Good evening.

Welcome to the City of Belmont regular city council meeting.

Today is Tuesday, April 14th, 2026.

And we are currently in our city council chambers at City Hall.

There are pre published on our published agenda.

So please see our um published agenda for that.

And also please review the protocols for the meeting.

Most of them include making sure that we don't have disruptions so that we can hear everyone and make sure everyone's voices are heard.

And I can also go ahead and review those at the time if there's any disruptions that call for me to stop and remind everyone.

The second is roll call, please.

Good evening, Council members.

Roll call.

Councilmember McCune.

Present.

Latter Millow.

Here.

Hang Menganares.

Here.

Vice Mayor Jordan.

Here.

Mayor Maids.

Here.

All present.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

We have no items before 7 p.m.

The next item is Pledge of Allegiance.

Please rise if you're April.

Hi, Pledge Allegiance.

One nation.

Thank you very much.

We have some special presentations tonight, quite a handful.

Our first is Belmont Teen.

Oh, I'm sorry, I skipped item five report from closed session.

Mr.

City Attorney.

Good evening, Madam Mayor.

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

Great, thank you.

Back to item six special presentations.

Our first is our Belmont Teen Services Udate.

And we have our Parks and Recreation Supervisor Moran with us.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Michael Moran.

I'm the recreation supervisor for the Youth and Teen Division.

This month marks my eighth year in Belmont.

And last month I gave the Parks and Rec Commission an update of the last eight years of their youth and teen progress.

And it was I was asked to come give you guys a similar update.

And I'm gonna do that now.

But I have this the next slide's a little unique.

Play with me on this one.

So I started eight years ago, and so did Bridget Shear, our current slash former park and recreation director.

I don't know what to call her title yet.

But so this is uh Bridget's last eight years.

I started a one month before Bridget just on timing, and so I spent my whole career with uh Bridget Shearer.

I want to say director, director shear, and uh so just some highlights.

She came to all our events, all our activities, all our programs that you guys are well aware.

And so I feel like my update's a good segue for your next item of business anyways.

But just want to highlight some photos with our former director.

Those are great, thank you.

So our egg adventure hunt, and these photos were taken just a few weeks ago, was a great hit.

And I'm gonna go over some events, but just to remind the council eight years ago, we had 250 participants that attended our annual egg hunts.

We could do with about two staff and a handful of volunteers.

And for the last several years, including this year, this photo was taken this year.

We've had over 2,000 participants annually attend.

We had a little less this year because of the spring break uh schedule.

Um, but as you can see, we're growing over 400% in just our one event here.

And we also added to our egg hunt portfolio portfolio, um, our adaptive egg hunt.

So we just had our third year, and thank you, some members coming to attend the event.

Um we had about 50 kiddos, and when we started this, we had around 30 uh participants, and it's just great to see um a group of youth that can participate in egg hunt that's not overwhelming for them in a big setting like our traditional boo bash, aka trunk retreat, and I'll tell you why I listed trunk retreat in a moment, but we do call it boo bash now.

Yet last year was our first year calling it the boobash.

And you can see here we have our first place trunk winner, um, and some Zoom settings and the park and rec truck on the left.

We were um all themes and all that great stuff.

So this was this year that we just had when we started the Boo Bash, aka Trunk Retreat in 2022.

We did it at Barra Community Center.

Um we had about 350 participants in two vehicles, just to let you know.

And this past year, in the past couple years, we've seen over 2,000 participants attend, and we have around 30 to 40 vehicleslash fun things, like excavators if you want to call it that, or bookmobiles.

But we have about 40 people that come volunteer their time and participate and deck out their car.

So you can just see the growth in our Twin Pines Park.

Movies in the park.

We also expanded when we started, we only had one, and now we have three and three that are all over the Belmont neighborhood.

We done like McDougall, Alexander, um, Barrett, and Twin Pines.

Barrett and Twin Pines are our staples, I would say, um, sites, and we get the most attendance there.

But we've increased those as well.

Santa at the firehouse and toy drive.

Here in the top left corner, we rented our first Santa, which Santa is real.

And Santa came and don't came over, and we had a great event.

And you know, we had this in 2018 when the park and rec department started to take this more from San Mateo consolidated because they did most of it.

I would say 80, 90%, paid for all the funds.

And then in 2018, after the 2018 event, we took it over mostly in partnership, and we provide the funds and all the stuff.

And as you can see, our attendance has dramatically increased.

And every year we're trying something new.

We now we have a sensory event, so we open the doors 30 minutes early, so that way people that just want a quieter environment can participate in the event.

And now we have like the Grinch or the gingerbread person, that was me if you saw that, or other inflatable animals and animals as well.

But yeah, that's our Santa event.

Our CampSor, there's three programs in it, but I didn't want to do three slides.

So our CampSore program with CITs and yellow t-shirts and our adaptive program is all in one started, you know.

Our adaptive program started in 2022, but Camp Store has been in a trademark of Belmont forever.

But in 2018, our max we could think we ever could have was 682 campers.

We're like, we're we're maxed out, the lodge can't fit anymore.

Fast forward to redoing structures and timing.

Now you can see as of today, we have 906 youth that go to our summer camp just in the Twin Pines Lodge just for those eight weeks.

Um that also includes our adaptive camp and our uh does it not include the CIT program participants, but you get the idea.

The hideout that was launched in 2018 with the grant from the county, and now we run it as a city.

But when we launched the hideout in 2018, we had 48 youth max.

That was like as much as we can get, and that's when it was free.

Um, but if you bring food, they will come eventually.

And after all the years, now we see a big wait list of about 100 to 105 youth.

We currently have 105 youth signed up for this school season, which is 120% increase.

But at the hideout, we do things with fun games, learning, crafts, hands on, outdoor, indoor, you name it.

Um, and on Thursdays, we don't do any technology with the youth.

Um, we call it no tech Thursdays, but that's the hideout at Barrett Community Center.

We also run up swim lessons in the summer, um, if you didn't know.

So I oversee the summer aquatics program.

It's uh we rented through the Carmont High School through the Sequoia School District.

This is our current staff from 2025.

We're lucky enough to increase our swim lessons to 24%.

I know not a huge number, but this year we're actually gonna be able to offer 500 more youth swim lessons.

So next, if I come back, you'll see that number probably double.

And we just worked on timing partnerships and so on to to do that to make it happen.

But we do run a pool.

If you haven't been, you should come.

Our youth advisory committee, and if you guys didn't notice, I see seven or eight behind me.

Wait, one, two, three, four, nine youth advisory committee members are here tonight.

They didn't even know I was coming, by the way.

Um, they attend uh usually virtually and watch our uh council meetings, but we asked them once a year to come to a meeting once a year in person, and they picked a great meeting, right?

Um but our YAC started in 2016 through the council.

Um we started with 13 members, now we're at 29 members, and that is our cap, and we do um decline applications every year.

I would say our interest is more 40 youth that want to be part of it every year.

Um, but as you can see, that's growing, and their events.

When I started here, that two events.

Some of you might remember like the talent show.

That was our staple event.

And now we do multiple events and a plug, they had their spelling be this upcoming weekend.

So if you're not uh signed up, please sign up.

Um but yeah, that's the the yak.

And as you can see in the bottom right corner, our our chief is also there at Town Hall PD.

We also have our voices committee.

They just celebrated the 30th year this past December, and the voices they were at 19 members in 2018, um, and now they're at 24, and we do cap it at that as well.

Just because we have so many youth is actually harder to manage and to give them opportunities to give back.

So we try to keep it around that 20 to 25 max.

And then their events have also dramatically increased in the last eight years.

They love to make kits to hospitals for STEM kits or get back to the community tree painting this Friday at Homework Park, just to give you an example.

But that's our voices.

Right.

But our Team Welance Retreat just happened, and it's a great partnership with the city of San Carlos.

We started it three years ago at San Carlos.

Last year was at Barrett Community Center, and then this past uh couple weeks ago.

We had it at the adult community center in San Carlos, and we're bringing it back to Barrett uh next March.

They actually prefer it at Barrett, just to let you know because of the wide space, the hallways, the extra classroom, so we can actually host more youth that way.

Um the team won't retreat three years ago had a hundred max youth.

We couldn't get any more, and now we have a late list of over 150 youth.

So we will be expanding that when we go back to Barrett as well.

And just our special events overall, as you can see, we had 13 annual special events in the youth and teen division.

I would actually like to emphasize that.

And now you can see we have 46 events not counting the Yak and Voices events.

Um so a huge growth in that as well.

I'm almost there.

I gotta talk about our staff.

Our staff is what they do for us, they do everything.

So on the top, you'll see our camp shore summer staff from 2025 and the site leads, we call them.

That's in the purple tie-dye.

Uh the rainbow tie-dye are our full-time employees, and they're part of the youth and teen team.

They couldn't make it tonight, but I wanted to give them a shout out.

So in the middle is Danielle Giuliacci.

She's actually at a voices meeting right now at Barrett.

So hide and yell and voices.

They said they would watch.

And then Patrick Smith, he's there, he's a tall one.

Um he is also our he's only with us half the time, so he's with us for uh 20 hours a week.

And the other 20 hours he's with Corey and at the senior center doing all the adult and senior activities and fun.

But it's a great uh joint work team, and so we're a team of I guess 2.5, and we do all this.

Um on the bottom here, we also have our aquatic staff.

I didn't have a great group photo to show you guys tonight that would fit in this slide, but um, you get the idea, and then our pool managers.

I like to mention um our pool manager, Sierra, she has the glasses on her head.

Sierra interviewed with us in 2019 to be the first ever swimmer aide, like at CIT, but for the pool, and that's when we started the program.

I saw that need in 2018.

Like, why don't we have a 2019 volunteer program?

And so we launched in 2019.

Sierra joined it, COVID hit, so she came to camp, and then when the pool reopened, she went back to the pool.

And this is our third summer as the pool manager for us.

So this shows you the succession planning we do here and try to give all our teammates uh our part-timers and full times opportunities.

Several people up there are full-time in parking rec now, too.

Um, and then our staff count has also increased in part-time.

You know, going from 37 part-time during the summer to 46 is a big um extra workload for us, but also just shows you how many more youth are coming and how many more participants, and that's why we need all the staff.

Almost there.

Our contract summer camps, um, they've also increased our offerings.

These are contract independent contractors.

Um, we have some new ones this upcoming summer as well.

Um, we do band camps, theater camps, outdoors, indoors, you name it.

The number one the last three years is theater camps, just to let you know.

Um just like ours, but through San Carlos as well.

So theater has been number one the last couple years, and then tennis is right below them actually, and then it kind of trickles to a lot of miscellaneous.

Um, our three partners, and now I'll end it on our three partners because we can't forget about our partners at Barrett Community Center.

Stepping Stones has also increased because we have flipped some rooms and you know, kind of rearrange Barrett a little bit to accommodate the wait list of youth.

So they've increased their programming.

Footsteps child care is also well, not increased if you want to say because of transportation issues with the the vehicles, and they didn't get an extra room like everybody else, and they have ELOP now, but they still are strong with 101 youth this year.

Um, and I want to really show their staff as well.

Our last partner at Barrett Community Center is Heartbeat Dance.

They've also had a great uh increase in enrollment and activities since the last eight years, as you can tell, they've almost 50% increased their um dancers.

A lot of dancers do two to three routines per week, so times that by all the dancers.

You can already see the traction that happens at Barrett Community Center.

And before I say thank you, one last thing, I just wanted to mention we do all this with a very aging community center with no year-round gym with no year-round pool, but yet we still get it done very well.

And that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Michael, for the um for the presentation.

Uh it's amazing what our parks and recreation department does.

I know you are a really solid team.

Um we'll talk a little bit about your former director, but um, for now, this is great.

It's amazing to see it just all in one in one place like that.

Um, amazing how multi-generational all of our programs are.

Um, I know it says teen update, but obviously there's so much more we do.

Um, but what we do for teens and allowing them to be leaders and really fill that leadership role with the YAC program and others is also great.

Um, and just to amplify the egg hunt, uh we just had that last last weekend.

I know I think the vice mayor was there and um council member paying Maganaris, and I it was an just an amazing event.

Um, I first started on the council in 2018, and you could literally roll up 10 minutes beforehand, you know, park, run down, um, like you said, just run down, kind of see everyone do it, 200 eggs, you know, 200 people, no big deal.

Um, this is just every year becomes more and more um just of a of a really popular event, and it's just great to see our partners, and of course, we've got PD and FIRE and all the all the people that uh that the community loves to see.

Um, just real quick, I did want to mention um that I talked to someone at the egg hunt who had mentioned that Belmont was the one of the only places they could find on short notice because they hadn't really made any plans, and we don't require registration or um any payment to join.

And that was really meaningful for them, and I think it's really important for for families in the community to be able to find something that they can just go to without having to really plan ahead if they can't with young kids, um, and also where there's no fee, um, so that's not a limitation for people.

So really speaks to our values here at Belmont.

So thank you so much for the presentation.

And do we have uh council members?

Anything, comments or anything?

All right, wonderful.

Thank you to all of Park and Rec for all that you do.

It it what you offer to the city and our residents is what makes our city great.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Just quickly, do we have any public comment on this uh special presentation?

There are no public comments for this at the moment.

All right.

Thank you so much again.

Thank you.

All right, and following that proclamation recognizing our parks, recreation, and culture director, Bridget Shearer upon her retirement.

Um so Bridget, um, yeah, we'll make you stand up there.

I we have a proclamation that I'm going to read.

It's a nice long one.

It's pretty.

It's got our um got our centennial logo on it.

Now make sure, make sure we get Bridget in the frame as we read this.

Um, this is a proclamation honoring Bridget Shearer, director of parks, recreation facilities and culture on the occasion of retirement.

Whereas the City of Belmont proudly recognizes Bridget Shearer, who has served with extraordinary dedication as director of parks, recreation, and culture, leading a department that enhances the community's social fabric, preserves its natural beauty, and enriches the cultural vitality of Belmont.

And whereas throughout her tenure, Bridget provided visionary and strategic leadership across all department departmental divisions, including parks, recreation, facilities management, cultural programming, community engagement, environmental stewardship, and capital project planning, ensuring that Belmont's amenities and programs remained high quality, inclusive, and accessible.

And whereas Bridget has overseen a department of 25.25 positions and an annual budget exceeding 11 million dollars, providing stewardship of 16 developed parks, 11 athletic fields, 300 acres of open space, and 160,000 square feet of city facilities, all of which play a pivotal role in maintaining Belmont's quality of life.

And whereas under Bridget's leadership, the parks and facilities division delivered transformative work, including fuel reduction programs to enhance wildlife resilience, wildfire resilience, open space restoration, athletic field maintenance, capital project delivery, and the continued stewardship that has sustained Belmont's designation as a tree city USA community.

And whereas Bridget championed community enrichment through the recreation division by expanding youth services, licensed child child care, summer camps, aquatics, and adult and senior programming, while advancing age-friendly initiatives and volunteer engagement, such as YAC Voices and Community Partners, and supporting cultural events, including New Lunar New Year, Diwali.

And whereas Bridget played a key role in advancing the future of Belmont's community infrastructure by supporting planning efforts for the new Belmont Community Center, engaging residents through the Your Voice, Your Belmont Initiative, and helping shape the city's long-term vision for recreation, culture, and emergency preparedness.

And whereas Bridget has led the planning and coordination of the city's centennial celebration supporting Belmont's long-term vision for recreation, culture, and community connection, and whereas Bridget guided key departmental activity initiatives such as the PRO's master plan implementation, facility modernization projects, public art programming, and major capital improvements, shaping Belmont's parks and civic amenities for generations to come.

And whereas Bridget has demonstrated the qualities of a collaborative, community-centered, and equity-driven leader, and is widely regarded as approachable, strategic, and compassionate, with a strong commitment to fostering a positive and inclusive culture for staff, volunteers, and residents alike.

And whereas Bridget championed the expansion of the city's adaptive recreation programs, establishing inclusive opportunities for individuals with physical, cognitive, and developmental challenges, and creating supportive environments that have been widely recognized for strengthening community connection and enhancing quality of life for participants and their families.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the City Council of the City of Belmont hereby honors and expresses its deepest appreciation to Bridget Shearer, Director of Parks, Recreation, Facilities, and Culture, for her distinguished public service, lasting leadership, and extraordinary dedication to the Belmont community.

Be it further proclaimed that the City of Belmont extends its heartfelt congratulations on her well-earned retirement with deep gratitude for the vision, passion, and legacy she leaves in Belmont's parks, open spaces programs, facilities, and cultural life.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If I may have a few words of my own.

Please.

One last time.

Mayor and Council, thank you very much for this wonderful proclamation and for your kind words.

It has been an honor to serve Belmont's supportive and enthusiastic council for the past eight years, and it's been the greatest joy to find ways for the Belmont community to gather together, whether in recruit programs, special events, parks, open spaces, or our beautiful historic buildings.

I'm so proud to have been the captain of the Parks and Rec ship that resoundingly and consistently enhance the quality of life for the Belmont community.

You just heard about all the increase in youth and teen activities and engagement during that tenure.

Later this evening, you'll hear about how we're tracking against our goals as an age-friendly city to meet the needs of our growing senior demographic.

We also rebuilt the North Field at the sports complex, renovated the library, made our community more fire resilient, and so much more.

We survived COVID.

Um of all sorts, to be sure everyone feels welcome.

None of these wins were achieved by only one person, and certainly not by me.

Rather, I aim to pave the way for my incredible shipmates to thrive, and boy, did they shine.

The work was not always easy, but when your crew is as dedicated as the Parks and Rec team has been, the work, even the hard stuff, even the stormy weather, literally and figuratively, is inspiring and always worthwhile.

So thank you to my staff for so many things, for humoring my ideas.

Um, for sharing your experience and wisdom, for stepping up and stepping in in so many ways, and for patiently waiting for me to arrive at meetings.

Thank you to the Did you hear that last year?

That's real.

Thank you to the senior management team for being my thought partners for working together to overcome obstacles and find solutions, for encouraging and supporting me during bumpy times, and for patiently waiting for me to arrive at meetings.

Thank you to all the city staff who helped make things work as they should, often behind the scenes.

That's police, fire, finance, city clerk, communications, public works, and comdev.

You always had my back, and I am so very grateful for that.

To the Belmont Parks and Recreation Commission and the Greater Belmont community, as I've said many times recently, it's been a blast.

Thank you for your input, your willingness to listen, and for joining me and my crew on the journey to make life better for everyone who is so lucky to call Belmont home.

I've enjoyed getting to know so many of you along the way.

A quick shout out to Carl Middlestat, the predecessor at the helm of Parks and Rec and the Belmont historian extraordinaire, who was always available to answer my questions, and there were many questions over the years.

Also a special shout out to Ulla Four and her Belmont Community Foundation team.

Their campaign to help others imagine the possibilities of a new community center for everyone is a testament to their love and dedication to this community.

It's an honor to work with them and everyone.

Together, we've already made great things happen here.

And with Kevin Kobayashi taking over the helm soon, the future looks very bright.

And finally, to my family that is watching on Zoom.

Thank you to thank you for thank you for encouraging me to chase this dream late in my career journey and for always being my cheerleaders along the way.

I love you bunches.

You know who you are.

I've loved every minute of working here in Belmont, and I'm now ready to start a new chapter of more time with friends and family locally and global and around the globe.

Hiking, skiing, pickleball, and reading a tall stacks of book that have been on deck for many years.

Thank you.

So just before you walk away, Bridget, I just want to make sure any of my council colleagues want to say anything.

Let's go ahead, Councilmember Pang Megan Harris.

I am emotional about your leaving.

I have had a hard time wrapping my brain around this.

I've known it for months, and every time I think about you leaving, I'm like, no, that is not true, and it's not going to happen.

So as I sit here today with a grateful heart for all that you've done for the city, I just want to say thank you.

Enjoy your next journey, and boy, will you be missed.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Sure.

What a blessing you are.

Not just to the city, but just to humanity in general.

You have been the ultimate professional, even before I was on council when I was exploring the job, just making time to meet with me, answering all of my questions.

And I know you did that with any community member who came to you with a question or one to meet with them.

You always are looking out for the best interests of Belmont and the community at large.

And I think I said this at your park and rec reception.

The park and rec department is a is a great team.

We have a great team here in Belmont, but it doesn't happen by accident.

It starts at the top with you.

I've lived in Belmont for a long time, and the amount of services and activities and events that we have for all ages is just spectacular.

And your team continues to look for better ways to improve what we serve our citizens.

And I love that about you and your staff that you're always looking forward and trying to make things better.

And I love that you've made a conscious effort to make sure that every citizen belongs here in Belmont and they feel welcomed.

So thank you for your leadership.

The last eight years you will be missed tremendously.

But congratulations on a well-deserved retirement.

Thank you.

Councilmember Latamerlow.

So I got to know Bridget uh well before I was a city council member when we were working on getting the new playground at O'Donnell Park.

Um being a part of that was really uh an amazing experience and in a lot of ways kind of introduced me into City of Government.

I couldn't have had a better ambassador, right?

In Bridget.

Um, and I always, you know, loved her warmth and expertise and enthusiasm.

Um, but my defining moment for Bridget was at the party that we planned afterwards at O'Donnell Park.

Um and I was neighborhood president at that time, and I was there basically by myself, kind of setting up.

And Bridget rolls up in her minivan, you know, and throws open the door, just has stacks of stuff that she's just piling out.

And we I think we set up.

You're the first person there, and you were the last person there with me to leave.

And I just think that moment was like this is a solid human being.

And you've been so solid for the city of Belmont.

And as you know, I'm pretty upset with you for retiring.

But I'm very excited for you, and I know you want to learn mahjong, and you promised that we were gonna uh hang out and do some mahjong after.

I don't know if I'm saying that right, but um we clearly everybody loves you, and thank you for your gifts that uh that you've given Belmont, and it's gonna be fun to see where your gifts take you next.

Thank you.

Councilmember McKeon.

Well, we're it's it's gonna be uh difficult to replace you, but uh but uh everybody at some point uh earns a retirement and we're happy for you.

Uh I think my first detailed interaction with Bridget was uh when I was fairly new on council.

We had in Belmont Heights where I live, we had a lot of people who were concerned about the use of the trails.

And uh so I said, Bridget, can we just go kind of walk some of these trails?

My house is on one of the trails, and she goes, sure.

So she shows up, shows up at my house, and we go out in my back gate, which goes on to uh Rambler Trail, and we just walked.

We just walked these trails and talked about uh use of public space.

And it was great.

It was low-key, it was unplanned, it was unstructured, but everything about it was really really good.

Um I was in architectural school, I had to write a paper on city planning.

And it this paper particularly concerned the 19th century.

And the one thing I was impressed about was prior to the 19th century, there kind of were no such thing as city parks.

There were city squares, there were uh other types of you know, open space in cities, but there weren't really parks as we know them today.

So it's a there were streets, there were sewers, there were you know all of the other things that we have in cities.

Um but parks considering the long span of history is still kind of a new thing.

And uh we're still kind of making up some things as we go along.

So I think that the earlier presentation we had about um all of the things for teens and youth, that's a pretty new thing.

Uh that hasn't always been a part of what cities have done.

So we've um in addition to managing those day-to-day operations, um, Bridget and the Parks and Rec folks have been inventing some new things with as we've gone along.

So that's really great.

We we wish you well on your retirement, and uh I somehow I suspect we haven't really seen the last of you.

I suspect so congratulations.

Thank you.

You know, I think the the proclamation we tried to capture everything you've done.

I know it was really long.

Hopefully, you'll have a chance to reread it um later and and show your your family because um the amount that you have accomplished with your department in eight years is really phenomenal.

And when we when I was first on this um this uh city council in 2018, the types of things that we do now just as a course as annually is exactly what we wanted to do, and we couldn't really envision it at the time, but we were hoping to do more cultural events, we were hoping to be more front-facing in terms of the community.

All of that has happened um under your leadership.

Uh and it just the amount of a community members who know you, um, you know, people who want to work with you, uh, the things that we did, you know, the energy you brought in 2019 to the working group to uh reimagine our community center when you were just really starting out as a director.

Um but I remember the energy you brought, all the that you know took time to get everyone together and to figure out how we were gonna work together to envision uh you know redoing the the community center.

Um and then one of the things that we've mentioned, but you know, facilities isn't the most I mean, Parks and Rec gets a lot of love, a lot of people see it, a lot of people are participating.

We have aging buildings here that you were in charge of.

Um so I know that you you did a lot for that.

And also I just want to make mention that your leadership was um positive and was also um I think the right kind of leadership we needed, even when the community and certain members of the community weren't that happy with some of the things that were happening in the city that you were you were the face of.

And so um all of that just shows your leadership.

Finally, the way that you constantly refer to your team when we give you compliments, it shows also what a good leader is that you bring um that you bring attention to the people who have those ideas who work with you.

It's a good leader who brings those forward when they're when their team brings them to the leader, but also I think speaks volumes for the fact that you uh turn around behind you when you've reached the top of the ladder and bring other folks up.

Um Bridget, you will be missed.

You can always come back.

We have meetings every second and fourth Tuesdays uh that you can watch from home or go ahead and just enjoy retirement, come back anytime, and thank you so much for all that you've done for us.

Thank you.

Uh so let's take a quick picture, if that's okay.

Yep.

Hey, kids.

Why'd you let's do one with the one straight consolidant uh Bridget person?

Thank you, yeah.

Let's get the parks to the right.

Yeah, the parts and the kids on my own parts and her teeth.

Sorority pose.

You're ready for USC.

I think so.

All right.

Cool.

Thanks so much.

All right, and before we move on on the agenda, are there any public comments on this special presentation?

Item 6B.

Public comment?

Yes, I'm sorry.

Um we do have uh one hand raised on Zoom, and then we have an in-house speaker that will be up next.

Okay, should we take our in-house first?

Just because they're in-house?

Great, thank you.

Hi there.

Sorry.

Um I am Bridget.

That's okay.

Go ahead.

No, go ahead, G.

Am I good to talk?

Sorry, just hang on one second after we have our in-person in the chambers uh public commenter, we'll move to you.

Thank you.

Hey all.

Bridget.

I want to thank you so much.

I've sometimes been a throne in your side.

But um you've always been there for me.

You've always been there for the community.

I've just stepped down as regional commissioner for AYSO.

You and your team were always there to help us and to make sure that the youth of the city were gone.

Um you're just always looking out and caring for them.

And you know, we deeply appreciate you and everybody for that.

I'm also the local lead for the Silicon Valley Bike Coalition for Belmont.

And you've always done the best you can to support us.

We've put classes on, we've had uh the the rides up and down.

There's certainly a lot more to do, but you've always done what you can, and it's just so much appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Sal Powell, um, I'll unmute you when you're ready.

Hi, thanks for calling.

It's your turn.

Hello?

Sorry, I keep getting auto-muted.

Um, hi, I am Bridget's eldest daughter.

Um, and just first mom, congrats.

We love you so much.

It's so nice to hear such um lovely things said about you, and I'm gonna cry, so I'm gonna stop.

Um we I just uh we're here watching, and we have been looking at the desktop.

And I was just wondering if there's any chance we can get um a view of of mom up there.

Oh, of course.

I'm so sorry about that.

Um is there a way that we can have them not look at the desktop screen, or is that a part of the issue?

Sorry, we we have been having some technical difficulties.

There are they are you seeing your mom now?

Not yet.

Okay.

Gosh, I am so sorry.

I just had to ask, and not this is so lovely, but just had to ask.

Um are you on Zoom?

Do you know, or are you just watching from the what am I?

Uh think on Zoom here.

So I think this is recorded.

And so what we're going to do, and I did ask when we were having some technical difficulties.

I I thought maybe Bridget might want to have this recording.

So um Bridget will have the link and you can see um all the all the back and forth and hopefully see your mom, yeah, even though in real time we weren't able to do that.

And I apologize, but we'll definitely send you the link.

No worries, thank you.

And sorry to interrupt.

Of course, thank you for calling.

No, we're we're very proud of her too.

All right.

Any other public comment?

That'll conclude in-house speaking.

Oh.

Sure.

Go ahead.

He's we're gonna open up the Oh, sorry, yeah, this is just public comment on just this item.

Sorry about that.

Yes, all right.

Uh then in which case we will move on to 6C, which is Peninsula Clean Energy Presentation.

Good evening, honorable member uh mayor and members of the city council.

My name is Edric Kwan, and I'm your public works director.

Tonight we have with us uh Kirsten Andrew Schwind with Peninsula Clean Energy, and she'll be making a presentation about their new recent uh name change.

This presentation will also serve as background for your consent item number 9D.

Um so take it away.

Thank you so much for the in uh introduction.

Good evening, everybody.

I'm Kirsten Andrew Schwin, representing Peninsula Clean Energy.

Thank you for inviting us tonight to give an update on the results of 10 years of our partnership with the city of Belmont.

Talking about clean energy is a great way to celebrate Earth Day.

Um I remember 10 years ago setting up a table at your annual Earth Day event in Twin Pines Park.

Actually, that was 2017, and we've been there every year since.

Um, and we'll be there again this Saturday.

So Peninsula Clean Energy is a joint powers authority made up of the City of Belmont and all the other cities in San Mateo County, plus the county itself, and the City of Los Baños in Merced County.

We are formed with the goal of helping our member jurisdictions meet your goals.

I'd like to thank Councilmember Tom McCune for your service on our board.

We have a representing Belmont, and I also like to thank Mayor Julia Mates for your service as our alternate.

How it works is that we purchase a hundred percent clean energy for all of our customers from the wind, so the sun, water, and geothermal.

It comes to you through PGE's wires, and everybody gets an everyday savings on your PGE bill.

And that adds up to lower costs, clean energy, and investment in the community.

Uh we're proud to uh partnered with your community to have installed 177 electric vehicle charging ports in the city, mostly at multifamily housing, where it is most needed to help residents transition off of using fossil fuels and moving into electric vehicles.

That's just one example of the ways we invest in projects to help customers go green and save money.

So over a decade of partnership and uh serving the residents and businesses of Belmont, we have saved our customers over five million dollars on electricity bills.

That's because we set our rates lower than PGE, and those savings add up.

We have also invested 2.8 million dollars in other investments for residents of and businesses of Belmont.

That includes credits on electricity bills, payouts to people with solar systems, rebates for customers that are installing energy efficient and uh clean electric uh um uh appliances, um, go with electric vehicles, um, e-bikes, zero interest alone for installing heat pumps, and um so that is uh one way in which we're also celebrating this uh 10 years of partnership together.

Over the years, our role has expanded from just providing clean energy to supporting residents and cities in um in making this transition.

Uh we are um looking forward to continue to work with the city installing EV charging projects at four city locations through a member agency grant.

Um we're also looking forward to rolling out a new residential solar and storage uh um program offering this year.

And we have um you know uh big aspirations for what's coming up.

Um and we can go ahead to the next slide.

So looking ahead, we are updating our name.

And the reason for this is that Peninsula Clean Energy is a bit of a mouthful.

It's long, it's hard to remember.

People sometimes call us Pennsylvania Clean Energy, a number of other things that get a little confused.

Also, the acronym uh PCE is very close to PG, which causes a fair amount of confusion.

And our service territory has expanded beyond the peninsula.

Therefore, our last winter, our board approved the recommendation of a new name, West Light Energy.

And this evokes optimism, positivity, energy, and also innovation.

We're still the same public agency with the same governance, the same mission, accountability, and our same deep commitment to continuing to partner with you.

To support this next chapter, we're asking you tonight to approve an amendment to our JPA agreement together to reflect this name change.

So thank you for putting that on your consent agenda tonight.

And your support will help ensure clarity and continuity for customers.

We're really proud of what we've built together.

I'm grateful for your partnership.

Looking forward to continuing to support you in reaching your climate action goals.

And want to also wish everybody a happy early Earth Day.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Thanks very much for the presentation and for coming by.

We it's a night, I guess, to stroll down memory lane because when I was on the PCE board for five years, it was only five years old.

We had a lot of transitions.

Um wonderful that we also now have Los Banos and just to see it grow and how much how much PCE does now in just a short 10 years.

It's pretty incredible.

I know.

Um Councilmember McCune has uh taken over as um the representative.

And so uh Councilmember McCune, do you have any comments or I know at first you were maybe a doubting Thomas, but now I think you're fully bought into the uh uh the the PCE um the the way of it in the partnership.

Well, I I in the interest of full disclosure, I argued against this name change.

Uh but uh I lost the board voted on it, the board approved it.

Uh to me, it it's no better than the current name.

Oh no, I was just I was I was just joking about uh joining the PCE as the uh as the as the main person given the all all your knowledge of uh well yeah yeah I I used to do a lot of energy stuff, but um so but I you know it's it's it it's been an excellent organization.

I agree with 95% of what it does.

I have some reservations about some of it.

Uh but uh at the most macro level, um it provides energy to our customers at uh as was mentioned 10% less than PGE's cost of generation.

So it's it's a good organization, there's a lot of good things.

It's not a perfect organization, in my opinion, but um we need to support it, it's done good work.

Wonderful.

Well, we we appreciate your your serving on the board for us and representing Belmont.

Um do we have any questions or other comments on the from board uh council?

Uh any public comment on this item.

No comments at the moment.

Great.

Well, thank you so much again for joining us.

Thank you for having us.

All right, 6D, where this is a big special presentation evening.

6D is a proclamation observing April 2026 National Poetry Month.

And we do have a uh proclamation here.

I will read just some of it this time around.

Uh it is a proclamation recognizing National Poetry Month, whereas the Academy of American Poets established the month of April as National Poetry Month in 1996, and whereas the City of Belmont recognizes the value of poetry in enriching the arts, supporting creative expression in schools, and strengthening community spirit through events, education, and public engagement.

Whereas Belmont's Laureate program continues to inspire residents of all ages, making poetry accessible and meaningful while enhancing civic life and celebrating the city's unique culture and community spirit.

Whereas the Belmont Public Po uh the Belmont Library Poetry Contest helped launch the city's first poet laureate with inaugural adult category winner Tanuja Wakefield being named Belmont's first poet laureate in 2016, further strengthening the city's commitment to literary arts and cultural expression.

Now, therefore it be proclaimed that I, Mayor Julia Mates, on behalf of the Belmont City Council, hereby proclaim the month of April as National Poetry Month in the City of Belmont and proudly recognize the Belmont Library for its leadership in fostering creativity, supporting literary arts, and cultivating a vibrant and connected community through poetry.

The city encourages all residents to celebrate poetry by reading, writing, and sharing in the many programs and events offered throughout the community.

And I believe we have our senior librarian, uh David Vargas with us.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Is it okay to say Yes, please come and say a few words?

Thank you, Council members.

There you go.

My name is David Vargas, and I'm the senior librarian at the Belmont Library.

On behalf of San Mateo County Libraries and the community library work for the Belmont Library, we are so thankful to receive a proclamation from the City of Belmont supporting poetry over the years with support from the City of Belmont, Parks and Rec department, and our beloved poet laureates, our community library has been a thriving space for local poets, enthusiasts, and people of all ages to come together and engage with poetry at our library.

I'm proud to share we have our annual Belmont Poetry Celebration coming up on April 30th at 6 30 p.m.

at the Belmont Library.

We will again have an opportunity to celebrate the works of many local poets of different age ranges as they read their winning poems.

Again, thank you to our city council members, our mayor, for this opportunity.

We hope to see you all at the Belmont Library for a poetry event.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, we can clap.

Sure.

Any public comment on this item?

No public comments.

Okay.

Um, would you like a photo with the proclamation?

Absolutely.

Great.

Thank you.

Sir!

Thank you so much for the classic.

All right, everybody say poetry.

Thank you.

And I think it's national library.

Coming up next week.

Yeah, great calls.

All right.

Uh moving on.

Just lost my agenda.

Uh moving on to 6E proclamation observing Earth Day.

Um we have a proclamation here.

Whereas Earth Day's uh April 22nd, 2026, whereas Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22nd, 1970 and has grown into a global movement that engages more than one billion people each year in protecting the environment, and whereas communities across the world are called to take action to address climate change, reduce pollution, conserve water, protect biodiversity, and advance environmental stewardship.

And whereas Earth Day and the 2026 theme, our power, our planet, serves as a reminder of our shared responsibility to protect the natural resources of our planet and to promote sustainable practices that support a healthy, resilient future.

And whereas individual and collective actions, such as reducing waste, conserving energy, planting trees, and supporting local environmental efforts, can have a meaningful and lasting impact.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Mayor Julia Mates, on behalf of the Belmont City Council, do hereby proclaim April 2020 tw April 22nd, 2026 as Earth Day in the City of Belmont and encourage all residents to participate in activities that promote environmental stewardship and sustainability.

So happy Earth Day to all next week.

And then our final proclamation this evening is 6F proclamation observing Arbor Day.

Arbor Day is going to be April 24th, 2026, whereas Arbor Day was first celebrated in 1872 in Nebraska City, Nebraska, through the efforts of Julia Sterling Morton, who encouraged communities to recognize the importance of trees by planting them.

And whereas Arbor Day has since grown into a nationwide observance, inspiring individuals, schools, and communities across the country to plant and care for trees that enhance our environment and quality of life.

And whereas the City of Belmont recognizes the importance of preserving and enhancing its urban forest and encourages residents to participate in tree planting and stewardship efforts.

And whereas Arbor Day serves as an opportunity to reflect on our shared responsibility to care for the natural environment and to invest in a greener, more sustainable future for generations to come.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Mayor Julia Mates, on behalf of the Belmont City Council do hereby proclaim April 24th, 2026 as Arbor Day in the City of Belmont, and encourage all residents to celebrate by planting trees and supporting efforts to maintain and grow our community's urban forest.

So Arbor Day, April 24th, 2026.

And that's unless there are for the last uh two special presentations.

Are there any um public comment?

Okay.

No public comments then that will conclude our special presentations.

And we will move on to item seven, which is public comments on items not on the agenda.

And this portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the body on any study matter that is not currently on the agenda.

And public comment at this point is limited to 15 minutes with a maximum of three minutes per speaker.

Um Madam Clerk, do we have any public comment?

We have one in-house speaker, and I'll call up Shaw Yu.

See when you have a moment.

Um good evening, Mayor, uh, Vice Mayor, and the member of Belmont City Council.

My name is the Shao Yu, and I live right here in Belmont with my wife and uh two children.

Um before I start, I just want to say, you know, I don't really come here very often, but uh, you know, actually I come here every 12 months, I think.

Um I'm very glad to see there are so many young people here, uh, which you know makes me very happy that our future is bright and strong.

Um I'm here this evening to speak about um the essential need to secure funding um to enhance the pedestrian safety at the intersection of Puma Avenue and the Ralston Avenue.

Uh it feels a little bit like Grand Hog Day, at least for me.

Um I stood here before you last year, around this exact same time to raise uh this safety issue on this intersection between Ralphson and the PUMAN.

Um I'm pleased to say we we've actually made genuine progress since last year.

To be very frank, my neighbors are all quite pleasantly surprised that the city is address actually addressing this.

Uh I also want to say uh sincere thank you to uh Daniel Matthews, uh whom I actually work with and the entire PTSC for their dedication and a partnership over the past year.

That said, let's talk about the real problem on the ground.

Despite our efforts, I think the crosswalk remains dangerously complex with downhill speed, high traffic volume, and a challenging driver visibility.

In the past year, I have personally witnessed two incidents, not to mention countless frost treated uh residents who are scared to cross.

My four-year-old boy always asks me why people don't stop, and my genuine answer is they're good people, but they just can't see us.

But that is gonna fix it.

We appreciate the recent We appreciate the recent interim steps, uh, the reader, the readar speed sign and the striping work, which I believe just completely last week.

Those incremental improvements are definitely good, even though they don't really address the real problem.

But the good news is we all agreed it is a problem, and we're making progress towards the right direction.

Now, the public works uh department are supporting the request to add the solar rectangular rapid flashing beacon, also known as RRFB, into the CIP plan.

I urgently um I urgently need uh we urgently need the council's commitment to secure the funding for those proven permanent solutions by approving the fund, you are prioritizing the lives and the safety of our neighbors.

Uh, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you very much for your comment.

Any other public comments on this item?

That will conclude the speakers.

All right, thank you.

Item eight, council member announcements.

We'll start down this way first.

Councilmember McCune, any announcements?

Nothing for me.

Councilmember Latimerlow.

Um, yes, the parking rack registration is open, um, and then we have all your favorites.

That's you saw at the presentation um earlier swim lessons, yoga adult field trips, some new additions, something for every age and age level and interest.

So um check out the registration online and join us for an activity.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mayor.

Any uh uh Mayor, Councilmember Pang Megan Earth.

Just more appreciation to the park and rec department for the sensory-friendly egg hunt and the actual egg hunt, both represent to me what is all that is good about our city that we are inclusive, that we think about the needs of all of our people who live here, those with sensory needs and those without, and then we provide these opportunities free, no matter where you live.

Most of the people that I walked, I met along the way as I at both events did not live here in Belmont.

And I love that that we are the kind of city that opens our arms wide to everyone.

So thank you to the parking rec for stuffing all those eggs and making it happen.

All right, thank you.

Um my uh comments actually and my announcements are also um just with regard to the egg hunt.

I know I already um mentioned it, uh, and as it relates to parks and recreation, it was a complete success for the whole team.

Um, but I did also want to uplift what our former director, Bridget Shearer said um about PD.

I know they were um not only there uh with mingling with our community, but also in the background for lost children and all kinds of issues um that come up that are safety issues, they're in the background, they take care of it, and uh uh folks who attend don't even know uh that it's happening.

Also, fire um and even just the presence of the those folks doing um the things that they're supposed to do every day to keep our our uh community safe when there's a huge gathering like that in one place.

Um it not only I think um makes sure that if there's any emergencies, we've got it covered, but I think also gives uh folks attending just uh a really secure feeling.

Um so I know it was a group effort, a lot of folks were there, and so I want to make be mindful that we just the entire city did so much uh to make sure that that was a success, and it does make us look really good because regionally um we just we look like a really in inclusive uh city in the region, which which we are.

Also wanted to mention I saw on the Instagram post that from our police department that it is National Public Safety Telecommunications Week.

So we want to recognize our dispatchers during National Public Safety Telecommunications Week.

And I we know our dispatchers work hard behind the scenes also to serve our community.

So wanna thank you and recognize that as well.

All right, moving to the Did anybody mention celebrate the music?

No, please.

Uh Celebrate the Music is coming up on April the 26th.

And it's a different location this year.

It's not in Twin Pines Park.

Uh it's at Ralston uh middle school.

So uh there's publicity out there, but this is a wonderful event for people who are interested in in music.

Uh I'm one of the performers again, which should not deter anyone from coming.

Uh and uh I'm the one question is because it's a different venue.

I'm not sure what's happening with parking, because parking is really limited at that middle school.

So come early and uh and uh plan to uh carpool if you can.

Or walk.

I have I have walked up the hill to Rollston, and it's doable, it gets your heart beating and your steps in.

Thank you, uh, Councilmember McCune for reminding us that's a that's a great um event.

Hopefully, everyone can come out and join.

All right, uh item nine, consent business.

These items are routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion unless uh staff member or someone uh from the council requests specific items to be removed for a separate action.

Looks like we have nine items on our uh consent calendar.

Uh looking first on the dais.

Anyone have any questions or comments or want to remove any items for separate discussion?

I just have a comment on G.

G.

Okay.

Anyone else?

Um, one thing very quickly.

Uh just a quick question on E, the pump station.

I don't think we need to poll it.

It's just it's a larger amount of money than what we often see on consent agenda.

I know it's a really important project and it's a big it's a big job.

I just wonder if staff might want to give us a little uh detail on that one, just because of the dollars involved.

So item E, uh, we're not pulling, but just have that question from Councilmember.

We'll take in an alphabetical order, so we'll go through E first and Councilmember Keun.

You just kind of wanted a little bit of explanation.

Yeah, if possible.

Good evening, Honor Mayor and members of the council.

My name is Edric Kwan, and I'm your public works director.

Um this pump station is one of our 10, one of our largest pump stations out of our 10 pump stations was built back in 1956.

Um back in 2017.

There was a uh study amongst all of our pump station, and it identified it as one of the top two priorities.

It was then included in our 2025 sanitary studio master plan and program for us to begin work.

So today we are here before you to really look at approving the plans and specs and authorizing the advertisement of the sealed bids.

We plan to have those bids open May of this year.

We plan to begin construction in July of 2026.

And because of the long lead time for some of the equipment, we expect construction to be completed in 2028.

We know this is going to be very disruptive, so there's a lot of public outreach involved with this particular project.

It is going to be taking up all of San Juan Boulevard because of that pipeline that runs underneath it as well as adjacent streets.

Aside from awarding uh authorizing the city manager to award the contract.

It also includes a task order with Tanner Pacific for construction management services, and their scope again has a lot of pieces when it comes to public outreach to make sure folks are understanding what's happening and to make sure that any closures are well coordinated.

So is part of the budget there for paving on San Juan.

Because I know the pavement on San Juan has been really, really bad in places.

And it's partly been fixed in other projects.

Correct.

There is going to be partial repaving with that project.

And also I can look as well if it there's an additional element to the pavement program or if it's part of this particular project itself.

But yes, um, it won't be done until 2028.

So there's some time before that, and of course, all the major cuts into the roadway, we want to make sure that's repaired.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh I think we also had a question on item G or 9G.

Is that me?

Yep.

It's more it's a comment.

Um, I love that we are now working with Belmont Redwood Shores to create a loading zone in front of Cypriani School.

It's long been needed.

I would like to recommend and suggest to PD that when it's actually completed, that PD help the community understand that it's a loading zone and what that means.

Having been a principal for the past 15 years, I struggle on a day-to-day basis, getting people to understand that loading zones are not a place to park and wait for your children.

So I think that when it first gets opened up, if there's strong PD presence to be like, no, this is not what we do, this is not what you do.

It'll send a clear message, and the community will get trained very quickly.

All right.

Any other questions or comments on any of the items?

Okay, looking for public comment on uh the consent calendar.

Yes, we do have uh one soon speaker.

Um call in user number two when you're ready.

Call in user number two.

Good evening.

Uh, can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you.

Uh thank you for taking the call.

I do want to mention before my time starts ticking that this is my fourth attempt to reach into this meeting tonight, and I was actually disconnected.

There's been some very weird glitches in terms of the reception if you're trying to call in on phone lines.

So, just so you know, I'm sure that's something that the city would want to look at.

The purpose of my call tonight, and I'm gonna try to keep it brief since it's later than I expected, is um district maps, specifically what happened in the district.

We were told in 2022 that an emergency had occurred, that someone threatened to sue us.

We learned later that one letter was sent in July 2021 that became an emergency eight months later in February 2022 that had to be resolved no later than March 8th of 2022.

So, unlike all the other cities that were looking towards redistricting, we had no reasonable time or even understanding for people that might be out of town, dealing with ill families, whatever the case may be, to kind of meet the timeline of Belmont.

As a side note, sadly, in recent years, that has been the other challenge.

Belmont citizens, regardless of their physical abilities, their age, um, their technical uh savvy, they're required to meet our city leaders and our city manager and assistant manager now where you're at.

We have to use email, we have to use text, whether or not uh we have the capability or the structure.

I just won't understand why um simple things like a telephone and a someone like a secretary can't be there to take calls from some of our neighbors that might be of an age.

Two of our neighbors reached their centennial, a hundred years.

They were not capable of going on Zoom or email or laptop, and the city didn't even recognize their milestone birthday.

Not a card, not a letter, no acknowledgement at all.

And these are some of the things that point to District 1.

We were told that this was to not disenfranchise, not to marginalize.

What we've learned instead is we have been structured under YIMBE and NIMBY, not in my backyard, and that's how we feel right now.

We feel sadly that the end result was the 7,000 people in District 1.

We were disenfranchised.

We were marginalized, segregated, and possibly discriminated against.

When in fact, in our decades as homeowners, we have always been a multicultural welcoming community.

Look at our city council.

We do not discriminate.

We have never discriminated.

So we're worried about why it's happening to the 7,000 people in District 1 when we have 900 of the 1741 total allocation of affordable housing.

But what that created was a life and fire safety fear, overpopulation, overdensity, noise, privacy, and sadly devaluing on our resale value of our home.

Until Rome came into the neighborhood the first, we never had a major crime.

While they were present, we had two major crimes.

One stole.

Thank you for your comment.

Okay, let's go ahead and see if there is a um let's see if we have any um this is on the consent calendar, right?

Looks like we have so um I think we have two actions here.

The first would be consent uh current the concurrent consent business items and then uh action on the approval of minutes for the so first let's take um uh entertain a motion for uh the to approve the council uh consent move approval second roll call council member McHugh?

Aye, Larry Millow?

Aye, Pang McGonares?

Aye.

Uh Vice Mayor Jordan, yes.

Mayor Mates?

Yes.

Motion passes five to zero.

Great, thank you.

And this is a little bit different than what we normally do, so just um sorry for the little rough patch here, but it looks like now we are going to have uh entertain a motion on the Belmont Fire Protection District consent items, and there are two uh items on that um on the agenda for that.

I can move approval.

Uh do we have first public comment on that item?

There are no public comments.

Okay, great.

And then I can move approval for all call, please.

Director McHugh.

Aye.

Ladder Millow?

Aye.

Pang Menganares.

Aye.

Vice Chair Jordan.

Yes.

Chairmates.

Yes.

Motion passes five to zero.

All right.

Thanks very much.

Moving on to item 10.

10A is comprehensive sewer rate study and proposed sewer charges for fiscal years 2026, 27, 27, 28, and 2829.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the council.

My name is Edward Kwan, and I'm your public works director.

Tonight's item is the introduction of the city's comprehensive sewer rate study and proposed sewer rate charges for the next three fiscal years.

The purpose of this meeting is to present the results of the rate study, outline the proposed rate adjustments, and seek your direction to move forward with the proposition 218 process.

Based on the study by HDR, the proposed rate adjustments are 0% the first year, 0% the second year, and 3% the third year.

These rates are designed to maintain reliable sewer service, fund ongoing operations and maintenance, and address the city's capital improvement needs while keeping increases as low as possible.

One notable change in this rate study is the removal of the drought regulation adjustment or DRA.

For this three-year period, the DRA is set at zero percent.

The DRA was originally implemented during drought conditions to stabilize revenues when water use was declining.

Since water consumption has returned to pre-droug levels and now is reflected in revenue analysis, the adjustment is no longer needed at this time.

With that, the next step following tonight's introduction would be for the city council to consider setting the public hearing where property owners will have the opportunity to provide comments or submit protests as part of the proposition 218 process.

At this time, I would like love to introduce Sean Korn with HDR, who has over 25 years of experience in utility rate setting and has supported the city on wastewater and solid waste rates since 2012 to help walk you through the details of the study and proposed rates.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Maids, Council members appreciate the opportunity.

I'll have a brief summary of the rate studies we walk through this.

I'll start off with some of our key issues, talk about the process.

As Edric mentioned, we need to go through the Prop 218 process to establish sewer rates.

And I'll go through the three steps of the study and then talk about the proposed rate designs.

So as we went into this study, there's a couple key components.

So rate revenues from sewer rates need to adequately recover costs associated with the city's annual OM expenses related to the collection and conveyance of sewer, as well as the treatment related cost from Silicon Valley Clean Water, which is approximately 41% of the total OM budget.

In addition to that, we have ongoing existing long-term debt service payments that we need to fund as well as ongoing capital improvements.

One you just talked about as part of the consent agenda with the San Juan Pump Station.

As we look forward through the analysis at over a multi-year period, we are funding capital entirely through ongoing rate revenues or existing reserves.

So cash that's available to the sewer utility specifically as part of this.

There's no new borrowing as part of this overall rate setting period.

We're also maintaining our key financial metrics, adequately funding our renewal and replacements.

So go back about 12 years, and that was a key driver in the study to have adequate funds to maintain the existing city system that's in place today.

We've maintained that projects have been able to be completed over the last 10 years to improve that the sewer utility.

We also need to maintain legally required debt service coverage ratios for the existing debt, as well as maintaining our target minimum reserves.

As mentioned, we're looking at a three-year rate adjustment this year.

That's different from the past where we've had two years.

And we're also adjusting the flow factor to zero given the change in overall consumption.

So to meet the requirements of Prop 218, we go through three steps a revenue requirement, a cost of service, and a rate design that provides us with a cost basis, the proportionality, and the resulting unit cost for proposed rates that we can move forward through the Prop 218 process.

So starting with the revenue requirement, we start out with historical consumption and customer numbers.

We develop a revenue profile that includes resetting that drought adjustment factor to our zero percent as we go through this.

As we've tracked consumption since we implemented that in about 2016, we're back up above those levels.

So we've been watching this every rate study to see when do we want to adjust this, and we're recommending now is the time to do that.

Our OM expenses are based on the 25-26 budget.

We project those forward on historical escalation factors or inflationary factors of about 4.4%.

We have our treatment related costs for Silicon Valley Clean Water of about 3.6 million.

And again, those costs aren't controlled by the city, those are passed through costs based on the flows from the City of Belmont to Silicon Valley Clean Water.

And those future adjustments are based on information provided by SBCW for the rate study today.

Our capital plan was based on the master plan that was recently completed.

Staff has gone through and prioritized those projects, and we've put together that funding plan in coordination with city staff.

Here is that sewer capital improvement plan, looking at our six years here, our five-year projected and our current fiscal year that we're in today.

As you can see, there's some larger capital improvement years there, 12 million next fiscal year, followed by 18 million and 10 million.

Again, all rate or reserve funded, no new debt associated with that.

We're also using some connection fee, so when new customers connect to the system, they buy into the system based on that new connection.

That is also paying a portion of that.

Two key numbers on this slide are in that red box.

Our annual rate funded capital of about six and a half million dollars.

That's the reinvestment into the system each year.

That's funding those ongoing replacement needs.

And then we have the additional INI that stands for inflow and infiltration.

So we set that revenue stream up years ago to reflect ongoing replacements and maintenance of the system.

So reducing INI is less flow to Silicon Valley Clean Water, which in theory reduces the overall cost to the city of Belmont.

Summing up the total operating and capital needs here on this slide.

The red box shows the next three-year period.

The analysis here compares the revenue at the top, approximately 18 million, subtracts our total expenses, including OM, treatment OM, our repair and replacement, the rate funded capital component, our INI funding, annual debt service payments of about $2.5 million, and then we have the change in working capital.

That is really putting funds into reserves to fund projects that year or subsequent years and to maintain minimum targets.

As was mentioned, our projection for fiscal year 2627 and fiscal year 2728, there's no change in the overall rate revenue levels.

Now we do have to change rates.

I'll talk about that in a moment, but our revenue levels don't change, and we have a 3% projected in fiscal year 28-29.

So this is looking out into the future to make sure we don't see any bumps coming in the road that we need to start planning for today.

Go back four years, it was the new debt service that we were planning for in the out years where we had some a little higher rate adjustments to start balancing out our revenues to fund that.

So that's not an impact or challenge in this study this year, but it is one of our guiding requirements along with maintaining minimum reserves and that adequate rate funding component.

So once we know the overall revenue needs in each year as a requirement of proportionality aspect of proposition 218, we need to allocate those costs between the different types of customers.

Now, what that looks like for the city's rate schedule is a low strength rate schedule and a high strength rate schedule.

The low strength is our single family residential plus our lower strength commercial or non-residential customers.

The high strength are those that discharge higher than domestic strength wastewater into the system.

That drives costs at Silicon Valley Clean Water, and the City of Belmont is allocated cost based on a proportion of those strength-related costs.

Higher strength equals higher treatment costs, so those costs are allocated specifically to the higher strength customers.

So would that be like multi, sorry?

Would that be like multifamily residential?

No, it'd be more of your larger commercial industrial, so there may be some restaurants that could fall into that.

Anything manufacturing-wise, it's measured in biochemical oxygen demand, BOD or total suspended solids, TSS.

So it's the floaties and sinkies.

That's my rate world discussion of it.

And it's when it gets to the plant, it drives longer treatment periods or process, which incurs additional costs for treatment, chemicals, electricity, in order to treat that to the level that it needs to be treated for discharge.

So typically our multifamily and our single family are all low strength.

Your typical commercial store is going to be low strength, but you start getting into your restaurants and other facilities, you'll start having the higher strength component.

So we do this based on generally accepted principles, but based on the city's specific and unique circumstances.

The good news again, along with our zero percent adjustment for fiscal year 26-27, is that there's no cost of service adjustment.

So jumping to the right-hand side in the red box, it's a 0% overall in the bold, and there's no difference in the cost of service between low strength and high strength.

And there's two pieces of this.

One is historically, you've done a rate study every two years where we've, if we've had to make adjustments, the council has made those adjustments.

We've also reflected that higher strength cost in the rates historically.

And so that's carried forward.

So this is a very, I don't see this often.

This is a great result when we talk about cost of service, and it simplifies our overall rate design adjustment going forward.

So now we know the overall cost, we know how we recover that.

And so as we go through this, we need to design the proposed rates based on those two analyses for the low strength and high strength.

There's two components to the rate structure: a base flat annual charge and a flow charge per HCF or 100 cubic feet, which is based on the customer's winter water use.

So winter water use is the surrogate because we don't meter wastewater, and so that winter use is theoretically that indoor use that's then going to be coming back through the sewer system all year round as part of that.

As we've mentioned, we have the flow adjustment factor.

And so resetting that results in changing the rate structure slightly.

So on the little thought box there or thought cloud off to the right, you'll see the formula.

If if currently, if a customer used eight HCF, we multiply that by 1.1.

So they're a billed for 8.8 HCF.

That is going to move to zero now.

So if they use eight in the winter, they're billed eight in the winter.

However, our rate structure now needs to be adjusted, our volume component, so that we hit the same revenue target because now we're not adding that adjustment factor to that.

So when we look at our overall rates, we've maintained those two customer classes or rate schedules for low and high strength.

We've maintained the base charge component, so no change in that in the next two fiscal years, and it'd be a 3% change in fiscal year 28-29 if approved by the council through the Prop 218 process.

That flow adjustment factor means we bump up the volume charge 10%, right?

Because we have to we're taking away 10% of the consumption, therefore the volume charge goes up 10%.

The sewer bills will continue to be collected through the property tax bill.

That's how you've currently implement that billing process, and we would recommend maintaining that.

So here's what the overall rates look like for the next five years, focus in the red box in the middle for the next three years.

The base charge as you can see in fiscal current present rates is 4650.

That remains flat the next two fiscal years.

But looking at low strength at the top of the screen, what we'll see here is that that increases from 663 to 729, stays at 729, and then increases by the 3% in fiscal year 28-29.

That is throughout all components: the low strength collection, high strength collection, low strength treatment, high strength treatment.

The difference between the flow charge between low strength and high strength is recovering that additional cost associated with the higher strength waste streams.

The bottom box, the dashed, is the combined collection and treatment component rate into the single base charge and the single flow charge.

And there you can see that again that difference.

The base charge is the same regardless of customer type, but the flow charge it varies based on the low or high strength customer.

Now the question always is well, how does this impact the customer's bill?

What you see in the box is that eight HCF use per month for a low strength customer.

And currently it's multiplied by the 1.1 adjustment factor, so it would be 8.8, which results in a bill of 146.43 cents.

Removing that adjustment, so eight, if they use eight in the winter, they're billed eight, then that is 146.42.

So a penny difference, actually a reduction of a penny.

Uh, as you look at that, that is the rounding throughout the process as we go through that.

Fiscal year 27-28, no change, and then the 3% change in fiscal year 28-29 for that typical customer using eight would be $4.41 forward.

You see the high strength is very similar.

Again, rounding essentially, uh, those customers typically are larger customers, they use more water, so their winter water billing is higher.

And so again, that bill stays relatively unchanged.

It's that volume charge that has increased, stays the same in 20's fiscal year 27-28, and then a 3% increase in fiscal year 28-29 if approved moving forward.

As we look at this, we always want to look at how do we compare.

Again, we have all three years here in our chart for the city of Belmont, the Belmont present, the Belmont proposed for the next two fiscal years, and then the final fiscal year.

Again, you can see how that stacks up against other regional sewer utilities.

Again, I always talk about this is not necessarily an apples to apples comparison.

Some of these agencies may also be going through this process, or they have a Prop 218 set for a multi-year period.

These were their rates as of current today.

And so you can see you're right there with the rest of the pack here on overall sewer rates as part of that.

The blue bars, if you can see those, Redwood City, Burlingame, they're sorry, Redwood City, West Bay, San Carlos, those are also member agencies of Silicon Valley Clean Water.

So again, they they have their wastewater treated there as well.

So with that, our conclusions and recommendations is that the proposed rates that are developed are cost-based, proportional, reflect cost of service principles in the city's unique customer and system characteristics.

The rates have balanced the financial requirements of the sewer utility with the customer impacts to bills as we review those.

We've maintained the financial stability.

We've continued to be able to increase our funding of repair and replacement, the pay-go component of rate funding.

Our debt service coverage ratios continue to improve over the long term, and we've maintained our target minimum reserve balances.

And with that, we would recommend the approval moving forward of the proposed sewer rates for the Prop 218 process.

No change in overall revenues, slight change in the rates for fiscal year 2627, no change in fiscal year 27-28, and then a 3% going forward in 2082.

And with that, I will turn it back over to the mayor and council for any questions.

Thank you very much.

All right.

So we have a forest uh resolution that um to change the sewer rates and then um for uh 2627 and 3% in 2829, and then also set up proposition 218 hearing.

Um council members, do we have any questions at this time for staff?

Councilmember McEwen.

Yeah, real quick.

I'm pretty sure in my time on council, I've never gone to a rate study meeting where the recommendation was zero.

First, um and everybody loves that.

My question is would it make any more sense instead of zero, zero, and three to go one percent, one percent, and one percent.

That would put us a little bit ahead of the game in years one and two.

And if my recollection of compounding interest calculation is accurate, it would actually be ever so slightly larger in the total for the three-year period.

Instead of I don't think it's a big deal either way, but I don't I don't think most customers would notice one and one.

They'd be a little bit more likely to notice zero, zero, and three.

Absolutely.

We had that conversation uh as we were looking at the results and and looking at how it balanced out.

Uh, there were a couple things that we thought about as we went through this.

One was changing the adjustment factor, and so we thought if we if we had no change this first year, then that was no change in the bill whatsoever.

Uh so that was one component that we thought of as we went through this.

Uh, the other is given the capital projects coming up and the funding we have available today, we thought this was a good time to minimize any necessary rate adjustments and look forward as part of that.

Those are probably the two driving components that we had as we discussed it.

Absolutely correct.

We could do one-one one, it'd be slightly more than three percent, uh, and would get us to the same spot as part as as part of this.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh question.

So same idea.

So is it possible to do the one-one, or is it highly not recommended?

No, uh that is absolutely fine to do.

We would have to make sure we get our Prop 218 notice updated quickly.

Um, but we could do something like that as part of it.

Um it's a tricky oh, go ahead.

If you're as I say it's a tricky discussion, and the other reason I say it's a tricky discussion is as we look at this, uh, you know, the one percent isn't going to be a significant change in any customer's bill overall.

So, from that perspective, I think it it's it's reasonable at the same time as part of this.

We're looking out long term, so we have looked out five years, and you know, it is uh an ability to maintain the current rates over the long term, and then look at that again at the end of that third year to see if there's any other adjustments.

So, really, I think it's it six of one half a dozen to the other, right?

How we get there as part of it.

That's in part, but just add on.

I mean, part of the the thinking is that that we have sufficient funds in the reserve, and so if we add, you know, you can always kind of uh smooth the curve different ways.

And so that's part of the policy conversation.

Our thinking is that we have sufficient funding in the reserve.

So if if we build it up front-ending it, we just end up with more dollars in the reserve for the the cash management part of this.

So there's good practices in our we want to do that.

We don't want to build the cash so much that we're not spending it on as far as the capital project expenditures are concerned.

So this is a conservative way of managing the cash flow that is kind of balances the funding that's coming in and uh the cash that's available to do the the project.

The flip side of it is if we build a little bit more cash, if there are unexpected hiccups in the system, it was gives us more flexibility to have the funds to balance that and manage it.

So there's no right or wrong answer.

It's about how do we want to kind of manage that.

Both are perfectly fine.

I think the zeros gives us a better kind of cash management tool of what we have in the bank.

The 111 smooths the curve and gives us a little bit more bank in the long term.

So it does help us with managing any kind of unexpected or or issues that might come up over the next three years.

If the inflation you know goes a lot higher than what we've anticipated here, those are the type of things that's when you kind of do long-term forecasting are things that we make you know good assumptions about what what we're saying, but we can't be perfect.

So zeros are fine, the ones will do fine because it does kind of provide a little bit more cushion if unexpected things like the economy, other things kind of uh comes about that that it gives us a cushion to to absorb those kind of shocks to our to our system.

I guess my thinking is for a family, I would prefer uh one percent, one percent, one percent, because while zero percent, zero percent and the three only results in four dollars a month difference.

If you grow up poor, I grew up full poor.

Four dollars a month meant that we could get fudge circles or not get fudgicals.

So I prefer to spread it all out just to have less of a impact on families.

Okay, let's um let's ask uh questions for staff and then uh hear public comment, then bring it back and um and talk about this.

That's uh thank you for for bringing this up.

Council members, any other questions for staff?

I I had the exact same question about the one-one one.

Got it.

Okay, okay.

Uh let's go to public comment.

Any public comment on this item?

It's public uh our public hearing on the sewer rate study 10a.

Are you for the delay?

Take your time.

There are no public comments in-house around soon.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh so bringing it back to the dice for deliberation.

Um sounds like we have at least two council members who want to sort of entertain the one-one-one as opposed to 003%.

Anyone else want to um chime in on how they feel about that?

Vice Mayor?

Sure.

Uh, I I had those exact questions when I met with the city manager prior to the meeting, and I think what I came away with from that meeting was that our city staff does a tremendous job about balancing and making sure we have enough, but not too much.

And so, I mean, I could go either way if the council wants to do one-one, it's fine.

That was my initial question.

But I I felt better at leaving the meeting with the city manager that you know we could you know celebrate that there's gonna be no increases for two years, and that's a very rare thing.

And I do think that speaks volumes about the way that our city manages uh money and manages projects, and we live really within our means.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Yeah, um, I I appreciate both ways.

I appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into why it's zero zero three, but I also appreciate uh my colleagues who've had brought up good points for how we could do it differently and how that may impact families, although I can also see that having two years of zero can also help families.

Fortunately, you know, uh sounds like there is no bad uh option here.

So um we could you know take a strong poll straw poll, we could um uh move the resolution uh with you know and an amend it uh uh how do you want to uh I'm happy to entertain whatever motion at this point.

To the chair, yes, hypothetically.

I I I'm with everybody else.

I don't have a strong I'm gonna bang my shoe on the table over either one of these.

Um but if hypothetically, if we wanted to go with the one one and one procedurally, what would would we need to send it back to staff and for another study or no?

I think we're gonna run out of time.

So I think what we need to do is for you to make that motion.

We'll go back and adjust the studies that that kind of back that up.

Okay, according to that formula, and then the Prop 218 has to go out by Friday, correct?

Yeah, but we all need track.

Yeah, so we have to kind of basically because of the noticing period, we have to kind of push that uh prop noticing by by Friday to get it published and mailed out to uh the customer base.

So it's just basically once if once you provide the the direction one way or the other, our good folks are going to be a little busy over the next couple of days trying to get that uh corrected.

But it's it sounds like basically it's doable.

If it if there is a motion that if that that does happen, then we can get it out the the proposition 218 by Friday.

If not, it still goes out by Friday.

Um to move it forward, what I could do then would be to move approval with the modification that the uh rate would be one percent, one percent, and one percent.

And if people want to vote against it, and if that motion fails, we can vote against we can vote it as recommended.

So is that did you so that's my motion.

I uh I move approval with the amendment that the rate be one percent, one percent, and one percent.

I guess I need more information first.

So I'm trying to I want to understand the impact to staff.

So when you say that it there's got to be a reapp uh and report they have to modify proposition two eighteen.

There's a notice that that goes up right and then Sean has to do some work in modifying and and just kind of looking at the study that's attached to your report.

So you'll provide us direction to modify the report according to your action tonight.

So I'm sure Sean will work that up magic tomorrow.

And uh is it time?

Is it 20 hours of time?

Uh well it's not gonna be I mean it's gonna be a couple of three hours of time that we need to pull and and do some stuff, and you might want to address your sounds like it's doable.

It's doable.

Do we just need to update it numbers to update the tables and the prop 218 notice um and then work with NBS to hopefully retract?

They have to work with the mail house to make sure it's delivered on time.

Um so I just a bit of coordination and we'll be able to get it done.

Okay, so we have a motion.

It's doable.

It's doable.

It's easy for me to say, but the good folks here will be worried about it.

I appreciate that consideration.

I appreciate the consideration.

Uh it sounds like staff is not saying this is going to delay the it getting out or doing anything we're supposed to be doing.

Um uh one thing, if I may, uh I think you can give us the fallback option of if we can logistically get it done, that we go with the original.

Yeah.

Okay.

I accept a friendly amendment.

From our city manager.

All right.

Uh second.

Madam Madam Maits, if I may interrupt.

Um there is a hand raised after public comment was closed.

Sure.

Let's go ahead and take public comment.

Is this a public comment on item 10a?

Caller in user three when you're ready.

Caller in user three when you're ready, please unmute.

Hi, did you have a public comment on item 10A?

Okay.

Um, I know that some folks had mentioned they had trouble getting in before.

Is that a technical issue, or is that is that person not able to get caller in user number three?

Would you unmute Hello?

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay.

I'm uh calling in because there's some issues on watching this over the television.

The uh the stuff that was put up on the screen is so blurry that you can't read it.

So we're not publicly actually being noticed on this.

So I would like to know how we can see these uh formats that you guys are putting up off of the computer in a clear matter so that we can uh have public knowledge of what you're voting on.

That's the first item.

The second is I'm looking at my tax bill since all of us just paid our property tax, and I'm seeing a lot of sewer costs that when you guys are adding four dollars per month, and then it turns into the next year four dollars.

That's 12 dollars in three years that we're gonna have added costs.

And a person that has limited funds, that becomes a burden.

And I wanted to bring it forward so that you guys knew that it's not just an easy fix for this.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Um our published agenda is also on the website.

If you have access to a computer, um, you can go on to um Belmont.gov under agendas, meetings, and minutes, you will see the presentation that HDR, our consultant has uh provided to us, and that will uh show anyone um all of the slides we saw.

Click on presentation.

There's also the staff report, the resolution, and the complete um report that was done.

Um there's um also potentially other ways to get uh hard copies if you want to uh phone the uh the the city we can let you know how to get a card hard copy if you don't have access to a computer.

Um any other public comment?

We there's no more comments.

Okay, thank you very much for that.

Uh so um we have a um motion and amended a front by friendly amendment and then second.

Uh can we have roll call, please?

Oh sure.

Do we have after hearing public comment if we have more deliberation?

Uh Vice Mayor.

Yes, I I just wanted to add one thought.

Um based on what the caller said, but it was a thought prior to, but I think it kind of made it more important for me.

So in three years, which is the proposed rate increase would be in the third year, you know, the economy, we can't forecast it, but the economy may be better.

And I know right now prices are high as it is, so if we can give a break and not have even the one percent increase for the two years, maybe that maybe that helps our residents a little bit.

Okay, why don't we do this?

Because we have a motion and a second.

I appreciate that.

Let's go ahead and uh and vote, and then we can always uh read re you know have a different motion and vote on something else.

Can I just clarify what we're voting on?

So you'd like me to restate the motion.

So I move approval with the amendment that the schedule is one percent, one percent, and one percent.

If the staff can conveniently make that adjustment by the deadline, if staff can not conveniently make that adjustment by the deadline, then it's 0%, 0%, and 3% as written.

Okay.

Roll call.

Councilmember McCune.

Aye.

Ladder Millow.

Aye.

Pang Menganares.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Jordan?

No.

Mayor Mains?

Aye.

Motion passes 410.

All right, thank you very much.

Moving on to item 11.

Uh, these items are considered separately, typically in the order uh listed, and the chair will call for public comment on each item when the body considers the item.

Item 11A is the age-friendly city action plan update.

And we have our um parks and recreation supervisor here with us.

Are you pulling it over?

No, okay, go ahead.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Thank you for uh having me this evening.

Um I will be uh sorry, just start, I'm Corey Furman, recreation supervisor, overseeing our adult and senior programs, and tonight I'm going to be providing an update on our age city friendly action plan.

Thank you.

All right, so as a little bit of background, I won't get too into it because it wasn't too long ago that we were here to present the action plan.

But our age-friendly cities enable older people to age safely in place, if that is what is right for them to continue to develop personally and to remain in their communities and contribute to them, which is really important for autonomy, health, dignity.

Um so just before I started here in Belmont, uh, the city received their age-friendly city designation, and then work began on an action plan.

The action plan came to be through a lot of public input.

Um it wasn't staff deciding what the community wanted, it was the community telling us what they wanted.

And that action plan, after many steps, uh was finally brought to you in September, and then got the official approval from AARP uh later that November.

And while this action plan exists, it is just as a reminder, a living breathing document.

We are not a hundred percent committed to these things if priorities change or if a new better idea comes to be.

And so also this is a citywide project, and so I'm here representing the Parks and Recreation Department, but thank you to all of my colleagues who have contributed to this project as well.

The age-friendly city focuses on eight domains of livability, and so we'll just go through and just give a few updates on each of the domains.

It's not to say that these are the only things that have been done or that there weren't lots of things happening prior to the action plan coming to be.

So our first domain, our outdoor spaces and buildings.

Very excited that our chatty bench project is underway.

This is one of Bridget's last real go get them projects.

And so it's going to be a little area in Twin Pines Park just outside of the senior center.

That's going to be a bench where you sit there if you want to chit chat.

If you just want to peacefully read your book, there's lots of benches in the park, but this one is really going to encourage interaction and hoping to combat some loneliness and isolation that people may be feeling.

Also, there's seasonal brush cutting along open space trails, creating a safer place for people to live and visibility if you're out there enjoying the trails.

Domain two is our transportation.

We work a lot with the San Mateo County Transit District for this particular domain.

They compile a mobility guide every year that it's a book.

It's quite impressive, but could also be quite overwhelming.

So while it's a great resource, and we do have those available at the senior center, they have also developed a concierge phone line.

This is a new project for them where you can just call and say, hey, this is where I'm gonna be departing from, and this is where I need to go.

And someone will walk you through exactly how to do that.

So I was really excited to hear of that development.

I think it promotes a lot of independence for older adults when if they're not able to drive anymore or just want to be a little more environmentally friendly that they are able to find ways to take public transportation.

And then recently, a big part of age-friendly city in general is just kind of communicating with our community members what's going on.

So recently there was some information that went out about California's updated uh bike and e-bike lighting requirements.

So creating more safety around our community and transportation.

Domain three is our housing.

I know that everyone just received in housing update, so I won't get too much into this.

Um but ADUs have been getting approved and permits are getting issued, which is great, especially for older adults who may want to downsize.

Also, maybe you have an aging parent, and if they can live somewhat independently with you able to kind of keep a close watch and make sure that they get up every morning, um, ADUs can be a great option.

There's also, as you heard a couple of weeks ago, um, some affordable uh units coming in the works.

So that is always great.

Um, social participation.

This is a little bit more where parks and recreation along with the library get to shine.

Um between the two of us, that's kind of all we do, is focus or not all we do, but uh certainly a big focus of what we do is on our social participation.

Um, so there are just tons and tons of programs, um, everything from arts and crafts to language groups, fitness, special events.

Um again, we're just really trying to promote socialization and prevent loneliness and isolation, which is a very real thing.

Um, so just as a little plug of some upcoming things that we have.

We uh next Tuesday we're having a bird show, very entertaining.

Um, we're doing some brain games in partnership with the library and going on some trips.

We have a presentation on the world's fairs coming up, uh balance class that's currently going on, and then I know our Yak, I'm sure had a lot of homework to get home to, but they have done some great intergenerational programming, which is another focus in the action plan, kind of throughout multiple domains, intergenerational things come up.

And so they have come and given some tech help.

Uh, you can see one of the pictures there, um, as well as they played some games with the seniors, ate lunch with them.

So it's really nice when they have school breaks and they're willing to take some time out of their lives to come and spend some time with our seniors.

Next in our communication domain, we're continuing to offer communications through many different formats that we can.

So at the senior center, we still have a lot of things on paper, but we also post everything online, and I know that is similar with some of our other departments as well.

There's going to be some upcoming tabling at some city events.

Face-to-face interactions are always positive.

And the library has a lot of digital literacy classes.

So while you know, sometimes the older generation is less familiar with technology, you know, it's a chance to build a little confidence in that area.

Our respect and social inclusion domain.

There's a lot of focus on cultural arts and events here.

And so, as you know, we had our lunar new year and Diwali celebrations recently, celebrating diversity and inclusiveness, and we've added a lot of new adult programming to the Twin Pines Art Center, the manor, as we often refer to it as.

And so just more opportunities for people to experience the arts.

And then we have a oh, a new program, and this is really to kind of continue these conversations with community members.

I invite any of you to attend.

We're going to be doing them quarterly.

The next one, I don't have the exact date, but it will be in June.

And it's we're calling it Senior Connections, and it's really kind of just a town hall style meeting to let people come and share thoughts and ideas.

And we've already added two new programs based on the first senior connections.

Very much related to that is civic participation.

And so with that comes volunteer opportunities.

Along with that, the library does a lot of work in this area as well.

They have citizenship classes, English conversation classes, just really ways to feel for people to feel connected to their community and like they can make a difference and have their voice heard.

The library is also doing some author talks, which is just a great way to kind of stay involved and keep your mind sharp.

Our community support and health services domain.

We recently, uh last month had our senior showcase fair.

The Daily Journal is the one who puts that on in collaboration with us.

And it was a really great event, obviously promoting healthy aging.

We had a lot of uh different organizations there, and they also did health checks, uh, which was really cool.

They had a hearing, dental, and blood pressure checks all available.

And so it was kind of just one convenient place for people to kind of gather a lot of information.

Um, and then upcoming, we have an advanced health care directives and power of attorney clinic, as well as a fall prevention seminar.

Again, the library doing great things, offering educational presentations for lifelong learning, uh, the brain games that I mentioned, and then the one of the new programs that we've added since that senior connections is a documentaries and discussion, and one of the goals was kind of just to encourage kind of deeper thinking on things, and so we're going to be trying that in a couple of weeks.

We'll have the first one, we'll see how it goes, and then hopefully get some good feedback on what types of documentaries people might want to watch in the future.

And then, while not an official domain, um emergency services is always, of course, important to be included in something like this.

And so, yeah, the police department, they're just continuing to sign up residents for their SMC alerts.

Um, and they came to uh one of the pictures, we had pizza with the police a few months back, and they were kind of helping people figure out which kind of zone they lived in and how to get signed up for those alerts.

So very important in case of an emergency that we can get information out to people who may need a little more time to, you know, if they need to evacuate or plan ahead or get to the grocery store, whatever it may be.

And then um, yeah, just continuing to distribute information at event booths and again visiting the senior center for scam presentations, things like that, just kind of communicating, creating positive interactions with our police.

So that was just a little rapid fire.

I know it's getting late, but happy to answer any questions if anyone has any this evening.

Thank you.

Thanks very much for the presentation.

Uh any questions right now for the staff from our council.

We have a couple.

Please.

Um thank you so much for that presentation.

And I've attended some of the senior lunches, and I think that they're fabulous.

So my question is the first question I have is around the senior lunches.

I know we um we have a shuttle that does pick up.

Has the demand increased or has it stayed steady in terms of the request for transportation to and from for the lunches?

Um it's been fairly steady.

There may have been a slight uptick, but then there's also unfortunately with seniors, sometimes people are no longer able to attend, so it we get new people, but it's sadly sometimes kind of replacing someone who's no longer able to come.

Okay.

Great.

Um, thank you for that.

And then the second one on uh the senior showcase fair, uh, how was that?

It sounded like it was well attended.

Yeah, it was a yeah, it was a really nice day.

I'm still waiting for the Daily Journal to report the exact numbers because they um take it.

But I know that they were handing out tote bags to everyone who signed in, and they had 200 tote bags and they went through them all.

So yeah, it was a nice attendance, kind of a steady flow throughout the day.

So people got to they didn't really have to wait to talk to each um organization, but kept them busy.

That's great.

Thank you.

Yeah, uh, I did have a couple of questions.

I know we were first, I think a couple of years ago, maybe maybe longer than that now.

Uh we're first designated an age-friendly city.

I think we had former council members um Hurt and Stone were the um the liaisons, and I know I believe when we were designated an age-friendly city, there were uh at least one or two things that we were going to work on, like areas that we um felt like we could improve.

Um, and I can't exactly remember what those were, but was wondering regardless if there are um areas that you think we could strengthen.

Excellent question.

Um I mean, like I said, the action plan really came from what the community said and wanted.

Umecdotally, you know, sometimes I'll hear about potholes, you know, on people's streets and kind of direct them how to report those.

Umsportation always comes up, not necessarily to the senior center, but just in general.

It's there are so many resources out there, but I think it can be very overwhelming and people may not know, so we try our best to educate people with we have all of the resources listed.

Not all.

We have the most commonly used resources listed in our newsletter and in the activity guide.

Um, and then for people who need information beyond that, we have the mobility guides from the San Mateo County District.

Um but yeah, typically those are the things that I probably hear about most often.

But there are nothing regarded to the regarding the programs that we're doing for seniors and things.

There's nothing that you're you're hearing or that you feel like, oh, we should probably start this, or we could focus on something else.

Nothing.

No, nothing really.

But that's kind of the point of the senior connections.

Hopefully some things will come out.

I think the one thing I I mentioned that we started two programs, and I only mentioned one of them.

One is just they kind of just wanted to uh find ways to connect with someone who might want to go to a show with them, or you know, just kind of do things outside of the senior center.

And so uh earlier today we had our first mix and mingle, and it was just a chance for people to kind of come and even though they can do that at really anything that we do, um, it sounded like they were like really craving kind of an opportunity to meet some new people and find connections to have people to go do things with.

Um so yeah, we we did the first one of that this morning.

Great.

I think one thing I just added.

I think you probably recall when back in 20, I think it was 22-ish, some of the stuff was going on related to emergency.

We had the fire, so there was a question about communication and emergency preparedness.

And then additionally was kind of related to connections, technology, people kind of because of that, kind of signing up for SMC Alert for uh digital literacy on all that.

So I think to the department's credit, both fire PD and park and recognition communication folks, even before the age-friendly uh city process.

Those were the type of things that we wanted council one of us to focus on.

So kind of through these programs, you know, the the uh youth advisory, that connection that the program you're running where where our youth are teaching uh the seniors about uh use of technology and those type of things kind of organically came out through a lot of these connections and and communication.

So the department's done a great job of kind of orchestrating and listening to to what they're hearing and kind of evolving the program as we go.

And so I think those are some of the areas that over the last few years we've worked real hard in communication, how to get uh information out uh not only through our digital media, but through the connections that that folks are making in person in the library at park and rec events and and facilities and so forth as well.

Great, thank you.

And because this is informational, um, I'll just go ahead and uh if we have comments, we can just go ahead and say comments too.

I I will say one of the things I was gonna say for a comment is the um multi-generational when we have the high school kids come and help um uh seniors with uh cell phone and technology and things, other uh things like that.

I think that's great and obviously um builds a lot of relationships multi-generate uh through the generations, which I think is also um really positive.

So um hope it we get more of those or continue those programs.

Councilmember, did you have something else as well?

Yes.

Um I was just curious about the new program that um has time for folks who have light Alzheimer's to come in.

My mother-in-law is more advanced now, but I I could have seen, so she might not be a good fit anymore, but um a couple years ago that that would just be a lovely thing for folks with Alzheimer's and their caretakers to just be okay to have wild conversations with strangers, right?

Um how has that been?

Yes, thank you so much for bringing that up.

I that absolutely should have been part of the presentation because it's one of the things I'm actually most proud that um we're able to offer.

It's called a memory cafe.

Um it started in Europe.

I won't get into the whole history, but it's it's not something that we the concept isn't something that we came up with, but it is something that we have a grant for to be able to offer um to our community members, and it is an opportunity for people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's or really any form of dementia to come with a care partner.

A lot of times that's a spouse, sometimes it's a child, you know, and there's no kind of restriction on on who the care partner is.

Um and they come and really as I'm sure anyone with an aging parent can understand.

It becomes a lot of doctor's appointments and things that you have to do, and you kind of start to lose that fun.

And for anyone with dementia, you also start to become more and more isolated because you are less and less comfortable kind of being out in the real world with people not understanding how you're processing things.

And so it's really just meant to be a safe space to come and just enjoy some time together.

Um it is not at all meant to be a support group, but of course there is a lot of kind of venting and relating to one another, and it it kind of a side effect of it all is being a support group.

Um there's some really fantastic actual support groups, um, but it's it can be really beautiful.

We're kind of in the early stages of getting kind of a group coming that's coming month after month.

Um, but this last month we had a really great meeting, and we have another one tomorrow, so I'm hoping it will continue to grow.

Okay, thank you.

And then the few conversations that I've um had popping into senior activities, uh, I just need to give you and Patrick a shout-out.

They like name you and say how much they love you both.

Thank you.

Uh any public comment on this item.

Yes, we do.

We have Oh, I'm so I'm so sorry.

Let's go ahead and just have one more quick so now that I unexpectedly find myself in the status of senior citizen, something which I never thought would happen.

I believe it.

Uh it seems like I have quite a few friends who are also seniors.

Something my church has done is to create something that for lack of a better term is basically kind of a buddy system.

And it's informal, uh, it's a small group, so it you know it's easier, much easier to manage.

And it's not really organized around any particular function like transportation or health care or you know, it those things all come up.

But it's just a group of people that kind of keep an eye on each other and help each other out with whatever needs to happen.

In some cases, these people have family in the area, and some cases they don't.

Some cases they don't really have family at all.

And they just need it, it's for lack of a better terms, it's kind of a buddy system and kind of a surrogate family.

Um that has worked really well for a lot of people, and you know, unfortunately, one of the things that happens is sometimes people will start to be failing and they don't realize that that they're failing.

And if they have a buddy or a friend or a surrogate family who can kind of help them in the early stages of that realize what's happening, uh it can be a very helpful thing.

So I don't know, as a city how close we could get to that.

It it some of the things we're doing already happen, you know, does that, but um it's it's it's a little bit more unstructured and it's not organized around a particular need or particular function.

So thank you for that.

That's very interesting.

I I like that concept a lot.

Great.

Um we can come back to the day as for um further comments, but let's check for public comment right now and see if we have any public comments.

We do have an in-house speaker, and I'll call it Juliano.

Hey all, unexpectedly.

I find myself in these ranks too.

I see you coming, man.

I think this is wonderful.

I think the all of these programs are fantastic.

Um I don't know how many communities on the peninsula do such things, but it is one of the things I love about Belmont.

I'm a little bit sad that uh we don't figure out how to make cycling part of this because transportation is such a critical part of enabling all other eight of these things.

And there are so many older folks who just cannot drive a car and who can cycle.

I ride with a gentleman who had a stroke.

He cannot drive a car.

He leaves a 50-mile bike line ride every week.

He's at the front of the pack.

I have a brother-in-law who is gradually losing his eyesight.

He's eventually not gonna be able to drive, but he can ride a bike.

I wish people weren't so hysterical about e-bikes and focus on e-motors.

We could really enable and enhance so many people's lives, so many elder people's lives if we made it safer in actuality and made them feel safer on the street because this is the third time I'm gonna start from ground zero riding my bike, right?

I'm gonna be all the way back at the beginning.

It can be done.

It's not that hard.

You get out there and you do it, and I am going to be remarkably fit nine months from now.

I will be able to do 200 mile rides in a week easily.

Okay.

But you need to make people safe to do that.

It's just not safe to ride here.

So please, you know, everything you can do to make that happen would be so much appreciated.

Oh, and uh celebrate the music.

Yeah, walking, but uh, what can we do to get people to ride there?

San Carlos has a bike valet.

Have you ever seen how many people ride their bikes to their events?

What do we can we do here?

Sorry, no, that's a that's okay.

We just need to keep it on the on the item.

Thank you so much.

Um any other comment public comment.

We have one Zoom caller, and I'll call up call in user number four when you're ready.

Please unmute call in user four when you're ready.

Last and final call for user number four.

If you're calling for a public comment on 11a on Zoom, please start talking.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Yes, good evening.

I want to concur with what the gentleman has.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Sounds like there's a delay.

On 11A on Zoom, can you start talking?

Hello?

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

That's what I think that thank you.

I'm so sorry, but this is it.

Can you hear me?

Yes, yes.

Just please go ahead and start talking.

Can you give her a few more minutes?

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Uh, just keep talking.

You said you you agree with something.

Hello?

Yes.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I'm so sorry.

If you if you turn the volume on your computer down and just keep talking, we can hear you.

Yeah, thank you.

Hello.

Caller.

I'm not sure if you can hear me.

Yes, we can hear you.

Okay, we have a really bad connection.

We tried a couple lines.

That's okay.

I I know you're hearing me twice.

Jess, go ahead and keep talking.

Okay.

I wanted to concur with what the gentleman said and to speak out to the person regarding seniors.

The um cities like San Mateo, um Pacifica, San Bruno, for example, they offer specialized low cost or free transportation to the senior center to activities.

And I think that um that would be really helpful to get our seniors as the gentleman said to the activity center.

And that's what I'm trying to say, and I have no idea if anyone can hear me.

So on that note, I'm going to San Mateo disconnect.

Thank you very much.

Your comment, we could hear it loud and clear, and it has been um it is on the record.

So thank you very much for your comment.

Any other public comment on this item?

That would be the last comment.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Uh anyone else on the dais?

Any colleagues, any other um last minute notes or comments?

I'm just maybe um I'm just curious.

Can you repeat the information around um our senior shuttle?

Yes.

Um I would be happy to.

Yes, so we do have our twin pine shuttle.

Um it operates uh three days a week to coincide with our congregate lunch program, so Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and it will pick Belmont residents age 60 plus who are unable to drive themselves from their home to the senior center and back home again.

And it is only a suggested contribution.

Um there is no required payment, and the suggested contribution is one dollar each way.

Thank you, uh Councilmember Latamerlo for the question.

And how can someone um find out about the shuttle or call for it or how does that work?

Yes, um, anyone could just call the senior center and we can um connect them with our van driver.

We just need a little bit of information from them to get them set up and ready to go, but it's very quick process, and we would be happy to help them.

Calling Belmont Senior Center, and you can get shuttle information.

Thank you so much.

Um the work you do is very, very valuable and meaningful to our community.

Thank you for the presentation.

All right, uh moving on to 12A, brief verbal reports from council members on intergovernmental IGR and subcommittee assignments.

We all sit on various uh regional assignments, and this is the chance to update one another.

I think we got a good PCE update for you there.

Um other uh IGRs.

Uh yeah, uh Sulcon Valley Clean Water, which is the entity that runs the uh wastewater treatment plant.

Um had an incident uh about a month ago where they had this big exhaust fan that exploded, and it it draws air out of the tunnels that the sewer uh pipes go through.

There's actually two of these so that at any given time one can be in operation while the other was down.

Well, one of them was down for maintenance when the other one exploded.

So uh they've been all over this, they've been doing a great job of getting it fixed.

Um there are uh air quality things that they immediately reported to the air quality board, and so they've done they've done an extraordinary job of uh doing all of the regulatory and safety things, and they've installed temporary fans, so there's there's no problem.

Uh it's just uh uh it's just reporting that they've I think done an excellent job of managing this unplanned incident.

And it's uh the surge treatment plan is one of the things people don't normally think about because it's it's invisible because it normally just works so great, and you never hear anything about it, but this is the the kind of thing that needs really expert management and attention, which it is getting the fan exploded?

Well, it the it uh engineers call it cavitation.

It what the motor.

It cavitated, no, the blades, the fan blades uh cavitation went into cavitation, and so it's it's kind of like an explosion.

It's like or as uh SpaceX calls it an unplanned immediate disassembly.

I suppose uh so that there was nobody injured.

Uh the um response was just was extraordinary.

Uh they've got it under control.

Uh there's some more bureaucracy that needs to happen to get it repermitted and things, but they're they're all over it.

Great.

Thank you for the update.

Councilmember Latamarlow.

Yes.

Um we had our subcommittee meeting for our housing and long range planning.

Um, and we talked about 951 Old County, which is the next affordable housing project down there, as kind of where the UPS store is.

Um there's still there's some retail proposed there, which uh which is really cool.

Same developer as 678 Ralston, which is kind of kiddie corner to that.

So you'll be seeing some construction there.

And then we had a very preliminary report on a project in Island Parkway.

Is there anything additional?

No, I think those were the only two.

Yep.

Vice Mayor?

Anything?

No.

Nothing.

Okay.

Councilmember Pangmaners?

Nothing.

Shaking heads?

Nothing.

Okay.

I just had one, just really quick one.

The Vice Mayor and I did attend a um training that we did for an onboarding for our commissioners, uh, Parks and Rec and uh actually all of our uh commissioners and our youth commissioners too.

So I think that was very helpful.

Moving on to 12B, verbal reports from our city manager.

I just uh want to add my accolades and appreciation to stuff I think tonight was a good highlight of what the city uh team accomplishes on a day in the yard base as behind the scenes quiet, but it provides such quality of service and and really a dedication and I think the the enthusiasm that they show and bring to the community is kind of um second to none.

So I'm very appreciative to be working alongside a great team here, and I appreciate your leadership.

And um I'll conclude with that and I'll kind of look forward to introducing Kevin uh and kind of walking in, trying to fill uh uh uh very uh you know big uh heels, but that's it.

Kevin brings his own uh set of talents, and I think he'll be a great uh addition to our team, and we'll get to know him more uh as he kind of starts with us in a couple of weeks.

And for our public that that we know is listening, Kevin is who now just for the public?

I'm sorry.

That's okay.

Uh Kevin Kobiyashi is gonna be our new public uh uh park and recreation culture and uh everything else magical department head that's gonna be starting with us in about a week.

Great.

We're we're looking forward to it.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh for item 13 matters of interest or clarification.

We have nothing on that item, so we will move to item 14, which is adjournment until our next regular meeting, and we are adjourned.