Good evening, welcome to the City of Belmont, City Council regular meeting.

It is December 9th, 2025.

We're here in Council Chambers, and this is our last city council meeting for 2025.

Um, we have our posted agenda both online and in all the um exterior places we're supposed to um post.

So we can go ahead and start the meeting.

Item one is a call to order.

We can we please have roll call.

Yes, good evening.

Council members Jordan here, Laudamarlo?

Here, McCune.

Vice Mayor Pang McGonaris, President and Mayor Maids.

Here, all present.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Uh, we have some items um before 7 p.m.

This is uh agenda item number two.

Uh we do not have a closed session today, nor do we have a study session.

So that brings us to item two C, special session, other topics.

And our first is a uh community service award presentation.

Hello.

We're gonna do beautiful Belmont first.

Okay, so we'll just jump right in.

Um C1, which is our Community Service Award presentation.

We're excited to honor the recipients of our beautiful Belmont and Community Service Awards for 2025 tonight.

Since 2007, the Beautiful Belmont program recognizes property owners who have enhanced our community by making noticeable exterior improvements that have a positive impact on the surrounding area.

Our first and only residential nomination is for Jonathan Penn and Lisa Meltzerpen and their property located at 1010 Notre Dame Avenue.

If you're the owners, can you just stand or raise your hands so we can see?

There you go.

Yay!

1010 Notre Dame underwent a complete garden overhaul.

They replaced their lawn with natural stone, integrated native plants, and planted a meadow of grasses along with a curving walkway for a more natural look that requires less water and is more eco-friendly.

Neighbors continue to comment on the improvements and enjoy seeing the new garden.

Jonathan and Lisa have been Belmont residents for over 25 years and take pride in contributing to the well-being of the neighborhood.

They love so much.

And if you want to just wave or stand up when I call your commercial property, the first is Jolly's Old Fashion Teas Ice Cream.

Dolly's old-fashioned teas cream is a new business tucked into a quaint small wood structure that is one of the last surviving pieces of Belmont's original main street.

It was initially built in 1910, and is where the former Chanticlair Ice Cream and Candy Shop once delighted this neighborhood over a century ago.

Now in 2025, ice cream has returned to this beloved space, and the new owners are delighted to carry on its sweet tradition.

From the exterior paint color to the entry planters, exterior signage and attention to detail in all interior finishes.

Jason Herrick and Vanessa Green were careful to preserve and complement the original and essential elements of this existing building.

So congratulations.

The salon takes pride in creating an inviting presence for our community with a focus on healthy hair, exceptional service, and a warm, inclusive atmosphere.

The team's dedication is reflected in glowing reviews across Google, Nextdoor, and Yelp.

Salon 1322's consistent efforts to care for its space and its clients truly beautify Belmont.

Thank you.

Do we have anyone from Salon 1322?

All right.

Well, we will be sure to um their award.

AJ and Rena, owners of Amara, created a Mediterranean oasis in the heart of Belmont.

Inspired by their family travels across the Mediterranean, AJ and Rena carefully curated both the menu and the restaurant's aesthetic to reflect the colors, flavors, and warmth of the region.

Their goal is to transport guests with every detail, offering a dining experience that feels like a small escape from the bustle of the Bay Area.

Amara is truly a work of art, located at the Carlmont Shopping Center.

The decor is both thoughtful and exemplary.

Every finish was carefully chosen, and the space is warm, intentional, and inviting.

The project also extended their space in design and connection to the adjacent nursery to create a beautiful patio layout that gives the restaurant a peaceful, welcoming outdoor area.

Amara has become a beautiful addition to Belmont, and we're very excited to have them as part of our community.

So I don't see any Amara folks here, but let's go ahead and give them a round of applause.

Yes, exactly.

They probably have things to do tonight as people are dining out.

Congratulations to all our beautiful Belmont winners.

And if we could just get everyone to come for a photo, that would be great.

If you could just come on up to the Dais, we'll take a quick photo.

All right, continuing with uh 2C special session, we have our beautiful Belmont Awards.

Oh, we did that one.

We have our community service awards presentation.

And again, if I call your name, if you can just stand up or give us a wave so we know who you are.

Our community service award is designed to recognize Belmont residents who have made significant impacts on the quality of life in Belmont.

We look for individuals who show exceptional commitment to volunteerism, selfless leadership, and an ability to inspire others as a role model.

Our first very deserving community service award goes to Clarissa Nafster, who was, yes.

Who was nominated by Ula 4?

And this is very sorry, she could not be here tonight.

Um it's her birthday, so she's um she's celebrating.

Clarissa is instrumental to the Belmont Community Foundation's efforts, particularly the successful community event Imagine Together, which took place on August 9th of this year.

Ula noted she is proactive, organized, thoughtful, and she makes things happen.

If Clarissa is involved, you know that the work will get done and it will be done exceptionally well.

She's always working in the background, and therefore few people are aware of how much better Belmont is because of her.

Thank you for contributing to Make Belmont a better place, Clarissa.

We are grateful for all you do to help our community.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, that's great.

Thank you.

All right, uh, our next community service award goes to Carl Middle Middlestat.

Carl received five nominations from Terry Cook, Chuck Cotton, Jeffrey Goldman, Rose Laughlin, and Mary Morsey Pardon.

Carl has tirelessly served the Belmont community for nearly 60 years, starting his career with the Belmont Parks and Recreation Department, including serving as director.

He subsequently served on the Parks and Recreation Commission for several years, helped create the Belmont Historical Society, serves as the official Belmont Historian, and is involved with the Belmont Park Boosters Summers Concert Series.

Jeff Goldman noted, I have seen him mentor volunteers of all ages, from high school students to middle aged dads, always in service to others and with a smile on his face.

Mary Morrisy Pardon writes Although people have seen Carl in his active appointed political life, most notably with Parks and Recreation, and as our current Belmont historian, it's really in Carl's everyday life that we find his commitment to the Belmont community.

I cannot think of a committee, nonprofit event, or a Belmont business or organization that hasn't touched that Carl hasn't touched with his quiet and deliberate commitment to this community.

He supports Belmont beyond measure with leadership and conviction and most importantly, integrity.

Carl, our entire city is grateful for the work and commitment you dedicate in supporting and improving our community.

You are truly deserving of this recognition.

So I'd like to thank and congratulate on behalf of the entire council in our city, both uh Clarissa and Carl for being the 2025 Community Service Award winners and improving the quality of life for all who live here.

And if you can come to the Dais, you can get your awards and maybe take a quick photo with us.

Thanks again.

And seems like we got that done a lot faster than we have in years past.

So maybe I'll just riff it really quick.

Would Clarissa or Carl like to say anything?

You don't have to, but would you like to say anything?

Everyone's good.

Okay.

Then uh what we'll do is maybe take a brief recess and we'll come back at 7 o'clock for the regular meeting.

Thank you.

All right, good evening.

We are back from our recess.

Uh this is the City of Belmont City Council regular meeting.

It is now 701 p.m.

And we've had already a couple of items, um, special presentations and other things before 7 o'clock.

The item starting at 7 p.m.

We'll start with agenda item three.

Um, and if you would like to make public comment or um come to chambers or view the meeting, uh if you look at our published agenda on the website, you will see all the different ways to both make a public comment and uh join the meeting as well as protocol for making public comments.

Item number three is Pledge of Allegiance, and I think we have our police department honor guard with us.

So please rise, please if you're able to use the budget.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to do the button of which is one nation under God.

Great.

Thank you.

Item four is a report from closed session.

We did not have any closed sessions this evening, so there's no report on that.

Item five is special presentations, and of first is our state legislative update with our very own assembly member, Diane Pappen, who is with us this evening.

Thank you so much for joining us.

This is our last um council meeting in 2025, so save the best for last and having you here.

Thank you.

That's right, that's right.

Well, good evening, having there, Council members.

I'm delighted to be with you tonight and to have an opportunity to just kind of tell you what's been happening north of here at the state capitol.

Um first of all, I would like to just say it is an honor to serve this community in the state legislature.

Truth be told, I probably do it for free, but I'm not announcing that too loudly.

Um, it's it's tremendous work, and as you know, I come from the city next door and served on the city council there.

And um my I always tell people when I first got to the legislature, I didn't have to read people's bio.

Like I could tell which of my colleagues had served on local government and which had not.

It was just apparent in how they think about things, and some of my legislation reflects coming out of local government and and is sensitive to some of the things that we have gone through at the local level.

So uh with that, we'll go to the next slide.

Enough of the airbrushed Diane Pappen.

And I thought what I where I would start would be with the budget, because as we all know, in public service, nothing happens without the God-almighty dollar.

And so um I thought I'd give you just kind of an overhaul of of where we've been.

Of course, when I arrived to Sacramento, I was sworn in in December of 22, hit the ground running in 23, and that's right when we had our first beginnings of a budget deficit.

There was no surplus in my day.

So it's been challenging ever since I've been to Sacramento.

Our current budget from last year was 321 billion, of which we had a twelve million dollar shortfall, and I really got to see kind of firsthand how uh they shift money around, which we did a lot of.

I mean, we've we put some commitments uh out in the offing and didn't incur them right now, and then we also went and drawed down on some of the reserves which were created when there was a big surplus prior to my getting there.

And some of the bigger concerns with drawing down on the reserves were that we didn't want to do too much of that, so that we had some for as we go forward because this uh we just came out in the news.

I think last week, um the budget offices said we're expecting now an $18 billion deficit, which was actually kind of the approximation for last year, too.

And the way the cadence of the of the state legislature and its budget works is uh you kind of get estimates this time of year.

We come in January, and the governor gives you his um his estimated budget, and then there's a dance between January and June as it relates to what the legislature thinks that budget should look like.

And um we are expected to have uh budget deficits for the foreseeable future.

A lot of our our um our income is uh based on an unstable source of deals in Silicon Valley and what those look like not to mention that we have rising costs for some of our continuing obligations, and then when you factor in what the federal government looks like and how it wants to treat California, it becomes just a perfect storm in so many ways.

So I'm anticipating that um going forward it's not going to be a picnic either.

So we'll go to the next slide where we talk about our favorite subject, which is a vehicle license fee.

So, as I mentioned, this dance that begins in January and ends in June.

Well, part of that dance is the governor red lines out immediately, the vehicle license fee, and then we put it back in, then he takes it out, we put it back in, he takes it out, and the dance goes on and on.

Um, so just to by way of background, I know all of you know, but for folks that might be in the audience or or people that are watching at home, the vehicle license fee is um was cut when Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor, and that resulted in a lot less money being available to come back to the locals when we register our cars.

Seemed like a great idea at the time, and um, but in order to make up for that shortfall, the state of California promised that it would backfill the money that uh it was taking or we were cutting the VLF by and there was no money there, it would backfill it um from the uh education revenue augmentation fund known as ERAF through a series of things, not the least of which is that we pay very high property taxes.

Um there is no ERAF fund to fund our vehicle license fee.

And um it is us in Alpine County right now, and to give you an idea, last year the vehicle license fee shortfall um was combined.

Us and Alpine was $118 million, a hundred and fourteen of which went to our county.

So it's not an insignificant sum, and we are the county that gets it the worst.

So for all the years I've been there, and since um there was no money in the ERAF to pay us because of our high property values.

Um we have gone to the general fund and asked for the money to come out of the general fund.

And so the first year I was there in 23, the VLF shortfall was 32.8 billion, a million, excuse me.

We fought and fought for it, got it, got all of it, and it distributes not only to the county, but then to cities get, as you all know, a certain chunk of that money as well.

Uh the following year, last year the shortfall was 70 million, and we got the 70 million restored.

And part of this was uh through uh the San Mateo County delegation and uh Phil Ting for the first couple years that I was there, was chair of the budget committee, and he represented part of San Mateo County, so that didn't hurt.

Then when he left on the Senate side, uh Senator Wiener became chair of the budget committee, and that has certainly helped us as well.

Although um uh assembly member just Gabriel has been very sensitive to this this concern, and he is chair of budget on the assembly side and has been very helpful as well.

Now we get to this year, and the 114 million, uh, as you can see, the number for vehicle license fee is going up exponentially, and uh now we're at uh 114 million in this year.

We did not get all the money, which I know all of you know, and um we uh um so we got two-thirds of it, and this the these negotiations I mean they happen at all hours at all times.

I was in Winters, California, it was nine o'clock at night, and I see Wiener calling me on my phone, telling me I only got he only got two thirds, and I'm like, this can't be.

So these things happen and they are all consuming, and we spend a lot of time on them.

I know that uh every city in the county, not that we not including, including uh Belmont is a part of the county's lawsuit to recover those additional funds.

I will tell you that we've also tried to do something legislatively um that would uh be a permanent fix to the vehicle license fee so that we don't have to keep going back to the budget to do it.

And um, but I thus far we haven't been able to find a fix because a lot of what's been offered has been a cap.

And in my mind, uh why are we having a cap on something that you'd be entitled to if you weren't a county that had high property taxes?

So I I have uh a difficulty with that, and I I think this county in particular is a um, you know, we're an economic engine not only of the region but at the state, and I would submit the nation.

And it doesn't happen by accident.

We have we are the land of the haves and the have nots, and so it is not okay for us to be this big donor county to the state and then say, oh, by the way, go struggle dealing with the have nots in your community.

Doesn't work that way.

So that's why I've had a lot of uh difficulty with um what's been proposed to date.

So we're at this juncture where we may continue to work on a fix and we have pending litigation.

So stay tuned, and it is my hope that um somehow there's a reconciliation, especially for the money that didn't get paid this year.

For purposes of Belmont, it is that it's uh 502,000 in 2021 to 22, then 22 to 23.

It was a million seventy seventy-five thousand to you, and then this year your share of the total vehicle license fee was 1,147,000.

So the number keeps going up for Belmont as well, of which you've got two-thirds of that.

So we'll go the next slide, which is just a T-up slide for me to then transition into some of the legislation.

Now that we've kind of talked about money, I thought it'd be a good idea to uh get yet another airbrushed picture of me and we'll move on.

So we'll go to the next slide.

Uh so uh I'll talk about some of the bills I carried.

Some were successful, some were not successful, and maybe tell you why I'm I'm gonna come back to some of them.

I don't know if I move away from this mic, it's not great.

Oh, please do not touch the mic because I've touched several times.

Sorry about that, madam clerk.

Uh so this one was this bill, uh AB60 was to ban uh musk from cosmetic projects.

Lots of things we use every day contain musk.

It is not a it is a very harmful chemical, and it is already uh removed from these same products in Europe.

So I didn't have a lot of pushback on this bill from the manufacturers.

A couple years ago, I carried one to keep harmful chemicals out of menstrual products, and you know, I had to go up against the likes of Procter and Gamble and all those lovely people who who said they couldn't possibly remove PFOS, which is a forever chemical out of menstrual products.

But anyway, we got the bill across the finish line, but it took me a lot.

This one was a uh uh a bit easier because the European Union already has these regulations and the manufacturers are already able to manufacture these products without must.

They're just gonna have to bring their formulas over here to the U.S.

So we'll go to the next slide.

Um so this one uh also was a um uh quite a welcomed bill.

So we have committed in California to conserve 30% of our lands by 2030.

What we have not committed to do is how do we maintain those lands.

And even when I was on the city council, we had people that were gonna donate land in this county for open space.

That was the easy part.

The hard part is maintaining it.

How do we make sure that it's fire safe?

How do we make sure that it doesn't cause flooding?

How do we have open trails on it?

There's lots that goes into the stewardship of conserved land.

So this particular bill says uh a part and parcel of what we're doing with respect to conserving lands is that we want to see stewardship, and you have to have a bona fide steward plan because if we all know in government, nothing happens without a plan, right?

You have a plan and then you go to fund the plan.

So this bill uh was signed by the governor, and hopefully we're on our way with um not only conserving land but but having good stewardship programs.

Next slide.

So this one was uh uh about paratransit eligibility, and I'm so proud of this bill because we were putting people who are permanently disabled through the rigmarole to keep their eligibility to ride paratransit vehicles, and you'd have to go like every year, every two years, you'd have to have a doctor's uh report.

I mean, it's not like your condition changed.

You are permanently disabled.

So it was a great bill to bring.

We had some fantastic witnesses who were so uh eloquent in how they they told us about what we take for granted every day and what we can do with great ease, is so difficult for them, and that's why they're relying on paratransit um uh vehicles.

And uh so now you only have to get to re-epped once every five years, and you don't need a doctor's uh reporting, you can do it by phone, mail-in, online.

We just made it very, very accommodating.

So very proud of the bill because I think it it was so simple and it just changes the everyday life of folks that could use the help.

Okay, next next bill.

So we had to make this a two-year bill, and I sit on utilities and energy and and uh this bill is we all know that Caltrain has been electrified, and when it goes into the station, it feeds electricity back to the grid.

So this bill was about um getting Caltrain uh compensated for that energy that it feeds back to the and it's not insignificant, it's some it's about two million a year, they have a deficit.

Every little bit helps.

So uh I'm happy to report the peninsula clean energy on its own voluntarily agreed to credit Caltrain.

PGE did not, and so now the bill just goes after uh PGE.

Uh but I the woman that chairs uh utilities energy very much looks at this like well, if PGE has to give you money back, then that's gonna make rates go up.

I mean, it's two million dollars, so probably not gonna make rates go up.

But there is some concern that this could set a precedent as high speed rail comes out, and what does that do to the what we call IOUs, investor owned utilities and what they have to pay to transit providers.

So stay tuned.

I'm I'm still working on the bill, but I made it a two-year bill, and uh let's see if we can't bring it home and at least get PGE.

It's such a de minimous amount.

Um, we really feel that uh the bill is gonna do a lot of good.

So we'll go to the next slide.

And I know all of you probably know about this bill, AB 650, and we we got 650 because that's our area code.

Yes, that was intentional.

I'm here to tell you.

Um, but don't tell the rest of the cities that we're all on board with this up and down the state.

So, as we all know, we've all spent a lot of money trying to come up with how to prepare our housing element, which we have to do every eight years to tell the state that we will build the amount of housing that you are um mandating us to build.

So, this bill tried to make the process easier for localities so that they didn't spend a lot of time on consultants, which is a lot of money.

And I really feel quite strongly that uh nobody needs to be dealing with bureaucrats and the expense that bureaucrats are causing.

Um, so I wanted to uh make it such that uh that process is easier because I feel like we all could use that money perhaps to do something about housing, or you know, rental assistance or whatever it might be.

So this bill said that you could start the process six months earlier, and um then HCD, as you all know, would reject your housing element and and they'd move the ball, or there'd be somebody new that was hired there, and it just became so utterly impossible that this required them to provide consistent feedback, feedback that had specificity to it, that sort of thing.

Well, they got very uncomfortable, and they're like, Well, if we give you specific feedback, then is it not true that we would then be writing the housing element for you?

I don't think so.

So now I'm gonna come back at them with if you meet certain milestones and you are very specific about X, Y, and Z, then it should be if there's a deficiency to it, you have to be a specific about the deficiency, and B, you have to give uh specifics about how to cure the deficiency.

I think it's only fair.

We've spent a whole lot of money up and down the state on trying to feed the beast that is HCD.

Next slide.

Um, so getting a lot of press about this bill, um, which was vetoed, and we will reintroduce it.

I chair when I first went to the assembly, I was the assistant majority leader, and I gave that up because I wanted to be chair of water.

And I I came in a past life, I did a lot of uh litigation as an attorney about infrastructure, and it is uh the kind of thing that I um very uh in tune with.

So, as we know, with the proliferation of AI, we have a whole bunch of data centers, data centers are very thirsty.

Uh they also use a lot of energy, but this bill was only geared towards water because uh it's such a precious resource, and they they're what we call ultimate users, and they recycle water about seven times, and then it's gone forever.

It degrades so much that the water is gone forever, and you can't recreate water.

So I felt very strongly that we need to get a handle on how much water data centers are using.

It was a very simple bill.

People get their business licenses from cities.

I just wanted when a data center comes into a locality, when you apply for your business license, you need to estimate the amount of water you use, and then once you're, you know, in that cycle of renewing your business license each time, you would record how much you've actually used.

And I thought it was a tremendous opportunity to be prepared.

And I kind of feel like data centers are happening everywhere.

Let Texas run out of water.

We should do better than that, and we should be prepared.

And the governor in his veto message felt that there was somehow interfering with data centers.

I'm like, if you don't have enough water, we'll ultimately be interfering with them.

So perhaps we should plan.

And I've gotten just a lot of calls from all over the nation where data centers are going in.

What are you doing?

How are you?

My bill was not to regulate anything.

I really, as I've seen with serving as chair of water, that uh water providers have a lot uh on their plate, and I thought this was a great opportunity to just be prepared.

Let's provide what you can when you need to.

So next slide.

I'm coming back at that one.

So I thought I'd talk to you a little bit uh about uh another uh money item.

Um I don't know why I look so angry in that picture, but let's just go with that.

I look very active that but I was very involved in getting prop four in the ballot, went through the legislature initially, it's a ten billion dollar bond, and it wasn't easy.

Uh the governor was very focused on the education bond, which is another 10 billion dollar bond, and we were coming up against our bond limit.

And he was kind of like, Well, if you can get the education bond, I'll let you, you know, get the climate bond through the legislature.

And my colleagues weren't, they were not enamored with it because for every one billion dollars in bond that you issue, it's um 80 million dollars in interest a year.

So it's not cheap money by any stretch of the imagination, but we just don't have the money in our general fund to do these big climate resilient projects, which I know your city manager knows are no cheap date.

And so I really believed in this bond.

Well, as it turns out when I went to the ballot, like this bond did so much better than the education bond, and I think people were very in tune with what this bond promised and how it was going to help us either capture water.

Uh 40 percent uh no, excuse me, 30 per 30 percent of it goes towards water projects.

Whether that's clean water, whether it's water sustainability, there was just a whole bunch of water in it, and I served on the subcommittee for it, and and it was great.

My biggest issue with it, which we were very successful with was that 40% of this bond has to go to underserved communities, and how do you describe and define underserved communities?

And I could not have it be underserved communities was based on the median income in the state, because to be underserved in this community looks very different than it does in Bakersfield, and so if we were using a statewide metric, we would have never been competitive in applying for the grant money that comes out of these bonds.

So we made it that it was area median income so that if if you're in my area and you have sea level rise and you're from an underserved community, a lot easier for us to get that money.

So that was very important, and it did go in there, and we've already seen some of the dollars coming forward.

You got a million seven, um, one billion seven, yes, one billion seven hundred thousand.

I think that's right.

Uh, for water infrastructure, three hundred and twenty-five million for wildfire and forest resilience, and two hundred eighty-six million for biodiversity and nature-based solutions.

So the money's already getting out there.

It doesn't go all out at once.

You don't go out to the bond market all at once, but um, it's getting out there, and we uh are I'm very excited about it.

I think it's gonna do a lot of good.

Now, I thought this money was going to be in addition to money that was in the general fund to do some resiliency work.

Of course, that got all cut out of the budget.

So now this bond has become like the governor in the Department of Finance's bank, and uh it is what it is, but in in tough budgetary times, that's what what you're dealing with.

So okay, next slide.

We're almost to the end.

Um I know I speak very quickly, but I I don't want to take up too much time.

All right, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about Cap Invest.

This was another one of those subcommittees that I sat on, um, and it used to be called Cap and Trade.

So I'll describe just briefly what it does, and it's a market-based system for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

And what this does is if you're a polluter, you get allowances from the state, and if you need more, you purchase them at auction.

And the money that comes from the purchasing at auction is then used by the state of California to invest in things that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The other part to uh this is that over time the amount of allowances that the state issues will reduce, and that is to encourage polluters to find other ways to operate in a cleaner fashion.

Um, so the cap and trade program was to go through 2030, and what we were seeing in the auction in the marketplace for the auctions is the value of the allowances was going down, and we didn't want that.

So we took it up now in 2025, and we extended CAP and Invest all the way through 2045.

So we gave it another 15 years.

I would like to report that it has made the auction price go up, but not quite.

We didn't quite get it.

I just read today we didn't get as much, but it's okay.

Stay tuned.

So the next slide will tell you just a little bit about where some of this money goes.

And the first thing it does is it gives you a credit on your utility bills.

And uh, so if you look on there are certain times a year, your utility bill will say now, because people didn't know that the credits were on there.

So now we we're gonna force utility companies to highlight where it will say cap and invest credit, and you will see credits on your utility bills.

One of the other things that these are some of the other items where where uh the money we raised from Cap and Invest is has helped us along the way.

But one of the things I'm most excited about is in my district here in Brisbane is a company called Heirloom, and Heirloom is about developing the technology to extract carbon from the environment.

So I always say, even if we are um if we're stop polluting in the morning, we still need to get rid of the carbon in the environment.

And this is a new technology, it's not up to scale where it's affordable at this moment in time, but I'm very excited that some of the cap and invest dollars will will go towards that.

So I've been infinitely proud of that.

Next slide just shows that uh we are certainly here and in the district.

Look at all these fine, beautiful people.

Um I had the honor of being with you all the other day last week uh to cut the ribbon on the the creek improvements, and uh oh, that was just uh a win-win win.

So I was delighted to help uh just you know cut the ribbon and um it was uh terrific.

So we can go to the next slide, and that's it.

Thank you so much.

And I will take questions if you have time.

If not, and you're you're done hearing enough of Diane Vappen on stage, I'm fine with that too.

Thank you so much for coming and for providing us with this update.

Um, it really is an honor to have you here.

Uh, we can tell, I mean, I've seen you firsthand on the floor, I've seen you uh in there fighting for for our district um in all kinds of ways with all kinds of the connections you have, and I I think our whole council and our community certainly appreciates all that you do.

Um I think specifically we actually had a few maybe a month ago, our city council meeting, we had an update on housing, and uh one of the things that that I brought up and that they mentioned is that the um bill 650 8650, which um for those of you who don't know, assembly member Papen, you know, we talked to you about uh maybe individually, or certainly I talked to you about um how hard it is uh to comply with some of HDV's rules and schedules and things.

So then to see that actually turn into a proposed bill uh was really satisfying, and I think it's just great to have you there fighting for us.

I'll just tell you one quick anecdote.

I did talk to someone not in this district, and when I mentioned that you are our assembly member, uh he said that Diane fights for her district, and he said, I think it's okay to say this, he actually called you a bulldog and said that she is in there for for your community.

So thank you for that.

Oh, doing a cube bulldog.

Yeah, I think he meant French, French Bulldog.

Um so I don't I don't want to keep you any longer with with uh a QA, but do uh council members any anything for the assembly member at this time?

Okay.

The only question I have, and and I mean I don't want this to be too big of a question, but when you reintroduce the important bills that didn't get through the first time and you bring them back, like how how do you adjust them in a way that become more palatable to the rest of the group?

Um so it depends on the bill.

Certainly.

Like I think you had the governor's office engaged on 650, which they did not, and I had 10 emails beforehand.

Just so you know, because uh I learned early on when I um during my uh my first term, I was like, Well, I said to my staff, when did you call the governor's office?

And what do you did?

Well, we called it this time.

Oh no, no, no, you know, like the old lawyer of me came out.

We're gonna document each time we engage.

And so we had many, many emails, and I knew that one would be tough because bureaucrats don't like to be told what to do, and that's really the crux of that bill in a lot of ways.

When I first got elected, Phil Ting from San Francisco said to me, goes, you know, Diane, all these people are gonna reach out to you, and the phone's gonna ring off the hook.

And the people you're gonna want to talk to are the people in the executive branch or the people in these various governmental departments, and they never return your call.

So they're very difficult to deal with, and that bill was really about telling them what to do.

So I think had they engaged early on, there might be have been some specifics that I could have amended the bill with.

And um, so they know that I'm gonna come back probably with some specifics.

Had I known ahead of time, we probably could have done it ahead of time.

On the data centers, I think um it's it's a tougher one because you don't want to look like you're impeding industry, right?

And this is a very important growing industry.

But I really felt it was just a transparency bill.

I mean, I could have said, and by the way, if you're eating up this much water, we can accommodate your you know what I and I chose not to do that.

It was really just a transparency bill because I wanted to get a handle on it more than anything else.

And just data gathering on some level, too.

Right.

Even just data gathering, like are your expectations.

Exactly.

Yeah, exactly, council member.

And I was very um I thought it was very much a missed opportunity for sure, because I think you can strike that balance between sustainability and being innovation, and I don't think one has to quash the other.

I think if you're prepared for it, then you can really allow innovation to take off.

But we're hurting ourselves by not being prepared for it, and so it was a missed opportunity, I think.

So I bring them back.

You uh uh you get veto messages, and so um that certainly helps along the way.

Um, because then you get some idea of how you might want to tweak it in the future.

Although sometimes you might say, No, I think there's a bill, good bill, you're gonna have to take a second look at it.

Um so it really depends on the bill.

I think that's a great question.

It just depends on the bill and who in the governor's office is handling it any given time.

Um, there's just a lot of backdrop.

But I mean, for me to get all those through the legislature, get them to the government, you know, the legislature is not made up of all cookie cutter people.

There were some people that looked at I had a geothermal bill that was vetoed, and and there were some people, it dealt with exploratory geothermal wells, and I I really think geothermal is a great form of energy because we're not reliant on the wind, we're not reliant on the sun, it's just steam that comes out of the ground, exactly.

And um, I was very disappointed in that, because I was kind of like, I think this is the wave of the future, and I welcome you to get on board.

And I had to get it through the legislature, and there were a lot of people that are more environmentally bent, and they were this was to have it so you didn't have to go through an entire sequel process for exploratory wells only, and I had to get it past a lot of environments in the legislature, and they were on board with me.

Then I get to the governor's office and it's like what are we doing to ourselves?

So in any event, stay tuned.

We continue on.

But I love the question.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your time and your passion and your energy for this work that you're doing for us on our behalf and the district.

Um, I know you served on City of San Mateo's uh council, but you have not seen a city council meeting until you've watched Belmont.

So feel free if you're scheduled to stay as long as you'd like.

Um we totally understand if your schedule means you have to go.

Thank you so much again.

Uh, my pleasure.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Bye, everyone.

All right, um, then I actually have a couple of items uh under this uh agenda item, but I'm wondering since I see our um Belmont PD here with us, if council is okay with us um letting our good men and women of our Belmont PD get back to work if we bump that um oath of office up right now, and then maybe uh let the the let's then get back to work.

If maybe just head nods is fine, thumbs up.

Okay, great.

And we have with us our chief Ken Steckwist, good evening, Madam Mayor and Council.

Tonight we're going to swear in two of our newest police officers.

As you know, these moments are always full of excitement for our department, our community, and completely special.

Um I'm gonna start tonight with Fernanda Ramirez.

All right, Fernanda started with the police department in December of 2024.

She was born and raised on the peninsula and is a graduate of San Francisco State University.

She recently graduated from the South Bay Regional Training Consortium Police Academy in September and is currently in the field training officer program.

Fernando always worked with a smile.

And isn't afraid to bring light-hearted humor to the team.

This is Fernanda.

Next up is Officer Xavier Childs.

Thanks.

Xavier started with the police department in April of this year.

After graduating Hillsdale High School, he enlisted in the U.S.

Army.

As a Marine, it's still okay.

Officer Childs recently graduated as well from the South Bay Regional Training Consortium in September and is currently in the field training program.

Xavier is a hard worker and brings a lot of enthusiasm to the department.

Xavier Childs.

At this time I would like to ask the loved ones to come up and pin their badges, to be fair.

Slightly.

Thank you.

And before before you all take off, Chief, I just would like to first of all congratulate our two newest members.

You have joined one of the most respected departments in the area.

And you definitely serve a community that places a lot of trust in our department.

And we have a lot of shared values and really a partnership between our police department and our community.

So we look forward to working with you and having both of you strengthen that partnership.

So thank you again and congratulations.

Any other council members want to say?

Well, welcome.

We forgot one of the most important things, madam mayor, and I apologize.

Just a small thing.

Oh, oh my goodness.

You can have it written down.

Oh sorry.

First, last time you went ahead.

So I will have you raise your right hand.

Raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I state your name.

I Xavier Child.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That I will support and defend.

Thou support and defend.

The Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

Against all enemies, foreign or domestic.

Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance.

That I'll bear true faith and allegiance.

To the Constitution of the United States.

To the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

That I take this obligation freely.

That I take this obligation freely.

Without any mental reservation, without any mental reservation.

For purpose of evasion.

Or purpose of evasion.

And that I will well.

And that I will well.

And faithfully discharge.

And faithfully discharge.

The duties upon which the duties upon which I'm about to enter.

I'm about to answer.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

All right, this time I'm done.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Then we will go ahead and move on to a proclamation recognizing our outgoing poet laureate.

Bridget, sure.

Hi there, Mayor and Council.

Just want to say a few words to introduce Monica Corday, our poet laureate.

So Monica has been our poet laureate for four-year term.

Normally the poet laureate term is three years, but Monica graciously agreed.

I may have twisted an arm to get her to stay on for another year.

She had more words to share and more beauty to provide to the city of Belmont.

Monica has stepped up for so many community events.

She has helped us build some of our cultural events, our Diwali celebration and our Lunar New Year, and has curated monthly virtual poetry uh events that have attracted people from around the world, and just sort of sprinkled her beautiful words through so many of our celebrations here in the city.

And we are very grateful.

But that said, it is time for Monica to move on and share her words with others and make space for a new poet laureate.

But tonight is Monica's night, so wanted to give her the opportunity to say a few words herself.

Of course.

Thank you so much.

And Monica, before you share with us your presentation and your words, I wanted to read you the proclamation that we are providing you through our city.

It is an appreciation for outstanding public service by Monica Corday, Belmont Poet Laureate.

Whereas Monica Corday served the city of Belmont with distinction and dedication as poet laureate since 2021, bringing transformative power of poetry to our community.

And whereas Ms.

Corday's poems are published in various online literary journals and anthologies, and she received recognition and prizes in county poetry events, bringing honor to our city through her literary excellence.

Whereas Miss Corday began her tenure by reading her poem to Rise before City Council, setting a tone of aspiration and community connection that would define her service.

And whereas Ms.

Corday dedicated herself to demystifying poetry and making it an approachable and accessible for everyone, working tirelessly to break free from stereotypes and create inclusive creative spaces for the written word throughout Belmont.

Whereas Ms.

Corday curated monthly virtual poetry nights, a forum that became a cherished gathering place for our community's diverse voices, and whereas through her collaborative spirit, Ms.

Corday partnered with the Belmont Library and Parks and Recreation Department to bring poetry to our programs at parks through her poetry 360 project and many community celebrations and events, including Lunar New Year, Diwali, Pride Month, Veterans Day, and the Belmont Poetry Contest, and the Martin Luther King Jr.

Poetry and Essay Contest.

And whereas during her four years as Belmont's poet laureate, Ms.

Corday enriched our city's cultural landscape and left an indelible mark on our community through her dedication to connecting people with one another through the art of poetry.

Now, therefore, we extend our deepest gratitude to Monica Corday for her exemplary service as Poet Laureate of the City of Belmont.

Her passion, creativity, and commitment to celebrating diverse voices have strengthened the bonds of our community and inspired countless residents to discover the power of poetry in their own lives.

We wish you considered success in all your future endeavors and trust that your influence on Belmont's literary culture will endure for generations to come.

Is it okay to adjust the mic?

Thank you.

Just taking a moment here.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council members, city staff, and dear Belmont community.

Being here with all of you is both an honor and a privilege.

Thank you for allowing me the time to speak this evening.

My tenure as your city poet laureate comes to its close, and I find myself reflecting on these past four years, the honor, the responsibility, and the journey of being entrusted with this role.

And I'll do my best to condense four years of work, gratitude, and wonder in the next few minutes.

As a poet whose craft is shaped by words, I have wrestled with language to convey the depth of this experience and emotion.

But in striving to capture it, I return to the simplest and most heartfelt expression I can offer.

Thank you.

Serving as Belmont's poet laureate has been a journey into the heart of our community, into what it means to belong, to create, and to carry the stories of those around us.

Belmont may be small in geography, but it is vast in spirit.

We share a common desire to be seen, heard, valued, connected.

And during my tenure, I have sought to reflect that spirit through poetry programs by promoting and championing the arts in our city and serving as a bridge between our community's many cultures, ages, and creative strengths.

It has been my privilege to help cultivate a space where all forms of expression can flourish.

My signature initiative, Project Poetry 360, was designed to surround us with poetry, weaving many ideas and community voices into the spaces we inhabit.

Decode poetry, for example, turned Belmont's parks and neighborhoods into destinations for poetic discovery through QR codes, curated maps, and readings at the historic manor house.

I often return to the lines of a bilingual youth poet who submitted to this project.

Encontrar unogar de repente se combierte en poema.

Finding a home suddenly becomes a poem.

Watching neighbors scan the QR code was not just about celebrating poetry in our shared spaces, but it was a profound reminder that poetry truly connects us, gives language to our experiences, and can bring a sense of belonging to someone.

Poetry pop-ups at the Celebrate the Music Festival and library projects like community poetry, self-love, Dear Earth, the Poetry Jumble Wall, as well as National Poetry Month events, annual contests and workshops in between invited reflection and creativity, reaching broader audiences.

While the monthly virtual Belmont Poetry Nights gathered 30 to sometimes over 50 attendees from across the globe.

These Zoom nights, including the in-person gatherings over the years, allowed me to feature and spotlight over 100 poets and artists from Belmont, the Bay Area, and beyond during my tenure, uplifting young ambassadors, emerging writers, BIPOC, AAPI, LGBTQ, Indigenous and Immigrants, spotlighting musicians and multidisciplinary artists, and honoring contributions of elders, children, and teens.

I remember a middle school student walking up to me at the end of a poetry contest ceremony, saying she hadn't won, but still wanted to share her poem during the open mic.

Moments like these remind me that poetry has the power to make us brave, to give us courage to be seen, and to embrace our vulnerabilities all at once.

Poetry truly has a way of anchoring us in the moment, bringing people together across cultures, through collaborations with the city and the library.

I had the privilege of hosting multicultural celebrations, heritage events, and being part of occasions such as Pride Ceremony and Veterans Day.

Moments where we affirmed that our community speaks in many languages, colors, rhythms, and truths.

Every voice, every poem over the years, creating a vibrant, inclusive literary community that I am deeply proud to have nurtured.

My vision for Belmont has always been of a mountain carrying a multitude of voices, and those voices have converged and continue to uplift one another.

I am pleased that this spirit can be found in a lasting form as an e-flip book titled Resonance, my closing project featuring poems from local, national and international writers, including our California state poet laureate, Lee Herrick.

This e-poetry collection celebrates our shared journey and the creative heartbeat of Belmont, and I am collaborating with her library to make this gift to the community available in print as well, if possible.

Being poet laureate has been more than a title.

It has been a daily lesson in listening, in creating space for stories to be heard, and in witnessing the power of words to connect us.

And my journey and as Belmont's poet laureate has been one of deep learning while working through challenges, shared connections, and community service above everything else.

The opportunities I've had to create in this role have been shaped and strengthened by a beautiful village of people around me, and I hold each one of them in gratitude today.

I extend my heartfelt thanks to the City Council, to our former and our current mayor, to the wonderful Belmont Parks and Recreation, immense gratitude especially to the director of PNR, Bridget Shearer, to the amazing Belmont Library and its manager Chris Liu, for their support and partnership during my tenure.

Huge shout out to my dear family and friends here and in India, poetry enthusiasts, featured readers, open mic performers, workshop participants, event attendees, listeners, and most importantly, the people of Belmont.

Thank you for gathering for the sake of poetry.

It has been a joy and an honor to serve this community.

Thank you all, and thank you, Belmont.

Thank you very much, Monica for.

Just a little bit left.

Sorry.

Yeah, sure, sure.

Thank you.

If you could go back to the slide.

Sorry.

Thank you so much.

There are a number of thank yous, but just coming to the close.

Yes, of course.

Yeah, that's perfect.

Thank you.

Even as I step away from this role, my commitment to our creative community endures.

Belmont will always be home to my heart, to the spirit of our community, and to my voice as your first South Asian immigrant poet laureate.

I'm so honored to be part of Belmont's legacy of Poets Laureate.

And I'm deeply humbled to celebrate this milestone of my life with all of you.

This past weekend, I hosted my term closing celebration at the Belmont Library, an afternoon filled with poetry, music, and the warmth of community.

I am deeply thankful for the outpouring of support from everyone who joined me.

And while we often think of a farewell as an ending, I see it as the beginning of a new chapter.

And as this chapter of my service comes to a close, I would also like to offer my warmest wishes to the next poet laureate who will carry Belmont's literary spirit forward and continue nurturing every voice in our community.

My hope is that poetry continues to guide us toward deeper listening and connection, and to every voice feeling that quiet stir of inspiration, I'll say, keep looking for poetry, because if you do, I truly believe poetry will meet you there.

As a final gesture of gratitude, I offer, I'd like to offer my commemorative poem for our city, a closing tribute to the voices that are here and those that travel across borders and generations, finding a place to belong here in Belmont.

If I may just take a quick sip of water before I recite.

More than a poem, it's sort of an excursion, and I hope you will walk with me all the way till the end.

An immigrant's praise song for Belmont.

Here, on a clear day, you will see across the bay.

Dusk, like the pale inside of a cantaloupe spilling its warmth.

I make my way down through the streets of my town, walking down the hill on Ralston Avenue, setting one foot in front of the other, following the mountain's edge.

Here in Belmont, the singing never stops.

School children like a group of clouds drift to Carlmont village.

Wind chimes at the senior living home, shimmering in the late sun.

Inside the Jinmon restaurant, a fortune cookie breaks clean.

You are surrounded by unlimited opportunities, says the promise within.

At the water dog lake trail in the hidden canyon, I hear a steady hum.

California sagebrush, toyon and honeysuckle.

Young boys on their mountain bikes with sunlight on their backs.

A sudden splash of border collie's retrievers in the water, by the path around the lake.

You are never too far from home, hiking under the coast oaks, listening to the mallards, the red-tailed hawk cruising low on warm updraft.

Here we all belong in the wild and the weeds.

A woman in a sari and overcoat walks past Notre Dame.

Our paths briefly rhyme.

At the corner of the street, the Mexican store owner meets my eye.

Hola, we say quickly, even as strangers, moving quietly through neighborhoods, Cipriani and Central, MacDougall and Plato Sky Mont, converging like old rivers on Alamida de las Pulgas, carrying our stories across El Camino and Old County Road.

There are many of us here tending the light, soft along the ridgelines.

Not possible to travel back in time where my mother is reading to my sister and me, a Marathi language book called For Here or to Go.

Migration Histories and Stories of Passage from My People.

I am the first generation in my family here, ten thousand miles away from my homeland.

Immigrare in Latin means to move in like seed, swimming through water, riding the wind, traveling across lands.

Oh, to be a majestic bundle of life and energy.

Ask the harvesters at our Sunday farmers' market, how to throw a seed and pray for it to live.

Pray for the field to glow with light, enough for a season of heirloom, tomatoes, heritage watermelons, a hint of a leaf.

Here in Belmont, you can find ways to plant yourself back.

Let your words take root.

Look towards the sky and grow.

At the end of every dark tunnel, there is a library, a quiet orchard of wonder and beauty of stories and hope.

I step into the Belmont Library and draw a quiet breath.

Inhale, exhale, listening to the gentle pulse of pages turning, teenagers whispering, volunteers shuffling.

We see you.

Inside the Twin Pines Park at the community center, the French conversation club meets.

From Egypt, France, Australia, and England.

From Russia, China, Philippines, and Vietnam.

Here in Belmont.

You are not as alone as you thought.

Together, every voice is one song, meandering through the mountain like deer at its own pace.

Listen, we are a chorus of praise for first arrivals, for the Olone and their spirit and song.

Praise for veterans under the Eucalyptus Grove for the queer and the straight, for the homeless on the streets, here in my city of Belmont, praise the first rain and first bloom, first day of school, first poems in making, and that first quiet knowing, to this mountain we all belong.

Thank you so much.

I'm scared to say anything because nothing is going to be quite as lovely as that.

Thank you so much for all of your service and all of your work.

I think the proclamation really says it all in terms of how much you've done for our city.

But I will say, having gone to the Project 360 and some of the in-person venues, too, just the amount of generational diversity as well.

I've seen some of our youngest uh students participate as well as uh you know, some of our no what uh adults all the way up to our seniors, and so I think that's really the beauty, too.

Of just have you are so good at bringing our entire community together.

Um, your poem is beautiful.

We have a Belmont poem in City Hall, but I I really feel like we should feature that somewhere outside of our chambers.

We do have our civil rights.

Um proclamation, but I really feel like that your poem really uh summarizes our city so beautifully.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

It would be my honor.

Great, thank you.

Yeah, please just, if you're okay providing that to Bridget, we'll find somewhere to put it.

And thank you so much.

We do have proclamation and photograph.

We hope you won't go far and that we'll see you again, of course, in town, but wanted to give this to you as long as a photograph if you're okay with that.

Yes, of course, thank you.

Can you also take one?

And then I'm gonna take the spot too.

Of course.

Great, thank you.

Oh, we're not coming in.

We're done with that.

So we'll pass this down.

All right.

That was lovely.

Um now to item 5C, proclamation recognizing our administrative services director Anne Ritzma upon her retirement.

No.

So are you going to say something?

Were you planning to say?

Did you write a poem?

I would love to first read your proclamation proclamation that we are giving you, if that's okay.

And then if you want to say a few words.

Whereas the City of Belmont proudly recognizes Anne Ritzma, administrative services director, who served the Belmont community with distinction, professionalism, and unwavering dedication.

And whereas Anne provided strategic leadership to the city's human resources and information technology, guiding critical organizational functions that support every department and employees in the city of Belmont.

And whereas Anne was instrumental in shaping Belmont's organizational future by championing initiatives that strengthen workforce capability, reinforce a culture of collaboration and innovation, and ensure that the city remains adaptive, resilient, and aligned with its vision of service excellence.

And whereas under Anne's leadership, the Administrative Services Department advanced numerous initiatives, positioning Belmont for next generation digital service delivery, strengthening organizational structures through forward thinking HR programs focused on mentoring, coaching, workforce development, and succession planning.

And whereas Anne played a pivotal role in elevating Belmont's culture through signature initiatives such as the Bold Program, Bridging Opportunities, Leadership and Distinction, as well as know and grow.

Crossing departmental learning series, new higher engagement practices, and department-wide leadership development efforts that enrich the experience of Team Belmont.

Whereas Anne served as partner to the city manager, executive team executive team, and city council supporting organizational design, fostering effective labor relations, and championing equality, transparency, and continuous improvement across the organization.

And whereas through her steady leadership, commitment to innovation, and focus on people, Anne leaves a lasting legacy that will benefit the city of Belmont, its workforce, and the community for years to come.

Now, therefore, let it be proclaimed that I, Julia Mates, Mayor of Belmont, on behalf of the entire Belmont City Council hereby expresses its appreciation to Anne for her distinguished service as administrative services director, congratulates her on her retirement, and extends heartfelt gratitude for her leadership, dedication, and lasting contributions to the Belmont organization and community.

The City of Belmont wishes Anne every success, fulfillment, and joy in this new chapter of life, and celebrates the many ways she strengthened and uplifted Team Belmont.

Thank you very much.

I just want to express my gratitude.

I had no idea when I arrived in Belmont how I would fall in love with this organization and the vision and this community and the staff.

And it has been a true honor to serve the staff, the council, and this community in making Belmont the most wonderful place to work and live and play.

And I also want to thank my wife, Elaine Porter, who's in the back, who has for the last 40 years allowed me to serve many agencies in San Mateo County and miss many birthdays and celebrations because I truly love serving local government and I actually like watching city council meetings.

So thank you very much for the opportunity to be part of the team Belmont and one Belmont.

Greatly appreciate it.

Thank you and congratulations.

A proclamation and some photos, yeah.

Wait, can we say a few things?

Yes.

Oh, of course.

Of course, please.

And Vice Mayor.

So this is this is one of those situations where I'm so happy for you and so sad for us.

You have done so much to inspire Team Belmont to want to do more to be better.

And it's a loss that you are stepping back from us.

We hope that you will, I hope that you'll keep in touch, and then we'll always be able to give a call if we run into trouble.

Yes, thank you.

Anyone else?

Please.

Um, I think what I'm struck by in particular today is the love in the room around, you know, Belmont and the community and you know just seeing you in action, you know, for the time that you've been here, is just the warmth that emanates off you and how you truly see and care about each person that you're interacting with.

Um, I think we're all gonna just really miss having that.

Um so yeah, I I'm happy and sad.

It's one of those moments, but so happy for you and so happy that you guys will have a chance to spend more time together.

Yes.

Oh, well, I just want to thank your wife for sharing you with us and all the other communities over the last 40 years.

I know it's it's a heavy lift for the family as well.

Uh, I just personally want to thank you.

You know, echoing what everyone said when I came on the council last year, your wealth of knowledge and you know, knowing that Belmont is lean and mean, and how you've worn so many hats, so many balls in the air, and you've always done it with such professionalism and always with a smile and a good sense of humor and being available to not just the council but to the staff.

I think your words, how you said you fell in love.

I think it's just really easy to love you.

And you know, we I'm so happy for your retirement, but I I will miss being able to work with you.

So thank you and congratulations.

I just want to um admit that uh I think it's three years ago when um Aption Um said that he wanted uh to scoop you up as uh the administrative services director, I was like, what now?

What is that?

Do we need that?

Um, and he was absolutely right, and um I really also appreciate.

I know um it was going to be a shorter stay originally, um, so appreciate you re-upping and and continuing to uh work with us and kind of get us on track.

So you will be missed, but we wish you all the best, and of course, don't be a stranger.

Um, and if you want to watch city council meetings, every Tuesday and every second and fourth Tuesday, we're we'll be here.

Alright, all right.

So now photos.

Thanks.

That's okay.

All right.

It looks like we now have five E, our Belmont centennial planning update.

All right.

We have our Parks and Rec Director, Bridget Shearer.

Hello, Mayor and Council.

I'm here to skip a quick update on the centennial planning for 2026.

So far, we have done a lot of planning.

Steering committee is city staff.

We have a city event committee that is going to be planning the signature event.

You'll hear a little bit more about and some branding.

You may have actually seen our banners up and down Ralston Avenue.

Those are the new banners on one side, the centennial, and on the back side, some historical photos.

We've also done some community engagement to try to find out what the community is interested in.

So we put out a survey and done some outreach.

We have a website, Belmont.gov/100 years.

And I'll point out that the WWW is very important to making this link work.

So note that.

And on that website, we have some opportunities for sponsorship and for community engagement.

We have a community event application where we're asking community members if you have an idea for any kind of activity you'd like to host.

We have some small stipends available to help that happen.

So here again is the logo and with some historical photos.

So this these are the banners that you're seeing along Ralston Avenue.

Thanks to Public Works for putting those up already.

And so here's a little bit of a sort of a uh rough calendar of events.

So the branding started in December.

We've got our light pole banners up and our Ralston Avenue banner.

If it's not up right now, it will be up soon.

We're going to be doing some branding at our annual city event.

So we already have a pretty robust calendar of events.

And while I know that the Belmont community loves uh our events, um they don't necessarily want to spend every weekend with uh City of Belmont events.

So we're gonna kind of piggyback on things that are already there and and kind of celebrate where people are already gathering.

So that includes our Earth Day, our egg adventure hunt, public works open house, national night out, movie nights, and our Belmont Boo Bash.

And then we're gonna table and brand at co-sponsored events where we already again have a presence, celebrate the music, the water dog run, summer concerts, and Belmont Community Foundation events.

So you're gonna see this logo and our outreach and and opportunities for celebrating uh all throughout the year, just um from these events.

Then again, the community-hosted events are things that will supplement our calendar.

Um, I'll talk a little bit more about those uh in a minute.

And then we've got our signature event on October 24th, 2026, and that will include a parade and culminating in a picnic at Twin Pines Park.

There will not be large live animals at this parade.

Very clear.

So yeah.

Folks back there.

Okay, so then we've also uh obviously we want to uh not just party all year long.

We do want to honor the history of Belmont, and so we have such a rich uh um library of historical artifacts and information through our our um Belmont Historical Society.

We have articles that we'll be publishing.

Um we're uh gonna be working on some history tours, and one fun one might be a walking tour through town that ends up at the Jolly Ice Cream and Ice Jolly Tees ice cream um uh historic home.

There's gonna be a display at the County History Museum.

We'll be doing an indigenous indigenous people's acknowledgement, and um I'm super excited that we're gonna be um sort of collecting some stories from our Belmont residents.

Um we're starting to uh do some recordings already next Monday at the Belmont Library, and then we're gonna um take those uh the recording equipment on the road and capture some stories at the Twin Pines Senior Center, and then we'll kind of see where it goes from there.

But um, I was really excited that um we immediately had our time slots filled for next Monday.

People really eager to tell their slice of Belmont's history and their personal stories.

Um other creative projects are going to include the time capsule, um, and we've already gotten some ideas from our youth advisory committee how they might be able to contribute to our time capsule, and um so I'm excited about that.

Community art project and a mural um is still to come.

Our happy hydrants.

There should be some painting underway.

I don't know if people are seeing it out in the community yet.

Um we did not get applications for all 24 of the hydrants available to us, so we'll do another round of applications um in 2026.

We have at least one utility box that uh that is ready to be painted, and then there'll be a recap video kind of capturing all these moments throughout um 2026, and that'll be highlighted at the end of the year.

So where's all the money for this coming from?

Um we are planning to offer again some grants to um local groups and individual individuals who want to support some kind of small community um events.

Um we are looking for um sponsors and uh donors to help us fund this.

We do have some monies in our budget, but we are looking for the community to take this opportunity to recognize the um uh the special thing that we have this great centennial that we're gonna celebrate.

And so um again, we do want to thank our our sponsors so far.

Uh Kirpin and Flynn, Jacqueline Kirth Orthodontics, McGovern Insurance, Charles Armstrong School, and Mayor Julia Mates as well as a late addition to our um sponsors.

Um here's a little more about the sponsorship tiers and opportunities.

This again is available at our website, www.belmont.gov slash 100 years.

Uh and next steps, um, we've already done the kickoff with banners on Ralston Avenue.

We're gonna be implementing the events uh throughout 2026, and um are really excited about our uh our event next October.

Um this isn't something that's done by a small committee uh here in City Hall.

This is done with our sponsors with partners with the school district uh volunteers and uh community hosts.

So uh this is a party for everyone by everyone.

That's how we're envisioning this.

And that's all.

Thank you.

Happy to answer any questions.

Very exciting.

Thank you so much.

I speci I especially love the oral histories and the fact that we're capturing that.

Um that's great.

I know that they uh did a little bit of that for the Belmont Community Foundation uh for uh Barrett and the community center, and it was great to hear the stories of people who'd gone to Barrett and gone to school there and things like that, so this will be great for the larger city.

Um any questions from the yes, please.

Yeah.

Excuse me, I still have this stupid cough.

So I was uh helping a group, uh it's actually a musical group that does kind of old-timey music in some cases, propose an event that would uh be consistent with this.

And the information that was on the website was still pretty pretty vague, you know.

So they they went ahead and submitted.

Okay, um, but and fortunately there are they have some flexibility on time and schedule and things like that.

But they were kind of asking, geez, there, it's so but it it sounds like it's kind of the culmination of this is sort of in October.

Is that reasonable to say that you know there'll be smaller v events and various things throughout the year, but the grand finale will kind of be in October.

Okay.

Right, right.

But again, if somebody wants to host a small concert in the park or something like that, um, you know, come talk to us and we can we want to make it work for everybody.

Well, this this group is on actually some some reasonably large kind of events, but they would probably propose something in the senior center or maybe in the you know outdoors in the park, depending on the timing year.

Great.

Okay.

Great.

Have them get in touch.

So is that it sounds like if you go to www.belmot.gov slash uh one hundred years, that'll be ways for for people like uh Tom's example to either avail themselves of their talents, or is that right?

They'll be volunteer aspects or ideas.

Okay, right.

Right.

They can sort of submit a proposal if they want to do that, or just email me and we can start that.

Well, they did, they did.

They submitted, they submitted one.

So the form is there, it's just it's pretty the criteria are pretty vague at this point.

Right.

It's kind of understandable.

But we're trying to leave it open for everybody, you know.

Some folks have submitted they want to do a um some kind of uh um a history of the uh Belmont Iceland and what that you know, what that spot used to be, and then some little neighborhood walking tours and that sort of thing.

So we wanted to leave it vague to sort of be open to anything and not not limit uh anybody's ideas or creativity.

Any other questions?

No.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Moving on 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 that is not on the agenda.

Uh we have 15 minutes for this item with a maximum of three minutes per speaker.

And I'll remind everyone to please uh see the public comment protocols uh that we have on our published agenda.

Madam Clerk, uh, do we have any public comments on items not on the agenda?

Uh yes, I have a slip.

Um no raised hands yet, but this is your opportunity to do so if you'd like.

Um and we we can begin in the room with Giuliano, Carlini.

Hey y'all.

Remind me to put this back down.

Um first of all, thank you all.

I'm come here not as often as I used to, but every time I come asking y'all, typically hectoring you about cycling.

I so appreciate what you all do and what you all stand for, and some of the things we've heard about today are amazing.

Um and in the past.

Um, I've got all kinds of stuff written down.

I'm just gonna cut it short.

Um, I recently found out that Ralston Avenue is on the county's uh high injury network map.

Um as best I can tell, it is the only road on that map that has having no real uh attention paid to it to get it off that map.

The only project that I've heard about recently, actually it's not true, two projects, um, is one to remove a crosswalk at Pullman.

Um we need to be making it better, not taking things off because we don't know how to make it better.

Uh the other project is one that I proposed, and it's been inactive for a year.

As far as I know, nothing's happened.

Um we need to make it safe.

We need to make it safe in particular, uh, for cyclists, but by making it safe for cyclists, we make it safer for pedestrians and cars.

Look at the research.

Um please.

We can do it quick build, we can do start making real progress within the year.

We can do it reasonably cheap with quick build.

I've submitted a number of projects over the years.

They all get shot down by staff for one reason or another, and all of them having to do with prioritizing cars instead of uh safety.

We shouldn't have people getting hurt or dying on Ralston.

We do.

You all can help that change.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other speakers for this item?

That will be our final speaker.

Okay, thank you very much.

On to item seven, which is council member announcements.

I'll start with the vice mayor.

Any announcements?

Announcements.

Uh, how about uh councilmember Jordan?

Yes, uh, just very real quickly, uh, in the spirit of the holidays and promoting our local businesses.

The local spot, as you know, partners with a lot of local vendors.

They are hosting on December 18th from 5 to 8 p.m.

a holiday sip sip and shop, so you can do all your holiday shopping.

There will be food and music there, and they are at 196 Old County Road, so it should be a fun evening.

Great, thank you.

Yes, Councilmember, um, the City of Belmont is inviting residents to apply for positions on various city commissions.

So if you can hear my voice, it means we want you to apply.

Um, it's a very easy two-page application.

It's a friendly interview with us.

Um, many of us have gone through the process, it is not painful.

Um, applications are due by 5 p.m.

on Friday, January 9th.

You can apply online or in person at the city clerk's office, and Josie's here to help you.

Um please complete the forum by January 9th.

Great, thank you.

Um, very quickly, Santa at the Firehouse and Toy Drive will be happening at Belmont Fire Station 14 911 Granada Street this Thursday, December 11th.

This year's event features two special opportunities to enjoy holiday cheer while giving back to those in need.

From 5 to 5 30 p.m., Santa welcomes youth with dis with disabilities and those who have benefit from a sensory friendly environment.

Attendees will have the opportunity to visit and take photos with Santa in a calm, welcoming environment with additional interactive activities, hands-on holiday crafts, meet therapy dogs and refreshments, and then at 5 30.

Um we'll have uh just the general attendance.

It's a very, very well attended um event.

So I encourage folks to come and come early.

And uh we do have a web uh website to register to attend on our city's um website.

And uh that's uh both events, I should say, are free.

Uh and please bring one new unwrap toy to help make the season brighter for children in need.

And then everyone's favorite started at COVID and continues to um happen is our Belmont Police Santa Parade.

Joyden Santa and the Belmont Police Department for the annual Santa Parade on Thursday, December 18th from 5 to 8 p.m.

You can track Santa's progress live on X during the parade, and you know exactly when to come out when Santa will be in your neighborhood.

A turn-by-turn route map is coming soon, and I want to give a shout out to our police and fire for doing these amazing uh community events around this time of year.

Um and we already talked about commission recruitment, so I think we then can move on to item eight, which is our consent business.

Looks like we have six items um on the consent business uh agenda.

These are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion uh without separate discussion on these items unless a member or staff requests specific items to be removed for separate action.

Um and the city attorney will read the title of specific ordinances to be adopted.

Um I would actually like to make a comment on 8D, and looking to my left if any council members have any comments or questions, things they want to remove.

Oh, not here either.

Okay, my comment on 8D under consent is uh I just wanted to call out that we are going to get uh vehicle electric vehicle chargers at three city sites.

And um I want to call this out because this is a big deal, and we've been waiting for a while, and I've gotten uh over the years so many community members asking about this.

I know we had some false starts, which uh folks read the the staff report, it talks a little bit about that.

Um so things just didn't line up and mesh the way we'd hoped, but this is really really exciting.

So uh wanted to call it out for those who um uh just just to let folks know, and we're hopefully going to get more, but our first three, so yay, Belmont.

So, thank you.

Very much for that.

Uh staff and and everyone else working on that.

Uh and with that, I will look to our city clerk to see if we have any public comment on this item.

What if you would literally a couple of minutes like eight thirty?

Um let's try that.

Okay, don't go far because we're coming back at eight.

All right, thank you.

We are back from our sh uh.

I think we're good.

I heard a meal something.

We're good.

Okay, we're back.

Thank you for the uh brief technological solution issue that we just fixed.

So we're back and we are on um item eight, which is our consent calendar.

Um, Madame Clerk, do we have any comments on this item from the public?

Uh yes, I have two um speakers who would like to speak.

Great.

Thank you.

And we can bring uh begin with Brian Sang.

Hi, my name is Brian Singh.

Um I believe I've emailed comments on this, so this may be a repeat of what you've already saw, but I'll summarize hopefully shortly.

But I'm here to ask the city council to adopt the suggestions of the planning commission, which had already regarding um with the setbacks when the commercial the commercial mixed use zone is next to a residential zone.

They had already evaluated trade-offs and came up with a recommendation that balanced the concerns of the public and the desire to develop.

And instead of recommend going forward with a staff's recommendation.

As a refresher, the planning commission recommended to update the zoning laws so that when a commercial zone is butted up against a residential, the setback would be set at fifteen feet with additional five feet every two floors.

The staff later recommended their own recommendation at 10 feet with additional setback only on the third floor.

Their reasoning was that because my site had a large grade, the slope would hide the impact of a six-story building next to my house.

They're correct.

They also asserted that requiring additional setbacks at higher floors would incor incur additional cost to developers and prevent them from building out the site to the uh the limit of 2.5 um ratio.

In the previous meeting in November, one of the council members had asked if my site was a worse aggressor, and and which was confirmed by the staff.

So I see a variety of problems with the staff's arguments, right?

I did a survey of the 12 residential lots that would be impacted by this zoning rule.

Four other sites, about a third of the impacted sites, have very little slope.

Um, and the impact of a six-story building ten feet away from their property would be pretty drastic.

These four sites are on Ruth and North Avenue.

So if you could imagine that's next to movement and wheelworks, and the Belmont Boxing Gym.

Uh I had sent emails on the site so you guys could look at it, but if you just imagine that road, there's no slope uh next to movement.

So I did calculations, I looked at the gradient, did some calculations, and uh the staff's zoning suggestions would allow 74 degree daylight plane.

Uh, this is the angle that is typically regulated when determining heights between neighboring lots.

Uh, when I surveyed other cities, Portland, Vancouver, Seattle, when a commercial zone is set up next to a residential zone, their zoning allows a range of 45 to 60 degree daylight plane.

So 74 would be well above the max of that range.

Um, the planning commissions is 64.

Uh, the staff also mentioned that the required setbacks would add a lot of cost on a six-story building, that's like one percent.

So, you know, having a one percent asking the developer for one percent cost to be neighborly to like allow space and allow this daylight plane, I think is reasonable.

Um, and then as far as I do believe that this would not prevent a developer from building out to their limit.

It doesn't hurt development.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your comments and being mindful of the time.

Appreciate it.

Our next speaker, excuse me, is Juliana Carlini.

Well, as I was speaking only for myself.

Um again, thank you.

You know, uh, I keep asking for stuff, and some of you are friends, I know all of you for a long time.

Um I'm just mystified sometimes about the priorities you guys actually uh put into to law, but y'all are fantastic folks.

Um we're deciding on what we want Belmont to look like, sometimes even small things have big impact.

Um the documents that I read, I think we're all on the same page about what we want the city to look like.

We want it to be active, we want it to have, you know, a vibrant feel.

We want it to not look like it is right now with the streets uh being so congested and cars, cars and only cars.

But we need to actually start making changes.

That happens even with small things.

The second reading of the uh Belmont zoning ordinance, for example, contains a whole lot of stuff about parking.

We are requiring minimums for car parking.

Why are we doing that within a quarter mile of uh transit?

We should be pushing folks to be taking transit, not making it easy peasy to uh to drive.

In the 1950s, requiring new residential units to have four parking spots per home kind of made sense.

Doesn't anymore, but that's our the minimum that we're uh the new zoning ordinance has.

We are requiring one parking spot for every 300 square feet of office space, and one bike parking spot for every 10,000.

Given that you can park 10 bikes in one car parking space, that's a 300-1 ratio.

Seems kind of upside down to me if we're trying to create a uh different kind of vibe in Velmont.

The bike racks that are mandated have to be 30 inches apart to fit two bikes in.

My handlebars are 20 inches wide.

How am I gonna fit in there?

Um just the rules in general about the racks are really lax and don't make it easy for a cyclist to use things.

They have no recognition of cargo bikes, no recognition of e-bikes, no recognition of tricycles, which folks like my sister, a recent amputee could really use to get around.

These are bigger things that don't fit in racks from the 50s and 60s.

Uh, speaking of which, we still don't really have a rack out in front of the city hall, right?

We got one off to the side, unlit.

I'm not leaving my bike there.

I shouldn't have to park on the uh stair rail.

Anyhow, love to see better parking.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That'll be our final speaker.

All right, thank you to our public commenters.

Um, so we do have uh six items.

Um, we can entertain a motion unless there are any other questions or comments from council.

Move approval.

Second.

I'm sorry, who's the second?

It was me.

Sorry, thank you.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Jordan.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Just to read the title, uh, an ordinance of the city of Belmont amending Belmont zoning ordinance ordinance number 360 to implement the 2023-2031 housing element and conform existing regulations.

And with that, we'll have a roll call, please.

Councilmember Jordan.

Yes.

Ladimerlow, yes.

McCune?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Pang Meganaris.

Hi.

Mayor Mates.

Hi.

All right.

Uh moving on to item nine, public hearings.

We do not have any tonight.

Uh, moving on to item 10, general business.

These items are considered separately, typically in the order listed.

The chair will call for public comment on each item when the body considers the item uh 10a is the a.

Did I am I skipping something or is this right?

You're correct.

Oh, okay.

We're gonna begin with the year in review.

Yes, that is right.

Uh, looks like appointment of vice mayor and council intergovernmental assignments for calendar year 2026 and uh shooting it over to our city manager for the introduction of our year in review.

Thank you, madam mayor, council members, members of the community.

Uh, tonight we're gonna kick off our annual year in review in a slightly different way.

I think as you recall in the past years, we walked through the PowerPoint to highlight uh accomplishments and milestones.

This year our team decided to do a little uh fun and take a more creative approach to this.

What you're about to see is a home brewed production, but uh to put together entirely by your own talented staff.

It's not polished studio piece, but it reflects the energy, teamwork, and pride that went into everything we accomplished together in 2025.

With that, please enjoy our 2025 year and review video.

Cue it up, Belmont, thank you for joining us in our 2025 year in review.

As we get ready to celebrate our 100th year next year, this year has been filled with meaningful progress and memorable milestones.

Together we've taken important steps to improve services and enhance the quality of life for everyone who lives, work, and visits our city.

Now let's hear more about the progress we've made in Belmont and our bright future ahead, hi.

Welcome to Belmont Parks and Rack.

Our mission is to enhance the quality of life for the Belmont community.

We do that by offering incredible recreation programs for people of all ages and all abilities.

And we provide parks and open spaces where people can gather, relax, and exercise.

Come on in, I'll tell you more about it.

Our parks team maintains 16 developed parks throughout Belmont.

And 160,000 square feet of city facilities.

And we've shown three movies in the parks this year.

We've issued 123 tree permits and served 4,673 senior meals.

Over 30,000 folks have attended our facility rentals.

And 837 campers attended Camp SOAR this summer.

Over 200 households in Belmont participated in our chipping program this year.

And 20,000 eggs were hidden and found during our A adventure hunt this year.

We've provided 550 swim lessons at Carmont High School this summer.

And we oversee 330 acres of open space.

We offer drop-in pickleball on Mondays.

And we have an awesome poet laureate.

We have incredible youth involved in our community through our YAC and Voices programs.

And we have an incredible licensed preschool at the Belmont Community Learning Center.

And next year we're turning 100%, okay.

So finance, let's see what we did this year.

Kelly, what are the highlights of AP?

Funny you should ask.

And over 40 million dollars, and there's 150 purchase orders issued.

And Annie and Larry, what are the highlights of payroll?

Well, we have processed over 4,500 paychecks this year so far.

And 266 WCs.

Joanne and Jackie, what are the budget highlights?

Well, in budget, we adopted a budget, and we also receive the state and national award.

Mike, what are the highlights of accounting?

Well, we've completed our fiscal year 25 Act for, and we've also received from the National Finance Organization an award for our 2024 ACFER as well, which has been an ongoing vision since 1998.

Wow.

Administrative services had another successful year in 2025.

In human resources, we recruited and hired 16 full-time employees, 33 seasonal employees, and four high school interns.

We also held six no and grows and five bold meetings with training that helped our staff connect and grow.

We also offered 150 training opportunities to support staff professional development.

Information technology serves as the backbone that supports all of our departments.

This year they responded to over 2,000 help desk tickets, facilitated more than 564 resident requests through our new My Belmont 311 app, and are leading our website redesign project, which is set to launch in 2026.

I'm Carlos Domello, Community Development Director.

Our department has been making great progress on two key long-range planning projects throughout this year.

First up is our Harbor Industrial Area Specific Plan.

This plan is for the 62 acres of unincorporated county lands that will guide anticipated growth and development in this district to best serve the community and facilitate a thriving economy.

This is intended to be an employment center area.

We've received city council project direction and held various community workshops and meetings to help engage the community in the plan that, if adopted, will be implemented over the next 20 to 30 years.

Next is our corridor mixed use district and parking project.

This zoning regulations project will adjust height and floor area standards along the El Camino Real Corridor to encourage the types of development the city wants to see.

The project had extensive review this year, has been approved by the Planning Commission, and is anticipated to be improved by the City Council by year end.

And finally, our permit center had another successful year with over 6,500 building inspections completed, over 1,600 building permit permits applied, and 1,425 permits issued and 1,223 building permits finalized.

Hi, I'm Kathy Kleima, Assistant City Manager, and I'm here to talk about our housing and economic development accomplishments.

Belmont is really proud of the work we've done as a community to support the development of new affordable housing, which helps address the housing crisis in our region and meets our obligations under state law.

The city currently has 162 affordable housing units under construction right now, which are anticipated to be completed by the end of next calendar year.

These projects include the Corners Project that I'm currently standing in front of at Hill Street in El Camino and the Belmont Avenue Project, which is just further up north on El Camino.

In addition, the city has approved another 268 housing units in three projects, of which 153 of those units are designated as affordable units.

One of those projects, 678 Ralston, is anticipated to start construction this spring.

And the other two projects, 951 Oak County Road and 580 Masonic, will likely start construction some point in 2027.

On the economic development front, there have been many new and exciting business openings in Belmont over the past year.

Some of our more notable new openings include the Amara Restaurant at the Carlmont Shopping Center.

And on Old County Road, we now have the local spot top and Jolly's Tea Cream Ice Cream Shop.

We also encourage you to check out our monthly business spotlights where we feature other uniquely Belmont businesses.

Recent businesses we have highlighted include Better Together Dance Theater, Taco's El Brulen C, Farmhouse, Alpha Asset, and Ideria restaurants.

I'm Edric Kwan, your new public works director.

I've worked for several Bay Area cities, and I can confidently say that Belmont's public works team is one of the most dedicated and capable I've ever worked with.

I'd like to give you a brief look at what your public works staff achieved this past year.

Our work is often behind the scenes, but it keeps Belmont running every day.

We issued 539 permits, which help manage construction activity and protect our streets and neighborhoods.

Our sewer and stormwater crews cleaned over 218 feet of sewer pipeline, inspected another 114,000 feet by CCTV, and continued the preventative maintenance that keeps our systems reliable.

On the street side, crews built 147 potholes, placed 255 tons of asphalt, repaired sidewalks and curbs, and responded to more than 1700 utility markouts.

We also delivered key capital projects.

We restored 500 feet of Belmont Creek through Twin Pines Park, improving safety, habitat, and the natural beauty of the area.

We rehabilitated over 4,300 feet of sewer pipe, and our pavement project we service more than 2.5 miles of roadway, added 30 ADA ramps, and address community priorities like Ralston Frontage Road.

All of this supports our ongoing pavement program funded largely by Measure I.

Cities are rated using the Payment Condition Index or PCI, which ranges from zero for a failed road to 100 for a brand new one.

Belmont's PCI has climbed to an incredible 71, lifting us from the fair range to a good range.

That is a major improvement and reflects steady investment and strong community support.

I'm proud of this team's work and I'm excited to keep building on this momentum.

The police department had a very active year in 2025.

We expanded our community outreach efforts through Coffee with the Cop, Pizza with the Police, and the completion of our fifth community police academy, along with participating in numerous local events.

We also launched our Instagram account to better share information and connect with the community.

Our officers continue to train diligently while working hard to keep a Belmont a safe place to live and work.

This year, the department responded to 20,000 calls for service, made 400 arrests, took more than 1800 police reports, conducted 685 traffic enforcement details, and completed 4,009 hours of training.

Thank you for your support throughout 2025.

We look forward to an even more productive 2026.

Hi, my name is Anthony Agresny, and I'm the Deputy Chief of San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department, and I'm here to give you a brief update on the Belmont portion of the fire department.

We have uh we're on pace to run the same amount of calls as last year, about 3,000 year to date.

We have 2,700 calls.

Um the hazmat unit for the county is at 30 incidents.

We have an average response time of five minutes and 38 seconds.

We've deployed 10 times this year out of county for wildfires with a total of 16,310 total hours deployed.

Uh in Belmont alone, we've completed 492 inspections, a combination of mandated inspections as well as construction inspections.

And the most exciting part this year is during the summer.

Uh, engine 14 was purchased and it resides uh at Station 14 in Belmont.

It's been a remarkable year for Belmont, and there's still so much important work ahead.

I'm deeply grateful for the partnership between our dedicated city staff and our engaged community whose collective efforts make Belmont a vibrant, welcoming, and connected place to call home.

Your commitment truly keeps our city moving forward.

As we look ahead to our 100th year as an incorporated city, I invite you to join us in celebrating this exciting milestone.

Visit W Belmont.gov slash 100 years to learn more and take part in the upcoming festivities.

Thank you, Madame Mayor.

You were the most polished one of the bunch, but uh we appreciate the kind of bringing it home strong.

But I do want to thank the team for putting this together.

I know that was a labor of love, and they worked really hard to make this happen this year.

Yes, thank you so much.

That was great.

Um, two things.

First is we need to get that on the website.

Um, is it our on our website?

Okay, because I think we should draw people to it.

Um, there's a lot of really good information.

We have a lot of great talent here.

I am sure that everyone here will hear from uh talent agencies who want to hire our staff for um all kinds of things, but thank you so much.

And it is a very fun, kind of interesting way as opposed to just uh PowerPoints, which were great in their day, but um, this was awesome.

So thank you for that year in review.

All right, uh, so now next on our agenda is the appointment for vice mayor for 2026 and a review and approval of city council intergovernmental assignments for the coming year.

Um, I'll invite the city clerk to provide a brief report uh on the uh vice mayor appointment, please.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor.

Uh so tonight uh the council is asked to appoint the vice mayor for calendar year 2026, consistent with the city uh council protocols, and to review and approve the roster of uh intergovernmental assignments for 2026.

Um, as a reminder, the vice mayor rotates annually and is selected based on tenure and prior service and also consistent with the guidelines in the council protocols.

The council is also asked to review and if desired, modify the list of external board and committee assignments as well as city subcommittees.

And additionally, at the last council meeting, council members Latimerlo and Jordan requested consideration of a new ad hoc housing and long-range planning subcommittee and to appoint uh two members to help two council members to aho uh to help uh track the state housing legislation and related policy impacts.

Um so we are seeking council direction on all three items this evening, and um I'll send it back to the mayor.

All right, thank you very much.

Um, so let's first uh take the uh rotation of the vice mayor.

So um, based on what we heard and uh if there are, I guess we should vote.

Let's go ahead first and um take public comment.

Wait, let me think about this.

We're doing all three things in one motion.

So we're doing an IGR.

You just walk through each of the items and at the end you make a motion to.

But what about when do we do public comment?

Oh, you can do that now if you'd like.

Yeah, all right.

Let's see if are it if you have public comment on item 10A, uh, please raise your virtual hand or uh fill out a comment card in the chambers.

At this point, I do not have any.

Hold on.

Any cards or raised hands?

All right, okay.

Then we'll get back to it.

Um, any comments uh from or questions, I should say, even from council at this point.

Okay.

Uh so then with that, we will go ahead and um entertain a motion and a nomination for vice mayor, I should say.

If if I may just to clarify, we maybe we uh drop it.

But based on the protocols, I believe it's council member uh Jordan's turn to be the vice mayor.

So I offer that as just a clarification as far as following the protocols, but it's up to you for further discussion.

Okay, so uh councilmember Jordan in the rotation with the protocols would be our vice mayor, um, but if that's someone else it's open to nomination.

Uh I believe we still have to have an uh motion regardless of who you're nominating.

Yeah, I'll motion uh I'll make a motion to uh uh nominal I'll nominate uh councilmember Kathy Jordan for Vice Mayor for 2026.

Second.

And I'll do a roll call.

Councilmember McCune.

Aye.

Councilmember Lad Merlow?

Yes.

Councilmember Jordan?

Yes.

Um councilmember Pang Maganares.

Aye.

And mayor maids.

Heartfelt yes.

And this motion passes.

Thank you.

Congratulations to Vice Mayor Jordan.

Uh if you want to do the ceremonial uh moving now, otherwise we'll just we can just move name.

How about we just remove name place?

We can just move name place.

Okay, okay.

Let's just make it easy.

Yeah.

All right.

No.

Uh because all right, then moving on to intergovernmental assignments discussion.

Uh, so normally what we do for intergovernmental assignments is uh adjust, I'll ask if anyone has any assignments currently that they uh need to uh step off or for whatever for whatever reason or wish uh not to no longer participate.

Um and I will just go down.

How about I'll start at my left and see if there's any assignments uh that Vice Mayor Jordan would like to relinquish on on your list?

Um I will I currently split the SFO round table with Councilmember McCune and I I'm happy if he wants to continue splitting that duty.

I'm sorry.

Uh Vice Mayor Jordan was saying the SFO round table.

Would you like to continue splitting it with her?

I mean, I'm willing to give you all of it if you want.

I'm just gonna give you all of it.

Uh I'm happy to continue splitting it.

Okay.

Okay.

Anything else on your list you wanted to uh don't really have much, so yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Uh councilmember Latimerlo.

I'm happy.

Okay.

Vice uh former vice mayor and current council member Bang Magadares.

Okay.

Okay.

Councilmember McQueen.

I'm content.

Okay, all right.

Then we do have the additional uh committee subcommittee, ad hoc committee that was formed um by council member Latimello and uh now Vice Mayor Jordan at the last meeting, so we need to um uh appoint two people to sit on that.

Actually, Josie, is that is that on here already?

It is not.

Oh, okay.

So Josie will add it.

Who would like on it?

Uh we don't have to vote on um you mean that that appointment for the new one?

Yeah.

Uh no.

We just yeah, once you we'll do the whole kid caboodle together, but right now just for the uh like whatever we're gonna call it, the housing ad hoc uh subcommittee.

Uh who is there anyone who would like to be on that subcommittee?

I would love to be on that.

I'm happy to be on it.

Okay, that makes perfect sense.

Um can I say please?

Can I just reiterate I brought this up at the last meeting?

I have concerns about this committee taking substantial um staff time and I'd like it to be I you know, like maybe an hour a month of their time.

That's just my preference.

Uh you know, I wasn't able to say anything uh at the last meeting because um uh I was it was already past the time, but um how about if I j if we just um give uh the committee put uh potentially food for thought to be uh mindful of staff's time and also perhaps consider the criteria for your discussion to be on those um pieces of legislation that our uh lobbyists who are we contract with are focused on as well, and that also will narrow the field given uh we had an example today of how many bills are passed and all almost every legislator carries some sort of housing bill.

So you could look at literally hundreds of bills.

Um maybe you could consider that for your criteria.

Yes, please.

So yeah, it was not lost on me the amount of staff time that we thought it might take.

And I think I'm I'll let you speak for but we you know I have had conversations with the city manager to be mindful of staff time, and so it being an ad hoc committee is just gonna be a committee when you know when the legislator starts picking back up and there's some housing bills, like we might get a deep dive with the consultants, but we're not we're not making an effort to make more staff time, but just get a little more deep dive as an ad hoc committee than we can bring back to the full council.

Okay, thank you for that.

That's 100%.

Okay.

And council member Latimerlo, I'm sorry, I will get to I just remembered I would I need to let's do this motion.

I for just realized.

Yeah, okay.

Um more to come on that.

Okay, so uh for now, any so we're okay with everything as it is.

Uh anything else that we have to uh talk about?

I think it's uh these are good assignments.

Nobody has anything else.

I do have a question just with the public safety committee that's normally the vice mayor, and it has been um Latamurlo.

Do you want to continue to?

Okay, great.

I know you love it.

I do.

Right.

So anywhere it says Vice Mayor, we will now switch.

Uh we don't have to actually switch or add the name.

It's it's so um Vice Mayor Jordan, you had said you don't have that much, so but now you will have.

So be careful what you wish for because you'll you'll have actually a few additional items now.

Um and with that, any other uh comments or uh questions, last minute thoughts on the IGR?

Okay.

Uh then we should go ahead and vote on.

Do we need to oh no, it'll choose.

Make a motion and vote on it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Can entertain a motion on the IGR.

I can move approval for all of the items underneath um agenda item.

This agenda item.

Second.

Um, roll call, please.

Councilmember McCune.

Aye.

Pang Meganaris.

Hi.

Vladimirlow?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Jordan.

Yes.

And Mayor Maids.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I want to say before we go to item 10B, which I appreciate.

I know we have members of the public uh waiting for this.

I did want to uh turn the floor over to Councilmember Latimerlow for a brief moment.

I forgot it's my fault.

I forgot to recuse myself from consent business item F for the HIA.

So I I need to recuse myself from that for the vote.

That will be noted in the minutes.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Uh with that, we will continue with the agenda.

Since we're correcting the record, you just have to state why you're because I live within 500 feet.

Thank you.

I think for getting that part.

Okay, so that's been formally noted.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh item 10B.

Reappointment to Mosquito and Vector Control District.

The city council is going to discuss and decide whether to reappoint Chuck Cotton to the San Mateo County Mosquito and Vector Control District and determine whether the appointment should be for a two-year or four-year term.

Do we have a report on this?

So the city of Belmont is uh represented on the Board of Trustees of the Samateo County Vector Control District by one appointee of the city council.

Uh the city's current representative is Chuck Cotton, who was appointed to serve a term that expires on December 31st of this year, 2025.

And so to ensure continued representation of Belmont's interest on the district board, the city, excuse me, council is being asked to make an appointment for the term beginning January 1st, 2026 and ending either December 31st, 2027 for a two-year term, or that would be 2028.

Um or December 31st, 2020 29.

Or a four-year term, yes.

Um so um following council's action, staff will transmit a formal letter to the district confirming the appointment and um term length as required as um required or as appointed.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions?

Uh from the council on this item uh anyone okay?

I just I'm trying to do the math on this, and I feel like the four-year term would be December 31st, 2030, as opposed to 2029.

Because the yes, they would start in 2026.

Okay.

Yeah.

So you're saying we need to fix the staff report.

No, it would end December 31st of 2025.

29.

2025.

Right.

So that's just January one to, so it's kind of like a fiscal year.

It's June 30 years.

Got it.

Any other oh sorry.

I I just have a question in terms of anyone who has served as the vector control person.

Do we know what their feedback is on whether it should be a two-year term or four-year term?

But present individual is chucked that's been assigned.

So, okay, no, I know.

I will say we we have historically had uh long-term folks uh who have stepped up to do this.

Um and I will also uh just say that this is actually something that for the intergovernmental uh relations uh uh assignments, many um cities actually appoint a council member, and so Belmont is you know slightly unique in uh having a community member step up for this.

So it's uh it's actually um another way that our community uh members can can give back and be involved.

Um but I don't I don't know that we've actually had any way in whether two to four years.

I think it's you know, um I should also say at any time we can probably revisit this if uh but in the in the period that the well if you have point two or four, then you have to basically have a reason for for removing somebody.

So you might want to decide whether it's two or four year term.

So maybe it would be the person if we appointed a four-year term and the person decided they were done after two years, we would have to be council.

Yeah, we wouldn't make the decision, but they would say, you know, they would resign and we would have to recruit again.

Okay, appoint a council member, so your discretion.

Okay.

Helper with your deliberate deliberation.

The letter that um we received from Chuck, he requested a four-year.

Yeah.

Thank you.

That helps.

Any other questions from council?

Do we have public uh comment on this item?

We do not have any requests to speak, yeah.

All right, bringing it back to council then for uh either a motion or any other comments or thoughts.

I think I'd say never met anyone who speaks with more enthusiasm about mosquitoes and factor control than Chuck.

So I I would uh make a motion to appoint him for four years.

My second.

The second was from Jordan.

Yes.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember McCune.

Aye.

Pang Meganares.

Hi.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Jordan.

Yes.

Mayor Mates?

Yes.

And this motion passes five zero.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And just wanted to say thank you so much to Chuck uh for um really stepping up and delving into this and then bringing us up to date and making sure that uh our community is also aware of what's going on and what's being talked about.

So I really appreciate the updates.

Keep them coming and keep the good work up and thank you so much again.

All right.

Uh that moves us on to uh item 11 brief verbal reports from members and staff.

Uh so 11A is verbal report from council members on our IGRs and subcommittee assignments.

Any updates for us the last updates of the year?

Nothing.

Meetings are all coming up here in a couple of days, so I don't I don't have anything important right now.

Okay.

Um just quickly, we had our two by two with um Mid Peninsula Water District today, so uh we ex appreciate their partnership with the Happy Hydrants since they do uh own the hydrants for our hundredth year celebration.

Um and I think next week I actually have a fire board meeting.

Um we've added a couple of extra meetings, and I think this one we will be looking at fees, um, with regard to inspections and things like that and updating that.

So if uh folks are interested, um the agenda should be posted uh this week, and then I think the meeting is uh next Tuesday uh or next week.

So we'll be looking at I think uh fees on that item.

Uh and uh 11B is verbal port from our city manager who we saw starring in the um in the in the movie there.

I just want to wish everybody and the community uh happy holidays, great break and enjoy family and friends and and a good feast.

And in the meanwhile, we hope to see you at our employee luncheon next week.

And with that, I wish you all a great uh holidays and turn it back to you, madam mayor.

Thank you so much.

Um definitely want to echo that happy holidays to our community, um, to all of our staff to our entire city.

And just a reminder, I believe City Hall is closed the 26th and the second are the only days, are those the only days it's closed or uh through the first, we will be open on the second, correct?

So the 25th through January 1st.

All right.

Uh then without uh there's oh yes, did you have oh okay?

If there's nothing else, then we will adjourn until 2026.

Happy holidays, everyone.