All right, we have reconvened from our closed session.

I have the following disclosure by a 520 vote, the city council authorized and directed the city attorney's office to defend the cases of Ortiz versus the City of Alkgrove and all, and Brown versus Monterey Trail High School and all, as identified by the case number on the city council meeting agenda.

With that, we will adjourn the special meeting at 6.08 p.m.

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

Today is Wednesday, March the 11th, 2026.

The time is 6 08 p.m.

Clerk.

Thank you, Mayor.

This meeting of the Elkrove 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 Direct TV Uverse Cable Systems.

The recording will also be video streamed at Metro 14 Live.

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

and Monday, March 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 3Ws.elgrove.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 when during the meeting or on mute when you are not speaking.

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.

Pursuant to resolution number 221-154, 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 move into the roll call.

And for the roll call, I will start with Councilmember Robles.

Councilmember Spees.

Present.

Council Member Brewer.

Present.

Vice Mayor Sewen.

Here.

And Mayor Singh Allen.

Here.

Thank you.

Next up is our land acknowledgement.

Assisting this evening is our Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

We honor, respect, and acknowledge Elco's first inhabitants, the Plains Miwok, who lived in a saw as sovereign caretakers of this land in these water rays since time immemorial.

We commemorate and advocate for their descendants, the Wilton Rancheria 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.

Thank you.

Next up is our Pledge of Allegiance.

Would Councilmember Brewer please lead us this evening?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which one nation under God and indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

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

Thank you.

All right, next item is approval of the agenda.

May I get a motion?

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Next item.

Under section three, there are no closed session items on the regular agenda, which will advance us to section four, our presentations and announcements.

And that first is item 4.1, which is a proclamation recognizing March as colorectal cancer awareness month.

Thank you.

Assisting will be our vice mayor.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor.

So we have two uh groups tonight we're going to present to.

And uh after I read this, I'd invite you each to come forward to say a few words.

Uh the first group is Mary Beth Cropp and Rodney Green, representing Big Mike's uh bottom line, and then Christina Rollins representing uh on behalf of uh AJ Rollins.

Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men and women combined in the United States.

And though incident rates of colorectal cancer among adults under the age of 50 have increased in recent years, it is one of the most preventable and treatable forms of cancer when detected early through recommended screening, underscoring the importance of early awareness and prevention.

And whereas a sacred excuse me, the American Cancer Society recommends that individuals at average risk begin colorectal cancer screening at age 45, but lack of awareness, access to barriers, and stigma surrounding colorectal health continue to prevent many individuals from receiving timely screening.

And whereas increasing education about colorectal cancer risk factors, symptoms, and screening options can significantly reduce colorectal cancer burden and improve survival outcomes.

And whereas March is nationally recognized as colorectal cancer awareness month to promote education screening and survivorship, support the efforts of healthcare providers, community-based organizations, and public health partners working to raise awareness, promote early detection, and reduce the impact of colorectal cancer.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Elk Grove hereby proclaims March 2026 as colorectal cancer awareness month and encourages residents to learn about colorectal cancer, understand their personal risk, and follow recommended screening guidelines as a call to action to prioritize prevention, early screening, and education in order to save lives.

Thank you so much for being here.

The mayor and the city council for adopting this proclamation.

This is a very important.

You guys are just saved saved a life right now.

Everybody in this room, if you if you just share this with two people, this information about colorectal cancer, colorectal awareness, uh making March the month of blue.

And we're trying to make March as blue as October is pink.

So if we share this information with just two people, everybody in this room, you'll you will uh you will indefinitely save a life of somebody uh you may care about, uh somebody who may be in your family.

Um it's just we just have to do this.

Um I was here, uh I think it was in January talking to you guys about this.

Uh colorectal uh cancer was a number two killer of adults, uh excuse me, people 50 and above, number two killer for men and women 50 and above, and it was number two for 50 or 49 and below.

Uh now it's number one for 49 and below for both men and women.

So it's imperative that we educate our young adults, uh, our young kids.

Uh we were in a meeting on Monday with the state, and uh they passed the proclamation for March for the month of March now will be the month of blue throughout the entire state.

So um it's very important, and it's very important that here and locally that we we take care of our own here locally also.

So thank you guys again for passing this proclamation.

And if I can just say one second, um, for one second, my name is Mary Beth Croft.

My lost my husband to colorectal cancer a few years back, and it is my life quest now.

And um, you have always been the center I was an educator with Bobby Singh, and it is um so important that we take matters into our own hands because the screening age does not begin until 45, and it's a preventable cancer cancer.

And so if it's impacting our younger and younger people, we need to educate.

So within our schools, within our community, with any meeting you want, we are happy to help you with that.

Our organization provides free education to anyone who wants it, any organization who's willing to take the risk.

It's a stigma-based cancer, so people don't want to talk about it, but we're taking our notes from breast cancer, and we are doing everything we can to turn turn March as blue as October is pink.

Everybody recognizes pink.

This cancer doesn't care who you are, it doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter what color you are, it just wants to cause problems.

And it is a horrible disease to live with.

And I also would like to recognize that you have another family too, and it's that's just the close-knit community.

Um, when I was working in Elk Grove Unified, there were four administrators who were battling colorectal cancer at exactly the same time.

Four families touched by it at exactly the same time.

It's impact impacting right now one in every one in 24 people.

So there's more than 24 people in this room.

Um, I do not wish this on my worst enemy.

It is the worst disease because of the complications that come with it.

So we can't speak highly enough of it.

Thank you again.

We feel like we had a trifecta.

We started with the state on Monday, we got the county yesterday, and today we're in El Grove.

So thank you so much.

We appreciate your help.

Thank you both so much for your work in this organization.

We have blue ribbons for you if anybody would like to be happy to have you burn them.

Thank you.

And we'll come down and present this.

You want to call up our other.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

So if I could invite down uh Miss Christina Rollins and her family on behalf of dear friend of mine, uh AJ Rollins, uh sadly, we lost a few years ago.

Thank you, Christina, for being here, aid in being there too.

Alex.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Soon, and thank you to Mayor Singh Allen and to the entire city council for this proclamation in honor of my husband AJ.

AJ was not originally from Mel Grove, but Elk Grove became our home.

It is where we moved, it is where we bought our home, where we raised our family, and where we planned on spending the rest of our lives here.

AJ was only 42 years old when he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

He did not have any of the risk factors that are usually associated with this disease, like a family history, obesity, lack of exercise, or smoking.

In fact, he was a former athlete and was in top physical shape and very active.

The only symptom he had was blood in his stool, which the doctors diagnosed as hemorrhoids initially because of his age and because of his lifestyle.

AJ pushed to get a colonoscopy and found out that he had this cancer.

He fought cancer for the next seven years with bravery, strength, and resilience, always keeping a positive attitude.

On May 12th, 2023, AJ passed away from colorectal cancer.

AJ was a father.

He was a leader.

He coached many teams here in Elk Grove through CSD, Elk Grove Baseball, Grove Soccer, and he showed up for everyone.

Colorectal cancer took him from us, but it did not take away his impact.

The more awareness that we bring to this cancer, the less people that will have to die from it.

I encourage everyone to get your screenings done and always listen to your body.

So we know sometimes doctors make mistakes because they're human.

And the earlier you find this cancer, the earlier the the greater the outcome.

Don't wait for symptoms, don't wait for certainty, and don't wait for fear.

I encourage everyone to advocate early, advocate loudly, and advocate for yourself always.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

We're gonna come down.

Yeah, my head.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

That's what we're on the case.

We'll come in here.

So we'll come over here and then we're gonna face this way.

Can you do a group picture together or separate pictures?

Um yeah, let's just choose two groups.

Okay, why don't you guys get them all first in?

Okay, you want to ditch that paper.

Oh, yeah.

Thank you for those reminders.

Health should not be taken lightly, and you know, I think all of us can take get some checkups, myself included.

Thank you.

Thank you all for being here.

Okay, um, with that, we will now go on to our next proclamation recognizing March as young storytellers month.

Assisting with that will be Councilmember Roblis.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, if we have 916 Inc.

Yeah, Jocelyn Landon here.

Good evening.

I'm actually um my name is Jennifer Baker.

Okay.

I have the wonderful pleasure and honor of being uh vice chair of the 916 Inc.

Board, and we want to thank you so much for recognizing this month as Young Storytellers Month.

Uh we're absolutely enthused to be here.

916 Inc.

has served over 7,000 students.

Two over 250 of those students are from Elk Grove.

We have had over 325 anthologies.

So books that literally students in our community are publishing and writing, and over 10 of those have been from Elk Grove, and two additional ones are comic books that have been created by students in Elk Grove.

We have served seven different schools in the Elk Grove community and serve the greater Sacramento region and can tell you just unabashedly.

We're so proud that because of the work that we do and because of promoting stories, reading and writing, which can be fun.

I know it sounds crazy, especially these days with technology.

It's amazing to see how much students change the way they think about reading when they actually see their own words printed on paper.

It improves academic engagement, it improves academic performance, it improves social emotional development.

And overall, it's just fun.

And so on behalf of 916 Inc.

and the many hundreds of students and thousands of students that we serve in the region, we'd like to say thank you for recognizing the importance of stories and storytelling.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I'm actually going to be reading an approximation, but uh I just want to say thank you because you know, as someone who growing up struggled to read, I actually never like to read.

And now I there's like three books that I'm reading in one month, and I'm going back and forth, whether it's a biography or history or leadership development.

Um, definitely understand how it took a long time for me to actually want to read.

So I wanted to say thank you for everything you're doing for our community.

Um, it's amazing to see that our young folks are still reading books despite technology and despite AI, despite AI and everything else that's coming out.

Um, but we do have a proclamation that we're gonna read for the Young Storytellers Month.

Whereas the City of Elk Grove recognizes through through the power of that written words and young people that can discover their voices through storytelling, building the confidence and skills that expresses themselves while affirming that their word and experience matters.

Whereas during Young Storytellers Month, our entire community has the opportunity to serve as an amplified for creative youth voices at the time when encouragement, connection, and expression, especially meaningful.

The uh students should be heard and respected regardless of their circumstances, identities, and backgrounds, and provide meaningful opportunities to share their stories in collaborative spaces and support them in reaching their goals.

Whereas education should be fun, engaging, authentic, and rooted in kindness to help create minds grown and sparked imaginations in ways that foster lifelong learning and communication skills.

Whereas 916 Inc.

has published 350 anthologies featuring the poetry and the prose of more than 7,000 youths, authors across Sacramento region, and supported hundreds of students through its read-on program that Met Literacy Milestone and expanded their communication skills.

Now, therefore, let it be resolved that the City Council of the City of Elk Grove hereby proclaims this month, the month of March 2026 as a young storytellers month and encourages all residents to celebrate and support young still storytellers and confident readers in our community by helping amplifying their voices and recognizing their power.

Signed the 11th day of March 2026.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your story.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

How are you?

Okay, right here.

Yeah, please join us and then we'll all get real comfortable here close to each other.

Oh exactly.

Very young.

Where are you, Kevin?

We got you.

Okay, good to see them.

Okay, see me.

I can see them.

Okay, please.

Okay.

Okay, we're gonna look at this camera first.

Okay.

Okay.

There was a method to our madness first, and then we get you in there.

First, and then we get you in there.

Okay.

One, two, three.

One more time.

One, two, three.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I love you.

Thank you.

All right.

Next up is our public comment.

I will go ahead and open up public comment opportunity.

And let's see, we have a few of you signed up.

So for those of you that are new to these council meetings, please note that you have three minutes for public comment.

We will start with Jennifer Colton, followed by Matt B.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Imagine you are holding your 16-year-old child's phone and it suddenly starts going off.

Beep, beep, beep, message after message.

When you finally unlock the phone, you discover extremely graphic sexual messages being sent to your child from what appears to be an adult man.

As you keep scrolling, you realize there are not just a few messages, there are thousands.

Messages sent at all hours of the day, all hours of the night, messages soliciting explicit photos from your child and sending graphic sexual content.

Soon after your child begins running away and comes home with a new phone, new clothes, new jewelry, and all you can think about is the hundred hours of human trafficking training you've sat through.

That first phone was turned into Elk Grove Police Department on December 15th.

On January 30th, my child was reported missing again.

On February 2nd, when my child returned to school, I came here and sat in the Elk Grove Police Department in person asking for help and guidance.

I was told no one was available here to speak to me.

And I needed to call the detective lines and to leave a message, but let them know I was here in the front hall lobby and somebody would come on out.

After sitting here for nearly two hours, I emailed the professional standards email on the Elk Grove Police Department's website.

After three hours, I actually walked across the street to City Hall, where the lovely receptionists helped me contact somebody at Elk Grove PD.

At that point, Detective Musa briefly was came over and discussed a plan for next steps.

By the time I reached the school, that plan had changed, and detectives were going to meet me at my house.

No one ever came, and I never received a follow-up.

Since then, I have repeatedly attempted to reach someone.

February 5th, messages were left on the detective line.

February 23rd, I left another message, this time advising I had discovered a second phone containing additional evidence.

February 24th, messages left again on the detective's line and on Sergeant Abadrabo's direct voicemail.

March 2nd, another email to professional standards asking for help and advising.

Whatever occurred on that second phone was serious enough that my child attempted to take his own life and spent eight days in a behavioral health facility.

I understand this is not television.

I understand investigations take time.

I I understand.

Olivia Benson is not walking through the door to solve this overnight.

But I do not believe it is too much chas for basic communication with a parent who is trying to turn over evidence in a case involving sexual exploitation of a minor.

And I will honestly say this.

Tonight, I'm simply asking for help ensuring this case receives some attention, and that the evidence I've been trying to turn over for weeks is properly investigated.

That's it.

It's all I need.

Jennifer.

Please stay in touch with me directly.

Um this is the first time hearing about this, so please stay in touch so that I can make sure that you have what you need.

Um Matt B, followed by Clara Peterson.

Hello.

I attended a meeting last night with members of city staff in Elk Grove PD to discuss community concerns regarding city response to future ICE raids in our community.

Had the chance to ask two questions, but due to time constraints of the meeting, I still have several remaining.

Others I spoke to after the meeting also have additional questions.

Public notice for this meeting was not provided by the city, and the meeting was not live streamed or recorded for replay.

So most Elk Grove residents did not have notice of the meeting.

This was a good first step for the city to start a conversation with residents, but it can't be the final step.

I'm asking the city to hold a series of official public meetings on this issue.

These meetings should be noticed on the city's email lists and on social media, should be live streamed and recorded for replay and should again have a question and answer format.

Additionally, I'm asking the city council and mayor to enact policies to protect residents from illegal ICE actions.

Policy examples from Sacramento, Chicago, and New York were detailed in a letter to the city on February 13th, 2026, and include one a resolution prohibiting ICE on city property, two, developing a community safety action plan in preparation for mass raids and militarized enforcement, and three, having local police present during civil immigration enforcement to verify and record the name and badge number of the on-seen federal supervisory officer, document allegations of any unlawful conduct by federal agents, and preserve evidence in the case of alleged unlawful conduct.

If this is already part of standard Elk Grove PD procedure for immigration enforcement, then the specific information from the police code should be added to the FAQ section of the city's website, resources and information for immigrants.

Finally, I'm asking the city council and mayor to terminate the automatic license plate reader contract with flock safety.

According to Calamatters.org, Orange County and Riverside County have repeatedly and illegally shared automated license plate reader data with federal agencies, which could include ICE.

These two counties are listed on the City of Elk Grove's website as counties that have access to the flock safety data that is collected in Elk Grove.

Because of this, even if with regular audits, even if the Elk Grove PD is deleting the data every 30 days, Elk Grove PD cannot guarantee local data is not being shared with ICE for immigration enforcement.

Flock safety is not safe for our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Clara Peterson, followed by Pepper Lewis.

Hello.

Good evening.

I'm old old school.

My name is Clara Patterson.

Cervantes, Patterson.

Um, Madam Mayor, Council members, uh, Darren Suan, Vice Mayor, my representative.

Um, good evening.

Um, my I want to speak tonight um regarding uh the meeting that I attended last night with many people here, and I do have some concerns.

I just want to make this short and sweet.

Um first of all, I'm a concern for I oh also am the daughter of immigrants from the beautiful Salinas Valley.

Um my concerns are for my neighbors and for my community because of what's happened with ICE and CBP, and they're not very nice about it.

Um so I come before you to make a statement against ICE in our community.

It's bound to happen.

We know it's gonna happen.

Um, and I learned a lot of things last night at the meeting.

But I just want to ask you all a question.

You don't have to answer tonight.

I just want you to keep this in mind.

Um, I did a little research, and the anti-commandeering doctrine doctrine in the Supreme Court's decision since 1992 holds that the federal government may enforce federal law on its own, but may not require states to use their personal resources or property, as the chief told us last night, um, uh, or property to carry out their federal priorities.

So, being that Chief Davis said this said this last night that he would not cooperate by sharing information to ICE's staff uh and information, I'm inclined to believe him and hope that he and the Elk Grove police department are committed to this.

I leave you all with these two questions.

Is it illegal to record video or videotape from afar any unjust actions that are taken by ICE officers?

And I want to know if you are witnessing something like this in Elk Grove, who will be the next Renee Good, who will be the next Alex Predi in Elk Grove.

Who will be the next Renee Good?

Who will be the next Alex Predi in Elk Grove?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Pepper Lewis, followed by Kathy Lee.

Thank you.

I am oh everybody.

Thank you, everyone.

This is my first time attending an Elk Grove City Council meeting.

I am also known as Dr.

Pepper's karaoke band on YouTube.

Yes, on um my birthday, February 15th.

You can guess my age.

Okay.

Okay, good.

Good guess.

I celebrated my 69th birthday.

During the during the um 2026 lunar Asian TET slash Marty Gras parade.

I have been a substitute teacher for uh for the Elk Rose School District for seven years.

All together I've um substituted for 18 years.

I am also an actor, a writer, a um singer, performer, entertainer.

And on February 15th, during the parade where I was authorized to I um I also stutter, so uh so give me like an extra two minutes, please.

Okay.

I am a um performer in this group called um Bunny's Sack Town Barbie crew, and so we dressed up like Barbie's friends, and so I am one of Barbie's older friends, okay.

And um, so I had permission to drive my Tesla and um and follow the two Tesla cyber trucks.

So has um did um did anyone here attend the other parade at the um at the Elk Grove Regional Park February 15th, and you were there, you were there, and did you see me?

You don't remember seeing me?

Okay, okay, then that's okay.

Anyway, yeah, so I was assaulted, my um my hand slapped, um hit by Susan Roman.

She's the um the the uh the Marty Grasultan that um that the Vietnamese organization hired because this is like the first year they've combined um the other Chinese Asian lunar year with Marty Gras, and they both I get like um I'll give you two more minutes.

Thank you.

Um I am here because I would like to know how to have her arrested for assault, and I do have a um an incident number, and I went to uh to Kaiser the next day and also filed a um police report with the with the Elk Road PD.

What I need is additional proof of the attack because I um I um I film everything and so I um I was holding my camera I can have you connect with one of our police officers to help you.

Okay, good.

Um we'll be the best.

We can't provide you that from the dais.

This is not an agenda item, but I will definitely have you talk to one of our officers to assist you.

And thank you so much.

Stevie Wonder wrote the other happy birthday song.

I um I was friends with him when I lived in Hollywood.

So thank you.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Um next up is Kathy Lee, followed by Carolyn Soras.

Good evening, everybody.

Um I also attended the meeting um last night regarding ice.

Sergio was there and and Jackie was there, and uh chief.

And it was a very informative meeting, and I'm and I'm glad that we had it.

I think we need more.

Uh I think um there has to be better communication with the city and the and the people because not very many people knew about it.

Talked to a bunch of people in our neighborhood, no one knew about it.

So I think as we live in this day and age, I think we need to be prepared for when ice shows up, and I think our neighbors need to know what they can and cannot do.

So that was the first thing.

The meeting was was pretty good.

Um, but I was sort of sad at the end of the meeting to find out that our fabulous Elk Grove Pilates department with these very high-paid officers and a whole lot of them, um, really are not gonna help the citizens when ice comes calling.

The chief said many, many, many times last night that he cannot intervene on a citizen's behalf if it's a if the intervention is with a federal official.

And I just think that's wrong.

I don't know if there's something we can do about it.

Um he cited some SB 94 or 448, whatever the number was, which says his officers cannot override a federal agent or agency in the pursuit of their job.

And maybe we need to look at that as a city because you know, when we call the cops and and we're getting assaulted or pepper sprayed, Elkro PD can't help us.

They cannot help any of us.

And I think we all think they they can help us.

I think we call them because we think they can do something.

And it comes to find out, uh, you know, Chief says we'll take down their name and badge numbers for you and and the date and the time and hand you a piece of paper.

Well, it doesn't help if you know you're in the back of a squad car or your neighbor's in the back of a squad car, and your neighbor's a citizen, has a passport.

You know, they can't even intervene to say, hey, eight, hey ice, why don't you check it out?

They're legal, you know.

They can't even do that.

And it just doesn't seem right.

It seems like we should, as a city, maybe, you know, send someone to the Capitol, look at this SB, whatever number it was, I can't remember now.

Fifth 48, 58, something.

But anyways, I I was a little sad that I expect the cops to do something when I call them.

And in this instance, because of federal oversight, they can't do a damn thing for us.

And I just think that's sad.

So and I think we need more meetings.

I think the citizens need to know their rights, what they can and cannot expect from you know our our city.

So, anyways, thank you.

And thank you for the meeting.

Thank you, Sir Joe.

Thank you.

Next up is Carolyn Soras, followed by Edward Gronich.

Gronik.

Ronich.

Good evening.

Last time I was here I was telling you about our property got flooded from the development next door to us.

Um I know most a lot a lot of you were at the site before it was approved.

Um not only been flooded once, but now twice.

We're still running fans to dry out the five and a half inches of water that we got under our house for the second time.

Um what I'm concerned about is when we were first talking about getting the approval for this project.

Um I mentioned that the drainage, the 200-plus page drainage study plan that they had was based on soil that did not exist on that property.

And at the time it's like, okay, well, they'll have to do a soil study before um, you know, the actual plan is finished.

I finally did see that soil study, which basically says there's no clay over there.

There is clay over there.

Um I think that needs to be looked at again.

Um there are two lakes on the property, actually, just one right now.

Um and those lakes have been there for weeks, maybe a month.

I can't remember when the last rain was.

It's a very, very deep lake.

If it was sandy soil that the drainage study that the development is based on, if it was sandy soil, I'm not a geologist, but I kind of am a Google person, gigologist.

Those lakes have been there a long time.

They're now pumping the lakes out.

Fortunately, this time they're pumping it away from our house instead of towards our house, but still the water.

I just took pictures of it an hour ago.

And the water is flowing away from their lake, down towards the corner of the lot, and then coming up towards our house again.

It's flying flowing upstream versus downstream the way it's supposed to.

When the city staff was over there, um, we've had a number of visits over there.

They're talking about, oh, well, when they the land dries out there, the developer says that they will crack the ditch so that it won't flow towards our house again.

Um that hasn't happened, and now the ditch is wet again.

My main concern is though, with the drainage being based on sandy soil, that three years from now or five years from now when the houses are built and their their own houses are getting flooded, that it won't be me coming up there, but the new homeowners saying, hey, what what happened?

Where this drainage plan is not working.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carolyn.

If um, I personally would like to get an update on this outside of tonight because this is Mrs.

Soares has come here a few times.

And I would like to certainly get an update on what's happening out there.

Yeah, we'll get you the update.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

There's been a lot of people coming, but no one with shovels.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Um, Edward, you're next.

And our last speaker is Randy Becker.

It's a pleasure to be here.

I'm I have the highest admiration for our mayor, same um uh Mayor Sing Allen and for Seth Hieroblis, my council member in the District 4.

Uh you have been so present when our organization, Indivisible, and Sam have put on the two protests that we've had at the corner of Laguna and Bruceville.

I'm hoping you're going to attend the next one, which is on the 28th Saturday.

I hope that's the 28th.

And uh we we would love to have you there.

You've been there for the first two of our protests, and I'd like to invite everybody in this audience to be at the protest.

We started with 1,250, the first one.

We were at 2500, the second one.

We're hoping to double that for the 28th.

And we're hoping and we wish for all of the council members and our chief to be there to celebrate with us this protest day.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Randy Becker.

Mayor, vice mayor, counsel.

I'm gonna be that voice in the room.

Our population of 180,000 plus must be protected.

But that means everyone, not just a few, but everyone.

But there must be a balance struck.

What that means is is I appreciate the city's position currently as we face different forms of law enforcement in our country.

But we've got to be careful moving forward and then not be done in a knee-jerk reaction.

The license plate readers must stay until we find that the legal part of it no longer works for everyone.

We can't stop something because of something that may or may not happen.

We all have choices.

We've all landed in the same spot tonight, but we all have choices.

And a lot of things happen in this world because of poor choices.

Our law enforcement is there to protect and serve.

But their job is not to intervene in federal jurisdictions.

They're just not.

And to think otherwise is I hate to use the word is foolish.

It just is.

I have nothing against the folks that have a difference of opinion.

They have every right to do whatever they want legally.

And through a good thought process.

But please think through think it through because yes, people have been injured.

People have been arrested.

People have been warned, and yes, people have died.

And a lot of that is because it starts with poor choices.

Poor choices on a lot of people.

And if you think that it's not, have a conversation with the local police department one-on-one and give them the same scenario that they would face on a daily basis and put them in that position and find out exactly what the law states under state California law.

We had one locally a few years ago through the BLM protests.

A lot of people didn't like the outcome.

But the law must be abided by.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Randy Becker is our final speaker.

Before we go on to our next item, because a few of you were at the meeting last night, and perhaps others were not, I think it's a good idea to have our assistant city manager provide just a little bit of an update.

But just know that this is going to be the first of many conversations.

And the reason that I think one person asked specifically why didn't others know about it.

The meeting last night came about from the last city council meeting where one person came and spoke, and Ms.

Guzman met with them in the hallway.

Maybe with others, I believe as well, but one person spoke.

And so that meeting came about from that person.

It wasn't meant to be a formal meeting.

It was really to address some of the concerns that were raised.

And I understand fully that there are wider community members that want to hear more.

But that meeting last night stemmed from the prior um request from that specific person and group.

And so those noticing requirements, it was not a city council meeting.

And definitely we are hearing that we want to continue the conversation.

So we are we are listening.

And Ms.

Guzman, would you please provide an update?

Yes, Mayor, members of the city council, Jackie Guzman, assistant city manager.

To the mayor's point, um, the meeting was offered to those members of the community that specifically reached out to council, and they were invited to this particular meeting.

It was a handful of folks.

And hearing what we heard last night and tonight, we are going to be doing additional meetings to make sure that other folks that are interested in this topic are able to ask questions and we're able to listen to their concerns.

The meeting was well attended.

We had about 45 members of the community attend the meeting.

And the meeting, the goal of the meeting was really was to listen and answer specific questions from the community.

And so I just want to highlight a few key points that we discussed.

So under the California Values Act and applicable federal law, um, the outgrove police department is prohibited from assisting with or interfering with federal immigration enforcement or investigations.

So I know that that's disappointing for many community members to hear, but our police department cannot impede uh federal um immigration investigations or arrests.

It's it's unlawful, and we are not gonna have our uh police department break the law.

Um however uh the the police chief um reiterated yesterday again and again if we receive a 911 call um that uh you know there are instances where um where there's allegations that somebody is violating state law or public safety is um in jeopardy the police will respond they will address any issues where um there are physical threats to our community and they will they will act and um they will investigate and they will address the issue that it unequivocally that's that was the message from um our police chief and it regardless of who is involved um and then we did we did talk about um the use of automated license plate readers um it is used strictly for criminal investigations and only authorized police personnel in California can access that data and they can only access it when it relates to a specific criminal investigation or official department matter so those agencies can't just randomly um access the data they have to have cause um and then um our police department regularly audits the system to ensure it's used properly and in accordance to the law so we are we are prohibited from sharing this data with the federal government and it is not used for immigration enforcement um and we also discussed that the city is partnering with the Sacramento Fuel Network um this is a nonprofit that supports immigrants and refugees and they are offering training opportunities to concerned residents and we will um be putting together some offerings for our community and those registration details um are going to be released soon um we did talk about several resources um and we um before this meeting we sent out a follow-up email to those that attended and shared their contact information with several resources including our city website which has um you know information um relevant to this issue including um our role and um and FAQs based on questions that we will we received and we're likely to update those based on the questions we received yesterday um we the police department cited their policy and their protocols that they use when they receive these calls and we're gonna be putting some information up on our website um there's um information on our drone program our um automated license plate readers um on our website and then we have information we shared information about the Sacramento Fuel network and how um you know the city uh provided 25,000 in grant funding to support for a SAC fuel to support the outgrow community um they provide allied trainings know your rights uh workshops and free legal service consultations for individuals who may be detained locally so um members of the public are welcome to report ice activity um in outgrove request a legal observer from um the network or seek legal support um for a detained person by calling the rapid response hotline for SAC fuel and so all of that information um was sent out um we've also um partnered with um the outgrove unified school district who is also developing their own protocols if um there is um immigration um enforcement activity at their sites and so we'll continue to um plan for additional meetings and um offer some trainings through um our partnership with and then the key point there is that those meetings because now it's for a wider conversation those will be made available to the public yes as opposed to last night which stemmed from um one of our public comments right instead of private invitations these meetings will be public meetings um that will be advertised excellent thank you for that update mayor council my robust want to say again um thank you to the 45 residents that were there and it to police chief bobby davis and uh miss jackie guzman thank you for that um because I think it's just some conversation that we need to have in our community many folks think we're not having it we are having it uh and I really do want to see more than 45 folks attending these meetings again this was the first of many that we will be having education is something that's gonna set us free right education provides those guidelines and procedures as to what we do in our community not only this but you will be the people who will lead us forward in this path.

I understand that frustration.

I understand that anger, and it's a very real thing.

And I was happy to see that it wasn't just Latinos there yesterday.

It was a mixture of very diverse that ref represents and reflects out growth.

There was uh Indians, Americans, they were Asian Americans, and there was a different we were all Americans right there, right?

So I'm happy to see that.

And um thank you to the staff for being supportive on this.

This is something that we need to engage.

We need to have the procedures and ready to go.

And uh I look forward to having and participating in the know your rights campaign and participating on how do we be observers for our community and our partners.

Um, and thank you again to our police chief for leading uh a force that is caution and making sure that residents within our boundaries will be sought after.

We will observe and check and make sure, as you said, that none of their destruction none of their properties being destructed or nobody's being um uh hurt or assaulted uh if this does happen.

So I truly appreciate that.

Um just in the time that it's everything that you see from social media and everything, it's right there, and it's available to us.

But here in El Grove, at least I'll speak for me.

And as I said yesterday, I'll speak for myself.

I'm someone who's gonna be very present and making sure that we are representing all constituents on this matter.

And thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Robloys.

Thank you, staff, everybody that was um thank you.

It was important and an important conversation.

We're gonna continue having the conversation.

I think as an immigrant, um the Indian American community, the city community has been hit pretty hard on this issue as well, and particularly our truck drivers throughout the United States.

So, this is something very important, and I appreciate and so admire that how many people are interested in in this.

Now we say that you know we are a city, welcome to all, and we are a compassionate city, and it is reinforced in those that speak up on this issue.

We want to thank you and continue to invite you to additional conversations and um being a part of the solution.

Thank you again, everyone.

With that, we will move on to our next item, and that is our city manager's report.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Vice Bear, members of City Council, Jason Burham, your city manager.

A few additional items to report on uh this evening.

First of all, happy to report that uh Elkgrove's Congresswoman Matt Suey has secured two FY26 grant awards for the city through the annual appropriation process, um, an 850,000 dollar award for the Laguna Creek Trail Project to close key pedestrian trail gaps and build new overcrossing at State Route 99, and 581,000 for the real-time information center enhancements project to upgrade critical technology and equipment.

And we thank the Congresswoman for her continued advocacy and support for our local infrastructure projects.

Applications for this year's Civic Summer Program are not open.

Civic Summer is a five-week program for incoming juniors and seniors hosted in partnership with the Elk Grove Unified School District.

We've done this for several years.

This competition selection program offers a deep dive into public service and hands-on job experience while offering academic credit and new this year, approved by the city council 500 scholarship stipend for all um participating students who complete the program.

Applications close on Wednesday, March 25th.

Details are available on the EGUSD website.

Uh City and SAC Regional Transit are exploring options for high frequency transit service that could improve connections between Elk Grove and the rest of the region.

A draft plan is now available online for public review and comments through March 27th.

Details are on the city's website.

Um happy to announce also that the puzzles, the Dowdal Outgrove puzzles that uh were um made available late last year and sold out very quickly.

We sold out a thousand puzzles very fast, and we've been waiting for the additional shipment.

We have 5,000 more puzzles that just arrived last week.

So we're gonna be selling those.

Um there's gonna be some special sales events and activities are gonna be held at City Hall, and as well as local celebrations throughout the remainder of the year.

Residents will have their first opportunity since December to pick to pick those up.

The first opportunity will be uh next week at St.

Patrick's Day, Tuesday, March 17th, where they can purchase a puzzle at City Hall for $25.

Limited edition Elgrove anniversary t-shirt with every purchase while supplies last.

Sales on Tuesday will run from 9 to 5 at City Hall across the street at 8401, and then puzzles will also be available through the cashier's office on weekdays during normal business hours while supplies less.

And we're working on additional locations where people can pick up those puzzles as well.

And just a quick reminder that I mentioned a couple weeks ago, but there's a drive-through vaccine clinic coming up on March 14th, and also the Veterans Career Resource Fair that is uh coming up at District 56 on March 13th from 10 to 2.

And that concludes my report.

Happy to answer any questions the council might have.

Thank you.

Thank you for your great report.

Any questions?

Looking at the left comment.

Seeing none, thank you.

We'll move on to our next item.

Next item is our consent calendar item.

And at this time I will go ahead and open up public comment.

We'll start with Peter Abeda for item 7.9, followed by Matt B for 7.6.

Hello.

Hi.

This is my first council meeting.

It's uh really exciting to be here.

I love seeing all the community coming together, all the different topics, all the diversity.

Um just briefly, my mother-in-law passed from colon cancer three years ago.

So seeing uh El Grove recognize March for Color Rector Council is uh it's it's pretty fantastic.

Um it is pervasive and it is everywhere.

So thank you for that.

Um my name is Peter Abeda.

I'm with Caliber Collision.

Um I've been in the collision repair world my entire adult life, most of my teenage life.

I've worked everything from pushing brooms and washing cars to painting vehicles and managing multiple shops all over California.

And um, we put a bid in for the next three year contract for uh repairing the city of Elk Grove's fleet, uh collision repair fleet.

So um I just wanted to take a moment just to say how excited we are for the opportunity.

Um I've lived in Elk Grove for the last 11 years, called Elk Grove My Home.

I'm a member of Good Standing Caliber is with the Elkrove Chamber of Commerce.

Me, myself personally, I am a member of the Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors Group.

Um, love the city, love everything it stands for.

Um I want to be able to give back uh to the community.

And um the way I know to do that is through fixing cars.

That's what I do.

So we our purpose with that caliber is uh restoring the rhythm of your life, whether that's the customer whose car we have in the shop, our employees who were helping build families and developing young people into uh full-fledged technicians and product development and managing not just the technician side but also the office side.

Um I'm part of the general manager training program within our company, and I've trained up multiple people.

I think four people now that started out as estimators are now running their own shops and building families for themselves.

Some of them here in Elk Grove, some of them um relocated to other side of the country.

And um, it's what I love to do, and um that's the way I again now I know how to give back.

So we like to would like to restore the rhythm of the Elk Grove City's fleet's life so that you can restore the rhythm of our constituents' lives.

So thank you.

Thank you, and thank you for being here.

Next up is Matt B, item 7.6, followed by Rico G, item 7.6.

Hello again, Mayor, Council.

I'm raising these up this time.

Okay, item 7.6.

I urge the council to continue item 7.6 and to consider the item fully, not on consent.

It should not be considered on consent because state law requires city councils to review the AB 481 ordinance it made and to make several determinations as outlined by state law, including cost effectiveness, how policy may or may not protect public welfare and safety, civil rights and liberties.

Being on consent makes it impossible for the city council to fulfill these obligations during this meeting.

Further, the city should continue this item because Elk Grove PD has not held the community meeting required by state law and should have the opportunity to comply with state law before city council hears the matter.

Section 7072B of AB 481 reads the community meeting must be well publicized and conveniently located at which the general public may discuss and ask questions regarding the annual military equipment report and the law enforcement agency's funding, acquisition, or use of military equipment.

A recent ACLU memo notes that a city council meeting cannot act as a community engagement meeting to comply with AB 481.

So please pull this item from consent and continue the item until Elk Grove PD has had the opportunity to comply with state law.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, uh Rico G, followed by REC.

Good afternoon, Council members.

This is also my first time here at a city council meeting.

So it's been a great experience to see how everything is done behind the scenes.

Um my name is Rico.

I live in Elk Grove in district in District 3, and I'm here to speak on number on item number 7.6.

Moving from the Bay Area three years ago, I've had the privilege of calling Elk Grove my home while working and being blessed by the many amazing things this community has to offer.

As mentioned previously by my cohort Matt B, it is within the law that a community meeting be held by El Grove Police Department regarding the purchasing and use of new military equipment and drones, and that the department itself allows its community members time to express questions and concerns regarding the acquisition of such equipment.

The community has questions like how much will the armored vehicle they listed as an intended upcoming purchase cost the same or more as the last one, which was listed at 284,000, or the 18 incidents in which it was used for, which leads us to ask what is going on here.

Is there something within uh preventative nature we can be doing to reduce factors that contribute to an escalation, such as a deployment of military equipment or something that endangers the lives of police officers and residents?

Elk Grove Police Department is also using drones a lot.

They have a page on drones from which they link to drone logs, standard flights and drones as first responder flights that show the date and time and location and general qualifier for these flights.

That in itself is pretty transparent.

However, we do not see on the drone page a policy for retention of the footage, which is also an important question that community members have.

With this in mind, I urge City Council to pull this item from the agenda and allow Elk Grove Police Department to come into compliance with AB 481 and engage in a community meeting, giving us the opportunity to have these and many more questions answered.

This is a great opportunity to foster trust with city officials and residents at large during a time where there's a lot of mistrust and division in our society.

Transparency and dialogue is what will keep us together as a community.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our final speaker is REC.

Hi, good afternoon.

My name is Ari C.

Um, and that was my partner who just spoke.

Um, and I'm a mental health provider, and I've been in a mental health provider for over a decade, and I've been serving the residents of Out Grove here for the last three or four years.

And I'm also here to uh request that the council um continue this item for two more weeks.

Um so I was really glad that Matt B highlighted some of the issues.

Um a recent ACLU memo affirms that there's not an opportunity at City Hall during Brown acted meetings for us to have the complete conversation in which the law was intended for.

Um, and so in large part um it's very clear that AB 481 intends community meetings to be separate from the governing body consideration of annual ordinance requirement and renewal.

So because the community requirement is a separate part of the statute of the requirement to approve the military equipment during a Brown Act and meeting, we know that this cannot count as the Outgrove PD community meeting.

Um so the law also requires that the law enforcement agency responsible for the equipment be the one to hold the meeting.

And I think that that's a really important piece because they're the ones using the equipment in the community.

Um and like folks have just shared, there's a lot of questions about the uh equipment.

And also um, we want to be able to have comment by the public and also elected officials.

Um, and so there's not a lot that's able to happen here, and it's not an exchange.

And the big picture here is that it's a dialogue that is not just about military equipment and weaponry, right?

It's also an opportunity for public officials like yourselves to learn about what are some of the priorities that we have upcoming before the budget.

So sometimes like we're locked into this process where the authorization to purchase equipment comes before a discussion about the budget.

Um, so in some places like Sacramento County, um, they moved to approve last year to approve their ordinance, but waited on approving any new authorization of purchases until after the budget was settled.

I mean, traditionally, Elk Grove does have a pretty balanced budget, um, so it's not a huge concern here, but I think that that's a really important thing that the whole point is the community itself gets to set the precedent here.

And so right now we still have that opportunity.

Last year, the AB 481 renewal ordinance happened at the March 26th meeting, and there's one other meeting on March 25th.

So there's still time to put this over for two weeks and give them an opportunity to hold the meeting without the renewal expiring.

Um, and so you know, not having the meeting makes Outgrove PD in this respect an outlier.

Most other law enforcement agencies have a community engagement meeting, for example, Sacramento County Sheriff Office.

Um, and so again, a reminder, a gentle reminder that community input is not a demand or a request or even a favor.

It's a lawful and just right extended to the community members by the state of California under AB 481, which obligates our participation in places we live and work to inform the governing bodies responsible for the military equipment and decisions around military grade weapons in our community.

So I really hope that you consider this opportunity to have a larger conversation about some of the things.

Consent items are generally non-controversial.

And I think it's clear that this item is not necessarily non-controversial anymore.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

And at this time, I will close the public comment opportunity and ask for our city attorney to provide just some clarifying comments if you can.

Thank you, Mayor.

Members of the council.

I respect the speaker's opinions, and I've reviewed the ACLUMM of respect their opinions as well.

And they don't necessarily reflect what is mandated by the law.

They reflect kind of a preferred practice.

The law does not require AB 481, does not require that the community meeting be held separate and apart from the council meeting that we're hearing right now.

They can be held concurrently, and your staff report from the police department indicates that this is the community meeting.

And as we have seen tonight, there was some comment and discussion.

The council is certainly free to respond to some of those comments that were made tonight, respond to other matters that were in the staff report if you so choose.

Certainly the council's prerogative if you'd like to pull it from the consent and further discuss it.

But I'm comfortable that as presented, this complies with the law.

Okay, thank you to our city attorney.

Um police chief, do you do you want to you have anything you want to add?

Sure.

Mayor, would it be appropriate to pull the item from the agenda so to allow police chief and then comment?

Yeah, what we can do is um approve the rest of the items and then call up the chief.

So if we can get a motion to approve um the consent calendar uh and leave 7.6 out of it.

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Thank you.

And now we'll hear 7.6 uh Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Uh, my name is Bobby Davis.

I am uh the chief of police for the city of El Grove.

Uh Assembly Bill 481 requires a policy for military equipment approved by council.

Um EGPD's current policy was approved in 2022.

Council adopted ordinance ordinance number uh 112022.

Uh annual reports on the use of equipment, complaints received regarding uh use, cost, and quantities, and any planned purchases for the next year.

Annual council review and renewal of the ordinance, annual community engagement meeting uh satisfied by council meeting.

481 defines the military equipment as a special term.

Uh does not require the equipment to have been used or obtained by or from the military or deemed uh to be military grade.

Uh, it includes standard law enforcement equipment needed for basic uh police operations and public safety.

Uh we use unmanned aerial systems, a suspect apprehend this is a tool we use for suspect apprehension, missing person searches, major collision investigations, crime scene uh photography, and tactical missions.

Uh robots for safe entry on say bomb searches or or disruption of explosive devices, uh, entry into high-risk structures, clear buildings, and just disrupt the packages.

Uh vehicles, our armored vehicles are used for critical incidents, SWAT incidents, if you will.

Uh, and we have a mobile command center, which we deploy um in any type of a tactical or community uh event where it's needed.

Uh firearms and ammunition, this is standard issue uh police equipment.

Uh, and then we also use less than lethal equipment, which are being bag shotguns, distraction devices, and chemical agents, pepper sprays.

Uh 2025, we had no complaints received or policy violations related to military equipment in 2025.

Planned purchases in 2026 are five drones uh to bolster our drone program, uh, one armored vehicle and replenishment of quantities to maintain sufficient inventory uh of equipment that we are currently is currently on our list.

Um, our current armored vehicle is 10 years old and being uh phased out.

Um, and so we're we're asking for another uh vehicle to replace that one.

Uh equipment used in 2025 can be found in the detailed report, which is posted on the El Grove Police Department's website, has been there for 30 days or so.

Um modifications to military equipment uh lists include updated quantities, additions, and removals of drones, additional firearms, uh, and an updated long-range acoustic device.

Uh and that is it.

Um, we do have a policy uh surrounding this, and it's our Elk Grove policy number 709 for people who want uh they can get it off of our website.

And then also on the um uh the question regarding retention, we have a two-year retention for our drones.

Our our uh and our uh license plate readers are a 30-day uh retention.

Um and we are you know more than happy to uh if if requested or people have questions for me, they can find me, they can find us through uh our website, uh, and we will answer the questions as as they're asked.

All right, thank you for doing that.

Uh point of clarification for the clerk.

Do we need to reopen the opportunity for public comment?

Um I think you've moved the item and had the opportunity for public comment on 7.6.

Perfect.

All right, just wanted to double check to be safe than sorry.

All right, so we've um we've had a great presentation.

I think my two takeaways from your um from what you presented this is standard law enforcement equipment, and then more importantly, no complaint has been received or a policy violation.

Um, I think those two stuck out for me.

They already have.

So you take a go back to the same list.

Yeah, do you are you saying that we have to come back to the same list?

Um there's a conventional.

I think there's the opportunity to speak on the item, but I will defer to the you don't have to take additional public.

I mean, you certainly can if you'd like.

Yeah, I didn't think that we needed to, and we did certainly hear on um the issues or the concerns that were already raised.

So I don't have any questions.

Um I'll look to the right questions or comments on this item.

Um, no questions.

Well, so you mentioned I think that is it the drones or was it the armored vehicle that's coming up on 10 years already?

Our armored vehicles already come up on 10 years, and and then you've used it for command centers, correct, Chief?

I'm sorry.

You've used different command centers.

We've used it on SWAT operations, but we actually have a command vehicle uh that we use it, which is deployed typically any time that our SWAT vehicle is deployed.

Uh our SWAT vehicle is regional, so it's not just our department that uses it, multiple agencies utilize it.

Uh and it's had it's it's 10 years of wear and tear, and it's just starting to ultimately, you know, it's gonna ultimately uh give out on us.

So we're in a place where uh we have an opportunity or we've asked uh to replace it so that we don't have to end up spending a lot of money to have it repaired.

Um and it would be essentially until it takes two years to get one uh fully outfitted, so it's gonna be another almost two years before we uh uh get the vehicle if it is approved.

Okay, and then uh thank you, Chief, for that.

And then um, as we grow as a city, um, I'm assuming equipment that has been around for so long also needs to be updated as well.

Am I correct in that?

Yes.

Okay.

Um, but we're also buying equipment for those officers that will also be joining our force again as we go as a city, we're 170, go approaching 180, and then potentially within the next 10 years, 200,000, correct?

Yes.

Okay.

Um, and and the reason I asked is because also serve in the military, but I also understand, you know, based on um operations and equipment that we have our own unit and kind of going through that.

So that's why I'm asking.

Um, but those are other questions I have.

Appreciate it, Chief.

Thank you.

Council members, anything?

Council Myber Brewer.

Anything?

Thank you, Chief.

Um the mobile command center for clarification.

It's not it's not the tactical vehicle.

No, sir.

It's the box, just the big box that looks like a mobile home that is used for um IMTs, tragedies, earthquakes, floods, wherever you need a command center where you have an incident command unit, um, that serves as your on-the-road hub for PD to be an outlet and contact to the public, correct?

Yes, sir.

We uh we utilize the uh command van or vehicle uh in really any event, including community events.

It's not just made for uh a tactical event, if you will.

So we use it uh at our Halloween event uh as a as a staging place.

We let kids and other folks come through it.

Uh but uh we use it at our barbecue in the beats.

We use it in places that our community can come in, talk to us, ask questions, see how we utilize it, see how it's how it operates.

Uh, and then it's obviously uh vital for all of our critical events where we can actually dispatch from there, so we're not utilizing our current dispatch center on a critical event or significant events as they come up.

The Luke Bryan concert is a good example.

Uh ultimately, right?

Well, we get it'll have to be staged out there.

So it is a place that we have a command center uh in the event that anything happens, that's where we will run our operation out of.

Exactly.

Um, and and and that's and that's one of the key things because when we do have hopefully we don't have to, but in the case we do have a catastrophe, and you have to have you have to set up a mobile command.

Um, you want to be able to have that vehicle out there and ready for for for whatever is needed at any given time.

It's part of your emergency management arm of uh of this of this detail, and it's very vital.

Absolutely, it is, and you know, technology is we're in the forefront in the country with technology.

We've been nationally recognized for our ability to provide uh public safety at the highest levels, uh and that's only been done because of technology being a force multiplier in the city of Belgrove.

We've been voted one of the safest cities in the entire country.

I think this is in large part as a result of the technology that we use.

We don't use this technology as surveillance tools.

Uh, we use this technology to enforce and provide public safety at the highest levels.

Uh, I would just on our topic tonight to be specific.

Um, if we get a call from somebody who believes that somebody's in their community doing the wrong thing, our drones can be anywhere in this entire city in one minute and 30 seconds.

I I challenge you to ask any uh law enforcement agency that can say that about their community.

Uh, we will be there, we will see what's happening, and we can provide uh real-time information as to what's happening to those people.

Uh, and whatever the scenario is, when our officers are responding, it will help us uh gauge what and uh how to bring uh enforcement to that area.

Uh and it's also an excellent tool if there is uh an area or a situation where we need the video coverage uh that happened at that scene when the officers haven't been there yet.

Our drone and our tools that we use provide a service uh for this community that is unlike any other.

And and I'm very appreciative of that because um public safety today, as we are in the 21st century, you have to have different sets of buys and airs, and it doesn't make any sense for it or for our police or fire to go in blind to a situation that is the purpose of the drones themselves is to give people advanced.

You it's the advanced unit before our units are are there deployed on the field, and that's where that's what's very important.

We see it in police, we see it in fire, uh, and it's one of those tiered line approaches that we do to keep our community safe.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Chief, for that presentation.

I appreciate Councilmember Bruce's comments.

I'd build on that too.

You know, these are tools, and the the example you used, uh Chief, uh the using the drone to fly in the sea.

That that could be a call that an ICE agent is abusing one of our residents, right?

Yes, sir.

That is uh this is about tools and and the people that are using the tools.

And I really empathize with the comments and concerns by our residents that brought this up.

But I will say that the this police department and this city has demonstrated restraint, has demonstrated responsible uh use of the their equipment.

Uh and if I'm not mistaken, you have one of the highest trained uh uh protocols for in the entire state.

Is that is that I correct?

Yes, sir, we do.

So I mean, I I think there's there's a great track record here.

Uh and so I I feel very comfortable in in approving uh item 7.6 because um chief, you and and your team again uh demonstrate that you're responsible and you and you use this the equipment responsibly, you take it seriously.

Uh and so with that um I'm happy to move the item.

Thank you, and thank you to my colleagues for your thoughtful comments on this item.

Um, and thank you, Chief, for your for your presentation.

Elk Grove is one of the safest cities in the United States, and I'm really proud of the work that you're doing.

It doesn't happen by accident.

And I know that there's a huge expectation also from our from our residents as they passed measure E.

Um, is public safety and making sure that those dollars are being spent how they intended as well.

Um the equipment, the resources, the tools have been outlined very thoughtfully, and um it is something that our community expects, and I go back to no complaints received or policy violation.

So I I don't want to offer up a solution in search of a problem.

We don't have one.

So thank you for uh providing additional comments.

Yes, ma'am.

So with that, I will look for a motion.

I'll second yes, motion yeah, go ahead.

Second, no.

Okay, we have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Thank you.

All right, with that, we will go on to our next item, which is 8.1.

And 8.1 is a public hearing in consideration of a resolution calling special election and declaring results for the special election to annex territory to certain territory, as will be described by staff in the presentation.

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

I'm here this evening to present projects that will be annexed into our special districts.

The city maintains eight special tax districts.

Annexations into these appropriate districts are typically a part of the project approval process.

Requirements are specific specific for each project and vary according to geographic location and building use, and the annual rates are adjusted.

These projects were there was a resolution of intent that was adopted on January 14th, which calls for a public hearing as of today.

The first project is Lazy Boy, which is a commercial project on 1.92 acres.

It'll be annexing into street maintenance district number one zone five.

This project is located on the southeast corner of Elk Grove Boulevard and Laguna Springs Drive.

The second project is Treasurer.

This is a residential project of 192 single family homes.

Also annexing into street maintenance district number one zone five.

This project is located in the Laguna Ridge area, um along Bilby Road, just east of Bruceville Road.

This concludes my presentation.

If you guys have any questions, I'm here.

All right, thank you.

At this time, I will declare that the public hearing is now open and open up public comment.

Nobody signed up to speak.

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

And request the clerk to provide the results of the ballot tabulation.

There is no majority protest of 194 possible votes, weighted according to the proportional financial obligation for the properties.

194 affirmative votes were returned.

The ballots approved the proposed assessment and the proposed inflation adjustment limits described for the parcels identified in their ballots.

A resolution determining the levy assessments in the district is available for council consideration.

All right, thank you.

Any questions or comments?

If not, I'll look for a motion.

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Next item, please.

That'll take us to section nine, a regular agenda action items, starting with item 9.1, which is to receive a presentation on recent economic development activities and information.

Two hours.

I keep asking.

For the record, I have not started the presentation yet, but I'm about to start my stopwatch.

So still have not started yet.

It's okay.

You're not on the three minute schedule.

I know, but you have a row.

Maybe you are currently I'm on a different watch list.

Keeping it under two hours this time.

Yeah.

Now listen, it was it was 16 minutes last year, and I aim to keep it right there.

You're thinking of the first year when it was a couple hours.

All right, I'm gonna start.

All right, good evening.

Mayor and vice mayor and council members.

I first want to start by thanking Kevin Speace for the lucky charms on behalf of everybody.

I have a feeling that was from you.

Um what gave it away?

I also noticed your shoes, and I gotta tell you that's some next level peak stuff.

Um so uh thank you, Kevin, as always.

I don't know what's happening here.

I don't know why this is wanting me to download a free trial.

Okay.

Okay, we're cranking now.

All right, so I it is my distinct pleasure um to join you tonight to give you the economic development annual report.

Um we did this, what, 13 12 or 13 months ago.

I can't believe it's been a year since then.

I can't believe this is my 11th year working for the city.

Um, and I'm just as excited and energized as ever, and hopefully that comes across in this amazing presentation.

So start as I always do with our team, you know me.

Um Sarah Rodriguez, I want you to read that language down there.

Arts, culture, and creative economy program manager.

So from announcing this publicly tonight, but I've already told most of you.

Yes, we can all applause that.

Umgratulations, Miss Rodriguez.

She'll be running the city's uh creative economy platforms and all that good stuff, and is gonna do amazing work.

I don't think it's gonna go to her head, but I am looking out for it.

Uh and you all let me know if you see any changes in her behavior that I need to be aware of.

Um I also want to recognize uh Mel Lasher.

Um Mel, this just amazing find um has been here not even a year yet.

Um she's an economic development analyst, and she's doing, she's she's uh she's a Swiss Army extraordinaire and doing absolutely everything beyond my expectations.

So I am so lucky to have both of these amazing women um working for me.

Um we have two vacancies that we're gonna fill.

One is a senior economic development analyst, which we have historically under field at the economic development analyst one or two level.

Um so we can fill it anywhere in that range.

And then um we are going to be uh recruiting very soon for communications and marketing specialists to replace a lot of the work that Sarah was doing in that space.

Um our budget, this is not exciting, it's about 11 million dollars.

I will point out this is unusually high for 2025 and 26 because we have about $7 million set aside for some strategic property acquisition that we're working on.

Um, our mission, vision, and values.

Um I'll focus on the vision and the mission.

Um the vision is an innovative, inclusive, resilient economy, and the mission is to cultivate economic opportunity for businesses and residents through the implementation of projects and programs that sustain and grow the economy.

We've got goals to get there, and we've got these values, which I hope are pretty standard in our industry.

Um, and in real simple terms, we continue to believe that strong economies make strong communities, and that's why we do what we do.

So we have these strategic focus areas.

These have not changed since last year.

Um business retention, expansion, and traction is our day-to-day bread and butter drives everything we do.

Property acquisition and development is something we do that a lot of economic development departments don't do.

Um, business support, also bread and butter every day drives us.

Uh we have our innovation economy, our arts and creative economy, our visitor economy.

Um, we're focused on partnerships and leaderships throughout partnerships and leadership throughout the state, and of course, the aforementioned marketing and communication.

So, our services, what what services do we provide?

We like to think of ourselves as a boutique, uh in-house consulting firm, offering free services to our businesses to get from A to Z.

Um, so we tailor retention, expansion, and attraction solutions to each individual business's need, large or small, local or national.

I don't discriminate, I don't discern every business is local to me.

Um we do a lot of site selection work, helping businesses find real estate solutions.

We offer targeted incentives that we um that we offer in uh limited quantities and in very special circumstances, obviously small business support.

We have a very robust small business support platform under business support.

Um we dabble in workforce development in the past, we've done more of that.

Um in the future, we'll probably do more.

And we also offer permit expediting, which is of course critical to getting a business up and open on time and on budget.

All things um that we are focused on is services we offer.

We got a bunch of programs, and the list continues to grow, which is exciting.

Um, thanks to Measure E, frankly.

Um, again, we offer tailor it tailored incentives to our businesses.

Um a large business seeking to locate here that we think is of significant economic impact.

We have an umbrella program that was established 20 years ago before I got here that allows us to negotiate on a case-by-case basis, um, sophisticated, performance-based, um, dollars per jobs types of incentives.

Um, a couple other highlights on that, I'm not gonna go through all this.

You guys know about Startup Out Grove, that's a best in class innovation support platform that offers grants.

Um, PASS is an amazing program.

Small amounts of money for small businesses trying to get open to cover the costs of going through our permitting processes.

It is free in Out Grove to get permits for almost every single business.

There's no other city in the state of California that is doing that.

Um, you know about brew, you know about fixed, you know about work, you know about our impact feed offeral program that I'll tell you a little bit about later on a specific project.

But excitingly, two new projects, and we love our acronyms in the economic development department.

And so on the bottom left is BRICS, and I'm gonna I'm not, I'm just that's just a teaser.

I want you to think about what that is.

I'm not gonna tell you right now, I'm gonna tell you later.

And then also access.

Again, not gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you later what that's about.

So just think about that as I go on.

Um your priority projects, these are the projects that you have told us are the most important to you through our uh semi-annual retreat process.

So one is Project Elevate.

I think you all know about this.

We're seeing good progress.

We did the purchase and sale agreement last year.

We're seeing strong leasing interest and progress.

I can't talk about who those um companies are, but uh interest is strong, and uh we are working with Center Cal to bring an entitlement application in front of the city.

I mean, I hope this quarter, but certainly by the end of next quarter.

That's our goal.

Um, Grantline Business Park.

Um, do you see that sign?

We put that sign up.

That is that is an amazing little monument sign, not so little actually, um, and is probably gonna change the entire trajectory of development patterns at Grantline Business Park.

That's how cool that sign is.

We're also working on evaluating rail service, bringing rail service to the park, um, which I think would be a game changer.

Um, Union Pacific is working with us on that and has uh been a great partner and views this as one of the top three sites in the state to make a rail serve site that is not already a rail serve site.

Um, and we're installing a critical piece of um infrastructure, um, a a suit a three million dollar or so sewer pipe that will serve the entire park.

Right now we are we are not shovel ready because we do not have a sewer solution, and we have to advance that.

Um we're also not shovel ready because we do not have a power solution, so we're working with SMUD to site and install a substation.

Um, and then you've told us that arts culture and creative economy is very important to you and I have another slide about that, so I'm not gonna talk anymore about that.

Retoil momentum continues to be strong.

Um these beautiful pictures uh tell that story.

Uh I'm not even sure what's what here.

Um I see Victoria's Secret, I see REI, I see Bowl, which is something down the street, which has had lines of people.

I see Dbat, I see a new safe way.

Many and most of you have been at the openings of of um these great retailers, and we've got more coming.

So retail momentum remains strong.

Um, we talked about incentives.

Um, probably the biggest and most important incentive we did in the last year was as part of our impact fee deferral program.

We provided uh the developer of 10050 Waterman.

Um so that's at Waterman near Grant Line on the left hand side of the street as you're going north.

Um that has been long planned to be a logistics and industrial center, totaling about 450,000 square feet.

It's owned by Buzz Oates, um, who are friends of the family.

Um they have not moved forward until now, and in large part it's because we had this program that allowed them to defer payment of 1.3 million dollars of development impact fees.

Nobody likes development impact fees.

Every developer thinks they're too high.

Um we know ours are not, we know ours are right sized, but that's still a big cost before you even do a thing, before you even literally put a shovel in the ground, you have to pay that fee.

Our program allowed them to defer that for five years.

And also, since it's speculative industrial development, I want to emphasize that that is a rare thing in the Sacramento region.

So we have a 180,000 square foot spec industrial project under development that we provided an incentive on, and that incentive gives us the right uh to approve uh uses and tenants uh should they want to avail themselves of the uh ability to defer their impact fees.

So we've never done it like that, super excited about it.

Um we also did three uh brew grants.

Um you guys were all at the opening of Interlude.

We also did one for Skyport in the Grove Kitchen.

We're being very judicious with how we do these grants to restaurants.

Um we are paying them out in tranches when you hit milestones.

No longer do you get a check up front, right?

You you pull a C of O, you get a third of the money.

You stay open for a year, you get a third of the money, you stay open for another year, you get a third of the money.

So we are we we recognize um the the complexities of giving grants to restaurants, and that's one of the ways we're trying to mitigate our risk.

And then I told you about PASS.

We just passed 200,000 on PASS.

We've given out 200,000 to our small businesses through that program.

And again, there's nobody else in the state doing that.

Arts and creative economy.

So we have our new commission, our seven dedicated commissioners.

Um, very competitive process to get on that board.

I gotta tell you, they are great.

They've been fantastic.

Um, even outside Aunt Sally's coming along as I call her.

Um, it is a great group of people.

Um, and they are doing some great work, and they've done some fun.

Yeah, I call her Aunt Sally, she she said that's okay.

We're doing some fun things like our asphalt art project and our 25th anniversary photo competition and a bunch of other stuff they're gonna be doing.

Wizard economy, there is a ton going on in our visitor economy.

Through our event attraction incentive program, we've gave grants to eight different um sports tourism events that came or have come to the city.

Um, our hotel occupancy remains strong at 78%, almost 80%.

Um, our ADR average daily rate is 143 dollars.

That is the highest in the segment in our competitive set.

So we continue to lead the market in these categories.

Um but what's exciting is what's in our pipeline.

We have the hotel at Sky River, which is 302 units, home to suit, just put up a sign coming soon, right up the road.

That's 110 units and a great product.

Um Stay Bridge Suites is through their permitting process, and we're just waiting them on waiting on them to build.

We're having a approximately 100 room hotel at Project Elevate.

The Holiday and Express is rebranding to a Spring Hill Suites, thank you.

Um and the Hilton Garden Inn is going through a remodel and is actually for sale right now.

So if anybody wants to buy that, it's for sale.

So tremendous momentum in our visitor economy.

Marketing communications, we continue to just, I think just crush this better than better than a lot of economic development departments.

Um we are telling our story in a big way.

Our Main Street 2.0 campaign that you all approved a year ago.

We've rolled out most of that, and there's more of that coming.

We're looking at how to light the street up down there, which I'm very excited about.

Our support local campaign has 113 participating businesses.

That's the most it's ever had.

We continue to dole out gift cards to visitors and residents and employees.

Um, 50 unique stories through business wise, our socials are strong.

Influencer marketing, I emailed you guys about that.

We we did for the first time influencer marketing, trying to connect our using influencers to connect our residents to our local businesses in all of our council districts.

We did five reels.

We had over 100,000 views.

We're gonna do more of that.

Tabling, we've had a bunch of events, our our fourth annual Pitch Elk Grove.

Um, we did a broker's mixer, which was really well attended and a really nice event.

We've done startup happy hours and a bunch of stuff around our 25th anniversary, as well as our standard um mixers and ribbon cuttings.

And we continue to sponsorship a lot of key events that put our brand in front of economic development decision makers in the region.

That is me holding condensed milk and Sarah holding dog food.

Um, and that was for um restaurant week.

Um 25th, we did a bunch of work around the 25th anniversary.

Sarah was heavily involved in that, making sure our businesses were connected with those marketing platforms and opportunities.

Uh, this guy, this weird looking guy here, um, was just announced for the second year in a row.

Uh Power 100 decision maker in the Sacramento region in economic development.

I don't know, that's a hard list to get on.

We're very friendly with the business journal and buy some ads.

Uh, maybe it means I'm maybe doing my job, but actually, why I put this in here, against maybe my better judgment is what I think it means is that this entire executive team right here is doing its job to help me do my job and vice versa, and that's what drives the economy.

So, even though that's my picture, um next year we're gonna have a picture of the whole executive team uh if I get it for a third year, but uh whatever.

Um, and then um our chamber membership sponsorship drives.

So we're the only city doing this.

We're spending 100,000 to help our chamber bring in approximately 285 new members, of which they brought in almost uh, well, they brought in over 120 of that as of a couple weeks ago.

It's probably more now.

Um that's really exciting.

Nobody else is doing that.

Um moving on.

Lots of stuff under construction.

The village is one of the big major retail projects.

This is just gonna further that retail momentum.

It's anchored by great retailers like Whole Foods, Barnes and Noble Yard House, Mendocino Farms.

Some of that is opening now.

I think most of it will be open by the end of the year.

That's an exciting project.

It's also right next to Project Elevate.

So we're gonna get all the benefit of like a Whole Foods and a Barnes and Noble without actually having to bring in those leases, and we can do other stuff.

So that's exciting.

Um, Sutter Health is building a medical office building right over here, expanding their main campus.

But then also really exciting is you know, maybe not sexy, but they're building a new primary care clinic, and they're bringing the first pediatric urgent care in the Sacramento region to Elk Grove, um, which will open later this year, which is really exciting and really needed in a city that doesn't quite have a hospital yet.

Um, and then I told you about 11050 Waterman Road.

Um, under construction, they just tilted walls this week.

So that's a fresh, all these are fresh photos.

Um, upcoming and ongoing projects.

Okay, BRICS, did you guess what that stands for?

Well, I'll tell you.

It stands for business reimbursement for integrated camera safety.

Um it's a great new program in partnership with our amazing police department, where we are going to give matching grants to small businesses who want to own and install a security camera that is capable of connecting to our Arctic through our community sentinel program.

So we think a safe community is a strong community.

And so we want to make sure businesses of all shapes and sizes can afford these cameras and put them up and get the great service from our police department by allowing them to remote into that camera and see what's going on in an instant.

So very excited about that.

And then access, this one's way too long.

We're gonna shorten this acronym, but it stands for accessibility compliance to create equitable small business spaces.

So I've challenged Mel to shorten that, even though it's pretty good and I like what it spells, but you know, we'll we'll see.

So we're doing this in partnership with our risk team, and this one's really exciting too.

And I don't know too many other cities doing either one of these things.

There are a few.

But this is small matching grants to small businesses making Americans with Disability Act accessibility upgrades.

Um super excited about that.

Um we're doing that, we're gonna be taking that to the DAC, and they're gonna weigh in on it, and I think they're gonna love it.

And of course, you know about business license 2.0, that continues.

Um, we we're wrapping up a fee study right now to try to figure out what the fees should be, and we'll bring that to you, and you can help us make a decision on what to charge, new software and new data collection processes.

Um, Autumn All Next is still percolating, and now it's like starting to simmer.

We um we're wrapping up uh an RFP that we're gonna put on the street uh this month, and we've had some good conversations with the Automole Dealers Association, and in about a year, we're gonna bring you a comprehensive strategy of proposed improvements to the Autumn All to future proof that mall for the next 25 years, respond to changes in technology and make sure it is continues to be this city's uh cash cow.

Um, paint the Grove, uh, our mural festival.

Uh I'm maybe regretting that we agreed to do this in our first year, but it's happening.

June 1st of the 6th, it's a lot of work.

It's a full court press right now, trying to find walls, trying to get property owners signed up, trying to figure out what artists are gonna go where, getting that to the planning commission.

It's it's tremendous amount of work, but it's gonna be exciting.

June 1st to the 6th.

We're still pushing made in Elk Grove that's morphed into a marketing platform where we're gonna highlight um craft products made in Elk Grove with a logo to go on the product, and then we're working with Explore Out Grove to set up a pop-up market that will actually be a retail space where those products are available every day to our residents who want to support those local businesses.

We've got uh new website coming.

We're about to let that contract, so in a few months, you're gonna see a beautiful new, bold, dynamic, um, impressive website.

And then we're working with the chamber, we're giving them some more money so that they can stand up an equity-focused um website to help minority-owned businesses be as successful as any other business in this town.

And then this is the last slide.

Um just I like to really point out this is our pipeline report, and we do this every year.

Um, so just ignore that colorful graph for a minute, are locates.

So these are businesses that have made a location decision to be in Elk Grove and are going through a permitting process.

So in our pipeline, just over 5,000 square feet, because it's a longer list, but those are the big ones.

We have potential for about 1.4 million square feet of new or occupied space and almost 13,500 jobs in our pipe.

Um, that's not all gonna come to fruition because it never does, but a lot of it will, and it will happen over the next two, three, four years.

Um, and then business openings in the last calendar year, just over 500 5,000 square feet.

Um, just to highlight the big stuff again, there's a whole bunch of little stuff that happened, and we're not discounting that.

But over 5,000 square feet, we had um 480,000 square feet of newly built or occupied space equating to a 50, just over 50 million dollars of capital investment.

That's just construction costs.

That's not all the soft costs and land or anything, that's just construction cost.

It's a much bigger number if we added the soft stuff.

Um, and that equates to 775 jobs.

And then what I like to do is kind of pick a statistic and share that with you to talk about.

And this year I wanted to just focus on vacancy rates and real estate availability.

If we you've heard me say this, and I've said it for going on 11 years.

Um, we have an Achilles heel, and it is the availability of built industrial and office space.

We have very little, and I think this um we have some in the pipe, right?

I told you about that spec industrial space we're building.

There's no office construction going on.

Um, and we we'll have some hotels soon.

But this, if you just look at this graph on the left side is Elk Grove, and uh that's uh blue is industrial, orange is office, and green is retail.

You you may not be surprised to know that we have one of the smallest amounts in the region, and our biggest product type is retail, which is not where you're gonna put the sexy chip factories and the advanced manufacturing and any of that kind of stuff.

We have very little industrial space built, of which only one and a half percent is occupied.

So that continues to be our Achilles heel for landing large format projects.

Um you can see Roseville has much more.

Um when you you know, they also they have more retail than us, but they have a lot more office space than us, and a lot more of it's vacant than us, and they have they have even more industrial, um, and even more of that is vacant.

And then you look at Rancher Codova, not surprising, they have a lot of industrial space, um, some office, very little retail.

They they'd like to combine forces, and we'd be the perfect size city in a lot of ways.

Um, and then West Sacramento for a city of its size just has a tremendous amount of industrial square footage, and a huge chunk of that is vacant.

So, what is our value proposition?

It's built to suit greenfield development.

Um, hopefully that will change, and I think seeing things like spec industrial being built in our town is gonna help us change that.

Um but it's a challenge, but we continue to do great stuff, even despite that Achilles seal.

Um, and we've got some projects that are the envy of other cities like Me Rancho and Kubota, though we landed those projects because we had buildings to put them in.

So we need to continue to push forward on getting buildings built as quickly and efficiently as possible in our community.

I am over 16 minutes.

My colleague's gonna be upset.

Um, but I'm gonna stop there and make myself available for any questions that you might have.

Does that conclude your report?

It certainly does.

Okay.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

A lot of great information.

This is I actually look forward to this um every year.

So I am going to open up public comment before we go to my colleagues.

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

And this time I will start to the left.

Any questions or comments from Mr.

Down?

Yes, Mr.

Brewer.

Yes, yes, madam mayor.

Uh great report.

Um, a lot a lot of information to take in, but a lot of good progress was taken over the past year.

Um, the questions that I have is because I noticed that um as part of our growth.

We have to find and secure new uh industrial space.

Yes, sir.

How much do we need to do in terms of um annexing land south of uh Grant Line Road and Camera Road to make that happen?

Well, it it's not necessarily what we need to do, it's what annexation applications are in front of us and are gonna be in front of us.

We probably won't initiate any of that ourselves, but we are you know, we are reviewing a very sizable annexation um uh project in front of us right now.

It doesn't have a ton of space set aside for industrial, right?

Developers want to build houses, and it's hard to get them to set aside space for commercial.

We've pushed and we've gotten some space set aside, Chris.

I don't know the acreage that we're looking at for that.

I don't know if we have that right offhand, but I mean it's not insignificant, but it's not thousands of acres.

It's not, you know, it's a hundred acres.

Yeah, well, we're generally we've been working with uh the applicant on it, uh, as Daryl mentioned.

Um I would generally describe it as think of the area between 99 and what would be sort of projection or extension of Promenade Parkway South.

Um, our general plan talks about sort of that area being an activity district of some sort, what the mixes would be between uh retail, office industrial uses.

We're still working on that.

We're expecting some resubmittles in the coming days and weeks ahead.

Um, and we'll coordinate with Daryl on that.

Um, as you mentioned, the Grant Line Business Park is certainly an opportunity.

We've got a couple hundred acres out there.

Um, there's opportunity for a little bit of expansion out there, another 160, 180 or so acres with uh their property that's already in the sphere of influence.

Um so we expect we'll work with one or both of those properties in the coming years to also bring those in.

Um, and at that point, we would need to be looking at further sphere amendments and annexation efforts.

Um, and either those need to be sponsored by the city or sponsored by property owners or some combination thereof.

Rod Rod, can I add what what would be what's probably more effective than annexation?

Annexation is gonna happen.

And and we'll address that as it comes in, and we'll push for those industrial and office spaces, um, which which is a point of friction, frankly.

Um, but what would be more effective is getting Grantline Business Park filled.

Um, I don't own that property.

We don't own that property.

We are not the decision makers.

There have been deals that have wanted to go there that have not materialized for no fault of the city.

I'm not gonna name them because I'm under NDAs on most of that stuff still, but we don't control the property owners and their land.

They have to make good decisions and be savvy, sophisticated owners to close deals for us, which is a point of frustration.

Um, but it is what it is, unless unless we're gonna unless we're gonna just step in and buy all that land from them and take them out of the picture.

They're not bad people, I'm not saying that.

But um, and it's not just Grant Land Business Park, it's in there's there's two other large pieces I can think of along Promenade and a long camera that also sit and sit and sit.

That's right.

That's right.

And and it's it's part of the long game, and that's was that's why I really appreciate this.

And I'm very excited about the work being done with UP and looking at uh the possibilities of doing the of having uh commercial rail being done there, well, not commercial but industrial rail service, yeah, a rail spur service site.

Because that's gonna be that's gonna be a nice boom for Kubota and for the related businesses along that corridor that um to for them to get their goods north and south.

Yeah, um having having that having that rail vein is gonna be very important.

So it's good stuff.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Congratulations, Daryl, on a second year of Power 100.

uh commercial rail being done there well not commercial but industrial rail service yeah a rail spur service site i because that's gonna be that's gonna be a nice boom for kaboda and for the related businesses um along that corridor that um to for them to get their goods north and south yeah um having having that having that rail vein is gonna be very important so it's good stuff thank you thank you thank you mayor congratulations daryl on a second year of power 100 that's great uh also congratulations to Sarah look forward to good things from you more good things from you uh I I uh appreciate the information that and the presentation uh I was just relishing you know when you were uh going through everything uh even when you had the long presentation that we teased you about it's it's still teased me we still teach you about it was so long we served that anyway the point is it there was a lot of things going on back then but the difference was there were it was all talk about the you know it was conceptual it was coming and now to see you know we've got so many things have already happened as you pointed out and things that are coming and yet to come so it's great to see this evolution uh that's happening and under your watch these these last 11 years uh I what I really appreciate about you is you you know uh we I tease you about the length but you you do go into the the detail and you know economic development isn't just waving your wand I mean there is there is uh a lot of I the science and art to it you know and I think you you delve into the data data which I I appreciate uh so I'm excited uh for what's to come the only thing I would I would ask is um or ask about I'd like to ask about is the you mentioned about about um industrial and and maybe not just industrial but going back to employers uh build the suit has there any been any consideration of of specific employers that we've got you'd want to go out and ask and try to find a way to build the suit for them is is there been any thought process about that yeah there's been thought process it it's um it it's it's difficult right we had we I can't name some of these right we we've been very successful more than successful more successful than a lot of communities in our region at developing our own leads right which is how we got Kubota and Kubota is one of the four biggest projects in the last 10 years in this region and it's the envy of other cities and that was a lead we developed in a in a company we found I would say the same about me Rancho there haven't been others of that size um right before the pandemic uh we had a deal to bring a state office headquarters here um which I'm also not gonna name but many of you know who that is and it would have been groundbreaking and you know pandemics yeah who knew right so I think we've been good at doing that um I think this UP thing has put us on the map with some traditional manufacturing and logistics and warehousing companies that we can have real conversations with that doesn't full foreclose on advanced manufacturing and things like chips and I mean chips and batteries are the sexy thing right now that everybody wants what people don't talk about is how much water it takes to deliver those facilities and how much power it takes to deliver those facilities.

Water and power we simply do not have um and also how long it takes to go through a sequel process for a battery or chip factory.

So those are difficult ones but I think we can make hay in advanced or in in traditional manufacturing and in warehousing logistics that's not always the sexiest thing but it can work we had advanced conversations um on um both the Kendrick and the Cypress Abbey properties on some pretty uh one was a million square foot project and the other one was a million two square foot project and they just fell apart for no fault of ours so yeah we can have those conversations and we will have those conversations we're not in a position to specialize right we're I'm open I'm open to all of them if it's a jobs dense high impact project we're gonna go have the conversation open to any ideas that you or any other council members have at any time as well on on who we should be talking to.

All right appreciate very much last comment FEMA has a brick program so just in case you start hearing it confused.

But ours has no K.

I don't know if you caught that genius part but it's just V R I C it's B R I C building resilient infrastructure in communities.

Mel's going to Mel's going to get to work on that tonight.

New acronym thank you that's gonna happen you run out of acronyms.

Yeah.

Councilmember Speace?

Yes um all right so thanks for the shout out on the uh lucky charms there and the shoes well yeah yeah I mean if you you guys should check out the shoes on the way out yeah well um all right so what I really wanted to what I wanted to talk about first is uh welcome Mel I know I we met um feels like over a year ago but Air Force Academy graduate folks if if you didn't know so you know she's uh she's one of America's brightest right so um all right so council member soon has been um obviously on council the longest right and and you've been how many years you've been on uh it's my 12th year 12th here all right so Darrell Done's been on for 11 years right so I mean thinking back back then right when we talked about economic development and things like you mentioned they were they were dreams things we wanted to do right there's there's this concept in in the book Good to grade about the flywheel right and it takes you know a flywheel is a huge wheel and it takes a long time to get started you got to do a lot of pushing you got to get a lot of effort

So you know she's uh she's one of America's brightest right so um all right so council member soon has been um obviously on council the longest right in and you've been how many years you've been on uh it's my 12th year 12 here all right so Darrell Done's been on for 11 years right so I mean thinking back back then right when we talked about economic development and things like you mentioned they were they were dreams things we wanted to do right there's there's this concept in in the book Good to grade about the flywheel right and it takes you know a flywheel is a huge wheel and it takes a long time to get started you got to do a lot of pushing you got to get a lot of effort and and uh but once that flywheel starts moving its inertia starts taking care of itself right and so uh the first thing I want to point out is I'm glad that we're going out we're looking for you know other um uh other companies other employers to come in I think that is fantastic because what's happening at the same time and I think is the the the important or not the important side but one of the most important parts of economic development is having a safe clean efficient city we have a city where people want to be employers want to be here right so you know to we can go out and re we can recruit and we can do all that that's the right thing we can do incentives that's the right thing right but we're also we also have a community where people want to be and so that wasn't um I I think that was where we were 12 years ago right but I think people know it more now right and so I think uh I want to thank you for that um and again I mean and you mention it you talk about it all the time that it that it is again a team right because uh without without a song a strong city team uh that makes it safe clean and efficient um you know eventually there will be people knocking on our doors pounding on the doors to get in right and that will happen and it won't be that far away because I believe that flywheel is now in motion so thank you.

You bet.

Thank you Councilmember Brobless.

Thank you Madam Mayor uh thank you Mr.

Darrell for the opportunity uh sorry it's been a long for the amazing presentation I'll help you no uh appreciate the the presentation uh looking forward for more updates on project elevate uh it sounds that we're heading in the right direction as we're looking forward for small businesses definitely uh uptaking and using technology as far as like influencers or even trying to figure out how we can promote our businesses there are some still struggling in old um old town historically main street and there are some struggling in on on the west side right um and I'm happy to see that they are having more uh present on social media um I do know I think I don't know several of us know but there was uh guy feary was here last week or two weeks ago um doing a a um Netflix special one of the restaurants that was uh in the west side so we want to continue to highlight our small business with street letter restaurants yes yeah we gave them uh so we gave them a brew grant which was awesome um they're doing great they are doing great their fish tacos are amazing and want to continue to make sure that we're supporting our small businesses uh we appreciate what you're doing um looking forward to hearing more on what we can do on the economic development side and also utilize the funds of through measury um so I'll keep my comments short but thank you yeah I want to connect with you on that um councilman and thank you all for your kind words thank you thank you to my colleagues excellent comments you know that I I'm a big supporter of economic development this is an area I think that keeps our city moving forward it becomes a destination city not only from the employment perspective but we've now become a hub for culinary um yeah culinary destination essentially so great restaurants and just all of the tremendous progress looking forward to that specifically our mural festival I know it's coming right around the corner boy is it coming so but it's those are again just one more thing to attract not only visitors but also to take great pride in our city and all of the innovative programs thank you really proud of the department thank all of you you're you've got tremendous staff um keep up the great work thank you thank you mayor all right uh with that we'll move on to our next item 9.2 hello Mr.

Gallagher hello that'll be to receive a presentation on a sidewalk repair assistance program for homeowners in the city of Elkgrove all right good evening mayor vice mayor council members uh my name's Sean Gallagher Deputy Director of Public Works and tonight I will provide a brief overview of a proposed sidewalk repair assistant um program and request council direction on implementing the program beginning in fiscal year 27 this program is intended to help residents address sidewalk replacement needs while maintaining the existing responsibility framework under the city's municipal code so under the city's municipal code uh chapter 12.05 um property owners are responsible for maintaining and replacing sidewalks adjacent to their property the city inspects sidewalks primarily based on reported concerns and notifies property owners when replacement is necessary on average the city processes roughly 70 residential sidewalk

This program is intended to help residents address sidewalk replacement needs while maintaining the existing responsibility framework under the city's municipal code.

So under the city's municipal code, uh chapter 12.05, um, property owners are responsible for maintaining and replacing sidewalks adjacent to their property.

The city inspects sidewalks primarily based on reported concerns and notifies property owners when replacement is necessary.

On average, the city processes roughly 70 residential sidewalk replacements each year.

Currently, the city assists the residents by providing temporary repairs free of charge, such as grinding or patching to temporarily mitigate displacements, holes, or other defects.

Additionally, we offer payment plans with no interest.

Um we waive any administration or inspection costs related to performing that work or administrating the program.

If a resident or property owner chooses to self-perform the work, we waive the permit fees as well as the inspection costs.

While the current program uh does work, it has faced a few challenges.

First, the sidewalk replacement can represent an unexpected cost for homeowners and may total several thousand dollars depending on the extent of the repairs.

Second, the financial barriers can lead to delayed repairs costs of the sidewalk or repair of the cost sidewalk.

And lastly, the process can create an administrative burden both for the resident and the city as we handle payment plans, multiple notifications, or in some cases when property owners are non-responsive, liens.

So in May of 2025, the council directed staff to research potential cost sharing options that would help address these challenges.

Staff reviewed several programs from other cities, including Oakland, Redwood City, and Ventura, which use different approaches to assist residents with sidewalk repair costs.

Based on the research and our operational experience with Elk Groves program, staff developed the recommended framework being presented tonight.

The recommendation is a cost share program for owner-occupied single family homes.

Under this structure, the city would cover 50% of the replacement cost with the property owner covering the remaining 50%.

For residents who qualify through the SMUD Lifeline Income Assistance Program, the city would cover 75% of the cost with the homeowner responsible for the remaining 25%.

This approach maintains property owner responsibility while helping reduce the financial burden on residents.

The program is intentionally limited in scope.

The cost share would only apply to the removal and replacement of sidewalk panels identified by the city.

The program would not cover related work such as private tree or route removal, landscaping modifications, or other adjacent work that may have led to the issues.

Those items would remain the responsibility of the property owner.

Work would also be performed through the city's existing public works contracts to ensure consistency, quality, and meeting city standards.

Eligibility would be limited to owner-occupied single-family homes, and residents must respond to the city notices and stay in good standing if they enter into a payment plant.

Sorry.

Over the past three years, the residential sidewalk costs have averaged roughly 178,000.

Staff are proposing an initial request of 90,000 as part of the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget to fund the city's share of the program.

If participation exceeds available funding, the program would operate on a first come, first served basis, and staff would return to council to seek additional funding.

Staff is requesting that council adopt the resolution approving the cost share program guidelines and direct staff to include $90,000 requests in the fiscal 26-27 budget to implement the program beginning July 1st, 2026.

With that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for your presentation.

At this time, I will open up public comment.

I don't have anyone signed up.

I'll close public comment and open it up for questions, comments.

Looking to the right, Councilmember Robles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I just want to say thank you for this.

It's been something that I uh I think even being while being on the planning commission, a lot of residents brought up.

Uh it's probably been like four years already, but I'm excited to see this happening.

I'm happy to support.

Um Councilman Speeds, anything?

Yep.

I do.

Um so I want to thank staff in in general and the the broad broad scope because I remember it was a couple of years back.

We we said a staff, can we find a way to leverage?

I I didn't see measure e button on the on the front there, but uh uh we said, look, how can how we can it was there?

Okay, cool.

It wasn't there, but it is measure.

Oh, it is measure e money, yeah.

Right.

Um it'll be there once it's approved.

Oh, okay.

I got there you go.

I like it.

Um, but you know, we said we said what are ways that we can use measure e funds to uh help alleviate some of the the pain of those who you know uh have um dependency on you know social security and and um public assistance.

So um you came back with with that idea.

Staff, you know, huddled and found the idea and said this is a good idea.

I I think it's a great idea.

I completely support it.

Of course, I'll make I'll make the motion.

Um, but uh I very much support it.

Um I think not only does it help people, but it you know, once you repair the sidewalk, you obviously make the city safer.

And so I think that that does a couple of things.

And so if you were to, you know, if you were to have perhaps being an older area where you see a lot of the sidewalks and the streets and things broken up in age simply because they're older homes.

Um, you know, I think people would uh people would definitely appreciate um an assist with that.

So thanks to you all for coming up with with that idea.

Thanks much.

Thank you.

Councilmember Brewer.

Thank you, Mayor.

This is a this is a good program.

It's gonna help uh narrow the gap for a lot of households who aren't unable to pay for uh sidewalk replacements.

Um this is another one of the more wise uses of measure e definitely support it.

Um obviously there are some other people are going to want some other sort of things related to this, but this is definitely something more that right is right at the crux of it because from a safety standpoint when people walk or ride or when kids ride their scooters um on their side on the sidewalks, the last thing they need is to hit a divot on the sidewalk, create a create a uh a broken arm or a broken leg or a broken jaw.

Um, but this is something that is that that's definitely needed to make communities more safer, but also maintain home values.

So thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, I agree.

And so hopefully uh this this will encourage more more people to come forward and get things get their repairs done.

So I'm I'm supportive as well, and happy to second Council Member Speace's uh motion.

But Sean, while you're up here, I just want to thank you for all your work throughout the city because you don't come here too often.

And people should know that you are the guy who takes care.

You know, once we build the shiny stuff, all the things that go wrong in the afterward taking care of it, the lights and the streets and the leaky pipes and the all that stuff.

We call you and you jump on it every time uh I I send you an email.

So I really appreciate that.

Just wanted since you're here, I just want to take this moment to thank you.

Thank you.

I have a great team behind me, and I couldn't do it without any of them.

Awesome.

Well, I echo the same comments as my colleagues here.

Great work, great presentation.

It's also not you know, I heard property values.

I think that that goes without saying, and then also just this the safety aspect of it is also helpful and just taking care of our our residents and our those in need.

So thank you.

Great program, happy to support it as well.

I hear a motion in a second.

So all those in favor, please say aye.

Hi, thank you.

That little measure e button.

Now you can put it.

Right, that's right.

All right, next item.

Okay, it's all right.

Speaking of shiny things, yeah.

This one kind of a big file, so give me a second.

A lot of fun photos.

Okay, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of the council.

My name is Christina Castro, I'm a capital programs manager.

It's a pleasure to reintroduce one of the city's priority transportation projects, the White Lock Parkway Interchange.

This project represents an important investment in improving mobility, access, and connectivity for the growing southwest area of Elk Grove.

So, as many residents have likely experienced, travel time from the west side of Elk Grove Boulevard to the freeway on ramps have steadily increased, particularly the northbound on ramp along East Stockton Boulevard.

These delays will continue to grow as development progresses in Laguna Ridge and the Southeast Policy Area.

With more than a thousand new homes and supporting commercial developments planned in this area, additional access to State Route 99 will be essential in maintaining efficient mobility across the community.

Because a picture often tells this story best, this slide shows an aerial comparison of the southwest region of Elk Grove between 2018 and 2025.

The growth during the short time period is significant, and additional development is still planned.

This expansion reinforces the need for strategic infrastructure improvements to support the community's continued growth.

The White Lock Parkway Interchange will connect White Lock Parkway to State Route 99, located between the existing interchange at Elkgrove Boulevard to the north and Grantline Road slash Camera Road to the south.

In addition to the interchange itself, the project will also evaluate auxiliary lanes on State Route 99 between the adjacent interchanges, a new bicycle and pedestrian connection to Elk Grove Regional Park, supporting roadway improvements, including the Lots Parkway and Promenade Parkway project, which will realign Promenade Parkway just north of Kaiser and connect to Poppy Ridge at the lots or the future lots parkway intersection.

And together, these improvements will create a comprehensive transportation network supporting both mobility and recreation, as I like to call it the White Lux White Lock Complex.

As shown in the diagram, the interchange will serve Elk Grove on the west side of State Route 99, providing full access with northbound and southbound on and off ramps.

In addition to vehicle access, the project also provides an important active transportation connection, allowing pedestrians and bicyclists to directly access Elk Grove Regional Park and the Elk Grove Historic Society from the west side of the freeway.

While the original project study report evaluated three interchange configurations, the work completed through the project approval and environmental document phase, or as we like to call it, PA NED, has refined the preferred alternative to a traditional tight diamond interchange, which is shown here.

The design team and I also had the opportunity to meet with Brett Bartholomew from the Elk Grove Historical Society to review the updated design.

The interchange alignment was shifted south to avoid any impacts to the building sites.

Promenade will extend from the existing limits of Promenade where it connects to the existing West Stockton Boulevard and curve westward towards the proposed Lotz Parkway and Poppy Ridge Road intersection.

So Lots Parkway will then connect south from the interchange area to the existing LOTS Parkway near Lodgeway, completing an important roadway connection within the growing part of the city.

So at the end of 2025, the city solicited proposals to select a consultant team to help expedite project delivery.

Following a competitive process, the city selected WMH Corporation, led by Carl Gibson, who is our project manager, and based on the firm's strong experience delivering major interchange and highway projects for both local agencies and Caltrans.

Carl previously worked on the original project study report while at Quincy Engineering and brings over 27 years of experience in interchange and highway design.

He's also a longtime Elk Grove resident who has raised his family here and spent many years involved with activities at Elk Grove Regional Park, including Boy Scout events and youth soccer.

So Carl's prepared to prepare the renderings I'm showing here, illustrating what the completed interchange and roadway system may look like in the future.

Another important effort currently underway is the Elk Grove Regional Park Master Plan being led by the Consumists Community Services District.

Just last Friday, CCSD released a public notification seeking feedback on the park's concept design.

The city and CCSD will continue working collaboratively to ensure the White Lock Interchange design integrates with the Park Master Plan and vice versa, allowing us to identify the most appropriate land uses and connections adjacent to the future interchange.

As a show of this collaboration, Christine Manita, the park's development director is here, who is leading the effort on this effort on this park master plan is with us this evening.

This rendering illustrates the potential pedestrian bicycle access into the parkway.

The pathway would cross East Stockton Boulevard near the interchange, then gradually transition down into Elk Grove Regional Park.

This connection creates a safe and convenient route for residents traveling between the surrounding neighborhoods and the park.

Over the past decade, the city completed the project's initial planning phase, known as the project study report, project development support.

In 2022, the city initiated the project approval environmental document phase, originally with the intent of pursuing federal funding for construction.

During this process, the alternatives identified in the PSR PDS were further refined through the traffic analysis report.

When the Elk Grove Zoo project was canceled last year, city leadership reevaluated priorities and potential uses of the funding that had been reserved for this project.

The White Lock Parkway interchange emerged as a top priority.

Because this interchange primarily serves local residents rather than regional travel, it is less competitive for federal grant funding.

Additionally, given the pace of development south of Elk Grove Boulevard, the city recognized that this improvement may be needed sooner than federal funding timeline would allow.

For these reasons, the city is now proposing to advance the project using local funds, which allows the project to proceed under CEQA environmental clearance rather than the additional timeline and complexity associated with NEPA.

With WMH now on the project team, the city anticipates the following schedule.

We'll have environmental clearance, hopefully cleared by 2028, with right-of-way acquisitions in 2029 and construction starting in 2030.

Working closely with the city's finance departments, staff evaluate a number of potential funding options.

Through that process, we identified 10 funding sources that together provide sufficient funding to deliver the project without impacting the city's current high level of operational services.

This funding strategy allows the city to move forward with an important transportation improvement while maintaining fiscal responsibility and continuing to support other essential community priorities.

Staff is requesting council council's direction to move forward with the White Lock Parkway interchange as a priority infrastructure improvement and to incorporate the identified funding strategy into the upcoming CIP update.

With council support, staff will continue advancing environmental clearance and design so that this critical transportation improvement can move towards construction in the coming years.

And with that, I would be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for that outstanding report.

I will open up public comment opportunity.

I do not have anyone signed up to speak.

I'll close public comment.

I'm sorry.

Did you say sure?

And then we'll put Mr.

Becker in there.

Thank you.

Sorry.

You got me right before I close, so you got it's fine.

Um as most of you know that being an old town resident with too many decades to count.

The impact of Elkgrove Park was probably the most important thing.

I know too, the west side, it's the matter of getting on and off the freeway and cutting the congestion.

But truthfully, the east side could care less about the condition on the west side as much as what the impact is to the Elkgrove Park.

And as some of the renderings over the years, um, we've kind of fought tooth and nail, and this rendering kind of serves the work that the hard work that's done been done over the years in conversation.

The only thing I did notice that the uh the bike, the bike access to the park, I think is a great idea, but we need to make sure that that has at least a 14-foot clearance from from ground to the bottom of the bike um path or whatever you want to call it, the over bike bicycle overpass that'll keep any potential damage that may happen to any um commercial vehicles that might find their way down there and get stuck.

Uh I don't think believe they should be down there, but at least needs to be uh 14-foot clearance.

Um I like the rendering.

Um it's probably 15 years too late, but everything takes time.

You know, stew and soup takes a lot of ingredients for it to taste well.

And so I think staff and everyone actually on both sides with CSD and and staff and community members have done an excellent job to come up with something that uh I think everyone can live with.

So I appreciate staff's involvement and understanding of what a gym our number one park is, and I know there's many parts, but without this park, we may not have had the other parts.

We had to fight tooth and nail with the county to get this and get it get it underneath our blanket.

So thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Becker.

I don't have anyone signed up to speak, so I will go ahead and close public comment.

Questions, comments, so I'll start to the right.

Councilmember Robles, anything?

Thank you for the presentation.

No, not mainly questions, just looking forward to this.

Councilmember Spees, anything?

Two words, let's go.

Council Mar Brewer.

Thank you, Christina.

This is a really good report.

Um being on seeing the other side of the issue and not really being in favor of it, let alone being in love with it.

I've grown to say this is actually a well thought out idea.

Um there's funding behind it, there's a path.

And the only question I have is when you're looking at uh East Octon Boulevard, because I live down in Hampton Village.

Does East does East Octon Boulevard still remain as a two-lane road with this new construction, or because um there's that one straight shot that people like coming off of Highway 99 and coming down south?

Um, or will traffic be redirected along Elk Roe Florent during the years of the construction.

I don't know yet.

Um Elkrove Boulevard is a two-lane facility, and where we can keep traffic open, it's a high volume um pathway, East Stockton.

So the goal is always to maintain um access, but if it can reduce you know months or um significant time in construction activities, it's something we'll weigh um further along in the process.

Yeah, because uh and absolutely communicate out towards public what the impact um would be for that.

For not only for my neighborhood, but the neighborhood um just to the north of Elkrove Park, um that is nearest to Elk Elk Grove High School.

Um, so you have those two that rely on going north-south on East Octon Boulevard on a daily basis.

And so coming to it, leaving from home and coming back to home is just trying to figure out how those veins, how that vein can be um resolved in some way, shape, or form from uh from from a modal standpoint.

But uh really I really like how this is laid out.

Um I agree with Mr.

Becker's assessment of making sure that we have that 14-foot absolutely for the for the bike pathway because as you make that journey across the highway, whether you're bicycling or walking or jogging, you're coming smoothly into the park, but you also have the option of staying down East Docton Boulevard going up to um Elkgrove Boulevard.

So or to the highway.

This is uh, like I said, I really like this uh this version of it.

Uh and and definitely appreciate the path now with everything in place uh with these uh it's just it's uh it's it's it's really good, well thought out and and definitely commended.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The um over crossing accommodates the highway.

Yeah, and it continues over East Stockton, which is adjacent, so it absolutely clears yeah, heavy vehicle traffic.

15 feet.

Good deal.

Good deal.

I see you're 14 and I raise it one.

But good deal.

Thank you so much, preacher.

Great job.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Christina, for the presentation.

Uh this is crazy.

It's been 20 years when I was in the private sector.

I commissioned the engineer to look at this, and it's 20 years, and here we are.

But I I just for memory's sake, I mean, can you walk us through the movements?

Uh is it still a free when you when you're heading eastbound?

Is it free flow to the northbound?

Let me scroll back to the line work.

I think that's probably the easiest.

Okay.

So there is, and I think I can even there we go.

So and again, this is what is um early in concept design, but it is a free flow um, or I'm sorry, it's not a free flow.

We're looking at signalizing this intersection to allow for the um off ramp movement on the southbound.

So there's a signal here to allow for flow towards you know, northbound travel, and then the free flow is on your um ramp towards the south.

But there will be a signalized intersection.

Right.

And then if you're heading eastbound, if you're heading eastbound, white lock, you go across the freeway, you hit another signalized intersection.

Yeah.

Yes.

So that's this is the same configuration 20 years ago.

We I mean it's pretty standard.

It's one Caltrans.

I know typically uses, yes.

I know, and that's what I'm I'm asking, and I I know you guys are pretty far along, but I I still, you know, just for due diligence, I need to ask.

I mean, is there we're we're building the over over crossing.

I mean, it's free floating.

So uh has there been any thought in terms of a of a traffic circle roundabout to allow for you guys look at that?

Yeah, the the PSR PDS had three alternatives.

One of them was a roundabout, uh-huh.

The tight diamond and then the diverging diamond.

Okay.

Um there is not a half diverging diamond constructed in California.

So it would have been a much tougher sell.

It did not have any benefits in traffic um alleviation for congestion.

So this is a project that Caltrans could get behind that we feel is the easiest path forward.

It has the best benefits, um, had took up the least amount of right-of-way and was the least expensive.

I'm sorry, did you say there's three divergent and traffic circles?

What did the what was the the roundabout?

Roundabout, yeah.

Diverging diamond?

The roundabout.

No, those are two.

Yeah.

Yeah, I know.

But you uh how about the roundabout?

What did they say about the roundabout?

The roundabout was one of the first and earliest to eliminate I think that one was right away parking interchange.

Um I see the roundabout or other challenges associated with it as well.

And then all of the alternatives are evaluated.

I'm not my mic here.

Yeah.

Uh all of the alternatives were about evaluated for all of these trade-offs that we see, right?

So we were talking traffic operations, safety, cost, right, etc.

And the div um the tight diamond is the one that rose to the top in terms of uh meeting all of those in the best uh interest of the city.

Yeah, okay, I understand.

And that thank you for walking me through that.

Yeah, because this is still gonna back up, right?

You know that.

I mean it it's but I understand what you're trying to balance, and so appreciate the other considerations that you had.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Great presentation, great update.

It's definitely a priority project.

Um it'll help with traffic congestion ultimately and um improve our quality of life here for our residents.

I'm I I always get sticker shock when I see the costs.

And I can only imagine 20 years ago, yeah, it wouldn't have been these numbers, but um, but thank you again.

So this is not a motion, it's just uh receive information.

Thank you.

All right, uh Council Comments reports future agenda items.

Uh Council Member Robles, anything to report uh we did have a uh regional or sewer district meeting.

Um also had a um Cameron Road meeting a couple weeks ago, and I think that's pretty much about it.

Thank you, uh, air quality meeting in two weeks.

So you can tell us that one in two weeks.

Council members please.

I do very quickly.

Sacramento Metropolitan Cable Television Commission uh is starting to have to make very difficult decision related to uh how we allocate um funding to uh to our uh franchisee channels.

Um and so I just I know we've talked about it before, I've mentioned it before.

Please understand that you know there is uh many people are now cutting their cutting the cable, going to the streaming services that has an impact on um the revenue that we receive from the Sacramento Metropolitan Cable Television Commission.

And so um it is not something that we can control.

That's the consumer.

Consumer is moving to the streaming, and so um, you know, over time um and very very soon um those uh those numbers are going to decrease in terms of what we get from cable revenue.

So wanted to put that little warning out there, not like you don't know it.

Thank you.

Councilmember Brewer, anything to report?

No, it's to report.

Council or Vice Mayor.

Well, uh wave my report, thank you.

Thank you.

Um I too will wave my report, nothing to report out.

Um but before we officially adjourn, I do want to adjourn in the memory of Chief Warrant Officer Three, Robert Marzan.

Yeah.

Um we did lower the city flag and the Wilson Rancheria flag in his honor and in his memory.

So um, and the city is the city is going to be providing space for the Marzan family for awake on the 27th, and then I believe there's a service on the 28th.

So very difficult time for the family, so please keep them in your prayers.

Um he was one of I believe six that was killed.

Seven now, I think.

Seven now.

Um over the uh in the Iran conflict or war, whatever we want to call it.

So it's you know, these things are always difficult.

It's always our young men and women who pay the ultimate price.

So let us lift them in prayer and think about their families tonight as we adjourn.

Um in the memory of one of our own Chief Warrant Officer Three, Robert Marzan.

May his memory be a blessing to all that knew him.

Thank you for your service, sir.

Amen.

Bye-bye.

Good night.