Alright, we'll call this meeting to order.

This is the City of Belmont, City Council regular agenda meeting.

It is June 23rd, 2026.

We're currently in our city council chambers.

You can also find us and participate online by Zoom or by phone.

In person speakers should submit a speaker slip to the clerk and virtual participants may use the raise hand feature.

Phone participants may press star nine to request to speak.

And public comments are generally limited to three minutes unless otherwise determined by the chair.

We will go ahead and move to item number two on our agenda tonight, which is our roll call.

Maybe please have roll call.

Rogue offer, Council Member McHugh.

Present.

Pang McGonaris.

President, Latter Midlone.

Here.

Chair Jordan.

Here.

I'm sorry.

Vice here.

Vice Mayor Jordan.

Mayor May.

Here.

All present.

Alright, thank you.

Item three is items before 7 p.m.

We have none tonight.

And so we will be moving on to item four this evening, which is our pledge of allegiance.

Please rise if you're able.

Thank you.

That moves us to report from the closed session, which is item five.

Mr.

City Attorney.

Good evening, Madam Mayor.

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

Alright, thank you.

We have four special presentations this evening, and the first is a proclamation recognizing the 250th anniversary of American independence.

We have a nice long proclamation here regarding our celebration of independence, and I'll just go ahead and read a little bit of the proclamation, just the highlights.

All right, recognizing the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Whereas on July 4th, 2026, the United States of America commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, marking two and a half centuries of self-governance, civic participation, and the enduring pursuit of liberty, quality, and opportunity.

And whereas from its early beginnings as a small peninsula community to the vibrant and diverse city it is today, Belmont's story reflects the broader American experience, one of growth, preserverance, opportunity, and the collective efforts of residents working together to build a stronger community.

And whereas the City of Belmont is also proudly celebrating its centennial year in 2026, marking 100 years since its incorporation and honoring a century of community spirit, civic engagement, innovation, and public service.

And whereas throughout 2026, Belmont residents, businesses, schools, community organizations, and volunteers have come together through centennial events, educational programs, public art, neighborhood gathering, and historical celebrations to honor the city's past while envisioning its future.

And whereas the simultaneous celebration of America's 250th anniversary and Belmont's 100th anniversary offers a unique opportunity to recognize the important role local communities play in our nation's democracy and to inspire future generations to engage in civic life, serve their communities, and uphold the values that unite us.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Belmont hereby recognizes and celebrates the 250th anniversary of the United States of America and Belmont Centennial Year and encourages all residents to reflect upon our shared history, celebrate our community's accomplishments, and look forward with optimism and purpose to the next century of Belmont and the continued promise of America.

Alright, so uh happy birthday, Belmont and uh the United States of America.

Uh our next proclamation 6B is a proclamation recognizing parks make life Make Life Better month.

And uh again, I'll just read a couple of the um recitals from this proclamation.

Whereas Parks and Recreation Programs promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being by providing opportunities for fitness, play, learning, and community connection.

And whereas Belmont's Park and Recreation Department enhances quality of life through innovative programs, community events, youth and senior services, sports, enrichment opportunities, and stewardship of the city's parks, facilities, and natural resources.

And whereas the cities of Belmont and San Carlos were nationally recognized with the 2026 National Recreation Park Association Innovation in Health and Wellbeing Award for the Teen Wellness and Retreat, a collaborative program created by the Belmont and St.

Harless recreation coordinators, Danielle Giuliacci and Emma Lico that support youth mental health through wellness education, family engagement, and community partnerships.

And whereas since its launch in 2024, the Teen Wellness Retreat has grown to serve more than 130 teens and their families, and Danielle and Emma will be honored and featured as guest speakers at the National Recreation and Park Association annual conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September 2026.

And whereas this achievement reflects the dedication of Belmont Parks and Recreation staff, community partners, and volunteers who work every day to create meaningful programs and experiences that truly make life better for our residents.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Belmont hereby proclaim the month of 2026 as Parks Make Life Better Month and encourages all residents to enjoy and support Belmont's parks, facilities, programs, trails, open spaces, and recreational opportunities that enhance the health, wellness, and quality of life for our community.

Very, very important proclamation.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members.

I'd like to bring up Danielle and Emma.

Okay.

That's okay.

I'll speak on their behalf.

It wasn't more than a couple of weeks when I started here that one of the reasons why I took the job was uh all the great things that I heard about Belmont and our programming, and uh I got uh an email from the Park and Rec director in the city of San Carlos, right?

So Amy, uh recognizing Danielle and Emma on uh receiving this award, and uh I think there was over a thousand applicants for this award, and so um our teen and wellness program uh was the selection for uh for this upcoming NAR and RPA uh conference, so uh very very proud of them.

Would you would like to say anything or just um yeah, Emma and I um came together in 2024?

Yeah.

Um we had heard a lot of our teens express that they wanted to have an event that focused on mental health, and they felt like there wasn't many opportunities offered in our community, so we kind of were like, you know, we share a high school at Carmont, and so we're like, we should just do this together, and we collaborated, and it's just been such a great experience.

We've expanded every year.

It's so rewarding seeing the teens have a day full of like mental health awareness and self-care and all the things.

So it's been really great working with Ellen.

I couldn't have done it without her, so yeah.

Thank you.

And we're excited to present at NRPA because we're basically going to be presenting a toolkit as well on how to lead the event in other cities so that hopefully many more can host this event too.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

This is um, this is wonderful for Belmont, um, Belmont Parks and Rec staff always step up for the needs of our community and great to have collaboration with our neighbors as well.

When small cities get together for a goal, we can do great things.

Would love to have a photograph with you two in the council if you don't mind um just coming up real quick.

Um, it's actually out of the way.

All right.

Moving along to the San Mateo County Transportation Authority 101 Corridor Connect program presentation.

I am actually the chair of the board of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority.

So I may have seen this once before, but always good to get the information again, and glad my colleagues can hear it as well.

Thank you.

So I'm Marissa Matthias.

I'm a senior transportation planner at SMCTA.

So I'm excited to talk today about an upcoming program, our mini grants program that has come from our 101 quarter connect program.

And so to give an overview, the 101 Quarter Connect program is a collaborative effort that is led by SMCTA in partnership with Caltrans, local cities, transit agencies, the county, and CCAG, which is City and County Association of Governments.

So this effort helped us understand what congestion management means to people throughout the county and to prioritize projects that would help address those concerns throughout the 101 quarter.

So we've moved beyond just funding only highway infrastructure projects, and we're looking to address the way that people actually move throughout the county.

And our vision is for 101 quarter to function as a truly interconnected corridor that serves all travelers regardless of mode.

Next slide.

So the goals is to create a safer, more connected, sustainable, and inclusive mobility options along 101.

All of the initiatives within this program are aligned with these goals in mind, and the goals were extremely critical in identifying the prioritized projects that I will get to in a little bit.

So to first start off, we kicked off our 101 quarter connect program with the multimodal strategies.

And so we split the county into three separate multimodal strategies and wanted to make sure that the strategies were reflective of the needs in different parts of the county.

And so a multimodal planning, the multimodal strategies are planning documents that identify all the local projects that you all have identified within planning documents, and then prioritizing those based on not only technical analysis, but also then community engagement.

And so we were really trying to identify what are these countywide significant projects that can potentially cross jurisdictional boundaries and help us make changes and necessary improvements for all ways of getting around.

And so we had great opportunities to be out in the community, and we enjoyed engaging in community members, and this is a summary of the uh engagement efforts that we conducted, and that range from doing online surveys to also doing pop-up activities, and then also including uh temporary signs at bus stops to get folks to take our surveys.

So we did have a lot of engagement, which was fantastic in being able to then help prioritize project projects.

And I do want to highlight that we did have a hundred and fourteen uh folks attend CBO meetings, which was great.

So, what ended up the outcome of these multimodal strategies were the top 20 uh high-scoring projects in each area of the county.

So we ended up with 60 prioritized projects.

And you can see that we're looking at a one-mile buffer of the 101.

And so that was the multimodal strategies.

Now another component of the 101 quarter connect program is Active 101.

And uh it's that's the shorthand.

It's US 101 San Mateo County Crossings Improvement Plans.

Um, and so we shorthand call it Active 101.

And so this focused on an area closer to the freeway corridor and looking at safety and access within a quarter mile along and across the corridor for people walking, biking, and rolling.

And so just as we did with the multimodal strategies, we did extensive community engagement, and we're really interested in learning about the community's concerns and needs, as we are very well aware that crossing 101 is very challenging in a lot of areas.

And so we did a lot of engagement to hear where and how would be areas that people would like to see improvements.

So I won't go into there's a lot of information on this slide, but I will focus that the orange line is ended up being our priority network.

And you can see that it is not a straight line, and there are a lot of zigzagging.

Um are priority projects of countywide significance to the transportation authority.

So to us, which means a lot for uh is very significant for grant programs.

So now what are the next steps?

What's next for Belmont now that we've done these great two programs and have the 101 quarter connect program?

So we identified in the multimodal strategies that El Camino Real Multimodal Improvements, Old County Road, Belmont Village Bike Share Station, these are all priority projects that are identified under the multimodal strategies, and then for active 101 Marine Parkway was identified as a priority project.

And so now this is the this is a fun uh moment uh that our board uh approved 4 million uh available to help take these lines on a map into concept development, and so we are providing uh 4 million funding available for those priority projects and uh looking to help move along corridor studies, conceptual design alternatives, uh community engagement, and so from that $4 million is uh about seven or seven hundred and fifty thousand is available per project and then up to one million for a jurisdictional multi-jurisdictional project.

Um the exciting part is that there's no local match required, and so uh we are looking for folks to apply to this program, and we have released a streamlined application, so not a huge level of effort to apply to this program, and we do require we are asking if uh folks do apply to this program that a one city council member is identified if there is a site walk needed to be conducted.

And so through April through May, and also right now uh we're doing advertising and talking about the different potential projects.

We have released the call for projects and applications are due in July, and then we will be making the decisions on funding decisions in August.

So we are hoping that everyone will apply to this program.

And so these are just some action items that we would love for uh folks to apply, and then I do want to plug that we also do have a CBO bench, that if there are uh projects that are needing engagement and also looking to apply to this program, that we also have a CBO bench.

And I'm not Sue Ellen, I'm Marissa Matthias, but uh you can ask, I can answer questions, and then also her email is available too if uh there are any follow-up questions needed.

Alright, thank you so much for the presentation.

Um, council members, any questions at this time?

Yes, I think I'm just wondering: is there a way to see this presentation online?

I'd love to share it with some of the neighborhood associations that are within that buffer.

Yeah, and I'll highlight that only the priority projects are able to apply for that program, but still, we can definitely provide uh the a copy of this presentation.

I'm not sure if it's online, so we can just send a direct copy.

Yeah.

The presentations will always be online under supplemental on our agenda page.

So, if it's not in the packet, it's not in the packet, but it'll be on our web page tomorrow.

Great.

Oh, there we go.

Done.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

I have a quick question.

I know we talked about this a little bit at the board meeting too.

Um, one of the next steps mentioned talking to staff, but I just wanted to clarify that the TA also reaches out, TA staff reaches out to our public works director and staff, right?

So they that communication is happening.

Uh that's more of encouragement to keep uh soliciting for applications also in identifying the priority projects.

Um staff were a part of working groups, so are aware of the outcomes and what priority projects have been identified.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

All right, we'll move on to special presentation item 6D, which is a presentation from the mid-Peninsula Water Department on 2025 urban water management.

And we have Kat and Drew with us this evening.

All right, thanks for joining.

Hi, thank you so much.

Um, thank you for having us here.

Um, so I am Kat Wolfing, I'm the general manager for the Mid Peninsula Water District.

I know we're often referred to as the water department for the water district, and I'm here this evening with Drew Bost, our water resources uh coordinator to talk about our urban water management plan.

So here's just a brief um outline of what we'll you know go over this evening, and I wanted to share this beautiful picture of the Hedgeheadie Reservoir in Yosemite because that is where the majority of our water that we drink here in Belmont comes from.

About 85% comes from upcountry sources here, and 15% comes from Bay Area sources.

So for those who may not be as familiar with Midpen, this is our service area.

We serve drinking water to all of Belmont, as well as portions of San Carlos shown in blue here, and unincorporated county shown in the pink color, altogether, roughly estimated about 31,000 population through about 8,200 connections.

What does that actually look like in terms of water use?

And I mean, not everyone thinks in terms of kind of the water user side.

On a connection-wide basis, about 92% of our connections are residential, both single family and multifamily, and 8% are commercial and other businesses.

But on a water demand basis, about 72% of that is residential, and the remaining almost 30% comes from those other uh commercial uses.

So, what is an urban water management plan?

So, this is an effort we go through every five years.

It is a state requirement, so every agency in the state does do it.

Um for us, it's really a foundational planning document that is very useful and it's it's used.

You know, we we take planning very seriously.

This is a formal document that gets done every five years, but it's revisited and updated and thought all along really kind of every day as we're managing the system.

What it does is it looks at the supply availability that we have on a 20 to 25 year horizon and all of the factors that affect that, and then it also looks on our water demand and likely water demand growth and all of the factors affecting that, and then it balances and looks at um whether or not we have sufficient supplies to meet those needs under a range of hydrologic conditions.

So you know, Drew will get to presenting the numbers, but I want to keep in mind that this isn't a forecast of the future.

It's a planning document where we take all the information we know reasonably today, and we project what's kind of the highest likely demand available as well as the you know reasonable uh you know confidence amount of supply we have available.

So we're being conservative on both sides, not a magic uh eight ball telling us what'll come.

So, you know, we're in this process, it's a public process to uh update and adopt our plan.

So our board will be hearing um having a public hearing and adopting the plan uh at our July meeting on July 23rd.

Um, of course, that is an open public hearing for anyone to come.

And the full draft document will be available on our website on July 9th.

So we'll be looking for any public comments.

Um so I will hand it to Drew who will go into the findings for analysis.

Okay, it's kind of um slides here.

So just to get into some of the numbers here, and you know, particularly things that are relevant for the city to think about and consider.

Um, you know, a big component of the urban water management plan as talked about are these demand projections.

So basically, what our potential anticipated growth is in water demand over the next 25 years.

Um those demand projections were developed developed uh with collaboration with uh Hazen and Sawyer Consulting Firm and Bosca, the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency.

Fosk is essentially a uh regional entity that represents 26 uh water suppliers who all purchase water from San Francisco Public Utility Commission uh regional water system.

Um so basically, with coordination with Bosca and Hazen Sawyer, those demand projections were developed so that we could get a sense for how much uh water we're expected to be using uh in the next 25 years.

Won't go into detail with this too much.

This is basically the methodology used to develop those demand projections.

Uh it included a number of different inputs, so um, you know, so economic factors, demographic data like population, uh expected number of housing units, and uh basically included those in an econometric model to develop a uh demand forecast for all of our water use sectors, residential, commercial, um, and basically gave us a sense for how much water we're looking at uh using in the future.

So developing the demand projections were done with in close collaboration with uh staff at our our district.

Um, and you know, we basically made sure that uh local plan documents and data was incorporated in those demand projections.

Um two major components of that were uh Harbor Industrial Area Specific Plan and then the Northeast Area Specific Plan for both the city of Belmont and City Saint Carlos respectively.

Um in 2024, we completed water supply assessments for both of those specific plans, basically estimating anticipated water demand for those specific plans.

Those demands were incorporated in our demand projections for the urban water management plan to get an overall sense and picture of the anticipated demands.

Um as part of that as well, you know, we looked at uh Belmont's arena numbers and and projections and uh you know compared those against the housing unit projections for the urban water management plan and made sure that those were basically in sync.

So you know, the the projections for the urban management plan expecting about 3,600 uh housing units over the next 25 years.

Um, and that's you know, as you can see well within the Belmont's uh arena uh goals and needs.

So just uh that was kind of the demand side of things, and the supply side is sort of the other half of the equation.

Um this is just a graphic showing a description, uh a depiction of the regional water system, SFC regional water system, basically how we get our water.

I saw it's a really useful and uh you know helpful uh graphic to see you know where our water comes from.

Like I said, the Hetchet Reservoir over on the far right up in Yosemite is where a majority of our water comes from for all several other reservoirs that we receive water from, but all of our water uh in Belmont is purchased from the system, the regional water system.

So looking at supply reliability, under normal year scenarios, we're looking at about 1,300 million gallons a year projected water demand, and uh through uh modeling done by the regional water system, we're anticipating uh sufficient supply under normal year scenarios, so not drought scenarios to meet all the expected demand uh within our service areas.

So for mid-Plancy Water District.

Where the situation gets complicated is under dry year scenario.

So during a drought or other expected water shortages.

And to basically understand the situation, there's a range of possibilities that we could be facing related to water supply reliability.

And most of that comes down to issues facing us with the 2018 Bay Delta plan amendment.

So basically, to summarize that plan, in 2018, the state water board uh updated the Bay Delta plan with an amendment to basically ensure sufficient uh flow requirements for the San Joaquin River and some of its tributaries for fish spawning and other uh agricultural water needs.

Um the implications of that amendment to that plan basically led to up to for the for mid-planinsula between 30 and up to 50 percent shortfalls under dry year scenarios with implementation of that plan amendment.

So basically, because of those you know, usage curtailments to ensure sufficient water for spawning, uh, we're facing some pretty severe shortages if that amendment goes through as written currently.

Um there is a lot of uncertainty about regarding that amendment and whether or not it will be implemented as written.

Um, so far to date, that plan has not been implemented at all due to a number of reasons.

Um, there's uh numerous uh uh legal challenges to that amendment as it's written.

Um there are ongoing scientific reviews about what the impacts specific impacts would be for that amendment, um, and there's also a healthy rivers and landscapes agreement that um is basically being worked towards to basically find a middle ground between implementing the amendment and implementing nothing at all.

So essentially all that is to say, you know, our urban water management plan explores a range of options basically with and without implementation of this this Bay Delta Plan amendment, and um essentially shows that you know, without implementation of the amendment, our supplies are sufficient under any all drought shortage uh drought conditions, but with limitation, we're facing some some shortfall.

So basically, you know, and uh the plan discusses this at length and shows that the range of of uncertainty that um is experienced because of the Bay of the Plan amendment.

So on top of the Urban Water Management Plan, um, there are a number of numerous uh planning exercises that the district goes undergoes to ensure that you know we have adequate supply to meet the growing demands.

I mentioned the specific plans, we wrote water supply assessments for those looking at the anticipated demands for those.

Uh, any large developments that happen within those specific plans are also looked at and may require their own water supply assessments.

So that's just a further basic examining of supplies and demands and determining the uh sufficiency of supply.

Um, you know, if there's a decision on the Bay Delta plan and what the state wants to go forward with, we may end up revising our urban water management plan to uh you know uh update with it with uh you know more data or any decisions that are made.

So that's you know, on the docket, if there's a decision made soon, we may update it sooner than the requirement, which is the five-year update.

Um, and you know, like I mentioned, we're constantly uh assessing our demands.

We write monthly reports to the state board, so um, you know, there are numerous uh avenues that we use to plan for uh and uh you know anticipate future water supply and demand.

I think that's all we have, and yeah, any of y'all's questions.

Great, thank you so much.

Great presentation to you both.

Uh, questions or comments from our council.

I should just if I yes, please go ahead.

Just try to understand this.

So, this Bay Delta plan of 2018 has was passed, but has not been implemented.

It's interesting, yes.

Yes, it was, it is state law.

It is not self-implementing, so part of it to implement it, they have to develop a full implementation plan, which has not begun.

Um, but meanwhile, as you know, Drew talked about there's quite a few legal challenges, um, and you know, what I think you know, the governor is a huge proponent of, and many, many, many of us are pushing and working very hard towards the healthy river and landscapes agreements.

You might have heard them before referred to as the voluntary agreements.

They were kind of just renamed.

Um that is the most likely outcome, and it's what you know we're all working towards, which will be somewhere in the middle.

Um, we just can't put numbers to it.

Thank you.

Yes, please.

Um, can you go back maybe two slides?

One more, one more.

Okay, so this is the normal supply and comparison.

So in your next slide, without the implementation of the Bay Delta plan, the numbers stay the same.

So that means even if we have severe drought years in the next 20 years, we're gonna be okay.

Exactly.

Yeah, without implementation of the Bay Delta plan amendment, um, supplies are sufficient to meet all of our projected demands, even under multiple year, dry year scenarios.

And that's based off of modeling that San Francisco, the regional water system conducted for all the agencies who purchase water from from uh SFUC.

But we should still promote conservation.

Oh, yes, oh yeah, absolutely.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure I understood that right.

Thank you.

Always good stewardship of water, but we do have a very resilient water system that's been designed to withstand long extended periods of direction.

So good.

Okay.

Um, just a fun fact.

Can you go back to the map?

So when I was um a his historian and consultant, I uh evaluated B division pipeline number three and four for uh eligibility on the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historic Resources, and you might not be surprised that they are indeed eligible.

Uh, anyway, they were doing some seismic upgrades.

So if anyone wants to note out, there's actually they peek out at certain parts not far from us, too.

So you can um you can actually see those pipes.

Thank you so much for for uh for coming and for sharing this with us.

Uh appreciate it.

Thank you so much for having us.

Um, Madam Clerk, do we have any public comment on any of the um the on the items uh special presentation?

No comments on special presentations.

Okay, thank you so much.

We're gonna then move to public comments on items not on the agenda, um, and a reminder that how you make a public comment is on our published agenda, and also uh just a reminder that all speakers are expected to conduct themselves with civility and courtesy.

Comments should be directed to the council and focused on issues, not individuals' personal attacks, profanity, disruptions, or audience outbursts will not be tolerated.

And the mayor may rule speakers out of order of comments are unrelated to the item or disruptive to the meeting.

Anyone who willfully interrupts the proceedings may be removed so we can all maintain a respectful and welcoming environment for all participants.

Um that's for our uh all of our public comment items.

Um, for item seven, this portion of the meeting is reserved for persons to wishing to wishing to address the body on any matter that is not on the agenda, and uh, if you have any comments, please fill out a comment card or raise your virtual hand.

And um, Madam uh Deputy Clerk, any comments on item seven tonight.

We have one in-house speaker, and I'll call it Trina and Michelle Lepitis.

All right, you'll have three minutes when you're ready.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Trina Patton, and this is Michelle Lapitas.

We're Belmont, we live in Belmont, and we volunteer with Fixed in San Mateo County, which is a grassroots nonprofit advocating for transparency and accountability in the sheriff's office.

We believe that involvement in the community community involvement in community safety is common sense.

We're here to share with you the fixed in San Mateo County 2025 impact report.

The Board of Supervisors took an important first step by creating the independent civilian advisory board, which began meeting in 2024.

Last year, that commission recommended establishing an ongoing inspector general.

We believe the board should act on that recommendation this year.

Transparency, accountability, and fairness should be standard operating procedure in modern government.

Good governance and fiscal accountability will protect the residents and taxpayers and reduce legal risk.

This is not about any individual sheriff.

It's about building a structure that both supports and holds accountable every sheriff now and in the future.

With new leadership in the sheriff's office, we have the opportunity to build trust and restore community safety as the county's highest priority.

For Belmont residents, this is also a fiscal issue.

County taxpayers have already paid more than $13 million in settlements related to sheriff's office cases.

And the county currently faces at least 48 million dollars in pending litigation.

Independent review and early corrective action can help reduce costs and strengthen public trust.

We are providing copies of the impact report for each of your review, and welcome you reaching out with questions or feedback.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Maybe we'll conclude our in-house speakers.

Okay, thank you.

Moving on then to item eight, which is council member announcements.

I will start on my left, Councilmember McCune.

Any announcements this evening?

Nothing for me.

Okay, Councilmember Latimerlow.

I just want to advertise the summer concerts.

They're in the park and going strong.

They're free.

They're at the Twin Pines Park Meadow from 1 to 4 p.m.

on Sundays in the summer.

Refreshments are available for purchase.

The complete series line concert series lineup is on Belmont ParkBoosters.org, along with opportunities to sign up to volunteer, and I know they need volunteers.

And this is an awesome community event that's been around for almost 50 years.

So thank you to the park boosters for always making it happen.

Can I add on to that?

Oh.

We are desperately in need of volunteers, especially the weekend of the 4th of July weekend.

We have currently five people signed up to run the concert.

And that's not enough.

So if any of you are available that we can, it would be lovely.

And anyone else in the community, we'd love to have you sign up by going to Google Belmont Park Boosters, and there's lots of links that you can click on to get on a sign up genius.

Thank you.

I can advertise it with the rotary.

Oh, please do because we are really struggling right now.

Okay.

Were you done with the announcements?

Okay, Vice Mayor.

I have none.

Thank you.

Okay, Council Mayor Peggonaris.

Any for that was my announcement.

All right, great.

Um, so just a reminder also to save the date for national night out, which will be August 4th at Barrett Community Center as part of our centennial celebration.

The event will feature food, activities, community partners, and plenty of opportunities to connect with neighbors.

Again, August 4th at the Barrett Community Center.

And then a reminder also Barrett Belmont's centennial celebration is in full swing from the 100 celebrations initiative to community-led events, merchandise our centennial stories podcast.

There are many ways to get involved.

Visit the city website to learn more and join us as we celebrate great Belmont's first 100 years.

And if you haven't already heard some of those stories online, they're very, very great hearing voices from our Belmont residents.

So please be sure to listen, but also to add your voice.

Alright, uh moving on to consent business, which is item nine.

This uh these items are considered routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion with no separate discussion unless a member or staff requests specific items to be removed for separate action.

We've got five items.

Um, and I don't know, I don't think do we have any ordinances for our city attorney to read this on these none uh today.

Uh so do any council members uh have any of the items that you'd like to pull either for comment or serve separate action?

You have a question on that?

I just need to abstain from A.

Okay.

So you'll be abstaining from A.

Uh that's uh council member Latimerlow.

Do we have any public comment on the consent?

No public comments at the moment.

Okay, uh, so we need a move approval.

Second.

World card, please.

Go ahead.

Roll call for council member McHugh.

Aye.

Hang McGinnaires.

Aye.

Vice Mayor of Jordan?

Yes.

Mayor Meets?

Yes.

Uh we have motion passes four to zero with one recuse on Ladder Millow on item A.

But I can say yes to the rest of it.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yes.

I'll learn this eventually.

So we will call for Councilmember Laddermillow.

Yes.

Okay.

And then again, we'll be cues you on item A.

Perfect.

Alright, great, thank you.

Then we will move on to item 10, which are which says public hearings, and we do not have any public hearings this evening, which moves us to item 11, general business.

These items are separately considered in the order listed, and the chair will call for public comment when the body considers the item.

Item 11A is the 2026 strategic communications update with our communications and community affairs officer Elizabeth Charas.

I don't end up pronounced that right.

So close.

Sascret.

Okay.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Thank you for the opportunity to share an update on Belmont's communications and engagement efforts.

Last July we adopted the 2025 2030 strategic communications plan.

Since adopting the new plan in 2025, the city has made significant strides in implementing key recommendations.

The main focus this past year has been creating video content and continuing to build our interdepartmental communications team.

This included expanding the team, providing content creation trainings, and meeting regularly to ensure we share information with the community in timely and inclusive manner.

Just a reminder, on the screen you'll see the key recommendations from the communication plan, and we focus our efforts this last year on these goals.

Today I will be going over some of our accomplishments and areas for growth pertaining to these goals.

Let's take a look at our internal communications functionality improvements first.

Since November 2024, the internal communications internet has been an invaluable tool for staff.

It is cut down on emails and questions and provides a central resource for staff to find what they need quickly.

This last year I maintained our photo library, added translation service directions, and created a social media and weekly news guideline policy.

As mentioned, we have expanded our interdepartmental communications team that meets monthly and will continue to provide staff with EDA compliance training as we transition to our new website as well.

I also presented a staff at one of our knowing grows to share more about my role and provide information on communications offerings for how staff can communicate to the public.

Here's the quick look at our new website design redesign, excuse me.

We're currently in the migration phase of this project, meaning our vendor Open Cities is currently transferring the content we vetted to keep on the new website to the new one.

So we're working on creating a navigation that is simple and service oriented, and that was one of our main goals for this project.

This will launch by the end of the year, and the big push for us will be ADA compliance integration with the new guidelines for public agencies.

While our website has until 2028 to comply with the new web content accessibility guidelines or WCAG 2.1AA requirements, we will start this implementation on our new website in hopes to not have to go back and redo those efforts.

So we just want to get it right the first time, and that's what we're hoping for.

In other exciting news, meet Lizzie, the chatbot.

She'll be launching this summer on our current website, and this will give the community an opportunity to get used to the chat bot, learn it, and then that way when we launch our new website, they'll have something familiar to help guide them on the new website.

This tool will improve over time and get better the more that it is used.

So please bear with Lizzie if she's not perfect the first few weeks of launching, but we're gonna do our best to make sure that's a smooth transition.

I think she's real cute.

Is she a water dog?

She is.

Okay.

It's super cute.

Our social media channels have given us an opportunity to tell our story and provide an outlet to increase transparency, build trust, and educate the public, sometimes even with a little humor.

The use of video content has significantly increased engagement across our digital platforms, and we have made an effort to create our own videos using trending content to help enhance our engagement.

We've strategically collaborated with other departments like fire, police, and parks to help further boost our social media reach.

Here are a few examples of the content we've been posting.

I'm sure we all remember the baby photo post.

That's me.

And I'll play the trust fall video we recreated for an example of the reels that we've been making.

Okay, let's do this.

One, two, three.

You can't trust everybody, but you can trust the city of Belmont.

And join us for our Civics Academy Day, where you can learn about all of our departments.

Our social channels are honestly unrecognizable compared to a few years ago.

And so many staff have helped us accomplish that by willing be willing to be really I can I read this?

I don't know.

By being willing to star in our videos, open to training and brand consistency and building internal relationships to better understand what projects and events we have ahead that we can communicate about.

Some examples include the recent budget social media campaign or the staff side series.

We just launched that about two weeks ago and we'll be doing those bi weekly as well, just sharing different staff and what they do here in Belmont.

I also want to take a moment to thank Anne Marie Garcia and our parks department.

Although I'm technically a mighty team of one, uh without Anne Marie, our social channels would not look the way that they do today.

She manages the parks channels pretty much entirely.

She helps me with video creation and she's super creative and our communications efforts would not look the same without her.

And on that note, I'll also say that you know, not every city is able to be creative the way that we are, and I am very grateful of that, not only to all of you, but also Action, because that's very much a leadership support initiative as well.

And by creating these trending or even funny videos, it's actually quite strategic.

Right now we're gaining momentum, we're increasing engagement and increasing followers.

And when we have a rainy day or you know, an emergency, people know where to find us, and then we've already increased that reach.

So while they're all good fun, they also serve a very important purpose.

Okay, let's do this.

One, let's watch it again.

Um's kind of touched upon the centennial celebration.

So I won't, you know, repeat this too much, but there are many different ways for the community to get involved.

Um, we're offering sponsorships until July 15th that involve branding.

Um we also have our community-led grants, we have a Spotify podcast, we have merch, we have all sorts of stuff available for the community, and we're also open to getting volunteers for our major event, which will be October 24th.

So please save the date.

It'll be from 2 to 7:30 p.m.

Um here at Twin Pines Park.

Uh, we'll have everything from a parade to a time capsule to food trucks, music, and even a drone show.

I've set it on record now.

So come on by.

If you want to volunteer, please email us at Centennial at Belmont.gov.

We'll definitely need all the helping hands day up.

Alright, so our emergency and crisis communications are essential for keeping Belmont commun the Belmont community safe, and most importantly, to ensure our community knows what to do and where to access critical information in an emergency.

Every September for National Preparedness Month, I run an educational social media campaign with basic emergency information.

This includes, you know, know your zone, um, how to sign up for alerts, explaining what the high low alert means, and how to pack a go bag.

We also have a few um, we also are one of the few cities that run yearly winter uh storm campaigns early on, and that includes education on you know how to maintain your gutters and clean them and debris and how to avoid flooding and of course providing our sandbag information.

We've also elevated these campaigns by using interdepartmental collaborations on social media and creating videos to better engage the community.

Uh, specifically last year we made a firework safety video with police and fire, and it did really well.

Uh we got over 6,000 views.

So, you know, those videos do work, which is exciting.

We also continue to maintain our emergency resource page and emergency updates page, and this is where the public goes for real-time trusted information in the event of an emergency.

So anyone can access it during those events, and we have a timestamp on the top of the page as well.

So hopefully nothing happens, but if they do, this is where the community will go for updates.

And that website is www.belmont.gov/slash emergency.

So let's take a look at some of our successes across our digital outreach.

In the last 12 months, we've had 400, 12,000 uh new users visit our website.

That's actually a 66% increase from last year, which is pretty significant and another reason why it's so important that we're redoing our website.

Um we've also had 870 um 67,000 total page views, which is a 14% increase from last year, and we'll continue to invest in making our website great.

You know, it's a live breathing document.

Even when we launch our new redesign, we're still improving it every single day, and we should be.

So please bear with me as I go through them.

Um across all of our social channels, we've had over 1,600 new followers, and our city Instagram had 370 um 7,000 views last year.

That's an increase of 72% link clicks and an increase of 722% in content interaction, and 829 new followers, and that's just our Instagram.

On our Facebook, we had 800,000 views last year, a 448% increase in link clicks, 245% follower increase, and 127 increase in content interaction.

So content interaction is a number of likes, reactions, um, saves, comments, really anytime someone is taking an action to actively engage with our content.

Uh the views represent, you know, someone it just comes up on their feed.

They don't interact with it, but they do see it.

Um, and then, you know, the link clicks is actually a really important thing to highlight because that could also be what's driving the increased web present.

So that means people are actually reading our captions, clicking on the links, and hopefully getting the information that they need, right?

So that could be going hand in hand with that website traffic as well.

Overall, users are increasingly engaging with our content, and our efforts have been effective.

Uh email marketing continues to be an important tool to communicate with the public.

We currently have 54,000 subscribers and sent out over 390,000 bulletins or emails this last year.

Um, our average engagement rate from last year was 73%, which is the same as the year before.

Email marketing is essential to how we send out press releases, event information, and informational messaging.

This is an area I do hope to do some outreach on, um, just to continue to encourage people to subscribe.

Um, and anyone can subscribe at Belmont.gov slash sign up.

So if anyone asks, please encourage them.

So our key next steps in looking ahead, we will continue to implement the strategic communications plan.

Uh, this year we'll be surveying residents to gather insight on resident communications preference to better share our public information as well.

Uh, we'll be doing that through a survey and also at our community events.

Um, I'm hoping to launch that by the end of August for beginning of August for national night out.

We will continue our internal work to continuously improve communications, refine our processes, and train staff in preparation for our website launch and the new digital accessibility laws ahead of 2028.

And lastly, we'll continue to tell our story, you know, sharing the hard work our staff does and meeting our community where they are to be able to provide inclusive and transparent communications in Belmont.

That's all I have.

Great.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

Uh colleagues, any comments uh or let's save it for questions at this time for Elizabeth.

Questions?

Yes.

I personally I think the emails are really great.

Um, because in order to go to one of the social media things, you have to think about it, you have to go to it.

But the email, everybody d uses email for everything all day, and it's so it's it's right there.

I'm surprised we have 54,000 subscribers when we only have 27,000 citizens.

So I'm I don't really have a question.

I just think it's kind of remarkable that we have more subscribers than we have citizens.

Yeah.

But is there any intelligence behind that?

Do we have any idea why?

So some of these people are obviously not citizens of Belmont.

Why are they interested in?

We could have that, but also um someone can subscribe to more than one topic.

So we have like our weekly news, for example.

We have um almost 3,000 people who have subscribed to get that email, but then we have people who you know want press releases from police or so that counts as two.

So one resident could actually be signed up for four or ten um topics.

And also I should you know, one of the other things is I have multiple email addresses and for whatever reason over the years I've subscribed.

So it's like I get the same thing on each of my so it could be things like that as well.

Or they're in Belmont, North Carolina, and they're getting it right.

Any other questions?

No, that's okay.

Yes, um, talking about email.

Um how is the 73% engagement rate?

Like, I don't have context for that.

It's actually pretty good.

Um a lot of people will get mainly like bounce backs, no one will open it, but when someone engages, they actually have to like open it, scroll, click on a link, so it counts all of those things.

So that's actually a pretty high engagement rate.

Okay, hi.

Do you have questions?

Okay.

Uh let's move to public comment.

Do we have public comment?

I do have a comment.

I we'll go after public comment.

Just to make sure we can integrate that.

We won't have much deliberation probably, but um, just to make sure we integrate what the public may be saying if they have any comments.

Do we have any comment?

Um, no public comments at the moment.

Okay.

So uh council member Pang Meganaris.

Do you want to kick us off?

Yes, just a great big appreciation to you, Elizabeth.

Since you came on board, is it three years now?

A little over two.

Yeah, yeah.

Our email present our it social media presence has increased dramatically.

Our website has improved.

All of the communication that you're doing has been outstanding, and I really appreciate all that you've done.

Thank you.

Um I have to say that I'm was so focused on running this meeting, I forgot that I actually have a few questions.

So I'm gonna have to ask a couple of questions, even though um, and so I I also I just want to reiterate um w I'm my tenure on the council is such that we had I remember when we had no communications, you know, officers and um really no coordinated communications, and so that had been something that we were trying to achieve.

Um and I think we have achieved it and then some um and I remember I think last year at this time I made the comment during the update.

Maybe we could do videos um that got some laughter from from staff, and here we are um a year later, and you've made many, many videos, and and so um, I think we're just it shows that we're keeping up with you know with the short form content and um as opposed to having long posts that we now realize folks aren't reading just because that's that's how social media works.

I think um so any of so these questions really are are coming more from sort of the next steps.

Um that slide you had.

So I wanna just make sure that we we are um measuring success um beyond just the volume of content that we're producing and the and the engagement we're getting.

And so I'm just wondering, um, if there are specific metrics tied to to the this the next steps of the communication plan, if there's any way of finding out if if people are not just engaging um by watching or by clicking or by reacting, but if they're if they're understanding or if they're somehow if it's you know, if if there's a way to basically um measure whether they're better informed.

Yeah, I think one more formal way would be that survey that I plan to put out, and we can specifically ask, you know, do you feel informed by XYZ?

Obviously, I'll do it more thoroughly than just that, but um so that's a bit more of a formal example, but also just by seeing a decrease in questions, um, seeing people who show up at our events and they're excited or they say they've seen something, and also taking the feedback that maybe someone didn't see something, um, because that does happen even still.

So just by gauging the public verbally, like I have staff that will come and tell me like, oh, this person came by today and they were so excited about XYZ or this new addition to our weekly news.

So I do get a lot of verbal feedback actually, which is great.

Um, but I think that survey will be a good point because we have all the analytics.

I've tracked it for several years as well.

So we are on an upwards trend which is great and then those engagement points do highlight that people are getting what they need.

So like by having such a high click rate that's actually really huge as well.

Okay.

Okay.

That would be great just to find out especially some of the more complex things we put out there or um you know I'm sure we can really break down sort of the crosstabs in the survey of who it is who's who's you know focused and what they're getting and and how much of that information they're actually um absorbing.

And then the second question is you know we've heard this consistently from residents that not everyone gets information the same way.

Not everyone is on social media and folks are you know sort of a certain maybe um age demographic are purposefully trying not to get on social media because of some of the other things that are on there.

I know you mentioned email but um you know uh our how are we evaluating whether or not we are reaching people who are not on social media um and maybe not even on email.

Yeah we do have our traditional means of communication so we have the channel 27 um with basic information we have the slides downstairs we have flyers around town we do offer a lot of support at the library and the senior center um and that also includes some tech classes um and those are really our main touch points we often will do mailers home for certain things that are very important you know when public works needs to shut down someone's whole street will they will actually get that in the mail so you don't have to necessarily be subscribed for certain things.

We do put out mailers when it's appropriate.

We also have a Recology insert that gets sent out four times a year with information.

So we do our best to have a variety of traditional and digital communications but we definitely have more digital communications than traditional.

Okay.

Just something to keep in mind.

The website redes we redesign I think it's great.

We've had some issues with our w website we've redesigned it to make it even easier to find things but I do think um that that this is great that we're doing this again.

Are we just mostly trying to achieve um fewer calls you know to city hall resident satisfaction like what are what are the goals for that?

Yeah, is for to be service oriented.

So for someone to go to the website you've never been to Belmont you don't work here it shouldn't be divided by department right so it should be oh I need a permit.

I shouldn't have to know what department this permit is in to find it.

So that's kind of what I mean by service oriented.

And then just having a more robust search and that's also part of why we're launching the chat so that let's say our navigation for whatever reason someone can't find something, there is other options to help you find what you need.

Okay great.

Perfect that sound that sounds good and it'll be more intuitive then too.

Okay.

Sorry I just I have two more questions mostly because I mean I'm I this communications I'm really enthusiastic about it and how and it's one of the things we can really point to that we've you know achieved um over the years so I just want to kind of find out a little bit more and that that also helps me in talking to um to our residents who are always asking about things.

So the chat bot it sounds exciting um are we is there a way to ensure that it's accurate information what what are they pulling for I'm just not a I'm not a super chat bot user and so just a little bit more maybe about that and how again how we'll evaluate whether or not it's an effective tool.

Yeah so it does crawl our website and we have gone through and done a lot of testing with staff and we're still testing it and there is a way for you to rate it if it gave you what you wanted or not or if it was accurate.

So we are doing those tests internally we've sent it to staff and our commissions to test it.

The more we test it the better it'll be so that's another reason why we haven't launched it yet, I just didn't feel it was ready yet.

Um IT of course can talk way more about the technical aspect of it, but basically any time we update our website, it will crawl our website every Friday, I believe.

I think, right, Josie.

Yeah, it's every Friday.

So it will continuously be refreshed.

So let's say I said that national night out was on the fourth and I switched the time that it started for our event on Friday it'll redo a search of the whole thing and it will update it.

So there might be a small lag in the update.

Um, but if it's something essential, we can actually push it through to update it right away.

Um, but that's a bit more of a complicated process.

So, a and is it able to evaluate whether or not it's helpful to people?

Is there is that an IT part of it?

Okay.

Yeah, we have a whole back end dashboard where we can see what people are searching for and also like if they didn't get the answer that they needed.

So when you put a thumbs down and provide the feedback, we can see that so that we can better improve the system and update the information.

Oh, so only if people provide that feedback?

Yeah, interesting.

Okay.

Um, and then I know one of the goals was to build this the communication capacity across departments and um do you do you assess the staff that do they feel more empowered more?

Um, is that something that you think?

I know you mentioned it, but is that something you think is happening?

Yeah, I do.

And I think we've also grown and expanded the team, and so there's more people that are involved that are also interested in being involved, um, people that want to learn new things and are interested in communications, and I think that's really important because all of our plates are already full.

Um, and so by having that interest it just kind of helps.

Um and then we have more fun.

You know, when we make videos and we're making content, so um, I do feel we've made improvements on that, and I do feel it's more sustainable at this point.

And you've gotten that feedback from staff as well.

Um, not necessarily directly, but I haven't gotten complaints, so that's good.

I mean that might be something to survey.

I know as one of the goals um that we had was to, you know, cross departments.

So that might be also something to include in an internal survey just to see how how we're doing on that.

Um and then finally, and I'm sorry if I missed it, um, is three one one that's did you have any a chance to or the my Belmont um app.

Do we have a chance to is that also included in this or is that not your project?

I did not include it in this, okay.

But I'm happy to run a report and send you.

I'm curious.

I have sent people there.

Um people c come to me often with issues and then I'll I'll send them to the proper things so we so we get a count of everything.

Uh and I was just curious.

Um, yeah, if you could do that.

If I had on that one, there's actually a back end process where the departments are getting the reports and make sure that they're being responded to appropriately.

So there's a whole back dashboard and um follow up by each department.

Um responsible for the calls, the various calls of responsible works, PD parks.

So those are all kind of run internally behind the scenes.

Okay, but it sounds like that's that's still information we could probably look at in terms of results and things.

I'd be curious to see.

Yeah, I can run a report and send that to council, um, no problem.

And then, you know, we are still using it, it's still up, it's still running, and if there's ever an issue, like please reach out and we can always fix it.

Great.

Well, thank you very much.

So th the only comments really I have is uh again the ones I made in the beginning and the fact that um, you know, I think um everything you've you've shown here, the fact that we're continually reaching out to people and that they are, you know, following us and and and um that we have more engagement is great.

Um, but I do think if there's any way maybe in the next steps just to continue our success is just to find out whether um folks are also having a better understanding of our services and our projects and decisions and things like that.

If there's you know any way to kind of dig a little bit deeper if they're um especially maybe as we start um getting more challenging topics or like your budget topics, right, that are not quite as maybe fun.

Um maybe I don't know, Grace our finance director might think they're right.

But but you know, just like our people understanding that that was really important information that I was hoping was getting out there too, and I don't know if it had the same level of engagement or understanding, but those would be you know the ones that I would also just be curious about, so and it's a delicate balance, right?

Of that informational, maybe drier content, but and the fun videos, but by doing the funner stuff, it does help the engagement on those other topics.

So it does all help and contribute.

Um, and you know, if someone's not as interested in one person post post another, you know, we did just post um an off campus post for our swag and it did really well, it got shared like 40 times, so that was exciting.

But it's a fun one, you know.

You know, the budget maybe wasn't shared as much, but I did have a lot of verbal feedback from many people saying that they appreciated it and it helped to explain it.

And so those are the touch points that really matter.

That's great, and that's exactly what we need.

And then also we can amplify in other ways if it turns out maybe those you find out don't do as well.

Maybe we realize okay, that in and of itself isn't enough to get folks to understand it.

Maybe we have to do you know something else to really explain those drier but also really important things.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you so much.

Any other comments?

Yeah, yes.

Um, anecdotally, I've used the three one one a couple of times just as a human, and I have gotten the feed that the correct feedback, and they followed up with me, and that worked really well.

So that anecdotally.

Yeah, is is uh is was unimaginable then, so that is really wonderful.

Um I do um want to commend you too on the internal work.

You touched on some of the work with the departments um and the communications officers within each department.

I think the work that you've done to create a photo album that everybody can pull from, that's a lot of work, right?

And create policies that you know people don't have to call you and figure out is it okay to post in this way.

You've turned your team of one into a team of many, so much so that some people actually want are volunteering for your team, right?

So I think um beyond that being like lovely, it's also really strategic.

And I think it's part of the reason why we were able to uh kind of explode over the last couple years, is particularly this last year.

So just really good job.

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely could not do it without staff.

There's no way.

So thanks.

All right.

Great.

Uh this is an informational item only.

So I think if unless we have any other comments, uh, thank you so much for the presentation.

I just want to say I just want to I just want to concur with everyone that I think you're doing a fabulous job, and the fact that um everybody else has bought in and is being featured on our social media platforms really is a testament to your leadership and what you bring to the table because they obviously trust you with sometimes their photos of when they're little or other things, but I I did I just want you to be really proud of the work that you're doing because and and uh 73% engagement rate on email is amazing.

That's a really good that's a that's a good stat for people who might not use social media that they're engaging in the emails that they receive, and that's a really really good stat.

So thank you.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Um, and we'll go ahead and uh we did take public comment.

We didn't have any, so we'll move on to item 11b, which is our general plan safety element update uh with our principal principal planner Smith this evening.

Actually, on that note, before you begin and while you're getting set up, um maybe maybe can we just take a five-minute bio break and come back at 8 15 since uh our vice mayors left the diet, so we'll take a quick break at 8 15 and we'll all return.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, we're nothing else for working the concessions.

I don't know what I said to me.

We're still waiting for a city attorney.

Oh.

I think we're okay.

Do we have to wait for him?

I think some people might, you know.

Okay, uh we are back.

Um, we are back.

Uh we are back with item eleven B.

Our general plan safety element update with our principal planner.

Smith, joining us.

Um, welcome.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

I'm Adrian Smith, Principal Planner.

And I'm joined by the City's safety Element Consultant Eli Crispy.

He's with Placeworks.

We're really excited to be at this stage of the update process.

We think we have two comprehensive safety and conservation elements that have been finely tuned by great feedback from the Planning Commission and Council from its recent reviews.

So I'm gonna turn it over to Eli for a brief presentation, and council can get to its discussion.

Thank you.

Thank you, Adrian.

Uh, good evening, Mayormates, Council members, Eli Crispy with Placeworks.

I will briefly go over the comments and notes that we've received on the draft elements and how staff have responded to them and the revisions that we have made before we move on to the next steps.

So at the last time the council saw the these two elements was April 28th.

And to very briefly summarize council's comments at that time, the council provided requests to include more information about coordination with neighboring jurisdictions and with other external agencies.

Council members asked about the city's response to simultaneous or what we refer to as cascading or compounding disasters, where one disaster happens in very short order causes another, or when multiple disasters happen at the same time.

And there was also comments and questions from the council about how the city monitors for novel or unforeseen safety threats.

You know, what was referred to at the time as the unknown unknowns.

In addition to that meeting in April, there was also a planning commission meeting to consider recommendation of the safety and the conservation elements a few weeks ago.

At that meeting, the planning commission members requested that the safety element acknowledge the risk of gas line breaks caused by earthquakes and the public safety threat as a result of that.

There was also a request to include a mention of where the erosion risks are highest in Belmont.

In addition to those comments on the safety element, the planning commission requested that we revise some data tables to reflect the most current available data.

There were certain points of data that had not been updated as part of this revision.

So there was a request we go back in and be more thorough with those revisions.

And there was also a request that we mention the twin pine stormwater detention basin project in the conservation element.

So in response to those comments, and beginning with the response to the city council's comments from April, regarding the coordination with other jurisdictions and external agencies, this is quite extensively addressed already at multiple points in the safety element, including the flooding, sea level rise, houses materials, utilities, and emergency management sections.

So that coordination is already discussed, and there are numerous policies to call it out and to direct the city to expand and to continue that coordination.

Regarding a related comment about interjurisdictional emergency cooperation being formally codified, we have expanded the emergency response section in the safety element.

Both SMC FIRE and the police department provided a lot of great information, a lot of great feedback.

This includes discussion about mutual aid between the fire departments and the police department's informal and formal protocols for providing assistance, along with what is known as the statewide master mutual aid agreement participation, wherein law enforcement agencies from across the state could provide assistance locally to Belmont if that were to become necessary.

So we have greatly expanded that discussion in response to your comments.

Regarding the simultaneous or cascading disasters, it was already mentioned in the safety element, but as part of the background information and as part of the context.

So what we have done is to go into a number of the policies and added language to those policies that explicitly clarifies that this is meant to address those cascading or compounding impacts, or in the case of certain policies around training or community notifications and emergency education, that all those types of programs shall include information related to these cascading and compounding events.

And regarding the novel or unforeseen safety threats, we did revise one of the policies around planning and training to exclude to explicitly call out that addressing those types of threats should be a priority and the goal for the city.

In response to the Planning Commission comments, we have updated the safety element to reflect more a general discussion of Belmont Creek flood management and the restoration initiatives regarding the risk of earthquakes causing breaks in gas lines.

We both added some information to the background section of the safety element.

In the section on seismicity and ground shaking, you will now notice there's some language identifying this as a potential hazard.

And there is an action that we have now added to the policy section to better support the monitoring of gas lines to ensure that they are stable and uh able to provide service and to retrofit them if they are found to be deficient or uh to cause an increase in the risk of a break during a seismic event or frankly during any other hazard.

Uh we have where we have been able to do so, revised all the data in the tables throughout the both the safety and the conservation element to use the best and most current available information.

And we have added language to the erosion discussion of the safety element to try and explain where erosion risk in the community is elevated as best as we have the information to do so.

In addition to the direction from the planning commission and the city council, there were a handful of other changes that staff identified as long as we were going in and revising the element, we might as well clean up a few other things.

So we have revised a few policies in the safety element to better clarify where certain development standards apply to new development versus existing development.

And this is primarily the case for policies that relate to flooding and sea level rise and development or development projects that may be located within areas subject to those hazards.

There is an entirely new section in the element about sanitary sewer infrastructure.

This is uh a subsection of the Hazards Materials discussion in the safety element, and as part of that discussion, uh there have been we've added one new policy about making sure the sanitary sewer facilities are designed in size to reduce damage and contamination risk, and then there are two implementation actions directing the city to enact those that policy.

There have also been various minor administrative and continuity cleanups regarding some of the maps, the graphics, and minor tweaks to some of the language and the punctuation as we've just been doing a cleanup throughout.

So with that, uh, that is a summary of the changes, and that brings us to staff's recommendation, which is that the council adopt a resolution amending the Belmont General Plan by adopting the updated safety element and the associated amendments to the conservation element.

And that concludes our presentation.

We'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much.

Okay, thank you so much for the presentation.

Uh, do we have any questions, uh questions for staff at this time?

Yes, I think.

So on thank you very much for that presentation and uh just the thorough analysis.

It's it's an it's an incredible document.

Um on the 6.4 flooding hazards, it talked about on occasion Belmont has experienced uh significant flooding and it talked about atmospheric rivers, and I just want to confirm check because it said December 31st, 2021, and I understand that perhaps we did have one then, but we also didn't have one on 20 in 2023, right?

So I wasn't sure if it was 2021 or was supposed to be 2023 or it's 2021 and 2023.

Great.

So thank you for bringing that up.

We did do a little research into that, and you're right that there was um an instance in 21 as well as 23.

So we are gonna track down those exact dates and we will make the updates to the safety element, and then it's also made mention of in the background uh report and the vulnerability assessment.

So we will also update those documents to reflect as well.

So thank you for that.

Thank you.

Wow.

Any other questions?

Well, I think it's an excellent plan.

I I think it's really good work.

Um, in reviewing the maps, I had some questions about specific maps which I don't think should derail the plan I just had a few questions um on the sea level rise map there's different zones shaded in different colors of blue and I didn't quite understand what those different zones refer to um the I don't know if you can put that one up and just like we have to pull up the C T element and then put it on screen it's not C2 though.

It's on the website is in the back end.

Yeah it is in the back end.

It's page, yeah, pages in.

It's on page 20 20 of the PDF.

Figure 6-7.

I see it's 94 in the packet 19 I have 19 okay the groundwater.

Okay we don't have access to that the packet on here apologies for that.

Okay that that's that's okay.

I mean I I understand that it's the areas kind of around 101 and to the east of 101 that are the lowest lying areas and inherently are you know at the greatest risk.

I just couldn't I had a trouble understanding the difference between the light blue and the dark blue kind of zones.

Yeah absolutely thank you for that it's basically showing different scenarios of sea level rise so the of course the lowest line areas would be inundated first and as sea level assuming sea level rise progresses at the rate assumed then higher and higher areas would face inundation so the different colors simply reflect which areas would be uh inundated which is under those different scenarios exactly yes okay um then another one of the maps is the heat severity index map which is figure six-nine and intuitively that one makes a lot of sense to me because I live up high on Hallmark uh where it does tend to be cooler than the rest of the I can just by driving my car that has the thermometer in the car if I go from Hallmark which is about 600 feet above sea level elevation down into the central part of the city it can be at least a five degree sometimes more than that temperature difference.

But when I look at so again I'm looking at the area along Hallmark which is right along the western edge of the city there it's real splotchy.

I mean there's some dark red areas and there are some white areas and you know having lived there for a while and driven around I I don't sense that much difference in the microclimates as you go along those areas.

I don't I don't think this is anything that needs to be changed.

I just I'm kind of wondering about the source of that information because I I I get it that the higher elevations tend to be cooler than the lower elevations but uh it seems a little more splotchy than it should be.

Yes thank you for that it is a uh it's a national source for a heat uh island focus areas and it is based on satellite data uh it's looking uh at development levels and different uh colors and reflectivity of the land surface to try and identify those areas uh it's because it is a national data set it's not quite as granular and so there's a little inherent fuzziness in the system so it's identifying general areas but certainly it's not picking up on all the nuances of the microclimates.

Okay if if you uh actually um look at it's kind of along the lines that that's heavier uh tree line thing and shaded so it's open space areas that have tree coverage uh versus the the more open uh you know subdivision type uh development okay uh map number three, the gas line map.

I think it just shows large main gas mains.

Because there's gas lines everywhere uh throughout the city.

But I it just it really just shows um along Ralston, the western chunk of Ralston, and then along uh El Camino, so uh those must be major transmission lines, not all the branch distribution lines.

So I mean a gas line can go bad anywhere, but yes, uh as the per the title it's only showing the transmission lines.

Okay, all right.

Last one last leaky map question.

Um strained areas, which is figure 613.

Um again, just looking at the area I know best, which is the um western chunk of the city, again, it seems kind of splotchier, you know.

Uh the one of the big dilemmas we've had for a long time is Hallmark, which under normal conditions, that's a cul-de-sac that's a mile and a half long, serving 700 homes.

Now there is a gate at the end, which can be opened, which is under construction right now.

But if that gate is closed, you've got 700 homes worth of people trying to exit through onto Ralston, which in an emergency is gonna be packed with cars anyway.

So I if we if the gate is disabled, I would think that whole area would be evacuation constraint.

But if the gate is open, then people can exit the other way through um Crestview in San Carlos.

So it just again, I just it it seems a little splotchier than I would intuitively think.

So I'm just what what's the source of that data?

It may be calculated based on the travel distance to a major egress.

I d I don't know.

Yes, so the the map there is a it's uh analysis that was conducted by the county.

Uh and it is looking at uh residential parcels on uh any kind of cul-de-sac or single access road where there is only one way in and out.

Uh so in the case of the Hallmark area, as you mentioned, it could be that because there is that secondary access through the gate, when the county conducted that analysis, they might have determined that that's uh a viable point of egress in an emergency, even if it's not available uh in a day-to-day basis, and so not identified as evacuation constrained.

Yeah.

I mean, I wouldn't change this, but in looking at the map, my lot is one of the orange ones, which says it's evacuation constrained.

If the gate is locked, I agree.

If the gate is unlocked, I'm the first one to get out.

So it's kind of a it's an odd uh situation there because uh if that gate is open, I'm out uh via uh Crestview in San Carlos.

Anyway, that I would I wouldn't change anything.

I'm just uh I I kind of like maps and I probably get a little more absorbed in the maps than I ought to.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Uh I just had a couple.

Um I I think last time I had asked the question, though you've definitely um answered most of the comments.

I did ask the question about um priority uh and priority of the hazards, and was just wondering if um uh and I'm not asking for it to to go back and be addressed, but if there were any um discussion, if there was any discussion on that, or um I know everything is sort of presented as kind of all all equal in terms of um prioritization, and was just wondering if there are some that maybe are higher priority than others, um, or more likely to occur than others.

Um, you know, recent time you know, okay.

Uh yes, uh there is some discussion of prior uh not necessarily so much prioritization, but certainly the hazards that might be most frequent or might have the most severe impacts.

Uh that is currently included uh in the uh climate change in Belmont section.

Uh so we we did it for the climate change related hazards.

I see.

Okay.

Uh so that identifies uh wildfire, extreme heat, sea level rise as all being priority hazards, uh, certainly wildfire and extreme heat.

Presently, uh sea level rise in the future.

Uh it also identifies severe weather, uh, even though it may not necessarily cause as significant an impact when it does occur, because it does occur with uh relatively high frequency compared to some of the others and can impact the entire city, as well as I say something like sea level rise, which might only impact uh the low-lying shore areas.

That is also identified as one of the the higher priority, if you will, hazards.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you very much for that.

Um right.

Uh, do we have any public comment on this item?

There are no public comments in having online.

Okay.

Uh so we do have a resolution.

Uh council members.

Uh, do we have any other further discussion on this item?

Comments?

I have comments.

Uh yes, okay, go ahead.

Um, thank you so much for the presentation.

I I'm actually enjoying watching the teamwork between you guys as you discuss.

Clearly, you're both very invested in this, so I appreciate your efforts.

Um, and thanks to also to the efforts of the planning commission for their their detail and their they always come back with really specific insights.

So thank you for addressing those.

Um, I do like there's a lot of good ads in there.

I particularly like clarifying where their erosion concerns were, the interjurisdictional fire and police stuff that got additions, I think was also really good ads.

Um, and I I know there's some specificity in this plan on stormwater issues, and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of the details in the master plan where we're gonna see more of that.

Um, so thank you so much for your work and I I feel good about this.

All right, thank you.

Uh yes, Vice Mayor.

Well, yeah, I also wanted to uh thank the planning commission.

I think that they uh did a lot of thorough work and um really took it seriously, and they had some really great comments and feedback for you, so thank you for that.

I also wanna uh thank Adrian.

I know you've been working on this for a year, I think.

So um it's a beautiful living document, and it's something I think that the city can be proud of.

Um I appreciate the thought of how it you know it relates to other departments and jurisdictions, and it's giving us a good framework to recognize and anticipate like the different potential hazard, but also um gives the staff in the city guiding policies and actions that we can take.

So I really appreciate all the thorough work and analysis you did, and then all of the coordination with all the other departments as well.

So thank you.

Thank you for saying that.

I appreciate it.

Right.

Any other comments?

Uh great document.

It is very thorough, um, and I really appreciate, you know, when we see draft documents and we give comments and take the time to give the comments as as I'm sure the planning commission as well.

Um, to have them integrated and called out and addressed is um is really important.

So I really appreciate uh that and definitely want to support the document as is with some of the just the minor changes that um that you had mentioned.

Um and so with that, if there are no other comments, then we can go ahead and entertain a motion.

I can move approval.

Second.

Hi.

Pang Menganeris.

Hi.

Uh yes.

Uh Vice Mayor Jordan.

Yes.

Mayor Mates?

Yes.

Motion passes five to zero.

Thank you very much, and thank you again for your hard work.

Thank you very much.

Item 11C is consideration of zoning text amendments to the Belmont Zoning Ordinance pertaining to residential additions, plan, development review process, and sections related to San Carlos airport safety zones.

And we have our senior planner, uh Gil with us this evening.

Okay, where are you?

This one.

Thank you for that introduction, Madame Mayor.

Good evening, City Council.

Pleasure to be here with you tonight.

So tonight, the planning division is bringing forward a series of proposed text amendments to the zoning ordinance.

These updates reflect our ongoing efforts to improve operational efficiency, align with best practices, and ensure compliance with state law.

More specifically, the proposed amendments focus on three key areas.

First, simplifying and streamlining the review process for single-family additions.

Second, aligning the review process for residential additions and plan developments with the standard procedures we already use for traditional residential zones.

Third, updating the zoning code to comply with state law regarding the San Carlos Airport safety zones.

So before we look at the Pacific zoning text changes, let's review the background how we arrived at these amendments.

So in early 2026, City Council formed the housing and long range planning subcommittee comprising of Vice Mayor Jordan and Commissioner Latter Millow.

Since its formation, the subcommittee and staff have met about three, four times, and the subcommittee has provided feedback and support on the code amendments that you're about to review tonight.

So to better understand our proposal to the single family design review process, it's helpful to look back at the residential design review amendments we implemented a decade ago.

So as the city council might recall, in 2016, the city updated our single-family duplex residential design view process and created what we call today our tier system.

This tier system categorized projects by size and complexity.

As a result, the code updates has significantly reduced project processing times for certain project types without an increase in appeals or complaints.

At the time of the 2016 updates, we also implemented a new noticing system that we do not plan to change.

So we don't plan to change our noticing system.

And I'll go over that noticing requirements later in my presentation.

So this next slide shows our current residential design review design review authority threshold table, which the council might recognize.

So this table defines how different projects of single-family duplex residential projects are reviewed in the city.

So for this presentation, I'm just going to focus on the tier systems related to the code amendments specifically that is shown in bold.

And I'll go over these numbers again in my presentation.

So to walk you through the specific specific um changes we're proposing.

So let's start with tier one.

Our proposed change here is to increase the threshold from 399 square feet to 500 square feet, or a ground floor addition.

So we're essentially expanding tier one by a hundred square feet.

So allowing slightly larger additions on the ground floor.

So as we previously discussed in tier two, tier two captures ground floor additions of 400 to 899 square feet, and upper floor additions up to 399 square feet, and combinations of lower four additions up to 899 square feet.

The planning department proposed to approve these types of additions.

So right now, the planning department approves these types of additions regularly.

These are kind of like our common projects we receive.

So to put it in simple chain simple terms, this amendment will now allow any size addition that does not qualify for a tier one to be reviewed and approved by the zoning administrator, provided addition meets all other development standards.

So projects are tier one or a new home, we allow all additions to be approved now by the zoning administrator on under a tier two.

Sure.

But even if it's like 5,000 square foot feet.

Well, I mean, I don't think we'll get addition that large, but yes, so large additions would now be reviewed under a tier two, where currently, and I'll go to the next slide, large editions of 900 square feet more are reviewed by the Planning Commission.

But everything has to stay within FAR, like you can't.

Correct.

Right.

So currently tier three captures new home construction and large combinations over 900 square feet.

Our proposed change here simplifies tier three to focus strictly on new single family homes.

And again, we propose large additional review under tier two.

So just to give you a little content here.

So prior to 2016 code updates, any addition over 400 square feet required design review and planning commission review.

So when we changed this in 2016, that was a big step for us.

And the huge biggest concern was uh second story additions and large additions no longer being reviewed by the planning commission.

But over time that dissipated, those concerns went away, mainly because of these updates and the success of these updates.

Um I think it allowed gave um homeowners and architects more predictability that their project was going to be reviewed in a more expedient manner under a tier two.

Um, application cost was going to be much less, and it gave designers and architects more um comfort knowing that there was a a process to know that there was going to be a successful end to their project, meaning that we implemented our design criteria and our design guidelines, so that helped out a lot.

So again, we want to build on these efficiencies, and so that's why we're proposing these updates to expand the review authority to the uh to the uh community development department and the zoning administrator.

And just to um for a little background, uh council member Keene and I were both on the planning commission during uh 2016, and um it was painstaking the the uh detail and thought about it that we put into the the tiers, and um, it's been 10 years.

Um, there was standing room only for those public comments, both both in support and uh people who are very concerned.

So, as you pointed out, it was a big step for Belmont at that time.

So, this is our noticing requirements, and this is what's not going to change.

So, we're still gonna require noticing for all tier two projects, and also still require noticing for all tier three projects, so that's not going to change at all.

So, what are the benefits?

So, the benefits are further streamlined the overall planning and development review process, lowers application and processing costs for project applicants and frees up planning commission capacity to prioritize complex projects.

So let's walk through the proposed changes to our plan development ordinance.

So as a bit of a background, we have planned developments in the city that include single family homes.

Currently, these homes require much more detailed intense review than typical homes in standard single family zoning districts.

However, over the years, staff has found that this extra layer of detail review provides no additional benefit to the five to the final project or the community.

Our goal with these updates is to streamline that process.

So currently, the community development director has the authority to administrative approve only minor ground floor additions of that is under 200 square feet.

So any addition that exceeds 200 square feet or involving a second story expansion requires planning commission review.

So it's important to note that these restrictions only are unique to PED single family residential zoning districts.

So I'll give you an example.

So earlier this year, we had a project where the applicant wanted to expand a bedroom closet at the second level 38 square feet.

Because we don't have a process to review this administratively under a building permit or even at staff level or community development director, it had to go to the planning commission for 38 square feet second-story expansion.

And it also required a conditional use permit along with design review because we use the conditional use permit as a mechanism to um to approve the detailed development plan portion of the project.

So not only did they have to go through this process and wait to get on a planning commission hearing, they also had to spend extra amount of costs for that application.

So these requirements leads to extended approval times and higher application costs as I just mentioned for simple additions.

So excuse me, Rob, just real quick.

With that example you gave, so that would be that was a tier.

So now I'm on the plan development, and so it wasn't even a tier.

So right now, it'd be a two.

It's not, but that's gonna get to my next slide presentation and it'll make a bit more sense because right now is reviewed under our PD zone.

It's not reviewed under the tier system.

It's either reviewed under community development director if it's 200 square feet only the ground floor, kicks it right to a cache.

And it kicks it right to the planning commission.

So to fix this, staff recommends amending the PD ordinance to allow single-family additions and new constructions when PD districts to follow the exact same design view process under the tier system.

So we would change it that it follows all other residential requirements.

So now it will follow the tier system.

So if they have an addition to PD and it's less than 500 square feet, build the permit.

If it's greater than 500 square feet and it's a large addition, we'll review it under the zoning administrator.

If it's for a new house, then we'll review it by the planning commission.

So we want to put those rules in place for the PEDs to follow the exact same rules as any R1 district.

And with the stipulation is that these single family uh design reviews and PDGs must still must comply with all development regulations for heights, setbacks, FAR, and parking.

So they still have to meet all those rules.

So other amendments to the PD zoning ordinance includes establishing clear objective criteria for adopting detailed development plans for PD districts and eliminating outdated and ambiguous language.

The overall benefits to these changes in the PD zoning are faster processing times and lower application fees for simple additions.

Those are the changes to the PD district that we're proposing.

So moving on to the next item, we're addressing required updates regarding the airport land use compatibility.

So as background, the state law mandates that all local and land use policies, including our general plan specific plans, must remain fully consistent with the local airport land use compatibility plan.

Because of our proximity to San Carlos Airport, our local policy must align with theirs.

So recently the airport land use commission updated their plan to clarify over flight notification rules and establish a formal requirement for real estate disclosures on new developments within the airport influence area.

So to maintain strict compliance with state law, staff is proposing some minor amendments to our zoning procedures.

So to ensure a smooth transition, staff pre um proactively consulted with CCAG, the city uh county associated with governments to review our proposed compliance strategy.

So we met with CTAG once we came up with a plan to try to uh fix our zoning code to align with their new updates.

So after consulting with CTAG, staff submitted an application with our proposed zoning amendments and a checklist we created to help development proposals to adhere to the airport land use compatibility plan.

So following our consultant consultation with CCAD, staff only submitted the proposed amendments along with the newly development compliance checklist.

So we had to go through this process with CTAC first for their approval.

So CTAG reviewed our submission and confirmed that our proposed amendments align with the San Carlos Airport compatibility compatibility plan.

So to refute CCAT's formal approval, staff will bring forward text amendments to both the planning commission and city council.

This will ensure the city is in compliance with the state law while simplifying the process for staff and development applications.

So this concludes staff's presentation.

At this stage, staffs are requesting your feedback and direction on our proposed approach to these amendments.

Once we receive your input, we will bring back formal ordinance language for official consideration by both the planning commission and city council.

So thank you.

I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

Do we have any questions for senior player Gill at this time?

Just limiting to questions.

Yes, great question.

Thanks so much for your presentation.

On the tiering process, the recommended changes, can you just share some background of how you came to that recommendation?

Like what are other cities doing and how you how we are comparing in terms of background and history?

Well, one was some of staff's in their own analysis over the past 10 years, having been here a while and talking with past planners and current planners.

I mean, we've seen the success of the tier system and how it's been processed and it's been successful.

Just a little bit of background.

What we're proposing today was a consideration back in 2006, but that was a huge step for some people.

So we kind of moved back.

But now we're kind of looking at this again.

What we have done is look at the trends of other peninsula cities and what they're doing.

And some of those trends are um removing certain restrictions and aligning kind of what we're doing, having large additions and new single-family homes are not um going through the commission review process.

Now single-family homes are still gonna go through the commission review process that we're proposing.

We feel that we haven't met that step, but council give input on that if they feel that you know we can move that far.

But mostly trends on Peninsula City and just going through kind of like what we've gone through early on the process of 2016, um plan uh staff would give an update on these types of uh projects and how the uh codes were going, and we didn't really have much to report because they were going well.

I mean, mostly people have the same issues that we have today, uh privacy and um and and things are really related to that.

Those are things that we can't control.

We're always gonna have a particular issues for privacy for second-story additions and things like that.

But again, we look at objective standards as a part of our code.

We have to by state law.

If I may I also I think this also kind of uh reflects back to the city's strategic plan, your vision over the last few years about streamlining and NAS, the state law has changed.

It's putting more uh kind of onerous requirements on the cities to streamline the processing of the residential uh units.

So part of this process also reflects back planning commission feedback back in 2024 and 2025 as part of your strategic planning about things that were going in front of them that was kind of uh in a in a way that dropped kind of explained the the fairly uh straightforward.

There's a lot of community uh back and forth that happened, but it does take a lot of time and effort on the applicants part and the the cost of doing that.

So part of all this is based on staff experience over the last 11 years, and and looking at uh that experience, planning commission feedback, and ultimately the state law requirements for us to streamline and reduce cost of uh and burden on on development, is what is kind of leading to uh kind of the efficiency of what we can do and still provide the necessary kind of safeguards uh as far as community uh feedback and interaction with noticing and other things, but really the law the elements are out of our control anyways that we can uh regulate because they've got to be objective standards and so forth.

So, really, this plan reflects I think a lot of the work that's gone in over the last 10 years of what the practical experience is, what the state requirements and changes have now dictated for us to do, and then ultimately what we can do to reduce the burden on the applicants and the cost of doing business.

I would add it's also part of a sound legal strategy to um create capacity in the in the community development department so they can focus on uh changes to state laws as those are coming down and can focus on the larger multifamily projects housing projects where they do come in and subject to streamlining and being more strategic about where we um have process and be more efficient about uh things that can be uh processed um with uh uh equal outcome with a more efficient uh procedure.

Uh I do have some questions actually.

Uh, one of them is exactly what the vice mayor had said about best practices, and you do mention that.

Um, and I know it's it's I'm sounding like one of those those old ladies that's always talking about back in the day, but um in 2016, uh, you know, Belmont wasn't using best practices.

We were overly restrictive, and so even just I think our planning commission uh efforts and the city council at the time uh was trying to get us to to be less restrictive and to be more um uh focused on on modernizing basically, and so what you have before you that's worked for the last 10 years is is an example of that.

Um, but I do think that what we were trying to do, and you you alluded to it when you said that um, you know, at the time some of the things that you're saying now were considered, but it was too far of a leap.

And and that may have also been reflected in in the public.

As I mentioned, the public was also very aware of this and very concerned.

Um, definitely remember something that didn't really come to fruition, but was definitely a fear was the big mansions, um, pointing to other cities where very large houses were being built on lots, and so um they the the public wanted to make sure that we were continuing to have some sort of review process and it wasn't just um administrative.

And so I think the questions that I have are still related to I think that balance, even though we're in a very different world in 2026.

I do think that there's just some questions I have to make sure that as a city manager, you know, also um took took the wind out of my sails, and some of the things I was gonna say is, you know, it is that balance that we still want to be able to, yes, the state is also um right now uh mandating a lot, but we also want to be able to ensure that we are um uh in control of of the of our city too, and that we're able to make sure that um you know uh we're we're thinking about these things um thoughtfully, and so I guess I'm just wondering if it, and if you don't know this, this isn't a gotcha question.

If you don't know, that's fine.

But if these amendments are adopted, um do you know what what percentage of the residential additions that currently require planning commission review would be approved administratively, or if you can't think of percentages, like what like how can you give me a sense of how many applicants does this impact?

Um I don't have an exact number, but I mean, thinking what projects go to the planning commission.

Um, like say for an example, right now, what goes to the planning commissions are um what is it?

Uh, if it's like additions of more than five hundred second story editions of five hundred square feet, nine hundred square feet.

I think a lot of those uh processes go to additions, has to do with second stories.

Um, in terms of numbers, I mean we don't receive a lot of planning commission projects, at least in my view, because of what we've seen in the past.

I think a lot of the projects we see are in the middle now.

So I think folks really want to go through the process of not having to wait for a uh to be put on an agenda or go through that extra step of paying more for the project.

Ah, so they're designing their projects to avoid that, you're saying potentially.

Um I mean, I don't know if they're just I mean, I think that's always happened.

I think I think even before when we had projects over we had a rule of 400 square feet, people were doing 399.

I think people are going to put their project within a threshold um um to where they may not have to go through a certain process of pay less fees, but I have the example of the applicant who had a 38 um square foot addition, paid upwards of 10,000 for an application because he wanted to expand his closet.

So it just depends on what that particular application wants and wants to get out of the process.

Um, if someone's gonna do a second-story addition, um typically is gonna be more than 500 square feet.

So they are gonna go through the planning commission process, but I don't know the zoning administrator level, we're processing second story editions now, and the review process is not much different.

We're still applying our residential design guidelines, we're still applying our design criteria, and we're still reviewing them to make sure they're co-compliant.

Um, having extra set of eyes on it, does that make the process better or worse?

I don't know.

I can't answer that question.

I can say for staff is that we we we do a really good job of of processing those applications.

We don't see a lot of complaints, we don't get appeals.

Since I've been here as far as appeals on ZA level, zoning ministry level, I can only think of two.

And they didn't get much far further than that.

Again, what was the issue?

Privacy.

Was it because it was the design?

It wasn't because that it was a necessary second-story addition.

They just didn't want someone peering through the window and looking into their backyard.

Sure.

I don't know about foliage.

It does.

I think it does, and I really appreciate it, and I I also really appreciate the fact that you use examples.

Um, because I think for the public especially, a lot of this code talk is not clear, and using examples is very helpful.

So I really appreciate that.

Um I just have a couple more since you're kind of answering them as we go.

Um so um I'm just I'm I'm a little bit just looking at unintended consequences, and so has staff identified concerns that could result from allowing um very large additions to be approved administratively rather than planning commission.

Are there some things that maybe we should consider that uh um I mean you can look at in terms of are these the um right fit in terms of the square footage?

Square footage is um do we want to look at something else?

I mean um well, maybe tell us make can you tell us how you chose the square footage then?

Well, I think for tier ones, I mean, we see additions like for example, tier ones are at uh staff level.

Tier ones are typically backyard editions, they're not second-story additions, no one sees it, um, but they still have to go through the review process.

So they're pretty simple.

Tier twos are very similar, but we do second story additions, but they're not a second story editions.

There's not a lot to it in terms of of how we review them.

I mean, we view them all the same.

And again, we haven't received a lot of um public um um complaints about these types of projects.

Um I don't know if before we answer your questions here.

Yeah, can I can I add a little bit more to that too as we were thinking about it?

Um, we still without a noticing requirements, so people would still get noticed immediately adjacent to larger additions.

Um they would let us know if they have concerns.

I think what may be a consequence is we may have more people that want to hold a zoning administrator hearing and actually talk about it, and so we could monitor that, right?

Because right now we send a notice.

Are you concerned about this?

If you are, then we can hold a zoning administrator hearing.

We do very few of those zoning administrator hearings.

So we may have an uptick in those zoning administrator hearings.

That would be the venue that we could receive that feedback, see how the policies are working, if we receive more concerns or if we received appeals up to the planning commission, then we may know that we need to do a little bit of fine-tuning either in our development standards themselves or in the process.

So that would give us information, kind of a feedback loop that we can monitor.

If we don't see an increase in zoning administrator hearing requests, and we don't see an increase in appeals, then we would normally say, okay, this procedure is working for us.

So I think that is the way that we can monitor it and provide, you know, update to the planning commissioner council.

We could let people know how it's going.

Um, this is really about, you know, this would be a meaningful change to the number of projects that go to planning commission because the majority of what they see are larger additions.

So those would be approved at the zoning administrator level instead.

So that is a meaningful change that we would want to monitor and make sure we're not having those unintended consequences.

And as the um as as the so the the zoning administrator would be that that's something we could either give you direction or that's already folded in that they would monitor that.

Yes, we assumed that we would monitor that, okay.

But we certainly are very happy to receive the direction and sort of make it programmatic as opposed to making it ad hoc.

So that's something that we could do to make sure this is working the way that we intended.

Okay, that's uh something that I would be interested in.

And then something that's part of your direction, obviously, you can kind of you've done this in the past, is ask us to bring something back within a year of implementation and kind of see what that's doing.

So it's not necessarily the ongoing uh issue, but something that we can kind of monitor in the first seat of implementation of needs to extend, fine, but but typically we would get that within that period and bring back some relevant data for you.

I think uh that's the prudent thing to do uh if this does you know wind up uh we we agree with these amendments, then I do think you even said that we did that in 2016 too.

So I think that that makes sense.

Um and then uh I appreciate that the answer to that, and then um uh the the final question I had is just if staff considered keeping the planning commission's review for additions above a certain threshold um rather than eliminating size-based triggers entirely.

Like it right now it moves from size-based to standard compliance, but um was there reasoning behind that of of maybe not uh doing some sort of like I guess middle ground type of thing.

Um I mean I personally kind of looked at it, but just trying to find the right size in terms of what that number is.

Um I mean right now it's 900 square feet.

Um, just finding the right size.

I think I think it was trying to find the right side, but we felt that that those type of additions I think are routinely um approved by the planning commission.

So we kind of thought that in terms of how we review zoning administrator projects, um, that it would also be routine.

I mean, the way we review uh ZA level project, a very similar way we review tier threes.

We applications to submit it, we review it for compliance.

Once it's complete, we still write a staff report, we still have to make findings.

That staff report goes to the zoning administrator.

The zoning administrator reviews the staff report, reviews the findings and they can make the findings, and we send a notice of attent to neighbors.

That notice of tent says that you have 10 days to appeal the application.

If you don't appeal it, then it's approved, and we send an approval letter to the applicant.

So they are processes in place very similar to the planning commission.

The only difference really is there's not a public hearing, and we're not looking the planning commission is not approving the project, and planning staff is not giving a recommendation to the planning commission.

So we didn't necessarily look at other numbers per se.

I mean, I just didn't, you know, looking at this trying to find the right fit of what that number was, but looking at it in terms of um that we already look at large editions, we believe that these little large additions can also be approved by the zoning administrator in the same manner.

And we certainly could if you would like us to.

We could go back a couple of years, we could look at the data, we could see the sizes of additions, we could see if there's kind of a natural breaking point.

Do you know what I mean?

Of what we might constitute a larger addition in today's context compared to what we counted as a larger addition in the past.

Um so we can certainly do that if you'd like us to.

I mean, I might be interested in that only because in the same vein as um the 2016 not jumping, you know, too far ahead.

That might be um something that's still uh back to that balance description I described that um so that I I think would be something um to consider uh, you know, depending on how how council members uh my colleagues feel about that, but um I don't think that that's uh counter to what you're trying to do, but um just uh gives another a different type of threshold, maybe um.

I think I think there could be a very reasonable middle ground.

Do you know what I mean?

If you would like us to investigate, do you know what I mean?

A different kind of approach to it, a different threshold or level of increase.

There's different ways um that people do it.

So we can consider some different options.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions at this time?

I do.

Um, ultimately though, with the tier two, the public who might be upset because of privacy, they still would be able to ask for a zoning administrator hearing, right?

And that's where they would be will be heard out and their issues addressed.

Yeah, so correct.

So they could uh appeal the project's zoning administrator.

Even at that point, if they're not satisfied, they can appeal to the planning commission.

Okay.

And planning commission says they're appealed by council, so they're getting several bites of the apple here.

Okay, and so all of like how you very beautifully laid out these steps.

Will that all be synthesized in a way that the public will be able to easily digest all of that?

Yeah, I think so.

And I think they can like the they really digest that currently b based on the way things are set up.

I think our citizens are really keen on on on development standards and and know what those standards are, and and I think they're used to them and and how the process works.

Um so and I I again I I would say this is this is mostly successful of these code updates and what has transpired over the last decade.

Alright.

Uh let's go ahead and uh pause here and ask for a public comment on this item.

No public comments at the moment.

Okay.

Uh great bringing it back to the council.

Uh, do council members have comments or um directions uh for uh this this is just informational.

It will go to the planning commission.

Um any comments at this time for staff?

Yes, I feel really comfortable with this.

I do really like the idea of a one-year review or report back, so that there can be a planned modification modification if it is needed.

I'm for the tier two and no, for tier three, I'm feel comfortable without having a square footage allotment only because they're still in they people can still ask for um zoning administrator hearings.

So that's where I'm at.

Yes, Councilmember Latermilla.

Um I thank you so much for the presentation.

Um I think having the initial discussions on this in the subcommittee were really very helpful.

Um, and I really feel like the changes are responsive to some of the challenges that we've had and some of the challenges that planning commission has brought up, um, getting us to move easy things quickly through the permitting process, creating really consistent, easily understandable guidelines, especially for plan development.

Like it makes so much more sense for if it's a single family home, just follow the rules of the single family home.

Um, and making sure planning commission is working on projects that are meaningful and actually require discussion, like the safety element, right?

We got really good information from them because they had time and capacity to do that.

Um attorney Scott stole my comments about staff.

Um, that you know, if the construction market becomes really favorable again in a bunch of large residential or commercial projects come in all at once, we want staff to have capacity to deal with the more complicated stuff so that the simple stuff just you know almost takes care of itself.

Um thank you to your past salves for getting us to where we are.

It sounds like um, you know, we've been in really good shape over the 10 years, uh, last 10 years because of that work.

Um, and I think this is like a really good next step um next leveling up of efficiency.

Um, and like council member Peng Magonair says, I think it's a really good plan as it is.

Um I love the idea of gathering data, bringing it back in a year, I think that makes a lot of sense, and then making some adjustments.

Did we go too far?

Did we not go far enough?

Um kind of looking back at that point and and deciding if we wanted to change something.

Councilman McCube.

I I think this is fine as proposed.

Um, if someone comes in and applies for a project that fully complies with all the regulations, staff should be able to determine that and approve the project.

That's the way it works in most cities where I've done projects for a long time.

Um and nothing here changes that, you know.

If um someone comes in with a project, they say, gee, I need a workaround, you know, I need a little bit of additional height or the setback doesn't quite work.

Any kind of a workaround, that should go to the planning commission.

A variance, a conditional use permit, uh a um, you know, any a an exception, any of those things should go to planning commission, and nothing here changes that.

That that remains exactly the same.

What the planning commission should do is create the general plan, the specific plans, the zoning ordinance.

They should create the the rules that we operate under.

And they should pass judgment on those proposed workarounds that people frequently ask for, and they should hear appeals of any staff decisions.

But if somebody you know says, hey, I want to do exactly what the rules require, staff should be able to determine that and approve it.

Anytime our project goes to Planning commission, it creates an additional delay, it creates an additional level of uncertainty for the applicant, and it frequently creates additional expense because they have to pay their architects and engineers and planners to show up and testify at that hearing.

And if the planning commission says, no, we don't like this, then they there's you know, it's they they can't sit down across the table front with the planning commission and work things out in the same way that they can with the staff.

So I think this is I think this is good.

I especially think the planned development process is good.

Um planned developments are you in the residential world are usually done when again somebody wants something that doesn't quite work out.

They want more den they want a few more lots.

They will want a little more density than they could get by a traditional application of the rules.

And the city looks at it and they go, okay, there's some you want a little bit more density, but there's some offsetting considerations.

We're gonna let you do it, but then you have to stick very closely to this plan going forward, and that's a good thing.

But sometimes it's you know a very minor thing that doesn't change the intent of this planned development.

And again, the staff should be able to approve that without a expensive time consuming trip through the planning commission.

So I think this is all good.

I think it's fine.

Uh personally I think it's fine as it's I think it would be interesting to have some information on you know how often these various types of things have happened, but logically it it makes sense as presented.

Vice Mayor, yes.

Um I agree with Councilmember Latimerlow.

It's been great to be on the subcommittee and uh really informative and I appreciate staff time um talking with us about these issues.

Uh I I am good with the plan as is, and uh I asked the question about the history because I know and I'm just gonna shout out our community development team because um we're they're very well respected in the county and people often look to them for advice, and so I just want to make sure um for the public's knowledge that we have a great community development department that is really thoughtful, and I I think all of the work that you've put into this, it not just it helps staff be more efficient, which is important because we have such a lean staff here at in Belmont, but what it also does is it helps the homeowners, the applicants, their design team, all the people involved, because when something is clear and the process is outlined, then there's not a lot uh left to question.

So it's gonna save everyone time, it's gonna save our applicants money, and um it sh it just shows that continues to show that Belmont is a great place to be, and when we have people move here and want to make additions, they are not gonna have to get a CUP for what is for 38 square feet.

Right.

That's not I'm glad that we're gonna make that change, assuming that we all agree because that's that's not something that we want to promote with our residents.

We want them to want to make additions and make their houses better.

So thank you for all your time.

Um I'm completely supportive, and I do I do think that we can get, you know, in a year, like look back and see you know how how things are going.

Great, thank you.

Yes, I think that um the the comments you've heard tonight from the council, um, I think we're all in agreement that we have a rock star community development um department and and um appreciate the really thorough, thoughtful um amendments that you're that you're making.

Um, and I think even you know, an argument could be made, um, although it's it's very Belmont, we are very measured, we do not do anything drastic and radical, um, and that's that's because I think that's where we are with our residents.

Um, but modernizing every 10 years, I mean that's a long time.

So we probably could have done these even a couple of years ago.

So I appreciate, you know, uh uh in in agreement with what our uh my counsel colleagues said about um just the thought that was put into this and the time um it's probably time to modernize.

Um so whenever I I look at things like this, I try to figure out what we're trying to solve, right?

What is the pro what is the issue we're trying to solve, and then what are we expecting to achieve?

And as I mentioned, just with the Planning commission lens too, uh and my experience on that, I'm trying to make sure that we're maintaining the right balance between efficiency and oversight.

Because we have heard from our community in the past that um that there's some there's some oversight they still would like uh the city body to to have.

And so I do think um that this this is this document meets that balance um in many ways.

I I think this is a reversal and I appreciate it coming to us first.

Um I would offer if since it's going to the planning commission after us, um, and assuming that they're not able to watch this video, I think it would be very helpful if their staff report contained um maybe the following items, including Rob, you did an amazing job with the background, and I know you gave us a little bit of the spiel during um during the presentation.

Definitely I think you should do that for the planning commission, go into it even a little deeper, and maybe have the staff report in the background talk a little bit uh about the things that you said verbally to us.

I just think having that complete package in terms of the background.

So the types of things you said where you mentioned, you know, not only the uh modernization with the tiers and and things like that, but even um when you spoke a little bit about um that uh you know uh we at the time we didn't want to move too far forward.

These are best practices that other cities are doing.

Um things like that.

I mean, it's all been in the public records that's it's out here tonight, but I think that would be useful to bring up to the uh planning commission and you know, at the worst case scenario, you don't have to repeat it again.

You know what I mean if they have questions, but I think that was really um important.

And I think it would also be helpful to them since we're doing it a little bit backwards if you could include some of the comments and some of the questions that we had as well that uh help helpfully hopefully will help them make that determine, you know, consider this.

And I think in fact, including we don't know how you know they'll look at this and um and their first future purview is is also kind of part of this, but I think that's why I brought things up like options to do the mid-range, because even if we don't recommend that right now, that's something you can also bring to them, like well, the council mentioned is you could do this if there's kind of stuck on something, you know, since we're just informationally talking about this now between and this will go to them.

It's something you could bring up as an option if they get stuck on on it or if that becomes a red flag to them.

Um but yeah, I mean I think look what we're trying to do is streamline routine projects and then preserve meaningful oversight so we can tell our our residents they don't have to worry or they're not gonna see a lot of drastic changes that nobody has control over.

And so I think again, you struck that balance perfectly in this document, and I'm really interested to hear what the planning commission will have to say about it.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Can I ask about process question?

Yes.

I somehow missed that it hadn't gone to planning commission first.

What if they say we completely disagree?

It comes back to us.

I mean, they'll oh I'm sorry.

Yeah, this is just I mean, we can't call it study just then, but it is a study session.

We wanted to bring it to you just so that you can uh review it and uh in and know that we've worked with the subcommittee here.

So that's one of the things we wanted to do before we brought it for formal processing to the planning commission is to get council feedback.

Okay.

And it certainly is possible that the planning commission may disagree, they may give us some new ideas that make it even better.

Um, and so we'll hear what they have to say, and then when we bring it forward to you, do you know what I mean?

We'll lay all of that out so that you can decide kind of making that balance that you're all really talking about.

Thanks.

And some of some of the suggestions I gave about direction and things that put in the staff report is also because you never know.

We sometimes we do get the public that comes in the middle of things, and so uh it doesn't hurt for us to kind of include some of the other, you know, some of the discussion points we had here in that document too to kind of get everyone up to speed.

And we'll put a web page up and put some of the background.

We have a like a place now where we're doing our zoning code amendments, so people can always go there with a friendly URL and we'll put out some you know information so people can read about it.

So we'll do those steps for the planning commission process and kind of take everybody through from there.

We just didn't want to take it too far without hearing from the council you were generally supportive of doing something like this, and now we can really kind of build that out for the public.

Again, taking temperatures always good, and and Belmont tends to be kind of measured and moderate in our steps for it, so that makes sense.

I look forward to asking Lizzie if she can explain to me the new uh the amendments.

Um thank you very much.

Appreciate the discussion and appreciate really appreciate the thought partnership from uh council colleagues and discussing these types of things.

So, um, so I think that wraps us up, and we're then moving on to 11D, which is another uh oh no, this isn't an informational item.

We have a resolution for this one.

This is the updates to the Brown Act and local agency official training requirements, okay.

I'll try to bring us into the home stretch here.

So the staff report um for this item provides a detailed review of the recent legislative changes to the Brown Act and local agency official ethics and um uh financial training requirements, some of which took um effect into uh or took effect in this January, and the remaining um are becoming effective as of July 1st.

I'll briefly summarize the Brown Act updates, new new training requirements for local officials, and the recommended amendments to your city council protocols.

Many of the changes formalize practices that Belmont already has in place and are intended to increase public access, encourage public participation, and enhance transparency in local government.

So the teleconferencing by legislative body members or city councils, SB 707 provides additional flexibility to promote participation during declared emergencies and certain qualifying uh circumstances, such as the just cause.

Alternative teleconferencing options come with extensive procedural requirements and remain fairly limited in practice.

However, traditional Brown Act teleconferencing remains available and unchanged.

And this kind of goes back to uh placing location on an agenda when someone is participating off site, and also um uh posting uh the agenda in public view.

If you know if you're participating, let's say in a hotel room.

Um, existing requirements still include public access, agenda posting, roll call voting, and maintaining quorum within the city's jurisdiction.

Advisory bodies are bodies um uh that qualify are eligible bodies, and these are not um commissions, um, and they do not apply to the 707 requirements.

And again, the key takeaways are that Belmont currently uh uses these practices that comply with most of the requirements already.

Public access and meeting requirements.

This legislation also expands public participation requirements.

Agencies must provide a way for the public to comment remotely during meetings through either telephonic or audiovisual access, or both telephonic and audiovisual access, and um audio um automatic captioning is also a requirement, which we are still um working on.

Uh cities are also required to establish procedures for handling internet or telephone outages that may interrupt a meeting, and um staff provided a red line on the count to the council protocols for this purpose.

With respect to langu language accessibility, which is one of the requirements of seven oh seven.

Belmont does not currently meet the uh statutory thresholds requiring um full agenda translations, so we um we will not be doing that at this time.

However, we will uh provide uh reasonable accommodations um and post community provided translations um when available.

And um the key takeaway on this one is Belmont again is um is using existing hybrid meeting format already, which already satisfies the requirements, and we've been doing this um since the COVID days.

And then um additional agenda material requirements, um AB 2647 clair clarifies that agenda materials distributed after publication of the agenda, which is the seventy-two hour um uh before the meeting, uh when information is um provided to the council that can later be added to the website for um public transparency.

And uh m the materials right now are being housed in what we call supplemental material under the agenda tab um on our website.

And then um training requirements.

SB 827 establishes new statewide ethics and financial training requirements.

Ethics training will now be required for department heads and certain senior officials within six months of assuming office and every year every two years thereafter.

Fis uh fiscal training will be required for council members and certain appointed officials um involved in the budget um and public resources decisions, and the city must maintain um training records for five years and uh make those records available to the public upon request um and we will um update our records retention schedule to reflect that.

So um our next um sorry, the key takeaways on that one are um uh intended to again promote accountability, transparency and informed decision making.

And then finally, our staff recommendations are um adopting the resolution uh that approves the council uh council protocols with the amended uh text regarding uh meeting dis uh distribution language.

Um we will be implementing meeting disruption procedures, um, many of which we already have in place.

Um that goes back to um the recommendation now or the the requirement now is if we have uh power outage or equipment goes down, we have to um try to make the fix within an hour.

Um so we would have to be here, the council would have to be here um for that whole hour while we're uh implementing the change and hopefully getting uh the meeting back up again.

And then uh we will be um uh developing the training and tracking and again record retention procedures for um the ethics and financial training.

And that is all of it.

If you have any questions for me and Scott, like I said, we'll be doing the legal part of this.

Okay.

Thank you very much, Madam City Clerk.

Any questions at this time?

I guess I do.

Um, the finance training is um once or once every two years, like the other training.

It's once every two years.

Um we will begin um July.

So all of you, all of us will be taking the training, um, and then anyone who um is new or newly appointed has six months to um to begin the training or to complete the training, and then every two years after that.

Okay, and then the thank you.

And then the red line item, I just want to make sure I'm reading it right, that if it go if our electronics system and our communication goes down, we recess for a full hour no matter what, and then we come back.

The statute's worded a bit oddly and at first read it kind of sounds like that, but what it means is that um if the internet goes down, we have to attempt to restore it for uh and it's been up to an hour doing that, and if after an hour we can't restore service, then the council, if it makes a finding, uh that's required in the statute, can then uh resume the meeting without the online platform running.

Um but we're required to spend up to an hour trying to restore service.

But if we restore it in five minutes, we can resume.

We don't have to sit around for fifty five minutes doing nothing.

Okay, if we're ready to go.

Thank you.

So they could hop on the bike or whatever to get down here.

Mike, love this.

Alright.

Any other questions?

I have a quick one.

Um, so just a just a tiny little thing.

I noticed a couple of typos where they're once it says ice instead of vice mayor, right?

Things like that.

Tiny tiny little things, just maybe just do a quick review.

Um that's just a tiny little thing.

And then the other um question I had, I I, you know, the person behind the scenes and all of our meetings is Doug.

He's an amazing um audiovisual person.

We are so so lucky to have him, and he is so talented.

Um, and it's no fault of his or anyone else's, but we have some, you know, antiquated, a little bit antiquated uh system, and sometimes it does um, you know, go down or glitch.

And so I'm just wondering um, is there something that we need to do in preparation between now and July to sort of you know make sure that the system is a little bit more robust um or or less prone to maybe human human error, that sort of thing.

Well, they're not antiquated, actually.

We've spent a lot of time updating uh equipment here over the last couple of years, but there are technological glitches, and so I think dog's working very hard on IT have been working on a number of uh kind of protocols on how we can kind of better have redundancy.

Unfortunately, there's a feed system that that is challenging, it's only one.

And so if that that's where sometimes the glitches happen is between the feed between granicus or uh and our uh broadcast system.

So those are the type of things that unfortunately developing the law of redundancy where we just have to work with it and dog usually does the magic trying to bring things back as quickly as possible.

But we do try to test these before the meetings, and sometimes those things happen, and it's like anything technological, you depend on it, but also they break down when all else fails.

We've got to do alt control delete and get it started again.

So that goes that way.

So it's not it's not a um uh a budget thing or or anything like that.

We could put more money, it's really okay.

So we're still a little bit vulnerable to the oh yeah, absolutely.

Okay.

We are we are way ahead of a lot of cities.

A lot of cities did not continue their zoom after COVID, and they're having a difficult time implementing this.

So we are again ahead of the code.

We're ahead of them, and we've also been able to um provide that option too.

And we have a lot of comments on Zoom, so that's that's great.

Okay, thanks.

I was just uh checking in about potential uh further costs and expensive expenses and things like that.

Um do we have any public comment on this item?

No public comments at the moment.

Okay.

Any other further comments?

Uh uh otherwise we do have a resolution uh before us.

Move approval.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Roll call for council member McHugh.

Hi.

Hi.

Matter Millow?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Jordan?

Yes.

Mayor Meets.

Yes.

Motion passes five to zero.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Moving to item 12, brief verbal reports from members and staff.

Uh, any verbal reports from council members on intergovernmental and subcommittee assignments.

Uh let's start.

Vice Mayor, any update?

Yeah, just uh quickly.

So uh I participated over the last 10 months in the Chamber of San Mateo County leadership class, and that concluded uh a few weeks ago, and I just want to uh thank the city for allowing me to do that.

And uh we I felt like I learned so much in in that class because each day is focused on something else.

So one day, you know, mayor mates was there on government day and on public safety day, we had our former police chief, now assistant city manager there, so um it was a really great experience to just continue to learn uh about all the different things in our county, but also to network and meet other people.

And Belmont was very well represented.

I was so proud to be with two of our presenters tonight were there.

Elizabeth was one of my classmates, so was Adrian, and then Vivian um was also a classmate, and then we got one of our newest planning commissioners, Brent.

Um I met him there and talked to him about uh you know, participating in the city.

And so it was a really rewarding experience.

And if you haven't done it, I highly recommend it.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

I have like four.

Okay, please.

I'll cut them in half.

Community Action Agency, we talked a lot about the emergency financial assistance funds, assistance fund, and this is a one-time gift to a family to fulfill an emergency need.

So if you guys went into families that can't make their rents or have a car repair that they can't afford security deposits, they can ask us for that money.

We can give it to them.

Commute.org, we did a ton, work plan, salaries, budget.

The most exciting, exciting thing is our new van pool subsidy program to get folks commuting who commute longer distances to do that together.

It is totally taking off among our employers, and we think it's because of the insane gas prices that people are doing it.

So hopefully that is enough to jumpstart habits.

The HART program, which is the housing endowment and regional trust of San Mateo Counties.

Oh, that's right.

And we welcomes uh old captain and new interim chief Andy, um extended out the grant for six months for our mental health clinician, which is really awesome.

Um, and go to coffee with a cop July 8th.

Great.

Thank you.

Uh anything?

Uh, two things for quick.

Um, Silicon Valley Clean Water, I reported a couple of meetings ago.

They had an incident with a big exhaust fan that ventilates these tunnels that uh carry um pipelines.

Uh that fan just exploded a while ago.

Um, and they've rigged uh temporary fans and this caught triggered a um minor thing with their air permit, but they got they've got it worked out.

Their air permit is worked out with the air board.

Uh the permit fans are not replaced, but um it's working fine, and there's there's no air quality problem.

So uh the other thing um uh West Light Energy, also known as Peninsula Clean Energy, uh, is studying their rate structure, and electricity is this weird auction market between buyers and sellers that are auctioning stuff all the time.

Um, Clean Energy used to sell electrical generation basically to five percent discount to what PGE was selling, and because some changes in that market in the last year they were able to uh provide a 10% discount to PGE's prices, but um it's the auction market is veering in the opposite direction.

They're probably not gonna be able to continue the 10% discount to PGE.

They're gonna continue to sell at a discount to PGE's prices, but it probably won't be 10%.

Uh this and to most homeowners and you know apartment dwellers who pay their own utility bills.

This is not a vast number, but it's uh if people really study those bills, they may see a slightly lower discount to to PGE's generation prices, starting in a few months.

That's it.

That's all I got.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um I have a couple.

Uh first, um Kaki Chung at uh this is a C CAG update.

Khaki Chung um has been appointed as the interim executive director, the exec director executive director for CCAG, um, has moved on to the um city manager for Pacifica.

Uh and so the board last time we met, um, we went ahead and appointed um Khaki as the um interim executive director.

Uh TA, the we heard about that the the funding for this evening, and there's funding opportunities uh for party projects on Connect 101 and um uh the there's other funding opportunities as well.

And uh CCAG is, I mean, I'm sorry, TA is always talking to our public works director about some of those opportunities.

And tomorrow at 5 30, there's a fire board meeting that I'll be attending.

All right.

Uh verbal report from our city manager.

Not too much, but the Vice Mayor Jordan kind of stole my thunder.

I did want to kind of extend my congratulations to number of our uh new uh leadership academy uh graduates uh from Chamber Summito County.

We had Vice Mayor Jordan, our planning commissioner Brent uh Takahashi, Edrien Smith, our uh principal planner, Vivian Lung from our uh HR, Elizabeth from our communication, and also we had Cody George, who graduated from Leadership Council Samateau County.

So we have a great number of leaders in our organization.

We're fortunate to have those opportunities to send folks to these uh academies, and so I think it's a great benefit to the community and and the organization as a whole.

So that's it.

Yes, thank you.

And uh I know that the uh San Mateo County Chamber has always been um Chamber San Mateo County, I should say, is always been very grateful that uh Belmont for years has sent uh sent folks, so that's that's great.

Um all right, uh moving on to item 13 matters of interest clarification.

Uh there's nothing under this item.

And before we move to item 14, I wanted to first thank uh Councilmember Lata Merlow who brought this to my attention.

Um and we are going to adjourn tonight in the memory of a 30-year Belmont resident, Tom Earlywine, who passed away unexpectedly this week, last week.

I'm sorry.

Uh Tom was a resident and also staff and faculty at Notre Dame Denamore University.

He was also a student there and helped facilitate and also sometimes starred in each year the 30 year running Christmas Carol Musical, which was presented as a gift to the Belmont community free of charge during the holiday season.

Um our council thoughts are with his wife, his children, his family, and all who will miss him.

Please join me in a brief um moment of silence.

Thank you.

And we are adjourned until our next regular meeting on July 7th.

Thanks.