May thirteenth, twenty twenty six.

Um we will begin with roll call, please.

Uh Chair Mullins.

Commissioner or Vice Chair Bondsmith is attending uh remotely, although she has not yet joined us.

Commissioner Bueller.

Present.

Commissioner Canaler.

Present.

Commissioner Lipp.

Commissioner Lyons.

And Commissioner Schmitz.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll move next to non-agenda public comment.

And we have with us this evening um, Public Works Director, Aaron Smith.

Hi, good evening, uh Chair and Commissioners.

I'm Aaron Smith, I'm the city's public works director.

I definitely know some of you and look forward to meeting others.

So I'm here as part of general comment.

This came to me a little bit late, so I apologize it's not an agenda item, but I am just gonna take a few minutes of your time.

So over the last year, the city's been engaging with the community regarding an infrastructure, infrastructure challenges.

And during city council workshops last fall, they identified more than 800 million in urgent need.

This includes aging roads, storm drains, public safety facilities, accessibility in existing city facilities.

That's me adding that into the talking points because I think it's important, and where I get to, I think it'll make sense.

So I'm here tonight to update you on this work and share how we're gathering community input to prioritize these critical projects.

A recent example, we had a major power outage while the high street bridge was in the open position, and we had to wait hours for this simple issue to be resolved.

To prevent this from happening again, we're exploring backup generators to ensure residents can get on and off the island 24-7.

You likely remember the significant flooding this past January during King tides, flooding that occurred even before the rain started.

This is just a preview of how sea level rise will impact Alameda in the coming years if we don't take action now.

This is my personal note, and as I know you all are familiar with our ADA transition plan, which identifies nearly 8 million in barrier removal needed to improve accessibility at our existing city facilities.

Uh, with a little bit more detail on how implementation of that ADA transition plan is going in our city facilities.

But I can tell you at this point what we've learned is that the amount the cost estimates in our ADA transition plan as it relates to the facilities upgrades needed, is understated.

So all to say it's more than 8 million that we actually need.

And then there's other things like our pavement condition index is out of a hundred, it's 66.

And while that's slightly better than Oakland's, which is 58, it's far less than our neighbors in Emeryville and Pleasanton.

Um I wanted to note that more money for paving means when we pave, we're dealing with multiple accessibility issues, which includes curb ramp up improvement if it's an existing one that doesn't meet code, or new ramps where ramps don't exist.

So that project helps us meet the curb ramp deficiencies that were identified in the ADA transition plan.

Additional paving also improves striping, slope requirements, and crosswalks and other things that can be targeted for accessibility.

It shows up in our property values, vehicle wear and tear, rising insurance rate, and slowing emergency response time.

Without a dedicating funding source, the city is forced to use the general fund for urgent repairs, and these repairs become more expensive every year, they're un there they go unaddressed.

One option under consideration is a 300 million dollar local bond measure.

This would create a protected dedicated funding source specifically for our infrastructure needs.

If approved, property owners would pay approximately $49 per year for every $100,000 of an assessed value.

There's an example here, although I think this assessed value is fairly low for Alameda, but for a home with an assessed value of 500,000, that equates to roughly 245 dollars per year.

This funding could address things like improving accessibility at city facilities, paving additional streets, maintaining stormwater systems to prevent pollution from getting into the bay, and ensuring our first responders can react quickly to fires and medical emergencies.

We recently mailed Alameda voters an information guide and survey.

And if you haven't yet, and I'll have Lillian send this out to you, there's a dedicated website, which is at Alameda CA.gov forward slash stronger together.

That's the branding for the infrastructure bond.

And you can also review materials and also a summary of what I'm sharing now.

So what we ask and we hope is that you'll help us spread the word, and we want to hear from as many residents as possible during this time as right now, or surveying, getting input, and then in July, our city council uh will consider whether it goes on the ballot, and then the ballot would be this fall.

So this isn't a QA, but uh Lillian can share my email, and I'm more than happy to uh follow up with any questions you have.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Director Smith.

Any other public comment?

Just take a moment to see if anyone raises their hand on Zoom.

Okay, and uh let's see.

I'll also note that Vice Chair Bond Smith joined at 635 may have dropped off again.

Hopefully we'll rejoin.

So just so you guys know she is uh popping in and out.

Um we will go ahead and close non-agenda public comment at this time and move forward to um the consent calendar, which is only to uh review and approve the minutes from March 11th, 2026.

If uh there are any questions about those.

If approved, someone can just make a motion to approve the minutes, please.

My motion to approve.

Oh, second.

Okay, thank you.

Uh we'll move now to the regular agenda item.

Pardon me, should there be a vote at this point?

Once we made a motion, you need to vote then.

Uh for consent calendar, it can just be a motion and approval.

Okay, yes, sure.

Oh, because I'm gonna I'm gonna I sort of stand up was not here last time, so I want to do this properly.

Oh, yes, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so we'll go ahead and do a vote then to approve the minutes.

So um, do you want to do should we do roll call or can we do I'll say aye?

Commissioner Litt.

Yeah, you can do I'll say aye.

Okay, so I'll say aye.

Any nays?

Okay, so approved.

No.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I've noted the abstention, Commissioner Lip.

Okay.

For the regular agenda item this evening, we have um a presentation on the city parking enforcement and accessibility within the city of Alameda.

This will be um an informational item, obviously open to questions and comments at the end, but not necessarily an action uh voting item.

And let me just get the slides over here.

Um we're joined this evening by Ricardo De La Torre, the project manager for parking for the City of Alameda, and he is also has an attendance, Calvin Wong, the lead parking technician for this program.

This will be information shared about current policies and context surrounding accessible parking and public spaces throughout the city of Alameda and how parking enforcement responds to reports.

Thank you.

Good evening, Chair, Vice Chair, and Commission members.

My name is Ricardo Delatory.

I am the parking manager with Alameda's public works department.

I am truly grateful to be here tonight.

We have a fresh set of slides, hot off the press.

So this is gonna be a fun exercise.

We hope to use this slide deck uh in the future, and ultimately this will be a dry run.

If I could step outside of my role for just a moment, I want to thank the commission for the awareness that you raise and the things that you do.

I am a father of a 14-year-old son, teenagers, who has lived with an IEP for the majority of his academic life.

In our household, cognitive and sensory overload can be real at time.

So I just want to emphasize I thank you for the awareness that this commission raises, and for the work that you do.

Okay, so tonight I'm here to give you an update on our parking enforcement program with a particular focus on how we're enforcing ADA related violations across the city.

This is a topic that our team cares deeply about, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to share our progress with you.

I'll cover a brief history of how our current program came to be, explain why ADA enforcement is such a priority for us, walk through the data we've gathered since 2022, and then close with where we are headed.

So tonight I'm gonna walk you through five areas.

First, the background on how our parking enforcement program was organized and stood up.

Second, why ADA enforcement is not just a parking issue, but a safety and equity issue.

Third, our enforcement data from fiscal year 2022 through 2026.

Fourth, where our fines stand compared to other agencies, and finally, what we're doing next to continue improving.

By the way, the person pictured on that slide right there is the person in our audience.

Okay.

So to understand why we are here today, it helps to know how we got here.

Back in 2019 and 2020, the city council held a series of hearings to address long-standing gaps in our program.

Council approved two new parking technician positions, adopted an automated license plate reader policy for parking enforcement, and updated the municipal code to strengthen how we manage all of our curb space.

Then cliche COVID hit, like so many other things.

Some of this work had to a pause, hiring was delayed, parking revenue dropped literally 92% overnight, and the focus shifted to everyone's response, which was just the pandemic response.

Accelerating into November 2021, council came back to this issue and approved a significant reorganization thanks to our director of public works, Aaron Smith.

Parking enforcement was moved from the police department to public works, a change that allowed us to rebrand the program completely as a transportation management function and align it with the city's broader goals around climate, mobility, and economic vitality.

A unified parking fund was also created to make the program financially self-sustaining.

Something that's uh critical there is some agencies do not have a self-supporting singular program where there's just a parking fund, but we do.

Then, shortly thereafter, in February 2022, council introduced an ordinance giving public works the legal authority to issue citations.

Thereafter, in May 2022, the program officially launched.

I came aboard.

That meant new vehicles, new branding, new parking technicians, and an active enforcement program that took flight citywide.

That brings us to today, where ADA violations have become an increasingly important part of our enforcement focus.

So our parking enforcement mission is it's it's pretty simple to ensure that every Alameda Street is welcoming and accessible for every single person.

But when vehicles block sidewalks, crosswalks, or wheelchair ramps, that mission is failed.

This is not just a parking inconvenience.

You see, when a wheelchair user finds a ramp blocked, or when a person using a walker cannot get past a truck parked on the sidewalk, they're forced into the street and oftentimes into traffic.

Now that's a serious safety crisis.

I'm sure we'd all agree.

We've documented exactly the situation in Alameda, and you will see photos of this in just a few slides.

There's three dimensions to why this matters so much to our department and our program.

First, mobility barriers.

Blocked curb ramps and sidewalks directly prevent people with disabilities from moving freely throughout their city.

And quite frankly, that is unacceptable.

Second, pedestrian safety.

People forced off the sidewalk and into the roadway face real injury risk.

This is especially acute on some of our busier commercial corridors along Park Street and Webster Street.

And then three, our legal obligation.

The Americans with Disabilities Acts requires that accessible routes remain clear.

And enforcement is how the city holds upholds rather our legal and moral commitment.

Since we launched the enforcement program in May 2022, through the end of fiscal year 20, 25 through 26, our parking technicians have issued 471 citations, specifically for ADA related violations.

Now these violations have generated north of 64,000 in assessed fines.

That's just the fine that does not include penalties.

Penalties are assessed in the event someone does not pay the original fine amount within a certain time frame.

The stacked bar chart on this slide tells an important story.

In our first year, which is fiscal year 2022-23, we issued 41 citations.

We were just getting started at that point.

Staffing was limited, and the program was brand new.

By fiscal year 23-24, that number jumped to 124, which is essentially a three-fold increase as our team found its footing.

Then in fiscal year 24-25, this was our highest year yet, at 166 citations.

Our current fiscal year 2526 continues to show strong growth.

As of March this year, we've issued 140 citations, drought, generating roughly north of 25k in revenue, making this our highest March year to date on record.

What does that reflect?

Well, the fact that our fine amounts have been updated to better reflect the seriousness of these violations.

Parking on sidewalks has consistently been the most common violation, making up the majority of citations per year.

Disabled parking violations have been rising steadily and are now one of our largest categories.

So this table here gives you the full picture by year and by violation type.

A few things stand out.

Parking on the sidewalk, what we would cite under vehicle code 22500 franc, has been our most common ADA violation across all years, accounting for roughly 296 of our 471 total citations.

Now that's 63% of all ADA related tickets.

Disabled parking violations, and this is where someone parks in a designated disabled space without a placard or a disabled plate, has grown the most in relative terms, going from eight citations in year one to 46 in fiscal year 25-26.

That reflects both increased enforcement attention and frankly a real problem that we've been seeing out there and addressing.

Crosswalk violations went from six in year one to a peak of 23 in fiscal year 24-25.

And parking near handicap access ramps, citations under vehicle code 22522, has climbed as rather been climbing as well, going from zero in year one to 13 last fiscal year.

The total fine revenue line also tells an important story from 4600 roughly in year one to 25 just over 25,000 in the last year.

This growth reflects that more enforcement activity in higher fine amounts have been doing their job.

So this map here was pulled from our citation processing system.

It's uh turboard with this data system.

It's one of the service providers that our department is in contract with.

It shows a geographic distribution of all 471 ADA citations issued to date.

Now that is from May 2022 to March 2026.

The color coding works on a spectrum.

Where the green areas represent the highest concentration of violations, which is our hotspots, the orange indicates moderate frequency, and red represents locations with fewer citations.

And so as you can see, the densest clusters are in our two main commercial corridors, that being Park and Webster Street area, but then also take note that there's a good amount of concentration along Santa Clara and Lincoln Avenue.

Now these are busiest pedestrian areas and not coincidentally, the places where we see the most blocked handicap blocked sidewalks, rather, and curb ramps.

What I also want to point out here is the breadth of the map.

Violations are not just confined to just downtown areas, they show up in the residential neighborhoods on the west end, even out towards Harbor Bay Isle, the Gold Coast, the Silver Coast, and some of our school areas.

Now, this is exactly why our enforcement strategy involves both targeted hotspots and rotating coverage across different neighborhoods every day.

So no part of the city is overlooked.

In addition to what our parking technicians observe directly, the public can report ADA access issues through C Click Fix, our online service request platform.

And if I generated this QR code correctly, you should be able to pull out your phone, scan that QR code, and that'll take you to our public-facing request system.

It's pretty easy, just a few steps.

You can submit a variety of requests either through as a registered person or ananimously from block sidewalks, parking meter outages, street lights, traffic signals, you know, et cetera.

So when a resident, what why this is important?

When a resident sees a blocked ramp or a vehicle parked on a sidewalk, they can of course submit a report, and then our team will respond.

So there's an integration feature where a public person will submit a request, there's an integrator, and then it will come into a supervisor's point of view, and we have the opportunity to create a work order and issue it to staff.

In our case, as it relates to parking, a public request will come in, typically with a picture because they speak volumes.

I myself do request review these requests daily, and then I will assign them to our lead enforcement technician, and they'll put a set of eyes on it, and pending that we have adequate resources available, they'll respond.

Now, this is not something, even though the public can submit requests in real time, it does not mean, and we do respond to the public once a request is made.

This does not mean that we respond in real time.

Think of PD.

Just because a call is made to PD that hey, if there's a traffic accident, they're not there with, you know, not always, but uh within a reasonable time frame.

But at least what's what's helpful is we're able to identify where some of these hotspots are, where some of these requests are coming from.

Uh, this is um uh a true fact.

This last year we began to receive more and more requests by means of our outreach to the school superintendent with Alamie Alameda Unified, making them aware of this C click fixed platform.

We began to see a ton of requests.

What type of requests would you see uh in some of these school zones?

Well, it was just parents dropping off their kids, trying to get them off to school.

Unfortunately, however, our enforcement team's observations was there's not always a dedicated drop-off zone.

So what happens is it complicates the scenario, and they observe vehicles parked on crosswalks.

They're trying to do the right thing, but at least the point I'm trying to make is we're able to identify where some of these areas are so that we can align some of our efforts pending uh the resource availability, so as you can see here, the data is striking.

Here in uh calendar year 2023.

Was we received 60 ADA-related service requests through C Click Fix.

That grew to 102 in 2024 and then peaked to 161 in 2025, which is a threefold increase nearly in just two years.

Moving into 2026, that figure of 30 floor 34.

The reason it's low is because it only reflects from January to April.

So it's just uh it's an ongoing active uh period, and we do expect the full year to be substantially higher as the months progress.

So we take these reports seriously, as I mentioned before, each one reflects a real person who was unable to navigate their neighborhood as they had every right to do.

The growth in reports is a sign of both increasing community awareness and of the trusts residents are placing in us to respond.

Between our own citations and the community reports that we do respond to, we're building a comprehensive picture of where these access barriers are, and of course, we're working to address them.

So I should have noted at the beginning of this presentation that none of these photos were pulled from Google.

These are all photos from taken by our citation team or enforcement team.

The photo on the left, of course, shows a pickup truck parked squarely across a marked crosswalk and a wheelchair curb ramp.

The yellow truncated dome tiles, those little textured yellow strips at the curb are completely inaccessible.

A wheelchair user, someone with a walker, a parent with a stroller, none of them could have used that ramp.

In this particular situation, the vehicle received citations under multiple vehicle codes for the wheelchair curb, blocking handicap access.

And I would ask, who can guess what the citation amount was?

I will tell you it was north of 550.

Not a good way to spend your money.

The photo on the right is from June 2025.

You'll see a white van parked entirely on the sidewalk there in the background.

If you zoom in, you can see a man walking with a cane, and this person was forced uh in uh to rather to walk around the nose of the van and into the roadway.

Our enforcement team observed this.

Of course, the van had received a citation.

It's there on the window and visible.

And these are one of many types of situations that we're trying to prevent.

The lower picture, excuse me, uh shows a vehicle blocking a sidewalk as well.

What's unique about this picture here?

And I'll just speak on this.

Our enforcement coverage, our operating hours, if you will, are Monday through Friday, 4 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

So what we're trying to target in those two time slots are some of our early morning uh street sweeping hours, and then towards the tail end of the day, some of the business districts.

Initially, when we started the program, we were only enforcing to 6 p.m.

But then there were we worked with our our uh merchants in our business districts to to see where we could improve.

And so we took it a step further and we expanded our enforcement coverage by one hour because there was an immediate need in some of these downtown uh business district corridors.

What were these issues?

Well, it was to be quite honest, it was the Uber Eats drivers and just the delivery trucks that were trying to you know do their business, but they were just parking right in the middle of the intersection, loading docks, landing right on a crosswalk, and it was uh it was creating a variety of problems.

So that picture there shows a demonstrates or rather reflects uh some of our uh early morning enforcement.

So, of course, wanted the commission to see that these images they make concrete evidence what some of these numbers on these previous slides represent.

Every one of those 471 citations reflects a situation like one of these.

There we go.

Here's another slide with a couple pictures where vehicles you can see are parking uh on a sidewalk, an SUV parking on a crosswalk, blocking a curb ramp, and you can see the fine amounts.

It's no fun.

And if you look further into the picture behind the black Toyota, you can see a truck that was parked 18 inches away from the curb, facing the wrong side of the street, and then adjacent to that, parallel to that rather, was another vehicle parking on the sidewalk.

I mean, this is a real real, real common issue.

Here's a couple more cities just to sort of demonstrate the territory by which our team canvasses.

So this is, I believe, the 1300 block of 3rd Street near Insanel High School.

There is a common occurrence where vehicles are blocking a, you know, an access ramp, and the same vehicles will get a citation.

Sometimes they pay them, sometimes they won't, but it's just demonstrates demonstrates that we are trying to be everywhere as much as possible.

And then here again, near Ensignel High School.

The picture on the left you can see is where the pictures on the right are actually parked.

What's interesting about these photos is not the fine amount, and why the black vehicle received two citations and had to pay 298 dollars.

But the vehicle just behind it, the red vehicle with this the disabled placard, was trying to do the right thing, park in a designated uh accessible space.

Unfortunately, the high school student that parked the black car had no regard for the uh red curb that they were parked next to or the blue curb line.

So what was the outcome?

Well, it ended up pushing the person with the accessible uh vehicle uh placard, that vehicle back.

It's a little hard to see, but if you zoom in, it pushed that vehicle into a ramp, which is you know, it's uh unfortunate for two situations.

Number one, we did not end up giving the red vehicle a citation here because they were trying to do the right thing.

The black vehicle did receive a citation.

There was a decent or adequate-ish enough space behind the red vehicle so that a user could use that curb ramp, but this happens all the time.

Here's another one near one of our, I believe it's a class one bike lanes on uh Clement Avenue.

This vehicle received a citation uh approximately $375, and the violations are clear blocking a bike lane, crosswalk, access ramp at 11 in the morning.

Okay, so I want to spend a moment on our fine structure because it's directly relevant to this deterrence question.

Our current ADA-related fines are already among the highest in our general Bay Area region, with the exception of SFMTA, that being San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Parking in a designated space without a valid placard carries a $353 fine.

Parking within the access aisle adjacent to a handicap wrap is $316.

Now, blocking a wheelchair curb cut is $237.

Now, these are not trivial amounts, and they they do reflect the city's commitment to treating accessibility violations as serious offenses.

However, staff has reviewed our fine structure against comparable agencies in the Bay Area, and we believe that there is room to go further.

As part of the upcoming master fee schedule update, we're proposing to increase these fines that will be taken to City Council June 2nd this year.

Now, the goal is not to generate revenue, but to increase compliance.

It's also, you know, there to uh create a stronger deterrence.

We want the financial consequence to be significant enough that drivers think twice before parking in an accessible space or simply blocking a ramp.

So I want the commission to know that this work and as part of this master fee schedule update, it is underway, and we are year over year committed to making sure that our fine structure is as strong as possible.

So let me close with where we are headed.

First, expanding our patrol coverage.

Also going to city council on June 2nd as part of our mid-cycle update is the ask for one additional full-time parking enforcement position.

So currently we have two full-time parking enforcement technicians and three part-time.

I'll say that again.

Two full-time, three part-time.

Come June 2nd as part of the mid-cycle budget.

We are asking for an additional, which means we would have three full-time, three part-time.

Why is that important?

We have three zones across the city of Alameda from the East End to the West End, with three full-time enforcement technicians and three part-time technician parking enforcement technicians.

We can have two enforcement human beings in per zone.

And so, of course, we would naturally have an additional part-time person just as a floater, you know, responding to calls and such, but it really is an important ask to council.

We are trying to be everywhere, and we cannot.

Second, proposed fine increases.

As I mentioned on some of the previous slides, the upcoming master fee schedule update will recommend, or rather, include recommendations to raise these ADA related fines.

And we believe that this is an important next step in strengthening this deterrence.

The third one is education.

We will continue our outreach efforts on our commercial corridors, and a lot of times that's just our presence, which also includes the residential areas to help drivers understand why these accessible routes must remain clear.

And this is especially important, as I've noted earlier, for some of our loading and unloading situations where we often see commercial vehicles, you know, stopping on sidewalks or in front of uh ramps, and then fourth, the data-driven enforcement.

We're committed to using our enforcement data, heat maps, see click fix reports, citation trends to continuously refine where and how we deploy our team.

So as the city grows and patterns shift, we will naturally adjust accordingly.

Our mission has not changed.

Every street should be welcoming and accessible to every person.

We know that we're not there yet, but the data shows we are making real progress and we are committed to continuing that work.

So I want to thank you for the opportunity to present this information to the commission.

I hope this gives you somewhat of a clear picture of where our ADA enforcement program stands and then the direction that we are heading.

I want to personally thank chair, vice chair, and the commission members for all the work that you do, your advocacy with you know for persons on with disabilities in Alameda in Alameda is exactly the kind of engagement that helps us prioritize what matters most.

So please accept this presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Speaker De La Torre.

At this time, we'll do clarifying technical questions just to um reiterate that this is just a time for any clarifying questions related to the presentation or data presented within.

And we then we will ask for any public comments and then after that, we can ask for a motion that might be related to the presentation or the material contained or anything that the commission would like to put forth, as well as then discussion amongst commissioners and other clarifying questions or excuse me, discussion questions.

Thank you.

I just have one.

I just have one.

First of all, thank you for the presentation.

That's great.

Um you had mentioned that there is or actually your charts showed the growing numbers of citations that have been given.

So for clarification, is it because you have more people out there giving the citations, or do you think it's because people's behavior is getting worse, or is it both?

I think it's a comment.

Thank you for the question, Commissioner Schmitz.

Saying that correctly.

Yes.

I think it's a combination of both.

You know, when we inherited this program in 2022, there was a couple things that were happening.

We were training enforcement technicians how to do their job.

They were at the same time learning a laundry list of municipal codes and vehicle codes, so just learning like what do we have the authority to cite.

They were learning the 14 square miles of Alameda, and as years progressed, we said, hey, let's use some of this uh C-click fixed data to say how can we weave bake some of these um areas in?

Um, and just to give you some some perspective, when enforcement go technician goes out, just because they have a designated route, let's say a street sweeping route, right, to do all some of the time zones, etc.

They're not solely focused on hitting street sweeping signs.

If in fact they're crossing a street and they happen to see a vehicle parked in a fire near a fire hydrant, boom, citation, or any other type of violation along their normal travels, they'll issue a citation.

So to go back to the question, you know, more enforcement means that we could just have more coverage to issue citations.

And I just want to touch on one piece.

You know, when we inherited this program, we hired a parking consultant to help us with some of our revenue projections, right?

How are we going to support our own program?

Is this going to be a self-sufficient program with the citation revenue?

We had salaries that we needed to support, service provider agreements that we needed to support.

And at the time, our parking consultants projected that one full-time person should issue about 14 to 24 citations.

So Ricardo comes in and as the parking manager, first parking manager in the city of Alam, he says, okay, let's see how we can get there.

I will tell you to date.

How long has that lasted, Ricardo?

That's been lasting since I would say January 2023.

It was very, very quick.

The adoption rate on how to start issuing citations, understanding what our authority to cite what cite was was very quick.

I will say that Alameda is a leader in the citation issuance.

Our team knows the municipal code and the vehicle code very well to further uh uh uh go further on this uh topic.

Have we seen a decrease or uh an increase a decrease in compliance because we've been issuing more citations?

I regret to inform you, not really, not really.

It doesn't matter, people do not care, so we keep issuing citations.

The next question may be, well, Ricardo, have you been noticing that you've been issuing the site same citations to the same vehicles for ADA-related citations?

Sometimes, but not often.

Some of our frequent flyers are those that are parking near their house in a street sweeping zone, or the people that are um patroning some of our businesses, um, and just not paying the meter.

If it's just, you know, whether they're, you know, service providers or what have you.

So I hope that that's a a very bachelor way of responding to the question, but I was hoping that you know more that would be better.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

And then just another quick follow-up from that is you said your citation technicians are they the only ones who write these tickets, or does Alameda PD, an officer on patrol write those tickets as well?

It's a great question.

So currently uh public works owns the parking violations.

So as part of our master fee schedule, there's a list of violations that our team has the authority to cite.

Currently in the master fee schedule, weaved in our citations that are moving violations, such as like mooring or parking in a class.

There's a there's like a bike a bike lane violation that only a sworn officer can issue a citation against because it's a vehicle traveling for an extended amount of time in a bike lane.

So we identified this, and it's been a task item of mine for literally two years, was to delineate and separate what exactly is public works authority and what is PD's authority.

Um so that will debut uh likely July 1 as part of as soon as um once council uh adopts the the master fee schedule.

Um, but to to answer the question about you know, are we the only one?

No.

Our um uh police department will issue citations.

They just do not have police technicians or non-sworn staffing resources available to issue the types of citations that that we do.

And that that segues into why public works inherited took over this parking program, not to discredit our our awesome PD staff, but they didn't have a dedicated parking program with parking enforcement technicians.

One of our lead enforcement technicians did work for the police department as like a police uh assistant doing a variety of functions, um, but the need was greater, and we identified it and said, hey, if we if we inherit this and create a program out of create something out of nothing, then we can you know hopefully decrease or excuse me, uh increase compliance and de decrease some of this unsavory parking behavior.

Thank you.

No, all right.

We're doing clarifying questions, so yeah, go for it.

All right, thank you very much.

Um great presentation as well.

And you kind of touched on this a minute ago, but you mentioned again the self-sustaining feature of this program.

Could you give me a little more information about what that means in terms of the overall budget for the program?

And does that include all the equipment and the training?

Um, and how does it all fit into the new position you're gonna be requesting funding for?

That's a that's a great question.

Thank you, Commissioner Lipp for pronouncing it correctly.

This is the first time at this.

Okay, Commissioner, thank you.

Um, so the meaning of a self-supporting program, what that means, unlike some of the uh other programs that the city offers, we receive no general con general fund contributions.

So when we built this program out, we had to ensure that our citation revenue would support a variety of things, which included staff salaries, um our professional services, you know, our the pensions, just a fully baked program.

I wish I had a slide on it, but base essentially what what's unique about Alameda is we have a parking fund, fund 265, and within that fund are three divisions.

The first division is our civic center garage, the parking structure, so the revenue citations that that lives in that division.

Then we have the parking meters, which is all of our single space meters, curbside, surface lots, and then pay stations peppered throughout the city, and then we have the enforcement division.

So the the enforcement division is is self-supporting, and everything combined revenues go into the parking fund, and that supports staff salaries, the professional services, and everything that's baked into an overall program.

Thank you.

Any other clarifying questions?

Yeah, I have one.

First, thank you for framing this in a way that issue uh that this isn't just about accessibility, but it's also about mobility and safety and access to the city.

Cause when you mention going around a van and like a stroller or a walker, and then I'm thinking, what about someone who's visually impaired?

I can't even imagine not being able to see anything and taking the risk of walking into a street.

So thank you for that.

My clarifying question was about C-click fix.

So when citizens report violations, the are do you then issue violations, or is that just for gathering data on what's happening where?

It's a great question.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Canadler, thank you for clarifying.

It's twofold.

So the public-facing service request system serves a variety of purposes for public works and various programs in the city.

As it relates to parking, we can use the data, right?

The C click fixed data to see like where some of these you know our top concerns are and and create um a create a heat map.

But we it's just one of two avenues that we have where the community members can submit a request to say, hey, this this you know, cars uh blocking a driveway, this vehicle's been parked here for two weeks, or this vehicle is always parking in the bike lane, right?

So I review those requests every day, and we on average we'll get uh overall, not including ADA for parking-related requests, maybe 15 to 25.

Um our lead enforcement technician will put a set of eyes on them and say, okay, triage this.

How can we mitigate anything?

Because just because we received a request at 11 o'clock last night does not mean that the vehicle's gonna be there the next day.

But at least we can say that we've responded as part of our routine travels.

The other awesome way, because not everyone has a smart device, um, or or has access to a computer, is through our parking inbox.

Bear with me.

They can send an email to parking at Alameda CA.gov, but the easier way is um by calling 51052 to park.

All of this information is on our city's website.

522 Park is 5227275.

Um, and what will happen is somebody can call and report a vehicle blocking uh an access ramp.

Um, they'll talk to a real human being in Alameda, our admin staff, our admin staff will then um jump on to teams and um uh put the RP information, the reporting parties information, and then immediately in real time on our enforcement technicians handheld, they'll get an alert that such and such a report came in at such and such address.

So 510522 Park is honestly the easiest way, like well, the the quickest way to get something reported, but there's a you know a couple different options.

Thank you.

Any other clarifying questions from the commissioners?

At this time, I'll open it to um Commissioner Bondsmith if uh there's any questions there, just watching for a hand raised.

And now for public comment, um we have speaker Denise Tripanier.

Apologies, I will allow you to unmute.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay, great.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight.

My name is Denise Trapany, and I'm the board president for Bike Walk Alameda.

Um, so first of all, we wanted to uh thank staff for this presentation.

I agree it was uh really interesting to see this uh data broken out and split out uh this way.

Um and I know this isn't a QA session for for the public, um, but I I guess I just had a couple of uh questions or thoughts.

Um first of all, it's exciting to hear that we're gonna have expanded traffic enforcement resources.

Hopefully, assuming staff uh, I'm sorry, assuming council approves uh the proposals.

Um, but I I wanted to see or or I'm hoping um requesting that that um work or or those additional resources not just be used to you know increase our um the number of people uh on the road at any time issuing citations, but also that we could look at expanding our hours.

Um my understanding is that most of the traffic enforcement is you know either aligned with kind of street sweeping or during uh metered hours, but we're seeing lots of sidewalk violations, lots of bike lane violations that occur after metered hours, especially in our business districts.

Um, you've got the the food delivery drivers, um, because our bike lanes there are unprotected, um, you know, there it's very easy for them to double park and sit in there while they wait for their order.

So it's become a real problem after the metered hour.

So um that was one thing I was hoping we could um look into.

And then the other one was um I just had a question about AB 413.

That's um the state law that was passed um prohibiting parking within 20 feet of uh intersection, and I know we haven't started to really enforce that much.

So again, I know this isn't a QA, but I was just curious will the expanded resources allow us to start finally enforcing A B 413.

It's a real safety issue for pedestrians.

Thank you.

Um that was it again.

Thanks for the great presentation.

Okay, thank you, Speaker Trepanier.

Um, just checking for any other public comment.

If you have joined us remotely or via phone, you are welcome to raise your hand at this time.

Okay, seeing that there is no more, um, we will trans now go into um well, just to ask the commission if there is a particular motion that the commission would like to put forth related to this presentation, um, not to lead anything, but as Speaker De La Torre mentioned, um, he will be taking this uh information to council.

So if there is a relevant motion from the commission or any sort of recommendation within that, otherwise, we will just do further discussion and questions.

No motion.

Well, I think we need to discuss before we would do a motion.

You can do either way, okay.

Yeah.

Well, I was I would feel more comfortable, or I won't participate in a motion until like we have a little bit more of a discussion, but if others want to.

Who wants to get started?

Staff Secretary question.

So I do uh as part of one of the remote public comments.

Um, if I may I'd like to respond, I think that there's some value in just providing some further follow-up clarification on those two items.

If that's okay, Staff Secretary Jewel.

Chair Mullins, I would be interested to hear, so yes, please.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Uh fun fact, I have uh a meeting uh in the in a couple weeks with our uh bike walk uh Alameda group.

Um it's awesome they've got some new data, um, bike lane uprising, just to kind of plug what they're doing, uh, that has been helpful to uh parking enforcement where it's been able they've been able to identify some of the hot spots, um, not just in Alameda for the Alameda team, but just overall within the Bay Area.

So it's really been helpful there.

There's two points that I recall uh hearing one about expanded coverage resources if council uh approves this additional FTE uh full-time uh employee and then AB43 AB 413, which if my memory serves me right, was effective uh January 1, 2025.

So the city identified just as by means of some context, the city had identified uh you know, through some of our high injury corridors where some of these vulnerable intersections are at.

And while so in in response to that, we had daylighted a number of intersections red curb at all approaches.

One of the unique features about AB 413 to my recollection is that um we agencies have the authority to cite um vehicles that are parked within X amount of feet of an intersection that has no sign and has uh no curb painting.

Is there abuse out there?

Absolutely.

Does it happen?

Absolutely.

I will say this that during our enforcement's routine travels, they will issue a citation if it's part of their routine travels.

We cannot be everywhere all of the time.

If we receive a C-Click fix or a call about a specific vehicle, one area that is a hot spot that's um hyper focused on AB 413 here, this daylighting law is on Alameda Avenue near the high school.

That's that's one area that does come to mind.

So I just wanted to note that and part of the FTE would just further support when staff are in their routine travels.

It's you know they can just be there and then carry on with you know whatever their enforcement activities are.

Um that that touches on the on the second uh point there, but going back to the first point about expanded hours, you know what what is helpful in these situations as a letter of correspondence, uh frankly a letter to city council.

If we want to expand these hours, we need more resources.

And if we give here something else is gonna have to give, right?

So our enforcement coverage is currently from 4 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

And even with three full-time and three part-time, it's not gonna be uh fit squarely or have a perfect marriage.

There will be some gaps.

So as our can our program continues to grow, we've already demonstrated as part of our staff report going to stand to council, that this is absolutely a self-supporting program.

We can support ourselves, so there's no general fund contributions.

So I welcome any letters of support so that we can hit those mark uh hit those marks and um expand coverage, say to 8 p.m.

Walnut Creek does it.

Uh recently, the city of Oakland expanded their hours uh to uh late, I think it's 8 p.m.

And then now on Sundays.

Currently, the municipal code does not um give us the authority Alameda to um site or charge for parking on Sundays, but I'm not saying that it can't happen.

All right, once it's started.

Do you have a question?

Nope.

Okay.

Yes, so it's AB 413, is that it's been so it's 20 feet?

I was I was not familiar with that.

So how come we don't paint all the intersections within 20 feet?

No, I mean that just people know about that.

You know, that's a great question.

Um with so of course painting things, putting up signs, there's this, you know, there's sign clutter.

We can't just paint all the curbs red as colorful as as it would look, and as it's as clear as the message would be, I think that's one of the unique features of A B 413 is it does allow the agencies to not expend um uh monies uh to painting curbs.

I I don't have I'm not familiar with all the bill text in terms of how AB 3 413 got to uh you know pass through legislation, but um, you know, the I will say this as part of some of the the high injury corridors and daylighted intersections.

There's a good amount of intersections that are daylighted, all four corners painted red, and it is crystal clear.

Thank you.

Okay, go ahead.

Sure.

I can kick us off in a different direction.

Um I'm kind of curious a little bit more about how your department works and partners with other programs and departments, whether that's in the city or other programs around the county.

Um we were looking at the chart.

One of the highest uh ticketed or cited violations was parking in a space that was labeled for disabled parking but with no placard.

What, if anything, is your team doing to help make it easier for our community who we serve here on this commission to apply for and get those parking hangers and placards?

Because I I could imagine, and I want to give a lot of people benefit of the doubt that they may see that at space available, know that they have a disability that's visible or invisible, and need to go somewhere and cannot find any other parking that would be relatively close.

So, do you have any partnerships or programs that you could tell us about that makes it easier for our communities to get uh to comply with the law and be in compliance in parking?

Thank you for the question, Commissioner Bieler pronouncing that one first.

So, first for everyone, thank you for that.

Um, so in internally, our department does work with some of our neighboring departments, our uh planning, building and transportation uh departments, specifically our transportation manager that uh leads some of our commercial streets.

So they'll you know um add uh designated spaces on some of our commercial streets, you know, along Park Street and Webster Street, and so we'll become aware, and that will uh waterfall its way down to to the community before I get too further.

To touch on a point, the the city.

I'm not aware of our I know public works does not issue, of course, ADA placards in terms of the outreach that um our ADA coordinator does.

I would have to turn to um staff member Lily and Jewell to clarify some of those uh provide some clarification on what exactly the city is doing to provide resources to some of the community about like how they can you know get their placard or what we're doing.

Um I do know that as part of some of our capital improvement projects, we are in our ADA and transition plan.

We are um weaving in some of the accessibility stuff.

Couple locations that come to mind, excuse me.

Uh most recently at Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal, we had added a number of ADA spaces at that 250 space lot.

I think we increased the accessible space count by three or four.

Um at the Civic Center parking structure recently, uh so we have about a million and a half invested over there to increase the aesthetics, the security, um, and then provide some uh some accessible EV spaces.

Um, and that's you know, out of that 341 space uh facility, there's approximately 12 spaces, and we're increasing those 12 accessible spaces by like two or three.

Um at our seaplane lagoon ferry terminal, another um capital project that took off um a few years back.

We have approximately 400 public spaces of those 400 spaces, approximately 12 are accessible.

So, so as we are um building out some of the on some of these capital projects, there are additional accessible spaces, and that's from a public works front, but then of course, our transportation team has a variety of projects as well.

Great, that's helpful.

I know that my own family is going through this process, right?

It's like years-long, a million doctor's appointments, proof, and all these things, and can be really challenging.

So just giving some of those violations maybe some benefit of the doubt that maybe they they truly did need that space and it wasn't available or easy to get the placards.

So it's good to hear that you do have some partnerships there.

Um, I have some other questions that are unrelated.

I don't know if anybody has another related question around the parking in the disabled space.

I have a smattering, so I feel like I'm just gonna go ahead and take your time if you want.

Right, right, right.

Um, my next question was about um again with partnerships.

I'm just curious how this uh team is working collaboratively.

Um what are we doing to uh deal with these hot spots with the well-intentioned people you mentioned like uh school drop off and pickup, right?

Getting congestion, uh maybe blocking crosswalks or the wheelchair ramps and accessible sidewalks.

Um, what kind of programs are we doing to improve the compliance and also preserve that traffic flow and reduce obviously the violations?

That's a great question.

I think it's it's twofold.

Uh, one of the benefits, and of course, it just speaks to the benefit of having uh an ADA coordinator join public works so that we can raise that awareness broadcast to the community and the public, like this is what um accessibility means in Alameda, how it's functions and what its purpose is.

And then, of course, on the enforcement arm, we are there to increase raise the awareness.

I will say some people don't care, but people do, and uh we do um combat for lack of better terms, the unsavory parking behavior.

Absolutely.

So it's it's it's a concerted effort, but there's always opportunity to do more and welcome to any feedback.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

And I think you kind of already addressed my last question actually about the um addressing in new projects or in areas that seem to not have adequate parking.

I mean, certainly ADA accessible parking is an issue.

Um, but I think many of us have experienced issues no matter where we go on the island.

Uh we have a lot of people, a lot of cars, and not a lot of parking spaces.

I know I struggle to find space around my home as well.

Um, so it sounds like that's something that we are doing as uh a city and in the planning sessions, and I appreciate that your team is involved in that as well.

Um, and then just one minor comment that I am sure that uh Lillian could actually speak to more than me, possibly, uh, as your dry run feedback.

I think that the hotspot data might be a little bit difficult for colorblind uh individuals because the green and red were very bright, and I think that could be uh difficult to see.

So I wonder if a color assessment on that slide would be helpful for uh future presentations.

Thank you for the comment.

And just to respond, so I think that there's value in providing some of these heat maps or some of this visual data to the public, no different.

Like, hey, this is where our street lights are at.

You can go to a GIS, you know, ArcGIS map, public facing, and just kind of click around.

Um, in terms of like updating our enforcement web page, um, you mentioned that there was this reminds me of my undergrad years and color theory classes.

Um the the not complementatory colors were red and orange, you said or they were they were just tough on the eyes.

Yeah, I think the red and accessibility typically are challenging for colorblind individuals, of which I'm not one, so it's hard, but I think that's right.

Um, and yeah, I certainly understand that we were actually speaking before this meeting about maps and GIS data being difficult to make accessible, but I think maybe a different color selection would make it even more accessible.

Okay, just so just to thank you for that information.

Just to clarify that green and red, okay.

That that sistering, if you will, of the colors is tough, right?

Okay, yeah.

So maybe we can get some guidance from staff on uh more appropriate colors.

Thank you.

And I am colorblind, and so I I was I was totally lost during that slide, and that was actually a note I was gonna make right down here.

Um, also the even the graph, you had a graph of colors on it, and it was easier to follow.

But if you can maybe use different formulas, not even rely on colors at all, you can do like patterns, patterns, it would be a much more effective way, I think to communicate that data.

I think this is really taking like an interesting turn to visual accessibility and how there's just so many different kinds of accessibility.

Um, and I was about to say like one in five people has it.

So someone in this room, but we didn't want to call that person out.

So thanks for speaking up.

But yeah, different colors, different symbols, like there's just a lot of different ways to communicate visually so that people that have some sort of impairment or see differently can still get the same data.

Yeah, thank you for those um for the feedback commission members.

Um we'll work with staff to identify some of those barriers, if you will, um, and then update our slides.

Because of course it goes, you know, accessibility goes beyond parking enforcement.

There's the auditory sensory, and just a number of things.

So I welcome and appreciate any of the feedback.

And if you're working in PowerPoint, I think it actually has accessibility check, not to plug a major major corporations products, but a lot of uh software products will have accessibility checks built in.

Thank you.

Did you have a question?

I just have a comment and a suggestion.

Um, so you said that for community education, currently that's primarily your presence, right?

Yeah.

So I just had a suggestion because I think there's an opportunity for more public-facing accessibility education that helps people understand not just the rules but the lived impacts that these have.

So, like, all for the fines, because that obviously teaches people, but I still think a lot of people are open to learning, and I think that sometimes people just maybe forget.

So, like one example might be um signage.

It would be like, hey, this space is needed by somebody to exit their vehicle, or I don't know, just I'm thinking simple um clear graphics, clear words to kind of remind people, or maybe let people know that don't know why it's there.

And obviously, some people are gonna ignore it.

Like you're repeat offenders, but that could be one way to educate and enforce at the same time.

Absolutely.

So just to clear it, just to uh confirm what I'm hearing.

Uh this would be public-facing signage, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Like at the curb cut.

This curb cut is four blocks kind of like a like if it was a three-year-old and you want to explain it to them, but more for like public awareness, public education, and public engagement, too.

Did you have more?

Nope, that was it.

Okay.

Otherwise, I was gonna pile on.

Because that was it, that was a big piece of thank you very much for the presentation.

Very exciting to have this focus.

Um, I've struggled trying to get around and find parking when I need back when I had the uh, you know, a wheelchair ramp and the van, and like, you know, it's not even just having an ADA spot per se, it's like a specific type of ADA spot, you know, where I can open, you know, to the right side, or you know, it it can be a huge frustration and it can curtail activities, like people, you know, we would end up going home sometimes, so very important work.

Really appreciate the efforts.

Um I had something of a reaction about um, I have a concern that I I worry about there being an association with uh ADA requirements and kind of a sum zero type of thinking and associating, you know, disabled spots with just a kind of a backlash.

So I love the idea of winning hearts and minds on this journey, you know, and I don't not that it's your job to do this necessarily or it falls within your remit, but just something to keep in mind, even in the communication about the project you are doing.

I think it's important to have enforcement, it's important that folks understand in this community we take it seriously, and that this the spots reserved for certain users, you know, with the placards with the certain um, you know, rights to use those spaces, we're gonna take that seriously.

It's not just a suggestion.

So enforcement is a piece of that.

I also think awareness is a huge thing.

I think I'm confused about the cutouts and the curb, and like I didn't necessarily know that you couldn't park in front of a cutout like at the end of Third Street.

Like, I'm you know, I might have committed that type of an error, you know.

And then with the AB 413 example where signage isn't necessarily required, paint isn't necessarily required.

I just feel like there's an element of a more um like let's do this together, Alameda approach, you know, and not to say, again, not thinking some zero about this, not to say we don't pursue the enforcement aspect, which is you know, I think it's it's a hangover from COVID as well, when it was, you know, for years, there was almost no parking enforcement, which you know, we were dealing with other things as a community, but kind of as we get back online, so to speak and come back, you know, and are um having friction and bumping up against each other and trying to, you know, share this.

What was it, 14 square mile space?

Fun fact I learned tonight.

Um, I just think there's another element that collectively, you know, as part of what we're here to do is raise awareness and have people want to comply and there's just this opportunity that we have with the human element, and I remember like when I would go around with my daughter and I would have this, it was just like having a bullhorn with no bullhorn by just being human beings and just being like, Are you gonna use that spot?

Cause we really need it, you know, with somebody just kind of perched in an ADA spot.

And I I just wonder if there's this is my thought that I had.

I'm not a marketer and I'm not a professional in this area, but I'm gonna pitch it anyway.

Is like, do we have like this kind of lower level quote unquote enforcement?

It's like I had a little note, you know, it's friendly, and it's like, hey, do you know you have neighbors here in Alameda who like really need this spot?

Like, I don't know how we would articulate it, but something just along the lines of, you know, like just part of the reason why it occurred to me sorry I'm on a ramble here but like part of the reason why it occurred to me is also I don't know if increasing the fines is going to increase compliance and at the end of the day you know our commission I think is really focused on how do we and not to say you're not but like one of the things I feel like I I'll just use an I statement I'm laser focused on how do we actually open up these spots or like keep them turning you know for the people who like are really like desperately need to go to that store go to that appointment and those spots are like being misused.

And so I just want to get creative with the approach to it and I worry about the backlash like not really driving compliance and I worry about um the uh like a bigger more societal thing is it's a form of a regressive tax.

You know and there are folks who just are in a hurry they have two jobs they're in between you know they're on their way from one to another and they just get another parking ticket and it's just like it's a snowball effect and I just think we need to be mindful of that and we need to hold all these things and like continue to march forward.

So I'm just gonna give that a voice here not that it's yours to solve necessarily but let me give you a chance to respond I've had a a lot of comments here.

Not necessarily even any questions but yeah I'm interested in your your thoughts.

Commission member um Mullings um you know it helps me think about what CHP did to address um one of their issues blast it on the freeway through some of these blackout signs blank out signs.

Save a life don't drink and drive right it was front and center.

So some of your feedback helps me think about the work that we're doing at Civic Center where we're actively putting up some of our paid parking signage right I I think there may be an opportunity to incorporate some non-regulatory signage that has visuals that just maybe that could be a pilot site where we um educate the community of this space is made like a 24 square sign this space is for you know and there's a variety of images because there's of a variety of human beings that should have access to this space.

And then just to kind of transition into a question clarifying question that you had a uh um commission member Bieler what are we doing as an agency or rather as a department uh let me just zoom out as an agency to work with some of our um other agencies as it relates to signage kudos to our transportation manager Lisa Foster does a ton of work with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission um in trying to get grant funding for wayfinding signage we have um an on-call graphic designer to create such signage so I do know that we are in the process of securing um some MTC grant funding uh for wayfinding signage throughout our um uh our downtown areas so I'll make sure that you know we put our feelers out there and kind of see this this inquiry to see if it's something that we can pursue because if it's gonna help the human beings that have every right to be here live here and have access to everywhere it it sounds like the right thing to do.

I love that I just want to comment oh yeah I got so excited when we started talking about that I think that's such a cool idea you know that this stuff is yes like you're the pro.

This is the expert over here I really do kind of geek out on this stuff because that's so important um to so many people and I want to believe that the majority of the people don't do things on purpose they're not meaning to take away a spot from somebody who needs it they're in a hurry they're concerned about their what their need is in that moment but I think there's so much that we can do from an education perspective.

I remember crossing a street and having someone making a comment about how annoying those yellow little things were you know to to push a stroller across and it's like well I get it is annoying it's a little bumpy you know if you're on a bike or a baby is being pushed across it's annoying but do you really know what they're for I don't think they it was a malicious comment it was truly an uneducated comment.

And so I also believe that we are a very small big island and I love all the things like everybody belongs here.

That's like such a cool thing for us to have a platform for um so I want to come from a place of I don't we're not I don't think you were doing it on purpose I think we are here for each other and if we start with education um I think that would go a long way so even giving a ticket because they you gotta get a ticket I mean if you're blocking a sidewalk you need a ticket um but adding something into it I think is an an amazing idea just to know did you know that you know there's somebody in this neighborhood who is in a wheelchair and can't get through or um you know I walk my dog every night and I can't I made the joke a while ago that I wish we had badges because I'm like dying to walk around the ticket book.

I walk my dog to the neighbor and I can't get over how many people block driveways.

Oh yeah.

And my mind immediately goes to a wheelchair or a stroller or a you know just a mother pushing her kid into the street to get around a car and it's infuriating.

Again do I think they park there and say I'm going to block this driveway so no one can get by no I think they can't find a parking spot and they pull in and they don't think about it.

So I love the idea coming from an educated perspective because guess what?

If you're not gonna pay that ticket you're not gonna pay that ticket.

You know what I mean?

Like the ticket has to happen but a lot of people just don't pay their tickets and they don't care.

Yeah.

So anyway.

And not to get like too too down the rabbit hole but like it even could be like you get a ticket but what if we had like an not an amnesty program but like a volunteer program like you know and we say like hey you know I just I do worry about the financial burden just because tickets snowball.

Yeah and maybe it's like my past experience when I was a student.

Like we get a lot of tickets and then you know it just it can be really burdensome.

And I just I don't want to create that adversarial relationship especially in the ADA context if we can to the extent we can avoid it or you know like if we can mitigate it a bit I think it just it could be great.

I don't know totally agree trying to see the opportunity in the crisis but again I'm not asking for you and your department you know in in all that you have on your plate to solve for this but just it's maybe an idea you know where we can I don't know take on more like put it in our newsletter Lillian's here and we'll solve it.

We're asking you to get involved have a contest where somebody creates yeah you know something that they can include in their ticket.

We're not asking you to solve it we're saying would you participate in something if you know could we do some sort of combination with a group of people that allows you not to actually do the work but maybe distribute the education.

Yeah thank you for the for the uh feedback you know another a unique alternative that may um complement this is and it just helps me think about you know from time to time staff will receive uh an alert email saying hey we have um you know some undergrad interns or high school interns looking for work and it's a paid position right and so what what I start to think about is you know downtown parking ambassadors that could say hey I'm here to tell you the rules here's a fun flyer before they give you a citation right and then on that flyer it's just like how to save a life or how to um uh you know park squarely how to be a good parker absolutely and then just I'm just thinking out loud in terms of like the actual on the actual citation itself we have language on the front language on the back we could think about maybe incorporating some sort of tagline that is neutral universal but just kind of touches on like hey like you got this yeah some here's something to think about in I just come it what comes to mind is like a fortune cookie.

It is literally five to seven words but you'll sometimes just remember that and just that'll hit home.

Yeah and I think we just again going back to the theme of how much this area of living in Alameda has changed in the last five years and just all the changes with the what is it project zero I can't remember what it's called is that what it's called like just and just the different bike lanes and you know for those of us who took our driving tests many many months ago you know it's not and it wasn't even what we learned originally.

So I think again assuming good intent you know and just like knowing people for the most part, want to do the right thing.

So, how do we like tap into that a bit as part of this whole big picture.

And then I chair, I just want to also go ahead.

Yes, please.

Say yeah, absolutely to both of the all the things you've all said, and to reemphasize that like community building aspect, which is something that we really care about, and our next item we'll kind of talk about.

And I like the idea of that incorporation of the language on signage or even the citation itself, that something that's saying we're all in this together, we all belong here, like can be considerate and think about your neighbors who maybe you did inconvenience at this moment when you were rushing into the store because you just needed one thing.

Yeah.

And I think staff would accept feedback from what to essentially model what some of our neighboring agencies are doing too or within the region just to further support uh a unified approach for this type of um guidance signage.

Sorry, if I may oh go ahead.

So uh, just when you uh sorry, after your comment, uh Commissioner, let Vice Chair Bond Smith has your hand raised online.

And then I have Commissioner Lyons list that I have not forgotten, so just for the record, but go ahead, please.

Well, I think we're kind of on the same page in terms of the focus on education.

Um and I noticed community education was your third priority there as well.

And I might throw out that rather than hiring another code enforcement person, why not look at some of those funds to hire a community education manager to help work with the community to uh broaden this message, right?

Um a million years ago, I I was the citywide volunteer director for the city of Attempti in Arizona, and we had a huge pro we had over a thousand volunteers every department, including the police department.

And I think there's really uh a room for a volunteer initiative here in terms of education component, um, the fuzzy, the warm fuzziness, right?

And and and also, you know, it's still you can still take your phone out and you can take the picture of the repeated offenders as well.

So I would I would encourage the department to maybe step back and look at some of those options in terms of that that uh overhead person and what they could do for the department and the community.

Okay, okay.

Thank you, Commissioner Lip.

Um Commissioner, excuse me, Vice Chair Bond Smith, you can unmute uh to communicate, please.

Okay, go ahead.

Hi, can you hear me okay?

I can go in that background noise on the way.

Um thank you so much for that presentation.

My question is about our enforcement for the uh private point, but when we try to think of the half popular and phone thinking, like, and then we all and the reason I'm asking, I try to understand if they're gonna be a little bit more than that.

If anyone got that, can you repeat it?

Tell me about violations, ADA spots.

Okay.

Um sorry, Vice Chair Bond Smith.

I just emailed you.

Can you just email me your question so I can read it to the group?

I'm afraid we couldn't quite understand the audio.

Apologies.

For audio accessibility.

If it's okay, maybe I'll just yeah, right now with Commissioner Lyons.

Yes, I'll give you a moment to join, but did send some questions.

Um, one that I just want to voice in the um meeting, but I think you've answered it.

But it was something about is there a way for citizens to take photographs and submit misused ADA parking spots to parking enforcement?

And I think you've addressed about that by the examples from C click fix.

Do I have that right?

That is correct.

Okay.

Um and then just to be clear, that's somewhat asynchronous.

Like it might not result in immediately, you know, someone driving up and dealing with it, but at least it's been logged and to the extent it sounds like you all consider how you could respond to it, whether it's, you know, you know, something less than in real time, but um yeah, go ahead, please.

That is correct.

Uh so I look at uh we so the C click fix requests comes in, it integrates with our enterprise asset management system not to get all techie, but then it comes into our uh work order management system called Lucity.

So every morning between 7 7 30 a.m I hop on Lucity, I look at all the requests that come in, I'll make staff aware.

I will generally look at uh Lucity around the afternoon hour no guarantee sometimes it's once a day but it is absolutely once a day.

While that's a good thing that we have this platform, a better way to make staff aware of this is absolutely call in 510 522 7475.

522 Park that is I was gonna try to show off that remembered that but you didn't really know but it's very good and you've like you've given me the mnemonic to to remember it so that's awesome.

And I think that goes more it sounded to me like from your earlier comments that's a potentially more calculated to get a quicker response if the other timings and elements line up.

Correct and it for clarification it's 7275.

Going back to my elder millennial mind when uh we used to memorize everyone's number um yes 7275 um and they will um uh be able to talk to one of our public works administration staff who will take in that uh report and then broadcast it via Teams which will land on our enforcement staff's handheld device got it and then continue on the theme of um misuse of the ADA spots um it wasn't clear from the visual um is the knobhill shopping center considered a hot zone or it wasn't clear to me that's I'm I don't want to attribute that to Commissioner Lyons but just we want to talk about the Knob Hill shopping center and I don't know if it qualifies as a hot zone just based on what we looked at today.

I won't claim colorblindness is the reason but I just couldn't quite figure it out but um if it's not a hot zone uh or I don't know if you know offhand I know we talked about Park Street and Webster being known hot zones.

Yeah and so thank you for uh bringing the bringing up the question the City of Alameda when we inherited this enforcement program we uh unlike PD we only have the authority to site in the public right of way or any public owned space so streets um off street lots parking garages etc.

So places think of like South Shore Center Knob Hill those are out of public works jurisdiction now this kind of ties into the question that you had asked like you know so so who who issues citations to what?

Well PD does have authority to issue citations in these private lots if you know there's a number of private streets HOAs in the city um those are out uh outside of our enforcement jurisdiction so we truly rely on PD and their efforts I cannot report on the data for that but um I wish I could we get calls all the time from HOAs apartment complexes where this is uh an issue um especially on the base but ultimately citywide and unfortunately the our hands are tied.

Got it so I'm gonna push on that a little bit I understand that um how that's clearly true in the enforcement sense, but I'm wondering, you know, and specifically Commissioner Lyons has like outlined a a specific recurring problem spot in front of the UPS store, there's a a ADA spot that's it sounds like misused quite a bit.

There is an ice cream place right next door, and sometimes the UPS truck even is in there.

Um so just with an example like that, and we have you know, a great well it well defined scenario to consider, is there a way that your what's under your um remit, like you could incorporate information like that into kind of that broader picture of like how are we dealing with this, you know, across the city, you know, and not to say like you you obviously can't send your enforcement technician out there, but you know, we could do outreach to the shopping center or you know, you pass it on to another department.

Like I don't know if it that I have no idea how like back to your question, how do people, you know, in different departments work together, or who do we, you know, how does that not just go into a void?

You know, and just like it's everybody's pointing a finger, and I'm not saying you're doing that nefariously, but it's like if it falls in the interstices, like how do we get it addressed because it sounds like it's a pain point.

Yeah.

That's a good question.

If you turn something into C click fix and it was Nob Hill, would you then hand it over to PD?

Like it wouldn't go to you if it's like not public right-aways, it sounds like.

Yeah, so there's no discrimination when the uh person submits a C click fix request, they can just click anywhere on the map and say, I'm gonna submit a uh the a street light outage over on the Bay Farm Bridge, right?

Um so but to answer the question if I receive a let me just back up.

When we receive these C click fixes, we have a canned response with a ver um a good amount of language that will cover most of the questi typical questions that we will receive.

When I come across a specific C click fix that has that that has to do with a private area, I will res I will change I will not send that canned response and I will send a public message to that person so that they get an email that says like, hey, this is this is what's going on in this area.

Um I will note uh one of the unique differences between public works and PD is PD has the authority to cite uh blocked driveways.

We do not.

So I would say of let's just say an arbitrary number of the four hundred uh C Clay fixes that we get in a day, I would say 30% would be um block driveways.

So what happens in that scenario?

We notify the person uh via our canned response that blocked driveways are under the authority of um APD, I'll meet a police department, and then what they should do is call the n non-emergency dispatch line 51037 8340.

Um if it's not a block drive and I feel like it's a unique scenario, and the person provided their contact information, I'd say 70% of our requests come in as anonymous.

Um I will reach out to that person and say, hey, just letting you know that this is outside of our jurisdiction, that way they can talk to a human being and um and hear someone um say that this is um how this can be mitigated.

This is who you can call to talk to another real person.

I'm just wondering, like, as a city, do we have any engagement with South Shore Corporation and Knob Hill Corporation, you know, and just say like, hey, you know, our residents are reporting that the ADA spots are like not being honored as a I don't know, because I assume they're responsible for that enforcement.

I will say kudos to our often uh awesome, I think she stayed in Liby with she's still maybe with us.

Our public information officer Sarah Henry does a phenomenal job, operates out of the city manager's office, so she really leads all of the public communications that's just not in the public right-of-way, but it really canvasses all, you know, 80,000-ish people, which includes some of these private areas.

Uh we are on boarding a new, well, the city is will be has a new uh PIO coming aboard, so um again, a probably a concerted effort between them and maybe you know, our department working with our ADA coordinator to figure out how we can um uh push this information to some of our subscribers, you know, make it easier for folks to access on the website.

I mean, let's face it, not everyone has access to the internet, um, whether it be door hangers or or mailings or something, you know.

Okay.

Um so it sounds like for that type of situation, if you're in front of the UPS store and seeing this issue, calling the non-emergency number is probably the most reasonably calculated effort to get that addressed absolutely okay um another question and I don't know if you're gonna have this information so just about uh parks and rec and like do we know um what the requirements are in terms of um percentage of ADA spaces um for a park or a pool um for example like it sounds like it and interestingly like the incidental high school pool was the example and there was only one space and we actually had a visual of that one space earlier um and then the note was that the bike being locked to that post actually would prevent you know the probably the use of a ramp if that was needed in that space and just kind of trying to understand is that really sufficient for that um that type of public uh location and whether we know what the minimum requirement is for that.

That's a great question just to speak more broadly on that I know that the ADA transition plan does identify uh no it's it's a healthy you know six-digit um uh plan that that helps identify a variety of public facing sites I I can't not speak to uh all sites that I think bureau very toss was the one who did the assessment um but I will say that um provided funding of bail availability if we can incorporate or at least chip off some of these um items that are identified at some of these sites then we will okay and I think the the ask here is just understanding what the maybe that's part of that ADA transition plan I'm sure I don't remember but like trying to get a little more um insight into like what that minimum percentage of ADA spots are do you know?

I I have a little bit of experience that just from from my my work.

So there are different requirements different and it depends on the the building use type okay or the facility use type but then also those requirements generally aren't triggered unless the owner the landlord is doing work.

So say a place has one space it may not be currently compliant but it was when it was built but unless they're not starting a new project there they're not gonna make them go.

Because that's just not not realistic or feasible.

Yeah and this question was about like city run parks and recreation sites.

I can I know how to look into what the requirements are for minimums.

Okay and just like maybe just advocating that you know that seems to be a an area where you know we want to make sure folks are coming in and being able to use the facilities and not unable to park in the first place.

But yeah go ahead yeah and then just to to piggyback on that so one of the triggers for the the the project they're managing at Civic Center parking garage you know when we when we um submit an application to the building department for a project of course they're gonna say well what is the valuation so we know what amount of fees to assess for for civic center garage for example it was forty thousand dollars in fees because of the valuation further because of the valuation exceeded that quarter million dollar mark that in fact triggered um the a variety of accessibility uh requirements got it okay so of course in in turn restriping uh a number of stalls and then a similar sort of flag on um shoreline boulevard drive whatever that along uh street is um near crown memorial that uh it looks like there were uh like commissioner Lyons noted it looks like there are four ADA spaces between Broadway and Grayne just by visual observation um and they're all on the interior side um so you know all inland not on the beach side so um and then there were none near the bird watching area so just a a notation that that might not be a sufficient offering um for that access to that area so the question is is it possible to expand those or you know rethink what kind of access I not to answer that question really I would think like it would be hard to have them on the exterior side because it open it would open into the bike lane, wouldn't it?

It would either be open into traffic or open into bike lane for a RAM.

And it has to be on the interior because it opens on the sidewalk.

But anyhow, that's my like two cents on that.

That's a great question.

So just to clarify that, sounds to me like you're referencing Shoreline Drive on the um the north side.

Um, and if I could turn to one of our subject matter experts uh who knows has an intimate relationship with Shoreline Drive, um, the accessible spaces on Shoreline Drive on the south side, so on the uh beach side.

Are you aware of any spaces?

Uh accessible spaces, ADA spaces, no?

No.

Interesting.

Okay.

And so, and then the other part of that was it seemed like they were more concentrated on the gosh, I'm gonna try to do it west.

I don't know.

I guess that's the west end, the west side, and not the the like more eastern end towards Broadway where the bird watching area is, and that seemed like um a potential lack.

So just noting that and seeing if uh, you know, if there's a list of wish list of places where some ADA accessible um parking is.

Yeah, and then so who would typically take the lead on that would be um generally public works if it's not if it's outside of the state route 61 that runs through Alameda east to west, um, then it would generally be public works and they would incorporate any sort of additional accessible spaces as Director Smith previously mentioned during some of these pavement improvement projects or um even when they do some of the curb and gutter replacement projects.

Okay, thank you.

As in that I will highlight as part of our um awesome sidewalk program that is ramped up.

No pun intended.

Very good.

You know your audience.

Okay.

Um, Vice Commissioner, yes, if I may, um Vice Chair's questions, so I'll just ask them as if she were asking them, Speaker De La Torre.

Um you may have already answered this one um in this entirety, but I want to just honor the question.

This is the one she tried to say over the phone.

My question is about ADA spots located in private parking lots.

Is there a difference in the enforcement of ADA spots and lots owned by private businesses versus those on city streets?

My concern is if there is an equity issue between the enforcement and public versus private parking lots and ADA spots.

So since you already spoke to a bit of that, I'm gonna include her follow-up question.

Um the number of ADA violation parking citations that are issued by APD, is that data publicly available?

And if not, would it be possible to get and share that data to provide a comparison with the ADA parking citations issued by public works?

That's a great question.

I have the capability of pulling the data that some officers issue as it relates to ADA citations.

For I would assume the majority of citations that sworn officers cite.

To get a complete picture, like a FOIA.

And then combine the data.

Okay.

Just take the two data sets, you know.

And then another question, um, somewhat related as well, if you'd like to speak more to that.

Uh I think my concern is about a possible disproportionate response to ADA parking violations between public works versus Alameda PD.

Do you know the ratio of reports via C click fix or other mechanisms that result in a citation for both public works and Alameda PD?

I'm not privy to what opportunities or platforms that APD offers the public separate from their non-emergency dispatch line.

Um I do not believe APD participates in the I can almost I could say likely for certainty that APD may not participate in seeing the C click fix uh requests related to parking.

I know for a fact that that comes to me.

That was all of her questions.

Thank you.

Yeah, but just a piggyback on that, it does seem to me that it kind of couches a lot of the information you brought and like taught us about, which is like that's a subset.

You know, it's not to say like if you're on the island or you know, on Bay Farm, like you're this is your gonna be your experience, you know, thanks to the good work that you all are doing in public works, because it doesn't affect the private lots, it doesn't affect, like you said, the HOA or privately owned roads, or you know, it's just good for us to to keep that in mind as we you know try to solve for some of the like more holistic aspects.

I think the general public, I mean, I certainly didn't know that.

I thought if you turned something into C click fix and it wouldn't be public works, then it would be then sent to APD.

Miscellaneous.

Yeah, I just wouldn't I would think that it would go into somebody, and it doesn't sound like that is the case.

I mean, I you had mentioned you would email the person back, which I think is great.

I don't know if that's feasible all the time for you to personally respond to every person because I'm sure there's a lot.

So I would think that setting up some communication with APD so that you don't have to do that seems like a good partnership.

I agree.

Very trying, I see.

I would I would say that one of the unique features of Alameda is we are not San Francisco.

It does require effort, it can be an uphill lift, but I want to highlight what makes this city awesome and what makes every department awesome.

I feel like we have more of a uh a better opportunity to have a connected um relationship with the community as opposed to everyone being a number or what have you.

So I I offer you know uh the public my desk line so that they know that they can call that someone will hear them uh in their concern, and it it it it closes the loop.

It no one likes calling PGE IRS, and you just you talk to someone, maybe an AI chat bot or what have you.

Um, and that's one of the the awesome things about Alameda is we do have the opportunity, it can I will say be trying at times and maybe not the best use of staff's resources, but we've I I've identified that I identified it very quickly and said we need to staff up on our admins so that we have the adequate resources where human beings can respond, um, so I can you know adjust my uh workload uh efficiently just sort of optimize my operations.

Great.

Really insightful.

Like, thank you so much for the presentation and your patience with all of our follow-up on it.

And I think everyone for the for the dry run.

Like I said, this was a fresh set of slides, first time presenting here, so um it was certainly an exercise.

Uh, and we look forward to um presenting again.

And then to revisit our parliamentary aspect that I definitely wanted to table up front.

Um, just I don't know, I'll just be very candid.

Like we're gonna have a little sidebar over here.

I don't know what the options are.

Like, I don't I don't have anything proposed.

We do have our resident parliamentarian in in attendance today.

So, yeah, so in general, if if the commission would like, you could put forth a basic motion, which would just be a comment about the presentation or the information therein that's related to our audience, um, our community.

So it could be something along the lines of uh particular recommendation, a particular note related to this presentation, or something that Speaker De La Torre might um include in his presentation to city council as a note from commission on Persons with Disabilities.

So all that being said, the person who would like to put forth a motion.

They can craft it however they like.

It does not necessarily mean that the commission is required to second and adopt that motion.

Another person could suggest a different motion as well.

But it just is a way to fine-tune some of the conversation that's happened tonight and maybe put forth a comment.

So their next step is to go to city council, right?

To talk about the the Oops, sorry, I'm so loud.

I didn't think I needed it.

Sorry.

So the next step is to go to city council about raising those citation fees, right?

And get a sign off on that.

So could we add something to that about the education piece?

That would be our suggestion.

One is the to adopt the mid-cycle budget.

That mid-cycle budget uh includes an additional full-time uh parking enforcement technician just as for you know context.

The other item is um the FTE for the mid-cycle and then the uh the mid uh the master fee schedule I update, both going uh June 2nd.

So that would be my only that would be my only suggestion would be that could we add something to that citation?

Like, hey, I think the citation's good, right?

I don't think anybody's against raising the citation amount, but maybe adding in that education element.

I like that idea.

Yeah, like I don't know how to do that.

Yeah, I just we're on brainstorming, we're not wordsmithing yet, um, or I'm not something along the lines of like recommend continuing with the effort, like, you know, recognize the progress and the impact on the community and with the um hope or like the recommendation in mind to incorporate the education piece, yeah, and you know, try to think of um uh or like try to incorporate more carrot, and not only stick and win hearts and minds and you know, kind of make it more of a like um humanize it.

Yeah, we're neighbors, like that and like help people remember like who your neighbors are and like why it matters to you know, your neighbors who need those spaces.

I'm not convinced hiring another parking enforcement technician is gonna help meet our goals.

For that, yeah.

Um, and and and the presentation itself from the data, you I think you said earlier that it doesn't change behavior, right?

Uh, you just all we do is give out more tickets, and so I'm not sure how that's gonna help us move the needle forward in terms of education and and more of the care approach as well.

So I I would really encourage the recommendation that you know I mean we could take one voice.

Would we view those resources maybe differently?

Uh to work with the code enforcement staff, in lieu of that third person, or in addition to that third person, or repurposing the third person.

Or another option might be like have a full-time, another full time and then make one of the part-time people, the communication liaison, just as an idea.

I I like my I respond to that like that resonates with me.

I think I think my inclination is it seems appropriate to be neutral or silent on the inner workings of the public works budget, but like our advocacy is about like what we really see as a need for raising awareness and humanizing the you know what the why is behind.

I agree.

I don't know that we know enough about their budget or their staffing or their to make that decision.

Yeah, no, I or that recommendation.

Right, right.

I just want to make sure that we're supporting this that we're not.

That makes sense.

Yeah, no, I what you said residentally.

We're supporting conceptually the the concept of education and program without getting in the weeds of the management team.

Yeah.

I agree.

Anybody have proposed language.

What was the question?

Do you have proposed language?

I feel like you were on a roll.

Yeah, I think that I think we could probably come up with that proposed language.

Yeah.

So how do we do we do that?

It's just now.

Oh, it's right now.

And you make a motion, for example, hypothetically.

Okay, what you said.

Yeah, I'll make a motion.

This commission recommends um parking ambassadorship or park, some sort of ambassador.

I think we said that word.

Um, inclusion in this presentation to the city council in the context that we've already spoken about.

I think we've already talked about different um ideas, what that could entail, whether that's uh volunteer or not volunteer, I'm sorry, intern programming, signage, uh, and including the community aspect of and engaging with the community when it comes to enforcement.

So in addition to I think the fee schedule and the additional staffing, like that's fine, but in addition, we'd like to see ambassadorship and education as a big focus in the presentation to city council.

I appreciate it and I just want to speak to that.

Thank you for that.

Um we can absolutely I the way I see this just playing out is in how can we polish the schematic design here, and I feel like we can achieve that, and I'm just thinking uh creatively here with our awesome new ADA coordinator.

I mean I'll we will we work our offices are maybe 60 feet away from each other, so I feel like I will be leaning on our um ADA coordinator to think strategic think creatively on how we can use some of our existing resources to achieve those goals and measures, hit those metrics of uh communicating like this is this is these are the benefits of parking in such way.

Yeah, I I feel that's something that we can achieve short term as opposed to trying to figure this out for the long term, but I do I would say um as part of our next budget cycle, just ensuring that we have we're we're budgeting appropriately for the next budget cycle.

Um I can tell you that it does make sense that one of we would be having an additional admin person dedicated to our parking program, and I would envision this person leading a lot of that communication effort because quite frankly uh staff member Jewel cannot do the entire city just with one person, so okay, thank you.

So is there a motion and then a second, please?

I don't know if you want to just read it.

Yes, yes, okay.

So the reiteration of the motion, I'd like to motion that we recomm recommend the ambassadorship and education uh of the community as part of uh the plans going forward, the looking ahead as we're seeing on the slides.

Do I have a second?

A second.

Okay, we'll take a vote to adopt that motion moving forward from the commission to uh for speaker de la Torre's future presentation and moving forward with the parking enforcement.

Um, so we'll just do uh roll call down the line.

Okay, so Commissioner Bieler.

I Commissioner Kneidler.

I chair Mullins, I Commissioner Lip.

I Commissioner Schmitz, thank you.

And then Commissioner Bond Smith, uh, if you want to raise your hand if it's a yes, if you're voting, okay.

All right.

Um so the eyes have it, and um we'll go ahead and adopt that motion.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, that closes this portion of the agenda.

Thank you so much, Speaker De La Torre.

I was gonna say thank you for the presentation.

You guys are doing amazing work, and thank you.

Um I just got my uh disabled placard uh two weeks ago, so um, and and now I'm much more aware of what it means and what it doesn't mean than when I when I drive and I see there's only one spot if I if I can find an alternative parking space, I will try to do that.

So we need more for sure, but thank you for your great work.

Really a great point.

Very welcome, and again, I truly appreciate the eyes and ears.

Um definitely uh it it commands um togetherness and working towards achieving some goal.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for being here.

Okay.

We have hit the two hour mark it is 8 30 um so if you um if the commission would like to continue the agenda and and keep moving forward we'll just need to approve additional time for ourselves and then also um if anyone would like to make a motion for a five minute recess you could do that as well.

I'll make a motion to power through great okay so we'll allow ourselves more time to continue the agenda.

Moving on to the next regular agenda item this is um our uh regular scheduled agenda item to have open conversation and discussion amongst the commissioners about commissioner participation in local events boards and commissions scheduled conversation amongst commissioners about participation local events and meetings that may promote the commission accessibility and the ADA transition plan to members of the community.

Commissioners will share updates about what they have attended and what they might attend in the future.

So again as a reminder this one is very fluid not necessarily as structured as other agenda items might be are we gonna keep this as a standing item or not necessarily I don't remember.

Yes okay great great yeah I can kick us off I reviewed several of the agendas the from the library board and the public utilities board and I didn't see anything that was necessarily relevant to this commission.

So um I'll continue to do that for the next meeting and then perhaps try and drop in on the library board is meeting right now.

I ran into some folks going there earlier before I came into the room.

So I think uh if we do want to attend we might have to con coordinate on quorum and things like that.

But um yeah nothing to report on the boards that I'm monitoring.

I don't have anything to report um I don't have anything report except I I am planning on going to the recreation and park commission meeting tomorrow night.

That's on my list as well that I haven't been able to attend yet.

I yeah this will be my first I can't see if um vice chair Bon Smith has her hand raised so I just I'm trying not to forget to check if she might have you're fine I'm monitoring my email and text in case she chimes in yes thank you if there isn't any else I thought we could talk about the library screening but I don't want to prematurely move us on to that I'm good.

Okay.

So that would be the only update that I have is that we did get um a response back from one of the producers for Crypt Camp.

He's so excited um to be able to come and do a QA after the screening which is super exciting and I think they allotted it two hours it starts at 2 30 um so I just encourage you know it's it's a a bit of a funky time because it is Friday in the middle of the day so if you can encourage your friends and neighbors to attend if they can that would be great.

I want to make sure that we have a good turnout for him.

I've told everybody that I can see um and I'll uh post that on public media uh social media and I assume that we'll put it out in social media right the city will yes I and I'm not using sorry no you're fine no one ever gives me a microphone because will there be some kind of flyer that we could distribute yes so I am working with the library now that everything has been finalized to figure out how we're marketing that because obviously the library has their own marketing um channels and methods for their typical events but I would love to see what we can push out.

So trying to figure out what that looks like for social media and other communication.

So yes definitely want to promote as much as possible.

Oh geez um I just wanted to clarify too about the number of attendees and we have to give some sort of notice right so by a certain date we have to know how many people just in case we have to do a public notice to say that the commission is officially meeting if enough of us are going.

Is that right?

Correct.

So if it's um three or more uh commissioners, then we will need to post a special meeting notice, which is required uh typically 12 days out, if at all possible.

Um I would imagine we can presumably just post that, and then that way there's no pressure to RSVP or not.

Um so that way it's just uh there.

Yeah.

Great, we'll definitely be going.

So that's one I plan to go.

Okay, like you know, barring something unforeseen.

Okay.

So then we probably should post it.

Yeah, cool.

There's not a lot of downside risk, I think.

And then maybe before we come up with a flyer or something, let me just reach out one more time to his co-producer and see if she wants to commit.

I'd hate to leave her off of the post.

So I'll do that tomorrow.

Thank you.

Sounds good.

Very exciting.

Thank you for.

Of course.

I'm so excited for them to get attention, truly, because it's such a such a good it'd be so good.

Yeah.

Anything else about the events or anything within the packet that was also printed out.

If you wanted to use it for reference, those are a myriad of city events coming up in the next several months.

Fourth of July parade.

Yes.

Our next meeting will be after that.

So what are we doing for that?

Yes, I'm so glad you brought that up.

Are we doing it?

We are signed up for it.

Um I've put out an ask um as well to the commission as well as to um the city staff who manage the parade just to see how we'd like to participate.

If we want to use a vehicle, like a cool car, because you know, they put out a public request for cool vehicles.

Um, or if we want to do a few um commissioners maybe riding recumbent trikes or using pedicabs or whatever the case may be.

So there's a lot of uh freedom there for how we'd like to represent ourselves in the parade, but we are signed up for it.

We do have a spot.

I'm I'm going to gather some swag as best I can.

Um, and we have a banner, of course.

So it's really up to the commission how they'd like to represent themselves.

I'll be there in spirit, but I'll be on vacation.

I didn't even look, honestly.

Um I don't know if I think it's probably a poor taste though, but I think you know, I was thinking could we use scooters and wheelchairs or I was thinking too, and then I thought, is that I know people might get offended by that, but just to show all the different types of accessibility and different mobility issues or different modes of transportation people might be using maybe maybe not writing in them, but like, can you have a little trailer for them?

You know, like where community, you know, we want people in manual chairs or power chairs, or you know, it would be nice to have something visual that people look at it and go, Oh, that's the commission on you know.

Well, and a little more like demystifying, like yeah, people can like touch it, or you know, there could be some.

I feel like it could be offensive.

That's dicey if we yeah, wrote them.

Yeah, let me think about that.

Maybe ask some people.

So we could have people ride with us.

Well, that's what I was thinking.

If we got people in the community who were in equipment, right, right, exactly.

Yeah, there's I mean, there's plenty of people in Alameda.

But then also, like, how do we honor silent disabilities too?

Because it's not just about the ones you can see.

Yeah.

Oh, you gotta think about.

Yeah, maybe we should think about that.

Yeah, the best way to represent that.

I don't know.

I like the idea of like taking advantage of the opportunity of bringing visibility, but it's all about how do you do that respectfully in good taste.

You know, it's like even coming from the best of intentions.

I can I hear you.

And yeah, um, think of it.

I'm just thinking, like, well, what can we throw off?

Like we could throw off fidget spinners, because that's like that's something that a lot of autistic people use, but that's just I don't know.

I need to think about it.

I wonder if I've now I'm inspired by the fortune cookie example, and like what if we just have like little strips of paper of like of just or just of like all the different all the differences we have, like not even like a negative difference, but like I don't know.

There's just something about it's kind of a uh low li uh easier lift of just I was actually maybe represent like the spectrum of all the things.

I was playing around with ideas of what kind of graphics we could eventually start to develop and create and I have this idea of little like cards that talk about what accessibility is.

Um and I I have examples I can send out.

But it could be I it you're thinking of it sounded like it was something along the same lines, but my like the card would have something visual description, like you know, what do you what what is accessibility uh having a place for peace?

So what would that look like?

Finding shade under a tree or finding a bench to relax at.

Um and there's just uh yeah, that's one example, but I feel like there's a big opportunity um for visuals to, because uh I'm particularly into graphics and design too.

So I'm like, what can I make this look like that would be really cool to hand out that people would be interested in?

And I think this is your idea and I'm stealing it from an earlier discussion.

But what about having like I don't even know what kind of vehicle you could get, but like having a poster board on it, like with that what is accessibility mean to you, and then just having like it crowdsourced and like as you go through the parade and like have more people add, like by the end of that, that's gonna be really cool.

Yeah, I don't know.

Just there's a one of my favorite graphics that I'm trying to find.

I promise I'm not texting anybody, um, is there's a graphic of uh people in different mobility devices, and then there's just a person standing that visually doesn't look like they have a disability and it says not all disabilities are visible.

Yeah.

So I think it something like that would cover all things, you know, things you can see and things you can't.

And I feel like that might be more in better taste because we're not specifically calling out certain disabilities, you know what I mean?

Because you can't look at a person and say they're blind necessarily or they're colorblind or they're they're deaf visually impaired or yeah, I think those I I think if we stayed, I'm trying to find it.

If we stayed with a graphic like that where it's covering all of our bases but not listing off every single thing, might be a good idea.

I mean, we have time, not a ton of time because holy cow, it's gonna be here in a minute.

Well, we don't have a meeting between now and then that's the other pressing.

Got it.

Okay.

I was just gonna suggest that we could um if there are a few commissioners who would like to brainstorm and be part of the Fourth of July uh presence, then we could call a special meeting just for that purpose of brainstorming and developing the plan for Fourth of July parade.

I will not be available either, so I'm not but I it I would request in any printed materials if it's possible and timelight might be a problem that we have some braille or like a QR code that goes to an accessible website.

I would definitely prefer something to get them there as well.

Um but love the visual representation as well.

But I'll leave it up to the special committee because I probably won't be available.

Well, maybe we should start there.

Who can go to the Fourth of July?

I'll be out of town.

Okay.

Can I?

I'm out of town.

I'll be here.

You'll be there.

Okay.

Commissioner Lyons is also out of town.

Oh, um Commissioner Bondsmith has raised her hands.

I believe that means yes to the parade.

Okay.

Okay.

I think I'm here as well.

If nothing pops up, so maybe we should have a separate special meeting then for that.

So we don't have to make a decision tonight.

Yeah.

And it would be cool.

Um, Commissioner Schmidt, you mentioned like putting a call out there.

Like, hey, anybody interested in coming with us um and celebrating who we are as a community.

I think that would be fantastic.

Um I'm sure family and friends would love to do that.

Yes.

I love that idea.

I have a note, I'll need to check with ARPD, um, how they manage who signs up and how large the group is.

So once I get a little more detail on that, then I can submit that to that special meeting.

Cool.

My allergy medicine's wearing off.

So I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to come up with it.

I could like set a clock to it.

I was doing it.

Um, so maybe we should uh do that as schedule another meeting, a special meeting for that.

It sounds like that might be the answer instead of drawing this out.

Um, so in order to schedule a special meeting, I would suggest just trying to do it now if at all possible to nail down a date.

Otherwise we'd have to issue a special notice in order to have that conversation because there's three commissioners that are potentially involved.

Okay.

Would it be uh on just a virtual meeting or a in-person meeting?

Um either one.

Okay.

I just think like availability might be easier to pin down.

Yeah, it probably would be easier.

As long as it's publicly open to the public.

Yeah.

Um, should we try to do visual uh remote?

I don't know.

I'm just trying to like yeah.

I think it would probably be easier, right?

Than trying to get everybody in person.

Yeah.

Okay.

So we have to pick a date now.

If possible.

Should we do two weeks from today?

What's that?

Two weeks from today or a week from today, or is that too soon?

Sure.

Just throw out a date.

I'll try to.

May 20th or May 27th.

I'm sorry, what was the date?

I'd say May 27th.

Okay.

I can do May 27th.

The other one.

Okay, I'm texting Commissioner or Vice Chair Bond Smith.

Uh Vice Chair Bond Smith did mention that if we open the parade plans up to individuals with disabilities to join us.

I, again, on her behalf, uh, could reach out to the AOSD Deaf and Heart and of Hearing Teacher T teacher team, excuse me, to see if there are any students with hearing differences who might want to participate.

So that would be a possible community connection.

Um she says she is free on May 27th until 8 p.m.

for a meeting.

Any preference for time?

You wanna do a lunch hour meeting or post work?

I can do either of those.

Postwork would be better for me.

Okay, you want to do like if she said till 8 pm?

Mm-hmm.

You want to do like six?

Six?

Yeah.

On the 27th.

Okay, 6 p.m.

on May 27th.

And I believe we're trying for remote, correct?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay, thank you, Vice Chair Bond Smith.

Anything else on this agenda item?

Uh I have one one suggestion.

I'll make it short because I know we're over time.

So I've been thinking about whether the commission could experiment with the small recurring community presence at places like the Alameda Farmers Market.

Uh it feels like a really approachable setting for conversations around accessibility, belonging, and public space in a more informal and community oriented way.

Uh, I think there'd be opportunities for lightweight engagement, like interactive prompts, public feedback, or small visual educational materials, like the little cards, uh, and the and the board with writing accessibility.

Um that make accessibility concepts easy to engage with for the public.

Uh, and I'd definitely be interested in helping staff a booth or interact with the public is something like that moves forward.

Like that idea.

Yeah, like that.

Because I saw I was and then I looked at the farmers market schedule, but I don't typically go to them often, but there's the one on Webster, um, I can't do weekdays, but it's every Saturday, nine a.m.

to one p.m.

So like I would totally be willing to do like one Saturday a month to staff a booth down there just for visibility and outreach.

You have to sign up for like do you know what it takes to sign up?

I don't know.

Or is it just like that?

But I did read that there was another Alameda commissioner group that had from the city that has had a booth there before.

I don't know if it was the library or parks department, but it sounded like it would be fairly simple to pull off with minimal supplies like table, tablecloth, and you know, board and markers for people to write on.

Okay, um, I can look into that.

Um Vice Chair Bon Smith confirmed she likes the farmer's market idea as well.

I think just community engagement in general, you know, we keep talking about that.

So as opportunities arise, um I you know, we'll try to send out emails and things, and so if something strikes you, please chime in and claim that opportunity um so we can't move forward with some of these, that would be great.

Cool.

I'd be interested in and I don't know if it's necessary, but I have a hesitation and like I feel like I want to know the do's and don'ts if we do that, you know, or like what are we as a commission, like if there's a fee involved, I'm sure it's not much if it if anything, you know, like what are the does that like can we like each pitch in five dollars, or does the city have to do it and do we have to like how do we go about requesting that?

I just I don't know how to operate in this space at all.

Yeah, thank you.

So I've asked this question before about budgets for commissions and boards, especially when it comes to things like swag or merch or whatever the case may be.

Um so I believe some commissions uh there is no budget line item.

Some commissions will um have everyone pitch in an equal amount, obviously less than a certain number or something that we can establish um in order to purchase additional items.

Often the department that um the commission is under would offer like a small budgetary you know allowance of some kind.

Um so obviously the commission is now under public works, whereas when uh the staff secretary was Sarah Henry, it was under uh her office, so it's switched over to public works and so we've you know we as a department then can cover some expenses, but again, there's no actual, like tried and true budget.

So that's a very gray area answer, but it's very much case by case.

Let's talk about what would we want to spend money on, what would be beneficial, and and then go from there.

And then the other part of the do's and don'ts I'd be interested in learning is you know, is it okay for I like we can identify ourselves as like we're we serve on the commission, like obviously we don't we're not representing you know the commission point of view, like in that kind of thing, and if there's three or more of us, it sounds like we'd have to notice it.

Right.

So we would post a special meeting notice to say that the commission on persons with disabilities is uh this is a special meeting announcement because they will be attending the farmers market, for instance, on Webster Street, and um as representatives of the commission.

One thing we talked about in the past is uh even doing like a simple button that's like asking about the commission on persons' disabilities, you know.

Um, and so one thing I've looked at is just buying a uh button maker so that as people uh it could even have like uh a template um generic thing on it of like accessibility is and then they would just create their own button.

So that was kind of an idea I had to to you know tie in um some of the ideas that have come up as we've brainstormed.

So yeah, there's there's options for that.

We can definitely represent the commission.

You can be clear that's why I'm here and that's who I am in this moment, and then um, but we can talk about what the expenses might be as well.

I was also thinking about numbers and like in a way we in a way to avoid having us to declare a special meeting if you know uh ideally, I'm I'm not saying this is realistic, but because it happens every Saturday, like we could potentially have visibility there every Saturday, and if we rotated and just had one or two people there at a at the booth at a time, we wouldn't have to worry about the conflict of having too many people.

And then it wouldn't be as much burden on one of us.

Uh I agree with that, and as a counterpoint, I think being able to declare it as a special meeting or allows us for like advertising or marketing the event so that people will know we're going to be there.

And maybe if it's a budget constraint, once we find out how much it could be to table there, maybe we could focus on certain months like disability awareness type months or different community type months that we would really want to celebrate, or maybe partner with other commissions, maybe and share a table expense if that's possible.

Like I don't know, maybe we could focus our efforts if that becomes a burden and we find out the budget is too much.

Yeah.

I mean, I've I'm sure someone has a folding table too.

I feel like some of these things we could actually like source and provide ourselves rather than try and find room and a budget for it.

Yeah.

Well, I'm guessing I mean more of like the vendor booth area, right?

Even if we have our own equipment, I think they're gonna charge us for the stall.

Agreed.

Yeah.

Wonderful.

I love it though.

And it's nearby.

I'll definitely try stop by at least one weekend.

Okay, anything else on that agenda item.

Okay.

If we're okay, we'll close that.

Do you want to do a motion to close?

I moved to close.

I second.

No, that item.

Okay, okay.

Okay.

We will now move to the final sections.

Um, Commissioner Communications.

This is just an opportunity for everyone to share um open communications related to our context.

And if I may, I'll start with um Commissioner Bond Smith.

She did want to share.

Sorry, I'm pulling it up here.

Um, she'd want to share the Hearing Loss Association of America's holding its annual Bay Area Walk for Hearing on May 30th.

The purpose of the walk is to raise awareness about the impact of hearing loss and to create an opportunity for people to come together and raise money for deaf and hard of hearing programs in our community.

If you would like to cheer the walkers on, the walk will start at 11 a.m.

again on May 30th at Crown Memorial Beach, and we'll proceed down Shoreline Drive.

Anyone else?

Cool.

Um, so I mentioned this before.

Um Vermont just became the first state in the union to ban the use of paraquat.

Um, and there's a national initiative to do that, and it has a direct connection to neurodigerative diseases.

And so I think we'd I would like to request formally that we give maybe a report from the public works department and from the uh parks and rec department about what kind of herbicides and pesticides we're using in parks and uh golf courses here in the city of Alameda.

And so I'm not sure the best way to do that or probably get that on the agenda, but I want to throw that out there.

Thank you.

If you like, let's see, would you need to make a motion in order for it to be added to an agenda?

Okay.

I think when I read through our bylaws recently, I've I'm pretty sure that you as commissioners can suggest those agenda items.

I know you brought this up before, so um I want to honor the fact that you have said it before, and I have talked with ARPD about it before as well.

Um, so yes, if you'd like to make a formal request for an agenda item of some kind, even if it's an informational memo from ARPD, as opposed to a full presentation, that can be an option as well.

Um, so anyway, if you'd like to add to the agenda, I think you can make a motion and someone else can second it to just have it added.

Okay.

So I would like to make a motion that we get a an official report from public works and the uh parks rights department about what uh pesticides and herbicides are currently in use with our parks and our golf courses.

Great, I second.

Okay, all in favor say aye.

Thank you.

We'll add it to a future agenda.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Of course, thank you, Commissioner Lip.

Any other commissioner communications?

Okay.

Um this moves us into staff communications.

Thank you, Vice Chair Bond Smith.

She also eyed.

Okay.

Um, staff communications.

The first thing, uh, Speaker De La Torre sort of dropped it.

I don't know if you guys caught that, but Sarah Henry is leaving the City of Alameda.

If you weren't already aware, um, obviously she'll still live here.

Um, she's very Alameda uh in all in all the ways.

Um we celebrate and grieve her departure as she goes to the city of Oakland for a position with the mayor there.

Um, I'm sure we'll still see her around at events and things.

Um, I think this is her last week, although I'm not sure of the exact date.

But um, anyway, if you all wanted to send her greetings, I'm sure she would love that.

Um, next item, of course, was a July 24th, 2:30 p.m.

film screening at the main library or main free main library.

I don't know how where free goes.

But anyway, so that'll be uh for CripCamp screening as well as a QA.

I will be sending out invitations to helping hands East Bay and just some local orgs if you guys have any contacts as Commissioner Schmidt's already mentioned, you know, send those invitations out far and wide.

We'd love a good showing for that.

Um let's see.

I have uh I did meet with a representative from AUSD, the school district about if they have events as a district that would be relevant for us to participate in and table at.

They do not necessarily have community events in of that nature that invite outside vendors or you know groups to participate in.

However, um, there is an opportunity for us to maybe share some information within their newsletters that then get shared with family members or um families within the district, and specifically they may have a couple of tailored newsletters to some of the special education families as well.

So still working through what that would mean because we want to collaborate well with AUSD since we want to make sure that their ADA coordinator and accessibility initiatives and things like that within the district would be well matched for anything that the city might communicate, if that makes sense.

Um something I've been in the works with with the library for a little while, uh, and that is related to something Commissioner Knadler mentioned at another meeting.

Um they have implemented sensory kits at all branches.

Um and this came up, um, they had a learning moment, and so we really pushed for that, which was great.

So they've already been well used and well loved.

Um, I instructed them on some easy passive signage that really communicate what the sensory kits are for, so that people don't have to verbally ask or request any of the items, but they are just fully available for people to come and use those items, which is great.

And then finally, the digital accessibility rule um from the Department of Justice that would have gone into effect for all compliance, was April 24th, 2026.

I think on April 20th, 21st, they extended it by a year.

So everyone took a breath and I slept that night.

And then um, so we're now working towards the deadline of April 26, 2027 for our municipal municipality of our size.

Related to digital access, though, um I maybe I'll just pitch myself to do a presentation on this as we talk through communications, accessible um both digital and written spaces, um, but we have added doc access as a third-party vendor to um or third party service, excuse me, to all City of Alameda domains.

Of course, our primary one, and then we also run, I think it's nine or ten other domains as well for side initiatives or other department projects.

Um, so they all are equipped with doc access, which all that is a PDF transcription tool that converts the PDF from a flat image that is not accessible to most of Systiv Tech, especially if it's not created correctly, to uh an accessible HTML format, HTML just meaning a default web page text-based format with descriptive uh text included for images, graphs, complicated um data, etc.

Um doc access also includes a 24-7 help tool on the side.

Should someone who's interacting with that PDF need more clarification on what the what the page says or what the image shows or what the graph shows or anything along those lines.

So it's a great um bridge to compliance, it is not a primary format compliant tool.

I hope I'm making sense.

I realize I'm saying lots of things.

It's not going to fulfill the requirement for primary format to be compliant if the PDF itself is inaccessible, but it does provide a bridge to make that in the moment interaction with the PDF accessible to users.

Okay, that was it for um I would love to I could talk about that all day.

So um I believe that's it for my staff communication.

We have lots of agenda items coming up that I think will be of great interest to our commission as well.

Um so if there's nothing else, do we have a motion to adjourn?

I'll move to adjourn.

Okay.

Second.

Okay, all right.

Thank you so much, Commissioner.