There is nothing to report out, so we will go ahead and adjourn the special meeting at 6.11 p.m.

And at this time, I would like to call to order the Elk Grove City Council regular meeting.

Today is Wednesday, February the 11th, 2026.

The time is 6.12 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.sackcounty.gov.

Tonight's meeting replays will be on Friday, February 13th at 1 p.m.

And Monday, February 16th, 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 threews.elkgrove.gov or youtube.com slash Metro Cable 14.

For members of the participating audience who may have personal electronic devices, please place them on silent mode during the meeting or on mute when you are not speaking.

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 at all present we'll have time to participate.

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

Pursuing to resolution number 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,

and provide it to Assistant City Clerk Brenda Haggard prior to consideration of the agenda item.

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

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

Council Member Spies.

Present.

Council Member Brewer.

Present.

Vice Mayor Suen.

Here.

And Mayor Singh Allen.

Here.

All right, next up is our land acknowledgement.

Would the vice mayor please assist?

Thank you, mayor.

We honor, respect, and acknowledge Elko's first inhabitants, the Plains Miwok,

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

We commemorate and advocate for their descendants, the Wilton Rancho Rhea tribe,

the only federally recognized tribe in Sacramento County,

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

All right, thank you. Next up is our Pledge of Allegiance.

We have a young scout joining us this evening.

I would like to call forward Michael John Frazier, who will help lead us in the pledge.

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. Thank you.

And at this time, please join us for a brief moment of silence.

Thank you.

Next up is our approval of the agenda.

May I get a motion?

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Next item, please.

Under Section 3, there are no closed session items on the regular agenda.

And as well, for Section 4, there are no presentation items on the regular agenda,

which will advance us to Section 5, general public comment.

All right.

At this time, I will go ahead and open up public comment.

And just as a reminder, public comment is reserved for non-agenda items.

So first up is Trista Kelly, followed by Deborah Williams.

Come to the podium, and you can speak into the mic.

Thank you.

Good evening members of the council. My name is Trista Kelly, a proud theater mom,

and I'm here representing Musical Mayhem Productions this evening. It's a non-profit youth

theater company that serves as the heartbeat of the arts right here in Elk Grove, California.

MMP produces over 35 shows a year, engaging thousands of children from ages four to eight,

whether it's our upcoming production of the high school edition of Rent or the production of

Sufts the Musical Junior, a pilot. We aren't just teaching choreography, we are providing a safe

space where creativity is celebrated and in-person connections thrive. I've seen this transformation

firsthand with my own two children. Youth theater is more than an extracurricular, it is a vital

educational tool. Research shows that performing arts students demonstrate higher literacy,

greater social awareness, and a level of confidence that stays with them for life.

as josh groban once noted theater kids are the ultimate employees they work well under pressure

meet strict deadlines and improvise solutions at a moment's notice why wouldn't you want to hire a

theater kid currently musical mayhem productions is working on a plan to create a permanent theater

space in elk grove this home would allow us to expand our programming and extend this magical

experience to even more families in our community. When we support theater, we aren't just putting

on a show. We are building a more resilient, empathetic, and economically vibrant future for

our community. I invite you to visit mmpkids.com to see the work we do, and better yet, I hope to

see you in the audience soon. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next up, and our final speaker

for public comment is Deborah Williams.

Good evening.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

I'm also a theater parent.

I also teach theater, but I teach it

for underprivileged children.

But what I wanted to talk about

Musical Mayhem Productions today

is about how it actually

doesn't just deal with students

who pay to go to their programs.

It also deals with homeschool students,

students who are, and they

go into other schools in Elk Grove. I was just down in Los Angeles at a different theater

convention, and what I noticed is the theaters that were the communities that had theaters and

had thriving businesses, because I live in Roseville, but I drive out here to bring my

child to a theater program. And while I'm out here, I go to dinner, I go shopping, I do grocery

shopping, I go to the Costco, we get gas, we do all that. And what I noticed when I was talking

to families, and when they were talking about it, whether it was in Puerto Rico, or it was in Guam,

or it was just in Pleasanton down in the Bay Area, is that there was a central theater that

people flocked to, and everybody wants to see a theater in their community. And what would be

great is if MMP could have a permanent home, because right now they're splitting their time

between the 24th Street Theater, which is closer to me,

and then all the schools that are around.

And so it's viable for the community,

and it's the heartbeat of the community,

but it also benefits the community

because people come from all over

and spend money in your community.

And that's what I wanted to say about theater today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We do have one more public comment.

Peter Frederick?

Elk Grove already knows what the Hindu Swaiyam Sivak song is.

This council quietly rescinded an HSS proclamation after Manteca did it publicly in August of 2022.

After 150 people packed their chambers in Manteca, after a four-hour special meeting,

after a five-to-zero vote that made national headlines and an apology that said,

quote, the city wishes to apologize to all individuals who were hurt or negatively impacted.

Manteca fought for that in the open. Elk Grove slipped it through in the dark. No special meeting,

no debate, no apology, not even to the families who live here. And Elk Grove of all cities should

know what silence costs. In 2011, someone murdered two sick grandfathers on an afternoon walk right

here on Stockton Boulevard, Surinder Singh, 65, and Gurmej Atwal, 78, and the city named

Singh and Core Park for them, and your Sikh mayor has said that that shooting is why she

entered public service.

And you proclaimed Elk Grove no place for hate.

15 years, and the case is unsolved, and when you had the chance to say publicly why you

cut ties with an organization, the HSS, that is connected to India's RSS paramilitary,

you whispered.

So let me tell you what happened while you were whispering.

The Hindu American Foundation, which partners with HSS and seeks proclamations alongside them,

led the lobbying effort last year that killed Senate Bill 509.

That bill would have trained your police department, the Elk Grove PD,

to recognize when a foreign government targets people on American soil.

Your police department, which in 15 years has never arrested anyone for murdering two sick grandfathers in your city.

The Police Chiefs Association backed that bill and both chambers passed it unanimously and HAF killed it and celebrated the veto as a victory for civil rights of all Californians.

The federal government found resources to indict an Indian intelligence officer for plotting to assassinate a Sikh activist in New York a few years ago.

Canada expelled diplomats over the same network.

Washington takes threats against sick life seriously.

And the organization, HAF, that blocked the one bill to help California cops do the same,

still collects proclamations around the state.

This council issues them too.

You rescinded the HSS proclamation in the dark, but no place for hate still hangs in the light.

You learned the truth, you acted on it, then you went quiet.

Please finish what you started.

because does a city that names a park for murdered sick grandfathers

and says nothing while the bill to protect sick lives gets killed

still get to call itself no place for hate?

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I believe that is our final public comment.

So at this time, I will go ahead and close public comment

and turn it over to our city manager for the report.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the city council.

Jason Barrowman, your city manager.

A few items to report on this evening.

News of Luke Bryan's nationally acclaimed farm tour coming to Elk Grove made headlines this last week.

The farm tour 26 tickets go on sale tomorrow, February 12th at 8 a.m.

This is one of only three Northern California stops on the tour set for Saturday, May 16th at Mann Ranch.

More information, including dining, lodging deals for the weekend, can be found on the Explore Elk Grove website.

The Community Partners Advocate of Little Saigon Sacramento will usher in the year of the horse

at the Lunar New Year Tet Festival and Parade this weekend,

February 14th through 15th at Elk Grove Park.

Local cuisine, unique vendors, and cultural performances

will be part of the celebration.

The event is free to attend.

It will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on those two days.

City of Elk Grove is proud to be among the many sponsors of this event.

The city's Youth Commission will present Future Forward,

a college and career readiness event on Saturday, February 21st,

from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at District 56,

hosted in partnership with Sacramento Credit Union, the Elk Grove Scholarship Foundation,

and Elk Grove Unified School District.

This event is designed to empower Elk Grove youth with practical tools, guidance, and resources

to support a confident and successful transition after high school.

Advanced registration was required, and this event has sold out, so very popular.

And there are just a few more days to submit your nomination for the 26th Stars of Service Award.

Help recognize individuals or organizations who make Elk Grove a better place to live, work, and play.

The online application can be found on the city's website, and the nomination period closes on Wednesday, February 25th.

And finally, City Hall, Special Waste Collection Center, and the Animal Shelter will be closed on Monday, February 16th.

In observance of President's Day, trash and recycling services and public safety services will operate on a normal schedule.

And that concludes my report.

Happy to answer any questions that the council might have.

All right.

Thank you for your report.

Any questions?

Looking to the left?

Looking to the right?

Thank you.

All right.

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

At this time, I will open up public comment for consent items.

I do not have anyone signed up to speak, so I will go ahead and close public comment.

Any questions?

If not, I'll look for a motion.

I'll move.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

All right, next item, please.

And like our other sections, we have no public hearings on the regular agenda tonight,

which will take us to section 9, our regular agenda action items.

And that first being 9.1, which is to receive the fiscal year 2025-26 midyear budget report

and consider a resolution amending the fiscal year budget,

authorizing changes to the fiscal year position control listing

and approving an updated citywide salary and step schedule.

Good evening, Mayor Stingall and Vice Mayor Sewin, members of the council.

I'm Nathan Bagwell, and I serve as your budget manager.

I have the privilege this evening of presenting to you the fiscal year 25-26 midyear budget review.

Before we begin, I'd like to thank the many staff who contributed to this citywide effort led by our city manager, assistant city manager, the executive team, their dedicated staff.

And I also want to recognize the outstanding analysts and the work they do in the budget office, Cecilia Long and Matt Ruiz.

Their focus and commitment were critical to this work.

So my sincere thanks to them.

So what we're going to be doing, we're going to take a high-level look tonight at general fund revenues and expenditures.

We'll look at Measure E.

major non-general funds as well as proposed position control updates as well

and we will conclude with council actions and direction.

So we're going to start with mid-year report general fund revenues.

Bottom line, we're looking at a $4.4 million increase overall.

Property tax and sales tax make up about 70% of the general fund revenues

so we're going to focus mostly on those, closely on those.

Property tax year-end revenues are projected to exceed the adopted budget

and staff is recommending adjusting the estimate accordingly.

Sales tax is trending up about 8%.

This is driven by strong retail and auto sales, fuel, and continued growth in online transactions.

While this trend is positive, sales tax remains sensitive to broader economic conditions,

and we will continue to monitor this closely.

Additionally, investment income continues to outperform due to elevated interest rates.

We've already earned about three of the $3.5 million we assume for the year,

so staff is recommending an increase to better reflect expected results.

All other general fund revenues are tracking close to budget, and no additional adjustments are recommended at this time.

Transiting to expenditures, at mid-year, the city spent about half, 51 million and 52 percent of the current year budget.

Salary benefit costs are currently tracking roughly 4 percent below budget, which is largely due to positional vacancies.

As part of this review process, staff is recommending 156,000 of one-time general fund adjustments.

These are one-time adjustments for operational needs and timing issues.

These include the 4th of July drone show and recognition of the nation's 250th birthday in code enforcement, increased abatement activity and higher citation appeal volumes, and lastly, temporary recruitment and consultant support services during a leadership transition here at the city.

We'll transition now to Measure E.

This is the city's one-cent sales tax that's focused on community priorities.

We've received roughly $11.2 million in revenue so far, and we are projecting $34 for the year,

which is one more than we adopted in the budget, hence the recommendation to increase.

On the expenditure side, the city has spent about 3.9 or 19% of the operating budget.

This is expected.

Many measure E projects are one-time and or multi-year infrastructure projects

that we anticipate ramping up in the second half of the year as construction begins.

Staff is requesting a targeted mid-year measure E adjustment to address emerging cost pressures,

which include increased public safety operational demands and higher than anticipated health care costs.

Taking a look now at amendment requests for non-general funds,

this slide highlights targeted mid-year adjustments to operating and capital funds.

$141,000 in Laguna Ridge Maintenance Services Fund,

this to address unanticipated repairs and looking to add one maintenance specialist to support this today's assumption of additional maintenance.

We will discuss FDs in more detail momentarily.

There is a $61,000 request in roadway fee fund, complete work at the Grant Line and Southbound 99 Interchange.

Public Works, this $214,000 request is for consultant service.

It's $200,000 of it pursuant to a high volume of CIP requests and two personnel reclassifications,

which again, we'll cover that momentarily.

Next slide.

There's a request for $127,000 gas tax.

This is for our traffic engineering management center.

This is to support consultant support to maintain operations.

Facilities and fleet, $39,000 request there.

This is for unanticipated maintenance needs and a compliance audit.

And lastly, $140,000 for library improvements where we are applying earned interest from the previous fiscal year.

This is with the intent to offset construction costs and reduce the need for additional funding.

That brings us lastly to proposed position control updates.

Staff is recommending targeted reclassifications in one new position to better align staffing with expanded programs,

evolving job duties, and operational needs across multiple departments.

Key changes include reclassifications in the city manager's office relative to transportation planning,

in public works, administrative, financial, and facility supports, rules,

and in the police department to align a position with current responsibilities.

In addition to this, the city's recommending, staff is recommending one new maintenance specialist.

This is to support the city's assumption of Laguna Ridge landscaping maintenance and some streetscape responsibilities with trails.

This allows work to shift from contractors to in-house service.

That then brings us to the recommendation for council to adopt a resolution amending the fiscal year 25-26 budget,

along with changes to the position control listing and approving an updated citywide salary and step schedule.

This concludes my presentation.

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

All right.

Thank you for your presentation.

At this time, I'll open up public comment.

Seeing no one has signed up to speak on this item, I will go ahead and close public comment.

Any questions or comments from council colleagues?

Looking at the right, seeing none.

Yes, Council Member Brewer.

I want to thank you, Mr. Bagwell, for this presentation.

And looking at how we are moving forward on this budget, really good signs, especially

when you're looking at how we're doing it

and the intentionality that we're doing it.

So thank you.

Very happy to see where we're going.

And when the resolution is time to be called up,

I'd like to make a motion for it.

That time is now.

I also want to just thank you for your presentation,

and I hope the members of the audience

can feel proud of their city,

seeing that we have healthy reserves, a healthy budget,

and it's not something that other cities

can actually boast about.

So I'm glad to see that we have a house packed,

probably not for this item, but you can see that your city is doing well.

So thank you. Thank you, sir.

Yeah. Thank you, Nathan.

You want to make the motion, Councilman Brute?

Yes, so moved.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you. Motion passes.

And next item, please.

Just to receive a presentation on potential sites for the permanent homeless shelter project

and provide a ranked preference of locations to pursue for acquisitions.

Seek we exempt.

All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I'm Sarah Bontrager, your Housing and Public Services Manager.

And as Jason said, we're going to be talking about the permanent homeless shelter.

I know we've got a lot of folks in the audience tonight, and so I do want to start the presentation with a little bit of level setting about the shelter.

I do recognize several of the faces in the room from some of our community meetings and glad to see them out tonight.

But I think there are some new faces here as well.

And so just setting the stage for what we were going for with this homeless shelter effort, recognizing we've heard from our community that addressing homelessness is a top priority.

We have a relatively small share of Elk Grove's overall homeless population, less than 2% of the county's population.

But it was a high priority when we did our Measure E polling, and it's something we hear from a lot.

We hear from a lot of residents about this.

We want to recognize that when we implement homeless solutions, that benefits our whole community.

Some of the things that we've seen since we opened our year-round shelter is a 65% decrease in encampments.

And we've seen several people move on to permanent housing as well.

So great outcomes for folks staying in the shelter, but also good outcomes for the neighborhood.

And just to start this up, I know some of the biggest fears about the shelter are that we will be attracting folks from other cities.

This shelter project is going to solve Elk Grove's needs.

It is not meant to solve the region's needs.

It's not meant to solve Sacramento's needs.

And in fact, we have a pretty rigorous vetting process for folks who are coming into the shelter.

So we've had some experience with shelters over the years, as you know.

we opened the Enhanced Winter Sanctuary in 2023 in the Rite Aid building that will be the future

library and about a little over a year ago opened the location with our partner at the Calvary

Christian Center. We have a lease at that space through October of 2028 so we needed to start

planning for where we go. Thinking a little bit about the shelter successes why do we need a

shelter? That's a question that's come up really often at some of our community meetings and

particularly in our surveys. We were able to serve 95 people in the first year of operations of the

shelter and move 14 of them on to permanent housing. This number would be higher if we'd

added in what's happened in the last month or so. We've had a number of people that have moved out

and into permanent housing. We've also had good success connecting people with behavioral health,

mental health resources, and with employment. Sometimes people come to us employed. In the last

year, 12 people found newer, better employment while they were at the shelter. So we have done

some impact mitigation for the neighborhood around the shelter. Our PD and navigators,

homeless services navigators, spend a lot of time in and around the shelter. And we've received

relatively few neighborhood complaints. It's not a zero, but it's a lower

number than we would see from some of the other shelters in the region. In the

first year we had 51 public initiated calls to the shelter, but only six of

those came from members of the public. The rest came from either shelter guests

or shelter staff. So in light of that, the continued need for shelter, there

There will always be people experiencing homelessness for one reason or another.

We want to get started planning now.

So we started back in July with some conceptual planning and then moved into the siting criteria and site selection phase in October, which is culminating in this meeting.

After this, hopefully we'll be able to move forward with the site and move on to design, development, and ultimately bidding and construction.

so we had a few goals in the shelter project one of which was clear and transparent communication

with our residents so we've had many opportunities for folks to participate in in the design of the

shelter in the locating of the shelter and advertise that in a lot of ways through online

feedback opportunities, which we'll share the results of those. We did some targeted outreach

to community groups and neighborhoods, shared with our mailing list in a social media campaign,

our city newsletters. This was featured in three of them. And that started with some community

engagement. And I know you've all seen this before, so I'll move pretty quickly through this.

community meetings in August and September to get us to, and we also ran a survey on what folks

would want to see in the shelter conceptually. So we saw a lot of support for including families

and pets, which we are accommodating, a lot of support for services offered at the shelter,

and for something that fits in with Elk Grove. So where we landed on this with the conceptual

program, a low barrier model that accepts people's possessions. They need to be able to bring some of

their belongings, their pets, and their partners if they have one. We are planning for 20 beds for

adults at this shelter with five emergency beds that can be used by our police department,

and then four family units that are combinable if we have larger families. We also wanted to

add a commercial kitchen. That's a great opportunity for our volunteer groups, as well as a training

opportunity for the guests of the shelter. Wanted to have a welcoming space, trauma-informed design,

adequate office space, which right now is not great in our current facility, and

just overall something that really reflects the needs of the Outgrove community.

So our shelter that we are planning, as I mentioned, and want to say again and stress

throughout, this is for our local community. This is not for the region. This is to help Elk Grove

residents who become homeless and offer them a safe place to be. And to keep it safe, 24-7 staffing,

three staff on site at all times, setting rules and expectations. This is not a place for folks who

want to engage in unlawful behavior. This is not a drop-in site for folks. This is referral only.

and we want to make sure that it blends into the community and part of that is not identifying it

as a homeless shelter so we will be working to come up with a name for this facility

and I've heard a few suggestions thrown out and that's something we will come back to the council

with. The eligibility piece of this is really important. The vetting process takes place

through our navigation team.

Our homeless services navigator, David,

is somewhere in the room tonight

and definitely available to talk to folks

who might have questions about how exactly this works.

But we do a lot of talking to folks.

We will go out, we will visit where did they used to live,

talk to their neighbors, make sure that the information

that we're getting about that is truthful.

And then we do some background on folks, right?

The facility does not serve registered sex offenders.

it's not the right option for people who have behavioral health challenges who aren't going to be able to live in that shared living environment.

We don't do walk-ups or drop-offs.

You have to come through the navigators and go through that vetting process in order to get in.

And you can't use drugs or alcohol on site.

So if you make it through the vetting process to the new shelter, these are a couple of renderings of what it might look like.

So an inviting reception area with warm tones, a multipurpose room that could be used for dining and also for offering educational classes during the day, sleeping areas that recognize the different circumstances that folks come to us with.

So semi-private areas, but here you can see we have a plan for people who come with pets.

That pet can stay with them in their own area rather than be kenneled at a different location.

um accommodating folks with disabilities and accessibility needs and then also accommodating

couples who want to stay together and then offering some secured outdoor space so people

have a way to spend time um outside in nature uh you know in a secure area that's not visible to

the surrounding community so in general that was all pretty positive the feedback we got on the

the conceptual plan was pretty positive. But as we all know, choosing a site is the hard part of

this process. And so we started the process by having a survey about siting criteria. What was

important to folks in choosing a shelter location? We moved from that, and I'll talk a little bit

more about the results of that. But once we actually were ready to look at some sites, we did

targeted mailers to over 3,200 addresses. We also did a lot of social media and an impressive reach

on that and a win for our public affairs team. 139,000 views on our various social media platforms.

Four in-person community meetings we did at 3 and 6 p.m. on two days. The 3 p.m. time was

surprisingly more popular than the 6 p.m. time. And then an online survey. So the first survey that

we did was not about sites specifically, but about what was important to folks. And what we heard,

we asked folks to allocate 10 points across these five categories. And on average, people allocated

4.6 points to sensitive uses. So 46% of their priority was on making sure that the site was

not near sensitive uses, which we defined as homes, residences, schools, and parks.

Cost and feasibility was also important to folks, and then lesser importance, proximity to services, safety and security, which we found often overlapped with proximity to sensitive uses in folks' minds, and then transportation access.

So we added some open text fields in that survey, too.

A lot of folks wrote in about sort of the same themes.

They wanted the shelter to be away from residential areas.

They wanted vetting of the guests and a program design that emphasized folks having access to resources and treatment and a lot of support for pets.

So this was not none of the surveys that we did related to the shelter this last year were statistically valid.

So I want to take a step back to 2024 when we did do a statistically valid survey on homelessness, just to take a look at what that looked like.

And at that time, we had about 58% of people that felt homelessness was a major or moderate problem in Elk Grove.

And a lot of folks attributed that to mental health considerations or addiction and substance abuse.

but a recognition that income and affordable housing accessibility were a challenge for a lot of folks.

So 27% said the city was good or excellent at dealing with homelessness, showing that we still had work to do,

but 44% acknowledged that Elk Grove was doing better than other cities.

The real interesting part of this survey was we asked folks what they supported in the city and in their own neighborhood.

and we had a number of different types of housing and outreach services. Before this,

for temporary shelters, which is what we're talking about tonight, a shelter where folks

can stay for some period of time. It is not their forever home. Their goal is to move on

to permanent housing. Overall, about a third of our population supported having a temporary

shelter in the city, and 37% supported having one in their neighborhood. Now, this was in concept,

not a site that was actually identified, but 54% of folks either supported or were neutral in this

statistically valid survey towards having a shelter in their neighborhood. So that shows,

you know, that there are a lot of folks that do value having that in our city.

So we started our location selection process at a high level. We looked at about 130 sites

in the city and narrowed it down ultimately to about to 10 sites that we did a scoring and

feasibility analysis on. And our architect partner for that NJA is here and I know that

they are happy to answer questions about the intricacies of that scoring process.

and through that scoring which is all available for those 10 sites are all up on our website

we narrowed it down to three sites that received an overall green or good rating

and that is what we released publicly so here you can see the three sites in different areas of the

city and the gray dots represent all the sites that we looked at so we really did look throughout

the city for potential locations. These are a little bit more close up of the three sites.

So we have the Dwight Road site in the Laguna West area, the East Stockton site, which is south of

Bond Road along 99, and then another site along 99 at the very southern end of the city.

So for the Dwight Road site, we didn't identify a specific parcel because there were multiple areas

in that Dwight Road area that could work for a shelter.

And, you know, there's a mix of vacant land and existing buildings there.

The East Stockton site is most centrally located in the city.

It's currently zoned for high-density residential, so for apartments, about four acres.

And we would be looking at, if this were the selected site, using a portion of that site for a shelter use.

And so here you can see a conceptual drawing that the architect prepared.

This is not a final version of the site, but it is what it could look like and how it might fit on the site.

The same for the survey road site.

This is about one and a half acres, so it is a much smaller site, which makes it more constrained for us in terms of a development perspective.

perspective, but you can see here that a shelter use would fit on the site, including some capability

to include some outdoor space and adequate parking.

So where we ended up is scoring in the different categories here, and as you can see, the proximity

to sensitive uses is represented as a larger dot than the other categories.

Those are scaled to the percentage that was assigned to them by the community in importance.

So no site is perfect.

The East Stockton site did score green in all the categories, while the Survey Road site scored more poorly in terms of its proximity to services and its access to transportation.

One of the questions that we've got a lot in this process is how could a site score well for proximity to sensitive uses when there are homes nearby?

And what we actually looked at for that was how easy it would be to access those homes if you were walking on common paths.

And so for a site like East Stockton, where there are nearby homes, but they are separated from the site by masonry wall, you actually would need to walk up to Bond Road and over or down to Bamp Vista to get into the residential neighborhoods.

So that's a little bit of how we did that analysis.

And NJA could certainly say quite a bit more about that.

so once we released the three sites we released them with information on the meetings that we

planned to have we had a total of 237 people attend some people attended every meeting

most people just attended I think one meeting and of those 237 attendees we had 73 of them

fill out a post-meeting survey. So the meeting offered a lot of feedback opportunities. We had

input boards throughout the room. So we had stations on certain topics where folks could

go to have a conversation, to give their comments, which were written on the boards. And in your

council packet, I'm sure you saw the results of what was written on the input boards. We included

all of that feedback for you. Folks could write on comment cards. Again, all of that was included

in your packet. And then we had an open online survey. You could take the survey if you went to

the meeting, but we also had a general survey that anyone could take. What we heard at the community

meeting was, you know, some of what we expected. Folks were really concerned about having the

shelter near their home. We also heard some concerns from businesses that the shelter would

have a negative impact on their business or cause crime in the area. We did take comments on specific

sites, of course. The Dwight Road site folks felt that it was pretty close to schools and senior

housing in residential areas and that there were some youth-serving businesses out in that area,

And that is true. There are a number of youth and family oriented uses out there.

There were also some comments about the future train station and how that would how that would affect the area.

At the 92-96 East Stockton site, that's the one that's more centrally located.

There were some concerns just about perception and guest safety.

And I'll talk a little bit more about that in light of the business conversations that we had.

A lot of folks took the time to talk to our safety and security station, where our police department was able to have conversations and share information with folks.

Crime, traffic were big things that came up.

Really wanting to recognize the safety of children walking to school and being out walking and biking in their community.

and traffic safety came up surprisingly often as well that some of the sites are located on more

high-speed roads that that might be unsafe for some of the guests many of whom do get around by

walking and biking and then we took a lot of questions about shelter security how that would

work how PD would be a part of that through cameras or other means. So cost and feasibility

There were definitely concerns raised from our residents about how we will pay for this, how we will pay to operate it long term.

And one thing that came up more than a few times was what would happen if we needed to expand that shelter at some point in the future as our city continues to grow.

And some folks noted that that would be more limited at the survey road site.

So a lot of folks have commented on the proximity to services and transportation and the importance of folks, shelter guests, being able to get around, have access to employment and stores and health care.

And just thinking through some of the mobility concerns that some of our guests have.

a lot of great questions at our programs and operations input area too pretty standard

questions about how the shelter operates this was a great opportunity to have some of our staff and

our shelter operator share information on how the shelter connects people to mental health and

substance use resources how the shelter provides transportation for folks needing it how the

shelter staffs and what types of work their staff do. So we got a lot of community feedback through

that. We also had several meetings with the business community. So one of the things that

happened when we prioritized proximity to sensitive uses is that we ended up with sites

that were in areas that had more businesses. That was not something that in our community

surveys came up as a concern, but certainly when we released the sites, we did have many businesses

raise concerns about the sites. So we did meet with the Town Place Suites, which is just south

of the East Stockton site. It's adjacent to it there. And they shared some of their concerns

about how it might impact their operations, particularly in light of the importance of

online reviews for their shelter or for their hotel going forward and noted that, you know,

if things didn't go well for them, that the city would see a reduced transit occupancy tax.

We also got a comment from Explore Elk Grove asking that the council not locate a shelter

within a thousand feet of a hotel and requesting an economic impact study. And we did hear this

call for an economic impact study from several of the businesses.

The office condos near East Stockton, their association met with us and some of the owners.

They were concerned about the viability of selling their properties and the safety impacts

of it.

We had some Dwight Road comments.

The Sacramento Area Sewer District raised some concerns about the proximity to their

Echo Water sewer facility. And one of the businesses out on Dwight Road raised similar

concerns about business impacts. And then down at the Survey Road site, we did have a chance to

talk with the Flatland Brewing Company, which is immediately adjacent to the Survey Road site.

And they were concerned about some potential impacts to their business from the shelter guests.

So the city is committed, wherever this shelter goes, the city is committed to working with the businesses in the surrounding area to look at how we can design the shelter buildings, how we can design that space to minimize impact, and how we can be a good neighbor, including making sure that we're responsive quickly to any problems that would arise.

so most of our residents gave their feedback through a community survey so we had 812 people

respond to our online survey um that's the combined results of the post-meeting survey

for those who went to those community meetings and the general one that was open um and we asked

a number of questions um but the most important being which sites did people prefer and so this

Let's ask a quick question on that one.

For the online survey, were they unique individuals, like unique emails associated, or like maybe

one person filling it out maybe 10 times?

So the way that the survey tracked it, we could not necessarily tell if folks were filling

it out a ton of times.

Many people did leave their contact information.

So in my looking through it, it didn't look like that was the case.

Many people put open text comments in there and wrote a variety of things.

And so that to me says when you've left a paragraph in one, you're probably not writing another paragraph in another paragraph.

So it didn't seem like it was a huge issue where folks were continuing to take the survey time and time again, but that is hard to track.

So with the preferred sites ranking, so this is not weighted.

This is just responses from those roughly 800 folks.

You can see here that the Survey Road site was the first choice of about 43% of people.

With the East Stockton site kind of being second, 31% indicated that was their first choice,

and the Dwight site being the least popular.

You can see that the most people indicated that the Dwight Road site was their least favorite,

45% of people like that site the least.

And then this table shows some weighting.

So if we assigned people's first choice three points, their second choice two points, and their third choice one point,

the survey road site would have almost 1,800 votes compared to about 1,600 for the East Stockton

and a little under 1,500 for Dwight Road.

And then this is very interesting.

We did ask people to report their home zip code.

The vast majority of people who took the survey reported one of three Elk Grove zip codes.

There were only a handful of people that reported living somewhere else.

So what this shows is that for folks who lived in the 95757, the middle one here, there was no site in the 95757.

When we looked at it, there weren't any great choices in that zip code.

Folks who filled out the survey from that zip code, which was fewer than filled it out from some of the other zip codes, about equally preferred all three sites.

folks who lived in the 95758 which is where the dwight road site is located overwhelmingly

preferred the survey road and east stockton sites and then folks who lived on the east side in the

95624 zip code preferred the survey road and the dwight road site equally so in general what this

shows you is that folks are voting for the site that is not particularly near their place of

residence. Surprising, right? So we did see in the open text responses for the survey,

you know, still a strong emphasis on the sensitive uses, on keeping it away from residential

neighborhoods, on protecting children going in and around their neighborhoods, on safety and

security. A lot of folks mentioned increased police patrols would be something that they

would like to see. We had a lot of people point out the need for access to services and

transportation. And it was interesting. A lot of the folks, particularly that did not like the

Dwight Road site pointed out that that was not a great location for access to services

and transportation.

And then we had a lot of the folks that didn't prefer the survey road site also make that

argument that that site was lacking in that way.

Still some comments on programming.

How are we choosing people for the shelter?

What are our expectations of them?

And then we did see some comments on budget impacts.

And so here are some of the key site considerations that we saw from the survey.

So each site has advantages and disadvantages.

Staff thinks that we could make any of these sites work, but they all have different advantages and disadvantages.

Over at Dwight Road, it's not immediately adjacent to residential.

There is decent access to retail and employment opportunities in that area, but there are a lot of businesses nearby, and there are a good number of youth-serving businesses.

There's a gymnastics studio, the bowling alley, and the SAVA, the charter school.

There is a daycare out there as well.

So there's a number of those types of businesses there.

And there's some pretty limited transportation options if you're biking or walking, although there is public transit that runs by there.

For the survey road site on the far right here, that was very far from residential uses.

It's the site that really is the furthest from residential uses.

And it was one of the more affordable sites to acquire based on its smaller size and to develop, we think.

But it is not very close to a lot of businesses.

There are some, or it is close to a lot of businesses.

There are some youth-serving businesses down there.

There's a music school that's adjacent to the site.

There's not much retail nearby.

If folks are looking to go to a store and pick up a drink or some food, it has the poorest

of the transportation options as well.

It is the hardest to get from that site to other areas in the city just by virtue of being on the edge of the city.

We think that we would be able to fit the existing shelter plan on there, but really no opportunity for expansion.

And that location, just by virtue of where it's located in the city, in the event that we didn't need a shelter in the future, there's less reuse capacity for that building as another use.

So the East Stockton site was not immediately adjacent to single-family residential.

It is nearby there, but the walking distance to it is a little bit further.

It does have the best access to retail and social services and employment of the three sites,

and the best transportation options being close to Bond Laguna there.

And interestingly enough, it has the fewest youth-serving businesses nearby.

of all three sites. But it is the one where we got perhaps the most feedback from nearby businesses

that they were worried that this would impact their operations, including the town place suite

and the office condos across the street from it. So a lot to weigh there for you all.

The city doesn't own any of these sites, so we would have to acquire any of the sites.

And one of the reasons that we're asking you tonight to rank them in preference is we don't know on any given site that we will be able to reach an agreement with the property owner.

So we are looking at the cost to develop.

This is still something that's very much under development.

We think that the survey road site would likely be the least expensive because it is the smallest site.

The East Stockton site is on the more expensive side,

but there would be some additional land that we would be picking up as a part of that site.

It's a larger site overall, and that's driving some of that cost increase,

as is getting the infrastructure onto the site.

And then the Dwight Road site, because we didn't have a specific parcel we were looking at,

that was a little harder to estimate the actual costs there.

So we gave it a fairly wide range, but that could be adjusted based on which site we actually acquired if that were the preferred location.

We do have this budgeted through Measure E, and we also have some state homeless appropriation funds that we're planning to use about $4 million from that fund with the remainder coming from Measure E.

so a lot of information to digest here and I know we'll hear a lot from folks in the audience

but what we are asking the council to do after hearing from everyone is to provide a ranked

preference of the site so we would like to know which site you would like staff to negotiate for

first and then let us know your second and third choices and we would work through them in that

order. We do not have a lot of time to spare on this project right now. The construction

time frame is really tight. And so we will need to move quickly to go work with the site

owners and see if we can accomplish an agreement. So I'm happy to answer questions. I know our

NJA folks are happy to answer questions if you have detailed questions on the scoring.

and yeah thank you for your very thorough presentation I think what we'll do what I

will suggest is we take some questions and at the onset while you're here and

then follow up questions and deliberations after we hear from the

public but I so I asked already about the surveys I do have to just follow up

questions before I turn to my colleagues. We are going to be in the existing place for until

the end of 28? October 2028. Okay, so that's still some time. That's still a ways. And this is going

to take a few years to even build. Yes. And one of the sites that has zero businesses today,

that's not necessarily what will be there tomorrow, as in three years from now, correct? Yes. Okay,

Those were my questions.

I'll look to the left.

Any questions for Sarah?

Yes, Vice Mayor.

Oh, okay, go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thanks, Sarah, for the presentation and recap on everything.

Great job to you and the team for outreach to the community and getting the word out, education, and answering all the questions from folks.

I just had some things from review because you mentioned, we mentioned transportation, but I wanted to ask you, our homeless demographic, are they using transit mostly to get around? How are they getting around?

So they don't use transit as often as we might hope. Transit runs relatively infrequently in our city and doesn't always go directly to the places that they might want to go. So we do see a lot of our folks walking and most of them have bikes. And so they get around a lot by biking.

The shelter staff are available to transport people to certain types of appointments.

Like they will take you to your job interview.

They will take you to your medical health care appointments to go get Social Security cards or sign up for benefits.

They don't take people on like personal or social errands.

They won't take you to the store, for example, or to go have dinner with your mom.

Um, so, but, but they will, if it's working towards your housing or employment, um, they

are available for transportation for that.

Okay.

And then, uh, and you mentioned stores, I mean, are, are they, you know, typically the

demographic in terms of grocery store, do they, are they usually going there or their

food being provided by the, by the shelter?

So the shelter does provide three meals a day and snacks.

And most of our folks do eat at the shelter.

The vast majority of them also receive CalFresh benefits in some amount.

And so they can use their CalFresh benefits to buy foods that they might want that aren't available at the shelter.

We have a lot of great partners at the shelter.

It doesn't, you know, what's served might not meet someone's dietary restrictions or preferences at every meal.

And so we do see folks wanting to spend their CalFresh benefits at grocery stores.

Okay.

And then how long, we talked about the temporary nature of the shelter, that it's not intended

for permanent stay.

How long is the typical stay of residence?

So our standard is six months is the goal to get folks out.

Now, if folks are working on a goal, for example, doing a Social Security disability application

can take longer than that.

If folks are working on a goal, if they've got employment and they're just waiting for an affordable housing unit to open up, then we can extend that time frame because it's in our best interest to kind of make sure that they're stabilized before we put them into housing.

Yeah. And then my recollection was the current shelter, since we've been operating, we've been able to reduce encampments in our city by 65%.

and get dozens of homeless people into permanent housing?

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

I think that's it for now.

Thanks.

Council Member Brewer, did you have a question for Sarah?

Okay.

Council Member Spees.

I do have a few quick questions.

Council Member Soon jumped on a lot of them for me,

so that's a good thing.

I won't go over them again.

I do have a question.

Let's talk about walk score real quick.

I tried to look it up myself.

It says it's proprietary information on how walk score is calculated.

Could you give me a little bit of understanding on how walk score is calculated?

CJ, do you want, I know you're far more familiar.

Sure, good evening, counsel. So the walk score in this case is

qualitative analysis around what the experience of a pedestrian

or other user of say the sidewalk or trail infrastructure would be to access services

or other transit opportunities and whatnot from the potential shelter location out to the outside world.

So in cases we look at places like what's the status of sidewalks in the area,

ability for people to cross the street reasonably, are there signalized intersections,

activated crosswalks, other trail infrastructure.

There are other categories or other ways we can look at a traditional walk score that's more comprehensive

and it's a procedure we would use through a more detailed environmental review process

Our general plan lays out a protocol for that.

But in this case, it's really more of a qualitative analysis,

looking at what that infrastructure would be

and what that experience would be for users.

So putting that in layman's terms.

In simple terms, it's how easy is it for you to get from point A to point B?

Okay.

So it's really the shortest distance between two points.

It can be a short distance.

It can also be the safety around that.

So we will look at places where there are sidewalks,

where there are clear crosswalks,

say pedestrian signalization at a signalized intersection,

those are places that are going to score better in the review

because they are a safer environment for a pedestrian

versus locations where maybe there

are more challenging movements.

So I believe, Sarah, you want to bring the scores back up

to compare the three sites.

If I recall correctly, you'll see in there.

There's a lot of slides.

Yeah, a lot of good information.

I know we're almost there. It's like two more, I think.

It's slow. Yeah.

There we go. Okay. So on this one,

so we can actually see the scores here as a comparative basis.

So in the case of something like Dwight, when we're talking about the walk score,

it's what's that experience to get from the potential location that's there,

which certainly is a fairly large area with the number of sites we were looking at,

to get to places such as the proximity to services.

There are sidewalks in the area that are able to connect you.

There is the signalized intersection at Dwight and Laguna Boulevard that you'd be able to cross.

There's not a signalized leg, if I recall correctly, at that dog-laid turn to go westbound to get towards the freeway.

So there's a little bit of a conflict there.

Additionally, for some of our shelter guests, you may experience disabilities.

Getting over the railroad tracks while there is a dedicated sidewalk for them to make that transition,

you are talking about a grade separation, about a vertical change for them to have to navigate to get up over.

And so in that case, in the distance they're having to go for those services, the additional streets they have to cross, it does score poor in that case.

In something like the case of Stockton or East Stockton, we know that on the frontage of the property itself, there is additional sidewalk improvements that need to be installed.

but once those are addressed you can very easily get up to say bond road where you have a number

of retail opportunities a signalized intersection it's fairly easy to generally navigate up that

direction conversely eventually again there's some improvements with some sidewalk gaps to fill but

you could certainly go south a little bit to get down towards Elk Grove Boulevard in the case of

survey road similar sort of issue but you're talking about getting out towards grant line

and the proximity of the services that are around us,

there's sort of a relationship there.

The ability to make those movements

and get out further within the broader community

becomes a challenge.

You think about going up, say, East Stockton,

north of Grant Line.

We don't have sidewalks on both sides of the street.

There's a couple of gap segments to deal with

as you continue to go further north.

You also have the fact that you're crossing

either over 99 or over the railroad tracks

to get to other potential destinations.

Again, things like services.

So those distances from a walkability

start to really negatively impact the characteristics of those sites.

Okay. Thank you.

Let's see. The other question I have, just a point of clarification,

there will be three suites for families.

Four.

Four suites for families.

Four that are combinable, rooms that are combinable if we have a larger family.

Okay. And so in that, we would imagine that, I mean,

there from infant through toddler through grade school to 18 right yes yeah okay got it um let's

see so do we have a discrete budget item currently for transportation in the budget for for tgi we

we do have a mileage line item for them in that budget okay so when their staff need to transport

someone to an appointment, they track the mileage on that, and then they file an expense report,

and they're reimbursed for that mileage at the IRS rate. Okay. And so what are they typically

taking them to? So they are typically taking them to appointments to get documents, so birth

certificate, social security card, ID. They take them to job interviews, to housing appointments,

and to health care is a big one.

We really make it a point to connect as many of our folks as possible

to behavioral health or mental health care and to physical health care

to make sure that they have those things taken care of while they're in the shelter

and have a good ongoing plan to manage their health once they're housed.

Okay.

And so the TGI employees are using their POV or their personally owned vehicle to do that,

and then they ask for reimbursement.

That is correct.

Okay.

Thank you. I think that's good.

Council Member Robles, do you have any questions for Sarah right now?

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Yes.

Thank you for the presentation, and thank you, staff, for really digging into this.

I know that this is never really easy, right?

And a lot of folks, thank you for being out here and being patient with us as we deliberate what will happen in potential sites.

This is never really easy, but this is why we're here.

We're elected to make decisions and including top decisions.

I do want to go a little bit back on where the shelter is currently.

Why wasn't that specific location on this as a priority?

Yes, so that was one of the 10 locations that we scored.

So it did make our short list.

It did not score as favorably as the e-Stockton site that you do see on the list, in part because of its proximity to homes.

That really impacted the scoring.

It's much closer.

You turn right and you go into a neighborhood there, as I'm sure some folks in the audience will tell you tonight.

The other factor there was feasibility.

So there are currently buildings on that site.

those buildings are not easy to reuse on that site so it's a it's a fairly large site that the

city would need to acquire and then it would need some demolition and we also had some concerns um

you know that site used to be a former chrysler dealership and maintenance facility and so there

there are some unknown environmental aspects to that site too okay would that site be anywhere

in the range of 12 to 15 million i think that's where we're looking for how much we're spending on

on the other potential sites? I really, I'm not, I'm not sure. We didn't do the cost analysis on

that site. Okay. We do believe it would be more than the sites with vacant land. Perfect. Thank

you for that. And then I think this one is more on the safety side. Chief going to be asking,

because I know we did discuss a little bit about is, so I think there was several calls, correct,

that were done where the current shelter is at.

Would you see any of these potential three sites

being impacted because of these calls?

Well, so I would say that over the last year,

our calls for service,

and that's specific to the current shelter,

went up about 100 calls,

so a little over 9% or so.

We'll be able to perform wherever

the council chooses to place this facility.

We will do everything in our power to ensure that the community and neighborhoods and businesses are safe and can flourish.

So really, wherever it's at, we're going to be able to perform the way we perform now.

Okay. Thank you.

And then I know that we were looking, Ms. Montrager, when you were mentioning,

we were looking at that there was not real economic study impact on this, correct?

Correct. I'm assuming it was potentially because when they were doing the survey, it was more so on walkability, transit, transportation and all that, correct?

So, yeah. So what we what we heard from the survey from residents was that their concern was really that it not be near homes, schools, parks.

There was not a concern that really arose that it not be near businesses.

is. You know, an economic impact study is challenging to do. We don't have a lot of

comparable shelters to ours, both in terms of size or how we operate it. I will say that for

the Rite Aid Center shopping center site that we had the shelter at for six months, we checked in

with a lot of those businesses during and after the shelter. And really, it was reported that

that many of them had no issues, didn't know it was there.

And so we have that as a basis.

We also haven't heard from our current shelter

that a lot of the businesses in that area have suffered as a result of the shelter.

And so there's not a lot of basis to think that there would be

or information that we could use to study that in a local context, I guess.

Thank you.

And then is there any shelters within this region?

I know we're focusing here in Elk Grove, but is there any within Sacramento, Rancho, Davis that are near any, I would say, hotel occupancy and tourism-like areas?

I would have to look at that a little bit more.

certainly you know West Sacramento there there are a lot of shelter uses in

their motels you know a lot of nonprofits use that as kind of a shelter

in and around the motel area there that is something that we could look at is

how many are around hotels we're just asking in them and then I think I think

for right now that's kind of the questions that I have then open up for

comments and then go yeah we'll come back to comments but um with your indulgence council

oh yeah one more follow up go ahead thank you man uh cj just in regards to uh some some services i

i was looking uh at at the survey road site and and i know it's on the fringe today but i'm just

wondering if you can remind us of there's a lot of things we have going on that's being planned

in the planning phase or have been approved and ready to go to construction can

list off a few.

Late last year, you

denied the appeal for the Maverick Gas Station

project, so that is

moving forward at this point.

I don't have a definitive timeline on construction, but I know

they're interested moving forward this calendar

year. That's at the corner of

Grant Line and East Stockton, just up

the street or so.

The surrounding property owner has expressed

interest in developing out that center.

I would generally describe it as probably more highway

oriented retail uses.

They've not indicated a time frame for when that center would come in,

but we expected over the next couple of years.

How are we telling you, it's like fast food?

Fast food they've identified.

They've talked about a hotel at that location.

They've talked about some fast food-related dining,

some in-line shop components.

I think a car wash may have been in the list of things.

So from an employment perspective,

certainly would give folks, their guests at the center,

at the shelter, an opportunity to seek some employment opportunities

in that immediate area.

on the going northeast over the railroad tracks up at waterman there's another small retail center

with a gas station that's been approved it's not broken ground for construction yet and there's a

couple of other uses i think another drive-through an inline pad and then there was another larger

retail building i think probably about 20 some odd thousand square feet that was proposed and

then some storage uses um and then back on the other side of 99 there's the existing chevron gas

station. A lot of the other approvals around there have since expired. Development agreement

expired back in October, but you've got the casino and the existing Kaiser outpatient medical

facility that's there. And so we may see the tribe move forward on some development in that

area in the future. We still have annexation applications. And then we have annexation

applications on the south side of Camera Road from Highway 99 to future Bighorn. There's two

pending annexation projects with a variety of uses that are included in there,

and then a third project further down camera.

Housing, commercial centers, parks.

Housing, retail, parks, all of that, yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

All right, thank you.

So before I open up to public comment, you know, in looking at all of the charts,

the feedback, and then some sensitive use areas that were brought up,

Maybe after some of our initial studies, we've heard from the charter school, we've heard from Saksur, and just the ratings on this.

I'm curious, does anybody have Dwight as their number one?

And where I'm going with this is if there's agreement, I would make a motion to maybe remove that one from discussion at all and then focus on the other two.

I'd love to hear your feedback.

I would second that, Mayor, for that, especially for the school, because we mentioned or listed that as a sensitive use, and for whatever reason, it was not captured during that first go around, so I definitely would support that.

Any other?

No, I would support that.

I just, just given how the survey's turned out,

the proximity of where it's at, plus its accessibility

to the necessary things that we have discussed tonight.

Based on all that information that we received,

and looking at the results of the survey,

I feel comfortable of removing Dwight from consideration.

What say you to the right?

Is that okay?

It certainly wouldn't be my number one.

It's marginally better than another, but I certainly wouldn't have it as number one.

Okay, so do we need this as a formal action, or can we just remove that from consideration?

That's fine.

Direction's fine.

Okay, so just for the public, so we are removing Dwight from consideration for the future homeless site.

Okay, hold on.

There were a number of issues raised.

So in the interest of time, in the interest of discussion, those sensitive uses really became striking.

The Saba School, the daycare, and a number of other, and Saksua, of course, not limited to what they had to say.

And, of course, the community feedback was pretty strong.

So with that, I'm getting ready to open up public comment, but know that if you have submitted maybe a comment for that,

feel free to remove it so that when I call your name, you're welcome to, of course, stay.

I'd love to continue to see rooms fold like this.

But with that, I'm going to go ahead and open up the public comment opportunity.

And I'd like to just, first of all, before I do that officially, I do want to thank staff for your hard work and diligence with a very open and transparent process.

I actually have received a number of feedback from the community that outside of the selection of a location, they really appreciated the process, the information that they received.

So I want to thank everybody that helped make this to get us where we are today.

So with that, I'm going to open up public comment.

I am going to keep it at three minutes.

But if you've heard something that you've already, you know, for follow up speakers, if you've heard something, feel free to shorten it and be concise.

so that we're not hearing maybe the same points.

But it is your three minutes.

I was going to maybe restrict this to two minutes,

but I think eliminating one site, I'm going to give you your fair time here.

But you will have three minutes.

And what I ask is that you be respectful of the speaker, whoever it is,

whether you agree or disagree, please give them their time to speak.

And just like you will have your fair time to speak as well.

So just please be respectful.

no shouting or boos we've visited this before not the homeless shelter but other controversial

projects and it makes it very difficult to hear the speaker so please just be respectful

really thank you for that we will go ahead and start with Lorena Riley followed by George Kaminsky

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council.

My name is Lorena Riley, and I serve as the General Manager of the Holiday Inn Express and Suites and Town Place Suites,

and a board member of the Explore Outgrove.

While ownership focuses on long-term investment and asset performance,

my role is centered on the day-to-day operations of these hotels, our guests, our employees,

and the standards we are required to maintain as a nationally flagged hospitality location.

I'm here to express concerns regarding the proposed shelter location at 9296 East Stockton Boulevard,

directly next to our property.

Hotels operate on perception, safety, and guest experience every day.

We welcome business travelers, families, tour groups, and visitors

who make decisions based not only on the price amenities and amenities,

but also on how safe and comfortable they feel in the surrounding area.

Our team is responsible for maintaining brand standards, including guest satisfaction metrics and property condition benchmarks.

Changes in the immediate environment can directly impact online reviews, guest surveys, repeat visitation, and ultimately our status with Marriott.

Guests expect a certain environment when staying in the area, and any change that introduces uncertainty can affect booking decisions, particularly for corporate accounts, group businesses that evaluate locations carefully.

I want to be clear. We are not opposed to solutions that address homelessness.

We understand the need for compassionate services and support the programs.

However, site placement matters greatly from an operational perspective.

Facilities of this nature should be located where they can operate effectively without creating unintended impacts on surrounding businesses, employees, and visitors.

before moving forward we respectfully ask the city to conduct a comprehensive economic and

operational impact study to fully understand how this placement could affect hospitality operations

workspace safety and visitor perception within this corridor thank you for your time and

consideration thank you next up is george kaminsky followed by john barbore and i would say the same

for claps we can refrain on those that would be appreciated too thank you good evening mayor singh

council members, and city staff.

I'm a resident that lives a short distance

from the proposed center,

just around the corner from Fikert Elementary.

Been in town since 1983.

I'm speaking on behalf of the neighbors

that also can't be here as well.

Some points, I'm not really looking

to ask any questions at this point.

I'm just trying to give you some feedback.

Some items that I think should be

very seriously considered

is the proposed shelter is less than a half a mile from the elementary school,

Fikert Elementary, on Fikert Drive.

We've seen homeless people climbing the wall that separates

our residential neighborhood to East Stockton Boulevard.

They've actually been coming over the wall periodically and through our neighborhood,

so they don't always go around Bamp Vista or down to Bond Road.

It's too close and unsafe for the children.

Our neighbors across the street are considering moving

because they have two young children that they have to take to Fikert Elementary.

It's also too close to our residential neighborhood where we've been there for over 40 years protecting our investments.

There's also been some recent crime and some break-ins in the area, which we've never had up until now.

Also, we're concerned about the unsightliness.

This morning I was driving down Bond Road, saw another person pushing a cart with all their belongings.

A week ago, I was in front of the old CVS on Elk Grove Boulevard, and somebody was camped out under blankets over there.

We haven't seen that in the past.

We've also seen more trash and abandoned vehicles in the area.

It's also right across from the elderly assisted living and right next to a hotel.

And I think that should be seriously considered.

But most importantly, Farker Elementary, that's so close.

If we're eliminating Dwight Road because of a school, why wouldn't we eliminate East Stockton because of the school that's so close as well?

Also, we're concerned about our reduced home property values.

Newcomers will be reluctant to purchase homes next to a shelter.

I'm not opposed to a shelter, and neither is the neighbors,

but we believe it should be in an unpopulated neighborhood or area where there's not residential homes that have already been built.

If you want to buy a home next to a shelter, that's your option down the future.

But to plant one in so close to a residential neighborhood really doesn't make sense to us and our neighbors.

Also, our neighbors across the street who have the young kids have been jogging on East Stockton Boulevard.

They've had recently a homeless person was following the wife.

made her very nervous.

They had a pit bull that became loose from one of the transients

that chased her and her husband.

And yesterday there were a bunch of broken bottles

on East Stockton Boulevard beer bottles.

We've never had that happen before.

Also, with the placement of it, in my opinion,

it's too close to Elk Grove Boulevard, Bond Road, and Laguna.

We already see a lot of homeless beggars out in that area.

Thank you.

Okay?

Thank you for your time.

All right, next up is John Barbour followed by Debbie Meyer.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, City Council.

Let me speak tonight.

Since this is a low threshold facility, it signals to the public in no uncertain terms

that the city anticipates clientele with active and ongoing substance abuse challenges.

I don't have to explain to anyone here the unfortunate reality of the difficult behaviors that invariably accompany addiction.

In which case, out of respect to the taxpayers who are on the hook funding this project to the tune of $1.5 million a year,

or $4,000 per shelter bed per month, or twice the average monthly rent for a typical Elk Grove apartment,

I believe a shelter should be constructed at the Survey Road location.

This site received the city's highest marks for safety and security due to its distance from residential neighborhoods and schools,

which our community has consistently identified as a top priority.

At the same time, it offers proximity to places for potential employment and access, one could argue, to major transit corridors.

I urge the council to support this site as the best path forward for Elk Grove.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Debbie Meyer, followed by Matt Monahan.

Good evening, City Council.

My tune is a little changed because you now are getting rid of the Dwight Road location,

but I'm going to go ahead and say my speech because what I have in here could help with the other locations as well.

My name is Debbie Meyer.

I serve as a president and owner of Elk Grove's largest sports complex, Elevate Gymnastics Academy.

We are one of the businesses on Dwight Road.

Each year, we instruct over 2,000 students, host large-scale events, and generate tax revenue for the city

and receive long-term support from families whose children participate in our program from early childhood through the high school graduation.

This evening, I would like to speak on behalf of the children and families affiliated with Elevate Gymnastics Academy.

I recently attended the community meeting hosted by the committee overseeing the homeless shelter project at District 56.

Initially, I had reservations about the program.

However, and some things are forgetting to be mentioned or reminded that was said,

after hearing an informative and comprehensive presentation, my perspective has changed,

yet I am dealing with many families and many children that are concerned.

I now support the project, but I would like to address a few specific points for your consideration.

First, my initial concern was based on misconceptions about the shelter serving individual experiencing homelessness due to substance abuse and several mental illnesses being housed near my business.

Upon receiving additional information, I learned that the entry into the shelter requires qualification referral.

You're not just picking somebody up off the street and throwing them into the shelter.

I thought that was a huge point.

Therefore, I suggest the city of Elk Grove consider, as you had mentioned, renaming the program as maybe a restart program or a traditional housing project.

I think that would positively have some opinions from the community.

I would like to continue on.

I appreciate the thorough guidelines established for selecting residents eligible for the shelter.

If these rules are consistently enforced, the shelter will offer valuable support to those in need of a new start.

Nevertheless, some of my customers have expressed concerns regarding enforcement, specifically the time frame.

This hasn't been talked about yet, or maybe I'm just not aware, for removing individuals who do not adhere to the shelter policies,

such as violations involving substance use and disregard for curfews and resources.

I hope clear procedures can be communicated to ensure prompt resolution of such issues.

Third, as a leader of my organization, my foremost responsibility is the safety of our members.

The shelter's proximity to Elevate Gymnastics Academy may understandably cause unease among our clientele.

This underscores the importance of a robust law enforcement and adherence to established guidelines to maintain a secure environment.

I ask the City Council to recognize how crucial effective rule enforcement will be for organizations like ours or any other place that you go to.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next up is Matt Monahan followed by Steve Scott.

Good evening, Mayor.

our good evening council. Thank you for your service and for holding this important meeting

tonight. My name is Matthew Monahan. I've been a resident of Elk Grove since 2003. I live here with

my beautiful wife Michelle and our three children, Michelle, Lily, Landon, and Lane. Some of the

city leaders got to meet my wife Lane at one of the meetings. So thank you guys for holding those.

I am going to shorten my deal.

I was here to protest the Dwight location, so thank you for your wise decision-making regarding that.

This is the first time in 49 years that I've ever attended or been the least bit interested in what the city or council have been up to.

The council, since its inception, has done an amazing job representing, protecting, and responsibly developing our city.

I am here to express my support for the homeless shelter.

My family and I have supported homeless individuals trying to make the difficult foundational changes in their lives and numerous homeless organizations over the years.

I believe that the proposed plan has the potential to be a model for cities looking to support a smaller population of homeless individuals in a transitional phase.

the problem

and why I'm here

it's what was quite

absurd and really disturbing right

it had to do around

the study and around the

Dwight location and what the

council addressed here tonight

with some of the sensitive uses around there

so I do

thank you for that I would say

that you know in

support of maybe some of the other locations

you do not

have to choose between the safety of your hard-working law-abiding citizens and compassion

for the homeless. You must not choose between compassion and the seniors and children's safety

in whatever site you choose. I work with a dangerous commodity and understand when you make

poor decisions, emotional decisions, when you go down a dangerous path and when you make a single

mistake, horrible things can happen. You are dealing with a dangerous element where one mistake will

devastate a family, our community, and potentially your legacy as a member of this body.

So that's all I have to say.

Thank you, guys, and I know you'll make the right decision.

Thank you.

Next up is Steve Scott, followed by Mackenzie Weiser.

Good evening, Mayor St. Allen and Vice Mayor Swin and the rest of the council.

My name is Steve Scott.

I'm a natural resource supervisor for Sacramento Area Sewer District.

In light of your decision tonight to remove the Dwight Road site from consideration,

I'm not going to stick with my original comments,

but I did want to commend city staff for the excellent work they did on developing the project.

The public outreach meetings were exceptional.

Everyone I talked to there was informative and cooperative, and it was a great experience.

And I just wanted to commend your efforts not only for this project that's upcoming, but also for your previous efforts, you know, reducing illegal camping in the area by 65%.

Just great work all around.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Mackenzie Weiser, followed by Dani Hamilton.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council.

Mackenzie Weiser with Sacramento Splash in light of your removal of the Dwight Road location.

I don't really need to say my comments, so I'm going to give you your time back.

However, don't forget about us.

We bring 7,000 kids right on the other side of that wall, which actually becomes county property.

So for enforcement purposes, I'm just very relieved.

Enforcement's amazing.

I didn't even know the homeless shelter was in the Calvary location, and I ride my bike over that footbridge, and I have seen a huge improvement.

I ride at 5 a.m. in the morning, and I used to encounter people all the time,

and I've not seen a person in the last, like, six months.

So I think we should really applaud the city and the staff for all of their excellent work.

Response time is incredibly fast as well if there's someone out camping.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you, Danny Hamilton.

Then it's Odeary Naper.

Hello, thanks for having me. First of all, congratulations to Dwight Road. We see really big smiles from the people from Dwight Road. Unfortunately, I happen to live in the other location where there is families and homes in the area, and that is a concern to us in a big way.

so uh based on everything that i've heard and that i've seen uh from these these surveys and the uh

uh the everything that we have is it indicates that uh you know this this is something that

we care deeply about we're worried about this for our families right so when this facility became

into uh existence over there by the church instantly it's like you know my daughter is

starting to walk that way and there's there's people of they use drugs in that area it's a

problem right so i don't know how often you know the she was actually in the area you know going

over the path but i'm there all the time we see it it's a problem so the biggest thing is that uh

you know being in the area one of the things that we did was we actually canvassed the entire

uh area knocked on every door and the people in the area said the exact same thing they said that

it was a problem.

That one after another, they voiced

their frustration and their anger

with having to deal with the repercussions of having

a homeless shelter in the middle of their neighborhood.

They spoke about the drug

and the substance abuse, the theft,

vandalism, including

the break-in of cars, blight on the street,

people going through their recycle cans

and making a mess, and some passed out on the sidewalks.

My own mom, she's 75,

she has a home two

doors down from mine.

one of these individuals was in her garage trying to look at one of her bikes that had a basket on the back.

She said, no, no, that's not something that you can have.

But they persisted. They came back twice.

So this is persistent, and they do come through there with regularity.

They also travel right by the school.

So what I would ask is that you think about that.

We want to be safe in our community.

There's a place you can put this that makes sense for everybody.

safe for them, safe for us, and we would like to have that.

That's all I'd like to say.

So thank you.

Thank you.

O'Deary Naper.

And once again, just a friendly reminder,

we have removed the Dwight proposal from consideration.

So if you have submitted, feel free not to speak.

You can remove your request over there where you turned in your slip.

Sorry about that.

Continue.

No worries.

My name is O'Deary Knapper.

Thank you to the council.

I was here to oppose the Dwight Road, but I don't have to do that because you guys did remove it from the list.

So I just wanted to say thank you for that and urge you to keep it off the list.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Shari Wilson, followed by LaTosha Johnson.

and if I've called your name and you're with with for Dwight you can just let us know before you

come up that you don't want to speak hello everyone so um I've been a residence here for

almost 23 years now um I'm a business owner and once almost homeless um and so I know we need a

home we need a shelter here in Elk Grove I also know that we had one right there off of Elk Grove

Boulevard and Waterman and we really didn't have any issues at all I'm just coming up to advocate

for this I prefer it to be in 95624 why so I can get there fast and help and give my support

we don't know we have neighbors we have apartments we have so much going on in Elk Grove we they're

doing drugs in there. The sooner we get these people off the street, the faster they won't

numb themselves with alcohol and drugs. Right now, my business is in Old Town, and I do have people

sleeping in front of my salon, and I prefer them to be in the bed, a warm bed. And so I'm for the

shelter and you guys have my support. The big MVP is David, right? He is amazing. We have people

walking up and down the street all the time. He's quick and he's loving on these people and I just

want us to just give back and love on our citizens. These are our neighbors so I thank you. Please go

watch, no address, and maybe your heart will soften. Thank you, Shari. Next up, LaTosha Johnson,

followed by Tammy Silvera. I'm assuming LaTosha is gone. Is there a LaTosha in the hallway?

We'll come back to you if you're here. Maybe LaTosha was with it. Are you LaTosha?

okay all right next up is Tammy Silvera and after Tammy is Melissa Stone

good evening mayor and city council my name is Tammy Silvera I've been a resident of the city

of Elk Grove for the past 30 years and I'm also the Elk Grove Unified School District's homeless

liaison the Elk Grove Unified School District student and family empowerment program supports

children and families that are experiencing homelessness as defined by the McKinney Vento

Homeless Assistance Act. We sometimes forget that there are also children in our community

who are experiencing homelessness as we focus so heavily on our single adults.

The EGUSD SAFE program has been actively partnering with the city's housing support program,

Elk Grove Heart, and our other providers and partners throughout the city and the county

in the planning of this homeless shelter. For the past four years, EGUSD has seen a steady

increase in the number of school-aged children experiencing homelessness. During the 24-25

school year, we identified over 1,700 students in our school district who would be living in

transition. There is a need for a permanent shelter in this community, and as was already

shared, one that will support families with children as well as single adults. We can't

forget that the shelter is meant to also support families with children. Critical issues for the

location of the shelter, in contrary to some of what's been shared, is the proximity to public

transportation, pedestrian and bicycle accessibility and safety for school-aged children, and access to

schools, daycares, and other services that families with children will need. We look forward to our

continued work with the city of Elk Grove in the planning and development of the shelter and we

hope that you take some of the aspects of what a family shelter needs in consideration in terms of

your location. Thank you. Thank you. Melissa Stone after Melissa. Christy Comer.

Hi good evening. I am a resident of the neighborhood adjacent to the current shelter

and the proposed location for the East Stockton shelter.

And today I'd like to use my time to personify what it means to be a sensitive use.

I feel like that language is very generic, that the green circles are not scores.

They are used to persuade without any data to support.

I've asked at the meeting, I asked Christopher directly,

I've also emailed each of you and asked that we could see the data that went into the scoring.

It's unclear to me how East Stockton Road, which is directly adjacent to a neighborhood, could be green as well as Survey Road.

I am not against the project.

I am just against the prioritization of the needs of 20 to 25 citizens over the needs of the community.

I'd like you to think about the human side of the neighborhood as well.

We've seen a wonderful presentation on the human side of those residents that are going to be in the shelter.

but the human side of the neighborhood.

Some of the claims that were made,

I don't feel reflect how it has been to live there.

We don't call the cops every time.

I've had my son's car broken into

since the shelter has been there.

I didn't call because what are they going to do?

It's already broken into.

We have people coming up and down our street.

We report it through the app.

We have shopping carts, trash dumped on sidewalks.

The city has said that they don't allow individuals

to do drugs or use alcohol on the property.

We see individuals step just outside the property.

They tuck into the neighborhoods

where the elementary school is to do those activities.

I'd also like to talk about the broken promises

of the city with the temporary shelter,

which was placed without any input from us.

The city promised to take care of the property.

It has been in disarray,

in worse shape than it was when the church was there,

which I think is not out of respect for the community or the residents that live there.

There has been drug use, as I said.

There has been claims that there was an individual that, excuse me,

the city said that they would be vetting everyone that went into the shelter.

When our neighbors walked around, they talked to a parole officer that said that there was an individual evicted from the shelter

that was a convicted sex offender that was in under a false name.

that really brings to light concerns about the vetting process of the city.

The response times of the police department, while they do respond, it's very reactive.

There hasn't been proactive management of the individuals in and around the neighborhood.

We were told they wouldn't walk through our neighborhood.

They would be using the frontage road.

That hasn't been the case.

They frequently cut through to Bond Road or Elk Grove.

You can also cut through, which would also go by McKee Elementary School if you want to get to Elk Grove Florin.

It is a very connected neighborhood.

Sarah Bontrager said that their goal is to help the community, and I urge you to help the entire community,

not prioritize the needs of 20 individuals or 20 beds over the needs of the neighboring community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Christy Comer and Frank Lucia.

I was primarily here with regards to Dwight Road as well as that's near my home.

However, I still wanted to support the other neighborhood as I share their concerns.

And I'm not just here for my own neighborhood.

I'm here for Elk Grove as a whole.

The safety of the families who live in the areas of the proposed shelter location is as important as the needs of those who would seek help from the shelter.

It is not lacking compassion for those in need to also seek for the welfare and safety of the existing residents.

Unfortunately, while there are individuals and families who will come to the shelter in good faith,

it is important to acknowledge the reality that even the most well-meaning homeless shelter does draw people who don't mean well.

The fact that the shelter will not be doing drug testing of those staying there, for example,

raises the concern that it will increase the likelihood of drug activity in the surrounding area and as a result increases in crime.

It was also very worrying that at the meeting I attended when directly asked if people with violent felony records would be allowed to stay in the shelter a straight answer was never given.

The fact that those who are planning this knew that the community surveys showed that the main concern residents had about the shelter location was its proximity to sensitive areas like schools and homes and yet two of the original three proposed locations are right in the middle of these things does not inspire confidence that those running the facility will listen to the concerns of the residents nearby.

should things come up once it is built. While I do not believe that either of the locations are in

the best interest of the surrounding neighborhoods and businesses, I would ask that the city council

choose the survey road location for the shelter as it is the farthest from sensitive areas such

as homes and schools. Thank you. Thank you, Frank Lutia. And after that, Julie Solis.

Good evening, Mayor Singh Allen and members of the board.

I'm here with Elk Grove Heart, and I'm here to not advocate for a location for the shelter,

but to advocate for a shelter for children.

We do not have options in this city for families in our shelters.

We do have a voucher program, hotel voucher program, that is sometimes used, as well as we're opening up a couple of transitional houses for families.

But there are, as it's already been stated, a lot of issues out there right now with homeless families, particularly single moms with children.

So I thank you for the work that has been done with the city, the staff, and the council.

And I wish you the best.

I'm glad I'm not in your seat.

That's a tough decision to make, but it has to be done.

Thank you.

Good to see you, Frank.

Thank you.

Julie Solis, followed by Debbie Sheafer.

Sheafer.

Hi.

Hi, my name is Julie Solis.

I am a 28-year citizen of Elk Grove,

and I also have a small business on East Stockton Boulevard.

I own one of the commercial condos.

It's actually directly across the street,

and I share a lot of the concerns with the owners,

and unfortunately a few of them weren't able to attend,

but we had attended a meeting last week.

many of us didn't find out until the last probably month that this was going on

unfortunately the commercial condos and the entire street is filled with them

this blocked two of the owners were or one of the owners was selling two units and the deals

actually fell through because of this so they're holding right now it's affecting our property

values. We're very concerned about this. I moved my business that I've had for 20 years from

Laguna Boulevard over to East Stockton, and this is impacting a business that serves mostly women

in the community. I think everyone here is probably, I keep hearing this over and over,

we're all very sensitive and we want the service for our community but everyone feels like it

sounds like everyone feels that this is not what we signed up for we want to service have a service

but when you buy a neighborhood or you buy a commercial building you put your business there

we didn't ask for this to be put into our neighborhood it seems like there's a very

clear option on survey road where it's going to be the least impactful for the city and i think

that alone would foster probably a better community just overall feeling when it's not

impacting the local neighborhoods and there are a lot of homeless issues on east stockton boulevard

we've had them in our center if the tenants move away if nobody takes these units what happens is

I've owned this for six years.

When nobody's there in these units, homeless people come in.

When I first bought the building, and I have 25% of the entire center that I own,

when I wasn't in there, what happens is homeless people live in our garbage dumpsters.

We had somebody who had crack pipes, and they were on top of the building living.

So these are concerns.

And I would hope, too, in the future, it would be great if we could have more police presence, whatever happens.

But there is, unfortunately, there is a pretty big homeless issue on that street.

So I'm hoping that you'll take a look at that as well.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Debbie Schoen-Schafer, followed by Christina Albright.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.

I'm with Elk Grove Heart, and the present shelter has been such a huge success.

In all honesty, better than I thought it would have been.

So many caring community members are there each week to serve dinner

and to get to know the people that are there,

and to realize that's just what they are, people.

It's helped to break the stigma.

Today I was at the Adamstown house, which is a permanent house for six seniors and opening up soon.

One who's moving in is Arthur, who's presently at the shelter.

He's a veteran, and he's there because he's disabled.

He had a stroke and uses a walker.

He's a sweet man and has won everyone over.

And Lisa, the new house leader, also is coming from the shelter.

She works full time and will be going to CRC soon.

Her future is so bright, and she is darling.

Printed on the front of the handout given at the shelter meetings is a sentence, Elk Grove, compassionate city.

Thank you for all you have done to make that a true statement.

I don't care where the shelter goes.

I just care that it's built so we can continue to have the ability to support people by giving them a hand up and out of homelessness.

Thank you.

Thank you. Christina Albright followed by James Wu.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Christina Albright. I'm a third generation

lifelong resident of Elk Grove and a retired police officer, having worked for both the Elk

Grove Police Department and the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. I currently work as a

mental health professional, and my passion for both of these careers means I strongly believe

in the importance of community safety and compassionate solutions for people experiencing

homelessness. I've followed this process very closely, as you know, and I want to focus on

something simple. The city made a significant effort to engage the community through surveys,

meetings, and outreach, and that matters. But engagement only builds trust when the results

are honored. Residents have told you what mattered most. The data in your own staff report is clear.

At the beginning of the process, distance from sensitive uses was ranked as the highest priority

at 46 percent. This represents a very wide margin as the second priority was only 18 percent.

More recently after significant opportunities for community for the community to understand

the various locations considered when residents were asked for site preference survey road was

selected as the first choice by the largest share of respondents approximately 42 percent. It also

ranked highest in the weighted preference model. The primary argument against the survey road

appears to be transportation access. From an operational perspective transportation is a

controllable variable. The staff report shows the survey road site carries significantly lower

acquisition and development costs compared to East Stockton location. The difference represents

millions of dollars. Instead of forcing a site closer to sensitive areas including a substantially

large elderly care facility directly across the street, the city can invest in structured

transportation solutions. Even a portion of the annual savings by the selection of the survey site

could provide a transportation system for shelter residents.

Dedicated shuttles, scheduled service routes, or rideshare partnerships

will ensure shelter guests have reliable access to services, jobs, healthcare, and transit

while still leaving taxpayers financially ahead.

This directed approach solves the operational challenge without disregarding community priorities.

Strong policy decisions align process, data, and community voice.

You created the process.

The data clearly points to Survey Road.

The community voice is clear.

Tonight is about demonstrating that public engagement is meaningful and that when residents

participate, their voices help shape the outcome.

Many residents felt disenfranchised when the temporary shelter was placed in our residential

neighborhood without community input or consideration of the significant quality of life impact

it has created.

We came to the open houses and asked you to remain transparent in engagement.

As such, you honored us when you asked us what matters.

You listened before and I'm asking you to listen again.

The community has spoken.

We all know that shelters work best when they're placed thoughtfully, balancing accessibility with minimized unintended impacts on neighborhoods.

Successful projects depend on community buy-in.

Council members, you have the opportunity tonight to reinforce trust in public engagement.

Honor the survey results. Honor the priorities that you set.

Choose Survey Road, the location that reflects both financial or fiscal responsibility and the voices of the residents you represent.

Thank you for your time and dedication to the incredible city that I love and I'm proud to call home.

Thank you.

I was waiting for my bow.

No, you finished in time.

James Wu.

After James is David Hutchinson.

You had one second, Christina.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council.

My name is James Wu.

I'm the owner of, with WS Management, owner and operator of the Holiday Inn Express and Town Place Suites Elk Grove.

In addition to my professional role, this issue is personal to me.

My parents are an extended family that live in Elk Grove, and myself lived here for many years.

I'm deeply tied to this community and care about this long-term success, safety, and economic vitality.

I am here to express concerns regarding the proposed shelter location at 9296 East Stockton Boulevard, adjacent to our hotel properties.

This corridor is one of the Elk Grove's primary commercial and hospitality areas.

It includes active retail restaurants, hotels, and nearby residential neighborhoods.

Many of us have invested significant capital, time, and effort to help drive the economic success of this area,

and by extension the city of Elk Grove as a whole.

The proposed placement of this facility at this location raises legitimate concerns about safety,

economic impact, and the signal it sends to existing and prospective businesses evaluating investment in our community.

Our two hotel properties alone generate more than $1.6 million annually in tourism assessment, transient occupancy tax, and property tax revenues.

These revenues directly support tourism promotion, public safety, infrastructure, and city services.

A project of this nature located immediately adjacent to the hospitality and retail uses carries the risk of negatively affecting occupancy rate, visitor perception, and overall corridor vitality.

Even modest declines in performance translate into meaningful reductions in public revenue.

We are not opposed to the solutions that support individuals experiencing homelessness.

We recognize the need for thoughtful and compassionate responses.

However, site selection matters.

Location decisions should be informed by comprehensive analysis, including a transparent economic impact study that evaluates the short and long-term fiscal effects.

At this time, we have not seen sufficient research data or data addressing these concerns.

As business owners and long-term members of this community, we respectfully request transparency, accountability, and a clear understanding of the economic implications before a final decision is made.

We ask the City Council to commission and review a formal economic impact study prior to moving forward.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Next up is David Hutchinson, then Mark Doty.

Mayor, Council members, again, my name is Dave Hutchinson.

I'm a 40-year resident of Elk Grove.

We moved here.

There were 20,000 people.

So I would like to, I'm here basically to thank you for your efforts and your courage in pushing this forward and for the exemplary work that your staff has done through this process.

I've been a structural engineer doing building design for 47 years, sat through countless meetings with owners, architects, other engineers,

and we have developed through the design build community a technique called choosing by advantages

where you actually take subjective topics like which color do you like best on the wall or how

far is far enough from a neighborhood to a shelter or how close is too close and put numbers to it

making something that's subjective into an objective numerically oriented data point that

you can make intelligent, informed decisions. Your staff has done that, okay? You can question

their relative weighting of these advantages, but they have taken a very thoughtful and thorough

and transparent approach to do this. You should be proud of all of their efforts. So I think it's

maybe clear I'm very, very supportive of putting a shelter in. I've volunteered with different

local charities to go out and help these people. They need our help. And again, looking at the

long-term benefit. To me, it's pretty straightforward. We have homeless on the street.

You bring them into a shelter. You get them into programs that can help them. What do we look like

in 30 years? Maybe there's nobody on the street. I mean, that's the future that we need to look

forward to. So anyhow, I'm here to thank you. I'm very proud to be a resident of Elk Grove,

and I'll end by saying thank you for balancing the budget.

thank you uh mark dody followed by um um latasha johnson

good evening mayor vice mayor my name is mark dody um if you don't know i'm a member of the

city's trails committee i'm not here to speak on their behalf just myself but just wanted to

throw that out there i also wanted to talk just because i think i have a unique perspective

on the trails committee i serve monthly at the current location will continue to a group of us

from my church serve every once a month we've talked to many of the homeless individuals there

there's um they run the gamut and a lady spoke earlier about arthur met him sweet guy there's

other characters there that are clearly higher on drugs at the time you know they didn't maybe do

the drugs while they were on site but it's happening so as far as the trail goes that's

one thing I want to talk about so the current location and the East Stockton location are both

very close to the trail it's a it's a double-edged sword I want people to use our trails

you know and advocate for trails in our community at the same time I heard from a lot of people that

are very upset about the current location because the trail and the bridge across 99 oftentimes

isn't they feel unsafe um so i'm concerned with that the current projected or sorry the

east dockton location that is being considered now is very close to that as well along with other

trail uses so um to me that's difficult um i don't have a horse in this race i'm not a

I don't live in any of these areas, but if I think just looking at it objectively, I think Survey Road needs to be your preferred choice.

I know, Mr. Soon, you were talking about future uses.

The area across 99 is going to be developed, but that's, to get there is going to be, you're going to have to go around, get across the freeway to get there.

You know, the industrial uses, there are some businesses there that will be impacted.

flatland brewery will be impacted but you know looking at it on a whole i think that's got to be

your location that you pick um the transportation element is a little confusing to me because as

uh vice mayor soon and staff pointed out their shelter residents currently are not using our

transportation system so waiting that seems kind of silly um you know most of them are on bikes

from what I've seen, or they're getting rides.

So that could happen at the survey road location.

And again, I think the future development impacts

are fairly minimal.

I know there's the Mavericks going in there,

but that's all like industrial type uses,

and I think that's the best location.

And I'm not going to run out of time,

so thank you very much.

All right.

Thank you.

Latasha Johnson.

Is Latasha here?

All right.

LaTosha was signed up to be our final speaker here.

So I'm going to go ahead and close public comment

and applaud all of you for maintaining positivity, decorum,

and being very respectful.

No cheers, no boos, any of that.

So thank you all for being respectful over the time and of each other.

Really, really appreciate it.

Appreciate all of you coming out.

We know that this is important for the city of Elk Grove and to our amazing residents.

Before we open up here for deliberations, do we need a comfort break, maybe five minutes,

to go use the restroom?

Because we want to hear and talk to each other.

So I'm just going to pause here for five minutes, and feel free to go to the restroom, refill

your waters, and we'll come back and start the deliberations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, can my colleagues please return and take your seat so we can begin?

Anyone itching to go first?

If not, I'm going to start.

I will go ahead and start with you.

Councilmember Spies.

Sure.

Okay, so very briefly, I want to start with gratitude.

First, thank you to the Elk Grove taxpayers for approving Measure E.

The vote wasn't just funding.

It was direction.

You told us your priorities, and one was clear, address homelessness.

We heard you.

And we acted.

Over the past two years, we've made real progress.

A temporary shelter, stronger coordination, and dedicated work from our homeless outreach team.

Who's in the back? I see you back there, David.

our homeless outreach team, housing staff, public works, police, city manager's office,

and our community partners and volunteers.

This year alone, we're investing $4.5 million to help people avoid homelessness,

to get back on their feet, and to reduce impacts on our neighborhoods.

This only happens because of your trust.

We listened then and we're listening tonight.

I also want to thank my council colleagues, the mayor and city manager.

When we chose the temporary site, winter was approaching and we had to move fast.

transparency wasn't where we wanted to be

excuse me the transparency wasn't where we wanted to be

this time we made a commitment to do better to slow down to be transparent and to truly listen

So I looked carefully at three things.

First, the staff analysis.

The next is the community input.

And lastly, looking deeper at the safety data.

Now, according to the staff report, all three sites are technically viable.

The community poll ranked survey first.

And again, what ultimately drove my decision was safety.

A recent Sacramento Bee analysis showed that 28% of people killed in traffic crashes were homeless.

28% of people killed in Sacramento in traffic accidents were homeless.

and that most fatal crashes occur on roads posted at 40 miles per hour or higher.

Wider roads mean faster cars and limit, excuse me, and, excuse me, wider roads.

I didn't get enough sleep last night.

Believe it or not, I was thinking about all this.

Wider roads mean faster cars and longer exposure for pedestrians.

Now, that's not abstract.

That's exactly the population we are addressing and the environments we're choosing among.

East Stockton is 40 miles per hour with heavier traffic and limited sidewalks.

Dwight is 35.

Survey is 25 with sidewalks and lower volume.

If we know people will be walking every day, placing them on a high-speed arterial simply adds risks we don't need to accept.

Transportation challenges can be solved.

Safety risks at 40 miles per hour cannot.

not. Survey also has the lowest acquisition cost and the fewest adjacent conflicts. To resolve the

issue of transportation at Survey Road, I suggest that we can add a fleet electric nine passenger

van. So when I weigh safety, cost, and the clear preference of our residents, the responsible

choice becomes straightforward.

Our job tonight is to follow both the data and the direction our community has already

given us.

And for those reasons, I support ranking survey first.

I recognize that we removed Dwight second, but then East Stockton is third in the consideration.

Thank you, sir.

Council Member Robles, you're next.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

And again, I just want to say thank you to staff for the hard work on this.

Thank you for the residents who have been proactive throughout every committee meeting that we've had.

This is something that a lot of the residents in Elk Grove felt that it was a need to allow there to be a permanent homeless shelter.

And they voiced their opinions through the measure and what we're going to be spending.

And, you know, going back to the models of everything that has been occurring for the homeless shelter,

I actually I really don't like that word in a sense because it for me, the way I see it,

it's for folks who we have vetted and we're going to continue to vet and eventually receive help to get better.

Right. It's those folks who want to get better who will be in this shelter.

and what I believe is that it's those folks who want to get better who are also going to be

taking care of this place that they're going to call home. I truly appreciate that HART was out

here today, Elk Grove HART, because they talked about the importance and they put stories behind

people. We're here to make a difference. Again, when I first were talking about questionings,

we were elected to make tough decisions, and sometimes these tough decisions aren't popular,

and that is okay because at the end of the day it's about our whole greater community as a whole

and how are we going to invest a lot of these measure e fundings and how are we going to make

that impact I did talk about the economic study because I do want to make sure that we're

looking at all aspects not just one specific aspect but all aspects of how we approach and

how we pick a location and a place for this and even for our own Elk Grove outreach team thank you

because you are making a difference in our city.

These are stories, interactions that you're having with individuals

who from beginning to the end to a placement of actually living

and sustaining themselves and being in homes

that other folks in this area will not see.

178,000 residents will not see that.

But you've made that impact.

You've made that investment, and we appreciate you.

We can't say thank you enough for that.

so I think when looking at where to select specific on the ranking side again we go back to

we're going to be selecting the ranking side and then we're going to be seeing if we're going to

be able to purchase I'm going to look that way correct right so this is to see if we can actually

engage in conversations to develop it there's been many conversations and I want to thank

Councilman Suwan for bringing up the aspect of what's the transportation are they more on bus

are they more on foot or riding bicycles or do we provide transportation and I think this is going

to be something that the reality is as a city we're going to have to take on because we're not

only going to manage this and see it we're also going to be providing transportation that's the

reality, right? And whether we get a smaller location or a bigger location, the truth is

we're looking at allowing the ability for there to be a shelter for folks so that, one, they can

get better and then eventually become part of our society. Always a tough decision to make. We're

not going to solve homelessness. This isn't something that's going to solve California's

issue, but we are trying to solve our own issue, and it's also taking care of our folks. So when

looking at this we're looking at a compassionate standpoint of view so for

that again I kind of want to hear more where my colleagues want to see and one

wanted to go and see the position but I am going to be in supportive I just want

to see where everyone else can be so you don't have a preference right now you

want to identify yeah all right we'll then go to councilmember Brewer

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight.

This is a very interesting issue, a very healthy debate, healthy discussion, because everyone

has their own perspective, and it should be heard, and it should be seen, and it should

be respected, because we all want to see Elk Grove become an ideal community.

We just have different approaches of getting there, and that's okay.

At the end of the day, we do have an ethical and moral obligation to care for one another.

If you are in disagreement with that, I will be praying for you.

These sites that we have before us, and the beginning of this whole discussion,

because the temporary homeless shelter

on the corner of Waterman and Elk Grove Boulevard

was in District 2, my district.

And as you guys know,

I have the largest district of the four city districts.

I have the Old Town, I have Sheldon,

I have the rural community,

and I have the area over by Survey Road,

and I have the area from Sky River Casino

to Bruceville Road,

sandwiched between Camero Road and White Lock.

And as the southern area of town,

which is that area of sandwiched between White Lock

and Camero Road continues to grow and develop,

is how do we make a healthy community

on both sides of Highway 99?

And in doing so, how does that contribute

to making an healthier community for all of Elk Grove?

listening to tonight's back and forth

I couldn't help but

look at

the phrase that I always

stick to which is a paraphrase of Genesis

4 9

am I my brother's keeper

I've always believed that

as in my family's creed

I stand by it every day

that is how I

judge on social issues

in being responsible, but also being accountable,

not only to myself, but to all of you.

And this is not that hard of a decision for me

because looking at the three things that I've always worked by

and lived by of hard work, faith, humility, accountability,

it's all based in restoring others gently,

love one another, be kind and compassionate.

And it's consistent.

It's unwavering.

Some people will disagree with me.

Some people will think I'm full of it.

But that's who I am.

I'm fully authentic.

What you see is what you get.

And I don't change.

I'm not trying to change.

Because if I do that, I do a disservice to all of you

and I do a disservice to my family.

The dialogue that took place over the last few months

on the facility itself,

or as Council Member Robles,

he doesn't want to call it a shelter,

I'll call it a refuge.

We're giving people a chance to get on their feet

and get back on their feet.

When we were at the temporary shelter over here

feeding our residents a couple of months ago,

I ran into a woman who shook me to my core because she used to work with me in the California State Senate.

She was retired.

She thought her benefits would carry her over and would carry her payments.

Unfortunately, cost of living, the economies of scale, put her in a position where she could no longer live in her current apartment.

And she found herself homeless.

And as she found herself homeless, she is at that shelter.

trying to make sense of what happened so she can get herself back on track.

That is the purpose of that facility, not just to help her,

but to help others that we saw.

I saw young, we saw old.

Yes, we saw some drug addicts,

and we saw some who were trying to get off of drugs.

But that is the charge that we are doing.

That is why it is there to help give people a fighting chance.

That is why we have a hot team that goes out and identifies people.

that's why the staff at the gathering in makes the task of deciding whether those individuals

can live by the rules that are set there if not they have to go and that's just the way it is

one of the things i thought before that shelter was even there and before we even did

the temporary homeless shelter there were individuals going through that very neighborhood

out in Banff Vista that were setting off loud fireworks,

firecrackers in the middle of the night.

They sounded like bombs.

They were doing them in Hampton Village

and in other parts nearest on the other side of the highway

in Madera Ranch in its early infancy.

And that wasn't by a homeless person.

That was by a person who thought that they were being thrill seekers.

when a homeless

when a refuge is placed

in a different location

will those things stop

and

do we blame it on the homeless

are we our brother's keeper

and are we here to restore

and love.

I see

two facilities.

At the end of the day, because myself

and Council Member Spies at the

time, we were very much in agreement.

We were not going to have a

refuge in our district.

Because we are already sharing the burden

with Coral Rose, which used to be

the Oak Rose apartment or Coral Blossom.

That's now the Oak Rose.

And the temporary homeless shelter.

We thought that it should be a shared

responsibility throughout the city.

But in the workshops, we found that there were two locations that stood out amongst the other spots.

And they were in 95624, both of our shared districts.

And it's a reality you have to accept, especially based on the scoring of the dots that took place at the workshops.

You see the results, you accept the results.

and you prepare yourself to serve the community as much as humanly possible.

The White Road was never a consideration for me

because it was too far away and it doesn't give you the access

to transportation that you need for health care,

especially if someone's in dire straits,

especially if you have a family whose kid is sick.

It was never in my filled stream of consciousness.

If it's going to be on 95624, let it be near the highway.

That way we can get them to Kaiser or Sutter or Methodist in as quick a manner as possible.

When it comes down to the two places that we have, you have the one on East Stockton Boulevard.

You have the one on Survey Road.

They're both on Highway 99.

They both have their challenges.

They both have their merits.

But the one that stuck out to me most was the one on East Stockton Boulevard because it was central to everything else.

because by putting it down on survey road was my second option but a very close section second

option but the only impediment to all that is this location transit and getting people

out for kids going to school folks going to work transit going to health care or mental health

services those were obstacles but given how that area is going to grow and going to change

it's for me that that was an easy um second choice my first choice unwavering is east

stockton boulevard because of where it's at now it takes three years to develop

and it'll be done but if we go at survey road i'm not upset about that either but as we should

go to survey road my question will be are we really fulfilling our mission to be compassionate

and loving and restoring each other,

or are we really looking to do something to make ourselves feel better?

That's all I have, Madam Mayor.

Thank you, sir.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

I also want to start by reiterating my thanks to the city staff, again,

for the tremendous work that they did in doing the outreach to our community.

And I want to echo the sentiments of my colleagues for the community

for coming out and being, you know, engaging in this issue also with compassion.

A couple of things on both of those notes.

One, you know, 99% of the comments, anecdotally, of course,

that I received was where a homeless shelter should be,

not whether or not we needed one.

So I think that's, bless you, I think that's a huge testament, again,

to the work that staff had done in our city, our community,

our compassionate community, recognizing that need.

And then along those lines, when we decided to take out one of the sites,

the residents that came here to speak on behalf of that site stood up here

and talked about how they were going to speak for the other residents.

And it just reaffirmed that we are one Elk Grove.

And we talk about that up here all the time,

that all of us, now that we're separated out by districts,

but we still recognize we are all one city.

And tonight you all in the community exemplified that by those comments.

So thank you.

as it pertains to the shelter locations,

my first consideration is a shelter,

is making sure we're able to get folks off the street.

You heard earlier tonight 65% reduction in homeless encampments,

dozens of people getting into housing.

that's means there's not more homeless people each year right so making sure we have something

that that can manage because i unfortunately i think we'll be contending with this issue

you know for for decades i i wish that would not be true i wish i hope i'm wrong

but i i mean from what we know today i think it's going to take a long time so we need a shelter

period um when i and i i wanted to also take the moment to apologize to the business community on

behalf of the city because that was a shortcoming on our part we were focused on the sensitive

areas we were focused on the cost of construction we were focused on the the services for the

residents we're focused on transportation and we you know we we fell we fell short of that on the

business side so we uh we want to acknowledge that um but when i um when i look at the the the

two sites i i think about um you know the community that's already there and and some some people

talked about that that tonight and we saw the data in the resident you know i i think this

Ms. Albright earlier mentioned it too, that the data is obvious on the choice.

And again, that's a reflection of the community that's already there.

And when I was also thinking and as I was looking on the map and why I asked Mr. Jordan about what's planned for the future to remind us all,

is because we're not in a static environment.

I mean, this is, you know, these are permanent locations that we're envisioning, so this will be here when it's built, three, maybe four years from now.

We'll have a different Elk Grove.

Things will be built that wasn't built before.

And so all the progress that we continue to make throughout the city will also happen on the southern edge of the city.

Where there isn't services today, there will be.

where there isn't places to buy food and a convenience store there will be

when that connector goes through we do have bike lanes on there too and i'm

you know it's a connector but we are designing it to be a multimodal facility and the good thing

about having resources getting back to our first item on this agenda tonight the good thing about

having researched the mid-year budget is that we can supplement any site that we have,

any shortcomings that may be there, whether it be transportation, safety, even services

at the site itself, we can augment that facility and make it a premier, if you will, a premier

shelter for those residents.

So with that in mind, I would say survey would be my first choice, followed by obviously

the East Stockton as my second.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Council Member Robles, did you want to weigh in right now or do you want for me to continue?

Are you sure?

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you to my colleagues for your very, very thoughtful comments.

I know that these decisions don't come easy.

I know that this has been weighing on a lot of us.

It's been weighing on me.

It's not often that we have these critical decisions.

Well, I think all of our decisions are important,

but something this critical obviously brings a number of residents to weigh in.

And when residents weigh in, I also believe that it's our civic responsibility to listen.

I've had heartburn on all of the locations.

There are strengths and weaknesses on all of them.

So how do you narrow it from there?

You know, I reached out to a number of stakeholders.

I read all the comments, read all the emails, of course, the staff report thoroughly.

Then I also talked to others whose input I value.

I talked to a number of police officers, firefighters.

I even talked to our tribal chairman, Jesus Tarango, earlier today.

I talked to businesses, residents.

So while this is not directly in my backyard, as the mayor, this impacts our city.

I live less than 20 houses away from a transitional home.

That experiences a number of issues throughout the year,

but it's through that great partnership with the police department

that they are very responsive to the immediate neighbors for the transitional home.

And I live in Stone Lake.

Property values have not gone down.

I can assure you they have not.

I also read some emails that were very disheartening and troubling to me.

It's easy to blame people of color, people that are poor, that are homeless, for a lot of society's woes.

That really saddens me.

Without proof, you know, my mother always told me when I was growing up, never blame someone for anything.

unless you've seen it with your own eyes or it's on a camera.

It's just easy to blame someone, you know, when we begin to other people.

There's so much already in this country that is disheartening, this us versus them mentality.

What I am proud of tonight, all of you stood up and said that you did support having a shelter in the city of Elk Grove.

That in and of itself deserves great praise.

So I want to thank you and I commend all of you for speaking up for those who cannot often speak for themselves.

This is an important decision, and I get that.

In talking to some of the businesses, you know, it wasn't that long ago that I served as a board member for a statewide organization for eight years called Visit California.

We talk about travel and tourism, destination marketing for coming to this great state.

and the impact that hotels can have from even perceived elements.

That is the unfortunate part.

A lot of this is perception-driven.

But that perception becomes reality.

It just takes a few reviews to knock somebody off.

I'm also reminded of the brewing company.

near Survey Road that will suffer because of the same exact thing.

Those weigh on me.

This has not been an easy decision.

I have gone back and forth on the various locations for different reasons.

But my resolve this evening is where the numbers are,

having that informed data-driven decision-making.

those numbers tell a story

if we demand of our staff to get feedback and we get back feedback and we ignore it then shame on us

we ask for that feedback for a reason you become part of that data driven decision making

it is instrumental you are invaluable stakeholders

that story is quite clear.

And that story, if you just look at the numbers from affordability,

for scale, for what the community expects,

how they have weighed what is considered an acceptable location

with the least amount of impact to not just neighborhoods,

but for businesses.

I, too, want to recognize that we should have reached out to the business community.

I proudly always say during my speeches when we have grand openings and other business-related events that Elk Grove is open for business.

I mean that.

And so you are an invaluable stakeholder in the decision-making process.

So wearing that sort of Visit California hat, and as someone who has represented the business community professionally for 25 years,

I know that those concerns are real.

Whether they are based on perception or reality, they still have real-life impact.

The cost of building something like this.

we're talking you're almost separated by five million dollars maybe even more

from site to site but we're really only looking at two sites

i think honestly there's only one

that i feel comfortable voting on today because it's not going under construction tomorrow

while it may not have all of the desired amenities this is not a permanent residence

This is a shelter with the hopes of getting them off the streets.

Most importantly, that 65% reduction in encampments did not happen by mistake.

Having a year-round shelter offered a safe space, a safe space.

That is the goal, providing a safe space that is dignified, that has amenities for families.

What a great opportunity to get help for those in greatest need.

And you've seen the renderings.

These spaces offer that.

So with the cost and the responses from the community,

I only want to consider one location.

We removed one, but honestly, today,

Today, I am only interested in one location, and that is Survey Road.

Thank you.

So now I'd like to turn it over to you, Council Member Robles.

So make the motion to go to Survey Road.

Okay, that was pretty easy.

Your position relative to removal of the stone.

Yes.

So you would amend your motion to remove East Oakland from consideration.

I just want to be clear for the motion.

Are you doing a ranking motion or are you doing a singular motion?

My ranking motion is for Survey Road to be on top.

Does that require clarity?

No, I think it will require clarity.

That's what I'm trying to say.

Okay, so I think what if I'm understanding the motion is to only consider Survey Road.

road is that correct yes okay so we all right we have a motion and a second um any substitute

motions otherwise i will call for the vote substitute motion is that we support survey first

east octon second because you do have to go out and do bids or talk to the owners of those

properties and there's a very good chance that neither one of them will accept there's a good

chance that one of the two may accept but we need to give ourselves the flexibility and the option

so i have to take that motion first per robert's rules of order the substitute motion is there a

second for that substitute motion given the i mean this council member in that district i

I will.

You support keeping.

So the survey one.

Survey one.

East Stockton two.

Yes.

Okay.

So that's the substitute motion.

I support that one.

So can we do a roll call vote for that, please?

So for the roll call vote, and this is for the most recent substitute motion by Councilmember Brewer.

So this is for having the two sites ranked with the survey as one, East Stockton is two.

So for the roll call vote, I will start with Councilmember Robles.

Yes.

Councilmember Spies.

No.

Councilmember Brewer.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Suen.

I'm going to preface my vote with I believe we have time to come back and reevaluate.

So I'm going to say no.

And Mayor Singh Allen.

Oh, goodness.

I'm going to say no.

And here is why.

I really don't want to consider the alternative period.

We'll have to go through this all over again.

If we run into a roadblock, then let that be our problem to deal with.

But to have certainty, I think, is important.

Thank you.

So with that,

So we have our original motion, which was moved by, I believe, Council Member Robles, and a second from you, and a roll call vote for that.

And this is just to have survey as the one site that is selected for that roll call vote.

I will start with Council Member Robles.

Yes.

Council Member Spies.

Yes.

Council Member Brewer.

No.

Vice Mayor Sewin.

Yes.

And Mayor St. Allen.

Yes.

I want to thank the residents.

I honestly expected to be here till midnight.

Truly.

But you were respectful.

You were kind.

You were focused in your comments.

Everybody that participated in this process, I know that this was not easy.

I know that this was not easy.

And I want to thank the neighborhood near the current shelter.

Thank you.

And to the extent between now and the expiration of that contract, please reach out to me.

Please reach out to your PD.

We want to make sure that for the remainder of this journey that we are good partners.

So thank you all.

Madam Mayor, can I one quick?

Yes, please.

I'd like to thank us.

Right.

We always talk about thinking about One Elk Grove, right?

And I know it's not hard to do because it's not easy to always do

because of the way that the elections are set up.

But I know I'm very happy that we can look together as a team

to find the best solution for One Elk Grove.

So I want to thank you.

Yes, thank you for being respectful and being passionate

and speaking from your constituency, your point of view,

that's what makes us strong.

That's what makes us a strong city, a healthy city,

because we have mutual respect for each other.

You don't have meanness up here.

You have respect.

And from time to time, very rarely, but from time to time,

there will be disagreement.

And disagreement is okay because every single person here I know

comes from a great place.

They love this city.

and they love and respect our residents.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

With that, I'm going to move on to the next item, which is very short.

Council comments and future agenda items.

I'll start with Council Member Robles.

Anything to report out?

None to report.

Council Member Spees?

I have nothing to report.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Council Member Brewer?

Sack our team in on Monday where we installed you as our new chair.

Congratulations.

And Supervisor Pat Hume as its Vice Chair.

And Council Member Seward?

Seward District meeting today.

That was it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, SACRT.

I do want to adjourn in the memory of someone.

There was a horrific crime that took place in the city of Rancho Cordova.

However, the business owner operated a business here in our city.

And unfortunately, Lindsay Peralta-Vallega and her two children were murdered.

It is heartbreaking. It is heartbreaking.

And these are the times we must be reminded to live in a compassionate world, a kind world.

And may Lindsay and her two beautiful children, may they rest in peace, and may the family

find comfort in their memory.

Thank you, everyone.