Good evening, everyone.

We are here on September 23rd, 2025 for the City of Belmont's regular city council meeting.

We are at City Hall, and tonight I'm filling in for Julia Meets, our mayor, who is occupied tonight and unable and unable to attend.

I ask that you all humor me as we go through this.

No doubt there will be a multitude of stumbles along the way.

So just laugh and go with it as we can.

All right.

So the first thing we're gonna do is call to order.

We'll do or all call.

Good evening, council members.

Um we'll begin with councilmember Jordan.

Yeah.

Councilmember McEwen.

Present.

Vice Mayor Mates.

I'm sorry, Vice Mayor Pang Maganaris.

I'm on a roll here.

Present.

That'll make a quorum of three with um Councilmember Laudamarlow and Mayor Mates absent.

Wonderful.

We're gonna start this meeting with a pledge of allegiance.

Those of you who are able to stand, please join us.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and public for which one nation under God.

And I forgot to say at the beginning is that for public comment, if there's anyone in the audience today that would like to make a public comment, the way that you do that is to present a speaker slip to our clerk, and she will call you when it's time.

All right, we are going to move to item oh city attorney.

Were there any reports from closed session?

Good evening, Madam Vice Mayor.

Or we did not have a closed session tonight, so we have no reports.

All right, moving on to item five.

We begin with a presentation, our age-friendly action plan, and our presenter is Ann O'Brien for the Center for Age-friendly excellence.

Is that correct?

Yes, I was gonna give that a point.

Um and I just want to acknowledge we have one of our task force members um in the gallery this evening, Rosemary Welby, um, and many of our department heads were also part of the task force as well as Councilmember McEwen.

So thank you.

The as most of you already know, age-friendly movement was first developed by the World Health Organization in 2006, and that was to uh examine the experiences of older people living in urban environments.

This movement has now spread globally, and Semateo County is proud to say that most of our cities are now age-friendly certified.

Uh next slide, please.

Um there are eight domains of livability in age-friendly cities.

Um and we'll go into more detail on that in just a moment.

Next slide, please.

Um the age-friendly action plan is a roadmap as to how within five years a city can gather information to assess and prioritize possible projects to help our cities and our residents age gracefully.

Next slide.

CAFE, the Center for Age Friendly Excellence with the City of Belmont developed, well, you actually developed your own survey.

We didn't do this one for you to determine the unmet needs of older adults in the Belmont community.

In all, 229 people actually responded to this survey, which was great, as you know, doing surveys.

Not so easy, right?

Next slide, please.

Belmont held seven focus groups that led to age-friendly certification in 2022.

Next slide.

In-depth discussions focused on the unmet needs from older community adults to discover the unmet needs that were in Belmont community and ideas for potential projects that may address these needs.

That information can be found in appendix A in the back of this presentation when you're ready to have a look at that.

Next slide, please.

To become age friendly, Belmont focused on a wide array of potential inaugural projects, including setting up senior database and wide outreach to the community, including MAILAs, expanding older adult resources and activities, expanding cultural awareness, partnering with Sequoia Health District, and so much more.

Next slide, please.

The action plan is a living document that will continually evolve in order to support older adults and continue to be relevant as you need it to be.

For example, a ninth domain was actually added to this action plan with in with consultation from staff, and what was now added in February 25 was emergency services.

Thank you.

I think I almost got through it, and I'll hand it over to Ann, who is an expert at this.

Thank you.

Hello, Vice Mayor.

We will continue with the rest of this.

This is kind of the meat of the presentation.

So you have action plan.

I assume that you've had a chance to look at it.

It is a very long document, so we're trying to condense it into the 10 minute presentation, and we do want to try to follow that timeline.

So the first domain is outdoor spaces and buildings.

And so, in general, the overall goal is to provide inclusive, safe, healthy outdoor and indoor environments to empower older adults that are in your community.

And a couple of the strategies was to educate residents about continuing improvements that make the parks more accessible and safer.

Also, through our focus groups, we did hear from community members that they found there's not necessarily comfortable seating throughout the parks and open spaces that you have in Belmont.

So we are suggesting maybe to develop an ad hoc committee that will look at research and look at age-friendly furniture because it is out there.

Next slide, please.

The next slide is transportation, as we know is a very important aspect of every community.

So the overall goal is to enforce traffic safety and improve mobility options for older adults.

We definitely want to educate adults about transportation options.

Some of those options include got wheels, the senior mobility guide.

And this is something that should be disseminated throughout the city.

And then also we, of course, we have the shuttle that goes to the senior center.

In addition, we want to increase education in regards to bike, auto, and pedestrian safety.

And this is an opportunity maybe to partner with the schools and be able to educate all the community and not just older adults.

The next domain is housing.

We want to provide resources and options for older adults to age in place and live as independently as possible.

Belmont has actually done a very good job with multiple housing projects that have come about recently and futuristically.

And so we just want to make sure older adults know what projects are being built.

And then also when those units are going to go up for rent in case they are looking for affordable housing.

And then, of course, making sure that older adults are integrated into the conversations about housing.

Next slide, please.

The next domain is social participation.

We want to provide opportunities that support social interaction and promote respect for all ages and abilities.

I will want to offer a broad spectrum of activities and programs and social activities, and especially also intergenerational relationships.

So this is maybe an opportunity that you can utilize your youth committee and develop maybe a senior advisory committee that they can work together in developing events that integrate multiple generations.

Next slide, please.

Communication information.

The overall goal is to ensure that access to information about resources and activities for older adults is available at centralized locations.

We want to also make sure information is available at places that they go to.

So coffee shops, diners, farmers market.

There may be some retail businesses that are kind of popular amongst the older adults.

We also want to look at technology.

As you know, many older adults may not know how to utilize their technology, or they may not have Wi-Fi.

So you want to be able to provide classes so they can learn.

You want to increase accessibility to computers, Wi-Fi tech classes.

One other thing that you could suggest, and it's in your action plan, is that older adults attend online senior classes, and there's the senior planet that is an older adult technology service that can be utilized and it's free.

Next slide, please.

Domain number six is the respect and social inclusion.

The overall goal is to provide an environment that promotes inclusivity and respect for communities' older adults.

This is you know a time they can actually offer those intergenerational activities, but uh exhibit that cultural diversity and also encourage encourage cultural arts, which I know you already do some of that here in Belmont.

Next slide, please.

Civic participation and employment.

The overall goal is to provide opportunities for older adults to actively contribute to the community decision making process and remain engaged, whether it's through employment or through volunteerism.

This is maybe an opportunity that the city can have a commission day or partner with nonprofits and have a volunteer day where your community, not just necessarily older adults, but that they can attend and learn more about your commissions, your committees, uh, and then also nonprofits.

We all know that even the cities are strapped fiscally, and so you want to utilize your community and the wisdom that they possess to help you through various events and or nonprofits that are actually looking for volunteers.

Next slide, please.

This is a community support and health services.

The overall goal is to provide an environment with programs and resources that support aging in the community with a positive quality of life.

We definitely want to increase the awareness of the wide array of resources that are offered, especially through San Mateo County.

One of those is the help at home book.

This has a wide variety of resources, and it's kind of like the holy grill of San Mateo County.

So you can look at things such as adult daycare, dementia care, employment opportunities, uh food, clothing, and other services, mental health.

Um, so this should be in you know your senior center, your library, city hall, and any other place that older adults attend.

It's great for them and also their families that are taking care of them.

Um, and then through our focus groups that we found that many people were interested in more workshops, and so more related to like financial scam scamming because that seems to be getting more sophisticated as time progresses.

And once AI comes in, it's it's really going to be hard to distinguish.

Um, estate planning, advanced directives, and also medical health-related type workshops.

Emergency service is not considered a domain through the AARP, but um, CAFE has added it due to the fact that we have now 17 cities out of 20 that are age-friendly certified.

One common denominator that keeps coming up is emergency services and the relationship with older adults.

So the overall goal is to educate and ensure older adults are aware and included in emergency preparedness.

Um we definitely want to try to provide emergency preparedness training for older adults throughout the city.

We also want to encourage residents to attend annual disaster preparedness day that is through San Mateo County.

One of the ways too to inform your older adults is to make sure they are signing up for SMC Alert and Genesis.

And this could be an intergenerational event where you have your youth committee setting up, let's say, a registration day, and it's and then the older adults come to wherever it is so that you have your computers and the youngsters can actually sign them up for the SMC alert and also Genesis.

And it can be open, of course, to the whole you know community.

We also suggest maybe um developing if you don't have one already is an emergency checklist and maybe put it into the water bill once or twice a year because older adults have a tendency to like paper, and they're gonna put that up on the refrigerator, they're gonna put it up in their pantry so it's there's easy access to it.

Um then also may want to consider working with the chamber and the local businesses to see if they want to donate items so that you can actually put together emergency kits for older adults and maybe some like uh instead of backpacks, because backpacks can be heavy for them if they're trying to leave their homes, is like a little roller suitcase and do it that way, like the small ones that you know are the kids use for school.

Next slide, please.

So I am not going to go through all these appendices.

You've had the opportunity to go through the action plan, but I do want to stress the first one potential age-friendly uh projects.

So, what we did is we actually collected all the data from the certification that we started in April of 2022, and then also all the focus group interactions and then the most recent focus groups in 2024-25.

Um, and so I just put a whole list of different projects there and did short-term, long-term goals.

It does not mean you have to follow it, but it's there for your reference.

I think it will be beneficial, especially too for your staff.

Um, just to next slide, um, just to kind of give an overall process of what we've done.

Um, like I said, we started in April 2022, um, did get Belmont certified uh in September of 2022, and then came back uh in December 24 to work with the parks and recreation staff in starting the um action plan and getting it done on time, actually ahead of time.

Um we are to still uh submit this to the AARP because we have to get their approval.

That usually takes about a month.

So once we get that approval, we'll let Cody and Corey know, and then you know you can implement the action plan.

I do want to stress that the action plan is not like a master plan or strategic plan.

You can change it.

So we just wanted to set the foundation for the city of Belmont, and then you can implement what you want to implement.

Uh you can take things out if you want, you can add things.

This is an evolving document.

Um, and then what happens then after you've had it for um a year, then you kind of do a little evaluation that you send to the AARP.

It's not a specific form.

You can just do it in paragraph form and then send it in.

And if you have questions, you can always contact um Cafe.

Before we go into questions, I I just do want to stress that um, and I don't need the the last slide, I kind of went through it.

Um I'm trying to do this in our 10 minute limit.

Um, I do want to say it has been a pleasure working with your um Belmont staff uh and also the um task force members.

Um I've actually had the luxury to work with Corey uh in the past when she was in Burlingame.

Um we have two former mayors, Karen and myself, one for Bisbane, one from Burlingame.

Um so we are used to working with staff, but I will say that your your staff you're lucky to have them.

They're very easy to work with and uh quite helpful for us and your community members that participated.

We really enjoyed um interacting with them.

Any questions?

Questions or comments.

Oh, I just want to say thank you.

It was a lovely presentation, and uh thank you for all that you're doing.

I've had just a small glimpse.

I went to a couple times to some of the senior lunches, and at least the feedback that from my small sample size is that a lot of people are really enjoying the services that Belmont offers for our seniors.

So kudos to you, kudos to the park and rec staff for everything that you guys do.

Great, thank you.

And I just wanted to add, we are offering a workshop in November, an age-friendly workshop that will be held in uh foster city.

Uh, we had one in Daily City just uh a few months ago, and it's an opportunity for all the cities to get together and talk about their projects.

So we have about what, seven or eight speakers on a variety of topics related to the domains, and they will be talking about projects they are actually implementing.

Uh, and one of the reasons why we kind of made it a little more of a global uh topic rather than being specific is that we want cities to learn from each other.

Um I don't believe in um you know starting from scratch, reinventing the wheel.

If we can make our lives easier uh and save money and use less staff time, um, we can learn from from other cities.

And so this will be a really good opportunity for you to you to attend.

So we are working on actually finalizing the flyer um tomorrow and doing a walkthrough of the venue.

And once that flyer is finalized, we will be sending it to the city of Belmont.

And so we hope that you can disseminate that information, and we look forward to your participation.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

I'm as a city that really prides itself on our intergenerational services.

I love that we are actively working and creating have created an action plan to support our older generations' ability to live independently and successfully.

One of the things I'm most proud about here in the city is the services that are we get provide to our seniors the lunches, the field trips, the movies, the little workshops that we offer.

So anything that we can continue to do this under Corey's direction and Cody's leadership, I applaud.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

And I just want to give a final thank you to CAFE.

This was quite an undertaking, um, and they were incredible.

So great partnership.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, moving on to item 5B.

Proclamation and presentation designating October 5th through the 11th is fire prevention week.

Now, what I'm unsure of, city manager or city attorney is do we do the proclamation first or do we have our speaker first?

Your discretion, I would suggest that they make the presentation and then you can present the proclamation after they're done.

Beautiful.

Thank you.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council members.

I'm Carissa Workman, Fire Marshal with San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department, here to do a brief presentation on uh fire prevention month.

Uh fire prevention month is celebrated each year in October in commemoration of the Great Chicago fire, which began on October 8th, 1871 and caused devastating damage.

Each year there is a different campaign theme that helps to educate everyone about fire safety.

This year's theme for fire prevention week the campaign is charge into fire safety, lithium ion batteries in your home, and stresses the importance of buying, charging, and recycling safely when it comes to lithium ion batteries.

Sorry.

So this theme uh focuses on lithium ion batteries in your home and highlights how important it is to buy charge and recycle safely.

Um slide three, like skipped ahead of slide.

Yeah, we can go about that.

One slide, perfect.

Thank you.

Um, from phones to power tools, uh, San Mateo Consolidated Fire urges residents to know the risk of lithium-ion batteries this fire prevention week, October 5 through 11, 2025.

Most of the electronics we use in our homes every day, like smartphones, tablets, laptops, e-cigarettes, headphones, coverboards, e-bikes, e-vehicles, and toys, just to name a few, are powered by lithium-ion batteries.

In fact, most everything that's rechargeable uses this type of battery.

They are powerful, convenient, and just about everywhere.

If not used correctly, or if damaged, lithium-ion batteries can overheat, start a fire, or even explode to reduce these risks.

Look around your home.

It's important to know which devices are powered by them.

This year's Fire Prevention Week campaign helps people understand the importance of using these batteries correctly to prevent fires in the home and to follow the buy charge and recycle safely approach.

So buy only listed products.

When buying a product that uses lithium-ion batteries, take time to research it.

Look for a stamp from a nationally recognized testing lab on the packaging and product, which means that it meets important safety standards.

Many products sold online and in stores may not meet safety standards and could increase the risk of fire.

Charge devices safely.

Always use the cables that come with the product to charge it.

Follow the instructions from the manufacturer.

If you need a new charger, buy one from the manufacturer or one that the manufacturer has approved.

Charge your device on a hard surface.

Don't charge it under a pillow on a bed or on a couch.

This could cause a fire.

Don't overcharge your device, unplug it or remove the battery when it's fully charged.

Recycle batteries responsibly.

Don't throw lithium ion batteries in the trash or regular recycling bins because they could catch fire.

Recycling your device or battery at a safe battery recycling location is the best way to dispose of them.

You can visit call to the number two recycle.org to find a recycling spot near you.

So the San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department is hosting an open house.

Um we encourage all residents to be aware of their devices, follow the buy charge and recycle safely approach, and support this year's theme for fire prevention week charge into fire safety.

Our event is Saturday, October 11th, 2025, uh from 10 to 2 p.m.

at station 28 in Foster City.

Um for more information about fire prevention week and lithium-ion battery safety, visit fpw.org.

Um thank you.

Thank you, Carissa.

Do you have any questions?

No.

No, but we would like to give you our proclamation, and Councilmember McCune is going to share it with you.

Okay.

All right.

Whereas the City of Belmont is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all those living in and visiting Belmont, and whereas fire remains a serious public safety concern, both locally and nationally, and the presence of lithium ion batteries in many household devices introduces unique fire risks.

And whereas most of the electronics used in homes daily, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, power tools, e-bikes, e-scooters, and toys are powered by lithium-ion batteries, which, if misused, damaged or improperly charged, can overheat, start a fire, or explode.

And whereas the National Fire Protection Association, NFPA, reports an increase in battery-related fires, underscoring the need for public education on the safe use of lithium-ion batteries, and whereas residents should follow three key calls to action, buy only listed products, charge batteries safely, and recycle them responsibly to prevent battery-related fires.

And whereas the proclamation contains many other important where has now, therefore, be it resolved that Julia Mates, mayor of the city of Belmont, on behalf of the Belmont City Council, does hereby proclaim October 5th to the 11th as fire prevention week throughout the city.

And be it further resolved that Belmont residents are encouraged to review smoke alarms, make them work for you, and to support the many public safety activities and efforts of the San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department's Fire and Emergency Services during Fire Prevention Week 2025.

Wonderful.

Oh, of course.

Are you okay if we take a picture with you?

Okay.

Who's taking the picture?

Oh great.

We can take the sign here off.

Thank you.

All right, so now we're moving on to item C.

It's a proclamation designating September 22nd through the 26th as Stormwater Awareness Week.

And we also have the opportunity to introduce our new public works director, Edric Kahn.

Quant.

Quant.

Is it misspelled here?

No, what is it say?

KWAN?

Ah, thank you.

Quant.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry for that blunder.

Let's see.

I'm gonna do our proclamation first, and then you can say hello to us and tell us what you want.

All right, so proclamation.

Whereas the water quality of our local water resources is a vital importance to sustainable communities and to the health, safety, and well-being of the people of this community.

And whereas stormwater runoff travels across roads, sidewalks, parking lots, roofs, salons, it collects pollutants such as tire wear particles, vehicle fluids, on and on and on.

And whereas Belmont is a leader in advancing stormwater management, promoting green infrastructure, watershed restoration, and pollution prevention strategies to protect our shared natural resources, including recent our recent work on Belmont Creek Restoration Project, the Twin Pines Detention Basin Project, and the city's adopt the strip storm drain initiative.

This stormwater awareness week provides an opportunity for local governments, industry, schools, community organizations to highlight effective solutions for protecting our rivers, streams, wetlands, and coasts.

So now, therefore, I, Robin Pang Mageneers, the Vice Mayor of City of Belmont, on behalf of the Belmont City Council, do hereby proclaim the week of September 22nd through the 26th as stormwater awareness week in the city of Belmont.

Heydrich, would you please Madame Westmore, just before you do kind of introduction of Edric This is a good opportunity for me to also share your excitement in having uh Edric join our uh Belmont team.

He brings uh and I pretty much have to give up my first uh born to get him here, but but we were very fortunate that we we've landed him and uh he's gonna bring, I think, uh great amount of uh experience, enthusiasm, and leadership to his role here with us and and leading the department, as you know, public works is involved with uh great uh number of quality of life issues for us, and having his leadership and kind of continuing on in the tradition of doing the best uh practices and showing leadership in in things that we do here in the city, I think Edric's gonna bring uh a great perspective and new vision and leadership to the department and for the good of the community and uh the city at large.

So, with that, I'm kind of happy to introduce Edric.

He joined us on the 22nd and he's kind of hitting the ground running already within the couple of days he's been here.

I'm very uh happy to say that he hasn't ran away and he keeps coming back.

So we hope to continue seeing him uh showing up every day to work.

And with that, I'll I'll introduce Edric to you.

Thank you, Ashton, for the very warm welcome.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and members of the council.

I'm very excited to be here today as your new public works director, and very excited that we have an awareness week for stormwater because it's underground, it's out of sight, out of mind, and um it's a very big and important infrastructure for our community.

When it functions well, the rain grows to the ground, goes through the system, out to the bay, life is beautiful.

However, when it fails, when it's overwhelmed, it could be disastrous.

And we see that with localized flooding.

We see that with aging infrastructure, and we are focused on it with this awareness week.

So I really appreciate that.

Um, it is aging, and in knowing that contributing more resources and funding and looking and planning ahead to prevent these issues from coming up is what we do in public works.

So I'm very proud to be part of this team, and I'm proud to serve this community, and I'm gonna be very proud to be able to address your stormwater needs.

So thank you very much, and thank you for the welcome.

Thank you.

Picture.

Come on, he's his first day.

No, his first, it's a second day.

It's his second day.

First council.

All righty, moving on to item 5D, Council Member.

Yep.

Go ahead.

Jordan is going to do this.

Um I am gonna read this whole proclamation because I think it bears worth repeating.

Um, celebrating Indigenous People's Day October 13th, 2025, whereas Indigenous People's Day provides an opportunity to honor the resilience, wisdom, traditions, and ongoing contributions of Native communities and to reflect on the shared responsibility to build a more equitable and inclusive future.

And whereas the observance of Indigenous People's Day was first proposed in 1977 by a delegation of Native Nations at the United Nations sponsored International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous populations in the Americas.

And whereas the City of Belmont acknowledges that it rests on the ancestral homeland of the Ramatush Olonee, who for thousands of years lived along the San Francisco Peninsula and whose descendants continue to honor their heritage and protect Mother Earth and all its peoples.

And whereas the city affirms its commitment to learning from indigenous histories, supporting the visibility of indigenous peoples in civic life, and fostering relationships built on respect, truth, and reconciliation.

And whereas the City of Belmont values the progress our society has accomplished through indigenous peoples' knowledge, technology, thought, science, philosophy, and artistic contributions, and recognizes the deep historical, cultural, and contemporary significance of the indigenous peoples.

And whereas celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day is an important step in acknowledging past harms, promoting cultural understandings, and uplifting the voices of Indigenous Peoples' Day today and for future generations.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Kathy Jordan, Councilmember of the City of Belmont, on behalf of the Belmont City Council, do hereby proclaim October 13th, 2025 as Indigenous People's Day and urge the community to recognize the resilience of all Indigenous peoples and to value their contributions to our city.

Thank you.

That was beautiful.

There's no one accepting that this on for the community, but we applaud it, celebrate it, acknowledge it nonetheless.

We have one last proclamation, and this is one that's near and dear to my heart.

It's designating October as domestic violence, I want to throw the word prevention and awareness month.

And so we want to welcome up Melissa Gibbs, who is the CORA CORA's senior manager of legal services, and Cora stands for of course community overcoming relationship abuse.

Now, Melissa, before you get started, I want to read this proclamation.

Of course.

Okay.

So designating October 2025 is domestic violence awareness and prevention month.

Whereas more than one in three women, one in four men, and one in two transgender individuals experience some form of physical or sexual violence and are stalking by their intimate partner in their lifetime.

And whereas the marginalized marginalization of certain groups in society, including undocumented individuals, transgender individuals, and people living with disabilities, increases their vulnerability to domestic violence, and whereas Cora staff provides more than 10,000 critical services in the past year, ensuring survivors have access to safety, advocacy, and healing.

And whereas CORA provided over $1 million in client cash assistance, including subsidized rent, security deposits, and a range of emergency expenses.

Yes, expenses.

There's so many other things listed here that Cora has done, which are incredibly important to our community.

Whereas San Mateo County recognizes the critical need for countywide services in order to support our residents, and whereas intimate partner violence continues to be amongst the most underreported crimes, and San Mateo is committed to eliminating all forms of intimate partner abuse.

Now, therefore, let it be proclaimed that I, Robin Pang Meginearis, Vice Mayor of Belmont, on behalf of the Belmont City Council, hereby designate the month of October 2025 as domestic violence and prevent domestic violence awareness month.

Please.

Thank you, Vice Mayor and City Council members.

We are grateful to Belmont City Council for your ongoing support and recognizing the importance of domestic violence.

Awareness, we also say action month this October 2025.

CORA stands by its name.

We engage in partnership with the community to address intimate partner violence.

We do that by providing excellence and crisis support from our 24-hour hotline to emergency shelter and our work with law enforcement, supporting a path a path to a life without abuse through our extensive legal and mental health services, educating families and youth through healthy relationship programming in partnership with our local schools and libraries, raising awareness through presentations and community tabling events.

We've expanded our access across the county through our satellite clinics in East Palo Alto, Half Moon Bay, and North Fair Oaks.

And we will be a core partner with the county when they open the Family Justice Center.

All of Cora's services are free and confidential.

So if you or any of your residents know someone who is experiencing intimate partner violence, please have them call our 24-hour hotline, which is one 800 300 1080.

And I'll share that again for folks who might be tuning in.

It's one 800 300 1080.

With the City of Belmont, we continue to work every day to promote safe and peaceful homes throughout our communities.

Thank you for recognizing Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

We greatly appreciate your support and partnership.

Thank you.

Let's do it.

Come on.

Okay.

Okay.

So now we move to item six, public comments on items not on the agenda.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the body on any city matter not on the agenda.

The period for public comment at this point in the agenda is limited to 15 minutes with a maximum of three minutes per speaker.

Speakers who requested but did not receive an opportunity to speak during this comment period will be given an opportunity to address the body later in the meeting.

State law prohibits the body from acting on non-agenda items.

Madam Club, do we have any?

At this point, I do not have any raised hands nor slips.

Alrighty.

Then we'll move on to item seven, council member announcements.

Any announcements?

I do.

I wanted to uh continue to highlight new businesses that are coming to town, and we have a new Jolly's old fashioned tea creams.

It's on 1110 Old County Road, and it's where the ice cream parlor meets the tea house.

So I'm super excited to try it.

It's tea-flavored ice cream.

Yeah.

My family's actually going tonight while I'm sitting here.

That's where they are.

Well, maybe they could give you a report and let us know.

So welcome to Belmont, Jolly's uh old-fashioned tea creams.

And secondly, um, we got some news today, so I really wanted to shout out our finance department, uh, uh Grace Castaneda and her finance team, specifically Noelle and Joanne.

They received any of my glasses, the government finance officers association distinguished budget award for our uh 2526 adopted budget, our fifth consecutive year receiving this national recognition.

And it's easy for me to say this in the 20 seconds, but I know that there's an extraordinary amount of work that goes into the budget preparation cycle every year.

And I just want to say thank you for all the work that you and your team do and to be recognized consistently for your work is really says something, so we're very fortunate to have you on your team here in Balmont.

Thank you.

And congratulations.

Agreed.

Get ice cream after this if it's still open.

Jolly Jolly time, Jolly.

Jolly's Jolly's tea.

Any other um, just one item.

The city uh completed the repaving of Comstock Circle this week, which has been a sore point for the people who live around there for a long time.

And uh they did a beautiful job.

They still have to finish the striping and some of that kind of stuff, but that's a major street in uh Belmont Heights.

And the city's doing a number of other repaving projects.

This is the time of year where uh repaving gets done.

And this year is a kind of a major repaving year.

Last year was a mostly slurry seal and minor repair year.

So there have been a lot of other good repaving projects uh completed throughout the city, and everybody who lives in those areas is really grateful to the city for getting that done.

That's it.

Great.

Now I have a bunch of announcements, so here we go.

There's still time to register for Water Dog Run.

The annual Belmont Water Dog Run returns this Saturday, September 27th, offering 5K, 10K, one mile kids, a one mile one mile FIDO run.

All events start at Twin Pines Park.

Be sure to register today.

Movies in the park.

The last of the movies in the park series is on October 3rd at Barrett Community Center for the showing of Shrek.

Movies begin at sundown, bring your blankets, camping chairs, and your favorite movie snacks.

Come early and bring a picnic dinner or get takeout from one of our great local restaurants.

Next, high school and college fair.

Is on Thursday, October 16th from 5 to 7 p.m.

at the Twin Pines Senior and Community Center.

This event is free.

This free event offers families a valuable opportunity to explore a variety of educational options from over 15 high schools, and you this year connect with local colleges and community colleges to learn about programs, admissions, and what each school has to offer.

Do Wali celebration.

Festival of light celebration on October 19th from 2 to 5 p.m.

at the Twin Pines Senior and Community Center.

The Belmont Library and the City of Belmont are curating a colorful event filled with music, dance, poetry, and more.

Free and open to all ages.

Save the date for our annual Belmont Boo Bash in Twin Pines Park on October 29th from 5.30 to 7.30 p.m.

This event is free and open to all ages and includes our trunk or treat where families can stroll through decorated vehicles and collect candy in a safe, fun, and festive setting.

Okay.

Let's move on to item eight.

Consent business.

Consent business items are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion.

There will be no separate discussion on these items unless some member or staff requests specific items to be removed for separate action.

The city attorney will read the title of ordinances to be adopted.

Council members, do you have any questions or would you like to remove any items at this time?

No objections.

Is there any public are you supposed to read the title?

No.

Are there any public comments?

There are no public there are no requests for public comment.

Great.

So city attorney, will you do your thing?

We have on tonight's agenda an ordinance of the city of Belmont amending Belmont City Code, conforming the city code to organizational changes, updating construction contracting award threshold, streamlining and uh repealing unneeded city regulations, amending fireworks regulations and adding requirements for the management of property.

Move approval.

Second roll call, please.

Councilmember McHugh.

Aye.

Councilmember Jordan?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Pang Maganares.

Aye.

Motion passes three zero uh three-two.

Thank you.

Okay.

We move to item nine, public hearing.

There are none.

So that takes us to item 10, general business.

We have tonight a presentation about Silicon Valley Clean Water Capital Improvement Program.

The presenter.

Oh, go ahead, Grace.

All right, good evening.

It's your mic on?

It's not on.

Try again.

They don't there it is.

There it is.

Testing.

Oh, okay.

All right.

We'll receive an update from our two Matt's from Silicon Valley Clean Water.

They'll give an introduction of themselves in a little bit.

SVCW on their capital improvement program.

So as you know, um SVCW is a JPA and manages and operates uh wastewater treatment and disposal facilities.

Uh we are one of the member agencies uh along with uh City of Redwood City, City of St.

Carlos, and West Bay uh Sanitary District.

So uh as a member agency, uh Belmont has a 9.45% cost share to uh S VCW's uh capital improvement cost.

Uh and uh just as a background, because after the presentation, we'll have our financial advisor also give an update.

So want to give a background that to fund for our cost share.

Uh in 2009, Belmont did adopt a sewer treatment facility charge uh as a dedicated revenue source.

Uh this fee uh is fixed at about 250 dollars per year for a single family home.

Uh the first collection of that fee began in fiscal year 2011 to 12, and that flat fee has remained unchanged uh since 2011 through 12.

So following SVC um SVCWs, I always get this mixed up presentation.

Uh our financial advisor uh Jaime Trejo from PFM will give us a status update on um our sewer treatment facility charge fund, its outlook, uh given sort of the evolution of the capital program and the regulatory compliance uh needs in SVCW.

So with that, I'll pass it on to um to the two Matt's Testing the mic, okay.

Great.

Uh good evening, council members.

Matt and Zuka.

Uh I am the authority manager for SVCW, Silicon Valley Clean Water.

Uh it's actually a little worse than just two Mats.

Uh we're both also named Matthew Paul.

Uh Zuka is my last name, Anderson is his, he's tall, I'm not so much.

Um quite the range.

But we're here tonight, happy to be here.

Uh this is sort of the fourth presentation we've given.

Uh we've presented to the other member agencies on the same topic uh in terms of the treatment system got capital investment needs.

I'll go through uh some background on the agency, some of the projects that we're working on.

I'll turn it over to Matt, who is the chief financial officer uh for our agency, and he'll go through some of the financials uh as well.

Um blowing past introductions, a little bit about the background.

Uh so for for those of you that don't know or for members of the public that are tuning in, uh SBCW has been around for basically 50 years.

We turned 50 in uh November on November 13th.

We used to be known as South Bayside System Authority, uh, and it's a joint powers that was formed uh in in 1975 and it's sort of second incarnation.

The the first JPA was actually signed in 1969 between Belmont uh uh San Carlos and Redwood City, West Bay Sanitary District joined in 1975.

Um it was renamed Silicon Valley Clean Water back in 2012, and part of the reason for that was at the time we were going out for a significant amount of bond issuance.

Um and uh South Bay System Authority, if you're in on Wall Street, you don't really know what that means.

The joke was it sort of sounded like a prison uh more than a sewer uh plant.

And uh with the name change, it sort of gave it a demographic location and it became a little bit more self-evident to potential investors uh about what you know what the bonds were for.

So that actual bond issuance and and they're just a name change alone, uh probably saved the agency tens of millions of dollars in terms of of interest rates.

Uh ironically, there's also a Silicon Valley Pure Water or Pure Water Silicon Valley.

That's in San Jose, not to be confused with us.

Um the member agencies, as was discussed, what are Belmont San Carlos, Redwood City, and West Bay Sanitary District, and the um the JPA basically apportions sort of voting and costs and that that kind of thing.

Um proportional to sort of flow loading um and uh Redwood City as the largest contributor of flow and loading pays the highest total cost, uh, and and Belmont has uh actually the lowest flow contribution out of the member agencies.

The service area we serve about 220,000 people.

You can see in the image that it's Redwood City, some contributing areas from Woodside and Emerald Hills in the unincorporated area, Menlo Park, West Bay Sanitary District, San Carlos, and Belmont.

This this image is a little bit dated.

Some of these pump stations are actually no longer in service because we got rid of them as part of the rescue program.

But the collection systems themselves, so we define collection and conveyance.

The collection systems are operated by the member agencies, and then at some point it sort of uh reaches a demarcation point and we convey it to the wastewater plant.

So on this image, the the conveyance would start at the blue line, and our uh our wastewater plant was located all the way out at the end of Redwood Shores.

Um the uh the the interesting thing about the and I'll talk a little bit more about this in a second, but the um the conveyance system as you see right here is almost done.

Uh and through the rescue program that we implemented and just finished up this last March, we were actually able to convert some of this to gravity and had to were able to eliminate the Belmont and San Carlos pump stations, and now that all flows by gravity out to our wastewater plant.

Um some of the projects that we're working on right now.

So again, you know, the facility was commissioned in 1981.

Uh so the plant itself is over 40 years old.

And when you're dealing with infrastructure of this kind, uh the the useful life of say a pump and a mechanical system is you know, rule of thumb is 30 years.

Concrete, let's say is a hundred years, uh, pipelines you might get a hundred years out of.

And so we really have a lot of infrastructure that's sort of getting to the end of its useful life.

Uh and we'll show some charts in a little bit uh as to how that translates into the finance side of it.

Um but the the focus of the capital projects to date have been replacing the conveyance system to the plant.

Now what we have left is uh improvements at the plant itself, and those are being driven both by aging infrastructure and dealing with some some unique issues that we have out at the uh at the site, as well as by more stringent regulations.

I'll talk a little bit in the uh talking a little bit about nutrient removal requirements that we have uh that are driving some of our anticipated capital costs.

Very few of our projects, we do have one that I'll talk about, but very few of our projects are actually based upon sort of ROI or sustainability goals.

Uh we obviously do our best uh to implement those when when we can but the the bulk of what we're dealing with here is um uh uh sort of the the the heavy infrastructure that it takes to treat wastewater.

And you know, for simple terms, just to sort of explain what a what is a wastewater treatment plant do.

Um uh we've actually polled the public, and sometimes you you know you sort of ask the lay person walking down the street what happens when you flush the toilet, where does it go?

Uh and we have a video that we're gonna be making live pretty soon that uh a lot of people just sort of assume it goes away to the bay and they don't know, right?

Um so the way we I I've sort of tried to explain this in my career is that wastewater treatment is effectively what Mother Nature does uh naturally, uh, but we do it in a smaller footprint uh and we do it quicker by adding energy.

Uh so we add chemicals, we add air, um, and uh we're able to then deal with it on a 15, 20 acre site, whereas if 220,000 people were sort of you know in the woods, so to speak, the impact would be much greater.

So it focuses the impact and we have a lot more control over it.

Uh so the black box of this is just sort of adding energy.

Um the conveyance system itself uh um it was a uh 1700, you know, almost three mile long 13-foot diameter uh tunnel.

Um and uh one of the reasons the tunnel was decided was um for a couple reasons.

One, we are able to get rid of a couple of pump stations, so there's some energy savings there, but we end up having to lift it up higher at the plant itself and repump it back up.

Uh however, we are in a unique situation where we have probably 90 feet of very young bay muds that um uh are very difficult to build infrastructure in.

So that tunnel is actually 90 feet down on the bedrock underneath all of the bay mud, and uh it allowed us to sort of put a uh a pipeline in place that we feel is gonna get us a hundred-year life, uh, as opposed to putting something in these expansive soils that could have uh had a shorter life, if you will.

Um we have one remaining project left, it's uh item number four on this image.

It's the force main uh from the the West Bay Sanitary District to the Redwood City Pump Station.

Um and uh that is about a 75 million dollar conveyance, largely because we have to interrupt and bypass pump.

It's not the cost that necessarily of the infrastructure, it's the fact that this flows 24-7.

And in our in our world, we can't shut things down and just you know ask people to stop flushing the toilet.

Uh we are doing a condition assessment for that project.

We're gonna certainly try to eke out every single last year of life that we can and that's going to be undertaken in the next years, but that that remaining conveyance will complete the the conveyance system itself, um getting wastewater to our uh plant.

Some of the upgrades that are currently in construction, and right now the plant is quite busy with construction, uh, is our uh fixed film reactors that we call these FFRs.

The FFRs remove uh biochemical oxygen demand from wastewater.

And uh what biochemical oxygen demand is is if you think about raw wastewater being discharged to the bay, one of the impacts of that would be depleting oxygen in the receiving waters.

So the organics that are in there would decompose, the oxygen goes away, we have fish, you'd have fish kills, that kind of thing.

So one of the purposes of the plant is to remove that BOD so that when we do discharge to the bay, we don't deplete oxygen in the bay itself.

Um these fixed film reactors function by percolating the wastewater at the top, as you can see in sort of the top right hand um, and these towers are about 30, 40 feet tall.

It flows down a media, the biology grows on the media, consumes the wastewater, the organics and the wastewater, and then out uh from the bottom we pump it into the uh secondary part of the process and uh do additional treatment.

Um so right now, what we're doing is in the bottom picture, you can see these are the stripped down versions of the FFRs.

We've taken the towers down, we're replacing the media, we're replacing the electroelectrical equipment, and we're actually also adding fire water.

Um, we're taking the treated water that comes out of this, we end up using to uh for fire suppression so that we don't have to use potable water for that as well.

It's sufficiently clean to be able to pump and uh you know when you're fighting a fire, you're not too worried about what little bit of residual organics are present in that water.

Uh another project that's in active construction right now, we're trying to get done before the wet season starts, is our final effluent pump station.

Um these are all these are the original pumps from the plant that were put in in the 70s or 44 years old, which is quite a long time for pumps.

Uh the they have been rebuilt several times, and uh it's really sort of time to get these things uh replaced.

Um, for scale in this image, this is one of the few that I don't have a person in.

Uh, these things are about 15 feet tall.

Um the pipe diameter that you're looking at there is 30 inches in diameter.

And uh we have to do this during the summertime because we need all five pumps during the winter time to deal with wet weather flows.

So uh we'll take a couple out, replace them, take the next couple out, replace them.

Um, and uh this is uh a project that we're trying to uh wrap up before the wet season.

Um within the plant itself, as you can imagine, we have concrete basins and and uh uh different facilities, and we have to get the wastewater from one one one part of the facility to the other.

Uh we have um I think this is I think a 60-inch diameter pipe.

When when they were built originally, a lot of these uh are encased in concrete.

Uh and the idea was that uh by encasing these steel pipes in concrete back in the idea back in the 70s uh that they would last longer because they would otherwise be exposed to fairly corrosive soils in the in the bay mod.

You can imagine the salt that's in the bay, it's in the ground, it's in the muds, and uh they were worried about it attacking the uh the steel.

Uh ironically, uh while that probably extended the life of the pipes themselves, it didn't extend it to the duration that they would want.

Uh and some of these pipes are also single points of failure.

So if we do have a rupture, we're talking about immediate non-compliance events because we're gonna be discharging untreated wastewater to the bay.

Um so our we're we're we completed a plant-wide assessment, and uh we're going through a process right now of um uh both replacing the pipes that need to be replaced, but also building in the ability to do bypass so that if we do have an issue, we can for you know uh we can actually keep the wastewater on site without having to um discharge untreated wastewater to the bay.

On the waste in the wastewater, there's sort of two sides.

There's the what we call the wet side and the dry side.

Um the uh the the process for wastewater, the solids um we call them solids, there are other words for it, but you know, the plight term is solids.

Um the solids on a wastewater process gets sent to the are what we call digesters.

Um at in the digest in the digesters, the solids are decomposed and uh they actually generate methane.

We actually uh uh burn the methane.

We've burnt we we use the methane in our cogeneration process for electricity generation, but we are in the process right now of redoing some of these original digesters as well.

Um, and uh right now we're in the process of rehabilitating our spare.

We have three digesters, so one can be taken out of service while the other two are operating, and we're in the process of uh replacing some corroded biogas piping.

Um those are active projects.

This next project, this is sort of a slide transitional slide here to set the stage for uh a future project that we're in the beginning planning stages for.

Uh some of you may have heard back in August of 2022 of the San Francisco Alga Bloom.

It was the largest algal bloom in recorded history.

Uh, the image on the right sort of shows a progression from um early August uh through uh late August 2022, with the red being the chlorophyll concentration uh in the bay.

And and chlorophyll algae is a photosynthetic organism, uh, and so the chlorophyll concentration you know represents sort of the algae concentration.

The interesting thing is that the chlorophyll itself wasn't problematic.

Uh the algae itself, excuse me, wasn't problematic.

It was a die-off of the algae.

So some some some algae can be toxic.

This particular uh event was not, and uh, but the die-off resulted in so much organic decomposition in the bay that again it depleted the oxygen levels, and we ended up with a fairly substantial fish kill.

Um the uh attributed source for the algal bloom was the nutrients discharge from wastewater treatment plants in the bay.

Um we have a lot of untreated nitrogen that historically we have not been required to treat under regulations, primarily because the bay has been historically really able to absorb the nutrient discharges.

Um and there is uh some scientific uh uh literature out now showing that the bay is actually had decreased resilience uh in absorbing some of those nutrient discharges as well.

So uh we are in the process um of addressing this.

Fast forward two years, and we have a uh a new uh set of effluent limitations that were imposed on us by the regional water quality control board that regulates our discharge.

And you can see the article in the chronicle on the right.

There are 37 plants in the bay that all have to comply with these new effluent limitations.

Uh the estimate aggregate is uh 14 billion.

I've seen 11 billion, I've seen 14 billion, but it's a big number because the plants weren't designed to remove nitrogen.

Uh, and so we have to sort of now go back through these 40, 50, 60 year old plants and retrofit them or build new parallel plants to deal with the nutrient removal.

Um so for a little bit of good news, uh, this is the one of the projects that I we're kind of uh excited about.

Um we are in the process of doing a biogas augmentation project.

Um this is where we take um not only we generate methane from our our solids, uh, but we also can take food waste from uh our some of our member agencies uh from SBWMA.

Uh and the the interesting thing is that the food waste comes in um by truck, we put it into our digesters, it generates more methane, and we we we basically, you know, again we combust it in engines to generate electricity.

Uh we're working with SPWMA, we're currently taking food food waste from uh City of Sunnyville.

We're also taking food waste from um the contractor that serves uh city Santa Cruz.

And uh we're our our plan right now with this program is that uh we will be 100% energy neutral, so all of our power at this plant uh will be generated on site from our burn our our our uh methane production.

Um the project itself also was funded heavily by grants.

Um energy, cal recycle, PG ⁇ E.

Uh we we're eligible for IRA and uh tax credits as well.

Uh obviously that's a little bit iffy in this day and age, but even without that tax credit, we expect a payback on this of around 6.4 years.

If we do get the IRA money, it'll be about 4.2 years.

Um the image on the right is actually our their linear generators.

So there's two types of engines that we'll have.

Uh the cogen engines actually burn the methane, and you end up with the associated combustion pollutants that you would have, the not only the CO2, but the NOx and the SOX.

The linear generators are a non-combustion process, and so we're adding five linear generators to the facility as well as expanding the capacity to accept food waste.

And this is a food waste that the cities are obligated to deliver from landfills under AB 1383, which you may have heard about.

Um, and actually, commission our Commissioner McHugh and Councilmember McCune is on the food waste committee for SPWMA.

Um and with that, that's sort of the summary of the capital uh elements that we're working on.

I'll turn it over to Matt to talk about the financial needs.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Um for context, the first slide is really going to give you some history of the source of funds that have been procured for wastewater in your community.

So at the far left, 1976, you can see the amount of money that was spent on the original treatment plant that was built and commissioned in the 1980s.

That light blue portion of that was federal and state money.

So this community did not have to contribute very much money to that point for that duration to build the existing facilities.

Now these are in 2024, but nonetheless, you'll see that there was a bit of a desert from 1982 to 19, excuse me, to 2008, and that's when SECW management working with its members determined that a master plan was needed.

The master plan told them that the facilities were deteriorating, they needed to be replaced and upgraded, and then you will see that surge in spending that started around 2009, 2010, the orange being the treatment itself, with the blue being the conveyance system.

So the bulk of the money over the last decade has really been to fund the conveyance system.

Because again, going back to the left of this chart, the original conveyance system from the cities was repurposed.

It was not invested.

We didn't have to build it.

We took a 1960s era pipe and turned that into a force main to carry the wastewater from the communities to this treatment plant.

So that was excluded from the left, and it had to be replaced and re and rebuilt again in 2010.

So that's a it's a nice little chart that displays the purpose of the funding, where the source of funds were and the challenge that our communities faced when realizing they had to replace this facility.

Moving on, you will see towards the right.

These are the projects in the shaded future funding or projected areas that Matsuka was just talking about, and those are active projects, most of them active in construction.

Over the next three years, that highlighted piece is really what we're here about.

It's to say the funds for the next three years have been chosen not to come from new newly issued debt.

The feedback from the commission was that we should look for alternative sources of funds.

So rather than going to the debt markets, we have been communicating with all the different members about different plans.

And so far, most members have contributed or intend to contribute cash over the next three years to meet that need.

Projected beyond 2028, that would be a new debt sort of environment will be in at the same time as Matt and the engineering team are putting together, I think, a new master plan looking forward.

So we find this to be a very useful for context both from a funding standpoint and frankly from an intergenerational point.

Like a lot of the last 30, 40 years did not have to contribute to that purple line of what would have been needed to meet the needs that we're facing today.

Over the next three years, 98 million dollars is needed to complete and to continue the projects that Matt has been describing.

And you'll see them, they're very familiar: fixed film reactors, pipe repairs, final effluent pumps, so very familiar projects that we've been talking about for some time, and these are most of them are active or are in the planning stages.

The funds, the source of the funds from the top of this chart, semi-circle all the way to the pink, excluding the pink, those funds are already in place.

So the good news is that the previous debt that we've issued, cash that we have accrued, cash that we have had in reserves, those are going to be spent on the projects.

What remains is about 32 million dollars that is needed over the next three years.

Again, Belmont's share of that is 9.5% approximately, so 3.1 million.

And that's where this table shows that Belmont's portion of that share over the next three years in those respective years, 700,000, 1.6, and 700,000 again, roughly arrives at the $3 million that would be required.

And those funds are allocated again over the JPA determined percentages.

So with that, we're looking for mechanisms.

Many members have opted to contribute cash.

Those who are not prepared to do so may also borrow from Silicon Valley Clean Water CIP reserves.

There have been discussions over just exactly what those terms might be.

This is a dynamic discussion.

And so, for example, principal would be drawn as needed, interest would accrue monthly, it would be paid monthly.

The rate of interest is being discussed.

It may or may not be a variable rate based on earnings, or it might be a fixed rate that is agreed upon.

So we're working through those details even this week.

Nonetheless, all of this would remain open for each member as they can as they consider their own financial positions, and whatever funds are available would be there to fund to pay for those projects.

Timelines and next steps, we're bringing this policy even the next week to our commission.

I know city staff is working with you and has uh I think after this is followed by your financial advisor to talk about options, but we'll be coordinating with Grace and her team and doing what is needed.

And with that, I think Grace could pause for one second question so far.

Yeah, quick question.

Uh can you go back to the capital expenditure timeline slide in the 29 to 35 time frame?

What are the blue bars?

The blue represents the conveyance portion.

So that would be that 33-inch forcing to be replaced between West Bay Sanitary District and Redwood City.

Okay, it looks like the earlier blue.

Oh, it's good.

Color in the bars doesn't look quite okay.

All right.

That's it for me.

Kathy, no questions.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, and then uh we have a presentation from PFM financial advisors.

Uh Jaime is online.

Uh so we'll ask him to pop on and um he'll have some slides to share with us.

And he'll be sharing the funding status of Belmont's dedicated funding source, our sewer treatment facility charge that Belmont adopted uh back in 2009 that we first began collections in fiscal year 2011 to 12.

So again, that fee was adopted as a flat fee.

And um, you know, we've been really prudent with our finances.

We've been um every time that we have to contribute to SVCW, we uh work with our financial advisors, we work with our bond council to see if a cash contribution the most favorable, is it debt financing that's most favorable?

And so through is the refunding or refinancing a bond is the most favorable.

So through all those hard work and effort, really we were able to maintain our contribution uh to SVCW to date without having to change that fee since 2000 fiscal year 2012 since in place.

So it really speaks to um uh uh efforts by the city.

Uh but now given like the next iteration, the next evolution, uh, we really have are in a point uh where uh we need to look at options and uh different scenarios.

So with that, I'll pass it on to Jaime.

Good evening, uh members, City Council, high may trial, PFM Financial Advisors.

Uh we go.

Can we I'm sorry, can you pause for one second?

Are we going to be able to see him or don't one second?

Right now we have we don't see you, we just see the PowerPoint, and I'm hoping we can see you.

I'm hoping too.

I wore a suit tonight.

So we stuff about to be proven.

And it's hot.

All right.

Well, go ahead and take off your jacket because we can't see you tonight.

Sorry about that.

Uh no worries.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

Go ahead, you can continue.

All right.

Do we want to skip to slide 26?

The presentation.

So this slide summarizes the current situation and summarizes some of the points made by South Commodity Clean Water.

The first one here, right?

The communicated plans that you needed the 32.4 million dollar for wastewater treatment plan improvements over the next couple years between now and fiscal year 2028.

Belmont's shares about 3.1 million.

Uh the communicated plans for additional need for cash in fiscal year 2029, about 60 million.

And the dirt bullet point here, the sewer treatment facility charge fund is scheduled to make payments to set combat clean water for two things.

One is for paygo projects, small projects, and the other one is to contribute to the CIP reserve fund to get that to a place where uh it is short up and needed to fund projects.

So here we have a five-year outlook of those payments that actually goes up to 2035, and this leads to the next slide.

On this slide here, we have the cash position, the historical, and the projected cash position that the sewer treatment facility charge fund.

One thing to notice here it's you know on the Y axis, you have the amount of money in that fund at the year and on the X axis, you have the fiscal years, and the red bar going across is three million dollars.

That's a target that we set for that fund.

There's not really a magic number to that, other than it kind of matches up with the annual revenues.

Uh so that target there could be adjusted, might be adjusted in the future, but it kind of gives us a barometer of where the cash position is.

We can see after the bonds were issued in 2019, the cash position of that fund is very high, and over time, as money has been spent for projects, that has gone down.

So the net cash balance of that fund are little gold bars, and we estimate that around 2030, 2031, uh that fund will be negative without any changes to the revenue stream.

So, one reason why revenue or fund balance is going down, revenues have been held pretty constant around 3.1 million dollars, as Grace mentioned, the charge has not been increased since its inception.

Uh the Wi-Fi loan repayment begins in fiscal year 27-28.

We also included a potential contribution or participation in the Silicon Valley Clean Water debt issuance and fiscal year 28-29.

So the compounding factors of your current debt service, the new debt service or potential new debt service, and the cash contributions towards depleting your fund balance over time.

Next slide, please.

This slide here, we have your debt service coverage for that fund.

Uh debt service coverage is just above one times for this year and the next couple years, and after that, once the WIFA loan kicks in and the potential participation in the Silicon Valley Clean Water debt issuance, uh you see here that all in coverage decreases below one times.

And we have a covenant that we're going to keep coverage at one time.

So that means for that coverage is calculated by your revenues divided by the debt service.

So that's the bulk, and here we're gonna summarize uh the flat fee for the sewer facility charge is no longer sustainable to keep up with the ongoing capital contribution obligations, particularly in light of the CIP for Silicon Valley Clean Water.

Our recommendation would be to increase that charge to a level where cash targets are met, and you can meet your debt service requirements.

Uh the latter is covenant you have on your bonds that you're gonna have at least one times coverage, and lastly, you know, we're we're talking about what's the appropriate level of that charge, those discussions are underway given estimated debt service, you know, is it makes sense?

Does it make sense to contribute cash and lose participating in the debt issuance?

All those conversations are being factored, those scenarios are being factored into our model to see what be the appropriate level to raise rates uh to keep the fund sustainable and be in line with your bond competence.

That summarizes my presentation and I'm available for questions.

Thank you.

It's a lot to digest.

Let's see if we can see what you look like before we move on to questions.

There we go.

Hello.

All right, council members, any questions.

Go ahead.

So, okay, so if a rate increase were necessary, how would that happen logistically?

How do we do that?

How does that happen?

Well, basically, right now we're in the process of one wetting the Silicon Valley Clean Water Program needs, and so there's a lot of discussion going on about the size and magnitude of the program.

There's obviously the immediacy of the three-year program they have, but there's a longer range issue that we want to kind of uh vet with the authority and make sure those things align with their priorities and our ability to pay and how that that all plays out as as part of the member agency uh uh within the JPA.

Within that, then what will happen is our financial folks are also then looking at the modeling that uh uh they're they're talking about.

We know that that that fee is not sustainable long term, just just because of actually the immediate infusion of cash that the JPA needs and our contribution portion, but also the longer term concerns that that's been shared.

So we're gonna be working with our public works folks with the authority and our financial advisors to really model model all that information.

We have some interim plans that potentially can help us kind of smooth out at least this next year's contribution that we need to uh provide the authority, but within probably the next year, we'll be back here.

It it probably will take a 218 process, uh kind of similar to the rate uh hearings that we've done in the past.

We will have to analyze the cost of service, provide the study and the basis for that cost of service, and then present that to you, and we'll have a kind of public hearing on adoption of new rates for the Silicon Valley treatment facility charges, which is different than our silicon or collection system charges.

That that is also an ongoing thing.

So this all will be kind of packaged in within the next, I would say, from our work plan standpoint, within the next year to 12 or 18 months, based on the work that we have to do with Silicon Valley and vetting the program and the cost drivers and components and and kind of revisit the rate structure uh within that that time frame with you.

So, in looking at the um capital expenditure timeline slide and the other slides we've looked at.

Looks to me like the conveyance part of that expenditure, the piping part of that expenditure doesn't serve Belmont.

It serves the sanitary district and it serves Redwood City, and we're paying, you know, we'd be paying for 9.5% of it, but it doesn't actually well that that's the thing about the JPA.

Those other agencies that paid for other contributions to the upstream that served Belmont, everybody kind of shares the totality of the program.

And so the program all in includes all the different pieces that serves from both the collection side of it as well as the treatment side as a joint expense and a joint uh revenue.

So we're not picking and choosing which areas of geography pertains to one or the other, it's just gonna it's the whole that that serves the system, and that cost is shared across the board for everybody.

So as much as we're paying for that system, they pay for all the improvements that took place here with our treatment plant or with our uh collection fund station and and conveyance system to the treatment plant.

So those all get shared in the mix, and that's why it's the power of JPA rather each one of us being in it by ourselves.

Well, I kind of have holistic comments, questions, so whenever we're ready to do that.

Okay.

I guess just to kind of summarize it up and make sure that I've got this right.

So despite the fact that we have had a 250 dollar fee since 2009, and it's been very well managed, and we've done our very best to you know stay within that fee.

It's unrealistic to think that now almost 20 years later, that fee will be sufficient.

I mean, for goodness sakes, a McDonald's meal is no longer a happy meal, it's no longer the same price it was in 2009.

So that all makes sense to me, that of course it's gonna need to go up.

What I'm wondering is is once we get to that point of needing to increase our fee, which is inevitable.

How do how do we communicate that to the residents in a way that they can really understand that we held solid at 250 for almost 20 years?

It's similar to all our other fees that we do.

We kind of uh educate folks about the the cost of service study.

That's why we want to make sure that we have all the information.

We vet the information and then we present that in a public setting to you to the community.

We share that through a 218 hearing process, so we share the information when a hearing date is set about the information, the study that's available and the basis of how that those costs are established.

You know, uh our sewer fees are or uh sewer funds are enterprise funds, basically by law, they kind of basically pay for only the services that that we provide.

So that's what the the Prop 218 process kind of sets the stage for.

So we'll be working with the authority to kind of similar to tonight.

This is the beginning of the conversation to share what the program has been.

I mean, over the last 15 years, the program and the rates that we set was based on that preliminary program that was around 350 million, and they're close to a billion dollars now on the burn rate of the last 15 years.

So we have stretched that 250 dollars to pay for a billion dollar program, and our share of that obviously the 10 almost 10 percent.

And going forward, it's gonna be similar type thing.

We're gonna look at the horizon that they're planning for and ensure that those projects make sense.

It's it's either driven by regulatory requirements or other things.

So we'll be looking at the timelines, we'll be looking at the time that that they need to execute and uh what what rate implications there are for us as member agencies, and we'll have those conversations with the agency as this program moves forward before we bring something in front of you that says here's the program, here's what the needs are, and this is what our share is going to be that we have to kind of make whole as far as the ratepayers portion of it is concerned.

Okay, great.

If I could add something uh to what the city manager said, uh Matt went through the slide a little bit earlier, and the the interesting thing, and the reason we've been putting this slide together, is that the current generation effectively had a free plant.

This was all done with free federal money at the Clean Water Act era.

So the rate structure was never put in place to build the original plant.

We are now effectively playing catch-up as the plant itself reaches the end of its useful life and trying to very quickly accelerate the rate structure.

Belmont was prudent and had a fee that lasted a long time, but the just the sheer magnitude of the the um the bell curve, if you will, in the 2020 era, uh, again, there was no there's no basis for that.

We started at effectively zero.

Um and uh uh so there's sort of this I went up.

We presented this to Redwood City.

The question came up from one of the council members is what do I tell the person that's on a fixed income that is now all of a sudden dealing with these massive you know rate increases, and not I don't mean this tongue in cheek, but the answer was sort of you're welcome because you haven't been paying for this plant up until now, right?

It's like that this was all done with free federal money.

Um what we're working on uh to Afghan's point is that we are in the process of doing what we call a long-range facilities plan.

This is instead of a 10-year CIP, it's gonna look forward 50 years.

Um we are going to try to, you know, um, if if you sort of look at this purple line on the chart, and that's why I had the screen share it again.

If we had been collecting roughly 20 million dollars a year every year since 1976, we've not had to borrow at all for the replacement of the plan.

What we're trying to do is look forward 50 years and say what would that revenue requirement be going forward, prospectively, and then the member agencies then individually, because we're sort of agnostic, can decide do they want to collect money, go pay go?

Do they want to defer to a later date due to debt financing?

It becomes sort of a city decision as to how they want to manage that.

But our responsibility is to provide you with the best forecast that we can to allow what we call the time value of money to take into effect.

Right?

If you're collecting money and you're earning interest on it, it's uh it's a 10-point swing between paying interest and earning interest.

Um, and so that's kind of the twofold side of this is on the on the on the history side, it was done for free.

We're now doing something different.

Going forward, hopefully, because now we're building the rate case for the next 50 years, the subsequent 50 years after that will be a lot easier to swallow.

It'll be probably regulatory changes and other things that go happen along the way.

Um, but uh it is sort of uh really a function of the fact that free money came with consequences.

Gotcha.

Go ahead.

Well, I I would just say, in terms of positioning it to the public, one of the ironic things here is that of all of the public utilities and public services, the plant may be the most invisible thing to the public because of where it's located.

And if you've ever been there, it's a fascinating place, but you have to know where it is, and you have to want to go there.

Uh the only Belmont residents who've ever been there are probably me and Matt.

But it's not a highly visible kind of thing to the public.

And um there has to be some education uh in terms of the public so that you know they under understand what's happening there after they they push the flush lever.

So I have another question.

On this um on the slide that's member share and funding preemptions, it says that San Carlos is going to do cash slash SBCW reserves.

What are those reserves?

So SCCW has been accruing since around 2012, what we call our capital improvement program reserves, which are meant for capital projects.

Unfortunately, the total amount of those is around 30 million today.

We're still growing that.

We have a target number of around 50 million.

But between now and when that 50 million is achieved, we think that that fund those funds could be used by members if they so choose to borrow from it, if you will.

It's a loan.

Correct.

Thank you.

All right, comments.

Sure.

I'll I'll go.

Um thanks for the presentation.

It was a very informative.

Um, as the vice mayor said that it's a lot to digest.

Uh and it sounds like this is kind of our first iteration at this, and I just have a few comments as we move forward since you know, like you indicated, we're almost kind of in catch-up mode.

So, you know, we've all kind of toyed around with, I mean, messaging is going to be really important, so I think something that's critical, and I'm saying this out loud because I think we all are in a collaborative environment, and I think you are collaborative as I've worked with you before.

Um, but I think it's imperative that you know the member agencies have a seat at the table while we're going through this process because it is up to us as the cities how we decide you know how we're going to fund these things.

So my my comments are you know, make sure that we have really good communication and engagement that and none of the member agencies have surprises.

Um rely on the expertise that you have.

We have this awesome new public works director that just started, so um just you know rely on the other expertise that we have, make sure that our cities are represented and you know, uh just keep communicating uh through the city with the council so that as we go through this process, because we probably will at some point need to figure out timing for a Prop 218, and with everything that we have coming up in the next couple of years, you know, we have to decide when when we need to exactly give you the money, how we're gonna get the money.

So just um I would prefer more information and more communication than less, but I really appreciated the presentation today.

And maybe I'll come visit you for lunch and then I'll do that.

We do tours.

Yeah.

Um, I mean, I I know the city staff has been working on this for a while looking at different options as from this seat I occupy, which includes serving on the board for um uh circumvallet clean water.

I this sounds to me like a viable approach.

It's not the only approach, and uh I know staff is gonna keep working on it, and this is just the opening round of studying this, but it's the the bottom line is it's a plant that's been there for 45 years.

These things don't last forever.

There have been a lot of improvements made, but there need to be some more things done so they keep serving us for another century, and there's got to be a way to pay for that.

That doesn't the federal grants are no longer there to do that.

It's got to be paid for by the people who benefit from the service, and we've got to figure out the most effective way to do that for the city.

And I do really feel for people who are on fixed incomes, because it's not just this, it's so many other things.

So we'll have to figure it out.

Thank you so much for your time and all the information you shared tonight.

Thank you.

Uh thank you to our Jaime.

What's that his name?

Yes.

Thank you, Jaime.

Thank you very much.

All right, let's move on to item 11 brief verbal reports from members and staff.

Actually, you have the one more opening delegation.

Okay.

Oh, okay.

Go ahead.

Oh no, I'm going ahead.

Okay, we're moving on to item 10, the designation of voting delegate and altern alternate for League of California Cities annual conference October 8th through 10th.

Um so as you are aware, um, the annual conference is happening on October 8th through the 10th.

And um it is recommended that the city council choose a delegate um to represent the city um at the uh voting of the resolutions.

However, we did not receive any resolutions yet.

Um, but there may be some at the on the floor um on that last Friday.

Um so at this point, um the mayor, uh the vice um the city manager and the city attorney are all registered to attend.

Um it is recommended that the mayor be chosen as the delegate and then a um alternate.

Okay.

Is there any public comment on this?

None.

None.

All right.

So what are what are your thoughts?

What are your thoughts?

That sounds good to me.

Sounds like a great plan.

Great.

So a motion?

Please.

Move approval.

Second.

I guess did we designate an alternate approach?

I think we just oh, and we need an alternate.

There are three going, so an alternate would be also.

I move that it's not me.

You want a rochambeau.

Then our city manager.

City manager.

Thank you.

So I have a motion for the mayor as the um designee with the alternate of the city manager from Councilmember McCune.

A second.

Yes.

From Jordan.

And roll call.

Councilmember Jordan.

Yes.

Councilmember Kuhn.

Vice Mayor Pangman.

Aye.

Motion passes three, two.

Okay.

Now we're at item 11 brief verbal reports from members and staff.

Anything?

I just wanted to say thank you to the city staff for putting on the uh city employee barbecue last week.

It was really fun to stop by and have some great barbecue by Smithies, I think.

And I didn't get to talk with everyone, but I did try to stop at the tables to just thank all the city employees for all the work that they do for us day in and day out.

We are a lean machine here in Belmont, and I uh really appreciate the efforts of all of our employees.

So it was good to stop by and see it.

Um I had several GPA uh meetings that were interesting uh this period.

Uh SBWMA, which is rethink waste, the solid waste disposal um entity.

Um had an interesting presentation on expanded polystyrene in containers.

And this is the white styrofoam, the white beadboard styrofoam.

And I worked with it in the past, it has never been recyclable.

It is still not recyclable.

Um but uh California passed a law prohibiting its use in packaging.

So you shouldn't be getting uh fast food to go in white polystyrene containers and things of that nature.

It it's the law does not apply to other uses.

It can be used in construction for insulation and things.

But anyway, that um uh so if you have white polysyrene, unfortunately, you have to put it in the black bin.

You have to just send it to Landfill because there's no other way to deal with it.

If you do um receive packaging made out of white polystyrene, you can report it.

Uh there's a Cal recycle website where you can uh report people who are using this stuff that they should no longer be using.

So that was interesting to learn.

Uh I also attended the uh county emergency services council, um which is uh composed of all of the cities in the county, and it uh put this is uh organized by the division of emergency services at the county, which is the umbrella organization that uh deals with a lot of the various emergency response things that the county does.

Uh they had a very good presentation about SMC alerts.

We heard about SMC alerts before.

Everybody should sign up for it.

Um there was an incident in one of the cities of fire incident, I think it was Woodside, where there were some problems.

The alerts went to people in the wrong place.

There we went to alerts to a city that was not in the emergency area, and some people in the emergency area did not get the alerts.

Uh and uh no all clear was ever sent.

So they're working on approving this.

They one of the things they've done, they hired a consultant who's actually a psychologist who is looking at how they actually write the alerts, and the order in which the information is presented, and the woman who's the expert has done this all over the country.

She's a psychologist, and she says, here is the way you need to present these alerts so that people will get it.

You know, and they they won't, it's it'll be immediately obvious it's not spam advertising, it's for real, and it will take them the most directly to what they need to know.

So that was they're working on that.

It was a fascinating presentation, and um, so hopefully there are gonna be some uh incremental improvements there in SMC alerts.

That's all I got.

Great.

How about a verbal report from the city manager?

Well, Vice Mayor, uh actually, I just want to kind of add my thanks to council members for showing up at the employee appreciation uh event.

So thank you for that.

working on that it was a fascinating presentation and um so hopefully there are going to be some um incremental improvements there in SMC alerts that's all I got great how about a verbal report from the city manager well vice mayor uh actually I just want to kind of add my thanks to council members for showing up at the employee appreciation uh event so thank you for that as you kind of mentioned we have a great team Belmont and and they knock it out at the ballpark uh every day so I hope they were there to help the Giants make it to the playoffs but here we are um I also want to kind of just I think you covered a lot of events and activities going on but we do have a couple of opportunities obviously next year is our centennial and so we have a number of opportunities for folks to get involved with our centennial there's a uh website set up for that there's a lot of good information there and opportunities to either sponsor or or volunteer for for events so you can visit our website and and kind of go to the centennial page and you can find that information also by September 29th we're closing applications for the art project for our happy hydrants program and utility box art opportunity in kind of preparation for the centennial event so if you're an artist a bottling artist or have interest in kind of painting one of our fire hydrants or uh our utility boxes uh please put your application in by the deadline on September 29th and that information again is available on our available on our website so with that I'll turn back to you and thank you for pinchetting for the mayor sure no problem all right item 12 we have no matters of interest for clarification so we can move adjournment at what time is it 849 p.m I like that