Good evening.

So the City of Belmont City Council regular meeting.

We are currently in our council chambers at one Twin Pines Lane.

Please see our published city agenda for the various ways that you can participate.

The public has options to participate via Comcast Cable Channel 27.

We are also streamed via our city's website.

There's Zoom capabilities, and of course, you can come join us in person.

The published agenda also has all of the different instructions on meeting decorum how to submit a public comment.

Councilmember McCune.

Present.

Here.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

We had no items at 4 7 p.m.

We'll go ahead and move to uh item four Pledge of Allegiance, please rise.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

To the public for which it stands.

One nation, another call.

All right, thank you.

Item five, report from closed session, Mr.

City Attorney.

Good evening, Madam Mayor.

We did not have a closed session tonight, so we have no report.

Okay.

Thank you.

Item six, special presentation.

6A is SAMTrans SB63 Local Investment Plan.

We've got uh guests with us today.

Good evening.

Yes, I'd be introduced.

Please, that would be great.

Wonderful.

Well, good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council.

My name is Ed Rickwan, and I'm your public works director.

Tonight joining us is Michaela Petrick, right?

Uh the government affairs officer for SAMTRANS, who will be presenting and seeking feedback on the Connect Bay Area Local Investment Plan.

A proposed regional sales tax measure to support transit funding under Senate Bill 63.

So welcome.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayors, member of members of the City Council, and thank you so much for inviting us to present today.

My name is Michaela Wright Petrick, government and community affairs officer with San Mateo County Transit District.

I'm here to share an update.

So here is our agenda.

So I want to give some background on the ballot measure.

There is state legislation that passed last year called SB63, the Connect Bay Area Measure.

It may reach the November ballot via citizens initiative, which happens through a signature gathering process that's going on right now.

It would require 50% plus one of total votes in five counties to pass it San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda, and Contra Costa counties.

If it makes the ballot, voters will decide if they approve a half cent sales tax for 14 years and one cent in San Francisco only.

It would provide nearly a billion dollars to transit in the Bay Area, and about 63% of the funding would go to preventing major service cuts on BART, MUNIC, Caltrain, AC Transit, San Francisco Bay Ferry, and some other smaller agencies.

In San Mateo County, there would be locally administered funds to support local transportation improvements coming from that blue slice of the pie, and that's why we're here today.

So what does this mean for San Mateo County?

SAMTRANS would allocate about $50 million per year annually for 14 years if this passes.

There are some limitations on the funds.

They have to be used for public transit in one way, shape, or form.

And we need your input and the community's input, and that's why we're here.

We have two half cent sales taxes that fund transportation improvements, measure A, measure W, which you can see here on the screen.

They are prescriptive, so the voters have told us what we can spend the money on for these two measures.

Measure A expires in 2033, and the San Mateo County Transportation Authority may be asking voters whether to renew the sales tax measure A, and that'll happen more than likely in 2028.

There may be some transportation projects that don't fit in the Connect Bay Area Ballot Measure that don't fit those categories that were up on the previous slide that could be addressed through the Measure A renewal.

I also want to provide some context about SAMTRANs.

We're very fortunate here in San Mateo County that our bus system is in a stronger financial position than some of the other operators who are facing $75 million, $300 million deficits.

But starting in fiscal year 2028, not far down the line, we start to see an inflection point where expenditures are outpacing revenues.

We do project an operating deficit that averages about 30 million dollars per year over the next decade.

SAMTRANs, like I said before, provides an essential service, so we have to pay really close attention to this.

There are some cost-saving measures that we're doing proactively now, and we recognize that we need to address this to protect our bus service for our customers.

So how is SAMTrans determining how to spend the money it would receive if voters pass the Connect Bay Area measure?

Right now we're working to put together a local investment plan.

We have pre-existing strategic planning documents to help to help guide us.

We have also done a huge amount of outreach over the past several years to help us understand our writers and the public's priorities.

Our board has also provided guidance, and we've already held two workshops for our agency advisory committee and our stakeholder advisory group.

And I want to thank your public works director and assistant public works director for participating in the agency advisory groups.

Our stakeholder group includes business, nonprofit, labor, special districts, and other community groups.

And I want to thank you to thank you for giving us this opportunity tonight to present to you and to the community members watching.

And all of this at the end of the day is meant for our board who will decide the plan for the money if the ballot measure passes.

So we are doing this public engagement on a very short timeline.

We basically have about 10 weeks for engagement.

And throughout this process, we're listening and working to develop this local investment plan for the board to adopt.

There will be a discussion at the SAMTRANS board meeting on May 6th.

We invite you to participate or tune in.

And our goal is for a board adoption in June.

We are doing this now so that residents have information on how the funds would be invested locally if the ballot measure passes and qualifies and passes in November.

So taking all of these inputs, we've identified 10 categories for funding consideration, which you can hear see here up on the screen.

These categories are the ones that we're surveying.

We developed these based on our past planning projects and public engagement, as well as the current work on the measure with our agency and stakeholder advisory groups.

And now we need to hear from people and we need to hear from you on how to prioritize these different categories.

We have an online survey, like I mentioned.

It's available in multiple languages, and we're leaving tariff surveys in paper form around the county.

I've got this nice pamphlet where people can uh fill this out and mail it back to us.

I left some here in the council chambers.

Um it also has a QR code for where people can complete the survey online.

So we need your help.

That's our ask of you.

The survey closes on April 30th, and getting information back sooner rather than later is better for us, so it can help shape the conversations that we're having.

We've sent your staff a toolkit that includes social media, newsletter content and press content and a multitude of languages, and we ask you to amplify this in your social media and your city and constituent newsletters.

And please don't forget to take the survey yourself to give your your feedback.

So we know we have a short presentation tonight.

Um so we encourage you to get in touch with us to share your thoughts, ask questions.

I'm also available to take any questions or comments tonight.

Thank you very much.

Um I actually serve as the chair of the San Mateo uh Transportation Authority, and so this has been something that has been very intensely talked about for several months now.

Um very nice that you're bringing it to the cities as well, and uh to let our residents know that this is coming up.

Um council members' questions or um even comments, anything you'd like to provide to um to our partners?

Please have a question.

If this if this tax passes, will that make all three agencies whole?

I know you guys are right now, but will it make the other two agencies whole?

That's a good question.

I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head.

I know that Caltrain at their April meeting is going to be doing a deep dive into this conversation.

BART, MUNY, and Caltrain are all releasing alternative service service plans that would address what happens if the ballot measure doesn't pass.

Um, I know that Caltrain has about a 75 million dollar gap, and I I can't say definitively, but I know this will go a long way to help that.

Um, but I I don't want to I don't want to speak out of turn.

But yeah.

It's a good question.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

No comments?

Nothing.

Okay.

Uh do we have any public comments on our special presentation?

I have one raised hand and no slips at the moment.

Okay.

Juliana Carlini, you should be able to speak.

Hey all, um other thing to perhaps add to this is that there are folks who are trying to do signature gathering.

Um one of them.

This is a spectacular uh uh proposal.

Um, and we need to get it passed.

Um we subsidize cars and single user uh transit ten times as much as we do mass transit, despite the folks who complain uh the the the ridership is is subsidized.

Um it's just imperative if we're going to reach climate goals and uh so many other civic goals that uh this measure passes.

I sure cross fingers, we can hope.

Thank you.

And that is our final speaker.

All right.

Thank you so much for joining us this evening and for your presentation.

Thanks.

All right, that takes us to item seven, public comments on items not on the agenda.

So this portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the body on any city matter that is not on the agenda, and you will have a maximum of three minutes per speaker.

Madam Clerk, any uh comments on items not on the agenda this evening?

Um, yes.

Um Juliano.

Juliana.

Um thank you all for the opportunity to speak.

Um just came back from a trip uh to uh uh France, both Bordeaux and Paris.

Folks hear a lot about the transformation Paris has had over the last 10 years.

Um I was quite surprised at how good the uh transit infrastructure was in Bordeaux.

Uh I told you last time that I went to Amsterdam, France, Germany, and uh uh Lucerne and Zurich how good uh things were there.

Almost every city that I go to that has good transit.

Folks there are no different than us.

They're not from outer space.

Um they generally are Western European and have the same culture and cultural background we do.

The folks who go from the U.S.

and live there, some of whom I met while I was there and spoke with them.

They came from the US.

Many folks who live here who came from Western Europe.

They now live here.

The only difference is what folks like you do.

What do you prioritize?

What do you care about?

If you prioritize cars and give every inch of road to cars, it's no surprise that folks uh choose cars.

Um we've seen multiple places the fundamental transformational changes that can happen in ten years.

But y'all have to actually start be willing to maybe annoy car drivers for a few months in order to get better infrastructure and better transit.

Because once it happens, folks love it.

Folks use it, it's better, you start the process going.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that is our final speaker.

All right.

Then we will move on to item eight.

Council member announcements.

Do council members have announcements to share with us?

Yes, councilmember Latimerlow.

Um for members of the public, we are building a time capsule for the future, and we need help from the community to decide what goes inside.

Um trends or moments or physical objects.

Um, what would you want somebody to discover a hundred years from now?

Um, so take our survey online to cast your vote by April 15th, um, and help be a part of Belmont history.

Okay.

Any other announcements?

Uh just a couple of reminders that uh we have some fun spring events.

We have the Belmont egg hunt events.

Um April 3rd is the egg venture hunt that starts at uh 4 30, April 3rd is a Friday at Twin Pines Park Meadow, and that's the sensory friendly experience.

Um and then on Saturday, April 4th at 10 a.m.

is the traditional egg venture hunt for youth ages three to ten, and that will feature thousands of eggs this year.

Photos with the bunny and all kinds of family-friendly activities.

And then uh the Barrett Community Center open house is on April 18th from 11 to 1.

Stop by the Barrett Community Center Open House on Belbourn.

It's a great opportunity to meet staff, explore programs for all ages, and see everything the center has to offer.

Um and then finally, ongoing.

We are in our Belmont um centennial hundredth year as an incorporated city, so we invite our entire community to be part of this once-in-a-generation milestone throughout the year.

We will be hosting a variety of events, activities, and programs that honor our history and celebrate our future.

Um there's already a lot of information and fun things that are online at Belmont.gov, and you can also look there for uh more details as we continue to plan events.

Uh item nine is consent business, and these items are routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion without separate discussion unless a member of the council or staff want specific items removed for separate action, and our city attorney will read the title of ordinances to be adopted if there are any.

Um consent uh business items that we would like to remove for separate action or discussion or comment.

You can do my left, nobody okay over here.

I I just need to um make a note for the record that I need to recuse myself from item 9D, as I live within 500 feet of the property.

Okay, that's item 9D.

And Councilmember Latimerlow?

I just had um comments on C and D.

Okay.

Just comment.

Please.

First C, I just want to say to HR.

There you are.

I really appreciate the effort to formalize the job descriptions for some of our positions.

I think that makes a lot of sense for legacy.

So thank you for doing it.

And then I just want to call out D, because this is a big deal, and I know this was a large discussion for and a big win for our community and for UC Investments.

So thank you to our staff and UC Investments for working on a situation that's really so positive for our community.

Especially with the field renovations coming up at two other sites.

We really use the could use those fields fields.

So it's great timing.

Getting parking for city events is also great, so awesome job negotiating that.

Great.

Thank you.

All right.

Do we have public comment on the consent calendar item nine?

Madam Mayor, Council, I do not have any slips or raised hands at the moment.

Okay, then we can entertain a motion.

Move approval.

Second.

Second.

Oral call, please.

And this will be the motion for the entire consent calendar with the recusal on item D for Council Member or Vice Mayor Jordan.

Roll call with Councilmember McCune.

Aye.

Pang Manganeris.

Hi.

Laudamarlow?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Jordan?

Yes.

Mayormates.

Yes.

And the motion passes four one reques on D and Zero.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Item 10, public hearings.

10A is the housing element annual progress report 2025 and Housing Successor Annual Report Fiscal Year 2024-25.

Right.

Good evening, Mayor Meets and members of the City Council.

I'm Toby Lieberman, Housing and Economic Development Manager.

Tonight I am presenting an informational item on the housing element annual progress report 2025 and the housing successor annual report for fiscal year 2024-25.

So some brief bracket background on the annual progress report.

State law requires that each city and county, city or county, prepare an annual progress report on the status of the housing element of its general plan and progress of implementation.

This report is due for the calendar year 2025.

The State Department of Housing and Community Development is tracking progress with greater attention on housing program implementation and asking for substantial details about programs and progress toward those programs.

HCD staff is again encouraging jurisdictions to document progress on the reporting year programs as well as progress on items that are due in later reporting periods, such as 2026 and beyond, if possible.

This year's APR form requires more detail on quantification of programs, objectives, and progress.

Next, I'd like to discuss Belmont's housing production.

So the APR includes information on applications deemed complete, completed entitlements, issued building permits, and final building permits or certificates of occupancy.

The city is only able to count issued permits towards arena progress in the reporting period.

In 2025, the city issued building permits for 29 new accessory dwelling units.

It issued building permits for a 37-unit affordable development at Hill Street and not coming to Real by Link Housing, which is currently under construction.

It approved entitlements for 63 unit all affordable development at 951 Old County Road, known as the Ridge at Ralston.

We also approved 580 Masonic, which includes 140 units, 25 of which are affordable.

This slide summarizes our progress to date on the regional housing needs allocation.

At the end of 2025, Belmont had issued 268 building permits in this arena cycle.

And this represents about 15% of the new building permits needed to meet the planning period arena requirements.

However, if we include all entitled units plus already permitted units, the city is on track to meet roughly 36% of the total arena requirement.

Next, I'm going to review some of the city's progress on housing element programs.

The city reported on a number of programs that we made progress on in the 2025 APR.

Some of these items included the award of $1 million in city affordable housing funds for 670 Ralston, the ridge at Ralston, which was also able to secure low-income housing tax credits.

We completed and published our below market rate housing guidelines, which include best practices for managing the city's affordable housing programs and policies.

We continued our outreach to San Mateo County organizations that provide home rehabilitation and energy efficiency opportunities for low-income households.

And we continued our partnership and financial support for HIPAA housing's home sharing program.

We completed outreach to property owners with high potential for ADU development.

And we participated in the county-wide ADU resource center and affordable ADU program.

And we updated our we updated and reduced parking requirements for R2, R3, and R4 districts to be consistent with our multifamily districts.

This final section is about the successor agency annual report.

This report covers the previous fiscal year, in this case, fiscal year 2024-25.

This report is submitted at the same time as the APR to the state of California.

And it's a detailed report on the use of affordable housing funds and assets for the prior fiscal year.

That concludes my presentation.

All right, thank you so much.

This is great news.

Council members have.

Any questions?

Yes, Council Member.

Yeah, real quick.

One thing that would help me understand progress toward the RENA quota that maybe doesn't need to be a part of the official report, would be some line graphs of, you know, from 23 through 31.

Here's the curve that we would need to implement to make the quota.

And here's how we're doing plan versus actual.

So, you know, we're now in year three of that eight-year cycle.

And you know, to be on track, we should have at least permitted X number.

And so it's like if we're below the line, that's not good.

If we're above the line, then that's great.

Um, and you know, there maybe there's permitted as one line actually implemented, but you know, some kind of plan and actual chart for how we're doing.

And you know, maybe how much of it is ADUs and um that would, I think be a really good summary kind of exhibit just in to help explain if we're on target.

My my intuition has always been that we ought to be okay for the RENA quota in this cycle, even though it's a pretty high quota.

There have been a lot of projects proposed.

Um, and I don't know at what point we can count them toward our quota.

I don't know if they have to be fully completed or if they have to be permitted or they have to be permitted.

Okay, yeah.

Okay.

So I mean, that's you know, not something we need to do tonight, but maybe for future follow-up absolute things that would be great.

Okay, that's it.

That's my only question.

Any other questions?

Oh, right, sorry?

I have one question.

Uh I know that there are a lot of factors that go into housing and um us meeting our numbers, and as we work towards this um 2031 goal, what happens if we don't make our numbers?

So what are we continually working with the state on, you know, we're giving our best efforts because I really feel like we are.

But yeah, I mean, a lot of this is obviously out of our control.

We've done, we've taken a lot of meaningful action in terms of rezoning and we met we have a certified housing element.

We've we have a housing department, we have funding that we're putting towards these projects, so I think we're making a really good best effort, and I think we will continue to make progress.

Again, I I don't know how we can be held strictly accountable if things are beyond our control in terms of the funding that comes from the state of California, tax credits and so forth, particularly on the affordable side.

Um so that's probably the best answer I can give you.

Kathy, if you want to chime in on that.

There are some things that the state does put in place for housing, you know, when you don't meet your arena numbers and certain housing element sites that have been identified as opportunity sites aren't developed.

Um, as an example, the 580 Masonic site was deemed by right because it was in the prior housing element cycle and hadn't been upzoned for this new housing element cycle.

So there are some consequences when housing element arena numbers are met, but I would be surprised if the the number of cities that are going to achieve their RENA numbers is gonna be the minority across the state.

I think compared to a lot of our adjacent cities, we're we're tracking and doing pretty well.

And again, it is out of our control.

Thank you.

Okay, Councilmember Latamarlo.

It um I just want to uplift what Councilmember McCune said.

I think that's like a really helpful graphic.

That would be amazing.

Um but 36% in year three feels pretty good.

Feels like good progress.

Um I remember I was talking about, so in the staff report, you have very low through above uh moderate housing.

And I remember us talking about extremely low, and then when I looked at the page after the staff report, there's acutely low.

And I don't know if I've missed that or if that's a new category, and do we have any requirements around um fulfilling those?

So um this year's APR form includes some new income categories, that's correct.

And we do report on them, but we're not we're not held to those because there was not a requirement at the onset of the cycle, the housing cycle.

So next time.

Correct.

Okay, thanks.

That was just um one of those new laws that they passed to track some data before they pass new laws.

So this is part of that process of I think it was last year or a year before that they passed that law for trying to track some of these numbers.

That's why it's there.

Yeah.

I see.

All right.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Um can we go to public comment?

If you have any public comment on item 10A, please raise your hand or submit a comment card.

It appears we have no request to speak.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right, moving on to item 11, general business.

I believe we need to have a motion to submit the reports.

Um that was in the staff report.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Uh so moved.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember McCune.

Aye.

Councilmember Pang Mageneris.

Aye.

Ladimarlow?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Jordan?

Yes.

And Mayor Maids.

Uh aye.

Motion passes, thank you.

All right.

Um, general business item 11A is annual report on vacancies and recruitment and retention effort for 2025.

I thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council.

I'm here tonight to present to you information that is required by law on an annual basis.

Um, every public agency who is subject to um bargaining in good faith with labor units is required on an annual basis starting last year to identify vacancies, recruitment and retention in their organization, and also to invite labor groups to participate in this process.

So we did invite all three of our labor groups tonight for this presentation, and I hope they're joining us remotely.

Um as I mentioned before, this is required by law.

It's the second year of annual reporting for all public agencies.

We'll talk tonight about our workforce vacancies, our recruitment and retention efforts, and any recommended changes in policies or procedures that will help us move forward.

Um as you may remember, when we began this process last year, we did uh have the council adopt a vacancy reporting policy.

That policy actually expanded a little bit beyond what the laws required.

And we not only are providing workforce information, vacancy information, recruitment information, but also are going to talk a little bit about our hiring issues and a little bit about our retention.

So to start with, we have 139.75 full-time budgeted positions.

Those positions serve in police services, public works, parks and recreation, community development, economic development, as well as our administrative staff that provide provide internal services, city manager, IT, HR.

Over the past year, and this is the calendar year, 2025, we have had an average vacancy of 5.8%.

At one point we actually hit 9.3%.

And at one point we actually were at 2.9%.

And that was when you probably saw me running around the building going, we've got every position filled, it's great, and then I forgot to knock on wood and somebody retired or moved on.

It's helpful to kind of look at how our vacancies move throughout the year, how we filled them, and kind of what those percentages are all about.

You've seen me run around the building, you've seen the HR staff.

When a vacancy is created, there are variety of reasons.

Someone may retire, someone may move, someone may move internally from one department to another.

We initiate a recruitment requisition at that point, we sit down with the manager, we try to find out what's most important about that job, the type of person they're looking for, the type of skills they're looking for, and we put together a recruitment strategy.

We decide in that strategy whether there's somebody or a few somebodies in the organization internally who might be qualified, and this would be a promotional opportunity or an opportunity from to move from one department to another, or whether we're actually going to go outside, advertise, and have a mix of both internal and external candidates.

We post the job, we develop a marketing strategy, we work with Elizabeth and communications to get that out in a variety of ways, and we wait for the applications to come in.

We screen the applications, we invite candidates in for not only written exams, but also oral board panels, and in some cases we actually have folks like our maintenance staff who come in and actually operate the backhoe or learn to back a trailer, and we're looking at their skill set at that point.

The candidates are the highly qualified candidates are selected to go on an eligibility list.

We then make a conditional offer to the top candidate or the candidate who best meets our needs.

We take them through a background process.

If they pass the background process, we then make a final offer and we bring them on board.

It was a difficult fill.

It took us 153 days from the time we posted to the time we actually filled.

We did expansive kinds of recruitment where we opened it and said all applications must be in in 30 days, and then we started the process of reviewing applications.

And then of course we did something that was very focused that was internal.

Any candidate who is interested, please send us a letter of interest, and those, as you can see, can move very quickly, 36 days.

So every time we do a recruitment, we look at how well it worked, how well it we could improve, and what are some of the obstacles?

We'll hear a lot from a candidate that we may call, and the minute they ask, can I work remotely five days a week?

We say no.

Well, I'm not gonna drive from wherever.

Um we know that some of the obstacles to getting some highly qualified candidates is one housing affordability, and two, um, a long commute.

We do have flexible work schedules, but not five days a week.

Um we also know that some of our positions we're competing with the private sector.

They're very um competitive types of jobs: IT, engineering, finance.

Um, and we also compete with our neighboring cities, who somehow always seem to increase their salary range just as we're going out with the same position.

Um, and we have to go in and market the fact that Belmont is a great place to work, and um that they should come here for the work culture versus that extra 5%.

Um of our uh tricks at this point to streamlining this process is reducing the time to hire.

So we are doing constant looking at applications as they come in.

We don't want to lose a candidate because they're waiting 30 or 60 days.

Um we're also looking at how we can better use our internal folks to promote up to stay with us or to move from department to department to pick up new skill sets.

The other I mentioned the flexible work schedules, helping people to deal with the commute or deal with child care, elder care issues.

So something that we realize is there is always change in the employee base.

And so we do have reasons that people turn over, and we have um we had 21 vacancies last year.

Um that's an average turnover rate of about 7.15%.

Um what we realized is that 4% was an internal transfer, a promotional opportunity, and the remainder were separation or retirement.

Um we have an aging workforce.

Um we just ran numbers today, and 25% of our current workforce are eligible to retire today.

So that does kind of tell us what we need to be doing, which is starting to work within our organization to make sure that people are ready to promote from within.

Um in addition to that, we had 10 people resign, and we do do an exit survey with each of the people who leave here to find out how we could have done better, why they're moving on, um, so that we keep that in mind as we do our recruiting, as we develop benefits, and see if there's anything that we can do to retain our employees.

We put a lot of time and energy and investment into each of our employees, and we want them to stay for a long time.

Um part of the reason that we invite our labor partners to be part of this process is because it's important to them that there are opportunities for their members to promote from within, have an internal opportunity, as well as not impacting their members by having them do additional work because a position is vacant.

Um we certainly did not have a large number of vacancies in any one labor group.

Um, AFSME had two vacancies, um, our police officers association had two, and our unrepresented appointed had one.

Um we now have two years of data, so we can compare to where we were last year.

Um we've had a little higher vacancy rate, um, but that can be attributed to three positions.

And we had a very long recruitment for our assistant public works director city engineer, and we're very happy to have Denny on board now.

Um sometimes it takes a little longer to find the right fit and the right person, and we took that time.

Um I'm here before you because we're still working on filling the administrative services director position, and we continually have a real challenge filling our community service officer position in the police department.

But it's really those three positions that have pushed our numbers.

And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um speaking to someone who I think was one of our retirement numbers last year.

Speaking to someone who I think was part of our retirement statistics last year.

So thanks for nothing.

No.

Um questions at this time?

Please.

I just had a question.

How is a 7.15 turnover rate?

Like I'm a sole proprietor, so my turnover is zero.

So I don't have any context, like, and particularly in our field here.

Most agencies run somewhere between 10 and 12 percent.

Um partially because the Bay Area is just in transit constantly.

And you may get younger workers who come, they settle, then they want to buy a house, and so they move out of the area.

So we're under the average, though.

We're under the average, but it but it is a very transient kind of uh business.

Thanks.

Any other questions for staff?

Mm-hmm.

Please.

Yeah.

There have been a lot of news stories lately about layoffs in the private sector.

And I know some of those people.

Some of those people are my friends.

And they've, you know, been looking for jobs for a while, they haven't been coming up with much.

And I've said, you should really try the public sector.

Uh try the cities, try the counties, try the JPA kind of agencies.

Um they are, in many cases, they have jobs that they're trying to fill.

And there may be a slight skills mismatch, you know, what you've been doing in the private sector may not exactly fit what they're advertising for.

But you've got the know-how.

You know how to do these jobs that exist in the public sector.

And in some cases, they've said, yeah, okay, all right, I'll give it a try.

In other cases, they're just kind of going, uh-uh, just not not my thing, you know.

Um the question is for the jobs that we have difficulty in filling.

Have we made an attempt to recruit from the private sector people who may be out of work who may not have the perfect skill set day one, but who could grow into it in a reasonable time frame?

Um as a matter of fact, we have, and we go out on LinkedIn, which is private sector-based.

Um we I'm meeting with Robert Half tomorrow because they have have private sector individuals.

Um we have done a lot of review of applications specifically for the administrative services director position because 50% of that is is IT, and we've had a lot of folks in the IT world, but they they had zero HR.

Um we are seeing some private sector HR folks who've applied for the position, um, but have zero tech.

So finding that person who has a little of both, but we are definitely seeing private sector folks, and I know that CalOps, which is um hosts for 150 cities, um, an online job board, which is what we use, has recently um done a collaborative effort with LinkedIn to try to drive some more of the private sector into Calops jobs, which are 150 local agencies.

Great, thank you.

Okay, please, Vice Mayor.

Uh so in in terms of filling some of the other vacancies, are you are we receiving a lot of applications just not the right fit for the roles?

I know it said it took like 112 days to fill some of the vacancies.

So is it that uh we're getting a lot of a lot of applications, but maybe they don't have the right skill set or the right fit?

So 11 um days is actually not much because you have you have 30 days of actually having it opening receiving applications.

Uh two weeks later you do interviews.

Two weeks after that you select your final candidates and someone goes into background.

Our background fingerprinting uh uh a financial report, um, maybe a physical if they're doing um physical work, they need we get to them in for a medical appointment.

Um usually takes another three three weeks.

They give notice that their current employer, and that really is 11 days.

Wow.

It's it you know we move as quick as we can.

Um, I wasn't saying you weren't moving quickly.

I was just curious if we were getting a lot of applications that we'd have to sift through and then maybe just not the right skill sets.

We're gonna we're getting for we just opened up a management analyst position in public works.

Um that's been open three weeks, two weeks, and we have over 70 applications.

Okay.

So we had a hundred and fifty applications for the last opening that we had that we just did interviews for.

Okay, thank you.

Quick question.

Oh, I'm sorry, please go ahead.

Go first.

Back to the administrative uh services director.

Well, I love that you are here and that you keep serving and you keep staying.

I love that.

I also wonder about the viability of this position given the skill sets that's needed.

I remember when we did this merger, and my saying, gosh, this is interesting, and it's new to me because in public schools we keep them very separate.

But we were here, we were going to do put them together.

So what do you think now that it has been over a year?

Two years?

Three years.

Just December.

Okay.

Since I retired.

I've been interim, but I got here and I fell in love with it, so we did not recruit until I retired in December.

Okay.

Um there are actually several neighboring cities who have this position.

Um great people, and we are seeing some some good folks.

We refresh the um refresh the recruitment, and we've been interviewing as those applications come in.

Okay.

So we've kind of adjusted it to be more 80% HR and 20% IT because we have such a strong IT division now.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um I was curious.

I know this is state mandated.

This snapshot, it's it's interesting, and you can tell by some of our questions.

Um, it's just a snapshot, and we're trying to figure out similar to the housing, all of these sort of annual um check-ins.

Um, how we fit with other um cities.

And so some of those questions have already been asked.

But I I was also wondering if you use this or if if we as an organization use it as retention, you know, if we can use some of these things as sort of how do we um do the next steps in terms of maybe does it give us retention information or yeah, kind of um help us to also make sure that the good folks we have, you know, want to stay.

I I think this speaks strongly.

None of the none of the labor groups wanted to make a presentation because there are other cities where the labor groups are making presentations because they don't feel like the city is supporting their group or or the employees in general.

Um, but I think this information is very valuable as we go forward about how we do the care and feeding of this organization and how we value employees.

All right, thank you.

Uh any public comment on this item.

We do not have any presence speak on this one.

Okay, and we didn't receive any emails, at least I didn't see any.

He did not.

All right, I believe this is just informational, so we don't think we need to accept it in any formal way.

So thank you so much for um for the presentation and the information.

And we will then uh move on to item 11B, which is our annual transportation and mobility update.

Good evening again.

My name is Edward Plan, and I'm a public works director.

Join us today is Josh Soon.

Um he's our senior civil engineer and subject matter expert in traffic engineering.

We did get him from the private sector.

He's been with us for a year and nine months and also lives in Belmont, raising his growing family.

He's here today to present the annual transportation and mobility update.

This is also an informational item, no action required.

Also wanted to note that this is his first time presenting.

So Denny and I are here to support him in his presentation, and welcome Josh to City Council.

Thank you.

Wonderful, thank you so much, and yes, welcome.

No pressure.

Okay, good evening, Mayor and the City Council members.

My name is Josh.

I'm with the Belmont Public Work Direct Department.

I'm very happy to be here tonight, and I'm I'm also pleased to present our annual transportation mobility updates for 2025.

In this presentation, I will highlight a few key accomplishments in 2025 and our ongoing efforts and what's the major major initiative uh for looking ahead to 2026.

Infrastructure and mobility is remains a core strategy focused area for Belmont.

Our goal is to improve the safety effect if efficiency and the accessibility for all the users using our transportation systems, whether you're biking, uh working, driving, or taking transits.

To approach this goals, we use the 3E framework engineering, education, and the enforcement.

Engineering improved the infrastructure and operations.

Education builds awareness and the enforcement reinforce the safe behavior.

I will talk first, I will talk about the first E engineering.

I will cover it from four aspects.

I will cover it from four aspects: uh traffic congestion reductions, park traffic safety committees, daily maintenance, and our capital improvement projects.

Uh we'll continue advancing the strategy to reduce traffic congestions.

Uh, under operations, we optimize the traffic signal timings, we install the smart transportation technologies.

In 2028, uh City of Belmont, we installed the adaptive traffic signal systems along the all the traffic signals along the around Roston Avenues.

After that, we continue monitoring and fine-tuning the adaptive systems based on the car train dialatus updates and also based on the our field observations and also our residents uh request.

In under infrastructures, we apply the traffic coming measures, improve the safe route to school, and expand transportation connections for bicycle, bicyclists and also the pedestrian.

Uh travel under travel behavior, we actively coordinate with public transit, sam trends, call trends to improve our access to like a cultural stations, uh the same trans stops.

And the other important is transportation demand management.

In 2021, we adopted our Belmont Transportation Demand Management.

So after that, we request all the new development to apply for this program to reduce traffic uh pick our traffic.

In addition to the local efforts, we also work closely with our neighboring cities and the regional agencies to improve the connectivities beyond the city limits.

I will highlight a few regional projects in the next next few slides.

Uh in 2025, we also adopted local roadway, uh countrywide local roadway safety plan and the revision zero goals, which uh strengthen our eligibility for future grant grant opportunities and also give us uh a guideline, a framework, clear framework for our future safety improvements.

Uh next, I will uh talk about the parking safety, parking and traffic safety committees.

We call it its PTSC.

Uh, this committee, including the staff from the police department, fire department, and uh public work department.

We will review the request uh from the public.

Uh this slide shows what type of the request will be reviewed by PTSC.

It's covered from maintenance request, uh traffic coming related requests and signage request.

Uh once the PTSC received requests from internal staff or the public, uh we will have the quarterly meetings to discuss or review this request.

Once we think the request is necessary, we will have a public meetings.

And uh, if certain improvements was recommended from those applied meetings, we will bring the that to the city for approval.

Uh uh, we can uh this is a quick look for the PTSD request in 2025.

We received over 51 requests, which is 59% increase compared to 2024, and the 28 of improvements was recommended, and it including maintenance and enforcement.

And based on the uh the table here, uh it's it shows most of the requests relate to the parking and the traffic safety.

In addition to the PTSC work, a lot of work is related to our daily maintenance.

Our traffic and the street operation teams uh work year-round to improve the safety, reliability, and the overall the city roadway conditions.

Uh we refreshed the 96,000 96 feet, 100 feet of red curve, we sealed uh 15,000 feet pavement cracks, we fixed uh 165 portholes, and we replaced and installed over 120 uh signs.

Uh building uh building on that, I will highlight our uh major uh CIP improv CIP projects.

Uh in 2025, we uh we finished the 2025 payment rehab project.

We have over 2.5 miles of roadways.

Uh currently the payment uh can uh payment condition index for C of Belmont is 71, improving from 68 from 2024.

And we also completed the Ralston Avenue Cabinet Relocation Project.

I uh present a few of images here before and after conditions.

Uh this project is part of the adaptive project uh adaptive signal project.

Uh the new cabinet cabinet meets the culture standard, also improves the pedestrian safety and also provide uh access and safe workspace for our maintenance team.

Uh next, I will talk about our uh upcoming construction projects.

Uh in 2025, uh we uh Belmont Village Hall Crossing Project uh at the El Camino Rail and Hill Street.

Uh