 dollars across all funds.

Mayor Mrakas, So second second person second role, please remember bushy I can't remember how I don't remember you didn't bloody I may have put them Kurt's I. Mayor Mrakas, All right, motion carries.

Next one.

All right, I'll keep going. I move that we adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager or designee to apply a credit card processing fee for pavements received through credit card, debit card, or electronic transfer transactions to selected transactions.

Second. First and second. Roll call, please. Council Member Bushy. Aye. Council Member Hill. Aye. Council Member Idan Scalati. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Kurtz. Aye. Motion carries. And last one. You're on a roll.

Keep going and move that we adopt a resolution approving personnel classification Sally resolution updates related to traffic engineering staffing and temporary seasonal retiree minimum wage adjustments.

Second person second roll call please come to remember bushy I can't remember how I can't remember you didn't go on a high mayor pro tem Kurtz I motion carries, thank you, thank you, director Navasio and the whole finance team, it's a lot to pull together.

It really helps us as we start looking and thinking about next year's planning. All right, moving on mid year updates to the City Council three year strategic plan fiscal year 2025 26 work plan.

John Stefanski, All right. Good evening, Vice Mayor Kurtz and members of the Council. John Stefanski, Assistant City Manager. I'm going to tee this up before I hand it off over to Vatica. But while she's pulling up the presentation, just want to take a brief moment to acknowledge John Mooney and our entire director team and mid-manager team who have worked together to compile this mid-year update of our strategic plan work plan. As you all will recall late last fall, we brought this forward to the Council to approve, and this is our first go at this new strategic plan work planning structure. And so we look forward to your

uh continued engagement and feedback on this um uh and with that we'll hand it off over to vetica hi council members um mayor pro tem i'm verica i'm on the digital services team and i'm going to be talking about the city council three-year strategic plan mid-year fiscal year 2025 and 2026 work plan update So the recommended action is staff recommends that the city council adopt the mid year updates to the city council three year strategic plan fiscal year 2025 2026 work plan. So just some background on the strategic planning process, the City Council adopted the three year strategic plan in June 2025. Staff developed work plans for this fiscal year 25 to 26 for each of the seven priority areas and these work plans were adopted on October 20 2025 and the current work plan includes a mid year status update to the City Council. These are the seven priority areas included in the strategic plan and each one of these has a work plan associated with it. So for the mid-year update process, staff reviewed each milestone in the work plan and answered the following questions. What is the status of the project? If the project is deferred or if the milestone is deferred, why has it been deferred? And have the timelines changed? So these were the work plan status indicators, either complete, on track, which is work is progressing as planned, or it will be finished within this fiscal year. not started, so work has yet to begin but still plan to finish within the fiscal year, or deferred, so the end date is delayed beyond this fiscal year. And the the status for each of the milestones are in the updated work plan and the staff report. This slide shows a summary of the projects in the work plan so staff have have kind of translated the work plan into projects. And 10% of projects in this fiscal year's work plan are fully complete 75 73% are on track to be completed in this fiscal year. And 17% are planned to be deferred to the next fiscal year so complete here means that every milestone in a project is fully complete already 73% will be complete or plan to be complete by the end of this fiscal year. And i'll review some of the key accomplishments and key deferrals and that are all outlined in the work plan in more detail. So a to one staff have developed a gateway slash beautification pilot for the central San Rafael gateway the pilot was presented to the economic development subcommittee and February 2026. C to to the wildfire action implementation plan staff continued implementation of the wildfire prevention and protection action plan, including implementing the zone zero grant program and installing the safe parking Program. D one one stop staff identified 350 marydale as the interim shelter site and secured City Council approval of a grant agreement with the county of marin to support the purchase and setup of the interim shelter project. The City Council adopted the mobile vending ordinance, establishing a balanced regulatory framework to support vendors while maintaining neighborhood standards. F31 staff conducted opinion research polling to place a ballot measure for a library tax parcel renewal on the June Second, two thousand and twenty six primary election ballot. Additionally, staff has presented a fiscal sustainability framework and tax measure strategy to the Finance Subcommittee and to the City Council. G. Two one. The city drafted the first inclusive outreach and engagement guide to provide staff with the framework tools and resources to implement meaningful community outreach and engagement across all departments. This was paired with regular community engagement team meetings with the goal to support staff and delivering coordinated engagement that gives all residents the opportunity to help shape city actions. So on to deferrals. Some of the reasons, or these are the five reasons for deferrals that are listed in the work plan update. Either the scope increased, so beyond what was, as the project went on, the scope increased more than what was anticipated to begin with. Staff absence, so either staff was temporarily reduced or there are vacancies. overestimated capacity so in this case the scope of the project is the same but there was less capacity than anticipated to complete the anticipated to complete the scope as is funding unavailable or other these reasons there there were emerging projects that came up which required strategic reprioritization or there are some other reasons listed in the work plan with further notes Some of the key deferrals is a to to updating the objective design standards is deferred due to scope increase, and may be considered as part of a larger update for the downtown precise plan. B. 1, 7. staff recommends focusing resources on long-term and permanent planning versus the interim use planning of 620 canal and has identified prominent identified promising near-term funding opportunities for permanent plans d12 staff is deferring developing a homelessness strategic plan to ensure capacity for the 350 marydale interim shelter implementation The HR team had planned to acquire and implement a new software for human resources management this fiscal year, but due to staff capacity and a vacancy on the team, will instead plan to utilize a module in an existing software for human resources management in the next fiscal year. And G three six the digital team had planned to lead the replacement of the cow wi fi project, but the cost to replace the equipment exceeded estimated cost and so we'll plan to try to fit this into the budget for next year. Okay, and that concludes my presentation.

So just a couple of just concluding remarks on it. So as the Council can imagine, a ton of work involved, not just in preparing this information, tracking the information, but actually delivering on the work plan. Two things I would note that I've mentioned to a couple of council members. Number one, I would just note that while this report primarily provides the major update of the year one work plan, it is the year one work plan. It's the first time we're using this tool and I don't want to lose sight of the fact that a huge Board of Trustees Meeting 0830. What quarter is a particular work task going to be identified and to tie it again back to not just our budget discussion tonight, but our ongoing work on developing the next year's budget. We will be bringing you a year to work plan concurrent with the 2627 budget. And as part of that conversation, I just want to note that staff has done a considerable work in developing what we hope to be a useful tool once a year to work plan is adopted. How do you how to evaluate these emerging priorities that may come up and do come up from time to time, and which ones might rise to the level of needing to bump something from the plan or be deferred. And so we won't go into that, obviously, as part of tonight's conversation, but it's part of our ongoing effort to really wrap our heads around how to utilize a tool like this to keep us focused, but also to allow for these emerging issues that will come up and how we hope to bring those back to council when they come up. So with that, back to you.

Okay, very good. Thank you. Great report. Any questions? Council Member Bushey?

Very specific one. In your staff report in Table 2, you put the summary of key deferrals. And on that list, you have priority area E, quality of life, identify funding for the safe team. It's in your staff report, but it wasn't on your PowerPoint. Why was that?

City Council Chambers, We just picked a few key deferrals yeah it's it's yeah, so this is the complete list staff report is the complete list.

City Council Chambers, Okay, I could I add to that because it came up, I think, in a console conversation we successfully identified funding to continue safe team through this and next fiscal year, I would say that there's still work to be done on securing. City Council Chambers, Long term ongoing sustainable funding source.

Thank you. Now turning to the Acting City Manager's question about how this is working. I think it's working fantastic. First time out, you know, you have about 17% of your projects are being deferred, which means that 80% are on track. That's success. um so i i think i think it's great i really liked the list of accomplishments and deferrals you know take it up to the high level you know shine the light on um on the things that are um that are um important and um at the strategic level and then um having to update it for emergency emerging things which may be emergencies yes that's exactly what why this is here and to say okay this thing has emerged and we need to deal with it so Our form-based code is going to have to wait. That's perfect. That is exactly the vision that I think we had when we adopted the extremely detailed work plan.

Thank you. Thank you.

Council Member Helfand?

City Council Chambers, Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you vetica for for the report, my questions are are very detailed and I have similar comments to what Council member Bush, he had but with respect to. City Council Chambers, drop I saw one data point on that says it's a dropped among those circle charts do you know, can you indicate what it was because I couldn't find the word drop anywhere in the staff report.

ACM Conference 29th, We ended up that Thank you, we ended up making that deferral actually in the overall because we're going to talk about if any projects are dropped in the in the. ACM Conference 29th, end of this fiscal year Okay, thank you, I was like i'm pretty sure that was very, very detailed didn't.

Thank you, and then on the F two one HR module that is going to use Tyler instead of this another is there just to confirm this is very operational in nature, but is there a reason why Tyler wouldn't be a good permanent. opportunity to support HR, so I will take that so.

when we were faced with the staff vacancy uh nhr we wanted to reevaluate all the things that were on the plate for that department and in conversations with finance team and erp team realized that the tyler munis platform would actually be able to satisfy the city's needs on a on a permanent basis such that we were able to reevaluate not proceeding with that uh hr software at this time and then pivoting to something that was already available so is it possible that deferral drop might be appropriate for that one yes okay well that's something that we'll bring up as a part of this year two uh work plan because there's a workload impact with that decision gotcha

Well, I like that I appreciate that we don't want to be ahead of ourselves, but I like that maybe there's one that could be considered an opportunity for a drop, especially if it can be done that way. But i'm hearing that it does. It will require work. Would you say that and just confirm, because I didn't see it here that we did not anticipate Something that emerged onto the work plan that is completely novel or is everything that we contemplated there it's just something might have been pulled forward and accomplished needed to be accomplished sooner.

and It's a really good question. What comes to mind for me with this is relating to the Marydale project, which I'm knee deep in when we were negotiating the grant agreement with the county. There was a requirement for us to go and entitle the property, which, when we were developing this plan, We didn't include that level of detail because we didn't realize that that was going to be something that we would have to commit to and when we look at the timelines for us to perform under that grant. We did have to evaluate and proceed with issuing an rfp to get a developer on board, so we would give ourselves the runway to meet those commitments under the grant so that's an example of. a um maybe an emerging priority, but we were. It's something that will get incorporated in the year to work plan. Um, but we wanted to make sure we really set ourselves up with the runway to successfully deliver on that, which the lion share of the major tasks associated with that will take place in the next fiscal year.

Thank you very much, and i'll include a comment about that in my final comments, because I think that's I mean what i'll preview that um i think this is a very effective framework to be able to express what we expect to do and then obviously have it at the ready to modify what doesn't immediately stick out and maybe it's another dimension that maybe we can evolve to is at least be able to express the the magnitude of effort involved because i think an accomplishment on one thing might be 10x the accomplishment on a smaller thing and I wouldn't, I also wouldn't want that to dissuade us from being bold and going after the big thing just because it'll take more I don't want us to only go after the fruit that we can pick easily, but sometimes we have to reach a little farther because they're more meaningful so I'll make a comment about that later. Thank you.

Yes, I also agree with the comments from my peers around the way that you capture the data and you present it. I think it's extremely helpful. And thank you so much to everybody that has been involved, which is everybody, because this is all the departments in the city. I have a couple of questions specific about some of the delay projects, and I also want to mention how incredible all the work that we have done this year, considering that we have 2 new properties that we purchase and everything else that's going on being able to include it into our plan. I mean, it's quite remarkable. But I still have a couple of questions one of them. I noticed that they, I think, is the a for one. They evaluate the downtown precise plan related to the to objective design standards, and to clarify residential density and high the standards for downtown. I believe that what i'm seeing is on the draft plan that is only like a quarter one of the quarter delay. I think, as we are seeing a lot of developments coming to the city is is outstanding, we need more housing, but at the same time, we see buildings with 17 floors, so I think that's something that I would really like to see. I don't know if he's the calibration between the height and the density. To if we need to adjust that so is that going to is is this what i'm seeing here is that the project.

Dave Kuntz, yeah and just to clarify for objective a for one the draft document shifted essentially all entirely into this next fiscal year, so no work on that is at least currently slated to begin in the current fiscal year and that's something that. You know and i'll defer to you know Mike and his team on this, but you know as a part of the study sessions that Mike and his team have been preparing. For the City Council with the first one that was held earlier this month, and then the one plan for later this spring that's what's really going to drive. What this objective specifically looks at looks like as it relates to the year two and potentially year three work plan. And so I don't know, Mike, if there's anything else you want.

Sure. Michael Hinkle, Community and Economic Development Director. As you recall, we actually had a council work session really kind of looking at this question mark about downtown precise plan, looking at some of the densities and options. It's really the evolution, really, of really the development that's occurring within our community. Originally, this was targeted as objective design standards, right? We really were focused on that end. But as time has gone on, they've kind of grown into like a bigger scope and questioning. It's enough where at least the council feedback on that work session we had on development for downtown and densities. Staff is going to return back at the second work session and really kind of talk about, okay, if you want to look at adding those pieces, this is what that scope would look like, the time, cost and efforts. And really it's just trying to set up the council expectations on do we want to head this direction or is there another route to take? Also looking as part of those. Work sessions, the next one that really is targeting kind of like a housing policy right kind of target and what we're talking about for development, but it all speaks to the same pieces, but. It is it speaks to kind of our work programs as like during time we learn more we understand more and we also the little scope creep a little more information required. and also really establishing what it takes to deliver really what this council is looking for. And I think that is some of the specific things, particularly for those work sessions, asking council like, okay, this is where the staff believes we're at. Are we on the right track or do we need to adjust? And I think that's something that feedback has been so important with both our subcommittees and our council as a full, but the work sessions really is the format we're trying to get at since it does really involve the full council.

Okay, great. Yeah, thank you so much. I think it's, as you were mentioning, it started on one thing, and now we are looking at another one where I feel personally that it has more urgency. And that's the part that when I'm looking at the fairing that makes me a little bit nervous, but I trust you, you know, that you have a plan, and and we can follow that definitely.

And then one thing I'll really add for for a lot of the work program. It doesn't take an account the day-to-day operations right? This talks about like the targeted ends, or what the Council looking at. But for all the actual required by law processing and permits and other things, at least the Community Economic Development Department does, we had to actually assess for that. That's why I'm looking at staff capacity. It wasn't the capacity we thought we had because we took on a mountain of applications, which is true. So it's really just trying to reflect that as part of we look at really the balancing of how we get the work done.

Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree more. So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Then I saw a couple two more. One. It was the B. Seventeen, the interim use for six hundred and twenty canal. I know that I think there is a parallel work going through that project. One is the feasibility PB, Lupita D Montoya- study for the bridge and all that that's happening to build it and the other one is like hey we already have the land so let's make it a park or whatever you we think is going to be so, so I guess. PB, Lupita D Montoya- So I was just curious to see how far we are thinking to. PB, Lupita D Montoya- postpone it, I mean I saw it on the plan, but I was just wondering if you could speak a little bit around that.

yeah so um i know the public works team is working on securing the site with fencing but we have a core team who are focused on what the future use of 620 canal is and we have been working very closely with canal alliance on some very promising grant opportunities such that we felt compelled to say We have interim options here, but we also don't want to forego on these potential really nice funding opportunities that dovetail into what you know the development of that site would be ultimately. And so. Evaluating and applying for those grants that takes time versus focusing on the other interim uses. And so it's this kind of struggle of what are the opportunities that we think are going to pay off. And so when we were developing this update. That was what the staff team was recommending that we do in partnership with the canal lines.

Yeah, not that that makes sense. Oh.

Hi, Katherine Kufa, Library and Recreation Director.

I just to add on to what John was saying, I think when we originally developed the work plan, we felt that the that park, the kind of the ultimate goal was probably a number of years away before we were even going to be able to get started. And with some of these opportunities, we're seeing that we actually may be able to develop that park more quickly. So we're kind of focusing on that for the moment if those pan out then that's kind of where we're gonna um kind of focus our time and effort is getting to that final goal if if those some of those grants don't pan out and it looks like we may have more of a more of a gap between now and when that final project happens we will look again at the interim use but for now if we can get that final park faster that's kind of where we would like to spend the the time and energy yeah

music to my ears, thank you so much and huge appreciation as well for public works, because the land is. It just needs a lot of work so so and it was something that again it wasn't planned so really appreciate that Okay, my last one is, and this is something that I have brought up before, but is the tree ordinance revision and as the a 36. And to me, trees are the infrastructure as well and as important, especially as we are having a lot of new developments coming into the city and also acknowledging that we have a lot of our trees are over 50 years old. And I keep seeing people cutting mature trees that they are not necessarily replacing. So I guess I would love to see how can we, you know, work on this. I know that there is like some of our neighbors, you know, they have offered to help and I know that the city has to manage the project, but I'm curious about that and also looking at the 822 update objective design standards. I think this is I don't know if this is the the assets for the city, or if it's something different, but wondering if somehow it can be combined i'm just trying to figure out how we can get a hold of that. Three ordinary provision so because, once we lose one of the you know the mature canopies we won't see them again in in our lifetime so it's yeah.

So I'm going to defer to Director of Public Works, April Miller. And as she's coming down here, I will say that she has had a number of staff, not vacancies, but staff on leave. And so I know that's impacted a number of things on her plate, but defer to you on this one. Yeah. Hi.

You don't have anything on your plate.

No, nothing at all. Public Works Director April Miller. Yes, it's what... Assistant City Manager John Stefanski said, we're short-staffed. Right now, we lost our senior management analyst at the end of last August. And so we just got a new person in, and that person was the person who was gonna help with the ordinance. But as you know, there's a lot of competing priorities. It takes a little while for somebody new to get up to speed. And also we have 519 Fourth Street, which is one of the priorities too, and all these other priorities that are competing with this person's. Time, but we you know we're expected to start the ordinance care remember exactly what it says on there, but that is our goal is to kick that back off and to spend some time on it, so it's still a priority we just didn't have enough staff right.

Okay, thank you so much, and I think that's all my questions, thank you.

Thank you so much. I'm going to try to bring it up a little bit in terms of the overall, because I think the concept of the work plan is fantastic. I mean, we absolutely need this. And it's really a tool. And it's ever evolving. And as a project manager, I know how hard it is to take whatever everyone's doing day to day and put it into a document that people are going to look at. I do have a question in terms of, It not necessarily doesn't necessarily have to be from the public side, but internally, are you using a rating and ranking of how items are being prioritized. In terms of the work plan. So i'll just put that out there in terms of how you are how things move up and down the priority list of the work plan of similar to what we do with the tip. But my rating and ranking i'm just wondering if you do that internally or if that's something you would consider.

So that's something that I think dovetails into what Paul was talking about is the approach for identifying what changes in emerging priorities get incorporated into the year to work plan. A lot of what drives you know this in the current year is just what our existing budget is, and what our existing staffing is so like in the instance of You know april's example on the tree ordinance when you have certain positions that go out that kind of necessitates what what gives in terms of what's on the work plan that's being done just because we have staff that are fully programmed working on other priorities that may not be able to pick up where there is a vacancy in the work plan. So that's why some of these things are moving forward. Some are deferred predominantly.

Okay, all right and sort of along that. Was the mobile vending that was not in the work plan or was it initially in the work plan or is that an over the fence item I don't recall the timing.

If I made that that was included in the work plan, but that wasn't that wasn't an added item and so that was included.

Okay, because I was gonna say that in terms of identifying new items do you see anything in the work plan today that would be considered something that got incorporated into the work plan that was not previously identified.

um.

Could you maybe recap read that because i'm trying to let me try to like I was gonna say with like with mobile vending if mobile vending was not part of. Our work plan initially, but now it's built into the work plan, but it doesn't show that it was a new item, are there any other projects in there that are new that were not initially part of the work plan.

Not not since October. No. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Can I make an observation? Just you mentioned sort of the criteria for what gets into work plan and use the capital budget as example. So the rating criteria, as I understand it, for the capital when we're updating the three-year plan is what goes in there, and there's criteria. I want to remind the guiding principle behind this work plan is the Council's three year strategic plan. So when we're looking at the budget it's like what work plan items can we reasonably say that we can accomplish with existing staff and existing resources. that help advance the goals and priorities established by the Council three-year plan. So you know, during the year when their staff capacity it's like, Oh, which which project might be deferred. So something that's kind of almost done almost a little bit on the fly based on Where things are at and what's needed to keep something going versus starting something I think a good maximum I would say it's better to get a few things done and do them well then try to advance everything a little bit and so that's sort of the. City Council Chambers, Thinking behind it, but ultimately what gets added to the work plan, whether it's at the beginning of the year or through an emerging priority is really going to be a whether it's health and safety related item a mandate or. City Council Chambers, has a direct link to advancing item on the council's three year strategic plan right that's the framework.

I think it ties into a council member hill was mentioning was if we don't have that then everything has a value of one. Where some things may have a higher value, based on what our priorities and goals are so I appreciate that, and the other thing that the now looking back at it, and it was our you know we approved it going forward, but like I would have put in. mary dale as a new. emerging that came in as an implement we had explore but explore and implement are very different um and so as soon as we started implementing off of the explore the explorer was done the implementing is what we're doing now and so i think we need to recognize and acknowledge that work um and there might be others that was the one that i'm closest to to understand but as i was looking through in terms of identifying But I think in some cases, what we thought was going to be an explore or let's analyze that it turned into a whole project.

So just to couch back, because we don't have the crystal ball. Our city clerk reminds us that comment public comment on Sb. Seven hundred and seven. The requirement to implement public comment is that the zoom. That's something that we're going to need to address. It was not contemplated when we put the work plan together, but needs to be implemented by July first, and so there's some work going on whether it's baseline activity or work plan activity. We can debate.

And is it and so using that as an example is that that's not in today's work plan. That is in today's work plan, it was not in the initial work plan it wasn't in the initial Okay, and are you using a sauna now I got into the detail. Yes, yes, great. Okay that's it for me anyone any other comments any questions from the public on this item. Welcome to State Your Name and Your Neighborhood.

Yes, good evening, Vice Mayor and Council Members. Marianne Lonnestad from San Rafael Meadows. I'm speaking today regarding agenda item 3C on the strategic plan update. While the staff reports list the identification of 350 Merredale and the securing of grant funding as key accomplishments under objective D11, I must express concerns regarding some lack of transparency in the project's long-term vision. At your December 15 City Council closed session meeting, in the public comment section, Ken Dickinson, a resident of San Rafael Meadows, and on behalf of the Meadows and surrounding neighborhoods, presented a letter in person to this Council requesting early direct engagement before the 350 Merredale project concepts were finalized. He specifically highlighted in the letter the sudden change on the website in the project description to minimum of 80 units, where it were 80 units, which signals a much larger entitlement decision than originally anticipated. Despite our request to meet before decisions were baked in, the city issued a formal request for proposal RFP on February 19. This RFP explicitly requires developer to propose at least 80 units and sets the developer selection date of August 2026. By moving the RFP stage now, the city is bypassing the community's request to shape the project's density and scale from the start. City Council Chambers, The strategic plan update notes that certain expert panels were deferred due to the politically complex nature of the meredith fight. City Council Chambers, This complexity is a direct result of the breakdown of trust experienced by residents, I urge the Council to pause it on our invitation to meet with impacted neighborhoods before you enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the developer, thank you.

City Council Chambers, Thank you any other public comment on this item.

It's more of a question, and maybe you answered it earlier. Is this the same information that's available online as part of your transparency objective, or is this report only available to internal members? And just to understand a little bit, when you say something is on track, I assume that the specification was so specific that there was no change to it from the beginning until this point. So you're saying, oh, yeah, we know exactly what we're asking to have done. And we're making every one of those, we're checking every one of those boxes. And when we deliver it, we'll deliver it exactly as we promised in the beginning.

And then that's the question.

And then for the items that are considered deferred next year, they will be partially completed. I believe they'll be starting from not ground zero, or maybe they will be just clear as, oh, we'll just start over, throw everything away. I doubt you're doing that, but then does that create another category of re restarted and does that say it should be done more quickly or or differently and that's really all my questions, thank you.

Thank you, a couple of questions came through there.

So yes, so this information is online. We have the original work plan up, and then we have we'll have this one up following this item tonight. But I know the vetica and the digital team have been exploring some other platforms that we can use to better report out what this work plan is a sauna being one of those items. But there's Some work on the back end that's needed to make that happen. And then to answer the question around, you know, whether items are on track or things that we, you know, I think to Al's question are progressing. As planned. And yes, so when we were writing out the various milestones and tasks under the work plan. When we say something's on track. It's going to we said we were going to do this. And now we've been able to do this or we're in the process of doing whatever that item may be And then the last question. deferred versus restarted and I think to. What he's getting at is these aren't you know finite like buckets of time that we're operating in and that, in fact, when we were doing the update of this work plan. We actually have departments that are also planning their year to work plan and what. Those items are going to be because these timelines kind of turn into this Venn diagram where yes we're six months into this period, but we were planning for year two. And so on and so forth, so while things are deferred it's it's a little more fluid as it relates to the status of each of these items and so yes, some things may be deferred. restarted maybe something that we look to evaluate for the year to work plan, but generally things are progressing.

Great Thank you i'll just add one comment on to the deferred that it might we may decide again, you know, like, as you just said it's deferred we may decide to. You know, move it off all together or change it like we know more now so okay great bringing it back to the Council any other questions or comments that I think oh comments, please.

Board of Trustees Meeting, Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you again, Vedica, and all staff for responding to our questions in the public's questions. I think that I will build on Councilmember Bush's prior comments, which are that this is working as intended. I also insofar as we are trying to create as much here is what we intend to do, and we are pre-declaring that as either emerging priorities come forward or changes in landscape or even owning it that there's a misestimation of capacity that we are going to do the right thing and make those adjustments as we have done this evening. I also want to direct to both staff and community at the same time when I say this, that this is an opportunity for us to be able to do this openly. What I don't want staff to feel is that because this is on paper, this is the hard thing. These are hard words that are written into stone. I want staff to feel that they can be as bold as they can be, and the Council has their backs, that as things come up, this is the right place for that to be expressed. And to the community who are disappointed, especially, we did receive a fair amount of engagement through email about disappointment on deferrals. To you, what I would say is that I feel disappointed, too, but I would not say that this is a result of anything that the city has done incorrectly. Rather, we are responding to emerging needs that are coming into our community, and that in due time we are going to get to those work plans as well as it is aligned with our strategy. So thank you for bringing this forward. I did say earlier that I would J. offer that if we could indicate some effort dimension on it, I think that would be helpful, I also understand, too, that it may not take the form of exactly what i'm saying I can also imagine that in doing that it creates other challenges even how do you measure effort over time so i'm not sure quite what i'm saying, but I do know that there's some way to express magnitude of effort or resources involved. City Council Chambers, So thank you for bringing this mid year update and the opportunity to continue to improve how we do this, thank you.

City Council Chambers, Thank you any other comments no.

Yes, well, I am very well set. Council member Hill. So I totally echo the sentiment. I just have a lot of gratitude for the team for the staff. This is a lot of work, and I think this is a great way to really see everything that's happening in the city. So it is I am I think not just for us, but also for like the public it's a great way to see how the progress is made, I already mentioned a couple of my you know the items and but I I totally understand the delay and so thank you, thank you for all the hard work.

Thank you and i'll just close by saying work plans are I mean it's it is a record, it has our information, but they're not report cards. They're not something that we all go back and say, we didn't do this because we all are responsible for all of the work. And you're directing from our priorities and what we'd like to get done. And honestly, we'd probably if you let it free rein, we'd have much more on there, too. So, I mean, I think it's really this is fantastic to see. And as we know, things happen every single day that changes this work plan and you're showing at a very high level but we know that there's so much happening on your day to day that these are big projects that we want to move forward and and they do they take a lot of time they take a lot of effort and deferring or delaying that's par for the course we know that and there's a as the projects get bigger there's more um groups and people and agencies in money involved. And so the bigger it is, the more likely that we might see those type of shifts. And so I think in terms of looking at the level of complexity is also looking at the level of how many agencies and how many departments are involved starts bringing in that picture of complexity so with that i'd like to ask for a motion i'll make a motion to adopt a resolution adopting mid-year updates to the city council's three-year strategic plan fiscal year 2025-26 work plan

Second person. Second roll call, please. Councilmember Doshi. Aye. Councilmember Hill.

Aye.

Councilmember Unescolati. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Kurtz.

Aye. That motion carries. Thank you. We'll now open it up for public expression continued for anyone who'd like just to make a public comment on items not on tonight's agenda.

The impression I get sometimes is that the City Council is reluctant to engage the community in performing acts that they perform themselves. There seems to be some resistance to having And I heard planting trees well you can't do that we do that as if it were some special skill set that required you to do that, and I think i've seen it in other instances, and I just question that attitude, especially in this period of. overruns in accounting, I just think you should think about that that's all I want to say.

Thank you any other public comment. All right, seeing none, we will adjourn tonight's meeting. Thank you.