Stand trial for having allegedly ordered and and instigated the killing, uh the extrajudicial killing of of alleged drug dealers, uh, I mean, thousands, potentially tens of thousands of Filipinos um uh have been killed.

Um, ironically, speaking of double standards, um, these are the same crimes which Donald Trump has presumptively committed by the strikes that you reported earlier in the f in the in the Caribbean.

Um, the extrajudicial execution without due process of alleged drug dealers, but Rodrigo Duterte is in The Hague, and Donald Trump is in the White House.

Um, I think you know, this is also a watershed moment for the International Criminal Court to have a former head of state uh in the dock.

Um, you know, in in in tw in in 24 years and and at a cost of probably three billion dollars.

Um the International Criminal Court has never successfully uh uh captured and prosecuted and convicted a uh any state official anywhere, much less a former head of state.

And so, you know, Rodrigo Duterte probably thought he was he was home free, but you know, you also have a number of other people who've been indicted by the ICC.

Vladimir Putin, uh Benjamin Netanyahu, uh Minong Lang of of Miyan Marshall, a bunch of former heads of state out there, but they haven't been brought in.

The International Criminal Court does not have a police force.

So this is a major moment for international justice and for the ICC.

And we only have about a minute left, but I'm wondering, the world is marking the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

There are no signs of it stopping soon.

President Trump promised on day one he'd end the war here a year later.

Uh, it's still not ended.

Why does peace seem so out of reach?

Well, I think you know, this is this is a policy on both sides of uh really of uh of endless war.

Um, I mean, talking about, you know, accountability, uh, the actually the the Russian invasion and Russian crimes in Ukraine have led to probably the most coordinated international justice response in history.

I mean, the international criminal court has indicted Vladimir Putin and his minister for child affairs for thousands of uh of Ukrainian children who were kidnapped.

Um you have four other uh the former chiefs of staff and defense minister and two generals who have been indicted um for attacking Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.

You have tens of thousands of cases, uh, war crimes cases going through the Ukrainian courts, and you have the recently created special tribunal uh on aggression uh against Ukraine that may prosecute Russian leaders for the worst crime that was committed, uh, which was the invasion of Ukraine.

Um, all these accountability things are moving forward, but peace doesn't seem anywhere closer than it did four years ago.

We want to thank you, Reid Brody, longtime war crimes prosecutor, a member of the International Commission of Jurists.

As we end today's show, fallout from the BAFTA award ceremony in London Sunday is growing.

That's Britain's equivalent of the Oscars.

Filmmaker Jonte Richardson has quit um the judge and the award, citing the organization's handling of a racist incident during the ceremony when Michael B.

Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the award for best visual effects.

A Tourette syndrome campaigner shouted the N-word.

The BBC failed to edit out the word from the broadcasts which aired two hours after the live show, while cutting the phrase free Palestine from Will Davies' acceptance speech, one of the award winners.

John Tay Richardson wrote on LinkedIn, quote, after considerable soul searching, I feel compelled to withdraw from the BAFTA emerging talent judging panel, the organization's handling of the unfortunate Tourette's N-word incident last night at awards was utterly unforgivable.

I cannot and will not contribute my time, energy, and expertise to an organization that's repeatedly failed to safeguard.

Over the course of a few years, life yielded a crisis of pandemics, resulting in many wheeling and searching for answers.

Black men especially have had to agree with the passing of hip hop icons, DMX, Michael K.

Williams, Bizmarkey, and many others.

How has this impacted black men?

How has this altered the way they see themselves, their ability to express themselves and their mental health?

We sit down with black men raised on the culture of hip hop and ask them directly.

Let's have a bite, take a step back in order to move forward.

I'm your host, Miracle Jones, and this is Broughton the Blackman.

I try to come out.

Okay.

Recording in progress.

I don't need it right now, actually.

I just have my hands being really late.

I've got a big block harder.

No, I mean sometimes they're not powerful enough, but the big fat ones usually are.

I'm here.

Humber.

Here.

Okay, quorum is present.

Okay, very good.

So today we have a very special work session.

Um, only one item on this agenda, it's the community health improvement plan.

So I'm going to pass it over to Director Scott Gilman for our presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, yes, uh again to introduce myself, I'm Scott Gilman.

I'm the director of Health Housing and Community Services, and I'd like to introduce Tanya Bustamati, who is our Deputy Director.

We also have several staff in the room that have that have helped um put this information together over the last year.

And if they could just raise their hand, please.

We have members of the community health commission that are present.

And then at the end, we'd like to recognize the members of the steering committee that actually work specifically on this project.

So with that, we'll start a slideshow.

So the agenda that we have for you tonight is we're going to do an overview of the community health improvement plan, better known as the CHIP.

We have a short video that we'd like to show you.

We have an exciting new dashboard that we plan to demonstrate with some data, and then we'll talk about implementation, next steps, and questions and recognition.

Okay, so the purpose of our community health improvement plan is really to describe how the health department and the community will work together to improve the health of the citizens of Berkeley.

The community health improvement plan, or CHIP identifies health priorities that came out of our community health assessment and strategies for how to address them.

In addition, the CHIP is required for national public health accreditation, which is something that our department, HHCS, is actively working towards.

It is also a requirement for local health jurisdictions to align their CHIP with behavioral health strategies that the health jurisdiction will be focusing on as part of our Behavioral Health Services Act Plan.

It's okay.

Go ahead, okay.

To guide this work, four guiding principles were used to draft the high level goals and objectives in developing the CHIP.

The first one is to balance ambition with feasibility, so setting goals that are achievable and realistic.

The second one is to cultivate cross-sector work.

As you know, at any given time, there are various planning processes, commission meetings, policy debates that are happening.

It's critical for us as city staff to be aware of and collaborate with other city departments and community members on the work that we're all doing so that we're not operating in silos.

The third principle is to emphasize prevention.

So to really address the root causes and not just the health outcomes.

And lastly, establishing a long-term cycle of assessment improvement planning and implementation.

In fact, local health departments and health plans are required to collaborate on assessment and planning processes every three years.

So this cycle is an opportunity to build trust and achieve long-term impact.

So I'd like to talk a little bit about how we got here.

Of which we collected over 320 responses.

The qualitative data that we collected focused on the community environment, access to services, lived experiences, etc.

During this first phase, a community steering committee of 10 community members with diverse backgrounds and experiences was convened.

This committee was instrumental in analyzing the data that was collected.

The second step was to develop our community health assessment by taking a thorough look at health safety and equity in the city.

The health assessment identified priority issues and priority populations, and enabled the community steering committee to distill the information into six key findings.

From the community health assessment, our steering committee, in collaboration with city staff, developed the health improvement plan, which lays out a realistic response to the priorities that were identified in the health assessment.

As part of the community health assessment process, the steering committee identified two broad goals for the CHIP for both their universality and potential impact.

Well, the first goal was to address disparities in life expectancy.

And the second goal is to increase community power and partnership.

While the health assessment identified several key findings and health topics, it elevated four priority areas under the umbrella of these two broad goals.

Those are housing, environmental health, behavioral health, and community safety.

Housing was defined as being able to live in a place that is safe, affordable, and stable.

Environmental health was defined as being safe from things like pollution and wildfires, and having clean resources and access to green spaces.

The behavioral health area highlighted that mental health problems are common in our community, and our members need access to care.

Community safety highlighted how often people get hurt and experience violence in our community.

The steering committee worked closely with city staff to review the health assessment data, as well as existing Berkeley policies, resources, and initiatives to establish a high-level objective for each priority area, which you see here.

Additionally, these high-level priorities or these high-level objectives aligned with strategic priorities across other local, county, and state agencies.

So you're at 104 over 65, and your pulse is 87.

So you want this one ideally to be under 120.

So you're in the normal range.

I can have a seat on that side.

I was fascinating.

I think we all want the same thing.

We all want our communities to be healthy.

We want to see our children grow.

We want to see our families happy and thriving.

JSI was brought in basically to be facilitators in this space.

I think a lot of what we do is hear from all these different perspectives, whether it's a community survey or a focus group or a community steering committee meeting, talking with the staff at City of Berkeley, and then synthesizing it and thinking about, okay, how do we talk about what happens next?

It was a learning process for the steering committee, understanding the data that was available, what resources and programs were already in place.

What objective do we have within the workforce domain?

It's been amazing to see the really detailed underpinnings of what it is to build and to you know develop a city, but also how do you make change in a city?

How do you uproot the things that no longer work and how do you plant the things that you hope will?

And that's a really, really um meaningful process, and not one that I've been able to kind of participate in before.

One of our core values for the city, this department and for the public health division is that community voice, is that community drives.

There you go.

The things that we develop and the programs we develop to serve them.

We talk in public health about how health is connected to so many different things, but being a part of this process, we really saw what that connection looked like, where all of the health priorities that rose to the top were behavioral health, community safety, environmental health and housing, and none of those are like directly physically health related, but are all interconnected to how people, what people feel like they need to be able to thrive here.

Isn't something that just the health department can work on in isolation?

It offers an opportunity to invite other departments and other community-based organizations to join us in this journey.

These relationships and these collaborations are gonna be even more important moving forward.

We are definitely going to need the support of council and city leadership, and we're definitely gonna need the support of our community members.

In working side by side with some of the folks across departments in the city of Berkeley, there is an extra level of passion and dedication that I honestly will say to be totally open, wasn't really expecting.

What I saw was people continually inspired by by their work.

It's energizing to know that they're really receptive to the ideas that we were bringing forward.

What do we have to consider?

Is this going to affect um a different demographic that we didn't think about?

I love that I can see the tangible results coming through.

I think especially the way the world is right now, you can feel really powerless.

And I would say yes, and get involved locally.

These kinds of projects can help you build community and have impact.

We need to center community members in order to understand the story.

And then the second part is actually to understand what the right solutions are.

And that was really important for us in the centering was that community members be at the table to say, okay, so if we think the problem is displacement, for instance in Berkeley, um, what are potential solutions?

We want to come up with ideas that are actually going to make a difference and move the needle on some of these issues.

We want to do it in the realm of what's possible and not just say, this is what should happen and demand that the city do something, but rather have this dialogue with people who are really embedded in these systems so that they're more feasible.

We really need to remain attuned to what the community's needs are because they're going to be evolving.

They're going to be dynamic, and we need to be able to be dynamic with that.

The only way to do that is to listen to them.

As health assessments and health improvement plans become more of a standard part of the planning cycle in California communities, creating that space for trusting problem-solving together, it's sort of the essential thing.

I just think that it's really important that if you want to make that change, you gotta be a part of it.

And that's why I love Berkeley so much, where there is that huge sense of community and commitment to one another when a group of people fall down, they're the other group who's trying to lift them up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll go on to our next slide, please.

There we go.

If you've been in Berkeley for a while, you know we used to produce a health status report every few years.

The last one was back in 2018.

I'm happy to report that we'll have a new health status report coming in early 2027, and we'll be reporting back at that time.

I mean, while we will have a written report, we're moving away from the static reports.

Our goal is no more documents sitting on a shelf.

The data changes and our community wants updates.

And they also want accountability through measurable outcomes.

That means real-time access to data on health, health equity, other related data that anyone, including policymakers, nonprofits that are writing grants or residents can click on and access data at any time.

At this point, we want to give you a sneak peek demo of a public-facing dashboard that will go live this fall.

The reason that that we're demoing this as part of this demonstration is this will be where we'll be reporting our progress on the on the chip activities as well.

I'm going to show you some data that's uh again show you data that will be included in the dashboard just to give you an idea of what will be available.

Um I'll talk a little bit about about what we're presenting, but the purpose of tonight isn't really to go into depth and have a detailed analysis for you on what this shows us, really to give you an idea of of what's coming.

And so with that, we're going to um uh move to the community help.

We're logging in right now to the dashboard demo.

CHA.

Here we go.

There we go.

So once live, this is the the first page that residents will see when they log into the dashboard.

You'll see there's a table of contents, an introduction, and then the most significant part will be the key findings.

And again, this data is taken directly out of our community health assessment.

For example, if we take a look at key finding number one, we'll scroll down to the actual chart.

You'll see that Berkeley has a lot to be proud of.

Um our physical environment, our diversity, and all local partners are world class.

Generally, our health data is impressive, but as you can see, um Berkeley consistently outpaces both Alameda County and the rest of the state and life expectancy.

I want to just take a second and just show you.

If you hover over any part of this, it'll it'll drill down a little bit.

It'll tell you exactly where Berkeley is compared to other communities, or you'll see in future charts here other information.

Just makes it easier because some of the charts get kind of confusing.

Um if we can go on to finding number two.

So we'll scroll down here.

This one is about racial disparities.

And as you can see, while our general life expectancy is good in Berkeley, actually, extremely good.

Um the data makes it abundantly clear that there are disparities that we have to talk about as we design interventions.

It's true.

We are a vanguard of of social movements, yet our health data shows that historical and structural identity issues are still deeply baked into our outcomes.

So you can see here we have life expectancy by by race.

Um if you live in Berkeley, I'm sorry, we'll go on to the um, let me just stop there for a second.

This particular one shows life expectancy by race.

If we go to the next one, we'll go on to finding number three.

We'll also show life expectancy by geographic location.

And so if you live in Berkeley Hills, for example, you'll see that your life expectancy is 91 years.

If you also live in certain census tracts in South or West Berkeley, that number drops to 78, 78 years.

A 13-year-old difference based on zip code is not just a statistic, it's a call to action.

If we can't measure it, we can't track it, we can't change it.

Our biggest opportunity for progress lies exactly where the outcomes are the worst.

And we'll exit our demo.

So again, just wanted to give you a quick snapshot that that will be available, and we'll send you information as soon as it's live.

We can go on to our next slide.

I have another slide that will be built into the dashboard, and this particular ones is slide nine.

Slide nine is a is another example of data that will be front and center on our new dashboard because it highlights the growing fact, a growing fact that we cannot ignore.

Between 2022 and 2024, drug overdoses and self-harm suicide rose to uh into the top 10 leading causes of death for our neighbors.

And you'll see here it is number one, two, three, four, number, number six.

Um, that's going up from previous years where it had been in the bottom of the top 10, rose to um number eight, and now it's up to number six.

We know why this is happening.

Along with the deep emotional trauma caused by the pandemic in our society, social isolation, economic stress, and everything going on in the world today have created the perfect storm for many of our residents.

That's exactly why the community identified behavioral health as a priority in the CHIP.

It's also why we must continue our efforts to integrate behavioral health and physical health at all levels.

We need a multi-prong approach, including wellness programs, easier access to care, and tighter bonds with our community partners.

In a time of declining revenue, it's more important than ever to be good stewards of public resources.

Partnering with and empowering our community is more important than ever.

Go to the next slide.

So implementation is really where the rubber meets the road.

Um we're forming advisory groups for the four pillars, including housing, um, environmental health, behavioral health, community safety.

They'll help us shape the actions that we're going to take.

You'll see right now, and this is outlined in the CHIP document, we're in the preparation stage, and as I said, that's where we'd be selecting members of the communities, stakeholders.

As you see, some of those objective areas involve entirely different departments than the city, but we're all connected.

Environmental health, for example, having green spaces, having safe areas for the community, all part of the public health strategy.

And finally, I want to make one important observation here.

Um, I've worked in uh a variety of communities over the last 35 years, and and there's really something that's unique to Berkeley, and you all might know this, but being here for about a year and a half now, um it really jumps off the page at me.

I'm hearing in multiple venues our residents want to be involved, they want to help, they even want to roll up their sleeves, and they demand to be part of the process.

They demand that.

And while it would be easy to take this, very easy for us to take this roadmap that the committee put together for us, lock ourselves in a room for a nice launch and strategic planning process and come back and deliver you a strategic plan.

That's not what the community demands of us.

What we're gonna do at this point is we will be working with the focus groups during implementation, and we'll develop very specific, actionable, measurable outcomes that we can implement in our community with their help that have value to the community members, and that they um that they also perceive as having value.

So from uh actually from December and until July, we're in that preparation stage.

The reason that we put action in July is um what we are gonna be working on this before July, believe me, but we also want to make sure that we get through the budget process before we really really um formalize structures and bring groups together.

Um, because we are expecting you know there to be difficult decisions, and we want to make sure that again that we're good stewards of money.

We realize that we're that some of this will, as I said, will involve community um rolling up their sleeves and and making things happen.

Um and so with that, um, I just want to go to my last page.

So the journey towards a healthy, equitable, safer Berkeley requires more than just observation.

As we said, it requires partnerships.

We invite the council to walk this path with us, and we'll definitely keep you informed and invite you to participate every step of the way.

We will be fueled by the courage to change the status quo, and uh um to quote James Baldwin, not everything that is faced can be changed, and and nothing can be changed until it's faced.

Um so we'll go to slide 11, please.

So at this time, um, we really have two items left.

We'll take any questions, comments that you have at this point or discussion, and then we'd like to um conclude by recognizing uh members of the steering committee.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much, Director.

Um, and so I want to ask if my colleagues have any questions.

Not sure if our parliamentarian is working.

So I see that council member Drake was trying to select this.

So give me a second.

Let me reset it, and you can start while I reset it.

Uh thank you so much uh uh thank you, Scott and Tanya, for your presentation.

Um I have a few questions.

I will to save time ask them in rapid fire.

I think they go from more specific to kind of more meta.

Um my first question is on page six uh under objectives.

I see that you called out, uh I I assume these are just examples, uh, and there are other um sub-objectives uh say under community safety.

I imagine there would be more than just improving walkability and walking safety that could be placed in that bucket.

Just not sure exactly what page you're referring to.

Uh sorry, page six of the presentation.

Sure.

Um, on the life expectancy slide, which I think is not in the slide deck, but it was in the report.

I wanted to see, you you may or may not be able to talk about this.

It may be too granular, but I also noticed an area in uh up or downtown um uh below south side of campus that was comparatively low to life ex in life expectancy as well.

I was wondering if you could talk about why.

I was curious how the focus group was selected and what equity screens um were incorporated in the selection process.

As well as uh well, you talked about how you would continue to engage with the focus group, but would it be the same focus group or a different one?

On page 19 of the report, um I was wondering how CHIP can target interventions to communities that are most affected, and how will the root causes of these health disparities be addressed?

Um and lastly, I wanted to see if um you you spoke to how many of these uh the challenge it or the interventions uh may not relate uh, may not be specific within the community health bucket, they may be informed by other disparities and barriers, whether it's within housing or other departments.

What is your vision and plan for a cross-cutting process, an interdepartmental process around this, and how will you be keeping the council apprised at various inflection points?

You can start.

Thank you, Councilmember Chica.

Uh those are a lot of questions.

Um so hopefully we'll we'll we can address um all of them.

So first I'd like to address the question that you had uh around the community safety objective.

Uh so this is a high-level objective that our community steering committee identified that really rose to the surface from the data that was gathered, and um the idea is to identify sub-objectives and strategies that will help address this, and also since we are going to undergo a process of revisiting um our planning and priorities every three years.

Um my assumption would be that the high-level objectives would under each of these areas would evolve over time, and um even the priority areas themselves may evolve over time, depending on how the community's um needs and priorities change.

So at this point, um, improving walkability and walking safety was something that really rose to the level of importance for them.

Um, but it could be that could change um when we revisit um this area of the future.

Do you want to take the question about life expectancy?

Yeah, um, so drilling down into those specific things are what the next steps will be.

Um I don't have the answer for how the focus groups were selected.

If you're referring to the to the community cafe, um that was open to the to everybody for that one.

Um I will add that um when the consulting firm conducted the focus groups that were part of the health assessment process, they did identify priority populations to conduct those focus groups.

Um, and again, I think they conducted a total of four.

Um, I think one of them was with transitional age youth.

I think one of them might have been uh with African American and Latino.

Um, and I can't recall the other two.

But we can get back to you on that.

Yeah, and uh to your question about how we will ensure um other departments, um, other stakeholders, that's the process that we'll be going through from now until July is looking at each of these areas.

And I wanted I want to also mention that um the steering committee gave us a bunch of ideas um for specific solutions or or interventions, but they didn't dictate it to us.

So um our our challenge now will be is pulling together the different stakeholders, going through the data, um, and then figuring out actionable um actionable objectives, solutions as they refer to in the video that we can implement within the financial restraints that we have.

Um because this process is going to be so transparent, we're planning at a minimum of annual updates to council, the first one being um uh January, February-ish of 2027.

The selfish me wants to make sure that whatever we commit to doing, we're gonna get done and we're gonna deliver for you.

Um, again, this is different um for um most uh health departments around the state where they do plop down a plan on the table, and that's the end of it.

So because we are going to be developing this community, we're gonna be very transparent, we're gonna be very measurable so that we can demonstrate our value.

Um we we absolutely have to be very, very focused on what we do, make sure we can accomplish that.

I think that was the last question, but make sure let us know if there's more.

Yeah, um, just wanted to see um if you can drilling down, um I uh certainly south and west bark leave were called out as um communities of concern, but I did notice a um also a reduced lifespan in upper downtown, and I wanted to see if yeah, at least within other parts of Berkeley, I wanted to see if you can speak to why that maybe yeah, I don't think I don't think we're to the why yet.

We're we're to the we're to the this is this is the data and what it is.

Um I I think the though there's a there's an infinite number of whys, you know, some of them um, for example, we have uh data on um different uh health conditions, asthma was a big one that that we've looked at that that comes out um in the community health assessment, and so as we look at asthma, we can also look at asthma rates in different areas, and then we can also start to match that up um with the outcomes that we want.

We're fortunate that we have epidemiologists on our staff, you know, that will work with us on that, but um, but that sort of deep analysis and and what does it really mean to the community?

We need to talk with the community about that, you know, and involve them in that process.

Thank you.

Moving on to Councilmember Bartlett.

Well, thank you, and thank you for your work here.

Um I recall this is that the chip was um conceived of a few years ago uh when we funded the health equity innovation zone.

I think the city manager was here then before he went to Emoryville.

I think I remember that.

So it's wonderful to see in action.

Wonderful, um amazing.

Uh question looking at the leading cause of death.

Um, so I guess is diabetes is not on here, right?

But is that is that not a cause of death, or is it just a cause of cost uh diabetes number three?

Is that what you're asking about?

So it said heart disease.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Um, am I missing it?

Not in the top channel.

It's not there.

Well, that's amazing.

That is well, or a healthy city.

You know, the the um, you know, the work is incredible that we do here in Berkeley.

We are the healthiest city, and of course, as you mentioned, um the disparities are super entrenched, and we've taken many steps to address them, and this is part of a long-running effort by you know your your team in my office to get at um uh some new ways of approaching the the equity elements here.

Um, and so I was curious a couple things I wanted to ask you about, um, more just pegs for your memory, I guess.

Um, will there be is it possible to have a dashboard assigned to the stuff?

Really, you know, relate to the budget and council member black and be has been working on something like this, um, some sort of dashboard that's readily available for people to see um or progress, um and um does um another element was curious about was uh alignment with medical medicaid, right?

Despite the the cuts of those programs recently, right?

However, that works.

Um then um I guess with the the it seems that we we put a lot of um uh rightfully so we leverage our local talent, which is immense here in Berkeley for their ideas.

Um, so the I guess the is there a strong decision-making structure?

So they were making the recommendations to your office, or you know, do you have something in place to in terms of the decision making structure for how the specific um solutions will be identified, that will be through the community.

Um there'll be a uh an oversight um and we've approached the community health commission um to be part of that process with us.

Um and um at this point, there's also uh calling for uh another steering committee to be established as we get further down the road.

Um in terms of the medical um, the Medi-Cal implications or how this fits, um, it absolutely fits because um when I said integration with primary care and and behavioral health, that's really the huge change that we're seeing right now in the Medi-Cal world, where they're actually requiring that.

So, this is the first year that there's been a requirement on both sides in both silos to work together with the you're probably familiar with the three-year action plan that that we have to submit and get approved from the mental health commission.

That has a ton of data, a ton of information before this this cycle, that process never touched this process.

They were done in complete isolation.

The state's now requiring, as Tanya mentioned, they're requiring us to work together, and that's all around um our ability to bill and be reimbursed for Medi-Cal and do that.

Um so yeah, we absolutely see this, and as we look at whole person care, you know, working together around Medi-Cal.

Also, the health plans are very much involved in this process, and they're required to be, um, and uh, which is great because they're responsible for paying for you know, for a lot of this.

And so the state I think was very um forward thinking when they put the requirements together for this, requiring the health plans to be at the table with us, requiring behavioral health to be part of the process, um, and then actually uh a small pot of money uh out of the behavioral fund will come to public health to help convene and coordinate all of this work.

That's wonderful.

That's so great.

And uh let's just leave you with a couple points just to keep in mind the um since Alzheimer is is uh dwarfs so much of the other the other cause of death here.

Um, I mean it'd be great to align with the senior centers and because there have been some ideas about ramping up the senior centers into more than just meeting places for Zumba, but for uh you know, real healthcare delivery, uh, community health delivery of vehicles to the community.

Uh and then the heart disease and hypertension, uh, which factors really greatly in my district, um, as well as um two other persons districts below on the butt on the body here.

Um, you know, this someone you someone in your on your on your body should should be, I guess, aware of the of the city council's measures that exist, um, like healthy checkout, right?

And so that that that program is sub from lack of funds, but we know that um the stores in the communities where the heart disease is the highest has the highest concentration of um of heart disease making food, right all over the place, right?

Um, not to mention vapes and etc.

Um, so it'd be great to align some of these resources uh to help implement those health-making items that we already have that are just suffering from lack of funding, right?

Um, and then uh that's all I can think of.

Thanks very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to Council Member Blackby.

Thanks, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Director Gilman and uh Deputy Director Bustamante for the great report, and thanks to all the team for putting this together.

Um Councilman Apart and I were commenting about how great the video was, but everything's just really I mean, we really appreciate the effort and the care that went into this.

Um, I just had a couple of questions and or comments and then questions.

Um, and Councilmember Bartlettman mentioned that I I really love the focus here on measurable outcomes in your comment again.

If you can't measure it, you can't manage it, you can't track it, and so that's so important, and so having that on the dashboard and having that basis of information that we can then say are we improving or not?

It's really important.

I appreciate that.

Um also your uh focus on this is sort of the first step.

This is the plan, but so much of this is about the implementation, and what are we gonna actually do in each of these buckets to sort of move the needle?

Uh I'm really excited to see what comes back as you move into that into that phase, so that really becomes an action plan, and there's really things and initiatives that you're tracking back and seeing what happens.

And then last, this other people commented how sobering some of those deltas are on the neighborhood outcomes, especially life expectancy.

I think we all kind of knew that, but to see that so clearly and understand how big the the deltas are, that's obviously something we have to really focus on and improve.

Um, so first question is um, you know, community health, big topic, very broad.

Uh, some of which we can have an impact on here locally, some of which uh factors that are far beyond our control.

I'm wondering as you put together sort of these goals and the objectives.

How did you think about that?

Were there sort of did you intentionally look at some things that were like, oh, that would really be great, but we actually just don't think we can do it.

Are there you know categories of disease or you you'd mentioned drug addiction things before?

Um, so when you came up with those goals, I'm wondering if you if you also looked at other things and sort of said, well, you know, we're not gonna put this in the plan because this isn't something we can do at the community level.

Just curious about that process.

Yeah, I mean, as I mentioned before, I think the the four priority areas um really rose to the surface, and they were the areas that the steering committee um identified as um ones that we want to focus on, at least for the next three years.

Um, and you know, there were a myriad of other findings and um and data that was that was identified in the health assessment, but you know, we wanted to to keep things again reasonable and feasible.

Um, and so the steering committee um along with some guidance from city staff identified those areas as ones to tackle first, and um I think as we move forward um in the action phase, um that will be that will be it will be critical to really kind of hone down actions that that are feasible and realistic and things that are within the span of control and be able to relay that to the community.

Like this is what um the city has control over, and this is something that we can move forward on in collaboration with the county or with the state or with other community-based organizations, and also be transparent about what's outside of our control.

Yeah, just to follow up on that, you're right.

There's pretty much anything anymore is called public health.

You know, some communities are declaring gun violence a public health crisis, so it's huge, it's huge.

And what I what I love about what this process um accomplished um is that the community told us what the top four are, you know, and um they they had a quite a detailed process, and they said this is this is where we want you to focus, you know, to get started.

Um's in our court.

That's great.

Um, you referenced uh kind of a the sneak peek, I think uh page 18 in the actual blueprint where it's sort of the first look at uh you know one strategy in each category to advance, and then you know, so resources, workforce belonging across all four of those different subjects, and it again it's kind of exciting to see some of those first, you know, first looks at maybe what some of the actions might be.

When do you think you know in the timeline might be the point where we might see what the first kind of next version of that implementation plan is?

You know, the the next um because again to me that's it's where the rubber hits the road, it's the part that's really exciting is like what are we actually doing?

Um, when do you think that we might just see that?

You know, our goal was to was to start much sooner on that part than July.

Yeah, um, but because of of budget discussions, that's why we're we're pausing just a little bit.

That said, we're still gonna keep working on this.

So I would hope that that by the time we come back in January of 2027 that we'll have some initial um initial uh I want to keep calling them solutions instead of specific measurable objectives, but solutions that we can share with you.

Okay.

And last question is um, given all that is um again, these are big bold, some of these are big bold goals.

Um, you know, how confident are you that you know we're gonna be able to move the needle on at least some of these, if not all these?

This is Berkeley, seriously.

I've never been in a community, and I've said this when the federal budget cuts were were raining down upon us, and I'm like, oh my gosh, how am I even gonna run a public health department?

I said, I know if public health puts a call out to our community for help that they will step up.

And so I'm confident if we do this right and we let the community roll up their sleeves and get involved and help figure out what it's gonna be that that we will move the needle.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much.

It's really great work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Other questions from my council colleagues?

I have a few questions as well.

Um, so thank you all very much.

I really appreciate just this report and everyone that that did work.

I know that these these reports can take a very long time and involve a lot, a lot of work.

So thank you.

And I especially appreciate the community engagement that that you have intertwined throughout this process.

I think that's really essential.

And you're right, our community does demand that of us.

So I so I have some questions.

I'm curious about what is the difference between the community health assessment in 2025 and the health status report, which I think you mentioned was the 2018.

I just there's a lot of different reports and plans and things.

So the last health status report that our department put out in 2018 really focused on quantitative data and um data that's collected both locally and from other um state and regional reporting sources and some of them also nationwide.

And the previous practice was that we put out a health status report, I think about every four or five years, that again really focused on the quantitative aspects of the community's health.

The health assessment is um more focused.

Well, it does take into account the quantitative data, but it also um engages the qualitative aspect.

So the informant interviews from community leaders, the focus groups, the community survey, all of that helped to really um build a more comprehensive story and picture of our health.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's helpful to understand.

Um, and then I was also curious.

Um, in the past, the city prioritized addressing chronic diseases like high blood pressure and heart disease, um, due to the serious racial and geographic uh disparities between communities of color in South and West Berkeley versus the hills.

Is there a reason that this data and the strategies are are not included in this plan you are you when you say the are you referring to the four priority areas or um, no, I think that in the past they they would show like disparities by these different diseases by sort of the racial breakdown and also geographic breakdown.

I I think it's in here for cancer, maybe, but yeah, I'd have to go back and look at it where that would be located is in the community health assessment.

And so that will be populating, we'll be bringing that forward.

But in terms of the priority areas, um, it doesn't mean we're not gonna work on that, but it just wasn't one of the main the main areas that they identified.

I see.

But having that if you're referring to having that data available, that data will be available.

It will be available on the on this on this dashboard that you're showing us.

Okay, great.

Okay, I have some more comments, but I'll save them for later.

Thank you.

Um, I what I want to do now is open it up for um public comment.

Is there any public comment on this item?

Thank you.

Hi, good evening, Mayor Ishi and Council.

I'm Andy Katz, I'm chair of the community health commission, and uh speaking as an individual because our commission has uh not had a chance to uh meet since this uh went live, uh, but I would like to share that the um, you know, we we've we've received some interim presentations and we've all seen that the pillars of housing, community safety, behavioral health, uh, and uh environmental health, they bring new insights, and we should all take note and reimagine what kinds of uh solutions in the spirit of community prevention and empowerment we can have uh as a result of this work.

But let's think about what chip is and what it isn't in this uh format.

Uh health in all policies is really exciting approach to take, and I think that's what this is doing is looking at really uh big issues that affect all of us and how and highlighting how they affect our health.

Um there's a big value to aligning with the future of public health program.

We can access funding through the plans.

There's a lot of benefits to the way the city's engaged with with this, uh, but the CHIP is so high level here.

Moreover it it falls short of addressing uh the strategic plan needs for the public health division.

Um so this leaves me with a deep concern that if CHIP would be intended to address prevention of chronic disease, prevention of infectious disease, uh it's it's clearly not doing that, as many of you have have noted in your questions.

Uh it's critical for the city of Berkeley to improve and maintain programs that promote public health through peer-to-peer education, closing gaps in access to care, direct services like public health nursing, and an iterative assessment with a new kind of results-based accountability.

The city needs to move forward with that as well.

So, how will chip implementation be positioned to be successful across these pillars that are not traditionally implemented by HHGS?

I'll wrap up, I'll wrap up with one more.

You can actually, if you have additional comments, you're welcome to send them to us here.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks.

Good afternoon, Council.

Um, Talz Baptiste, community health commissioner.

Um, I'd like to firstly second um what my commission colleague just um said, and also to say that um the city's been given a mandate on this this CHIP report.

Um, I think it it fairly concisely spells out um what my fellow community members have want around community health.

I mean that these four pillars that we've been given um perfectly emblemize what our city is facing right now.

Um, so also um the city of Berkeley now has both the data and the mandate to act.

The Berkeley Wellness Blueprint makes clear that life expectancy in our city differs by as much as 13 years depending on neighborhood.

91 years in the Berkeley Hills and just 78 in South and West Berkeley.

That disparity is not accidental, it is a predictable result of housing instability, environmental justice, behavioral health gaps, and unequal neighborhood investment identified in the CHA, the community health assessment and elevated in this community health improvement plan.

At the same time, California's future public health framework warns that fragmented categorical and historically underfunded systems cannot meet modern health challenges without stable investment and workforce, data infrastructure, emergency preparedness, communications, and community partnership.

Berkeley cannot adopt the language of equity without committing to the structural investments that make equity real.

This community health improvement plan explicitly states that words and reports alone do not create change without accountability or dedicated funding.

Therefore, I urge the city council and city manager to formally align budget, interdepartmental work plans, and performance metrics with the CHIP's two central goals closing the expectancy, the life expectancy gaps and increasing community power.

That means targeting resources to the neighborhoods with the worst outcomes, as we've seen in South and West Berkeley through the CHIP.

Um investing in the rest of my comments.

Thank you.

I know there's lots to talk about here.

It's it's challenging.

Um do we have any other public comment?

Okay.

Is there any public comment online for the community health improvement plan?

There's one hand raised that uh that's Matt.

Matt, you should be able to unmute.

Super.

Hi, everybody.

Um, my name's Matt.

I uh was part of the community steering committee that um was uh on this trip.

Um, and I just wanted to point out just a couple of things that may be helpful for our council members or those that are not as involved with public health to begin with.

I know that a lot of there was a lot of interest in talking about how to improve mortality from Alzheimer's disease.

And there are a lot of things that are in this report um that I think push towards um having better primordial uh prevention.

Um, for example, diabetes is a high risk factor of stroke.

Diabetes is causal of ischemic heart disease, diabetes is causal of hypertensive heart disease, like all of these different things that are pushed at the very top of the city of Berkeley's um mortality.

Um, and you know, all of those things are associated or causal themselves of Alzheimer's disease, um, and other pieces of this are very, very interwoven within all of these things.

And I can say, as somebody that works for the Department of Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital, that um if somebody is unable to have housing, uh their diabetes outcomes are going to be far, far worse.

And so I think a lot of these are addressing what are called like primordial prevention levels.

So not only should the implementation of that look really, really strong at that, but also at the public health programming that is kind of working on uh, you know, mitigating those risks.

So just kind of wanted to put that out there for folks that um aren't as familiar with the way that a lot of public health diseases sort of implement.

Thank you.

Okay, all right.

Well, I will move us on to comments then.

Um we have a comment from Councilmember Humbert.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I want to begin by expressing my uh immense gratitude to you, Director Gilman, to you, Deputy Director Bustamante, and other members of the HHCS team, Janice Janice Chin or Janice Chin, Kelly Knox, um, Patricia Zielcita, and Catherine Roseman.

You know, I apologize.

There are too many other people uh to name, but I also want to thank our partners at JSI and especially members of the community steering committee.

Um, the Berkeley Wellness Blueprint is a very candid document, and that's a great strength.

The 13-year life expectancy gap between the Berkeley Hills, my part of the town, or part of at least part of the Berkeley Hills and South and West Berkeley is a stark and necessary finding that should anchor every health and equity conversation we have going forward.

And I've heard other people say that in different words.

The four priority areas housing, environmental health, behavioral health, and community safety, those make all the sense in the world to me.

Housing being number one, reflect what residents actually told us and the goals of closing that gap and building genuine community partnership, I think are the right ones.

I'm particularly glad that the plan emphasizes prevention and cross-sector collaboration because health is made in neighborhoods, not just in cities.

Um, but we've got to be clear-eyed about the constraints ahead.

The budget environment is severe.

Um, that's an understatement.

Federal funding, um, that our most vulnerable residents depend on, is under threat.

That's also an understatement.

And the community organizations this plan relies on are absorbing those same shocks, uh, will not be able to act on everything, or maybe even most things in this document in the near term.

And I think saying that we can is potentially a disservice to the community members who invested their trust in this process.

What we can and I think we have to do is use this framework actively where we have key decision points, such as in budget decisions, that's probably number one, departmental work plans, grant applications, equally important.

Um perhaps more importantly, public safety and roadway safety.

And I'm glad that that showed up in the report.

Um, and I think it's more than just walk pedestrian safety and bike safety, it's public safety in general.

Um, I'm a little uncertain how we're gonna build out the accountability framework in our in the context of our limited constrained resources, but to the extent we actualize this plan, I think that needs to be a top priority.

I'd ask Director Gilman and HHCS to come back to council or the city manager with a concrete accountability framework, even a minimal one that reflects our current resource reality to the CSC members here today.

I hope you will stay engaged and hold us to the maximum extent, hold us to this to the maximum extent feasible.

So, again, a huge thank you.

This is a really important document.

Um I look forward to this plan being another guiding light in our decision, decision making as we work to overcome these health challenges and disparities that just should be, you know, are absolutely um uh a prime priority of mine.

Continue to be shocking.

Every time I see them, I you know it makes me very sad.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Tracub.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you again, Director Gilman and Deputy Director Bustamante for your presentation and to all who made this report possible to many people to list, so I'm not going to.

I'm so glad that you emphasized the importance of the report being actionable.

I look forward to along with my colleagues on the council to engaging with it more deeply in the coming months and collaborating with you and your team and my colleagues, particularly my well as chair of the Health and Life Enrichment and Equity Committee, to uh look at uh how existing policies do or do not bring the report's recommendations into meaningful effect, and where they do not what is needed within our community um through meaningful uh policy um and legislative uh direction.

Uh I will note also was that it wasn't five minutes.

You're gifted some time from Council Member Tower.

Oh, thank you.

That was that could not have possibly been five minutes.

But I am almost complete.

Um I will note, and uh I I want to echo uh Councilmember Hambert's comments.

Uh of course, uh one of the guiding principles is to balance ambition with feasibility.

And we have a tough situation on our hands.

I will note uh, for instance, just around environmental factors, which was uh or environmental solutions such as tree planting.

Um I know that we have lost some needed uh grant funding for that.

Um, how do we backfill or are we able to uh and so within establishing a long-term cycle, uh, the uh the final guiding principle uh laid out, even though this is not intended to be an advocacy document, and I recognize it's not to the extent that this is a requirement by the state, I think uh we would be remiss not to also tell the state this is what needs to be funded in order for us to effectuate uh these goals.

So I I know we have uh another another agenda item tonight around legislative priorities um and uh some of this may come up, but I I really uh given that uh every jurisdiction and ours is no different is trust into this very challenging environment, especially right now where we have to do a lot more with a lot less.

I think we need to be able to use any and every lever of power and opportunity to tell um the state what we need in order to pursue the goals of this plan.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Other comments from my colleagues.

Yes, Councilmember or Vice Mayor Luna Para.

Thank you.

I just wanted to thank staff and thank the community members who have been involved in this process.

This was a great presentation.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Okay.

Um, I have a couple other questions that came up for me.

Um as we were talking about Alzheimer's and dementia, something that I was wondering about is it is it perhaps a very high cause, partially because people are living longer, so they're more likely to have Alzheimer's and dementia?

Because unless it's early onset, then typically folks would be later on in their years.

Can you speak to that at all?

I'm sorry.

Uh we can get back to you on that, but I would I would need to um consult with our public health officer.

Yeah, no, that makes sense.

Thank you.

Um, and and I think similarly, I was as I was looking at the geographic information.

One of the things that I was thinking about is like, yes, of course, those disparities are quite stark, and I think that that is something that's really concerning to all of us.

Many of us have commented on it.

And I also think that typically, you know, houses that are up in the hills cost more, you know, houses that you know are in the flats cost less, meaning most likely that people who have more funding would live up in the hills, they would therefore have access to you know better health care, you know, gym memberships, you know, but better just care generally for themselves, but healthier produce.

And so, you know, of course, there are structural things that systemic things that we need to be looking at our city that might be impacting the geographic um health or age life expense expectancy disparities, and um and some of those things are going to be sort of embedded in just based on who can afford to live in these different places.

So I just want us to think about that as we're thinking about those discrepancies.

Um, okay, and then and then also I know many of these challenges that we've had are challenges that we've had for many, many years and are, you know, not unique, of course, to our city, but are all around the country and the world.

Um, I'm wondering are there strategies that we've deployed that have had an impact on these numbers on improving them?

You know, are there things that have helped us kind of see a jump, or is this sort of like a steady progress situation?

I think the way that I would look at it is more you know, some of these are lagging indicators that that you know you might not see for a few years, you know, as we look at those.

Um, I think the the thing that's new that we've seen better results on is is breaking down the silos.

Um, and you know, um, you know, one of the examples that I use is we may at times, and I've seen this in my department, where we'll have three different city departments interacting with a family, um, mental health side, environmental health side, um, and we're not we're not coordinating care.

So breaking down the silos as we try to move these interventions forward is a big part of what we need to do.

Um, it's also it's also being better fiscal stewards.

Um so when what the magic happens is when you can get primary care, um, mental health, behavioral health, the social net system all working together.

Um, that's that's where you can start to see the real movement.

I love that.

I think that's really important because it's really about being more efficient with the resources and the systems and the people we have in place already.

And um, and I think that that's important across all levels of our government.

So I'm really glad to hear about breaking down those silos, and um, and especially given as everyone has commented on already, but just our concerns about our budget deficit, um, 32 million dollars is really significant.

And um, you know, I don't want us to, I think Paul has said this to me before, our city manager, that you can't you shouldn't be doing uh more with less.

It's kind of really like we need to be adjusting and right sizing and making sure that we're being realistic so that we also don't have burnout because I am particularly concerned about the people who do the work in our communities and serve these families and see like year after year, you know, I want them to feel like they're seeing results and um that we're actually able to serve people and and help them get better health outcomes.

So I think when I I see this information, you know, what I worry about is just not having enough resources and not being able to like kind of wrap our arms around these massive problems because they are really big problems.

Um so I appreciate knowing also that there's kind of a process moving forward that you all have to continue to engage the community and figure out like what are these areas that we can be um better collaborating, connecting with the community and breaking down those silos.

Um and that was one of the other comments I was gonna make, highlighting the insight that more transparency and collaboration are needed to increase trust and effectiveness of health improvement efforts.

Um transparency, building trust, community engagement are all really important to me.

And I think that again is something important throughout our city.

It's something we've been trying to do on council, even with each other, just you know, connecting with each other and building relationships.

And the the focus on housing, environmental health, behavioral health, community safety make a lot of sense.

And housing in particular stands out to me.

Um when I saw last year's community health assessment that approximately 60% of African Americans and 60% of Latinx households in Berkeley pay more than 30% of their income for rent.

Um it's really clear that addressing housing instability and affordability remains a high priority, and that is a huge priority for for me, and I know my council, many of my council members as well.

Stable, safe housing that's free of environmental risks like mold, pollution have a direct impact on health count outcomes.

I really also am concerned about people not understanding the their legal um rights around this in particular.

I think so many people that I speak with, especially young people are afraid to call out when there are these concerns about living in an unsafe housing situation, and so I do also want us to keep in mind making sure people understand their rights and their ability to to get health inspections or you know, inspections on the on their apartments if they have things like mold.

I've even talked to my own staff about that, advocating for themselves in that way.

Um, and then I'm really glad to see the plan focus on prevention, especially when it comes to mental health.

Um, and I'm also really concerned about the shift in mental health and behavioral health funding away from prevention and early intervention.

Um it's just it is concerning to me that some of these shifts that we're seeing, especially from the federal government.

I don't want that to impact how we're doing things here, um, and that's really essential.

So just some thoughts that I have on on your report, and just really again, thank you all so much for taking the time to come and present this to us and also to keep us updated because I think that's really important.

I think this really helps ground us in, you know, really what's happening with people's everyday lives and how our different policies are potentially impacting their wellness and stability.

So thank you all.

I believe that is our final item on here, and we um and we don't need to do anything to receive it, but I do want to make sure that we acknowledge um the steering committee, so I'll pass it back over to you all.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Um so at this um time we wanted to uh recognize and appreciate uh the 10 members of our community steering committee who were so critical to uh the CHAW and the CHIP development process.

And I'm going to read off names, um, but essentially the certificate um is appreciating these members for their dedication in creating the community health assessment and the improvement plan and for their service in creating healthier Berkeley communities, as Tanya reads off names of individual members, if you wouldn't mind stepping up to the front, um, and then we'll be ready to um to take a picture.

So I'd like to call up Mikai Freeman, if they're here, Michael Rodriguez, Caitlin Cole.

Penelope Collins.

Matt and I know he's not here because he spoke earlier via Zoom.

Thank you, Matt.

Israel Nicodemos Rocío Almaguer Andrade, Isabella Ledesma, and JW Fry.

Thank you, everyone.

I'll say my call on behalf of the time.

I think we gotta get more people in it.

Yeah, you have to find our JSI here.

Yeah, I think.

All over that.

Okay.

Thank you, everyone.

And with that, is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Second.

There we go.

Second.

All right.

And as long as there's no opposition, I will have us all marked as eyes, and we will be adjourned.

All right.

Okay.

Recording in progress.

Hello.

Oh, there it goes.

It's working now.

Very good.

All right.

Hi, everyone.

Good evening.

I'm calling to order the Berkeley City Council meeting.

Today is Tuesday, February 24th, 2026, and it is six oh three PM.

Clerk, can you please take the roll?

Okay.

Uh Councilmember Castorwani is absent.

Bartlett here.

Oh, Keith.

Here.

Here.

Luna Bara.

Here.

Umbert present and Mayor Ishi.

Here.

Okay, quorum is present.

Very good.

Thank you very much.

So on our ceremonial calendar, we have a number of different things.

Um, the first being that today, well, February twenty twenty-six is Heart Month.

So the American Heart Association made a request, and I believe Mary might be here.

Ah, come on up.

Oh, I'm sorry, Maya, misread it.

Come on up.

Welcome.

Commemorating American Heart Month, 2026, whereas cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death worldwide with three hundred and fifty thousand cardiac arrests occurring yearly outside of hospitals in the United States, resulting in approximately ten percent of people surviving.

And whereas often the first people to witness out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are family members, making this the first and most crucial link for survival.

And whereas immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation can double or even triple a person's chance of survival, yet only about 41% of people who experience cardiac arrest receive immediate CPR from someone nearby, and fewer than twelve percent receive aid from an automated external defibrillator, AD before advanced health arrives, and whereas for adults and teens, hands-on, hands hands-only CPR, calling nine one-one and pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest can double or triple the chance of survival while infants and children require CPR with rescue breaths to restore oxygen and circulation has set a bold goal to double survival from out of hospital cardiac arrest by 2030 through its national nation of lifesavers initiative.

And now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Adina Ishi, mayor of the city of Berkeley, do hereby declare February 2026 to be American Heart Month.

Would you like to say a few words?

Thank you.

Um, so hi, my name is Maya Gertsen, and I'm a senior development director with the American Heart Association.

Thank you so much for recognizing February as American Heart Month this year, and for supporting our mission of saving lives from heart disease and stroke.

This year, we're once again focused on building a nation of lifesavers and spreading the powerful message that you are the first responder until help arrives, so that all of us can be prepared to react to a cardiac emergency by calling 911 and knowing how to perform CPR.

As the mayor mentioned, over 350,000 people experience out of hospital cardiac arrest every year in this country, and 90% of those are fatal.

So we have a bold goal to um double cardiac arrest survival by the year 2030.

So as a Berkeley resident, as a parent of two BUSD students, and a member of the Heart Association's Bay Area team, I urge the people of Berkeley to learn CPR.

I can I learned, and so can you.

We've also been proud to work in coalition with community partners to support the passage of Measure Z last November to extend the city of Berkeley's sugary drink tax, and we look forward to continuing to reinforce the city's public health efforts.

The American Heart Association gratefully accepts this proclamation and Berkeley's continued support of its work.

Thank you.

As a former soda tax commissioner, I appreciate your help on that.

And I'm also someone who learned adult, child and infant CPR, so very important tools that we should all have.

Um who knows, we may need it someday.

Um adjournment in memory that was requested by Councilmember Bartless's office.

And so I will pass it over to him so he can read um the proclamation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

And I see Johnna's family's here, Mary.

How are you?

Good to see you.

And my neighbor and my constant um co-creator, if you will.

Like she was many people and our and our center together these last nine years.

And um really sad to see her go.

And um she's in my prayers, and so are you.

We talked the last time.

Right.

Miss her a lot.

And Johnna's name.

And uh it's not in here, but let's just say for the record, Gianna was Italian nobility.

She was a duchess or a countess.

Which one is it?

She was a countess, and the title was in her, we have different fathers and her I'm potato famine Irish, I used to tease her, and uh the her family title was granted in the 1100s, so it's a very old Italian home family.

Wow.

Amazing.

I mean a life and legacy of Gianna Ranusi.

Born whereas born October 30th, 1950 in Los Angeles, California, Gianna led a life defined by creativity, cultural exchange, public service, and deep community engagement.

And whereas she received her early education from our Lady of Good Council Catholic Church and School, spent her formative years on her family's ranch in Montana, earned a degree in Italian literature from the University of Montana.

Then studying abroad in Taiwan.

She taught English and completed Montessori training, which she was on my daughter, by the way, uh in Italy under Maria Montessori's final student, as Maria Montessori's final student.

And whereas she made Berkeley her home by cultivating a life rooted in creativity, travel, and entrepreneurship, although a transformative jewelry business that connected artisans from China, Guatemala, Cuba, Algeria, Italy, and beyond to Berkeley.

And whereas Johnna became a final vital steward of Berkeley's cultural life with her work on Telegraph Avenue and the Telegraph Area Business Association.

And whereas committed to Berkeley's civic engagement by serving on the board of the Lacant Homeown Association and LeCont Neighborhood Association as president for many years, which we know, and the Parks, Rec and Waterfront Commissions, and whereas Jana passed away on January 3rd, 2026, leaving behind a legacy of joy, creativity, service, and global connection, and a survivor's sister Mary Cunningham, extended family of Bologna, Italy, and her many friends across the world.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Mayor Adina is she, mayor of the city of Berkeley honors and celebrates the life and legacy of Jana Renuzzi, expresses deep gratitude for her extraordinary contributions to the cultural, artistic, and civic life of our community, and extends heartfelt condolences to her family, friends, and all those whose lives she enriched.

Johnna Renuzzi's life reminds us of the power of creativity, cultural exchange, and joyful service in building a vibrant and compassionate community.

You're here.

Okay.

Thank you all very much.

I appreciate you all being here and listening, especially these stories about people's lives.

I think it's it's really important to know who's in our community and these people, you know, who impact us every day.

Councilmember Trago has also asked that we take a moment of silence tonight to mark the lives lost in the four years since Ukraine uh was invaded.

Today is the anniversary of the uh war in Ukraine.

And so if we can also just take a moment of silence as well.

Thank you all.

That concludes our ceremonial matters for this evening.

I will see if the city manager has any comments.

No comments, Madam Mayor.

Thank you.

And um I will now see if our city auditor has any comments this evening.

Okay, good evening.

Uh mayor and council, I just want to wish everyone a happy lunar new year.

And tonight, I wanted to just give a brief update on item 24, the restaurant inspections audit follow-up.

Of our eight recommendations, two are now fully implemented.

So thank you so much for that work.

This includes a recommendation for the division to create a plan to ensure timely response to complaints involving alleged foodborne illness.

The division has strengthened its policy for addressing these complaints by clarifying the turnaround time and staff responsibilities to ensure complaints are received and prioritized within one business day.

Four recommendations are now partly implemented.

And one highlight is that the division is now using program-specific codes to track revenues and expenditures related to food facility inspections.

During our audit, we found that that information was not able to be tracked because of the way that the system was designed.

So our team will reassess the recommendation once uh that report is available in 2026, later in 2026.

Another highlight is that in response to our recommendation about updating the restaurant inspection's data, the division has strengthened its requirements for data management and monitoring, and the division estimates their new database will be live in June 2026.

So I'm really looking forward to that.

In our next follow-up, we will check whether they can produce an accurate list of facilities that prior that is prioritized by the last inspection date.

And the division has also taken steps in response to developing a plan to start window placards according to the division.

Their recent fee study helps to clarify the resources needed for this placarding program.

So I'm really excited that we can start looking at one day having placards in Berkeley.

And uh the training has been completed, so they can they can help support the design of an evidence-based plaque reading program, but that will need additional time and and effort in ensuring that the program is the best fit for Berkeley.

And finally, the division um has not yet uploaded the inspections data online after it was taken down.

And they are estimating that the data will be back online in summer of 2026.

So I just want to thank the environmental health division for this update.

Um, and thank you very much.

And I believe there's um there's another one of my reports that will hopefully get moved to action so we can discuss um performance measures.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Um we will now take public comment on non-agenda matters.

Five cards, the car in.

You can come up speak in any order.

You'll have one minute per person.

Uh Margot Murtaugh, Stephen Alpert, James Arnold, Celeste Marks, Rhonda Gruska.

Your name?

So there folks, if you heard your name called.

Can stand up.

Good evening.

I'm Dr.

Stephen Elpert.

Last night the council voted to deny an appeal by two local building trades to reject a proposal, the 20-story project at 2425 Durant.

The basis for that appeal was that developer Mark Rhodes and Laconia Development assorted the concessions and state density bonus law permit them to bypass Berkeley's hard hat ordinance.

That measure passed in May of 2023, requires developers of large projects to provide health insurance, apprenticeship training, and fair prevailing rate pay to construction workers.

Lawyers for the trade councils argued that allowing developers to bypass local standards and was a misuse of density bonus law, and that no other developer statewide has previously used the vague concessions in density bonus law to negate local building standards and pay less to construction workers.

Council members all proudly proclaimed that you are pro-housing, but by your actions yesterday and said you clearly demonstrate you are pro-development.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Rhonda Grushka.

I'm here to serve Councilmember Blackaby with an intent to recall notice.

I'm sorry, but uh public comment isn't supposed to be used to address a specific council member.

It's meant to be used to address the council at large.

So if you have a comment.

I'll let you all know that I'm here to serve a recall, intent to recall.

I have a copy for the city clerk.

I have a copy for the council member.

Um, today is the 24th of February.

Um, my manner of service is in person.

Um, I have my name, I have my address, my zip code, the state, and the time and date of submission.

Let's look at the clock here.

It looks like it's about what would everyone say?

62?

Um, so anyway, just trying to dot all the I's cross all the T's because I have been here before.

Um, and just making sure I'm following proper protocol.

So that's why I'm here.

Um, and that's why I'm speaking tonight, to make sure there's no confusion about why I'm here.

So thank you very much.

I think my hands are.

Okay, thank you.

Did you did you get that, Rose?

I just want to make sure you could hear someone was ceding their time.

She gave her name to me, Lola Zerkley.

Right, she gave it.

What?

You're in your mid.

Yes, yes.

Sorry, it can be hard to hear from this far away, so go ahead.

Um, hello.

My name is Lola Zerpley.

I'm a student at UC Berkeley, as well as a resident of Southside Berkeley, living at the intersection of Derby and Warring, also known as Zachary's Corner, named after the young boy who sadly died walking across the intersection in 2009, 17 years ago.

Since 2011, there have been 11 reported accidents involving that intersection, including pedestrians being hit by a car.

One of which was in 2024, it was an 84-year-old man hit by an AC transit bus.

On Tuesday, February 10th, I was hit by a car walking in the crosswalk across that very same intersection.

Hit at an intersection that is known to the city of Berkeley as high injury.

Yet there's been nothing done to fix it.

I'm sorry.

I understand that there have been some plans to change that intersection.

That would be done at the end of 2027, making it 18 years since Zachary was hit.

I'm gonna continue.

If that's okay.

Someone is seeding you some time.

Go ahead.

Okay, thank you.

Um, giving a full other year of opportunity for a person to be hit when we fully know that at this point it is not an if but a when.

And when that occurs, it will fall in the city's hands and it will be the city's fault.

Because by now it is very clear that none of these accidents should have happened.

If the city had put in even a blinking pedestrian light in the meantime, and at the very least repainted the crosswalk that has now been faded for many years.

Then accidents, including mine, could have been prevented.

I'm lucky and I understand that.

I'm lucky to be up here angry, angry that I have immense back pain and multiple X-rays and MRI show that I have spinal invertebrate damage, that I will have to deal with and pay for.

I know that I'm lucky to be alive, but being alive should not be the bare minimum expectation when crossing the street in your own neighborhood.

I'm angry that the city that I love allowed an accident that should not have happened.

I'm not asking you, I'm telling you, there needs to be an immediate change.

Whether that be a pedestrian blinking light or something more, but it needs to be done now and not in a year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm so sorry that happened to you, and I really appreciate you being here and sharing that with us today.

James Arnold is the.

And you can go to my website, Animal Rights 74.com.

And you can learn about why you're not supposed to do that.

You got a city of Berkeley and you got a damn government.

And you should say we don't want no more animal killers.

We got enough animal killers in the city of Berkeley.

And you open a new restaurant in Berkeley, you open a vegetarian uh hamburger spot, veggie burger spot.

And you get with it because people can't change their diets on their own.

They need scientists to change what's in the uh food for it, they get sick, changing their diets on their own.

They listen to Chat GPT title, change they die and they get uh iron deficiency, they go blind or they uh get other health problems, whatever.

And I'm telling you, are you government's supposed to step up and uh regulate the uh animal killer out of existence, replace it with uh uh ethical food.

Thank you.

Uh, there's one online commenter, and that's a phone number ending in 211.

Hi, good evening.

So, our company manager handed you some paper today.

Please read it all.

A bit of update.

Well, obviously, Diane Early wanted the place rented by black tenants on African American tennis only, which is what cabin with the help of uh council men balled it.

That's shamful.

That's shamful.

I went to sort of set university during the horrible time when black people treated like no words.

So at the same time, we're hiring a new attorney and we're using our claim against the city for 1 million.2 to 5 million dollars.

This does not belong to this city, city of Berkeley, City of Freedom.

I was there in 1970s, 1960s and 70s, during the free speech moment.

Shame a new councilman that ignored us.

Shame on the mayor again who had this.

She went against his wish and demand, she also went in her boss, Liam Carlon.

It was very good man.

Liam Rowland was very good man.

Uh, there's another one.

Uh Maria Sol.

Yes, thank you very much.

And I think we need a moment of silence to just breathe.

It's all that we're trying to do, given the disparity and complexity and diversity of this beautiful community.

But I'm wanting to address housing, because while we heard last week of the night didn't really indicate to me the affordability, money for a blanket.

I'm really most concerned about the people that I was with today that are already in buildings that are being neglected by management companies like the Howard Mabel and Alcatraz and Sacramento.

Their elevators have been down for a month.

The people in wheelchairs are trapped, and they can't get out.

So let's take care of what we thanks, Maria.

Alright, thank you.

Um that was just seven speakers.

We do have a couple more cards in here.

Um we have uh, and this is only for people who haven't spoken already.

Uh Lola Zirpoly.

She spoke.

She is okay.

Uh Richard Woods.

So that that concludes non-agenda public comments.

Thank you.

Okay, we will move on now to our consent calendar.

Um, so at this time, if there are any council members who have comments on consent, can you please press your button?

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Lunapara.

Thank you.

Um item 19 resolution urging Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz to enact an eviction moratorium to prevent displacement during the ongoing ICBP terror campaign.

Um, I want to thank my co-sponsors, Councilmember Bartlett, Trigob, and Blackbee for their support.

Um, and Board Chair Sally Alpert for his partnership in drafting the initial item that we passed at the four by four committee.

Um we introduced this item at the urging of members of the Minneapolis and St.

Paul City Councils, uh, which both unanimously passed their own resolutions in January.

Essentially, eviction moratoriums in the state of Minnesota operate differently than in California, where the state has to authorize an eviction moratorium for it to be put in place.

Um I would also like to give 200 to items 16 and 17, respectively.

Thank you to those authors.

Um, and I also want to mark that February 19th is the day of remembrance of the internment of over 120,000 Japanese Americans under Executive Order 9066, signed by President Roosevelt in 1942.

And it's important to take a moment to honor um those who were stripped of their rights at this time.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Appreciate you bringing in the ancestors.

Um, can we move on to Councilmember Blackby, please?

Thanks, Madam Mayor.

Um, as the auditor mentioned, um, I'd ask colleagues if we could move item 25, which was the information report on performance metrics, and move that as the first item on the action calendar.

So if I had support from a couple of colleagues to do that, I appreciate that.

Um I will.

I support.

I think that's three total, but so we're good.

Thank you.

Um, look forward to talking about that in a moment.

Um, I'd like to add uh 250 from our office account to the Water Side Workshops Community Spring Fleeing and item 16.

Um thank you for bringing that forward to uh Mary She and Councilmember Taplin.

Um and then on item 17, similarly 250 for the Berkeley Unified School District of Corps' historical study.

Thanks to Councilmember Bartlett for bringing that forward.

Um and then brief comment on um information items 22 and 23, which was the investment returns on the city portfolio from Q4 and Q1.

Um just note, and we've been having some discussions um in the budget committee and in other places about um you know ways to um identify uh additional revenue at the same time we're heading into the sort of major budget crunch and had some conversations with finance staff.

I'll note that um the reports mentioned that our returns about 117 basis points in the recent quarter, 127 basis points in the Q4 quarter below the state benchmark.

Uh partially be based on the duration of what we hold in the portfolio, but also I think some policies that we've set as a council in past years that also constrain what the finance team um can do, and so I look forward to looking at that and as a potential source of additional revenue if we can again sort of uh give the finance team more tools to invest our portfolio carefully, but also uh in a way that's gonna generate a a larger return over time.

So I think that's gonna be an important thing that we look at in the budget committee and in other places as we go forward.

Uh and that's my comments.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councilmember.

Moving on to Councilmember Taplin.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Good evening, everyone.

On item 17, I would like to be recorded as relinquishing $500.

And I request uh to be added as a co-sponsor if council member or is amenable.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Um moving on to Councilmember Traegu.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

On item 16.

I wish to relinquish 200 from my D13 account for Waterside Workshops Communities Spring Fling.

And thank the mayor for bringing forward this item.

On item 17.

I wish to again relinquish 250 from my G13 account to support the BUSD historical study.

And would be honored to be added in as a co-sponsor with the permission of the author.

And my gratitude for this item.

On item 18, I would like to thank the land use housing and economic development committee, the four by four committee, and my co-sponsors, Councilmember Bartlett and Councilmember Taplin for this referral, which would remove an on-site manager exemption loophole for certain multifamily properties that are adjacent to each other and or share the same common area, which has been an issue in some properties, not just around habitability and level of services provided to the tenants, but also has at times become led to trash being uh pulled outside without any collection because there is no on-site manager, which has become an ISOR at best and sometimes has led to code enforcement in actions in such properties.

It was an honor to be a co-sponsor to this item.

And those are my comments.

Thanks so much.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Moving on to Councilmember Bartlett.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I'd like to um contribute $250 to item 16, the Waterside Workshops, Spring Fling.

Uh thank you for bringing that up.

Uh Madam Mayor and uh Councilmember Taplin.

It's a lot of fun.

Uh and then uh like to um uh thank uh council, like thank the vice mayor for your item around the eviction moratorium uh request uh in Minnesota.

I think evictions are bad everywhere all the time.

Um that's one good chance to put it out there in the ether.

Uh, I'd like to thank everyone for item 17.

This is the um this is the the BUST effort to to achieve a reparation sort of framework.

And so this this um comes with because people are asking for support to help the college kids do the research on it um on history part.

So happy to help.

Uh, and it does and it is historically, it's close to home.

Uh, because I gotta tell you um it's with with great tragedy that uh I must tell you that uh we did fail in delivering reparations um that this office authored in this council passed um a couple of years ago.

It is not happening, and or I'm unable to deliver that.

Uh at least I can support our neighbors in the BUST in uh making it happen.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councilmember.

Councilmember O'Keefe.

Oh, I'd like to be recorded uh as donating 250 dollars to item 16 and also to item 17.

Thank you very much.

Um council member, oh, sorry, the parliamentarian is glitching.

I'm gonna go with Councilmember Humbert.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, I'd like to donate uh 250 dollars on item 16 to the wonderful waterside workshops for their community spring fling.

They do such good work.

Um, thank you to uh the mayor and council member taplin for for bringing this one.

On 17, um 250 dollars also um of our um office budget to the uh to supporting the research for the uh historical study.

I think that's very important, and then number 19.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Lunapara for authoring this and and to all the co-sponsors.

I think it's critically critically important to provide some relief to tenants in Minneapolis in the wake of the terror campaign.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Uh speaking of going back to Vice Mayor Lunapart.

Thank you.

I actually I wanted to change my um my discretionary fund donation to item 17 to 500.

Please.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you all so much.

Um I have a few comments as well.

Um I really want to express my appreciation to city staff for working in partnership with the Association of Bay Area Area Governments, ABAG, and the San Francisco Estuary Partnership SFEP in partnership with the cities of Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, and Oakland to secure two million two hundred and forty thousand dollars, of which two hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars will be for Berkeley over two and a half years for the East Bay Crescent sub-regional vulnerability assessment and shoreline adaptation planning project.

Adaptation to sea level rise is a challenge, and we must face across that we must face across all of our jurisdictions.

So always like to highlight when staff bring in more funding into our city.

Um and of course, I want to thank the Waterside Workshop and for all the work that they do to support our community, and thank you to all the council members who contributed to item 16, their spring fling, and of course to Councilmember Taplin who um brought this item with me and and also it's of course in his district.

Um thank you to Councilmember Bartlett for allowing me also to be on item number 17, which is the BUSD historical study, and my office is relinquishing 250 dollars to this study.

And um, this is particularly important since I was on the BUSD reparations task force and was involved in the community group that from 2020 to the time where we actually got the uh the task force uh advocated for that task force to exist, and one of the um parts of the report, the request that came out of it was this historical study.

So it's very exciting to see that the district is moving forward on this and that we're able to contribute to that effort.

Um lastly, I want to express appreciation for the Safe Streets Oversight Committee and the Department of Public Works for all the work they've been doing to ensure the voter approved measure FF tax dollars are being utilized effectively and efficiently.

This accountability is baked into the tax measure, and I look forward to seeing future presentations and execution of the project of projects under measure F F.

We really think it's important to bring it back to folks and make sure they know that we're using this money wisely.

So thank you all very much.

And um I will now um open us up for public comment.

If there's any public comment on consent calendar information items only.

Carol, come on up.

So because I heard the budget referenced, uh, I am wondering how AB 339 is going to impact our budget.

I mean, this is clearly between staff and council uh council uh and the unions, uh, but given that this is uh relates to our contractors, whether they're new contractors or contractors that are have up for renewal of contracts.

It seems as if it might be wise to involve commissions to the extent that that's feasible.

Um, what's some advisory input in terms of the contractors that we've been working with?

Thank you.

Thanks, Carol.

Hi, Rebecca Grove, uh director of Waterside Workshops, just here to say thank you all for supporting our spring fling.

We are launching our street level cycles cycling club.

So if you want to join a cycling club, they'll be taking off uh at 8 a.m.

and then our cookout uh starts at noon, and the mayor's gonna speak.

We're doing tsunami uh preparedness and awareness as well.

Collaborated with that off of the emergency prepared at office.

So thanks again.

That's great, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um, anyone online for public comment for consent consent calendar information items only?

Okay.

There's one raised hand for public comments on Zoom.

It's a phone number ending in 000.

Oh, good evening.

Yeah, let's talk about uh the situation, you know.

The city should be uh all for immigrants, immigrants did this uh met this country.

Well, 1.3 million Americans died from COVID because Trump first administration he denied it.

They called it China Hoax, called it okay.

Immigrants built this country, the men who brought us uh one's Greek American Madonna, one uh is uh sorry, is this Lebanese American something on consent calendar or information items?

Yes, uh, consent item number 19.

Transition city.

So we need right now we have a monastery in the White House.

As I said before, now you're going after Migrants.

It's going after everybody, me, you, and everybody.

It is a totally disgusting situation.

Have a good night.

Thank you.

Anyone else online?

Nope, that's it.

Okay, very good.

Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar?

So moved.

Second.

Is there any opposition to approving the consent calendar?

All right, I'll have us all marked as I's and the consent calendar has been approved.

Thank you all very much.

All right, moving on to our action calendar.

So we have moved an item from the uh excuse me, from the information items onto the action calendar.

Um, so I will ask our auditor.

I know you're getting set up right now, but if you can also present whenever you're ready.

All right, good evening, and thank you for having me here today.

On February 5th, my office released a special report titled A Guide to Measuring Performance in the City of Berkeley.

I will provide an overview of that report, including the report purpose, research process, and opportunities for management consideration on Berkeley's performance measures from the report.

So, our purpose.

We developed this report in response to a request from council member Blackabee asking our office to conduct benchmarking and best practice research on outcome-based budget metrics.

This was following a related item he authored, requesting the city manager to develop 10 to 20 measurable goals and metrics that reflect key priorities in the city.

Our purpose was to provide a framework for developing quality performance measures in Berkeley.

What is a performance measure?

Those of you who are not in the world that I, you know, in on this on this information, the a performance measure is really just a qualitative or quantitative assessment of an agency's work.

In other words, performance measures can tell you how much or how well a program or service is doing.

This can help prioritize the limited resources on specific goals during a budget deficit period.

The report also summarizes best practice research and information from other cities.

It also provides opportunities for management consideration and regarding performance measurement in Berkeley.

The report provides a framework for developing these measures.

What does this mean?

Well, this starts with identifying the people served by a department or program as well as that population's needs.

Understanding who the primary audience is helps to clarify what success should look like.

Departments should then identify desired outcomes based on those needs and determine how to measure those outcomes.

One question to ask during this process is how will people know whether something is successful?

Further steps include developing a data collection process for outcomes, establishing baselines and targets, as well as a reporting method.

This process should result in clear, measurable outcomes, representing the issues that matter most to the Berkeley community.

A comprehensive process to develop quality measures can take some time.

I want to make sure to acknowledge that, and may require additional resources.

However, identifying one or two measures in each department that addresses the most important priorities and impacts could be a great starting point to this work.

For more information on how to implement this framework, you can take a look at our report on our website.

The report also provides an overview of performance measurement in Berkeley.

The city first reported on performance measures in fiscal year 2022 budget book and continue to report measures into following budgets.

The budget book is the most centralized location to access performance measurement data currently in Berkeley.

We selected three city departments to highlight given the limited amount of time we just looked at three city or three departments IT, parks, rec and waterfront, and police.

The report includes tables showing their performance reporting from the past three budgets.

We also interviewed leadership from these departments to understand their process for measuring performance.

Our analysis includes a review of other cities as well, where we identified common themes and how other cities measure and report performance.

There's some common performance measures reported in other cities.

For example, one common measure in other IT departments is the number or percent of service requests completed in a given time frame.

Other parks departments often measure the customer satisfaction rating for parks or recreation programming.

A common measure in other police departments is the average response times for emergency services.

Berkeley police report average 911 call response times in their annual report, though this is not included in the budget book.

So we're seeing things in other places, but having it in a centralized place could be helpful.

We provide other examples of common measures in our report.

We also found common themes in how other cities report their data.

For example, some most cities use standardized reporting periods and report performance at least annually.

Most cities also include this data from previous years in their budget books.

Some benchmark cities also follow an innovative process known as outcome-based budgeting, which means they make budget decisions and allocate resources based on key goals or outcomes.

Lastly, we identified opportunities for management consideration based on best practices and insights from comparable cities.

First, management could consider organizing and streamlining performance measure reporting efforts, maintaining the same measures over time and using standard reporting periods could support comparability across years.

Additionally, the city could revisit the strategic plan goals and alignment of these performance measures.

Finally, management could explore outcome-based budgeting.

While this process typically requires additional resources, departments could implement outcome-based budgeting on a smaller scale.

For example, departments could develop more outcome-oriented measures and relate those measures to their overall goals, and they could also assess how much of their budget is allocated towards achieving those goals.

Over time, this work can strengthen the connection between resources, activities, and results.

We'd like to thank the department staff and leadership in IT, police, and parks, rec and waterfront for their assistance in this report.

Thank you to Councilmember Brackabee for this request, and to my team, Kendall Coochley and Aaron Molin, and we're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for your presentation.

I'm glad you're able to give a more in-depth look into your audit.

Um I know that we have some questions, so I'll go to Councilmember Brockabee.

Thanks, Madam Mayor, and thanks to the auditor and your team for doing this really important work in such a short time frame.

I know it's not a full audit, it was just some guideposts for us to follow, so I appreciate your partnership and support.

Um in December, as the auditor mentioned, our office authored an item called setting measurable goals and metrics for key city priorities, emphasizing the importance of creating performance measures that reflect what matters most to our residents and clearly demonstrate both the impact of city government and the overall quality of life in our community.

We've started the process of moving it through the committee process.

I appreciate the feedback by the health life enrichment equity and community committee.

We'll be bringing the item back in the coming weeks to the council, so you'll see it, but we've got some good feedback from that process as well.

The research in this report from the auditor, benchmarking our practices against pure cities, outlining best practices and performance measurement overall and offering forward-looking recommendations provides a strong foundation for this work.

It's gonna be invaluable resource for staff as we move forward toward a more data-driven, transparent and outcomes focused budgeting process.

I also want to thank the city manager and his team.

We've already had a a wide range of conversations on this uh this topic, and as we're moving into the budget period, I know that a lot of this work is already beginning, and so I just want to appreciate what the city manager is doing and his willingness to embark with us on this journey.

Um, a couple questions um for the auditor.

Um, you mentioned it before.

I mean, this could be a very broad project.

I don't think any of us wants this to be a boil the ocean um kind of project.

We really, especially in the short term, want to get to something that's usable quickly.

And you'd kind of mentioned that um, as you looked at each of the departments, there's you know, a given department may have a lot of different performance metrics that they're looking at, but the idea here at some point is to bubble up a few things from each department that becomes something that the city can look at.

Um, just wanted you to maybe kind of comment on that.

Uh, is that the right way maybe to be thinking about this?

Because again, I I don't think any of us want this to be a two-year exercise.

This is let's get something that's usable sooner.

Yeah, I I think we, you know, I I studied performance measurement and metrics back in grad school, and I did some of this work when I was in New York City, and so to do a really robust effort, it does take more time and more effort and more resources.

Um, my recommendation um for the time being is to really look at what's you know, what's one or two metrics that can really help you not only capture the work you do but communicate that work to the public?

Um, you know, as I mentioned in the police department, being able to communicate what those 911 response times are, and that that was something that we actually looked at in a previous audit on um uh response times, and through that, we're able to communicate when we were not hitting the targets, and that also can sometimes jeopardize additional funding.

So I think honing in on one or two metrics in each department, and of course, some departments are much bigger, so they're gonna they're gonna need more metrics to really tell their story and be able to share what they do, but I think at the very um at the start, really honing in on one or two is can be really helpful.

Um, like there may also be things that we value as a community that may not be directly tied to a department specifically, it may just be that we want to.

Well, this one may not be a good example, but we want to build more units of affordable housing.

We may not have the direct ability to do that.

We can set the circumstances and the process in place to move it, but at some point, market forces and other things.

Is there also some value in having a few of those other things, or was your recommendation sort of sticking towards um something that's more directly tied to department output?

I I think it really depends on what is the value for this community.

And sometimes, as you know, a metric is not directly tied to just one department or not specifically within one department's control.

Um, and sometimes there are external forces that are not within the control as well.

So I think it's a really a matter of deciding what is of most importance and being able to track that.

If the metric is not something that is going to be um you know that that that government is not able to actually address, then it's probably a nice to have, but not something that will you know be meaningful ultimately.

This is about designing meaningful metrics so that you can really show what what and and being able to tease out what is within a department's control and what what isn't, you know, that's a whole other exercise too.

So again, a lot of this will take more effort and more energy, but I'm just I'm hopeful that you know that conversation is happening um going forward.

Great.

Um you mentioned a few jurisdictions in the report.

I mean, are there any are there any particular jurisdictions that we would hold up and say, wow, we want to be like X?

I mean, are you thinking it's kind of a mix and different people are doing it well in different ways?

I mean, but is there are there one or two that we should just try and emulate, or is this kind of breaking some ground here?

Yeah, we didn't look at this in that level of detail.

I mean, Kendall did a rule a lot of really great research throughout this.

Um, but I think I think it really depends on what specific metric you're looking at.

Um, you know, I think and different uh different uh jurisdictions also report out on their metrics differently.

Some I think Oakland has a data dashboard, um, but you know, uh that right, they have a data dashboard.

Casadina.

Oh, Pasadena, I'm sorry, has the the data dashboard.

I think Oakland has their budget in a in a you know uh in a dashboard so that you can look at look at it that way.

So there are other jurisdictions um that report it out in different ways, but I think at the at the I think one of the things that I think we can really add value to is just capturing the same metrics over time, so then you can see the trend line and you can see, oh, how has something changed?

Um when you add a new metric, but then you don't um include the data from the previous metric, then you can't really see what the differences are in the trends.

So um yeah, I think if we had more time, we would we would get you a lot more information.

Yeah, going back to the earlier conversation we had about with on the health report.

I mean, what I love about this is we're looking, we're looking, we're trying to go and trace this all the way through the outcomes, like like not just what are we doing, but what's actually happening as a result of the work, and that's what I really love about this.

Um, couple last things just for the city manager.

Um, from the auditors report, the great thing is um already many, if not all departments are doing some amount of this work, which is fantastic.

And so I think the question for the city manager is you know, is that kind of a good foundation to build upon?

It's not necessarily that we're reinventing the wheel, it's just that we're trying to elevate and synthesize.

I mean, is that the right way we can think about it?

It is, and each of the departments is currently working on delivering um up to five outcome measures to me.

Um to be able to look at those and kind of you know go through them and pick couple for each department.

So that'd be 24.

There's 12 departments that we can that we can report on regularly, and as you're saying, try to connect them up to okay, here's what we're doing, and here's the result of our people better off as a result of it.

Awesome.

Okay.

Last thing and back to the scope and scale question.

I know again, we want to do this right.

We want to be transparent, we want to be outcome-oriented, um, but we also know that we want to let's start somewhere and not again over overthink it and let's kind of put something in place just to get moving.

Any thoughts on sort of the scale scope, you know.

Question about this.

Couple thoughts.

One, we want to be mindful of um in a budget environment where we're reducing uh revenue, we're reducing uh cutting expenses.

We have to be thoughtful about how how much more work we are giving to staff and like what's the trade-off between giving staff assignments to come up with outcome measures as opposed to giving them assignments to actually do the work.

Um so being thoughtful about that balance is one thing.

Um another is uh, this is connected to that, but being careful about selecting outcomes that we're not trying to create new data for.

Um, like if if we're not currently collecting this data, that's probably not a good place for us to start because that's a longer term sort of project.

It may be an important thing, and those are things we can surface, but I think we should start with like we collect tons of data and let's focus on within that data what's most important and what can we track over time and report.

That again makes uh life better for people.

Great.

Thank you.

Um again, I just appreciate the collaboration and um the spirit with which I think everyone's moved forward here.

Yeah, again, just being transparent, outcome-oriented, accountable, something that you know I know we've all heard from constituents and the to the extent that we can sort of demonstrate that and live those values and have a way of uh communicating, um, I think is really gonna uh put us in a better position, especially as we're going through tough budget times.

We're gonna have to, you know, communicate some of the trade-offs that may be being made when it comes to costs and and services.

So um thanks, Auditor.

Thanks to City Manager, and thanks, Mayor, for giving us a little time to talk through this.

Thank you very much.

Um Councilmember Bartlett has some questions as well.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um and thank you, Councilmeleckby for calling for this, and thank you, Madam Auditor and team for delivering another great report.

Uh question just about the outcomes-based budgeting.

Um, is that related to the pay for success models?

Uh or is it more just uh a reporting framework?

Can you uh can you elaborate on that model that you're describing?

Yeah, so pay for success.

Um we passed something to this effect a while ago.

It's related to sort of you the the contractor wins if they succeed in our goal, right?

So it's like impact bonds.

And there are similar languages, there's similar language around outcomes-based models.

I'm just curious if um if that's related in your in your research at all.

Yeah, I I'll have to do a little more research on this other model that you're describing, but the outcome-based modeling is really aimed at, you know, there are a variety of different types of um measures that you can look at, and you can look at outputs, for example, but that it may not necessarily be the same as outcome-based.

And so one of the, you know, when I studied this and did some of this work previously, looking at it from an outcome-based perspective is obviously much better because you're really looking at what is the ultimate outcome that you're trying to achieve.

What is the goal and what are you trying to achieve?

Um, and outputs can sometimes get you to a portion there.

It can give you a piece of data, but it may not necessarily get you to the actual outcome you're trying to achieve.

So it sounds like this model might be related in some way, and I'm happy to discuss more at a future meeting.

Thank you.

Councilmember Trekub.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Uh appreciate um you and Councilmember Blackhope's um efforts and moving this up for um so we can discuss it, and thank you so much, uh, Madam Auditor for this report.

Um several of my questions did also get uh asked by council member Blackabi.

Um I'm not going to ask them.

Um just uh very broad strokes.

Um I appreciate uh the reports um honing in on that the three recommendations particularly I appreciate the focus on performance-based budgeting.

This is something that um I used to do in um my first career, um, and I found it to be very beneficial.

And one thing that I remember that was kind of ingrained in that is looking at the critical few.

What are these um cross-cutting metrics that are objective and um uh really help us see the trend lines but are um so high level that um they um provide meaningful data while not distracting um us from having a lot of noise in the data or a lot of different other metrics.

So I I just have um two questions.

Um I just talked about these uh roll-ups.

Um I was wondering um, Madam Auditor, if you have any recommendations for us um as the city uh potentially moves to um doing uh more cross-cutting uh metrics, um, looking at these critical few um uh data points.

Um but there's going to be a gap because this this will be a change in methodology, perhaps, or at least a change in presentation of the data.

Um are there any best practices uh you might recommend or that other jurisdictions are using around um how do you go back and uh fill in those gaps when you adjust to a new measurement system.

So that's one question.

Um the second one is uh um any um best practices around um having uh departments um come together on cross-cutting metrics that are meaningful uh for the city for the to the council to the city manager um while also um providing meaning to the departments themselves as they uh have information that throws up into these cross-cutting metrics.

Yeah, thank you for your questions, Councilmember Tragub.

So you're uh on the first point with regards to um filling in the gap when you have new data, or you I think what you were asking is perhaps you get new data or new measure.

Um, you know, that's why it's really important to really think through what are the most important measures and think about how you might be able to make sure that that measure is consistently tracked across um future years.

Obviously, you can't we can't see the the total future, but um really thinking through, okay, what what programs have been in existence in the past and in the present, and what do we think might be going on in the future, and then tracking that all the way through.

So again, um, you know, I've talked about this.

Really doing a robust dive into this area is gonna take time and effort and energy.

And so um, you know, obviously, and obviously you're gonna have situations in which you get new information and new measures, and you just have to adjust for that.

So it's not going to be perfect.

You might get some additional new things that come up, but I think um really sitting down, engaging staff, um, and so that's the part that is gonna take more effort.

Who are the folks that are working on the ground um in um collecting this information or or delivering the actual service um and and so ensuring that you're identifying the right measures um is gonna take some time and effort, but and then your second question about um cross-cutting measures, that is something that I think, you know, I'm I'm seeing a lot more engagement on the measures, um, uh at least you know, during this budget cycle, and so I'm really glad to see that um there's sharing of information across different departments, and so I think just learning about what other departments are capturing in terms of their measures and knowing that some might affect your department and being cognizant of what other departments are capturing is gonna be really important, um, and then communicating that information so that you're understanding how those measures can cut across from one department to another.

So I think it's just, you know, making sure there's adequate communication and um adequate transparency and information.

No.

Thank you very much.

Any other questions from my council colleagues?

Is there any public comment on this item?

Hi.

You can hear me.

Hi, Mayor and Council.

My name's Steve Cromer.

Appreciate Councilmember Blackaby bringing this so we could talk about it.

And I really appreciate the report, Jenny.

It's uh great to see this.

It's a little bit of deja vu.

I think Brent, uh I mean, um, Councilmember Bartlett, you're the only person that was on the diaspora when I stood up here like eight years ago and said, why can't we be radical riot for Berkeley and do radical transparency?

And I've always felt mad about that because I thought it was sort of stupid, but now it's here we are back, and it's like uh it's great to see that there's this effort to um again follow up on it, but I think a lot of citizens like myself feel like we want more information so we can just see what decisions are being made and what's the basis for it, and communication from you all to staff, it's clear and open, and then to auditor to the auditor can come back, it could all work together, it's like gears in a system, right?

She can help you with all assessing what's what's the first and earliest measures, and you can all help work this all out.

So that's the that's the big picture.

Thanks for that.

Um, we all hear about the structural deficit.

So there's like the oh no, no, oh no, structural deficit.

Well, the first thing anybody else does with a structural deficit is prioritize.

And I realize uh Paul, it's more information that I have to collect to help do that prioritization, but some stuff's probably gonna have to like get shoved off the thing, and if this is gonna give you all tools to support that.

Like here's a clear way to say how you're gonna prioritize.

Further, I was honored to be asked to be one of the people that reviewed your bond issue coming by um Parks Director Scott Ferris and you're you did a great job, uh Terry and and uh Mayor Ishi.

Um, and we looked through a bunch of stuff there.

My question was how are we gonna prove any of this is working?

How are we gonna bake into your bond issue and the money you're gonna ask for us from the ratepayers?

What's how are we gonna know what's working and what's not?

We haven't we're in this situation because we haven't done that very well in the last in the past, and everyone recognizes that for 50 60 years, we haven't done this.

So it's a great time to start.

It's just a start, um, lots of way, long way to go.

But yeah, great.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you.

Good evening.

My name's Matthew, uh, and thank you for this opportunity to speak.

Um, I just want to I came up here because I wanted to strongly support uh the recommendations of this report, and I want to commend uh Auditor Wong, as well as well as Councilmember Blackby and the other council members that are um supporting this effort.

Uh, again, from my view, uh performance metrics are not a nice to have.

I mean, they're a must have, they're essential.

It blows my mind that, you know, what what this is even a discussion point, actually.

Uh, we should be having these well-baked already for uh what's it, an 800 million dollar budget.

Um, I mean, and I think it's especially essential now for sound decision making with voter concerns about tax increases where I'm just dreading the new taxes that are coming down the pike here, uh, likely, um, and the quality of versus the quality and cost of public services, and that there's a limit to how much you can just keep asking uh property owners to keep coughing up more and more and more without uh services improving.

Um so I think it's really important for voters as well as for you in terms of decision making and trade-offs.

Uh, three suggestions as you move forward with this.

Um, the metrics should really focus on outcomes and cost efficiency, not not just activity.

I notice, like in the in the report, the parks department has an act has a metric that is number of community meetings attended.

I mean, fine, that that's good at some level, but really the outcome we want is you know, cleanliness of parks and and things like that.

We want really uh citizen-oriented uh metrics.

Uh, likewise, um, number of uh miles of street paved, dollars per mile of street paved.

How does it compare to Pleasanton?

Which has very nice roads, I would say.

Not that I want to live in Pleasanton, but you know, I do when I go there and see the roads, like wow, why can't we do that?

Um, so that's the first one.

The second one is that benchmark against pure cities, just as I said, Pasadena, I've seen their dashboard, it's pretty neat, actually.

They really have a nice system up there.

Uh, and finally, uh, I think this is mentioned by Auditor Wong as well as Councilmember Blackaby.

Let's not try and boil the ocean.

Let's start with something small.

Maybe just three departments.

Like things that matter to citizens are public safety, thank you.

So, yeah, let's start with a few.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Is there other public comment on this item here in person?

Or perhaps online.

Is there a public comment?

Okay.

Very good.

Well, um, are there any comments from my council colleagues?

Yes, Vice Permanent Parra.

Thank you.

Um, I just really want to thank the auditor and her team for this work.

Um, and I'm excited to continue working on it.

Thank you.

And also, Councilmember Blackaby for bringing it forward.

Okay.

Any other comments, Council colleagues?

Okay, I also want to appreciate your report.

Thank you very much, and also thank you to our city manager for for working to implement already some of these pieces.

So thank you.

All right.

Oh, actually, we should move on to the next item, but I do want us to take like a ten minute stretch break.

So we will be back in in ten minutes with item number twenty, and that will also give them time to set up.

So thank you.

Hello.

Okay.

We're on.

We're live.

All right, everyone.

Thank you very much for your patience.

We are starting back the Berkeley City Council meeting, and we're moving on to item number twenty amendments to Title Twenty One, the subdivisions ordinance and Title Twenty Three, Zoning Ordinance to implement Senate Bill SB six eighty four.

I'll pass it over to Jordan.

Associate Planner with policy team.

Before I turn it over to Bronca to present, I want you to pull up the slide deck.

I want to call your attention to revised materials that we have submitted and are requesting that you accept for consideration this evening.

Yesterday we received input from staff at the Rent Stabilization Board who expressed concern about the wording of the definition of protected units.

And so we reviewed their feedback and wanted to incorporate changes that address those concerns.

And so that's uh that's the purpose of these revised agenda materials.

We don't believe that it constitutes any substantive policy change, but it does clarify the language.

So we hope that you will take action to accept this material.

Do we need to do that before?

Yeah.

If you wouldn't mind doing now, that'd be great.

Is there a motion to um?

Second.

Thank you.

Is there any opposition?

Okay.

We will review this revised material this evening.

Um thank you.

Um excuse me, Mr.

Clerk.

Does that require?

I think that's required to be a roll call vote.

Uh two-thirds.

No, yes.

I can do.

All right, we will take the roll.

Thank you.

Okay.

To accept revised material council member Casarwani.

Yes.

Taplin.

Yes.

Bartlett.

Yes.

Traga.

I know Keefe.

Yes.

Yes.

Lunapara.

Yes.

Humber.

Yes.

And Mayor Ishi.

Yes.

Okay.

Very good.

Thank you very much.

Now you know we're all awake.

We're all here.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor Ishii and the members of the City Council.

My name is Branka Tatarich, and I'm an associate planner with the land use planning division.

Tonight I'm presenting an ordinance that amends titles 21 and 23 to implement Senate Bill 684.

The ordinance establishes a ministerial SB684 compliant pathway for small lot subdivisions and the related housing development.

And it also creates a streamlined local parcel map option for lower density infill projects that don't qualify under SB 684.

The Planning Commission reviewed the SB 684 small lot subdivision item in the summer and fall of the last year.

The commission first discussed SB684 in July, and then in October, it recommended adoption of the amendments to Title 21 subdivisions and Title 23 zoning to implement the small lot subdivision processes.

The policy intent beyond SB684 is to ministerially approve qualifying small lot subdivisions and the related housing development, reduce procedural barriers for ownership oriented infill on service sites, and retain objective standards and health and safety protections.

In Berkeley, the implementation context is that the city's middle housing zoning updates increased maximum densities in several districts.

SB 684 requires projects to meet 66% of the maximum allowable density, and with those higher maximums, smaller projects are unintentionally disqualified.

The reason to include a local parcel map, middle housing infill project path is to provide a streamlined option for smaller info that still meets minimum density.

Because SB684 projects include both a subdivision and housing development.

The amendments to titles 21 and 23 are designed to work together.

Title 21 changes cover the subdivision side, procedures, completeness, the eligibility screens, and the subdivision related development standards.

Title 23 changes cover the zoning side, including zoning district permissions and the objective development standards.

This slide summarizes the new chapter 2130, small lot subdivisions, middle housing infill projects in Title 21, which is the main SB684 implementation section.

The first section sets the SB684 implementation purpose and establishes the two pathways, the two pathways.

Section 2130 020 definitions then defines a single project type, the middle housing infill project.

This definition definition is important because it links to the zoning code.

The section also codifies the parent parcel rule, which requires that zoning requirements, including inclusionary standards and other applicable city regulations, be reviewed at the original pre-subdivision parcel level.

The next three sections cover the application requirements and procedures and the subdivision side requirements and standards.

The last two subsections cover the approval and recordation sequencing and expiration enforcement and the standard savings and severability clause.

This slide explains the parent parser rule.

A parent parcel is a parcel that exists prior to a subdivision creating a middle housing infill project.

In the image, we see two development envelopes on a 5,000 square foot original lot that conform to SB684 and R2 zoning standards for height and setbacks.

Both envelopes could be permitted as middle housing projects even without any subdivision of ownership.

With SB 684, the envelope on the left is then subdivided into six condominiums, and the envelope on the right is subdivided into four fee simple lots.

But in both cases, the zoning standards are applied at the parent parcel level before the subdivision happens.

This slide summarizes the zoning code changes.

First, the ordinance permits middle housing infill projects where multifamily use is allowed across residential and commercial districts, including the MUR district.

Second, in the General Development Standards section, the ordinance codifies the parent parcel rule and establishes the objective middle housing infill project zoning standards set.

The parent parcel concept is also defined in Title 21 in section 2130 020.

So the subdivision and zoning codes are aligned.

And finally, Title 23, cross-references, the Title 21 Middle Housing Infill Project Definition to ensure the subdivision and zoning review are consistent.

This slide summarizes the additional Title 21 changes that are primarily about state law compliance with the subdivision map act.

These are mostly cleanup and alignment items.

Improving code readability, resolving internal conflicts, clarifying approval authority, and streamlining processing for certain subdivision map act exemptions.

Finally, staff recommends that the City Council hold the public hearing and adopt the first reading of the ordinance to implement SB684 by establishing a ministerial SB 684 compliant path for small lot subdivisions and related housing and a local parcel map path for projects that do not qualify under SB684.

That concludes my presentation.

Thank you, and I'm available for questions.

Thank you very much, Branca.

Oh, you got applause.

That's great.

Yes.

So thank you very much for your presentation.

And so I want to ask, of course, we've opened the public hearing, but ask if there are any questions from my council colleagues.

No questions.

Okay, very good.

Is there any public comment?

No.

Yes.

There is a go ahead, Councilmember Black.

I was gonna go later, but since no one else went first, then I have to go first.

Okay.

Real quick questions on the staff report.

Uh bottom page four and also page five.

There's some adjustment or application of this in very high fire hazard severity zones and high fire hazard severity zones where some of this may or may not apply differently.

Could you just talk a little bit about that just to make sure that's clear?

Yes, so only the projects that are in very high uh fire severity zone are excluded from SB 684, and that's the provision under the state law.

Okay.

And we saw there was some language in government code 66499 that you referenced here where they also said or within a high or very high fire hazard zone as indicated on maps adopted by the Department of Forestry.

So I think our, as our office was looking at this, is is it just the very high or is it high and very high where the exemption happens?

It is only very high, and we clarified that with Chief Deputy Chief Arnold.

Um, so um there are two different state codes, and uh city uh the city of Berkeley because it has local jurisdiction over creating the maps, um, only applies one of them, and in that case, only very high um fire severity zone applies.

Okay.

So we got that that confirmation.

And that's true whether you apply the government code 66499 standard or the SB 684, because I think both of them refer to higher very high.

So our local path will not be applicable in the Hills.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kasserwani.

Yes, uh, thank you very much.

Thank you for the presentation.

I'm really pleased that this is coming back to the council after uh the referral referral that I put forward last year, and I just want to remind folks that um this is a companion to the middle housing ordinance that this council unanimously adopted.

So this will give um folks an opportunity to own that small cottage that middle housing will now make possible.

Um so I did just want to clarify, because your example showed for each split lot one unit, but is it the case that you can have more than one unit on each lot up to the maximum under state law, which is 10 units?

Yes, so you can have 10 um dwelling units and 10 ownership units.

So ownership units can be uh regular parcels, they're called fee simple parcels or condominiums.

So any combination of the number of units up to 10 and ownership units up to 10 is allowable.

So you can have a parcel map that let's say splits the lot into two fee simple lots, but each lot um can have two fourplexes, so that would be eight units, but only two ownership units, or then those four places can be condominiums, so all of these combinations are allowed as long as the maximum number of units is 10 and the maximum number of ownership units is 10.

So just to clarify, so so are you saying one ownership unit per lot?

Or no?

So lot is an ownership unit, okay.

It can be either a condominium or a fee simple lot, they are the same under the subdivision app act.

Okay, okay.

Um, I think that is all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um is there any public comment on this item?

Oh, you have a question.

Okay, sorry.

Sometimes our parliamentarian system isn't working.

Go ahead, Councilmember Traeco.

Parliamentarian wasn't following procedure.

Um, I just wanted to thank you so much for the presentation.

I just wanted to clarify two things.

Uh the local parcel map path, would that be non-ministerial?

So that would be like the second option.

Yes, the second option uh cannot be ministerial because um SB 684 is uh carve out uh uh in within Subdivision map act uh to actually allow ministerial subdivision.

Um other than that, um subdivisions are kind of this discretionary, sometimes the administrative.

So parcel maps are mostly administrative, so the decision is made within the department.

Um yeah, so we couldn't create a ministerial process because of the preclusion that um of the subdivision map act, but uh we did whatever we could to make it streamlined and as administrative as possible.

Okay, and then um uh when we approved middle housing, I think there was one, maybe I think just one uh zoning district where there was a minimum density standard uh for a particular lot.

Um and I was wondering if um this uh recommendation has if there's any bearing between those two or are these apples and oranges, uh we do require minimum density per zoning if it is stated in the zoning development standards for particular district, um and across middle housing, I think the lowest is 20, right?

And then um as the density increases, um they're a little higher, up to 40, I think.

Um but for um middle housing infill projects um the project proponent has to propose at least one unit, so in most cases that's pretty much enough to satisfy the minimum density, especially if there's already existing units because they're counted um towards the density as well.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, public comment on this item.

We are on item number 20 amendments to Title 21 Subdivisions Ordnance and Title 23 zoning ordinance to implement Senate bill SB 684.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Brianna Morales, and I am with the Housing Action Coalition.

We are a members supported um organization that advocates for housing at all levels of income.

And HACC was proud to sponsor SB 684 because it creates a clear practical pathway to deliver small-scale ownership housing, with the kind of density that already fits into existing neighborhoods and gives working families a real shot at home ownership.

The next step is really about implementation, taking the state law and making it usable here in Berkeley by establishing a ministerial objective approval process for small lot subdivisions and creating a complementary local path for projects that meet um requirements, the city can provide clarity and predictability.

Not predictability is not a small thing.

Our members who build the housing tell us all the time how much they struggle, especially when they're a small infill project, because the process was uncertain, there was delays, discretionary and overcomplex pathways that they had to take.

That uncertainty simply causes risk that they cannot afford, and those builders walk away.

When that happens, the kinds of homes that can be attainable to middle income households never get built.

So we urge you to pass legislation that allows projects to move forward, demonstrating not only that Berkeley supports housing in principle, but also through practice.

Thank you very much.

Three hands raised.

Thanks for being here.

CUIO should be able to.

Hold on.

Okay.

Clio, you should be able to unmute.

There you go.

Thank you.

Hi.

Um, so first off, uh SB 684 was actually replaced by Bill SP 1123 on July 1st, 2025.

So it's not clear to me why we're adding an obsolete deal to the Berkeley code when we should be adding the current California bill instead.

Secondly, the proposed local alternative to SB684 doesn't actually offer an equivalent to the California bill.

This means that the de facto ability to parcel split and smaller residential lots has been inadvertently removed completely by the new blue housing zoning legislation.

I would like to see today that City Council adopt the part of the recommendation that does implement SB 684, but to hold off on implementing anything for an alternative pathway for the small housing lots that have been excluded because it is my belief that we can find a better option that would actually uh allow those lots to uh benefit from a streamlined ministerial approval in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next is uh Debbie Sanders Debbie Sanderson.

Hi, thank you.

Um, this proposed ordinance does one really good thing, and that's in section seven of the ordinance.

Um it updates chapter 21 to the con to be consistent with SB 684.

So I'm clear that we should adopt section seven of the proposed ordinance.

But the first six sections modify our parcel map process.

And I don't think any of those amendments are really substantive, they don't address any of the particular problems we face now when we want to subdivide a parcel.

Um, the last four sections, I thought we were to update our zoning ordinance to be compliant with SB 684, but I don't think they do that.

Uh in particular, section three creates new zoning standards for MHIPs, and some of those standards conflict with SB 684.

So if we want to help owners of small lots that don't meet the uh SB 684 standards, if we want to make it easier for them to subdivide, then I think we need to go back to the drawing board because I don't see anything in this ordinance that makes that issue easier.

So let's adopt section seven, and then we'll be in compliance with 684 and go back to the drawing board for the other two parts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh that's it.

There was just two speakers.

That's it.

There was just two speakers.

Ah, okay.

Thank you very much.

Um if you could address those, there are a couple of comments online that I I think I'd like you all to address, and then I know you have comments as well.

No questions.

Sure.

Um I'll take a stab at it.

I'm not I'm not totally sure one of the commenters' reference to the problems that uh people are having subdividing, and I'm not sure what specific problems are being referred to, so it's hard for me to respond to that.

Um, I want to, you know, the a larger issue that I am aware of that's been raised that we're trying to address through this process is that when city council adopted middle housing standards that uh set higher maximum densities, it it made it more difficult for uh uh projects that wanted to take advantage of SB 684 to meet the requirements of um of hitting the minimum of uh 60 uh two-thirds uh of the maximum density in order to qualify for six SB684.

Say if they only wanted to build two or three units, and they'd be in order to qualify, they'd be required to build four or five units.

So that's no, and um I'm not sure how common that problem is, but it's definitely a possible outcome.

And so um, that's the purpose of our local path that Bronca described.

Our local parcel map path is to create a more streamlined process for projects that do meet our minimum density requirements but don't meet the requirements to qualify for S Base 684.

As Bronca noted in I think the QA, that doesn't quite match the ministerial process enabled under SB 684, because our understanding of the subdivision map act is that we are precluded from doing that.

We're precluded from offering a ministerial pathway.

Um what we've presented to you as as streamlined as a pathway as we could come up with.

Um a way to restore the accessibility of XB 684, if but uh that's not really that wasn't the assignment before us um for this project.

Um we you know we we certainly looked at this really closely in close collaboration with the city attorney's office as well, and um we are confident in our recommendation this evening.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Vice Mayor Lunapara.

Thank you.

I just have a quick follow-up to that.

Um if council had adopted no density maximums, then how would 684 apply?

So if there is no stated maximum density, then the density under SB 684 state would be um the default metropolitan area density, which is 30 dwelling units per acre for Alameda County and Berkeley.

And um, I think it's uh 66% of that, which is 20 dwelling units per acre, and that is the minimum density in the lowest middle housing um zoning district.

Thanks.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um council deliberations are actually let's close the public hearing.

Is there a motion to close the public hearing?

So moved.

Second, okay.

Is there any opposition to close the public hearing?

Okay, public hearing is closed.

All right, council deliberations.

Councilmember Casserwani.

Okay, thank you very much, Madam Mayor.

Um, thank you again to staff for the ordinance.

So I just um for the purposes of moving this along.

I I had two um considerations that I wanted to suggest to my colleagues, very minor changes, um, to two numbers.

So if you have the packet open, this 96-page packet that includes the ordinance, um, on page 15, the bottom of 15 and the top of 16, um, there is language around the minimum lot size for the lot split.

So in the multifamily zones, it's 600 square feet.

So that's essentially the all of the flats where we the middle housing ordinance now applies.

If you want to do a lot split, it has to be at least 600 square feet for you to get a little cottage on it.

Um, and then in the HOZ, the hillside overlay zone, that's the only zone that remains a single family zone.

State law says it only applies to vacant single family parcels.

So there's that's gonna be very few.

Um here we said 1,200 square feet is the minimum lot size.

And um the the question I asked earlier was relevant because that is not a restriction on the number of units that can be built on that vacant single family parcel.

You can still get up to 10.

It's just that the opportunities for the fee simple ownership will be restricted because it's a higher um minimum lot size of 1200.

So, what I was going to suggest just to maintain flexibility for the for the ownership.

Again, I I there's there's maybe very few vacant single family parcels in the hills, but to the extent that there might be a couple, I was gonna suggest we just equalize it.

So just say 600 square feet for both.

So we have the same rule citywide, and it doesn't increase the number of units, it just allows the fee simple ownership to be easier if somebody wanted to do that.

So that was one suggestion.

I'm interested in my colleagues' input.

Apologies.

Is it possible to put this on the screen so that we can yeah?

Oh, oh, you want to see it might just be helpful for transparency so folks know.

Oh, okay.

Um it's gonna take me a moment.

Maybe staff can help us while while you're going.

I can share the screen.

Because I'm just looking at the ordinance.

Um so that was one thing, and then on page 20 of 96 pages, which I think we're gonna show there is a requirement for open space, which is really important.

It says a minimum of 200 square feet per unit.

Our middle housing ordinance, if if you will recall, it said 150 square feet per 1000 square feet of residential square footage, which in my mind is or is roughly a unit.

So for just the for the purposes of keeping things aligned with the middle housing ordinance and just slightly reducing this requirement.

I was gonna suggest we change 200 to 150.

Um, all it does, you know.

If you think about, you know, what are the ramifications of that?

It just makes it a little easier to comply.

Um, it's it's my feeling that 150 150 square feet is um a good amount of open space per unit, and and that's what we did in the middle housing ordinance.

So those are the two numeric suggestions.

Um, I can make a motion to approve the ordinance as proposed by staff, um, with those two numeric changes.

The minimum lot size in the for the vacant single family homes will be 600 square feet, and the minimum square feet of usable open space will change from 200 to 150.

That's the motion.

And I'll second that.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, are you able to pull that up?

Yeah, if not, no, no, I understand it's it can take a while to pull up that document.

Okay, are there other comments then?

Council member uh Vice Mayor Lunopara, please.

Thank you.

I'm wondering um if staff has any thoughts on those amendments proposed, or specifically I'm curious about the um the reason for the state law having a different size for single family home versus multi-unit.

I think that's ported from SB 9, which is a subdivision ministerial process for single family zoned parcels, um referring to 1,200 square feet lot size.

I don't think there's there's more to that than you know just being consistent with that spin.

That's helpful.

Thank you.

And um, do you have any other thoughts on those amendments?

Um, no, I mean, as council member Cassarmani um already stated, um, it doesn't increase the number of units, so it doesn't really increase density.

Um, it does increase the number of ownership, fee simple ownership units potentially.

I think that's uh consistent with the policy intent where you know we are trying to find options to um for increasing affordable naturally affordable homeownership options.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Other comments from my council colleagues, okay.

Well, we have a motion on the floor, so I think we should take roll, please.

Do you have a comment?

Yeah, go ahead.

I want to express a little discomfort.

I think I was trying to form a question still.

Um, I guess, you know, since this is this change is really only gonna affect hillside overlay, which is my district has a lot of um, it's only gonna affect, we're just saying that we can make the lot smaller in vacant lots.

And uh, council member, it's only for a vacant, right?

I understand.

Yeah, yeah.

And I understand we're not like this isn't like a end run around density, right?

I get that, but I I guess I'm just I'm a little uncomfortable with this not getting to vet this beforehand.

That's my discomfort.

So I'm not sure how to maybe I'll just have that be the reason for my vote.

I don't I don't even know what question to ask, which is not a comfortable place for me.

That's my concern.

It's probably it seems fine.

I can't think of a reason against it right now, but I just I want more time to think about it.

That makes sense.

Okay, um, council member Trakeup.

Yeah.

So, sorry, to be dense.

No pun intended.

Um, uh so this could potentially apply to R1H now, as long as it's not a very high fire severity zone, correct?

Is that the issue at hand that's leading to?

Council Member, it's the this is not a change.

The ordinance always applied to the hillside overlay zone.

Okay.

Yeah, it's just all we did was change 1200 to 600 square feet in the hillside overlay zone, but it was always applying to the hillside overlay zone.

Okay.

Thanks for thanks for helping me, member.

What we voted on before.

Thanks.

And just um if it helps at all with your discomfort, council member.

Um, we're we're trying to increase the ability of people to have ownership, and so that that's the kind of piece here, right?

So um hopefully that helps a little bit.

Uh oh, council member blackabi.

If you want to follow up and then I just want to say it does seem reasonable on its face.

I just it's kind of sudden.

I like to think things through.

That's all.

Sure.

Just my question, Councilmember Kaswani is so again help us understand the so lot sizes on vacant parcels will be reduced.

Um, but density doesn't change.

Again, just help me walk up through a little bit.

It's and I actually um discovered this in talking to uh director Klein.

Yeah, so so and you know, when we're talking about middle housing ordinance, you know, we think about like the edge extreme case.

So that's what I was thinking about here.

So I think this is highly unlikely, but there's a vacant parcel in the hills.

Um let's say, maybe for this example, it's about to think of like a smaller, something on the smaller side, maybe it's only 3,000 square feet.

Um, this change would matter because it's saying, well, your minimum lot for your split could be as little as 600 square feet.

Okay.

Um so 1,200, so um, so you could still, if you wanted to do five units or 10 units, even on that 3,000 square foot parcel, that's still allowable.

Nothing we did here changes that.

What we are trying to do here is simply say, well, if you want to do um four ownership units, it'll now be a little easier because your lot size can be smaller.

1200 is is rather large.

Um relative to what we're doing for the rest of the city, which is the 600.

So the idea is just um keep it the same for the whole city, and the controlling kind of legislation around the density in the hillside overlay is still what we did with middle housing.

So the so it's it's not it's do you just staff do you want to explain um because remember hillside overlays?

This is a little confusing because hillside overlay doesn't have middle housing density, it just has R1.

Right.

So it defaults to what the state law says, which is two thirds of the R1 density, which do you want to explain what that would be?

It is actually two-thirds of the state default.

Oh, oh, it's thir uh it's 30 dwelling units per acre.

Because it doesn't make sense.

Two-thirds of one unit.

It's two thirds of a unit.

So it just it's it's two-thirds of 30 dwelling units per acre, which is what the state law says.

Yeah.

So you'd have to do the math.

30 dwelling units per acre.

What is that?

Like four units on a 5,000 square foot lot.

So you could do two thirds of four units, um, two, yeah, that's two units.

So so it's two.

Oh, that's the minimum rig bottom.

I think you're compiling.

I think you're asking about the maximum.

Yeah, the minimum is that.

So the maximum is 10, and that's established by SB 684.

That's established by six that's that's state law, right?

So whether we implement any ordinance, um uh or not, the the that would still be allowable just under the provisions of the state law.

Uh this comes back in the earlier question was was, but then how does the very high fire hazard severity zone piece come into play?

Um the lots that are within that zone are just automatically disqualified.

Right.

So then thinking all the way through again, I'm I'm just thinking of the different strips.

So if you're in the very high fire hazard severity zone, yeah, you can't subdivide, right?

If you are in the hillside overlay zone, you are not covered by middle housing, right?

But you are covered now by this.

State loss basically.

If it's a regardless of this legislation, if it's a vacant lot.

Correct.

Only for vacant lot.

If it is a lot with a current single family home or duplex or something on it, this does not.

There are multi-unit.

Yeah, R1H, I'm sorry.

Yeah, you're right.

Right.

So keep that going.

So we could keep the through line other than that piece.

But so if you're R1H in the high fire hazard diversity zone, the two third the 20 uh uh the 20 dwelling unit per acre density applies.

No, that's not a maximum.

That's the minimum in order to comply in order to be eligible for SB 684.

Okay, maximum number of units is 10.

Okay.

Um so that's true.

Uh okay, but again, just on vacant lots, vacant R1H lots.

Yeah.

Correct.

And I would also uh like to add that um so uh when um there's a map for subdividing the lot into fee simple lots, there are subdivision map act uh requirements that still apply.

So the fire code, the uh access access easements, all kinds of things need to be complied with in order to subdivide into fees simple.

So um reducing the uh minimum uh lot size um is not automatically making it so much easier because there are all of these other requirements that might even be harder to be achievable with a smaller lot size.

So the yeah, so the lot size isn't the rate limiting factor in that in that part.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, okay.

Councilmember O'Keefe.

Yeah, this is kind of random, but I actually just sort of realized I have a um sort of I don't think I have a legal conflict here, but there's sort of a I think I'm gonna abstain.

I think I have a I have a little bit of a self-interest in this that makes me uncomfortable.

I don't think I need to recuse, I can go check with Freeman.

I'm almost positive it's not a requirement.

I just it's like a personal comfort thing.

So I'm just saying I'm gonna abstain for that reason.

Okay, so just so we all know and I can talk about it if Freema says I have to say more, I will, but I don't think I do.

I think you two should have a conversation.

Well, this is highly unusual, so um please give us a moment while we um wait for them to return.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

So we're gonna take the roll.

Second from Council Member Humbert.

Okay, so uh it's the ordinance as proposed by staff, including the amendments and the revised materials, and then the minimum lot size or multifamily lots at 600 square foot minimum, and then useful open space at 150 square foot minimum.

Yes, uh uh um Mr.

City Clerk, it was the it's the vacant single family zoned parent parcel that shifts from 1200 to 600.

You said multifamily.

Oh, okay.

So with that change, that's the motion.

Can I clarify that includes the reflects the sub three materials?

Yes, and the sub three materials.

Yes, that's what I think thank you.

Okay.

On the motion, Councilmember Kesserwani.

Yes.

Yes.

Bartlett, yes.

I'll keep abstain.

Black wees, Unapara.

Yes.

Humber, yes, and Mary Ishi.

Yes.

Okay, motion carry.

Motion passes.

Thank you all so much.

Um, thank you for those of you who came to watch or give public comment.

I'm gonna move us on to the final item for this evening, which is item number 21, the City of Berkeley's 2026 state and federal legislative platform.

Um, as was mentioned at a previous meeting.

I um was able to go to Washington DC for the U.S.

Conference of Mayors as well as the Mayor's Innovation Project, and also had an opportunity to do some lobbying on behalf of the city with our lobbyist.

Um, and so we are very lucky to have Nicolo De Luca here with us to answer any questions that we might have.

Um so typically every year the mayor works with city staff and our state and federal advocates to set a legislative platform that guides our advocacy work.

As in previous years, our priority areas are related to homelessness, housing, economic development, infrastructure, public safety, sustainability and the environment, and health.

Um it takes a long time for legislation to come to fruition, as you all know.

Therefore, it's logical for many things to stay on the list year over year.

Um so that is to say that many of the things are similar from previous years because we know that these are gonna continue to be our priorities.

Um I know also that Vice Mayor Luna Para has some things that she would like to add as a friendly amendment, and I am happy to accept them.

So if you could also uh pull up your additions now to share with folks.

I think um I'll just need whoever's sharing right now to stop sharing.

Is that city staff?

I can do it.

Okay, very good.

Oh, it's sorry.

Thank you very much.

And yeah, go ahead.

Okay, I'm just gonna read them out loud.

Um these are some friendly amendments, additions.

Um support legislative and funding efforts to sorry, could you make it a little bigger and close that side so that folks can read it a little better, please?

Thank you.

Is that better?

Okay, support legislative and funding efforts to assist students experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity.

Support legislation allowing municipalities to regulate autonomous vehicles locally, support legislative efforts to create a non-f not-for-profit utility service to replace investor-owned utility utility programs, support funding for increased lighting on streets and sidewalks, support funding for seismic retrofits for affordable housing providers, including nonprofit housing cooperatives and community land trusts, support funding for public bicycle storage, support funding for urban heat island mitigation, and then um a slight um addition to the support legislative efforts to enhance greater access to hospitals and health care, including medical Medicare for all at the federal level and Calcare at the state level.

Support legislative and funding efforts to expand the availability of emergency naloxone phenyl strips, test strips, about beverage test strips, needle exchange programs, and other harm reduction tools, support efforts to include information about emergency naloxone administration in the responsible beverage service training program, licensee education on alcohol and drugs and program and/or other appropriate certification programs.

Support restarting and expanding the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable Supplemental Benefits Program and support legislative efforts to more easily enable the creation of the East Bay Public Bank.

Thank you very much.

And I know that also uh Councilmember Humbert has something he'd like to add as well.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

And I don't have it um uh in written form to put up on the screen.

I mean, I have it on in my notes.

Um, I want to thank um you, uh, Mary Ishii and the city's lobbyists for uh your work on this list of legislative priorities.

Um there's one thing, I just have one thing, and I think it's really important for the future of ownership housing, and that's condominium construction defect liability reform.

My understanding is that uh assemblymember Wix and possibly Senator Ergin may be taking this on.

I'm confident that assemblymember Wicks um is, or at least she said she's going to, it's gonna be a political um uh fight, I think.

So I think that adding this to our list would align with some planned efforts, and I'd like to move that we add this to the following list, and in the language, it's just a very short um blurb.

Uh reef reform condominium construction and design defect liability to reduce costs, improve feasibility, and expand ownership housing options.

So I'd like to move to add that.

Thank you.

I think it would be good for everyone who has something they want to add for them to speak now so that we can discuss it all together.

Um, I will go to Councilmember Taplin.

Uh thank you.

Um, under health, I want to offer uh support legislative efforts, so protect access, agenda affirming care.

Thank you.

I think a great addition.

Um Councilmember Backaby.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I just I had two in the public safety um area, it should surprise no one they're wildfire-related.

Number 10 um says currently support legislation and funding to improve fire safety, including undergrounding utilities.

I wanted to propose addition, as well as guaranteeing that homeowners that do fire mitigation work receive home insurance renewals, which is an important loop closing mechanism to get the fire safety mitigation done.

Um, the other item under funding priorities in the same section on number five, where we talk about grants to support home hardening, um, including lower no interest loan or grant programs.

I would just want to add, as well as state income tax credits to assist homeowners in clearing hazardous vegetation and hardening homes.

So those are the two my two additions.

One more time, state state income tax credits.

So again, it doesn't hit us um in the county or city, um, and other states are doing it, but it's a state income tax credit for work that you're doing to harden your home.

Thank you.

I just want to make sure I heard you correctly.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Moving on to Councilmember Tracub.

Thank you so much.

Um, just check something.

Okay.

Um amendments under the environmental section.

Uh support measures to incentivize and/or expand the use of andor funding for local distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar, battery storage, virtual power plants, and community microquids.

And then um, I have I will have this in writing as long as you can read my chicken scratch.

Um, second one is support efforts to advance climate resiliency and adaptation efforts locally and regionally.

Thank you.

I'm gonna ask since there are so many here that you all type these up and send them to maybe the clerk.

What do you think?

What's best?

Um what's the cleanest way to do this?

Yes, I suppose if you want the exact wording added that I shouldn't.

I think that would be helpful.

Yes.

Uh, to me directly would be fine.

To our city clerk.

Thank you very much, everyone.

Um, okay.

Councilmember Bartlett.

I thank you, Madam Mayor.

A few um a few additions here.

Um, related to our conversation tonight, actually.

Uh, under health care uh expansion uh of medical reimbursement amounts and service categories for community health workers.

Second, requesting state technical assistance for place-based health equity initiatives, three supporting flexible grant funding to target investment in neighborhoods with measurable life expectancy gaps, and then under homeownership housing, um support density bonus tools for affordable condominiums, another one is um create local flexibility for inclusionary ownership, and seven infrastructure financing that supports entry-level condominiums.

Okay, is that everything?

Okay, um, so since we are very lucky to have Nicolo here in person.

Sorry, Madam Mayor.

Yes, apologies.

In the spirit of transparency, I added two words on the first one.

So where it said rooftop solar, it now says distributed slash rooftopslash balcony solar.

That's all.

Okay.

Very good.

Um, Councilmember Humbert, just so you know your mic is still on.

Um, so as you are all typing this away and sending it to the clerk, and the clerk is putting it all together.

Um, I'm gonna ask if anyone has any questions for Nicola while he's here.

Anyone?

Yeah.

I'm happy to quickly give an overview, Madam Mayor, if that's okay.

So um, Madam Mayor, Council members, Nicolo De Luca, it's an honor to be down here, so thank you very much.

Great seeing many familiar faces and some new ones.

Um we have the honor of working for the city of Berkeley in Sacramento and in DC.

Madam Mayor is a blast seeing you in DC, and you did a great job in all those meetings, so your constituents must be very happy.

Um we've had a good run with you all.

Uh 16 years, over 23 million and almost 100 bills that we've worked on specifically for the city.

So here's where things stand right now in Sacramento.

Uh, Friday was a bill introduction deadline.

There was over 1800 bills introduced, of which about 500 are spot bills.

Uh the bags under my eyes are because we've been reading a lot of bills, and I'm also getting older.

So, what we're gonna start doing is sharing more of our legislative matrices on every Friday to start highlighting what's out there.

Um, we shared one today highlighting fire safety and insurance, and then overall kind of what's going on in the world of local government.

Um, it's gonna be an interesting year.

We're seeing a lot of trends such as e-bike regulations, uh bills on illegal dumping.

There's a lot of um uh transit sales tax measures.

Um a lot of cities and counties are looking at uh the November ballot to see what might be coming down the horizon.

Um, of course, housing, streamlining, affordable housing.

Uh we're doing a presentation to a budget subcommittee on the need for HAP funding.

Uh, been working with Senator Ergeen on his RV bill and his local health jurisdiction bill.

I want to thank the city manager and his team for all of his work there.

So, a very active year already.

Um, as you know, things don't really ramp up until March, April, May, June, July.

Um, the budget started off last year.

We're looking at an $18 billion gap.

Now we're looking at a $2 billion dollar gap.

So hopefully the budget improves.

A lot of that is through some of the AI investments that are happening.

So that's Sacramento.

DC were working with the city manager and his team on some projects to submit for uh community project funding, also known as Earmarks, of which the city did well last year through the leadership of Congresswoman Simon to or signed into law for Ashby BART and then for fire safety, the East Bay Training Center.

So it's been another busy year looking forward to it, and just really beginning to roll up our sleeves to work on legislation, and we appreciate all the positions that you take.

The clerk has been great about always sharing positions immediately the day after you all have taken action.

And we, of course, share those with the author with our delegation.

We're spoiled.

We've got a great assembly member and a great senator.

And of course, leadership, speaker's office, pro temps office, and committee staff.

So happy to answer any questions you all may have.

And thank you for all the support and the strong partnership.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for your presentation for giving us the overview.

I think it is really helpful for everyone to know what's going on and what you all are working on on behalf of the city.

Yes, thank you.

I have a two uh two questions.

You mentioned um bills respecting e-bike regulations.

Yes.

Could you speak more about that?

What kinds of things?

Absolutely.

Um, so through the mayor, um, council members.

So um right now I think we've got about four bills out, and we're expecting about 12.

It's just tighter regulations on how the e-bikes basically their capacity, whether it's the horsepower or some of the output.

Um there's there was a study last year about overall e-bike safety, and I've read reports about some of the um operating room surgeons seeing high number of head trauma for young people 16 and younger.

Uh so what we're expecting is um regulations on overall output of the e-bikes, probably starting effect of 27 going to next year, um, maybe different types of infractions for the vehicle code.

Um, we do know that e-bikes are a affordable way of transportation for some, um, but then we've also heard when I say we, because we talk to a lot of legislators and staff have heard some of the horror stories of the accidents of kind of the joy riding, of the um comparability of e-bikes like motorcycles.

So, really looking at a handful of bills trying to be more strict on output of the e-bikes and their overall kind of product uh production.

Uh, thank you.

Um, yeah, it was.

I've been following some of some of those bills and um, and this isn't as in a question, but for us to think about um, uh as you mentioned, e-bikes are an affordable mode of transportation for many people.

Um, and I'm I am concerned that efforts to um adopt stringent regulations will um create a barrier.

Um and I think you know we all support road safety, but it's there's there's no mystery around which vehicles are causing the most harm in the road, and it's on e-bikes, so um, but my second question was um are there in the overall landscape.

Are you noticing any shifting headwinds?

Um, thinking about public safety in particular.

Um, you know, I think if I think if we roll back six years, there's I think one headwind that started to shift a little later on.

I'm wondering if there are similar things taking place in other areas, including public safety.

Absolutely, that is a great question.

When it comes to public safety last year, as you all may recall, I want to say, and it was assembly bill about how you treat um uh prostitutes and the Johns and the age limit of who is soliciting sex from who and how those uh what the different uh punishments may be, felonies, misdemeanors.

Um that bill was heavily discussed, and quite frankly, when I'm in my 19th year, um I was a little surprised that it was signed into law.

Um the legislature that I'm more used to has been a little bit more progressive on kind of law and order bills.

Um, so I was I was a little bit surprised that that one was signed uh and pushed kind of so aggressively.

Uh there's actually now a radio bill to essentially undercut that um about whether whether you're um soliciting or loitering or how you even define that.

So um we do have a new class of assembly members and senators, and I am seeing a bit of a shift a little bit more kind of towards the middle.

Um there's also something to keep in mind, which isn't necessarily the tone and tenor, but this is the governor's last year, um, and the governor has been clear on some of his priorities.

Um and there's also uh sense of not knowing who'd be the governor next year and who would be in the cabinet next year.

So former legislative um proposals that might have been maybe waiting for next year or gonna be expedited this year.

Um and so hopefully I'm answering your question as directly as I can, but I've seen a little bit of a shift on public safety.

Um none of the bills that we've looked at uh this week and then today really kind of stood out on the side of public safety other than an assembly bill seeking to water down or undercut uh the bill that was sent into law last year on um prostitution and loitering.

Thank you, and actually I have one last question, my apologies.

Um, and this is kind of a follow-up, but um just from a from a high level, is the the posture among the legislature or are we do we think that they're in a position to advance or hold to protect?

I think we're you know on defense against the Fed.

So I'm wondering whether how much the appetite there is of the state to push for innovative new things versus fighting the key things we currently have.

Great question.

Uh definitely both.

Um last year there was a lot of bills towards the end of session on ice and masks.

There continues to be a handful handful of bills on immigration, what ice should not be allowed to do in our state, things of that nature.

Um continue to see the trend of pushing back against DC, primarily through the governor and a lot of his budget proposals.

So I expect definitely pushing back, but at the same time continue to advance.

I mean, there's you all know because you're all a very well versed.

I mean, there's a tremendous amount of pride in being a Californian in the California values in everything that our state does, and that just gets louder and louder each year with a greater sense of pride, which could be whether it's a housing bill or a bill about climate change.

Um as you all know, they the cap and invest was approved last year, a lot of good funding for housing and affordable housing, land conservation, but then also fire safety.

Um so if you ask about trends, I'd say two trends have been really clear.

This year there's definitely a trend to address illegal dumping, handful of bills on that.

Um, and then another trend is overall fire safety and that impact and how do you, whether it's zone zero, which you all led on, how do you do defensible space, what does that look like, and how do neighborhoods really take a stand themselves against what Mother Nature may deal towards you.

Thank you.

Thanks for your questions and for your thorough responses.

Um Councilmember Tracker, did you have a question?

Yes, I have two questions.

Uh one, um, I I know I've been following the legislature not as closely as you, of course, and affordability continues to be top of mind.

Um any predictions or surprises uh thus far in the cycle around uh those discussions.

And my second question is more pointed because it might inform one other potential amendment if the count to our priorities of the council signs off on it.

Um we we do have a no uh unfunded mandates language before us.

I appreciate it.

Um in the context of the governor's um released budget, which um appears to shift the burden of funding for um certain mental health services to local uh and county jurisdictions.

Um I'm wondering if you could talk about that a little bit and would it be uh if you were advising a city council, which you kind of are, um would you feel that it might be beneficial to insert some language around um uh making sure that there is appropriate funding and uh resourcing for local jurisdictions for um mental health or other forms of health care.

Absolutely.

Uh through the mayor, council member.

I would say the way that the ledge platform is written now, it's clear about any impacts of local funding, whether it's to the city, to the county or the region.

So I think you're very solid there.

Um you were mentioning about overall mental health funding, kind of pushing that back on the county.

Something to keep in mind, and the governor was very proud of was Prop One and the funding for Prop One and how that's tied to not just services but also housing.

So that was part of it.

Um something that the governor did towards the end of the session last year was use a cap and invest proceeds to help offset other costs that the state would take to make sure the state's general fund wasn't as negatively impacted.

Um affordability, you asked.

You know, I would say we're still extremely early in the legislative process, and that is something a lot of us have identified or we're waiting to see what happens, whereas both houses, the Senate and the Assembly have been clear they want to make the state affordable, especially for uh middle class families and working class families.

Um what's gonna be interesting though is also the lack of redevelopment, so there's not the funding that the cities have for greater flexibility to build.

There's a discussion of the housing bond, which could be up to 10 billion, which would be spent very quickly, but there's also been a push from the legislature of let locals decide how they want to handle things, and so I think the rub could be what the affordability uh package would look like versus allowing cities and counties and others to take their destiny in their own hands.

As of right now, we don't yet have an answer on that, but affordability is a theme.

I will hear kind of throughout the ledge session.

Thank you.

Councilmember Bartley, do you have a question?

Oh, thank you.

Uh I was curious of um what's the outlook on um our insurance issue?

There was a handful of the first there's an informational hearing about two weeks ago, three weeks ago on overall housing in insurance for houses, whether it's affordable housing, whether it's in a fire area or what have you, um it getting louder and louder to make sure the insurance companies cannot increase their rates so high at the same time that they're protecting in case of a catastrophe.

Uh we're expecting a handful of insurance bills that are substantive and are really gonna try to help kind of move the needle.

Um, definitely gonna flag those for the city.

There was a few last year that didn't make it to the finish line, but I know their authors are committed to doing so, so that will remain another hot topic of what is affordability for insurance look like, how do you maintain as much coverage as you possibly can, especially for single-family houses in the urban uh wildfire interface area?

Thank you.

Okay, so um one other thing I want to make sure that I get everyone's okay on is our ability to send advocacy letters that are supported by these areas without coming to council first because that will allow us to move more expeditiously um if things come up that we can support.

Just wanna see if anyone's opposed to it.

Okay, all right.

So we have a number of additions that have been recommended.

Um personally, I'm fine with taking all of them as friendly amendments.

Um I I just want to see if anyone has any other comments about that.

Actually, I need to take public comments, so let me do that first.

Public comments.

Hi, um, and I would um like to thank Carol and Brianna for yielding time to me.

Um so uh I do I get a minute from each of them?

Okay.

Um hi, my name is Sarah Bell, and I'm speaking on behalf of Berkeley's housing advisory commission.

The commission met on Thursday, February 5th to make recommendations on the housing section of our city's legislative priorities.

Um, and as a commission, we recommended a number of edits.

I would like to emphasize that the commission voted unanimously in favor of each of our edits.

So we respectfully request that council incorporate our feedback into the final legislative priorities, which overlap with changes um suggested by council members already tonight.

You should have received a memo with the rationale for each of our edits in the agenda packet.

In other words, we did type it up, and I will attempt to summarize them now.

Um there are some complications around which version we started from in making our edits.

I'm happy to sort out which items we're referring to.

And I would also like to thank um the city's lobbyist um for all of their efforts thus far.

So starting with recommendations for tenant protections, we recommended codifying rent relief and eviction moratorium for future emergency situations and enhancing our state code around preventing tenant harms that come from predictive algorithms.

Both of these are timely given the changing world we inhabit.

Moving on to housing construction, we recommended personal changes to the building code, such as universal design and elevator reform to make our buildings more accessible, and allowing single stair modular construction and the use of the residential code for middle housing, that last one being very important for our city because we just passed middle housing.

We also recommended pursuing condo deposit and condo defect reform to enable multifamily for sale housing to pencil because despite our recent boom of rental housing, significantly less for-sale multifamily housing has been constructed in Berkeley over that same period.

In the area of funding, we suggested edits in order to be concrete in the outcomes we wish to achieve without being overly specific on the mechanism.

We also recommended expanding the item on funding seismic retrofitting to include home hardening as well, since many homes in Berkeley are at elevated risk of wildfire.

On changes to the California Constitution, the commission recommends promoting the repeal of Article 34 to its own item and to put a final point on the item about lowering the voter threshold for passing affordable housing bonds, specifying 50% plus one.

We emphatically need to make it easier to approve and fund affordable housing.

The final piece of text that we recommended adding is an edit to um item nine on the mayor's memo and number 10 and the one that we received to expand the scope of our support for student housing and also to include education workers in that support.

As for the text that we recommended removing, the item on LITEC changes, nine in ours, eight in the mayor's memo, did not actually um we recommended removing that because um it did not actually indicate a need for any legislative changes at this time.

Um the item on programs um to fund, which was 14 in ours and 12 in on the mayor's version, we suggested merging um just into a more general item on funding.

And lastly, the item on ADU law seemed to be a holdover from years past, so we recommended removing it.

And furthermore, allowing other cities to count ADUs towards the arena allocation um could be detrimental for a city like Berkeley that takes its housing goals very seriously, um, where and um of course housing is a regional um concern, and so that's another reason to remove the item on ADUs.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration of these changes, and we hope you incorporate our suggestions.

I'll make myself available to answer any questions and help track across versions.

Um, and I really appreciate again both um both our lobbyists' work and the council's work on producing these priorities.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sarah.

I did not receive your email, so um uh we're checking for it right now, but I don't think we received it.

So it's very concerning.

Um, so you we might need to take a mini break at some point, probably after public comments so we can go through this to make sure um it's clear.

So is there any other public comment?

Yes, hello, um, not taking any position on any item, but wanted to just piggyback on the question about headwinds, and I know you it's not a back and forth, but in case anyone else has this question, um, I just recently started tracking the kind of mental health diversion efforts that have been happening at the state level, um, around more mental health diversion in the courts, and I know today the public safety committee at the state, like Senator Aragon came out with some recommendations around a bill related to mental health diversion.

Given Berkeley's challenges, it would be nice if that subject were included on the list in some way for the city to be able to maybe lobby around.

Or I'd like to be interested in hearing sort of more of the headwinds around that if that's something that the lobbyists could talk about if someone else had that question.

Thank you.

Yeah, we found it.

Um, so if you can give us five minutes, I want to review a couple things and then come back and we can have a conversation.

Recording in progress.

So the reviewing what was sent, uh the numbers don't line up with the current numbers of this, and it's very messy and messy to combine all these different things together.

And I think for the sake of transparency and making sure everyone is clear on what it is that we are um voting on, I'd like to actually continue this item until another time.

Where so that we can actually take the time to rewrite it, take everyone's edits, make sure it's clear what we're all voting on.

Because I I understand, like right now, I would say most of this is not controversial, but um I do think it's important for us to be clear what it is we're voting on.

So I'm gonna ask that we continue this item, which Mr.

State Clerk, I just want to make sure means that if we we would move this to the next council meeting.

Certainly can on March 10th.

March 10th.

Okay.

Okay.

I really appreciate you, Nicola, for coming to be here and answer our questions.

And by next time, we should have something that's a little cleaner for us to actually approve, and we'll be able to pass it forward with you.

Um, you know, like I said, nothing here is is super controversial.

It's really more a matter of getting it getting it straight clear.

So okay, so with that, uh we won't be able to carry over any of the additions that were added tonight.

So I mean, they could be rendered rendered reintroduced at the next meeting.

We will reintroduce these changes at the next meeting.

All of them in together.

Yes.

Okay.

Is there a way to could we submit them as a supplemental so they could be published ahead of time?

Yeah, so just read on the dice again.

I think that would be the idea is to have it printed ahead of time, written down.

Everyone can review it and read it before.

Okay.

So that's the contract to serve the African American population, uh, the Latino immigrant population, the LGBTQ population, and those may or may not be renewed.

So as long as mental health was raised, I was gonna mentioned that's uh that may be an additional gap in our system as we address all of these issues.

Um I also was sad to hear it uh during the legislative presentation.

I don't know if what that law was that was mentioned as far as sex workers and the customers, and I'm gonna take a look at it.

A while ago, sex trafficking came up as a as a recommendation from another commission I was on, and it really is it really is an issue in Berkeley.

It's very sad to attend uh an event in.

Am I able to keep talking?

Okay, it was very sad to attend a very well attended event in Berkeley and see a young girl who is cl was clearly, and she was clearly underage with her her zipper down, uh, posed on the sidewalk and passing by, and what do you do?

I don't know what to do.

I mean, I want to have her arrested.

That is not a response to a young girl who's being exploited.

So I wonder, and I how much do we really care about addressing that issue that young girls are being trafficked?

And I had mentioned previously about coming across someone in a homeless encampment.

Um was very suspect, the man she was with who was about 60 when she is was clearly underage and six months pregnant.

So it is an issue in our community, and there are only city management.

Thank you.

Um is there any other public comment on items not listed on the agenda on the agenda?

Anyone online?

Uh there's one one hand raised online.

I should be able to unmute caller ending in two one one.

Hi, uh last item which I'm about to uh talk about.

Uh since Donald Trump um rejected the nuclear test uh treaty that have been in effect for over fifty years, uh doomed the clock was advanced seconds before midnight.

This man is crazy and he will do it.

If we don't have nuclear war, which could happen because of Ukraine, possibly or any other war else.

Ninety-eight percent of humans are going to vanish within minutes or seconds or hours.

Two percent will die within days or weeks from very painful deaths.

That will must stop.

Must stop this crazy man.

And you know, please watch his uh the uh that's all we're talking his talking tonight.

And left.

Have a good night.

Good to talk to you.

Thank you.

Any other public comment?

That's all.

Okay, is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

As long as there is no opposition to adjourning, we will be adjourned for this evening.

Meeting adjourned.

Thank you all.