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Councilmember Brownstone.

Here.

Councilmember Johnson.

Here.

Councilmember Nagginast.

Vice Mayor Penrose.

Here, Mayor Ruddick.

Here, we have a quorum.

I'll rise for Pledge of Allegiance.

Um, so the first item of business is to approve the agenda.

However, I'd like to make a recommendation that we move up item 10D, which is the item on rent stabilization and the rent rental registry, uh, and put that in front of item 10a.

So it would be um the first item under our regular non-consent agenda business.

And that would be my motion to move that.

Second.

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

So the agenda is approved with that item moved forward to the first item of business.

Thank you.

Um proclamations and presentations.

Um looks like we don't have any this evening.

Madam Mayor, we do have one presentation tonight, but unfortunately it didn't end up on the agenda, so we're gonna be taking that just as public comment later on.

Yes, I just wanted to make sure that uh there was nothing else.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

Um, so the next item of business is item four, mayor's announcements of community activities and community service.

And I don't have any announcements this evening.

Item five is report out from recent closed session meetings, and I would ask um our city attorney Denise Basano to report.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

This evening the council met in closed session to discuss the case of uh City of Half Moon Bay versus Granada Community Services District and Montero and Sanitary District at the conclusion of the closed session, the council voted unanimously to refrain from seeking appellate review in the case.

Um this case involves uh the city of Hap Moon Bay, the Monterra Water and Sanitary District, and Granada Community Services Districts are all parties.

And um the litigation arises relates to disputes regarding cost of to reconstruct the pipeline system.

That concludes the report.

Uh thank you for that.

So I'll just summarize the city has decided not to appeal the judgment on half moon bay's litigation with Granada and Community Services District and Montero water and sanitary district.

Um next, we have city manager updates to council.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

We have several updates tonight.

Um we'll begin with the one listed on the agenda, which is an update on the Frenchman's Creek Park project, and that will be given by our interim public works director.

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

My name's Todd Seeley.

I am the interim public works director, and I'm here to talk to you tonight about Frenchman's Creek Park and kind of give you guys an overlay of the final uh design that we have for the project.

This was based on some discussions that we had with council about a month ago.

Uh the engineering team did a great job re uh refining the design and coming up with an engineer's estimate that we uh that is gonna put us way under budget, so we're excited about that and incorporate all the features that we uh we took from the feedback that we got from you guys last time.

So let's just jump right into it.

Uh the only um the the existing area as we mentioned last time is the brown area with the play structure.

So we were able to add uh benches, a significant number of benches based on the feedback last time.

There's three or four, there's three benches plus two seat walls and an accessible table.

Um, I can kind of give you a better idea of what it looks like here.

This is a slightly bigger picture.

So there's an ADA picnic table, a seat wall to the south of the of the park, a seat wall to the east of the park, and three benches kind of interspersed uh throughout the rest of the area.

Also adding a drinking fountain and the accessible parking area that we mentioned earlier.

We are going to put the a little those two accessible parking spaces are off the street, and um we are gonna add a new speed table that we uh we received some concerns from some community members the last time we brought this item to council about the speeding on the street.

It is a very narrow street and uh a quiet street, so we are gonna be adding a speed table.

We'll go over that in a minute.

Um, we feel that the addition of the benches in the locations and the seat walls is gonna give ample opportunities for visitors of the park and for members of the public just to be able to take a look.

There's there's really cool views facing south where that part where that park is.

Uh looking at the creek and the eucalyptus grove, and there's some really cool cool views looking to the west as well, kind of like the little bowl area where people will go out and play with their dogs and stuff like that.

So the additions of the seat walls and the benches is gonna be nice and and kind of a welcomed addition out there.

Um as we discussed the last time we were here, the total project budget was a little under 400,000.

We're about eighty-five thousand dollars in.

So the base bid for the work or our engineers' estimate for the work that we are proposing right now is about two hundred thousand dollars.

Uh obviously, we're gonna ask for a little bit of contingency, not much more.

Um, we will be bidding this project out competitively uh shortly after after tonight, and then we still expect to realize some cost savings while incorporating a lot of cool features and upgrades to this park.

So we're excited about both the cost savings and the ability to upgrade and upgrade this this location.

And I did mention before that we are gonna add uh one existing speed table on Rousseau Francais.

So the this map is kind of hard to see, but there's two red arrows on this map kind of outlining where the existing speed tables are, and then the proposed speed table is going to be very close to where the play structure is and where the improvements are gonna be made.

Uh, with the revamping of the accessible parking and the the new layout of the park, it's gonna be very inviting for visitors and for children, and we wanted to make sure that we're controlling speed as close to the park as we possibly can be, and that's why we chose that location for the speed table.

Um, with that, I do have another CM update, but with that, I just wanted to turn over to council and ask if there's any questions about the work that we're doing.

Councilmember Nagencast.

Thank you.

Um, I know it's benches and seat walls.

Yes, do the benches have backs on them?

The benches do have backs on it.

The seat walls do not do not.

So you can either watch the play structure or turn around and look into the bowl or look out at the creek, whatever.

So the benches there was four benches because they're we're also considering uh the kiosk is the term that we use, but it was the Eagle Scout project that was built a couple years ago, and that has a back on it as well.

So there's gonna be three large eight-foot benches with backs on it plus the kiosk, and then the addition of the seat wall.

Uh the three seat walls, which will provide ample seating.

Anyone else with clarifying questions?

Comments?

Okay, we can move on to the next report.

All right, outstanding.

So the next report is an update about the highway one north safety and operational improvements.

Um referred to broadly as the Highway One North project.

The reason that we are bringing an update to council this evening is um partly because of the incident that occurred in Half Moon Bay last week.

Um, this area in question is is where the accident occurred, and we wanted to bring some updates to the council and to the community just to let everyone know that this is something that we have been thinking about for a long time.

It is something that is very important to us, and we wanted to let everyone know kind of where we're at and what the process is to get this light put in there and get the improvements made.

Um, so again, this is an artist rendering of what the intersection is going to look like at Terrace Avenue.

Um, obviously there's no light there now, but this is what it's gonna look like in the in the in the near future, once we can uh get everything ready to go and get this project underway.

Um we are expecting comments on our 100% submittal to Caltrans in the coming days.

What that means is we've been going through this design process for many years.

Um, this project has been in design since I started with the city in 2018, and we still don't have a hundred percent design yet.

So we are very close.

We expect to have those you know, 100% submittal comments back any time now.

Um, these comments will help to dictate timing on a final permit and getting our encroachment permits and getting everything lined up we need for that.

Um, another hurdle that we are facing is the funding of the project.

While it's been allocated and promised there's still some legislative hurdles that need to be cleared before we can get that.

The California Transportation Commission is expected to approve uh our funding allocation for this project in June.

And with that, once that is approved, then the SMCTA funding agreement is expected in July.

Um the reason that we bring that up is this part of the funding, I believe, is like 10.8 million dollars somewhere around there, so a fairly significant number.

It's a little less or a little more than half of the overall budget for the project.

So we're still waiting to get these funds, and as soon as we can get them, we can start moving along, and then if that timeline holds and everything, all the ducts fall in a row and all the everything falls into place.

We are expected to start construction some sometime in September on this project.

So we wanted to bring this to you today because of what happened last week, and just to get ahead of this and make sure that you guys are all aware that we're working on this and the community as well.

Let them know that we're working on this.

And um, with that, are there any questions or anything you'd like to add, Matthew?

I'll just add um we've been providing updates on this project for the last couple of months in our e-news, and we'll continue to do that.

It'll just be a standing item in e-news until we break ground because we're so close.

Um, and we have a project page on our website.

So if people after tonight have questions or are interested, uh we'll continue to provide um whatever the most updated information is through those channels.

Um vice mayor.

Yeah, um it's my understanding that the delays in approving the design for the project have not been because the city has been derelict in its duty to get the designs to Caltrans, but because Caltrans has made it very difficult for us to get anything done.

Nearly impossible, would probably be a better term.

Um we've come close to you know 95% design at a at a couple points in this project, and they have come back with pages.

I mean literally hundreds of comments that take staff time and consultant time and money to address these comments that Caltrans has made on while not an insignificant project, a fairly straightforward project, right?

So the delays, while it's not fair to completely or a hundred percent blame Caltrans, this the city's position is that a lot of this could have been fixed a long time ago if Caltrans would have just gotten on board and and approved this some of the work that we're trying to do.

Thank you.

Councilmember Negan guest.

Interim directory, yes, sir.

Just a quick question.

Are we gonna do we have to wait to advertise to all the funding secure?

Are you gonna advertise the project?

Because that looks like a pretty aggressive schedule.

If something's getting approved in July, and then you want to start September, and then I'll throw in the other elephant in the room is the current Caltrans project.

So how does that work or not work on this?

And maybe you're still, you know, those logistics are still being worked out, but just so the community knows.

Sure, absolutely.

So we just found out the delay in the funding about a week and a half ago.

So we're still having these discussions internally.

There is always going to be a problem with the shop project with the existing Caltrans project, just because of overlap.

And that's just the fact that this project, the Highway One North Safety Project has been kicked so far down the road that we should have been done with construction already before they started the shop project.

Like that, they caught up to us because of the delays in getting us our approvals.

It'll be difficult, but nothing that we can't work around.

And to go back to the the first point.

It would be possible to advertise without funding, but ill advised.

Um, we have had those discussions internally and also with um some representatives from the funding agency, and they they've have advised against us bidding as well, without having a signed funding agreement and executed funding agreement.

We did discuss that, but it's just probably not in the city's best interest.

It would could potentially open us up to litigation and then just snowball from there.

So where I'm going with this, I just if there's an expectation that we're going to start September, I just want to make sure that these things that have occurred recently may you know, but it, you know, we're trying to proceed as quickly as we can.

We want this project out there.

As quickly as we can.

I think once the state does allocation in June, we can really ramp up preparations, and we'll be in consultation with SMCTA and make some decisions about timing on advertising.

The initial work on this that would start in September is not like we're out grinding out the highway, right?

There's a lot of work that happens on the shoulders in preparation for this.

You know, there's the new trail and a lot of work on the frontage road.

So that also gives time to continue to coordinate with Caltrans.

Our city engineer sits in uh regular meetings with Caltrans on the SHOP project, and there's been discussions about how to coordinate the two projects for quite a while.

So the the goal would be our work could feather in and hopefully prevent some double work in that area.

That would be ideal.

Um obviously, we'll be flexible, and it'll it'll be up to Caltrans how much they want to coordinate with us on that.

Any other questions?

Do we have any additional reports?

One more.

Can I click?

Sure.

The last item is somewhat related.

Thank you, Todd.

Um, again, in light of uh what happened last week, uh, which obviously was a tragedy for the coast side.

Um, we did want to provide some updates on e-bikes and e-bike safety.

Coincidentally, uh, last Tuesday, the county hosted a workshop for all the jurisdictions in San Mateo County to talk about e-bike safety.

This has been planned for weeks.

There's a lot of work that's already been happening.

We know we've been talking about this at council meetings, and our um bike pet advisory committee has been talking about e-bike regulations and safety, and uh that tragedy last week just uh reinforces how important of an issue this is.

And so we've taken a few steps.

Um we think locally, the first thing that we should be doing is is really just making sure that parents and our youth are aware of uh safety and the things they need to consider when purchasing and utilizing e-bikes and other forms of electronic transportation, and so we've set up on our website an e-bike safety page, and it's got a lot of resources, a lot of information.

We would really encourage parents to sit down and look at this, especially if their kids ride an e-bike or or some sort of motorized device, um, or they're considering it.

Um, there's a lot to think about and a lot to consider, and so we hope that this page on our website can be a resource for them and spark some really good conversations about how to how to utilize these um pieces of equipment safely.

Um post it on here as well, and that website.

If you just go to our our website and go to four residents, underneath it it says e-bike safety.

We'll also have a banner right on our front page to make it easy to find.

Um, associated with this, and a lot of the information is the same.

The county already has this pamphlet um called Electronic or Electric Bicycle Safety.

It's been distributed pretty widely, it's a really great just trifold pamphlet with a lot of information.

We have them on our counter here at the recenter.

They're at City Hall, they're at the library.

Um, we encourage people to pick them up and take a look at it and um share them with people that you know utilize e-bikes and other motorized uh devices.

So that's one of the places we want to start is education because we think it's important for people to know the risks involved, but also how to mitigate those risks and use these devices safely.

Uh, another thing we're gonna be looking at is partnering with some of the bike shops in town in the school district and the sheriff's office and trying to create maybe a rec program, a class for parents and children, similar to what you do when you get a driver's license and and you learn the rules of the road and how to be safe and looking at ways to incentivize that for folks.

Again, it's all about education and understanding right out of the gate.

Obviously, we're gonna continue to advocate for uh legislative changes at the state level.

This has been ongoing and will continue, and and again, we hope that the seriousness of this issue is reinforced with the recent incident and and that our state reps can double down on some of these efforts to better regulate these these bikes.

And of course, there's a balance.

We know that e-bikes provide a really great way for people to get out of their cars and safely get up and down the coast side and and not add to the traffic on the coastside.

Um, but they need better regulation and they need to be um more thoughtfully used, and that's really the key here.

And then the last thing, and something the county shared at their meeting um last week was they're working on a draft ordinance to to better manage and regulate e-bikes within the unincorporated areas of the county.

And the hope is through that the work that they will do on this draft ordinance to develop the right regulations, that it'll be something that all the cities can adopt, and we can have a uniform approach to these vehicles throughout San Mateo County.

And so you can expect us to come back with information on that soon, and of course, that'll be accompanied by all the work that our BPAC has been doing over the last couple of years on this issue.

So lots of work in being done.

It's we're trying to hit this from a lot of different directions with the hope that we can prevent another tragedy here on the coast and keep our community safe while embracing what is an important um technology for transportation here on the coast and getting people off of our roads.

So happy to answer any questions.

Thanks very much for that.

Um, will the information on our website um help people distinguish the issues between e-bikes and e-motorcycles?

You know, one of the big things we've learned in the last week or two is um there are different sets of problems.

Some of them are related, but um, it seems like manufacturers are marketing these as these e-motorcycles as e-bikes, and in fact, they're you know two very different kinds of beasts.

So, are we gonna be educating about that as well?

There's information about that on our page, not just the difference between e-bikes and e-moto's and the scooters, but also the different classes of e-bikes and the regulations around those.

The pamphlet from the county also includes a table that explains all of that.

And um there's a lot of links to other resources, uh, especially if people are considering making a purchase, you know, how to find the right brands and the safest options.

Yeah, and there's other information too, like about helmets.

So a helmet that might be safe for like a class one e-bike might not work for an e-motorcycle.

Um, so I think that's important.

Yeah, all of the all of that is considered, and and we'll continue to add to this as we get more information.

So, this is very helpful.

As we talk about it's a living document, we can keep adding to it, and uh the goal is to educate people as much as we can while some of the legislative fixes and regulations are put into place.

Yeah, what one more thing I would add is that I think it's important to have our sheriff's deputies to enforce the laws that are already on the books and maybe to prioritize that.

Um, you know, in kind of a surge manner to get people to start thinking about this stuff, but there are laws on the books right now, and I think we want to communicate that it's important that these be enforced.

Um, absolutely, and our our sheriff's captain is here tonight, and and he's been involved in all these discussions.

And I know that the sheriff's office is very uh involved in this, as is the school district.

You know, this is a multi-sector multi-pronged approach that we're all gonna have to take to um kind of this is a new technology, it's not brand new, but it's it's really surged in the last couple of years, and um it's you know the time is now to get this worked out for correctly.

I hope for that hard work in a prompt way, thank you.

Thank you.

Other council members, council member Johnson?

Are we gonna be looking into because a lot of the e-bikes and the e-motorcycles, which is the new wave that I'm not part of, but I have an e-bike, and you can crack them.

You can go online, you can turn it off, it has no limiters whatsoever.

So, as fast as you can pedal, or uh, I can assume on an e-motorcycle, it all it's gonna do is draw your battery down.

So are we going to be looking into those two?

Because then you can do excessive speeds.

That is probably an issue that we can't handle at the local level.

That is that is the type of stuff we have to deal with with the state.

They've got to go after manufacturers and those that are marketing the jail breaking of some of these things.

You know, in the meeting last week with the county, they talked about a shop on the peninsula that if you call they'll walk you through how to do that, which is completely illegal.

And that's where you know the state and the county are gonna have to take some actions to enforce and prevent that from happening in the future.

So that's why this is really a multi-prong approach because there are things that are within our power and our control, and there are things that really have to go to higher levels.

I think strongly on this motorcycle kind of mentality.

I grew up with motorcycles early, like 15 years old, and I did wipe out on it.

And I look at it as an e-bike, it's the same thing.

And it was just mines gas versus you know electric.

And later in life, I took a motorcycle class and I got my motorcycles license, and that's when I really learned.

Because I was on the big on the highways now with a large motor, and knowing what to look for, looking to the left, looking to the right, looking for the blinkers, watching people with your eyes, all those little tricks that you learn in motorcycle safety is what I think this trickles down to in bike safety.

Because I'm a big advid rider here on the coast.

That's what I love riding my bike, I love riding my e-bike.

And I'm also telling my wife often look to the left because they're turning right, they're not gonna look at you, they're looking at the light.

So there's all these little tricks that you learn.

And I think we're the direction that we're going, I think it's the right direction.

Education is number one, and being safe.

And different helmets are correct because each helmet has a different speed rating.

Just like you do on a motorcycle, you have you know, you see those little tiny helmets guys are wearing, those aren't really legal.

They're fake ones.

So good helmets for the right speed and the right uh bike that you're using for that product.

I think it's all good.

It's good information.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Penrose.

Yeah, I also think that this leads us into a discussion that we need to be having about our trails, about our east side, our west side, our coastal trails, and pedestrian use of those and the safety of pedestrians on those trails.

So that's something we may want to be looking at seriously.

Yeah, and I think um that's a combination of some things we can put in place right now, like speed limits, and then work we need done at the state to better regulate the use of the trails and the different classifications of trails, which we were headed down that path before, and the state wouldn't allow us to do some of the things we'd wanted to do.

So combination there as well, but absolutely on our radar.

Councilmember Negencaster.

Thank you.

And absolutely safety first, uh I've uh mentioned to other elected officials to talk to their city engineers and widen those uh shared trails.

You know, we have our coastal trail and as uh Vice Mayor Penrose pointed out, the trails on highway one, because they're shared with pedestrians and bicyclists, and even even at 15 miles an hour, it's a lot of momentum on these bikes.

These bikes are much heavier, and a typical uh bicycle is so all important stuff and and a reminder again, too.

I'm on the League of Cities uh task force for e-bikes, so I'm gonna report directly to this council and the community, you know what we're trying to do with the legislature in Sacramento, Councilmember Brownstone?

Biggest questions in my head.

Uh I agree with um Councilmember Penrose.

Because I remember at some point we talked about putting all electric bikes on the east side trails and the west side trails, you know, just for regular bikes.

Um I have no idea how we enforce this stuff, and I haven't heard or seen any great examples.

You could triple the number of sheriffs, but I don't know exactly what they would do.

So if we can identify a municipality that has a handle on this, um, that would be great because I'd want to hear from them and how they do it.

We just need some examples of people who have figured out how to enforce it.

We already have regulations, you know, you got to pass someone at five miles an hour.

You can't go over 15 miles an hour.

Um, having been a parent of teenagers, um, they will often um just have a different perspective on what's risky, what's not risky.

Um it's hard to kind of change that mentality, can go on the I think.

Did we post on our website the slides and the presentations from the um that bicycle uh get um you sent them to us, but I was wondering are those on our website?

No, but but we can add a link to those to the website, yeah, yeah.

Those are incredible presentations.

Um I was pretty disappointed when I saw that people can go on Amazon and get stickers that change what type of bike they have, you know, for next to nothing.

Oh yeah, there's a pack of eight of these, you know, and um, and you can go online and retool your bikes to go a lot faster than they should.

So I think enforcement um will be difficult no matter what we come up with, and you can do so much education, and uh so that's a challenge, really challenging.

But the more we can like, if we can come up with a couple of good examples, um that would be great.

So, thanks though.

I'm glad we're uh really looking at this more seriously.

New Jersey requires a license to ride an e-bike, so that's the ultimate solution in my opinion.

You can do a lot of education, and you and that's all important.

It's a critic, it's critical, but these things should be licensed.

That's my opinion.

Regulatory, not voluntary.

Right, yeah.

Um I would ask uh members of the public if anyone would like to comment on the um city managers' reports.

That would be uh Frenchman's Creek, the Highway One North Project, and e-bikes.

If you'd like to come to the podium and make a comment or do so online, we will take that now.

Um I believe in the cards you've already been handed, there's a lot on the Terrace Avenue item, okay.

On public forum.

All right, I do see a hand raised uh by Michael Ferrera online.

Uh, good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Sorry.

Um, last year the legislature commissioned the Mineta Transportation Institute to do a special study on e-bikes.

And they did produce it in December.

It has a very readable executive summary, and there's a lot of great information in there about e-bikes generally.

Uh for instance in the U.S., we limit them to 750 watts.

The EU limits them to 250 watts.

And China, China limits them to 400 watts.

Thank you.

It's the wild west.

And in all our discussions here, where is the Department of Motor Vehicles?

Thank you.

They're not here.

They're not involved.

So Assembly Member, Rebecca Cahan, K-A-H-A-N, has introduced a bill to license and register these things, finally, to the legislature.

And the bike organizations are already furiously proselytizing against it.

You know, frankly, where does their money come from?

I could tell you.

But we need to finally break that hole that those organizations have had on the legislature.

And I would hope that the city couldn't ask its consultant for legislative matters to keep an eye on this legislation for this so that the city can take positions for safety for our kids' sake, and actually also make enforcement easier.

Right now, the law is a big jumble of largely ineffective stuff.

So what do the police and the sheriffs have to work with?

They're taking a risk of a bad stop almost every time they pick it up if they guessed wrong about the nature of the bike or the law.

Well, if we had to put licenses on these things that classified these things right away, they can make a stop for no state license plate, and they can do a quick check to make sure that the bike itself corresponds to the plate.

And it makes their job just a heck of a lot easier, at least in terms of where the bike should be or not be.

So thank you for the time.

And uh nothing concentrates the mind better, unfortunately, than what happened last week.

And I think this is a time for all of us to move on this issue.

Thanks.

Thank you, Mike.

Uh, we're gonna be moving on now to um public forum.

Uh, anyone present at the meeting who is looking to speak on a non-agendized item is welcome to fill out a speaker card and can do so now.

I do have several already on hand.

Uh each speaker will have three minutes to make their comment.

If you would like to speak on an item that is on the agenda, either under consent or on the regular business agenda.

Please put that item number on your speaker card if you are attending the meeting in person, and we will call your name during that item.

So um, I will first call up uh hip housing, who's gonna make a presentation on the hip housing program.

Hello, council, my name is Daniel Barrera, and I'm a proud employee of Hip Housing.

Um, tonight I'm here to share something fun, so kind of a change of pace uh from earlier in this meeting.

Um, since 1972, Hip Housing has been helping low-income San Mateo County residents to find and maintain affordable housing, and we're listed in all 21 housing elements in San Mateo County, including yours as a trusted affordable housing partner.

Last year we worked with over 4,000 individuals and provided housing to over 1,200 low-income households throughout the county in Half Moon Bay during the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

We serve 35 residents to our properties and our programs.

That included five individuals who applied to the home sharing program and one senior through our new housing readiness program.

On behalf of HIP Housing, I would like to thank the honorable mayor and the members of the Half Moon Bay City Council for your enduring support of our organization, and as a symbol for appreciation of your partnership, I am here tonight to present you with HIP Housing's 2026 calendar, which you all uh should have in front of you.

Each year, Hip Housing asks children from around the county in grades kindergarten through fifth grade to draw a picture of home and tell us what it means to them.

This year we had over 120 submissions, and from these entries, we selected actually 14 winners.

So that's the most that we've had uh in any year of the competition.

Uh 12 for each of the months, and we had one for the front cover, and we have one for annual appeals materials.

We hope you enjoy the calendar and that it serves as a beautiful reminder throughout the year of how important housing is to everyone in our county, especially our children who reflect how important it is to them in that calendar with the quotes that they provided.

More information about hip housing's programs and our calendar contests can be found on our website at www.hiphousing.org.

And I thank you for your time.

Thank you, Daniel.

I think it's a great model for housing.

I think shared housing, it's gonna be a big part of the future.

Just my own personal observation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Let's see.

A Jim Kerkowski.

Hello.

Hi.

If the council would allow it, we'd like to do this in order.

It's all directed to the same topic the Highway One project.

Sorry.

Hello.

Okay, thanks.

If the council will allow it, we have there's three people here that want to talk about the project at Terrace Avenue, and we could go in order to that Fred, Marie, and I could follow right after each other.

So, Fred?

Oh Marie and Fred.

Thank you.

All right.

Can you hear me?

Hello, my name is Marie Garnier.

I'm a resident of Halfun Bay since uh a few years now, and we live on Highland Avenue, which is very close to where the uh tragic accident happened with Cash.

The reason why we're here tonight is that we wanted to give you a visualization of what we think the issue at hand is, which is in the section between Main Street and Highland Avenue.

They are we counted seven different possibilities of traffic, all colliding at the same moment at the same time in this area.

So you have the, we did uh two some different views on the papers that you have.

You have a view that's like a higher view of the um the um the around Main Street and up to Highland, and the second view of this is going to show like a zoom-in of all the possibilities.

So literally when you live in this neighborhood, or if you want to go between Main Street and the neighborhood on the on the uh west east side of highway one, you have nowhere to really walk or to bike, really literally nothing.

And just like that on the city council, I'm an avid biker, um, and whether it's mountain bike or road bike, there is no good way to go.

It's all very congested, and you have possibilities of people coming from northbound, southbound, people leaving the neighborhood, people coming in the neighborhood.

And I think in the context of the accident or the tragedy that happened, Gash didn't really have a good way to go.

He literally didn't, there is no good way to go.

So I think we just wanted to reinforce the ask and we appreciate all the work that's been happening since a long time to make this part of Highway One safer.

And it's really a call to action to go and hopefully.

But we hope that we all feel the sense of urgency, and we think that it could be some short-term fixes that could help us be safer.

So, with this, I'm gonna pass it on to Fred, who has happens to be my husband, and he's gonna walk you through some of these ideas that we have to make hopefully some short-term fixes that can make this better for all of us, and especially the pedestrians and the bikers.

Thank you.

Thank you, Marie.

Definitely what happened last week is a tragedy.

And it's too bad that we we have to be here tonight to talk about the safety of this particular intersection.

Um we acknowledge that you guys are doing a fantastic job pushing to make uh the streets safer uh for uh Alphay citizens.

Um, this uh highway uh safety um and operational project is fantastic.

Uh it's too bad.

It's been very, very long in the in the work to come to this point.

So what we are proposing, you know, uh, is uh maybe trying to find some temporary solution uh to make uh this particular intersection safer.

Some ideas, um we notice now there is no more shoulders when you go uh north or even south on the bike for uh being protection of workers, I assume, with those uh concrete blocks.

Why not having concrete blocks create a corridor for uh cyclist and pedestrian between highway, um between Main Street and um terrace, that would be an idea.

Another idea would be to have um the sheriff department uh doing uh school traffic to put some vehicles in strategic position in order just to uh make the people slow down or avoid uh too much congestion, or definitely make um this particular area a little bit uh safer.

Uh talking about e-bikes, we're definitely supporting uh regulation for e-bikes.

Um Marie and I, we are by having biker, mountain bike, road bike, but also I'm a motorcycle, motorcyclist biker, have a big motorcycle.

This intersection, even on the big bike is very dangerous.

So um it's a very complex uh situation, and we certainly uh support whatever you guys put in together in order to make this place uh safer again.

So just for you to know, um the trail e-bike situation.

So it's not only a use problem.

We've seen adults riding e-bikes um on the sidewalk.

Um it's true that the youth, you know, it's easier for them to have an e-bike, but it's not only a use problem, it's an e-bike problem.

Those vehicles are going very fast, uh, and it's um some regulation for sure.

Um, during the pumpkin festival, uh I'm helping uh with the race doing bike patrol.

Um we are three or four people doing bike patrol during the trace.

Um uh recent river, they have 60 bike patrollers going on the trails over the weekend.

So it might be an idea to support and reinforce uh the speed limit of 15 miles per hour for e-bikes.

Um so some ideas here need to be discussed.

We'd be happy actually to be uh um to recommend some uh um uh provide our support for any any uh where you want to improve uh the safety of our citizens.

Okay, thank you very much.

Hi, my name is Jim Kurkowski.

I am a resident of Highland Park, and I have been living in Halfman Bay since 1996.

So I'm officially an old timer.

I speak uh directly in the mic.

Okay, thank you.

So first, I agree with the comments of my neighbors, Fred and Marie Garnier.

The intersection at Terrace and Highway One is dangerous and requires proactive attention.

The tragedy of last week underscores this this need.

Well, I did not know the boy that died.

I am deeply saddened by the senseless loss, and offer my deepest and most sincere condolences to the boys' family and friends, some of whom I have seen grieving heavily.

Second, I would like to thank the city council, HMB Public Works, Interim Director Scott Seeley, the city Engineer, and members of your team for your tireless efforts to soon launch the Highway 1 North project, which will materially improve the safety of the Terrace Avenue Highway 1 intersection and surrounding roadway.

As you know, this project has been in the works for years and has faced significant multi jurisdictional and other challenges.

Certain of my neighbors and I will stay in contact with Director Seeley and/or the city engineer to keep abreast of the project's progress and engage when appropriate if major delays are encountered.

We are anxious to see this project move forward and are willing to help wherever possible.

Thank you.

She was over there by Ocean Colony.

So I don't know how it is that we're going to resolve this because this problem is for all of us.

So if people are trying to merge onto Highway One or merge onto the street, I don't know how people can make it to Pacific or anything, but it's it's a problem that we all have.

Another comment that I'd like to make about e-bikes.

So I want to start by saying we have one.

And we also have a motorcycle.

I know that there's laws.

There's many pedestrians that don't obey those laws.

As a matter of fact, people also here on Maine having places where they can cross, they just cross in the middle of the street.

I think that pedestrians not obeying that law should also be fined.

The next speaker is Joaquin Jimenez.

Are we proactive or we react?

What happens in our community?

For years we have talked about, you know, uh how do we actually manage having electric bikes in our community?

We all seen it.

We all see people running stop signs on electric bikes at high speeds.

Well, you're on the coastal trail, we worry about the seniors or people with dogs in electric bikes, no speeding.

Education works, but only to those who want to learn.

In Carolina's right, you know, when you hit us in our bucket, that's when we learn.

Nobody's at fault on this accident.

But it's something that is uh it's a tragedy, especially at our young age.

I like to be proactive, preventing things from happening.

That's just my nature.

Some things we can, but it's in your decisions.

Well, you make a decision about what's to happen in the future, or what could happen in the future, or the what ifs, is what makes a difference.

You as a city council, city staff, you have a excellent city staff that know what they're doing, need to be more proactive.

One of the things that uh about you know politicians is about being reactive.

How to use an incident, how to use something that already happened, you know, to gain control, but we're talking about lives, we're talking about the future.

Let's be proactive.

Let's make real changes proactive.

A couple years ago, we talked about the pork shops on Highway One in Kelly Avenue.

I almost got run over the other day.

Nothing has been done, and that was me that paying attention.

Nothing about younger, you know, children, young or young adults.

It's dangerous.

Let's be proactive.

Let's do let's not lose any more lives.

Thank you.

Thank you, Martin.

The next speaker is Eric Hollister.

City staff.

City council, thanks for listening to me right now.

Um I know it's on your uh your radar at some point because the community has brought it up, but I'd like to have a city council look at the uh laws governing food trailers and food trucks.

Um right now we have a relatively archaic law, and rightfully so, uh, because historically it's been a good idea, but uh food trailers and food trucks have gained uh momentum.

Um but at the same time we don't need uh 18 food trucks on Main Street from the 510, the 408, uh, and other area codes.

We have illegal squatters uh during festivals, we have the hot dog vendors.

Uh I don't need to get too far into that.

Uh we have the fruit, the fruit carts uh and the school carts.

There's a golf cart guy here, and we have taco trucks and the barbecue chicken guy over near Surface Beach, which have proven uh in my experience to be extremely dangerous on Highway One, whether they are permitted by the health department, San Mateo County or not, leads to uh entities actually checking them out, whether they're during the week or on the weekends, and it's difficult for people to do that, whether it's the health department or the sheriff's department, um, but with all that being said, I think there's a lot of restaurants, local restaurants and entrepreneurs that need an outlet.

Um, and I don't necessarily, again, I don't think that we necessarily need 18 food trucks on the street, but I think there are limited areas, uh, and even limited times that these food trailers can be there.

Uh, with that being said, there are food trailers.

Uh again, I brought up the fruit cart uh and the golf cart uh vendor that I like to call them that is showing up within school zones and uh certain times that are not permitted by state laws, uh, and it's difficult for someone to call in and say, hey, this guy's here at Hatch at elementary school, but he's not allowed to be here, and the sheriff's department and the deputies are limited because they say, okay, we'll go out there and check him out, but he's taken off.

Um, but according to state laws, uh, within three hours of schools getting out and midnight, they're allowed to be there.

Um but again, I think that there needs to be, much like the surf camps at Surface Beach, there needs to be limited permits, but I think that there's a way to uh limit that in the sense that they are uh locals, local commissaries, local restaurants.

Um with that being said, I think the community does need more diversity in their food, and there are a lot of people that can't start the brick and mortars.

Uh they can't start uh with hundreds of thousands of dollars and start a business.

Uh we don't need any more pizza or pasta here on the coast, but we do need more diversity, and it's hard for restaurants to break into the food service industry without getting into a brick and mortar.

Um, so again, the law is in place for good reason.

It is archaic.

Um, you're not allowed to be in one spot for 15 minutes or more.

Uh, and I agree that there we don't, again, we don't need 15 food trailers from the other side of the hill.

Um, but I think that there needs to be uh some time and effort spent into looking into how food trucks and food trailers can operate within the city limits, and maybe set a good example for San Mateo County and saying, hey, if you want a fruit truck at Surfers Beach, or you need to be in that area, then follow certain laws.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate your time.

The next speaker is Mark Hirschman.

Good evening, Mayor Ruddick, Council, City Manager Jadester, staff, and to the community.

Uh my name is Mark Hirschman.

I'm Director of Government Affairs for Peninsula Clean Energy, and I'm here uh delighted to be here this evening to invite uh the council, the community, to a uh an event that's being held right here in Hafmoon Bay on March 4th.

Uh we look forward to hearing your answers to the question when the power goes out, what kind of battery backup would make life easier for you and your family?

Uh we are exploring new battery backup options, both for renters and for homeowners, and we'd love to hear your thoughts, your ideas, your suggestions.

Uh, everyone is invited to join.

Uh, it's a community workshop where you can share your experiences, ask questions, help shape our peninsula clean energy programs for the future.

Again, this is on March 4th.

It's uh being held right here at the Senior Co-Siders Community Room.

Uh, it will begin at 5.30.

There will be light refreshments for those who attend in person.

If you're not able to attend in person, uh there will also be a virtual option.

Uh we need you to sign up, please, at our website uh in order to log in.

Uh so go to pencleenergy.co slash forum.

That's P-E-N-C-L-E-A-N-E-N-E-R-G-Y.co slash forum, F O R U M.

Uh, so I want to encourage people to uh we we expect to have enough room uh in the space to accommodate everybody, but just to be sure please sign up uh if you can in advance uh so we know you're coming and we have a good head count.

And uh if you can't be there, uh by all means please uh join us remotely.

Begins again at about 5.30 or so, and uh we expect to last until at least 7.30.

Um but uh can't uh there may be a lot of questions, so we're hoping for that.

Um, this is our very first workshop.

Uh, this is a new program that uh we've just begun.

Want to thank uh council member Johnson who's on our board of directors.

Uh we're calling this the community feedback forum, and so we're hoping to get that feedback.

Uh our very first meeting right here in Half Moon Bay on March 4th, and uh we expect to have a series of meetings uh in the near future, uh at least three or four every year uh in various parts of the community.

Uh so uh please come one come all and uh look forward to seeing you there.

Thanks so much.

Good stuff.

Thanks for coming over.

Maybe we can get that in our community e news.

That's terrific.

Um I know city managers reached out and and we're delighted to provide that information.

So thank you very much.

Sweet, thank you very much.

The next speaker is Paul Grigoriev.

Well, the hour is getting late, and what I'd like to do is submit a written comment to the council.

I was here to make some comments again about the flock license plate reader system, which I brought up in the listening sessions.

Since then I found out that I've just looked at the budget for DHS and ICE and found that they've allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to creating a large database which will encompass all sorts of data on immigrants and U.S.

citizens.

And this is going to be part of the Trump administration's campaign to basically keep an eye on everyone in the country.

The flock system, I also have learned from web research, is one of the worst secured systems in the database world.

It's basically it leaks like a sieve.

And for example, I found uh information saying that the city of Denver had suffered 1600 unauthorized accesses to their database of flock readers by ICE.

The system itself is extremely easy to hack.

This may have changed since the research I found on the web.

And what that means is that anybody can uh use any of the data for any purpose they want, bypassing all the security that's built in by flock.

Uh so what I'd like to do is submit those comments given the lateness of the hour to uh I guess to the council in writing or to the city clerk, where should I send it?

Okay, Maggie, you'll get it.

Uh thank you for listening, and uh please keep your eyes open for that uh written comment.

It's very important, I suspect, to the city.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Paul.

Um the next speaker is Anita Rees.

So again, Anita Reese with the uh Unhoused on the Coast Outreach, a program of Pacifica Resource Center that's primarily funded by the San Mateo County Center on Homelessness.

We provide outreach and engagement and case management services to unhoused folks on the San Mateo County coast from Pacifica to Pascadero with the goal of helping them return to housing.

Um our outreach staff is available seven days a week, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

and Saturday, Sunday, and holidays from 9 to 5.

And we generally respond to outreach requests within three hours during those hours.

If you see someone living outside in a vehicle or another place not meant for habitation, please call us at 650 452 6279, or you can email us at UCOutreach at PACResource Center.org.

As of today, there are 55 individuals who are unhoused in Half Moon Bay.

Five five encampments, one is inactive, um, with 26 folks and 29 others not in an encampment.

Um, this is an increase from last time that I was here of about 19%.

We do see folks kind of moving along the coast back and forth between Pascadero and Pacifica.

Um so as you consider ways to address homelessness in Half Moon Bay, I encourage compassion and empathy.

Our unhoused folks are families, sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers that due to unforeseen circumstances or what we may think are bad choices, are unhoused.

I also encourage you to think regionally for a regional solution, not just the city of Half Moon Bay.

For example, Pacifica's temporary safe parking program could be a solution that helps the whole coast reduce the number of folks who are in living in motorhomes.

And for example, since inception of the safe parking program back in June of 2022, 38% of those folks have returned to housing and are still housed.

So I also wanted to share that the one-day homeless count was uh last month, January 29th, followed by a week of collecting surveys uh from unhoused folks.

We collected around 80 surveys along the coast, primarily in Pacifica and Half Moon Bay, and that information along with the data collected during the one-day homeless count will be used for the county's report, which is expected May or June-ish.

And that info information gathered along with our regular homeless outreach will help the county plan for their response, which could be additional resources in this community or others.

Um they never say it's like more people mean more money, but you know, it generally they do generally use that information along with others to make a decision about next steps.

Um, and I just want to continue to thank you all for continuing to be partners in this ongoing work and helping unhoused folks return to housing.

Thank you, Anita.

I don't see any uh hands raised online, but is there anyone online that would like to make a comment under public forum?

If so, please raise your hand.

I see one, Cindy Carrasco.

Sorry, is this uh appropriate time to um speak about 10 D, which is later on the agenda?

No, we'll we'll um we'll call you again when we reach that item.

Uh, we're going to deal with the consent calendar next, then probably take a short five-minute break, and then we'll be back to hear item 10 D.

So we won't take your comment now.

All right.

Seeing no other hands raised, we'll move to the consent calendar.

Um, does any council member wish to pull any consent item at this time?

8F.

I'm sorry, which one?

8F.

8 F.

Anybody else?

Is this just so that you can abstain on the minutes?

No, no, no, no.

All the minutes I have attended.

Oh, this is the legislative position letter.

Okay.

Um you just have a quick question about it or well, what is it?

I mean, I know what it is, I read, but for those that maybe didn't read it, I was like the next item kind of incorporates in the title and the uh recommendation, kind of what that letter is.

And I just wanted to the community know what it's a cool bill.

What bills, you know, the 1708 AB 1708 is, which is the access to for cities that are the current law allows over 300,000 to access uh housing funds, you know, and I may not the exact terminology, but essentially this bill would allow cities like ourselves to have access to apply to those funds.

To those funds, I just wanted everybody to know what that was, and maybe the future incorporates something in the recommendation, just what maybe the bulk of the letter is.

That's a good note.

Actually, yeah, in the future.

We can.

I mean, it the letter itself, I think lays out what's there, but we could we could add something to the staff reports in the future.

Just a little bit of information about what it is, sure.

And so I don't think we necessarily have to pull that item.

We can we could entertain a motion for the entire consent calendar if someone would like to do that.

Actually, why don't we take, should we take public um comment first?

If there's um anybody who would like to comment on the consent calendar items, you may um come to the podium or raise your hand online.

Um but you may need to know what is on the consent calendar.

So I'm going to uh read it for you.

So the items are item 8a, waive reading of resolutions and ordinances.

8B, approved minutes of the February 1st, 2026 special meeting.

Item 8C, approved minutes of the February 3rd, 2026 special meeting.

8D, approved minutes of the February 3rd, 2026 regular meeting.

8E, adoption of updated records retention schedule to add a retention schedule for the city attorney department.

So that would be how long do we keep these records and when and how can we dispose of them.

A resolution identifying negative nominations for all offshore tracks within the central and southern California outer continental shelf planning areas.

So we oppose that.

But rather than waiting to respond to those comments, they've issued a call for nominations for specific tracks in Southern and Central California.

And I participated in a meeting where I was able to look at a map, and there are approximately six or seven proposed tracks directly west of Half Moon Bay.

So again, we are submitting basically our opposition to these nominations of these offshore tracks for oil drilling.

So that's what item 8G is.

So if you would like to comment on any of those items, you can come to the podium or raise your hand online at this time.

So I think I can ask for a motion to approve the consent calendar.

I move that we approve the consent calendar.

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Okay, so we're gonna be moving on to ordinances and public hearings, but there are none.

But we do have resolutions and staff reports.

We will begin with item 10 D, but I'm going to call a short five-minute break, and then we will resume.

Thank you.

See you in five minutes approximately.

Please take your seats.

We're moving to item ten D, which is a follow-up update on residential rental programs and program alternatives.

We will have a staff presentation by Irma Acosta.

Thank you.

Hello.

Do we want to wait for Patrick and Paul or should we just get started?

Okay.

Oh, right, we're missing two people.

Council members, please return to your seats.

Perfect.

We can begin.

Thank you.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council Members, members of the community.

At a prior meeting, council requested additional information on alternative approaches to maintaining tenant protections, addressing sub-leasing related concerns, and understanding the role of rental assistance and legal services in our community.

So this presentation and report builds on those prior conversations and is intended to provide additional context and comparative approaches to support council's ongoing evaluation of the programs.

So I'll begin by providing an overview of the city's tenant protection ordinance and how it compares to the State Tenant Protection Act of 2019.

I will then share feedback on service providers regarding the factors driving housing instability in our community.

And finally, I will provide an overview of program alternatives for council's consideration.

The city's tenant protection ordinance was modeled primarily on state law.

So there are many similarities.

However, there are some important distinctions.

And before I get into that, I do want to clarify that the city's rental framework consists of three separate ordinances.

So first, we have the tenant protection ordinance, which governs termination of tenancies, including just cause, relocation assistance and noticing requirements.

The second, the rent stabilization, which governs annual rent increases, and the third, the rental registry, which is an administrative tool for requiring registrations and noting filings with the city.

So under the city's ordinance, landlords are generally required to give just cause to terminate a tenancy once a tenant has lived in a property for 30 days.

And under state law, just call protections apply after 12 months of occupancy.

So locally tenants receive eviction protections at a much earlier date.

Both ordinances recognize two types of just cause.

So at fall and no, sorry, no fault.

At fall causes include reasons such as non-payment of rent or material lease violations.

And some no-fall just calls include reasons such as owner move-in, removing the unit from the rental market, or substantial remodel.

Um adding an unauthorized occupant may be considered a material lease violation, which can qualify as an at-fall just cause.

Although tenants are must be given an opportunity to cure the violation before eviction proceedings can proceed.

And under the city's ordinance, subtenancy or additional occupants cannot be used for grounds for eviction.

If the additional occupant is the dependent under 18, or if the additional occupant is replacing a tenant who has lawfully vacated the unit.

And under the cities, for the city, which is a separate ordinance under the rent stabilization, annual rent increases are limited to 80% of the change in CPI or 3%, whichever one is less.

With respects to relocation assistance, under state law, landlords are required to provide relocation assistance equal to one month of the tenant's rent for certain no-fall terminations.

And under the city's ordinance, relocation assistance equals three months of the tenant's current rent when the notice was filed.

So the amount of relocation assistance is notably different between the two frameworks.

Another distinction is notice filing in the enforcement structure.

So under state law, landlords are required to provide written notice for terminations of tenancy stating the just cause reason.

However, there are no requirements to file those terminations with any state agency since there is a statewide rental registry.

Although enforcement under AB 1482 is primarily complaint-based, meaning that tenants generally have to pursue private legal action to enforce their rights.

However, our attorney did do research, and there actually is a Senate bill.

It's Senate Bill 567 that was signed into law in 2023 that expanded public enforcement authorizing jurisdictions to enforce state law.

And under the city's ordinance, landlords are required to file termination notices with the city using our rental registry.

So overall, while the state establishes the baseline of protections, the city's tenant protection framework adds another layer of protections for tenants.

Based on prior discussions, staff met with and spoke to local service providers to better understand what is driving housing instability in Half Moon Bay.

And some of those providers consistently reported that housing instability is primarily driven by rate increases outpacing wage growth, income volatility, and seasonal employment employment, wage theft, and as of recently, complications related to tax credits, particularly for mixed status households.

In some cases, households are living in units with large number of occupants, often under informal arrangements outside of formal lease agreements.

They also emphasize that households often face multiple of these factors at the same time, which adds to the eviction risk.

While these conversations helped clarify some of the causes of housing instability in the community, staff also wanted to understand how existing systems respond to challenges and what their limitations are.

So with a particular provider, we spoke about their rental assistance program, which I know was interest of council to explore that.

So they shared a little bit of insight as to what it can and can't do.

So they shared that rental assistance is intentionally structured as a short-term tool.

Typical assistance is capped at approximately $5,000 per household and is generally provided on a one-time basis or limited basis.

So these programs can prevent immediate displacement and in some cases assist with relocation assistance with when housing is no longer sustainable.

However, rental assistance is not a long-term affordability solution, given that funding is limited and not guaranteed year to year, because a lot of this funding is dependent on available public and philanthropical funds.

So based on prior council direction, staff has prepared three alternatives for your consideration.

So on the screen we can see a summary of the three of them, but I'll provide a little bit more overview of each one.

So under option one, align the rent stabilization ordinance with AB 1482 and continue local enforcement.

So under this option, the city would retain the rent stabilization ordinance, but amend it to align more closely with the state rent cap formula, meaning that annual rent increases would follow the 5% plus CPI standard, not to exceed 10%.

So the city would continue to administer and enforce rent stabilization locally.

So this approach remain maintains local oversight of our rental market while reducing the gap between the city's rent cap and the state cap.

The second alternative would be retain the rent registry and expand rental assistance and legal resources.

So under this option, the city would eliminate the rent stabilization ordinance, but retain the rental registry as a data and compliance tool.

So the city would focus on expanding rental assistance, legal services education, and referrals with local service providers.

And this approach reflects some of the feedback from providers about rental assistance and legal education being critical tools in preventing displacement, particularly used as a targeted time limited interventions.

And the registry would continue to provide data and transparency for the city to monitor rental activity entrants.

So under this option, there were the city would not regulate an annual rate increases beyond state law.

And lastly, alternative three, so eliminate both the rent stabilization ordinance and the rental registry and rely solely on state law.

So under this alternative, the city would eliminate both ordinances and rely entirely on AB 1482 for rent caps.

So there would be no local rental, no local registry, no local filing requirements for termination notices, and no local administrative tracking system.

So enforcement would primarily be complaint-based and dependent on private legal action under state law.

However, under this option, the city could continue to play a role by partnering with local service providers and legal organizations to provide to support education, outreach, and access to legal services.

So the city could focus on ensuring tenants and landlords understand their rights and responsibilities under state law.

So the slide on the screen compares the three alternatives across four key factors.

So first, the local rent cap.

Only alternative one would retain a local rent cap aligned with state law, and alternatives two and three would not have that local rent cap beyond AB 1482.

Second, the rent registry, so alternatives one and two would keep the registry, and alternative three would eliminate it.

Third, the local enforcement.

So alternative one maintains full local oversight.

Alternative two maintains limited oversight focused on support and education.

And finally, administrative capacity.

So for alternative one, would require the most staffing and oversight, alternative two would be more moderate, and alternative three would require the least.

So while this wouldn't regulate necessarily regulate rents or change eviction rules, instead it would focus on basic health and safety standards and rental units.

So if informally subleasing is leading to overcrowded or unsafe living conditions, a rental safety program could give the city a way to proactively identify and address those issues rather than relaying than relaying only on complaints.

So while tenant protections deal with eviction standards and rent stabilization deals with rent increases, a rental safety program would focus specifically on housing safety and substandard living conditions.

And if council would like to explore this option more, staff can always come back with more information on the programs and how it would work.

But that is all I have for you.

And I'm happy to open it up for questions.

Thank you, Irma, for that presentation.

Of course.

I'll start with the vice mayor.

Yeah, exactly.

How do you go about checking on habitability?

You just show up unannounced, or you show up having given an announcement so that the people that are overcrowded have been kicked out by the landlord so that they're not seen, or that he does an emergency repair to the refrigerator.

I don't get it.

I don't get that.

I don't understand how you do that program and what the cost of it would be to the city and what it has to do with anything.

Um I think it it would the program it's been implemented in cities like Berkeley or like uh Modesto.

So the purpose of it is while we can't necessarily address subleasing, we can address some of the issues that come from subleasing, such as um, you know, modific on permitted or unsafe modifications to properties um or substandard living conditions.

Um there are different ways to address the program, so different cities have different approaches to the programs.

Some of it is self-certification from landlords, or um whether it's like routine inspections that happened every year or every three years.

There's also other cities that do um, they divide it by sector by district or sections, and then alternate every routinely.

I'm happy to share as well, although we don't have a program like this in place.

We have code enforcement in place, and these types of inspections have happened due to complaints that we've gotten.

And you're correct.

When people have notice, they tend to do something.

People don't complain.

That's the issue.

People don't have their complaint unless it's egregious, and they're not scared that they're gonna be kicked out of their uh apartment.

So, that would have to, we would have to identify ways to to motivate people to be open and honest.

But if I can finish, not renovate, we'vealed.

We've had to do inspections like this before, and um, those inspections have actually been effective at motivating landlords to make changes to addressing some of these issues.

They want to keep collecting rent, and and so I'm sure you're right.

As long as someone is willing to complain to this city, then you can follow up.

The problem is people don't complain because they're afraid of being evicted.

So to me, it's putting a band-aid on a huge boiling pus-filled mess.

Yeah, it's not the solution, it's it's a tool, and there are programs in place where it's not just complaint-based.

So we would want to look at all the different options.

If this is something the council would like us to explore further, um, agreed that if if people complained, again, they can already complain now, and we will do code enforcement and we will address these issues.

A formal program would create other pathways to do those inspections.

So it's it's an option that we wanted to make available, and it would require more research and and digging in deeper if that's something the council wanted us to do.

Yeah, I think uh uh proposing a something like this without really uh explaining what it is that you plan to do makes little sense.

It's it's like saying, okay, we can take care of the problem another way.

And to me, that's that's egregious.

It's it's not it's you haven't explained to me how you help the person who is a tenant who is living in unsanitary, overcrowded conditions, paying exorbitant rents, and is fearful to say anything is going to be helped.

Again, it's one tool to go with a variety of other resources.

It's not a solution in and of itself, but it addresses some of the issues, and the complaints have helped us address some of these issues in specific cases.

A program like this could create pathways to do it more frequently and not rely on complaint-based systems to do these types of inspections.

So we've done some research on it.

Again, being mindful of the staff time that we put into all these efforts without further direction, we wouldn't want to dig in fully and really come up with a plan for this.

And I just want to point out that the service providers pointed out that that overcrowding and sub-leasing issues were one of the drivers of housing instability.

You have any additional questions?

Councilmember Brownstone.

Yeah, first of all, thank you for the very comprehensive uh staff report, Irma.

That was great.

Uh it's complex issue.

Affordable housing always is.

Um I just had a I had a question on rent increase limits.

I know you have a nice chart here.

And so under the current city formula, limits annual increases to 80% of the change in CPI or three percent, whichever is less.

Now, currently, under that formula, if I recall correctly, that increase would only be one point two three.

1.2 percent.

Great.

I just wanted to be sure.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Nope.

Councilmember Nagencast.

Uh thank you.

Uh I had a couple of questions.

First, the state or even local, just because there's rent increase limits or maximums doesn't mean a landlord has to raise it every year, correct?

Correct.

And when we talk about overcrowding and unsafe living conditions, and I've heard that the city's actually gone out on some call outs.

I didn't know how do you partner with the county health too on that, if it's uh, you know, an unsafe living condition.

Only if it's there's items there that are outside of our jurisdiction.

Um, so there have been instances, uh, especially with like RVs that are out on people's properties that have illegal connections, those types of things.

Um, but I I think generally on most of these cases, the the issues that we've discovered that needed to be addressed were well within our um our jurisdiction.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Johnson, do you have any clarifying questions?

Okay.

So I do.

So over the last couple days I've asked a series of questions of staff relating to what sort of uh units are covered by uh the rent stabilization ordinance.

And um Irma was very diligent, and um the information I got, and that was shared with all council members, was that there's approximately 119 properties covering um 290 units, and of those uh there was one property with nine units, one with seven units, one with six, and two units with five units, um anything over nine units, ten units and more are basically deeded affordable uh nonprofit projects.

So um we're gonna eliminate I'm gonna eliminate my question about those.

Um I just want to point out that um of the the properties that have fewer than five units, there's approximately 258 of those, five units or less.

Excuse me, four units or less, and there are 12 properties with four units, 12 units, 12 properties with three units, 85 properties with two units, and four properties with one unit, um, for a total of 258.

I followed up with a question, um, how many of those are corporate controlled or held by holding companies or LCs?

And um Irma responded, and I'm not quite sure what you were saying, but you said there are six properties with a total of 26 units out of the 290.

And I'm guessing you're saying those are the corporate units or the LLC.

Okay, so out of the 258 or out of the two total 290 units, um, 26 of those are let's call them corporate units, and the rest are small landlords, and most of those small landlords have two unit properties.

So I wanted to understand the question about what those six units were that you were talking about, but I wanted to also surface this information for the public to hear as well, and then my my other question was uh to um city attorney.

So um my understanding, and you can confirm that subleasing is is legal, and there are requirements for subleases like you have to enter into an it has to be in your existing lease agreement, but there has to be some agreement that spells out who's responsible, correct?

So subleasing is generally allowed under the terms of the lease agreement between the tenant and the landlord or the property owner, and uh AB 1482 does contemplate subleases being in existence and includes subleases in the definition of tenancy, so a sublease is included as a tenancy, and there are various provisions in AB 1482 that speak to subleases uh as being um part of the tenancy protection act.

Um, so for example, um if a just cause at fault eviction can include uh an instance where there's an assigning or subletting of the premises in violation of the tenants lease as described in code of civil procedure section 1161.

So it is contemplated.

Great, thank you.

That's very helpful.

Um I don't have any other questions at this time.

We do have a large number of speakers on this item, um because there are so many speakers.

I'm going to limit the period of comment to just two minutes instead of three minutes, and I'm gonna ask that if someone before you said what you wanted to say, just say something like ditto or I agree with the previous speaker rather than using the full time allotted.

We want to make sure that the council has, you know, plenty of time to deliberate this evening, and we have many other items following this.

So I'll try to keep your comments brief.

But if you have valuable information to share that you haven't heard anybody else talk about, you know, feel free to bring it up.

So I'm gonna start with Nancy Fontana.

Nancy, you have two minutes.

Mayor and City Council and members of the public.

Thank you.

Um I'm going to reiterate some things I said at the last meeting because I do think they're so important, but I do also want to express support on Pam Door's point of the three Ps with housing, rental housing, production, preservation, and protection for the tenant and owners of the unit.

Both both parties should be protected in some way.

Thank you.

Um I mentioned that the voice the programs imbalance, and I focused on the discrepancy in the cost of the petition of $50 for the tenant and 5100 for a landlord.

This one item effectively sums up the focus and approach of this legislation.

It's jaw dropping.

While the code fairly gives each party the right to petition, the freeze the fee structure encourages one party to exercise that right and discourages the other party from exercising that same right.

This seems very biased.

I'm trying to skim through some skip stuff here, so excuse me.

I also have feel that the city has not, I don't think the council is aware of how much the city contributes to the cost of housing, as well as other agencies who provide other services that result in, for example, school district, school bonds, sewer service fees, which rose about 13% in the last three years, all utilities, one example being water that just increased 8% last month.

And for rental units now, the addition of the costs of this program and the fees related to it.

I'd like to give you a few examples of the increases in the city's fees.

Excuse me, Nancy, you're gonna have to wrap up, sorry.

Okay, please look at your fee schedule.

One I'd like to point out that's a very common thing people have to do is a simple minor improvement.

That went up, let's see here.

You could you can also submit comments and write.

196%.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Pam Dore.

Happy to be here.

And I just want to thank you.

The meeting I attended last time, which was January 21st, I ended up feeling very frustrated, and mainly because I heard some really great questions from the council that I didn't know the answer to, and I know a lot about housing.

And so it took me on this odd deep dive into learning a little bit more data about who we're serving with this ordinance and why we're serving them.

And the truth is when I'm hearing the mayor read off numbers about mom and pop landlords, that isn't who I thought we were targeting in this ordinance, and it felt kind of it feels frustrating.

Um I heard Irma give a really great statistic about providers, but not any data that helps me understand, and I just might be a data nerd.

I need to know how who are the providers we talk to?

How many people are quantifying that data so we know what it means?

When I hear we've got problem with wage theft, how big of a problem is it so we know what to put in place to fix that?

And without that data, I get that housing is unstable and we need help.

I need more information to know if we're serving that or not.

And when I read this ordinance, what I end up feeling is frustrated that we're not going to deliver results, and we're spending a lot of time on the administrative level and a lot of dollars from our taxpayers not to deliver renters what they need, which is the protection they deserve.

I am going for um option or alternative three tonight, and I want to design something that works.

Thank you, Pam.

The next speaker is Joaquin Jimenez, followed by Judy Taylor.

I was not expecting to come this uh this soon.

But uh good evening, honorable mayor, uh council members, uh city staff, members of the public.

The Tenor Protection Plan, uh rental registration is a big benefit for community.

I don't know if you if you dragged back, you know, history ten years ago.

We had uh major, major gentrification or community, sorry in 2015.

Uh 2018 uh was the one on city council meetings and broad signatures from community members requesting, you know, the uh rental registration uh rent control, because he was uh it was just about saying how many families were moving out of Half Home Bay, and what actually happens when we don't have rent control.

It is true, you know, people have fear to report anything that breaks down in their place or rent.

They're not gonna come up.

They're not gonna say they're not gonna come to the city.

Well, my refrigerator broke two months ago and it's still not working.

Is that gonna happen?

This fear, and what is gonna happen if you eliminate this program, you know.

If you think we have uh overcrowded homes right now, we're gonna have even more.

Because that's what that's the solution.

People are gonna move in with others because the rent is gonna go up.

I mean, not five percent.

We're talking about 15, 20, 30, 40 percent, fast.

Because that's what happened 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.

It was happening, it's gonna continue to happen.

You know how unhealthy that is for families to be crowded like that with young children.

You see everything drugs, alcohol, domestic violence, sex abuse, mental health issues.

Just think about it.

We need this, or community needs to have this program, brain control, we need it, and you already have it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joaquin.

Judy Taylor, followed by Carolina Carvajal.

Good evening.

Um, first off, one of the reasons that we're here tonight and we're having this problem, is because for 50 years, the Coastal Commission has told us you will do visitor serving and you will do agriculture, and those industries both have lots of low-paid employees and don't even think about providing the housing for them.

So we've had the 50 years of the land use dictating certain uses and not having the ability to provide that housing.

So that's one of the reasons that we are here tonight, and we really do need to look at that.

Um the coast side is small, and one of the things that is happening all over the place is that everything is getting complicated, and a lot of times it's unnecessarily complicated.

And if we have a few bad property owners, and I granted, I I absolutely believe that they are.

Let's use proper let's use 1892 and all of the other tools to bring everything that we can to bear on those folks to get them to do what needs to be done right before we start creating these whole new bureaucracies that cover everybody.

Um I've been a coastie now for 52 years at Memorial Day, and during that period of time, I've been a tenant for probably two thirds of the time, and home only a third of the time.

And when those kinds of biases and prejudices are used to create public policy, the public policy isn't good for any of us.

In terms of the funding and the measure K, you guys can fix that measure K funding.

We don't have to rely on the county for that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Judy.

Bueno.

As you know, the minimum salary or the minimum wage here in Halfing Bay is 1791.

So in a month we make about 2,865 dollars.

So what I'm going to say next, I'm not making it up, and if you need to, you can go to the uh red page here in Half Moon Bay.

So there's one bedroom, one bathroom homes for 3,600.

I casas de dos habitaciones con un baño por 6 mil 2004.

Two bedrooms, one bathroom, they're going up to 6245.

Those are just two examples of the rent that people pay here.

With 2800 dollars is what I earn, I don't think I'll be able to pay that rent.

So what do we do?

We divide all the expenses, we divide the rent, and that's just what we do to survive here in the US.

If the fridge goes out, if there's a problem with the lights or the stove, we actually fix it.

Because we can't call the owner because it'll take a month to fix that problem.

So this is an experience that has happened to my family.

So before leaving the place that I left where I was living before the owner came in, and uh without us being there and change the curtains and everything inside there.

So my daughter had her bike uh put away at the at the place where they have the storage, designated storage.

He came in and just threw it away.

Because he decided to build more storage in that place, and that's why he took our storage away.

Why didn't we come to the city to report that?

Because I didn't want to end up on the street with my two daughters and then not have a place to live.

Because what the owner's gonna do is just gonna kick us out.

You need to wrap up, Carolina.

Thank you.

The state and the city have current control protections in place that offer assistance and protections to tenants.

I also wanted to speak on the suggestion that the realtors are only interested in financial gain, which is not only offensive but goes against the primary reason why many of us entered into this industry.

I'm a realtor to help people to protect clients and to guide them through homeownership so that they can be best situated to provide their families financial stability.

The protection, I want protection for tenants as much as much as the next person, but the current system does not work.

Um the woman who spoke earlier, I'm curious if that landlord is in the rental registration.

Um I'm not sure that we're assisting the right people that we need to be with who we're asking to sign up for these.

Um I know I'm on a time crunch, so that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sarah.

Barbara LeVay followed by Jean Knight.

Good evening, thank you for all the work that you did.

It's really clear.

I love the way that you presented, and I appreciate the time tonight.

I echo what Sarah just said.

I I say alternative three is would be what I would urge the council to take on, but I'd also add, maybe add something to the Half Moon Bay website that would link the anybody that is having difficulties with their landlords to the county's website because there they have all the resources for the outreach for you know um the legal assistance, you know, just do a really good job like you are at helping people get the help that they need.

Thank you.

Thank you, Barbara.

Jean Knight, followed by Linda Cross and Crows Anderson.

Good evening, Council members.

The issue of rent stabiliz the issue of rent stabilization is pitting generally is pitting tenant needs against landlord needs.

So let's now give equal focus to the consequences for tenants.

I want to call your attention to a uh Pacifica survey that was done locally where they interviewed uh RV dwellers.

Could you speak up a little more loudly to him?

Okay, so sorry, yeah.

I found that most of the RV dwellers in Pacifica were Pacifica residents who had lived there most of their lives, had their family and friends there and worked there.

They couldn't easily move because they would lose their jobs and their family and friend connections, likely RV dwellers in Half Moon Bay have a similar situation.

Other examples have already been mentioned, the overcrowding, which is a tremendous toll on the families involved.

Um you look at alternatives to the current stabilization program, please be sure to consider the cost of these consequences.

Uh most importantly, they deeply affect the individuals, but the city will also become involved at some level, and as you compute costs, it will be important for you to consider the costs of the consequences of your choices.

Those are real costs.

Okay.

I'll just end there.

I'll just end there.

Okay.

Thank you, Jean.

Linda Crows Anderson, followed by Joanne Rokoski.

Good evening.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak.

I come not as president of SAMCAR, but as a resident of Half Moon Bay.

And I ask you to please consider alternative number three.

Let's not let a few bad actors ruin rental housing in our beautiful community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Joanne Rakoski, followed by Sue Ann Moore.

Good evening.

Sorry.

Can I start over?

I I can't see the page.

It's the old eyes.

I've got it in the right place now.

I agree with the words of Pico, California when it says every family deserves a safe, secure home without fear of unjust eviction or excessive rent increases.

San Mateo County is the richest county in California with a 2025 median income for one person of just over 100, just over 136,000.

And yet we have farm workers making under 30,000 a year and retail workers earning under 40.

Even an increased rent of 100 a month can put them in jeopardy of not being able to afford housing or of paying rent in lieu of food or other necessities.

Concerns are raised about how rent stabilization is a disincentive for landlords, but less than 1% of the registered units left the program last year.

And comments about the risks did not acknowledge that these landlords do gain equity, something renters never do.

And also not mentioned was that under the current ordinance, landlords who need to make capital improvements can petition to increase the rent.

Finally, I agree that the ideal solution is to have enough housing, but we're not there.

So until then, in our community, let us help the people who provide goods and services the rest of us depend on, but they are struggling.

Please continue the courageous and moral path you chose in 2024 and continue both the rental registration and stabilization programs.

And if you're kind of on the fence, well, then I urge you to move to the reconsider any opposition or um uh that you might have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joanne.

Um Ann Moore, followed by Harvey Rabach.

Suzanne Moore, retired nurse practitioner and current board member of healthcare for the homeless.

My statement is my own this evening.

It's truly to the credit that this county has studied tenant protection as a means to better address the housing affordability crisis.

That Half Moon Bay needs their tenants, cannot be denied.

Tenants add to the city's quality of life and provides important services to our community.

Tenants deserve fair rents and safe living environments.

It is well known that housing costs have far outpaced and comes throughout throughout California, and that AB 1482 could increase rents as much as 10%, which far outpaces what most workers uh receive as an increase annually.

The increased number of households spending over 30, 50, even 74% of their incomes to keep a roof over their heads, is phenomenal.

For every low income unit, there are six families in need of it.

And surveys have shown that many of our homeless have previously been housed here, but were priced out of their housing.

A disparity of influence, money and power, skewed housing affordability efforts, and left some tenants unprotected from bad players who charge exorbitant rent, allow property to fall in disrepair, and intimidate tenants.

These well established patterns of tenant abuse by some landlords are detrimental to our community.

So until safe affordable housing is available to those in need, it's incumbent on us to seek options which best serve our entire community.

Retain the rent registry, expand access to tenant rental assistance, and keep the previously adopted 80% of CPI or 3%, which is ever less.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Harvey Warbuck, followed by Robert Pedro.

When I was on the council and we were considering this ordinance, I asked staff how many people had taken advantage of the protections that AB 1482 provided.

As far as they were concerned, in the last five years, there were precisely zero people who took advantage.

So that's the first thing you should understand.

AB 1482 is not a viable solution.

I agree completely in the staff report that rent increases have outpaced wage growth, frequent contributor to housing instability.

That's really really important.

Two of the of you council members understood that and were in favor of keeping rent stability on the agenda.

So please not only consider keeping the rental registry, but also the uh rent stability uh ordinance that you had originally agreed to.

It's really important for the community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Harvey.

Robert Petro, followed by Javier Pantoya.

Good evening, council members.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Um I stand in support of option three.

Uh, please end the rent registry and the overreach uh rent control beyond AB 1482.

I'm a proud realtor and property manager.

I help place tenants.

I also help people find permanent housing through purchasing their home.

So realtors are actually part of the solution.

So I was happy to see in the staff report that you're looking for solutions.

The realtors are here to help.

And here are some also uh some other alternatives that already exist, the city can tap into.

We you can look into expanding the Section 8 housing voucher for those that qualify to provide more housing.

The housing voucher through through uh HUD does come with an annual inspection, even though I'm against annual inspections for all landlords.

The HUD program has that in the Section 8 voucher program.

Payment assistance, super happy to see that for those temporary things.

I spoke about that last time.

Very happy to see it in the report.

Uh Redwood City's had it for a long time.

Sam Mattel just adopted it, so it'd be a uh copy and paste as far as that program goes.

It truly helps people who are in a temporary situation.

It prevents them from being displaced.

Down payment equity share.

The state of California has a wonderful program.

Where it's an equity share program, helps people buy a home.

The city can look into that and see how they can partner.

We heard from HIP Housing, also uh Pacifica Resource Center, the realtors strongly support those organizations.

That's another way the realtors contribute to this issue, and we're here to help.

So please feel free to reach out to Fernando Pinya at Samcar if you have any other questions.

We'd love to play a role in helping solve this problem.

Thank you.

Because unfortunately, Half Moon Bay is expensive.

So throughout the years my kids grew up.

Because she's a girl.

So at the moment I pay 3,090 for rent.

And unfortunately he has to help me because I can't do it on my own.

And if there's no rent control, I won't be able to pay for a higher rent.

That's why I'm asking for help.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Rosio Avala, followed by Armando Avila Garcia.

So Ms.

Avila is going to present her comment and then I'm going to provide you with a site translation afterwards.

For pagar renta, basura, luz y agua, porque también los duenos pagan la agua or el incremento.

Persona de la terceridad, asegurar in un quarto para alcanzar a pagar la renta.

It's important to see the reality of my community.

So I'm here to express my support for the rent control and the registration for units.

Last week I collected more than 59 comments from people that were afraid to speak up because they didn't want any retaliation from the owners.

But they're desperate for a solution.

Others have shared how difficult it is to work two jobs and pay the rent, you know, the the uh phone bill, the electricity and water and all of the other uh bills that they have to pay.

Um older people uh that have worked their entire life now are um looking to find work and live in a bedroom just to pay the rent.

It's it's not easy uh living uh making minimum wage here in Half Moon Bay.

So I want to be clear that there aren't any houses for rent uh for around two thousand dollars in our city, like somebody uh beforehand mentioned.

So it's important um that we all understand the reality of our community.

So I ask that you consider all of the other uh stories that every other family and person has made that work and let's work together to find a solution.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Armando Avila, followed by two speakers online, uh Fernando Pena.

What is a concilio?

I know is Armando, uh, control de renters.

So good evening, uh Madam Mayor, Council members.

My name is Armando, and I'm here to support option one.

So I want to echo everything that everybody else has said, but I want to say also that I've been renting for 36 years here in Half Moon Bay.

So seven or eight years ago, uh we experienced our first rent increase, and with these rent increases, even my wife fell into this depression.

The first rate increase was five hundred dollars, and then the second uh uh rent increase was also five hundred dollars.

So I agree that owners have to pay a ton of things and they have to pay a lot for all of the uh things that they do, but over the nine years that I was a rent uh renting, the owner only paid for something that was leaking in my house.

So here's where I'm going with it all.

Uh sometimes not every uh case is equal or the same, and some people may or may not exaggerate what they're saying in their stories, but over the years where I've lived, I've never really damaged anything.

So the reason why there's only a few Latinos here tonight is because most of them have to go to work tomorrow, and you all know us anyway.

It's a rental stars.

So and who pays these high rents?

You all know who pays these high rents.

Let's just be fair.

Why not?

Thank you.

That's all.

Gracias.

The next speaker is Fernando Pinya, followed by Hune Me Kim.

Good evening, Mayor Reddick and members of the city council.

My name is Fernando Pena calling in on behalf of the San Mateo County Association of Realtors.

First of all, I just want to thank the city of Happen Bay and the County of San Mateo for all that you are doing to assist farm workers and service workers in finding homes here in a very expensive uh county that we live in.

As you all know, San Mateo County is the fourth large fourth most expensive county in the United States.

I respectfully want to reiterate some of the ideas from the January 20th meeting that you have considered to eliminate the rent stabilization and rental registry programs.

There are too many questions about who's actually being served based on the taxpayer expenditures to date, the diversion of staff time and workload that is added $10,000, concerns about utilizing a database on the public, a consultant expenditures, 150,000 dollars that was used from the affordable housing fund to start the two programs, cost recovery running at a deficit, low case numbers from legal aid.

They reported that they looked at 15 cases and then only four cases were eventually served in a city of 12,000 people.

And also the resources that are already available to the working poor and to our incredible farm workers, like legal aid, mediation services, language translation of the state laws that we've talked about, the Hapmoon Bay's tenant protection ordinance is already in effect.

The City Council's directed staff to investigate establishing emergency rental assistance program.

Providers claim that it's it's temporary, but ask the ask the city council in San Mateo, ask the city council in Redwood City.

How many farm workers and uh uh you'll need to wrap up for the please vote yes and alternative three, thank you.

The next speaker is Hune Me Kim.

Good evening, can you hear me?

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Yes, thank you.

Okay, good evening.

My name is Henmi Kim.

I am a practicing practicing housing rights attorney at community legal services in East Palo Alto, known as CLASPA.

CLASPA, along with Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, represent almost all unrepresented vulnerable low-income tenants from every corner of San Mateo County who face losing their homes at the County of San Mateo's eviction court every Tuesday.

As a matter of fact, I was at court today.

Every week, I directly witness how local-based tenants' protection ordinances, for example, such as East Palo Alto Renter Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction, the City of Monte View's Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act, equivalent to HAFM-based rental stabilization and tenant protection act, greatly protect vulnerable tenants by equipping them with legally valid, strong, affirmative defenses against wrongful eviction.

Every month, I review more than 10 to 25 renter agreements, dozens of tenant ledgers that are filled with illegal lay fees, illegal maintenance fees added to the ledger without tenants' knowledge or their consent, photos of extremely unsafe and poorly maintained rental units.

But when there are strong local rental ordinances, there are additional protection to state laws.

This violation of tenants' rights can be very effective and swiftly effectively and swiftly corrected and remedied.

They become powerful bargaining tools to reach an amicable settlement instead of either party having to spend more money going to trial.

Often I see the landlords expect tenants to comply their legal obligation to pay rent on time, basically asking tenants to hold their end of bargain with very little flexibility.

However, the same landlords often do not maintain their end of bargain by failing to maintain rental properties in violation of implied warranty of habitability, issuing illegal rent increases, illegal increases in utility bills, often counting on the fact that the vast majority of tenants in our county do not understand the small fine-printed boilerplate renter agreements.

A tenants' habitability petition allows renters to formally report serious unresolved health and safety violation to local housing authorities to courts, forcing landlords to make repairs.

I personally have witnessed how renter stabilization ordinance is an incredibly effective tool of making tenants who have been mistreated, making them hold again by rendering just compensation.

So please do not eliminate the HAFOM-based renter stabilization tenant protection act.

I ask you that if you should please combine option one and option two, and please do keep the tenants' petition program.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So before we bring it back to council, we'll take one more five-minute break.

Mayor Redek, we actually have one more that just raised their hand.

Okay, Cindy Carrasco.

You're back.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much.

Um, I just wanted to state that I I agree with the previous speakers on both sides.

Um, the speakers uh who attended the January meeting, you know, I'm the same one.

I left with more questions and answers.

Um, my dad's a housing provider.

Um, I have a feeling like he's a bad guy when he's the one who's providing affordable senior housing.

I mean, so much data has been collected, but I don't feel like we're using it well.

There's so much bureaucratic overhead, but it doesn't seem to be helping the landlords or the tenants.

There's so many assumptions being made about and pointing fingers at everybody.

It's hard to know what's real and what's not.

I'd like to encourage we get back to simplicity.

We already have rent control under 1482 with a lot of tenant protections built into it.

A previous speaker mentioned there's lots of programs that exist which a lot of people don't even know about.

Um, tying landlords' hands, I feel like it's creating just bad faith.

Finger finger pointing is creating bad faith.

Let's use the data.

Let's create a partnership.

Together to address the issue.

Let's focus on education and enhancing early intervention and support programs.

I just we need to remove the division and work together and be fair to both sides of the table.

Thank you very much.

We're going to close public comment and take a five minute break.

We'll see you back here shortly.

Oh.

We shall begin.

Okay.

So we've heard from the public, it's time to um deliberate, have a conversation.

So I'm going to um call on each of you for additional questions or comments.

I'd like Irma to put the three alternatives up on the screen to help focus people's attention.

Is that the slide you want or the one with the table that kind of compares the three?

Um yeah, we might want to, you know, toggle back and forth, depending on where people are.

So um I'm going to start with Councilmember Nagencast.

You're number one.

I've been called other numbers before, but thank you.

Um I wish um we had some um more conversation about the emergency rental, you know, and how many um nonprofits or or agencies on the coast that offer that.

You know, I've seen some documents, Coast Side Hope uh participates, but I don't know the amounts.

But that's something I believe is a is a valuable resource and was brought up in um one of the alternatives.

I also believe um it you know, because of how we're impacted by staff right now, trying to set something up, an inspection program, I don't think is viable right now, just because we don't have the staff, and I I'm really counting on the matrix study to show where our staffing is uh uh to confirm our staffing assumptions and or if we need to, you know, add staff.

I think our budgeting is going to also help with that to understand what we can do as far as rental assistance or even conceive using the um inspection program.

Uh as I as I've said in January, uh the last meeting, I'm in support of alternative three.

I didn't think the um stabilization or registry fits Hap Moon Bay.

I've said if we wanted a local program or talk about what's available in a small city, you get a landlord, a tenant, and a realtor together, and if that discussion can lead into something, I think that's something I would like to see in Half Moon Bay.

I aren'm not a fan of the registry program, just creating the information get corrupted and or mined by somebody.

So until I I feel, and we've learned this with the uh automated license plate reader, the flock.

Even though someone says it does something, sometimes we find out it does something else.

So I'm not a um I'm not a supportive of creating databases at this time either.

So just to start the conversation, I'm alternative three.

Councilmember Johnson, I'm moving on to you.

Um this one's not easy.

I've been not easy at all.

And I've been kind of doing a lot of a lot of reading, sorry.

And I'm going through a rent increase at my shop.

Things are going up in San Mateo.

Ridiculous.

Um so I get it, I'm hearing it.

But at the same time, there's landlords here, and this is a shop environment.

We're talking housing.

And so I was looking at option two, which that's what I was feeling comfortable with, because then we would have a program in place where we can actually analyze what's going on and see what's happening, uh, and be able to react to what's happening.

Uh, but then with this flock thing going on and all this data breaching, and I'm worried about what may happen with the information that's getting out there that's getting exposed that shouldn't be exposed, and that coming back and may have some issues there with people's um private, you know, tenants and the um landlords.

I don't think the system's fair right now for the landlord side, uh, especially with the increases of, you know, like we heard earlier, water insurance, and now with the new fire insurance coming in.

We do live on the coastal environment where there's a lot of salt, we'd have corrosion, uh, we have gutters that rot out, and we have maintenance.

I don't I'd hate to see for the the units start to deteriorate over time because they didn't, you know, couldn't keep up with it because of inflation's at 3%, and here we are capping at 1.25 or 3%.

Um so that puts a dampener on the buildings that we're gonna be seeing in the town.

Uh I'm sympathetic with the rent.

I understand this, but it's it's all over the place.

I'm I was leaning towards two, uh, but with the breach of contract or or information that's out there, I'm a little worried about.

So I'm almost going to alternative three.

So that's kind of where I'm at.

I'm on the fence of two and three right now.

It's been bouncing back and forth.

Councilmember Brownstone.

So councilmember Negan Gas, Councilmember Johnson.

I have absolutely no idea how what both of you are saying helps any of the people we've heard today.

Um we had a letter here from President of the Realtor Association.

They said, Yeah, so that our last council meeting, there are many questions about who's being served based on this on these programs.

I mean, is that a question in any of your minds who's being served by this?

I mean, these are we had 60.

I hope you I'm sure you've read the 60 letters and statements that were gathered finally from tenants.

Tenants who felt very anxious about submitting those statements.

These are folks who are living on the edge.

Uh we heard from one individual this evening who um I really thank them for coming forward.

Jose Guadalupe of Vila Cruz, talking about his family and having his rent raise the $3,000 and three kids, and wanting to make sure his daughter would have her own room and his son is working.

There's a lot of stories, and if we've collected 60 stories so far, I can guarantee each one of those people probably represents three or four other individuals who are living on the cusp.

And having an increase in rent of a few hundred dollars is literally the difference between having enough to pay for food and survival and council member Negengast, you asked, Yeah, you know, what groups provide extra help with rent, et cetera, and programs.

Well, I don't know if you've had a chance to go over to Coast Side Hope in their new building.

But check them out.

They can tell you what all these stories really look like.

I was over there the other week and um I was told it's pretty hard to find even a studio for less than two thousand dollars.

And the people who are serving here are often the unseen folks in our community.

They have little agency, and feel like they're at great risk to raise these issues.

At our last meeting, I kept hearing over and over again from housing providers and from realtors that, you know, we already have protection from the state.

Um, and why don't we just let people, you know, utilize 1482?

So it seems like both of you are ignoring alternative or combination of alternative one and two.

If we followed 1482, which is what I heard every single realtor and housing provider and mom and pop housing providers say, yeah, if we we have 1482, well, great.

Why wouldn't we use 1482 then as our model?

I asked the one question before.

How much does our current model, which is 80 percent of um, plus um up to three percent cap, and currently you mentioned that that only accounts for a 1.2 increase under our model.

Well, if we shift it over to 1482, which is a base of five percent, that's four times as much of a rent increase that would be allowed, up to ten percent.

Frankly, I think that would even create greater hardships, but if 1482 is what everyone was yelling about, then we have an opportunity in alternative one to do exactly that.

And don't tell me this isn't about the money.

This is definitely an economic issue for everybody on both sides.

It's a business.

That's what we talked about last time.

Being a landlord's a business, I've been a landlord in San Carlos and Belmont, and I've also been a tenant, so I've seen it from both sides, and now I'm hearing you're concerned about your concerned about the integrity of data.

I mean, really, I feel these are kind of weird red herring issues.

They're really bothering me.

We I mean, we had Evelyn.

You remember Evelyn, who's a expert, Silicon Valley resident here who looked over all the protections in our registry, and correct me if I'm wrong, Matthew, but she said that we've had the our registry has the highest standards of privacy that she's seen in any kind of registry like this.

And we all seem to have a lot of respect for Evelyn, but all of a sudden, like where did where did that go?

So I'll tell you, I certainly would be ashamed.

I'm ashamed of myself if I don't really fight for this.

I mean, we are here to protect some of the weakest members of our community who are at risk.

People who work here, they work hard, and it's been said many times, it's just really obvious.

They don't get increases in their salaries ever.

The only increases they get is if there's a minimum wage increase.

They're not getting increases in salary.

So whether it's a 1% increase in rent, two, three, four, five, their salaries don't increase.

Yeah, we're here to protect a very unique class of folks who put food on our tables, work hard in the fields, or also in retail.

And that's I'm not saying this is easy.

You know, the city of Santa Barbara just read a struggling with this and had divided votes on their council.

And they said, you know, until we figure this out, we're just going to put a moratorium on all rents till the end of this year.

And yeah, you know, it takes courage to make decisions like that.

And I'm asking the three council members here who seem to be wanting to go maybe towards alternative three to really think about what our real mission is and goals are council members to protect the welfare and health of all our community members.

And that's what I see these are rent stabilization so we can have the right data.

And I agree with you.

I'd like to do a little more work on the data that we have, but it's well protected.

The questions that are asked for landlords to submit.

I have a list here if you haven't seen them.

Um they're pretty straightforward questions.

How many units do you have?

How many tenants do you have?

What's the rent, etc.?

Um so yeah, I um implore you to really think about this and not look for reasons to ignore, not ignore is not the right word, but to value the stories that you've heard this evening, and keep what we have in place.

I'm willing to compromise on bringing in the 1482 numbers, which like I said are significantly higher, rent increases and rent caps on uh under alternative one, thanks.

Vice Mayor, yeah.

Um three years ago, I was so proud of our council for taking up the cause of those less fortunate, and deciding to do something that would be positive and helpful and kind and good and fair for the people who suffer in our community.

And when I say suffer, I mean the fellow back there who spoke who works two jobs so that his daughter can have a single bedroom.

Two jobs, so that his daughter can have a single bedroom.

We didn't hear anything from the landlords about how they were suffering, that they were about to lose their house, that their children were starving, that they couldn't afford food.

We didn't hear anything like that from the landlords.

The landlords in this town here are wonderful people.

Many of them are mom and pops, although I don't like to throw out figures like the majority of them are mom and pop's because we don't know that.

We do.

No, we don't.

We do not.

We know that the majority of them have two units, not that they're mom and pops.

So, the landlords are doing a good job by renting and trying to keep rents low.

I think that's true for the majority of them, but it's not true for all of them.

And as a council member in Hafoon Bay, it's my responsibility to take care of everyone, not just those that are more fortunate, but those that are less fortunate as well.

I think one of the things that we have done that I that I'm unhappy about is the appeal process that Nancy Fontana spoke about.

If a tenant wants to appeal a decision, they only have to pay fifty some dollars, whatever it is, I'm not sure exact amount, but the landlord has to pay $5,400.

And I agree that that's egregious.

That's too much.

But that's beside the point, it's too much.

So I think we need to do something about that.

None of them include maintaining rent stabilization as it is.

I didn't expect that.

It was like being punched in the stomach when I saw the alternatives that we have here that are being offered.

We talk about how all of these legal aid society are nonprofits like Coastide Hope, they're all there to help people, they are strapped.

These organizations are strapped.

Legal aid is strapped.

Coside hope doesn't have money.

All they can do is help somebody who is about to be evicted or has just been evicted with a month's worth rent.

That's not, that's not helping anybody.

It's another band-aid.

It's not true assistance.

We can't afford true assistance, not without everybody pitching in.

And that means the landlords pitching in and doing their part and saying, well, I want to live in a community and I want to help everybody in the community.

So I'm willing to put up with less of an increase in my rent because I have food on the table.

My children have clothes on their backs.

Have stopped being landlords.

So don't tell me you're going out of business.

You haven't and you won't.

I don't know where our hearts are.

I don't know where our sense of justice is.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

We have an opportunity to do something about that.

We took that on three years ago, and we said okay, we're gonna we're gonna do something good.

We're gonna make a difference here for the people that really are suffering because we really care.

That made me proud to be on the council, and I knew at the same time, as as good as I felt about that, that it wasn't enough, that it was a drop in the bucket when it meant to really making a change, but it was something none of this has anything to do with our need to help the people that aren't at the very bottom, but that are suffering as well, because everybody in our community is suffering.

We're it's really hard for most of us, and we need to do something about that, but we don't do it on the backs of the poor.

We don't do it to hurt people that don't deserve to be hurt any more than they're hurting, thank you, so um I asked for a list of questions that landlords have to respond to to participate in this rental registry, and there's like approximately 60 items of information that is accumulated on all the landlords.

That's a lot of information.

So I hear some people saying they certainly don't want ALPRs, automated license plate readers that capture only license plates, but they're perfectly okay having a rental registry managed by an outside entity that's basically a startup and that collects huge amounts of data on individuals, and who knows if you know the federal government could come to a landlord and say, I want to know who you're renting to, right?

So it may just be information on the landlords at this time, but who knows?

Who will come knocking on the door and asking for additional information?

So I'm against continuing the rental registry.

Another reason is I was looking at who has rental registries.

It's typically the very large cities in California, about 39 of them.

Not all of them have rental registries, but typically they only register landlords holding 10 or more properties.

It's not, you know, a small-scale landlord that maybe has a duplex or maybe two duplexes, right?

So we're we're basically tracking very small scale landlords, most of them under five units.

It just doesn't make sense to me.

And I don't see that it's as protective as it needs to be.

So I'm not in favor of the the registry.

And um I think that the one per 1.2% that we allow this year in terms of rent increase is not consistent with the cost of living increases, and inflation is going up again.

And if you're talking about small-scale landlords, they don't have large portfolios where they can spread the pain over over many units.

And I would be worried with the increase in things like appliances caused by new tariffs, the wildfire mitigations that are coming, that we will see more people dropping out of the business.

Well, there was an article in the New York Times this morning about New York City.

So you have to wonder about the dynamics that you're setting off, especially with smaller landlords that don't have a lot of margin for error, leaving the market.

And I think in a small community, small-scale landlords are what you want to have as opposed to large-scale landlords that are corporate owned and potentially owned by New York City private equity companies.

So I'm not sure that the scale of this program is commensurate with our capacity to handle it and actually do good.

I think we want to review it and make sure it's strong enough for us.

We can we can make a stronger tenant protection ordinance than the state allows under 1462.

And I think that makes sense with our population.

So I want to keep a tenant protection piece, but I want to review it and make sure it's as strong as we want it to be.

At this time that we might want to look at that.

I would guess that maybe they are more responsive to outside influence on these issues from legal aid or CRUSPA or an enforcement, because um they don't have the margin of profit to fight that sort of thing, right?

Big landlords can do that.

Smaller landlords, not so much.

So I think we want to bring resources to bear in this environment that we have to um improve the renter situation for everybody.

You know, I there is a lot of data out there about half moon bay demographics.

And one of the things that I saw was that um in 33 percent of our housing stock, there's only one person living there, and more than half of those are people over 60.

So it sounds to me like there's another population of people that may need assistance and that seemed very ripe for things like hip housing.

Um I don't think we before taking all this on that we really understood our local context, who the people are, what the needs are, age groups, income groups, living arrangement, living arrangements, and I think all that information is really important.

If we're gonna have a force in housing in this town, we need to have all that data and understand it.

We need to understand our community, and that's important because situations change.

Um so we need to look at the the various federal surveys and and state resources on the people who live here in our community.

We have to know our people.

So I'm coming down with alternative three with the caveat that I want tenant protections and all the other things I just talked about.

I want a program, so I hear Deborah and Robert, and I think all of us here want protections that are right for our community, and that we can take on with some reasonable chance of success.

So that's that's where I am tonight.

So, Patrick, you were a little bit up in the air.

Paul, you didn't really address all these other things.

Do you have further comments?

No, um alternative three, but I I I did mention I wanted to expand uh possible rental assistance, and you know, and I was trying to absorb what you were saying, trying to provide uh additional protections or maybe knowledge and education, which I'm I assume would it, and I don't know if that's what it means about focus on legal and supportive resources and alternative three, so I'm um you know I I agreed with that, and and I wanted to know once we did our study with the matrix group, you know, where our capacity is and how much we can actually have our staffing is gonna be set up to do whatever we want to implement.

So I don't know what that means yet.

Well, certainly um more research, bringing back more information, taking another look at our tenant protections program and see if there's more we can do if we feel it's adequate to the situation.

We can go bigger and larger, and uh we want to see if if that's right to do quick can I ask a quick question?

Yeah, so if if we're gonna look AB 1482 and SB 567, and that's state law, why do we have to adopt it or are you referencing option one?

Well option one kept the registry I think he's talking about tenant protections oh well our our tenant protections we have our own tenant protections ordinance which is separate from the rent stabilization separate from rent registry rent stabilization it's a separate ordinance we adopted several years ago and it was updated when we created these additional ordinances but it's it's separate from the state code and um and we can the the state code's the baseline you have to that's that's the minimum that has to be provided we can always go further um and I think that's what the mayor was referencing is we could look at our tenant protection ordinance and determine if there's additional things we could do in that ordinance to increase the protections here locally it sounds like without the the stabilization component.

Did that answer your question okay yeah and Madam Mayor if I could really quickly I did want to address a couple of things that I've heard through these conversations one is I wanted to acknowledge a comment that um council member pent and Vice Mayor Penrose made um what we have here tonight are alternatives to the current system.

That's keeping the current system is an option we simply presented three additional alternatives so I just wanted to clarify an option tonight is to keep the current systems in place as they are or keep this current systems in place and make minor tweaks to some of the areas that have are of most concern we're simply listing alternatives to that if that's the the route the council wants to choose so nothing guarantees we go away from the current system these are just some alternatives if the council wanted to make changes the second is we've heard a lot of um additional comments and I think they've ramped up over the last couple of months about data privacy and concerns about the registry and I would I would say that under alternative one or keeping the current system in place I think that's an area that could be looked at um I don't know how effectively we could manage a local rent stabilization ordinance whether it followed 1482 or what we currently have without the registry but certainly if that's a concern that is something we could dig deeper on if that's where the council wanted to go if they wanted to keep stabilization local stabilization in place.

Well my understanding is that a lot of the information can be found in public reservoirs of data right now.

Maybe not all 60 items on the application but who's renting how much you know that sort of thing my understanding especially talking to Pam Dore earlier who does a lot of work in affordable housing that you know a lot of that data is already publicly available but we should have the demographic data that I was talking about earlier and and you know we do want to know what the landscape is in terms of you know rental and ownership.

I mean I'm aware just reading that what the balance between renters and owners is in various cities in the peninsula you know that Mountain View is 80% renters you know so I there's probably information out there that we can keep on hand and update and we should but I think that the registry as compiled is invasive and I think it opens us up to potential problems given what's going on in this country at the moment um it's the same reason I'm now questioning automated license plate raters um so yeah sure so I appreciate you said that you heard us.

But I don't feel fully heard.

So you mentioned how the 1.2 increase really isn't enough to cover many of landlords' increases in costs.

And I was willing to agree with that and say, yeah.

Let's go for the state formula.

5% base, which is four times 1.2, up to a 10% increase.

Frankly, I think being able to do that every year would more than cover most of their costs.

If the average apartment is $2,000, so that's um $24,000 worth of income.

It really kind of gets into what the landlord situation is, right?

And maybe that's where we need more granularity later.

Is it a property where the mortgage has been paid off for many years?

Is the landlord having a huge mortgage?

Maybe they're in over their head.

I mean, those are it gets very situational about what a landlord can or can't afford after getting $24,000 worth of income.

They have two units in a building, you know, that's double, $48,000.

You know, and we really got to get into the details of each landlord's situation.

So that's one thing.

You know, I have a copy right here of all the questions that a landlord fills out.

You said there's 60 items.

Now come on, let's be fair.

Yeah, there's five little boxes, yes, no, repeat your address, your first name, your last name.

It felt like you kind of counted every single line here to come up with that number 60.

That's fine, but most of these questions, come on, Mayor.

I could most landlords could fill this out 10 or 15 minutes max.

They have this information at their fingertips.

That's one issue.

It's not a huge burden, in my opinion, at all.

I'm gonna go back to this whole piece around the security of the information.

You all seem delighted when Evelyn said no, yeah, we let's have Evelyn Hap take a look at this.

And she did, and she's a respected expert on security.

Um I don't know if she's at Cisco or where she's where she worked, but um, and we all thought that was great.

And now all of a sudden, you know, talk about mixing apples and oranges, now you're talking about comparing this information to flock, where you know, there's documented issues around information being hacked and the relation of flock to palantir and lots of questionable practices.

Um sorry, it just feels disingenuous all of a sudden now completely disregarding everything Evelyn said about the security of this.

She's opposed it in January, based on information.

You know, if it's publicly accessible, then what's the difference between having people fill it out?

Great, we can set up some AI program to gather all the same information.

I mean, I I really don't understand that as being this issue here.

It feels like it feels like a distraction from how we're gonna really help folks.

Our current program, Councilmember Negengast, includes having these things going to legal services in San Mateo, that's already paid for within our program.

Someone brings an issue up.

I agree with this issue about landlords being charged much higher fees if the in an appeal.

So I agree with what Councilmember Penrose said about that.

But I also agree with what the attorney from East Malo Alto said the more you have things provided by local ordinances.

It allows for much better protection that everyone understands in terms of the education piece.

It's our own local ordinances.

We have legal services already involved.

And as was mentioned before, that 1% of landlords who have taken their properties off.

What was the total number of properties and that nine properties out of how many?

So nine out of 1,400 units were taken.

I don't even know how that even comes up to 1%, does it?

Nine.

Somehow the arithmetic seems it's even less than that, like a hundredth of a percent.

Hundredth of a percent, I don't know.

But um a very small numbers.

So um yeah, so I just want to respond to uh what's been said, and um I would definitely um scrap most of this program, which is paying for itself now.

Um seems like a hasty action.

I'd rather see if we want to do some more research on the information that we do have.

Um we had um Anita mentioned before, by the way.

I meant mentioned to say, in terms of the homeless report, said there's only 55 homeless individuals.

Wasn't it a lot more over the last few years?

Was that for in Half Moon Bay 55 that count I wasn't just ending up?

I can speak to that.

Um, so you know, we do the biannual homeless counts, which really tend to be a little bit low because it's just a point in time one-day count and doesn't necessarily involve the service providers.

A couple of years ago, the county to ramp up efforts to really address the issue and understand the issue, went to a different model of counting, and it's it's an a constant.

I mean, almost every day we get updates.

Um, and as they implemented that the number ballooned, and then we worked with the county and the service providers to really hone in.

Okay, wait, where are these numbers coming from?

How are they being addressed?

And the 55 is where it's kind of landed after some refinement.

So I think the the bigger number we heard a couple of years ago, that that wasn't fully accurate.

That was based on really refining that data.

So the 55, I think, is where we're at, and it's where we've been for a while, um, based on conversations with the Nita.

It's actually gone up a little bit recently.

Yeah.

I think these are the kind of programs that um, and other programs that we have in this small city ours, which I'm very proud of, actually keeps that homeless count down and getting rid of these kind of programs.

Um, you know, we already have people we've heard.

They've had to leave their apartments.

A couple of them uh I've heard renting having to rent an RV for two thousand dollars a month with four or five people.

So um, yeah, I implore you to really consider keeping these programs in place.

I don't think this data is at risk, it's secure.

I don't think it's that.

If you say it's all public, then it's not particularly confidential anyway.

Um yeah, I'd be I I would also be interested in hearing uh more from Councilmember Johnson, because we've all talked a lot.

I feel like I'm on the block tonight.

I think we should do a town hall meeting, targeted workshops, landlord clinics, tenants, legal clinics, employer roundtable, housing nonprofits, get some data, see where we need to go, utilize what we already have.

But we also have to be I think uh sympathetic to the landlords.

I think the $5,500 thing versus 50 is ridiculous.

We also have to take in consideration of knowing each landlord, each unit, what their percentage rate is on their mortgage, what kind of insurance increases they've had to justify if their rent has to go up.

So we have to do a lot of digging and searching.

There are the other ones that are just automatically putting the rents up, which is what we're trying to target.

We put a big blanket over this whole city.

And I don't think we did enough research on it to really, you know, because we said we just basically covered everybody or the whole city, and we don't know what the after effects are going to be with the units now later on.

Is are they going to maintain their units or are they basically saying, forget it, I want to get out of it.

We don't know what the outcome is going to be.

I I can I clarify, just let's have a conversation.

What if we go with the AB 1482 numbers, then they're not limited to this 1.2%.

It's a minimum of 5% up to 10%.

So if we follow that, then I think that takes care of a lot of this issue about um being unfair to landlords in terms of the amount of rent they can increase.

I mean, up to ten five percent once a year when you're talking about, you know, three thousand dollars is uh it's a good chunk of money.

So what I don't is your concern?

Uh well I'm just having a conversation for a moment.

But I want to understand what you just said before we hear from him.

So you're saying you would be good by the numbers under Costa Hawkins.

Well, what are you talking about then?

We we have to be good what's under 1482 because that's state law.

So I'm not I'm not sure what you're saying.

Let's adopt the states.

I mean, we de facto are under the state's cap.

Not under our current program.

Is much less than what the state is.

But you're saying, mirror our program with the states.

I'm not I don't follow why you want a separate program to mirror the states.

I'm saying to we can adjust our rates to um mirror the state's numbers as is stated here in alternative one.

That's what I'm saying.

But why do why duplicate what the state is doing unless you're talking about something else in addition to that?

I I can probably answer, you know, it was my thought to put this in as an alternative.

Um, simply the idea was under 1482 enforcement is done through generally through private lawsuits, so it's simply creating a system where there's local enforcement of 1482 to help ensure that there's adherence to it locally and the tenants were more protected.

Um it's it's hard to know.

I and I'm not sure there the data exists locally for how many people in Hap Moon Bay have, you know, before we enacted our ordinances, you know, took advantage of 1482 to protect themselves and went through that private process.

But that was the concept is simply if the state already has the rules in place, but there's no local enforcement, and so there's concerns that people might be violating it.

It was an opportunity to talk about local enforcement.

That was the concept.

1482 covers more units than pre-1995 units, does it not?

I think it's units uh up to 2009, doesn't it?

I think it excludes the cost of hockey as well.

But let me double check.

Can you talk to me like that?

Let me check.

So that's gonna take a look.

I think it excludes Costa Hawkins' properties as well, but let me double check.

And and so what do you think?

But the question is you your belief is 1482 it includes enforcement on more properties than what Costa Hawkins allows us to, which is what our own local ordinance is restricted to is the Costa Hawkins pre-1995, you know, two units or more, correct?

Right.

So what I want to understand is what do you mean local enforcement of a state law?

What would that look like?

How many units, and what do you mean by enforcement and how much would that cost?

Well, I I what we proposed, and and of course we could look at alternatives.

What we proposed is basically a very similar ordinance to what we have, but the calculation of allowable rent increases mirrors 1482.

So it was based on what we heard at the last meeting, a lot of the consternation was the state already has rent limits in place, that should be enough.

So if those rent limits are already in place, but there's concerns that the only enforcement mechanism is through private lawsuits, could we just locally enforce you know create a local ordinance based on those rates?

That was the thinking.

Well, I think then for an alternative like that, we need a lot more information.

You need to know what that would mean in terms of uh what units would be um covered by this.

Is it just the pre-1995, or is it 2009 or or some other year?

How many units would that be?

How much would it cost?

How much staff?

What would be the process?

That's the kind of information we need to make an informed decision on sort of a radical alternative like that.

And we don't have that information.

Well, the alternative we suggested would simply shift what we're already doing, the the calculation of the cap, the rent increase, to the 1482 calculation.

So that's all that would change.

I mean we could explore other changes, but that was what we were suggesting as an alternative.

That's so you're saying just raise.

So the between five and ten percent.

Exactly.

So same number of units would be effective, affected as of today, same number of staff.

We we know the cost to enforce over the last year.

So really all we're talking about is changing that that cap amount.

That and so the only action on our part would be local enforcement.

The action would be to take our current program and simply direct staff to come back with an adjustment to the language that raises that rent increase to match 1482.

That was the general concept, as you pointed out.

There's a lot of other things we could explore related to it, but that was the general concept.

Yeah, I can't make a decision on a concept like that.

I think we need to.

Well, we already have wait a minute.

That's exactly what I meant.

Keep our local enforcement piece, and only adopt the part of 1482 regarding the rent caps.

I need more information on that.

Exactly.

What do you need more information concerning.

Show me the details.

Well, is it any more details?

And does it does it involve more units?

Again, what staff was suggesting as an alternative, the program would be exactly what it looks like today, simply the calculation of the rent cap or our rent stabilization program.

It would remain as is today, and again, this is just one option.

You know, you could you could come up with other alternatives, but what we suggested as an alternative for consideration was the program we have today, all the structure, everything that's in place, which includes the rent registry, which includes all the other pieces of our rent stabilization ordinance.

So same number of units, the same restrictions, all of those things.

The only thing that would change is instead of it being 80% of CPI capped at 3%, it'd be 5% plus CPI capped to 10%.

That was the concept.

I think a better way, Madam Mayor, if I may, to think about this, I think what City Manager Chester is saying is to change amend section 6.06.060, the reasonable rate of return.

That would be the change in alternative one to reflect the limits in state law, AB 1482.

But we would still have the cost burden of managing that program, right?

And having to deal with appeals and potential litigation.

Right.

Everything, I mean, what I think what's being proposed is everything would else about the rent stabilization program would remain the same.

It was just the reasonable rate of return would be amended to reflect the state uh rent increases.

And that cost is pretty much moving forward to be covered by the fees.

Correct.

And based on our analysis that we shared at the last meeting, those fees probably could come down now that we have a couple of years of data behind us.

Thanks.

What I'm thinking right off the top of my head is go back, let everybody think about this stuff, bring it back again.

But don't bring the same stuff back.

Bring more stuff about Crespa, legal aid, and no change.

Um what this new thing would look like.

Unless people don't want to do that.

What was your last remark, Deborah?

Include not changing the current program as an alternative.

That's always an alternative.

Pardon me?

But that's always an alternative, as you said.

Well we get we could be more clear that that's an alternative.

I would like to see it written down as one of the official alternatives, not one that we just diss.

Yeah, I don't think there's support for that, but we can do that.

Uh Patrick, do you want to weigh in more?

I definitely would like to bring this back.

I don't, I'm not sold on anything right now.

I'd like to hear more data, more presentations.

I like what we're doing, we're discussing, and we're we're picking things.

I like what we're hearing now.

We're getting down to the core now, it's getting late.

So this is where we should stop now and bring this back.

And I will bring it back again and again and again, and then when I feel happy, I'm gonna not go.

I'm toying between that one and that one.

Because we can do it, but we just need more data.

We need more options here.

This item is continued.

Okay, just to be clear though, um, because I want to make sure we bring back information that's helpful.

What I've heard is, again, if I'm hearing correctly, more information on option one, and what that would mean.

Is that correct?

What would you like us to bring back for a future discussion?

Raising the cap.

Right.

So option one, but more detail than what we provided, so we can be ultra clear as to what that program would look like.

More supportive services, including the CLESPA option, the legal aid and the Crespa and rental assistance, what that might look like, who it would go to, who were the potential recipients for it, um, and also I think we need to look again at our tenant protections piece of the uh ordinance.

Sure.

Um fees, as somebody pointed out the fees.

Yeah, we can we can bring that back as part of alternative one.

I will say that the tenant protections piece, I want to make sure that we can be very focused, and tenant protections are related, but they are separate, and I'm afraid if we take too much time diving into tenor protections, we lose track of of this piece of it.

Okay.

And I just wonder if that's something that could be once we knock all this out, then we come back and look at tenant protections and strengthening those in the future.

Yeah, and spend some time with staff strategizing over everything you've heard, and um add some value to that about what to bring back.

And when we get this information about what the legal aid does, let's make sure that we take it down to the very penny that the person who is in need gets.

How much they get, how often they get it.

Not legal aid, rental assistance.

Rental assistance.

And how much in terms of legal aid did they get?

What is the process for them going to legal aid and through legal aid?

Sure.

All of that.

Sure.

So I do want to clarify, Mayor.

Do you mean when you say more information about legal aid?

You mean more than information about the legal aid services that we currently provide in the program?

I want to know about everything they do that we might utilize, and what that would look like and what it would cost.

Don't we already have some data 17,000 for legal services?

That's for the services that we receive.

And so I th the question we're hearing is what other services does Legal Aid Society CLESPA provide that we don't currently offer through our current contract.

I want to understand that.

Sounds good.

Can I get a clarification?

You have 30 seconds.

And I can make a quick I so alternative one, can that be done if we're talking about changing it to 1482 with and without the rental registry?

Or are you saying rental registry has to be a part of it?

I think we can look at it, but I do think it would be challenging.

Um just because part of local enforcement is actual the registration allows us to track that, right?

So if I don't want rental registry, then I don't I have to eliminate both programs.

One thing we can look at as as the city attorney pointed out, there's legislation that allows local enforce.

So alternative one, I think we're gonna retitle it because alternative one isn't local enforcement of 1482, it's alignment with 1482 under our current program.

There's also an option for local enforcement, and I think we can at least look and see what other cities are doing, if any, to locally force 1482 under these new laws, and that's where I think maybe there's an option where you don't need a rent registry to do that.

Only 39 cities in California do this at all out of 423.

Yeah, we have very limited, you know, and it's in fluctuation all the time.

So, the mayor, uh one last can I have two seconds?

Can we clarify that this data that we're taking is safe?

So the people that have been hitting me up on that question, I can't.

Talk in the mic, please.

Can we get data that says that registration information is safe so that the people that have brought that to my attention?

We can bring that forward because that's where it's coming from.

Yeah, it's it's something that can be looked at.

I'm not sure what more than our current agreement and the privacy practices.

Anything can be hacked.

There is no guaranteed privacy.

There just isn't.

But but we can we can see if we can get some additional information on data privacy under the Ptolemy contract, and and assess what is available without a registry.

What information is available without a registry?

You're you're now that's that's not about landlords, that's just about kind of the market data.

Is that what I would talk to Pam Dore about what's available publicly as somebody who works intensively in the but again we're I I just want to make sure I understand you're we're talking about market data, not information about landlords.

Like personal information about landlords.

You're talking about market information about the rental market.

Is that talk to Pam?

Okay, all right, okay.

All right.

Any clarifications or follow-ups from okay?

Okay, thank you, Rema.

Thank you.

So, Madam Mayor, are we gonna do a formal motion to continue to a date uncertain?

Um well, staff needs to figure out how much time they need to do this.

I'm guessing it's not the next meeting probably.

We won't we won't have this on March 3rd, but there is some urgency here because if we're gonna continue in some form, well, yeah, because my understanding is the Ptolemy contract comes up again.

I think it expires the end of this month.

Yeah, and we don't, you know, so we'll be moving on it.

But um it won't be March 3rd.

Yeah.

Um do we need to continue an item if they just don't want to take action?

It's not a public hearing or anything.

So well, typically there is a motion to continue to either a date certain or date uncertain, but if the city's practice is to just not take any action on the item, that's that's legally acceptable as well.

What's the council member's pleasure?

Make a motion that we continue to date uncertain.

So the date uncertain.

Second anyway.

Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

Moving on.

And and Madam Mayor, can I make some suggestions given the hour about some of our upcoming items?

Yeah, could are there things that we might just uh continue?

I think the CSFA update should be continued to uh March 3rd.

Um there is an alignment between that and our mid-year report, which mid-year budget, which will happen that night anyways.

So um I've talked with Jalisa and we don't have any concerns about moving that item.

And then um we have some folks here still on the sister city garden.

Is that correct?

I would recommend we take that next and then do the banner poll item last, if that's acceptable.

Alright, so we're moving on to item 10 C Sister City Commemorative Garden Project.

I'm gonna leave.

I'm not feeling okay.

For the record, uh Vice Mayor Penrose is leaving the meeting at this time.

Okay.

Somebody removed the requirement to vote to continue the meeting, and I don't know who that was when that happened.

It was the council several years ago.

We couldn't do that arbitrarily, the council.

Okay, yeah, it's it's under the council rules of procedure, and they they you updated it as council years ago.

All right, and we still have a quorum, so we can continue with the meeting.

Okay, good.

So, if you'd like to be here, sure.

Uh good evening, everyone.

I know it's getting late, so I'll try to be brief and uh mindful of everyone's time, then the rain and everything.

Um I am excited to present to you tonight uh the sister uh Cicer City commemorative garden pro uh program.

Um this is uh project that uh came to city staff initiated by the um Kadiwa Hafman Bay uh Sister City Program Association.

Uh the organization started um in 1992 uh with an exchange between Hafam Bay uh residents and students uh to Kariwa Japan.

Um in just to learn a little bit more about culture, that is coming down.

Sorry, it's the rain.

Um, to exchange uh culture and practices.

Um the the goal was to foster um cultural understanding from both areas, uh, learn a little bit more about practices and and different traditions, and also to facilitate high school student exchanges, to gain exposure to uh the world out there outside of Hafmoon Bay, and um the impact has been over time over the last 30 years.

Um students have been able to visit Kariwa from Half Mun Bay, and Half Mumbai has also been able to receive students from Japan.

Uh the program was officially established in 1995.

Uh, there was a delegation that visited uh from with the former mayor at the time, uh, and the Naomi Patrick as well.

Um, and the the relationship continues to this day.

Uh, the sister city um program is very active.

Uh, as you can see, students have been visiting our town and and our students have also visited Japan.

Um we were approached by uh folks from the Sister Cardiwa uh Sister City program who are here um to explore the opportunity of having our commemorative gardens last year in 2025.

There's a 30th anniversary of their organization being formed.

We met interim public works director, Tetsuli and I met with folks from the Sister Kariwa, Sister City Kariwa Haven Bay Association a couple weeks ago, and learn about their proposed ideas.

Um their goal is to have um a little garden in the kidney shaped garden area that is located in the back of the library.

This project will be completely um donated by uh by the association, not including any city funds.

Uh volunteers, uh materials and everything will be donated or funding secured by the organization, and ongoing maintenance for the area will be no additional to what we already have in place for the maintenance um city staff.

Um we also exploring an annual sort of revitalization to the garden should there be a need, and that will also be handled by the sister city association.

And what you see on the slide is a proposed uh sketch.

Who we have um Ali here, who's uh the landscape architect who came up with the design idea and the location where um where they're thinking.

There's a lot of elements that tie back both um entities, have in Kariwa, uh, and resemble uh their environments.

And some of the elements are in are included in the design.

Um it's a couple of a gravel pathway, uh bridge, 30 rocks to represent the 30 years, um, a mound, grasses and a jinkobaloba uh door street.

Um so I'm trying to be brief, but I'm happy to expand if if there are more questions.

So um any questions from staff?

Councilmember Negan guest.

Uh this bridge is kind of just a little decorative bridge, or is this a needs a permit?

Uh no, it falls within our um code.

Right.

It's not for people to walk on.

It's it's a that's the that's the response I was looking for.

Small.

Perfect.

Yeah.

And then, are we gonna maintain this?

It's already part of what city uh the maintenance crew already takes care of this garden of the area, but this doesn't require additional um maintenance other than what we already have in place because it's designed to be low maintenance as well.

All right, thank you.

Um our first speaker is uh Tom Wilkinson.

Tom Wilkins, sorry.

Okay, okay, so um Jill Impink and Naomi Patridge.

I am obviously not, I am not Naomi, but I will be speaking on uh behalf of Naomi Patridge, um, who obviously for weather and mobility issues could not be here tonight.

Um so uh good evening, Mayor Ruddick, council members, city staff, and public members.

My name is Naomi Patridge.

I reside at 487 Laurel Avenue, Half Moon Bay, and I am here to support the sister city garden.

I was mayor when the uh when we signed the agreement uh to make Kariwa and Half Moon Bay sister cities.

I want to thank the sister city committee for continuing to communicate with Kariwa and sponsoring the student exchange program.

I urge the council to approve this project.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jill.

And then if you don't mind uh mayor, I just have a brief statement as well.

Oh, sure, please.

Um, uh conbonoi.

Good evening, Mayor Reddick, Council members, city staff, and community members.

Uh, my name is Jill Impink, and I reside on Murata Road in Half Moon Bay.

I am the current co-chair and 10-year uh committee member of the Half Moon Bay Kariwa Sister City Association.

I want to thank the city staff, especially uh Julissa for her work in bringing the garden project uh to the council tonight.

Um I appreciate your consideration of this garden project.

I believe the garden will be a constant and beautiful reminder of our longstanding cultural friendship uh with our Kariwa Sister City in Japan and will bring joy and awareness to all those who see it at the library.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Tom Wilkins.

Don't start the timer.

I don't need two minutes.

Good evening, Mayor Rudd, Council members, city staff, and community members, all of you.

I'm the founder and current board member uh speaking on behalf of the Half Moon Bay Kariwa Sister City Association.

Uh delighted to be here and talk about our idea for the commemorative garden project at the library.

Um I might say a couple of things that Julissa spoke about with regard to our history.

Um, but they do bear repeating.

Your sister city program was established in 1992 between Half Moon Bay and Kariwa Village in Japan.

Two coastal communities similar in size, population, and like demographics in 1995, as you mentioned, Jalissa, during the Pumpkin Festival, a large delegation of official visitors from Kariwa, including Mayor Minoru Kato and the Chief of Police and the Fire Chief.

Some of you, Mayor Ruddak, you may remember that the Grand Marshal was Mayor Kato from Japan, rode in the convertible with Naomi, and the car behind them was the chief of police and the fire chief dressed in their full regalia uniforms and everything.

It was quite a sight to see.

So for more than 30 years, our program has had a profound and life-changing impact for Half Moon Bay High students that have gone to Kariwa, and uh all of also our host families here that hosted the Japanese students that came.

So the sister city commemorative garden is designed to honor the historic relationship and long-standing student exchange program by providing a permanent visible symbol of international friendship.

So that's really it, unless there are questions, but I would like to thank the city staff, especially Jalissa Costa, Todd Sealy, for all of their work in bringing this project to the council tonight.

Also, thanks to Council Member Patrick Johnson for his role in this project from the beginning nearly a year ago when he met with Jill and I and provided a lot of energy and enthusiasm for us to get this project started.

And finally, thanks to Ali Shadwell Williams for her expertise and efforts in designing the garden and bringing the ideas to life.

So thank you again for this opportunity and consideration of our project.

All done in three minutes.

Thank you so much.

Any questions?

Um council members, any questions?

Or I'll just repeat what the staff recommendation is, and that is adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to develop and execute a memorandum of understanding with the Half Moon Bay Kariwa Sister City Association to implement the Sister City Commemorative Garden at the Half Moon Bay Library and finding the project exempt pursuant to Title 14 California Code Reg Section 15304 CEQA guidelines as a class for categorical exemption minor alteration to land.

So moved.

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Go forth.

Good thinking.

Yeah.

Good project.

Thanks to you.

And thanks for staying to the wee hours of the evening.

That's right.

For this dedication.

Okay.

We're continuing only 10B.

We're gonna do 10A, the downtown poll banner program now.

Okay.

I promise also try to be brief on this one.

I know we have Kristin here hanging for this project.

I am here to present to you a potential downtown banner program for Half Moon Bay, and you know, direct seeking direction from you whether to move forward with this proposed program.

We part of the scope in this project includes uh upgrading the hardware that we have on the current light poles are on Main Street.

Um we would like to, if the program is implemented, include uh standard banners that were um regular uh throughout the year, plus additional season or banners depending on state um special events or or seasons, and the development of a policy um to allow staff to really um be equitable with the with the process um and make sure it's accessible for for other um community members to participate in the program should they select um to participate in a bio program and plays or banners for their events.

Um this project has brought been brought to us and it's been brought to us by many partners.

Part of it um was already discussed during the downtown streetscape master plan a couple years ago.

It was um sort of low-hanging fruit, and um it exposed a big community win as it allows for folks who enter downtown Halfman Bay to feel welcome, and it provides a sense of belonging to those who are already here.

Um, it builds on the community events and legacy that we already have in place, and um again, it's been brought up to CD staff for discussion as we undergo efforts to revitalize our downtown um that are uh more short-term wins.

Um again, like I mentioned earlier, this was part of the one of the recommendations from the downtown uh street streetscape master plan.

It was identified as a low-hanging food because of the potential low cost and maintenance that uh it would require.

Um there was it was heavily um, as you remember, this was heavily um included our community feedback and uh again.

If you want to have access to the report again, we can we're happy to provide that uh the master plan.

The program overview in general.

Uh, this includes the we counted there's 42 banners already in Main Street spanning from almost in front of the office of Cose I hope all the way town to a little bit past the IDS.

And so there's 42 uh polls.

Um, some of them are in good condition, some of them are not.

Some of them have um PVC piping, some of them don't have banners, some of them don't have access to the flower baskets that uh we're proposing.

Um this potential banner program would also include access to the um seal and south main street uh by the fire station and um access on the highway 92 sign right up but before Hilltop.

And and the two uh uh polls right before the Main Street bridge.

Um and again, we will try to standardize the process, and this is just a visual representation of the locations that could uh be impacted by this program.

Again, the blue line is um the what the location of the banners through Main Street.

Uh, the little orange star is the uh the polls right before the bridge.

The red star is the signal 92, and the green star is the seal at the south entrance of town.

We haven't finalized all the details, but staff has done a lot of research in terms of finding hardware and consulted with local providers to design the banners and again make it a standardized program.

So far, what we've explored is potentially up to $23,000 upgrading all the banners, like I said earlier.

Some of the polls are PVC, some of them don't have the basket, the flower basket that has been the recommendation.

And this program can be funded by the CIP program.

Since we're not moving forward with the Gateway Arch, some of the funds can be reallocated to this to this program.

And as we develop the policy and the program details on this, we could look at a self-sustaining program allowing for the cost to the participating organizations, meaning nonprofits or other event holders, to allow those fees to cover maintenance for the ongoing project.

They have been gracious enough and kind enough to continue providing the beautification to downtown, but there's been recent conversations about a strong desire to have the city take over the management of the program.

So again, we can allow other entities and other events to partake in the banner program should we decide to do something like that.

The other thing that I want to point out is at the same time, given our bandwidth right now, we are uh trying to leverage resources with many other entities and trying to explore what other cities are doing in similar situations or look at their programs.

And one opportunity we had uh recently was to collaborate with leadership council of San Mateo County.

It's a leadership program uh that um brings city staff or government staff, public and um private uh sorry, and nonprofit uh sectors, and at the end of their uh year program, they have to present a project, and it's a community acceleration program.

We apply to that program, and we were selected, we're partnering with them.

Um we have a group of folks who are doing a lot of research for us, best practices, uh potentially cost and models from cities, cities around us and other cities that have a similar program.

So that gives staff a little bit of breathing room to work on the other side of the policy if we have some folks supporting us with the some of the research.

Uh part of those uh meetings entail obviously engagement with city staff, Dale or interim city engineer and I are meeting with them as well as one of the members from the downtown business association, and we'll engage just to make sure that we're all aligning on the same page when we receive that feedback.

So that is the gist of the program.

The key considerations obviously are for you to decide.

Do we want to establish a city managed program?

Um, do we want to allow community and uh community participation and event participation?

Um is there a preference for the program structure and the parameters uh surrounding the program?

Do we want to open it to nonprofits?

Do we want to open it to local businesses?

Do we want to open it to other local agencies?

And so there's a lot more to consider, obviously, for the project.

Um right now, we're just seeking for your direction whether to move forward with the banner program.

So we can we would come back with more details once we have um finalized the details on the existing hardware or the updated uh hardware.

Um we will also seek your uh approval.

Uh we have order um a sample of the uh hardware that we'd like to have install.

It's getting here at the end of March, but we're at the same time we're also looking with a local for with a local provider to see if there's more flexibility and times.

Yeah.

And we've also talked to a local designer.

Uh they previously worked with uh the uh beautification committee designing the banners and they have the width and sizes, and all the details are in the staff report as far as um expenses.

And at this point, I open it for questions.

I'll just share um, you know, this has been an item we've talked about off and on for a couple of years when uh the downtown vitalization committee came uh a few months ago and shared some of their priorities.

This was one that from our observation and what we heard resonated with council.

So we've done some work, but before we dive in fully, we just want to make sure we've got support from council that this is something that we want to prioritize.

Of course, we'll bring it back to you for for certain approvals, but it'll ultimately need to go to the uh architectural advisory committee and the planning commission before we could implement so there's still approvals along the way, but we're we're just looking some for some feedback and direction here tonight.

And would that involve maybe what to do with the 92 highway 92 signs?

Yes, on the map that Julisa showed, um the red uh star includes that, and the idea is kind of a consistent theme and an approach.

And so these are the areas that we would include in the sign program that would have to go through the planning commission.

It doesn't mean that every time somebody wants to, you know, purchase banners to put up for an event or or something else, that they'd have to hit every single sign in all these locations, but these are options that people could pay for, and the fee structure would include kind of a sliding scale depending on how many locations they want to include.

Okay, uh any questions, clarifying questions, Paul Neckencast.

Thank you.

So, we're just being asked to you should you go should staff go forward with a formal banner program.

That will come back to us, or does it go to the planning commission?

We we would if if we're given the thumbs up today, we would develop a plan.

It would go through AAC for some of the design elements, planning commission for the signage program itself, and then we would come back to you for final approval to actually move forward.

Because there's some technical things being worked out regarding the hardware, right?

Exactly.

So all that will come back to us.

Right for final approvals and authority to spend the money and all that.

Thank you.

Um I have one speaker, Chris Lynge.

Thank you very much, Kristin of the Coast Side Chamber and a part of the downtown pretty committee.

And um it's been really great to work on this project.

Um we keep kind of hearkening back to many of the projects that are on the downtown to-do list, have been on that list for a really long time about making Main Street and the surrounding downtown shopping corridors more visible to visitors.

And the banner program is um definitely one of the easiest to do that will have high impact for our downtown businesses.

And I know that you might think like, well, it's not necessarily pointing to downtown, and that's what we ultimately want, and yes, we will get there.

Um, but it is very important that when people get onto Main Street, especially when the GPS apps tell them to take Main Street instead of the highway, that they recognize that it is a downtown district.

And currently with the Hodge Podge, mostly broken banners, and many times no banners at all, there is no visual cue from the car that you've hit a proper downtown.

And um in the last year, everywhere that I go, the first thing that I notice is the banners in the downtown, and that's big cities, that's little cities.

And um, so I do think that is something that is very much lacking in our downtown that will have a high impact.

And I also want to just really emphasize that the downtown merchants and the nonprofits who would be seeking to put their event banners up, want to pay for that privilege.

So it is not expected that city staff will not get reimbursed for the time it takes to put the banners up and down.

And we've suggested that, like Carmel, the banners specifics include things that are sustainable.

So you can require that it be sustainable materials and sustainable inks and so on and so forth.

So there's a lot of great things that we can do.

It would be a really great thing from the streetscapes project to get done, and the downtown businesses really, really, really would like it.

Thank you.

I just want to before we go do a shout out to Crystal and the rest of the folks from the downtown uh business group and the downtown vitality group, they've been a great resource in and partner helping provide some of this information.

So thank you.

The other thing I'll share is I think this is a scalable plan.

So right now we're focusing on existing infrastructure and just replacing, but I think long term we're gonna want to see this expand up Main Street, down Main Street, and one thing I think we're gonna need to prioritize in the future is turning Kelly Avenue between Main Street and Highway One into almost like it's its own extension of Main Street.

That's a a major way we could bring people to our downtown is down Kelly Street.

So I would foresee in the future scaling this to really capture from Highway One to Highway One on Main Street, and from Main Street to Highway One on Kelly, so that there's this real grand entry experience as you come into our downtown.

Now we're talking.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mayor Reddick, we do have one online speaker.

Oh, yes.

Um, Mariana Stark.

Okay, hi, can you hear me?

Hello?

Yes.

Okay, great.

Thank you so much.

Um, my name is Mariana Stark.

I am the principal of MSTART Gallery at 727 Main, and my residence is 729 Main above the gallery.

I have a decorative light pole with banner and flower basket in front of my business, and I agree the new be new banner program will be an excellent improvement, and I offered my unqualified endorsement.

However, going forward, I asked the city to please prioritize three downtown improvement initiatives that would create signage unrelated to these banners.

Signage will help all Main Street businesses beyond the two-block heritage core by increasing visitors to all locations and increasing the likelihood of increased sales, creating a virtuous cycle that will benefit our entire community.

These initiatives are number one, map station, also known as a kiosk in Matt Dutra Plaza.

Similar to a shopping mall, a kiosk is assigned with a map that includes a list of businesses by specialization, apparel, bar, restaurant, home gifts, furniture, books, etc.

Number two, wayfinding signage at the corners, decorative poles with tile signs indicating what stores are on each block.

Number three, signage visible to drivers going through the 92 and mainstream intersections so they become aware downtown of downtown and can plan a future visit.

In 2025, I welcomed 4,000 visitors into my gallery.

This number is one-tenth of annual foot traffic for a business in the 400 heritage block.

I realize that a free cultural attraction like my contemporary art gallery may not appeal to all visitors, even though it features local artists and in exhibits art that is appropriate for adults and kids and offers a beautiful new wheelchair ramp and ADA bathroom.

But I would at least like every visitor to know my business exists and have the opportunity to visit if they like.

In closing, visitors may be more likely to make a return visit if they realize there are five blocks of businesses along less than a quarter mile and more on the side streets, not just the core heritage blocks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Bring it back to the council.

Right.

Not you know, allow too many organizations to dominate the scene.

Let's start, you know, simple and work from there.

You mean keep it the city?

Let the city be the ones that manage it.

The way I understood you were looking at perhaps other organizations.

That would be city, right?

The city under this model, the city takes control of managing the program going forward.

And what we would have to figure out in the policy is who would even have access to putting banners up.

You know, is it just city?

Is it just city events?

Is it nonprofits?

Yeah, that's that's part of the research and evaluation that's happening right now in a greed.

You can always go bigger, it's harder to go smaller once you've expanded it.

I would just start out small, limited access, see how that works, focus on getting, you know, good hardware, and um, you know, start with that success and and move on from there.

That's what I would say.

And I'll also add just if it wasn't clear, the hardware would include the area for the baskets to hang.

We're not talking about taking over the basket program right now.

So that would continue to be with the beautification committee, they would just have access to additional places to hang those baskets.

So, and one other thing I want to point out to your comment, uh, Madame Mayor, is um from our conversations with the downtown vitality group and the downtown business association, there's not um the intention of the banner program is not to promote private businesses and just have folks you know pay because they can afford and it's a private firm or it's a big box or uh they're just wanting to promote that they're you know business.

And so the the goal is to promote community events, obviously city-sponsored events and and things that benefit our community, right?

But a key goal of like the pretty committee and keeping things you know clean and looking good is to attract business, right?

Um, so I think we want to keep that um front and center.

Um and that's part of the research that we'll be um undertaking uh if we move forward with this.

We want to learn from other cities, learn best practices, how much how much um time each event gets, you know, put up in the banners.

Um is there a preference or is there a uh to your system on who gets priority?

Um that's sort of what we're looking into.

It's it's not just hey, I have the money, I filled out my application, uh, I have the banners.

It's there there should be a system that is in place to allow city staff to properly carry this forward um in an accessible way to those who can benefit from this.

Yeah, and I think you've done a good job of looking at things in a very thorough way.

And uh thanks to the the chamber and the downtown merchants and the pretty committee and and staff um and the camp program.

Yes, thank you.

And having attended a couple of downtown association meetings, um I see a goal is this being a sustainable model of free of fairness, because that's what people will be wanna make sure everyone feels they got their fair shot.

And again, just from feedback that we receive, especially from Cameron from the beautification committee, we know about how many events are typically displayed in the banners already, and that gives us an idea of where to start.

And then, like Matthew said, we can always go bigger if you know if it's a successful and there's opportunity for more, but we would start with the usual events that we've already have in place.

Thank you.

And will there be a downtime banner?

Like, will we have a banner in between the events?

Yes, yeah.

The goal is to have a standard banner when there's not a special event happening.

So if we decided yet, or is that something that'll come back later?

That'll go through and see veterans, local veterans or having, you know, I've seen different things.

Well, and those things exist as well, but I think what you're referring to is kind of the just the standard downtown half moon bay banner.

Yeah.

Or something.

I mean, I've seen some communities actually have their local veterans in between.

Not just during veterans day, but they're having it in between other things.

So I don't know if we're going to be able to do that.

That's probably fake.

But that would be too expansion.

There have been conversations about it, but I think as like uh uh Debbie mentioned we'd like to start simple and then expand um just to get it going uh um and allow uh for the community to react to it and get for us to get their feedback as well and see what other opportunities we have to include everyone.

I can't believe it's been a year at Johnny's coffee shop with Betsy, and it's taken this long to get this far, but I'm so happy I want to be clear on that.

But Betsy had some very distinctive hardware concerns.

I hope we're following that.

She's very brass balls, brass balls.

It's the brass balls.

The image you see.

I don't want to forget the brass balls.

Let me put that on.

And I I want to point out again some this this image.

This image was provided to us by Kristen.

She did a lot of the research on the hardware, and so again, that's why we've been relying in uh the downtown business um folks and the CAP team folks for the policy program, but the more aesthetic portion of it is been led by downtown folks, and they we've heard their input on this.

So yeah.

So do you feel like we have direction?

Yeah, I think based on the feedback we've gotten, there's there's direction to keep pressing forward.

We'll obviously return um you know before things get finalized, but there's a lot of work to do before then.

So we'll be getting cracking and the goal um for everybody is to be able to get this in place potentially before the wine and jazz festival.

That'd be kind of the first event since that's our first big event of the year.

It's gonna be tight, but um getting this done tonight was a key step in that process.

So yeah, I think that uh you have your arms wrapped around it.

We do, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, and then Madam Mayor, if we're done with that item, um I did confer with uh our city attorney, we do need to take action on 10B to just formally continue it to the next meeting.

Um I apologize.

I kind of threw that out there and then we moved on, but we do need to officially move the CSV item to um the next meeting.

I thought we did that.

Didn't you make a motion?

That was that was for the previous item that we continued.

Oh, we're okay.

We're talking about 10B, right?

Okay, um I move that we continue item 10 B community services financial assistance program mid year update to the March 3rd meeting.

Second, all in favor say aye.

Aye, any opposed motion carries.

Thanks for that.

Okay, so item 11.

Any commission committee updates?

Um no updates tonight.

Thank you.

Uh number 12.

Uh items for future discussion, possible agenda items.

I just want to say that I think it would be helpful as we're moving forward on um e-bike e-motorcycle regulation.

I think it would be good to have a joint discussion with the um the city's bike and pedestrian committee and the city council to hear from the public and take recommendations from the people who are you know dedicated walkers and bikers in this town.

I assume we were gonna do that.

That's why I didn't think we had to do a uh bring up but we want to bring an agenda item in a second, but because I thought I heard we were going to do this.

I mean that's been in the plans of staff, but okay, yeah, I think this is all second.

It holds us accountable to that now.

Yeah, I just like, you know, we've had a couple of really good joint meetings, like with the Planning commission, and I think it would be great if the council and bike ped could, you know, get on the same page about what we think is necessary, and uh that's all.

And um any city council reports?

I don't have anything, okay.

So this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.

For your forbearance.