City Council - Regular Meeting

I call to order the regular meeting of the City Council for June 23rd, 2026. Please call the roll.

Council Member Adler. Here. Council Member Joynath.

Present.

Council Member Varos.

Here.

Vice Mayor Rubio. Here. And Mayor Armstrong.

Here. All right. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag, the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation,

All right, thank you. Please be seated. Okay, next item, please.

Item 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, and I'll hand it back over to you.

All right, thank you. I'm going to go ahead and open up public comment then. At this time, the public is permitted to address the City Council on any non-agenda item related to the business of the City Council or 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 consent calendar is strictly at the discretion of the City Council. You may speak on requests for future agenda items. and also on special presentation items under Section 6 of tonight's agenda. And 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. And 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. During public comment, you'll have three minutes to make your comments. Do we have any speaker cards?

We have 15 speaker cards under this item. The first one is Dan Frank.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Paul, following our city councils who have approved the pride flag raising with formal acknowledges outside the Bay Area.

Can you just lift the microphone up just a little? Thank you.

Is that good?

Yeah.

Okay. Outside the Bay Area. This is not a complete list. Fresno, Palm Springs. Irvine, Anaheim, Salinas, Stockton, Ojai, Point Reyes, Quincy, Chula Vista, Yonville, Tracy, Davis, San Bernardino, Vista, Pacific Grove, the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Costa Mesa, Fort Bragg, Elk Grove, Ventura, Ukiah, Visalia, Sonora, Laguna Beach, Santa Ana, and the state of California. The 10th Amendment specifically allows states and local governments wide latitude in displaying symbols and flags, including the pride flag.

I'm sorry.

No problem.

No, you're not to call a point of order. Continue with your comment, please. Thank you. You're addressing us as city council.

The Boston City Supreme Court decision in 2022 confirmed this legal precedent. On April 13th, 2026, the Trump regime and the Department of the Interior gave up the fighting the court battles against them and the pride flag will fly at the Stonewall National Monument. This monument is on federal land in New York City as we participate in this meeting. This reversal confirms the pride flag can be flown on any federal property, which is in coordination with the 10th Amendment, clearly states that the city of San Ramon to fly the flag in an unstricken manner every June. There have been numerous federal employees of the Office of Personnel Management who have won union grievances against the OPM in an attempt to prevent them from displaying any and all pride flags, LGBTQ plus decorations, and similar LGBTQ plus symbols at their offices and desks or on their person. This is a First Amendment protection against denying freedom of speech that has been upheld by numerous federal judges and successful union grievances. LGBTQ plus people have always existed everywhere throughout human history, and they always will as long as humanity exists on the earth. It makes no difference in which continent they reside, race, culture, or nationality. Lastly, Mr. Juinet, I'm a straight, white, cisgender man. June is Pride Month, period. Straight people don't need a special month. We've never been targeted. excluded, discriminated against, assaulted, or murdered for being straight.

Thank you. Thank you. Next picture, please.

Greg Carr.

Well, we had a gentleman just speak before us, and it was nice to hear his soft voice. But when I was sitting in there, I had a hard time hearing it as well. So you might want to have somebody look at the speakers around here. Two things. Sometime back, there was discussion about having meetings. And I'm assuming that the people behind me can hear my voice. Good, because I can project it even more so if necessary. But sometime back... There was a conversation about having meetings at the community center, public meetings where all the council people come down, have a presentation about something in the public interest, development, whatever it parks. And I spoke and I suggested that it would be nice to have something about once a quarter where that place gets used. Well, one of your... Council members, Mr. Varos, in the comments afterwards, said he didn't think we had to do that. We didn't have to have public meetings because the people that voted for him voted for him because they knew he would make the right decision for them so that they didn't have to come down. I'm still appalled by that comment. I will be to the day I croak. I think we need to have them because it's not about issues and having difference in issues. It's about having you folks available to talk to the people. Have your meeting and then call it and then people can come and talk to you. See you as people, see you as humans or whatever they want to see you as and get a chance just to talk to you. Now, it's nice to see a lot of people show up tonight, and I assume that's for the two presentations, and that's good. For those behind me, it's not just about presentations down here, it's about new business. It's about a lot of things. If you really want to know what goes on and you want to see how your elected representatives are responding to it, all of you might want to hang around for an hour after presentations and listen to how they talk about issues, how the staff presents it, and see how your business is conducted in your house by your elected representatives. As for the pulling agenda items on consent, this is one heck of a consent tonight. You've got about 15 items. I know people out here can want to pull them all, want to do that. It might be interesting to have some of them pulled because not everybody gets to come down here and see things and hear you every meeting. And so there are time lags, like I've had a big one. And I know it's just broken your hearts. Anyway, thank you very much. Good evening.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Anup Gupta.

Honorable Mayor and City Council Members, I am Anuradha Gupta, pronounced Sheher, President of PFLAG Danville-San Ramon Valley, and I'm here speaking on behalf of both my chapter and San Ramon Valley Diversity Coalition, who we genuinely thank you for your support in raising the pride flag again this year and hope for your continued support in the future. We, along with many other local community members, have been here recently to talk about the growing attacks on the LGBTQ community and the escalating human rights violations they continue to face nationwide. The people living here, your constituents, expressed the deep distress and hurt they felt that the pride flag resolution was voted against by a council member this year. We were also here this month to once again receive the heartfelt pride proclamation from the city. We keep showing up. And that's a hopeful sign of resilience, strength, courage and community. It is during Pride Month that we are finalizing a new commemorative flag policy, replacing the 2021 policy that was advocated for by the LGBTQ community and their allies. It took a marginalized community to usher in inclusion, and we congratulate LGBTQ advocates, allies, and organizations, and thank the council members who have supported us thus far. We are hopeful and confident that the pride flag will be raised in San Ramon in the coming years, like it is in so many of our neighboring towns. The flag celebrates and honors our LGBTQ kids, neighbors, colleagues, peers, seniors, ancestors, and loved ones. We all learned through this process that when stakeholders are not involved in decisions that influence them, it can cause terrible minority stress. We request the city government to work with us on staff education for LGBTQ inclusion and anti-bullying initiatives, a task force that works on concrete steps to support the LGBTQ community. To the entire LGBTQ community and individuals and organizations that support and love you, we'd like you to know you belong in San Ramon. We are not going anywhere and will keep showing up. You are not alone. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. I'd ask people not to applaud. We've got to get through a lot of items tonight.

Can Paige Gupta?

Good evening, honorable mayor and the respected San Ramon City Council members. My name is Pankaj Gupta, and I, along with my family, have been proud residents of San Ramon for over 10 years now. The pride flag means so much to our family and our community, and I personally want to thank you for raising it this year. And very importantly, we earnestly hope that it continues to be raised in the coming years. Thanks to the mayor and council members who value us, it was heartbreaking that one council member voted against the Pride Flag Resolution. We are aware that the commemorative flag policy review was initiated in the context of the Pride Flag Resolution. That has been extremely stressful for the entire community, but we will continue to keep showing up for the LGBTQ community. We request your protection during difficult times for this marginalized community, for something that is a symbol that really matters to them from the time of the Stonewall riots. It is in our lifetime we have seen the human rights struggle of the LGBTQ community, and that march will continue. To the LGBT community, I want to say we hear you, we see you, and we will keep fighting for you. Happy Pride to all of us, and we are confident that the Pride flag will be raised every year in the city of San Ramon. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Kitty Cole.

Mayor Armstrong and the members of the City Council, my name is Kitty Cole. I'm a Walnut Creek resident. I'm here to tell you about the Master Gardener program of Contra Costa County. I'm hoping that you know about it, but many people do not. We have 288 Master Gardeners in our program, and they do the volunteer work throughout the county. My colleague, Bonnie, is gonna follow me in a few minutes. She is a resident of this county, and she's gonna tell you specifically about what we're doing in San Ramon. I'm here to tell you about two or three other programs that we have, and I'm really excited about it. I'm a new master gardener, only 18 months in the program. I've been gardening my entire life, and this is like my passion, and I believe it's a lot of people's passions to grow food, help people understand their vegetables, their trees, their pests, and so on. So in Walnut Creek we have a very special place, you might have heard of it, it's called Our Garden. It's a half acre plot of land owned by Walnut Creek and it has literally many, many vegetable gardens, lots of trees, we grow grapes, we grow all kinds of things but we actually teach there and that's what I'm here to speak about is that we teach 29 talks, started in April, it ends at the end of October. They're free to the public, an hour and a half long And they are done, they're all UC-based, science-based information, really valuable. And if you have never gone to one of our talks, we also speak at garden clubs all over the place. Several of you are nodding, thank you. That means you know about us. And what I'm excited to say, I'm one of the speakers, so I talk about roses, but I also am about to do tulips, a brand new talk in August. So that's one program. Another is the Great Tomato Plant Sale. If you've heard of that, it's a giant sale in Walnut Creek, then also in Antioch and Richmond. We had a big increase this year. I'm the marketing guru, by the way, in the organization now, newly. And we sell 36,000 plants at $4 each, and that's our fundraiser once a year. And then third, I wanted to tell you that we, at our garden, I forgot to say this, we actually produce about 12,000 to 14,000 pounds of food, and we give that to the Monument Crisis Center in Concord. So we're really helping the community. And then last, what else was the second one? I forgot my third thing here. Oh, my third is we have 49 school gardens. They're at all levels. So we have elementary, intermediate, and high school. And we go out to the schools. We don't do the work. We show them how to do the work. We work with the teachers and the counselors and the students themselves. And so we're teaching young people to get engaged with gardens and so on. And it's a delight. I'm very passionate about this organization. And my colleague is coming up next. So Bonnie Dwyer, she's a veteran. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Bonnie Dwyer.

Mayor Armstrong and City Council members, thank you for having us tonight. My name is Bonnie Dwyer. I have been a resident of San Ramon since 1985. In 2013, I became a University of California Master Gardener and I have over 6,000 volunteer hours with the organization. Countywide, we staff 12 farmers markets and 43 various community events for 8,000 contacts per year. But I'd like to share with you tonight what I believe we can offer to San Ramon as a community. My first project that I'd like to share is our Ask a Master Gardener table project. These are information tables set up throughout the community on various dates and at various times. to talk about landscape and gardening problems. In San Ramon, we staffed two bi-monthly farmers' markets at the city center. We averaged 1,200 contacts yearly. During the Art and Wind Festival, over a two-day period, we had 200, or we had 850 clients. And during the Forest Home Farm event, sheep-shearing event, we had 271 clients. Now, most of them were about this tall, but they're future gardeners, so we love them. A lot of the questions that we get, this is just some of the samples of the questions we get. We get a lot of pest and disease questions in the home and in the garden. We get a lot of native plants, citrus trees, fruit trees, tree management, especially problem trees. We launched a new project for Firewise Gardening, which we're all concerned about, and all aspects of the vegetable gardens. Our second program is with the MUDS with Elise Lightfoot. We are consulting with MUDS on their orchard revitalization project, especially regarding how to prune old trees to revitalize them. And we have a Master Gardener team that actually does hands-on work for that project. Our third project is the Speaker Bureau. This project serves the community through speaking to some of your local organizations, Rotary Clubs, the San Ramon Community Garden, both of your libraries, and the MUDS Project. Our next speaking event is at the El Costa Senior Center on August 1st, and the topic is preparing the fall and winter garden. I hope this brief presentation gives you an idea of the value that Contra Costa County Master Gardeners bring to this community. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, next speaker, please.

William Rosencheck.

Mayor Armstrong, Vice Mayor Rubio, and honorable members of the San Ramon Council. My name is Liam Rosencheck. I'm a student at Kenyatta Community College studying environmental science. I come to you today to express my knowledge and support for the Make Polluters Pay Climate Superfund in the state of California. To my peers and I, Make Polluters Pay represents an extremely unique opportunity for ordinary young people to put our foot down against the existential threat of climate change, while also attaining much-deserved justice for all the environmental damage caused by the fossil fuel companies in California. Personally, I have been negatively affected by climate change throughout my whole life. From going to football practice with N95 masks on because the wildfire smoke was so suffocating, to missing school because wildfire smoke was too toxic, and finally to scooping up buckets of water from my basement to prevent it from flooding due to heavy showers. I, along with the rest of the Bay Area, can promise you we have dealt with our fair share of problems brought on by climate change. We know we have support for this type of bill. Other states, such as Vermont and New York, have already passed their own climate superfund laws. Furthermore, according to a poll from Data for Progress, an estimated 74% of voters nationwide would support the climate superfund bill. San Ramon residents cannot afford to foot the bill of all the adverse effects that fossil fuel companies have brought to our Golden State. Wildfires, torrential downpours, and other extreme natural disasters are only going to get worse. The LA wildfires alone costed $250 billion, and fire insurance is becoming increasingly unattainable by the day. Make Polluters Pay could provide much-needed funds to provide programs across San Ramon, including building renewable energy infrastructure, expanding clean transportation, investing in compost and recycling programs, and finding strategies to make working land sequester carbon, all of which are actions outlined in San Ramon's Climate Action Plan. And finally, I'd just like to take this final moment of my time to address all of you. I have reached out to you individually in Gmail to talk and to possibly address any concerns you may have with Make Polluters Pay. I'm affiliated with Claire Brown, a professor from Berkeley. who is willing to talk to any of you about the fiscal, if you have any fiscal concerns about Make Polluters Pay, we could bring in her for a private meeting to talk about Make Polluters Pay. So, you know, if you guys, I would appreciate it if you reach back out to me. If you don't, I will probably be sending you another email. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Eric Kimball.

Hello, Mayor Armstrong and honorable members of the council. Thank you for allowing this time to speak. I wanted to speak on the issue of the pride flag. I want to thank you for supporting flying the pride flag this month for Pride Month. But also, I want to speak in favor of pulling this from the consent calendar and going back to the 2021 policy as a father, as a professor, as a teacher who know many members of the LGBTQ community. I believe, you know, this is a matter of human rights and flying that flag as a symbol in support of human rights. And I don't think it's an issue that needs to be spent time debating year after year, you know, because there's the right thing to do is to support human rights every year and fly that flag every year. Thank you. All right.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Shasani Goyal.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and city council members. My name is Shasani Goyal, and I'm a student at Doherty Valley High School. You might have seen me here before. So today I've been asked to come here on request of 350 Contra Costa Action, which is an organization supporting climate action. You might have heard of them before as well. But basically, I was asked to speak at a Polluters Pay event because I wrote a poem about climate change. And my belief is that there's a huge misconception that youth don't care about climate and that it's not something that's super important to us, but it is. And I believe that it's an issue that we didn't cause, but we did inherit. And it's an issue that is our problem to fix. But I also believe local governance is the biggest ripple effect. If you support sustainability, it is the biggest effect that it could have on our community. So I've been asked to read the poem that I wrote today. So it's a little unconventional, but I would like to read that. It's called Secondhand Smoke. We never lit the match, and yet somehow we're breathing in the ash. It curls beneath our door frames, seeps into our skin, settles in the silence between dinner conversations, and finds its home in the gap between heartbeats. Dad says the summers feel angry now, like a cruel mirage bestowed upon us by the very light that once held warmth. Mom counts hurricanes instead of birthdays. My cousin stopped jogging by the bay. The water climbed too high, the air too thick to hold. In me, I scroll past statistics with a guilt I can't name. I write poetry till my hands fall apart while the planet falls into chasms. A silent departure felt more than seen, like a secret we all knew but dared not say aloud. The sky doesn't blush anymore, it bruises. Our cities are tired, our lungs borrowed. Farmers bury their hopes next to dry roots, while billionaires build bunkers with money that still won't buy a second Earth. They say it's political. I say it's personal. Because climate change isn't a headline. It's my friend's medication costs rising. It's my uncle's job lost to a dried-out field. It's the fear that the future won't know green the way we did. But still, I believe in healing, in hands planting more than they destroy. In change that comes not in silence, but in song. We are the generation that inhales smoke and exhales resistance. And that is why I urge every single youth present in this room today and outside of this room as well to take action for our climate. And I urge this council to continue to prioritize sustainability initiatives. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anita Jackson.

Hi, all. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My family moved here in 1992. I went to Cal High, and my kids are in San Ramon schools as well. And my parents are still here, so I have a long and deep history with the city. I've seen a lot of change in San Ramon, mostly for the better. One of the best things has been seeing the city go from quite homogenous and sometimes unfriendly to become wonderfully diverse, interesting, and much more welcoming. June is Pride Month around the world. It matters to celebrate with the world. If you care about the lives of LGBTQ people, especially teens who are among the most vulnerable, then as a matter of course, you raise the flag and show support. I care deeply about showing the most vulnerable kids and their families that they are not alone and they are precious and their lives deserve protection. And I would hope that our city leadership would express the same since caring for vulnerable kids is the most basic of values. why do i care in 1967 as a straight woman in 1967 loving v virginia was decided by the supreme court before that my own marriage would have been at risk my own children would have been considered an abomination it's 2026 i'm very aware that some mates still find us an abomination as a mixed-race family The LGBTQ community faces similar struggles. So I will continue showing up for this issue and showing all children and families that I care. And I hope our city can do the same. Thank you.

Thank you.

Elena Formosa.

Hi, council members, because you're illegally forcing the public to speak agendized and non agendized items together. I am going to ask you to please stop the clock after I finish requesting the agendized items. So I want to speak to agendized item about presentation trail. topic by Supervisor Anderson. It is very strange that San Ramon Trail Design is the jurisdiction of the county. I hope that we're not enslaved by the county. I would like to request polling 5.11 because there are suspicious hiring practice with the International Union when we are not What are we? This is America. I mean, it's just weird. I would like to pull that. I would also like to pull 5.4 and 5.5, suspicious of fraudulent spending of money totaling 1.2 million. Please stop the clock. And the council, please respond to those two requests for pull. I'm asking you to please stop my clock.

Go ahead and continue. I'm not going to stop the clock. If we pull those agenda items, then the public will have an opportunity to speak on those items.

Okay, the non-agendized items, it is so super dirty at the Rotunda. Can you guys please clean the glass? And... I called out of order because the first and third speakers and all the other speakers speaking on about the flag, they could have been just like me, ask you to simply pull agenda 5.7. That's an agendized agenda. that you could have allowed the entire public to participate in the discussion, but you chose to act illegally. So I'm sorry, that's really sad. And then you shut me down. If there's human right, my human right definitely, and as an American, I also have inalienable right was shut down today. Shame on you. And public speaker has the right to call you out of order because government is not perfect. You're not God. In addition, Oh, about some of the comments are so funny. There was a Caltech student, Alexandra Suvernina. She pretended as shaman and burned up the entire Nord Cal woodland under fond fire. That is not the responsibility of the fossil fuel company. A lot of these young people, they're brainwashed and indoctrinated by the liberals. It is extremely difficult to help them see the truth. All they need to do is just blame Trump and blame Sharon, who used to be headquartered here and contributed so much to the community that we live in, which they inherited and they are absolutely ungrateful for. This is a kind of new generation you guys, the liberals, have created. It's really, really sad.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

James Wolfe.

Honorable Mayor and council members, my name is Jamie Wolfe. I'm treasurer of Danville San Ramon PFLAG and a liberal. Thank you for your staunch support of the LGBTQ community over so many years and thank you for raising the as others have been doing for many years as well. As others have been doing for many years as well. It would sure be a shame to see the LGBTQ community which helped initiate the 2021 policy of inclusion to be excluded from future events. We look forward to the continued respectful and productive engagement with you in the future. And to the LGBT community, we are here. We will continue to fight for you. And we're not going away. You matter, and you matter to us. We will continue to advocate for your rights, your well-being, and your safety. We will not abandon you. Thank you so much.

Karen Hatchell.

Good evening, Mayor Armstrong, city council members. My name is Karen Hatchell. I am a resident of Deer Creek Senior Apartments in San Ramon. I am a senior citizen living in a subsidized housing and have been a resident here for approximately five to six years. I am speaking tonight because I'm concerned about the treatment of the residents and an ongoing management issue at our apartment community. This evening, while I was speaking to another individual, a tenant, that was near the common area by the poolside, The property manager came out of his office and literally yelled at me in a manner that I found intimidating and disrespectful. Unfortunately, residents have expressed similar concerns regarding communication and treatment by management and we have reported to corporate and nothing is getting done. In addition, residents have been concerned about the pool area being closed and the water shut off in our apartment constantly. No running water. I understand that maintenance and repairs can take time, but many seniors feel that there have been insignificant communications regarding the status of this important community amenity. I also wish to raise concern regarding safety issues. that I have experienced my personal self over the years since 2021, I have dealt with repeated security-related incidences and police response connected to my residents. These issues have caused significant stress and anxiety. As someone who suffers with a brain tumor, PTSD, and anxiety, property and consider addressing new management. Our goal is not for conflict. Our goal is to improve communication, safety, respect, quality of all life for all residents. I respectfully ask the City Council members please review our concern as corporate is not addressing this. Help facilitate the communication with the property ownership and encourage the investigation into issues being reported by residents. I thank you for your time and your consideration. There is many like me sitting in this room tonight willing to speak with you. Thank you for hearing us.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Speak with you. Thank you for hearing us.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Catherine Grace.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Some mornings, before the heat sets in, I step outside and walk a few blocks up to the preserve. The ground beneath my feet is hard and cracked. The grass is dry and brittle.

Sorry, Ms. Grace, could you hold on one second? Could we get the timer on, please? Thank you. Sorry, Ms. Grace, go ahead.

Sure. The grass is dry and brittle, the trees coated in dust. It's beautiful here, but lately it seems fragile. As I look out over these parched hills, I can't help but wonder what would happen if a wildfire swept down from above. How would my family and our neighbors escape our circular drive with only one way out? If strong winds and lightning sparked a blaze and everyone tried to leave at once, would anyone let us merge into the flow? Would we even make it out to the boulevard? Or would the streets be so clogged with panicked drivers that none of us stood a chance? These are questions I never used to ask. But as summers get hotter and the lands grow drier, they're on my mind more and more. Because the risk of wildfire is no longer something distant. It's here, just beyond our backyard. And it's shaping how we live and how safe we feel in our homes. The truth is, preparing our city for this new reality is expensive. fire-hardening our homes, keeping evacuation routes open, and making sure we have enough first responders to protect the tens of thousands of people living on our hillsides. These are investments we can't afford to put off, but they come with a price tag. San Ramon families shouldn't have to shoulder these costs alone. The companies that made billions while fueling the climate crisis should help pay to protect the communities now facing greater risk. That's why we need a polluter's pay super fund to make sure those responsible contribute their fair share so our city can invest in safer homes, better evacuation plans, and the emergency services we'll need when this disaster strikes. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Lisa Kanazawa. I'm sorry. Kanazawa.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of the City Council. My name is Lisa Kanazawa, and I want to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to the City Council for once again raising the Pride flag this year and for supporting the Pride flag resolution. Thank you as well to the residents, community members, and advocates and allies who spoke up in favor of this resolution and who continue to demonstrate that inclusion is a core value of this community. I also want to recognize the LGBTQ plus advocates and allies who initiated this policy in 2021. Their efforts helped establish a framework that not only recognized Pride Month, but also led to the adoption of additional commemorative flags, including the Disability Pride Flag and America 250 Flag. These actions reflect a broader commitment to ensuring that all members of our community can see themselves represented and valued. At the same time, I want to express my concern about the public questioning and opposition directed toward the Pride Flag resolution. This comes at a time when LGBTQ plus individuals, particularly transgender and non-binary people, are facing increasing challenges to their safety, dignity and well-being across the country. In that context, visible expressions of inclusion and support matter. The pride flag is not about elevating one group above another. It is a symbol that affirms every resident belongs and deserves respect. When we recognize and support some of our most vulnerable community members, we strengthen the entire community. Inclusion is not a limited resource. It expands opportunities for understanding, connection, and belonging for everyone. San Ramon has long embraced the message that everyone is welcome here. Continuing to raise the pride flag demonstrates that these are not just words, but values reflected in our actions. Thank you for your leadership and for helping make San Ramon a place where all people feel seen, respected, and welcome. Thank you.

All right. Thank you.

Amber Sabrina Cleofas.

Good evening, Mayor Armstrong, Vice Mayor Rubio, and distinguished council members. I'm Amber Cleofas, and I'm a student at Doherty Valley High School. And a few weeks ago, June 6th, I had the privilege of sharing my artwork at the Tri-Valley Make Polluters Pay Town Hall. For context, I created artwork alongside my friend Sahani's poem to express emotions about climate change. In my painting, which I wish I could show to you, entitled Still I Write, you'll see a girl holding a pen and a book against a dark background. But that girl isn't just supposed to be me. She's every young person looking at a future we didn't create. yet must fix. Even if the path or the background looks dark, she knows her voice can spark change. That's how we, the youth, feel. We know our future depends on urgent action, and we believe we can make a difference. That last town hall was a conversation with our community, parents, volunteers, and those who care deeply about our environment. But today I want to go beyond art. Now I'm speaking before you, the city council members and decision makers. At the last town hall, my artwork and my friend's poem captured feelings that data alone can't express. But feelings aren't enough now. Now I hope those emotions inspire action. And we know you have the power to turn these emotions into action. You, as leaders, have the ability to transform our hopes into reality. We're asking you to turn what we felt into action, to protect our environment for all of us. We, the youth, feel the urgency. We hope our work made you feel it too. In Still I Write, the girl keeps writing because she still believes the future can be different. But that future won't be written by young people alone. So I'd like to leave you with one question. When future generations look back at this moment, what will they say we chose to do? Thank you for listening, and thank you for being the ones who make this change.

Thank you.

And our last speaker card is Linda Chipola.

I did not come prepared. I'm sorry, and I don't think I can get through this without crying, so I'm sorry. Instead of writing something down today, I met some fellow tenants, and we have for years been screamed at by the manager. He screams at women, not men. He screams at women who don't have husbands. He has been heard multiple times saying that people with housing vouchers should go, they're animals, and they should go live where they can afford to. I'm disabled and I have a housing voucher. I'm white, so I don't have the racist part, but I've heard that also from multiple people, and they all complain to Chappelle, and Chappelle does nothing. They do nothing. I have PTSD as my secondary disability, so the screaming is pretty hard, as you can see. It definitely makes my health worse. It's hard to get out of bed sometimes. I am currently in a fight with his manager, Walter Huertas. I've had silverfish in my apartment for three years. I finally complained. I tried to fix it myself. I finally complained December, and they keep sending a pest control but not spraying and making excuses and essentially lying. I contacted code enforcement, and he was very nice, but he said he was... Silverfish was not under his purview. My doctor has treated me for toxic mold for four years. Um, and so my concern is silverfish, they, they come, word binding is part of my cognitive problem, um, They are there because there's moisture. And off the record, the pest control guy told me, it's just one wing. It's not the other wing. There's obviously a leak. But they are silencing me. I have requested disability accommodations, which they constantly... Ugh, words. You see how hard it is to talk. They don't follow the accommodations. And so he, Walter, confirmed, because I don't work with Alan because he screams, that they would show up and... Spray. And then that day, pest control showed up and said, no, we're not spraying. Walter said, we're not spraying because they know it's in the walls. It's coming from the ceiling. There were 200 just in my kitchen lamp. And I don't know who else to go to. I've contacted Contra Costa Legal Aid and he knows Walter and Walter won't help. I mean, Walter will ignore him. Sorry, I didn't come prepared. I'm sorry. Okay.

There's a lot more, but that's what we have for tonight.

Okay. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

There are no more speaker cards. However, we did receive written public comment on special presentation item 6.2 from Brian Swanson, which is in front of you and also in the red binder in the back of the room and published on the city's website.

All right. Thank you. So I appreciate all the public's comment this evening. Again, We take these seriously, however, if appropriate, staff will follow up. So I'm going to close public comment, and we are going to move on to item five, which is the consent calendar. And I'm going to ask if any members of the council wish to pull any of the items on the consent calendar. We've had a request for a couple items to be pulled. Does anyone wish to pull an item?

Actually, I want to move the motion to approve the consent calendar.

I will second that.

Okay, we have a motion by Council Member Veroz, a second by Vice Mayor Rubio. Any discussion on this before we will need to read the Ordinance 538 by title only? That is for item...

5.3.

5.3. So, any discussion? Okay, so the title of item 5.3, Ordinance 538, amending Title A, General and Administration, Division A4, Officers and Employees of the San Ramon Municipal Code to change the time for holding City Council meetings. Yes. Okay, motion passes unanimously. So at this point, we're going to move on to item six, special presentations. We have two special presentations tonight. The first one, item 6.1, proclamation declaring June of 2026 as Alzheimer and Brain Awareness Month. And we are going to do a presentation to Sahana Vasudevan from the Alzheimer's Association. She's a volunteer. And thank you. And we're going to have Vice Mayor Rubio come and give the proclamation. And when she gives the proclamation, she'll present it to you, and then we'll give you the opportunity to say a few remarks, if you like. And I see that Vice Mayor Rubio is appropriately color-coordinated this evening.

We have to be mindful and thoughtful. A lot of preparation before we get here. So this is a proclamation of the City Council of the City of San Ramon declaring June as Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month. Whereas today, more than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, a figure estimated to cost the nation $384 billion in 2025 and projected to rise to nearly $1 trillion by mid-century. And whereas there are currently 719,700 people age 65 or older living with Alzheimer's in the state of California, representing 12% of the population in that age group. And whereas nearly 1.4 million family members and friends in California provided 1.9 billion hours of unpaid care in the past year, a contribution valued at $50.7 billion. And whereas the impact of these caregivers is significant, with 61% of California caregivers dealing with chronic health conditions and 18.6% experiencing depression. And whereas the Medicaid costs for caring for people with Alzheimer's in California are estimated at $5.7 billion for 2025, highlighting the urgent need for continued support and research. And whereas the Alzheimer's Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer's care, support, and research, providing a free 24-7 helpline Should I read the phone number? 800-272-3900 and resourcesalz.org to help families navigate this disease. And whereas the City of San Ramon recognizes the importance of early detection brain health and supporting caregivers who serve our community members now therefore be it resolved that the city council of the city of san ramon does hereby recognize june as alzheimer's and brain awareness month in san ramon and encourages all residents to learn more about the disease and available resources dated today june 23rd 2026 by our mayor thank you so much

Sure, let's all go down there.

Let's balance the purple out a little bit.

Yes, I feel like everyone should.

photo. Do you want to come? Again, when I come in the middle?

No, you're good. Are you sure?

You've got the color. All right, thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Armstrong, Vice Mayor Rubio, council members, and everyone who's joined us here. My name is Sahana Vasudevan. I'm a San Ramon resident, incoming senior at California High School, and an advocate with the Alzheimer's Association. On behalf of the Alzheimer's Association, I would like to thank the mayor and council members for recognizing June as Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month. Over the past few years, I've spent more than 400 hours volunteering in memory care communities where I've seen how Alzheimer's and other dementias impact not only individuals, but entire families. Those experiences have shown me the importance of awareness, early support, and continued research. The Alzheimer's Association is leading the fight through research, advocacy, and care and support services with the goal of improving early detection, advancing treatment, and ultimately ending this awful Alzheimer's disease. We also provide a free 24-7 helpline offering confidential support, care guidance, and resources for individuals and families navigating dementia. As awareness grows and research advances, community support and early understanding are more important than ever. On behalf of the Alzheimer's Association, thank you again for this proclamation and for helping bring attention to Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and brain health in our community. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Don L., who's our East Bay Walk event experience chair, who'll share a few words about the walk, which is a great way for the community to take action and get involved.

Thank you.

Hi, Mayor Armstrong, Vice Mayor Rubio, and council members. My name is Donnell Jones. I'm a resident here in San Ramon, and I am on the planning committee for the East Bay Walk to End Alzheimer's. This year, the walk is taking place Saturday, October 17th, here in Bishop Ranch, 2700 Camino Ramon. And I'd like to thank you all for your support. And the city of San Ramon has always turned out, and we've had a wonderful event. But I just wanted to let the community know that we are once again having our event so that we can show support for families and hopefully raise funds to find a cure for the first survivor. So there is some flyers in the back for anyone who's interested. Thank you. Thank you so much.

All right. So I'm going to ask if any council members have any comments.

Thank you. Thanks Alzheimer's Association for all your great volunteer work. for our community, you know, one of fast growing population in our city, not only in our city, but nationwide is aging population. And it is very important that we bring education services and also support so that we can continue to invest and make sure that we take care of these seniors who are getting hit with this Alzheimer's issues. So Especially it's great to see young Ms. Vasudevan to be part of this group and continue to support and do these community services. So thank you very much and congratulations on proclamation.

Other council members?

Yes, please.

All right, Vice Mayor.

So first and foremost, thank you for the work that you are doing 365 days a year. And I think oftentimes, you know, people as someone who my father had Alzheimer's, and it was one of the hardest things to see your loved one. just fade away over time. But I think also what's wonderful about your organization, the work that you're doing, is that you're also supporting those caregivers, those family members, those loved ones. It's a very, very, very difficult process. And I just want to really extend my gratitude, but also let you know that I hope you know I'm a resource for you and would love to support you any way that I can. Because as a caregiver as well, myself and, you know, just brain health is something that I think all too often in a very quick lifestyle that we live in, we ignore and neglect. And it's something that we should actually prioritize more and more.

Thank you so much for everything you do.

Yeah, and I'll just add, thank you for bringing this to our attention. I think it's really important. My wife and I have walked a couple times in the walk-in Alzheimer's here in Santa Monica, the East Bay version of that over at Bishop Ranch. Both of our mothers had severe dementia and passed in the last three years. And so it's very personal to us. We still have the purple flag, the little spinner, whatever that thing that spins. We've still got those in our yard, out in the front yard right now. I remember a couple years ago, I was talking at a Chamber of Commerce mixer, and there was Maya Gertson and Chris LaFasso were there from the Alzheimer's Association. They were talking about the walk to end Alzheimer's, and that's when we first had the conversation about maybe doing a proclamation for Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month. And we did that. We did that a couple years ago. So I think we missed it last year, maybe missed it the last two years. I'm not sure. But thank you for elevating it. And Sahana, thank you. I applaud your initiative. Sure.

There's one in Danville that serves a large community. It's San Ramon, Pleasanton, even Livermore.

it's going to be in a place where they could all right maybe we can speak offline get a little more detail on that and uh uh but i again so hana thank you for for your initiative thank you for being a volunteer thank you for drafting up that proclamation and uh was it done now done yeah yeah we had a uh i know we had a good conversation the other night at the the hoot nanny over at the farm um good good to see you again but thanks for all that you do i know somebody had to leave but I really appreciate you bringing awareness to this, and I look forward to having that conversation offline. All right. Thank you. All right. Let's give them a round of applause one more time. All right. We're going to move on to item 6.2 now. That is an update on Iron Horse Trail dual tracking design, and this will be by our very own supervisor, Candace Anderson from the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.

Well, thank you. And with me this evening is Carl Roehner, who is in our Public Works Division, one of our engineers who also manages the Iron Horse Corridor for the county. And more importantly, he has been carrying this project. And I'm going to give you A little bit more history. I know many of you have heard me talk a little bit about the trail when we did the fabulous groundbreaking of your bridge. I sort of summarized, but I want to give a little background and then talk about where we are right now. So, as most of you know, the trains used to run right down the Iron Horse Trail, 1891 to 1978. This is a picture of right through the San Ron Valley as they came through. 1982 through 1986, Contra Costa County purchased the track right of way. And so that's why the county owns the Iron Horse Corridor, because we bought it. And this was before, of course, I was on the Board of Supervisors. We used some California Transportation Commission grants, totaling about $10.6 million. And the twist of all of it is they wanted us to someday put down light rail, a busway, some sort of mass transit, and that's what those grants really were for. And so there's even language that said if Contra Costa does not identify by June 30th, 1989, A specific project for constructing a busway or exclusive mass transit guideway that uses the San Ramon Branch corridor, the county shall reimburse the state. Now, they never came back to the state asking this. The state never came back to the county saying, give us the money plus interest. But they did require us to maintain this 34-foot-wide corridor system. down the trail that someday we could magically plop down a bus way, a trail, et cetera. Many studies, I don't know, Carl, do you know how many studies we did over the years? I mean, when I was on the town council, Danville's council, we looked at what would it look like to put BART down there? What would it look like to put BART under there? What kind of mass transit? We were talking billions of dollars, but more importantly, there was very little political will for that. And so the Iron Horse Trail, after it was purchased, it was kind of this gravelly railroad area, but it became the Iron Horse Regional Trail, which became managed by the East Bay Regional Parks District. And so as each segment was paved, they would build it to the specifications of East Bay Regional Park District. And so they continue to maintain the Iron Horse Trail even though it is still owned by the county. And the county is very diligent and Carl, especially, and his predecessor, Kerry Ritchie, any time an encroachment ends up in the Iron Horse Corridor, the county moves pretty quickly because there's lots of things like jet fuel lines, utility lines coming down. And so it's really important to have the integrity of the whole county, the whole Iron Horse corridor as it goes through the county. So Danville and San Ramon, back even when I was on the council, talked about how are we going to improve the trail? And this is in the days of Ty Williams, who is now the town manager, and Lisa Babadia, your former transportation manager. They had grand ideas. They wanted to put bridges over Bollinger, over Crow Canyon, over Sycamore Valley Road, they really wanted to see the trail being used even more in more ways than we had even imagined. And so then 2008, SB 375 encouraged active transportation and really wanted us all reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. And so we started looking at this saying, this is an amazing active transportation corridor. Why are we being required by the state to maintain this 34-foot-wide swath all the way down when, in fact, it's already being used by people to get to work, to get to school? We want to encourage people to get out of their cars. We need to do something. And so when I was a newly elected county supervisor, I went up to Sacramento several times with our then public works director, Julie Buren, and said, sat down with the CTC, the California Transportation Commission, and I said, this just makes so much sense for us to be out from under this edict, allow us to start really maximizing it as an active transportation corridor. And they said, great idea, but legally we don't think we can. And so they ultimately said, get some legislation passed. Then Assemblymember Tim Grayson said, agreed to carry something that was AB 1025, that was passed in 2019, and it removed the requirement that we build a bus track or a mass transit, and it relinquished the state's right for reimbursement. So that freed it up. One of the urgencies of this really was your bridge, and it was something where, when I was lobbying with Sacramento, I was saying, we've got this amazing city, the city of San Ramon, ready to design a bridge build a bridge going over Bollinger Canyon, but if we have to either require it to be built and engineered that a train, a bus, a light rail can go over it, very different than the bike pedestrian bridge. With this legislation, they wanted the Contra Costa Transportation given a seat on our Iron Horse Corridor Management Program Advisory Committee, which Carl staffs for us, and then also to consider proposals for new emerging mobility modes, technologies on the trail. And that, at the time, we were looking at things like Glideways. Glideways was just coming out and we were saying, hey, it just needs a bus, not a bus, it needs a bike path with, maybe someday we could do something like that. And so they wanted us to continue to study that, keeping that transit concept in there. And then... What happened is in 2020, soon after we got the legislation passed, we did complete the Iron Horse Regional Trail Active Transportation Corridor Study. And that was really commissioned to say, what is our capacity all the way from the edge of San Ramon, Dublin, all the way up to Martinez, what could we build? What is the width, the capacity of it? What are the constraints? Where do we have narrow bridges where we would have to come up with something? What are our opportunities? And so it was really, how do we create this bicycle superhighway, or as I sometimes call it, the bicycle expressway, and how can we do it at each local crossing? How is it gonna work? And so, We really had an amazing time. This was right in the pandemic, of course, when it finished. But it continued to be, now what are we going to do with it? And so for me, this was something that I shared at the groundbreaking. For me, it went back to 2003. I was a newly appointed town council member in the town of Danville. in order to get appointed, I had filled out an application, and I had read through Danville's general plan, and I don't know how many people love to read general plans, but I actually find them fascinating, and as I read it, I read about how the Iron Horse Quarter was supposed to be used for transit, and that someday we were going to be able to have, you know, in essence, BART going up and down there, and I had lunch with Millie Greenberg, who was the exiting council member who had been appointed by Gray Davis to the Board of Supervisors, and I said, so tell me about what are the plans for transit going down the Iron Horse Corridor? And that's when I got, as I shared with many, over my dead body. Will that ever happen? But so this is something that I have really wanted to see change since 2003. And so in this, going back to the study, I do want to say, there's some San Ramon projects that were identified. And I encourage anyone who is interested in this, this is posted on the county's website, the entire report, you can see the two segments that were the highest projected employment. Again, this was pre-pandemic where Bishop Ranch was more of an employment center instead of so much transition to housing. So some of this isn't quite as relevant, but it really identified the corridors that you currently already are making some significant improvements to. And so Fostoria to Montevideo, in that direction, Montevideo through Alcosta as well were some segments that were identified. And then segment 13 was San Ramon Valley Road through Fostoria as well. And so I'm not going to spend time highlighting those. I want to get right to the fun part is where are we today? So this is one of our AI wonderful renditions by the consultant that we hired. This came about because I never want projects sitting on a shelf and I was able to allocate $500,000 that we had in a park impact fee to start the design of dual tracking of it. And so this shows you a visualization of what it might look like where you have people walking along the existing Iron Horse Trail and then you have a new bicycle path on the other side. This design is 65% complete and when you're Carl tells me that when I'm 65% complete, we can start applying for grants and looking for money to build it. So that's kind of the point we are. And so this is why it's a really important point where we are. As I mentioned, as we all know, we had this wonderful bridge. And I'm hopeful that as you move forward with your Crow Canyon Bridge, you will consider continuing dual tracking on the Crow Canyon Bridge. Right now, as you'll see from some of our design pictures, we're figuring out ways as people come off Bollinger Canyon to then bifurcate the slower folks, the pedestrians going in one direction, the bicyclists in another. But I'm hopeful that as the Crow Canyon is designed, we'll have this seamless transition with what we're doing right now. Always want to emphasize to everyone the importance of trail separation. And one of it is to really take advantage of transit, what we call the last mile. How do we get people to BART stations when we don't have a BART station in the San Ramon Valley, but we've got one in Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill. We have one down in Dublin as well. And this is in a fabulous, amazing way if we... partner with Alameda County as well to get this fast bicycle expressway getting there. Big concern over conflicts between wheeled and pedestrian modes that do threaten vulnerable older adults, younger adults, small children. It really diminishes the experience of many people who want to walk along the trail, enjoy the beauty around them, and suddenly they have someone either on a fast-moving bike saying, ding, ding, ding, on your left, move over, you're in my way, or worse yet, a band of small kids on e-bikes who are sort of terrorizing those on the trail. So that's a big factor. Other point is just that there are nine public schools located on the Iron Horse Corridor just in the San Ramon Valley. And right now it's being used by some students to get to and from school. We really want to take advantage of that. And then, as I mentioned, just the concern over e-bikes, alternative transportation modes, they can be an amazing blessing. And I sit on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and we've been looking at, I think right now, there are about nine different bills going through the state to try to regulate e-bikes. We don't want to ban e-bikes because they are an amazing blessing. way to get from point A to point B if used properly. And so this is an opportunity to reduce congestion and utilize these modes in the appropriate way. So pilot description, as we mentioned, about 65% complete. Carl told me recently, you think $2 million, we can do our first pilot segment.

Yeah. That would be 1.3 miles from the Bollinger Canyon Bridge off ramp to where the Crow Canyon Bridge will probably be.

Yeah, and so that's better than I thought. I was afraid it was going to be even more expensive. And again, right now we're doing it in phases. This is a pilot because we need to see how it works. Our partners, East Bay Regional Park District that currently maintain the existing trail We need to make sure it's going to work for them as well. But essentially, what it's going to be is the existing trail is going to be for pedestrians. The new trail will be for bikes. And then there's a buffer, a vegetated area right in between it, the whole length. Here is a rendition of if you were coming on or off the bridge, where you can see as you come down the bridge. For a while, we were talking about doing a roundabout, and that really freaked out a lot of people. So this is a much simpler where you're going to have, as you're coming off the bridge, if you're going to the left, that's where the pedestrians will go. If you're going to the right, that's where the bicycle expressway essentially would be. And as you exit the bridge, just another rendition, typical trail transitions until we have it going all the way from the end of San Ramon, Dublin, all the way up to Martinez, you would have transitions on and off, which would be a very simple merge going that way. We've got to look at every intersection, and so this, I don't know, Carl, do you want to comment sort of on some of the issues?

This is Executive Parkway, and this, fortunately, is a very slow, kind of slow traffic area, and we've got the school just on the other side of it, so fortunately, this one's a little easier to do because we kind of have a natural crossing point here, and so we were able to kind of just duplicate what's already there.

Which isn't always the case. I think Norris Canyon, we've got an issue of whether we'd have to move a traffic signal or not. And those are decisions that won't be unilaterally made by the county, the design team. Obviously, they're going to be working with your transportation engineers here at the city of San Ramon. Amenities are not included in the basic plan that right now we're talking about building, and we know that there is a desire for additional shade, for planting, for picnic areas, and my hope is, I know that you, the City of San Ramon, as you collect your development impact fees, you're looking at the trail, and I really appreciate that as far as both connecting your many new neighborhoods, how are you gonna safely get them there, But there may be opportunities also for developers to provide and include some of these amenities that will make it an even more of a destination points along the trail as well. And this is something that we did in Alamo with the support of the Alamo Municipal Advisory Council. In 2017, we completed the Hemi Station Park. This is a park that does not have a parking lot. You can't access it. by driving up and parking, unless you park down the street, but it's just accessed off the Iron Horse Trail. And it was an old, it had many uses. It was once the site of the Shady Way Inn, it was a walnut orchard, but the Alamo Mack and I, one night when it was still just a bunch of trees and dirt, and it was previously owned by San Juan Valley Fire, we walked the area and said, what do you want on the Iron Horse Trail when you are with a family, when you're with friends, What do you really need? And as a mom of six who used to take my kids up and down the trail, restrooms, that was really important. But it was also having a place to have them picnic, enjoy a play area as well. And so this, and I don't know how many of you have been to it, but this is a really fun park. Someday... Keep riding, Mark. You and Brenda need to get on your bikes. Head down there. It's just past, well, it's on Hemi, between Camille and Hemi. But it's a really fun picnic area. We do have the restrooms. We decided we wanted a covered gazebo area where people could have a family picnic for several families. We do have play areas. We've since added shade structures. We have a bicycle repair area that Carl, a bicyclist himself, advocated for us to get that. And then we have informational panels. And so it would be fun to see more of these along the trail, because then you can really, in fact, Phil and I, my husband, who Came with me tonight because he had nothing more fun to do than come to a city council meeting We'll often get on our bikes pick up breakfast at a local restaurant Hop on the trail and then go eat breakfast at Hemi station park on a Saturday morning And so anyway, we want to have people utilizing the trail for active transportation but continuing to maintain that recreational component Big issue is always the pipelines and utilities, and this was something I was texting Carl and saying, what are we doing, because there are, as many of you know, we've got the Kinder Morgan jet fuel line going down there, we have, here you can see, this was from the study, you've got a PG&E easement, you've got a drainage easement, You've got all kinds of fun things coming through Contra Costa. You have Central Sand with easements. But ultimately, fortunately, this first segment, the good news is, Carl?

The good news is where we're putting the new trail, there is no easements underneath it.

So we don't have to worry about it. We're not going to have it that easy on other segments, but that's why we're doing a segment at a time. And we are keeping East Bay Regional Park district staff and their board of directors engaged in discussions about this because it's critical for them to ultimately be the ones that maintain it. It wouldn't make sense to have another entity maintain it. They have been very, very positive about it. And one of our big concerns before we started the design was with all of this impervious surface where you're adding a new trail as wide, if not wider than the existing trail, are we going to have some crazy C3 clean water requirements? And Carl, let us know. The design does not require any C3 permits. We're exempt. So that is a really awesome thing to not have to worry. We don't have to do these bioswales. And while we are having landscaping, we're not going to have to comply with the permit. And again, we talked a little bit about intersections. We were showing you... one sample, then we're gonna get as we go into more of our neighborhoods, where it's gonna be a little bit trickier. And so there are a lot of really good design standards where you can raise up a crosswalk, you can do flashing lights. Obviously, bicyclists, even if they're in a bicycle expressway, they're gonna need to follow the laws. They're needing to stop before they go into the intersection, but there are a lot of ways that we're going to focus on keeping it much, much safer. And then, as I mentioned, what would the next segment be? Really, my goal is to go Crow Canyon to Sycamore Valley Road once we get this done, because that's where your next bridge is coming. And I see this as a true partnership. with the city of San Ramon, because you have taken such great initiative to get these bridges built and going forward, and the reality is we want to keep it continuous. I really, I'm hopeful that we're, as I said, we're gonna eventually find funding to do the entire Iron Horse corridor from your border up to Martinez, but in the interim, as we do segments, the continuous segments is gonna be so important. And as we talked about a little bit, Alameda County, I know the mayor, when he's been at meetings, has talked about this. And it's something that, as I'm out speaking with my colleagues, fellow supervisors, this is an amazing opportunity that I'm hoping that the Alameda Transportation Commission will also look at. Maybe they could start working on a bifurcation plan so we really could get to Dublin BART. And so funding. So Congressman DeSaulnier has made what we used to call earmarks. He did a congressionally directed spending request of $1.5 million, which would be fabulous if we do get that. And then we are applying for various grants. And so Carl is in charge of these grants. The mayor and I, who both sit on Contra Costa Transportation Authority, learned last week that it looks like a lot of the grants that are coming out of MTC are OBAG grants, and some of the others are going to be administered through CCTA. And so we're just going to need to put in, make it one of the county's four proposals, because it is so critical that we do get this funding, not just for this segment to be built, but we want the funding for future design. And ultimately, as we look at future phases, I'm really hopeful that this will become part of the county's transportation expenditure plan. And as I've spoken for the East Bay Regional Park District, if they in the future go out for a bond measure, this is something they would be very interested in also seeing funded as well. They see it as something that's such an amazing amenity.

to the community and um questions so do you have any questions that carl or i can answer for you well uh i don't know about questions at this point i i appreciate you bringing up the congressman de saulnier funny because i i thought that had already been kind of a done deal that It's been through appropriations wherever it's been. I thought that was going to happen. You make it sound like it's just a request.

Well, it's the request. It's not. In this current administration, it's not done until it's done. I mean, that's just the reality. And so the request went in. We are very hopeful. that it will be funded, but we have not had, as far as I know, we have not had the confirmation yet that that and some of the other proposals that we have. If we don't receive that, we are very hopeful that some of the other grants would fund it, and if worse comes to worse, we would keep digging around to at least get this first segment done. My goal really is, and it's an ambitious goal, is to get it built next year, and it's something that I think we really want to get built in 2027, to really showcase this is what it looks like, this is what it can be, particularly because the Transportation Authority is really looking at what are they going to highlight as very important projects that they want to see the public funding in the future. So to me, it's really important that we do this. Do you have any good guesses? How long would it take to build something like this? I haven't prompted him on this one, Carl.

I would say probably about a year. Okay, so yeah, it's not it's not a particularly difficult project. It's simply ordinary asphalt paving with on a prepared base. One of the things we got lucky is knowing that past railroad operations used hazardous materials to keep the weeds down. We went through and we sampled the corridor and actually we have in this particular relatively very low levels. So we're not going to have to probably haul off too much dirt either. So My general plan for this is it'll be a simple pathway. We'll have connections to merge it back as we approach the bridges. And we're also looking at connections with the adjacent developments. And I've actually, we already started working with Lenar and I already built one. So I was actually pretty happy about that.

Well, as you mentioned, with CCTA, you know, we have till I think August 17th to get in our countywide project list as well as our other competitive city level requests. So I think we've got up to two projects that we can submit. But I think that's a good one to throw in there. I think that would probably get some support based on some of the things that I've seen.

Hope so. And you may find us with some of these grants asking for a letter of support for the county. to be funded in that area. We'd love to see both you and Danville, um, you know, strongly supporting this moving forward, which I, I'm hopeful you will. Cause I, it truly will be such a great benefit to the residents of San Ramon.

Yeah. And I, I just appreciate your, you taking the initiative to, I think that initial park impact fee, the 500,000 that, uh, that you initially threw down, uh, for the design. I think that's great. We've got another $2 million, uh, I believe for the design for the Crow Canyon bridge. So, That's kind of going to be a work in progress here to get that design done. And then same thing, we'll go out and look for grant funding to get the bridge done. The way we can integrate between Crow Canyon and Bollinger Bridges, this dual tracking system, I think it just makes a lot of good sense. Be a model for the county. And hopefully we'll learn some lessons from that and be able to apply those.

That's why we starting small. You know, we really wanted the pilot to just figure out what are the constraints with trying to it sounds so simple. As we said, you just throw down some gravel base, you throw down some asphalt and you're done. But there's a lot more to it. And particularly on the old railroad track where you don't always know what was there. And I had said to Carl recently, well, these were all pear orchards.

Surely they weren't using arsenic in the pear orchards, but they were.

He grew up on a farm, and he told me, in fact, they were. I grew up in the pear orchards, yes.

That arsenic was used a lot.

So, and we're fortunate that we don't have more pollutants that have to be mitigated at this time, and it's an amazing amenity, and it's crazy that it has taken 23 years from when I first became really aware of this that we're finally at this point, but I'm excited to see it moving forward, and hopefully, while I'm still in office, I plan to be here for another six years, yet we'll see the trail going all the way through. That would be my goal. Ambitious goal, but I'd love to see it happen.

Well, you know, 90 plus percent of the trail is through Contra Costa County, but you do have that one piece in Alameda County. And Dublin's just made some improvements.

They've built a beautiful bridge, takes you right into the BART. So I'm very, very hopeful.

As well as other improvements that they have a master plan for improvements along the Iron Horse Trail as well.

I have not seen it. We'll have to talk.

They've got a whole master plan. They've already done some work on that. So that's, But it'll be important, I think, to integrate kind of that our county effort with what they're doing at some point to make sure there's a consistent approach throughout the duration of the corridor.

I agree with you. And fortunately, we have such a great history in the Tri-Valley area with our Tri-Valley cities in Alameda County working with both San Ramon and Danville in the county to make things happen. So thank you for giving me this time. Anyone in the community who has questions, please reach out to my office. But yes, please.

Looks like we've got other questions here.

Oh, absolutely. That's why Carl and I are here.

Council Member Feroz.

Thank you, Supervisor Anderson, for great presentation. I appreciate your leadership and enthusiasm. My question, I have a couple of questions. The first question is about community outreach. So as myself, a user of, I don't know, Australia, whenever I bike or walk, one thing I always think about is, okay, if my tires get flat or some issues, then how I'm going to... figure out, right, to fixate or something. So is it possible for us to reach out to community and see what they are thinking about certain amenities that we can have provide within this corridor?

Yeah, and I think that's great because each city in the incorporated areas, I anticipate you making those decisions about what you want to see. I see the role of the county is we want to get the paved trail in but all of those interesting things like the park that was built in Alamo, some of the amenities, I think that's gonna be something that you, the city, are gonna work with and work with whether you use park funds, whether you have a developer, make some of those amenities, but absolutely, when we first built the Hemi Station Park, we didn't have a bike repair area. And after a few years, Carl and some others said, hey, why don't we have a bike repair? So we have tools that you can use to repair your bike just right there. We don't have inner tubes, but we have other. Oh, do we have inner tubes?

What? I was just in Europe biking along or walking along the Rhine River. And I found a vending machine embedded by the trail for bike tires. There you go. Nine years. Buy yourself your bike. So if they can do it in Germany, they can do it here.

No, I think for each city, for both San Ramon, for town of Danville, for Walnut Creek, Concord, I think this is a really good discussion for both the councils, for the parks commissions to really talk about and hear from the community what is it we want. We've been doing that in Alamo, and that's certainly where we came up with Hemi Station Park even before we came up with the bifurcated trail. just because there was that desire from the community. But I think absolutely community outreach, and I will say if you go back and look at the 2020 Iron Horse Corridor Study, there was significant public outreach in San Ramon, in every single city along the corridor. There were pop-ups along the trail. to really get input from people at that time as to what they wanted to see happen on the trail and i can tell you some people when we mention technology or an autonomous vehicle potentially going up the trail i had people in alamo accusing us of wanting to run double-decker buses down the trail so you there's a balance but there is some good information if you go back and read that quarter study okay just to make sure i understood so as a city we have

some authority or authorization to work on that trail? Not on that, but adjacent to the trail so that we can provide amenities to our residents.

You would work with Public Works as to what we call an encroachment permit that would potentially identify this is a safe place where potentially you could put umbrellas or benches or something like that. Ideally, in a perfect world, because there are lots of pipes and fuels and electric lines, ideally, right on the edge of the trail, that's where a lot of these amenities would be taking place, rather than in the actual corridor But is someone wanting to build right adjacent to it or if they currently have a parking lot there, that would be a really good place to put those amenities rather than risking. We had issues when we were doing abatements on the trail of people who were moving their fences a little bit further out into the trail. And in one instance, they came with about six six inches of putting a fence post right through the Kinder Morgan jet fuel line. And so we just want to avoid those conflicts. And I don't know, Carl, do you want to add anything?

Well, yeah, we already have agreements with San Ramon for some little parklets along the trail that you guys, you notice there's some umbrellas and some benches along the trail. That's a previous agreement. We can use that as a model for future work. So we have also similar agreements with Danville as well. So we've worked with the cities to add amenities to the trail that benefit their particular populations.

Sounds good. So it looks like it is on us to do the community reach to hopefully city manager will make sure. We'll follow up on that and see what amenities our community is looking for. So that's my second question is about, um, the, uh, you mentioned it on 2Million dollars for your initial 1.2 miles. Um, so, um. Do we know, like, rough estimate how much it will be total cost?

No, I mean, and that's part of it. This is pilot worth assuming it's going to cost us, we're hoping, $2 million just to build the first 1.3 miles. And so I'm hopeful that as we get more significant grants, we will be able then to phase out the design do some sort of a design build so that we have a greater cost. I mean, you could do the math. How many miles in total is it, Carl?

It's 1.2, 1.3.

No, no, I'm talking about the whole trail. Oh, 18 miles. 18 miles. So you sort of look at it, okay, so we're probably looking at, it could be $30, $40 million. They're depending upon... the constraints at each side. So for example, in Alamo, we've got the trail narrows, it goes over a little bridge. In order to do a separate bike trail, we would more likely than not have to build a secondary bridge in order to accommodate that. And so each segment's gonna have its own unique cost, but again, if you look at this as an active transportation corridor, an alternative that people will realistically use to their cars to get to employment, more importantly, to get to transit, to some of our transit hubs. There's some amazing opportunities. Yeah.

And if you look at the growth that San Ramon is doing right now, the housing you're putting along the trail, wouldn't it be great if those people could bike or walk to Target?

Oh, yeah.

Not get in their cars.

Yep. I won't be surprised if we don't have autonomous bicycles by then.

Well, hopefully they'll have a rider on them.

Oh, yeah. Those are my questions. Thank you.

Okay. Let me just down here to council members right now. Okay. Council member Adler.

Yeah. I just echo what council member Perot said. I know how long you've been working on this kind of your baby over the years. And since you've been in city council Danville and it's, it's something, and I love the history, you know, reminding us of, of, How far we've come, but we still have a long way to go. And I'm so concerned about the safety having, you know, whenever I come here, the city hall, I like in the day I come, I walk around on the iron horse and boy, you know, some of those bikes just... go by pedestrians so quickly. And, you know, if I were to veer a little bit to the left or right, I might get nailed. So it's great that we have this dual tracking idea. And hopefully, you know, the money will come soon. And each city area will just kind of move north to complete it. And I think it's just a fantastic thing. And I love looking at the artist's rendition. It inspires me to imagine what it's going to be like. So thank you again for the first 500,000. And hopefully the congressman will help us with moving the trail, the dual tracking further north. So thank you for being here tonight.

Well, and the other thing I was going to say, Council Member Adler, is the reality is we can't ignore enforcement. And the East Bay Regional Park District Police are charged with ensuring that people travel the speed limit that is allowed on the trail. And so while we want to say this dual tracking is going to solve a lot of problems, we're still going to need to have a lot of education, a lot of enforcement to complement the engineering we're doing to make this trail safer. But thank you.

You can't.

All right, Vice Mayor Rubin. Any more, Council Member Adler?

No, I'm just saying a lot of these people are kids. Our kids are using these in the e-bikes and everything. So we have a special, even added concern with the speed of the kids.

And we have lots of ways to look at that through legislation. But yeah, that's something that's so important.

So thank you.

Absolutely. Thank you. So first and foremost, thank you for the presentation. Appreciate the thoughtfulness that you put into that. I personally think it's exciting and it's really something much needed for many reasons, not just to manage traffic, but it's also to really encourage people to live a healthier lifestyle. This is something that's very common everywhere. in other countries like chile and i mean everywhere across the world they prior they even have days full days they close roads to get people on their bikes rollerblades whatever they use to just keep them active um and it's really important as we talk about so many things we know The importance, we were just talking about brain awareness and health. Physical fitness is part of that. And as well as when we talk about, you know, emotional well-being, you know, psychological well-being, this is very important as well. So I appreciate you doing that. And I think the idea of making sure that there's regular stops available in those parks for shade, rest, water stations, restrooms, I think are important. essential. Another thing that crossed my mind was perhaps like along the trail. I know we all have technology, phones, watches, but the battery dies sometimes. And should someone have an emergency, I'm wondering if there's a way to incorporate sort of one of those things where you could do like in schools where you hit a button and there's an alarm, you have an emergency, people know where to go. And check in on you and make sure you're okay. That's one idea I had. And then the second one is something that I saw along Los Gatos Creek Trail, which I thought was also fabulous for those really avid athletic people who love to exercise outdoors, not in a gym, is they had these workout stations. Yeah. So they're on their bike and, you know, they're able to make regular stops, do, you know, some chin-ups, pull-ups, and, you know, sit-ups and things like that that kind of give them a little bit of that variety in their exercise that's, you know, kind of what we call HIIT exercise routines that are much more effective for most people. So anyway, that was my ideas, a couple ideas I just wanted to share with you. But I really love this, and I hope we can make it happen. And let me know if there's any way I can support that.

And Carl, do you want to comment? Have we ever piloted putting emergency call boxes or, you know, sort of, I think when...

But we're... We have not done that.

Okay. And again, it may be something that will be helpful. I know at BART stations, they have them. And like you said, many universities, there is an emergency, a blue light there for something. I think one of the other issues that came up as we were studying the trail is should we have lights? Should there be lights on the trail? Ultimately... That's not part of this plan. We hope that if someone's going to use the trail in the evening, they're going to have their own bicycle. I think the light issue was a big concern of people who live along the trail, but it's not to say in the future we wouldn't consider some low-line lights that go down, because especially in the winter, if you're using it as the last mile, as your way to get to a BART station, it is challenging to ride home in the dark, unless you do have some lighting. And so I don't know, with the Iron Horse Corridor Committee, have they talked about lights? Yes.

Yes, actually, I've actually initially put in some grants for bollard lighting, which would be about this high around the Pleasant Hill Bar Station to begin with. So something that we are thinking about. And certainly, you know, with your transit center, wherever it may wind up, having lights around that in the evening makes sense too. And again, not big street lights up in the air to shine in everybody's eyes, but really low-level bollards along the trail to shine on the trail. Which is a...

Helpful thing. Hopefully solar. Yes, solar would be better. There was one 4th of July when you guys still did the fireworks where my family all rode our bikes from the Sycamore Park and Ride, and we rode home. We were trying to ride home with flashlights on our bicycles. Not the safest way to do it, so I do not recommend it. As an expert bicyclist, he's saying, why would she even think that was a good idea? So anyway, reach out if you have more ideas. I really appreciate it, and we will certainly keep you updated. But we wanted all of you to be getting the latest, greatest information as we got up to this important 65% design phase.

Well, thank you very much for the information, Supervisor Anderson and Carl. Thanks for coming in as well. It's good information and good to see it's making progress, 65%, and we're on the way.

We're moving forward.

Keep it going.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. All right. That completes item six. We're going to move on to now item number nine, which is new business. And the first item is item 9.1, resolution number 2026-094, authorizing execution of the unrepresented miscellaneous employee's salary and benefits resolution and corresponding salary schedule. And we have our very own Megan O'Donohue, who's going to tell us all about what we got here.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. I have a presentation that we'll pull up just momentarily here. Okay, so Mayor, as you introduced, this is a proposal for an update to the unrepresented miscellaneous employees salary and benefits resolution. So some background. Currently, we have about 142 employees who are considered unrepresented miscellaneous employees. And this is a very large and diverse group of employees for the city. They range from office technicians to program managers to assistant city attorney. So it's essentially almost all of the employees that work for the city that are not represented by one of our labor groups. Much like how represented employees have their salary and benefits provisions governed by a memorandum of understanding, these employees have their salary and benefits determined by a salary and benefits resolution. And we've had these for several years. The most current resolution was effective June 1 of 2022, and it included provisions to increase salary ranges through the end of this current fiscal year. As you know, earlier this evening, we presented an updated salary schedule that included increases to salary ranges or salary steps for represented employees. So we took a look at the salary and benefits resolution to ensure that we maintained equity across our different employee groups across the city and, of course, remain competitive in the labor market. So specifically, what we're proposing to update in the resolution is to add provisions that would allow for salary range increases for the next two fiscal years, the first one starting in just a matter of a week or so on July 1st. Specifically, much like we did with the SEIU MOU, we're looking at a set 3% salary range increase in July 1 of 2026, and then again on July 1 of 2027. And then, of course, like with any of these documents, there's always cleanup language, incorporating amendments, et cetera. So the fiscal impact of these proposed changes come to an estimated just over $1.1 million over the next two fiscal years. And that's a combination of salary and ancillary benefit costs. So think things like pension costs that kind of swell as salaries increase. So specifically for this upcoming fiscal year, we're looking at just over $442,000. And I've split out salary and benefits just so you get a sense of what's actual compensation versus benefit costs. And then in fiscal year 2027-2028, the cost is estimated to be just over $671,000. We have talked to the finance department, they believe that we have sufficient funds in the operating budget for this coming fiscal year that we are not asking for a budget adjustment at this time. Of course, with the understanding that as part of the mid year process departments will evaluate their budgets and request any budget adjustments at that time. Any questions on that?

The only question I had was, okay, this is for two years. What happens at the end of two years? We see how effective it was and we kind of do it and just start the process all over again?

Yes, all of the above. Basically, because we've kind of had these two set increases that will be written into this resolution, at the end of the two years, it kind of allows us to see what is the city's financial position, where do we think our salaries are in the labor market, what else is happening with the city, and then we would come before council again and make a request or a proposal for subsequent fiscal years. And in the absence of taking any action, there just wouldn't be any change to salary ranges beyond that point. So the benefits provisions, I suppose, would still stay in place. So it's not like we would kind of the bottom wouldn't fall out of the car, so to speak, but we would want to look at that in subsequent years.

And this transition to the kind of basic 3%, this is basically doing away with the comparator city studies and the 75 percentile studies that we've done in the past.

Exactly. And so it may be that after two fiscal years, we decide we do want to revisit that system, that we think that we've lost something in this transition. So we kind of thought two years gives us time to try something different. And then we can just see where we are. So we're not committing to a really long-term plan. And so we can kind of look at this almost like a pilot, so to speak. And it may be that we like this, but we decide different percentages are more appropriate or what have you.

Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Other questions? Who would like to go first? All right. Let's go to Council Member Adler.

Yeah, I like this, the way it's going. And I know there's a lot of data that you look at. You've got to look at what other cities are paying. Obviously, you want to have a competitive salary so that when you have good people, you can keep them. But I like the idea that, you know, we're using this model, but we may want to go back. And, you know, it as conditions change, and we've got a lot of things to look at, inflation, and what other cities are paying, and we want to be competitive. So, personally, I think it was a well-done study that you've done here, and I like the direction it's going right now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Other questions? Council Member Rose.

Comments.

Okay. All right. Well, we'll get to comments here in a moment. Any questions? Council Members, why not?

That's my Rubio question. Okay.

All right. So since we have no more questions, I'm going to go ahead and open up a public comment on this item. And do we have any speaker cards?

Yes, we have a speaker card from Elena Formosa. Okay.

Disclosure, Elena Formosa is not really my name. It is just a name for you guys to tell me that it's my turn, which is unusual because nowadays I'm being shut down from speaking. Mayor Armstrong, I really wish that you had allowed me for the clarification with supervisor because a lot of what she said, really, I deserve to ask questions. What you guys did is absolutely un-American, shameful. Okay, you know, I am seeing a pattern here. We hire a lot of staffs, and then we keep paying them more and more, and then sometimes I notice that they're not even here working. Are they still working from home? On top of that, I keep seeing money you guys blanket past, like what you just did now, with four-leaf ink and 37 urban ink. Why do I need to pay as a taxpayer, staff, and then their assistance through consulting companies or temp agencies that I need to pay for? Why? Also, you won't even let me ask, why are you guys hiring international union? What country is that? Chile or communist China? Which country are we hiring that we are now... international union that I'm paying for. I'm an American citizen. Why do I need to pay so much? And you won't let me ask. Those are basic rights I have and I don't even have it. So what am I? Tax slave to you guys? Absolutely no. But I know it doesn't matter what I say. You will still pass. And that's why our city finances are the way it is in the past few years since all of you are on. You know what? Before Diversity came on, Council Member V rose. San Ramon was a beautiful place, and the finances were so much better. You too, Council Member Rubio, same thing. Before you came on, we were in the positive, and now we're in the negative. We can't even pay for pavement of the road if I did not protest. And then all of a sudden, consulting company said, oh, we do have money. If it is not fraud or something going on, why is it that manager, city manager Spadofsky, calls in the police on me just because I said, is Miao Xia, a Chinese name of our accountant, working on finances? that I can't even say her name? I can't even say Miao Xia. And now Council Member Rubio has a problem with me talking about Miao Xia. Why? She is an accountant. She is part of this labor that you are wanting me to increase her pay. Why do I need to pay for these people whom I can't even question? Miao Xia's name all of a sudden became Michelle, and I wanted to ask why, and I couldn't. Something is going on with you guys, and you guys are like criminals and thieves.

Thank you.

There are no more speakers and we did not receive any written public comment on this item.

All right.

Then let's turn it over to council members for final comments. Thanks city manager and all department head leadership. Appreciate Megan. Thank you for working on this. I know there are some concerns about increase in pay, which will be on impact over, budget but then you know uh we want to retain top talent right as megan already mentioned so in order to retain top talent you need to be competitive in the salary compensation otherwise as council member perkins used to say that when we don't compete on this compensation then we end up all the people who are at the top talent we lose them all the low talent that we'll retain. So that's what we end up with. So it is very important to pay attention on what are the importance of keeping top talent because San Ramon is such a beautiful place and the credit goes to all our staff working so hard and they definitely deserve this increase. And also doing this in a fixed manner that helps us to forecast our budget or prepare our budget in a better way rather than keep on doing the surveys and all that. So thank you for a fantastic job. I appreciate all your great work.

Thank you.

All right.

Council Member Adler, anything? Final comments? Okay. Council Member Duana? Okay. Vice Mayor Rubio.

So I just wanted to say, one of the things that I... Remember, we're discussing going over this. And what I really like about it is that it helps us be able to better predict how our costs will increase over time. And I also think it's a great idea that we're doing it on a test pilot basis. to sort of see does this work or is this, you know, and maybe it does and there's just some kinks that we need to work out. And so I like the fact that we're leaving a little bit of leeway in there to work with this. And I think, you know, one of the things that, you know, I think it was great that this council and the staff actually did such a great job at identifying a deficit that was inherited from over five years ago. So I and that we have closed that deficit in one year with Measure N. And so we and we have a surplus that we fortunately. So we are going to continue. This is one of the very important steps to making sure that we are planning for when Measure N sunsets as we talk about how do we meet the needs of the community and the financial demands while also independent of Measure N. So thank you for your presentation, and thank you all for your hard work. We appreciate it.

Yeah, I'll just say thank you for kind of putting forth this plan. I agree. I think it makes it much more predictable for budgeting purposes and appreciate the fact that we won't need to make any adjustments to the budget that we just passed, that this is already kind of factored in and considered. But yeah, we'll be on the lookout at mid-year, make sure it's played out the way we thought it was going to play out. But thank you. All right. I think we're going to move on now to 9.2. I believe you are still up. This is a 9.2 is a resolution number 2026. Oh, wait, we got to vote on this. We got to vote.

I'll move to approve that.

Yeah. I second. All right. So we have a motion to adopt resolution 2026-094 by Vice Mayor Rubio and a second by Council Member Veros. Okay, motion passes unanimously. Now we can move on to item 9.2, resolution number 2026-095, authorizing execution of the unrepresented executive employees salary and benefits agreement and corresponding salary schedule.

I will let you know in advance it's a very similar presentation.

I'm sure it is.

So I'm ready to go. There we go. So the background on this one is a little bit different, but only slightly. So as you may recall, in November of 2024, council took some actions which would make the assistant city manager and any department directors hired after November of 2024 at-will employees. And due to the nature of those positions becoming at will, they now have salary and benefits provisions in what's called a salary and benefits agreement, as opposed to the salary and benefits resolution that governs all other unrepresented employees. So we're talking about a very small group of employees. This is six employees currently. That current agreement dates back to November of 2024 when those changes were made and had increases through the end of this fiscal year as well. So same logic applies because we're making these changes across the board. We're proposing changes to the salary and benefits agreement, again, to ensure we have that equity across job classifications, don't run into compaction and remain competitive. So it's a very similar proposal. It's 3% salary range increases on July 1 of the next two fiscal years, which the first one being in just a week and a half, and then cleanup language and incorporating amendments that we've had to the agreement since its inception. The fiscal impact of changes to this agreement is just under $46,500. The projected costs for this upcoming fiscal year are very low, just over $3,500. And we've broken that up by salary versus benefits again. And then in what would be year two or next fiscal year of 2027-28, we're looking at just under $43,000. And again, finance believes we have sufficient funds to cover that for this upcoming fiscal year, but we will assess it mid-year. Okay. Any questions?

No, but I guess with the last action we just did on 9.1 and with this action 9.2, then all of our groups, our represented groups, our, well, we got POA agencies, Those contracts as well as now these two actions here, that covers everybody, right?

Everybody except temporary employees.

Oh, temporary.

Yes.

Okay. All right. And how do we handle those?

Temporary employees, there's typically a minimum wage adjustment that comes in January, on January 1st of each year. And then I believe there's an existing council resolution or there's been council direction in the past that then because so many of our temporary employees exist in the parks department, they kind of have set equity guidance. And so that's part of what we bring in January that kind of says we're going to kind of notch everybody up a little bit.

same logic to remain competitive if if minimum wage starts here and we've kind of set our temporary pays in a certain spot then we'll move them up but that's um i could talk to my colleagues over in parks to get those details okay all right yeah thank you all right uh questions for megan on this item very similar to the last one just a different group okay seeing no questions i will open up public comment and then we will have comments

There are no speaker cards, and we did not receive any written public comment on this item.

Not for 9-2.

Do you want to speak under this item? Okay. That's okay. Just perfect. Thank you. Okay.

Go ahead. You'll have three minutes.

If I don't speak, you will never speak and you just pat each other on the back and pat the staff on the back. Good job, good job. You know what? I'm an American and I'm Charlie Kirk tonight. I will never live on my knees by giving up my right, my inalienable right to you guys. It's my money. I have the right to question and I have the right to speak the truth. I have concerns on this item, not because of the monetary numbers, but because of the shady character of this man that is the city manager. I find that he has dubious hiring practice. For example, recently he just hired an analyst from one of the planning commission, a young man. I won't say his name because I actually like him. And I think he is qualified, maybe. However, the way he was hired is unconstitutional and un-American. And it is not what a proper municipality should have done. That position was not properly posted to all the public. And therefore, that young man, as exceptional as he is, he had no competition because that was an insider job gifted by this man to him at a private conversation. Is that how you guys hire? You guys know about this. Why is it that nobody question? You are elected to do what I am doing. You all get paid a stipend. What do you do? You go party with the supervisors. You go party with congressmen using my tax dollars. And what do I do? I have to come here risking my life. I can promise to get shot on the parking lot because I'm questioning people's jobs. Thanks a lot. It's okay. I'm an American Christian. Like I said, I will live on my feet than to surrender my freedom to you and my inalienable right to you on my knees. I definitely say no, but I know you will still vote yes. Again, he's a shady character.

All right. Thank you. Next speaker, please.

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

All right. Then let me turn it over to council for any comments that you may have before we vote on a resolution.

Council Member Varela. Once again, thanks to city manager and our executive directors. I think from my experience working with city since 2008 in different roles, I think we have the current executive team is one of the best talented. and they well deserve whatever we are giving at three percent i wish we have so much uh positive uh budget that we could have added more but due to budget constraints i can understand we could do only three percent but it is well deserved top we need to retain this top talent we continue to in order to continue to provide high quality services for our community. So thanks for all your great work. We appreciate it as a council. Thanks. Thank you. Any other council members?

Okay.

City manager.

Yes, mayor. I just want to state for the record that the position that the speaker was talking about was posted publicly and open for competition to anyone wishing to apply categorically untrue that there was not a public posting. Thank you.

Okay. All right. Thank you. All right, so now can I get a motion on the resolution that's before us?

So moved to approve. Second.

Okay, motion, Vice Mayor Rubio, second by Council Member Adler. This is to approve resolution number 2026-095. Okay, motion passes unanimously, and... Thank you, Megan, for that. And we're going to move on to item 9.3. This is another resolution. This is where we're going to talk about the Trails Master Plan. Before we go into this, does any council member wish to take a break at this point, just after 9 o'clock, or keep driving on? Keep going. Okay. All right. 9.3, resolution number 2026-096, authorizing the City Council to to adopt the San Ramon Trails Master Plan. And we have Keith Huss.

Is this up there, Mr. Mann?

Is that already open? No. Is that up?

Close up. All right, there you go. Thank you.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members, it's my privilege this evening, tonight, I am pleased to present the San Ramon Trails Master Plan and introduce Ben Fish from Design Workshop, who will provide a detailed overview of the planning process, key findings, and recommendations contained within the plan. The plan represents the culmination of a collaborative effort that began in April, 2025 and involved design workshop, city staff, partner agencies, members of the community. And throughout the process, our goal was always to develop a vision for San Ramon's trail system that reflects community priorities while supporting the city's long-term recreation needs and access open space objectives. The development process included extensive outreach and technical analysis, including a community-wide survey, public workshops, stakeholder meetings, coordination with neighboring agencies, and a comprehensive review of existing plans and policies from the city, the county, and East Bay Regional Parks. The result is a master plan with recommendations... that positions the city of san ramon to establish an ideal and well-connected trail system that supports recreation connectivity access to open space and strengthens connections to the broader regional trail systems that surround san ramon it is important to note that the plan itself provides many exciting opportunities however they are not shovel ready projects it Each recommendation outlined in the plan may require additional steps, such as securing or modifying easements, coordinating with homeowners associations, partnering with external agencies, identifying funding sources, and completing future design and environmental reviews before implementation can occur. Ultimately, the Trails Master Plan provides a strategic roadmap to guide future trail investments, prioritize opportunities, and support the continued development of a safe, connected, and accessible trail system for the San Ramon community. With that, I will turn it over to Ben from Design Workshop to provide a more detailed overview of the planning process, the findings, and the recommendations contained in the Trails Master Plan for your consideration tonight.

All right. Thank you, Keith. Welcome, Ben.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Ben Fish. I'm a landscape architect and principal at Design Workshop. I have over 25 years of experience in recreation and trail planning in the profession. Tonight, I'm going to present an overview for the Trails Master Plan at San Ramon that our team has been working on for the last 15 months. As Keith said, we started last April of 2025.

And it means just to mention it.

So over the years, San Ramon's planning documents have repeatedly supported the creation of a citywide trails plan. The recent general plan directly called for a trails master plan to identify current, future, and proposed citywide trails and connections. In addition, the 2020 parks, trails, open space, and recreation master plan established guiding principles of interconnected conservation and connections to nature by enhancing and expanding the existing trail system. This plan that we've created, it establishes the need for approximately 15 miles of new off street trails. So these are dirt trails that we're talking about in this plan and up to 10 regional connections beyond city limits that we've worked with external partners with in up to eight new city access points. So new trail heads within the city and management recommendations for shade wayfinding signage maintenance and funding opportunities. The master plan was guided by community input throughout the process, and it led to a shared set of goals that helped inform the recommendations. Our team spent extensive time mapping, online mapping through GIS, available data sources, opportunity areas, including cultural and environmental sensitive areas and constraints, or essentially no-go areas where you wouldn't put a new trail. And then we went out and field truth everything with our maps and recommendations, hiking and biking extensively throughout the open space within the city and adjacent to it. From there, we found that there was an existing trail system, you know, largely inherited from old ranch roads that can be built upon and really improved for the community. Draft recommendations were then shared with the community and stakeholders with multiple sets of refinement over the last nine months. Now I'd like to share what we heard from the community. The master plan goes into extensive, you know, there's actually results of amenities for the Iron Horse Trail, for instance, with presenter prior to this. So we have what folks were looking for on the Iron Horse Trail. We had seven months of community engagement to understand community desires. We had four presentations to the Parks and Community Services Commission before their adoption of the plan last month. Eight different agencies and partners were interviewed at each stage of the process, so early on to understand their goals and visions, and then later to review the recommendations with them. That included the East Bay Regional Parks District, the City of Dublin, City of Danville, Contra Costa County, Fire District, and the School District. We had seven in-person events and over 800 survey responses, which from my experience is really great for a community of this size. The community survey responses were overwhelmingly supported the creation of a connected trail system in San Ramon. On the left-hand side of this slide, we asked folks if it adds value to their home and community. You can see nearly all respondents agreed with that, over 800. If it improved the overall quality of life, new trails in San Ramon, everyone agreed with that as well, 98%, I believe. Contribute to the health and safety in San Ramon, overwhelmingly agreed with that. What community members thought was most needed was connections to neighborhoods and trails and open spaces, connections throughout the city's existing open spaces, better connections to external open space lands, and expanded connections from their existing parks. When we asked people what kind of trails they wanted, all types of trails is what they wanted. But specifically, we got into asking different types of trails, natural surface trails, about four to six feet wide. So you could walk two, three, you know, a side. We asked other things too, like if there was, you know, and multi-use trails too. So all users being able to share the trails together. Throughout the outreach and engagement efforts, we distilled it down to five focus areas that were in alignment with what we heard. The community-driven priorities will guide the future development. They are to create connections between neighborhoods and open spaces, collaborate with partners for regional connectivity, enhance the Iron Horse Trail within city limits, enhance existing trails within city limits, and provide new and enhanced trailheads and navigations. This map, it shows 42 geo-reference recommendations. I'm not going to go through each one right now, but I will talk about some of the highlights. These recommendations were based on the focus areas that we saw in the previous slides, and they distribute the projects throughout the city to help residents reach trails, more residents reach trails, parks, and open spaces in a series of off-street trail systems. The recommendations provide equitable access to nature and open space, building off the assets within the existing trail system of the city. Another exciting aspect is the opportunity to improve the connections to external open spaces, such as Bishop Ranch Open Space or Lost Tropics Regional Wilderness. We created an online interactive map that's linked on the city's website and it shows these recommendations in more detail where you can zoom into them and see exactly what cross street or open space that they are at. The final document in the interactive story map, they show all the recommendations in the detail of each. This slide shows some of the high priority projects based on the criteria and prioritization matrix that we have on pages 50 to 55 of the final document. Some of these are stacked loops within the preserve open space, a trail from the preserve to Los Trompas, more shade along Iron Horse Trail. That was actually the number one thing that the community wanted. Trail from Alcostas Senior Center to the Community Center at Old Ranch Park and Forest Home Farms, a new trailhead there to connect to citywide trails. In this plan, it's more than just a list of recommendations. It's a playbook that can be used to implement, to secure funding, to look for final design on the trail system and environmental considerations such as CEQA. It also lists capital improvement prioritization matrix that I just mentioned, which we went into specific criteria that ranked each project and potential funding for each or cost estimates for each as well. We looked at funding opportunities that describe potential opportunities for future projects. We looked at trail construction and maintenance standards based on federal trail standards. We looked at trail use mitigation strategies. There's been a lot of mention of e-bikes today, some of that in alignment with other standards. CEQA compliance, we explained the environmental, when an environmental impact report might be needed and required in recent changes to CEQA that actually facilitate the implementation of trail projects more easily. And we also looked at intersection safety considerations in alignment with the recent bicycle master plan for street crossings. Personally, what excites me most about this plan as a recreation planner and steward of the environment is that there's projects here that can be implemented very soon that'll benefit the community and the environment. I saw firsthand how engaged this community is and how much they want a better trail system here in San Ramon. These six projects shown here, they can be quick wins for the city. The other recommendations of the plan, they're flexible, allowing the city to respond to funding opportunities or partnership opportunities and evolving community needs. What we show here is these top six projects. Old Ranch Park, it rose to the top. Connecting Old Ranch Park to El Costa Senior Center and Community Center at Doherty Hills Open Space. Forest home farm, since I mentioned. Creating a trailhead there. Quick, easy win. Ferreira Preserve, connecting to northwest San Ramon to Las Trampas. East Bay Regional Park said that next year or two, they're going to be building a trail right to the San Ramon border. We can work with the district there to connect that trail system. Iron Horse Trail, like we heard in the earlier presentation. work with the county and East Bay Regional Parks. Again, more shade along Iron Horse Trail. Tassajara Ridge connects the external open space via the improved existing trails there. And we also heard the East Bay Regional Parks working with an easement to get into Camp Parks, which would then connect that side of the city on the east side. And then working with the HOA and land owners, other landowners, to begin conversations to find potential partners and support more connections through HOA lands. With that, I think unless Keith has anything else to add, he'll open it up to questions.

All right. All right. Thank you, Ben. Anything else, Keith? We'll open it up for questions.

I think more than anything, staff is really excited about the document that's been created, the recommendations, the amount of community inputs, and to work with Ben and the design workshop team and how much they've been involved in the development and hands-on and actually out in the field. And so staff is really excited to hopefully have the plan adopted and obviously go to work.

All right. Thank you, Keith. All right, questions from council for either Ben or Keith. All right, Council Member Adler.

Yeah, I'm curious about the Forest Home Farms, the trailhead. Is that going up in the hills from Forest Home? Is that the direction like up Pine Valley kind of?

Right. So it could be a staging area or a trailhead that would then go to Pine Valley or the opposite direction towards Starkweather Trail, which obviously we'd have to discuss access from the backside of Forest Home Farms. Yeah.

Yeah, and I'm assuming all ages, well, I don't know how much kids respond or when the age of response starts, really, but I like it. It appears that the older population was actively engaged in that and to have the trail right near the senior center seems like a great thing for that community, my community. So anyway, thank you. I was curious about this.

All right.

Thank you. Other questions?

I mean, it's just kind of going back to what the same thing I mentioned to the supervisor. Like, do we have anything for people should they like to communicate? Should they have a distressful experience, like a distress signal to trigger that?

So we currently, as a separate project from the Trails Master Plan, the city currently has an agreement with Smart Outdoors for signage that is... Based on sponsorship dollars, part of the signs that were designed with them has emergency information. Each post, each sign is identified, as well as they are tied into an app called what? These three words? What three words? Sorry. And so every... Three by three, I think it's 10 feet, 10 by 10 feet, has three words identified. And so if you call dispatch, if you call 911, you could say, hey, I have what three words? These are my three words. And they could actually find you within that 10 by 10 box on earth. Yeah. And so that would be part of that signage. That agreement ends in early 2027. If that falls through, then we would be looking at incorporating that into signs through a different avenue.

OK, I mean, that that's good because I think that's a minimum. We should have that. But I mean, again, I worry because it's happened to me. Sometimes my phone dies faster than I expected. Or, you know, they may not just have the technology on hand to make that call. Do we have have we thought about other ways to enable people to communicate? Hey, I'm having a distressful like there's an emergency and I need help.

In speaking with PD, our cell service, 911 calls go through even out in our open space. However, if you're saying your cell phone is dead, emergency calls still go through even when your cell phone is like 0%. Now, if you don't have a phone, that's another case. And we don't have anything out on the trails currently that would help that situation.

Okay. That's good to know. Thank you.

Other questions? Yeah, for the funding, can we use our park development fund for trails?

It would depend on what you're looking at for the park development fund, what items. I know another funding source for some of the trail work could be the open space fund. And we've been holding off on any potential projects until the master plan is adopted. And once the master plan is adopted, then staff can start reviewing with council this short list of items and the funding sources. So we'll identify all funding sources that are available.

That's great. Just to make people feel ease that we are not putting our general fund money into this. So so that they understand we are using a specific open source fund, open space fund, which cannot be used for any other general fund requirements. So that's good to know. Yeah, that's my question. Okay.

All right. Thank you. Council Member Finnis. Okay. I don't have any questions. I'm glad you brought up the whole, that other, uh, sponsorship issue. Cause I know we'd looked at that a couple of years ago and it just, it hadn't gone off the ground. So, uh, it expires in 2027 and well, let's hope we don't have to get to the expiration. We actually get a sponsor to come in and we'll kick this program off because those additional signage and everything, uh, wayfinding and everything out on our trails, I think it'd be wonderful.

Right. And even if that is sorry, even if that falls through, it is one of the recommendations. It's better wayfinding science. We do have the designs. We have all the back leg work if we have to do it on our own. Yeah. OK. All right.

Any other questions open up for you? Question. OK. All right. Thank you. I'm going to open it up for public comment. And public comment is now up. Speaker, please.

The first speaker is Elena Formosa.

They know that they will get this passed very easily. They're not even trying. These are the questions that I have. I don't know why you guys fail to see it. They keep saying that they are community input. I didn't even see this made it to open space committee. I didn't even see this made it to community services. And I wasn't even asked. D.V. Gad was not asked nor agendized for this item. I don't know who they outreached to. Alameda? Livermore? Congressman? Supervisor? Who are they outreaching? This is absolutely disgusting. And I actually feel very, the one clarification I hope, I wish that you had given me to clarify with Supervisor Anderson. She said East Bay Regional Park has their police. Now let me ask you this. Why are you okay for East Bay Regional Park police to be in the jurisdiction of San Ramon? If we need any police in our city, that would be the chief's job to hire more so that they can collaborate. Why is it that you are designating her now to be a subordinate in our own city? What are you guys thinking for crying out loud? Seriously. Also, Who is going to pay for costs of vandalism? Please, you guys pay for it. I'm not paying for it. I already pay a ton to DVGAD, to our Melrose in Windermere, to all the property taxes. We pay the highest in Windermere. We're literally the tax cash cow for you guys. Whenever you guys want to milk, you guys want to drink milk, you come and you squeeze us. Enough is enough. What about crime near schools? Supervisor Anderson mentioned nine schools in her trail. How many schools are these? If you bring Alameda people here, what happens if students get hit? These e-bikers in Alameda may not even be They may not even be in our system. So our kids deserve to have, you know, crimes committed against them without insurance, without any, I mean, you probably can't even find the perpetrator. Do you guys care? No, you guys didn't even ask questions about that. And I have never been able to dial 911 on a dead phone. I don't even know whatever they said is correct or not. Why don't you try your cell phone right now? See if you can get through. Variant speed limit. What is the speed limit? Wasn't explained. You know, this is all pretty stuff. I can design the trail. You don't need to spend millions of dollars to get someone to design this trail for you. The problem is you guys never got our own resident input, our own school input, our own, you know, chief and committee input. So this is really a disaster waiting to happen. What about homelessness that's going to come here and camp out? These are all bad things that's going to happen that I will remember is on your watch. Thank you.

All right. Thank you.

Greg Carr.

All right.

Good evening, City Council. Greg Carr, San Juan resident. I just want to pass on some thoughts for you, ideas. Parasol, I think, brought up something about how do people get a hold of emergency help. And that, for some of us, is a real issue, you know. There is the possibility of having relay transmitters that can be connected to cells, or you could even hardwire stations within a crawling range. for old folks. So I think that can be taken care of. It's a cost. The funding for this that Steve brought up, which I thought was a good one, I think Finally, use the open space funds for something that's positive because there's not enough funds in there to buy suitable, large enough open space parcels. Just not there. But you can buy a hell of a lot of things to improve this. The thing that I know in master plans, you really don't want to talk about too much because you want to talk about the concepts, but the operation and maintenance and repair costs for these things and how are you going to pay for that over time? And then a, and, um, Attendant concept with that is you might want to talk about how you get volunteer labor. There's a lot of hiking groups around, okay? And I think it'd be something that could be addressed. Now, I spoke earlier about the use of the community center for quarterly meetings. As I'm sitting here, even though nobody's here, except for staff, excuse me, and a few hangers on, it just dawned on me that having a presentation on this would be a wonderful thing to do at the community center. Advertise it, put it on the kiosk, get a lot of turnout. And if you don't have your turnout, Well, you have people who can vote for their constituents. But I think it would be perfect to have this. You could have all these slides and things and present a positive thing that the community and you and staff are trying to come up with. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. All right. Any other speakers?

There are no other speaker cards. However, we did receive written public comment from Brian Swanson on this item, which is before you in the red binder in the back of the room and also posted on the website.

Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Then I'm going to close public comment and we will now back to council for any further discussion or comments before we move to on the resolution.

It's quite refreshing to see something that I worked as a parks commissioner in the almost 2016, somewhere around that time. And we did a lot of community outreach. Thanks, staff, for doing all the hard work in reaching out. And in fact, when I did my walks in my community and when I did my Ask Me Anything meetings, I do always ask them about their feedback and we always continuously share the same thing to city managers. So thanks for taking all that input and including all those requests from our community. and making this into reality. So I'm definitely looking forward. So there is a deliberation that happened all these years. So many community outreaches happened. So I appreciate all your great work. Thank you.

Okay. Council members, why not? Okay, Council Member Adler, Vice Mayor Rubio. Okay, all right. Well, thank you, Ben. And thank you, Keith, for not just the presentation, but all the work that went into this. I know there was significant community outreach. It's all talked about in the plan, different surveys and meetings and stakeholder sessions and everything else. So I appreciate that. And the point was brought up about volunteer groups or other people. There's a section in here on maybe coming up with a friends of uh, you know, the trails system or something. And those are great. I love that idea. I see friends of type groups in a lot of different places I've traveled. And, uh, so I think there's a lot of potential to get people, get our residents involved in some of that trail maintenance and things like that. So, uh, thank you for including that. Um, And it's a really well done plan. I'm very impressed. Love the pictures in there. There's some pictures of Santa Ramona from angles that I've never seen before. So I really appreciated that. And, you know, we hear it all the time. Our residents love our open spaces. They love our trails. They love getting outdoors and kind of being a part of nature. And so I appreciate, and I especially appreciate seeing a couple options for some east-west I like that. I think we're missing some of that. It was good to see that one, especially coming over the hill from Rancho San Ramon, across the hill to Alcosta and things like that. And I like the idea of getting up through the Starkweather property, figuring out how we're going to do that and everything. But a lot of great ideas in here. I love those projects. I think funding is going to be a challenge, and we'll just have to work through that. But you've got... five pages in here on funding opportunities, all the different ways that we can find funding sources to help to execute some of these projects. So thanks for bringing that out and putting that in the master plan and identifying those projects. So again, that's all I've got. I appreciate, again, Ben, Design Workshop and the Parks and Community Services staff and the Parks Commission for all the work that was put into this. Okay. So I'm on the motion. Okay.

I will second that.

Okay. We've got a motion by Council Member Rose, second by Vice Mayor Rubio. This is on Resolution No. 2026-096, authorizing City Council to adopt the San Ramon Trails Master Plan. Okay, motion passes 5-0. All right, we're going to move on to the last itemized agenda here. This is 9.4, discussion and direction regarding filling the vacancy on the planning commission. And we're to provide some direction to the staff on how we want to proceed. So I'm going to turn it over to our city clerk, Jones Nashall. What do you got for us, Jones?

So the item before you is to discuss the process for filling the vacancy on the Planning Commission. As the Council is aware, a vacancy occurred on the Planning Commission following the resignation of Commissioner Max Zhang on June, I'm sorry, May 6th, 2026. Mr. Zhang was appointed by the city council on August 14th, 2025, and was serving a four-year term that was scheduled to expire on June 30th, 2029. At the time of his appointment, the council also established a wait list and identified Abhijit Banjari as a wait list candidate should a vacancy occur on the commission before the next regularly scheduled recruitment in 2027. At the May 26th council meeting under matters initiated, Mayor Armstrong requested the item come before the council to determine how to proceed with filling the vacancy. Tonight's staff is seeking council direction on how to proceed. Options include appointing the waitlist candidate either through the next regular recruitment cycle ending in June 30th, 2027, or for the remainder of the term ending June 30th, 2029. Again, direct staff to conduct a new recruitment process or provide alternate direction. And that concludes my staff report, and I'll turn it back over to the council for discussion.

All right. Well, before we discuss openly, let's get any questions out. Who's got a question for John?

Anyone? Just for clarification, just to make sure. So the wait list that we have, God, that waitlist is for until, what is it? Recruitment in June 30th, 2027, right?

So it is approximately one year.

Okay. So that's a waitlist that we recruited. Okay. So we want to see if we can, we want to do that until this planning commissioner, Mr. Zhang, expiring term was June 30, 2029. Okay. I just wanted to make sure. Thank you.

Okay. Anyone else? Any questions? Okay. I don't have any questions either. So let's go ahead and open up public comment and then we'll get into discussion. All right. Public comment is open. Who was our first speaker?

Our first speaker is Elena Formosa. Okay.

Yeah. Three minutes.

I object that you guys go by your wait list because it's been a while. You don't know if those people are still available. And also, it is kind of upsetting to know that people volunteer without loyalty. If they volunteer to a position, they really should be committed to it and not use it as a hopper opportunity to get somewhere and then always leave us high and dry. This is not the first time it's happened. You really need to vet for people who are willing to truly serve, not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of the people of this city for a change and not like Council Member Veroes, that our city is now so narrow, as big as only your office. You only vetted, you said that there are community input. Can you please tell me how to find your office so I can go input my opinions before it gets here? I feel I am such an outsider. I felt that this is how we give input. I always look for notices so that it is equitable. Didn't you run on equity for all? Didn't you pitch the people to vote for you because you are diversity, equity, you know? Well, where is equity here? Why is it that we need to go to your office and scratch your back so that we can have our back scratched by you? That's not how we conduct business in America. Please, stop the corruption of our city. Please, repost this position. Otherwise, I just know that one of your friends or relatives or family members will get this position, and they may not be the best candidate. And like I said, whatever you had interviewed before, it should be considered as interview over the bridge in water over the bridge it's in the past there may be other you know candidates that deserve this opportunity so please open it up and it won't be me because i'm committed to be here to fight because i don't want to be one of i don't want to be like you guys i'm sure when you guys wanted to be a council member you probably meant well somewhere along the line i don't know what happened to all of you every single one of you Nobody speaks. You only pat each other's back. I don't want to be like you. I will never run for these positions. So please, don't think that if you open it up, I am going to be on it. I will always be here. because that's how America stay liberal, stay free. That's our liberty is kept by the people, not by you guys, because you are prone to be corrupted and you are proof that that is true. So sorry. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Any more speakers?

There are no other speaker cards and we did not receive any written public comment on this item.

Okay. All right, so it's back over to council now for discussion. I guess I did have one question that did come to mind, and that is, has anyone on the staff reached out to Abhijit to see if he is still interested?

No.

Okay. All right. So then, okay, as we discuss things and come up with a decision tonight in direction of staff, Let's consider that as well. Okay. So it's been one year, basically. By the time we would make a decision, advertise, get candidates, you know, if we went that direction and do interviews and all that and select someone, it would be a full year.

I believe recruitment period starts in March. Is the regular recruitment for?

No, if we decide tonight to go ahead and instead of just doing the wait list, if we decide to go ahead and open it up, basically it's been a year. And I think from my perspective, it having been a year, And I respect the fact I want to hear what other council members have said. We have a waitlisted person. We selected him at that time. But since some time has expired since we made that decision, there may be other candidates out there that didn't apply at that time, but maybe would be available to apply this time around. So that's another thing to consider. But I want to hear what everyone has to say. House Member Adler.

Yeah, my thinking is along those lines as well. I think I'm sure this guy's, you know, the standby waiting list candidate is a good guy, but we don't know, you know, if there are others that are interested. We don't even know if he's available. It seems like we should open it up to other candidates so we can get the best person for this position.

So I have a question. Yeah. Sorry. Do we have any expiration on the waitlist candidate? Do we have any expiration for the waitlist?

Yes. The decision was made at the meeting that the waitlist candidate, the waitlist would remain through the next recruitment of July 2027. Traditionally, waitlist has been six months to a year, and the council did choose at that meeting to do a two-year waitlist.

So we made a policy that that was the idea, that the waitlist will be expired July 1, 2027.

Yes.

Okay. So we made that. We agreed on that. Now, why we, yeah. So why we are backing out, any reason for that? I just wanted to understand why.

It's not backing out. You would need to appoint that person. If you chose to go with that person, you would appoint that person. It wasn't, you didn't state that that person would like automatically receive a position or anything. So that's why we're bringing it before the council to discuss what you would like to do. And so I provided several options on what's available.

So again, just to clarify, so the reason why we have a waitlist someone is because if someone leaves from planning commission unpredictably at certain time period, then we have someone in the queue so that that person will be filled that position. And that's what we as a council agreed on that one. Am I right?

You did agree on that. And the waitlist is something new. We've only done, I think, three times or two times. So the waitlist is something new. So we're still working on, you know, it's not a common thing. So we're just kind of working through it as things happen.

Okay. That's my clarifying question. So basically, we agreed on a policy that we want to have someone in the waiting list so that if someone leaves, we want to have that person to fill in. So it's like we create the policy and then we want to kill the policy that we created when we say that, oh, now we don't want. That's how it sounds for me. It's like, I'll change my policy the way I want it. That's how it sounds.

Well, and that's why I wanted to bring it up as a matters of initiative to have this conversation. Do we want to go with the waitlisted person or are there other reasons? And now... based on the time that's elapsed, that we want to reconsider that. And yeah, we made that decision, but we also have every right to change that decision if we want to.

I feel like we are missing one piece of information that's really important.

And we don't know if they're still interested or available.

I feel like we shouldn't even make a decision on this tonight until we know their position on this. We need more information. We don't have it.

And we can, if the council gives direction, we can reach out to the waitlisted person and under council direction, if they're still interested, then we'd bring it back for council to do the formal appointment. And I believe that can go on consent unless Martin has another opinion.

They would need to determine the time.

Right. Well, I'm addressing just the person's interest. So should the council decide tonight to say, please reach out to the person if they're interested, then we'll bring it back for approval. And then also tonight we'll need either the clarifying question is whether or not that person serves until the 27th or serve or until, sorry, 2027 until the next application period, or the person finishes the unfinished term until 2029. That wasn't clear as to what the wait-listed term would be. So we would have, if you were to go down that route, we would need two bits of direction or direction from the council that you want to open it up again for whatever reason. The reason why... One of the reasons why we're discussing it tonight is that we did hear interest from the council that you'd like to discuss it before moving forward. So we paused all work on it until you had that opportunity to discuss it.

Which is why I kind of feel like we're having a conversation without even knowing it. It's not even maybe interest. What if they're just not available? We don't even know that. So it's kind of hard to assess. I sort of feel like this should be brought back to us with that information and

The council would also have the option of doing a contingency direction to staff whereby they would reach out to this person where staff could reach out if the council decides just to appoint that person, we could reach out at that time and bring the appointment back to the council if he's still interested or start the recruitment process if he's not.

I would say one way or the other, it even if tonight we were to decide to go ahead and start a recruitment process, I would say we would, we must notify him to let him know that there is a recruitment process ongoing because he was someone that we previously looked at and considered highly of, and we want to make sure he understands that if, if we were going to do an open recruitment, that he has that opportunity to reapply, but that's if we go that direction. So.

All right. Any other thoughts?

I'm aware of some other people that have expressed an interest. I've heard of other people that have expressed an interest in getting on a planning commission. Now, that's been a hard position to fill in the past. We've had plenty of people apply, but we've had a difficult time picking planning commissioners. I know there are other people out there that have expressed an interest but that doesn't mean they will apply even if we go with a recruitment process. But these, in some cases, like I said at the outset, I think there may be, there could be people out there that didn't apply last time around that maybe want to be on the planning commission now. They didn't, Either they didn't know about it, they didn't have the opportunity, or their life circumstances was such that it wasn't the right time, but maybe it is the right time now. And because of that, that's why I wanted to bring this up for discussion, whether we go with a waitlisted person or whether we open it up for recruitment.

For me, when we make a policy, we made a policy and I cannot punish that person because someone else showed interest. Now, hey, I wasn't interested at that time. Now I'm interested. So now you conduct the whole interview process because now I'm available. Just because you are available now and in this circumstance, I cannot punish the person who already worked on it, who got selected. saying that, hey, there are a lot of other people waiting for this one. So now we are not going to give you, we are going to retract our decision, retract our policy for these other people who are suddenly showing their interest. So that's how I look at it. Okay, I understand. Right.

I mean, looking at it, I mean, if we were to say, say they do show interest, I mean, we're talking about one year on the planning commission. It does allow us an opportunity to see how they're doing without too much of a long-term commitment should we be concerned that maybe they're not performing at the level we'd like to see them performing, right? Yeah. But it's just a thought that I have that it's this is a one year. How long would it take if it just just for comparison, because the mayor did mention earlier, would take a really long time to if we open the process from now until how long? When would interviews take place? Just out of curiosity.

That would basically be the availability of the council. So we always try to pull the council in as soon as we have an available date. But also if it's for recruitment, typically we post open planning commission seats. Joan, how often, how long do we post?

Usually four or five weeks. Four or five weeks, sometimes shorter. We haven't had a large pool. There haven't been a lot of people that we've extended.

So depending extend and that's also, you know, if the council directs us to post it for two weeks, three weeks, you know, if we don't get applicants that extend the pool, it's completely under the council's purview as to how we move forward.

Right. I just wanted to get kind of an approximate.

duration um since that was mentioned and thinking about that versus one year you know and reconsidering then all right so i don't want to speak for uh what planning might have on future agendas but uh we did some pretty heavy lifting over the last year or two years i'm not sure we have as many significant projects coming up for planning commission that really drives an urgency on a decision. An urgency in filling that seat. It's always best to have five planning commissioners, but I don't know that we have an urgency. Council Member Swain.

So I think we should reach out to Mr. Zibaneji. See if he's interested. It's also at our purview, if I remember correctly, that We could remove a planning commissioner and call them up if any one of them. So even if any one of them is not performing or the council's not satisfied with the outcome or they're just not showing up, It's at our decision and our discretion at that point also. So this is not something that's set in stone. So we could always make that determination about any one of the planning commissioners, whether to remove them or to have them continue. So I think the right, the fair thing to do would be to reach out to Mr. Banerjee and see if he's interested in taking the position.

So I'm hearing Council Member Ross, you're saying we've got a policy, we've got a wait list of person. Mr. Banerjee is that person. I think Vice Mayor Rubio, I heard you say you'd be okay with that, but only through the 2027 term to be able to evaluate him for that other year instead of the full four-year term that Max Zhang had.

Yeah, I agree with the Vice Mayor on that. You know, it's kind of hard because it's hard to remember this person and to put him in for a long time without really having a great memory of of that day that we interviewed him. I feel more comfortable with a one year and then he could re-interview and we could have other candidates and maybe we'll appoint him for the full term. But I feel like a little hesitant to want to call him back for the whole time. I'd rather do it for one year.

Okay. And then so we got Council Member Adler basically wanting to do the same as Vice Mayor Rubio said. And then, Council Member Serrano, you basically said contact him, but, I mean, one way or the other, he's got to get contacted. I think what we're looking for maybe is give staff direction tonight, and then as a contingency, as the City Attorney said, then, well, what if he doesn't, you know, what if he doesn't want to do it, if that's our decision? Well, then we have to go with Plan B.

Exactly.

So... So again, we have to decide, do we want to advertise again? Do we want to just go with the wait list? And if so, do we want to do it through 2027 or 2029? One way or the other, we contact the individual.

So from my thought process is that we need to reach out to Banerjee and Mr. Banerjee and check if he's interested, then get him till 2027. One year, that is a waiting list that we clearly mentioned to that person. It's nothing that we never put 2029 as a recruitment for a wait list. So it is fair for our council side as well as for the person that we will recruit give the term limit till 2027. And then after that, we will anyway continue with the recruiting process. That's one piece. Now, the second piece is, let's say if Mr. Banerjee is not available, in that case, we did this so many times of hiring or recruiting our planning commission. So I think we should go back and ask for the applicants in the community and then continue the recruitment process that we did like tons of times.

Right.

Okay.

Any other discussion? All right. I'd like to maybe we get a motion on how to proceed or does somebody want to clarify what we've arrived at for the city manager and our city clerk to understand the direction we're going? Sure.

If you wanted me to take a stab at that, I can. What I'm understanding is that the council's desire is to offer the position to the person on the wait list. And if that person accepts, then we would bring back an item before the council to appoint him. through the 2027 recruitment or until the 2027 recruitment. If that person is unavailable or otherwise doesn't want to take the position, then staff is directed to begin the recruitment process from scratch.

Correct.

Can I get kind of a head nod from everybody? Yes. House member Adler, Vice Mayor Rubio. Okay. Okay. I think you've stated it. Do you need a motion? Of the council. Is there any other direction or guidance needed at this point?

It seems to me we've got the direction we need without a motion. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Then that, did we do public comment on that item?

We did.

We did do public comment. Yes, we did. Okay. All right. Now, thank you. We'll close out item 9.4. We're on to item 10, city manager and city council members' comments and matters initiated. So, Mr. City Manager.

All right, thank you, Mayor and members of the Council. I'll start my update this evening with mentioning the Cheese Balls. They are the opening act for our summer concert series on July 4th. They specialize in funk and soul from the 80s and 90s and current hits. Our summer concert series is at 5 o'clock. You can go online to our summer concert series schedule to see all the acts. There are four more after the Cheese Balls. and uh they're all at either um uh it starts at five on uh july 4th and then 5 30 the other dates uh also on july 4th registration is open for run san ramon uh fastest mile 5k 10k walk run that takes place on saturday july 4th at the community center And you can learn more at SanRamon.ca.gov backslash fitness races. And my final update for the evening is the city council candidate pre-nomination information meeting for the general election on November 3rd. will take place on Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 at 6 p.m. at City Hall. This meeting will offer valuable insight on running for elected positions. It will also include an overview of forms, campaign reporting requirements, and important timelines. The period for papers opens on July 13th and ends on August 7th at 5 p.m. And with that, that concludes my update for this evening.

All right. Thank you.

but let me, I'll start on the right here with council members right now. Just a comment there, thank you. So in May, 2026, the attorney general and the governor of California penalized the city of Huntington Beach, $160,000 in penalties for failure to plan for housing and incurred also an additional $50,000 a month until they come up with their housing element beginning this June and that tax on violations. And those penalties do come out of the general fund for the city of Huntington Beach. Fortunately for us, you're in Saudi, San Ramon. As a reminder, our housing element was adopted in January of 2023, which enables us to continue to comply with RENA. with our reading numbers, and it also helps us to maintain our local zoning ordinance here in our city. Thank you, Mayor.

All right. Thank you. Let me get down to Council Member Adler.

All right. I'm going to be very short because some of the meetings are going to stop because of the summer. But on Saturday, June 13th, I went to the Central Sanitation District 80th anniversary open house, toured the treatment plant. We had an engineer that took us around. It was very, very interesting. I really enjoyed it. It's good to kind of understand the process a little better because we have like over 500 miles of neighborhood sewage pipe. And in our jurisdiction, there's like there's about it cleans about 130 billion gallons of wastewater every year. for about 500,000 residents. So that was great. I also met with some of the people that are on the board. They helped me, showed me around a little bit, Florence Weddington and Jean Kuznick. So that was a great experience. I also went to a meeting yesterday, but I'm going to have Vice Mayor Rubio talk about that because I came in later and she was there at the beginning. So

Well, the only thing I want to say about that is that we did... This was for the Historic Foundation.

And we thanked Carol Rowley, who, as many people know, has been here for many years, done a lot of great things. She's been president of the board chair of the Historic Foundation. She's been on the city council. She has been a principal and a parks commissioner. So we... You know, her term was over. We recognized her service. We sang to her a little thing, and it was kind of nice. This was at a private residence, so that was a nice occasion last night. But the vice mayor can fill in the details of the rest of the meeting.

Okay. Well, let me first go to Council Member Varos, and then we'll get the vice mayor's report.

Thank you. On June 17th, I attended our Arts and Advisory Committee meeting. The two key items that we talked about, one is a new youth poet laureate program discussion that was done thanks to our team council members, Suhani, for suggesting that. At this point, our advisory committee thinks that we are going to work with nonprofit organizations to figure out if they can help us, support us to bring some youth poet programs in our community. That's one. The second one is art advisory committee feedback on 2026 Art and Win Festival. So, yeah. the committee members shared their ideas and thoughts, especially one of the outstanding one is about the maps. That's one thing they wanted to see in the future, or the next one, to have maps so that people can walk easily and find the places that they wanted to, like zoning and all that. And then on June 18th, they attended MC board meeting. One of the important point is that the CEO, Dawn, she resigned and she stepped down from MC board. So that brought into the next one of the item about the governance. So one of the key challenges that the board found out that the governance framework is not as strong as it wanted to be. So they are working first to fix or improve the governance framework. And once they have that governance framework, then they wanted to go ahead and recruit the CEO for that. So those are, that is one of the important one. That's pretty much. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

first. Okay. So, um, on June 10th, I attended the LAFCO meeting. Um, and really the main item on there that day was just that we approved the final fiscal year, 2026, 27 budget and work plan. Um, and then on June 18th, I attended the county connection meeting and, um, You know, we were just, we just basically were, again, we also, that year, we approved the fiscal year 2027 budget and forecast. And again, bearing in mind that, again, All of our transportation systems are facing serious budgetary issues. We did make a cut to travel expenses in half to try to do our part as well to... help any way we can um so so things are getting a little tough as you probably know mayor for through ccta as well uh county connection being another transportation board is also experiencing the same concerns and san ramon um obviously would be impacted should that be the case and the situation not improve somehow. Um, so, and then of course we just received an update on the youth ride free, which was a huge success, very successful program last year. Um, and we're looking forward to seeing even more ridership this year. Um, and then on June 18th as well, I attended with the mayor, the hoot nanny and nonprofit expo. Yeah. I took some lessons, line dancing lessons and, um, You know, I'm lacking a little coordination, but it was a good effort. And then, but it was fun, a lot to see the community and some restaurants and just community members out there engaging and talking and celebrating our history. And then on June 20th, I made a pit stop by the food distribution that is being hosted by Contra Costa in Solano County's food bank, as well as San Ramon through the San Ramon Islamic Center. They've been doing some, I think they've done three so far. They will have another one on July 18th at 3223 Crow Canyon Road parking lot from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., They are taking food contributions, preferably canned foods that will not perish quickly and can tolerate heat exposure because as they're distributing outdoors, it could spoil. So things like rice, gluten-free pasta because of... just to make it a little bit more generalizable to people who may have dietary restrictions, same-day bread, pasta sauce, canned tuna, PBJ, peanut butter and jelly, snacks for kids, cereal boxes, gluten-free pasta. Just make sure, one thing I was told is look for expiration dates. Apparently, sometimes that has slipped through and they've been having to check and make sure that's not happening. So it's really important there. Believe it or not, the federal funding for the rice is actually going to be cut. So that's something that they're really pushing for. And then so, again, the next date will be July 18th. And then on June 22nd, I attended the San Ramon Historic Foundation meeting and with Council Member Adler there. And there we basically, I would just say we discussed and made financials and approved the 2026-27 budget final that was emailed to, actually it was emailed to people with a wording change that they had to make. There were two nominations for secretary, Heidi Graham and Patsy. Heidi obviously took over. And then the Crab Feed Reminder in January of 2020, I mean, January 24th, 2027. They're looking for volunteers. So if you're interested in helping, that's a really great event to get involved and help out. And starting on... Well, we just passed it, actually, on this past Friday. The speaker series started on June 21st. There will be another one on July 24th, Facts and Myths from Forest Home Farms. Then... Let's see. We got a city report on the rodent problem being addressed, new pest control company, and looking at portable office trailer in the farm, risk management tractors. Something about can't do any more rides because we found out that it's not covered by insurance. So that will no longer be something available. But let's see. I think that was it. That's the end of my report. Thank you.

Mayor, can I just make one quick addendum to that to visit the Central Sanitation District? They have a one-stop residential recycling center there, which I toured, and they will take your batteries for fluorescent bulbs, glass bottles, plastic bottles, motor oil, paint, and an electronic way. So if you want to, if you got some of the stuff in your garage that's been waiting around for years, you could bring it up to Martinez to the central sanitation and they will take it.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right. Yeah. I just had a couple of things that are more kind of future projects and transfer a lot of transportation related. One was the 10 of the Valley link board of directors meeting. We approved a $3 million project. for pre-construction activities, for construction manager, general contractor. This is an alternate delivery method, the same delivery method we use for the Bollinger Canyon Iron Horse Trail Bridge. And that'll get us to a 30% design. This is for phase 1A of Valley Link, and that's going to go from Dublin, Pleasanton, BART to the Livermore ACE train station on Vasco Road. So we're getting one step closer to getting this rail system going and that should help out some of our San Ramon residents who are now having to come across the Altamont out of the valley and it's just I think it'll be great help once we get this thing done but we're still probably years out from actually seeing it done. I also attended a visit. I went to Byron Airfield out in West County. This is part of the CCTA's Redefining Mobility Summit. We got to look at some work that's going on with drone cargo air delivery. There's a company called Elroy Air. They develop an autonomous drone that can deliver a 300-pound payload up to 300 miles. And they've already They're flying it already. And then we also watched a demonstration of a young lady pilot who got into a little single-seat aircraft. It was a 350-pound aircraft. And she got in this thing and flew it around the airfield. And this is a company called Pivotal. And this is for future kind of air commuter movements in the Bay Area. And there's already talk about maybe having a vertiport. That's what they would call it. It's a place to land. There's talk about even looking for places within San Ramon to put a vertiport. These things are silent. I mean, it was amazing to see this thing flying around. You could hardly even hear it. And she's up there doing circles, and it was pretty impressive. I also attended the CCTA Board of Directors meeting. We passed the budget for the year, but we also approved a call for projects for both, as I mentioned, Supervisor Anderson. This call for projects was for countywide projects. as well as competitive city-level projects. We have until the 17th of August to get our projects submitted. We can submit up to two projects, and it's a pretty tight timeline to get this in, but it's the same timeline everybody's under, but we don't want to miss that deadline because we might be able to get some good funding, some of the OBAG 4 funding. And then I also attended the ABAG, Association of Bay Area Governments General Assembly in San Francisco. The most significant takeaway from that was a preview of the seventh cycle for RENA, which will run from 2031 to 2039. And right now it promises to be as large or larger than the sixth cycle for all the Bay Area cities. And we'll get our numbers a year earlier today. Uh, then we got it in the past to give, uh, give us another, the other cities more time to, to work on the housing elements. I have, I'll, I'll hand this off to you, uh, Mr. City manager. We've got kind of the slides from that presentation here, uh, and a plan Bay area 2050 plus, uh, for you to peruse or to pass on to, uh, community development. I'm sure they probably already got it. The last thing is, uh, I was, uh, able to give some welcoming comments on Saturday to, uh, the ninth annual San Ramon hackathon. And, uh, the theme of this year's hackathon was AI for a better future. Uh, there was, uh, this was a student led group, uh, 15 teams competed and they presented projects, uh, that they'd been working on to a panel of judges. Uh, the winner was, uh, uh, young group of students with a project called Hero, H-E-A-R-O. And that's an app for children with hearing impairments and it helps them practice speech and listening skills. So very impressive projects and very impressive, brilliant kids and some incredible projects they've been working on to hear them talk about this at the hackathon. So, and with that, that concludes my report. Any final thoughts? Words from the council? Okay. Thank you all. With that, I will adjourn the meeting.