We have reconvened from closed session.

I have the following disclosure by a five to zero vote.

The city council authorized and directed the city attorney's office to defend the cases of Wynn versus Z Town Entertainment LLC and all, as identified by the case number on the City Council meeting agenda.

So with that, we will adjourn the special meeting at 6.02 p.m.

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

Today is Wednesday, March the 25th, 2026.

The time is 602 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 streamed at Metro14Live.secCounty.gov.

Tonight's meeting replays will be on Friday, March 27th at 1 p.m.

and Monday, March 30th at 9 a.m.

on Metro Channel 14.

Once posted, the recordings of this and previous meetings can be viewed on demand at the 3W's Elkgrove.gov or YouTube.com slash Metro Cable 14.

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

The Elkgrove City Council welcomes, appreciates, and encourages participation in the City Council meetings.

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

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

Pursuant to resolution number 2021-154.

No individual speaker concerning public comment may address the city council for more than three minutes.

If you wish to address the city 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 item.

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

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

Present.

Councilmember Spees.

Councilmember Brewer.

Present.

Vice Mayor Suan here.

And Mayor Singh Allen.

Here.

Thank you.

Next up is our land acknowledgement.

Assisting will be our vice mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

We honor, respect, and acknowledge Elkgrove's first inhabitants, the Plains Miwok, who lived as sovereign caretakers of this land in these waterways since time immemorial.

We commemorate and advocate for their descendants, the Wilton Rancheria tribe, the only federally recognized tribe in Sacramento County who endure because of the bravery, resiliency, and determination of their ancestors, tribal members, and leaders.

Thank you.

Next up is our Pledge of Allegiance.

I would like to invite Chief Davis to lead us this evening.

Thank you.

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

Thank you.

All right, next up is our approval of the agenda.

May I get a motion?

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Next item, please.

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

And the first being 4.1, a proclamation recognizing March as Women Histories Month.

Women History Month.

Excellent.

Thank you.

At this time, I would like to call forward Rise Women in Business.

Please come to the podium and I will read our Women's History Month, March 2026 proclamation.

Nice to see everyone this evening.

All right, whereas March was officially designated as Women's History Month in 1987 to honor and celebrate the contributions of women throughout history.

And whereas this year's theme, leading the change, women shaping a sustainable future celebrates the powerful influence of women who are working to rebuild systems to ensure long-term environmental, economic, and social sustainability.

And whereas on October 25th, 1988, the women's business ownership act was signed into law, allowing women entrepreneurs to access resources to support their business endeavors, including eliminating laws requiring women to have a male co-signer for business loans.

And since the law was enacted, the number of women-owned businesses has grown substantially throughout the United States.

And whereas Elk Grove has more than 1,400 women-owned businesses, and this number continues to climb and drive economic growth and community engagement.

And whereas Rise Women in Business strives to encourage, empower, inspire women to achieve the highest and best version of themselves and their businesses through the power of connection.

And whereas the City of Elk Grove celebrates RISE and its achievements due to their leadership and commitment to advance gender equality and support the economic and socially sustainable growth of women-led businesses.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Elk Grove proclaims March 2026 as women's history month in the city of Elk Grove and proudly honors RISE Women in Business for their outstanding contributions to our community, signed this day.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Council.

Would someone like to speak?

Sure.

On behalf of our founders, um, Brittany Johnson, Brittany Davis, and Jill Johnson, our leadership team and our members, I want to thank you guys, um, our city, our mayor, and our council members for recognizing RISE and Women in Business and for giving us this proclamation for Women History Month.

This is a great deal for us.

Um, Rise is a nonprofit that was started by Britney and Jill back in 2023.

And their mission was to help support women in business through making connections, building relationships, um, providing resources and opportunities to women to build and grow their businesses.

So I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to continue what they've started and build on it.

And so I guess this would be a good time to officially announce that we are launching a RISE Women in Business training program, which consists of virtual workshops and in-person workshops once a month, every month, covering different business topics from finance, accounting, business growth strategies, and even mental health for entrepreneurs.

And part of this training program also includes a women in business conference next year in April.

So we're really excited about that.

So again, thank you for your support, and we ask for your continued support so we can continue our mission to keep serving the women entrepreneurs and business owners in our city.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Oh, yeah.

Hi.

Hi.

How are you?

Good to see you.

All right, our next item is 4.2, a proclamation and recognition of April as Fair Housing Month.

Assisting will be Councilmember Roblis.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Do we have hi?

How are you doing?

Akilah Williams.

Yes, pretty good.

Well, I will read the proclamation and then we'll give you the floor.

Whereas adequate housing is a basic need and the rights for all people.

Whereas this year we celebrate 58 year anniversary for enacting for the enactment of Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, which states that the discrimination in the cell and rental of housing is illegal based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, whereas Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 extends fair housing rights on the basis of familiar status in families with children and base of handicapped and disabled person.

Whereas California statutes additionally protect citizens on the base of age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and source of income in California celebrates the 66th anniversary for the Fair Employment and Housing Act.

Whereas the City of Elk Grove supports fair housing efforts to eliminate discrimination in housing and recognizing the benefits of educating home seekers, apartment managers, and apartment owners on the federal and state housing laws to investigate compliance of illegal housing discrimination in the community.

Whereas, in order to heighten public awareness, the city of Elk Grove wishes to focus on public attention on April as Fair Housing Month.

Now, therefore, let it be resolved that the City Council of the City of Elk Grove hereby proclaims the month of April 2026 Fair Housing Months, and we do encourage all residents and community organizations to celebrate the values of this diverse community neighborhood and support the goal of equal housing opportunities for all.

Signed 25th day of March 2026.

The floor is all yours.

I did just want to introduce myself again.

I'm Akila Williams.

I'm actually the only fair housing coordinator here in the greater Sacramento region at the moment.

I cover all the way from Galt up until Notomas, and I cover all the way from Folsom all the way back to West Sacramento.

Um I also cover the city of West Sacramento and the city of Roseville.

I did just want to say the huge importance about Fair Housing Month is I know that we all think about housing rights in a way of living somewhere, right?

But it's also about staying where you're living, right?

So there are also different rights as far as, like you said, based off of your disabilities, your race, your sex, whether you have a family, whether you live by yourself.

A lot of our City of Elk Grove residences are older and they're usually homeowners, but that does not mean that you don't have your fair housing rights.

There are a lot of ways we can assist those, including we have a lot of our um residents here in Elk Grove that are on social security and fixed incomes.

What happens when your income and your check comes in on the 15th of the month, but rents due on the first, right?

You've got to have somebody that's willing to not only advocate, educate, but also be willing to enforce those rights that you have for fair housing.

So I want to say thank you so much to the city of Elk Grove.

You guys are very supportive for Project Sentinel, and um we look forward to being able to partner with you guys every year.

So just thank you so much again for this proclamation.

Thank you for all the hard work that you do.

All right, our next item is 4.3 proclamation recognizing April 2026 as Parkinson's Disease Awareness Month.

And uh assisting will be our vice mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'd like to invite down Sherry Resser, uh representing the uh the Elk Grove Parkinson Support Group, and my brother Darren Wilson.

Nice to see you there.

Is Sherry here too?

And we also have Paul Coxy.

Okay, come on down, Paul.

Yeah, please come on down.

I'll do the I'll I'll read this and then I invite to each of you separately to come say a few words, please.

It's my honor to recognize uh Parkinson's Awareness Month.

I come on down.

Yeah, there you go, Paul.

First for me.

Whereas Parkinson's disease is a chronic progressive neurological disease and is the second most common near neurodegenerative disease in the United States.

And whereas Parkinson's disease is estimated to affect approximately one million people in the United States.

And whereas research suggests the cause of Parkinson's disease is a combination of genetic and environmental factors, but the exact cause and the progression of the disease is still unknown.

And there is no objective test or biomarker of for Parkinson's disease with no cure or drug to slow or halt the progression of the disease.

And whereas the symptoms of Parkinson's disease vary from person to person and can include tremors, slowness of movement, and rigidity, difficulty with balance, swallowing, chewing, and speaking, cognitive impairment, and dementia, mood disorders, and a variety of other non-motor symptoms.

And whereas each increased research, education, and community support services, such as those provided by the Parkinson's Foundation, the Parkinson's Association of Northern California, and other organizations are needed to find more effective treatments and to provide access to quality of care to those living with the disease today.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Elk Grove hereby affirms and proclaims April 2026 as Parkinson's Awareness Month in the City of Elk Grove and encourages the community to join the volunteers, researchers, caregivers, and medical professionals who are working to improve the quality of life of persons living with Parkinson's disease and their families.

Thank you both again for being here today.

Thank you, sir.

Ms.

Mayor, City Council members.

My name is Paul Copsey, as I said earlier.

You said you told me earlier, didn't you?

But uh I want to thank you for having us here today.

Thank you for declaring this month, Parkinson's Disease Month.

And to just bring some focus on to Parkinson's disease in the first place.

Just two years ago, I couldn't have told you what Parkinson's disease had, what it had in store for people who who who contract the definition you have for Parkinson's disease that you mentioned earlier.

I could argue with that all day.

You're bringing a lot of uh a lot of uh new new definitions to what's going on with Parkinson's disease right now.

But uh we're making some great inroads into into solving this problem.

Until then, our elders are gonna be going to be contracting Parkinson's disease, and a lot of our younger people will as well.

It's in our environment, it's all over the place.

It's what you eat, it's what you breathe, it's what you touch, it's all there.

It's all in our environment.

Anyway, I'd like to move on here and tell you that the about our our committee, our uh our group here for community community service group here in Elk Grove.

God damn it.

Is uh the best groups I've ever been in involved.

I've been involved in a lot of groups in my time.

And this one here is terrific.

This group here in Elkrobe.

If you have anyone who has Parkinson's disease, or you know them, anyone that has Parkinson's disease, send them down to this group.

They're terrific.

Absolutely terrific.

Everyone there.

Every time I go there, I'm either helping someone else or someone else is helping me.

Go in with questions, you walk out with straight answers.

Doctors don't even know what we do, we know as a group.

We should just shy ourselves out, I think.

At any rate, uh, it's it's a tricky place to be.

And we have suppliers on the back counter back there.

If you want if anyone is interested.

And uh so that said, to the people of the Sud City of Sacramento, behalf of our volunteer leaders, Mr.

Meyron Jansen, Ms.

Shiri Raser, all of our folks who must deal with Parkinson's disease daily.

Our sincere thanks for making this month our month.

Thank you.

Along with the who we have, Fair Housing here too.

Our month.

Thank you.

All thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good job.

Oh, thank you.

So now that you hear it, go ahead.

Good evening, madam mayor, members of the council, good to be back.

Uh thank you for bringing awareness to this uh neurodegenerative disease that affects a million people nationwide and uh 10 million people worldwide, and it's it's growing, unfortunately, 10% a year.

Um but you know, although there's a lot of research and dollars put into it, as Paul mentioned, um dedicated to the ultimate cure of Parkinson's, like you know, a cure won't happen overnight.

Uh, you know, uh a typical pill takes 10 years to 15 years to get approved by the FDA.

So nothing's nothing's quick.

But in the meantime, I highly recommend be your own health advocate.

Uh doctors are always practicing medicine.

You know your body better than anybody else, your mind.

So do the research and research on the disease, research on the current treatment, research on upcoming treatments.

I've I've spent 10 to 100 hours on AI and the internet going over different treatments, and I give a word of caution.

The internet can be a cesspool of information as well.

So make sure you uh uh you know understand what you're reading, and you know, you're gonna get a lot of contradiction on the internet.

But if if it's consistently shown in studies, it's a good practice to follow.

So while there's not a cure, I've I've put down my top four things to slow down the progression of the disease.

Uh number one, and they'll always say this is exercise, and that's true with heart disease, diabetes, what have you, enter that disease.

And it's it's just moving, you know.

If it's 20 minutes a day, three days a week walking, do it.

If you can't walk, bicycle.

If you can't bicycle, do arm jumping jacks or squeeze stress balls or whatever you do to keep moving.

It keeps the dopamine going to the brain and slows down the progression.

Um start start an exercise group with a family, co-worker, you know, uh friend.

It it promotes you know, support and promotes accountability.

So uh I walk with my beautiful wife, uh, who's in the audience.

Yeah.

We we walk uh every day that we're not seeing the trainer, so um, and we walk, you know, like a 300-foot elevation.

So we get our heart rate up going pretty good.

Number two is diet.

Mediterranean is kind of the Mediterranean diet's kind of the standard diet for Parkinson's.

Uh the fish, uh vegetables, fruits, uh good fats and oils.

Uh I take it a step further.

I'm doing the ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting, which has proven to help brain health even more.

So tough getting rid of those carbs, but it's it's all for for the good health.

So in fact, in the last three months, I've been able to get off of my high blood pressure medicine altogether.

Awesome.

So that's that's what diet and exercise does in three months.

So it's crazy.

Yeah.

Uh then taking supplements.

I'm not a doctor, I'm an engineer, so please consult with your doctor on this.

Uh coQ10, I take it every day.

It's an antioxidant that supports energy production in brain cells.

Magnesium is important for anybody, uh, especially people with Parkinson's that have trouble sleeping due to restless muscles, the rigidity of the legs, what have you will keep you up.

So I take magnesium glyce glycinate and then magnesium uh citrate in the morning for digestive issues that are related to Parkinson's.

So omega-3, fish oil, good for uh anti-inflammatory that supports mood and cognitive function.

It also helps depression, which is a non-motor symptom of Parkinson's.

Um two of these next vitamin D and vitamin D.

If you haven't been tested for it and you have Parkinson's, have your doctor do it as part of your lab for your each year because both both vitamins are shown to be deficient in people with Parkinson's.

Vitamin D, you can get out by being in the sun.

So exercise and in the sun, you kill two birds with one stone there.

But uh I take a supplement as well, B B6, B12, full eight, um supports nerve health and cognition.

And then the last one is uh uh N acetal cysteine, which is NAC, it helps dopamine function and reduces oxidative stress.

So finally, the number fourth advice is um have the attitude of gratitude.

So you know, be grateful every day.

Life life is very beautiful.

So like I like to say to people, I've said Parkinson's disease doesn't shape me.

I thought it was the end of the world when I was diagnosed, but it doesn't shape me.

But it is borrowing my body and mind for a bit.

So but again, I wanted to thank this call uh council for the proclamation and bringing awareness.

I do have a dear friend that has a foundation.

Uh he has Parkinson's.

Unfortunately, he couldn't be here tonight, but he sent his son and daughter to briefly go over at that foundation and a golf tournament they have.

So if you wouldn't wouldn't mind to hear from them.

Thank you.

Council.

Darren, Darren, just before you leave, just before you leave.

I I just I just wanted to say uh because we'll step down after after they speak, but uh as our former development services director and an employee of El Grove for nearly 20 years.

Uh we thank you for being here and you're a reminder uh that Parkinson's disease.

We said a million people nationally, but it's very easily can touches people close to home and so as part of Elk Grove family.

We're glad you're doing well.

It's great to see you here today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Darren, for the invite and uh good evening, Mayor and uh City Council members.

Uh we appreciate uh you having us.

My name is Adam Fishlin.

This is my sister Alison.

Uh we thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and for recognizing April 2026 as Parkinson's Disease Awareness Month.

It means a great deal to our family and so many others in this community.

Um, Elk Grove is part of who we are as Fishlands.

Uh our family has deep roots here.

Allison and I are graduates of Franklin High School.

Uh our grandfather had the honor of serving Elk Grove uh as the fire chief from 1992 to 1997.

Uh and our family continues to grow roots right here in in this very city.

Uh our dad, Steve Fishland spent over four decades working for Ailes and Bel Air, including opening the Bel Air on Waterman and Elk Grove Boulevard.

Um he built lasting relationship across this community.

In 2018, our dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Um while he could have wallowed in that news, and I think no one would have blamed him.

If you know my dad, that's not in his character.

Um he almost immediately started asking, what can I do to help others?

How can I build community?

And um our dad and his wife Lisa started getting really involved in the Parkinson's community here in Sacramento.

They got really engaged with the Parkinson's Foundation, started volunteering, raising money, they serve time on the board.

And in 2024, once they were both retired, um our family made a decision to start a family nonprofit called Fish for Parkinson's to raise money, hope, um, and awareness for those living with and impacted by Parkinson's disease.

Uh so that's part of why we're here today is to encourage people to get engaged and get involved.

We host an annual golf tournament to raise money for those living with and impacted by Parkinson's in our community.

So our third annual golf tournament will be on August 10th.

I got the date right.

Um we have flyers in the back if anybody is interested in golfing or sponsoring.

Um we'd love to see you out there.

And yes, thank you so much for your time.

Uh just to wrap up quickly, sorry.

Uh awareness matters because behind every diagnosis as a family just like ours, a story and a fight.

Uh tonight your recognition sends a message that El Grove stands with the people uh affected by Parkinson's.

So thank you for your time and support and honoring this cause.

Thank you.

Please send our regards to your dad.

How are you buddy?

I love you.

I owe you records.

All right, thank you.

Next up is our public comment.

I will go ahead and open up public comment.

We will start with Sue J and forgive me if I mispronounced the last name, Jirachi.

Yes.

Followed by Lynnweat.

Council members.

The um third No King's March is on Saturday from ten to one on the corner of Bruceville and Laguna Boulevard.

This Saturday, okay.

Um, and um uh I wanted to leave you with one thought.

Um, something about history.

So uh sorry, history lesson.

During World War II, the German pastor Martin Niemuller was imprisoned in concentration camps for his or opposition to the Nazi state control of his churches.

After his imprisonment, he expressed his deep regret for not having done enough to help the victims of the Nazis.

This is one variation of his quote first they came.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

It translates pretty well into what's going on today.

Um pick a pick a group, immigrants, um, women's reproductive rights and now women's vo um voting rights.

Um Muslims, Jews again.

Um Democrats, you know?

We don't know.

Anyway, thank you for your time.

I've done my bit.

Have a good evening.

Thank you for being here.

Next up is Lynn Weeds, followed by Marina Schmidt.

I've been coming to city council meetings for 25 years.

I missed the first year that we were a city.

And during that time, I've heard about all the ways we're gonna economically develop the city.

We were gonna have them all.

You know, the mall is gonna be a great thing.

We don't have them all.

We're gonna have the soccer mecca, bought city bought a hundred acres, not a soccer mecca.

We were gonna be the Olympic swim trial Mecca.

Yeah, not so much.

We had the Amjun pro cycling Mecca.

I hope we can get our four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars back.

Barren Wynemeca, well, that's kind of still developing, but we're finding out young people don't really drink, they'd rather smoke.

Then we were gonna be the tech Mecca.

Of course, we don't want to forget NRC that didn't really come.

25,000 jobs promised to us in SEPA, that didn't really happen.

And then of course we had the zoo fiasco, a lot of other monies of our tax dollars spent.

However, now we've got a new deal going on.

We're gonna be the creative arts mecca, and that's gonna create art art jobs here.

And I'm really looking forward to that, and this is actually one I can get on.

I don't know, there was a small, small uh movie making company that was gonna come to town and they were looking for some extras.

And of course, I decided I have a lot of time on my hands, so I'd be one of those extras.

And so, of course, they wanted to do the makeup in preparation for the zombie movie they were doing.

And I have to tell you I was the oldest one that applied as an extra.

Well, unfortunately, the makeup that they used.

And this is the fallout from it.

So I'm still healing from that, but they're really excited because you know their their money costs for the movie are really tight.

So I'm gonna look natural, and they're gonna be able to save some money on that makeup.

So again, I can get behind this economic development plan, because I think Elk Rove's gonna go places with this art um economic development plan that our economic development department is creating.

Thank you.

Next up is Mayor Sing Allen, Vice Mayor Suan, Councilmembers Brewer, Robless, and Spees.

Hi Kevin.

So I'm here representing the Rotary Club of Laguna Sunrise Taste of Elk Grove, and I appreciate the opportunity to present this to our community.

What I wanted to be sure to get across is that our club is hosting the 20th annual Taste of Elk Grove, April 18th at the Sacramento Asian Sports Foundation on High Tech Court.

The proceeds benefit local, international, and national organizations and projects.

How this event specifically impacts the residents of Elk Grove is that we offer services to the Outgrove Food Bank, also with the Elk Grove Unified School District, especially through their foster youth programs, as well as the unhoused population.

In addition to that, this particular event also helps our local businesses.

We have food vendors, we have wine vendors, we have craft beer vendors.

Everyone is benefiting.

We're all helping to improve the beautiful city of Elk Grove that I moved to in 1989.

So thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to present fun and philanthropy.

And I appreciate all your service to our community.

So come enjoy.

Let's have a party.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Eileen B, followed by Armando Cervantes.

Hello, my name is Ellen, and I live in District One, and I've been an Elk Grove resident for over 10 years.

I'm following up on email comments I provided to the clerk for the last city council meeting regarding possible future ice raids in Elk Grove.

First, I am again 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 the following.

Number one, a resolution prohibiting ice on city property.

Number two, developing a community safety action plan in preparation for mass raids and militarized enforcements.

And number three, having local police present during civil immigration enforcement to do the following.

First, to verify and record the name and badge number of the on-seen federal supervisory officer.

Second, to document allegations of any unlawful conduct by federal agents.

And third, to preserve evidence in the case of alleged unlawful conduct.

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

Second, I'm following up on the commitment the city made at the last city council meeting to hold publicly noticed meetings regarding community safety during possible ice raids.

In order to provide equal access for all residents, I ask that these meetings are live streamed, recorded for replay, and meeting minutes are posted online after the meeting, and that multiple meeting dates and times are offered.

To allow residents to get their specific concerns addressed, I ask that these public meetings include adequate time for a thorough question and answer segment.

And finally, I would like to know specifically how the city will provide the public notice.

This information was not provided.

The last city council meeting when the announcement of future meetings was made.

Regarding email notice, there are more than a dozen different city email lists that residents can sign up, excuse me, can sign up for.

I'm on all of them.

But for many residents, that's really a hassle.

So I'm asking for residents here and maybe watching this meeting on video.

Will the city please speak into the record which email list residents should sign up for to be notified of future public meetings about ice preparation and public safety?

Maybe Ms.

Guzman could share.

This is a public comment opportunity, so she cannot engage right now.

Thank you.

Could you share after the public comment?

What email lists we can sign up to get notified of those meetings?

Um she can meet with you afterwards.

Privately, but not to the public.

I'll leave that to her for the end of the count uh end of city council report.

Okay, thank you.

And I apologize, it's Ellen, not Eileen.

Uh let's see.

Next up is Armando Cervantes, followed by Michael Manowski.

Hi, everybody.

I apologize for my Chevrolet look and my smell may be offensive, but these are the only clothes I own in this uh at this time.

And um I forced to live outside in your bushes, and I apologize for that.

I never wished to live in your bushes or in your waterways.

Um my voice is probably a voice that wasn't supposed to be heard here because it's the truth, and it's my blood that the system is written in.

Hi, nice to meet you all.

Um, but I mean I know that there's there's there's big business deals and sp uh in favors and special interest groups that want to make deals and stuff.

So and there's not enough time for me to um to to go over everything that I have to go over, but I just wanted to introduce myself, say hello, my name is Romando Cervantes.

I go by Benny in the um in my homeless community where where I'm a stand-up guy.

I'm known for telling the truth.

Everybody trusts me.

Um I do what's right, and I'm a good Samaritan in your community.

I get misunderstood a lot because of the way I look, but I was a tattoo artist for over 15 years, and and and on paper doesn't show my accomplishments that I that I made in that area.

But um, I was woken up several times today on a on street corners and stuff and on the railroad tracks, and I begged and cried for help uh from the city, and I I've had the opportunity to be in the shelter, and I appreciate that.

And I thank everybody that's reached out and was helped me.

And I know that the police department, they're good people, and I come here to bash them.

They're great.

I love them.

Um just a couple bad, no, just not just playing.

But um, I got a ticket, I got a citation today for um, I don't know what it was for.

I was asleep when they gave it to me.

But um I gotta I I plan to take that and and do something.

I'm gonna turn all these negative.

I don't know, I'm sleep deprived.

I got woken up.

I haven't been able to sleep for like two days.

There, it's like waterboarding, I imagine, um, to kind of evoke negative emotions in me and get me to do things that that go against my ethics and my and who I am.

Um, it's weird, but it's true that that there is uh a group or something against me and preventing me from from getting ahead.

Because every time I come close, they get they pull the plug on me like last week.

Like they like I like they um encouraged me several times, several times um to go cross Kelvin Croat County where you can do um whatever you want.

And I'm like, okay, I just want to get back to my kids.

Okay, okay.

So I finally went over there and I I was able to buy a uh purchase a car, a nice car at 99 Volvo on my street credibility, because like I said, I'm known for being a stand-up guy.

But um, there was also somebody waiting for me over there that was planted there by uh the by the day and um he was waiting for me.

He stole my car.

He got impounded, and um, there's been anything I can do.

Um, so I'm back to Square Wayne and he's he's still on the streets and he's stalking me at night, and so it's not safe anywhere for me to sleep out there.

So I'm back in How Grove where I was been kind of stalked all night and I haven't been able to do go to sleep, but um I'm I don't know where I'm gonna stay at tonight.

Um and uh we could ask uh David Batoncourt where's my um wallet and my keys and everything that they took from me today, but I'm gonna I'm still gonna be a good Samaritan in this community no matter what they do.

Good luck to you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

Um next up is Michael Manaski.

This council has made or not well, the council has made Elk Grove into a police state.

About half of the general funds went to the police in 2016.

Ten years later, seven and ten general fund dollars go to the police.

I'd call this a police state.

I called Elk Rova police state in 2016 when the general fund spending was at 50 percent.

What can we expect in another 10 years?

Allocation of all general funds to the police department.

We're well on our way to that goal.

A quarter million to buy a military assault vehicle and oodles more cash to maintain it.

This isn't military surplus, so it was characterized years ago.

This is mainstream military industrial government complex warned against by Eisenhower as he left office in January 1961.

Drones get all the attention, but I'm particularly concerned about sonic weapons for crowd control.

These instruments of war have a crescendo of tactical attributes from low to high frequencies, causing everything from imbalance and ataxia to oral damage.

There's a conundrum and an irony in the free speech for the police.

Why does the council militarize the police?

Establishment authority fears the people as it should.

You all serve at a at our pleasure.

We are the collective authority and can vote you out of office.

However, the council only listens to those who pad their campaign coffers.

I've been arguing against military funding since I was a child.

In 1966, the librarian of Congress proposed the following resolution for debate in the schools.

Resolved that the foreign aid program of the United States should be limited to non-military assistance.

No one wanted to speak in opposition to the proposition.

The forensic club faculty member or faculty advisor explained that we'd have to argue against the opposition as well as in support of the proposed foreign aid policy against giving weapons to needy countries.

Hardly.

Thank you.

At this time, I will go ahead and close public comment and then offer up Ms.

Guzmond.

Did you want to respond to a public comment?

Yes, staff has been working to coordinate our next community meetings regarding immigration enforcement with our community partners, as you can imagine in coordinating and finding venues and booking them.

It takes some time.

But we have honed in on a date, so we will be begin to promote that shortly.

But the meetings will take place on April 14th with two sessions offered, one from 3 to 5 p.m.

and the next from 6 to 8 p.m.

So both meetings in person at District 56 on April 14th.

We do not have a dedicated listserv for this specific topic, but it should show up in the weekly outgrove updates, and we will be posting it on social media in our different channels.

Very good.

Thank you.

All right, with that, we will move on to our next item, which is our general uh the city manager's report.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the city council, Jason Barryman, your city manager.

A few items to report on this evening.

Um, as has been noted previously, we're proud of our new number one best place to live in California.

Um, as uh noted by uh livability.

Um we also ranked number six in the Western U.S.

for our strong quality of life factors such as economy, amenities, safety, and education.

City stood out also for its extensive park system, thanks to our wonderful partners in the CSD, our diverse dining, high performing schools, along with major employers such as Apple, Kaiser, and many others supporting a strong economic vitality.

Um, additional recognition recently from Nietzsche included top grades for outdoor activities, public schools, diversity, and weather, reinforcing Elgrove's reputation as a vibrant and welcoming community.

Also, want to provide an update on the city's efforts related to broadband throughout the community.

City recently completed a comprehensive review of its municipal broadband initiative, finding that approximately 93% of Elkgrove households have access to high-speed service with private providers continuing to expand coverage.

Given the estimated 40 million dollar cost to develop a city funded network for remaining gaps, staff has determined that the investment is not fiscally prudent and recommends discontinuing city-led efforts.

City will instead continue to monitor broadband availability and support connectivity through coordination with private providers.

Additional information is available on the city's website regarding our broadband efforts.

Also want to note that the the there are a lot of high grasses right now brought on by the early warm temperatures.

And so please be with be we be patient with us as our seasonal crew as well as our human crews are out there disking and getting that down.

Um we have moved up the time frame of when we're doing those those discing and and mowing approximately a month to accommodate that.

And so you will see the crews out there.

And so if you have a lot near you that hasn't been mowed or dished yet, please know that we are on the way.

Uh the city and Sacramento 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 available for review and public comment through this Friday, March 27th.

Details are available on the city's website.

Um next week, next Tuesday, our own mayor uh Bobby Singh Allen will deliver the 2026 State of the City address on March 31st at District 56.

Residents are invited to attend in person or tune in online to hear about key updates, future priorities, and bold initiatives shaping the city's growth and quality of life.

Event is free, doors open at 10.

Live streaming of the speech will be broadcast on the city's website beginning at 1015.

And finally, the city will once again host a used oil filter exchange event in partnership with Cal Recycle and O'Reilly Auto Parts events will take place on April 18th, May 16th, and June 20th from 10 a.m.

to 1 p.m.

from the O'Reilly's store on Elk Road Boulevard.

Elk Grove residents may bring in used oil filters for proper recycling and receive a new filter at no cost.

That concludes my report.

I'm happy to answer any questions that the council might have.

All right, thank you for your report.

Uh looking to the right, any questions?

Looking to the left, any questions?

All right, thank you.

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

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

We have one person signed up to speak.

Lynn Wheat for item 7.9.

In the last few years, the mayor and city council have been forced by state law in the Bonta lawsuit to actively address the affordable housing crisis within our city.

The mayor and city council have done so by approving many affordable apartment projects along Bruceville Road.

Under state law AB 1255, the city must be transparent about the publicly owned surplus lands and prioritize it for affordable housing and in fill development.

This report acknowledges the city's seven currently owned sites.

The general plan designated for three sites is parks and open space and zone four what is now the failed zoological park.

Nine million of our tax dollars was spent to purchase the property.

As the city has frequently done in the past, this hundred acres could be rezoned to provide affordable detached single family homes.

How about making a dream come true for young adults who are working and would like a home instead of being stuck in the rental cycle?

Our starter homes would enable many of our young adults to achieve their dream of home ownership.

If you truly want to be a place open to all and not isolate the most in need away from the community and resources, I am recommending the permanent homeless shelter be built and located within one of the sites.

This saves money as the approved survey site is not currently owned by the city, is my understanding.

Plus, our permanent shelter would be closer to our neighborhood communities.

Our permanent shelter helps individuals move from homelessness to stable homes and jobs.

I recognize isolating the permanent shelter in industrial area is the path of least resistance and protects the loss of votes in a seat at the dais.

However, should your decisions continue to isolate the less fortunate.

Please do not boast of being a city for all and welcome to all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That is our final public comment.

I will close the public comment opportunity.

Any questions on consent?

If not, I will look for a motion.

Move consent.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

All right, next item 8.1.

And item 8.1 is a public hearing to consider the funding recommendations for the fiscal year 2026-27 community development block grant and community service grant programs.

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

I am Alicia Tet Management Analyst in the Housing and Public Services Division.

The item I have before you tonight is our annual discussion on how you would like to allocate the community development block grant and community service grant funds for the next fiscal year.

As you are aware, the city receives community development block grant funding each year from the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Priorities for how these funds are used are established in the city's five-year consolidated plan, which was most recently updated in June of 2025 and implemented in the annual action plan.

CDBG funds can only be used for specific eligible activities, with a limited portion available for public service programs.

Most funded activities must primarily benefit low-income individuals or households.

Additionally, CDBG funds cannot be used to replace recent local government funding, so we must ensure that any activities previously funded with local dollars are not funded through CDBG.

The city also receives funding from HUD through the Home Investment Partnerships Program.

While home funds are not part of the nonprofit grant process, they are included in the same five-year consolidated plan and annual action plan that guide overall housing and community development priorities and therefore are noted here for informational purposes.

The community service grant program supports nonprofits that serve non-ELK Grove residents.

Historically, council has allocated funds from the general fund for this program.

Compared to CDBG, our CSG program funding is more flexible and can support a broader range of activities.

One exception is event sponsorship, which are funded through a separate grant program, and council will review funding recommendations for that program next month.

In addition to the CDBG and CSG grant programs, next year's funding recommendations also include the use of some Measure E funds.

The Elk Grove community identified key priorities for Measure E spending, including addressing homelessness, which is an ongoing focus of the city's CDBG and CSG programs.

As a result, Measure E funding was considered alongside other sources when evaluating applications at developing funding recommendations specifically for activities that address homelessness.

For the upcoming program year, the city's estimated CDBG allocation is $1,026,617.

This estimate assumes level funding from the current 25-26 program year, as HUD has not yet released final award amounts.

Up to 20% of CDBG funds may be used for administration and for housing activities.

However, the city plans to allocate 15% for these purposes.

Federal regulations also cap public service funding at 15%, and the city has historically allocated the maximum amount allowed for this purpose.

In addition to new funding allocations, staff recommends reappropriating 448,348 in unspent funds from prior years.

These funds are from projects that did not fully expend their allocations.

Federal regulations restrict the use of prior year allocations to be used for eligible capital projects rather than public services.

The city's anticipated home allocation is $377,024.

And as a reminder, home funds are not part of this program that are being considered tonight.

The CSG program is structured into two funding categories are CSG traditional and CSG Capital Projects.

The traditional fund programs activities that are directly benefit Elk Grove residents, enhance quality of life, community engagement, and local services.

CSG Capital Projects provide one-time funding for capital improvements, equipment, or supplies that support the mission and operations of eligible entities serving Elk Grove residents.

The city has tentatively earmarked 487,071 for the CSG traditional program, reflecting a 5.35% increase from the previous year.

This allocation is based on 0.5% of the prior year's budgeted general fund expenditures per CSG program guidelines.

An additional 100,000 is earmarked for the CSG Capital Projects category, and with this allocation, the total available funding under the CSG program is 587,071.

And finally, staff recommends that 149,545 of Measure E funds be made available through this grant process to further support activities that address or prevent homelessness.

So applications for the CDBG and CSG programs were submitted online with the application release in January.

The application solicitation was promoted through the Elk Grove Citizen, the city's website and social media channels, and direct outreach to local and regional nonprofits.

A total of 44 nonprofit representatives attended a staff-led technical assistance webinar, which was recorded and made available online for those who could not attend on the scheduled date.

Staff also provided individual individualized support to applicants throughout the app submission period.

Applicants used a single application to request funding from any one or a combination of grant types, including CDBG, CSG traditional, or CSG capital projects.

There was no limit on the number of applications that could be submitted per organization.

In reviewing the applications, staff identified the proposed activities eligible for each funding source.

And applications were due in mid-February.

The city received a total of 47 applications from nonprofits and city departments representing a wide range of proposed activities.

Combined funding requests totaled just under 3 million, which presents an ongoing challenge given the limited resources that we have available.

After confirming eligibility, applications were reviewed by an interdisciplinary team.

Proposals were assessed based on several factors, including potential impact on the Elk Grove community and high need populations, feasibility of implementation within the required time frame, budget reasonableness, organizational administrative and financial capacity, and if the project had match funding, either in kind or cash.

And as part of the review process, all applicants were given the opportunity to clarify and provide additional information about their proposals.

In your packet, you have a detailed list of all the funding requests received and a short description of each proposed activity.

The next several slides present applications recommended for funding organized by funding category.

While the total dollar amount of the recommendation is presented, the distribution of funds across individual funding sources may be adjusted slightly as HUD allocations are finalized prior to council adopting the recommendations later this year.

The recommended CDBG capital project for funding is the annual citywide curb ramp program submitted by our public works department.

This program focuses on reconstructing noncompliant ADA ramps throughout the city to improve accessibility.

Next are the CDBG public service recommendations.

So an asterisk next to the funding total denotes that these projects are also being recommended for funding through CSG or Measure E.

These recommendations are for returning grantees that have been funded three or more years in the past.

As for our CSG traditional recommendations, again, you'll see a lot of familiar organizations this year that have received funding previously.

However, of the 26 applications recommended for funding, nine are new activities or grantees for the city under this program.

The recommendations represent funding for a diverse group of organizations providing public services to Elk Grove residents.

These services include support for individuals experiencing homelessness, persons with disabilities, low-income families, and victims of domestic violence.

Recommendations also include programs serving youth and seniors as well as recreation, fitness, arts and theater programs.

Under the CSG Capital Projects Program, staff is recommending funding for four organizations, three of which are new grantees to the city.

And then finally, there are the three activities recommended for funding with Measure E funds, and all are returning grantees that have been funded five or more years in the past.

So our next steps after tonight's public hearing, staff will prepare the draft CDBG 2627 annual action plan and release for public comment from April 13th to May 13th, and then return to council on May 13th for a public hearing to formally adopt those recommendations.

Once the final allocation amount is released from HUD, those funding recommendations will be revised as necessary.

We anticipate that to be at the end of this month, but that's what that's what we've been told.

So we're hopeful.

The CSG and Measure E allocations will be included in the city's annual budget and adopted in coordination with the budget.

The recommended Measure E allocations will also be included in the proposed Measure E expenditure plan, which the Measure E Oversight Committee will review.

Pending federal and city budget approval, all funds will be available beginning July 1st, 2026.

And prior to then, staff will work with individual grantees to write a scope of work and a budget for incorporation into a formal grant agreement.

Proposed scope, goals, and line item budgets may be adjusted to accommodate partial funding of requests, changes to agency budgets throughout the year, and etc.

Other things that kind of have come up to ensure that the city funds are well spent and then the city receives a meaningful benefit from the activity.

So that concludes my presentation tonight, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you have.

All right.

Thank you for your presentation.

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

We have a number of people signed up here to speak.

We'll start with Matthew Balecki.

Followed by Sandra Scott.

Hello, City Council.

I just want to take a moment and um just introduce myself.

I'm the president of uh our nonprofit out of Oak Grove, and it's it's called Goals, stands for growth oriented uh oriented adapted learning skills.

And we represent the special needs community of Elk Grove.

Um we've been basically running this nonprofit for over 20 years, and over the since pretty much since COVID, we've been running um at a deficit.

Um, and we have um about a little less than 100 participants, ranging from all levels of incapacities.

And basically, what we do is try to give them the ability to go out and have social experiences with their peers, keep them active.

We're on on the previous slide.

You saw that we were part of it says uh growth goals and it said bowling league.

Currently, we're in the middle of our bowling league season.

We have about on average, I would say 70 participants every week.

Um, that um does bowling anywhere from, like I said, um autistic to to Down syndrome to all the different types of incapacities.

We have individuals in wheelchairs that are just you know rolled up and they're pushing the ball down a ramp, and they they knock down two balls and it's their whole week's made.

And um, it's just uh it's an unbelievable sight, and it's very humbling every week to be able to represent that.

My brother himself is special needs, and um I'm also here with John Ottinger, who is one of our board members as well, and his son is special needs.

And uh, I just could say that you know, without goals, my brother, I can personally say would, you know, he would his life would be at a detriment because of the activities of not only just physical, but just this community community, the community of being active with individuals of his capacity.

So we want to thank you specially for these funds that we received the first time last year.

It allowed us to actually um stay out of the red and we're in the black because of the the funds we received, which allows us to open our doors.

Um, I think there's a lot of uh, again, the give or take, a little less than a hundred individuals that we are that we represent is just a small portion of the special needs community all grove.

And um, we would love to be able to even grow that so that we could you know be able to take on as many of those individuals as um we possibly could.

And um, we've made such a such a uh we feel such a big impact that um we are actually going to be getting um the uh I think it's next month there's the uh autistic uh awareness uh month and the city of Elkgrove is going to be giving us an award for that because we have a lot of autistic um individuals.

So uh we just want to say really thank you for these funds, they're very important to us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Sandra Scott, followed by Jennifer Massello.

Hello, I'm Sonia Scott from Team Scott Equestrian Foundation, Mayor Singh, Vice Mayor, Suean, Council members, Brewer, Space, and Rumbles.

I would like to sincerely thank you, thank the city for considering Team Scott Equestrian Foundation for this grant, and for selecting us among so many deserving organizations.

Your support is deeply meaningful, not only to our team, but to the individual, the vulnerable individuals and families we serve every day.

Our strength ties, our strength ties in our unwavering commitment to showing up for those navigating profound trauma, including youth impacted by self-harm, suicide attempts, sexual violence, and domestic abuse.

This work is rooted in compassion, consistency, and a deep understanding that healing requires trust, patience, and human connection.

We do not simply offer programs.

We create a safe space where individuals feel seen, heard, and supported.

What makes our work truly transformational is the mutual resilience built within our community.

The connections formed through our services, foster hope, restore dignity, and remind those we serve that they are not alone.

This foundation of authentic care allows healing to take place in ways that extend far, far beyond the surface.

While funding is vital, we believe it should always serve the mission, not define it.

With your support, we can continue to be a steady and compassionate presence for those who need it most, ensuring that every individual who walks through our gates is met with understanding, respect, and the opportunity to heal.

Thank you again for your trust, your recognition, and your investment in the work we are so honored to do.

Thank you, Sonia.

Next up is Jennifer Massello, followed by Peggy Forsyth Andrews.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I'm Jennifer Musello, and I'm the director of operations for Meals on Meals, Sacramento County.

And we just wanted to say that we're very grateful for the funding recommendation and support of the city staff and council.

And this funding request will allow us to serve 22,500 mules to probably about 130 Elkrove seniors this coming year.

This year, right now, for the July through February, we've already served over 18,000 mules to over 103 Elk Grove seniors, and they're thriving thanks to your support.

I'd like to share a story that really is close to my heart.

And every time you came to the door, you seemed to be in further decline.

One of the drivers got to talking to him one day, and they connected.

It turned out that both of them were ham radio operators.

But the participant, his radio had not been working for quite some time.

And he was missing all those connections that he used to have.

Well, the driver said, would you like me to take a look at your radio?

And it was something amazingly simple.

He fixed it.

And not only that, he provided the participant the connection to some of his ham radio operations groups.

And little by little, every day the drivers are reporting he's getting better.

He's thriving.

He's no longer decomposed.

He's no longer depressed.

And he's connected, reconnected with his family through this ham radio group.

Your support isn't just mules, it's connection.

And support for vulnerable seniors.

We would love to have any of you come and join us for a ride along and get to meet some of our seniors and see meals on Wheels in Action.

Thank you so much for your support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Peggy Forsyth Andrews.

Then Gina Tilke.

Tilkey.

Good evening.

Mayor Singh, members of the council.

Like was announced, I'm Peggy Forseth Andrews.

I'm president of the Board of Directors of the Elk Grove Fine Arts Center.

And I'd like to thank you so very much for having the opportunity to speak.

Before I start talking a little bit about the center, though, I wanted to tell you how fortunate we are here in Elk Grove to have such an exemplary staff handling these grants and these grants applications.

I tend to be a little technologically challenged.

That's how I'm going to put it.

And especially Alicia just went out of her way to be so kind and to make me feel comfortable.

So I wanted to bring that to your attention.

And that's part of the reason I think we live in such a great community.

On the importance of art, appreciation cannot be overstated.

We know in even in the worst of times, people want to create art and to have that as part of the culture of their lives.

Art plays a crucial role in enriching the human experience, and really it's a window to the soul.

It provides us the opportunity to maybe get to know each other and to understand each other's perspectives in a different way.

The Elk Grove Fine Arts Center has been around for next year 20 years as a nonprofit that was started in this community by seven people.

And opened up the gallery for the first time in 08.

We're a public gallery.

So in how we complete our mission in this community is by remaining a public gallery, offering artists the opportunity for creative growth through art showings, workshops, open studios, educational lectures, and the opportunity to connect for mentorship.

We also do the Festival of the Arts every year, which we'll be doing on April 25th, which is attended by many people outside of the area, and gives children, some children the first opportunity to ever kind of experience art and people that are artisan above themselves.

I we appreciate your support and thank you so very much for the recommendation of staff.

And I hope to see you all at the Festival of the Arts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Gina Tilte, followed by Randy Seavers.

Good evening, Mayor Sing Allen and Council members.

My name is Gina Tilke, and I've had the privilege of serving on staff with X Hope and growing and expanding roles since 2018, supporting vulnerable youth and families across Elk Grove.

First, I want to sincerely thank you for your continued support over the past several years.

City grant funding has helped us serve hundreds of youth annually and has given us a strong foundation to grow from.

At the same time, both the needs in our community and the cost to meet those needs have grown significantly.

In 2025, XHOPE took another significant step of faith.

We relocated from a 950 square foot space into a 4,500 square foot facility known as the XHope Hub with an additional 2,000 square feet outdoor space.

This expansion has allowed us to increase our capacity, serve more than a thousand vulnerable youth at least one time last year, and create a welcoming space where youth feel seen and supported.

Along with the growth, we have increased staffing to meet demand, included hiring a part-time local director and social media and marketing coordinator, investment in wage increases for our staff, expanded programs, including our new Threads of Hope Closet, Pathways of Hope mentorship, outreach event experiences, and new community-based initiatives like our community market and resource fairs and enrichment and extracurricular opportunities.

With that growth has come nearly a three-fold increase in our monthly facility costs along with rising operational expenses.

To sustain and continue this level of impact, it will take it will take deeper partnerships from our community.

The need is real, the demand is growing, and the families we serve are counting on organizations like X Hope to fill those those critical gaps.

We understand that grant allocations are complex and there are many worthy organizations, and we are grateful to be included.

We want to invite each of you and others in our community to partner with us beyond these decisions.

Come see the impact firsthand, visit our facility, volunteer at our warehouse at one of our outreach experiences, or join us on May 7th for our community courtyard celebration.

When you step into the when you step into the work X Hope is doing, you don't just see the impact, you feel it.

Together, we can continue growing something truly meaningful in our community, a place where hope is not just given, but experienced.

Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your continued support of the organization serving those who need it most.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Randy Seavers, followed by Joe Sawn Lee.

Ms.

Jojo.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Randy Seavers, and I am the co-founder of Running for Rhett, Elk Grove-based running for Rett.

Been around for a while, and I'm now retired, but I'm very happily retired to say the least.

But a little bit about running for Rett, running for Rhett was a nonprofit that was established back in 2007 in honor of my son Rhett, who passed away from complications from cerebral palsy when he was seven years old.

And my wife used running to get through the grief of losing Rhett.

She ran in a half marathon on the one-year anniversary of when Rhett passed away, and when she crossed the finish line, she came up to me and she said, We all have to run, we have to run for Rhett.

I joined her and many other people joined us as well.

And so we established the nonprofit in 07.

And since that time, we have reached, we have uh established a youth fitness program and our youth fitness program since its accept inception.

Uh, we've we've reached uh 56,000, over 56,000 youth in the Sacramento region, and we've funded 1.4 million dollars back into the community.

So we're very proud of that.

Um I came here really to say thank you to you guys.

We're on uh for our sixth year uh in a row, we are on the the recommended uh nonprofits to receive money from the from the city of Elk Grove, and uh we're proud to say that this spring we uh are going to be doing our twice annual youth fitness program.

Uh we do it once in the spring and once again in the fall.

And this spring we just launched our program uh and we we are going to be in 62 schools throughout the Sacramento region, 28 of those schools in the Elk Grove area, and over 3,000 youth are going to be going through this youth fitness program, getting them out from behind these screens outside moving and moving into life is what we call it.

And so one of the things that we're doing new this year is we are uh we are giving away a thousand pairs of shoes to the neediest of children uh that are in our program.

We've been doing it for years, but this year we're doing it for the first time here in Elk Grove at the Fleet Feed Store over by Costco.

And I would love to see any of you, any of the community come by and see us give these thousand pairs of shoes to these deserving youth, and uh and just actually watching them receive them, and uh it's just truly a fun day to watch the money that you guys give us go back into the community.

And so that event is going to be on April the April the 18th at 11 a.m.

over here at Fleet Feet.

But thanks again from our hearts, appreciate the support.

Joe Son Lee, then Kara and Zoe Lack.

In a long evening.

Greetings to you all.

Uh, you know, I'd like what your uh city manager said about O'Grove being one of the most desirable.

I read something on that, and I know it to be true because I'm a new transplant myself.

Absolutely love it here.

Got here and hit the ground running, came here in 2023.

But the reason why I came today, oh, and greetings to the whole council.

And I also want to say thank you to all of you who are in here doing such meaningful work, because you guys, along with you guys, are the reason that Elk Grove has become such a desirable city to move to, right?

And I think the beauty in it is that I see the work that's being done here that I actually participate in.

We take care of our own.

We really do, from the youth to the seniors to the at-risk.

Um, and I see you guys being very intentional about the funds you give, how much you give, and why and so I wanted to give a little different perspective on X-Hope.

Um, X-Hope is uh started out as a small nonprofit that came here in 2022.

I arrived in 2023, and I have this really cool friend named Juan Fernandez.

I've always been a community person wherever I go, draw people together.

I believe we're put here to be helpers one onto another.

And I said, Juan, what's the most meaningful thing I can do here?

Because Juan helps everybody, and he starts telling me about these different organizations.

So I started volunteering at Teen Center and I started volunteering at the high schools, and the and the glitch just goes on.

And I came across X-Hope while I was the program director at the Teen Center.

That was in 2023.

X-Hope since 2023 has in 2023, they served 687 kids.

In 2024, it jumped to 948.

And in 2025, 1,058 youth.

I want to say that the beauty in X-Hope is that they're intentional about not overlapping services so that we aren't fighting for the same bag of money.

And so we spend a lot of time reaching out to other organizations in the community.

In fact, I just recently MC'd the prom expo at Elk Grove High School.

And so what the prom expo is is that people come in with their dresses, um, but it's usually for their shops.

The thing that sets X Hope apart, it's that we provide Free Prom dresses that are brand new to youth in order to be able to thank you, ma'am.

I think the thing that I was trying to convey, and I'll just if you just their time is up, ma'am.

Okay.

Yeah.

So we we we love X Hope.

Okay.

With with constant growth.

Thank you.

The need for funds needs to be met.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Next up is Cara and Zoe Lack.

Standing.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Cara Lack, and I am a parent here representing Musical Mayhem Productions, a nonprofit youth theater company serving families in our community.

I want to begin by thanking you for your continued grant funding this year.

Your support makes a real difference by providing young people with access to the arts, a place to belong, and opportunities to grow, both on and off the stage.

The arts are essential to a healthy community.

Theater helps students build confidence, communication skills, and empathy.

It gives them a voice, encourages creativity, and teaches collaboration, which are skills that they carry into school, careers, and civic life.

Programs like MMP does not just create performers.

They help shape engaged, capable, and compassionate citizens.

If you'd like to see firsthand what MMP is doing, they have shows every single weekend in April, starting with the pilot production of SUFs Junior, which is a great story of the Suffragette movement, followed by Dear Edwina Jr.

and then Frozen Junior and Frozen Kids.

MMP has helped me become more confident and a better leader.

It's taught me how to work as part of a team and not be afraid to be myself.

Because of theater, I'm a better student and a stronger person.

Thank you for continuing to invest in the arts.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Next up is Alma Wilcox, followed by Travis Baker.

Hi.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council.

On behalf of Alchemist CDC's Calfreship Farmers Markets program at the Elk Grove Farmers Market, thank you all sincerely for funding this program year after year.

Over the past three years, the Elk Grove Farmers Market CalFresh Booth has expanded its impact by 248% among Elk Grove households and increased CalFresh and Market Match distributions by 153%.

This growth shows how much Elk Grove residents value consistent, welcoming spaces where they can connect directly with local farmers and stretch their food dollars.

Market match makes that possible.

By providing an extra $15 every market visit for CalFresh shoppers to spend on fruits and vegetables.

Families don't have to choose between buying local eggs and honey or bringing home fresh produce because they can do both.

One customer recently shared that these vouchers even help teach their kids how to buy healthy food and use it at home.

In 2025, we facilitated the distribution of more than 245,000 and combined CalFresh benefits and market match incentives at this farmers market alone.

This is a 37% increase from the year prior, and program usage is only continuing to grow.

This also means that every dollar you invested into this program last year facilitated $17 in purchasing power for fresh locally grown fruits and vegetables.

With your renewed funding for the 2026-2027 CSG grant term, we are confident that we can sustain this momentum and ensure that Calfresh Hoppers in Elk Grove continue to receive the support that they deserve.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Travis Baker, then Carol Kahn.

Hi, good evening.

Um my name is Rebecca Didams.

I'm the board president of Hands and Hooves.

My name is Travis Baker, and I am the executive director of Hands and Hoofs.

And we'd like to sincerely thank you all for your time and your attention and considering hands and hoofs for funding.

We are new to the Elk Grove area.

Hands and Hoofs was founded several years ago, and just at the end of 2024, moved to our new location in Wilton.

Just this past Saturday, we had our first day camp of the year.

We welcomed 13 local kids.

This time it was mostly elementary school kids.

Many of them were neurodivergent.

And they had an opportunity to come outside do crafts, get to meet our animals.

They learn how to lead a horse and lead that horse through an obstacle course.

And while we're doing that, they don't realize they're learning things like leadership skills and empathy and emotional regulation and perseverance and confidence.

And it's just so much fun to see the kids over the short period of time do something they never thought they could.

Yeah, I just one of my favorite things to see at the campers is especially those who show up a little shy.

Most of them show a little shy, a little reserved, and you see them come out of their shell, and they they're so excited, their eyes turned wide as they get to see the animals and actually get to touch them and meet them and interact with them.

And uh, for example, we had a parent last weekend who was emailing us in ahead of time, telling us all the things to their kid may do this, their kid may do that, their kid may do this.

We said, they're so welcome.

We can't wait to meet them.

We're gonna have a great time, no worries.

Everybody here is welcome to, and we include everybody.

And and she showed up the mom just had the same list of things that watched out for this.

It's okay, it's gonna be great.

We're gonna have a good time.

And then of course the kids' eyes being wide and having a great time, and then seeing also the mom's eyes and say, wow, it really is an accepting, inclusive place.

And every and we just had such a great time, and it's really really meaningful and really special.

And one of our goals, especially with everything going on in the world, is to be radically inclusive and a safe space for our community.

Um, we are committed to having all of our programs uh be as accessible as possible, um, which means that our campers do not pay anything uh to participate, uh, and we are open to all.

Uh, the biggest cost that we have is for our animals who someone decided that they weren't really worth much.

Um, most of them are seniors or disabled, but instead they come and they're patient and kind, and they connect so well with our visitors and they give us back so much.

So this year we're working on expanding our programs even beyond the seven day camps that we did last year, and over a hundred kids served.

Um we already have some things on the books, like a new um open jam session for uh uh queer and neurodivergent adults to come out and spend some time outside, connect with community, pet an animal, and uh just have that opportunity to to be in that welcoming safe space.

So thank you so much for considering us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Carol Kahn, followed by Michael Manaski.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

I'm Carol Kahn, I'm the executive director of Project Sentinel, and thank you.

Um, first and foremost for the affordable uh affordable housing.

It's also affordable housing month.

But the fair housing proclamation um honoring uh back all the way to 1968 when Martin Luther King promoted the Fair Housing Act that is still with us uh today.

And um, we're privileged to be again included to continue to serve in the community of Elk Grove along with other cities in the consolidated plan for Sacramento County.

Um we've submitted a proposal, our outreach and our intake and referrals um help us stay circulating in the community, and um we also educate uh property providers as well as um tenants as to their rights and obligations under the fair housing rules and protections.

Um I think you heard a little bit about fair housing earlier from Akila Williams, who's with our program.

Um again, thank you for hosting and having her here.

Um and among the different various services to affirmatively further fair housing, we investigate complaints, we administer audits and tests to probe for whether there are discriminatory practices in the um housing landscape, and we um seek redress for victims of of discrimination.

We also um manage a number of community outreach events seeking to inform the public better about what fair housing really is all about.

Um average, just so to give you the full picture, uh we investigate about 300 to 50 to 400 cases a year.

Approximately 30 to 40 percent of those investigations reveal evidence substantiating discrimination.

We take that forward all the way to enforcement.

Um in closing, just wanted to again thank the city council for its continued support.

Um, fair housing protects against illegal discrimination, but also evictions and homelessness of our most vulnerable residents by enforcing the laws that equal the playing field.

Um, and those include seniors, veterans, people of different faiths, persons with disabilities, persons of color, survivors of domestic violence, and other protected classes.

We're grateful for your consideration to continue to fund fair housing work in ELF Grove and across Sacramento County.

Thank you again for the opportunity to speak to you about Project Sentinel.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Michael Manaski, followed by Erica Black.

Okay.

Well, I wasn't originally going to speak on 8.1, but uh since this is the money giveaway time.

Um I want to talk about the difference between the deserving poor and the undeserving poor.

So the deserving poor, if I get this straight, are the disease of the day, uh, stray dogs and cats, and anything with good optics.

So anything with a good photo op, uh, you know, and then the undeserving poor would be the unwashed, the homeless, the belligerent, uh, the drug addicts with too many tattoos.

Just like Benny who came up here and spoke earlier.

Uh, that's pretty unusual for Elk Grove to have a street person come up here and speak as eloquently as he did.

Um when when somebody approaches you like that, you should you need to say something more than good luck, Madam Mayor.

You need to do something more uh counseling than just give a a hand, you know, a sandwich.

Uh and the police department has to do more than just send out one of the one of the brothers out there to say, hey, you know, like we it's too bad, it's so bad, you know, give reassurances.

Umcial workers are needed for this.

Social workers.

I know we we've defunded social workers.

Uh this the social work load is uh and has been for decades, terrible for children, for adults, for you know at risk adults and for children.

Oh they need to be um able to talk to folks like that and get them off the street in a secured shelter with with assistance.

And they need case management and it needs to be continuous.

Umthough it's true that um you know Cal Fresh got support.

I just talked to the Cal Fresh lady, and she said there were 160 on average uh uh food stamp clients every Saturday that go to the uh farmers market.

160.

That's a lot of people.

That's just a fraction of the number of people who are in need that are hungry that need CalFresh.

So Mr.

Speace, you're really disturbing me with your kind of smirk there.

But okay, all right, all right.

Well, uh let me let me prescriptions.

Oh, okay.

I do the same damn thing.

So I applaud.

Okay, all right.

That's what that was.

It wasn't a smirk, it was more an effort to bring me into focus.

With my last 25 seconds, I'm just gonna tell you that uh there are the undeserving poor, and man, there's a lot of money going out there, but we can't help Benny.

We can't make a phone call, we can't sit down and talk to social services.

Am I supposed to do that?

Who do who's gonna do it?

City manager, Madam Mayor, you've been involved in some of this stuff intimately.

Thank you.

Uh Erica Black.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Thank you for having me.

My name is Erica Black, and I'm here on behalf of Center for Land-Based Learning.

We are one of the new organizations on the list, so I just wanted to introduce myself.

Um, I'm here representing the Farms Program.

Farms is an acronym that stands for farming, agriculture, and resource management for sustainability.

And I've had the honor to work with Sacramento Valley students for the past three years.

Um, specifically um, some of my favorite students are from Elk Grove.

And so um, I just wanted to kind of explain a little bit about what we do in the farms program.

We take students out on field trips.

Um, so a lot of these students are students that might not have an agriculture background, and I might be biased, but I think agriculture is our most important industry.

We have to eat every single day.

Um, so we need people to fill these jobs specifically in ag tech and emerging careers that are coming up.

Um, and so every month we go on field trips, we expose these students to different career opportunities.

Um, and our mission is to inspire, educate, and cultivate the next generation of farmers, agricultural leaders, and natural resource stewards.

Um I'll give an example for my last field day last week.

I had a student who on the field trip got an email from Cow Poly that he was accepted for Ag business.

And he's a first generation college student.

So very excited for him.

And just hope that we can continue this great work within the Elk Grove and Greater Sacramento area.

So thank you.

Congratulations.

Okay, Erica was our final public comment speaker.

So I will go ahead and close public comment and declare the public hearing is now closed.

And open it up to questions, comments from my colleagues.

I will start to the right.

Councilmember Speech, you want to kick it off.

Well, so tonight, I just want to be sure tonight we're not doing any vote whatsoever because there was there's nothing I need to recuse myself from, right?

Well, there is because it's a recommendation.

And your spouse is a board member of running for RET.

So the way we've done this in the past, and what I recommend doing tonight is we'll take that item first.

The council take that item first.

You'll step out, then make a preliminary determination on an allocation for running for red, if any, and then you'll come back and we'll do the rest.

Okay.

Um, if there are questions aside from that, the mayor invited those.

You can certainly address those first.

But if there are questions about running for rett, you can step out for that.

Do you want to put it on the back?

How about I just step out?

Yes, and come back and do your thing when you're ready to bring me back.

And you want to hear us talk first.

I don't want to be any part of it because that would be bad.

Thank you, Councilmember Space.

Thank you.

So we'll be taking that.

All the way out.

We will take that item singularly.

Any questions or comments?

We're good with the recommendations.

So moved.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I don't have a motion, which is right.

Sort of an agreement.

We're good.

I'd just like to make a quick comment to all the folks who came out tonight.

Thank you so much for your service to the community.

Your work makes our community great.

Uh, and I know there's a lot of new folks tonight, too.

So I was it was it was very neat to hear about these these new uh nonprofits that are serving our community.

So thank you for sharing your your uh your business as well.

Thank you.

We can do that with council member speech back.

So we're all good with running for red.

We can signal him to come back.

You want to at the level recommended by staff, correct?

At the level recommended by staff.

So let's grab councilmember speeze to come back.

He's gonna make them sweat it out there.

I think he's coming.

Maybe he's coming the other way.

And he's back.

Sorry.

All right, so now um, yeah, we'll talk about the rest of the items, excluding running for rhythm.

We'll still start to the right.

Would you like to opine on the others?

Uh no, I support the recommendations.

Uh, but first, Ms.

Tutt, thank you very, very much.

I have the opportunity to speak to a lot of the uh applicants throughout the year, and many, many times are saying thank you so much.

Uh that Alicia does a fantastic job helping us to learn about the process to you know to learn about where additional grants could be, et cetera.

And so I want to thank you.

And I know you have someone else assisting you, and I don't remember the person's name, but it's you're you're a team of a couple.

And mostly you, okay.

Well, then I was wrong.

I'm sure, you know, anyway.

Um, but I want to say thank you for that, and thank you for helping them know uh helping them through the process.

And and if they couldn't be um, I don't want to say competitive, but if they couldn't be compelling or whatever this year, they know what they do for next year.

And so I thank you for that.

So I'm happy to support things besides running for RET that I've excluded myself from.

Randy, you make this difficult for me, man.

Councilmember Robles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Just want to say thank you for the presentation and thank you for all those who came out today.

Um, you know, it's super unique that we as a city get to give back to our community and get back to the nonprofits that are making a difference day in and day out.

Um, it's because of you why we get to sit here and also be uh be able to help and provide these services.

Um thank you, Gina, for being out here uh because I know the great work that X Hope is doing day in and day out, especially for our youth and making sure that you're providing services, and also Team Scott, uh look uh Rochelle Dittmore speaks very highly of you.

Uh and I know that for those who Rochelle speaks, um, usually are really really good people.

So thank you for being out here and um happy to support this along.

Uh, and just thank you for everyone for all the nonprofits out here and looking forward to doing uh um a scheduled trip with meals on wheels and serving our senior community.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Burr.

Thank you, Ms.

Tutt, for the thorough process for all the applicants.

And for all of you who are first time awardees, congratulations.

A lot of hard work was put in there.

It was not, it was not unnoticed.

Definitely seen.

And the work that all of you are doing in the community is more than commendable and very deserving of what uh of what was been uh given out tonight.

So thank you again and congratulations.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thanks, Mayor.

I just add to my earlier comments.

Thank you also, Ms.

Tut for all your work.

I know it's a lot to go through all these applications.

And I will really echo the same comments.

Thank you, Ms.

Tutt.

Um, I know specifically a few of the nonprofits that reached out to me, mentioned how thorough you were and in helping them get through the process, uh, which may be intimidating for those that are applying for the first time.

So thank you.

Really applaud all of our first-time recipients.

I look forward to coming and visiting your particular nonprofits.

I did have an opportunity to visit with Team Scott.

And after my visit, I am a firm believer and equine therapy.

Am I saying it right?

Equine therapy.

Um, I felt better.

I actually got on a horse and rode around and um it was not only enjoyable, but it was, you know, you're you're out in nature and you're at one with this amazing, beautiful animal.

And thank you, coach there um, for keeping me safe, not having me fall down.

And thoroughly enjoyable, but to all of our nonprofit partners here.

Um government can't do this work alone.

We need our nonprofits to step up and lead, and you all do such an amazing job helping our community.

So thank you, and proud of all of the work that you're all doing.

I too will lend my support to staff recommendations.

So I think we are all in agreement with that, and we will move on to our next item.

Thank you all for coming.

Next item.

And item 8.2 is actually two public hearings to consider the 59th annexation of street maintenance district number one, zone three AV and the 76th annexation to stormwater drainage fee zone two for one project, the 9362 Figer Drive Urban Lot Split Project.

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

I'm here to present the project annexing into our special districts.

The city maintains eight special tax districts.

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

Requirements are specific for each project and vary according to geographic location and building use.

And the rates are adjusted annually.

The current project I bring to you is 9362 Feichert Drive, which is our urban lot split.

This would be annexing into street maintenance district number one, zone three, and stormwater drainage fee zone two.

A resolution of attent was adopted on January 28th, which calls for this public hearing.

And the project had additional um annexation requirements, but those were done through the unimat unanimous approval process.

All of these assessments will be levied into perpetuity.

Um this is a residential property that will be split um in half and two single family homes.

And um, these are the two annexations.

It's located off of Feikert Drive.

It's currently an empty lot.

This concludes my presentation.

Thank you for consideration and time.

You have any questions?

Let me know.

All right.

Thank you.

At this time, I will declare the public hearing for SMD 3-AV Annex 59 now open and open up the public comment opportunity.

We do not have anybody signed up to speak on this.

I will close the public comment opportunity and declare that the public hearing for SMD 3-AV Annex 59 is now closed, and request the clerk to provide the results of the ballot tabulation.

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

The ballot approves the proposed assessment, the proposed inflation adjustment limit described for the parcel identified in the ballot and a resolution determining levy assessments in the district is available for council consideration.

Thank you.

Um if there are no questions or comments, I will look for motion A.

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

And now I will declare that the public hearing for SWDF Annex 676 is open and open up public comment.

No one is signed up to speak.

I'll close public comment and declare the public hearing for SWDF Annex 76 is now closed.

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

And again, there's no majority protest of two possible votes weighted according to the proportional financial obligation for each property, two affirmative votes for return.

The ballot approves the proposed assessment and the proposed inflation adjustment limit described for the parcel identified in the ballot.

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

All right, thank you.

Looking for motion B.

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Next item 9.1.

Let's receive information regarding the Elk Grove Police Department's use of automatic license plate reader technology and a presentation of the Elkrove police departments and report for 2025.

All right.

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

My name is Andrea Cortez, and I'm your real-time information center manager.

And tonight I'll be providing you with a high-level overview of our ALPR program.

We will talk about five key areas.

We'll discuss what the ALPR uh technology does and more importantly, what it does not do.

We'll talk about the history of AR ALPR deployments in the city of L Grove.

We'll talk about governance and oversight related to ALPR use, uh, workflows, case studies, and some wins, and then we'll uh finish off with our continued commitment to our community.

And with that, we'll get started with what is ALPR technology.

All automated license plate reader technology is a camera system uh that's mounted to either a fixed location or to a patrol vehicle, and it takes an image of a vehicle license plate and the vehicle uh itself.

That the license plate is then compared to a state database through California Department of Justice, and it'll provide an alert if the vehicle is stolen or you felony vehicle.

Um just for it should be noted that any alert received, there is a uh a process on our end as far as a verification and confirming that the alert is accurate.

Um, and then we do conduct uh additional research and additional law enforcement databases to confirm that that is in fact an accurate read.

Uh additionally, what ALPR does is it provides investigative leads by showing when and where a plate was observed.

It enhances officer safety in real time by providing alerts for vehicles of interest, um, and it can provide additional descriptors uh regarding the vehicle identification.

It supports public safety operations, including um amber alerts, at risk missing persons, um, and we also use it for reckless driving, um, such as wrongway drivers, near collisions, uh hit and run vehicles, things like that.

And then now we'll talk about what ALPR doesn't do.

It does not identify drivers or occupants of vehicles, it does not track individuals um by name or identity.

There are no automatic inquiries from this database.

So it would take a um an end user to do an additional inquiry into uh provided databases uh to find any sort of identification or investigative lead.

Um and it only takes a single it's a picture of an only a single moment in time and a single location.

There's no persistent tracking.

It does not, it is not a predictive policing tool.

It does not access DMV databases or personal information.

And this is likely why federal courts have had the stance that taking pictures of license plates in plain view on a public road is not an unlawful search and it is not considered persistent surveillance.

Here's a timeline of our ALPR deployments in the city of El Grove.

So you'll see here based on the timeline, ALPR technology is not new to the city of El Grove.

We've had them since 2008, initially uh mounted to uh patrol vehicles, and uh then we moved on to a trial in 2021 where we were assessing uh system performance of different technologies.

Then we initiated a contract in 2022 and and moved to uh an additional ALPR vendor in our patrol vehicles.

In 2023, we considered um we reviewed a contract and we wanted to have scalable data sharing and ensure that we could remove data sharing when appropriate.

And so uh due to some limitations we release that contract.

And then now in 2025, we are currently have uh approximately 87 ALPRs throughout the city.

Let's now talk about ALPR administration and data sharing.

So we do require the workflow is such that any time we receive an alert or any sort of inquiry, there's always a human on the other end verifying information.

Um there is it's always required to have a reason code and a case number or call for service number to document the inquiry.

And there is it's always required to have a reason code and a case number or call for service number to document the inquiry.

And so that is an important uh process of our auditing to ensure that we are verifying why uh license plate inquiries are being conducted.

For data sharing, we do have signed uh MOUs for other law enforcement entities, and this MOU just reinforces the the California laws and it acknowledges that they that that entity acknowledges the the laws of the state.

For we don't the retention policy is uh 30 days, so this information is not retained any longer than 30 days.

Uh if we were to try to inquire conduct an inquiry on a plate that was on the 31st day, it is not there, it will provide no return.

For onboarding training for all of our new personnel that are going to be gaining access to this system, they do receive training.

Um they have a certification process that they go through in the vendor platform, and they are also trained in all criminal justice information security training.

So, right to know, need to know, understanding law enforcement databases and uh the appropriate uh security clearances there.

Training not only is for onboarding new employees, but we consistently train our personnel that have been with us.

The technology is evolving, platforms evolve, and so training is not static.

We continue to uh train our employees.

Um, and governance we do adhere to SB34, SB 54, and AG policy uh 436, which actually um contains some SIL code in there as well.

Um, there is no out-of-state data sharing, and we only share with the appropriate law enforcement entities in the state of California.

So here's some information ALPR by the numbers.

Um, from March of 2021 to present day, we had um approximately 1,548 flock vehicle alerts.

Um of these alerts, 50 approximately 56 resulted in an arrest.

And so if we think about not having this technology or absent of this technology, that would have been 1,548 times that the vehicles would have been allowed to move throughout the city and potentially um conduct you know criminal activity.

Uh comprehensive totals for calls for service, 5,293 of those calls for service, approximately 13% resulted in an arrest.

So this may look like a call for service coming in regarding a hit and run that just occurred, some sort of theft that just occurred, and we are actively working the call to find out confirm a license plate and confirm a direction of travel to direct units to that area.

Um, absent of that, units are just saturating an area and hoping to find a car that matches the description.

One thing this technology does is it also helps us rule out potential vehicles.

If you can imagine how many white Honda accords are driving through the city, um, this is what can help with that, but we also recognize that plates can be swapped.

It is not um, it is not definitive, there it's an investigative lead.

Um, in addition, we have you'll see some other numbers related to missing persons where we have used uh AL ALPR technology to find a missing person to find someone who is potentially um they should not be driving a vehicle for whatever reason.

We've had juvenile very young juveniles who have driven vehicles that should not be on the public roadway.

We've had folks with um dementia or some other sort of cognitive um issue, and they it was a public safety issue to have them on the roadway, and so that is another time that we've used ALPR technology.

Um collision hit and run is a big one as far as um somebody's driving and they get sideswiped or rearended.

The reporting party believes they're gonna pull over, they don't do that, and then now we have a crime, and we are gonna try to find that vehicle that was involved in that collision.

So here's just some uh just a few wins.

Um unfortunately, earlier this year, February of this year, we did have a collision that resulted in a in a fatality.

Um the victim was struck while standing near the roadway uh and the vehicle was um going southbound through the use of intersection cameras and ALPR, we were able to identify a vehicle of interest.

Um, absent of that, it would have been very difficult to find a good investigative lead.

Um through good police work and investigative follow-up, we were able to um locate the offender and conduct an arrest.

In April of 2025, we assisted Kern County with an at-risk missing 10-year-old.

Uh, this juvenile was located safely within El Grove with an adult uh suspect taken into cus into custody.

We were able to provide through traffic cameras and um ALPR inquiries, we were able to find an area where the the vehicle may be and um direct units to that location.

Again, absent of this, they would just be circulating in an area hoping to find something similar.

Um so it was great that we were able to reunite that juvenile with their family.

Um just another example in September of 2024, we received an alert related to a burglary, and then we were able to contact that vehicle.

And then they were able to conduct an investigation and arrested the suspect.

The loss there was approximately approximately a thousand dollars, and we were able to recover some of that property.

We found clothing in the car that matched the description.

So it was a it was a a great win.

Our continued commitment to the community.

And I don't want to misquote somebody on the on the council, but I believe it was said that that was not by accident, and I do believe that to be true.

It is because we have we leverage technology in our public safety.

Um for public safety, we are we will continue to be good stewards of the technology, and we will continue to refine our administrative processes.

Technology is rapidly evolving, and so will our processes.

Okay, save it all for the end.

Thank you, Johnny.

Thank you, Dre.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dre.

Um Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Uh my name is Bobby Davis.

I am the chief of police for the city of Elk Grove.

Uh, as you can see, uh, before I get into mine, I want to comment on uh what Dre uh just presented, and that is that you know we share the data with the places and the uh organizations that we're allowed to.

Uh, and we do not share with ICE.

That's one of the questions, and that I'll just come right out and say it.

We do not share with ICE.

It is not something that we have ever done at the city.

Uh, there has not been an instance in the the history of the uh Elkro police department where we have provided ICE any information and provided assistance with any arrest.

Uh the team, the work that our real-time center does um uh is extremely important.

One of the one of the uh wins that was on there, essentially we had a man kidnap somebody from Kern County, drive them all the way back here to the city of Elk Grove through the licensed by technology and the hard work that happens in our real-time center.

They were able to locate an area we used not just our DFR but our um licensed by readers.

We found that child and got him uh that child back with their family uh as a result of the technology here.

If you can only imagine the 10-year-old uh with their family, was probably thinking, uh knowing that they've been kidnapped from uh current county and brought here.

So for us, that's a huge one.

It's just a small example of the things that the technology has allowed us to do and provide a service to our communities with the highest levels of public safety.

So the annual report this year is gonna be a little bit different.

I am not gonna stand here for 45 minutes.

Uh I am um gonna do a uh video that shows or highlights the the areas that this uh organization has been allowed to uh do for our community and provide a service in public safety.

Uh and then I will present some of the numbers um that uh often get asked questions about uh relating to the Elk Grove Police Department uh and enforcement um and demographics and things like that.

So I'm gonna do that right here.

Just click on this, Jason.

Let's uh no sound, hang on on the keyboard.

You might have to unmute it.

I am challenged when it comes to technology.

That sounds pretty good.

Hi, I'm Bobby Davis.

I am fortunate enough to be the chief of police for the city of Elk Grove.

Today I am proud to show you some of the highlights that made 2025 such a meaningful year for the Elk Grove Police Department and our community.

This is our 2025.

Hi, I'm Bobby Davis.

I am fortunate enough to be the chief of police for the city of Elk Grove.

Today, I am proud to show you some of the highlights that made 2025 such a meaningful year for the Elk Grove Police Department and our community.

This is our 2025 annual report.

We have made significant progress in reducing vacancies with 161 of our 169 sworn positions and 136 of our 151 professional staff positions now filled.

Filling these roles strengthens our overall mission and helps us better serve you, our community.

In 2025, the police department's overall budget totaled approximately 79,281,000.

This included just under $69,227,000 from the general fund and $6,759,000 from our Measure E.

This one cent sales tax approved by voters to support community priorities like reducing crime, addressing homelessness, improving emergency services, maintaining streets and parks, youth engagement, and enhancing overall public safety.

As a result of these additional funds, we have been able to utilize new investigative tools that help connect critical information and solve crimes across the community and expand emergency preparedness training.

Our operations division includes patrol, traffic, Provin Morning Policing, and our homeless outreach team.

Each team plays a vital role in keeping our community safe and clean.

In addition to responding to 99,875 calls for service, our patrol teams had a highly proactive policing year, which resulted in 2,376 arrests, an 11% increase from 2,102 arrests in 2024.

As a reflection of our continued commitment to de-escalation and resolving situations as safely as possible.

Less than 1% of all contacts in 2025 involve the use of force.

This year we expanded our Traffic Bureau with the addition of five new motor officers.

With the assistance of a grant from the Office of Traffic Safety, our Traffic Bureau conducted seven DUI checkpoints and five side show operations.

In 2025, officers issued 9,308 traffic citations, which is up from 7,827 citations issued in 2024.

In 2025, the city experienced $1,403 traffic collisions, which represents a 25% increase from 1,125 in 2024.

Tragically, there were 10 traffic fatalities in 2025 in comparison to six fatalities in 2024.

In response to these increases, the police department will be conducting a comprehensive year-long traffic analysis to make the roadway safer for the residents of Elk Grove by identifying trends, high-risk areas, providing education and enforcement needs, while also expanding staffing within the Traffic Bureau.

Our problem-oriented policing team, homeless outreach, and school resource officers wear many hats.

From community events, connections with the unhoused, neighborhood mediation, and youth engagement.

Our department prioritizes mental health and de-escalation whenever possible.

We achieve this through real-time on-scene evaluations with our crisis intervention team.

Over the past three years, the crisis intervention team has seen significant growth, assisting with traditional calls for service.

In 2025 alone, the team responded to $1,473 calls for service.

This is a 172% increase from 2023.

This growth led to the addition of a second clinician in 2025.

With this clinician, the team has expanded its capacity, allowing CIT to support more individuals in crisis and help prevent arrests when appropriate.

I'm proud to say that our police department is leading the way with this innovative approach, which encompasses the city's mission to provide exceptional, efficient, and cost-effective services that enhance the quality of life for our residents.

The Elkgrove Police Department is a nationally recognized leader in technology.

This is our real-time information center, or Arctic.

It's an invaluable resource for the Elk Grove Police Department and the community that we serve.

From this state-of-the-art technology hub, our real-time analysts work closely with our drone as a first responder pilots.

These pilots provide officers in the field with accurate up-to-the-minute information.

That teamwork helps officers make informed decisions quickly and allows for safer, more efficient responses for our officers and our community.

Our dispatch team works around the clock, serving as a critical first point of contact for the Elk Grove community.

They are often the convoys on the other end of the line, gathering information, coordinating resources, and helping keeping everyone safe.

In 2025, our dispatch team handled 157,948 calls for service, including 52,969 emergency 911 calls.

Behind every one of those calls is a highly trained professional, working quickly and thoughtfully to support our officers and our community.

Not only do we connect with the community through our communication center, we connect through our volunteers and police services.

In 2025, volunteers contributed nearly 7,000 hours, saving the city more than 240,000.

The work we do would not be possible without our dedicated volunteers.

You're the true VIPs.

Here's a snapshot of our crime statistics for 2025.

With our proactive policing approach, arrests are up, but overall crime numbers in the city of Elk Grove have decreased almost 2% in 2025.

Crimes against persons decreased 1% from 2024.

While there were overall reductions, increases in our simple assaults, domestic violence, and homicides have offset some of those gains.

Crimes against property declined about 6% overall.

Although shoplifting and embezzlement increased, the passage of city sponsored Prop 36 supported greater collaboration with local businesses, which played a key role in the overall reductions of crimes against property.

Crimes against society increased by 23%, driven primarily by enhanced enforcement related to DUI, drug-related defenses, and trespass violations.

The passage of measuree has allowed for increased staffing and proactive policing, demonstrating a direct benefit of community supported public safety initiatives.

Finally, 2025 was a year of both farewells and advancements.

We honored several retirements, including former assistant chief Paul Solomon.

While these departures were bittersweet, they also created opportunities for growth.

One of those opportunities was the promotion of Brian Schaaf, who was appointed as our new assistant chief.

As we close out the 2025 annual report, we together and united are your Elkrow Police Department.

Yeah.

As you can see, we're very proud of this organization and this city, and we're privileged to work here.

And the entire Arctic team really put a lot of this together for us in the presentation for our city and for our UR Council tonight.

So I was just going to scroll up here.

Can I make that the whole screen or is it?

Whoa.

I can make it work.

Anyway, you're just going to use your mouse.

Okay.

All right.

So we're going to cover what our are some of our numbers that I typically get questions for from UR Council and our community in relation to the service that we provide for this last 2025 annual report or the year.

So these are by the numbers.

So we're really proud of this organization, and we don't mind asking the question when we go to a community when we go to a community member after a call.

The Oak Road Police Department participates in a spider tech survey and we send an SMS or a text message to the people that we that call us and that we respond to.

And it's something that we have been doing now for about five years and maybe six.

And it's an it's an area that we look at and we were able to provide feedback for our officers and our community based on how they feel they were treated by us.

So a community satisfaction survey.

How satisfy you of your professionalism with Yelk Grove Police Department and whoever it was that you spoke with.

Again, we have four and a half, 4.4, 4 out of 5 stars with 1,200 responses.

And we think that is another reflection of the people that we've hired and we put out on the streets and how we've trained with uh how satisfied were you with the professionalism of the Elk Grove police officer that you interacted with 4.48 or 4.5 out of 5 is another excellent number.

4.48 or 4.5 out of 5 is another excellent number.

And again, I think what's important is we don't type typically go to calls for service where people are having their best days.

And if we're able to get scores like this or ratings like this, again, it speaks to the quality of people that we hire.

An overall satisfied, how are you with the El Crow Police Department?

Again, we have a 4.4 out of 5, and that we are very proud of that number as well.

Our demographics of the police department, we have a total of 278 uh current employees.

160 uh are sworn, and 118 are professional staff.

Um men, we have 153, and women we have 125.

Our vacancy rate is 8%, which is an excellent vacancy rate.

Just as a point of note, we always hold four or five positions all the time.

So we uh we typically, when we hit that four or five number, we are full, uh fully staffed.

Uh and we do that for many, many reasons.

If we get an excellent candidate that we want to get in, who is a lateral, we'll have an opening for that person.

Uh and we do that intentionally.

Um race percentages.

So uh of the organization itself, 14% are white are Asian, uh, 9% are black, um, uh 21% are Hispanic, two or more races, 1.4, and we are 53.6% uh white.

Use of force.

I said it in the uh video.

We had you know almost 100,000 contacts with the community, our community members, and we have less than 1% uh force being used.

That is a very, very good number.

Um when you have that many contacts, volatile situations, uh, just how things unfold to only have uh instances uh they're less than one percent, or we're very proud of that number.

Um, and these are just kind of listed out use of force, or typical use of force uh is a control hold.

And with that, though we you know, we we do report all of them.

Um sometimes that's just a real wrist lock, but we report that as a use of force.

Um when you have to forcibly take somebody down, we have to use your pepper spray.

Um, when you use you know, some of the SWAT things that we do are canine, all of those are tracked for us, uh, and we use a blue team system.

So there is a uh every use of force that we have has a short um investigation that takes place and determines whether or not the training or the the um use itself was appropriate uh if the officers use it in the appropriate manner at the appropriate time, and uh if additional training needs to be utilized or if something uh needs to go further.

So every one of those is scrutinized by not just an SNRS subject matter expert, uh, but a series from their supervisor to their watch commander to their captain, all the way up to in many cases to the assistant chief of police.

Um so in 2025, there were a total of 94 instances that involved this use of uh user force.

Um in 2024, we had 70.78% uh required to use a force.

We're down 30% from 2024 at 0.55% uh this last year.

And again, it's it speaks to the um uh staffing levels that we have, it speaks to the training that we have, and then the quality of the people that we've hired in this organization.

Internal affairs cases, internal uh formal complaints, external one, uh, and internal complaints uh are five, meaning that uh we have somebody inside the organization recognizes something as was happening that was inappropriate, and we uh self-report, if you will.

So we are not afraid to uh acknowledge or recognize when something is happening internally.

We've created a culture uh in this organization where people absolutely will say if they see something wrong, uh if they see it, uh they say something about it.

And we are proud of those numbers.

Um I would argue not a lot of agencies can uh can say that.

Um traffic overview.

Um, as many of you know, I talked to you all on a regular basis about traffic.

Um traffic collisions were up this year.

Um we saw a trend.

Um it's been very prevalent in the news and um, you know, quite honestly, right in front of us in our streets.

Uh, it's up this year 25%.

Um that's not a number that we um like and want to see.

Um, but of 1,404 total collisions, uh, we had 10 fatalities associated with that.

Um that is unacceptable for us.

We are gonna do a year-long study to try to determine what we can do as an enforcement agency and as a city to try to mitigate um that and hopefully prevent any.

Um, and and we've made that commitment, and um and uh part of that is adding to our traffic unit again, adding more more um officers uh to have a higher greater or higher higher visibility in our streets and in our community uh and be able to provide a little bit uh different traffic enforcement up to and including later hours uh and earlier hours uh in in our shifts and every day of the week, specific to traffic.

In addition to that, we're gonna train our patrol teams to have a little bit more training when it comes to traffic when they don't have to go to calls for service, they can also assist our traffic team.

Um DUI arrests are up 10%.

A lot of these numbers that we're seeing are up are because we did add to our traffic team.

I would note that our site our citations specifically have gone up, and that will continue to rise as as we move through the years.

This one we like to show because as you know, DUI is a is a very personal thing for us in this in this community and in our city.

So we, you know, these are our numbers.

We did uh 868 total hours and DUI checkpoint.

Saturation hours were 804, enforcement, total traffic enforcement 536.

Uh I can read them all, but I don't need to.

What I my point to this is is that we spend a lot of time working on traffic in our community.

We can only do this, not just with what we have in measuree in our general fund, but we have a grant through the Office of Traffic Safety, and it absolutely prevents a significant amount of overtime going from coming out of our general fund or measuree when it comes to traffic enforcement.

And it's maybe we have an emphasis in this.

This isn't a new grant for us, but I thought it was important that we show we don't just do regular everyday operations when it comes to traffic, we do additional things to try to mitigate the things that are happening in our community.

And some of it's specific to DUI and distracted driving because we know that many of our accidents are caused by that.

Calls for service, public initiated calls for service, uh, 54,790.

Self-initiated, which means vehicle stops, uh, pedestrian stops, um, you know, seeing uh something on the side of the street that you need to stop and investigate uh is 45,000.

Uh you see the number has gone up 10% from 2024.

Uh, that has a lot to do with uh the additional officers that we've been able to add, measure E and just an overall approach to enforcement, uh, wherein uh Prop 36 and the idea that crime is illegal again, we're able to actually uh do additional enforcement, and it has made a significant impact on the uh total number of of enforcement actions that we take, but it's also made a difference in the safety or arrests or citations that we've taken uh in our streets.

Now, our reports, you'll see those are up as well.

Um the total reports taken this year are 9,810.

Um we had 8,300 uh in 2024, so 18% with uh additional self-initiated calls and public calls, more arrests, more reports.

Uh can't really say that everybody is hip on more reports, but uh we do like the work uh and in the enforcement side of this.

Total arrests are up 11% from 2024.

This is as a direct result of uh Prop 36 and some others that have passed uh an additional enforcement.

Um we have our partners in our communities, our retail partners have been uh they have they call us uh now when somebody steals from them, and it doesn't matter what size the item is because they know that that person typically has been there multiple times.

Prop 36 has now allowed us to address that issue.

Uh, and our partners in our city are phenomenal.

Uh they call us when the smallest thing happens.

We have an opportunity to get there because we have the technology that we have, whether it's our drone or our LPRs, we're able to get most of the people that are doing harm to our businesses in our community.

Investigations.

This is important because this is closure for families.

So cases assigned to investigations this year, uh, 525, 16% down from 2024.

That is good.

Missing persons, sorry, missing person cases, 121 total.

Uh, that is up 20% from 2024.

Um we have uh cases closed by investigations is uh 453.

That's up 6% from 2024.

Um, and missing person cases closed is 121, all of them.

Uh and that also is up from 2024.

One thing that's important to note about the cases that are closed, um, that number went up almost.

I'm trying to remember the exact number this year.

I don't remember, but that number has gone up, and that is as a result of us being able to add additional detectives.

And I and I bring that up because um we wanted we have we have been short traditionally in the detective bureau.

Um, but because we've had been able to add, we were able to find closure for more of the families of the victims in our community.

Uh what it's also allowed us to do is um uh kind of reimagine how we do an investigation or follow-up investigations when it comes to domestic violence.

Um and I'll get a little bit further into it, but domestic violence is is one of our uh main areas of concern in our community uh in the sense that it is uh domestic situations where we're we're directly involved in five of our homicides.

Um and so what we've been able to do because we've been able to add to our detective division uh through our officers and through our social program, so those social services program uh is this coming year we're gonna look at a program where we're gonna be able to go back to some calls for service that were domestic related and see if we can offer those families services.

But traditionally and typically we get a lot of repeat calls when it comes to domestic violence.

And so what we're going to do is try to provide services with our weave advocates or our community advocates, our victim advocates in those homes.

And again, we're something that we've only been able to do because we do have better staffing when it comes to investigations.

Crime reporting.

So NIBERS 2025.

So total offenses 4,927 is down 2% from 2024 with the clearance rate of 39%.

That's the number I was looking for, the clearance rate.

Total hate crimes is three.

Law enforcement officers assaulted was 33%.

Crimes against persons down 1%.

We had 887.

Crimes against property was 3337.

That's down 6% from 2024.

And crimes against society are up 23%, 7.

We had 703.

And kind of want to go through this really quick.

Contribution factors.

So person crimes, homicide and assault fall under the category of person crimes.

Property crimes are shoplifting, arson, embezzlement, extortion, and identity theft.

And crimes against society, weapons violation, drug offenses, and trespassing.

Crimes against society, you'll see that number has gone up because the arrests people are calling us and we're going out and making arrests.

And that has a lot to do with the calls we're getting for some of the Prop 36 enforcement that we're able to do on top of some of the property crimes, which is shoplifting and others.

Animal services.

Licenses issued was 6,778.

Animals adopted, as 1,800, almost 2,000 animals were adopted from our shelter.

And you can see that's gone up 77%, which is a lot of work for our animal services.

Animals vaccinated is down this year, 3,115, they're down 11%.

And animals micro tripped is also down.

One thing to note is we have our vet now.

So some of these numbers will be probably going up with our vet, who is a wonderful, wonderful person.

And she's done a wonderful job out there.

And Sarah has an excellent team.

Community engagement.

I don't think it's any secret that this is probably our one of our strongest suits.

We spend a lot of time in our community.

We've done over 150 community events throughout the year, including some of our big ones, barbecue and the beats, our safety town, the Jalapalooza, which is a hit in our community.

I think we had 8,000 people or so show up last year, shop with the cop, Citizens Academy, and National Night Out.

And these events are designed to strengthen partnerships and build trust with the community that we all serve.

And then beyond community events, prioritizing our community also means maintaining clean and safe environment for everyone and for everyone.

Supporting public safety while helping restore shared spaces for our residents and our businesses.

And one thing I'd like to talk about that just real quick is that you know, we've uh with our shelter, it's been able to, we've been able to reduce the number of camps that are in our community.

Uh the shelter has been invaluable for us.

It has allowed us to take or provide a service for folks who need it.

Um, in some situations, unfortunately, we have service resistant people.

Um, and and if they don't want the service, we can't force it upon them.

But because we have a community prosecutor and because our approach is compassion first with everybody that we communicate with in our community, and and um whether it's unhoused or in our regular calls for service, um, our approach is how can we help them?

And part of that is the core program that we have.

Um, and it's a direct um it is tied directly to our homeless outreach team, our community prosecutor, uh, wherein uh if we come across an individual and they get citations or other um contacts with us, we're able to, and they have 10 of those, we're able to provide them service.

They they will have an opportunity to get uh rehabilitation, um, and that is part of our core program.

That's why we go out and we make contact with um all the folks are in our community who aren't housed uh or who have done other crimes.

Um I guess that's it.

I present I've started going, I thought I had more to say.

Um I will close with uh with this.

We as an organization uh don't do it alone.

Um we don't do it without your support, we don't do it without our executive team.

Uh we don't do it without the women and men that work in this organization and proudly serve you uh and our community.

I uh am just fortunate enough to be able to talk about it.

Um but I couldn't do that without the support of our city manager and the entire team, uh assistant city manager and Kara uh uh have made had made this last year uh something that we can all make it through.

Uh so I just want to say thank you to you guys.

Hopefully, you if you have any questions, you can ask me questions, and thank you to you uh and to the rest of our executive team and to the men and women of the Elk Grove Police Department and our community.

And I'm here to answer any questions.

Thank you, sir.

Wow.

Great, great uh presentation.

Uh before we take any questions or comments, I'm gonna go ahead and open it up for the public.

We have a few speakers.

We'll start with Ellen B, followed by Jennifer T.

I'm here to comment specifically on the city's contract with Flock safety for the ALPRs.

As you know, and was discussed, California Senate bill explicitly prohibits ALPR data sharing with federal agencies, including for immigration enforcement, which is also prohibited by SB 54.

Flock safety systems have violated these laws in multiple California cities, including Mountain View, San Francisco, Richmond, and Santa Cruz, which had more than 4,000 immigration searches discovered in their FLOC data.

Last month, an independent audit from the city of Woodland found more than 3,000 out of state organizations directly access their Flock data.

And agencies searched their data more than 4,500 times with immigration search terms.

In Mountain View, the police chief worked closely with FLOC during the outset of the program to design a model that strictly prohibited out of state data sharing.

Yet in January, they found that federal agencies had access their Flock ALPR data without the department's knowledge or consent.

I know that Elk Grove PD does routine internal audits, but even with those audits, this could happen here.

Flock data is also being shared by local police agencies who illegally perform flock searches on behalf of CBP or ICE and share the results informally.

This has been reported for multiple agencies in Southern California, including ones from counties that have access to Elk Grove data, the counties of Orange and Riverside.

The problem is not whether Elk Grove intends to share the data.

It's that Flock's system design enables federal access, sometimes without cities knowing.

Elk Grove residents deserve policing systems that comply with California state laws all the time.

And Flock Safety Systems has a demonstrated pattern of breaking these laws.

There are also security vulnerabilities with Flock that expose our data.

Senator Ron Wyden's investigation in November 2025 found at that time Flock didn't require multi-factor authentication.

At least 35 customer account passwords were stolen by hackers and were being sold online.

At one point, Flock cameras and administrator dashboards could be accessed by the public.

From a cybersecurity perspective, this is inexcusable.

I respectfully ask the city council to release Elkgrove Flock ALPR audit logs publicly and commission an independent audit of that data to verify no federal agency access has ever occurred.

And to suspend the flock safety ALPR contract pending that investigation.

And then to research alternative ALPR vendors with proven local control and California law compliance.

And to hold a full public hearing on surveillance technology policies, giving residents the opportunity to ask questions and share concerns.

For residents and council members who would like to learn more about what I've shared today, they can visit the website DFLOC Elkgrove.org.

That's one word.

D E F L O C K Elkgrove.org.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Jennifer T, followed by Maries Shelton.

Good evening.

I am commenting today because I am also deeply concerned about the use of the flock safety cameras.

As Ellen stated, we recently learned that multiple California cities, including Mountain View and San Francisco, discovered the Flock was sharing their data without their knowledge or consent.

And that is a violation of state law.

Again, to echo Ellen, regardless of whether or not Elk Grove wants that to happen or intends it to happen, it can still happen.

They have a well-documented pattern of breaking California state law and of sharing data that was not theirs to share.

Um investigate other alternatives to Flock, and that we cancel our contract with Flock.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Maurice Shelton.

Thank you.

That I can share my opinion too, my concern about the same issue.

I represent people who are voters, but I haven't really been actively involved in politics until past 10 years when the national climate has changed so much, or that I've noticed anyway.

That's the kind of person I'm I represent.

I have this opinion that I think that the local communities need to take a stand for what's right and legal because at the national level, integrity is lacking.

And we've got the history of block safety violations of the law.

And so I'm just looking for my local government to cancel its contract with flock safety and choose a vendor which obeys the law.

Somebody needs to provide consequences for breaking the law.

And economic consequences seem to be noticed by those being incurred.

I think Elker Obe needs to flex our moral muscle and take action worthy of our like ranking of livability.

And thank you for your time.

Thank you.

That was our final public comment.

So I will go ahead and close the public comment opportunity.

Yes, I can.

I just did.

I'm requesting to see Elk Grove Incorporated as a city in 2000 for two reasons.

To rest control from the County Board of Supervisors to develop land at the pleasure of developers.

And to create its own police department separate from the county sheriff.

Why?

To sell this squeaky clean suburban optic to developers.

Although many crimes are committed here, the overwhelming majority are property crimes or larceny, generally understood to be thievery.

There's not much the police can do about property theft or about capitalism for that matter.

But the council can make policies that strengthen our communities against it.

Affordable housing, public transit, universal health care, create a firm foundation to improve community development.

Start this process by transferring the millions allocated to the community development department to the public works department.

Instruct them to make our streets safe for pedestrians and human-powered bicyclists to by dedicating entire traffic lanes for that purpose.

Work with regional transit to create shuttles on our boulevards free of charge to the public.

Create swales and tree parks in underutilized parking lots, humanize our boulevards, make them attractive enough to walk and be in, even on the hottest and coldest days, create a sense of real community where even the cops are welcomed without their guns.

After all, they're human beings just like the rest of us.

But if you really think fear and intimidation works.

Don't change anything.

I have a few questions.

And well, let me start with this.

How many white male cops do we have on the on the department?

There were 1,548 flock alerts, and somehow there were also 1,548 hit and run incidents according to the uh screen we saw.

And I protest sonic weapons for crowd control.

Um, it might be true that when my wife says evil never sleeps, uh she knows I sleep, of course, but at the same time, I really think we've we live in an era of paranoia, and we need to step back from that.

We're only 85 seconds away from uh nuclear midnight, according to the bulletin of the atomic scientists.

So that's the end of my comments.

All right.

Now I will close public comment and invite back Andrea and Robert, our chief.

Um before we open it up to our questions, uh would you like to respond to anything that you've heard?

So there are a few things that I would just like to state for the record.

Um regarding shit sharing with Orange County and Riverside.

Um, those are actually entities we do not share with, we share with uh Riverside County DA and Orange County DA, those are separate entities, and we do have MOUZ on file for that.

Um the other comment, um I've lost my train of a lot, but um that's specific to that.

I wanted to to clarify that, and then um some of the allegations that have been said regarding um misuse of data, data sharing uh by other agencies.

I think that we need to look to lean on California Department of Justice to conduct an independent audit rather than um independent audits conducted by individuals that we are that don't have a name associated with them.

Yeah, and some of the numbers that uh Mr.

Mernansky asked for we can we can provide.

Uh I don't have them off the top of my head, but we can we can get that far.

Okay, very good.

So I'm gonna open it up to questions from my colleagues.

Uh thank you for the question.

He's I think to go right now, so we'll let the vice mayor go.

Thanks.

Well, I was just gonna piggyback off your your comment, uh Andrea.

Is uh does the DOJ do random audits or you uh uh regularly or does it have to be at our request?

So I don't know that they do them regularly, but um actually they did put out um information.

I believe this is dated.

So this is dated um this information bulletin provided by California DOJ is dated 1027 and 2023, and it is related to um SB34 and how they conducted an audit regarding the sharing of A sharing of ALPR technology.

And so these audits are possible, and that's what I think we should do.

Um we should lean to look to um California Department of Justice to clarify some of this narrative.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

Yeah, and I think one of the other things is important is every time there's an update, uh, much like with your phone, they turn certain things on.

Dre and her team go through and make sure that we do not have those uh items turned on that could be failures in our system.

Uh, we ensure that everything that we want as far as um uh data that goes to agencies that are allowed to have them is turned, those are turned on, all the rest are turned off.

Uh we don't even share with agencies uh in California that say that they're only California because they're associated with um a federal uh or ice, if you will.

We don't even share with them, even though they say they don't share it.

Somebody is associated with that group, so we don't share with them.

And I think that's important because we we do everything in our power to ensure that we don't um um you know violate the law here in the state of California, and more importantly, um create fear for our community.

Thank you, Chief, for the extra precaution and wanted to thank you and Andrea and Mallory and that your whole team and that RTIC, um eyes in the sky, or whatever you want to call it, keeping it safe.

Uh you again you demonstrate uh using uh prudence uh and restraint in in this technology and use of force.

I mean, less than one percent.

That is incredible.

So good congratulations to you on that.

And again, thank you for keeping us all safe.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Brewer.

Very appreciative, very appreciative.

Um the work that our police department does keeps all of us safe.

Full stop.

And the numbers that we have are very uh are very clear.

There showed marked improvement and the technology that we use helps keeps people our community safe.

We lead the we're leading the way in terms of technology, both police and fire for that very reason.

And it's very intentional.

And for the work that and the risk that you're that the men and women of the Oak Roe Police Department goes through every day is commendable.

And that does not lose sight on me.

So thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Uh Councilmember Robles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Just wanted to say thank you for the thorough uh presentation on that and explaining pretty much the whole process, right?

There's a lot of misconception out there that we are not following the rules or that our El Grove PD doesn't follow the rules.

Um I believe that it starts with the leadership and chief, everything you've been doing from from from leadership to the top to making sure that your officers are conducting in the most um integrity with integrity and operating in the right ways.

And Andrea, everything you're doing and the Arctic team in the back.

I know that you guys take full response, like take it to with integrity and honor of actually doing this, you know, because you're protecting our citizens and protecting all of us, not only our citizens, but all our community members, right?

Um, we're one elk growth.

Um so I truly thank you for that.

And even the opportunity to welcome the the California DOJ, because I mean we I don't think we would trust the DOJ at the federal level, right?

So thank you for for offering that and and for um trying to do that.

I uh I would welcome that, and I think uh the rest of the, I'm not gonna speak for the rest of the colleagues, but I think they would also support that.

And um just thank you for all the hard work.

Uh this is stuff that goes in, you guys are doing jobs that go on scene, you know, but you're keeping our community safe.

And ultimately, that's what a lot of constituents um feel good about.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Council R Speeze.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

So I'll I'll start off real quick with um thank you very much to the men and women of the Elk Road Police Department.

They're an extremely professional organization, and that is um much appreciated and well recognized throughout the community.

I think the other thing to do is to make sure that we we thank our taxpayers, right?

And in particular, measure E measure E has been an enabler, which has helped us to do so many um new things, um, which has increased the quality of life uh and and not just made uh made it safer for our residents, but also made it uh safer for um our police force that is that is out there every day.

And so thank you very, very much to our residents, our taxpayers.

Um that is very much appreciated.

I could this is one of those items that I could go on all night.

So I'm really glad I didn't take notes.

So I'm I'm sure I'll exhaust myself on this.

But um what we see every day, most of the time that most of us see is is someone driving down the street in a in a patrol vehicle.

And hopefully that's you know, the you know, maybe other than going to have uh what do you call it um shop with a cop or fry with a you know fries with a whatever, right?

Um that's that's the most that we have hopefully um um contact with.

Um there are but there are times when bad days happen, and for whatever reason, um, you know, our El Grove police force or police department is there.

Um and there is is a huge cast of people behind that scene as well that so many people never ever see.

Folks in the Arctic, folks who are doing administrative tasks, uh folks who are you know managing um evidence in the backrooms, folks who are managed or managing the the police vehicles, the equipment.

I mean, there is a whole host of folks behind the scenes that I know are our uh our officers couldn't do um that work without that support.

Um so I want to I want to you know thank them for that and recognize them for that.

Um the the Elk Grove residents have a very strong um expectation, uh very high expectation of our police officers.

And um thankfully our police officers rise to that occasion.

I think one thing that is often um not recognized is um the work that has been done specifically in de-escalation.

Um the the opportunities.

I mean, when you look at and correct my stats if I remember them incorrectly, you know, less than one percent use of force um when when handling some of these issues, that is that is very, very significant.

That is down from what it was before.

It's a continued downward trend.

I don't know that that could ever get to zero because of the things that we have to work with, right?

But um it's it's um I think it's a testament to to our professional force and what they're trying to do.

Um, and and that's what the residents are asking for, right?

They want to have a less lethal uh contact in those critical situations, right?

In the end, it you know, it's it's somebody's mother, somebody's father, somebody's, you know, and and maybe there's a crisis situation at the time, but we want everyone to go home safely at the end of the day, regardless of who they are in the in the scenario, right?

So I want to thank uh thank you for that work.

Uh what another thing that should be acknowledged, and I think was maybe forgotten by somebody earlier was that you know, when we're when we are um working with uh the homeless population um that we have a homeless outreach team, and we have uh we have crisis intervention counselors that are out there who are doing their best to ensure that people are connected with services, people who are you know that so that they are they are treated safely and fairly and present and I know you've heard me chirp on this one before, Chief, but the preservation of civil rights, your your the bill of rights and the constitution are fundamental to us as residents of the United States, and and I've talked about it before.

We've had conversations about it in use of technologies, and I'm confident that our our police department is respecting those.

Because if they weren't, I'd probably be the first one yelling and screaming.

And you know that.

I'm probably you probably don't all know that I'm you know one of the members of EFF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

I'm I'm I'm very, very serious personally about you know about our our civil rights.

So I want to thank you again and thank the you know the residents, um, thank our um you know the men and women police department um because Elk Grove residents have high expectation and continually we've risen to that, and I know you'll continue to do so.

So thank you for your leadership, Chief, and you know, thanks to to the rest of your team.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I you know, imagine if you had notes.

I don't know.

I could have gone all night, folks.

I I have I did take some notes um just because I didn't want to forget anything.

Excuse me, maybe I if I may offer a comment before you before you speak, Madam Mayor.

Um I did remember the blank moment that I had.

So multi-factor authentication, I did want to speak to that.

So as soon as that was offered uh through Flock Safety Technology, we did uh subscribe to that.

Some agencies did not.

And so I think it's worth noting um that we've always had multi-factor authentication here.

Um security breaches, those were related to a specific type of live video camera that we actually don't have here in the city of Elk Grove.

Um, and Flock has still stated that their their um database has never been hacked, and it was in fact demo data.

Um we are always continually evaluating technology, so there was a suggestion in public comment to to do that, and and we are actively doing that.

So we always evaluate technology to ensure we have the best fit for the citizens of Elk Grove.

Um, and then I I want to make it clear that we encourage these conversations and we want to ensure that we are um meeting the community's expectations, and so we will continue these conversations and we will continue to reach out to California Department of Justice.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um thank you for that follow-up because one of my questions was on the uh authentication because I think I'd shared an article um where somebody was maybe wrongful, I think it was like wrongfully accused because of the numbers were kind of jumbled.

And so it's it's reassuring to know that we have independent um verification of those numbers.

But first and foremost, I do want to thank you, um, Chief and to you, Andrea.

Um fantastic report.

I have the utmost respect for our police department, and the data shows so do our residents.

Um, I'm gonna just ask a question, I already know the answer, and it's just uh I want it on the record, and it's just sort of an extension of what um Councilmember Spees had said, and that's as it relates to measure e-funding.

So my question is does measure e-funding for public safety reflect community priorities as identified by the residents?

Yes, they do.

We are continually valid evaluating those, uh not just uh internally, but with our executive team, um uh Miss Guzman is part of the it kind of runs the measure E for us.

Um we always check every time we have an opening associated with measure E, we ensure that it's filled, but we also make sure that it meets the requirement uh that measure E is set forth when it comes to the guidelines for the police department uh and the city.

So we do uh meet the measury requirements that the community has asked us to meet.

Great, and that also includes that we have an oversight committee as it relates to measure E.

And just as a quick refresher, when we did the polling on measure E and what our community's priorities, we got a lot of feedback from the community.

We just didn't do this um arbitrarily.

We had a lot of community engagement and the priorities identified very clearly by the residents of Elk Grove, and that was public safety.

Public safety was one of the top tier priorities.

So I just wanted to just put that back on the record.

Um, when you shared the slides when it comes to the ALPR by the numbers and the wins, I think about those victims and those families who are often forgotten in these kinds.

They're just you know, it's a statistic.

But for them, it was life-saving.

For them, it was everything.

So the numbers are fantastic.

Um less than one percent uh the use of force that was mentioned.

That's tremendous.

Those are those numbers, you may not see those across the country, but I am very proud of what you have shared here.

Um, the transparency with technology, that also sticks out.

But what I really appreciated with this information, and I hope that it's shared widely, and that is fear and misinformation can really confuse the dialogue.

And you have outlined facts and oversight and transparency when it comes to the process here.

So I want to thank you for that.

I also want to do just a shout out on a couple of items.

The neighborhood mediation.

I've fielded many calls since I was elected mayor on tensions in neighborhoods.

And just some of the feedback that I got from the neighbors was very much appreciated.

It definitely created better situations.

So I think that that is very helpful.

But the fact that we even have counselors that go out in these very tense situations, not only is the de-escalation occurring there, but what's occurring there is humanity is providing the services that they need in a very, very difficult, intense moment where everybody's life is at risk.

So I'm proud of the work that we're doing when it comes to that.

Proposition 36.

As you know, as one of the leaders statewide on this initiative and raised millions of dollars to get this to the finish line.

Now we have aggregation.

Now that we we can combine the totals, and that now finally is something that we're seeing a lot of results, not only here, but with prosecutions.

District Attorney Tian Ho did an update with the business community, and we're seeing the benefits of proposition 36.

Would still like to see some of the other funding as it relates to supportive services that are still needed from our state and our governor.

The community engagement.

I know that RPD goes above and beyond to build those relationships with the community.

Please reach out to them.

Be part of the team, be part of the solution.

They are extremely welcoming.

One of the reasons we have a fabulous police department is that partnership that is with our residents.

So I want to thank you and recognize that great work.

As it relates to the Department of Justice in California, I know that Attorney General Bonta is no stranger to our city, and we welcome any independent oversight that he may offer on this.

We want to leave that where the experts are when it comes to this, rather than doing our own internal um audits.

I go back to just thinking about those families that this has helped with those flock cameras.

So thank you so much for this information.

It'll take me even a while probably to just digest all of it.

There's a lot, a lot of a lot of great information, but then also room for improvement.

That's one of the best things about your leadership is you recognize where we still need to grow and still need to improve.

So thank you for recognizing that.

And great job, everyone.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council.

Thank you.

With that, we will move on to our next item.

That'll be item 9.2, which is receive the Elk Grove Aquatic Center annual report for calendar year 2025.

All right, good evening.

Good evening.

Um, Jeff Scanlan Community Center Manager for District 56.

Um here tonight to present a high-level overview of the Elk Grove Aquatic Center 2025 annual report.

Um tonight's presentation will highlight key program outcomes, community impact, financial performance, and then a brief look ahead to 2026.

And then before I begin, I just like to say thank you to CSD for their role and continued partnership and operating the Oak Grove Aquatic Center.

And tonight we do have Lana Yoshimura, uh Parks Direct Director with Consume the CSD present to answer any questions at the end of the presentation if needed.

Nice to see you again, Lana.

All right.

Facility overview, the Oak Grove Aquatic Center located at District 56, is operated by the Consumeness CSD in partnership with the City of Elk Grove facility open in May of 2019 and continues as a year-round regional aquatic facility.

The goal is really to provide a balanced mix of recreation, water safety, fitness, and skill development opportunities throughout the entire year.

Community impact.

This slide really highlights the overall impact of the facility in our community.

In 2025, the aquatic center continued to see strong participation across all program areas.

We had over 35,000 recreation swim visits, almost 5,000 swim lesson participants, over 6,000 water fitness, and over 57 lap swim visits.

In addition to our daily programming, Elk Grove Aquatic Center continues to serve as a regional destination for our aquatics events.

2025, we hosted several large composition competitions, including Delta League and Western Zone Championships.

These events brought in approximately a thousand participants and spectators each day, and included teams from across the Western United States.

Operationally, 2025 was a strong year.

Staff continue to expand swim lesson swim lesson offerings into off-peak seasons to increase access and really maximize our facility use.

On the facility side, we completed several maintenance and improvement projects throughout last year, which included repairs to our major equipment, restorations of our pool surfaces, and replacement of some aging furnishings, which kind of contribute to the overall positive guest experience.

From a financial standpoint, the aquatic center performed well in 2025.

Total program revenue exceeded 950,000 and increase from 2024.

These revenues continue to be driven primarily by recreation swim, swim lessons, uh, water fitness and rentals.

As with most public aquatic facilities, the Elk Grove Aquatic Center does operate with a planned subsidy to maintain affordability and offer year-round access.

Overall, the facility is operating within those expected financial parameters and consistent with other uh public aquatics operations.

Um, the slide here represents just a key couple of our key numbers from fiscal year 24-25 actuals.

Uh, on the left side of the graph, you'll see CSD's net expense coming in at around just under 752,000, uh about 20,000 under their adopted operating budget, and then the city's total operation subsidy on the right-hand side of just over 927,000, um, 76,000 under our adopted operating budget, which was a 7.5% decrease.

And then, as for our mid-year analysis and projections, uh we're sitting around 32% of the operations subsidy has been expended as of March 1st, 2026, which is well within our historical trends for the facility.

And then lastly, looking ahead to 2026, uh, the aquatic center will continue to host major regional events, including our league and championship meets, uh, while maintaining our full schedule of recreation and programming.

Uh, recreation swim will open Memorial Day weekend, and staff will continue to look for opportunities to expand programming and improve overall operations, and then our goal remains the same.

Continue providing high quality programming while maintaining the Elk Grove Aquatic Center as a premier regional facility.

And with that, that concludes the presentation, and we're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Jeff.

Uh this time I'll open up public comment.

I do not have anyone timed up.

I will close the public comment opportunity.

Open it up for questions, comments, and I'll start to the left.

Councilmember Brewer.

Thank you, Jeff.

Great job.

Okay, excellent.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, good information, Jeff.

Um, great to see that uh the events you're having was uh this past year seemed to be increasing the revenue coming in for that.

I would question about the regional competition.

Do you suffer or are we suffering any losses from the Natomas facility being built?

Do you see any effects from that?

As of today, currently, no.

We average like 12 to 14 swim meets per year, and those kind of stay consistent.

We kind of host our local swim teams.

They average what they have annually, and then we host three to four large regional events each year.

Okay, great.

Glad to hear.

Yeah, and when we built this, we we expected that to subsidize approximately a million a year, and glad to see it's it's maintaining and not increasing.

Thank you.

Uh, looking to the right, any questions, comments?

Yep, go for it.

Sure.

Um so first I want to say thank you very much.

I appreciate that um, you know, the the aquatic center is operating well and within our established budget, that's really good to see.

I'm glad to see the increase in revenue.

That's that's fantastic.

And I certainly have to you know appreciate Ms.

Lana for being here today and the fantastic support that we get from the CSD and their directors as well.

So no, but thank you very much.

Overwhelming endorsement for those CSD directors.

Um, but thank you very much.

Uh it's it's it's really good to see that it's operating well and and um you know serving the needs of the community.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Councilmember Robles.

All right, thank you for a great uh presentation.

Great to see the numbers and the increase in not only use but also more events as we continue to grow and expand.

So thank you, and thank you, Lana, for being here.

Thank you.

All right.

With that, we will move on to item 9.3.

Let's receive information regarding the proposed seniors ride free pilot program and consider resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an Elk Grove senior group pass agreement with Sacramento Regional Transit District.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

I am Kaylee Lyons, your transportation planning program manager, and I'm happy to wrap up this evening with a presentation on the seniors ride free pilot program proposal.

And I'm also joined here by Anthony Adams, the director of planning for SAC RT as well.

So just a quick background.

Last May, staff evaluated several potential subsidies to enhance services and access for low-income folks in the city.

And one of those explored was a potential subsidized or free transit pass for seniors.

We know many seniors are on a fixed income and they're sensitive to changes in the cost of living and transportation.

And so at that time, council directed staff to explore a potential pilot program with SAC RT.

We see a lot of benefits here, including increased mobility and independence for people as they age.

Our seniors may be driving less or not at all, and so providing additional forms of transportation is really important, helping folks get to essential services and making sure that they're staying connected socially and with our community.

The program provides an opportunity to support our existing riders and also encourage new riders to join the system as well.

And then I did also just want to know SAC RT's existing ride-free RT program that's been in place for a few years.

That's for youth students in TK through 12th grade.

And that's actually doubled our youth ridership here on our Elk Grove route, and it's a significant portion of our ridership, which is great.

So the pilot program that we are proposing would have any Elk Grove resident that is 62 years or older eligible to ride for free on our Elk Grove route.

So those are our local buses and our commuter buses as well.

We want to make it super easy, low barrier to entry, and so folks will be able to present their government-issued ID to the transit operator showing their age and that they live in Elk Grove, and that will allow them to ride for free.

We will also have a senior group transit card available in case folks would prefer to present that option instead.

This for now for the pilot program will only be for our Elk Grove routes, so no other SAC RT buses, light rail, paratransit, or the flex program are included.

And essentially what we will do is reimburse RT for the senior fare.

So right now it's $1.10 per trip.

So their bus operators will be taking counts of each senior that boards on the Elk Grove lines, and then they will submit a reimbursement request regularly to the city.

We anticipate the program running through June of 2027 or until funds are expended.

And we're estimating about 100,000 to get us through that time frame.

That estimated cost is based on Elk Grove monthly ridership and how many seniors we have in town.

And if we are finding that the funds are going quicker than anticipated, we'll make sure to give um seniors at least a one-month notice that the program may be changing or ending.

But we'll we'll keep an eye closely on it.

So the next steps would be to launch an outreach and marketing campaign, both a city and SAC RT.

We are aiming to launch this actually quite quickly.

So next Monday, March 30th, folks would be able to board using their um issued IDs.

And then we'll have within about four to six weeks cards available at City Hall and District 56 as well, where staff can do the verification and then issue the card that would be available for the duration of the program.

And then we'll evaluate ridership levels, how folks are feeling about the program, if any adjustments need to be made as as it goes.

And then in the future, depending on our findings through this pilot program, we could potentially expand in the future to include additional um types of folks or additional SAC RT services, just depending.

But we definitely come back with any updates on that.

So our requested action tonight is for you to authorize the city manager to execute the agreement with SAC RT up to the amount of 100,000.

And with that, we're available for questions.

All right, thank you.

At this time, I will open up public comment.

No one is signed up to speak on this.

I will go ahead and close public comment.

And I'm gonna exercise my my own executive privilege here and go first.

As chair of SAC RT, um, I'm very excited about this.

This is not something that other cities can do.

So to provide these services, we hear about the need all the time at SAC RT.

So, in fact, recently I've been getting more and more requests from seniors and their children concerned about you know what options are available in Elk Grove for my parents.

So the it addresses mobility, independence, and connection.

So I'm very excited to see this, and I'm absolutely in support of this.

I look forward to how we're gonna get the word out through the marketing campaigns.

Imagine I mean we have a lot of nonprofits that we work with already.

Um so I think we'll probably, you know, I imagine a robust campaign.

And the best problem to have is that the services are being used, and you come back here looking for more money.

Uh, could be the best uh best case scenario.

So thank you for that.

I'll start to the right this time.

Well, I'll go to the left since uh council member Brewer is also on the SAC RT board.

Thank you, Mayor.

And yes, no, thank you.

Thank you for the report, uh Ms.

Lyons.

Um this is something that we definitely should have.

I mean, when you reach a certain age, you kind of you deserve to have have some benefits that not too many other people can enjoy or have because you've lived a life.

Um SAC RT is always looking for ways to increase ridership, um, always looking for ways to uh make sure that people can get from point A to point B.

Uh no matter where you are, which bus you're on, if you're on light rail, um, having this for you to have the ability to get to either downtown or even on the e-tran around town is always is always good for the order.

Um I do have a question though.

Um with the with this specific uh service that we would have as the pilot program.

Um how will be how will we be able to use our data to show that um that our seniors are using the program?

Yeah, that's a a good question.

Um so I might invite Anthony up to um talk a little talk a little bit more.

I mean, he made it.

Yes, I've been here for the past three hours.

Um I appreciate you having me here.

Um we were gonna let you off the hook.

You know that, right?

Appreciate you.

I appreciate you.

Um, yeah, so uh when uh a senior boards the bus, our bus operator is gonna press a button, so we'll know the amount of uh seniors that are riding today.

I think the amount that we uh estimated for the 100,000 was a 12% senior ridership percentage.

So we can see if that rises as Kaylee alluded to, the student ridership has more than doubled once this became free.

So we do expect ridership to grow from the seniors, and um we hope to use this as really a base case for the rest of our system.

This will be the first city in the entire region.

I appreciate you saying that.

Um and also these are vulnerable populations, a lot of them don't have cars, so giving people the ability and freedom to move around is uh very important.

Mobility, and yeah, we're gonna be able to make sure to use this as a as a test case for the rest of our system and hopefully find a successful and can expand it further.

And obviously, this also this would also be used for the evan for the flex program.

Um if you are a senior and you're here in Oak Grove and you are and you have that card or pass.

That's pretty much good for your travel, correct?

Uh no, sir.

So this particular program is just for the fixed route buses.

Okay.

So we do have a program called Flex, which is an on-demand service for seniors, uh, folks with a disability and low income as well.

Uh that is a program that's not included in this particular pilot program.

It would cost uh more uh for the flex program to do that because it's on demand, but we're willing to do that.

Um we actually have something penciled out for you guys as well.

So if if it's something you're interested in, um making fair for free for flex, uh, we can offer that to the city as well.

Okay, no, that anything like that, and we could talk about this offline uh because those are some other things I'm thinking about as well.

Um, and there's also like, as we know, some people um have challenges of getting to a bus.

To the bus stop.

And so it's just trying to figure out some um other methods of getting a person from their house or from a designated spot to a two-way bus so they can travel and do what they need to do, but we can talk about that offline.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um appreciate the information.

What a great option to provide our senior community, uh, as you mentioned, allowing them the flexibility to travel throughout the city if they can't drive for free.

Um that's that's a great benefit.

I want to thank Mayor and Councilmember Brewer for serving on our team, being leaders on there, bringing this to our city.

Thank you.

I heard a good story from Henry Lee, and you guys push in the little little turntable.

You and him did most of the work.

Yes, that's right.

That's right.

Thanks.

Councilmember Spees.

Um, so again, I I know I sound like a broken record every single time.

Thank you very much to the residents for measure E.

That is what helps us to be able to do things like this.

There is no, I think there's no uh section of the population which is more vulnerable to uh rises in inflation um than our senior community and our disabled community, um, having the opportunity to um provide this relatively small related to the rest of our budget, being able to provide this to them.

Um, you know, these these are folks who are sometimes making the decisions between food for themselves, food for their animal, or or their prescription, right?

And it's that you think it's a dollar ten.

Oh, great, big deal.

So um thank you very much uh for the support from my colleagues.

Thank you very much from RT.

Thank you very much to Kaylee, who I love buses, Kaylee.

I do, I do.

We're gonna have a try transit day.

Oh, I'm I'm there for you.

I'm there for you.

Um, but um it's uh I really appreciate it, and I'm glad that uh that we're gonna get this done and we'll see where it goes from here.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rope.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I think it's gonna just kind of echoing the same uh sentiment.

Um thank you, Mayor and Councilmember Brewer for your hard work on RT.

Uh but also I know it it originated from you know, when you spoke, I think a while back ago as well, uh talking about measuring funds, and you were really passionate about it.

I think it was maybe a year and some change around, but thank you for carrying it through the finish line, and and this is just a great opportunity for our seniors.

So happy to support.

Great.

Um, with that, uh let's I do want to end by saying with uh with Kaylee, the the ride transit, try it.

It's actually fun.

Um I've done it with students and seeing how those routes look like and as the school year began.

So it's actually quite enjoyable.

Uh I will look for a motion.

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

All right, council comments reports, future agenda items.

I'll start to the left.

Councilmember Brewer.

So RT board meeting met on Monday.

Um, but next, I want to say, yeah, no, library board meets tomorrow at the county administrative offices.

Um the following Wednesday, uh there'll be a non-Wednesday, it'll be on the 15th.

Uh, the Capitol Corridor uh JPA board will will meet in Sassoon City.

Um I'm a member of that on the side of the as a member of the RT board.

But that's all I have.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Uh just had a State Cog board meeting last week.

We got to tour beautiful West Sacramento, so it's nice to see our sister's city over there.

Thank you.

Councilmember Speeds, anything?

I can waive my report today.

Thank you.

So you guys want to tune in?

9 a.m.

Thank you.

Um, SAC RT, San Joaquin County Rail, whatever the acronym is, online for briefly, but uh SAC RT, and that's it.

So tonight we will be adjourning at 9 22.

Thank you, everyone.