City Council - Regular Meeting

obviously is is is between uh the city in the Vallejo uh flood control district and we are uh so this particular action is just to approve the subdivision improvement agreement and the uh deferred uh plans for the bridge construction that's supported project. Okay, got it. And so is there a CFD tax associated with any of this? Not that I'm aware of. Okay. This is a mitigation project. Yeah. Will there be later or is it anticipated for later?

This is a mitigation project that basically widens uh the Callahan uh uh uh street to a wider uh street configuration to support the development uh which is within the city's public rightway. So right now there is no uh maintenance uh implications associated with the construction of this project at this time. Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Council member Matias.

Just want to make a quick comment which I'm sure we will continue on the 26. So uh welcome to Valleo. U Director John. You got a you got a lot of work in front of you my friend. Um, specifically as it relates to this project, I've been emailing uh for well over a year because this construction uh has caused a significant amount of distress uh and hardship on all of the neighborhoods right behind where that construction is taking place. And so I look forward to meeting with you Friday so we can tour some of these areas together and really figure out what we're going to do in partnership with the developer to put some mitigation interventions in place and also to ensure that there's um adequate repavement uh on uh Foothill and some of those adjacent roads. Uh because um it's something that uh those residents in particular have had to disproportionately bear uh over a year now. uh and there's just been one delay after another. So, uh it's a it's just something I want to put on the public record. I'm sure um you you've probably been briefed. I've sent hundreds of emails at this point. Uh but it is something that I would like to uh for there to be specific attention being paid to over the next couple months um with with a focus on those residents who have had to endure a lot.

Very much look forward to the meeting. Thank you. All right. Um, I'll just echo that and thank you for thank you for raising that issue about the delays and the the residents. Um, any other questions from council or if not we're looking for a motion or actually wait I'm sorry we need to take public comment. Apologies. I know we had Miss Carr. Do we have anyone in person? Yes. Um, and then let's go ahead and call her online. Uh, Miss Carr, please unmute yourself. You have the floor. Okay. Um, I actually was waiting to speak about item I as an intermediate, which is supposed to be about the coordinated care.

You're good. Yep. We will get you on the next item. Sorry about that. The Fairview item was G. Yep. I got that was my mixup. I You said I previously. We heard I. Okay. All right. With that, we're looking for a motion. I move we adopt a resolution approving a new subdivision improvement agreement for fair view at Northgate phase 1 and the construction plans for the Fair View at Northgate Blue Rock Springs Creek Bridge and Admiral Callahan Lane and Turner Parkway Valo California. All right, we're ready to vote as revised. As revised.

Need one more vote. Has everyone voted? I'm only showing five. There's six of you up there. There we go. Motion carries unanimously.

All right. Thank you. That is going to bring us Thank you very much. That is going to bring us to item 8.2. Previously, item 8 I adopt a resolution of city council approving a three-year memorandum of understanding between community action partnership Solano Joint Powers Authority and Solano County, the cities in Solano County. And this is to fund the coordinated entry system addressing homelessness from December 1st, 2025 through December 31st, 2028. Um, and I will turn it over to I believe it was Council Member Matias who pulled this item.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, so I have a question for city staff, which I'm going to go come back to in a second, but um, Mr. Wilson, hello. Good to see you. Um I have a very simple question and um it's directly tied to a memo that was included in the packet uh where there was um a meeting reference between the city attorney's office, city staff and and I believe yourself perhaps around what do each of these terms mean and and what does it mean more specifically in the city of Alleo. So, uh, my very direct question to you is we pay these dollars every year to provide these to have you sort of operate this system and provide supports on the ground and make sure that folks are getting connected to housing. What does that mean for um the level of staffing that this JPA is providing to the city of Alo and more specifically the outreach that's happening to unhouse residents? like what does that look like on the ground? Could you color that for us?

Yes. So, um just to for a little bit of clarification, there is our general membership of being part of Capsolano JPA which is the um our larger kind of agreement with them. We also have a subcontract with uh Capsolano JPA and our partners for staffing. And then the item before you tonight is the coordinated entryou. Um, so just for a little bit of clarification, they all kind of talk and overlap with each other, so we can definitely answer your questions, but I just wanted to give a little bit of clarification. There's a couple different agreements that all tie and kind of hold the JPA and what we do together. Um, with that, I will go ahead and hand it over to uh, Mr. Wilson to answer your specific questions.

Good evening. Thank you. I'm Michael Wilson, interim executive director of the Capsolano JPA. Uh, thank you for uh, having us before you. Yeah. So this is our coordinated entry systemou as outlined in the staff report for our services that uh provide just coordinated entry um and bring people into a system assess them and uh bring them into housing. In addition to that, we have a staffingou that uh allows our staff to work with not your staff but also with the community and also bring other funding opportunities countywide and to the city of Valleo. There's some of those contracts are street outreach uh services. There's other uh services in a variety of contracts. Um this specific one is on the uh coordinated entry system which uh I can go through more of the details on that but it uh we the capsolano JPA contract with an agency to provide these services and they provide that assessment services uh in the coordinated entry system bringing people toward housing. So if I didn't answer your question if you can please uh press me on the further. Yeah. So, um I guess what I'm trying to understand is we're paying this fee and I know that the staffing subcontract or was not a part of this tonight. I get it. But what I want to understand from you sitting in your seat is what does outreach look like to any of the seven cities? Um for any of the cities that are making this payment for this JPA? Do you have staff that's doing that outreach? Is that all sort of subcontracted out or are you relying on cities to have to do that in each of the

seven cities? Like that's very specifically my question.

Yeah. So spec specifically to provide this service, we provide the database housing management information system and we have an HMIS administrator. We coordinate them and this coordinated entry system contractor through our office and with our uh JPA board. This has specific staff that uh receive calls, assess individuals, put them into the housing queue for to get them off the street and into housing. There are uh multiple entry points. um one right here in Valo where people can go in at Blue Oak Landing and also uh in the system of calling 211 and directly connecting to um the having the assessment through that.

Okay. So, um let me take this a little further. say the city of Alleo went to you JPA and I apologize in advance if I'm out of my lane in terms of how I'm framing these questions but um say the city of Alleo comes to you and says hey in addition to taking these phone calls getting the information into the system we also need you to have a team that is on the ground every week reaching out to folks, keeping track of the putting, you know, who they're interacting with and putting that information into the system like is that something that your team can provide provided there was funding for it or is that outside of the scope?

Our team at the Capsolano JPA and the Capsolano JPA is a joint powers of every city in the county and the county itself with two members of your board uh representing the JPA on that. We uh oversee funding from federal and state sources and coordinate throughout the counties. We are not an outreach agency. So to perform that service, we would could partner or be a part of that with the uh city to help find a uh an agency who would do the street outreach. We currently have one uh countywide we have a countywide street outreach contract that works in Valo and has uh points throughout the county.

Okay. It's totally it's a separate contract funded by separate funds from the these funds or our uh otherou.

Got it. Um, and the reason why I'm asking you those questions is because again, having just been in office for 15 months now, it has very much felt like a chicken or the egg situation when we're talking about outreach on the ground, you know, or I've references referenced this a million times, the the good old Spider-Man meme. You've got three Spider-Mans, they're all pointing at each other. And what we need on the ground is folks to know where unhouse residents are, get their information, take take that information, put it into the system, and get them uh some support. So, um I I'm just sharing this feedback with you directly since we have you here. And I hope that part of the conversation this year moves in that direction because the outreach has very much been uh hit or miss. um we have one dedicated resource or two uh at the city level, but they're being asked to do like seven or eight different things. So, uh I think that that needs to be an intentional focus on our part in the year ahead.

I appreciate that, council member, and we're working hard to bolster the systems we have. So when people go out and do outreach from whatever agency they are, they're working and putting information into one database that brings people forward into housing uh opportunities. So everyone's not having to keep their own set of lists and I met this person and someone else met this person, but there's one system it's going into and uh hopefully helping people come out of homelessness.

Thank you for that. And then um uh to acting city manager Connley, I just have a quick question. Um you guys are asking for some uh dollars here, but I think it was two meetings ago. I haven't finished watching the recording. The measure P um oversight committee I think denied a funding request that you guys have made to that commission. So, uh, I guess the question is like where what are we doing there? Cuz I think that that's a missing piece of this conversation tonight.

Yes. Um, thank you for that. So, you're correct that Measure P um denied uh the funding for the JPA contract. So all measure P items whether they were recommended or not recommended will be brought forward to city council for consideration because that's just a recommending body and city council is their approval is needed to actually um encumber those funds. So you will be able to hear and see all those items um that were presented to measure P. Do you recall how much that was for? 400,000

for this is for 2627. It was for 22 2627. There was a portion of it that covered um the contract, the two parts that were mentioned um the the sorry the services and then the staffing. And then there was a breakdown of sort of the city's cost um regarding sort of encampment cleanups, what that looks like for staff time and and time and materials. And I believe there was one other component to that budget. There was four pieces that made up the 400,000.

Was it tow? Was it the RV toes? Part of that might have been some sort of tow component to that. I'm sorry. There there was a lot of items. I don't recall, but um we'll make sure that we get those to you shortly. There's actually going to be another special meeting this Thursday for the third bite at the apple to hear the rest of the items. So hopefully they will be able to do that and then we'll be able to bring them forward um to city council um either at the budget meeting on the 9th. I don't know if we'll have time to bring it to you uh prior to that, but you will hear it as part of the budget conversation.

That sounds good. Yeah. And I've been watching um I've been attending and watching those meetings, and I think the council needs to have a conversation around measure P at some point. and I will end that there for now. Um, thank you, mayor. Through the mayor, if I may, I know part of that the funding request is going to measure P for this agreement. We do have year one funding in our current budget allocated and set aside. Um, with our agreement coming to us a little bit later, uh, it is covered in our current budget to prepare to make that payment should council approve this this evening. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I got council member Gordon and then let you

Thank you so much and welcome. Uh I do want to ask three questions. One the is there any data of particular calls from Valo. I can pull up our I believe it's our March um information that we've received for 211. If you want to get to your next question, I'll pull that up while you're asking so I make sure I have the right stats in front of me.

Thank you. And if so, you can email them to us as well. Um what is maybe I missed that question. Uh I think my colleague asked it, but just to be clear, what is the feeds that is being asked for theou? So, it's a three-year agreement um before you this evening. Year 1 for the city would be $80,366. Year 2 is $82,777. Year three is $85,260 for a total three-year of $248,000 $248,42. And my last question is, uh, is the tab part of this as well? Because I hear you say the G, uh, the G, sorry, J GP TA. Thank you. JPA. Thank you.

I was going to say Joint Powers Authority, but my brain was just trying to make me do the acronyms. Um, we is this part of this as well? Yes. Uh, Council Member Gordon, thank you. Uh the TAB is an advisory board to the capsuano JPA. TAB stands for tripartite advisory board. It advises the uh JPA and brings uh recommendation or weighs in on recommendations to that board and we are the conduit of meeting with your TAB board and then bringing the recommendations to the JPA board. Thank you so much. I just want to make sure we all know that that is a very important board as well, not because I sit on it.

Thank you, council member. Council member Letu,

thank you for attending tonight. So, I have a couple questions. Can you tell me if you know off the top of your head for round five for the encampment resolution funding um at HCD um housing community development at the state level. What is round five um grant total grant worth? Do you have a I I don't remember the dollar amount. Do you know by any chance? Uh I don't have that on me. Okay, that's fine. Don't worry. we can present it really quick JPA meeting.

Okay. So, as a member of JPA, I know that um in our last meeting, you made a comment about the encampment resolution funding. And what I want to know is again we're seven city body, meaning there are seven cities in that make up Solano County. Valo happens to be the largest city in the county. Valo happens to have the largest unhoused population in our city. Valleo happens to pay, if I'm not mistaken, the largest share into JPA. And yes, the county has helped um with dollars as it relates to um Broadway and some other dollars and thank you for that. However, what I want to understand or ascertain or determine how we can work in partnership with the county around writing the grant for the encampment resolution funding and that a a significant portion of those dollars actually come to Valo being the largest city in the county being the most impacted by the unhoused. How can I would like to understand how we can broker that and what would it take from a resource perspective to get that grant written and apply to determine if we can get approved and then allocate a significant aortion of those dollars to Valo to address the encampment in particularly at White Slooh. I'm putting you on the spot.

So, yeah, through the chair. Um, so there's a couple of of issues here. So, I've been actually having conversations with the county about this particular grant program and um they want to target White Slooh and as you know that isn't um um currently that that situation is tenuous because as you know that's privately held

and so when we had conversations there are several entities that can take the lead in that application. So it was determined that the COC is best um positioned to take the lead in that considering that there is risk for the city and considering some of the direction by this council. So because they're also targeting that one specific location, it's very complicated for the city to take the lead on that without exposing us to other risk. There's actually two rounds of that funding. The second round is in October. And so, um, we have been having conversations around what our capacity looks like for the city to potentially consider taking the lead on an application, um, that we would potentially do in the fall, but right now we have several large-scale grant applications that we are pursuing. We have one grant manager and currently we have one grant writer who writes for the city and there isn't any capacity. So, it was just discussed and thought best that for the CBOS that are currently doing um concentrated outreach to White Slooh that they would take the lead and the city could potentially provide a letter of support.

Okay, that's f I'm fine with that. And again, I go back to if the COC is going to be the lead on this project, the COC is connected to the JPA. And again, my question does not change whether it's the COC who's leading because of the different legal um considerations that the city must um consider as it relates to White Slooh. I'm still asking the question, as the largest city in this county, highly impacted by unhoused, how can we have a lion share of those dollars as it relates to the size of our population as a city? That's where I come from because it's not a secret. If we break down the numbers, and I'm sure you can pull them very quickly, look at the CLC data, we have the most unhoused in our county. So, how can we make sure from an equity perspective that Valleo receives significant dollars to address this particular issue at Whit Slooh and it is in the be best interest of the county because again, you have the fire district out there. So what can we do differently?

Thank you council member. Um so yes the capsulano JPA is the administrative entity for the COC. So if uh that JPA board were interested in being the applicant for the ERF funding then the board could direct their staff. Uh just as a reminder while I'm a county employee the JPA is not the county. So the county will make separate I so let me say that I'm just letting everyone know I fully understand that the JPA is that you're that the JPA

I'm not representing the county as a the county has it would have its uh position the as the city has mentioned there's the uh JPA as the administrative entity there is uh it's possible to run the funding through that system again we would naturally I mean the project would be in Valleo and uh the and in the county. So I would imagine those two would be involved. That's not it doesn't relate to this coordinated entry system operator funding we're discussing, but uh

that would be for the JPA board. And as I said at the last board meeting, um we could get that information if there's a request to bring it back to the JPA for their consideration and including you of course um to be the uh applicant of that state funding.

Okay. So my assumption is based on my question definitely I'd like as a member of JPA this body the city is a member of JPA and to bring that back again before the JPA and I will explain my position on it and make that request. Um in addition to that I definitely I think coordination is very important. I believe in regional approaches because I believe that is how with the limited funding that we are experiencing at the federal level that trickles down the state county um it's really important that we find regional ways to solve our different um funding challenges that we're having as local government. And at the same time, what I really and I've expressed this and I would like to hear your thoughts again on this and I know that you're interum director and I appreciate that you have stepped in at JPA. Thank you. I really want to understand how are we going to develop a reporting system and we've talked about this around developing metrics developing a reporting system that we can hold ourselves accountable for the dollars that we are all contributing to the JPA and how that information periodically can be reported back particularly to our city council members as well as to our community. And in addition to that, in a larger way, how are we going to think about from a JPA perspective around the whole system of supportive housing, additional particularly supportive housing from a countywide perspective, JPA, as we are

all putting our dollars into this particular venture and around the behavioral health capacity, how that melds in with county dollars and other resources. But as a JPA, how we see that more from a holistic framework because we can do coordinated we can do coordinated work but the reality is we have to have places for people to go. The reality is that we have to have supportive services the right supportive services that help individuals who are unhoused. And in addition to even thinking about at the JPA level, being able to maybe broker potential legislation, policies around renter protections throughout our county that really help prevent individuals from being unhoused in the first place. So, I'd like to have you talk about what are your thoughts around what I've just said because we need to elevate what JPA does from a system perspective. We're looking forward to working with you on everything you just said and uh obviously the solution to or one solution toward homelessness is housing and in our coordinated entry of getting people uh into it as quickly as possible is a priority and we're grateful to the city of Valleo for the great work that has been done in recent years of providing housing for people certainly with the opening uh last year of the Sacramento street projects and uh before that uh uh no the Broadway streets and and Sacramento even though I live right between them I mix it up all the time.

Um yes those things reporting being accountable. We do have public meetings as you know of the JPA every month. We're happy to come before your council uh anytime you would like us um to discuss issues. We're happy to meet with you and and find ways to report to hold ourselves accountable and also countywide so people see the uh results that we're bringing forward. in just my brief time with the JPA. Well, my brief time in this uh position as interim executive director working to improve reporting not just between the boards as mentioned with uh council member Gordon with your advisory board but also with the COC and our committees and throughout all the cities to realize that we can do much more working together than uh remaining in silos and that uh homelessness doesn't necessarily know the bounds of uh city uh lines and how we can work to improve all of our communities throughout the county is an important piece. And uh I think that with the JPA, I think that's a a great model. It's just uh beginning in a sense. It has been a slow start to develop this relationship with the seven cities and the county itself as uh partners in homelessness and uh finding ways that uh we can uh ensure that the largest city in Valleo uh is receiving its fair share and that we're uh resolving homeless problems here but that we're not just pushing them out or receiving them in from other areas of the region. So my final comment or or thought that I would like to leave to you um as the interim as you continue to put

systems in place is how are we how we begin to thread what's happening at the county level as an example I think an agenda item was around bringing in a consultant looking at housing and um different types of housing and so as that report is As that work begins, I think it's really important from a JPA perspective, even though it's in the UN unincorporated areas of the county, that work and other work around housing opportunity zones and so forth and on. How does that how does the JPA become aware of that information those what's occurring and really saying how do we how are we part of the the interview process to talk about the unhoused within our entire county and how those studies would impact our ability to be able to house more whether city is really looking at housing. And I think again when we talk about a regional approach, we need to look at what is happening in each city when it's beginning to talk about infill housing, different types of housing and really thinking about also what is the consideration for the number of individuals who are unhoused and how we get them housed and how we're planning holistically because the reality is each city is paying some portion into this program and as You said the program is growing, it's building, but what should it look like and what is the model that we can begin to build out when we think about a housing JPA who is thinking about how we stabilize individuals in who have been unhoused or at

almost the line of being unhoused. We need to think deeper about it and deeper about what that system looks like as we go from year to year and as work is being thought about at the county level and different cities around affordable housing and what does that look like at the JPA level as we are putting our funds there to have more power with our dollars. So, thank you for your work and thank you for filling in. I appreciate it. Great. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Gordon.

Thank you. Just real quick, uh I wanted to let uh the community know and also my colleagues, I did ask our uh acting city manager uh the question of how are we are we applying for the funding for the GPA, JPA, and uh the ERF round five for the encampment and for my colleagues uh council member Charles Pamar's District 4 of the white slooh. And she did reply back. And do you want to say out loud so I don't read to you what you said?

I'm afraid I don't remember. Thank you. I believe it was a condensed version of what you just stated previously that the COC would be the main lead for that if we were to move forward or potentially looking at the fall. Yeah. Thank you. All right, with that, I'm not seeing any other comments from council, so we're looking for a motion on this item. He's retiring, so just wanted to let you know we'll miss you. All right, we're looking for a motion on this item. The mayor, we do have a member of the public that wanted to I you know what, Ann, I'm really sorry. I called you on the wrong item and then I forgot you on the right item. Please go ahead.

Thank you for the reminder. So, I'm I'm I appreciate the comments from Council Member Matias and Letu. Um, and I'm glad that you guys have called this item out. Um, I want to say that about a year ago, I had heard from a member of the Housing and Community Development Commission that the county had not proactively outreached to Valleo encampments since 2019. Now I believe since then um more proactive outreach has started to happen to directly to the encampments but that was a really startling thing to hear. Um secondly it prompted me to call the number for the so-called coordinated entry system and my experience then hopefully has has been updated. Hopefully there have been some improvements to the system. But my walk away was three way three things. Number one, the city needs aggressive oversight on what's going on with the funds coming from the council or from the county. Um, number two, we need proactive field outreach and it needs to be systematic and regular. I know there have been some attempts to get some funding to some nonprofits and try to attempt some outreach, but um what they had been doing was completely inadequate. And number three, the coordinated entry system with respect to the homeless is supposed to be, you know, the point of entry to a system. Well, the system of called the continuum of care that is just grossly inadequate for the city and county's needs. When I called the coordinated entry system, say letting

them know that I was not homeless myself, but you know, wanted to know what the resources would be for someone who is homeless. At that time, they had exactly four beds that they could assign people to. quantity 4 fur which of course is grossly inadequate for for the county and for the system. Um to my knowledge uh our resources for shelter beds and for transition housing continue to be just completely inadequate with respect to the need. So, we really with this whole system, we need to dig in and get some details because I have to say um council member Paul Marius had come to one of the neighborhood associations and he'd presented this nice slide of the continuum of care and this happy road to you know rainbow city and in Silicon Valley we would call that slidewear. It's a theoretical construct that is not being mapped by reality. So, please dig in. And I see my time is up. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have anyone else to comment on this item? Comment on this item. Uh, no other speakers at this time. All right. Thank you very much. Now, we're looking for a motion.

Thank you, mayor. Um, I move that we adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Valleo approving a three-year memorandum memorandum of understanding between community action partnership Salano joint powers author authority and Solano County Benicia Fairfield Rio Vista Cissoon City Vakavville and Valo to partially fund the co coordinated entry system addressing homelessness from December 1, 2025 through December 31, 2028 and authorize city manager to execute the same. All right. And we are ready to vote.

Motion carries unanimously with council member Brigenzer absent.

Thank you very much. With that, we will move on to our action calendar. And we have one small adjustment to make. We have, just as a reminder for uh anyone watching, we have continued action item 9A, the economic development update to a future meeting, so that our incoming city manager can participate in that discussion and weigh in on staffing changes. And before we proceed with the rest of the action calendar, we have a request, which I forgot to add in the agenda amendment to move um item 9E and hear that first. That is the item around the proposed amendments to Leo flood and wastewater district governance structure and the reason for moving that first is because we have an external I believe someone external online to assist with that item. So if I don't hear any objections from my colleagues I'll use discretion and go ahead and call item 9Ee and as soon as you're ready well I'll ask the city clerk to announce item 9E. Okay. Adopt a resolution providing direction to staff after considering the proposed amendments to the Valo flood and wastewater district governance structure.

All right. Thank you. And we have Sydney Wilson from the city manager's office here to present. I'll turn it over to you and then we can introduce our guest online.

Good evening, mayor and council. Well, it's good to see you all. This item is being brought forward to provide council with an opportunity to uh review the proposed changes to the governance structure of the Valo Flood and Wastewater District and to provide direction to staff. Uh no binding action is being requested tonight. The purpose is strictly to obtain council direction which staff may transmit to VFWD and relevant stakeholders if directed. uh to walk through the proposed governance structure and the details of the legislative language. We've asked our state advocate Paul with Gonzalez and Suns to provide an overview. Uh Paul has been supporting the city on legislative and intergovernmental matters and we'll walk through the proposal. Paul.

Well, thank you Sydney and and good evening honorable mayor, members of the city council. It's a pleasure to be with you this this evening. Um, thank you for the opportunity to provide you with a brief update on the proposed legislative changes to the Voy Flood and Wastewater District um, board composition. So, VFWD has been in conversations with Assembly Member Lorie Wilson on the legislative language to change the VFWD board composition. And since that change will require legislative action, Assembly Member Wilson has graciously agreed to amend uh, this language into AB 9112, which is currently in the Senate. So the proposed language would reduce the VFWD board from eight trustees to five. And those tr five trustees would include um two trustees and an alternate an alternate from the Valo city council. And those trustees would be appointed by the Vallejo city council. Then there would be one trustee and an alternate from the Solano County Board of Supervisors. So that trustee would be appointed by the swan county board of supervisors and must reside within the boundaries of the of VFWD. The county alternate must also be a supervisor whose district includes territory within VFWD. And then there's two at large trustees who are appointed by a majority of the members of the VFWD board of trustees. and the Atwars trustees must each reside within the boundaries of VFWD and neither can be a board member um of Solano County nor can be a member of the Voy City Council. And then lastly, the bill will include an urgency clause. Um so the changes would take effect upon um signature of the governor, which we would expect um to be sometime later this year. And as you all know, the the VFWD board already voted and approved this legislative proposal. And as city mentioned, uh the purpose of bringing this before you tonight is to provide you with an update on the item and more importantly an opportunity for for you, madame mayor, and the council to provide uh staff with any direction. So with

that, I'm happy to answer any questions. All right. Thank you very much. Before we take questions and comments from council, do we have any public commenters on this item? None in person. All right. How about online? Again, this is item 9Ee. We're going slightly out of order through the mayor. No speakers online at this time. Okay. With that, I see Council Member Gordon. Go ahead.

Yes. I just want to clarify. Uh the gentleman stated that we voted to approve this. No, we voted to scope this. It was not to be approved. It was just to do a scope. And so I want to clarify that. The second thing is I disagree with this because the fact of the matter is that Valleo is the largest and we should not um we should have more voices on the table. Um and the second I don't have any problems with uh board of supervisors but they do have a smaller uh portion within Valo the city of Valo. uh in my district I do have two in a little portion but I think that the voices should be more valo than anything else and I'm just I'm I hope my colleagues understand that our voices are being taken out of many locations and the less we are at the table the more other people can dictate what happens to Valo as you just clearly pointed in your last concern um at the last agenda that we were speaking at. So I just ask us to reject this because especially at this time we have to understand the importance of losing our voice and you are in control of that. It has been going on for years and I'm very concerned to why now this is a issue. So I just ask my colleagues to agree with me and vote against this.

All right. Looking for other questions or comments from council. And if not for clarification for um the community and those watching, this is something that came to the Valo Flood and Wastewater District board uh at a few separate meetings. The issue at hand is that the board of the Valo flood and wastewater district includes all seven of the Valo city council members. And when there are matters of issues such as real estate transactions, which we have had, and also potential legal issues between the two agencies, we end up with the boards conflicted out. And so this was a proposal that was done kind of in partnership with uh our county supervisor that sits on the the flood and wastewater district with us and that board uh to pass legislation to to resolve that. And uh we did pass the the structure here went through VFWD. Um I support it and have no problem endorsing it from the city council perspective. So, if I don't see anything else from my colleagues, I'll go ahead and move that we support the uh proposal

through the mayor. Uh we did have Mark Tomco with his hand raised. Okay. Why don't we call Mark? Thank you. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes, we can.

Perfect. Uh so, I certainly appreciate uh this coming to the city council. Um this uh the the size of the board of five member board was the board up until 1995. And we believe that it was part of the blending of the city that it was brought back to having a whole city council and then one county supervisor. Uh this was originally brought up by supervisor Hanigan uh several years ago and then brought up again by Cassandra James. Uh so certainly our board uh supported it uh unanimously and uh we're looking for uh the city council to support it as well so we can move it forward and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much. Great. Council member Leu.

So, I am supporting the structure and it's grounded in the belief that governance works best when roles, responsibilities, and fudiciary obligations are clear. The city and the water district have at times found themselves at odds. And when the same governing body must operate across competing institutional interest, it can create governance tension and challenges around independent decisionmaking. This model has the potential to create clearer governance boundaries, stronger accountability, and more focused oversight while preserving coordination between agencies. But ultimately, structures alone do not create good governance. Success depends on all parties acting ethical, transparently, and with accountability. Always keeping residents and the long-term public interest at the center of decision-making. If done well, this model can strengthen stewardship, improve institutional clarity, and support better long-term outcomes for the residents we serve. And so by doing this, I believe it can work. It was this way in the past. And the question is how we behave as stewards of these resources and keeping our residents at the center of what we're doing.

All right. Thank you. So, I'll go ahead and restate the motion I made just for uh expedience, which is that we I guess we're adopting a resolution actually. So, we're adopting a resolution and my recommendation is support the proposal as drafted and we will go ahead and vote on that. One more vote. There we go. Motion carries with Council Member Gordon opposed and Council Member Brigenszer absent.

All right. Thank you very much. Um and thank you again to our uh guest online for for helping us with that clarification about the state legislation. With that, we will go back in order to our action calendar and we will call item 9B. Request authorization to proceed with Sixth Street Access Road Paving.

All right. Thank you very much. We'll open up public comment on this item and I will turn it over to our new uh public works director, Leonard Brad Job. Welcome and whenever you're ready. Thank you very much, mayor, and thank you, council. Happy to be before you today. Very happy to be in this position. Um, and so we're here to talk about uh sixth street access road paving. Um, and uh most of this transpired before my tenure here, so I'm all giving it on ten on hearsay. That being said, um seems very simple. Um, so back when Collola was um constructed, the the streets were realigned and Sixth Street access road um to the um I guess it would be the north of Cartolla um never got repaved and now it is just basically a gravel lot. Um so the arrow on the map there is pointing to that um site and uh so I went out and looked at it the other day. Um the pavement's basically gone. Um it never really got reconstructed back when the original construction happened. Um I understand that the council um directed public works to investigate paving this and so we did do that. Um the assistant director of public works, the previous acting director of public works um did the market research. We got a very attractive number to do the paving and so um I was kind of shocked actually how how low the um the market research indicated it would cost. Um that being said um we are here to seek your direction on how to proceed on that. Um this is not an actual contract. This is just um seeking the board's direction on what our next step should be. And so it is a portion of city rightaway. Um it's been used for unauthorized residential and commercial parking. Um there is a fair amount of uh vegetation that's overgrown the area. It's fairly unsightly. It's also the you know entrance to a um local business. And uh so we are proposing that we proceed on this um with you know what I said is seems to be a very good um price for the amount of paving that we're seeking. There's a picture of it. You can see

there's just a few patches of asphalt left. The project would uh would scarify that, re prepare the subgrade, and then put down 4 in of new um asphalt concrete. And so, uh um have the conceptual plan. It doesn't need a lot of additional engineering. The contractor, one contractor's already looked at it and given us a very attractive price. Um and it's at $85,000. mentioned and so it would not be paving that entire polygon you see up there just the uh the um the graveled areas. So, uh we're here to present this as a conceptual idea, see what the council's direction is and we will proceed from there. Um and uh once we um do some more homework, we will be back to you with a recommendation for approval of a contract if that is your direction.

All right. Thank you very much. Before we move to questions, comments from council, do we have any public commenters on this item? None in person through the mayor. Yes, we do have one member of the public uh who would like to speak on this item online. Uh that's speaker Calvin Herell. Please unmute yourself. You have the floor.

Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to jump in on this. You know, last night I had to call in on several times uh to the Measure P committee meeting. We're facing a $30 million deficit. Contrary to those that are in love with Machetti, cuz I absolutely like Fris. I love his coffee. I love his Saturday mornings when I'm able to get there. It seems to me that this is not a road in the sense of a road that is used for public transport. It has become generally a parking lot. There are streets in the main avenues of our city that have potholes that should be addressed. this should be used to address rather than taking 85 grand and put it onto a an area that really is a benefit to a singular community business. I'm not I personally am not comfortable with the idea especially in light of the fact we need to be reducing our outlay from debt. We need to be reducing our the amounts of monies that we're paying out for all types of services. And here's one area. What if it wasn't to be put asphalt at 4 in? What if it was to be uh the holes filled in and gravel uh pearl used on it? What other things have been considered? What other treatments have been considered as opposed to a full-blown streetworthy pavement project with 4 in of asphalt? Thank you.

Right. Thank you. Do we have any other speakers? Uh through the mayor. Yes, we do have one other speaker and C, please unmute yourself. You have the floor.

So, um with respect to Calvin's comments, um I'm not opposed to uh public works exploring something else, you know, gravel, pearl or what have you. Um, but it does seem like this was a leftover stub of a street from way long ago. Um, that has caused considerable problems for a local business that has big impact in the community and is one of those little things that contributes to Valo's portfolio of attractions such as it is. Um, and I think that in in where we have the chance to lean in to something that would help both small business and community and tourism attractions such as they are. It's not Six Flags obviously, but it's one of those things that could and should look more professional. So, I hope that the city council will provide direction to public works to do something to make that uh that sub of a street, whatever that area better. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Uh any other speakers? Uh through the mayor. No other speakers at this time. All right. Thank you. With that, I see council member Gordon and then council member Matias.

Thank you so much. I appreciate this because I brought this attention uh last year. Um, and we're very happy that uh, Mr. uh, Flavice uh, came to speak regarding the concerns. Um, I have included photos of how it looked before when there was pavement, but more importantly, um, this has been an issue for over 20 plus years. Um, it is very dangerous. For example, the other day when I went to go look at the wonderful work that the railroad track uh company did to clean up the track and unfortunately somebody dumped some furniture on there, I happened to see a lady in a walker chair coming from uh Salano onto uh to Carta trying to walk across the sidewalk that went into the gravel in front of the business and was having a very hard time that even almost fail. And so my concern that I have is that this is also very dangerous inside of the property. There is a street that says Sixth Street and uh there are large holes and people have over the year even with their own dollars tried to fill up the holes themselves. It does not only serve one person. there is a apartment comp uh small duplex business or and housing mixed use some of some sort that also uh service this area. So I'm grateful to see that we finally are addressing this issue. It is very dangerous um because also when you're coming out and there is a big dip. I mean it it's just a large dip and when you're trying to come out

you are meeted with traffic immediately. So I'm glad to see that we will be addressing it. My only ask is that please keep in mind for the ADA that there is a wheelchair I mean excuse me uh access if we can keep that in mind. Thank you. Council member Matias.

Thank you mayor. Um just want to make uh two possibly three quick points. Um I know the action this evening is just about this particular access road. Uh but I have for the better part of a year talked about the need for us to repave all of our parking lots uh in the downtown area. So, uh, I'm going to be calling on this council to take a vote later this evening, uh, for the second time so that you guys can also look at that because it does contribute not just, um, to the safety, uh, concerns that were raised by Councilwoman Gordon, um, but also to the overall vitality and and economic development of the city. Uh, so that's one. Uh two, um when it comes to the design, uh I know, uh council member, uh LedJrew has been elevating this, uh the need for us to really think about lighting in all of our public, uh public right away. And so, uh I would encourage you guys to also think about that access road through a lighting lens, like what additional lighting is needed in there. Um not just the paving, uh aspect of it. And then um lastly uh I would say that for the most part um you know I think two things can be true. I I want to uh you know uh respect the comments that were made by our public commenter around the structural deficit that we have to tackle and at the same time I would guarantee you given the number of councils, city managers, city staff teams that have looked at this issue over probably 15 years now, we've probably spent over $85,000 talking about it. uh just to be straight up. So uh this is the era of doing in Valo and so we're going to get this done. Uh and similarly we want you guys to look at

other public spaces uh that serve as convening spots uh and um really change the uh the narrative and the and the picture of the city. So thank you for elevating this. Um let's get it done. Great. And I very look for very much look forward to meeting on Friday. We can talk about uh some ideas I have for the parking lots downtown here. Council member Lesu

like to address a couple of things. I don't disagree with the things that have been said, even the comment made by our community member. And again, what I like to consider is you made a comment unauthorized residential and commercial parking on a piece of land that we own that has not been taken care of. So we are taking the cost to help the business owner and a form of being a partner to pave this site. But how is this site over time going to be maintained? And I don't know that that has been worked out. And that is something that I want to better understand because actually it doesn't belong to that business owner. It doesn't obviously based on what you said unauthorized residential and commercial commercialway. It doesn't belong to the owner of that business. It doesn't belong to the owner of that um complex and whatever else is there. So over time, how is this going to be maintained and what are the agreements for the main for it to be maintained by those who are using it or are we going to always say that we will maintain it? And I think that is something that we also need to discuss as we are considering all of the different parking lots that get paved that my colleague wants to bring back forward again. How does that get done? Because just doing is not good enough from my

perspective. Doing is important. We need to make some steps. But we also need to have a construct in how we are going to do maintenance and have a plan about what that maintenance looks like. if we're taking on the maintenance or if the business and the property owner who is you actually utilizing this space. What are we going to do differently? And I say that to our city attorney and I say that to you as the department head. And that is one thing in this motion that I would like I would like to make an a motion that yes, we would spend the dollars to get this work done, but before that is done, I want to understand what is the agreement for continued maintenance. How are we going to get there and make that determination?

So, I'm I'm not particularly familiar with the actual land boundaries at the site. Um, but I can tell you that the part that is city right away is required to be maintained by the city or if there was some special tax district, we could use those funds and that work would have to be done by the city. If there is parts of that that lie outside of the city rightway, then I think there's room for them for the land owner to say, "Yeah, there's a pothole in this that's not within the city rightway." But anything in the city rightway, you have to be a licensed contractor with the appropriate amount of insurance and almost always under contract with the city to do that work. So, as I stated, my agreement, my motion is that yes, we do this work. It's going to cost us 85,000. Again, in this work, in this agreement, I want to I heard what you said as the public works director who's brand new to the city. The city attorney needs to opine. you all need to come up with what is the basis for maintaining this parking lot. So when it comes so it does not come back here if it belongs to the city to take care of it or we have a different agreement.

And and I'll just share that you know roads are uniquely like teeth. Um if you skip a cleaning you end up with a filling. If you skip a filling you're ending up with a root canal. And if you don't get the root canal you're going to have to extract it. And it gets much much more expensive. So coming in after four or five years after the new asphalt's been put down and putting a fog seal on it, that tends to extend the life of pavement to 20 to 25 years, assuming it's not getting hit by heavy traffic, right? That's the other thing that's a big consideration in pavement deterioration is the weight of the vehicles that are on that road. And that is really the thing that drives the most of the degradation. So I wouldn't expect this to be a really um heavily stressed piece of asphalt. So, I think it does have a fairly long life, but I would say if we got the resources to go in and put fog seals on our new asphalt, that would be the very best investment we could make.

And that's fine. I from the technical perspective, I don't pave roads. So, I am grateful for all the knowledge that you hold and I love the metaphor that you just used. So, thank you very much. And again from a policy perspective because you know there's been a lot of conversation around this parking lot you have no idea how much conversation and I what I again am saying is how do we take care of our infrastructure if that's our job how does it get in the plan and that's what I'm looking for

great and and I'll just say the metaphor does not end there just like your teeth are the first thing that food sees when it enters your body. Um, roads are the first thing that commerce sees when it enters your economy. And so, we do have a strong motivation to get our roads up to to snuff or else we are never going to be a tourist destination and it's always going to be, you know, we're always going to be climbing up an increasingly steep hill as it continues to decay faster than we can invest in the repairs. So, I really think that, you know, getting redevelopment and increasing the tax base so we've got more money to pave the roads with is the true real answer to the the question and that's really why I was so excited to take this position because I think there's such great opportunity here.

So, I can guarantee you we do not disagree with you

and I'm speaking for my colleagues and if you guys disagree with me, nope, raise your hand. You're you're just speaking music to our ears. We are not rejecting that idea. We have been saying it. If you go back and look for 15 months, I can guarantee you've heard it a million times. So, we are totally in agreement with you. And again, I just go back to my base policy question is my I want to make a motion that we approve this as written. However, I want to add it belongs to the city. I wanted to be very clear and that we are going to maintain it and it will get into the rotation of whatever our infrastructure um projects are. That's my request so that we don't have a business coming back to us and having this long drawn out dialogue which is very unfair to our community. And so that's really where I'm coming from and I don't think anyone would disagree with that. So, I've heard the motion, but we have a couple more comments. We got the vice mayor. Um, and then I'll add a very brief comment, then we'll vote. Go ahead.

Yeah. Thank you, mayor, and and I want to once again welcome, Mr. Joe, for um coming in when you did. And I think this is a these conversations we've had tonight is the is what I'm looking forward to a start of a larger conversation, which I think leads to our CIP program. So, the fact that we've been um standard practice has been we've been basically following a five-year plan. So, I'm hoping with your um experience and your vision that you're going to re-evaluate how we've been moving forward with that CIP plan and and looking at and because we get lamb based all the time for the PCI in in our city and this is where I'm hoping that we're able to identify that along with a lot of the safety issues um that with certain intersections that you can re-evaluate and kind of make sure we're heading in the right direction based on these conversations we're having right now is that there's We need a concrete and and and and a thoughtout plan of the way we're moving. We're we're going about this based on not only just a five-year plan, but a 10-year plan because this is that's the lifespan of some of the roads that we're running into. And and uh to Council Member Le's point, the whole maintenance issue is making sure that we are able to maintain that and improve. I mean, the the ultimate end goal is improving the PCI um citywide, but once again, it's we've been in in this cycle for having to re-evaluate how we're going about this because we haven't done a very good job with our roads and to this infrastructure conversation. Um we're looking forward to you to to re-evaluate that and fix that. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Um our acting city manager wanted to jump in. Go ahead. Yeah, thank you. Uh, mayor, I just wanted to briefly say that um, I believe in June we will actually be bringing the CIP items separately. Normally water and public works come together, but they're actually going to be split up because we think it's important that they both have sort of different focuses and um, and they're sort of dealing with different issues. And so this way it'll give us a little bit more time to actually get exactly at what um council member Leigu and Council Member Matulk were stating about priorities, sort of the rotation, the schedule and budget for both of those um for both of those departments.

All right. Thank you. So I'll just add very briefly um fully supportive of this. Thank you. My questions have already gotten asked and I will just clarify the staff report mentioned the author unauthorized parking but my impression is that we would still have this be the parking lot for MSI. So we would be putting in SP would we be adding striping for parking spots on the paved road or is that to be TBD? I think that's to be determined. We just got a prize for putting down asphalt. Okay. Um and city forces could do striping if that's what's needed in the end.

Okay. Thank you. So that is um that's all I'll say. I again very much appreciation. We have a motion on the table from council member Leu to proceed and then just request that followup on what the maintenance is going to look like. And I'm not seeing anything else. So why don't we go ahead and vote on that motion. Okay. Council member Gourd, real quick. Just to clarify to also make sure that is ADA approved. I think that's a legal requirement that's baked in there already. Yeah. Just want to make sure. All right. Why don't we go ahead and vote?

Motion carried unanimously with council member Brian sir absent. All right. Thank you very much. That is going to bring us to item 9 C. We have two more items left. I'm going to look and see. Do do folks need a stretch break or do we want to power through? Yeah. Why don't we take a short break? We're gonna aim for five. We'll aim for five. We just need to take a stretch. Yeah. All right. Quick recess.

All right, we're going to get restarted in about 1 minute. Oh, all right. We're going to resume if everyone can make their way back.

All right, we are back and we are going to start and I'll ask our city clerk to call item 9C. adopt a resolution approving a measure P grant agreement to Greater Valo Recreation District to support public safety and youth priorities and authorize the city manager to execute the same in an amount not to exceed $300,000.

Thank you very much. So, we will open up public comment on this item and I will turn it over to our youth coordinator, Victoria Grace Barksdale, who is here with Anthony Ryan, correct? I want to make sure I get your last name right from GBRD. I'll turn it over to the two of you. Um, thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. Um, Victoria Grace Barksdale, youth coordinator for the city of Lao, joined by Anthony Ryan, recreation services director with the Greater Valo Recreation District.

And, uh, we're just coming back to you because staff felt that it was necessary to number one, bring back some of the data that was requested when we did the, um, last presentation to council. um talk a little bit about some of the feedback we got uh including what changes we've made to the reporting requirements and some of the program highlights. Next slide, please. Or am I supposed to use Okay. Oh, sorry. So, a little bit of background. Um council did recommend last summer uh provide recommendations that help mitigate community violence, increase public safety. Specifically, the direction was funding for up to $300,000 to subsidize program cost from 0 to 80% on a needs basis for children to participate in GVRD yearround programs. Um that was passed through the budget uh through council, but later staff wanted to be able to present that to measure P in order to fund that out of measure P youth priorities. So, it was presented to measure P which got the approval. It was then um approved for an amendment to the fiscal year 2526 budget using measure P funds. Later staff worked with GVRD and presented the grant of the scope back to city council to provide to get feedback as well as the GVRD board to get more feedback and direction. And so since then, city of Valleo and GVRD staff has worked collaboratively to incorporate this feedback and design the grant scope and reporting requirements. Um, and just something to note about the initial ask, we understand that council really wanted that for kind of immediate summertime um to address the summer of 2025. Um, what was good about the timing is that it was it allowed us to really work out some of the finer details about how we would collect some data around

that. um be able to intentionally design some of the programs and rely on some of the data that was provided through the first measure P grant that GVRD had for 125K. That grant they received in April of 2025. So that grant did cover funding um assistance for last summer. Um that funding is still being utilized today and we anticipate that it will expire within the next uh couple months which leads us nicely into this upcoming summer utilizing this 300K. And so just to review the goals, uh, improving public safety and reducing violence by subsidizing costs to increase participation in recreational activities and access to safe spaces for Valo youth. Uh, we have several objectives. Number one, reducing those financial barriers to participation through scholarships for youth and families of Valo. Number two is increasing access to subsidized youth activities and programs. With this specific emphasis on teen um as we're looking at, you know, reducing violence and making sure that kids have things to do, we realize teens are the age population we want to um pour a little bit more into. And then objective three, providing increased subsidized programming in districts that were identified by council. programming opportunities shall be thoughtfully designed and equitably distributed to ensure access for all participants residing within the city of Alleo. Um and then for reference those those districts were specifically 2, four, five and six. And lastly, objective number four, increasing community access to safe spaces and events. And so a little bit about the council and GVRD feedback. Um, council did

request a little demographic data regarding the districts. Um, this table shows age and household income data. This data was pulled when we did the redistricting using Census Bureau data. Um, the estimated total population estimates range between 19 to 21,000s. Um you'll notice as the totals of the age range of 0 to 19 year olds um though youth is technically 0 to 25 um some of the higher numbers can be found in districts 2 4 5 and six though there is um pretty they are pretty close in numbers. Additionally, with income um information, we looked at income between the range of 0 to 75K. And again, you can kind of see that though there is um you know, not too big of a stretch. We do see that districts 2, 4, 5, and six do have higher percentages of incomes between that level. Um the next kind of data sets we looked at were income levels, household income levels between 75K to 200 plus. And so those ones were in the higher uh numbers in districts 1 and three which meant districts 2 4 5 and six. Um this is not to say that those districts will not get funding. It's just that we had a bucket specifically to ensure that we are being equitable in areas that may have been underserved in Valleo. Um so we wanted to provide some of that data. Some of the other takeaways that we had while presenting to both GVRD board and council um is that GVRD's public safety grant um it was really about increasing public safety and reducing violence but the public safety grant it focuses

mainly on preventative measures. Um, and so this is where you would hit a wider range of students, not necessar youth, not necessarily um, youth that need specialized services or um, you know, further resources beyond recreational enrichment. Um, but it does produce violence and allow connection to safer spaces. Um, and it's also important that we note that there are opportunities for nonprofits that are in those spaces doing that work where it is a little bit more specialized towards violence reduction to be able to um say table or provide programming or whatnot. And I think a has an example of one of the um programs that they're working with using this funding if you wanted to.

Um, sure. Um, good evening, mayor and uh, council members and members of the public. Um, an example of one of the programs that we will be piloting this summer would be the wellness lab. Um, that'll be in partnership with iHeart. Um, and they really are going to focus in on youth that are 16 through 25, providing them with just life skills. Um, they'll talk about nutrition, me mental health services. Um and then they'll they'll do some other fun activities and we'll be hosting that program actually at the North Valo Community Center um in the month of July for a four-week session.

Thank you. Um additionally, we found that uh council and GVRD board both want to ensure that data is driving the decisions um in targeted programming uh specifically for like mobile recess program or their mobile wreck program. So, not only do we utilize some of the district data, but also um GVRD's data. And so, I'll talk a little bit more about the mobile wreck program, how it's able to touch on some areas in Valleo and parks that have had less um programming in the past. Uh we want to focus this money on removing as many barriers as possible. And with that, we moved some of the money from scholarships that had a few different um steps to take in order to sign up for that and moved it into freeday activities, which allows people to kind of show up to specific days. Um there is another refinement that we made that I think removes even more barriers that we'll talk about, but definitely wanted to make sure that this was as easy and touched as many youth as possible. And then GVRD board did note that they would like and needed funding for marketing. Um however, council explicitly wanted this money to go straight towards uh directly towards youth and so we did keep that bucket not or we did not add that bucket. And then ongoing data collection is key just to ensure that we're able to target the right places, the right people and increase equity. Um so we have refined some of our data collection from the previous GVRD grant and added some key um indicators. We've also updated the reporting requirements that it will be sort of sight specific so that we can break it down into our districts and identify which sites are being served in what districts and then including an impact summary at the end. So just to review the budget allocations

were youth scholarships are youth scholarships $50,000 youth programs 55 and events 55,000 teen programs and events 85,000 targeted programming 35,000 and free day activities 75K. And so we just wanted to highlight a few of the um programs that are already up and running or not up and running but already being um promoted through GVRD uh through their activity guide. One of them is really exciting. We talked about our free park days. And so um Dan Foley and Blue Rock Spring, we already have some flyers. I believe you guys have a copy of them. Um, but they will have a series of free days which includes some of the uh upcoming holidays, just days that are really impactful for families to get out there and um be able to enjoy the parks. Uh some of those include Father's Day, Fourth of July weekend. There's a handful of days in July and August and ending on Labor Day weekend. This is where uh families can drive up and park for free at both Danfoley and Blue Rock Springs. Additionally, there's some summer free days and these are the ones that are at the participating locations of Children's Wonderland, Franklin Sports Gym, and Cunningham Aquatic Center. um students or students youth are able to show up um Thursdays and Fridays June through a June 18th through August 14th and have free play, free swim or free um entrance into Children's Wonderland. Um something new that we are piloting with this money is a free summerday punch pass. Uh because we realize that having to show up on a specific day in order to get in free is actually a barrier. Some people have no transportation. Some may

have schedules. Some may have just conflicting um things that they need to do. And so if you are able to come to uh a location where they have a computer and can enter you in the system, um you can apply for a free summer day punch pass that is at Franklin Sports Gym, Cunningham Aquatic Center, and Children's Wonderland. So, not only will you get in for free at that time, but you can also sign up to get a pass that allows you for 10 free day accesses um during the summer, which essentially removes more barriers. Uh periodic free trips are also planned and so there's a flyer there for free Six Flags tickets. Um they're lottery style giving away uh 50 Six Flags tickets throughout the summer. This is targeted towards teens and young adults. uh just to make sure that there's something for people that may not want to sign up for basketball or go to a park and they want to go to a theme park. And so we really had to think about what is the best way to utilize this because um having these structured programs and having people be able to get into GVRD's system, it helps us to track the data that we really want to ensure we're collecting and it also gets people into GVRD's system so they stay connected and are better informed. And then the last program highlight is the mobile resource program. And so this is what we talked about with the targeted programming. Um it is still organized play sports and craft. Right now the schedule is up for June through August in the summer activity guide. Uh there is ongoing promotion online as well as when they table. There's traveling banners that will are located at the um at the sites that will be hosting the mobile wreck as well as the uh next site so that they know that this uh program and activity is coming. And this will just help us to be able to

provide some programming to some of those smaller parks um in areas and districts that don't generally host large events or have a lot of programs and it it just utilizes the spaces where programming may not be more pre prevalent. So, as you can see, the summer schedule is out um starting at North Valo Park, followed by Lake Dwick, then Crescent Park, City Park, Highlands Park, and Glen Cove, the grant term and reporting requirements. And so, the grant term um should you all approve is June 1st, 2026. and staff and GVRD anticipate that this funding can uh run through September 1st, 2028. So that covers programming really focused on the summer times of this summer, next summer, and the following summer. Um along with some year- round activities, so not just focused on summer. Um quarterly grant reports similar to their first grant due 30 days after the end of each fiscal quarter. This provides some data on um the number of events that were funded during that quarter, the number of scholarships, uh free-day activity information, and approximate number of individuals served. Um and then general locations and descriptions of activities. What we are adding to this grant is also a final impact summary uh which is due after 30 days after the grant funding is fully expended. Uh this provides a breakdown of activities and programs, ages and genders of participants. Um and we can break this down by site. And as I noted before, we want to make sure that we're breaking down the sites into each of the districts. So we kind of have an idea of where where these are happening. Um and then just successes and challenges across the entire term of the grant. And with that, um, I will leave you with

the GVRD summer activity guide is available now. It has a host of amazing activities, not just sports, um, but science, STEM, knitting, you know, a whole lot of things for a wide range of Valo residents. So, please take a look at that if you have not. And, um, with that, thank you. We are open for any questions or comments. All right. Thank you. Before we get to comments, questions from council, let's go ahead and take a public comment on this item. And I believe we have some speakers in person.

No inerson speakers signed up. Oh, let's double check. You can definitely come up and speak, but we want to check our system and make sure it's working. It's not showing. No, nothing on here. Go ahead and come up and then we'll figure it out. Hold on one second. Is it? Yeah, it's because I did see her name before and I did see her before too though. Yeah. Anyway, why don't you, if it's okay, unless Manny needs more time, why don't you go ahead and then we'll figure this out on the back end.

Okay. Thank you. Um, so I've heard a lot about feedback from um from GVRD board and from city council and what the staff of Vallejo and the staff of GVRD think. You know who we haven't heard from is families. There does I see no like exit interviews or whatever. No feedback, no polling of families. They were not asked what they liked, what worked, what they would like to see. And GVRD is a governmental organization. This is our tax money is being taken by Vallejo and then handed over to another organization and going through and going through them how they how they want to spend it. What this community wants is money to go to our nonprofits, people that have relationships with youth and with and relationships with families. However, the reason they are not here is they've given up. And that's what that's what I've heard. They've given up on any support from the city and and any respect from anyone. And when you want to work in a community, what you do is go out and ask the community. You don't just sit there and come up with ideas yourselves. I did the city's job and went out to the community just asking people, what do you think? How do you think measure P money accounted for youth should be spent? I got a lot of great responses. Um, very interesting. There is overwhelming desire for youth to be receiving life ski life skills, job training. I don't see any of that here. But you need to ask people. The

community wants afterchool centers. I hear that a lot. They want support with mental health. Nobody here went out to ask families and parents what they wanted. And I just find find that shameful. That big catalog does not have any information about scholarships in Spanish. At the resource fair just now that was there, I went over and they have financial aid forms on their desk only in English. This is just not equitable and our Vallejo families deserve much better. Great. Thank you. Um, any other speakers in person? You can just raise your hand if we don't have you in the system. through the mayor. We do have two members of the public online.

Let's go ahead and call them. First speaker, Calvin Herell. Please unmute yourself. You have the floor.

Good evening again. I spoke to this last night. You know, the data, they talked about the use of data yet. You have no year overyear data of what the specific impacts and benefits are. uh the city I I got to repeat it. We're at a what is it 30 million $29 million deficit and we're figuring out other places and in fact other entities to give money to. The question that should be asked is has GVRD sought grants to provide these programs? What is the what's the outcome of that uh effort to find grant funding for it? Recently, I had to uh uh assess a a football a baseball diamond a baseball field here in the city uh for a photo day uh as part of photography for the Valo Little League. I was very surprised on a Thursday afternoon that the entire field was locked down. There was no public access to a field. We talk about systems that will support youth and give them something to do, but it seems to fall under the umbrella of let's contract that service out to someone other than the employees of the VG uh GVRD. Uh what would happen if a group of young men and ladies decided they wanted to go play a game of baseball or softball and wanted to use one of the fields that we as citizens have paid for and pay for the upkeep yet when they get to the field they can't access it. Who are we providing services to and who and what for? I know that there was

investment made in pickle ball courts and things of that nature. That's a very specific demographic and I'm wondering is there intent or is it just ignorance in not approaching and trying to provide solutions to a broader demographic of our of our community. Recently we heard about the GVRD publication uh of its activities um and I believe uh and other other things that are going around the city and it seems like there's a lack of effort to make sure that we communicate with the majority of the students and families within our public school system. they are the largest demographic uh of the city. Even if those numbers are in decline, even if people are using schools out of the area, the school system is a direct tie to any type of outreach and marketing. Are we doing that? Do we have measurable data to show that we're doing that? Do we have measurable data to show how many of those students that are in our schools are getting those scholarships? I just want data to support the idea of giving away even if it's $100,000 a year. Thank you.

Thank you. And uh our next speaker, Kristen Woods, you have the floor. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can.

Okay. Um yes. So, I strongly well, first of all, I want to say good evening um to everyone that's there. Um I would strongly agree that um yes, the council should um think about this decision. Um there's so many organizations out here that do things out of their own pocket. um and they should look into the smaller organizations that provide services for the youth for free and not subsidize because I'll be honest with you as a single parent um it's it's difficult to think about can I afford this program for my child you know so um there's just so many different things that there was a survey that was done like for example for City Park. Um, this was several years ago. My child was maybe third, fourth grade. He's getting ready to graduate and go into high school and it was unanimous where they were supposed to um provide with a basketball court at this park and it never happened. And then I find out that Franklin got a brand new basketball court. And it just seems like anything that GBRD does is there's somewhere there's like they're getting funding and then they're getting then they're like double dipping, triple dipping because now they're getting funding from the citizens who have been pay paying towards measure B for certain things. And now we're having to think about, okay, we have to we have to think about like if we want them to be in these extracurricular activities now, we have to pay for it. Can we afford it? So, I just want city council

to really think about that. And there was a survey done years ago where it was asking the citizens what they wanted to see at this park, you know, specifically. But it it is good to get feedback from the community and ask them what they really want to see and then decide where those funds go. There are programs, there are smaller organizations that have been around for years that are offering those those same those same um programs that GBRD is trying to say that they're offering. And um that's all I have to say.

Great. Thank you. Thank you. No other speakers uh online for this item at this time.

All right. We'll go ahead and close public comment and I'll have the council in the interest of time, we'll we'll do one round and then we'll look for a motion. I see council member Gordon and then Vice Mayor. Good evening. Thank you so much for your presentation. I do appreciate it. I just want to clarify for our uh community measure P under the sections um that Measure P qualify for funding um there are nine and the last one being uh youth priorities. So, I definitely want to appreciate that. I do, as you all know, I just want to say this uh for clarification. It has always been concerns um that the field and the uh community centers are not really open to the public unless they have to pay again. And you know, I've been transparent about that. seemed like more of a um uh of a not of a community center but more of some type of uh pay to participate. Um and it is very disturbing in that particular area. But I do want to say thank you because there is data of what GVRD has done and I know for a fact that uh through the late night basketball which GVRD was one of the first to provide $25,000 to my late night basketball program that serves youth and young adults from June to August of last year from 6 to midnight and we appreciate that it served almost 700 um youth that received at least meals and we appreciate that. This what I wanted to ask a question about uh through your mobile resource uh recess. Can you tell me a little bit more about what our youth would be expecting and the time that it's available? Do you go ahead and you hold on for that because I have two more

questions and you can just answer them all at one time. Um, I want to say thank you for allowing the 10 free day uses during the summer uh removing the barriers of the time frame. I appreciate that because you're right uh being that transportation is very uh l not so uh available. I appreciate that because kids would have to walk from bus stops whatnot. So I I I appreciate that. But I also want to know is there a time I don't want them to get there and say oh that time frame is not for this it this time. So is there any time of time barrier uh barriers? Just want to make sure that's clear because that happened to me before and they say oh no this is not the free day that you can come. So I want to make sure that no kids or adults will have to experience that. And my last question I have is I do appreciate that you are offering um through the iHeart program at the north uh val other center community center but I also want to see how come it's not being introduced for the Norman King Center for the South because that as you pointed out is a very um neglected community that has nothing really to do in that area at all. Even the community center is not really available to them to do anything. So, I would like to see if we can please think about extending that program to the north uh to South Leo as well.

So, go ahead and answer. Thank you. All right. I'll try to um answer the qu the questions as quickly as possible. Um the first one in regards to the mobile recess program um that is going to be offered beginning in June um from 11:00 a.m. to 100 p.m. Okay.

Um at each of those park locations um I'm sorry on Saturdays. And I do have some some flyers and some postcards we can spread around and share uh with the group. Um, in terms of the time frames for all of the locations, there is no specific time frame. We are going to allow um participants to access uh either the pool or the gym during normal hours of operation. Um, and then lastly, we did have um preliminary conversations about the South Valo community area uh for the iHeart program. Just unfortunately due to scheduling and staff time um we're only able to do it at North Valo but our next is to partnership with South Valo.

Can I ask a question? If iHeart's not available, can we consider other uh nonprofit agencies as was pointed out that there are many available out there? Yeah. So, just today I attended an outreach event uh put on by the Lions Club and we're going to partner with today we're going to partner with uh Angel Angels with Heart um on the mobile recess program. So, they're going to partner with us to go out to the parks and provide recreation. So, we are open to collaboration.

Okay. Thank you, Vice Vice Mayor Matulik. Thank you, mayor, and and thank you for the presentation and and and the fact that GVRD was asking for marketing um for this type of programs and trying to expand this. I I think in a lot of these questions, I think that speaks specifically to our community engagement. I know that um Miss Bregman back there, I think that was the the great starting point of were there ever surveys done to find out what the community wants and the fact that um uh Speaker Herell spoke to what is what was the engagement with the school district because working in the school district, especially at this time of the year, the biggest question that we get um from students and families is what can we do over the summer? and the fact that we the school district didn't doesn't really have information directly available to them to where all we can do is recommend them to check the GVRD website and we as for those of us that have been in Valo for for quite a while all we typically get are the flyers that GVRD sends out what quarterly and especially at the summertime where they have the programs and they have the the swimming program is a great program they have especially over the summer but I think from a once Again, speaking to the marketing aspect, there's needs to be more than just the marketing focus, but how are you engaging and can you team up with the school district? Can you team up with other organizations to help with the marketing to where you're not having just having to focus marketing in a silo, if that makes sense. Um because I think one of the things um and I I very much appreciate um Mr. Hell bringing up the issue of uh life skills. So I think GVRD is primarily known for sports and activities from that standpoint. But I think if we're looking to expand the engagement and keep kids occupied, life skills is pime is one of the things that

I think we need to expand that thought process because for example over at Dan Min specifically and and Dan Min is an elementary school. So we have we're a community schools program and one of the thing that the kids asked for was sewing. So who would expect a sewing to come out of an elementary school? So I think I think we as adults need to reach out to those individuals in this case the youth to ask them exactly what are they looking for. And so if if kids at an elementary school are asking for sewing I mean we can only imagine what the middle schoolers and high schools are asking for beyond just the sports programs. I mean, and and because I think another part of the sports programs that that that are missing are typically field trips. Um going out to sporting events, if that's an opportunity in there and another I mean, and this speaks to um one of the bigger issues that that we that people um bring up all the time, our youth are going out to Benicia, going out to American Canyon, going out to Napa for all of these activities. And we have such a rich history of professional athletes coming out of Valleo. Have we teamed up? Have we reached out to a lot of these professional athletes or um just the our history of athletes here and done youth camps? I mean, I think that is another way that we and and especially with the with the professional athletes, I think they've got pockets enough to where they can help support some of these programs that we as a city or we as as GVRD may not be able to afford to solely that if we can get some of their support um that they would I think they would be um happy because I know CC Zabathy has his camps. Um, but then I think if they can team up with the lo with GVRD and other local organizations, I think that would just help expand once again going to the

marketing aspect and these and the community engagement. Um, and so, but once again, speaking beyond that, beyond the sports activities, we have a rich history of music and and um artists here. Why don't we have like a music camp? Why don't we expand it to just the basic stuff that GVRD is known for and kind of expand the the the um the the overall realm uh realm of of a lot of things that the city of Valleo is known for um beyond sports um music and all the activities that we have here. So, I'm I'm just throwing that out there of of I think we can have a deeper conversation, deeper discussions, but to Miss Bregman's point, we need to get the community input. And if we haven't done a survey, a basic survey to send that out there, I think I that's a first step that I think we should be able to take um to to be able to get to understand where we um puts a lot of our focus. So, that would be my comments at this point. Thank you.

Thanks, Council Member Matias. Thank you, mayor. Um, so I'm just going to ask you to did you guys send out a survey to the community? Did you engage the school district? Um, did you get any data? Because I know we've all been making comments about it. So, I just want to know like what what is helping inform these buckets?

So, um, not specifically for this grant. uh there was no like measure P survey that has gone out. Um some of what did inform this is some of the survey data that we gathered from the needs assessment. Um that that document should be coming back to you guys as a memo soon and then the strategic plan. But that was mainly where um we were out in the community. We did do key stakeholder interviews. We did have focus groups um and we were having pop-up events in the Valo community. So, uh, a lot of what you all are saying and a lot of what we are hearing from community, we do have some data around that. Um, with specifics to like the buckets, they're very broad buckets, right? Youth programming, teen programming. Um, GVRD does have some leeway to engage with community partners that they have. Specifically for this 300K, uh, we wanted to gear it a little bit more towards opening that access. Um, and then also teen teen events. So, as you talked about field trips, you know, that's one of one of the focus, the opening up places that they can just show up. Um, not necessarily just sports places, but um swimming or or other programs like that. Um, with the previous grant, we looked at some of the programs that they did, which some of them is life skills, cooking with teens, um, art with bridging art between seniors and teens. um some of those and I think like music programs some of those were pretty successful. So we noted those in some of the grant uh reports that we got from GVRD from the previous grant. And so um like I mentioned before, kind of having time to evaluate that program and the way that those grant funds were utilized is a lot better than kind of rushing into giving them this money without really a plan of how they were going to spend it. Um so we have I think four grant reports that

outline some of the activities, programs and events that the previous grant was spent on. Um we can provide that to council. We we generally provide it to the measure P oversight committee but um yeah those were some of the data points that helped inform these.

Yeah. So um I'm just going to make a few general comments around this and I'll I'll promise to be quick. Um, so, uh, this is probably like the sixth or seventh time that we've talked about GVRD, um, in this meeting. And, um, I don't think that, and I'm going to get to you, sir, in just a second, but starting out with, um, Miss, uh, Brooksdale, I don't think it I don't think this falls on you. We've been asking a lot of questions about GVRD for the better part of 15 months now. every single meeting. What is GBRD spending its money on? Why did why is there this feeling that the city of Valo is subsidizing, you know, the the the programming and perhaps the operations of GVRD? We've asked and asked and asked and asked and we haven't really gotten those questions answered, which is not your job to do. I think it's more the GVRD management's job to come in, do a presentation, really give us a sense of how much funding is available. Um, considering, you know, there's multiple parcel taxes that go on property owners that fund a lot of this work, right? So, we've been asking for those questions. We have not gotten answers from them. And if we can't get them from the management team, then I think it would serve this board and the entire city to get some answers from the board of directors that we appoint. Um, we appoint all those directors in I think in combination with the county board of supervisors, right? So, we need to hear from your board because there's just a lot of questions around what what what the funding's going in for, who's it going out to, what is that, how is that subsidizing programming for uh you know residents

across the city who have a real need. Now, when it comes to the intent behind this grant, uh this was part of a pallet of different options that this council came up with to um address crime in our community. Now, this is not meant to be dollars to go out to nonprofits. These are not these dollars are not meant to address other funding issues we have in our community. This was strictly uh meant to uh use the parks to get kiddos um into activities over the summertime. Um help out with crime. And this is uh social science to some extent, right? You have more eyes on the street. That's a natural crime deterrent. If the parks are activated, that signals vitality in a city. If they're not activated, that attracts crime and folks feel more compelled to go in and say, "Oh, there's nothing going on here. Everybody's just holed up in their home." So, this is both this was both meant to uh get some activities for our kiddos and our youth to do and engage in. We we talked about free park days and but there's also uh a very clear rationale for why there is um a need for our parks to be activated in relation to public safety. So I I just want to reenter us around that. I think that there's other pools of funding that we have available to address the very real funding gaps that exist in our community for our nonprofit organizations. This was not meant to like solve 19 different issues at the same time. It was more so meant to help out with the public safety issue uh that we identified a year ago. However,

um the more we talk about this, I think we had a conversation where we gave you feedback about the program design, right? So, who qualifies, who doesn't qualify, how are we going to get the word out? The each time you guys come and do a presentation, it just opens up more and more and more questions. And so I feel um I am hesitant to approve this or vote for it at this time because there's just so many questions about GVRD's finances in general that which have nothing to do with the program you've designed. Right. I think the only feedback I would have for you is like getting a survey out to community and saying, you know, there's been funding identified by the council. What do what classes would that go towards? What are the things you're interested in? some of the things that count that the vice mayor alluded to, right? If you know what people want ahead of time, then you can design the programming around it. If you're trying to figure it out on the go, then we may be missing the mark or misusing funds in that way. Um, so I think we do have to ask folks um and get some of that data ahead of time because that can help inform what programming we we make available uh to them in the summertime. Now, do we have enough time to do that? I'm not sure. That's a

not yet. Yeah, I don't know if we have time to do that given where we sit today, but I think um the main issue I'm having right now, and this is because it's it's come up several times before us, is more so around like, you know, why are we being asked to subsidize marketing for that organization? Why are we being asked to um we were in the past, not anymore. We said we weren't going to fund that, right? Um, why are we um at what level is GVRD already subsidizing uh programming for for kids and for our youth given the taxes that we do pay? Um, and I think having that information, it doesn't just make our job easier, it just gets information out to the public around like what's really going on with GBRD. So, um, I would like to see that addressed because again, we've talked about GVRD way too many times in here. It's it's and and I'm actually shocked and it's not a bad thing. We we I love talking about the parks, but I think for me, if we're asking that many times about something, the impetus should be let's go and get this information to the council and let's present to them and let's share this out with the public as opposed to more meetings going on where we have the same questions and they're not really being addressed. Um, so I would just ask your team to really focus on that. Um, and to get us that information so we can make a a decision on this. Um, so, uh, that's where I'm at right now. Thank you, Mayor.

All right, Council Member Paul Morris.

Thank you, Mayor. So, I appreciate the presentation. Um, and I made my comments the last time, but I'm going to reiterate this. So just to unpack this, here's how I conceptualize measure P. Measure P is about meeting pent-up demand from the community. We fund a thing and that thing gets resolved instantly or at least within that year. Um and to my colleagueu's point about how we came here and what why we are making this decision right now is that um not that long ago there was a slew of violence homicides and we wanted to react appropriately to that and and that's a good thing. Um but as far as this is concerned you know when I think about violence prevention and intervention so for example vision right those are very targeted interventions these series of strategies and programming is not as precise and intentional as far as intervening with the people who are at the most risk of committing violence. Not sometime decades in the future, but I'm looking at the folks who are going to commit violence sometime very soon, sometime this year. You know, there's a pecking order and there's a priority of intervening with those folks the soonest. This is a great investment into youth. I have no doubt about that. Um, but when it comes to measure P and also when it comes to talking about the outcome of addressing real violence in the community, it's for me it's it's too far upstream for me. We could use that money for something else. And I know that might sound heartless on my part, but we had to make some tough decisions, right? And

so just I I'm I'm siding on, you know, let's meet the need of what Measure P uh was meant to be for. Uh and I, you know, heard everyone's uh comments and I uh generally don't disagree, but this is kind of like my take on uh how I feel about this. Thank you, Council Member Vetu.

Thank you for your work. um in your analysis age and household income data. I'd like to have more information about how that data was collected, the methodology of that data. And so by any chance, do you all know how that data was collected? Um, so this is the data that's been publicly available on the city's website um during the time that we were doing the redistricting. Um, this is some of the data that informed the map creation, specifically the map that got a

So, how old is this data? Um, I want to say the last, it would be the last census, so 2020. 2020. But that's really old data. That is

and how did we use data collected um around our school school age children? Because when I think about what when I think about if I look at 0 to 25 25K to 50 and I look at what is our federal poverty guideline and if you go through each one of these districts it's concerning the way that district 2 I had to ask the mayor is JR district 2 because this data needs to be aggregated. Um while there are high in high earnner income families right it's really skewed and you really have to aggregate the data on each of these districts otherwise theoretically how are we going to handle families in north fail that potentially qualified if We're looking at the bottom total. So, I just really when I again when I proposed this, this was my proposal and I'm going to say this very openly with all due respect to my um colleague. Yes, we have vision vision zero and we have other programs that are really target targeting at risk youth from maybe 16 to 26. But I will tell you while I want to target at risk youth, I want to target

children who yet aren't at risk so they don't become at risk. And so we have to have a balanced measured approach when we think about our children in our community and our youth in our community. And remember that we have families at different stations and places in their life. And we as a government, if we are going to use public dollars, we are enveloping all of these individuals because I don't want our babies to become at risk. So, we have to do some preventive maintenance work, right? So, I fully understand what he's saying. These this 300K, I was the one who made this request and it's very important and it's been a whole year. I'm just going to say it. It's been a long long time and I I am not going to approve this because whoever is at the helm of GBRD, they need to come and sit here and get this together so we can get this out to our youth before the summer happens. And what I do want to see is when I look at the breakdown of dollars of income in our families, do we really understand it? So, do we need to work with our school district so that we have a better picture about how our children are being served and the needs within our communities and at the income levels where individuals need assistance? And also remembering someone can make $75,000. Does that mean depending on how many individuals are in their family, right? Does that mean that they really don't need to have some level of assistance? So we really need to look at this finan the data around income the number of individuals in our house our household

and do some data analysis and aggregate that data within the districts to see a better picture around it. How many people live in the household? What is the income? Because what is my area? What is the area medium income? What is the poverty level? the federal poverty level and then how many individuals live in that household that I'm supporting. That's really important. We heard a comment from a from a parent today, a single parent. And so there are very different makeups in the household that can limit your ability to even participate. And so we need to really think about that. So that's something that I want us to break down further.

And I appreciate all the programming um possibilities and so forth and on. I'm not I don't have any real complaints about it. And the question becomes, you have data. How do you have additional data around what do our children need? What helps them to be well-rounded? what allows them to have a new experience. And it is true, we have music that we can expose our children to other life skills before they get to 16, at 13, at at seven. Um, we send our baby to French cooking class during the summer. He's six years old. You know, you might be like, "What?" But how do we introduce our children to different opportunities? You may not think that it's valuable, but it opens the doors to how they think even at a very young age. What are the kinds of things that they can have access to that a a family can't necessarily think about doing because their income is limited? And this is an opportunity this summer to provide a really rich experience in different ways at our different parks, whatever the spaces are that we have to use. And I want us to really be creative and really think about it um how we do this. I want to get it right if we're going to spend the 300K

through the mayor. Um just to respond to to a few of the comments. Um the data that was pulled uh it was like the requested data. Um there are some challenges I think that I was finding with finding district specific because our district boundaries, you know, you can't just go look up a specific neighborhood. There's a ton of different data points. So I do want to um acknowledge that the data is sort of skewed, right? like there's a range within each of the districts where you could be making 0 to 50k but on average the level is high. Um so we want to acknowledge that that that district level data isn't what um solely informs some of the decisions of say the mobile recreation program. Um, that's also why we rely on GVR's data about which parks, um, no matter what district they're in, are underserved because they just historically haven't had any programming there or some of those smaller parks that don't have the capacity to run some of those bigger events or programs. Um, additionally, we we can certainly look at collecting more of the data and breaking it down. I think um, number of people living in the household, I'm sure there's ways to find that. I know that we worked with a specific um consultant during that time when they were redistricting to gather that data district specific data. And so I think we are looking at potentially having another contract with them. But I would have to look at who could Oh, okay. Sorry. I would have to look at who could pull that pull that data for us. Um because as I was doing research into census tracks, there are numerous census tracks that fall within several different districts. And so being able to kind of pull that data out um the boundaries are not just kind of cut and

paste, but we'll definitely look into how to um pull some of that data. You know, we have our county health data. I mean, yeah, we have our county health data. We have our county social services data that we could partner with the county to get some of this data that would really give us a better sense of our what's happening in our districts as it relates to our families. That would be very helpful. And you know, we have a district one supervisor, we have a district 2 supervisor. Yeah,

we can always get their help. I know we can get D1 supervisor's help to get this data. And if you need help and I know our city assistant city manager can help and if not I can definitely figure out how to get the data because I think once we get the data we will really see how different this chart is and what should we really be doing as we also get more data around what are the activities that families need, want, whatever the case may be to get them through this summer to enjoy the summer um time.

Yeah. And I I do also want to say, you know, um we've been working pretty hard to ensure that we can promote and have programming set up for um application and implementation this summer. uh we realized, you know, last summer you guys requested it and to be able to just put up a a program that quickly and really have it make sense um didn't seem quite right to be to do with this funding and and we wouldn't have wanted to do that. So, um, we do really want to be able to, we've put this out in the activity guide to ensure that there's time for people to know about these programs and time for people to sign up and get excited and tell their friends, especially um, ask summer approaches because we know school sites, you know, as council member Matulac said, the question is, what are you going to do this summer? Um, so we really uh would appreciate being able to implement some of these programs this summer with the expectation that we come back with some data um more data that is requested. We have some more feedback or GVRD coming to you guys to talk a little bit about some of the requests from you all. um but being able to start this implementation knowing that we've only planned through the summer so far. And so you kind of look at what's worked and what hasn't over the summer in order to plan for the next activity guide and the next season. Um and as we said, this grant scope or the grant term will go for three summers. Um but programming is kind of cyclical. We look at the data, then it informs the next round of programming. And then you look at that data and it informs the next round of programming, which we've done with the previous grant, trying to lead into what we feel like is a good slate of um initial pilot programs and even, you know, the punch cards being a real pilot of a program. So,

and I appreciate that. And I think what's problematic about that approach is how potentially how community has been able to use the services by GBRD due to cost and so forth and on. And so that's really important to remember and I understand it's a starting point point. I fully understand that. Yet, I think we have to factor in the fact that how many of our families in a certain income bracket have really used the services of GBRD? I've talked to I've talked to several teachers who say, "I can't afford to use the services at GBRD. I go to American Canyon." I've heard that numerous times, the cost. So, and to think about how much a family who might be making 30,000 have two or two children in their family, three, are they really using our services? And that's something that we have to consider when we are using it as a ba as the baseline to develop what programming looks like is really important to remember. So I think this is the first time that perhaps GBRD from a perspective that the city is providing funding in this manner and pushing back on no you can't use it for this. No, I want to understand the income data, the demographic data by districts by a further breakdown um around income. And I think perhaps this might be the very first time that this push back is really coming.

You don't need to respond. I'm just making my own comments, not necessarily needing a response behind it. I'm done unless she addresses me. All right, I will um we've done a round and I'm going to add my comments quickly and then we'll get a motion on this item. So, I a lot of what I was going to comment has already been said. I did want to reframe this for everyone that this was a decision that was made last summer. It was intended to be rapid and respond to urgent needs for activities for folks that um with with a public safety goal. Uh it raised some issues. It raised an issue that we can't move quickly. Um I think we learned that hard. Um and we need to be able to move more quickly as a city. That's something that I think we've all felt, at least those of us that have been here for a year and a half now almost. Um, we've got to be able to be a little more limber and and nimble as a city. And then I mean I think the other thing is there there are a few things when I think back on the decisions we made last year that if I had known the true extent of our structural deficit, I probably wouldn't have made the decisions that I did last year. And I think this is one of them. um putting 300,000 you know if I if we had I mean at least for me at least I I if I had known that we were dealing with such a massive deficit um I don't know that I would have would have green lit this last summer with that said I am coming out the other side than some of my colleagues which is that I do support this as a pilot I would want to see a way to evaluate it and and Victoria you actually spoke to some of the things I was going to phrase in when you were going back and forth with council member Leigu that what we what I don't want to do is have this just be

another thing that we sort of throw money at and then forget about I we've got to be able to evaluate this. I love the variety of programs and if we can figure out what the impact of each is, which one's the most impactful, not only does that help us iterate, and I think that would be my request in in supporting this would be that we iterate each year based on how the previous year did, that we don't just keep guessing, but that we make sure that I I want to move this forward because we can't delay any further. And and I'll get to that in a second, but I think we need to make evidence-based decisions going forward. So if we pilot, we just need to have a mechanism in place to make sure that we're collecting the the evidence we need and that we have plans to ensure that future rounds are informed by that. And you already kind of mentioned that that was the plan, which is good. The um the big thing that I that I think has been raised for me here is that, you know, this was supposed to be for last summer. We're now come bringing it forward for this summer. I don't want to let perfect be the enemy of good in the sense that I think we just need to roll this out and and go. Um because we I think about it as we can't have it both ways where we say, "Oh, we want to move quickly to address this urgent issue and we also want to take time to do every single thing perfectly and do surveys and do engagement and do all these things so that it's absolute perfection with every single, you know, tea crossed and I dotted. In this case, we kind of got the worst of both. we didn't move quickly and we didn't do the engagement. So, that's just something we're going to have to deal with. But, I I do want to appreciate the work that you two did in a very nebulous space where we were trying to move fast. We hit a lot of roads blocks where we couldn't move fast. We the council kind of expresses they wanted a lot more detail that then prevent. So, we're just I think as a council we need to be very explicit about when we want to move fast and when we want to move carefully. And

in this case, I think we missed both plots in some ways. But what we've ended up with for me is something that I I'm comfortable with just going going ahead and starting. One of the reasons why I want to go ahead and start this is because this is no surprise to the two of you. I want to start getting philanthropic resources into this community to support this type of programming, particularly youth sports and youth activities and subsidizing cost. Not just so that we're supporting our most vulnerable, but we're just so we're creating kind of bridging like we're creating social capital in our community and connecting our community together across our diverse population, across income levels, across people that go to different schools. Like I think that is a violence intervention strategy and I think that is just a good thing for our community. Even if you don't track the data, that's just one of those things that you want in a city is you want there to be cohesion and connectedness in the community. And so if we pilot this, track it, evaluate it, and know what works, then we can have a menu of options and we can go to foundations. There are a lot of groups out there that want to fund this type of stuff. We can get a sense of what we want to scale and what we want to do and hopefully not have to use public funds for this type of stuff in the future because we'll be able to get philanthropic support. On that note, subsidizing Six Flags tickets. Did we reach out to Six Flags? They would probably be willing to donate tickets. Have we done that?

So, I did make contact with Six Flags. Um, they were able to provide us a discounted rate um for a x amount of number of tickets.

Okay. I would probably try to maybe reapproach them and see if they want to. I know they give out tickets. So, uh I would like to see them give out some tickets for the future. Um, and then the other thing that I was going to add is, and I think we have some I honestly I think we have some local businesses that would kick in too if we had a proper opportunity for folks to invest in this type of thing and we could say kind of like you sponsor a little league team. You know, you can give this and and pro sponsor a free day at at Dan Foley or sponsor a free day at Children's Wonderland. Um, and then I was going to mention, Council Member Lety brought this up. I was going to caution us that not to look at districts. This is something that I think about a lot as the atlarge person up here that the vast majority of Valoans don't know what district they live in and they really don't care. Um they don't identify with their district. They identify with their neighborhood which is often a it's in a district but they identify with their neighborhood. They identify with their local park. They identify with their school. And sometimes the type of thing we want to do doesn't fit into the district. like that's a voting mechanism that was made to to to vote. And so I think because we have a council that is now district-based, we we are dealing with this push and pull of we want to kind of make it equitable across districts, but making it equitable across the six districts isn't always making it equitable in Valleo. And I just I kind of want to challenge us to have that conversation as well. Particularly like we had to deal with it with the security towers for PD where I was like, do we really put one security tower in each district? Is that the top six locations people that live in one district shop in another district or go to school in another district or cross like you know anyway I just I know that's I know that's tough but I would just you know I think pulling data we can get more recent data if we use zip codes and census tracks and get you can get the big data free we don't have to hire a consultant grab it online I do it in my classes you pull it and we can do all sorts of analysis with that if we don't insist on having it by council

district we can get it by council district periodically because I think that's important, but I think we can be more nimble in the short term if we go by census tract and and other use other data and it'll still get us what we need. I mean, I had the same reaction as council member Leo. I took one look at that District 2 data and was like, that doesn't check for me. But then I remember there's that higher income area closer to the water. District 2 has a big swath next to the water, a big section that is wealthier. So again, we're kind of we might be missing things if we just focus on on districts. Um I agree with I think the vice mayor said um getting this info out. I actually just this is pretty fitting because I just came from doing visits at the meet the mayor visits at all the high schools. I was at Bethl yesterday and got a earful about the need for sports programming. I was at Vallejo High last week and I got an earful about the need for sports programming in the summer and I was at Finny the week before and guess what? I got an earful about the need for sports programming and I got an earful about how much they love Dan Foley and how much they want things to do and I think this meets that need and that's why I want to push it forward. But I think we need to get it rolled out ASAP. And again, I just want to make sure we have a city manager coming on board that I think is going to have a good vision for being able to use data thoughtfully and we can make sure that this doesn't this isn't just another example of us kind of putting money to something and then forgetting about it. But this can be the start of something actually powerful that gets momentum for for our community. So that's where that's why I landed where I did on it. And with that, I will look for emotion. And I know we have differing we have some difference. I think we should just vote on and then figure out what we're doing. So, do we have a motion?

Yes, mayor. Um, I move that we adopt a resolution approving a me a measure P grant agreement to Greater Valleo Recreation District uh to support public safety and youth priorities and authorize the city manager to execute the same in in an amount not to exceed $300,000. All right. And as soon as we have the voting up, we will vote. All right. And while we wait for the vote, I'll just add for the record that I also got an earful about potholes from the youth. We actually have a tie vote. So motion dies. So

council members Gordon Machul and Mayor Source supported. Yeah. Go ahead, Council Member Pars.

I know it's been a long night. Yeah. So, I guess just for my understanding about this, since we already just voted this, we can't um continue this or revisit this at another time. We can revisit it if someone in the majority brings it back, which it was a tie, so I guess the nos are the majority technically. Um, but I think we should go ahead and just close it and move to the next item unless somebody has another I guess we could make another motion. Council member Matias.

Um, I I was very clear, you know, just in my comments in terms of what I want to see. Um, there needs to be a survey that goes out that would in of itself generate interest around these programs that this is coming down the pike. We need to hear from GBRD around their finances because otherwise we're just throwing money into um the ether and then we don't have anything to go back to constituents to say actually the reason why we're making this investment is because of ABCDE EFG. We've been making those comments repeatedly for over a year and we haven't had representation. So again, I don't want to make this this is not about you uh Victoria at all. This is GVRD needs to come up and explain why this um this is not just something that they're doing themselves, you know, uh and why this investment is necessary on behalf of the city. uh and whether that's the interim GM and a combination of their board, that is something that I would want to see that would give me ease of mind that this is going to actually augment the level of servicing that that district is doing or has been doing at this um point in time. Um so I don't have uh concerns with the program design elements that you have worked through over the past couple months. I have necessarily an issue with um the survey data that would help inform what kind of classes and programming would be made available this summer. And it could just be, you know, u Microsoft forms or something something could ask Chad GPT or something to come up with

uh some some questions that would go out uh to the public commenters point that would give us some information in terms of what the needs are this summer. We need to get clarity around JBRD's finances and provided those things are shared with us, I think we would be in a better position to move this forward. Um, so uh if there is some level of compromise around those things, I would I would entertain moving a motion around that. But if we're not willing to get additional data to make a more informed decision, then we would have to keep it as it is. Council member Gordon.

So, I like to see make sure I understand what how we can get this. If the colleagues who voted no, if you change your vote to yes with with uh council member uh Matteas uh request, would that be suffice if you say yes to this vote with the uh the ask of the request of your data and what not? Would you consider changing your vote? Because right now, as you know, next month, the kids actually some kids will be out of school this month and there will be a challenge. What is being offered in this packet is free opportunity for our families or basically no cost. If we delay it, it's just going to create more concerns of where our kids I watch our kids during the uh breaks and they literally are playing in the streets. They're putting theirel in dangerous situations. So I just ask cuz I live in that district. I see that every day and there is nowhere for them to go and they do want to take part of a GVA GBD and if you had the booklet you can see everything including uh cooking classes ceramic and whatnot even for those with disabilities and I think that if you ask this push this program along but with the ask that you have. Can I encourage my colleagues to rethink about that?

Oh, we already we already voted. It's voted down. So, it would come back at a later meeting at the behest of one of the folks that voted no.

What I will say, and I part of me thinks that some of this can happen offline and we can come back is, you know, my my concern the way the reason I voted the way I did and my concern is that we missed the boat. I mean, I think we're we're in trouble if we're trying to do schedule a financial presentation for GBRD to come before this council. The agendas we've got for the next two meetings are are impossible and we've got a budget to pass and we have um what was the other request? The survey going out. I mean, that's going to take that a good survey has to be open for at least a month in order for people to complete it. And there has to be outreach. I think we're kind of miss we're gonna lose the the programs here. So I I guess if you have anything to add um Victoria or even our acting city manager on what a recommendation would be for next step if you have any thoughts right now feel free to share it and otherwise I think maybe some of the follow-up will have to happen on offline um um with folks that are to to figure out the next steps. Well I I do know um essentially some of the ask that council member Matias had uh regarding a survey. we we can certainly put out a survey. Um I think what our intention was was to already provide you guys with kind of structured programming that we can implement in a few weeks um with the intention that it it had time to kind of simmer and get put out in the activity guide. So no matter what those survey results are, um being able to put that program into place would take a little bit more time, though not not, you know, not undoable. Um there are currently programs that were scheduled to be funded through this money that are already being promoted um with the understanding that we already went through the budget process.

However, um I also am very cognizant that if there are some financial questions or um data points that council would like GVRD to come and present, um we can try to get that together. They do have a an interimon GM that recently started. So, um I think Mr. Ryan's here would be the best person to speak to the uh to the organization and can certainly answer any questions right now. But um yes, I I would love to know next steps or Yeah, I'll kick it over to acting city manager Connley. You're Yep. There you go.

Um thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to weigh in because I I don't know if the council is trying to find a way forward having owed this item down. Um this was a adopt a resolution approving a grant agreement. The money I believe has already been allocated by measure P. So the grant agreement is for 300,000. Um I would say if the city wanted if the council wanted to reconsider approving. I suppose you could I don't even know how the council would would vote on this, but the city manager could potentially enter into an agreement within their authority using up to $100,000 to move some programming forward. Um, which doesn't necessarily require council approval. However, council did just vote down the item. So, I mean, it's it's a little I mean,

yeah, it's it's an uncomfortable situation, but I understand that maybe council was trying to figure out a way to do something now given given that school is ending. So I I don't I I I just don't know. But that would be the only sort of way forward that I could see with the time constraints that you have unless the idea is that we bring it back on next week's agenda. Um the 26th. It can't come back without a motion for reconsideration, right? Two meetings. Oh, a motion for It sounds like the city attorney is saying a motion for reconsideration would take two meetings. Okay. Okay. So technically that would be June 9th.

June 9th. Yeah. And I guess it would reune.

Yeah. I'm trying. Sorry. I I think the problem or the issue here is under what circumstances would a member on the prevailing side, which is the no side, be willing to bring it back? And I think we've heard from those who were not in support of the motion what it is, why they weren't supporting it. So I it sounds as if um unless those issues are addressed, it is unlikely that a member on the prevailing side would want to bring this item back absent it coming back that way. It's not coming back in its present state. So, why don't we have those why don't we leave those conversations offline and then it'll come back when it comes back. But those are conversations that the no votes can have with staff. Council member Leu,

I have a quick quick question. So basically, I just pulled up the youth activity guide. And so what I'm what I think I'm understanding is whatever you presented is really what's considered free programming. and that theoretically our children who can't afford this $700 program, this $400 program really essentially would only be picking from a particular set of activities because if I look at the I just pulled and maybe I'm looking at it wrong. I just went to GBRD. I pulled I looked up um youth programming youth programs and under youth programs there's a aim high basketball training there is basketball to thrive which is five classes I don't know the cost of that you have chess class um I don't know where the cost is on that but If I look and you have um dance academy, ballet, hiphop, you have dance arts summer camp which is 175 to 210 per week at North Valo. Um community center, you have martial arts, just different things, right? You have a film camp that I don't know what RNR means, but 325 390. Oh, and if they go to both AM and PM, it's 640, $768. Um,

so, and if I keep scrolling down, I see the mobile recess free program. There's a summer break, power play, all star sport camp. Um I don't know what the cost is for that. So basically, if any of our children in a certain income bracket, what we're trying to accomplish, chose one of those programs, they couldn't just go through the book and say, a parent and a child can't just go through this book and say, I want to participate in this particular program. you want to respond or if you want.

Um, so to answer that question, we do have a variety of programs. All of the free programs are open to anybody that would like to attend those programs. Um, I would also mention that we do have the scholarships that are available to help pay for those programs that may be more expensive for u some families. So, those are options that are available to them. So, and what I'm but what I'm really trying to get to, and tell me if I'm misunderstanding this, what I'm trying to get to is the programming that you presented today, like one of the flyers is there.

The programming that you presented today

is essentially the free programming that this 300K is paying for. Is that what you're telling me? Or is that 300K allowing a child? If I have a child and they sit down with me and say, "I want to go to film camp in your book. How am I going to and I am a parent making $32,000 and I have three babies at home. How is that $300,000 that we're talking about going to assist these families in this in this programming scheme? Because what I'm getting at is to a point that council member Matias is making around how does the ongoing financial contribution go towards what you're doing and how is it all coming together and how is it ongoing? Because the mayor just said, "Oh, well, if we do this, you know, in the next year it keeps building on." but we haven't made a commitment to give you $300,000 next year. This is a one-time event. So, and it was designed at a time to say, how can we capture our children and give them help them have a good summer and utilize the services at GBRD and increase opportunity for families and their children to use our services. So, that's what I want to know because you're I'm a no. So, you want to get a yes from me. I'm trying to figure out how I with $32,000 can come and bring my child to film camp, to karate, to whatever you have in here, whatever the whole programming system is that I can pick

any of those things. I can go to after school care, I can do whatever. How how are all of our dollars working together to allow that?

Okay. Um, so I will also let him speak on that, but I know as we were designing this grant, you know, 300K, it's a lot of money, but it's also not a lot of money. And so that was the intention of kind of uh bucketing it out, right? And so when you ask whether those programs that we presented tonight with the flyers, um, those are specific measure P funded programs. I think in one of these slides there's like a little measure P logo with the city and GVRD just to note um it cannot fund everything. However, what we wanted to make sure was that there was um money in the scholarship fund that is eligible for any of those programs and it's up to $300. Um any kid in Valleo can qualify for that no matter what your your bracket is. um that they can use it for those camps or use it a bunch of times for some of the smaller costs and and stretch it out. Um but I think when we look at having the free days, um what we got from council was how we should prioritize those funds. And I think when we are looking at the data that we're going to be collecting and some of the data that we collected from the first grant, that's what was used to start the piloting of some of the programs. So, um I think if we have a survey and we're kind of seeing what the new priorities are coming or maybe there was something that was super successful in the summer that they want to continue with, then that could be another program that is funded using either youth programs or the teen programs or even targeted um buckets. Uh but it's not just you know not every single program is going to be measure P funded though measure P funds can be used for any program. Does that make sense?

I just have a hard time imagining based on the cost of service, based on the cost of a class at $700 when I think about some of the families in our communities and targeting those families. And this is why from the from the very beginning I've always talked about the data and how this was going to roll out from a data driven perspective to be able to serve some of um our underincome families if you will and I and I still hold to that true and very dear to it because those are many of the families that don't have an opportunity And that's why again can't address this. That's why again on um when you talk about some of the nonprofit organizations that work within the community and they're providing free services. That's why we keep hearing that because generally these are the children. You already know this Victoria you work with our kids. These are the kids that are being served. And if GBRD is going to use 300K, I want to know how our children are being served because what I'm looking at are the children who are being left out,

not the children who are always participating or have the opportunity to purs part participate.

And I think there's also kind of levels to um how we subsidize or how we are funding programs. There are certain programs and events that are totally free. Um there are certain programs and I want to say in the activity guide there's an example from the previous measure P grant where there's a STEM camp I believe and the first two weeks have been are free because of measure P money. So um you know again there's kind of levels to how many different programs you can touch and at what level you're able to subsidize or completely eliminate the cost to.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Right. And I'll clarify just to just to be clear, it is three years. The 300,000 was designed for three years worth of programming, right? This summer, next summer, and the following summer.

Yeah, that's what we have um planned on, and that was kind of based on how they were able to spend that money. The first grant they had was $125k. Um just to give an example, I think baseline for their scholarship fund, they have $50,000. Um we gave them another $50,000. that 50,000 allowed them to have to date like 212 youth scholarships. Um they still have some funding left in that. Um and that was just over between April 2025 and now. Um so we're able to kind of anticipate uh hopefully and and it is a seasonal thing, right? There's more stuff going on in the summer, but we are able to anticipate that this funding should last through summer. I don't remember the 300K being over two years period of time. When we initially did this, it was 300K for that summer. I don't ever remember it being broken down year after year. I was the one that made this motion. So, I don't recall that. It was $300,000. Can you make this work for this summer? And again, not directly to you. It's been a whole another year that we are still talking about this. So that's just where I stand. I was the one who made this. So I I was very clear about this. And I think we just had so much dialogue because GBRD wanted to use it for advertising and all of this other unnecessary um request expenditures that should really be on GBRD because they're working in the community. So I have not changed my opinion about where I stand on this and I know that both of you are staff. you are not the executive director. I'm just I'm putting this on public comment because I know exactly what I was going for when we did this whole 100 the dollars that we had

allocated for safety for this piece of it and so forth and on. So again, I appreciate the work and thank you so much. All right, I'm going to go over to Council Member Paul Marez and then I'm going to close the item because we do have one more action item and our planning team has been very patient and we need to get out of here. So, Council Member Paul Morris.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what we're doing right now. Um, but well, since it says we're doing it, I I will say this though that I think I I can have the conversation of uh interventions that are more targeted. And this is a question I think maybe the vice mayor could help illuminate, but I was wondering, you know, can the schools and maybe in the county, can they help with the identification and the seamless coordination of the funding for this with the youth who are they are at the most at risk. So not I mean just and not necessarily uh income but exposure to trauma the mo those kids who are truent those who have been in fights right if you could identify and kind of seamlessly coordinate with those youth I think that for me that's that's a conversation I I'm willing to have um but I know we just voted on this but just putting out there for our public comment Um, Vice Mayor, I don't know if you had any response and just like Oh, yeah. You know what? I just, you know,

can you quickly I really just want to close this item and item

I'm done. I'm done. Thank you. I I I can quickly say that I think through the school district they do have data to that extent. Now, whether it extrapolates enough to to specify exactly where it goes, that's a different conversation, but once again, that's a conversation that a collaboration needs to happen. So, um but so yeah. All right, we're going to close that item. Thank you both. And we're going to go ahead and call item uh 90. Adopt a resolution approving a second amendment to the consultant and professional services agreement with Forleaf Incorporated to increase the existing not to exceed mount from 950,000 to 1,581,000 and extend the term through June 30th 2028 and authorizing the city manager to execute same and providing notice of intent to amend the fiscal year 2526 fixed general fund budget and the amount of 639,000 to cover the cost of services. This is step one of two.

All right. Thank you. We'll open up public comment on this item. I will turn it over to our plan director. I anticipate this being a shorter presentation and I'm hoping this can be a shorter item. So, we'll just set that intention right from the start. Thank you both for sticking with us and and staying up this late.

Yeah, no problem. We'll try to get through quickly. Um, good evening, Mayor Source, members of city council. Uh, my name is Kristen Plet. I'm the um, planning and development services director, and I have with me Dale Miller, who is our administrative analyst. Um, so I'm going to go ahead and start with some background related to the fourleaf contract. Uh, the original contract was executed in June of 2025. Um its uh purpose was to provide inspection assistance, plan, check services, and support staffing for the building division. The first amendment to this contract was approved um by city council in November 2025. Um this amendment should have been sufficient to carry us through to the end of the fiscal year. However, in March and April of 2026, the division unexpectedly lost two key specialized senior staff members, which included the building inspection supervisor and the chief building official. Um, these staffing losses have uh been a pretty big hit for the division um as they've brought the current vacancy rate up to 41% which is five out of the 12 positions are vacant. Um and now we have uh no senior level staff available to provide oversight and guidance for the existing workflow and building. Um so what this all means is that the additional contract support being requested this evening is um really necessary to maintain existing baseline operations and building. Next slide. Um so in order to fund this contract increase, the department is also requesting a budget amendment in the amount of $631,000. Um, and I'd like to provide a bit of background to explain this further. So, during the, um, 2025 2026 budget adoption process, um, the city council at one point during that review considered freezing all of the vacant positions in order to help close the budget shortfall. During this review

process, our department had shared a potential salary savings forecast of 631,000 associated with the vacant um PDS positions that were being considered uh for freeze at that time. During the um public meeting where this topic was discussed, the city council provided direction at the dis um not to freeze the vacant PDS positions. However, the potential salary savings for those positions um that was presented that 631,000 um was not returned to the PDS budget upon final adoption. Rather, it was sent to the general fund instead. Um several months after adoption of the budget, our staff raised some concerns to finance about these missing funds um which uh uh were I'm sorry. Um I was I'm sorry. I was going to add a note that the department um during this same budget cycle was also converted to a special fund um separate from the general fund. Um so once we found um kind of this um discrepancy, we had anticipated that this was going to create some problems at um year end. So, in February of this year, we made a mid-year budget request to transfer over the 631,000 from the general fund as a technical adjustment in order to correct the error from the original budget adoption process. Um, staff currently believes that this correction is needed in order to address the anticipated shortfall, which has been further exacerbated by the building division staffing issues. Um I also just wanted to note that while we have kept our consulting spend um pretty low this year compared to previous years um the existing four-leaf contract that

we have is on track to be fully expended um likely by the end of this month. So um this adds a little bit of urgency to our request. Um okay, this is my last slide. Um just to kind of summarize what our current request is. Um, it's uh we're asking to approve the budget technical adjustment of 631,000 from the general fund to cover the previously authorized but unfunded positions. So those funds um which would now be considered actual sal actual salary savings um will be utilized to increase the for contract to um in order to support continued baseline operational staffing needs. Um also the um contract term we are proposing to extend that from um June of this year to June of 2028. Um and then lastly I just wanted to note that the new contract not to exceed amount which is just over 1.5 million is expected to provide sufficient funding through the new contract term. So for that full two years. Um this is assuming that we can complete the key staff hiring in a timely manner which we are um expecting that to be um by the end of this calendar year. Um so so that kind of wraps up my presentation. Um we're here if you have any um questions.

All right. Thank you. Before we get questions from council, do we have any public comment on this item? None in person through the mayor. None at this time. Just one for community forum. Okay, we will go ahead and close public comment on this item and I will open it up to questions and comments from council. Council member Paul Maharez. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Director Polllet. Uh just to be clear, so you're expecting are you expecting the building inspection, building inspection supervisor, and the chief building official those two positions to be filled by the end of the year?

The chief building official for sure. um that is the highest priority. Uh we currently have two positions in the building division. There's a building inspection supervisor and a building inspection manager. Um I think that there is some overlap and redundancy between those two positions. So we have been trying to work with HR to make some adjustments. Um one of those two positions I do want to have filled by the end of this year. Not certain which one yet, but we are working to get at least one of those filled.

And without getting into too many details, is there anything we could have done to have retained those staff members?

Um, you know, I think that um the the short answer is probably no for the building official. Um I will share that there were definitely some frustrations related to um uh slow processes with our human resources team. Um you know about a year ago we had shared internally some suggested u modifications to some of the positions in the division in order to make them better match uh the needs of the department. Um, and you know, we tried to get some traction with that, but I think there was just not enough um, staffing in the human resources department to really help us move forward with those items. So, they sat for a while, and I think that was a little bit um, frustrating for um, the manager at the time. But um, aside from that, I think um, you know, they both took positions in other cities that um, they thought were better fits for them. So

Mhm. And so those critiques that uh individual mentioned, I mean, I know they're gone, but I mean, is that something we could pick up or do you even agree with those critiques first off? And if you do, I mean, is that something we could possibly uh improve? I I just, you know, I just don't want us to lose that, you know, folks again.

Yeah. Yeah. Um I would still like to move forward with the changes that we suggested. Um, as I mentioned, I think that, um, there's, I think, three positions that we wanted to to make some adjustments to, um, that would help the department function a little bit better, and I think it would help provide a better, um, career path for for the folks that are there now. So, yes, I would love to move them forward. Um, I'm I'm not sure how to get there, though. Yeah. Okay. Well, I appreciate that you're on it. Thank you, Council Member Letteru.

So, I'll just say off the bat, um, thank you Kristen for your work. I'm not inclined to do this extension. We have a highly experienced city manager coming in the door and I really want to understand what's going to be our recruitment plan and what are going to be the timelines to move it along before I agree to extending this consultant contract. And I just find it when I think about $1.6 $6 million. It's a lot of money from a consultant perspective and I just I just sincerely think that we need to wait for our incoming city manager come back. This is Tanya. this is my opinion and come back to me and talk about this and how we're going to have a plan, how we're going to have a transfer of knowledge and wean off of this. And I don't see that and we spend a lot of money. This is not solely to you. I understand, you know, when we have struggles with staffing, but we spend a lot of dollars in consulting and we are turning a page and I want to see what that page is going to look like as we are moving forward. You've made a comment. You know, I'm hoping to hire by the end of the year. That's six months from now. And I'm hoping you're going to hire before six months with Mr. Black coming on. I'm just going to say it. And so that's my opinion. And I'd like to say also that, you know, you've just talked about there's overlapping details or duties. And so I really want to hear his opinion

about how we're going to move forward, how he's going to work with you to move forward. And he can bring it back. I don't know what everybody else is going to decide. They may move it forward. If they do, so be it. But I just think there's a better way to at least look at this and we have another week before he will actually come on. And yes, I know he will have lots of things to do. But I know hiring is a focus and moving us along in this work.

Um through through the mayor, if I could just jump in. Um I wanted to share that we do have a recruitment planning meeting on Thursday of this week. So we are putting together a plan for recruitment of this the chief building official. Um, I'm planning to push that as quickly as possible. I'm hoping we can have it posted by next Friday, to be honest. Um, and then, um, with regard to the possibility of not approving the amendment, I just wanted to mention that because we are nearing the end, um, of this contract, we are getting to the point where we don't have any more funds to pay for them. If that happens, then we will probably need to reduce our services until we can fill those positions or find some other way to extend the contract. Um that could mean, you know, reduced um counter hours and response times. Um and that also could impact the revenue projections. So I just wanted to be transparent about that as you're considering

and I appreciate that. So I guess I have an even greater question. um you know you're saying the current contract what May 2026 is going to expire or you will have expended the dollars right or am I wrong? Um our our guess is that we will have um the the contract will be fully encumbered by the end of the month. Encumbered is one thing expended is a different thing. So is it clarify it should be encumbered already. If it's not encumbered, you should not be spending against it. Yeah. So, we have 50,000 remaining on the contract. We have 10,000 that's encumbered. Okay. And we will encumber the 50k before the end of the year and

before the end of May. Before the end of this fiscal year. So, by June 30th, it'll all be spent. We'll encumber it all by May and spend it by June 30th. Okay. And so, if we project out for maybe an additional several months, what does that look like? um versus a half a million dollar more than a half a million dollars being put on the contract.

Our average spend has been about I think 35 to 45,000 per month with current um with the current situation. Um however, we have um had to bring in some additional senior level support um to help our folks um moving forward. So I think it is going to be going up. Um do you recall what the projection was for that? Can you tell me how many positions that how many how many FTEEs you're using from the consultant?

Currently, we have two permit technicians that we are consulting with and then we have some additional help provided for plan checking as needed. We do have a plans examiner recruitment that is active and we are getting ready to do interviews for that process. So hopefully we'll have someone on board for that position soon. Um and then I know we also have one uh kind of senior level inspector who we're also contracting with to um guide our team. And then we recently have been able to bring on our um a former the former uh chief building official um to help us on a part-time basis for the same um type of work. So

not as a cons not on the consulting contract as a part-time staff person or no under this consulting contract. He's got a very limited scope of work that he can do but um he uh it it's a very efficient use of that contract because he has a lot of expertise here. Okay. Thank you. Council member Matias

just wanted to follow up on a quick question. Um, director, uh, thank you for your presentation. So, what does that current volume look like on a week- toeek basis? Like, um, you know, I was looking at the permits and I think on a monthly basis, we're at about on average 300ish permits per month. Um and then we need to provide adequate staffing for the front counter uh which we extended those hours um last year. So that that can be a little bit challenging sometimes.

Um and then the inspections um gosh, I don't know what the monthly number is. I know last year we did over 11,000 for the whole year. So what's that? You can do the math. Something like that. Yep. I got it. I got it. Um and the next question is uh we had talked about uh your use of possible use of technology to deal with some of this work. Um how far along are you with those conversations?

That's a great question. Um we actually are in the process right now with a um third party um consulting group that is helping us build some additional instant permitting options. Um we have the um instant solar permitting that we've been been doing, but we're looking to add I think three more um permit types to that. It's um probably midway through its development. So we were anticipating in the next um two months or so to have um that available. So hopefully that will assist in helping that workload.

Okay. Um, so, uh, from my vantage point, I think I do think that, um, we do need something between now, I I would say in the next, I I would say 3 months, I would give you the some room to have some internal meetings with city leadership, get the recruitment out, get some of these positions filled. So, I would be willing to split this down Broadway if that's amenable. Uh, but I do agree that, you know, 6 months and putting this up to $1.6 million is is just a lot. Um, especially with all the transition and all the conversations we're having around the budget. So, um, mayor, if you want to split something down Broadway, um, I don't know if that's where you're inclined to, um, move. Uh, I would be amendable to that, but I wouldn't be amendable to the full amount cuz we have to keep those permits going um and that level of service going. There's a lot of activity. Yes.

Um, if it helps, I think that um, you know, as we've increased the contract, I'm guessing over the next 3 to 6 months, we're looking at maybe in the ballpark of 70 to 90,000 per month, depending on activity. So, um, if you wanted to do a lesser amount.

Yeah. So, I'm saying some some halfway. I can meet you halfway on that. Um, but provided you guys have those conversations with Mr. Black, you get the recruitment out, you get the hiring going as soon as possible. Um, we can't wait 6 months. We have a lot of stuff on the pipeline. I just I was just had a call with another gentleman today. Um, it's going to be sending plans your way in a few months. Uh, and it's a big project. So, um, that would be kind of where I'm at. Okay. I'll make a suggestion, but I'm going to go to Council Member Paul Morris first.

Thank you, Mayor. And and I just want to be sure we're all on the same page. And director Paul, can you kind of comment on the connection of the importance of uh building inspection and generally economic development and revenue generation for the city? And then conversely, if we don't fill in this gap, you know, no matter how how you want to slice it, but if we don't fill in this gap, what does that look like for our reputation in terms of economic development and also revenue generation?

Um, yeah, that's kind of a big question. Um, but I will just add that the building division is basically the main generator, the main revenue generator for um, our whole department. So, I think that the work that they're doing is important and the customer service that they're providing is is um important to our to our bottom line. Um there is definitely a connection with economic development because we need to be able to process applications in a timely fashion. Um if we can't do that, it just slows everything down. um if we are not um efficient in our review processes and we do not provide accurate information as we're going through the process that is another challenge that could um create problems down the line from all perspectives. Um, I also just wanted to note that um, you know, if we need to reduce services at all, it's it would be unfortunate to kind of lose some of the momentum that we did gain over the last year because, um, we were able to make some really good strides with regard to processing times and kind of improving um, our workflow. Um, so I would like to keep that up if we can. Um, I am really highly motivated to get these positions filled as quickly as we can. So

yeah, I agree with you and I and I remember the days before you got in and that's as close to a chilling effect as we could possibly get, you know, and I don't want us to return to that because the, you know, for businesses and developers, I mean, the first thing they're going to talk about is how fast or slow it is to get a permit. and they talk to everyone and whether even that that reputation is true or not I mean that that reputation follows you and I you know and I feel very strongly about maintaining and improving that reputation as much as possible. Um but I do understand that we are in a deficit and we got to make tough decisions. So I I'm amenable for uh slicing us multiple ways but at the end of the day like I I want to support you guys as much as possible. All right. Thanks. I was I mean I my reaction was not that dissimilar to to council member Matias's. I don't want to lose the I don't want to lose continuity of services. Like I don't want to wait. Um I my suggestion was going to be rather than just kind of arbitrarily pick a number now to approve step one, let Mr. Black take a look at it and if you all could come back with a more precise number. Looks like what I what I'm seeing is that it just was like, "Oh, we have the salary savings. Let's put it in here." And what I think the council has expressed that we want is a more precise number of what do you really think you need to bridge that gap? We're talking about last fiscal year's budget. If that's something that we can adjust in step two with an understanding that for the council to to approve step two, we want the actual number of what you need, which will s will be considerably less than 600 and whatever it was. um then I would be in favor of just you know for simplicity just going ahead and approving the step one intent to amend the budget and with the understanding that we'll be precise in step two uh depending on the preferences of the council if we want to

just reduce it now I I mean I personally would rather just get the right number whether it's 100k or 150k or whatever it is and just do that um and that just keeps it simpler for us um so that was going to be my suggested sort of motion I don't of like I'm going to can we do that?

Yeah, we can adjust the number as long as you don't you can adjust it down but you can't adjust it up. So I mean that's if you're amendable to that I'll make that motion right now that we approve this as written as step one with the caveat that we get a precise number of what you really what what you really need to maintain services until we have another opportunity to revisit without any risk of losing the services that we come back in step two with that precise number.

Um yeah go ahead. Um the you have two items that are part of this agenda item. One is approving the contract amendment that there doesn't appear to be enough money to actually pay for um and then the notice of intent to amend. So the suggestion would be to to not approve the contract, approve the step one and then the contract can come forward with step two. approve the contract in step one and then put I mean approve the notice to amend in step one and then pouring the contract back with step two with the right amount. Is that doable? Does that seem that um that's fine with the most efficient way to do this?

I would like to ask for clarification though. Um when you ask for precise numbers, is there a specific timeline we should be looking at through

I would defer to you. I mean we'll have the new city manager by then. I would defer to you because you you want to put a buffer in for when you expect to hire the position. we're gonna have another fiscal year starting so we could potentially budget in that fiscal year. So just whatever you need to bridge the gap comfortably in that's not I I don't think that's my place to judge. I think that's a conversation with with the senior staff, the city manager um to get that to get that number. Council member Matias, did you have a suggestion? No, I mean, um, I'm sticking to the 3month line, um, because we need to make sure you've identified that there's some improvements we need to make relative to our HR operations. And so, you know, we've signaled to the incoming city manager that recruitment is a priority for key positions. This is not a conversation that should be going on for months and months and months. We need to refill uh staff up um on some of these key positions. So, what I don't want to council member Letter's point is we approve a huge extension and we're still sort of on the hook with these consultants. We have to bring this expertise in house. Um, and so, um, I would love your professional recommendation, but I'm just giving you sort of my point of view, which is like I I don't want this to be an open-ended engagement. Tack on an extra $600 to $900,000. I would want something that's limited in duration, puts the heat on us to get your team back, get the band together, you know, and and then keep things moving.

Council member Letu, I'm going to restate this again. The city manager will be here, I think, next week. Am I wrong? I don't understand why we can't I'm sorry.

He'll be here on Monday. Mr. Black will be here on Monday and I don't know why this item can't be continued to get down to I'm quite sure you'll have a one-on-one and it'll be a priority. I'm sure he'll listen to whatever we we've been talking about. Sit and have the conversation, get to that precision and bring it back and say this is what we need. I'd like the item to be continued. He will be here on Monday and services are not going to stop on Monday or next week. We still have a hearing this month to be I mean a committee meeting, city council meeting where it can be brought back. I think the the concern I don't disagree, but the concern is that it it has two steps. So step two wouldn't go till June 9th and they'll be out of money by then. So there would be a gap if we don't at least start the process now. We can still we would still be doing step two while the new city manager is here and we would be getting that precise number. We would at least not be hamstringing ourselves to the point where that contract runs out of money and we don't have services.

So the only So what is it that we need to do just to be able to get to step two and put the budget there? My suggestion was to approve step one now with a big asterisk for what you just said, which is get us the right number for step two in concert with the new city manager and then we approve it on the 26th and we don't run out of money. That was the suggestion that I made. So that's the motion on the table right now. Okay. And with an understanding that if it comes back as 631,000, we will vote it down or at least I will. And so I'd also like to say that and then if the city manager decides to do something different, he would have that opportunity. He wouldn't have to bring it back. Exactly.

I don't want to hamstring hamstring the new city manager. He has enough experience to take this organization where it needs to go. I don't want to hamstring him. I want to give him an opportunity to help lead and guide the teams to where we need to go. So, that's what I'm trying to prevent with him coming in a few days. I I'll just add I do have a one-on-one already scheduled with the city manager on the 20th of May. So, that should help. Yeah. So, we can get I mean, it'll it'll be tight, but we can get an agenda out. I mean, we can get an agenda amendment out if we need

like we'll figure it out. Um, all right. With that, I think we can vote. So what is the the motion is to approve adopt the resolution as is with the very serious caveat that we get the right amount. We give the planning department and the new city manager a chance to get the right am to adjust the the specific amount to what is needed given the context of the HR recruitment timeline and the needs of the department in the meantime and with that step two. Yeah. Okay. So, Madame Mayor, it would not be you wouldn't be adopting this resolution because the resolution is tied to the contract. So, just provide notice of intent to amend. Okay. I will restate. We are going to

uh provide notice of intent to amend the budget as stated with step two coming back on the 26th with the resolution with the new contract and the step two with the with the new adjusted amount to particularly meet the needs of the department which gives the city manager a chance to weigh in. and we can vote.

We do.

Well, I can see it on my screen. I don't know if you can see it, but the motion came unanimously with um council member absent. All right. Thank you very much. We are going to go ahead to item. So item 10 is information. We don't have any information items this evening. So we will move to item 11. Uh city manager report. Acting city manager Connley. Do you have anything to report? All I wanted to say was that um our incoming city manager will be here on Monday and we are all very excited by that. Thank you. Thank you. All right. That brings us to item 12, our city attorney's report. No report.

All right. That's going to bring us to item 13 which is our second community forum. I'll invite anyone who did not have an opportunity to address the council in our first community forum to provide comment on items not on tonight's agenda. Uh we have like no one barely left, but do we have anyone in person? We do have two people that did sign up. Um we have Eric Johnson and Crystal G if they are still here. I think Crystalall left, but she tends she might be online so we can get her online. Who was the other person? Eric Johnson was first. It's Eric. We don't have Eric. Nope. Okay. Come on up. Turn on the microphone.

Hi. Uh, my name is Eric Johnson. Would you just be willing to move the mic? Or actually on the lower right, you can also raise it. That should work.

All right. Um, I'm here tonight because I'm dealing with an issue of identity theft. I've spoken to the Val Police Department multiple times. I've gotten not no response from my report that I made. Uh I'm hearing multiple things, people telling me multiple things and I just want some clarity on all that. I haven't heard anything from the city manager. Last time I know that the city manager stepped down and there's a new city manager coming in. Um that's just like just a touch base with you guys on all that. Um there's money that's being used in my name for the navigation center. Um I have no control over. They have my phone, which they're using, and they have my money, which they're using to run that business, which is in my name. Um, I'm just trying to um take over what's mine, and I'm trying to figure out what going on. I need some clarity on all that. That's why I'm here. Yeah, that's all.

Thank you very much. All right. Is that's it for in person? Do we have anyone online? Thank you, mayor. Yes, we do have uh one speaker online. Crystalall, please unmute yourself. You have the floor. Thank you. Yes, I did have to step out. So much to talk about today, but really quickly, I'd like to start with economic development department program and staffing update. I was not here for that, but I did look through the packet and saw um some points of of we continued it just as an FYI, we continued it, but go ahead. You're welcome to comment on it.

Okay, I'll be really quick. Um in terms of the impacts of success as an economy improves, I noticed that the the first challenge that was raised here is higher rents in a city with no rent control. This is very uh concerning. Higher home prices, higher cost of living. We know that the city of Alleo h is home to the most costburdened people in the Bay Area. Uh curious to hear more from them about their plans to address displacement visav specifically they named right to council and just cause eviction. But that's not what I'm here to talk about tonight. I'm actually here to speak as a Valo resident on something that may feel like a pretty unpopular opinion in this space. But I do ask to be heard and ultimately perhaps consider shifting your perspective on this issue after hearing what I'd like to share tonight. Earlier this week, you may have not known or maybe you did after a marathon meeting and hours and hours of public comment. The El Certo City Council voted 3 to2 to end its Flock safety contract and shut down all 40 of its license plate reader cameras. That decision came after residents and council members confronted the reality that flock system has been accessed by federal agencies in 2023, including the US postal service and even a veterans hospital because of a so-called configuration loophole that allowed out of state and federal searches despite California's own law restricting that. So that's why it really matters here in Valo and I want to name why in a bit. The speakers in El Certo names the same concerns our communities of color have been naming for years. Mass surveillance without suspicion. We're talking about every driver logged, not just people suspected. Uh multi-state tracking network, documented unauthorized federal access proving flock asurances can't be taken at face value, and truly no clear evidence of the public safety benefit. Elserto is now the first city in Contracasta County to walk away from flock. And they did it because residents refused to normalize surveillance

infrastructure that exposes low-income black, brown, and immigrant communities to harm while offering very little return. Now, let's bring it here to Valo and why the situation is more alarming. Our own police chief recently acknowledged a significant security and breach security breach involving flock. And yet to this day, there's been no transparency about the scope of that breach. no public accounting of what data exposed, who accessed it, and how long that breach even lasted, or what safeguards even failed. There's been no review, no community briefing. All the while, the city of Valo cut a check in February that I noticed for about what 210,000 for a single month of flock service. The core issue here is I'm running out of town. Valleo rushed into flock without the due diligence and we adopted a mass surveillance system without fully understanding the risks, the implications and the profound harm these tools pose to immigrants, tenant organizers, black and brown communities who are already overpoliced. Deflock Valo, we can do so and much better and we really need to

time. All right. Thank you. I interrupted so I was get I I wanted to make sure she had a chance to finish. Do we have any other online speakers through the mayor? None at this time. All right, we will close our second community forum and we will move to the next item which I believe is the request council request for special projects and I'm going to Council Member Matias. All right.

Thank you. Um so I would like to um uh elevate a previously um requested item which was the costing out of the parking lots um in the downtown area and our public spaces. Uh, and the reason why that cost out is important is um because it would be helpful to know what that number is relative to the broader budget conversation we're having. So would love for the council to support me in um uh voting on this item for a second time so that staff can cost that out uh ahead of the June 30 um budget adoption date. Thank you, Mayor. So, did we already previously did we already previously vote on this? Yeah.

So, we don't need to vote. This is something the new city manager can help us deal with. This this process is just Well, that's the process we have right now. That's why I'm asking for But it's already gone through the process. It should be in the hopper. We should just be able to pull it. We shouldn't have to vote again. We should just be able to do it. So, I I'm I'm my frustration isn't at you. It's at the process, which is it's understood. We're actually moving forward with that costing. But I understand that Somehow it wasn't on the list. Okay. But we are good. We don't need to do anything else. Thanks, Council Member Palm Marz.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to request that we establish a Creole to career program um with a specific focus toward developing a workforce that's oriented to maritime and manufacturing in Valo. Um, this is something that was called out in the strategic plan from the Roosevelt group. Um, and if we're going to be serious about signaling that we are a serious city that wants to pivot in direction of ship building, ship repair and also just manufacturing in general. Uh, this is something we need to wrap our arms around and we could scale it to however we can uh, and tailor to whatever we need, but um, I think we need to really wrap our arms around this issue. So that's my request. Okay. So, the vote we would be voting if we voted to have staff scope it to add it to a future agenda. Um, and it will go on the list and it'll probably be something we'll have to just we're going to have to deal with all this at goal setting. So, just to like frame all that, I have no problem doing that and adding it to the list. But, in terms of us having to prioritize it, we're going to have to do that later. Um, do we want to go ahead and vote on that request and then we'll go to Council Member Leu? Um, I want to add a friendly amendment to that request. Is that possible? And while we're talking about developing a cradle to grave program, I think what we need to also add in there is identifying making sure that we're identifying who the stakeholders are in that work because it's you've said a lot, but there's there's a lot that goes behind that. And it's really how are we framing that when we're saying that? And I think my perspective is how do you flesh out that a little more and is that really sitting

deeply in the Roosevelt um document that is already framing it um pretty well for the staff? And if not, I would really like to see a request with such such a request that has such a magnitude as this is can you flush it out a little more for the staff when we speak to that? So I I'm asking I can I can add to it, but I would really you know you brought it up. It is a very important thing. But I also think from a perspective of resource and how we're thinking about it is also as the council person suggesting this, how do you flesh it out a little more?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you don't mind, no worries.

Yeah. Yeah. I I just uh so let me preface like we could always have a very uh in-depth offline conversation, but 100% agree that it's got to be cross- sector collaboration. Where I see the city of Leo coming in is that we are kind of the hub and we're convening and there's resources out there, but it's just putting the dots closer enough together. So it's we're not reinventing the wheel but we are putting these resources close together and for uh with the intent of creating uh uh specialized plans for the students. So it's not just programming and hope hoping for the best but it's really tailored specific plans uh for the students. And we could do this however we want. If we just want to focus on uh uh CTE that's fine. If we want to focus it uh or retool it toward violence prevention, that's also something we could do. But this is our baby. But at the broad strokes, yeah, cross- sector collaboration is going to be the name of the game. I'm just I'm really just pushing on it because I think that I mean it can be further fleshed out at goal setting because you will have done some of that work but I I feel like

more needs to be brought to the table for the staff and because it's huge. Oh, for sure. It's it's too big. And with all due respect, I mean

it's really huge and I would like um if we need to spend more time at goal setting and you bringing more ideas and even saying to the council as a body um this is my thoughts. Can you guys think about it more and add pieces so that it's not on the onus of the staff just to really think through this through because it means bringing in our school, bringing in the university. There's this is huge what what you very huge. Yeah. So I just want to be really clear because I just think about all the things that are sitting on the list and not to say this shouldn't be worked on but I also think that there should be some level of responsibility of this council to think about what that looks like because this is not the pro the product that we're asking to be designed is very different if you will. I I intend to and sorry I feel like we're you know not following the rules right now but you know my intent is to um really engage staff on this and just make sure I don't want to leave them hanging like oh yeah figure it out you know I've I've done my homework on this well a lot of homework on this not all the homework on this but I I do want to provide as much information as possible lengthen them up with the experts who have done this for um and uh and if we could have if you're interested, we could also have offline conversations and just, you know, bounce around ideas if you're interested in that um in preparation for this. So, when it comes to

I'm here to serve you. I just I I'm serious. I'm here to serve you. Um, as someone who has educated, have run programs, helped staff along, I hear this huge thing that we're asking for, and I'm just thinking about where we're trying to move at with the new city manager coming in, putting this down. How can we put some bones to it when we make the request? That's really where I'm coming from.

Okay. Well, I appreciate that. I see the acting city manager. Do you want to jump in? And then I'm going to make a suggestion. I'm going to make a suggestion that we just vote to support the eventual putting it in the hopper for but further discussion and goal setting because yeah, I I'm um yeah, I'm I'm supportive of an initiative, but I'm also we need to have some really honest conversations about our capacity as an organization and where our priorities are before we, you know, start to take on giant projects. And this may be the giant project we want to take on, but we need to have a conversation about that as a as a council. So, I don't mind putting this in the hopper. We are we are putting it in the hopper right now. We're voting and then we're going to close this and we are going to move on.

So, I have one more. Okay. Well, let's vote and then we'll motion carries unanimously with council member Briggins are absent.

All right. Council member Letters, you go ahead. So, we have had this conversation and council member Matias brought it up today when we talked about the parking lot and the lighting and at safety committee. One of the things that something I have asked the safe um at safety committee for BPD to look at along with department of public works is the lighting of our city. Part of safety is how well lit varying areas are through our city. And somewhere along the line, I really want us to as a city look at the lighting on all of our streets because we have really dark streets in this city. And it presents a real challenge in many ways as it relates to everyday safety, relates to crime, relates to potentially individuals being hit. And so I want us to somewhere along the line formulate a plan that's going to take time to assess the lighting in our city.

I So I I hear you, Council Member Letters, and I feel like we already voted on that. I think that's already on the list. I really do. And Don is nodding. I think we So, we're going to just put another asterisk by that on the list. This is just another. And so, that's wonderful that Let me say this. It's wonderful that it's on the list. And I have the utmost confidence in this new city manager who is coming in that we will get our list together and figure out how to prioritize all the many things on our list and that we will have a comprehensive list to look at and understand what's there. So I appreciate that. Thank you. Yep.

I agree. And you all know I hate the process with fire of a thousand sons. So I hope we can also work with our interim city manager to change the process. With that, we will move a thousand sons. Uh, I will move us to updates from presiding officer and members of the council. Uh, I see council member Gordon and then council member Matias.

Thank you. Um, I just want to ask um our city acting city uh manager and or attorney. the update regarding the HR breakin. Um, there was some conversation uh at an event that I was at that that was brought up and they hadn't heard anything about it. Um, I don't know who they heard it from initially, but I didn't have any answers to give to them. I did share that I was going to bring this up with our city attorney. So, that's number one. Number two, I had the honors to participate uh with our uh future Valleo Solano um with a couple of my colleagues here and well multiple colleagues here and it was amazing and I'm hearing great comments from our youth and one of the things that they brought up was their concern that they will not have employment during the summer. they applied but people are not interested in hiring our youth and so that was one of the takeaways that I had but most of them were very excited to see what we do as city council but also the takeaway was it's not as easy as it look so we I appreciated that had the honors to um go to a installment with visit Valleo and uh introduced our city manager to the community and that was really uh rewarding and I got to learn a lot as well from there. So I want to say thank you to the city for uh inviting us

as councils. So that's all I have to report. Council member Matias. Thank you mayor. Um two quick points. number one. Well, three, when is goal setting? So, I believe that that's been tentatively set for July. Oh, it's July now. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, it would be good if we could get that date. Yeah, cuz I don't think we have it.

I don't Just saying. Um, two, um, we've had, uh, we had a, um, it may have I I wasn't I don't recall if it was a mom or a grandma and her kiddos that got hit off of Cooper. Um, and um, we've also had some clogging, I mean, perpetual clogging at like WLAW, Caliber. So, I just wanted to take this space to um share with the mayor and the vice mayor since you guys sit on the 2 by two if you can resurface that conversation at one of the upcoming meetings around like what are we how are we working in partnership with the school district and public works and and BPD to really ensure that our kiddos and by extension their families um are uh safely getting in and out of school. uh because I have seen that in the media uh more recently multiple times. Um so would appreciate if you guys can have that conversation at an upcoming meeting. And then um the last item I wanted to come back to which we talked about earlier. So there was a series of questions that council member Letter was asking around like the JPA and what they should or shouldn't be doing. I don't know if what we should be doing as a body is like having some sort of resolution that clearly articulates to them like these are the needs of the city and this is what we expect for you guys through our two members to be pushing for because it just um it feels weird to be talking and asking for the same thing over and over and over again. We pay all this money and then we don't get what we need. So u I don't know what the vehicle for that is. Um, but it would be helpful to as a body really articulate like these are the things we care around care about around homelessness, put it in a document, vote

on it, and then have that go with our two representatives to the JPA. So, uh, that's all I got for this week. All right, Vice Mayor Reik.

Thank you, Mayor. and and as a um followup to um previous community requests of what happened at our um commission and boards meetings. So, as a recap, uh we did have our planning commission. We did go over our CIP presentation and so that'll be coming in front of us uh to to review and approve at some point uh soon. And then um the planning commission also um put together a report of a general plan review and and recommendations for economic development based spec specifically based on council member Matias's um request. So they're taking that on full um full head and and looking and going to um come back to us with with their recommendations. And then on um Wednesday, May 6 was our um speaking to your safety of of around the schools was this safe routes to school national bike roll and walk to school day. Um and so that I think that's that's a great spot where those conversations can begin and and I know um Chief TA has been addressing that with a couple of programs that they're working on and stuff like that. And um to reiterate um council member um Gordon's about the future leadership of Leo government day that we had on Saturday and thanks to council member Matias council member um let you mayor Sorson and myself we enjoyed we could have actually had a city council meeting that day with all of us there but um but we made sure that we didn't violate any brown acts but just want to give a special shout out to Paul Lamb, Tony Condid and Mildred Gaines from future um leadersip Valo uh government day for putting that all together along with our staff Victoria Grace Barkstdale, Natalie Peterson, and Manny Angel for being there for to help support that. And then in my

Tucker, I'm sorry. I was joking. I said I think you mean Tuck Buckford. Inside joke by the way. though. And then just just a a shout out to a a um new uh business and restaurant um Tino's Kitchen by Justina on 501 Fairgrounds. So just want to um recommend that people go visit that. So that would be my report. Great. Uh just for clarity, uh Manny made a fantastic public comment in the mock council meeting as Tuck Buckford about aliens. And I had to explain to the students that that is a perfectly accurate type of public comment that one gets at a public meeting. And with that, I will on that note, I will adjourn us at 11:52 p.m.