City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, all right. I am going to convene the regular city council meeting for May 12th, 2026. Please call the roll.

Council Member Adler. Here. Council Member Joynette.

Present.

Council Member Veros.

Here.

Vice Mayor Rubio. Here. And Mayor Armstrong.

Here. All right. If you'd all please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. All right, thank you. Please be seated. Okay, next item, please.

Item number three, announcements. Item 3.1, changes and additions to the agenda. There are none. If you wish to speak under public comment or regarding an agenda item, please fill out a speaker card located in the back of the room and submit it to the city clerk.

All right, thank you. So we're going to move on to item four, public comment. I'm going to open up public comment, and at this time the public is permitted to address the City Council on any item that is not on the agenda related to the business of the City Council, items that are on the consent calendar, including a request to pull an item from the consent calendar and the reason why you wish to pull the item or items. But please note that the decision to remove the item from the consent calendar is strictly at the discretion of the City Council. You can speak on a request for future agenda items and also on special presentation items under Section 6 of tonight's agenda. We have one item tonight on that. You may also speak on items that are not on the agenda but are within the City Council's jurisdiction. Please be reminded that while the city ensures the first amendment rights of its citizens We do not accept nor endorse any offensive or hateful comments made during our meetings The city celebrates the diversity of our community And we strive to be a welcoming and open community for all if you wish to speak under public comment or regarding an agenda item Please fill out a speaker card located in the back of the room and submit it to the city clerk. I While we encourage your comments, unfortunately, state law prevents the City Council from discussing items that are not on the meeting agenda. The City Council does take them very seriously, however, and if appropriate, staff will follow up. I'd ask people speaking during public comment to limit your comments to no more than three minutes, and we'll have a timer that should be visible to you. Do we have any speaker cards?

We do. We have received two speaker cards. The first one is from Pallavi.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor and Council Members and the committee over here.

I'm Pallavi.

I'm Pallavi. I've been a resident of San Ramon for a decade now. A mom to a busy toddler, an active toddler. I'm a software engineer by profession. I'm here representing Art of Living Foundation. I have talked here before in front of you. seeking support for the World Meditation Day, and I'm thankful for the proclamation certification that you're given. And today we are here to talk about International Yoga Day. And Rajesh, who's here with me, who is a volunteer along with me for the Art of Living Foundation, is going to speak about the International Yoga Day. Rajesh has been living in San Ramon for two decades now, works at Salesforce as an engineering leader, and has been volunteering and teaching meditation and breathwork courses for a decade now. So I'll take it over. He'll take it over.

Okay, now you've only got one minute to go. Can you finish in one minute or do we need to have a separate speaker?

He has a card by himself. Oh, he has a separate card.

We have a separate speaker card. Thank you.

Thank you. So now we'll go ahead and call up Rajesh.

If you could, yeah, reset the clock. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, council members, and members of the community, I've lived in this community since 2002, so about 24 years. And along the way, I dealt with my own set of mental health challenges, physical health challenges. And after trying a lot of traditional way of solving it, I finally found my solution in yoga and meditation. And that's through Art of Living Foundation. It changed my life so much that I went on to become a volunteer and a certified instructor. I have been teaching since 2017. I've taught hundreds of people, and the stories I hear after that bring so much joy that I want to invest as much time as possible in this. But Out of Living Foundation, it is a nonprofit since 1981. The founder's name is Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. His vision is to bring a smile to everybody on this planet. And the foundation exists in 1882 countries. millions of people have learned the sky breath meditation the program and benefited from it in the community also we have been active uh for last two decades uh teaching meditation yoga san ramon is a city that values quality of life and i guess it's prevalent through the park the education system i have experienced myself both my kids went to the San Ramon school system. My daughter is in college, my son is in high school. And what better, and especially in today's world, there is so much of unrest because of the geopolitical situation, also because of the uncertainty artificial intelligence is bringing. And why, so I think yoga can play a much more impactful role in today's world than ever before. And I think San Ramon de City can definitely help all the residents. So what we are proposing is why don't we partner on International Yoga Day and bring that to the entire community. It's a Sunday, so what we were thinking is that it's a Sunday morning, we can do an event, find a venue maybe in this hall or outside somewhere and partner with you. And that's what we are seeking as a proposal. We are open to further discussions or questions.

Thank you. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Next speaker, please.

There are no more speaker cards. Okay. And no written public comment was received.

All right. Then I will close public comment. We're going to move on to item five, the consent calendar. Does any council member wish to pull any of the consent items?

I move the motion for consent calendar.

I'll second that.

Okay, we have a motion from Councilmember Verros, a second from Vice Mayor Rubio for consent items 5.1 through 5.5. Okay, motion passes 5-0 unanimously. And we move on to item 6. Item 6.1 is a special presentation. This is a proclamation declaring May 17th through the 23rd, 2026 as National Public Works Week. And we'll be doing the presentation to public works staff. Yeah, come on up.

They are reluctantly coming up to the front here. I know, they're shy.

All right. It's a proclamation of the City Council of the City of San Ramon declaring May 17th of the 23rd, 2026 as National Public Works Week. Whereas public works, professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of San Ramon. And... whereas these infrastructure, facilities, and services cannot be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are engineers, managers, and skilled employees from state and local governments and the private sector who are responsible for maintaining, rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, roads, bridges, and trails, water supply, water treatment, solid waste recycling systems, public buildings and aquatic complexes, parks, landscaping, creeks, drainage and open space, traffic signals, and street lighting, and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens and, whereas, It is in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders and children in San Ramon to gain knowledge and of maintain an ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities. And whereas the year 2026 marks the 66th annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association. And whereas this year's theme rooted in service powered by community emphasizes how public works professionals serve their community both through visible infrastructure roads bridges parks facilities and behind the scenes systems water sewage drainage utilities transportation planning and recycling Highlighting the idea that strong communities are built on the foundation of service, collaboration, and whereas public works makes communities safer, more vibrant, and better places to live. Whether serving as first responders, restoring power during outages, providing regular waste collection, ensuring roads and sidewalks are passable after floods or high winds, responding to utility ruptures and emergency lane closures, keeping over 100 traffic signals operational during outages. clearing down to trees and debris, repairing potholes, maintaining the storm drainage system in preparation for water storms, or managing facility and aquatic operations. Public Works is always there when people need them. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of San Ramon does proclaim the week of May 17th through 23rd, 2026 as National Public Works Week and recognize the substantial contributions our public works professionals, engineers, managers, employees make to protecting our national health safety, and advancing quality of life for all. Dated today, May 12, 2026. Congratulations. Thank you. All right.

John, you got some words to say?

I do. Good evening, Mayor, Council. Unfortunately, Brian Bornstein, our Public Works Director, could not be here, so I'm grateful for the opportunity to step in for him. I know I can speak for him that this is one of those opportunities he really enjoys, to be able to highlight the work we do and the people on our team. In that proclamation, there's a lot of things about what we do. And we talk a lot about quantities and how many parks we have. I just want to take opportunity to talk about the who behind all this work. We have an incredible team. These are mothers and fathers, youth sports coaches, bicyclists, fishermen. They come from a unique background. Some have military service. But when we come together, we really have a superpower of passion and dedication to public works professionals. across all three divisions, engineering, transportation, public services, we've done a great job of breaking down silos, collaborating, and making sure that we're meeting the needs of the city to make it consistently one of the best cities in the state. Our staff takes a lot of pride in that, and that's one thing I'm most proud of. I know Brian feels the same way, that when they come to work every day, they come with a purpose, and they truly take to heart the the services that we provide, whether it's in development of the new downtown, if it's maintaining our parks, our sports fields, they thrive on putting out a product that they can be proud of. And I don't think all cities take that to heart, but I can truly say that our Public Works team identifies with trying to be the best that we can be. um this year's theme um rooted in service uh powered by community i think we're deeply rooted in service um but powered by community um we can't do this by ourselves you know we get a lot of support from you the council our city manager our city attorney all the other departments as much as they lean on us we lean on them to provide all the services that we need to so i do want to take opportunity to thank all the departments and then also thank the community for all the feedback and engagement you know we take crms and And a lot of time, residents and users and visitors to all of the fantastic things that we provide, they provide valuable feedback. So that definitely powers us to do the work that we do. I do want all of our public work staff who may be watching on YouTube. Brian, if you're watching, we are extremely proud of the group that we have and their work should always be appreciated. I'm grateful that we have a week to kind of celebrate them next week. You might see some social media going out to kind of identify some of our team members. But the work they do is meaningful, it provides value to the city, and they should always be appreciated. And from Brian, myself, Chris, Rod, and Shane, the other division managers, we truly value our public works team.

Thank you. All right. Thank you, John. That was great feedback. Any comments from a council?

Go ahead.

Yeah. Congratulations, John. And as a resident, I'm very grateful. And I wanted to mention that I was going to save this for council remarks, but you mentioned the citizens request management system. I've had a couple of people come up to me and they were very grateful for the response that you guys have given, especially when there's wind or rain, et cetera. Just recently, you guys responded very quickly to a traffic light and another one to an incident that happened on a road. I'm not going to mention where, but they were very grateful that we have response. this technology to be able to assist folks. And they don't have to, they would ask me, they go, hey, is there anybody that could respond to this quickly rather than emailing council or the city manager? Not that they don't respond quickly enough, but I said you should try the citizen request management system. So thank you so much for maintaining that and having the team respond to it.

Appreciate it. We have a new system coming on. So Public Works is especially excited about that because it's just going to improve our response times. Perfect. Thank you so much.

All right. Anyone else?

Thank you. Thanks for all the great work. Appreciate public work staff commitment, dedication, professionalism. You know, one of the things every time I meet someone who visits San Ramon, like for example, this Saturday we had a major event and one of the things I always ask them is, hey, what do you think about San Ramon? What is good and bad? Then pretty much everyone says that what a beautiful city is this. And The reason for that is the keystone or the pillars for making that happen is our public works staff. So that shows your dedication and commitment to make sure we continue to provide this high quality of service for our community. I appreciate that. Thank you for all your great work.

Thank you. Great. Anyone on the side? Any comments? Okay, Vice Mayor Rubio.

Well, thank you, first and foremost. I mean, obviously, the quality of work that you're doing is visible to all of us every day. And obviously, it's one of the reasons we do, as was mentioned, is one of the reasons we do have the quality of life that we do have in San Ramon. And just all I can say is thank you for working so closely with us to make sure everything from when we initially found that budget deficit to, you know, figure out where do we cut corners without compromising ourselves too much long term. But obviously, you know, you've just really been a great partner, your department, with us in making sure that we continue to provide the quality of life that our our residents have become accustomed to. So for that, thank you. And so much more. I appreciate you.

Yeah. John, just, you guys got a great team. Thank you so much for all that you do. You're, you're very responsive. It does take a whole team. And I know, I know a lot of them just work behind the scenes. They don't want to necessarily be out in front and get a whole lot of attention, but they make things happen. And we see it in the city manager updates. We see it on social media. We see it as we're out driving around. We hear it from our residents. So thank you. for all that you and the great public work staff do, so thanks. Thank you.

All right.

All right, with that, we're gonna move on to item nine, 9.1, presentation of the fiscal year 2026-27 preliminary budget. And we're gonna give Yulia a chance to get up here. Got slides tonight?

Yes.

Okay, so get your slides up there, great. Take it away when you're ready. And make sure you're speaking up loudly so everybody in the audience can hear.

Good evening, Mayor Armstrong, City Council, members of the public. So today is the first time we bring in the whole budget after we discussed in details during the two meetings in April our revenue and expenditure prognosis separately. We are presenting the results of what is it when they come together. The presentation tonight, of course, is a result of collaborative effort of the many city staff, and I want to recognize their work and cooperation and willingness to follow the instruction, follow the guidelines, and try their best to have this balanced budget presented to you. Finance staff on our end have analyzed, reviewed, and compiled all the data. And then we made recommendation to the city council prior to presenting this budget to you tonight. So this presentation will cover several steps. It's gonna provide information in details, in pretty much details on general fund. We're gonna talk about all funds of the city We're going to cover staffing changes and staffing needs. And from there, we're going to move into financial sustainability and reserve analysis and talk about capital improvement projects program in summary of the capital improvement program. The most significant message that we during this process and we continue to emphasize is that the city still developing this budget in this mindset of developing of structural deficit that we still exist. As our primary goal to provide high level of services to our community, we realize that ongoing costs of providing the services are outpassing the growth rate of the city's ongoing revenues, and this results in a structural deficit or operational deficit. This is the same issue that the city faced for several years prior, and this is the same thing that we are facing and we are working on to address in the future years through development and long-term fiscal sustainability plan. As a full-service city, the general fund is the main fund of the city, and it supports a broad range of essential community services, including public works, safety, parks and recreation, planning, development, and administration operations. The city primary revenue sources are coming from two major taxes. It's a property tax and sales tax. And as we know, after passing of the Measure N, Measure N became one of the big components of the sales tax, and combined property tax and sales tax together, providing about 67% of the general fund revenue. Both of these revenue sources are very sensitive to the economic conditions, development trends, and consumer activities, which are the main factors that require the city to carefully balance ongoing operation needs with a long-term fiscal sustainability goal while continuing to deliver services that are valued by our community. The total projected balance of revenue for the fiscal year 26-27 is projected to be 85.3 million, which is about 4.3 million or 5.35% higher than comparing to the fiscal year 26. The measure N, on the other hand, is comparing to fiscal year 26, stayed about flat. So we didn't get any significant boost from measure N for the fiscal year 27. At least this is what we are expecting to see. The increase of the revenue is partially relates to some of the changes in the accounting practices, about 1.8 million. It also projected from the growth in property taxes, which amounts to about 1.6 million in this difference from prior fiscal year. Sales tax prognosis are going to go up about roughly $1,945,000. We're also going to see significant increase, at least we are expecting to see significant increases in services and development fees, collection, and growth in investment income. Overall, charges for services, facilities, rental of revenue, as well as fees for services amount for another 21% of the revenue of the city. So 67% from two major components, property and sales tax, and 21% of the services that provided by various departments. One thing that I also wanted to mention is that we, our city, at the same time, was hit with significant reduction of one of the revenue sources. It's about $1.8 million reduction of the garbage franchise fees revenues. But even with that, we still came up higher growing our revenues. Yes. Going to the general fund expenditures, our operational expenditures are expected to be about 76.8 million, which is 6.6% or 4.8 million higher than fiscal year 26. One of the offsets to the growth of the revenue is the growth of expenditures related to this change in accounting practices, 1.8 million. Another roughly 1.8 million is the growth in personal costs, including fulfilling existing contractual obligations, growth in insurance premiums, and pension obligations. $204,000, it's an adjustment to the part-time staff salaries as related to the increase in the minimum wage. $273,000 increase related to the water and electrical utilities cost. $81,000 increase in expenditures related to the maintenance of the newly developed park. $104,000 is cost associated with additional library hours. $126,000 increase in the animal control services contracts. $206,000 dollars increase related to cyber security services and system upgrades. And additional 351,000 related to the software upgrades and meeting ADA requirements. Again, related to cyber security services and other information services needs. Looking at this slide, I also wanted to show how the expenditures are split between departments. As we can see, the biggest components of our expenditure budget are police and public works, and parks and community services. expenditures, but at the same time, these are the public works, the parks, and are the components that are bringing our revenue through the collection of the charges for services. Moving on to our general fund revenue summary and We are showing the totals. The totals that are shown here, the revenue and expenditures before transfers in and out. And the difference between revenue and expenditures, as you can see, is a negative 6.5 million. The other financial sources are total of transfers in and out from and to general fund. And the net change in fund balance is negative 13.7 million. Bringing in the revenue from Measure N, our net change in fund balance is positive, $1.2 million. However, this shows that without Measure N, our operational expenditures are not going to be sustainable. And Measure N is covering this deficit of $13.7 million. Based on the current projections for the actual fiscal year 26 revenues and expenditures, the city expected to end the fiscal year with an excess of about $2.7 million. Combined with the fund balance from the 2025 audit results, the projected fiscal year 26 fund balance is expected to be $31.8 million. We know that our current existing reserve policy requires us to maintain the reserve for 36%. Based on the policy, the reserve calculations are included not only general fund expenditures, but also transfers out to Dorothy Valley Fund. And from this calculation, the required target reserve is $29.4 million. Expected net fund balance of 1.2 and the fund balance from as of July 1 of 2026, beginning of the next fiscal year, we are expecting to end our fiscal year 2027 with about $33 million in the fund balance, which is roughly 4.4% above the targeted reserve of 36%. Okay. I'm moving on to all funds, unless you have questions on general fund.

Any questions on general fund before we move on to the others?

Are we going to leave questions to the end?

Well, let me just go back to the franchise fee one. So none of the, we changed the franchise fee structure. And none of that was in effect in 26.

26 actually was affected as well half of half of the year half of the year. Yeah half of the year about $900,000 that was lost in expected revenue projections.

All right.

Thank you for clarifying that Okay Looking at the old funds I wanted to mention that city operates in about 70 different funds where we record, keep track of different revenue sources and expenditures. Some of those funds are operational special funds, others are non-operational, but required by either law or other regulations to be accounted for separately. The growth in the revenue amongst all of the funds of the city, including general fund, is about $4.2 million. However, if you look at the numbers, we can see that if we exclude general fund, the growth of the revenue is about flat amongst all other funds. Looking at the expenditure side, though, we can see that the expenditures excluding general fund grew at about the same for $4.5 million. However, not grew, sorry, they went down by about $4 million. However, those reduction of expenditures is heavily dependent on the reduction of the volume of the capital improvement program. It doesn't mean that it's less work, it's just the cost of those expenditures are expected to be less than it was in previous years. And the other component of this is a reduction of some of the internal service expenditures, particularly in the estimated cost of the liability insurance for the city. This next slide is representing the changes in our staffing positions. what it was in mid-year, how we ended fiscal year 2025, mid-year of 26, and the preliminary staffing in 2027. The two staffing changes that I want to mention is that the fiscal year of 2026 preliminary budget reflects funding for one additional FTE, and this one additional position is in finance department. for the program CIP program manager. This position is going to be addressing the continuous development of the finance department and its presence as the supporting department for the whole city in managing various operations. And the other change which doesn't result in any changes in the number of FTEs is the reclassification of the recreation technician position into recreation supervisor for the parks and community services. Moving on to our capital improvement program. Our capital improvement program is supported heavily by the transfers in from various funds. We separated this slide specifically to show how much support CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM IS GOING TO RECEIVE FROM THE GENERAL FUND IN FISCAL YEAR 26-27. THE TOTAL SUPPORT FROM GENERAL FUND IS ABOUT 1.4 MILLION. AS YOU REMEMBER FROM PREVIOUS PRESENTATION IN THE LAST MEETING, WE WERE TALKING ABOUT INFRASTRUCTURE MAINTENANCE FUND THAT RIGHT NOW WORKS AS A TRANSITIONAL POINT WHEN GENERAL FUND makes a transfer into that fund, and then later on it moves money into a capital improvement program. And Dorothy Valley makes another contribution, which is also support of a general fund. Overall, the budget, expected budget for the capital improvement programs for the fiscal year 26-27 is 10.2 million, which covers about 32 projects that are going to be undertaken during that year. From this 10.2 million, only about 200,000 coming from grants and other non-city operational funds. The rest of the support comes from various special funds, particularly a big portion of it is a gas tax and other restricted funds, which almost $7.5 million. Development impact fees supporting heavily our capital improvement programs and expected to contribute about $1 million in next year. And some other funds making smaller contributions. And with this, I'm going to transfer to Jennifer to talk about fiscal sustainability.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Evening.

So every opportunity I have, I'm gonna get up here and talk about fiscal sustainability, right? It's part of the job. So on March 24th, we introduced this very high level and simplistic model, highlighting that the city's structural deficit was primarily because expenditure growth of 9% was outpacing revenue growth of 4%. And this model showed that if we were going to achieve a balanced operational budget by fiscal year 35, when Measure N expires, that we would originally need to keep our expenditure growth to 2.3%. And I want to reiterate what Yulia said about staff doing a great job. That 9% expenditure growth was based on the last five years of budgets. And staff this year kept it to 6.6% growth in the general fund, which, given that we were already locked into several contracts, really shows a dedication to all of the changes that we're making and the effort that we're trying to achieve here. So I want to thank them for that. So, but as you can see from this revised model showing the fiscal year 27 preliminary budget numbers, since we didn't hit the target of 2.3% expenditure growth, it means that the resulting outlying years, the expenditure growth is then going to be less, right? If you don't, in your personal budget, if you don't cut enough of your personal budget this year, that means in order to hit your savings target or whatever you're trying to achieve, you have to make greater cuts in the outlying years to make your goals. So I just wanted to remind council and the community that we are continuing in these discussions and these efforts toward financial resilience and fiscal sustainability and remind council that at July 14th that the council meeting will be discussing the long-term financial plan which will show a 10-year forecast and does have really some fantastic complex modeling that I think you'll be able to really dig into and see some You'll be able to feed information into the assumptions that go into the model and you'll be able to do some, we'll actually be able to do some active modeling. So this slide was an attempt again to, we heard that the diverging lines of the last presentation maybe wasn't such a good and effective chart, and so we were trying some other chart models. I'm not sure if we're there yet, but this expenditures trend on the top is just an attempt to show that the green bar is where we were with expenditure growth at 9%, what that growth in expenditures would look like over the 10 years. And the orange and blue columns are where we are trying to contain our costs to. And then on the lower section, the net revenue trends are, the green bars show the deficits that the city would be incurring if we weren't trying to contain our costs, if we were continuing to incur our 9% historical expenditure growth. And really the biggest, I think the biggest takeaways from where we are right now with the fiscal year 27 preliminary budget are, this is kind of our assessment time where we ask ourselves if we're on track. And the answer is a little bit mixed, right? We are on track because we have a balanced budget, right? We're expecting to come in fiscal year 26 with an excess of 2.7 and fiscal year 27 with an excess of a million point two. However, our excess at the end of the year is going down, which means that we are relying more heavily on Measure N this year than we did in fiscal year 26, which is not going in the right direction. If we are going to lessen our reliance on Measure N so that we are operationally sustainable by fiscal year 35 when Measure N runs out, then we need to be having more excess each year as we become less and less dependent on Measure N. Another good thing, as I mentioned before, is the expenditure growth rate was reduced from 9% to 6.6%. You know, staff and council are making great strides towards cost containment, and I think the budget guidelines that were put in place at midyear made a huge difference. And then another downside is unfortunately the situation remains volatile. We had originally at the mid-year for fiscal year 26 expected an excess of $2.9 million. And I think we all saw in the six months since January, five months since January, there were various times when we had different economic factors or different contractual factors going on where that 2.9 was going away, and then it was going up, and then it was going down, and it was going up. So there's just so much volatility still in everything that we're seeing that a million point two is good as a cushion for fiscal year 27, but it doesn't give us a lot of cushion. So that I think is the major takeaway for where we are right now for fiscal year 27. So we wanted to remind everyone that at the next council meeting on May 26th, we plan to bring the full budget document so you will see all of the hard work that Yulia and Michelle Joe, our admin analyst, have put in to putting everything together into its normal format that you are accustomed to seeing. And then we will be recommending adoption of the fiscal year 27 budget at that time. As a reminder to council and the community, we do have resources for our budget process. If you go to sanramon.ca.gov forward slash budget 27, our communications manager, Simone, has done a fabulous job of keeping a kind of a running commentary on our budget process. And there are links right there to all of the previous meetings and information on all the upcoming meetings there. And then as you can see that circled spot, there's the opportunity to subscribe for email updates. And then if anyone has specific comments they'd like to reach out to staff on, I'm so excited this year. We have Yulia Elbow as our budget manager, and this is her email this year, not mine. So that concludes our presentation, but we are happy to receive any questions or comments that you have.

Let me start off and just ask about in the staff packet, you had the a slide for the financial resiliency framework. Can you talk to that framework and the development of that framework, kind of where we are and where we have to go and the timing of getting through that framework and when we'll kind of have a fully fleshed out framework?

Yes, so the financial resiliency framework that you're referring to is attachment F from the staff report. And this is the framework that we laid out to help us walk through the process of making some operational and policy decisions that will help the city get to financial resilience. I tried to frame it as fiscal sustainability is a moment in time when our operating budget is balanced and we are not creating liability somewhere else. But financial resilience is really this set of philosophies and decisions and processes that we build into our organization that helps us to maintain fiscal sustainability. And so on the attachment, there are two bullets that are green, which are the things that we've already accomplished. We've established new and expanded financial norms around communication and timelines of financial documents, which wasn't issued previously. And we established budget guidelines that we now confirm with council before we go to staff and have our budget meetings where we lay out what the expectations are around guidelines. And then in yellow is our in progress Established model for forecasting we have kind of that really high level simplistic one and then we are planning to share out in July That really detailed level fully cooked fully blown out model so we are right on the precipice of being green on that one and then And then the next piece is about this policy discussions. We have several areas that we've mentioned over the last year or so where council has the ability to make decisions around policies and the funding of various liabilities and assets of the city that will inform how we set ourselves up for financial success in the future and how we use our resources. And so those are laid out here in terms of infrastructure maintenance, reserve pension funding, and other post-employment benefits funding. And then in terms of operational discussions, we do still have some items to talk about with regard to how our departments deliver their services to the community and where we might make some operational changes there in order to achieve our fiscal sustainability. And then also revenue generation was another item brought up by council. So in terms of timeline, this is up to council when you would like to hear these things. I can be prepared to present on any of them, but I just need, I know that all of you are very busy, so just getting some dates on the calendar for these.

Okay, all right. Well, thanks for clarifying that and just to give you kind of my feedback from my perspective. I'd like to move quickly on the whole development of the different items in the this financial resiliency framework. I think that's going to help us in the long term, even though it's going to be a little bit hard to maybe for you to prepare and kind of get it all together and for us to meet and talk about these things. But I think the sooner we do it, the better. And that way we're not just reacting to things that we can't control all the time, but we kind of have sort of that framework in place. A lot of things that are happening that kind of We have no control over, but there are some things that we can change, and the sooner we can identify those things, I think the better. So we gotta do everything we can, I think as quick as we can, to reduce that structural deficit, because as you said, we had one prior to Measure N, we still had one last year, and it didn't go in the right direction this year. I mean, without Measure N, we'd have been in tough shape, but that's kind of my, feedback, I'd like to kind of move on some of these things sooner rather than later.

And Mayor, just to comment on that, yes, they are all priorities. We've been talking about them for quite some time. Prior to Jennifer and Yulia coming on board during the financial crisis, we talked about almost every one of these policies in that crisis mindset of what are we going to do to cover this $17 million shortfall? And we did have preliminary discussions about each one, trying to figure out that shortfall. We figured out the shortfall, we received Measure N, and now we have some time to kind of take a little bit of a breath. And as Jennifer and Yulia develop our best practices for budgeting and going through the budget process, now we have time to go through and just logically and thoughtfully address each one of these policies. But I do want to note that at any time, If we do go down a rabbit hole and a certain policy needs that attention, we'll make sure that we give it that attention, inform the council that it might take a bit more time for whatever reason, for whatever policy. That's kind of what's been happening with the budget. We had this vision of, okay, we'll get through last year's budget and we'll tackle all these items by next year's budget or during next year's budget. And as we develop new methods, it's taking a bit more time, and we want to make sure that we're evenly paced. So I definitely hear and I share that we need to get all this done as soon as we can, but also recognizing that we might have hiccups along the way.

Yeah, and I fully appreciate that, but we are two years into Measure N. Yes. Well, really one full year. Yep. Two years past Measure N. And so we don't want to get to the end of Measure N, and we're still working on a resiliency framework. I don't think it's going to take eight more years, but I guess it'll be sooner rather than later. Our decisions on what to do about the future, we need to kind of see the trend sooner rather than later.

I would anticipate that a majority of these policies, again, without any hiccups, should be done by the next budget process kickoff.

All right. Thank you. All right. Questions from council? Okay.

Councilmember Adler Yeah, I'm curious as to how the surplus fits into our long-term scenario obviously we want to have a better than average surplus in in the city and I guess we have we have a Oh, I guess I'm thinking of the ‑‑ well, I guess we have the reserve is pretty good. Is that at 41%? And so when we talk about long‑term, are we able to use any of that when times get tough to ‑‑ and then build it up again? Is that what we did during the crisis we had a couple years ago?

So I think the answer is two‑fold. So with additional resources every year, that money will go into the reserve and then it will be dependent upon what you decide in the reserve policy discussions, how that money is used. And then yes, there is intentionality behind having that excess grow every year, right? And so the amount by which it's going to grow every year is not enough to allow our operations to continue as they are. There's not enough ongoing money, but it will be generating one-time money that council then will be able to allocate to one-time expenditures as you see appropriate. So if you were to have a one-time need come up in the community or a one-time project, there would be funds that you could allocate to that.

Because I think we have a better reserve than average. I mean, what we want is better than a lot of cities, right? And we wanna keep it, we wanna be better in that level of reserves than the average city. But I'm just thinking when times get tough, maybe we can dip into that a little bit. And certainly we don't want to go in the wrong direction, but I'm just thinking that's kind of a tool that we have because of our good planning. We have that money. Maybe there are times when we use a little bit of that and then try to build it back up again.

Yes. From what I've seen, San Ramon does have good reserves, but we have more of a generalized reserve where there's not specific designation for what the resources can be used for. There are other agencies that maybe have lower reserve thresholds, but they have more designations for specific uses. So just something to consider when we have that conversation.

All right. Thank you.

All right. Council Member Rubio or Vice Mayor Rubio.

Don't warming up. I'm kidding. So my question is, so with the excess we have in reserve funds as well as in the... the city reserves in general, is it possible for us to put that money in some way to either invest it so it's growing, so we make that money grow while we have that cushion, or pay off debt with interest so that we can start to kind of clear the way and reduce our overall liability?

So all of the resources the city has, not all of them, but the biggest portion of the resources, with the exception of what we need for operation, is in investment funds. It could be different types of funds. Some of them are more liquid, that we can move money quickly between our checking account, let's say, and very liquid saving account. And other portions are invested in long-term mechanisms that are earning interest.

Right. And I know the ones with the higher interest rate are the longer-term ones. So I'm just wondering if there's some, what your thoughts are, and maybe taking a portion thereof, right, to put it into those longer-term investments, especially as we talk about wanting to close that gap as we near the sunsetting of Measure N. I'm just kind of thinking, is that something you're thinking about, or how do you feel about that?

So all of our available cash is invested in an investment portfolio that is then laddered to maximize the return after safety. And so it's important to remember that the dollars don't belong to a specific fund. So whatever available cash we have on hand is all invested short of what we need for daily operations.

Okay, good. And then... The other thing I had a question about is, you know, even though right now, we may not need it something you know, we have thought about is our property transfer tax. How is that? How does it compare to other cities and where we stand?

So City of San Ramon, being a charter city, is one of those rarer charter city who is receiving only the base portion of the property transfer tax, which is $1.1 on a $1,000 transaction of sales of the property. And that property, that transaction tax is split 50-50 with the county. A lot of the charter cities passed measures where they can receive higher property transfer tax. However, right now, and I don't remember exactly the name of that act.

It's the Local Taxpayer Protection Act.

It's being reviewed, which may result in revoking that ability of our other charter cities to collect that higher level of the property transfer tax. So in that regards, San Ramon is a safety position because we're not going to lose anything. But on the other hand, we were not receiving the higher level of the transfer taxes some of the charter cities did in the past.

And what about similarly with the transient occupancy tax, how does that ours compare to other cities?

At the moment, if you look at the Tri-Valley region, cities of San Ramon, transient occupancy tax is at 7.25%. comparing to Dublin, Livermore, Pleasanton, who has it at 8%. So it's a difference of three quarters of our percent. In addition to the transit occupancy tax, there is another portion that called tourism and something,

Tourism Business Improvement District. Business Improvement District.

TBID.

TBID.

TBID. Which is about the same for all of the cities. And some of the cities are looking in the increase to the transit occupancy tax rate up to, combined with the TBID, to be about 12%. So that's something that possibility for the city of San Ramon. However, there is a... benefit of having it at a lower rate that attracts people to stay in our hotels.

Of course, overall lower cost. So my other question is, I see that there's miscellaneous revenue. Could you expound on what exactly that entails?

The biggest portion of a miscellaneous revenue is our facilities rental revenue that comes from public works and parks and recreation.

Okay. And in terms of, I noticed that for the parks and community services, there's quite a bit investment in there. Is there any wiggle room in there as far as how we can make improvements, or is it just something that is, you know, it's pretty much fixed. It's always kind of been at that level proportionately. You know, of course, costs have gone up. We all understand inflation has kicked in. But in terms of, you know, in absolute terms, in doing your analysis, have you seen any Wiggle room they're in.

I would actually say for parks and community services, there's a little bit less wiggle room because they've been used to a, what is the general fund said to be? 35, 40%. 50%. So when we initially started talking to PCS about their budget, we were talking about, you know, we need you to keep expenditures within X percent, right? Or we need to do trade-offs. And so they were doing that. But then we also said, but we also need you to keep your subsidy to 50%. So there was a lot more discussions with PCS budget staff around that. how they had to rework their programs and their numbers because we're also keeping an eye on the subsidy amount, not just the revenue totals and expenditure totals.

Sure. Okay. So I think I'm just double-checking, making sure I asked all my questions so I don't have to ask any more later. But okay, I think that's it for now. Thank you so much.

All right, thank you. Back down this end, anyone?

Okay.

All right, then I, thank you, Yuliu. I'm gonna open up.

I have questions. You do? Okay.

Sorry.

All right. Thanks for preparation and for great presentation. So the theme is, looks like, thanks to our community for passing Measure N so that we could able to breathe, as our city manager said, we could able to breathe. So thanks to our community on that. Now, as we are continuously seeing that our cost is, our expense is going to be continuously outpace our revenue. So, right, that's what I heard all throughout the conversation. That's what we are seeing, right?

Historically, yes, that's been the case.

Yeah.

Which we're trying to reverse.

You are trying to reverse but I remember one thing that Warren Buffett said that you try to focus on trying to Reduce their expenses while you are already prudent then you're Trying to catch a wrong Issue to address it. So the best way is to address how we can increase the revenue. So that's something that I always Keep in my mind but so with that I Did we explore any other options, like what could be the best way so that we can focus on increasing our revenue? I know we have, we are like so much attached to our property tax and a little bit of sales tax, and do we have any... Ideas, suggestions?

Yeah, the only item that would move the needle in a significant way to try and outpace revenues from expenditures, if you're looking at solely focusing on revenues, would be another revenue measure. There is no other methodology or guaranteed way to bring in more revenue other than going to the voters for some type of revenue measure.

Revenue measure, yeah. So that means... I don't want to read between the lines, but it sounds like Measure N cannot be expired.

Well, I think towards the end of Measure N, what cities do with measure renewals is you go out in year eight and you present to the public, here's the situation and here's what we've done with the money for Measure N. And here are the list of cuts that would need to be made if Measure N does not get renewed. You would go out to the public in year eight and say, here's the situation. And if it passes, then you're good for another length of time. If it fails, then you go out in year 10 for a second try and say, look, this is the additional information or data that you need. and then you go out in year 10, if it doesn't pass, then you're back to, for this community, some very significant cost reductions. I don't wanna throw anything out right now, but... We were, once Measure N was on the ballot for the city and the city had to step back, we couldn't promote, we couldn't talk about Measure N. Quite frankly, we were starting to go through scenarios of, okay, if it doesn't pass, what are the immediate cuts that we need to make? And they're not pretty.

Sounds good. Thanks for clarifying on that. So, now coming back to We used to be around 9% expense, but now we got into 6.6. That shows that our staff and leadership is trying your best to do whatever you can. But then our revenue is still at 3%. Is it at the growth of 3.3 something?

4.3, I think, yes.

4.3, so still there is a gap, right? If we don't figure out how we can add more revenues, that means this will continue to grow. That gap will continue to grow.

One of the ways how we achieved a slower growth in the expenditure expectations for the next year was by approaching the budgeting process, asking our departments to look not in their budget in last year, but in their actual expenditures, where they appeared and what they are. That methodology allowed them to more in-depth analyze what is the service that they provide, how much it costs. And we achieved significant savings already. However, on the revenue side, it's something that often outside of the city's control. And unless, as we've just talked about this, we have another source of the revenue, the revenue sources that we have right now, they are not something that we can easily change.

The example that I love to use with revenue and when people say either sales tax or bring in more businesses, the average car dealership in a city generates about a million a year for that location. So if our gap is four, five, six million, where can we place six car dealerships in San Ramon? There just isn't, there's no retail land available for that. They rely on a freeway presence. And if you drive up 680, we have the lovely berms that hide the development. We have sound walls. It's either residential or business park. That gives you kind of a scale of, okay, when bringing in new revenue like that. what that is. But also, I want to mention about budgeting and forecasting. It very much is a moving target, as we've known throughout the years. You know, it's our best information at the time. But again, you know, I like to point out, and knock on wood, hopefully we never have to do this, but we never fully expend our budget throughout the year. It's what we ARE THINKING THAT WE WOULD BUDGET AND THEN WE TYPICALLY HAVE LEFT OVER MONEY WHICH CARRIES OVER TO THE NEXT YEAR AND IT KEEPS BUYING YEARS. SO RIGHT NOW OUR PROJECTIONS AND WE SHOULD OPERATE UNDER THAT ASSUMPTION THAT THE PROJECTIONS WILL COME IN. I'M COMPLETELY AGREEING WITH YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS HERE OF IT IS DISTURBING TO CONTINUE TO SEE COSTS RISE WITHOUT REVENUE. WHAT'S THE PLAN?

THAT'S MY WORRY. continue to see that gap, right? Even we will run out of the Measure N money, right? So if the 4.4 revenue and 6.6, and after all the efforts our staff took to make sure we reduce all that cuttings and all that, still we are having that gap. So that worries me that where we will land as we keep growing, and eventually after 10 years, forget about getting out of Measure N, We may end up with new measure. That's my worry.

That's why we need to start planning way ahead of time.

And having these discussions. But I also want to point out that this isn't unique to San Ramon. And we're in a very good position compared to where we were. And you can read articles almost weekly about cities that had a reputation of being just flush with cash and doing all these great projects, suddenly they're in large deficits. Because they went through what we went through two years ago, but due to their former revenue situations and what they had, their scale is far more greater. I'm hearing 30, 40, $50 million shortfalls that communities are having to look for. This is a system-wide problem of how communities are funded. More legislation is passed every year or case law comes out from lawsuits that restrict our revenue sources or shopping patterns with online sales. And you can't keep reducing the revenue sources while everyday expenses are increasing the cost of construction and utilities and the cost of living. The math just doesn't math at some point, and you will start to see more and more cities face what we faced two years ago. I don't mean to say that to have any comfort. Well, we got it great, but that's just the new reality of city financing.

Okay, yep. Given with that kind of situation that we may end up, so is there, what strategies are we planning? Do we have something as a council what we can do?

When we bring our modeling in July, we're going to start talking more and more every so often about what are the steps that we can take going forward to balance out our budget. What are the strategies on both revenue and expenditure sides?

Okay. And are we going to review our CAPs today or we don't do it?

Not in more details. We have the attachment to our report with all of the projects that are going to be undertaken unless you have particular questions about any of those projects. We can talk about them.

Okay. So please bear with me. I have to scroll through my old notes.

Okay.

So, by the way, thanks for that CIP presentation. That is so helpful. In the past, it was so confusing. Okay, this project, where the funds are coming from, and all that. So, this helps to easily understand where the park development fund is moving, and that really helps to understand. So, one other thing I see here is DOTI Value Tree Management Program. Prior years, it is 1.6 million, and then in 2020, this is on page seven of 21.

Yeah, I think I saw that.

59 of 81, or 59 of 81, yep.

Yes, are you pointing out that it's now zeros across the board? Yes. At one point, the The schedule was about 1.5 million a year for Doherty Valley Tree. That was a victim of the budget cuts. It is something that it's one of the many pots that we'll present to council if you want to continue putting money into that program. But right now we're more of a reactionary If there is a tree that's causing a particular issue, pulling up water lines or driveways or whatever, we do make sure to take it out. That's still happening. But that's part of what we'll present to council and what we touched on at the last meeting about restructuring our CIP. Is that a CIP or is that ongoing maintenance? So some of the money is still there. It reduced over the years. But we are still doing maintenance on an as-needed basis. We just can't be as proactive as we used to be because the city couldn't afford to drop $1.52 million a year in proactive replacement. Oh, that sounds good.

So that will be more like our OPEX or IMF fund that we will be using for that? Yes.

Okay, that's good. It could be. It could be either infrastructure maintenance or operating. So we will walk the council through as to, okay, what is truly capital, what is operating, and what is infrastructure.

Sounds good. The reason why I'm asking is I don't want to put, say, zero there and then there is a tree which is going to break everything and then make us to spend like a million dollars. Then we are like, oh, my God. So that's why I want to make sure. And then on the pavement, 2026, this is page number 61 of 81. Payment management 2026 prior years five million five point seven so is this is also going to be because of the change in our IMF to Is that the reason I see zero or Some of the payment programs already been taken care of so they will show zero it means the project is not yet closed Okay Okay, I see that it is 2020, because I'm seeing a 2026 to 2027 as zero. But then the next- Next year is gonna be 2028, and it has the budget for the 2028 planned.

Yeah, but then it shows like pavement management 2027, $4.1 million. So that's where it's a little bit confusing. Is it 2026 to 2027?

Or is it going to be only 27 years? So how do we define that?

You're looking at the different funding sources. If you look at the capital budget, Pavement Management 2026 is actually $7.8 million. So it's just you're looking at the different funding sources, and Pavement Management is funded from Vehicle Impact as well as Gas Tax Measure J. So if you look at the capital budget portion, you'll see what it says, actually. That's the actual total expenses. But each project may have various funding sources that make up that project.

So if I see Pave Management 2026, so we allocated total Is it total allocation for 2026 is 5.7 million?

No, it's 2026 pavement management, which is CIP 17. We're adding $800,000, and there's $700,000 that we added during 25-26. So if you look at the capital, I don't know what page that is. Page 61 of 81. Page 61. 51.

No, no, 61.

I know, but if you look at page 51, that's the total, but you're looking at the actual different various funding sources. So gas tax would be showing there versus alternative funding, which is right for you. Perfect, got it. So if you want to look at the total project, you would want to look in the capital budget portion rather than the different funding sources.

Funding sources, okay, perfect, great. So this is a funding source from gas tax and Measure J. SB1, that's good, that's good to know. And then, now on page 62 of 81, I see that line six, citywide electric vehicle charging stations. We spent 258 from our general fund, but if I remember right, we received grants, right?

We received, it was a small portion, it was like a $30,000 grant. Somewhere around in there, if I recall correctly.

Which was already expended, and the general fund is going to fund it for current year.

And also, that's another cleanup item, is once something is complete, then it's going to be out. So showing it with zeros across the board doesn't really make any sense.

unless we get new grants and something?

Well, I would be hesitant to go back into the EV charging station business as a city. We received around a $30,000 grant, but overall the project was about $300,000. So I can tell you how to save $270,000 by not taking the $30,000 grant and doing the EV charging stations. That's being taken care of by the private sector. There's multiple EV chargers going up everywhere. and now we have to maintain them, and it's a cost. It is nice to have, but that's something that, should we have a grant opportunity in the future, we would bring it before council for consideration.

Yeah, sounds good. And also, it is not cheap, actually. I don't know. We are spending all our money, but then anyway, the private sector, they're more competitive than...

There's chargers going up everywhere, yeah.

So that sounds good. And the next, on the item eight, citywide intelligent transport system upgrade. This one, I thought we, when we got earmark of $2 million for our fiber optic from Congressman Dissonier. So, are we, I didn't see that item, but I remember this item was connected to that item. We wanted to first get the fiber optics done, then we wanted to implement this one. So... But I don't see any allocations for that item.

I believe that's number 13 under projects that will be undertaken. Is that what you're referring to?

I'm looking at us. Page 62 of 81. Oh, there is a.

Summary page 50.

Page 50?

50.

Okay. Let me quickly take a check. What number?

Page 50.

Or maybe 49.

Okay. Page 14. I believe we're in the process of receiving. or we've already received the other two million, but we also had DeSaunier submit another earmark request for another two million to complete the fiber optic network. So that project, the fiber optic network is somewhat merged with the ITS program. Because the ITS program was different. It was the cameras, and we're using the fiber optic to connect the cameras. So it was kind of merged with the earmark requests. So both are still happening. It's just at different phases as we get the funding. So which one, which CIP is that one?

It's a CIP number.

Oh, yeah, I think page 49 of 81. Yeah, page line 13. 13, citywide intelligent transportation system upgrade 2.5. Yeah, makes sense. Okay, perfect.

I think Amy has some more information.

That $2 million is shown as prior year funding for the grant. And we just finalized the grant agreement. So we are actually starting with the environmental work on that. So it's part of that project. And then we'll be looking for additional funding as Yeah, once we go. But it's already in there because we got the award of the grant a year and a half ago. So it was delayed because the federal government had a freeze on issuing any federal grant, any funds. So we just actually executed and Stephen signed the agreement. So we're now getting underway with doing the environmental.

I would say a general rule of thumb now with earmarks is once you hear that one has been actually through the process and awarded by the federal government, it's probably a year or two until you see any money with the various systems that it has to go through, which is a little frustrating.

We have three grants that are federal that we're just now getting underway with getting because it got released to be able to disperse.

And just for clarification, same on page 49 of 81, the Bartlett Pier Park that is coming from the Park Development Fund, right? So just to make sure.

Well, Bartlett Pear Park, I believe that's being funded by the developer. So that's another clarification that we have in future CIPs. If it's funded by a developer, I wouldn't even hold that number as the actual cost for development of the park since the developer is funding it. That represents more of the credit that they received rather than an actual expenditure. So we're going to clear that up as well.

Yeah. Otherwise, if someone look at it and we are spending $4.5 million for a park, that's not a good thing. Okay. Also, I think even the Crow Canyon, this is page 50 of 81 on Crow Canyon road widening. Even if I remember right, that came from Doughty Valley Fund. Page 50 of 81. Yep. Okay, so just want to make sure that we are not taking our general fund or any of our money for this. Oh, please make sure. Sorry. I'm right.

The Crow Canyon widening is one of the projects that is supposed to be funded from the Southern Contra Costa Joint... JEPA. JEPA. We call it JEPA. It's the regional fees that are traffic fees that are funded through that. So it's no other part of the city funds paid towards that. So the first phase was all funded through that and we're required to... Build that through the MOU agreement, and the second phase will start in two years to do the design for it. But there's funding is, it's not warranted right now to do the whitening for that second portion. But it's only JIPA funded. So if you look in the funding course sheet, you'll see it's just there.

Perfect. Because people keep asking us, at least for me, that, hey, why we are spending these many millions of dollars when we are going through these challenges? Yes. on these roads when we see these are beautiful roads, right? So people need to understand that, that we are not using our general funds for that. And I'm glad to see the shared structures improvement. This is one of major requests that we always get from our seniors. It's not big, but still, whatever we can do, that's great. On page 52 of 81. Item 58, Shade Structures. That's good.

And what else? And Council Member Varos, we do have a chart in there that says Capital Improvement Program for five years that is general fund funded. So if you do have any questions about what is the city spending general fund money on, you can actually refer people to that chart.

Only those are the ones, yeah.

Yes, those are the general fund funded projects.

That's why I really like this presentation. This is really good. It is so easy to understand where the fund is coming from and all that.

Yes.

Okay, so this, okay, this is, these are the questions. Now, I'm definitely looking forward for the July meeting. Okay, so those are my questions. Thanks.

All right, thank you. We'll come back here to Vice Mayor Rubio.

I just wanted to quickly clarify something. As Councilmember Farros was talking about, In terms of, I just want the public to understand the undertaking we are really trying to achieve because even with the 1% tax, which puts us at 9.75, we are still a full half cent below all of the tri-valley cities, including Pleasanton, Livermore, and Walnut Creek. We are a larger city at it right now with all the development we had. We haven't had a census done. but best guess is nearing 90,000. And even Danville, uncertain, depending on specific addresses and locations, has 9.75 in some areas. And Concord as well, as does Walnut Creek, again. So I think that what I'm trying to say is it's quite admirable that we're trying to really work WITH SOMETHING SUBSTANTIALLY LOWER DESPITE THE SIZE OF THIS CITY. AND THE GROWING PAINS THAT WE ALL HAVE TO DEAL WITH AS THE CITY MENTION THE CONTINUOUS UNFUNDED MANDATES FROM THE STATE. THE STATE HAS A DEFICIT, SO THEY PASS IT ON TO THE CITIES, AND THE CITIES HAVE TO ABSORB THAT COST. AND SO I THINK SOMETIMES AS THE CITY MANAGER WAS MENTIONING, THIS IS SOMETHING THAT MANY CITIES ARE GRAPPLING WITH, BUT REMARKABLY, DESPITE ALL OF THAT, WE REALLY ARE WITH WHAT WE HAVE, WE'RE REALLY Doing a heavy lift is what I'm saying. So I just wanted to make sure to provide clarity on that That was it. Thank you. And thank you for your presentation All right.

Thank you. If there's no more questions, we will open up public comment Thank You, Yulia, we may have more for you in a moment First speaker, please.

Our first speaker is Jim Blickenstaff

Good evening, Council Members. Just a brief take, my take on the budget. Staff does a lot of good detail work, balancing things and breaking it down. And so you have to be impressed with the response that staff gives you. I wanted to look at it from a different perspective. Because as you know, there's going to be other hits from other sources like the state, the county, feds, and that could be a hardship for the city. And the state is raising, wants to raise their sales tax, the total tax to... What I am saying is a lot of jurisdictions seem to want to go to the sales tax as the solution for long-term debt. That is something you want to be a little careful about because it is a regressive tax. It ends up, even though you get groceries without sales tax, with everything else you buy, it ends up being a tax that hurts the middle class and small guys more than the upper class. So I'd like to just say, kind of understand the dynamics going on here in terms of housing. Because as you may know, housing is a net loser in taxes. So when you replace retail commercial businesses and just replace it with housing, that can be harmful to your overall budget picture because it has the effect of not bringing the same revenues in as retail and other things. So just if you're aware of that, that's all. I'm not saying you can solve this problem necessarily, but when there's an opportunity to do something anytime, entertainment, retail, commercial, that would be a net benefit probably for planning, but also for the city budget. So it's unfortunate that we have the state demanding all this housing from the city, and it puts you in a real tough spot with going downhill. And long-term, that's my overarching view of a thing that contributes to the deficit. So I'd like to kind of get a better picture of what there can be done as an alternative to a sales tax. So looking down the road, we don't go to that one more time to solve the problems because that's not really a fair, it's already too high. And it's not really a fair tax to the average citizen and the poor people that have to deal with it. So that's just my look at the future and things that we have to be aware of. So thank you very much.

All right, thank you. Next speaker, please.

Pascales Datros.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, city staff. I'm going to try to simplify a little bit in my mind how I communicate what I just saw. I saw a lot of numbers, and I saw that in the next nine years, there's another measure that is going to take effect, meaning I saw the increase every single year. I saw the increase in expenses, lowering revenue. And in this presentation, I didn't see, and I think it comes from the perspective as a business owner, I didn't see ways how we counterbalance expenses with revenue. We just saw expenses, expenses that every single year increase. And what expenses does, and they increase, it put pressure. It put pressure to you to sign, whatever comes in front of you, to sign things that you have to decide if it's right or wrong. But at the same time, I feel that presentations like this should include a little bit more how to increase revenue in this city, how to build... a revenue stream, not just what expenses we have. We cannot just talk for next year. We're going to have another decrease in revenues. We're going to have more expenses and try to figure out then or to talk to July for another model and figure out what can we do better. I think what can we do better should be a conversation that should have happened last year. Because these are data information that exists for the finance department to take effect and reconsider. So this is one of the things. The second thing is, one of the lowest numbers that I saw in this presentation was the investment income, which shows on 1.2%. If we're looking as a city how to develop to increase revenue, I think the investment income should be one of the high points as to how the city actually does move money and build that kind of infrastructure. increase let's say 1.2 is an extremely i found it extremely small so that's from me so i think having this information on this financial report will be very good for us to see it and second of all investments that happen through the city's funds really needs to be transparent and shows how it's been done and why it's that low thank you very much all right thank you johannes tiller hunt

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council Member, Chief of, sorry, I've lost my voice, I apologize. Today, unfortunately, I'm gonna repeat what everyone has said, but the message has been said, especially by you, Council Member Veroz. Listening to you was very interesting. There's a lot of things I don't agree. I don't agree. Nothing against them. It's not up to them. By the way, I wouldn't give your email to someone like me. You'll be bombarded by emails. Let me give you five points. Revenue. Let's start with revenue. There's a favorite chart that I have by Jennifer where it shows the 10-year, and then the 10 years become zero. Well, I don't know if she made changes to it, but it's the same thing that I saw in March. As you all know, I haven't been here in almost two months. I was sick. So to me, it seems like Measure N is a temporary solution. Yes, it is, but what are we going to do about it? You said it. Either we have to increase the revenue or cut expenses. And I don't hear any of that. This is not an option. Revenue increase, how are we going to do it? Steve said revenue measure. I don't know what that means, but I hope it doesn't mean tax increase. Oh, my God. I mean, people will revolt. Because on November, we have measure B from Contra Costa that we have to vote on that's going to affect us. I love the idea. I didn't know a car dealership brings in a million a year. What's the issue? Is it legal? I'm sure Martin will find something that puts us right. But we've got to creatively think of revenue increase. Not thinking about it is not an option. Not only that, cutting expenses. Jennifer said two words, fiscal sustainability, which I think she will achieve it over 10 years. But the one thing I don't like is cost containment. No, we don't want cost containment. We want cost cut. You've got to cut costs. Think of it. What if this was a private sector, a private equity or a hedge fund comes and tells all of you to cut $2 million? You'd be surprised how fast you'll cut the costs. Unless you find a way, increasing the revenue or cutting costs, I just don't see how you're going to fix that spreadsheet that she created. I really don't. Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Oh, sorry, sorry. I have a, oh, it's over, sorry. It's 1.1. Make your point.

Yeah, go ahead. Make your point.

Okay, just for what you just said. Sorry, I lost my thought of train. It's okay. Oh, yeah, I remember. What I was going to tell you was that, yes, you spoke about the investment. Right question. Right now, we're earning 11% of it for the last two years. If the market tanks were screwed, sorry, I didn't mean to use that word. You know what I mean.

Yeah. All right, thank you. Next speaker, please.

There are no more speakers, and we did not receive any written public comment.

All right, great. All right, any final comments from council?

I just want to...

I'll start down here.

Yeah, but thank you for the presentation. I just... One question that came to my mind, I think it was maybe... When... When did... the proposal for Costco come to the city, if ever?

I think I was in grade school. It was widely talked about, and legend has it, because now it is somewhat legend, that Costco proposed several sites. The city couldn't come to an agreement, so they settled right on the border in Danville. Okay, okay.

My point there was, we talk about other ways to raise revenue and taxes, etc. Some cities, they look to ways of- Attract. What's that, sorry?

Attract big retailers.

Attract retailers or maybe look at industries, right? I think one of the key things we don't want to do is start providing, how can I put this? alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, so these establishments that really cater to more vice where you start to, because those jump revenue exceedingly high. And I don't think that's what the city wants to do. But if I look at, the number of parks we have, when I look at the number of services, what do cuts there look like? Because we have a lot of parks and a lot of the increase from what I saw last year seems to be going to maintenance of parks, maintenance of, and I'm not saying get rid of parks, So nobody throw a fit. I'm trying to make a point that if we're looking to cut services, the last place I want to cut is safety. But what would it look like for the city itself if we were to cut these services? What would be the first moment? Where do you start to triage? Because there was a comment And I've worked in the private sector, and you're right, Yohannes, like what happens when somebody comes in and says cut two million? The first thing you do is you look at where the cost centers are and you look at what happens when you cut those. And that's my first, that's just a thought, but I wanted to compliment you guys because i've been looking at budget over the past year we all have and it's not done in a vacuum and i've sit on the finance committee along with the mayor and it you know we trust we believe what you guys are doing is you guys are doing things the right things so and thank you to the staff and and the departments that are reporting because it from a couple of years ago there's been uh exceeding improvement and i i want to say something to the public as well that if you're out here today making comments and you're criticizing the in a good way critiquing critiquing is a better word it means you're you're doing your job because you are uncovering a lot of nuances that hasn't come up before, and this is a good thing that we're doing. So thank you for that. Thank you. I appreciate it.

And to answer your question about what would you look at for the cuts directly, we would present a suite of options to the council, and they would all be very painful to the public. We did that two years ago. Sure. I would categorize it as very much not enjoyable to do so. I don't want to even hazard to throw out some of the suggestions because they are very impactful to the community. Every cost cut is a service that residents enjoy. We don't have any services that we provide that no one utilizes or enjoys. We've already found those efficiencies and cut them way back. I do want to point out about retail. The crisis that this city was facing at one point, and we don't talk a lot about history, it's moving forward, but at one point in our time, prior to the city core plan, which is, that's what we're calling now, it used to be city walk, or you can call it orchards, but prior to the city core plan, with the state requiring us to zone for housing, we were zoning over our commercial centers for housing. You will see that some of our neighbors are losing their retail centers and they're building housing because there is nowhere else to put it. So at one point we had our retail centers zoned for housing that led to some of the current projects that you're seeing right now with some retail centers, I'll point out the marketplace. But once the city planned for development of the core, we were able to draw back much of that zoning over retail to preserve what little retail we have. Now, in addition to that, in the core area, city center is 300,000 square feet of new retail. Now, it may not be to everybody's taste or liking. They didn't get a particular store. But within the core, in addition to that 300,000 square feet for the city center, there's about another 170,000 square feet of retail coming in. So we are planning for new retail. and it will be smaller than what you're seeing at the city center. So it'll be smaller restaurants, smaller places to shop, catering to a different crowd. So I think we really dodged a very dire scenario for retail in San Ramon. We don't have a lot of retail. We were planned as a bedroom community by the county prior to becoming a city. So we have to preserve what little retail space we have you can't attract big box stores or car dealerships if you don't have the space. So we'll be talking more about the core and messaging it to the community and some of the benefits of what's coming. But I think we're in a better situation and I wouldn't categorize our current financial situation as dire. We're just being thoughtful and having these conversations that we didn't have historically as a city that led to a very shocking moment that you're seeing in other communities. We're going to say, here's what the projections show. It will be a moving target. We're going to eke out as many years possible as we can with the funding that we have. But right now it's prudent to show a very conservative. And when you're conservative fiscally, you're showing worst case scenarios.

I want to make a comment regarding the cuts that you brought up and something that when I looked at pet counter employees etc and one of the dangers that I believe we don't want to fall in is you start cutting staff and start cutting folks out because then if you cut somebody that's responsible for let's say services and those services start to go down then you have a death by a thousand paper cuts then you have to for example, a park or for example, a maintenance of a facility, then operation costs go high just to maintain that because we cut staff. And so that's something that I don't want to see. But again, But great job, great presentation. I really appreciate it all around. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Mayor.

Council members, I just wanted to follow up on your Costco comment. As we have talked, and many times it's interesting, just as we have more conversations, the dialogue and the points that we come across are getting more and more refined. Finally, shout out to Joe in streets department. We had a wellness event and I was talking to Joe from streets and he was talking to me about his history with the city and he was really sharing about how we're kind of finally reconciling with these land use decisions that were made decades ago in San Ramon and how that creates the picture of how we finance our city today and what options that presents us. And that kind of changed my framing of what we're doing today. But it's just fascinating how we're getting information from different sources and how it revises the picture and what we're talking about. But I did already talk to the city manager this afternoon and with Yulia about how our next steps after wrapping up the fiscal year 27 budget is to start working on 28. We know that there are a lot of preparatory conversations we need to have internally with the departments. in addressing the operational aspects of what does department programming look like next year and in years after, and what do the revenue options look like. And in order to have those items queued up for council discussions in the coming months, we need to start that work sooner than later.

Thank you.

All right. We'll come down to Vice Mayor Burroughs' closing comments on this.

Thanks for the presentation. Thanks for public comment. As a previous or last year Chair of Finance, one thing I would like to mentioned about our investments. All our investments are transparent and it is available in, it is published during our financial committee reviews. Those are all available online. And also, five years back, I asked to, why don't we look into investing into Bitcoin? I mean, we wish we should have done, but that time I was taught that, At that time, I was taught that we have a principle that is a guidelines framework that we use, that is all our investments follow safety, protecting public funds and preserving principle is the highest priority. And then liquidity, ensuring sufficient cash flow is available to meet city's operational needs. The third one is yield and return. Earning a reasonable mark return only after safety and liquidity needs are met. And our staff don't manage these investments. It is managed by FHN Financial Ministry. So they are the one who are accredited finance advisors. Okay, so I'm sure we have a lot of amazing people in the city who are pretty good finance investors, but then these are the reasons that we need to follow the guidelines and it is a public money. If my money, I would have definitely invested at that time in Bitcoin. which would have solved a lot of our problems. But anyway, so there are certain, I just wanted to give you an idea, like there are certain rules and regulations because of which we cannot do the things that we wanted to do on the risk that we can take. And it's not our staff decision to put which stock we are buying, which stock we are not buying. No, it's not our staff decision. So we go through this very well accredited, well-known accredited organization. So once again, I'm looking forward for our July meeting. Definitely want to see the model and I want to see how we can work together to see we can get a better in this whole or all gap. And thanks to staff for working hard and getting that 9% to getting to 6.6. We want to see where they both align and continue in the same line. There should be no gap between that. That will be our aim, at least for next few years. And after that, hopefully it will be a K shape. Okay, thanks.

All right, let's come down here to Council Member Adler.

Yeah, I've just got to ask this question along the lines of what Council Member Viveros had asked about the investments. Because I helped my sister manage her investments, and we have a big company. But they move things around. as One area of the world gets better and so they shift money around and look for the better investments I'm just wondering do we feel like we are doing the best job with the investment income? You know III know things can be moved around. I mean, so I don't know anything about, you've probably met with some of the people because, you know, the world has always changed. The economic world is changing all the time. So I'm assuming they're moving the money around, not just leaving it in one place, you know.

Correct. Yeah, Meter Investment Advisor are actively managing our investments. And so on a regular basis, they're buying and selling different investments based on the biggest thing is keeping compliance with the California government code, which is very restrictive about what we can be invested in and in what portions of our portfolio. Making sure that we're compliant with that and then also trying to maintain the laddering and maximize yield.

Okay. I forgot about the California rules. That's a little different than a private person would have to deal with. All right. Thank you.

And also I'd like to point out that Jennifer is the now past president of GFOA? No.

Past president of California Society of Municipal Finance Officers.

Why did I say GFOA? CSMFO. CSMFO. Yeah. All right.

Vice Mayor Rubio.

That's good, a good tad bit piece of information, thank you. So I just wanted to say, of course, echo what's already been said, and so I'll keep it brief, and just wanna say thank you for what you've done. I know as serving, I served alongside Councilmember Varos as Vice Chair last year and we talked about where we were putting on our investments and talking about, you know, we obviously all understand we have to diversify our investments for various reasons to also spread risk and make sure there's some more secure bonds and things that we're doing to make sure we're solvent and as was mentioned earlier, we don't hit a sudden tank no matter what happens in the stock market. So So those are really important things to do and I really appreciate that you also met us at that level. We wanted that detail and we asked for it and you provided it to us to give us better clarity of how we're managing our money and making it and talking about growth and investments. That's a that's all I just want to say thank you both to both of you. I've known I know this has been There's a lot of hours and hard work behind everything here.

So thanks All right, and then I'll I'll just close out I'll just invite the public to take a look at that little stuff back and look at that financial resiliency framework because a lot of the comments we heard tonight, you know that there are things that we're gonna talk about. And when we get down to the policy discussions, we're gonna talk about the reserve policy and other policies, pension funding policy, OPEB, other post-employment benefits funding policies, as Jennifer mentioned. And then we're also going to have a whole discussion on revenue generation. And that's part of this upcoming resiliency framework that's going to be developed. So we'll have these conversations. So it's, yes, we're not, we've got to pass a balanced budget right now. But we are going to have these discussions and keep an eye on the future as well. Um, so I, I would just want to talking about the reserve policy that I just mentioned. Um, I, I, I do think that's one of the ones we want to prioritize as well because, you know, it's 30, 36% is our, is our target. Uh, we've exceeded that, you know, actually for the last couple of years. Uh, and I, I, I'd like to maybe have you consider, when we talk about the reserve policy, maybe something like I recently saw in Fremont. They've got this thing that they call a budget uncertainty reserve. And so that helps them to kind of get through some of the bumps in the financial markets or in the marketplace. But they have their general fund reserve, but they also have this thing called a budget uncertainty reserve, and maybe that's something we can look at, too, along with other options as we review our reserve policy. But for tonight, I just want to commend, you know, Yulia and Jennifer and all the department staffs. I think you've done a great job. You submitted budgets that I think were leaner than in the past. We've cleaned some things up, and I appreciate that, and I do think the process has been pretty solid this year, and very good detailed information. I know for the public you're seeing PowerPoint slides, but again, I invite you to read the staff packets and look at the detail that the staff has put together on the last few budget presentations. A lot of good information in there, and I think it's being presented in a way this year that I think is a lot, a lot clearer and more understandable. Uh, so again, thank you. And, uh, good job. And with that, I'm going to close out this item. Um, I I'm willing to continue on, but does any council member want to take a break or are you ready to drive on with 9.2?

Let's keep going because there's people waiting. I know that much. Okay.

All right. Then anyone object to that? All right. So we'll move on to Item 9.2. This item is the... All right. We've got two resolutions to consider. One is approving the display of the Disability Pride flag. The other one is a resolution to approve display of the American 250 flag. And we've got a staff report by our city clerk, Jones Nashall.

Well, good evening, Mayor and Council Members. The City Council is being asked this evening to consider two requests, one from Vice Mayor Rubio to display the Disability Pride flag and one from Mayor Armstrong and Council Member Jwainet to display the America 250 flag during the month of July 2026. So if approved, the flags would be flown on the city's commemorative flagpole located on the corner of El Costa Boulevard and Bollinger Canyon Road and displayed on the city hall marquee. So staff is just asking for review and direction on how you would like to proceed.

Okay, questions on the staff report. Let's just start with questions.

Yeah, so we want to... Is it like we want to do both flags to fly in month of July? But if we have the commemorative flag poll, how we are going to do both flags? So is it like we want to split half-half or how we want to do that?

I think that's the discussion we need to have.

Yeah, it is possible, but we have to make an ask to bypass the current policy because technically i mean we we can do whatever we think is right we can put two flags on a flag post okay so two flags on a flagpole is also an option that we can do right but we we have to make that ask to to ask for that and agree to that okay it's surprising that um in previous meetings i heard that we should not

have any other flag than US flag, and suddenly I see this 250-year flag coming into the picture. Okay, there is improvement. I appreciate that.

And we could technically, we could put on the same flag post the commemorative pole, or you could have one of them in front of the commemorative 251, because it's a government one, put in front of the city hall, and the other one on the flag pole.

Oh, no, no, sorry. Could you please repeat that? So, I mean, we're getting into the discussion on options already.

His options, that's what I'm clarifying. I'm not going to discuss any more right now.

Yeah, because I'd rather kind of get through the public comment and then discuss our way forward with how we want to do this because we have options.

Right.

So, okay. I'll open the public then.

Other questions really on what we're trying to accomplish here.

Okay. So, do you have any more questions?

No. All I have is I hope you want to proceed. That's the only thing that I want to talk about.

Okay. So, I don't have any questions. Okay.

I have comments, but I think the public should.

All right. Let's go ahead and open up public comment, and then we'll get into our discussion and figure this out. Okay.

Our first public speaker is Catherine Grace.

Good evening, counsel.

I am a...

I am a proud member or resident of San Ramon and I'm here to ask you to adopt resolution 2026-54 to fly the disability flag in July. If you can only fly one flag, and it sounds like maybe you can fly two, but if you could only fly one, this is the one, recognizing the tremendous courage and the contributions that people with disabilities show and contribute to our beautiful city. There are two reasons I was asking for that. If at this time we can fly only one flag, it's right that the resolution that was put forth first be the one selected. Second, we already have the perfect commemorative flag celebrating our 250 years as a republic. This beautiful red, white, and blue flag, which I have loved and revered since I was a little girl, is the only flag we need commemorating our 250th birthday. It's a grand flag. We can continue to take pride in our very special pennant and all that it symbolizes. I understand the impulse to do something special and extra at this year. I have a daughter who was born 50 years ago. She's almost a centennial baby, bicentennial. And I realize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And Mr. Mayor, I hope you'll forgive me, but the flag you proposed is not a beautiful flag to me. It looks like a flag of mourning with its black ground, and it has very little of the vibrancy of the stars in the red and the white and blue. So I hope you'll forgive me for differing with you on that. It doesn't seem as representative of the values of our flag. I have looked at a number of other 250 flags. There is one that has, it's very like ours, but it has we the people in the font of the Constitution. And I think that would be a better one if we're going to fly one like that. one that celebrates the freedoms and values I was taught over 70 years ago to prize in our country's standard. I hope you'll choose to honor the great courage of our families, friends, and neighbors living with disabilities while saluting daily our proud red, white, and blue on the city's tallest flagpole. Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Sue Bach.

First, I'd like to thank the public works department. Keeping our streets nice and everything is so very nice in this city. Well taken care of. So good evening mayor and city council members. Instead of talking about climate, like I usually do when I come up to this podium, I'm here to express my support for flying the pride flag at City Hall alongside the commemorative United States 250th American flag. This year, our nation celebrates 250 years, a milestone that calls us to reflect on the promise of the heart of America that all people deserve dignity, freedom, and the right to belong. A promise has never been easy or automatic. It has been built generation by generation by communities who asked to be seen. The pride flag is one of those stories. It represents our LGBTQ neighbors, coworkers, students, veterans, and those with disabilities and families who call San Ramon home. Flying it here at this building says something simple and powerful. You are part of the community. You matter here. These two flags do not compete. They belong together. The 250th anniversary flag reminds us of the ideals we're striving for. Both deserve respect. Both deserve to fly. San Ramon has always been a city that looks forward I ask this council to affirm that spirit, to let both flags rise together as a symbol that our community is big enough for everyone. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Sue. Next speaker, please.

Larry Brickell.

Good evening and thank you for your time tonight. My name is Larry Brickell and I'm speaking in support of flying both flags to commemorate both the 250th anniversary and also to commemorate pride and disability community. Both represent freedom. Both in a way represent the same thing. The United States flag, the 250 flag, is representing a country that was based on inclusivity and freedom. The pride flag recognizes freedom of a marginalized community. Both are essentially saying the same thing, one very broadly, one about a specific community. both need to fly, they can fly on the same flagpole or separate flagpoles, but they both need to fly this month because this is the appropriate time of year for both events, which really in a lot of ways are the same thing. So thank you for your time.

All right, thank you.

Next speaker.

Alex Rubio.

Good evening city council and city staff. I'm asking to fly the disability pride flag. As a person who lives with disabilities and was bullied during my junior high years to sophomore year, I can say that people with disabilities are oftentimes put aside. I believe that it is vital to uplift and empower the voices of the most vulnerable and marginalized communities. It is crucial that the disabled community feel seen, heard, and represented. It is also very important to ensure that we are inclusive of all people. It is also pivotal to recognize the contributions and accomplishments that individuals with disabilities have achieved. I hope you will con you will choose to fly the disability pride flag.

Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Next please.

There are no more speaker cards, but we did receive written public comment from Debbie Toth on behalf of Choice in Aging, on Ogie Stragatz on behalf of Invisible ReSisters, Contra Costa, and Lift Up Public Schools, Kaylin Farris on behalf of California Siblings Leadership Network, Laura Bratt, and Julie Blinston. And those are in front of you and also in the red binder in the back of the room.

Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. So now it's time for discussion. And just kind of remember, we have an existing policy. We've got a request for two flags. We might be able to come up with a solution where we satisfy the request for flying both the flags. In fact, I'm not sure they're... I'm not sure anyone, I won't speak for you guys, but I'm not sure anyone has a desire not to fly both flags, but it's just a question of how would we fly both flags, the timing of it and the location of it and that sort of thing. So I think those are the things I think we need to hammer out here, but you all have your own opinions on this and I want to kind of hear what everybody's got to say. I have my own thoughts on this as well. I just want to start off and thank you for the public comment.

I reiterate what I said in the past. I still believe that the flagpole should only be, should only raise three flags, no other flag for precisely this reason for content neutrality and we have to pick sides. choose which voices to uphold etc and it's a very difficult decision I'd much rather be up here talking about policy that helps advance the lifestyles of the disabled rather than discuss a flag, quite candidly. I don't know which one's more valuable to the public, having better crosswalks, having better signals, having better access for our disabled community, or talking about a flag. I don't know. The fact that we're here talking about it To me, it's bizarre, but that's okay. Notwithstanding, I am empathetic with the community, and flying both flags seems reasonable to me. What do you fly first? Do you pick the first half of the month of July because it's the 4th of July and the birthday, and the latter half? I don't know. But something we should figure out. But according to the policy, I don't think we could, and I know what Vice Mayor said, I wouldn't fly both flags in the same poll at the same time. Optically, that doesn't look good. But maybe we could discuss and see what the other members think. Fly which one first and second.

All right, thank you. Okay. Great.

Thanks for actually requesting this, both flags to fly, because the first one, 250 years, definitely that is inclusion for everyone. Everyone is included in that. For me, it's our 250 years. We should celebrate. It's a great thing. We should, as a community, should get together and celebrate that 250 years of freedom. At the same time, I think we should celebrate our disabled pride flag because that shows that we are inclusion community. So what I think, this is just my thinking at this point is that how about we fly 250 years flag on our main pole under our US flag and then use commemorative flagpole for disability flag. because 250 years is, I know we don't want to be in the past, we said we don't want to fly any flag on our main pole, but this is definitely a very important occasion that happened after like in 250 years, right? And as I said, this flag is inclusion of everyone, like disabled, race, ethnicity, you speak gender, like every kind of, diversity is part of the inclusion into this America 250 flag. So I think we can look at, that's my thinking. Please let me know if that's something can be possible where in the, just to, I'm repeating one more time that in our main flagpole, we can have U.S. flag under that, we'll have 250 years flag. And then on commemorative flagpole, we can have disability pride flag. That's so that we can celebrate both.

Okay. All right. Let me come down to council member Adler.

Yes, Council Member Burroughs, I think that's an interesting idea. I hadn't even thought of flying the 250 flag beneath the American flag. I just think it's so important that we have a unifying flag. As you've said, we have a great country. We've had issues, but we have done amazing things as a country. And we have to recognize those who gave their lives for our wonderful country. And that's what I think the flag is. And I think the 250th anniversary is something we should be proud of and continue to want to strive to be better. The other thought I had, and... is I know that July is the most common time for the pride flag or the disability flag to be displayed, but I know that disability pride parades are held throughout the year to celebrate. I know Los Angeles County has historically declared October as Disability Pride Month. So maybe to think about that possibility where you, if we're not going to fly the 250 below the American flag, that maybe we can consider that as a possibility because then it's its own month and we could commemorate that maybe October for our city as commemorating disability pride.

So that's another thought that I had.

Thank you.

All right. May I say something?

Well, it's your turn.

Oh, I didn't know. I was just going to say, I'm like, but I appreciate. Actually, what Council Member Vero said was the second option I mentioned that we could do is just have, because we have all our government flags in front of City Hall, it just makes sense that if we're going to have a commemorative government flag, that it should be with our other government flags in a visible way in front of City Hall. Um, the disability pride flag is, is, is strictly celebrated in July and Los Angeles does celebrate it in July. Just so you know, um, I know there's a little confusion sometimes October. It's a different awareness, um, type of month, but it is, uh, the disability pride month is in July and both Los Angeles county and long beach. celebrate July, put it on July 8th, 2020, like they started doing it on July 8th of 2024. So also, all of the regional centers across California have them in front of their buildings, and those are government buildings. Clayton has, for example, in April, they have something different that's an autism awareness flag. So just from, I mean, I think there's a very obvious sort of objective solution that makes logical sense for me, at least, is that We keep the commemorative government flag in front of the main flagpole in front of City Hall, and we place the disability pride flag, which is to acknowledge, frankly, it's kind of interesting because part of every day that we do our Pledge of Allegiance, we say, and justice for all. And that's what disability pride is about. It's about bringing justice. And these people are still fighting for that today. I know because I lived it 30 years with my daughter. And to this day, we're still fighting for things. And disability is something that affects all of us eventually. Maybe not now, but I guarantee you will be there. And so it's not just some. It's actually all of us. And I think it's really important to remember that they're probably one of the most vulnerable community members, many of who cannot speak up for themselves for various reasons and defend themselves. And this is just about acknowledging their dignity, that their visibility, so that we as San Ramon become a society that is an example of inclusion, and also supporting our most vulnerable community members. One in four US adults, over 70 million people have a disability. That's staggering. That's not a little number. And in particular this year, the Disability Pride Month theme is the world works better with us. And it's a statement about inclusion, where when people with disabilities are included, respected, and supported, communities work better for everyone. That includes schools, workplaces, healthcare, transportation, and public life. And it's also celebrating their disability identity and community and recognizing their culture and leadership. And it's also celebrating the enactment of the ADA Act in 1990. You know, this is something that while to us may seem trivial to those people, those community members, it means everything, you know? And I don't think people really understand how hard these children are constantly bullied. throughout school, roughly two to three times more likely to experience bullying and abuse compared to their peers, often resulting in emotional, academic, and physical consequences. Roughly 40% of children with disabilities experience peer bullying, which can include physical violence, social exclusion, and harassment. And they also face significantly elevated risk of suicidal ideation attempts and death compared to their peers without disabilities. Research indicates that youth with disabilities are three to six times more likely to report suicide attempts with some studies highlighting up to 42% of children with intellectual neurodevelopmental disabilities experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors. And the list goes on and on. And I think that one of the things we should also recognize in individuals with developmental disabilities especially, I don't know if people even realize this, today they are experiencing seven to eight times more likelihood of sexual assault under daycare centers. And these people can't fend for themselves. The little bit we can do to place a nail in that or crack in that wall and start to do something about it is say, we see you. And that's why it matters. And everything that the 250th flag represents, they fought for was these freedoms, these very freedoms, and the right to individual safety, protection, and dignity. That's all I have to say, but I support Council Member Varos' proposal fully, and that would be my suggestion as well, as mentioned.

Okay, all right, I appreciate that. I kind of heard what everybody said, heard what the public said. My thought is, like I said, kind of at the outset, I think we can find a compromise solution here somehow. I think we all have said, and I heard what Council Member Zawina said, at the outset, but I think in general, we all agree that the disability flag should be flown. So I don't think that's an issue for all the reasons that were just said. But I also think we all support flying the America 250 flag in July. We can fly that disability pride flag every year in July. if that's what the council chooses to do in the future. The America 250 flag, it's only this year. So we get one shot at flying this flag. It is a special flag. It's been authorized, or it's a commemorative flag. It has not been authorized by Congress to fly underneath the U.S. flag, like the POW MIA flag and that sort of thing. but I'll get to that in a second. I say we fly both on the marquee in the month of July. You can just rotate through, flying Disability Pride flag, the America 250 flag on the marquee, and I say we fly both on the commemorative flagpole as well, but not at the same time. Our policy doesn't allow that, and then we get into the whole debate on which one goes higher than the other, and we have a policy really to prevent that. So I would say don't do that, don't fly both at the same time, but because we have the America 250 flag is being considered here and it's all about July 4th timeframe, then let's split the time and do two weeks of America 250 and two weeks of Disability Pride. It's not putting one ahead of the other, it's just to me the timing is slot Is more closely associated with a very specific date of July 4th For the two weeks if we split the time so that would be my proposal flying both on a marquee all month and then split the time On the commemorative flagpole the first half of the month America 250 second half of the month disability pride we speak to all all the points that were made about recognizing our disabled community we also fully acknowledged the importance of this one-time event, this America 250, a special celebration. And by the way, it's going on all over the country. If you go to Washington, D.C., and I was in Washington, D.C. earlier in the year, it's all over the place already. That same America 250 flag, there are several versions of it, but that's the primary one. that I see as the outdoor flag for display. So that would be my recommendation is both on the marquee, split the flagpole two weeks each, but cover the 4th of July time window with the America 250 flag. And I think, to me, that's an appropriate compromise for this situation. Was that Martin?

No, I was going to ask, did it say that, you said that there was a recommendation about the 250 flag that, but they didn't say that it couldn't be flown beneath the American flag, did they? Because I was just looking it up, and it's okay to fly another flag as long as it can't be any larger than the American flag, and of course it always has to be below the American flag. So... that, as long as they didn't give us a specific, like...

I'm not aware of anything that says you can't fly it, but flag etiquette, flag policy in general is, yes, in terms of where it is on the right, where it is up, you know, other nations. There's a very specific policy on all this stuff, but in terms of We have a policy where we've chosen not to fly anything on our city hall flagpole other than what's out there right now. And we intentionally created a commemorative flagpole to fly commemorative flags. The America 250 is a commemorative flag. It is not one of those congressionally authorized flags. flags specifically like the POW MIA or Blue Star Moms. There are some specific ones that have been recorded and approved by Congress for display on that flagpole.

I just think this is a unique, as you say, it's a unique situation. We're only going to have one 250th anniversary flag and 50 years from now we'll have another one. We may not be here. So, I don't know. My recommendation is to take Councilmember Varoza's idea and fly the 250 below the American flag so you can get the full month and fly the disability pride flag on the commemorative pole. Okay, well.

Mayor Armstrong. That's an option.

I just wanna weigh in on the policy itself. I agree with Council Member Adler that I don't see any prohibition specific to flying the America 250 flag along or underneath the American flag. That said, the general policy does say the city shall fly flags of government agencies and national symbols as you've recognized. that are recognized by the United States and located within the United States. And then it includes but not limited to. And the two flags that it lists as examples are the POW MIA flag and the blue star flag. And as I think you were alluding to, the America 250 flag is not recognized to the extent that these other two example flags are recognized. What I'm drawing from this is that the council would have to make some sort of finding that this flag is quote unquote recognized by the government of the United States in order to be consistent with this policy. And I can't, I think it's not my decision, it would be the council's decision as to whether or not that consistency exists.

Right, but these flags are being flown in front of government buildings, is that correct?

As far as I know, they are. I mean, we've heard testimony from the council itself that they are.

Right, and we have the purview to amend that if we so choose, right? To allow that 250 flag to be displayed along with the American flag, correct?

It is preferable for the council to make a finding that you are consistent with your own policy rather than to break the policy on an ad hoc basis.

Right, but I hear that, but I'm saying the other buildings are placing it, other government buildings are placing it in front of their building. So it is consistent in that regard.

Other government buildings are doing that, but other government buildings are not subject to our policy.

Right, right. But I'm just saying in absolute terms, we have the purview to... The thing is, this was in our proposed flag policy. That's coming up, I think, in two weeks, maybe a month, who knows. But I was informed possibly next meeting. That is a recommendation coming out of the policy committee of which... We can't talk about that. It's part of our policy committee. So anyway, that's a public meeting. So in that meeting, that was mentioned. So I guess I'm saying is that it wouldn't be inconsistent in two weeks, basically.

Okay. So one question I have is... As a city council, as this is a special 250 years, right? So this is special. I understand you're saying that, okay, stick to your policy and all that. But is it possible as a city council today to have exception for flying 250 years flag under our US flag? So as part of a city council, can city council have that authority to do that?

This is the council decision. This is a council policy. Again, I would say that the preferred way to do this would be to take a broader interpretation of the policy itself and to make a finding that flying the flag beneath the American flag is consistent with that. Otherwise, we're undermining the authority of the policy and the authority of the council to make policy.

Yeah, I'm not really one for wanting to deviate from the policy until we've changed the policy. We have a policy. We just open up Pandora's box for all sorts of things and it's like, why have a policy in the first place? if we're going to change it every time something new comes along. So, yeah, it's a special event, but I thought I proposed a fairly good compromise. I'm not hearing any objection to my proposal on why it's not okay to fly both of them on the commemorative flagpole.

No, at a split time. I don't have any objection, but we are trying to explore the options at this point. So this is our one option. So we are trying to figure out if there is any options, exploring options. That's the only thing at this point we are doing. So it's not like that is done deal or something.

Yeah. I personally don't believe it dilutes the, the, the message that we send as a community. for this particular month of July of 2026 regarding the disability pride flag, and nor do I think it dilutes the idea of flying the America 250 flag. Okay, we don't fly for a whole month. Our policy allows us to fly less than a month. We can fly for any period of time, but this has no more than 31 days. So we can't, we have within our policy the ability to fly less than a full month. That's in the policy.

Okay, and I just wanted to add to answer the city attorney's question. Based on my search, it says, yes, the official America 250 flag has already been raised at several city halls and government buildings across the United States.

But I think what Martin is saying, or city attorney is saying, that let's not get into other cities' policies, but let's say, for example, our city policy. So the problem is with our policy, we don't want to break our policy. That's where the challenge is. Because once we break it, then every time it can keep coming back. So that we want to keep the integrity of our policy, In that way, Mark's suggestion sounds much better.

So what dates are you thinking of flying the 250 flag, Mark?

First two weeks.

First two weeks. And then what happens with the Disability Pride flag? Because that will continue into the next year, or do we update it at the beginning of the year? Should we change or whenever we decide to reconsider flags?

Yeah, I think this is a unique period that we're considering right now. Right. And it will be flown. Under what I'm recommending it. It's also being flown all month on the marquee But for next year, you know if who knows what we'll come up with and what? Council will decide but if we come up with those schedule where at each month some a particular flag is going to be flown then that Will have that discussion when we have that discussion

I just want to make a comment, Mayor, that we could have the flag fly according to our policy for 31 days. So technically it doesn't have to fly for two weeks, the disability pride flag. The 250 flag could fly for the first two weeks in celebration, and the remaining two weeks going into August, that's 31 whatever, an extra two weeks in August. Because we could do that.

We could do that. If we want to have 30 days, we could start. Yeah, we could do that. Two weeks, just 250. I'm not hard over on 30 days for America 250. But, yeah, if we want to apply 30 days of the disability pride flag, then maybe it extends into August. I'm okay with that.

Okay.

Okay, so the only thing is I just, so we can do what Robert's suggesting. Now the marquee will show both of them, right? Because the marquee can switch in and out and can do whatever we assign it to do, program it to do.

It would be in the normal rotation with everything else. Yes.

where everyone is welcome.

Right, and we also, just as a, it's not in the policy, but as practice, we do social media posts letting the community know what is being flown and for what reason. Okay. Just to be clear that the word is out.

Okay, so when next year comes around, do we have to redo this because this year we hybridized it this way?

I don't think so.

The current policy is that every time we need to bring this into the, unless you guys changed recently the policy, I didn't see that, but otherwise our policy is that every time you want to fly a proclamation or fly something, then you need to bring back to the council, then we need to approve it.

Yeah, yeah, but if we decide to go with something like that, yeah.

That is the current policy, that every year a request needs to be made through the council to fly a particular flight.

Right, whichever process we decide to use in the future or now or what have you.

But right now, this request would stop at this year. It would be for this year only.

Right, right, right. Because, and also this is a unique, hopefully, like next year, there may be no conflict with anything, so then it may be straight 30 days. Okay.

So do you need a motion? I'll make a motion that we, can I make a motion now? Uh, okay. So I know we want to go home, so, um, so, uh, are you good? The mayor?

Yeah. Uh, which, which way are you going with your motion before you make the formal motion?

I'm going to follow a council members join nets recommendation.

Okay.

Okay. So my motion is that for the first two weeks of July, we fly the 250 year commemorative flag, establishment of the United States independence. And then for 31 days, which would normally be flown this year in July, we just roll it over into August. We don't have another flag in August anyway, so nobody's going to fight for that. So I'm good with that motion.

Okay, if I could just put that in terms of the resolutions that are before you. Your motion is to approve resolution number 2026054 regarding the disability pride flag. That would be from July 15th to August 15th? Yes. So it would be amended to make the time period between July 15th and August 15th. And then in the same motion, we are voting to approve resolution 2026-055, amending the resolution as presented to reflect a time period between July 1st and July 15th.

Correct. And actually the first one would be till August 16th is 31 days.

August 16th.

Correct. We're good?

That would then be the motion that's before you. That would be the motion, yes.

We would need to start it on the 16th for the second flag. So if we have one flying through the 15th, the next would start on the 16th through the 16th.

No, it's 31 days.

So July 16th through August 17th.

17th, then. Yes, if you do.

Well, no, actually, excuse me, because there's 31 days in July.

That's right.

16 through 16.

Right. The first two weeks, which technically is 14 days, but that's okay. If we want to add an extra day, that's fine. We could just make it July 1st to the 15th. We fly via the commemorative flag. And then starting July 16th, which would then go into August 17th, which is 31 days, that would be the second flag.

Very well. I just want to make sure that our city clerk has the resolutions clear.

Is that good?

Okay. And that also works because we're avoiding a Saturday or a Sunday, which we might have to bring somebody in on the weekend to take something down. Yes. So yes, the 17th would be a Monday.

Okay, yeah, because they really wouldn't like us then after that. That would be terrible.

Well, it's just trying to operationally, making sure we're adhering to whatever direction is.

Okay. Thank you for your help, and thank you, too. I just want to thank my fellow council members for your input and sharing your thoughts. And I really appreciate it on behalf of, of somebody from that community. Um, and I know it means a lot to my daughter and I, and many people coming from who are living under those circumstances for decades. So I appreciate it. Just thank you for everything.

Okay. So we have a motion as, uh, the city attorney has clarified for the two resolutions and the, with the dates and the clerk is understood. And do I have a second? I second it.

I motioned it, and Vice Mayor, I mean.

Oh, you did, you had a second? Yeah. Okay, thank you.

Did you get that, Joan? Okay. Okay, motion passes 5-0, so we're on to, I think we're on to the final item of the night, which is city manager comments and council member comments as well, and it's been a long night, so we'll keep it brief.

Art and Wind, May 24th to 25th, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. And then on the 25th, we have our Memorial Day event at Memorial Park from 9 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. with patriotic music and remarks from officials and veterans. And with that, it concludes my update for this evening.

All right. Uh, council members, why not?

Yep. I'll make my brief to, um, keep it to what, uh, what's affecting the city here. Uh, but, uh, first congratulations to officer Steven, um, Casos, um, service award, 2026 red, blue, and gold award member, uh, award night. Vice Mayor Rubio and Mayor Mark Armstrong and I attended the Knights of Columbus for the Tri-Valley Officer of the Year. Congratulations to Officer Stephen Acasos. And we had the naloxone ribbon cutting in Danville Police Station, so I'm not sure when the naloxone box will be coming to San Juan Police Station, but we will keep you posted. And finally, for just Stephen, I received an email and a couple of questions Regarding the Iron Horse Trail, the speeding e-bikes, they are aware that it's part of East Bay Regional Parks, but they're wondering if we are working with East Bay Regional Parks, et cetera, and we don't have to solve it now, but it's something where if maybe we could discuss, not in a matter initiated, but if there's something that we're doing, you could talk about it.

We can bring it up in a future update. There are plans for certain sections of the Iron Horse Trail, and we always conduct enforcement if there is activity that requires it. Perfect.

I appreciate that.

Thank you, Mayor.

All right. Who wants to go next? Council Member Adler.

And just to also tag along with Councilmember Swynette, who was one of the speakers at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, and we also had April Rivero there, and a lot of people. And your class, that was your class, Leadership San Ramon Valley's idea to put that overdose prescription drug container there at Danville PD, so... And we also had Heidi, Kenneth, and Lee speak also. So it was a great event. And that was the 30th of April. On May 7th, I went to the Mayor's Conference at the Orinda Country Club, hosted by the City of Orinda. There was a presentation by Chair Susan Hildreth and Board Secretary Michael Fisher of the Library Foundation of Contra Costa County. Explain how it plans to you know cooperate with various library foundations that exist in East in the East Bay County for the foundation on May 8th Friday I went to a wonderful art called the Juried Art Awards event held at our Doherty Station Community Art Center. And I just recommend that if you haven't been there, visit the Doherty Valley Art Center, which we've designated this area for art. And it's just fantastic. It says a lot about our community that we value art so much. And we had... art of all ages. We had young people, we had, when you talk about seniors, I'm not talking about high school seniors, I'm talking about people my age who were also doing art, and it was just fantastic. And we had a judge, Julia O'Reilly, who judged the art, and she's very accomplished artist and owns her own gallery. And I also helped with handing out certificates. And not only did they do the art, but they also had a little description of the art. And that was just wonderfully done. I couldn't believe that they had done it. But it was... It was a descriptive, explaining what they were going for on these art events. Very well written. We had a full house there. We had parents and families and friends. I just really enjoyed that experience. And one of the kids said on their art, you get what you give. Spread brightness outside and you will get bright rays inside. So that was just kind of the feeling some of these art pieces gave. And I want to also give kudos to Adam Chow, the recreation supervisor, for helping me, or I guess I was helping him hand out the awards. Also, the last thing I did was just yesterday at the Iron Horse Corridor Advisory Committee. There was notice how we have kids at – the seniors at Cal High are making a special project to plant some trees on the Iron Horse Trail. So that's what they're doing. We also talked about the plans to have – It's called a double tracking on the Iron Horse Trail where we're going to have a designated trail for wheels of all kinds and also the other side is going to be for pedestrians. And that is something that Supervisor Candace Anderson is going to speak about, I think, in about a month or so. And that's very promising. We have a long ways to go with funding and everything, but we're going to start close to where we are here and then move up north and expand eventually, hopefully, up to Walnut Creek. But it's going to take some time, but I think it's a great plan. So that's all I have.

Okay, great. Thank you. Vice Mayor Rubio. Oh, well, actually, let me go to Council Member Rose first.

I attended a couple of community events, and one of the major one is the Great Indian Food Festival with Mango Festival. That was very well attended. Close to 5,000 people throughout Bay Area attended this event. It's a fantastic event. Thanks to our city staff for approving whatever they need without any delays. Thanks for that. And thanks to organizers for hosting such a great, fantastic event in our community. That's it.

All right. Thank you. Now to Vice Mayor Rubio. Thank you.

I'm going to spare you the details because I attended 15 events in the last two weeks. So I'm just going to list them pretty much. So on Wednesday, April 29th, I attended the 2026 Night with the Stars. Also on April 30th, I attended the Cal City's East Bay Division meeting. On Friday, May 1st, I went to a Seroptimus event. The awards were given out to women who are basically working in the nonprofit sector doing public good. And then on Sunday, May 3rd, I attended Save the Soil, which was their first event here in San Ramon. And their... It was a really nice event, definitely. I mean, just a beautiful event and community gathering. Monday on May 4th, I attended Congressman Mark Desaulni's art competition award ceremony over across the way at the community center over there. And then... On Tuesday, May 5th, I attended the Mayhouse Ribbon Cutting event, along with the mayor and Councilmember Joynette. And then on Wednesday, May 6th, Of course, Council Members Wynette and I were at the Special Policy Committee meeting on the flag policy, which will be forthcoming here to the Council soon. And then on Thursday, May 7th, I attended the Marketing, Planning, and Legislative Committee for County Connection. On Thursday, May 7th, I attended the Mayor's Conference in Orinda. On Friday, May 8th, I attended the Red, Blue, and Gold Banquet for recognizing our first responders here in the Tri-Valley area. And then on Saturday, May 9th, I went to the Eagle Scout Quarter of Honor Ceremony. Adi was a recipient. And then Saturday, May 9th, I also attended the Great Indian Food Festival, and it smelled amazing. The food was... It's just amazing. My daughter and I were completely enthralled. And then on Saturday, May 9th, I also attended the APAPA's Asian Heritage Celebration. Monday, May 11th, I attended the Senior Foundation. And also on Monday, May 11th, I attended the Iron Horse Corridor Management Program meeting alongside Councilmember Adler. And that's it. That was the last two weeks. Thanks.

All right Everybody's been busy and thank you for mentioning some of the things that I were at I was at so I won't mention those I We also did have a council members Wayne and I had a Finance Committee meeting We talked about some things that we'll see here coming before council later one was we looked at the reserve studies and the preliminary budgets for the landscape and lighting districts we had a review of the quarterly investment report. We did a review of the PARS Pension Stabilization Trust Fund quarterly report. as well as a review of the California Employers Benefit Trust quarterly report. And for the second time, we saw the budget actuals analysis, and this one was for July 2025 through January 2026. And by the way, that East Bay Division meeting that Vice Member Ruby and I attended The focus on that was on e-bikes. Other council members didn't get the PowerPoint slide deck on that. Did you get that? You got it? Yeah, we got it. Okay. Because if not, just let me know and I'll pass it to you. It's pretty interesting. Then on the 6th of May, the Tri-Valley mayors, the five of us, went up to Sacramento. We had our advocacy day there. We initially met with the Senate Labor Employment Retirement Committee. This is, the discussion was on basically they're looking to go from PEPRA, the PEPRA policy to almost back to kind of the classic employee benefit schedule that It's being pushed by primarily public safety crowd, primarily the firefighters and unions, but it is getting a lot of pushback from local city governments because of the potential impact for future funding for cities. We also spoke with Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Cahan. She's got some legislation pending on e-bike safety. It's AB1942. Talked about some other things as well. Talked with Senator McNerney. He handles kind of the eastern end of the Tri-Valley, and we talked primarily about PFAS with him and PFAS treatment project funding. Met with Senator Grayson, and most of that was on wildfire and evacuation. He's got some Senate bills, a Senate bill, SB 959, pending on that, Also talked about, and this is something we want to probably take a look at and follow, is SB 922. This is about protecting the local ability to recover infrastructure costs where there's impact due to vehicles on roads. And we spoke with Assemblymember Liz Ortega, again, more on e-bikes and PEPPER reform and SB 922. And then finally, we talked with Assemblymember Papon. She's in San Mateo County, but it was, they have a lot of similar corridor, transportation corridors, and so they have a lot of the same e-bike issues as we have. So we talked about some of the e-bike legislation that's pending. And the rest of the items you already covered, so I won't go into any more of those. But thank you all for this evening's input, and I think we made some good progress. With that, we are adjourned.

Thank you.