Okay. All right. Thank you, everyone. We have reconvened after our closed session. I have the following announcements. By a 5-0 vote, the City Council authorized and directed the City Attorney's Office to defend the cases of Lindman versus the City of Elk Grove and all, as identified by the case number on the City Council meeting agenda.

Also by a 5-0 vote, the City Council authorized the City's Attorney's Office to initiate litigation in one matter.

The name of the defendants and details are not subject to disclosure at this time.

Once litigation is filed, this information will be disclosed to any person upon inquiry.

With that, we will adjourn our special meeting at 6 o'clock.

And now I'd like to call to order the Elk Grove City Council regular meeting.

Today is Wednesday, December the 10th, 2025, and the time is 6 p.m.

Clerk.

Thank you, Mayor.

This meeting of the Elk Grove City Council is recorded with closed captioning.

The recording will be cable cast on Metro Cable Channel 14, the local government affairs channel on the Comcast and DirecTV U-verse cable systems.

The recording will also be video streamed at Metro14Live.SACCounty.gov.

Tonight's meeting replays will be on Friday, December 12th at 1 p.m.

and Monday, December 15th, also at 1 p.m. on Metro Channel 14.

Once posted, the recordings of this and previous meetings can be viewed on demand

at the three W's dot elkgrove dot gov or youtube dot com slash Metro Cable 14.

For members of the participating audience may have personal electronic devices.

Please place them on silent mode during the meeting or on mute when you are not speaking.

The Elk Grove City Council welcomes, appreciates, and encourages participation in the City Council meeting.

City Council requests that you limit your presentation to three minutes per person so that all present will have time to participate.

The City Council reserves the right to reasonably limit the total time for public comment on any particular notice to agenda item as it may deem necessary.

Pursuant to Resolution No. 2010-24, no individual speaker concerning public comment may address the City Council for more than three minutes.

If you wish to address the Council during the meeting, please complete a blue speaker card, which can be found at the back of the chamber,

provided to Assistant City Clerk Brenda Haggard prior to consideration of the agenda item.

With that, Mayor, I'll be moving into the roll call.

And for the roll call, I will start with Council Member Spies.

Present.

Council Member Brewer.

Present.

Council Member Suen.

Here.

Vice Mayor Robles.

Present.

And Mayor Singh Allen.

Here.

Thank you.

Next up is our land acknowledgement.

Assisting will be Vice Mayor Robles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

We honor, respect, and acknowledge Elk Grove First Inadminance, the Plain Miwok, who lived

as sovereign caretakers of this land and these waterways since time immemorial.

We commemorate and advocate for their descendants, the Wilton Rancheria tribe, the only federally recognized tribe in Sacramento County,

who endured because of the bravery, resiliency, and determination of their ancestors, tribal members, and leaders.

Thank you.

Next up is our Pledge of Allegiance.

I would like to invite up from our Planning Commission, Dr. Suman-Singa, to help lead us this evening.

Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for

which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

You may be seated.

Next time is our moment of silence.

Please join us with your moment of silence.

All right, thank you.

Next up, item 1A, our special action item.

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

We have a unique item, as we do in the month of December,

which is selection of the Vice Mayor and reorganization of the City Council.

So we would ask for a motion and a second for the selection of who will be Vice Mayor for the upcoming year.

We do have the placards.

If you wish to play musical chairs, we can also make the arrangements

as your norms and procedure manual dictates out which district seats,

how you're seated if there is a move.

And so we can also wait to do that in the new year.

But otherwise, I leave it to any speakers and to the council

to decide the vice mayor for the upcoming year.

All right.

At this time, I will open up the public comment opportunity.

Seeing nobody sign up on this, I will close the public comment.

And I will look for a motion.

Madam Mayor, I move Council Member Suen become the vice mayor.

I second.

All right.

We have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much to everybody.

Appreciate my colleague's support.

Thank you very much.

Would you like to play musical chairs now, or should we save that for January?

We can wait.

That another day won't hurt.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

Next up is our approval of the agenda.

May I get a motion, please?

So moved.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Next item.

And for this evening, under Section 3 for the closed session and Section 4 for presentations and announcements,

there are no items under those sections.

That will advance us to Section 5, our general public comment.

All right.

Thank you.

At this time, I will open up public comment.

We will start with Dr. Suman-Singa, followed by Bonnie Stansler.

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

I'm here in my capacity as the Chair of the Elk Grove Food Bank Board of Directors.

Our Executive Director Marie Giacchino sends her regrets that she could not be here today.

It is her granddaughter's birthday, so she's a touch on us.

Each month prior to the federal shutdown, we were serving about 8,000 clients a month at the food bank.

A quarter of these clients are young children who are this country's future,

and another quarter are senior citizens who, during their working lives, in many cases,

worked one or two jobs in low-wage positions in which there were no retirement benefits.

I don't have time to discuss the fact that now they're living on a very meager social

security benefits that they're getting, but if you have time on your hands, I would recommend

everybody read this book called Nickel and Dimed and Not Making America by Barbara Erlenreich,

which talks about the state of the working poor. This book dates back to 2001 conditions.

have only gotten worse since then.

I'm here today to thank the many people who helped the food bank through the recent crisis

caused by the federal government shutdown.

We had federal employees who did not get paid.

We had folks receiving SNAP recipients who did not receive their benefits.

And as a result of this, the number of individuals coming to the food bank for assistance essentially

doubled overnight.

In the midst of this unforeseen crisis, we reached out to the city manager, Mr. Jason Berman, and I would like to thank him and the vice mayor, Vice Mayor Robles, for meeting with us, listening thoughtfully, and assuring us not to despair.

I gather Mr. Berman or Mr. Robles then talked about a dire situation to you, Madam Mayor, and to other members on the council.

And I'm here to thank each of you for reaching into your personal and discretionary funds and to your friends and contacts,

and for the immediate relief that we got at the food bank in terms of donations.

It has allowed us to re-shelf or stock our shelves, and we are now in good shape,

even though our number is currently running slightly over 1,000 clients larger than they were prior to the government shutdown.

The outpouring of support from the community has been unbelievable.

All of us at the food bank would like to thank the many generous individuals for caring for those who are less fortunate

and allowing us to fulfill our mission and serving those in need.

Elk Grove is truly an amazing city with a city council, a city manager and city staff who care deeply about the well-being of the city and its residents.

Thank you all.

Thank you, sir.

Next up is Bonnie Stensler, followed by Lynn Wheat.

Good evening, Mayor.

and council members.

For several years, I've served as a city liaison

for my Glenbrook HOA.

And tonight, on behalf of Glenbrook and myself,

personally, I would like to wish you all happy holidays.

Mayor, council members, city manager, city clerk,

city staff, police, fire,

all those working behind the scenes,

thank you for continually striving

to make the city of Elk Grove the best that it can be.

Your dedication and hard work,

it's truly recognized and much appreciated.

Thank you again in May 2026.

Be prosperous for the city of Elk Grove

and all its residents.

Happy New Year.

And congratulations, Darren, as Vice Mayor.

Thank you very much, Bonnie.

Thank you.

Happy holidays.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Lynn Wheat.

Good evening.

I want to go back in time to around 2006 where the city was working on the zoning code at that particular time and the planning commission was holding some workshops.

So a number of us that are no longer present now were at those workshops to help influence what we wanted our city to look like and the direction and quality of life for all of us.

Well, at that particular time, they were taking public comment and we were having dialogue back and forth.

I suggested that we were going to be having more and more retail centers in other areas that we ought to have bike racks put in our shopping center areas.

And one of the planning commissioners at that time says, who rides their bike?

Well, I want to thank staff for putting forth the survey, and I most certainly will help them and answer the survey on where we might need bike wrecks.

But to me, that was a little visionary ahead of my time, but it's happening now.

And I really thank staff for that because I think the students and the people that ride their bikes will appreciate having a safe spot to park.

Also during that time the city had some surplus property along Sheldon and 99 and I suggested that would be a perfect pocket park for the bicyclists to take a break.

So as the trails committee has done such a wonderful job in planning our trails thought the city could do that.

Unfortunately that was passed and that's not going to happen.

But indeed, we are looking forward to creating safe spots for young people, old people, bike riders.

Now we have electric bikes.

I couldn't have thought that we'd have that in 2006.

But we're looking at other ways.

And I am thankful for the staff moving forward on that.

I guess I was just ahead of the times.

Lastly, I just would want to follow up on something that I think is important for us all to have an update on,

is what is happening with the slow and low property and the $450,000 that we were supposed to,

the taxpayers were supposed to receive back from that default.

And I'm hoping either at this meeting or in the new year we might be updated with that.

And maybe even some of that money could be granted to the food bank or some of our other nonprofits within our city as we think of this season.

So I want to just, again, thank staff for the work that they do and some of the things that they're planning that just touch my heart.

And I want to wish you all a happy holidays, but more importantly, a Merry Christmas.

Because if we think of it, it's a season of hope and love.

And it doesn't matter what God you pray to, but my God had a Jesus.

And thank you, Jesus.

Thank you.

That is our final speaker.

I just want to address really quickly, to Dr. Suman Sinha's point, the generosity that came from our community has just been tremendous.

I want to do a shout out to a few that really stepped up.

The Firefighters Local 522 donated.

IBEW, their check, $10,000 next week.

Plumbers and pipe fitters contributed $7,500.

Sheet metal check next week.

The Tribe, $50,000 from the Wilton Rancheria.

Very proud of them and thanking them for stepping up.

Kevin Nagel personally also donated, as well as Sac Republic donated $10,000.

So just want to thank.

I'm sure there's a lot of others.

I know there's others that we've all reached out to, but also from the discretionary funds, Kevin Spees.

Thank you.

You could have used it for many other things.

So thank you for your generosity.

And you all worked on a bunch of other organizations as well.

But it takes a community to step up in times of need.

And just really grateful for our extended community, whether they live in Elk Grove or not.

They know the need is great and people were suffering.

And just grateful that they stepped up to help.

our friends and neighbors.

So thank you all for that.

With that, I will close public comment

and move on to our next item,

which is our city manager's report.

All right.

Good evening, Madam Mayor.

New vice mayor, congratulations.

And the rest of the city council,

thank you for everything that you do,

for all your support.

And just to highlight one thing quickly

that the mayor said too,

just the total amount that was generated

from the city's efforts was over $130,000.

The city directly was about $45,000.

And then the rest of the entities that the mayor said.

So we're very grateful for all that the food bank does.

And we're grateful to be able to participate in the important work that they do.

So let's see.

So Saturday, we had our Illumination Festival.

And it was amazing.

It was a great turnout.

We just recently got some information about the number of visitors.

and we estimate it was about 10,000 people that attended,

which is almost a significant increase over prior years.

About half of those people from the city of Elk Grove,

about half are from outside.

So we're generating a lot of interest from the entire region,

people coming to Elk Grove,

which of course also benefits not only the vendors that were there,

but we saw a lot of traffic in all the businesses in that whole area,

right down to the various shopping centers in that area.

So lots of great feedback.

we're already starting to think about next year and how we you know continue to manage the growing event

But appreciate the council support community support

Organizations that participated in the event and the parade and the tree lighting and it was something truly special

So we're proud of that fourth annual elimination

So next year's our fifth and hopefully the weather this is always the tricky thing at the weather holds

We get a great turnout, but you can't predict that but it was it was an outstanding event. So thanks to all

And thanks for our wonderful staff, Jody and Kristen.

And it's an all-hands-on-deck kind of effort to make that happen.

So I wanted to acknowledge them and their efforts to make that, to have it go off flawlessly.

Let's see.

The Elko Police Department and Cosumnes Fire Department will bring holiday cheer to over 130 families

and approximately 350 children through their annual holiday toy project.

New unwrapped toy donations are being accepted at the police department and at the Cosumnes Fire Department stations through December 18th.

The Shabbat of Elk Grove will host their fourth annual Light Up Elk Grove Hanukkah event this Sunday, December 14th, from 2 to 5 at Old Town Plaza.

Festivities will include the lighting of a nine-foot LED menorah, latkes, donuts, and other delicious food and drinks, and activities for the family.

It's a free event sponsored by the city.

City of Elk Grove is proud to offer a $1,000 scholarship to help local students take the next step toward a career in public service.

Working with the Elk Grove Regional Scholarship Foundation, applications are now being accepted.

High school seniors living in Elk Grove and planning to attend a four-year university or a community college as a full-time student may be eligible to apply.

Details on the application can be found on the Elk Grove Regional Scholarship Foundation website.

And finally, council will be in recess on Wednesday, December 24th, and city facilities

will be closed December 24th and December 25th for the Christmas holiday, and December

31st and January 1st for the New Year's holiday.

Trash service will operate on delayed holiday schedules those weeks.

Next city council meeting will be January 14th.

And that concludes my report.

Happy to answer any questions the council might have.

Thank you.

Thank you for your report.

Any questions?

Looking to the right, looking to the left.

just a couple of comments as it relates to the illumination festival requests from several when

it comes to ADA access if we can have some sort of closed off areas for those with disabilities

so that they don't have to cram with the rest of the families and crowds and it's a safe space for

them so as we plan this out if we can factor in the accessibility and having a special section

for those in need. That would be great. Thank you.

All right. We will move on to our next item, consent calendar items.

At this time, I will open up public comment. I do not

have anyone signed up to speak. I will close public comment. Any questions?

Otherwise, I will look for an approval for consent.

Move consent. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

Thank you.

Item 8.1, a public hearing.

That's a public hearing to consider a resolution adopting amendments to the City of Elk Grove

General Plan to update the open space element and the implementation work plan.

Oh, I don't need to do that.

Okay. Good evening, Council. Carrie Whitlock, Long Range Planning. So the item I have before

you this evening are amendments to the general plan for two sections. One is text amendments

to the open space element to ensure city compliance with Senate Bill 1425. The second is updates

to the implementation work program document included in the general plan.

The city general plan was adopted in 2019 with amendments undertaken regularly, including

for maintenance activities to ensure the document remains compliant with state law.

In 2022, the state adopted Senate Bill 1425 requiring local jurisdictions to review and

update their open space element of the general plan by January 1,

2026 related to three different items.

Access equitable access to open space for all residents,

climate resilience and other co-benefits of open space,

and rewilding opportunities.

So within the city's general plan,

the open space element is primarily

addressed within chapter 7, which is community and resources

protection.

So staff reviewed the general plan for existing policies

and needed edits to meet requirements

identified in the legislation.

Already existing policies within the general plan

are actually included in three different chapters,

community and resources protection, services, health

and safety, and urban and rural development.

There are over 20 existing policies

were identified to support the three open space requirements.

In addition, a number of existing policies

were identified where text amendments

could provide clarifying language

to better fit within the scope of the statutory requirements.

These changes are all within the Community and Research

Protection chapter, and they include

edits to seven different policies that

are outlined in the staff report.

Four additional policies are being

proposed to augment the existing policies

the general plan the new policies are intended to ensure consistency across the statutory

requirements and are all within that community and resources protection chapter

additional text is also proposed to be added in two different areas first additional language

on rewilding opportunities with any future habitat conservation plan that the city might consider

is proposed to be added to an existing paragraph on HCPs.

Second, adding an additional paragraph

for inclusion in the greenhouse gas emissions section,

explaining the concept of climate co-benefits

and providing some examples.

So in addition to the open space amendments,

the implementation work program is being updated.

The implementation work program,

which is included in the general plan as table 10-1 is the city's primary tool for organizing and

tracking implementation efforts. The table includes a series of actions spanning major policy areas

and with each action includes information on the lead city department, supporting partners who

would be involved, priority level, and estimated timing for that action. The implementation work

program is a dynamic tool that is updated periodically to ensure the priorities remain

current and responsive. The updates include removing completed actions, redefining priorities

and policy changes since the general plan adoption in 2019, updates to language and progress on actions,

and clarification of responsibilities across city departments.

with these no further environmental review is required under state CEQA guidelines section

15061 and 15183 the implementation work program was included with the general plan EIR

and the specific changes included with these amendments are clarifications updates to language

and removal of completed projects so neither the open space amendments nor the changes to

the implementation work program in and of themselves would result in the possibility

of creating significant or cumulative effects on the environment.

So finally, staff recommends that the city council adopt a resolution finding no further

environmental review is required and approving the amendments to the city's general plan

open space and general plan implementation work program.

And with that, I am available for any questions.

All right.

Thank you for your presentation.

I will now declare the public hearing is now open and open up public comment.

I do not have anyone signed up on this.

I'll close public comment and declare the public hearing is now closed.

Any questions?

All right, then I will look for a motion.

Move staff's recommendation to adopt the resolution.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Next up, 9.1.

I have received the annual report on the City of Elk Grove's homeless shelter.

All right, good evening mayor and council members.

I'm Sarah Bontrager your housing and public services manager.

You've seen me here a lot lately talking about the shelter, but it's our future homeless shelter.

And tonight we are here to talk about what has happened over the last year with our existing homeless shelter.

So as a way of background, the current shelter is located on the Calvary Christian Center site.

It serves up to 30 adults per night with five emergency beds that PD can use to drop off folks that they come across in the community.

during the day or overnight. The 24-7 operations began November 5th last year,

and the shelter is operated by the Gathering Inn, which is a Placer County-based nonprofit

that has been our partner for both the Enhanced Winter Sanctuary and for the current iteration of the shelter.

The shelter is referral only, so folks cannot walk up to the shelter.

They must contact our Homeless Services Navigator, who verifies that they have a tie to Elk Grove,

and then can enter them into the shelter.

We do want to lower the barriers for folks who are trying to access shelter,

so we, of course, allow pets and a reasonable amount of belongings.

So first and foremost, the shelter provides a safe place to sleep.

It also provides three meals a day, restrooms, showers, and laundry facilities for guests,

and case management.

A huge component of the case management is connections to behavioral or mental health services and help finding housing and moving when people do find housing.

And we have a full-time workforce development specialist provided through TGI who helps people to get employment.

And then the case managers also transport folks to appointments.

So as I mentioned, the Gathering Inn, a huge partner for us providing the operations.

The Food Bank has provided food donations for breakfast and lunch meals for the last year.

Turning Point, which is located just a little bit north of the shelter on East Stockton,

does the behavioral health services for many of our guests and also serves as a day center

for those guests who want to go there to access resources.

And then we have Elk Grove Heart, who provides moving assistance,

So deposits and furniture for folks who are moving to their permanent housing opportunity.

And then there are dozens and dozens of other nonprofits and faith-based organizations,

civic organizations that have provided dinners and donations over the last year.

What we've seen, and our police department is here a little bit later to talk about the neighborhood impacts,

But we've tried to limit the neighborhood impacts by having frequent drive-throughs by our homeless services navigators and by our police department and a designated TGI point of contact for resident and business concerns.

We will be getting a new shelter manager.

Our old one left a month or so ago,

and I had the pleasure today of sitting on the interview panel

for the new program director and really some excellent candidates,

and so I'm very excited.

I think we'll see some great things happening over there.

But that is the TGI point of contact for folks.

And we've received relatively few neighborhood complaints.

There have not been none, but it's been very limited.

So overall, 93 people have stayed at least one night at our shelter in the last year.

Average of 24 people per night were enrolled, and almost 9,400 bed nights.

If we were to rent motel rooms for everyone, we would have rented 9,400 motel rooms.

we saw guests ranging in age from 19 to 74 27 percent of our guests were 55 or older

that is something that we are considering in our program strategies moving forward and some of you

were at the ribbon cutting for the adamstown house recently which is permanent housing for seniors

shared housing opportunity and our hope is that we'll be able to serve some of the folks in that

age range with housing that's less than $600 a month for a room. We had 64 men, 28 women,

and one non-binary person, and three veterans, most of which were quickly moved to other

opportunities. Veterans have a lot of resources available to them. More than half of our guests

had a disability, and 23% had a chronic health condition. All of the guests who lived in the

shelter for any period of time reported that they came from a vehicle or outdoors prior to entering

the shelter. And a little over half of them were unhoused for more than a year prior to entering

the shelter. We had some great successes, and this is due to the partnership with TGI and with Elk Grove

Heart and all the other providers that have stepped in to help us get folks moved on. 14 people moved

to permanent housing. That's affordable housing complexes, room and board, family, friends,

market rate housing. We had an additional six households that left us for family or friends,

but we weren't sure if that was forever or for a time. And so that is marked differently as

temporary. But that brings us to 20 overall people. 54% of our guests were referred to

behavioral health services, either at Turning Point or another provider. And about 25% of them

were ultimately successfully linked to a behavioral health provider and receiving the medications that

they need to stabilize. And a great statistic that we have employment. Many people assume that

people experiencing homelessness are not working. In fact, we saw seven people come into the shelter

with jobs, and 12 people found new or better employment while they were at the shelter.

A testament to their own individual efforts, but also to our workforce specialist at the

TGI team who helped us to get resumes out for folks, to prepare them for interviews.

We had one person get a job at Kubota, actually, and a few folks get jobs in our fast food

restaurants. So local jobs and lots of partnership. Lots of community support, as I said. So 740 meals

donated by the food bank and then 278 serve partner meals. Those are dinners provided by

faith-based civic groups. And so about five per week is what that works out to.

We continue to work with folks in the shelter, having a very close partnership with TGI.

We know that not everyone will stay in the shelter until they get housing.

Some folks will leave for whatever reason.

So we wanted to maintain those relationships so that we could work with them if they were exited or chose to leave.

And then get them back into the shelter when they were ready the next time.

And then we will have Elk Grove Heart here to highlight some of their successes and share some photos with you.

But they did provide move-on assistance to eight shelter guests.

They provided both deposits and furniture, and they'll have some photos of the apartments that folks moved into.

And so I will now turn the presentation over to Josh Magdaleno from our police department to share some shelter neighborhood statistics.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and community members.

I'm Lieutenant Josh Magdalena with the Elk Grove Police Department, and I'm here to share the police department's perspective and our homeless outreach team's perspective on the shelter's first full year of operation.

From a law enforcement standpoint, the shelter has become an essential tool for our frontline officers.

When an officer encounters someone who has no safe place to go, we now have a real option.

We maintain five emergency beds specifically for patrol use, and over the past year, we've used those beds 25 times.

That's 25 individuals that were brought into a safe, supervised environment for the night instead of being left outside.

Right now, we also have 8 to 10 shelter guests who are actively moving towards transitional or permanent housing,

and our outreach team and navigator staff are working closely together to support those moves,

and that progress is encouraging. One of the most significant impacts we've seen at the city is the

reduction of encampments. Since the shelter opened, Elk Grove has experienced a 65 percent decrease

in homeless encampments within the city limits. That reduction is meaningful for public health,

neighborhood safety, and for the officers who respond to those areas. With fewer encampments,

the amount of debris collected during our bi-weekly cleanups has also dropped dramatically

by over 40,000 pounds this year. That's a clear indicator that the shelter is helping

shift people away from unmanaged outdoor spaces into safer, more stable environments.

We also look seriously at the police activity around the shelter. We focused on a 0.3 mile

radius and compared the year before the opening of the shelter to the first year after.

And during the first year, there were 711 calls for service compared to 595 calls the

previous year, an increase of 9.1%.

Now, increases in calls can sound concerning, but the important thing to point out is what's

actually driving that number.

The increase is largely tied to one call type, and that's suspicious trespassing.

Those calls rose by 115%, and they were concentrated mostly in the commercial areas south of the shelter, the Walmart area and the Elk Village Shopping Center.

So the key takeaway here is the shelter itself is not creating a crime burden.

What we're seeing is activity in a common commercial corridor where people naturally travel,

and the data cannot specifically tell us how many of those calls are directly related to shelter guests or the shelter.

When we isolate calls that come directly from the shelter, the numbers of calls are low and very manageable.

Over the past year, the shelter generated 51 public-initiated calls.

Six of those were from members of the public, 32 from the shelter employees, and 13 from shelter guests.

And the fact that most of the calls come from employees shows that the gathering end is proactive in managing issues early and reaching out appropriately when they need police support.

They've created a stable, well-run environment, and we appreciate that partnership.

So overall, from a police department perspective,

the shelter has helped us reduce encampments across the city,

improve neighborhood conditions,

and given our officers a compassionate and immediate alternative

when engaging with people in crisis.

The data tells its clear story that the shelter is working and is stable

and that the crime impacted in the surrounding area is very minimal, if at all.

Thank you, and I'm happy to take any questions.

We'll probably save them all for the end.

Yep.

All right.

Next, we'll end on a high note.

I'll invite Debbie Shana Safer and Frank Lucia of Elk Grove Heart to come up and share some photos from some of our success stories.

Thank you.

Mayor Singh Allen and council members, thank you for this opportunity to speak before you.

Frank and I founded Elk Grove Heart 15 years ago and highly value the partnership with Sarah Bontrager and you, the city, as we join in developing and implementing new programs to support the unsheltered in our community.

In review of what the shelter has meant to our unhoused, it has been a place to escape the elements, especially on cold nights like tonight.

It is not about comfort.

20 to 30 people died on the streets of Sacramento last year, a lot of them due to hypothermia.

The shelter is a place where the unhoused can get a hot meal and stretch out to get a good night's sleep.

The use of a bathroom with a hot shower helps to stabilize them and prepare them to look for employment.

And so many are doing just that.

successfully finding employment and housing to transition out of the shelter.

To qualify for an apartment, you need to have three months consecutive employment.

Rachel accomplished this by working long hours at a fast food restaurant.

She now has been reunited with her three children and is anticipating the merriest of Christmases.

the caseworkers at the shelter know to call heart for assistance with obstacles that may be in the

way of their guest's success the requests often include a bike to get to work appropriate clothes

for an interview or work heavy boots so they can work outside and those often have to be

steel-toed boots which are expensive a bike and appropriate clothes can make the difference

in turning their lives around.

It has helped Jake, who's in the next slide,

get a job with an equipment rental company

where he is thriving.

He and his fiance, who is also at the shelter

and working at Walmart,

will soon be qualified for an apartment of their own.

He has a deposit on a ring.

Truly a Christmas to celebrate their bright future.

but what about those that have struggled most of their lives

the chronically homeless several have gotten housing this year even though

they fully believe that they would die on the streets

heart along with our community partners churches and service groups

have helped them to settle into their apartments with furnishings

to make their places feel like home we're happy to report that they are stable

and keeping their apartments immaculate.

They often ask for little additions like crock pots and pictures to hang on their walls,

and of course, a Christmas tree.

They are taking pride in their places, and they are deeply appreciative of a home to

call their own.

Having worked with them for years, we are thrilled to see them safe and stable.

The shelter is so much more than just a Band-Aid.

It is truly an opportunity for them to turn their lives around.

We are so proud of our community and the support and compassion they have shown to those at the shelter.

On a regular basis, they provide dinners, activities, and recently, thanks to Lynn and her friend,

a Christmas tree that they decorated with the guests.

These things do so much more than just feed them, provide decorations and entertainment.

It shows them that people still care, that there is still good in this world,

and that people are willing to give them yet another chance at life.

It encourages them to be better and stronger.

To conclude, providing shelter and resources for those in need in the city of Elk Grove

brings the community together for a common cause.

Elk Grove Heart, the food bank, local churches, and service organizations working together

with city government have developed a model that is the envy of other cities in our region.

We look forward to continuing this outstanding relationship.

We thank you for your support.

Great.

That concludes the staff presentation.

We are all available to answer questions.

We also do have a few questions for TGI.

We have Keith Diedrich and Nick Golling in the audience.

Excellent.

All right, at this time, I'm going to open up public comment opportunity.

I don't have anyone signed up, so I'll close public comment.

I'm just going to kick this off.

First and foremost, Elk Grove Heart, thank you.

Sincerely, thank you, thank you, thank you.

It's our nonprofits that we need to fill that void.

And the work that you have done has really provided hope for our vulnerable population.

So thank you.

That partnership is critical, especially now more than ever.

I loved hearing the statistics from Elk Grove PD.

It shows that the shelter is working and we're providing stabilization for these families,

for these individuals to get back on their feet.

So thank you for sharing those stats.

I think that was really important, not only for me,

but also for those that might be watching or who will read later on,

that it's working.

This is a safe place, and it's a much-needed place.

Seeing that reduction in encampments,

those are huge numbers worthy of celebration.

It's freezing out there, and it's just so comforting knowing

that there is a safe place, a warm place,

where you can have that human dignity.

So I just really appreciate all the work that we're doing.

And then, of course, to the gathering in, thank you.

Great partnership.

It's been wonderful.

And seeing and hearing all of these success stories,

it's not just a statistic.

These are real people moving on to a brighter future.

So thank you for all the great work that you're doing.

Other questions, comments from my colleagues?

I'll start to the left.

Vice Mayor.

Vice Mayor's done.

Thanks, Mayor.

I just wanted to echo a lot of your sentiments.

You know, we, I appreciate the compliments

that were shared for the city,

but I want to also emphasize the partnership.

You know, and Sarah, thank you to you and your team.

I've been instrumental in leading this effort

from the city side as well.

But when we look at heart gathering in the food bank, the church, the service organizations, everybody that Frank mentioned, it really does take a village.

This the issue of homelessness in our city that affects every almost every city throughout the nation.

People struggle with this. And albeit I realize our scale may not be as much as others, but we still are facing the situation nonetheless.

And I think the partnership and the results that you hear, heard earlier from Josh Magdaleno, it really does illustrate that the concept we are implementing works.

But what's important about that is the hope that we can turn the tide in terms of the perception of the demographic, of the things like in homeless shelters, setting it up in our community that some people may not like.

But now maybe they'll realize that not only is it necessary, but it actually ends up reducing crime.

It actually ends up reducing the number of encampments throughout the city.

And at the end of the day, we are helping our community have dignity, be able to have a roof over their head,

and from the results here, move on with their lives, whether it was the couple that is finding more permanent employment

or the mom was reunited with her children.

I mean, those are fantastic stories, let alone folks who will save lives.

So I'm really heartened by all these statistics

and look forward to the more good that we can do in the years to come.

So thank you very much, Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I just want to echo the same comments.

Thank you.

Thank you for saying yes to our city.

Thank you for the nonprofits.

A lot of times you are the facing face of all this hard work,

and it doesn't go on the scene.

You are doing everything that we can't do at that level.

And just thank you for having that big heart.

The lives that you're transforming on a day-to-day basis,

the lives that you are touching.

And thank you to our public safety

because you are definitely keeping our city safe,

ensuring that the numbers do go down.

And that's a partnership and that's what community looks like.

We can be up here and we can try to figure it out,

but you guys are doing it day-to-day.

so thank you for the presentation appreciate it that's my river thank you mayor no I want to thank

everyone involved in this it's a it's a group effort and as we take care of those who need

the help the most we always need to do what we can to stretch a little farther because that makes

that makes things a little easier not only for our law enforcement and thank you to lieutenant

at Magdalena for the numbers,

because those numbers show progress

and shows the power of having a shelter in our community

that can serve the needs of our homeless populations,

especially as we enter the months

where the weather's going to get a little more colder,

a little more severe.

We need to do everything we can

to make sure that people have a place to rest

and not worry about having their lives endangered on a daily basis.

I want to thank Elk Grove Heart for doing their part,

continuing to do their part in stepping up and taking care of our homeless population

and making sure that they make the transition from being on the streets to being back on their own.

It's definitely worthy of consideration, but also a yeoman's effort,

because Elk Grove Heart's been doing this for several years now

and it is not going unnoticed.

But for Keith Diederich and the team at the Gathering Inn

and Christian who's there on a daily basis as well,

I want to thank you because if you weren't here providing that service

and providing the care and attention that is needed,

a lot of our folks would still be struggling and i mean struggling in a major way because we see it

along our creeks our trailways um they're in they're in the invisible places and to bring

them out into the light and to provide that hand up means means the world means the world to them

but also means the world to us as a city council,

but also as a city itself,

because I've always said this and I'll continue to say this.

We are our brother and sister's keeper, period, full stop.

And we need to do everything we can to take care of our fellow man,

because that's the right thing to do.

But thank you again and great job.

Council Member Spies.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

So this issue of homelessness is, as I mentioned in the past, is something that's personal for me because I have a family member who's been living on the river now for eight years.

And so, you know, I recognize as someone who has a family member who needs this type of help, I recognize that it's difficult to ask community to step up and to take that, or help people to do this, right?

So what I want to first recognize is this is a very expensive endeavor.

When we look at what the cost of homelessness has on our state, our city, across the United States, it's a significant investment.

And so first and foremost, I would really like to thank our taxpayers.

A couple of years ago, our taxpayers said, you know what, managing homelessness is an important priority for us.

And as a result, we have Measure E.

And those tax dollars have been very helpful in helping us to move the needle, just as has been discussed today.

um so i'll start well i already started but to go further um i want to talk about the evolution

of eg heart because i'll tell you what um if not maybe not everyone remembers but 15 years ago

uh eg heart wasn't necessarily well received

and uh there were there were a lot of people who had very unkind opinions of eg heart

and so I want to say thank you for sticking to it thank you for the continuous evolution

thank you for being visionary and to essentially form or start the basis

of what this what our homeless program has become you know it used to be you know moving

every two weeks from one church to another, transporting people from Old Town Elk Grove

to different places, and having to have chaperones overnight, and then during COVID,

couldn't bring them into a location. What I'm saying is the continuous evolution and the

stick-to-itiveness of EG Heart has set a standard throughout the valley. People were very,

once it became established and growing,

people became very, very jealous of that

and other cities started it.

But I'm very, very proud that with our Measure E funds,

we are able to continue to evolve that.

And so, again, I want to recognize the both of you very much

and thank you for starting it

and having that intestinal fortitude

when others had not kind things to say about you.

Right. Big thanks to TGI. I mean, it's it's it's it's a difficult business.

Right. But your your your employees, your the caseworkers, people who help, they care.

And that shows that shows and it's appreciated.

um pd you know i i even remember a few years ago people were not you know people said you know law

enforcement is not a tool for homelessness and uh that's only part right right it's pd public

state or law enforcement is not the full solution but they're a very very important part of the

solution. And often when things get difficult, as they sometimes do with the population,

I want to thank you very much for treating them with compassion, for helping them to find

their way to a shelter or to find their way home. Unfortunately, a small group has to

go at the difficult way and seek other county accommodations, right? But I'm glad that we

go compassion first. So I want to thank you for that. Sarah and Jaime, no, again, I'm not always

in straight agreement with Sarah. But what I love about you, Sarah, is that you continue to

you continue to challenge you continue to you know say all right but what about this you know

how can we how can we do this and so um you know anyone else i'm i'm forgetting on your team i i

sincerely apologize but you know we've we've really moved the needle and um i appreciate that

uh food bank of course you know that it's again it's it can't be done uh without them um and then

the last group that I really want to note is that, well, of course, Public Works does a lot of work

in cleaning up the encampments in cooperation with PD, but I also want to thank the Elk Grove

Anti-Trash Group that does a whole lot of residual cleanup. They're unpaid, highly motivated,

but man, I'll tell you what, in the last year, I have had a number of people who, without being

solicited have said man i tell you what i see i see less encampment i see less litter um and

el grove is looking cleaner and better and those are not my words those are the words

that come from them so um long story short i know i know uh we don't want to go on on on and on

forever but um yeah we have less than two percent of the county's population here we can't solve

the problem, but we can

manage the problem. I think

we're managing it very, very

well, and that's because of

the city team, and by that

I mean the city and the community

and everyone together.

So, thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you, everyone.

We will move on to our next item.

That is

9.2. Receive a presentation

on the old library site

reuse project and provide

direction on the proposed plans for community outreach and engagements.

Honorable Mayor, members of the City Council, Jackie Guzman, Assistant City Manager, and I'm here with our Senior Management Analyst, Ash Kumar, and we are here today to discuss the Library Site Reuse Project to determine the future use of the building before the library moves to its new location in the summer of 2026.

and tonight we're here to gather your input on our proposed process for determining how

the library should be repurposed and validate the overall big picture approach before we start

initiating our public engagement.

All right.

So this opportunity is really to transform an asset

to meet Outgrove's evolving needs.

And this is really a process we hope

will allow us to co-create with our residents

to ensure that the final solution enriches civic life

and is designed to ensure alignment with city council's vision and priorities.

This is a really unique opportunity.

It's at a prime, the library is at a prime gateway location

offering a chance to provide lasting value to our residents.

And really this is a unique opportunity for us to do something different

than we normally do in terms of our public engagement process,

which is really to co-create with our residents.

So what does that mean?

Co-creation means that we're going to put our residents at the center,

allowing them to generate ideas and to design the future use of the library

along with city staff instead of city staff designing

and asking the community for input on options.

So this is a different approach than we have used, but it really allows us to have a deeper understanding of community needs, to provide outcomes that are better and more relevant.

It increases innovation, and it builds stronger relationships and trust with our community.

so our co-creation engagement process has four objectives there to develop a feasible inclusive

vision with the community to improve the quality of life as we develop solutions and to align

directly with the city council's vision and ensure broad community benefit and now I'm going to pass

it on to ash she's going to share the project parameters timeline and details on the project

phases thank you Jackie good evening council members so that there are some special considerations

that we'll have to keep in mind.

The current Elk Grove Library building is situated, as you know,

at the corner of Elk Grove Boulevard and Elk Grove Florent Road

and was purchased by the city in 2006.

The two-story building is 13,875 square feet,

situated on a 0.88-acre parcel with 45 parking spaces.

So these are major considerations,

which are to maintain the existing building footprint,

to retain the current number of parking spaces,

to uphold the current community commercial zoning,

and to preserve the existing facade and building height.

Moving on to the timeline, so this is what we are proposing.

Right now we are in the preparation phase, phase one,

where we are defining the goals, preparing materials,

including some initial reuse scenarios

so that there is a starting point, and we will review these with you.

The main public effort is phase two, which, as Jackie mentioned,

that's the community co-creation element,

and that we are thinking will happen in the summer of 2026.

Phase three is the analysis and decision phase,

which will happen later in 2026,

as the building will not be available until July or August of 2026.

Just to dive a little deeper into the actual timeline,

and what it will entail.

Phase one is where we'll review special considerations,

the objectives.

We'll also develop a lot of visual aids,

so the floor plans, site photographs.

And once again, we'll have specific scenarios

for the community to consider.

And we'll also develop a lot of engaging activities

to capture the community's needs and desires

for this location.

Phase two, community engagement.

And this is, again, where the co-creation happens with a lot of broad engagement through in-person and online activities.

The community will ideate.

We'll generate a lot of ideas.

We'll prioritize and evaluate the concepts.

And, of course, we'll keep providing council updates throughout the process.

Phase three, once again, analysis and decision.

So this is beginning fall 2026.

this is where we'll refine the top options that come up from the community and city council input

we'll provide some preliminary cost estimates and feasibility findings at this stage and we'll also

present the top choices again and a recommended path to move forward there is some flexibility

we can return to the community if we need additional input at that stage as well if not

if we have solid top two choices, then we can proceed with those with council approval.

I'll pass it back to Jackie to go over the next steps.

Thank you, Ash. So we welcome your input on the process. We're seeking direction from city council

to formally adopt this framework and initiate the public engagement efforts in early 2026.

Your guidance today will allow us to refine the process and prepare for the soft launch of the community co-creation phase.

And with that, that concludes our presentation, and we're happy to answer any of your questions or take comments on this proposed plan.

All right, thank you.

I will go ahead and open up public comment.

No one signed up to speak on this item.

I will close public comment, open it up for questions.

I'll start to the right.

Council Member Spees.

I don't have any questions.

I had the opportunity to have heard the presentation before,

and I appreciate it.

I agree with it.

I'm happy for it.

I'd love to have the opportunity for residents to have an opportunity

to weigh in early, and so I definitely support the approach.

Thank you.

Council Member Brewer, anything?

Yeah, no.

Thank you for the review and the timeline for what everything will look

like over the next few months.

Very, very interested in seeing us

as we make the transition

from the corner of Elk Grove Boulevard

and Elk Grove Flooring

down to Waterman and Elk Grove Boulevard

and to seeing how the ideas

from the community help shape

what that site can be

and how it can fit perfectly

into the city

and how we're moving forward.

So very thankful for that.

We are hearing some early ideas,

but it'll be good to get here to the entire community

and providing their input to help give us

a little bit of guidance on how it should look

and what it should look like for the community as a whole,

because you definitely want that strong community benefit.

But definitely looking forward

and happy to help in any way I can.

Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Robles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just thank you for the presentation. Looking to get community

buy-in and looking forward to see what comes out of this.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Again, thank you also for this. Looking forward to see what our community

comes up with. As we talked about, just making sure so we can kind of put some bands around

it. Everybody agrees on who we're trying to serve, what demographic, and also I think

that'll be helpful in the brainstormings.

Look forward to it. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, we've also had an opportunity

to have discussions on this.

I'm looking forward. I think you've outlined

a really great process.

So looking forward to sort of the next steps.

What I am curious about is

will there be

an opportunity

for, say, communities

that several members from the community

suggest maybe selling it?

Are we prepared to have that

kind of a, you know,

Do we have an appraised valley?

Do we have any information that would also be available,

not just for a reuse for our purposes, but perhaps, perhaps.

I'm not saying I'm an advocate,

but I'm just wanting to make sure that we have the information should we need it.

I think that we will, there are some parameters that we can't change, right?

We can't change the size of the building and, you know, the number of parking spots.

That's sort of fixed.

things like parameters around the opportunity to sell it or no this must remain an asset of the

cities those are parameters that council can you know direct staff to consider so it really is up

to you we're here to to gather your feedback it can be as open as possible or have more

parameters depending on what council's direction is all right well I think I for me I'm looking

already seeing what the feedback comes back at and maybe determining parameters

of that time when it's more appropriate and it can really be when we start

seeing what the community is sharing as opportunities and if that's something

that rises because there is you know an outside entity that wants to do

something unique with the space then that's something we would bring to

council yeah all right thank you thank you very much for your presentation we

We will move on to our next item, 9.3, receive a presentation on the city's progress implementing

requirements of SB 1383 and achievements of the Edible Food Recovery Working Group.

I have not seen my presentation on the screen.

And did you send that over to us?

Because we don't see it on the iDrive.

Apologies.

It should have come through.

Let me pull it up.

Apologies.

Oh, it needs to be on the iDrive.

My deepest apologies.

Many members of my team are dealing with bereavements this week,

so we've been pulling things together.

Let's see.

What is the best way for me to go

because it's not on the iDrive right now?

I do.

Yeah, if you can or just email it

and we can get it set up.

Yeah.

I'm hearing murmurs over there, emailing faster.

Maybe I'll go that route.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience.

Feel free to let me know if there's a faster way to get to email here.

Should it come up automatically?

To my work.

Apologies.

I sent it to myself.

Should I send it to you, Jason?

Indeed.

J. Lindgren.

That'll work.

Thank you.

All right, Jason, that should be coming your way.

We're working at the speed of an internet connection, apparently.

Absolutely.

So it's taking its time.

While we're waiting for the presentation to come up, I'd love to say that I'm very excited to present on this item tonight,

and it connects in so well with so many of the incredible themes we've been hearing tonight about people and place,

food insecurity, sustainability.

It's close to my heart, so I'm glad to be here.

Jason, let me know if you need me to do anything.

We're on route, so here it comes.

Here we go.

Sorry, I'll just be doing a little bit of driving here.

Oops.

Feel free.

Right on the top.

And there we are, a connected city.

So hopefully that should be able to open up from the desktop, and you should be ready to go.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much, Jason.

all right we are in business good evening mayor sing-allan members of the city council i'm very

excited to be here tonight my name is kim taylor and i manage the city's recycling and waste

division which is part of public works the item i'm presenting before you tonight is an update

on the city's work to implement Senate Bill 1383,

California's short-lived climate pollution reduction strategy.

It's a mouthful, but essentially it's trying to keep organics out of the garbage

to reduce the amount of methane that's being produced in landfills.

Senate Bill 1383 requires all California jurisdictions

to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfills

by implementing programs that reduce organic waste

and promote a circular economy for recycled organic waste products.

This includes reducing the amount of residential and commercial organic waste, including food, that's disposed of in landfills, procuring a minimum quantity of recycled organic waste products annually, and recovering edible food from commercial generators for donation so it can be used for its highest value to feed people.

these objectives align with those of the city's climate action plan as well as the

city's overarching goals of facilitating a sustainable economy and promoting a safe

and resilient community

the city's efforts to implement senate bill 1383 kicked off in 2022 with the expansion

of the curbside residential organics collection program to include food waste in the green

organics cart along with yard debris since that launch the city has provided residents

with ongoing resources, education, and outreach to promote the behavior change of separating

food waste from garbage and to normalize that practice across Elk Grove.

These efforts have included utilizing a variety of media resources for messaging and education,

distributing over 13,000 kitchen top pails to Elk Grove residents, and partnering with

Republic Services to conduct regular route audits and contamination monitoring to understand

how residents in Elk Grove are disposing of their organic food waste and other materials.

For commercial and multifamily generators, staff conduct site visits and inspections,

provide technical assistance and education, and monitor compliance with the required organics

collection, record-keeping, and contamination standards. Staff also support edible food

generators, including grocery stores and restaurants, and meeting requirements for food donation

through outreach, inspection, and assistance,

establishing food recovery agreements with food recovery organizations.

In addition to requiring residents and businesses to separate food and other organics from trash

to reduce greenfield gas emissions,

Senate Bill 1383 also requires jurisdictions to procure and utilize recycled organic waste products

such as compost and mulch.

This component of Senate Bill 1383 is intended to facilitate a sustainable circular economy in which inedible food is turned into compost or other recycled organic waste products, which are then utilized to advance sustainable management of natural resources.

In Elk Grove, we're committed to this goal of advancing sustainable management of natural resources, and we want to ensure the city's investment in recycled organic waste products provides local benefits.

This past year, the city piloted a community compost giveaway program, which has been incredibly popular with Oak Grove residents

and has facilitated closing the loop by bringing compost made from recycled organic waste back into our community to nourish people's gardens and landscaping.

The city also began utilizing SB 1383 compliant compost as well as mulch for landscaping in locations around the homeless shelter, animal shelter, special waste collection center, corp yard, and PD facilities.

This is another way the city is closing the loop to create a circular economy with recycled organic waste product that bring direct local benefits to Elk Grove.

In addition to advancing SB 1383 requirements on a local level, the city has participated in an innovative and impactful collaboration on a regional level to increase the recovery of edible food and reduce food insecurity across Sacramento County.

This collaboration between seven jurisdictions has resulted in the Capital Food Access Alliance, which serves to strengthen regional food recovery capacity, develop shared reporting tools, and provide consistent outreach and technical assistance for generators.

through the CFAA capital food access alliance grant program 29 organizations have expanded

their capacity to recover food and get it to people in need through expanded through expanding

capacity operational efficiency and community collaboration 15 of those 29 organizations are

utilizing grant funding to serve communities and address food insecurity here in Elk Grove and I'm

I'm proud to say that two of the organizations funded are physically based in Elk Grove, Todo Un Poco and Almizba.

In fiscal year 24-25, the Capital Food Access Alliance awarded over $2 million in grant funding to organizations advancing food recovery in Sacramento County.

While the impact of those grants will largely occur in the first half of next year, as they were awarded this past fall,

over 3 million pounds of good food that might otherwise have ended up in the

landfill have already been safely recovered and used to feed people through

this grant program in Sacramento County the city's work to implement the

requirements of SB 1383 is well underway and helping to advance the city's

goals of facilitating a sustainable economy and promoting a safe and

resilient community our next steps include increasing program participation

through continued education and oversight,

expanding the city's procurement programs

to significantly increase the amount of compost

and mulch being utilized in Elk Grove,

and presenting recommendations to continue

the city's participation in efforts

to expand regional capacity for recovering edible food

through the work of the Capital Food Access Alliance

beyond 2026, which is the current end date.

Thank you, and please let me know what questions

you have about the city's work implementing SB 1383.

All right, thank you.

Great presentation.

Thank you.

At this time, I will open up public comment.

I do not have anyone sign up to speak.

I'll close public comment.

Questions, comments, I'll go to the left.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

No questions, but thank you also for the presentation.

Nice to see how the progress we're making to comply with 1383.

Council Member Robles.

Thank you, Mayor.

just thank you for the presentation and thank you for

allowing us to know what we're doing with food insecurity and everything else

any questions to the right comment

just a real quick one a couple years back

Senate Bill 1383 was a very very

troubling difficult to implement program

caused a lot of consternation from a lot of places

and so I want to thank you and you know of course for

for folks in who have been doing recycling waste earlier,

but thank you for making it all make sense.

I'm helping to,

you know,

reduce the organics in our landfill.

It's appreciated.

I know that Marie,

I just forgot her name at total and Poco.

She's got Marie Mertz.

Yeah.

She has been a very,

she's been an advocate for a very,

very long time trying to,

you know,

divert food from,

you know,

going into trash cans.

And so I'm really glad to see that she's an active part of it.

So I want to thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you to my colleagues.

Great, great presentation.

It's great to see changed behavior, even in my own household.

I would imagine all your households on just being less wasteful.

So this is great, great progress.

Thank you.

All right.

We will now move on to item 9.4.

And as to receive information, consider resolution confirming city council appointments to regional boards, commissions, committees, and local and city standing committees.

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

I'm Jason Lindgren, your city clerk.

These last two items on our agenda for tonight are housekeeping items.

As far as I know, I don't know of any changes.

We do have just inherent changes for local representation as we have a new vice mayor coming up in the new year for all of the service on two-by-two committees with our various counterparts here, just locally here in Elk Grove.

but the ask from staff is just for a review as we come into the December

month. Sometimes you have that can forecast forward into the 2026 year.

If you have any obligations that might take away from your ability to serve on

some of our regional boards, this is an opportunity,

but staff would have the ask that you also just adopt a resolution,

even just to confirm all the current representation.

It helps with my transaction with all my counterparts to make sure that we run

everything smoothly and have you ready for meetings and going into 2026.

All right. Thank you for the update on that. I'll open up public comment. No one signed up. I'll close public comment. Is there a desire from anyone to make any shifts? Seeing none. Is that all you need? Just a motion and a second on the resolution. That will just confirm that everything stays the same.

Move to adopt the resolution.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

item 9.5. Thank you for that. And 9.5 takes us to the list of local appointments. So this is for

all of the appointees to all of our committees and commissions. There is no change that's being

requested. And part of it just for the broadcast for the council's edification is it's not until

next year that we'll actually see those initial terms coming up. And that is basically that the

outreach would start in December, letting folks know of that opportunity to reapply

as we get into the new year of 2027.

So still quite a ways out.

But this is just our local appointments list.

So if there is any kind of direction

that you wish to provide,

what I'd like to put out there from the staff request

is again, just like touching base with council

about forecasting as folks wind down 2025

and then look to their obligations in 2026.

Staffs found it valuable to reach out

to all of our committees and commissions

to confirm that they have the fortitude

to move forward into 2026

in their current appointed capacities.

And if not, then we'd open up opportunities for appointments and bring those to you in the new year.

All right.

Well, at this time, I will not make any change recommendations since you haven't heard back from anyone wishing to make any change.

Let's keep them and thank them all for their service.

Do you have a public comment?

Yes, I do.

I'd like to have a public comment.

There is no one signed up.

I'll close public comment.

and then reiterate that my desire to reappoint them all.

And any other questions on that one?

That one doesn't require a motion, so the direction is status quo.

All right.

Next up is our council comments, reports, future agenda items.

I'll start to the right.

Council Member Spees.

I will make it quick.

We have a lot to be thankful for as the year closes up.

I just want to reflect very briefly on, you know,

that Elk Grove is moving in a very, very good direction.

It is because our taxpayers trust that.

It is because our staff is moving in the right direction,

and we have a lot to be thankful for in that manner.

So with that, happy holidays.

As I would say, Merry Christmas, Lynn, Merry Christmas.

And happy holidays, and I look forward

to seeing you all in January.

Council Member Brewer.

So Monday, Sacramento Public Library Authority Board met briefly.

Just as and as we made our quorum,

we made an assurance that we would take care of business, and we did.

But also, in addition, we had our Sacramento Regional Transit Board meeting,

Authority Board meeting, also about an hour later.

and so

we had a really good meeting there

albeit brief but

I'd like to echo the same sentiments

as Councilmember

Spees and express

sincerest gratitude

to all of you

here at the city

and most importantly to

Elk Grove

like I said it's been an honor

and a privilege to be here and serve

you for the last

three years and

I look forward to

2026 and I hope you're all

looking forward to a

brighter 2026 as well.

Thank you very much and happy holidays.

Council Member Robles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I just want to wish everyone happy holidays

and a Merry Christmas. 2026 is going to be

an amazing year, so Happy New Year.

I hope you guys enjoy it. I'm going to keep on saying

Happy New Year even next December.

In all seriousness,

I think

council member speed said it right uh we are in a good position because i want to go to our city

leadership and city executive staff you guys are just the ones who are keeping the steer the ship

in the right direction and we truly appreciate um we appreciate our public safety thank you for

everything you do for our community and making sure that we are staying safe um and just again

merry christmas and happy new year vice mayor thank you mayor a couple of business items uh

first we had our sack sewer meeting today

councilmember Robleson and I and one of the things that came up were on the

harvest water project which all of you I think are familiar about but the the

the farmers and our partners on their supervisor Hume brought to our

attention the the delicate nature of things that are happening and so we're

We're hoping to reach out to them and have good conversations and defer that partnership to make sure that water is available.

I bring that to your attention because as you're out in the community, you may come across folks and this may come up.

So I just want to make my colleagues aware of that.

Then for SACOG, I'm finishing up my chair role this year.

It's been a quick year.

one of the last actions though

really excited that we were able to adopt

the 2025 blueprint

that's the guiding document

for the six county 22 city region

on equity economy and the environment

and so won't get on the walkiness of that

but you'll remember

executive director Corliss

came and talked to our council

about that blueprint

and the significance of that document

and then finally

just want to echo those

some sentiments that were mentioned earlier

just really grateful

serving with my colleagues here and all the staff.

We have had a great many years, and this is very similar.

It was a great 2025 for our city,

so really excited for what 2026 will bring as well.

Happy holidays to all of you and your families,

and thank you all for what you do for our city, our staff,

my council colleagues.

you see us up here

but we know, all of us know

you sacrifice for your families

as well and we greatly appreciate

all the efforts you put forward every day

here at the city, thank you

thank you, thank you to my colleagues

quick business items

tomorrow is the GSEC

board of directors, so I'll be representing the city of Elk Grove

and then Monday

was SACRT and I'm now the new chair

for Sacramento Regional Transit

Yeah.

There's more work.

But as we wrap up 2025, a sincere wish to all of you watching, those that are here, especially my colleagues and our amazing staff.

I feel truly every single day that I am the luckiest mayor in the state of California, maybe in the United States.

We have the best council.

We have the best staff and we have the best community.

and it is as an immigrant to this country,

I don't take this opportunity lightly.

This is something that as our immigrants are suffering out there,

our refugees are suffering,

that empathy right now that is part of the holiday spirit,

any religion you talk about,

it's that kindness and that compassion

to give and reach out and help those that are less fortunate,

those that are marginalized, those that are hurting.

May this season reconnect us to our shared humanity and let us go do good things together.

My wish for all of you is to be safe and to be healthy.

Thank you all so much for making my job so much easier.

Team Elk Grove is amazing.

We are truly lucky.

So stay safe, be healthy, and cheers to 2026.

Looking forward to the next year.

With that, we will adjourn our regular meeting at 7.30 p.m.

Good night.

All right.