Ad-Hoc Stadium Audit Committee - Regular Meeting

I just wanna let everybody know that this meeting is being recorded. The Zoom application will notify you that this meeting is being recorded. Please press continue on the Zoom application to stay in the meeting. Use the raise your hand feature in Zoom when you would like to speak on an item and to also lower your hand when you're finished speaking. Please unmute when called to speak and mute yourself when you are done speaking. If you're calling in a un by phone, identify yourself by name before speaking on an item. Press 9 on your phone to raise and lower your hands. Press 6 if you're participating by phone to unmute. Good evening, everyone. I'm officially calling this bond compliance citizens oversight committee meeting to order.

We just have a couple housekeeping items while we have our deputy city clerk here. He's gonna be giving the oath of office because some of the group haven't completed that process, and so he'll be giving the oath to everybody at this point. So go ahead.

Hello? Okay. Good evening, everyone. My name is Vin. I'm from the city clerk's office. And first and foremost, I just wanna thank everyone here for volunteering your time to serve the community. We definitely really appreciate your effort. So for those of you who have not done the oath of office yet, you should have a Manila envelope, I'm sorry, Manila folder right in front of you. You can open that up. And at the bottom where it starts with I followed by your name, that's the statement that you're gonna read with me.

And then once we're done with that, if you can sign the line right underneath that and there's actually a second copy in the back as well. One copy is for you and one's for me. So for those of you who have to do the oath, can you please stand up and raise your right hand? And I understand that there are some members who are currently on Zoom. So for those members, my office will reach out to you to schedule a time for you to come in to do your oath of office.

Yeah.

So for for those who haven't completed it, please stand up and raise your your right hand. Thank you.

Mister yes. Okay. So I, insatiate your name, do you solemnly swear or affirm that it will support and defend the constitution of The United States and the constitution of the state of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of The United States and the constitution of the state of California. That I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. And that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter.

Okay. Thank you so much. You should all have a pen in front of you. If can you you can please sign the line right underneath that statement. And, again, there's two copies. Please sign both copies. One will be for me, and one's for you to keep.

Thank you, Vin. Again, I've failed to introduce myself. I'm Liz Klotz. I'm one of the assistant city managers with the city. And on behalf of the city, I really wanna thank all of you for all your willingness to participate and serve on this important committee.

Your public service is a vital role plays a vital role in ensuring transparency and accountability of how these public funds will be used in administering the $400,000,000, Measure I general obligation bond that was approved by the voters this past November. As members of the oversight committee, you are entrusted with the responsibility of reviewing the expenditures to ensure that they align with the Measure I expenditure plan, which funds critical infrastructure such as fire stations, storm drain improvements, community amenities, and also public safety facilities. Your oversight will help reinforce the public's confidence with these fund that these funds are being used effectively and as promised through the measure. Today's agenda will provide an overview of the committee's responsibilities and structure, including a presentation of the Brown Act, Bylaws, Public Records Act by our city attorney, Glenn Gugans. We'll also receive a foundational briefing from our on the bond issuance process and bond one zero one from Scott Ferguson from Jones Hall, who is our bond counsel for this.

We're excited to begin this journey with all of you, and we appreciate your time and commitment to our community. We're gonna start with roll call. And so when I call your name, just please say here, Gaurav Duta, Brian Tickler, Sandy Rodriguez, Ruby Parmalow, Idom Ibrigimov, Anurag Disick, Matthew Klop, Nader Hadan. I'm gonna just call up the alternates since you're here also, so we'll just we can keep track of who's here for the training. Hee Sung King. Jay Nacharajan?

Yes. Here.

Murali Krishna Dvarakonda. It's here. Right. Frank Majini? Mike Walkie. Eilak Agarwal. Niraj Tandon. Ben Zhang. Okay. And so do we have anyone following? No? Okay. Thank you. And now on the next on the agenda, we actually have public presentations. This item is reserved for persons to address the body on any matter not on the agenda that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the body.

The law does not permit any action or extended discussion on any item not on the agenda except under special circumstances. The governing body or staff may briefly respond to statements made or questions posed, and appropriate body may request staff to report back on a subsequent meeting. Do we have any public comments for today? Anything online? If if anybody online would like to speak, please raise your hand at this time.

Alright. With no hands raised, we're gonna move on to the next item, which is the welcome introduction. So first, I've introduced myself. I'm Liz Hodson, one of the assistant city managers here. I've been with the city for over five years. I started off in the city attorney's office working closely with Glenn and have been in the city manager's office for a little less than a year. And I'd like to introduce, Glenn Gugans. Do you wanna introduce or say anything?

I will Yeah.

Just I will hold my introduction till I give my presentation.

And then also here and I'll let Scott also hold for his introduction at his presentation. Ferguson, that's here as well. And then I have Maria Lei, who's been really instrumental in helping us get organized for these meetings and preparing for all of this. She's been amazing in helping us get this all set up. So I really wanna thank you for all of that. And then, also, if if you wouldn't mind, I'd like each of you to maybe introduce yourselves so we can kinda get to know each other and maybe see a reason for why you wanted to maybe serve on the committee.

And to avoid making the same mistake I did, you'll see there's a button to push on your microphone. When you push that button and the little ring turns green, I think are they all the same? Sometimes they're different ones. They all

have the

same kind. When your when your little light is on the bottom and it's green, then you are on on the micro.

Evening, everyone. My name is Gaurav Dutta. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve on the bond oversight committee. I come I have a good background in product leadership and finance and having worked extensively in delivering high scalable solution across cruise ship industries and deck. And I come here with a lens of financial accountability and strategic thinking and to ensure bonds are being used effectively, transparently, and in the best interest of our community. Looking forward to collaborating with you all. Thank you.

Hi. My name is Brian Tickler. I've lived in Santa Clara since 1991. I've lived here since 1991. I worked in tech for, Internet service providers, but I'm retired now.

Air Force veteran.

Just wanted to, do something in the community, and I happen to see the newsletter that came out that was asked to volunteer.

I'm Sandy Rodriguez, and I've lived in the city of Santa Clara since 2009. Well, I was born and raised in Santa Clara County, and I've spent my career, in here in Silicon Valley and I have a background in accounting. I'm a CPA. And I joined this committee, to bring my expertise to the table and also learn more about how Thank

you.

Hi. I'm Ruby Parmelo. Lifelong resident of Santa Clara County. Went to high school in Santa Clara, so I'm excited to finally give back some time to the community that's given me so much. And I'm in tech and just looking to see a little bit more background about how our city government is run and help out.

Hi, everybody. My name is Adam Ivoragimov, and I spent about twenty years in Silicon Valley. This moment, mostly in high-tech industry, and now I'm retired.

K. Hello, dignitaries. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm Anurag and living in Santa Clara for close to a decade. Intent is to join the public arena to keep Santa Clara awesome for future generations. My interest is in wildlife and operations, and I wish to contribute the best in this committee and for future contribution. Thank you.

Matthew Klop, longtime

resident.

Had an opportunity to sit on a phone.

Thank you.

Hi. My name is Nader Hadad. Lived here since 2000 in city of Santa Clara. I am in high-tech. I have been doing chip design.

And for the last ten, twelve years, I've been doing project management that involves every aspect of a a design project that takes, you know, a year to two years. I'm excited that I got elected or selected. I couldn't make it when I was elected. I'm excited to and look forward to working with every one of you to bring this bond to reality and in in an organized manner, hopefully, soon. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Hee Sung. Pretty much grew up in Santa Clara. Went to Brackard, Cabrillo Middle School, Wilcox High School. Yeah. I wanted to participate in something with the city because I've been here pretty much all my life trying to help out as much as I can, being involved in, in any aspect where I can provide my time and input.

Thank you. Mike, go ahead.

My name is Mike Walkie. I've been involved with the city for many years. I'm a former parks and rec commissioner. I currently run the executive board for Powell. I'm on the, board for the parade of champions. I have enough time because I'm retired from NASA Ames and Lockheed Martin, where I work with contracts and groups, integration management and contracts. I'd always look forward to giving back and helping with the city wherever I can.

Name

is Niraj Tandon. To Santa. Over to you all and

Thanks, Niraj. I think we have a couple online. So first, we'll have Jay, if you wanna go ahead.

I'm Jay Netrajan. I am living in Santa Clara for past three and a half years. I've been in Silicon Valley since '96 in Alameda County. I'm an engineer by profession, and I wanted to see how I can contribute to city of Santa Clara now that this I mean, this is a home. So I just want the experience and the process, and I wanna understand those things. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thanks, Jay. And Alok?

Hello. My name is Alok. I've been in the local area for more than two decades. A couple of years back, I got an opportunity to serve as a vice chairman of the Santa Clara City district district district commission. And, yeah, that was an upgrade of posture to get involved and contribute to the community. And, that's what, kind of made me give my name here and happy that I got selected.

Thank you. Look. And I don't think there's anyone else online. No? Okay. And I I really do wanna thank you. I think all of us are here for a common purpose in ensuring that we're making Santa Clara a better place and making those long term investments in our city for its future. And as Anurag said, you know, keeping Santa Clara awesome. Right? And so I think we're all here for that common purpose. Before we begin, I think our next item is, the overview of our bond compliance oversight committee roles and responsibilities. We're gonna cover the Public Records Act, Brown Act, and also committee bylaws, and this will be given by Glenn Thank you.

Hello. Good evening, committee members. My pleasure to be here with you tonight. My name is Glenn Guggins. I'm the city attorney here in city of Santa Clara, and I've been that since March 2023. I know I look young. I know that's not true.

I don't look young

at all any longer. I I once looked young, but after a lot of years at this, actually, thirty thirty seven years of of legal practice, twenty almost twenty six in public law, actually, fifteen years as a city attorney at some city. Most of my years were spent down in Southern California with the city of Chula Vista before I came up here to Santa Clara. I've I've clearly been at this a long time, and I just I just love it. It's a great profession for a lawyer.

It's a great profession for someone who's interested in serving the community that they live in. And I appreciate everybody else's sentiment, you know, here too. Everyone contributes in different ways to their community, and it's nice to see folks here, that I don't think have been involved in in public service, you know, before in in this way or in any, you know, official capacity with the with the city of Santa Clara. So a couple of veterans I know of folks who have had, you know, experience in different places, but, it's great to have some new folks as well. My job tonight, for you is to really start to familiarize you with some of the rules that apply to you and to this committee now in your official capacity.

With a lot of new folks, this might seem a little strange to you. It could seem a little burdensome. It it and it and it kind of is, but for very good reason. The actions of this committee and the actions of all public bodies within the city of Santa Clara are supposed to be conducted in accordance with rules that give the public access to the decisions that are made and give the public access to the information and documents that go into the kind of decisions that are made and assure that when people are acting, they're acting in the best interests of of the city and not in their own personal interests. So there's a lot of rules that all of a sudden, apply to you, and there's a lot here to go to go through.

And I'll go through it as quickly as I can. I'm going to maybe ask you to hold questions until the very end. And we can have a question and answer period. And if there's anything you'd prefer to to to wait on or ask privately, I will stay here afterwards and will, just in general, make myself available to support, you know, this committee. I want everybody to be comfortable with this responsibility and make sure you understand, you know, your responsibilities, in in what you do.

And it will either be me or a representative from my office more often than not me, you know, providing that support, you know, to this group. The first I'm running this here. First set of rules we're gonna talk about is called the Brown Act. People familiar with the Brown Act? Ever heard that term before?

I know a couple. The Brown Act was authored by a gentleman named Brown. He was an assemblyman from Turlock, California back in 1953. There were rules regarding how, legislative bodies in California needed to conduct themselves, but they weren't elaborate. They weren't a lot of them weren't formalized, and there were a lot of things going on at the time that had that gave, the the legislation a sense that there were so called backroom deals, you know, going on.

And so, mister Brown authored this, bill. It was originally just a 686 word statute back then. It is now multiple sections, contained within the California government code. Sometimes I bring the code, as a dramatic flourish to show you how voluminous it is, but, it's a lot more now than 686 words. It's a complicated world.

There's a lot of, rules that people think up, but it can be boiled down, to some now that I did that, really some core principles. And the core principles of the Brown Act are that local legislative bodies, and as you'll see, you are one of those, can only deliberate and take action at public meetings. The public must be notified in advance of all these meetings and have an indication of what matters there are to be considered in order to be able to decide whether or not they wanna participate and be informed about when and where they need to go to participate. The public also must be given access to information and the opportunity to provide input to you as decision makers. You'll notice tonight, one of the things we started with was public presentations.

If there was members in the public here that wanted to make a general statement to you, they would have been afforded that opportunity. There are exceptions to when you can meet publicly. There aren't very many, and not many of them apply to you as you'll see as we get into this presentation. Again, these rules apply to legislative bodies, city council, other boards and commissions, different standing committees, that might be formed. That's more complicated than I think we need to get into. But most important part is the highlighted part there. This includes the bond compliance oversight committee. This is you. These rules apply to you. What is a meeting?

At the kind of the center of this, talked about all your meetings, official meetings of you need to occur in public. What is a meeting? Broken down in simple terms, it's a congregation or an assembly of a majority of you to hear, discuss, deliberate, or take action. Right? It's not just to take action.

It could just be to discuss or deliberate on items within your subject matter. We'll talk about what that is a little bit later at the same time in the same place. This slide was borrowed from one of my lawyers who gives the similar presentation to the planning commission. You'll see five cats in a sink that are all together. If those cats were a member of a a a body comprised of nine cats, that would be a quorum of them, and they would be meeting.

Those cats would be meeting right now. So that is a quorum that you're seeing there of cats in a sink for a nine member body. There's other things that include meetings at all as well. Traditional meeting, right, is all of you here, you know, together, all in the same place, same time, again, being but there are little traps for the unwary under the Brown Act that you need to be aware of. And these are called serial meetings, and you should avoid them.

Serial meetings, result when there is a series of communications. Right? Not just everyone together all at once, but a series of communications in any form, oral, written, email, whatever, by or among the majority of the legislative body, in this case, that's five of you, that discuss, deliberate, or take action, any one of those things, on an issue within your subject matter jurisdiction. So this is a meeting here. Right?

In order to do this, you need to hit follow all the rules of the Brown Act and give the public notice, give them an opportunity to appear. But you are also holding a meeting, and you potentially are violating the Brown Act. If any group of you, in a series of communications talk about the business, you know, here, and it adds up to five. Right? So a couple of examples of this are a daisy chain communication. Right? If one of you emails to to somebody else a particular thing that you're thinking and think, you know, ought to be something that you do or you're gonna act on, And that person then meets with three others of you at a coffee shop and talks about that same thing. One of you communicated to one person. That person then met with three other people. That's five of you.

That's a serial meeting. And in effect, you violated the brown app. You don't wanna do that. There's another kind of meaning is a hub and spoke. Right? If there's just one person, individually who takes it upon themselves to email, you know, for, you know, for other members. That one person communicates to four other people a communication about a position that they may wanna take or an action that they think should be taken at your next meeting. One plus four is five. That's also a serial meeting, and it's not allowed under the Brown Act. And there are penalties for violating the Brown Act, that could invalidate, you know, decisions that are made and, in fact, ultimately, could result in civil and severe cases, criminal penalties for the people involved.

So definitely something to be avoided and and aware of. So in communicating, understanding these rules, the fact that these meetings are are are regulated in certain ways that we'll talk about, and that there's this concept of a serial meeting, you'll wanna be cognizant when you're communicating with each other, about the business of your committee. Check first who they've spoken with. If one of you talks to another person, hey. I'd like to talk to you about our next meeting.

And and and and a position I think I ought to you know, we ought to take and a concern that I have. Have you talked to anybody else, you know, about this in preparation for that meeting? Right? If you communicate with each other and are aware of this possibility, then you can avoid the possibility for a serial meeting. Beware of intermediate communications between employees or agents that might act on your behalf.

If one of us inadvertently is communicating to multiple, you know, members of this committee things that we've, you know, heard from one of you, that could also be a a serial meeting. We're pretty sophisticated about that and aren't likely to fall into that, but just be aware that it doesn't need to be a direct communication. There can be an intermediary involved in order for it to be the kind of communication that's problematic. If we're communicating to you about something in preparation for a meeting, coming up, either with a a report on, you know, the business that you're gonna take up or some other email, be careful not to respond to everybody in response to that. We're communicating to and making a recommendation to you.

You shouldn't email back to everybody and going, hey. I think I'm gonna do this on that thing, or I I really am concerned about this, that, or the other thing. That is in effect you now communicating and deliberating with your other members. So, don't reply all. Another tip. There are new rules, and there weren't for some time about how you can communicate on social media, you know, about things. Social media, all the things you've heard about. Boy, this is an old slide, Twitter, and now x. At some point, we're all gonna stop saying formerly known as Twitter. I don't.

I still say that. And there weren't rules about that in terms of how legislative bodies in California could communicate. Now there is a rule that was approved in, I think, effective 01/01/2021 called a b nine ninety two that bars officials, which you are for this purpose, from using social media to inter interact on Citi business. So you can't, in in effect, not talking with somebody, emailing with somebody, those are all communications that may result in serial meetings, so are potentially posts that you might make on your Facebook page. And so it's okay if you wanna have a social media presence for this.

In fact, it can be helpful, right, to communicate with the public about things that are going on. You can use social media to provide information to the public, to solicit information from the public, to answer questions from the public regarding a matter that's within your subject matter jurisdiction. But it is not okay, and there's now a bright line prohibition on this type of communication for you to, if somebody else does this, to comment on what they did. If one of you does a Facebook post that says, hey. I'm gonna I'm there's a, a meeting coming up, and I support the compliance of this plan that's, been presented on how bond proceeds are gonna be spent as being consistent with the expenditure plan, shouldn't probably be saying, you know, what you're gonna do on something anyway.

But if one of the other of you likes that because you think that's a good idea and you like that too, you've actually violated the Brown Act and these provisions. You're not supposed to use even if it's just between two of you, you're not supposed to use because of how broad and available social media is. You're not supposed to use social media to, in effect, communicate things between you about subject matter of this particular body. With a thumbs down, don't do that at all. No emojis.

Don't be cute about, you know, social media use. There are exceptions, to, things that are our meetings. If you gather together at a social event, it'd be nice, you know, if all if you start getting along and and wanna hang out or or go get a cup of coffee or get a drink. You know, you, or you there's a conference or a seminar you might wanna go to or there's a community meeting you might wanna go to. You can do those things.

But, just because it's not a formal meeting doesn't mean you can talk about the business of your organization there. Remember, right, if five or more of you get together or a series of you in a couple of different chats at a particular community meeting start talking about the business of the, of this committee, again, those in effect are meetings. They're violations of the Brown Act because the public wasn't noticed about them, the public wasn't given an opportunity to provide input to you. So a lot

of

rules that seem elaborate. They may not ultimately apply to you, but all designed to make sure that the people's business is done in public. Right? And there's not secret meetings, you know, amongst groups of you in order to decide things that are supposed to be talked about, deliberated on, and ultimately decided in public. One of the ways that you comply with that you don't have to worry about this because we do the work for you, but we want you to be aware of it that you comply with the Brown Act, as I mentioned earlier, is having an agenda that's posted so that the public has advanced notice of what this particular body is gonna act on at the upcoming meeting.

So purpose of the agenda is to inform the public so they know whether what what's gonna be talked about and whether or not they wanna be, they wanna attend. For regular meetings and are most of these gonna be regular meetings, or are they gonna be special meetings?

Do we know? They're likely to be more special meetings than scheduled when needed. So

Yeah. Very good. And we'll probably treat it as regular meetings even so for posting purposes. But for a regular meeting, there needs to be seventy two hours notice to the public, and there's a lot of different ways we do that, and posted on the Internet, mailed to people who request, you know, notice of the meetings, and actually posted physically, you know, in at least three places, right, you know, around the city for a regular meeting that has to be done seventy two hours in advance. And all the materials that you get to support a particular decision or action you might be taking at a meeting also need to be available to the public seventy two hours in advance.

For a special meeting, it's only a twenty four hour notice. But even if your meeting special, we'll probably endeavor to comply with the, with the, the the additional time. On that agenda, and you've got your agenda here tonight, kind of a light friendly one tonight, even if this training is not light, trying to keep it friendly, is all these things that you're seeing here that are required to be put on the agenda. Right? Indicates the location and the time at the very top.

It has a description of all the items that are gonna be discussed, and it has titles on it to give an idea of what really that that item is. Titles don't need to be elaborate, but they need to at least communicate, you know, what is what what that item is gonna entail and the kind of deliberations and discussions and decisions you might be being asked to make. All requirements under the brown hat. When you're at a meeting, there are things that you can talk about, and there's things you cannot talk about. You can talk about items that are listed on the agenda and are clearly described when that agenda has been timely posted.

If the item is not on the agenda, you cannot talk about it. And so there might be something that is not listed on a particular agenda that's in front of you, and you, gosh darn it, you wanna talk about it. It's an important thing. It's, it's relevant to what your your, group does, and you think you ought to be able to talk about it. Unless it's clearly listed as a topic on the agenda in accordance with the Brown Act, that is not something you can discuss, you know, and deliberate on.

What you can do is identify that item for a potential consideration on a future agenda. And if a majority of you agrees that it should be put on a future agenda, well, that's a referral to staff, and that item would get added, you know, to your future agenda. But you cannot, unless it's posted on the agenda, just kind of have a free for all discussion about things that, are not on there. There are limited exceptions for emergencies or urgencies. Hopefully, we'll be running things well well enough, and those things will come up that that you that will not be something you need to deal with.

Rights of the public are really important and really, another thing at the center of of the Brown Act. And it'll be interesting to see, right, if members of the public are gonna come and attend this type of group. It's a pretty technical group. Right? Your responsibilities are are not necessarily the kinds of things that might arouse, you know, the passions of the public. I don't know. We'll see. May maybe you'll have a lot of of members of the public. But when you do have members of the public, either here in person or online, there are things they they the rights they need to be afforded. The public is allowed to attend, observe, and speak at meetings.

Our rules locally here are two two minutes on agendized items and three minutes for nonagendized items. They you can ask them when you decide when the you've got a chair, and we'll talk about that in a little bit, who will run the meeting. You can ask them to identify themselves, but the law says they don't have to. So it's okay to ask, but if a public person wants to speak and they wanna remain anonymous, they can. People are allowed to record these meetings for themselves.

We actually are rerecording and and posting. We're we're recording and posting it, you know, ourselves, but sometimes people come to council meetings or boards and commission meetings, and they want their own version of things. That is allowed. They're allowed to do that under the Brown Act. Other rules here of of interest that are mostly staff, you know, supported.

And while I don't expect you're gonna get much of this, while people are obligated to, when they're commenting to you, speak to things that are within your jurisdiction. Right? They're not supposed to come and talk about whether or not the moon is made of cheese, you know, or an idea they might have about something that has nothing to do with you. They are also allowed to criticize, you know, you. You guys aren't doing a good job.

We think you should be kicked off. We we think this whole thing is a a fraud. Those are First Amendment rights that people have. And and people in your chairs, hopefully, this group won't have that kind of thing. But if someone comes in, maybe inseamly, maybe inappropriate, there are limits, you know, to it that I'll talk to your chair about in order to manage behavior that's truly disruptive, or or profane, or not relevant to the particular topics. But, really, the general rule is you're supposed to be indulgent. People are supposed to be able to criticize you, and there's First Amendment rights that, need to be respected. So the rights of the public are very important. K. That's a lot about the Brown Act.

There's a lot more to the Brown Act. If you, but those, I think, are the things most relevant to you. If you are wonky and a glutton for punishment or want additional information, there's some good resources up here. That link, open in public, it's a guide that's published by the the League of Cities. It's really great. It's regularly updated. I think that one's is, you know, what, two years old maybe? And there hasn't been too many changes, you know, since then. But I have made myself available to you. My that's the general email in inbox for the city attorney's office.

Sorry, city clerk. I also gave them your email. City clerk's pretty smart about all these different kind of rules too because the city clerk has to administer a lot of these rules on our behalf. If you wanna dig into those resources or or send a question to me, if I don't get the chance to answer it tonight, That's the way to get hold of me, and I'd be happy to, will be happy to respond or have somebody from my office respond. Okay. Quickly. Public Records Act. Brown Act talks about meeting transparency, right, and the need to convene, you know, in public. Public Records Act is kind of document and information, you know, transparency. And the and the principles are similar.

The public has the right both to see the city's you know, or or in this case, this committee's business done in public. They also have the right to see records related to the conduct, you know, of your business. So if there are reports, if there are communications, if there are backup documents that are presented to you, those are all public records that they get to have access to. And we're obligated to maintain and be prepared to provide those records to people in a timely manner. There's all sorts of rules about number of days in which you need to respond, that I won't dive into in any detail.

But you should know that what constitutes a public record is very broadly defined. It is a I'm looking at the one here too. It's really a any sort of document or information generated as the final output of a business process or business decision. K? So there are exceptions for things that are drafts or deliberative process, but any ultimate document, right, that goes to you, that's kept in the regular course of Citi business, is a public record for disclosure purposes.

It can be any in any format. It doesn't need to be physical, but it could be also be, or electronic. And it's the kind of thing, again, that's kept in the normal, you know, course of Citi business. Here's the trick for you. If you're sending emails about the business of what you are doing, even if you're doing that on a private device, you have created a public record.

And so if someone makes a request of this board and says, hey. I want all the communications between all committee members leading up to this meeting, in order that I can look at that and see what's, you know, being communicated, you know, behind the scenes, we would be contacting you and saying, we've had a request made for these types of communications. Do you have any? And we you need to provide those to us within x period of time because we have statutory duty to provide those to a person, you know, in the public in x period of time or x plus three days, you know, period of time. And so just something to be to to think about.

I don't think this group and the nature of your responsibilities is gonna involve too much of you, you know, engaging in that, you know, type of communication. Really, most of it's gonna be us, right, writing reports to you, you looking at the reports, you know, that that we present to you, you deliberating deliberating here and advising us, on on, what the recommendation you wanna make or the determination you've made with respect to that. But if you are emailing, amongst yourselves or to other folks, you know, in the community or to or to city staff, we'll recognize that. Whether it's on a personal or a public device, those are public records that may need to be disclosed. So just want you to realize that.

Are you still willing to serve? You know, this is an an an unusual thing. There's a whole list of things that aren't public records. Right? If there's private information, you know, or any of your addresses, right, or phone numbers or things like that, there's also, you know, privileged documents that that might be communicated to me or that I might communicate that are attorney client privileged.

A bunch of stuff isn't a public record, I'm in the and there's a list of all those things that might qualify for that there. So the practice tips with this for you is you do need to be prepared to promptly disclose records if requested. If you have any kind of communications that might fall, you know, within the parameters of a request, you are supposed to provide them. And if you think it contains private information or you don't think it should be disclosed, that's a conversation you can have with us internally. We're supposed to help you, you know, with that, to triage, you know, that so that inappropriate things aren't disclosed, but you do need to prepare to respond.

You should communicate carefully, especially in emails, understanding that, you know, that you're creating records when you communicate in that way. You do need to search, on all places where you might have such records if a request is made. Keep a record of the search that you do. It's best not to use private accounts or devices to conduct city business. I don't think you're they're being issued any public email, you know, resources for that.

So be be aware that you're using a private device. You don't have to turn the device over to us. You do the search yourself, but you would need have to do that search and, you know, and provide those things upon request and keep track of those records if you're conducting, you know, business on them. That's a lot. Sorry.

And there are new there are the rules you're probably not familiar with. For those who are who are new to this, again, I'll ask I'll answer questions at the end of this process, and, we'll be available on an ongoing basis if you have any, you know, issues or concerns with that. There are still more rules that apply to you. You've been given a copy of these that that which are the bylaws that are specific to this group. All those rules I just went over with you, both the Brown Act and the Public Records Act, apply to all legislative bodies.

Right? All city councils, all boards and commissions of the city, all committees that are formed, those rules apply to all of those groups. These rules are specific to you and your role and function. So we're gonna spin through those now, and I think you've got a copy in your packet of these bylaws. First of all, the we're gonna talk about the your formation and your your purpose.

As you probably know, measure I actually had specific provisions in it that contemplated the formation of this committee. It was a requirement both of bond law, right, in general with respect to the committee.

Not not for city bond.

For it was under 55. We are looking for or measure five. We are looking for compliance. It was

the law that didn't

Yeah. It was the law that didn't get passed. So I won't bore you with the details of that. It's actually an interesting story. But that there there was a potential requirement for this group if a different measure got passed, and we wanted to comply with that.

But this city cared about, you know, what it was doing enough to even independent of that have a committee that looked at how we conducted our business. Right? So we it was explicitly built into the measure that was approved by the voters that you guys would exist as really as a watchdog, you know, for what the city's doing with respect to the bond proceeds that you're all contributing to, right, as residents and and taxpayers of the city. So, when that bond was issued or or was, submitted to the voters and approved back in November 2024, you were explicitly contemplated by that and included terms for the committee composition, right, who was gonna be on it, included a reference to the selection process by lottery, and it included the purposes, you know, that you will you're you will serve in this capacity. In general, those purposes were to provide transparency and accountability on bond spending and to oversee compliance with the Measure I expenditure plan.

And we'll talk about that in a little bit more detail later. Included within that measure was a fairly detailed expenditure plan. Right? As you probably are are familiar as as voters and people who have been engaged in this process, there's a detailed plan about with categories of of of expenditure and and not super specific, but specific projects within those various categories. That's the expenditure plan that you are overseeing, you know, as part of this, as part of your duty here.

Specifically, your duties, are to inform the public about bond spending activities. Part of that duty is performed really at these very meetings, right, by meeting and discussing and making determinations and recommendations about that. That's a form of informing the public, but there's other things potentially that you could do if you want the public to even be more informed about what's going on with the with the Measure A bond process. You also have a duty, to review project phases before council consideration to determine whether or not they are consistent with the expenditure plan. Right?

So when the, the different groups of projects are assembled based on concepts and principles that are also built into the the expenditure plan to decide what gets built first. Right? What gets what makes sense to get built first, and how much are we able to handle at a time, and, therefore, what size is the bond gonna be? Each one of those phases is gonna be presented to you, and you're gonna look at that and determine, hey. Are those projects within the expenditure plan?

Right? Is this is is this the kind of thing that the city said it was gonna do, when the voters approved this measure? You're also gonna review annual audits to confirm that the expenditures that were made when bonds are issued were also spent in accordance with the plan. Right? So as what is proposing to be built in accordance with the plan and then is what the money was used on those very projects that we said they were gonna be used on.

And that's not anything you have to do separately yourself. There's gonna be an independent auditor that's hired to do that, but you are a watchdog for that process. And those reports come to you and you with various levels of expertise you have in engineering and accounting and just in general, you know, public government and in tech. You'll apply all those, you know, tools to look at those things and make sure it all makes sense, and it and you're comfortable with it. You are gonna provide an annual report to the council on your annual activities and the findings that you make with respect to these things.

So that's an expectation of this group. Staff will obviously provide support, you know, for you in that regard, but that's one of your primary responsibilities as well. And then while this expenditure plan was included, in the bond measure, it also included because the world changes and things change and priorities change. It also includes provisions for amendments to that expenditure plan. If there is an amendment to the expenditure plan, a proposed amendment to the expenditure plan, it has to come to you first, and you all will review it and make a recommendation on it.

Decide whether or not you think that's a good idea, whether or not it's consistent with the spirit, you know, of of what the measure I was. That would be a very substantive, you know, decision, by by you or a recommendation by you to the city council. Ultimately, all these things, you know, are decided by the city council, but you are a watchdog both with respect to city staff and with respect to city council and how they conduct themselves. There are things that are outside your purview. If the city is spending money on infrastructure projects that don't use measure I bond proceeds, that's not within your purview.

You are a measure I bond proceed oversight agency. So how the city might spend other sources of funds on public works, will not come to you, you know, and wouldn't be within your jurisdiction. You will also not be deciding, on who the city's consultants, you know, are in designing projects or in building those projects. Right? That's a city procurement process. That is not that's kind of in the weeds of the implementation of of, you know, public work projects. That is also something not within your purview. You're also not gonna, decide on what what projects should be built or what those phases look like. Right? It's gonna come to you with recommendations.

You're gonna look at it and make sure it makes sense and that it's consistent with the expenditure plan, but you are not making decisions on, no. I think this project should be built instead. Or how come you're doing that first instead of that other project, technically outside of the jurisdiction of of this group? You're also not deciding on appointment of members of the of the committee. If one of you has to leave the committee for whatever reason, and and we need a a new person to fill that spot, as we'll talk about later, an alternate, you know, is has been chosen for each of your positions, and that alternate would would take that place.

But who then is chosen as the alternate to back up that person? Or if both parties are are are displaced and the and the, seat is entirely vacant, that's not something you decide. A lottery process, again, would be used in order to decide that. So while you will decide, next meeting, I think, who your chair will be, you will not decide anybody who gets appointed to this committee. You could certainly if a a seat got became vacant, encourage colleagues of you, hopefully, you're having a good experience with it, and say, hey.

This is a pretty cool thing. You should apply, you know, for for a position, but this body wouldn't take official action on that. I think you're familiar with your membership structure. This was, you know, in the measure itself. There's nine of you.

Ultimately, I think the large business representative is a position that we are unable to fill, but that we're working on getting that done. You can still convene and act. It's okay that they're not there for now, and we'll try to get that person, that representative appointed as soon as possible. But as you know, there's, there's seven of you of the residents folks. There's one per each district with an alternate backing up, you know, each of that person and then an at large person as well that was chosen through a very successful, it sounded like lottery process, and then a large business and a small business representative.

Other qualifications here are listed. One interesting unique one in light of sensitivities to, you know, the professional sports teams here is that none of you were allowed to be a business representative to work for or to previously work for or employed by any professional sports team within the city. Sensitivity about that, and so that was one of the more unique, you know, qualifications Glenn. Were your qualifications on the group.

Sorry? Can I clarify that one? So

it's just

only the business representatives. So the small and the large business representatives cannot have worked for or previously worked for I'm my mistake. Just to clarify.

I misspoke. Yeah. I I misspoke. Appreciate that. And you have to be 18 years old.

The appointment process, you've all gone through. We don't need to go through that in any detail. You were all chosen by lottery, and the council ratified, you know, that, and and ultimately appointed all you to this position. I know we've got some staggered terms. Are they aware of what their their respective terms are? Who's got the two year and who's got the four?

I'm not sure if everyone knows their term limits. Are you guys aware of what term you you guys have we had alternating. So I believe the odds are serving a two year initial term, and then the evens are serving a four year. And I have to recall about the at large and the but so those who are serving in a two year term, you're still eligible for two full four year terms. So you could potentially serve up to ten years, if that makes sense. So everyone is eligible for up to two four year terms.

So the people who got an initial two year term don't feel bad. That's actually a bonus of extra two years. Everyone gets to serve up to two four year terms, and the people who got an initial two year term also get that. So don't feel slighted if you were a two year person. It's actually a a bonus.

The meetings, are of at least one meeting per year. We're typically contemplating given the flow of things about four meetings, you know, a year with how projects are gonna come into you and, of course, a meeting at the end in order to do your year end activities. And as, yeah, I've tortured you with already, the the measure calls for you complying with all Brown Act meeting requirements. And, again, most of that is something that staff will attend to and that there are things you don't need to worry about, but we definitely wanted you familiar with that and particularly the chair when you've got one, and we're gonna have some additional meeting with them. The city has responsibilities as well.

We're supposed to provide technical and administrative support to you, including legal support. We're supposed to submit, the annual bond audits, you know, to you. You don't need to see to it that these other elements are performed. We need to see to that that's done, and then that all comes to you so you don't have a kind of a day to day, week to week, month to month oversight, you know, obligation for this. A lot of it's just gonna be done and presented to you.

You do need to, and again, with staff support, produce an annual written report. Although you may issue interim reports. Right? If you wanna if if things are going well, if things aren't going well, you've got issues or questions to, you know, the council about what your duties or responsibilities are and you want them to consider something different or less, you can communicate, you know, more frequently than that. But at a minimum, you have to do an annual report on your activities and then your and and on your findings. And then those reports ultimately are publicly available and submitted to the council.

So

Last kind of section of this. Because there's a lot of rules I just went through with you, and there's still more. There are conflict of interest and ethics rules that apply to you now in your new position. A lot of people think, and this cartoon reflects that, when you go to a career in politics and you're this isn't politics. Right? This is wonkier than that. This is, you know, a compliance, you know, committee. But there's you know, there can be political aspects to things, and you're in the public eye. Right, there's a sense that people throw their ethics out when they go through that door. We don't think that.

The people who work, you know, for government agencies don't think that. We take one of the things that drew us, you know, to local government service is we think, particularly at a local level, how people conduct themselves and how seriously they take it and and how aware they are, their ethical, you know, duties, and the need to act in the best interest of the city. And so one of the things we all try to do is both model that, you know, behavior and train, you know, that train folks on that behavior in order that we can put the the the city in the best possible light and and get the trust of the public in order to do things like vote in a 70%, you know, in favor of a measure I bond in order to spend their hard earned tax money because they think it's gonna happen in an honorable, you know, ethical way. And so you are all a very important agent, you know, of that in the role that you're gonna play. And, of course, the expectation is that you'll conduct yourselves, you know, that way as well.

And that's what this next section is about is what those rules are as they apply to you. First, the good news. A lot of officials, and I think Mike's had to file this before in his his capacity at Parks and Rec, have to actually affirmatively disclose economic interests that they have. So those can be on record and evaluated for purposes of determining whether or not you have conflict of interest in the decisions that you're gonna be making. The good news is these requirements, and they're here, I won't go through them in in detail because they do not apply to you.

We did an analysis with respect to the your role. You are not technically a decision making body. You're not getting compensated or reimbursed, you know, for your services here. The rules that apply, form 700 disclosures and a number of other rules under the political reform act actually don't apply to you. That does not mean you are rule free, but the most elaborate, the most detailed, the most public, you know, rules for conflict of interest are not ones you need to worry about.

But you're not entirely off the hook. You do need to be aware of potentially of different potential conflicts. And one of these kind of rules that do apply to you is this concept of common law bias. Common law is is, if some of you know, is not laws that are written in the rule books, but they're laws established by judges, you know, and by attorney general, you know, opinions. So it's not actually a statute that says this, but there's rules that still, you know, govern conduct.

And under the rules of common law bias, actions or involvement in public, in by public officials in decisions what the that there is a lie high likelihood that your personal interests could be placed above the interest of the public, you are not allowed to participate, you know, in those decisions. Typical interests in this context include financial, you know, interests that aren't covered by the political reform act or the material involvement or potential impact on a close family member, close friend, or an affiliated group. Example I gave here isn't a good example. I think this slide was borrowed from the presentation to the planning commission, but let me give you an example that, that might apply to you. If there is a project that's being proposed in one of these phases that you're being asked to look at in order to determine whether or not the that set of projects is consistent with the expenditure plan.

And that project is next to your house. Or you know that close family member or close associate is gonna bid on that project. Right? And there's gonna potentially be some benefit to that person. You might think to yourself, even though there's not a particular rule that applies to you, you know what?

I probably shouldn't be involved in this particular decision. So you need to be aware of kind of things that are going on and relationships you might have with the decisions that you're being made in order to make sure there's not this concept of common law bias where there could be your own perception or the perception of the community that you might be putting your personal interests above the interests of the city. There's kinda some factors that you can look at in determining this. What do you think? You know?

What do you and a lot of it is subjective. Right? What do you feel about it? Do you feel like you can if it's not an obvious, you know, conflict and you feel like, you know, you can be true to the, the primary city's interests, you might not have a common law bias, you know, issue. You also wanna think about what a reasonable observer might think about it. Is there an appearance of impropriety if you're involved in that decision? And factors you might consider is how material is the interest that you have, how close is the relation. Right? If it's a third cousin you don't see very often, who you know is in a particular business, who might bid on a project, is that the great common law bias? Probably not.

You know? But if it's your your it's your oldest, you know, child who you've, continue to support, then that might be a close enough relationship. And, again, the concept of appearance of impropriety, to be avoided. I honestly think given the nature of what you do, this isn't gonna come up very much. But it is a potential thing I need to make you aware of that we want you to be thinking about.

And if you have any issues, you know, with it or questions about it when it when matters come before you for your consideration and recommendation, we're here to help. So so don't hesitate, you know, to reach out. And if you are disqualified or or, again, if you feel you might be disqualified, contact staff with questions and and an explanation of of what you think your issue might be. There may not be an issue. There could be an issue.

Potentially, we could get, you know, some additional input on whether or not there is or not. But in the meantime, you shouldn't be, engaged in that particular item. If you think there may be an issue, you need to completely distance yourself from any involvement in that by not discussing it or trying to influence staff or colleagues of yours on what you think the outcome should be. If in fact you feel like you have a conflict, the way to handle it is before that item is discussed, you say publicly, hey. I've thought about this.

I feel like I I have a potential conflict of interest of this for this, that, or the other reason, and so I'm not gonna participate in this decision. And then you get up, and you leave for that particular, you know, decision. So it's not you don't get disqualified from participating. You don't have to you know, you don't pay a penalty. There's nothing like that.

It's just a an awareness, a disclosure, and an inability to participate on the particular item where you might have a conflict. There are other rules still, and this is something that's unique to Santa Clara. Santa Clara engaged in over time in a pretty elaborate way in the late late nineties, early two thousands, right, and throughout in developing a set of ethics and values for city of Santa Clara public officials. And for this purpose, you are a public official. For form 700 disclosure purposes, you're not.

For this purpose, you are. Santa Clara's, ethics and values apply to you. And they're not hard rules, really. They're really presented more as a you know, if you violate them, there's most of them, nothing happens to you. But they're guiding principles of ethics and values, that are set forth in a series of documents. And and, essentially, they say you should be ethical, professional, service oriented, fiscally responsible, organized, communicative, collaborative, and progressive. Those are the high points. There's a lot more to that, but I'm identifying those for you.

Kind of the

kind of stuff we like to think, you know, we're all being just naturally. There's some details on that that talk about what constitutes ethical behavior and practice, trustworthiness, truthfulness, impartial decisions, fair, equal opportunities, respect for the the public, you know, and for each other, and use of titles when you're conducting yourself, you know, in an official capacity. I'm not gonna dive into this in any great detail. There's a there's a whole lot we could talk about there. But there that these, all these documents are available with that link on the bottom, you know, there.

There a good number of pages, and it's it's an interesting read. I think there's some helpful materials there that could get you in the mode of thinking about, hey. What what does this kind of service mean? What kind of things should I be doing and how I interact with people? And how do I elevate, you know, the city's interests above my own as I take on these issues?

How do I be open minded and consider everything, you know, before I make recommendations? So my gosh. Last slide. In addition to common law bias, in addition to the San Diego San Diego, the city of Santa Clara's ethics, you know, rules, there are also a set of rules in your bylaws that are pretty consistent with everything I've said so far. But they are in your bylaws, and they're supposed to be complied with.

In section 5.3, in fact, oops, of your bylaws, there are ethics standards that apply to you, including a reference to an attached ethics policy. Key provisions of that are don't have financial interests in contracts or engage in actions for compensation inconsistent with your duties. Do not influence a city decision relating to any contract or construction project funded by bond proceeds. Again, your jurisdiction, right, just bond proceeds funded projects that would provide you or an immediate family member financial gain. There's also provisions that say, hey.

After you leave for two years after that, all these rules apply to you as well. And then always place interest of the city above your own interests. And so please look at those that that rule. It's a it's a single page. Did you put that together?

The last sheet, the compliance the the ethics compliance on the bylaws? Yeah.

Yeah. That was

Oh, it was in the bylaws. Okay. Well, they probably had many authors, you know, then. And, again, trying to put all in one place, you know, rules for you to think about. So I hope I haven't talked to any of you out of the service that you're you've offered to provide us here.

I don't think I will. I know it's kind of a a slog through these types of materials. The other bit of good news I will I will share with you is that because you are not a form 700 filer, you are also not obligated to get a b twelve thirty four training. A b twelve thirty four training is a a a much higher level of in-depth training on all sorts of rules I haven't even touched on that apply not to you but to others that, in my version, is three hours long as opposed to, you know, an hour, you know, long like this one was. I certainly would invite you to attend it because at least I find it interesting.

And that actually is a little more whimsical than this when we try to have some fun with it too. We have, you know, games and trivia, you know, questions and tests and scenarios that we, you know, run through for folks who are really in it and who have even more of those rules, you know, than you do that apply to them. And so if you are a extra glutton for punishment, we will provide notice to you of the next a b twelve thirty four training, which will I think will be in March 2026. And I I would would love to see you there because a lot of boards and commission members do come to it and take that live training. So I'm done with my presentation on these issues.

If there's any questions that you might have about anything I said, now would be a time to ask them. Don't feel like this is your last chance. Like I said, if things occur to you, either in general or with respect to your own specific circumstances, one of my jobs one of the jobs of my office in providing support to this very important committee is to answer those questions and, again, make sure you're comfortable with what your responsibilities are and to help you sort through any issues, you know, you might have with the Brown Act, Public Records Act, or potential conflict of interest. So, with that, I'll turn it back over to you to see if anyone has questions. Yeah.

Thank you, Glenn. And, you know, as Glenn mentioned earlier, the city clerk's office, the city attorney's office, our office is available to answer questions. I know this is very, very technical, and questions may pop up later on. So any questions right now? Go ahead and, you know, raise your hand if you'd like to speak. Okay. Go ahead. Do do we wanna take all questions at once, or should we No.

I'll take this.

Okay. Okay. Alright. Go ahead. And and, also, please bring the mic closer to your mouth as you're as you're asking your question. Go ahead, Mike.

Thank you. Real quick. You mentioned amendments to the current bond. Would that stem from, let's say, we're doing some sewer line replacement that's under the bond, and we find out that there's a section that's a mile long that has to be replaced because it's a supporting thing that just won't work with the new system. Is that the kind of amendments that you were anticipating? When we're when you remodel something, you always find a cubbyhole of a mess that you gotta fix anyway.

Yeah. That potentially could be, Mike. I think that's a a good example. The sewer projects weren't so specifically identified that if they found something that that would be considered an amendment to the project. Right?

If it said if it said so, and I'm not even sure how detailed it is on that. Do you have a I'll look at the expenditure plan. If you if we had a project in mind and something more, you know, evolved, you know, out of that because we discovered a situation either during the implementation of the contract or otherwise, that probably wouldn't constitute a plan amendment because it's kind of projects that's described anyway. But if we found so much of that that the category of of project now needs more money and it needs to be amended in order to add more money to that category of project, that might be an amendment that would, you know, come back to you. So more likely than not, it would be the deletion of a project and the replacement of another project or a an amount, you know, of money in a particular category that might need to be shifted.

Yeah. And just another example, just to explain what could happen is that some of these projects could be funded by grants or other funding that we get outside of the city. Right? And so if we ended up getting some of these funded by other dollars, then we can actually spend money on other projects. And so if that's the case where we have excess dollars or we identify a project that needs to be funded, that's what would come back to be able to shift those dollars to those type of projects.

That dovetails with the question that I had. So if because when you look at the plan in section two, there's only about a $150,000 of the 400,000,000 that's, like, loose and spare at the end. And so I'm assuming that if there are amendments made that might sometimes entail pulling in funds from elsewhere, How aware will we be, and will there be a way to demarcate for these kind of projects if there's outside funds like propping them up? Or we're trying to determine whether the bond's clients is going the way that it did. Say something that we know is overrunning or something like that.

And there's some effort that's not part of this committee that's going to like, how aware would we be of that, and how would that reflect itself, like, in the meetings and stuff? Do you be aware of any of the external things that

Yeah. So so if a project was gonna have some type of cost overage over what was being expended, I think we would try to keep you as best informed by having our regular meetings of these projects are gonna be long projects, and we'll be able to identify them. We have built in contingencies. So when we're bringing a project forward, I think I think it's a 25%. And I don't know if Scott might know off the top of his head, but we're building a contingency for those projects. So there will be projects will be coming under, you know, within 75% with an extra 25% in case there are overages. We're we're trying to protect against that from happening, but we will keep the the committee informed if you know, as those projects progress and knowing that we're gonna go over and how to balance those budgets. Yeah.

I had a follow-up while I'm just looking at so in terms of the Brown Act, The stuff that's being covered by the bond covers all you know, a lot of stuff all over Santa Clara. And so I'm wondering, like, what happens if the community members are talking about having seen, you know, a new fire truck or something. Where does the line get drawn between normal conversation about things in the city that would be covered by this as opposed to talking about something that's

The for Brown Act purposes, your your your concern really need only be when groups of you have interactions about something that's either in the plan or might be part of the plan. So if you would have individual communications with members of the public, right, about things that they're concerned about, none of those are by themselves, you know, communications that would implicate, you know, the Brown Act. It really is only if you take input that you get and you start sharing it with four or more of your colleagues do you have to worry about that being something that you shouldn't talk about. But instead, if it's something you wanna say or discuss, you bring it to a meeting, you know, and you can share that under your comments or say, hey. I'm hearing this a lot.

I'd like this subject disc you know, agendized for a subsequent meeting. But individual contacts or information you might gather out in the community, none of those by themselves are problematic under the. Did I get at your question? Okay.

I just wanted to cover where the if there's a line of demarcation between just discussing something you saw happening at one of the three Yeah. That's being renovated.

Yeah. If it like, if it's something you saw so say, for example, you see something that's a matter that relates to library policy. Right? There's a First Amendment protest or something or the library is doing things, you know, that that you don't like, and that's a matter of general business. That's not within your jurisdiction, right, of this particular committee.

And so you can talk about that stuff all day long. It really is only with respect to projects that are proposed to be funded with Measure I proceeds. Those things, infrastructure projects that are proposed to be renovated or new projects, you know, that are that are are proposed to be built, those are things that are matters within your jurisdiction. So general interactions with things going on at a even if it's at a facility that's a measure I facility, if it's not related to the actual improvement of that facility, it's not within your jurisdiction. So you don't have a, you wouldn't have a Brown Act concern.

The one thing the couple places I wanna point you to to for kind of immersing yourselves in some of the wonkiness because I think we have some, which is perfect for this committee, some wonky people, you know, here. This is the expenditure plan, right, which you're probably familiar with, and you've got in your packet. It was attached to the measure. On the back is a lot of really good detail, some of which I think we're gonna talk to you a little bit about, you know, later, that talks about the project categories, you know, subcategories within, you know, those project categories and what constitutes something that staff can do, you know, within, but as part of its own authority to implement the plan as opposed to something that constitutes an amendment to the plan, which would need to come to you. So I would point you to particularly sections two, three, and four.

Actually, the whole thing. I drafted it. I'm very proud of it. I drafted the whole thing. Look at the whole thing. It's a masterpiece, and it will answer a lot of your questions about the wonky elements of what's a plan amendment versus what's not.

Alright. Go ahead, Sadi.

Do we have Looks like we

only meet four times a year. Is that correct?

That's what we're estimating right now. I think because this is early on in the process, we may need to meet more frequently initially. But once we get the program going, we'll probably be meeting three to four times a year, you know, to to approve, you know, to approve conformance with expenditure plans, review the audit, and then also drafting your annual report. So yeah, I think what we'll do is we'll keep you keep you abreast of the schedule of what's going on right now with the projects and then the items that are going to council that might be going in in between your meetings about with regards to the capital projects we can do. So, yeah, we can keep you informed about what Measure I is doing.

Yeah. That's a good idea. Yeah. The schedule of act activities where council might be acting on things that are either the product of your work or not necessarily things that went to you, but implement, you know, Measure I expenditures. And I think also there's gonna be aside from the special attention that this group would get, we're gonna have a Measure I, you know, website, right, or web web web page that will also provide that information to the public.

Yeah. And so that website actually is really to inform what the committee has been doing. So it'll have all of our meetings on there, all our agendas, meeting minutes, and all the actions that have been taken as well as an FAQ just for the public to understand what's going on. Before I go to people in this room, I know Allak has had his hand up for a little bit. So let me let me go out to the Zoom real quick. Go ahead. Oh, Allak, can you unmute yourself?

Okay. Thanks. I wanted to probably get a clarification on the role of the alternates in this process. Yeah.

Did you understand that?

Oh, yeah.

Can you repeat that? The role of which one?

So I was selected as an as an alternate member of the committee. So I wanted to, you know, get more visibility on the role of an alternate person as compared to the main person?

Yeah. Role of the alternate

to the best Oh, very good. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate that question. When the decision or the action for the council to appoint the members of this group that were chosen by lottery, including the alternates, that very issue was brought to the city council as an option for them to exercise.

The question was, will the alternates be we I think we called it active or standby. Right? And the active alternate role was what the council chose, which means and this will require some level of communication between the primary, you know, appointee and the alternate. If the primary appointee is ever unable to make a meeting, the alternate will serve in their place. The alternative, which was not chosen, was going to be the primary person would serve.

If they weren't there, their chair would be empty. And only if that the the primary person's office was vacated because they resigned or removed or their term, they were, you know, their their term expired with the alternate come and and be involved. And so the the role for the alternates is active, which means communicating with your primary. You may be called upon to actually sit in the chair, you know, and vote. When you're not doing that, all of the information and materials will be presented to you because we want you kept in the loop.

And you can come and attend meetings and observe them either remotely or in person. But unless your primary is not there, you won't be involved in deliberations, you know, in actions on things. Could you come and speak at the mic as a member of the public if you had an opinion about something? Sure. You could. But, and can you attend meetings? Sure. You can. But under the system, we probably active alternate comes and attends a meeting when the primary is not there. Was that clear enough? Yes. Thank you. Very good.

Adem first and then Gaurav right after.

Yeah. So my question is, is that correct understanding of Brown's law that it restricts more communication between committee members than communications between committee and public? Like and the second is so will we have any means of communicating between members, or is it prohibited? Or what are the rules?

Yeah. The best honestly, the best practice is not to meet with members with respect to committee business outside this venue. That's the best practice. Could you meet with another member who you have a kinship with or wanna bounce thoughts of or even, you know, another, you know, another two members and come and share your thoughts, you know, when you come to an come to a formal meeting without violating the Brown Act? Yeah.

You can do that. You know, only the only way you violate the Brown Act by communicating outside a formally noticed meeting like this is if you communicate all at once or through a serial meeting with up to five. And so, again, because you don't always know who's talking to whom, you know, there's potentially some risk in meeting in little groups. And, you know, you we we wanna be as careful and appropriate as possible because we don't want consensus and ideas and deliberations occurring, you know, outside the public view. Those things are supposed to happen here.

So you can do it, and you can talk with somebody. It's not like, oh, I can't talk to you at all about, you know, something. You you can. We just need to be very, very wary, and and any group larger than two or three starts to create the risk that you might have a serial meeting and a and a Brown Act violation.

Okay. Bharat?

Yeah. Hi. This question is a bit see a lot of project areas over here. So I'm just wondering if there is any project update dashboards or any port that will be available to the public. And if yes, then what will be the frequency of such progress reports?

That's a great what we were planning on doing is doing our regular report to the city council, but a dashboard is a good idea to kinda keep track on the progress of projects. I'll take that back as maybe just having an online dashboard for the public that we have access to. Yeah. Thank you. And, Anurag?

Hi. In the event of unknown unknowns scenario for the voting, whom should the committee seek guidance the first time? As an example, let us say we are planning for a seaport from Elviso to Foster City. But last hundred years, there has been too much change in the elevation level of the sea level, basically. Should we consult the city attorney for guidance or the council leads or just browse through FEMA or National Flood website as a homework to vote? In unknown scenarios, like what to do, whether to vote as a yes or no.

Okay. I think that that might be getting just a little too technical about the work that the the committee would do. The committee would be looking at the project that staff recommends to see if it fits within the expenditure plan. Now if there is you know, you you think that there is a concern about something to that, I think that's something we potentially could raise to the department itself. But it would technically, I think, be out of the purview of the committee itself. Does that make sense? Yeah. And

if you and if any of you are observing, you know, things you think are relevant that should be factored into, you know, those are certainly comments you can provide, you know, at this meeting, maybe at a at a comment, you know, phrase at the end of it, but it wouldn't be something you would be deliberating or acting on.

Oh, go ahead, Matthew.

Hi. I had a question about the, mic.

Is it green? Hello? No. I'm sorry.

There you go. Okay.

So I I see the budget for the the bond. I'm kinda curious about, are there projects that are already active and, like, kinda ready to be reviewed? I'm kinda wondering about you know, there's been some questions about scheduling and how rapidly things will be moving along. So, you know, for every little piece here is there's something already dedicated to it. And I'm also curious about how we'll be reviewing them, whether it will be by type, like, let's say, a fire station, or we'll just be a general meeting where we discuss kinda random things that are coming up on the planning commission or whoever is doing the planning.

Yeah. And I was gonna get that at the end of the meeting, but we can cover it now. You know, our next meeting in August will be, you know, your first real working session, a real first meeting for the committee. Our staff right now, in particular, our public works team is working with every department on trying to phase projects right now to kinda study how we're we can start projects, you know, the near term, the ones that need feasibility studies, the ones that need are ready for design. And they're phasing those projects, and that's what we will be presenting to you in August.

So we are studying that right now so that you can kind of review. Because, obviously, we're not gonna build all five fire stations at once, right, or repair all of them. We need to kind of phase that hole based on need, based on ability to to start a project in certain areas. So you'll be seeing that in August, and you'll see it all kind of comprehensively. Yeah.

And one more follow-up to this. So what's the duration for the the bond, like, issuing funds out in total? Is there a a time frame?

Can can I defer that?

We'll save that.

Yeah. For the second yeah.

We're gonna

we're gonna cover bond one zero one for you guys, and our council can help answer those questions. Yep.

And I if I might add to the to the again, referring to my masterpiece. The one of the one of the things that's described in that in the so called boilerplate on the back here in section four is the phased implementation process, and it really talks about how that's gonna occur and the kind of factors that staff is supposed to engage in in deciding what will go within different phases. So you're right. There actually are projects that are already, you know, being constructed or or being designed, you know, now where bond proceeds might be used. There's things that are within the expenditure plan, but they were things that were already, you know, active.

And thanks to our bond council having building in a provision at the time that this measure was approved, you can actually use bond proceeds and revert, you know, back to that. But the phases will it doesn't say that in this phase implementation section because of a decision was made to enhance actually the responsibilities that you have beyond what's even called for in the bond measure itself. There is going to be a presentation to this group of each phase so that you can look at it and go, yeah, those are projects that are within, you know, the appropriate categories, and they're consistent with the expenditure plan. But look at section four, you'll you'll it it kind of shows you how that rolls out.

K. I'm I'm just gonna ask that we'll save any other questions on this item to the end just so that we can move on to the next presentation. I I I know some we've we told everyone about an hour and a half, and we're kinda running over it just a little bit. So I'm just gonna I'm gonna have Scott, go ahead and present Bond one 01. Go ahead.

Okay. Thank you. My name is Scott Ferguson. I'm with a private law firm called Jones Hall. We have worked well, I've I've been with Jones Hall since 1999, and I've been doing municipal bonds. This is all that's all we do. We're a we're a kind of a niche practice. We represent cities, counties, school districts, special districts up and down California, working on all types of bonds. And my firm has worked with the city of Santa Clara since before before I graduated from law school, I believe. It's been a it's been a nice, wonderful relationship.

And the city has a handful of types of bonds that they have issued over the years. Most recently, a wastewater bond issue is technically called a a COP, and the electric utility has issued bonds. These bonds are different in that, in order to issue them, the city, had to go out to the voters for approval and and get two thirds approval, which, of course, which, of course, they did. And just one other note, it's our our practice is quite, it's very rewarding. I mean, being a lawyer tends to lead to burnout, and and, you know, you're you you just kind of are are always fighting with your opponents or or the people across the table, the other lawyers in the room.

My practice is as collaborative as can be. And and part of why it's so rewarding is that we get to work with, city staff at various cities, all of whom work at a very high level, care about what they do. And at the end of the day, we're helping we're helping cities borrow money to enhance public infrastructure. And it's it's it's great to to ride by the new high school or the new fire station that you helped to finance, the new the new city hall. So, anyways, it's a it's a great practice, and and I'm really glad to have been involved in this in this process.

Glenn kind of alluded to I did help put together the bond measure and help to draft the the the two resolutions and then the ordinance, which placed the the measure on the ballot. I was very very pleased that it passed. So oh, yeah. There's my clicker. Of course, we've been talking about it.

Measure I, was passed in in November. It authorized the voters authorized the city to issue 20 I'm sorry. 400,400 worth of general obligation bonds. That's a that's the maximum authorization. The bonds won't be issued all in one go.

And the the bond expenditure plan that we've been talking about, which is in tab two, will be the bonds will be issued in various series, and and that's what the phases are that we've been talking about. So council will determine from the bond expenditure plan which of these line items represent projects that are ready to go, ready to either be designed or shoveled in the ground, and also can be completed within three years. There's a there's a the bonds to be tax exempt, and these will be tax exempt municipal bonds. You have to have an expectation that you'll spend the money within three years. So that's that's a limit, from our perspective as the gatekeepers to making sure that all the rules are being followed.

There's also a practical limit of public works, contractors, city staff. There's only so much so many projects that can be done, at a time. So part of that, that first phase that you'll be seeing in August is identifying those projects. They're ready to go, feasible, and can be completed within within that three year period. So I I picture the bond expenditure plan as you know, by the by six years in or your second terms, you will have color coded each of these line items corresponding to, okay.

The those are the bonds we did in 2026. These are the ones we we we did in 2029, etcetera. And and depending on the the the need to move forward with the projects, and lots of other factors, this could be a three, four we we we could issue three or four series of bonds over the course of could be ten years. So this is a it's a it's a long term this is a a long term list of projects, but it's gonna be broken up into pieces for you that you'll be looking at individually as as we go along. So we talked about the phasing.

And, of course, this committee, was formed under the ordinance, part of the ballot measure, as Glenn discussed earlier. The expenditures plan summary, you've got the detail here. These are the kind of the high level high level categories of projects. Going back to one question that, came up earlier, when you look at the bond expenditure plan itself, you'll see that within each of these categories is a contingency escalation administration line item, and that that's designed for just that. Contingencies, the the what if scenario for of cost overruns.

And and and within within each of these categories, part of your role will be to make sure that, okay. We're you know, the the the second series of bonds is being used to to renovate streets. Is is that or or to do kinda street and transportation improvements, are is that consistent with with the line items that I see here? Same thing with fire stations, all of the and and that will be something that you all work through and and and get to know very well as the as the phasing plans are are put before you and the bonds are issued. So for the bond issuance process, there's kind of the before the bonds are issued and then the issuance process itself and then the after, which is on the next slide.

The pre issuance, the the well, we will we will work with staff. There's another consultant to the city called a municipal adviser or financial adviser who helps with structuring structuring the bonds and and working with staff, we will come up with kind of a a strategy, for putting together the documents. And then the city council, as has been discussed, will will come up with this the list of specific projects that that they determine will be funded with this first series of bond. Right? And and then that's the list, the the the phase of projects that will come to you to review in August as well.

And then once once we know that and and there'll be a dollar amount associated with that. Right? So then then that allows us allows the the the municipal adviser to say, okay. We wanna issue let's pick a number out of the air, a $100,000,000 out of our 400 authorization. We will proceed, prepare prepare the legal and sale documents. That's that's what our firm does. And, those aren't documents that you'll need to review. And if you see ever see the packet, you'll you'll be glad of that because it's runs to hundreds of pages. Obtain bond ratings. There's three three rating agencies that regularly rate municipal bonds.

The financial adviser will advise on on which rating agency to approach. And then in, when when the documents are all substantially ready to go, we come to council for approval. Each series of bonds, even though we've got voter authorization for various reasons, we also need the city council to, take an official action at a meeting, not on consent calendar, authorize the issuance authorizing the issuance of each series of bonds. And we think that'll well, we'll talk about the schedule later. We think that'll happen in at the end of the year. And then

Can I just add one thing when you're talking about obtain bond ratings? A lot of people might not be we don't need to go into the details of that, but the the reason for that is the the better rating that you get, the lower interest rate that that you get. We're we're fairly confident that these are going to be highly rated, you know, issues for a variety of reasons, but that's why we go through that process. You wanna get a rating which basically says, how likely is it that these bonds, you know, are gonna be repaid, right, in accordance with their terms? And the better rating you get, right, the less risk an investor, you know, is incurring, and that is a significant, you know, cost factor, you know, in the issuance of the bonds. Right? There's there's a

The less risk the bonds represent, the lower interest rate a a bond investor is is willing to take. So that and and these these these numbers aren't real, but a a nonrated bond supported by assessments in a small neighborhood would have a much higher interest rate than double a plus rated bond, so a general obligation bond supported by property taxes throughout this entire city. That those will buy bear a lower rate because they represent less risk.

And the less taxes we have to levy in order to repay the bonds.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes. Because they're cheaper to the debt there's less debt service. So after the council approval, our firm, working with staff, working with a financial adviser, would would finalize and go through the process of offering the bonds to ultimate investors. That's done through an investment bank.

And

then number of weeks later, we would close. That's when the bonds are issued to the investment bank in return for payment of our 100,000, $100,000,000. And at that point, that money is, is sitting with a a trustee bank, which is yet another, participant, and then, is available for projects. And as Glenn mentioned, we do have the ability the city has the ability to start submitting money, cash on hand on projects if when they're ready, in anticipation of issuing these bonds, and then the bonds can be used to repay the city reserves or whatever source of funds were were made. So that's that's the process.

In case you're curious, the all the legal fees and other costs of issuance, the underwriter's fee, cost of posting the disclosure document, they're all paid out of bond proceeds, and those are authorized expenditures. We we we set aside as we we figure out what what what that amount is gonna be, set it aside, and then that's used to pay the so the bonds the issuance cost, the professionals involved, the bonds pay for that. So the bonds pay for themselves as far as, a transaction cost. It's not like, refinancing your house where you where you might be asked to write a check. In this case, they're all they're all paid out of the.

And in expectation of that, there's actually a line item for bond issuance costs in the expenditure plan itself. So that's contemplated

as well.

So post issuance, this is when when when your role really kicks in. Right? When the bonds are when the our hunt thereabouts 100,000 $100,000,000 is sitting in the bank and the city starts to spend money on these projects, that's when that's when your role is is is really really goes live. And and so your your role will be, as we've been discussing, review how the city's been spending the bond proceeds, make sure that they're all projects on this on this list, and that otherwise are in compliance. We'll review that annual audit that'll be provided to you, make your reports to the public.

And then, of course, if the if this expenditure plan is amended in the future as we're talking about, you'll have that opportunity to provide input on that. And then there's also kind of housekeeping care and feeding of the bonds after they're issued. Typically, bonds are issued for a thirty year term. And so every year, the city needs to provide annual disclosures to the market. There are compliance requirements to make sure that the tax exempt status of the bonds is maintained.

Part of that is just making sure you're not doing certain things, and others are making sure you're accounting for interest earnings and things like that. It's more technical than than anyone needs to hear, frankly. There's record keeping, financial reporting. The bonds will appear in the city's annual audited financial statements as long term obligation. And then the city will work with the county every year in the summer summertime to levy those property taxes that ultimately are the source of, repaying bondholders.

Then the last, talked about the players, the the participants, on a disclosure council. That's our firm. We will draft the the city council resolution, all the bond issuance documents, and the disclosure document that goes to prospective investors, bondholders. Then there's the financial adviser, municipal adviser, as I mentioned. Trustee bank, that's a very special role.

They they act as paying agent for the bonds. They'll hold the project money, the the proceeds for the projects, and then they will also receive twice a year the property tax payments that that are collected by the county, those go through this bond trustee bank, and then the bank sends them to the actual bondholders, the actual investors. That very arcane process, but that they they form a crucial role, but they're not it's fairly mechanical for for that for the bond trustee. And the rating agency, as discussed, we'll go to them to to get a a credit rating on the bonds. They'll also do, they do some, annual monitoring of of the city and of the bonds.

And, part of that is is useful when we go to do the next series in two, three, four years, because the likelihood is we'll go back to that same rating agency. They'll now know the city, the city's credit, even better because we'll have this bond issue out there, and we would, in all likelihood, ask that same rating agency to provide a rating on the next series. And then the bond underwriter, as I mentioned, they're they're the they're the conduit between the city who's issuing these bonds, borrowing money, and the ultimate lenders, ultimate investors, rather than the city finding investors itself and having to sell a whole series a whole chunk of bonds to to institutions or whatnot, the bonds are sold to the the investment bank, the bond underwriter on the closing date. And the bond underwriter, of course, turns around, and and they have the accounts. They sell they turn around and and sell the bonds to all of their investors.

But the

bond underwriter plays that critical role of they'll commit to buy the bonds, on the closing day and deliver all the proceeds. So they're they're they're a critical piece of the of the puzzle as well.

I think Yeah.

And, Scott, I could take that next. Okay. Yeah. And so just to update you on what our upcoming bond related meetings are, the city council is actually looking to adopt a resolution to authorize a tax levy on June 10. This is important.

We have to get it to the county assessor's office before July or by July 1 year in order for these assessments to be placed on the tax roll for the December tax bills. And so this is to, you know, be able to get those start getting those tax dollars in in anticipation for those projects starting in '26. Our next bond council or committee meeting will be in August. Marie is gonna be sending out a doodle on some or, you know, a a scheduling for a poll for all of you to see where a better date in August is to schedule our first actual meet working meeting. At that meeting, we'll be selecting a chair and a and a vice chair, you know, to kinda help run the meetings.

And then we'll also be reviewing that phase one schedule project schedule to be proposed for you. And then after that meeting, we will be hopefully getting some type of direction and action by the committee and then going to the city council for approval of that phase one program. And this is in order to prepare for the bond issuance that we're scheduling it for just, hoping to get by December '25. Yeah. Or or December or January '25. So this is the I know it's a very ambitious schedule, but we really wanna get this rolling and start getting these projects going. And I think we're ready for any questions, you know, for either presentation.

I wanted to add one thing if I might. The the chair responsibility is really an important one. If anyone is not too daunted by the presentation I gave about kind of the rules, you know, that you need to follow and and managing the meeting process and are interested potentially in being and serving in that role between now and the next meeting. If you want more information about what all, you know, is entailed in that, don't hesitate to reach out either to Liz, you know, or myself. We'd be happy to talk that through with you to make sure it really is something, you know, you wanna do.

And appreciate anyone's interest in that because that'll be super important and helpful to to managing these meetings and getting through your business in an orderly way.

And, Adam, I think I you had your hand up first.

There are several urgent projects related to this bond issue. One of them is our international swimming pool. And I was wondering when will be funds available, and I guess money will come not very soon. So what is proposed to do during this time before money comes?

So as as you mentioned, some of some of the projects are, you know, a priority. The swim center, actually, we are starting work on that in anticipation that some of those funds will be able to be replenished from the bond proceeds. So I don't know if you might have heard Scott say that some projects can start early, and there's a look back period about eighteen months. So once we get those bond proceeds, we can pay back projects eighteen months up before that. And so we're hoping to put the ISC is likely to be on that phase one project program to be listed as, you know, as part of the bond proceeds to be used. And we are already working on the ISC right now. So

Does the city already have money to work on that project, or money was allocated in ex in expectations that bond will be will eventually pay off that money. Right?

That's correct. Yeah. The city has budgeted some funds from our other reserve sources.

Do you have, like, a schedule between projects? What projects will be done first and then what projects where can I see that?

Yes. That that's what we will be presenting to you in August. It that that is what we're presenting to you in August, the a phase schedule of the projects. Yep.

Thank you.

Just to be clear, while a couple of projects, that one in particular, are are proceeding with the expectation of reimbursement for bond proceeds. None of that will happen until that is that particular phase is presented to you for your review and determination of consistency, you know, with the expenditure plan and ultimately the approval of the council. So while we had to kinda start those projects because of the urgency that you identified with the expectation that bond proceeds would be used, the, the ultimate determination of that is still, to be determined by the, with review of this group and a and a decision by the city council.

Yes, Hee Sung?

Are there any issues in us investing in the bonds or recommending investment to family and friends?

That is a very good question. I have a feeling there there there could be a a potential issue for you as individual members in doing that. But, Scott, I may ask you to weigh in on

that. So investing in the city's bonds isn't a direct transaction with the city. Doing so, you would get a an account with a broker dealer, a brokerage, and place an order for the bonds. As a public official so as a professional, there's no require there's no restriction on me invest investing in Santa Clara's bonds, for for example. As a public official, while you're not subject to that onerous form 700 that that that Glenn mentioned, I I would want I'd wanna look at that.

Yeah. Because I my my my gut says that people don't do it. Certainly, city council members wouldn't invest in their own city's bonds. But at since you're not in that same level, I think that's a that's a nuanced question that we that we would wanna at.

Yeah.

We'll we'll we'll look at that because it's a good question. I I I it may very well fall in the common law bias, you know, appearance of impropriety, you know, arena where it's really ultimately in your discretion as to whether or not, you know, to do it as opposed to a violation of a of a black letter, you know, statute. But that's an interesting question, and I will will look into that and give you some guidance on that. One thing just to also be clear on, while we try to be helpful with questions regarding, you know, conflict of interest to you know, issues that you might have, I am technically not your lawyer for conflict of interest, you know, issues. And so while I'm be my being helpful, you couldn't, you know, for example, rely on my legal advice to say, oh, the you know, the city's lawyer said it was okay as a defense against somebody else, you know, trying to prosecute you to saying that it wasn't.

So we'll be helpful. But in in with questions like that, ultimately, you'd probably wanna get advice from independent privately, you know, legal counsel. But doesn't mean we won't try to answer it and point you in the right direction because it's an interesting good question.

Okay. And, Niraj?

Public projects are notorious for cost over. And some are needed, like, I have inflation, tariffs. What are the guardrails or any risk management plan which, this expenditure is going to be? Are we going with that, or is it something which is part of?

I mean, you wouldn't be part of building the guardrails, but we will be providing the information of what those guardrails that we are having in place. Right? I the tariffs are on are on our radar. Right? We're keeping track of what those cost overruns could be if the tariffs keep going up. And, also, we are building in those contingency on our construction contracts. And so there will be constant monitoring as those phased projects go and as costs escalate, and you will be getting those reports at your regular meetings about what, you know, what the status of each of those projects are.

And if I could add to that, the grim reality of cost overruns is that we won't be able to build everything that we want to. These are projects that are roughly estimated, you know, to use up these amounts. We do have contingencies built in. But do we have tariffs drive the cost up by twice contingencies built in? No.

You know, we we don't. And so that'll be something that will be part of the calculus in designing phases, you know, and and seeing what gets done first with the understanding that there may really be a premium on earlier phases to the extent they cost so much that there's not quite the money left, right, that we would want to have because of cost being driven up. You know? In in that case, we'll build as much as we can, you know, with the money that we have, and, hopefully, we'll be do do a good enough job of that if there's a significant remainder of projects, you know, that still need to be built. Citi could potentially even four or six six, eight, you know, years go out again and ask the public again to go, you know what?

We did this. We think we did a good job. We were good stewards of the money. Look at what we've done. The bond oversight committee was, you know, determined that we did things how we were supposed to do it. Public, would you be interested in, you know, in in because we ran out of money in in providing additional funds. I'm getting way ahead, you know, of that, but that's the the reality is we can only build in, you know, the the contingency that we could. And, you know, some projects that really go over will be using up money that otherwise could be spent on other projects.

Adam?

You mentioned some risks associated with these bonds. What is the main factor of risk?

These are a general obligation bond. By the way, a general obligation bond is not a general obligation. It's it's paid from property taxes, right, levied in the in the within the city at the rate that's estimated in in the bond measure, right, in the ballot measure. And they're thought to be among the safest, least risky investments from an investor's perspective because they're secured by property taxes levied on every single taxable parcel, right, in the in the entire city. So it's a huge diversification.

The the and if if something if if if assessed values you know, the the unthinkable happens and property values go down and assessed values go down, the county is still required to levy taxes sufficient to to pay for that debt service.

Is there any risk that this measure will not go? Like, you decided to raise taxes, but something prevents it,

or

it's not the factor?

No. With with the voter authorization, that's that's kind of the goal

It's already done.

Of of the authors you know, the the city has the authority to issue these bonds, and then the county has to levy taxes to support that debt service. Of this the city's general fund, for example, there's not a scenario legally when this where the city's general fund would ever be responsible for paying for paying bonds bondholders.

And that was the point I was gonna make. That's really the key point, and that that Scott pointed out there's a that there's an irony in the name for these bonds. They're called general obligation bonds, which you might think has the city's general fund and revenues at risk. They are they are not. Bondholders are limited to the revenues generated by the levy of property tax assessment.

So in no event with the city's general fund or our other resources outside the actual levy of property tax proceeds be liable. We obviously need to take those proceeds and spend them, you know, wisely and consistent with the bonds. So there are rules we need to follow. But as long as we follow the the rules, very low risk, you know, to the to the city because our general fund fund is not pledged.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Matthew?

I think it was mentioned that there would be an annual report. Is the annual report from each individual, or is it as a a group?

Oh, it it would be from the committee.

Okay.

And so staff will actually help coordinate a draft report. We'll bring it, you know, to the committee to discuss. I mean, potentially, we could even form a subcommittee to draft if that was so desired. So but, yeah, the it'll be a report coming from the committee. Any other questions? Okay. Well, I really wanna thank everybody for their time this evening. And I actually, let me just check online since I don't have Maria here. Yeah. And is is there anyone from the public who may wanna speak?

Please raise your hand now. See seeing none, I think this is the end of our meeting. As I mentioned, we will be sending out a poll for an August meeting. And so it'll probably be probably the August that we hope to to get a meeting with you all. And feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions, and we really appreciate your time this evening. Yeah. And we look forward to working with you. Thanks. Meeting's adjourned, or do we need a vote? Okay. Meeting's adjourned. Thank you.

He wants to just be able to say it. And it is that I've not they today, do motion to adjourn.