Recording progress with it.

Good evening, and welcome to the Hackman Bay City Council meeting for March third, twenty twenty-six.

As a reminder, if you are joining this meeting via Zoom, you can still make public comment.

During any public comment portions, attendees may use the Raise Your Hand feature and will be called upon and unmuted when it is their turn to speak.

Busque lo que es el menu de tres puntos, seleccion interpretación, luego selecciona el idioma in spanioly por ultimo click and done or listo.

Muchas gracias.

Thank you.

Gracias, Victor.

Um, can I please have a roll call?

Councilmember Brownstone.

Here.

Councilmember Johnson.

Councilmember Nagengast.

Here.

Vice Mayor Penrose.

Here.

Mayor Radic.

Here.

We have a quorum.

All please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

One day.

Welcome and good evening again.

Could I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda?

So move.

Second.

Um all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Um proclamations and presentations.

It looks like we do not have any this evening.

Um mayor's announcements of community activities and community service.

I have one item.

I'd like to remind people that um tomorrow evening uh there will be a community workshop on battery backup for power outages.

Uh that's going to take place 5:30 to 7:30, March 4th, which is tomorrow evening at the uh Senior Co-siders.

Uh PCE, that's Peninsula Clean Energy, wants to hear from you about what sort of solutions might work for you in terms of battery backup.

And they want to help you navigate the landscape of um backing up your electrical power and helping you do that.

So I'm going to be attending tomorrow night.

I know uh councilmember Johnson will be there.

He sits on the Peninsula Clean Energy Board.

So we we highly recommend that um that you attend.

I expect that it's going to be very helpful.

Um, and then we're going to have item five, a report out from recent closed session meetings.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

This evening the council met in closed session on two items.

Councilmember Nagengast did recuse himself on item number two on the the um the closed session agenda.

There's no reportable action this evening on both items.

Thank you very much.

Um item six, city manager updates to council.

Madam Mayor, I don't have any uh special updates tonight.

Thank you very much.

We're moving along to item seven, which is public forum.

Just a reminder that you will have um three minutes to address the council.

Um, whether you're um in the room or online, um, you may, if you're in the room, submit a speaker slip, which are over there by the by the door, and several of you have.

Of course, you needn't do that if you're participating by Zoom.

So I will begin.

And our first speaker is going to be Marjorie Ruiz.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Councilmember, Senior City staff, Marjorie Ruiz, your local friendly PGE government affairs rep here to remind you that I am here.

I was thrilled to join you at the beginning of the year in January for a reliability update.

PGE continues to be excited.

We continue to stay motivated and committed to all of the reliability work that we discussed in the community center in the beginning of January.

Please reach out.

I know that I'm in touch with many of you.

Some of you I will be scheduling copies with so that I can get to know you a little bit better.

But uh please reach out.

I'm here.

I am taking care of this community as best as I can, and I think I've said this already second time, so I'll say it the third time.

I'm here for coffee, lunch, anything that you might need.

It's wonderful to be here tonight and to see you.

Thanks.

Thank you, Marjorie.

You've been uh very responsive so far, the various pressing issues that we have, especially South of town.

Thanks for that.

And the next speaker is Willa Chapman.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, and staff.

Mic up.

You have to get really close to before I get started.

I have a couple of typewritten pages.

I'll speak as quickly as possible, but it's my hope you'll let me finish if it goes over slightly the three minutes allotted.

I'm not here this evening on behalf of Seahorse Ranch.

I'm speaking as a 35-year resident of our city and a very concerned member of our community.

I encourage you to maintain a rent stabilization ordinance, correct the existing one, or draft a new one.

Either this city values its working class residents or it does not.

I'm a realist and understand some of you on the council are supported by the real estate industry, and of course that's perfectly fine.

However, special interests must not govern policy.

The fear tactics used by landlords threatening to leave this city if rent stabilization was enacted, or should it continue, places obvious pressure on you, the council, both individually and as a panel.

But former council member Rohrbach has addressed this issue.

The threatened exodus never materialized and was at best a minimus.

It is not rent control which forces a landlord to leave Half Moon Bay.

It is, frankly, greed.

A shrinking profit margin, a shorter vacation.

The fear our renters face, however, is substantially more profound.

It is the very real fear that they will no longer be able to live in the city where they work or for whom they have worked and are now retired.

Even with rent control, rents in our city are a challenge for retired workers, minimum wage workers, even with two working adult family members.

But you know this.

You know our restaurants, markets, shops, stores, bakeries, farms, and ranches are all powered by those residents of our city who will be most negatively impacted by the elimination of rent control.

That's the real exodus you should be worried about.

The decision to hand over the issue of renters to nonprofits, I believe not only shirks your responsibility, but in so doing, will expose many of our renters to incredible personal dangers.

Deportation, detainment, arrest, separation from family.

Why?

Because the Trump has been administration has targeted nonprofits.

We all know this.

Funding has been withdrawn and sources of funding bullied into submission.

Nonprofits whose purpose it is to assist marginalized populations, immigrants, people of color, and the poor are the biggest targets of all.

You're unwittingly endangering the safety and the lives of our population.

I understand there are flaws in the existing ordinance, and I understand the issue that pre-1995 rent control units is a complex one.

Most important life quality issues should be complex.

Our working class population should be more important, should be important enough to warrant hard work and time from the city council and staff to solve this problem instead.

It's not being solved.

The city of San Francisco in 2024, while grappling with the same rent control issue, and on a much larger scale than ours, acknowledged the inconvenient truth that landlords individually and through their real estate companies for both newer and older residential units, inflate rents by using algorithmic devices that artificially set, recommend, and advise.

You need to wrap it up.

You're two minutes over.

I have two paragraphs, may I finish?

Fast.

Thank you.

Because of the negative impact these devices had on renters in the city, such algorithmic devices were outlawed, codified as unlawful.

I would refer you to the ordinance in San Francisco, Section 3710 C.

I would suggest regardless of how you ultimately choose to proceed this rent stabilization question.

You should determine whether in fact these algorithmic devices are being used in our city to inflate rents, and if so, make them unlawful.

In conclusion, I understand and appreciate rent stabilization as a complex issue.

That said the abject failure of the city to not just protect our working class, but to instead subject him to potential harm from registering with nonprofits is both unconscious and excusable and is self-serving in the extreme.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Joaquin Jimenez, followed by Rossio Avila.

At the last meeting, um when I left, I was uh very upset.

Um with the comments that I heard from uh from the council when it comes to uh rent control or community struggling.

One of the things I wanna touch, I'm not gonna be able to do uh is not gonna come out nice, but I saw different quotes, you know, since then one of them is when money drives democracy and humanity take the back seat when money drives democracy and humanity take the back seat.

I want you to think about that.

We take a look at this picture and see the city of Halfum Bay with the community members that are struggling, they're marching, asking for housing, rent control is the closest we could get to keeping our community here in Half Home Bay, and you're thinking about it, but get rid of getting rid of it.

I had the opportunity to work close to with some of you, and other ones follow what you do, and I know who cares about the community, and it is true, you know.

What Willa said, we know some of you, you know, work very close with the uh with the money people, say people that don't care about a struggling community.

As politicians, when you serve a special interest, the faith over people, the faith of our community is obscure.

I want you to think about that too.

If you serve in a special interest, where is the faith?

Where's your compassion?

You are here to serve everybody in the community, not just a special interest.

Please think about it.

And we need that.

We need rent control.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Rocio Avila.

So Miss Avala will provide her comment, and then I'll provide you with the site translation afterwards.

Personas como yo, my family, my company.

For favor, rechacen the option number three optim for proteger me a me and those nuestros vecinos, manteniendo estas protections.

Gracias.

I want to insist to keep and fertilize all of the programs for rent control and the rent register.

The average rent here in Half Moon Bay is more than four thousand dollars, and that's twice as much as the average in the United States.

People like myself and my family, my friends and peers or co-workers, are the ones that make this city work.

We are the essential workers, teachers, older people that have had um have had worked all of their lives in the fields, and can some continue to work just to be able to live here and have a place to sleep.

Without any of these protections, many of us uh wouldn't be able to remain here, and we would be um obliged to leave.

Um set us apart from our families, like mine and and be in the heart of Half Moon Bay.

If you eliminate these programs, the message that you will be transmitting is that Half Moon Bay is only for those who can afford it to live comfortably.

Please say no to option number three, and choose to protect me and all of my neighbors and maintaining all of these protections.

Rent control is for our entire community.

Thank you.

So money's always the object.

Um Ray Mueller, the Samatel County supervisor.

Someone heard him say that if the city council endorses the idea of a second pool, he would be proactive in finding some money to help pay for the second pool.

And as you all know, the county was a tremendous help in getting us to the library.

So I'm here to ask, not for your support because I'm not asking for any money from the city, asking for your endorsement.

The second pool would be for the community.

The community needs a swimming pool.

Everybody should have a chance to take swimming lessons.

Swimming's one of the best things for physical and mental health.

And it's fun.

Where we are now, the swimming lessons are a go.

We had to cancel them last year.

They're set okay for this year for this summer.

We're trying to get the pool open four hours for six weeks, so people can come and just swim and play and have fun.

Families can come and just have an open pool.

And uh it's a little bit going to be a little bit of a battle, but we hope we can win the battle.

And uh so it comes down to the city council and the city of Half Moon Bay have to be a little bit proactive in supporting a new aquatic center.

And we don't we're not talking about money, we're just talking about endorsement.

Thank you.

Thank you, and next speaker is Paul Grigoriev.

Good evening, council members, and thank you for your attention.

I'll try to make it real quick.

I was last before you on February 17th, uh talking about the Flock license plate reader system we have in Half Moon Bay.

Uh since then, I've been doing more research on the net, and I'm really uh disturbed about what I'm finding.

For example, uh on February 24th, the City Council of Mountain View uh voted to terminate its contact contract with Flock, citing the fact that 250 unapproved agencies had made more than 600,000 searches of its flock database uh in the the past year on February 24th uh this year, Santa Clara County population 1.9 million folks announced that it was stopping the use of its flock systems.

Not close enough.

How's that?

Uh stopping the use of its flock systems, and that also affected the flock systems of Cupertino, 59,000 people, and Los Altos Hills, another 8,000.

I found a website, DFLOC.com, that seemed to do a good job of keeping track of these towns and cities that have canceled their contracts.

In October of last year, uh the California Attorney General filed suit against the city of El Cajon, California, a user of flock technology for violating the state law which prohibits sharing Alper data with out-of-state agencies, meaning that there's little control over the use of those data.

In February, the law firm Gibbs Mara filed a class action suit against Locke, claiming, among other things, the illegal collection and sharing of Alper data.

So these items seem to indicate that cities large and small are becoming aware that the implementation of Flock Alper technology can be problematic and are therefore dropping the systems.

Now I'm not an attorney, but after reviewing the Flock drafted contract, which the city signed, it seems to me that this contract offers us little or no protection against claims for mishandling of the flock data, or which involve violation of state law through the systems operation.

Thank you very much.

I I hope we can agendize this item and look and have you guys look carefully at the data I've given you so far.

There probably be more to come.

I think it's also good for the city attorneys to take a close look at this situation.

We're in trouble.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Paul.

The next speaker is Sid Young.

Sorry, I'm late.

Um, first of all, Sid Young.

I am a public official director at MWSD, but I'm here speaking on my own.

So I've now performed the Brown Act requirement.

But I'm not here to talk about that.

I just wanted to say thank you.

And also as far as the flock things go, I would like to wait and see what the data for Half Moon Bay, and maybe they'll tell us the rest of the coastside data too, how effective it's been before making any kind of a judgment.

But what I really wanted to say was I usually listen to the Board of Supervisors reports on Tuesday, but last Tuesday I missed it, and so I only watched the video, and the Harbor District was meeting, having a special meeting for the Pelagic Restaurant Group, and they were talking about maybe getting rid of them for the lease and everything.

So I think they did they did delay it because of something that came up during the video, which I suggest everybody watch.

But meanwhile, the Pelagic restaurant group has hired a new executive chef, and um I think we should all go down and try to support that restaurant.

The owner, David Um Westendorf has stage four cancer, and it's been a struggle to keep the restaurant going under that condition.

So that was part of the meeting was that he aired his um issues with the harbor district, but I couldn't quite get everything, but it seemed like they haven't been all that sympathetic.

So I just like to say on behalf of the harbor and the people that live near the harbor, like I do.

I don't want to see a restaurant go under and have an empty storefront down there when salmon season's about to open and when we have the summer with all the visitors coming.

So I went down when they had their um special event for the new chef, and I think it's a good restaurant to try to support.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sid.

I see that we have one speaker online, uh, Chrislin.

Hello, council.

Thank you so much.

Um, I just wanted to send out an open invitation to the community, and we will be formalizing um on social media and all the different communication styles, but we will be having our grand opening in our new space um with visit California and on April 2nd from 4 p.m.

until 6 p.m.

And we'll have it in our office, and uh we'll be working with the city uh to hopefully have some music and um all that good stuff.

So if everybody could mark their calendars if you would like to come celebrate with us on April 2nd from 4 to 6 p.m.

Thank you thank you.

Is there anyone else online who would like to address the council under public forum?

You can raise your hand now.

I see no other hands raised, so we can move on to the consent calendar.

Um Madam Mayor, if I if I would um staff receive some additional information today on item 8.

And we're waiting for some confirmation, so I would recommend that we actually continue that to a future meeting and not take it up tonight.

Um so you're you're uh going to pull uh 8D, which is authorization to transfer remaining Stone Pine Cove grant funds to San Mateo County.

That's the item.

Yes, please.

Okay.

Sounds good.

So um I'm going to read the consent items and then ask if there's anyone who would like to comment on uh consent.

The items include item 8a, wave reading of resolutions and ordinances, item 8b, treasurer's report for the quarter ending December 31st, 2025.

Item 8C, financial report for the quarter ended on December 31st, 2025.

Uh, item 8E, approved minutes of the February 17th, 2026 special meeting, and item 8F, approved minutes of the February 17th, 2026 regular meeting.

There's anyone who would like to uh address any of those items.

You can come to the podium now or raise your hand online.

Um seeing none, I'll ask if the uh council members wish to pull any additional items.

Seeing none, could we have uh a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar minus item 8D?

I'll make a motion.

Okay.

Second.

Okay.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously.

Um we're moving on to uh item nine, ordinances and public hearings.

There are none to this evening.

Item 10, resolutions and staff reports.

And item 10E is a mid-year operating budget review and adoption of resolution to amend the fiscal year 2025-26 budget.

We will have a staff report on that.

Okay, good evening, Madam Mayor, Council, members of the public.

Tonight I will be presenting the mid-year review for our fiscal year 25-26 budget.

As council knows, our fiscal year runs from July 1st to June 30th.

So we're a little bit past the midway point, which was this past December.

I also uh do regular reports on our financials on a quarterly basis.

Um, but since uh those two items coincided this year.

Uh the quarter report was a part of the agenda on consent that council just approved.

Um, but I will quickly go over the results as I would normally have done.

So starting with the revenues, uh, we have our major revenues with a comparison to the prior budget based on percentage.

Uh TOT or hotel tax.

Um, we had budgeted 8.6 million.

We've received about four, which is about 47% of the budget compared to last time during this time, it was about 36.

Um upcoming slides, uh have final estimates for our revenues.

Um, but generally we're performing better than anticipated um in this line item.

Um the last few nuts, the last few months have been positive for us in this category.

Property taxes.

We had a budget of 3.7.

We received about 2.4.

This category can be a bit odd.

Um base property taxes are performing as expected, but there's a portion of property tax called vehicle and loo fees that um have been temperamental these past few years, which is kind of skewing the numbers.

Um, but again, I'll go more into that in the upcoming slides.

Sales and use taxes.

We budgeted about 4.9.

We've deceived about 1.8.

That does include measure R.

The sales tax increase that went into effect last year, last April.

Um this category is a little bit uh a hard comparison because things have changed.

Um, but um we've been trending as we had hoped generally.

Other revenues, uh, this includes development fees or miscellaneous fees.

Or grants.

We receive we budgeted about six uh point four.

We've deceived about two.

Um, and where some of these items have gone up, some of these items are coming down, but we'll get more into it and then later slides.

Overall, um, we've received about 10.6 million in revenues.

So here's the slide on TOT.

Uh this chart is our revenues by month for the past six months.

The darker tail columns are for this year.

The gray columns are from last year.

And as you can see, month over month, um, we've been performing better than uh the year prior.

Uh in previous years, we were in this um pattern of sliding revenues, but it looks like we're potentially moving in the right direction, especially in those uh you can see in those summer months.

Um we're a little bit closer in November and December, but those summer months we we saw some growth there.

On to sales and use tax.

Uh this is a new chart uh for council because of measure R and is new for us.

Uh the first lighter gray column.

This looks a little dotted, and that is what we received last year.

That darker gray column is what we budgeted for, and that teal column is what we've received so far.

So you can see the effect that measure R has had in our financials, um, much more than what we received last year.

And and the good thing is that we're trending appropriately with our budget.

Um with Measure R.

Um, it was uh a little bit of a more difficult forecast to do because we never had it before, so it was kind of you know, it's more of a guesstimate than having something more of a basis, but it looks like it's trending appropriately on the expenditure side, we're looking good.

Um expenditures are a bit more regular, a bit more timely.

So we just look to make sure we're on any 50% budget.

Um we're at 21%, which could be a little bit low, that's mostly due to public safety.

Um but if you were to look at the other departments, uh that looks like the average is uh about 35% for all the departments.

So overall we're trending uh lower than anticipated, and a lot of that is uh most likely salary savings.

So going into the mid-year review, so the mid-year review is a best practice process for municipalities.

It gives us time to look at our revenues, see how we're doing, um, any adjustments that we might have to make, and then it also gives us a chance to look at our expenditures.

For us, this starts in January.

We start to review and estimate it out.

What gets considered into how we forecast is essentially what have we done in the past, um our actuals thus far, and do we want to incorporate any growth that we've seen?

For most line items, we just take what we've done, what we've already um received and and then assume that we're gonna receive um the same as we did the year prior.

Um this is a uh conservative estimate, um, but it's worked well for us in the past.

On the expenditure side, uh we meet with departments and uh they go over through, we review their budget, we go over what they may or may not need, and we take direction.

The only direction this year was uh to wait until uh we only want to do anything that was necessary, the things that can't that we couldn't wait until July.

We compile all the numbers that that gets turns into this packet that's in front of you tonight.

It's a month-long process, um, but it's an important one as these numbers directly leading to our priority priority setting session on March 14th in the next uh next week, which that process leads into our budget for next fiscal year.

So that's the framework of the process.

But getting into the numbers, uh, this table highlights what we budgeted for, what the latest estimate is and the difference between the two.

Uh what transient occupancy tests uh tax, this is our biggest one that we review and revise the most and constantly looking at it uh month to month.

Um we forecast TOT out on a monthly basis.

Uh for the months that we have ahead of us uh that we don't know yet, um, we take what we did last year for the exact same month.

Using that methodology, um, our estimate for this year, we think we're gonna end the year around 9.9 million or about a 1.2 million dollar increase.

Um council may remember that um we had some great gains on the back end half of last fiscal year.

Um those gains kind of occurred before we actually built this year's budget.

So this adjustment here is more of a reflection of us of our budgets catching up to what we've been experiencing.

Um, but I believe this to be a fairly conservative number as well.

Um the last year we ended about 9.6.

So uh this year going to 9.9 is and it's in the same realm.

For property taxes, we are estimating uh 4.3 million, as I mentioned before, this category is a bit odd.

Um, base property taxes are fine.

Uh it's the a portion of property tax is called vehicle and lo fees uh is what um people pay when they register the car essentially every year with their license renewal.

I mean registration.

Uh there is some contention um around these fees between the cities in San Mateo County uh and the states.

Um the state paid us late for last year's allocation that showed up this year, which is kind of um driving the the numbers upwards here.

Um that timing difference is what's increasing how we think we're going to end the year that 600 uh increase.

But that doesn't really mean it's ongoing permanent growth in this category basis fine, but uh V VLF vehicle and loo is um a little bit of a pending topic.

And finally, sales tax.

Um we're pretty much in line of expectations, uh, but there is a small adjustment upwards of about 75k between the both of them.

Um base uh sales tax that did measure R.

So overall for major revenues, uh upward in adjustment of about 1.9, with a significant chunk of that, the majority of it coming from TOT.

We did see some net losses in kind of our minor revenues, about uh 400K.

A chunk of that is business licensed renewals, and then the other piece of that is kind of development related uh revenues.

So building permits, engineering fees, um, fee reimbursements of planning time.

But uh with with that, the net revenue adjustment is about an increase of about one and a half million.

So as you can imagine, going into uh this mid-year, uh, as I mentioned, departments were advised um no increases unless it was urgent, necessary, and can't wait.

Um, as such, there's no expenditure adjustments for neither general fund or capital projects.

Um the only thing for council consideration on the expenditure side is a little bit of accounting cleanup that's in the packet, um, closing out the uh bond fund.

Uh the city used to have a bond several years back through a judgment that has since been closed or since been completed, and we want to shift the monies back to the general fund, but it's about 7K.

So mostly accounting, so accounting cleanup is what's uh in the staff report.

But overall, as far as true expenditures is no true expenditure as of council.

If council were to approve the following adjustments, here's our fund balances we'll look on June 30th, 2026.

Uh one, the first column is the adopted budget, which uh we had unassigned balances about three and a half million.

And the second column is the proposed revised budget.

Um, because we had a quite a bit of unassigned balances, uh, we are also recommending to fully fund our reserves.

The city has a reserve policy for about 50% of operating expenditures, and 50% is because we're a town that um relies on uh uh transient occupancy tax, and it's uh more of our volatile revenue source.

So our reserves are about our 50% to reflect that.

At the beginning of our deficit management uh era in our uh financials that started back in 2024, we relied on a portion of our reserves to get us through.

But now that we've had some gains and TOT is looking like it's heading in the right direction, it seems like the right time to put them back.

Um so that is for council recommendation.

If approved, uh we are estimating about 12 million in reserves, 12.1 million in reserves.

And even after reserves are fully funded, that'll leave about 1.6 million in unassigned.

And the decrease in unassigned funds uh from adopted to revised is putting it putting some of that money back into reserves.

So forecasting and the deficit.

So as part of the mid-year process, we develop a very draft version of the five-year forecast.

Now, forecast forecasting isn't is um it's not a set-in-stone plan, but it is a best practice tool to identify any issues that are ahead of us.

Um back in 2024, as we were doing this this process, we identified a deficit that was um TOT was coming down while our existing expenditures were going up.

And that was that was our signal to start looking at um the budget and what can we do and what can we adjust.

Some of the things that we did um during that time period, um, of course, looking at our budget line by line on the on the expenditure side, um delaying or deferring certain things, uh, operating and capital.

We also did a cost allocation and fee study, which was making sure the fees that we charge at least cover the costs of providing that service.

Uh we did a revenue enhancement study working with the finance committee.

Uh where has the city been leaving money on the table somewhere?

Can we up our revenues?

And then, of course, uh, we went to the voters in November 2024 for a sales tax increase.

So the culmination of all that is kind of highlighted and illustrated in this chart, and that's back in June of 2024.

Um the forecast for the upcoming budget was estimated four and a half.

But these past few years going through the process and and taking at it bit by bit.

Um, right now it's looking in the 1.8 million uh amount for next year again is a forecast, and um that number will change, of course.

But it speaks to the magnitude of um what we're looking at as we frame next year's budget.

Um is cautiously optimistic, but it's going in the right direction.

So as I said, going into next year, a deficit highly likely, but not as bad as it could have been.

Um over the next few weeks, staff is going to tighten the forecast and really look at it again and again and again.

And it's a recurring thing that culminates to the budget.

And then in the next portion of the budget process for next year is the priority setting, which is March uh 14th.

And um, that's a chance for uh council and cult and gather, set priorities for the city as well as get as well as give us some guidance into the budget.

With that, the recommendation is as follows adopt the attached resolution to amend the fiscal year 2526 operating in the capital budget.

And I welcome any questions council may have.

Um, Madam Mayor, if I may.

Ken, can you go back to the slide that shows the fund balance uh projections?

Um general fund summary, correct.

Um I I just want to highlight this slide.

Um I think it really illustrates um the progress we've made and and I think it's something we need to celebrate and be proud of.

There's a lot of work remaining to be done, but you know the way that we've made our way through the last several years with deficits and concerns about our finances was utilizing our economic uncertainty reserves, which were created by the council before the pandemic when we were in really good financial shape, and the foresight there was really incredible to say we need to set aside more reserves than best practices tell us because we need to be able to navigate through challenging times and and do it in a way that hopefully reduces impacts on the community and the services we provide.

And that's exactly what we've done the last several years.

And what is so exciting is that our recommendation tonight is to take all this progress we've made and replenish those reserves and bring us back to a 50% reserve level.

Um Ken, correct me if I'm wrong, but best practice for general fund reserves is 16%.

16%.

That is what the best practice says a city should have.

As a smaller city, we're a little more volatile, I would say, because we're dealing with lower amounts of money.

And so I think it's prudent that we have a 30% general fund reserve policy for operating reserves.

That is 30% of our annual budget gets set aside for total disaster.

You know, there's something happens where our revenues stop coming in, and we just have to be able to float ourselves through a few months.

And then when you add into that another 20% for economic uncertainty at 50%, we're at more than triple the recommended amount of reserves.

And that's where we're at today.

We're back to that level, plus another 1.6 million in unallocated reserves.

And I think that's something to be really proud of as a council, as a staff, as a community, uh, because we still provide high quality services and we're doing great things in the community.

It's also important for us to be cautious.

Um, often this is the time of year where you look at that unassigned fund balance and you think about what else could we be spending some of those funds on, some one-time projects.

I'd be cautious about thinking about spending much of that because that may help us in the next fiscal year continue to keep our budget balanced as we hone in on our res on our revenues and expenditures and try to get back to a structurally balanced budget and not have to touch reserves again.

So it's something we can talk about, and we should be thinking about do we want to use some of that unallocated fund balance towards programs or projects that are important to the city, but balance that against the fact that we're still looking at a future deficit, and we want to be very prudent about spending that money where it could be helpful in future years.

So I just want to thank Ken.

Um, I think he's done an incredible job the last several years and this year helping us navigate this.

Obviously, council policies and priorities have done a great job.

And then I just want to recognize our staff who have been operating lean and mean for a long time, and I think the the results are really something to be proud of.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Um clarifying questions from um council members who would like to go first.

Councilmember Nagengast.

Thank you, Ken.

Great to know that we're going to replenish our reserves.

I think that's a remarkable to be able to do that.

And you know, I think you know, if we think about this 1.6 on a sign, you know, I know there's uh golf fees and a couple other things that we don't know where those are yet.

So we just you know, I think city manager was being very prudent to say, hey, you may want to hang on to that just to see where we go with this.

So I'll point out um and can please confirm when we talk about our forecasted deficit next year.

That accounts for the the funding that we already know that we're likely to lose.

So it it it already is a very conservative estimate and thinking about some of the challenges that are ahead of us.

Good.

Would that include not just um golf fees but um potential loss of the VLF, which is $700,000?

Uh yes, it includes a shortfall amount.

Um the shortfall amount always changes year to year, but it does include it.

Thank you for that.

Anyone else with questions?

Um I I have one speaker.

Do you want to address the budget item?

Sid Young?

Yes, I just had the question you asked, but um I you know I do follow the county and their uh estimate is you know, they do have a lawsuit against the state, and it's up to 119 million right now.

Um, because last year it was 38 million, and now this year they're withholding more.

So I know you only get a portion of it, but um maybe if you don't include it in your budget, then it'll be gravy when you get it if they win their lawsuit.

And that's what I was just hoping that you weren't banking on getting it.

Thank you.

Sounds like we're not yes, okay.

Uh is there anyone online who would like to address the the budget mid-year budget item.

Seeing no hands raised, I'll bring it back to the council.

Um for any further comment or a motion.

Councilmember Brownstone.

Um, just one comment, and I like to remind folks of that when they're talking about um having a council that watches a budget.

Um, back in 2021, we had what a five to six million dollar loss of revenue, uh, mostly from um hotel tax and a few other things.

You know, that's money that just disappears.

It just doesn't sort of come back.

It wasn't like things got better slowly, and we slowly got more revenue back.

It's quite an accomplishment five years later to be where we are.

That money, five to six million just disappeared.

Then we had the extra one and a half to two million of um additional um fees from the sheriffs.

All these things kept happening.

And um so it's great.

I think the city stuck together, the council stuck together.

And even now we had a 4.5 million deficit in just June 24th in less than two years.

Less than two years.

One year and four months to eight months to be exact.

It's now down to one eight 1.8 million.

So we're really making a lot of great progress.

We tighten our belts, we're still delivering services, and um you never know what's around the corner, but we also have some great reserves.

So I just wanted to make that contextual comment.

Yes, our trustee role uh when we're city council members is probably the most important function that we have.

Trustee over our lands, over our budget, over our facilities.

It's a very important part of the job, if not the most important part of the job.

And I will say I think staff has stepped up, you've acknowledged the situation that we're in and come up with creative solutions.

And uh and you're not rosy-eyed about the future either.

You know, you're being very sensible about that.

So we all appreciate that that work that staff is doing.

Thank you.

Um the motion is to adopt a resolution amending the fiscal year 2025-26 operating and capital budget, um, amending it per the recommendations of staff.

Second.

I'm gonna ask for a roll call vote.

Councilmember Brownstone.

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson.

Yes, Councilmember Nagginast.

Yes, Vice Mayor Penrose.

Yes.

Mayor Radek.

Yes.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Okay.

So the next item is item 10b Community Services Financial Assistant Program Mid Year Update.

Good evening, Madam Mayor Julisa Costa, community services analysts.

Uh, good evening, council, uh members of the community.

I am here to present to you tonight an update on the uh community services financial assistance program.

Um, this is a typical procedure for us.

We come back to you mid-year to let you know how the organizations are doing, uh, if they're um facing any challenges, um, what are the highlights?

Uh all of that is included in the staff report, but happy to go over more detail with all of you tonight.

Um, just a little bit more background.

I know some of our new council members are still getting acquainted with the process and what we've done in the past.

This program started with a hundred thousand dollar contribution, uh, no formal structure, no subcommittee, um, and grants were in different amounts to different organizations serving different purposes.

Um, throughout the years, and as we saw the need in the community, we started to um drive it with a little bit more focus.

Uh, we council directed staff to create a subcommittee that reviews um each of the applications and determines the program direction.

Um over time, council also decided to allocate additional funding.

Uh it grew up to 300,000.

The focus, especially during the pandemic and to help with recovery efforts, was to provide um funding to organizations that secure safe safety net services for the community.

And that was encompassed in child care access, senior care, um, homelessness services, um, safe uh uh mental health services, uh dental, uh, youth services.

And uh we've been working with the same group of nonprofits at the same time throughout the COSA Recovery Initiative.

Um, council directed staff to implement a cohort model that was based on our recommendation from the COSA Recovery Initiative.

This was to help alleviate some of the administrative burdens that uh uh come with uh managing grants for organizations, but also to um create uh the opportunity to collaborate a little bit more among the organizations that were funded by the city.

Last year, um council also instructed uh staff to uh implement a two-year funding model.

Again, this is more to remove the the burdens of the admin and reviewing all the grants every every year, uh, and create the collaborative approach.

This will be the second year of that funding cycle.

And um, I'll go over more of the details.

Um, this are the organizations that the what you see on your screen that were funded for this current year.

Um last year, when we presented uh to council on this item, uh the city staff came with uh three different options.

One was to continue the funding at the three thousand three hundred thousand dollar level, which is what we had been doing.

But like you heard from earlier, our budget situation laser was slightly different.

And council uh sorry, staff also presented two different options to fund at 250,000 and to fund a 200,000.

Um council landed somewhere in the middle, uh deciding to fund two organizations at the previous funding amount, which was the full amount, and that was Abundant Grace and CoSai Hope.

Um, and then the rest of the organizations received a percentage of the original funding amount.

So, what you see in your screen is what we funded for the current fiscal year.

Um, I want to highlight a couple of uh successes from the program.

Over time, we've seen more collaboration among the nonprofits.

There's more coordination among themselves, especially when it comes to emergency response.

Um, we've also helped them uh I create uh a shared identity and develop their own organization's identity.

This is through the technical assistance with that um technical assistance during 2022-2023.

Um the couple uh sorry, Coast Pride was able to apply for uh funding through the state for mental health services for the youth and create the Alcove program that is um underway now.

And so that was a big success.

Coast Pride, uh not the organization, but they're the fiscal agent for Alcove model, uh received a hundred uh sorry, 1.7 million dollars to implement the model, and it's it's a work in progress.

Um we've also tried to strengthen capacity from our nonprofit leadership and and just continue that collaboration and community approach throughout.

Um this is the time where you received the uh update.

This is uh what we've seen so far.

I want to highlight a couple of the um challenges we faced.

Uh it's some of it is or most of it is included in the staff report, but I want to highlight that some organizations face challenges with the um federal federal funding cuts last year and this NAP benefits pause during the government shutdown that caused big stress for a lot of our nonprofit providers, and that was one of the biggest challenges highlighted during the mid-year reports.

On the plus side, we've seen uh clients accessing services, uh receiving uh children receiving meals and support, seniors receiving transportation services, um, mental health and substance abuse have also been addressed uh throughout the the different programs that we have and continued collaboration with the nonprofits have uh prevented folks from going into homelessness and have supported those who are transitioning um out of homelessness.

So at this point, uh this is where my update ends.

Uh, but I have uh an additional task for you is to to help us understand the direction of the program for next year and also determine if based on the uh mid mid-year budget review that you just heard, if we want to fund the organizations that were partially funded during the fiscal year.

So I'm happy to take any questions.

Vice Mayor.

Yeah, um I was very excited about the cohort program.

I'm wondering if you can give us an example or a couple of examples of how that um cohort organization has um come to fruition, how it how it's produced results.

Sure.

Um I think one of the biggest highlights was uh, like I mentioned, the collaboration uh with Coast Pride when they uh received the funding for uh the ALCOVE model, uh, all of the organizations were immediately reached out to uh for letters of support and and and programming designed.

Uh that was the first um sort of win that we took from from the cohort.

Additionally, um, when the shooting happened and the floods happened, um personally I can say it made our job a lot easier when reaching out for additional services.

It was easy for us because we had direct connection to the executive leadership to manage additional services for the community that was struggling at the time, whether it was housing, whether it was additional food, whether it was clothing, um transportation services, uh that made it easy for us.

Organizations on their own immediately jumped to that.

The other um, I think big success is collaboration and organizations are without the city leading the charge, are partnering with each other, developing programming.

And I think that was one of the recommendations that came from the COSA Recovery Initiative when the task force was doing their evaluation process, they realized that nonprofits weren't necessarily talking to each other as much.

And now they are, they have a direct line to leadership and different staffing levels, and um we've given that opportunity.

The other thing is uh when we convene the group, which is about quarterly uh right now, we also try to share best practices and bring tools to the tables that will support and enhance um their services.

Thank you.

Sure.

How often does the cohort meet?

Try to meet quarterly.

Sometimes, like for example, when the shooting happened and the floods, that was a big chunk for city staff to be able to manage both things.

And so we put a pause on that, but we quickly came back.

And so we try to make quarterly with city uh sorry, nonprofit leadership.

Thank you.

Other council members with questions.

I have a question.

So we have this group of nine, I call them.

And it seemed to me it was a result of the COVID-19 kind of these were the nonprofits that is it fair to say the biggest bang for your buck, so to speak.

I mean, for the types of needs that were necessary during the pandemic, and then we just talked about the shooting.

Have things changed now somewhat?

Are we is it still this group of nine?

Maybe that leads into what you know next budget year, but does it stay this group of nine, or are we seeing things?

Okay, things seems to be shifting.

We're a different nonprofit might be more we're happy to take your guidance um on this.

Uh I will say just from reading the reports directly from the nonprofits.

Uh, there it might not be COVID, though we're still recovering from it.

Uh, there have been additional threats.

Immigration was a big challenge for several of the nonprofits last year and has been the federal funding cuts, continue to be, and so that adds uh stressors to the community members who seek services from this group of nonprofits.

I think what I'm hearing it probably still applicable.

The most likely, yes.

And then maybe that's jumping still a little ahead for the next budget.

Yeah, but I kind of curious.

And then I also I think one of the groups does emergency rental program.

Yeah, because I hope.

You know, I I don't know, I didn't see the numbers in the report on it.

Yeah, I I have the detailed version of that.

Um I believe for rental assistance so far for mid-year through December 31st.

Um, it was about five thousand dollars that they provided in rental assistance.

And I followed up with um Judith, the executive director, and she mentioned that that only provided assistance to three households because of three households because of the pricing, the rental prices in the community.

It's like a it's a stopgap type thing, right?

Yes, it's only a one-time thing, it's not ongoing, it's not uh, you know, uh recurrent uh recurrent uh type of aid.

It's like if you're struggling, um, for example, you lost your job or you have a medical condition that prevented you from working, you can seek help, and it's a one-time allocation.

Right, yeah.

Thank you.

If I could also add to that, part of it is it's not that only three families needed or households needed that support.

Um coastside hope has other sources of funding for specifically for housing assistance, and each one has kind of nuanced requirements and criteria, and so they look at each request and kind of work their way down the criteria to get them to qualify with the the highest you know restrictions, and then if they can't qualify there, they move to the next funding source.

And ours being just a general assistance program has the most open criteria right now.

And so it's it's kind of like they can't qualify for any of the other ones, so then that's when they use our funding.

So there are other people getting rental assistance through other programs at Coast Side Hope.

Uh do we have any idea of the number of people that are requesting assistance?

I can definitely get that for you and bring it up, bring it back.

Yeah.

I don't have the number off the top of my head because I don't know how many folks have uh sought uh assistance from COSIHO, but I'm sure it's a lot higher than three.

We we'll have that data when we bring back the rent stabilization item, which should be at our next meeting, the 17th.

Good.

Thank you.

Any other questions before taking public comment seeing none?

Um we have a speaker, Spendan Chakrabarty.

Uh hi everyone, um Mayor Ruddek, um council members, Lisa.

Uh thank you for uh letting me be here.

Uh my name is Span in Chakra Barty, and I'm here to represent uh San Resist Dental Halt, which is um one of the grantees um as their development director.

Last time I was here um this uh at a meeting like this, there were some questions about what is a safety net service, and I gave it some thought, and I'm gonna present a couple of things uh for you.

What am I talking about?

California children miss 184,000 schools I'm sorry, 784 uh thousand uh school days every year because of dental pain.

Uh and who are these kids mostly?

Most of the people without resources to get it addressed.

What does that lead to?

That leads to falling behind in school.

That leads to our uh that is to folks then um getting stuck at at jobs that don't pay that well and missing work.

One in four of all work absences in America, dental pain.

And then let's get to the later in life.

One in five senior 65 plus missing all their teeth.

That's what I can say.

I think that's having access to dental services early on in your life, is uh a question of safety net.

Um and this program um I think I can speak for some of my colleagues who are here.

Uh we don't just provide services, right?

We build community, we get our neighbors through tough times.

Um and we work with one another.

So and right now, people aren't getting any breaks um in their daily lives, especially especially people who are not uh well resourced.

We are seeing people come into our offices holding letters saying I'm going to lose my dental benefits, medical medical dental, what do I do?

So I'm here to say uh I would love for you to restore this fund, and I think we will never give up on this community, and please don't give up on us.

Thank you.

Uh, I want to share a story of a family member of mine looking for this rental assistance.

Um sposa travelando entonces it fuel buscar assistance.

So he he went looking for this assistance when only his wife was working.

They were concerned about paying the rent and not have to wait for that piece of paper that the owner you know provided them to leave the premises.

I think I'm sorry to say this, but I think there's a requirement that's kind of harsh there at Coastide Hope.

They could only help if they had that piece of paper in hand saying that they needed to leave the premises.

So he didn't want to let it get to that point.

And so that's why he went to go seek financial aid or assistance.

I know that sometimes there needs to be like these clauses or these other things.

But I think that in certain situations, like if they have some kind of proof, I think that we can make their lives less miserable.

As when people are going through an illness, and then on top of that, they're saying you also have to pay your rent and you gotta do this, you gotta do that.

It's not just the parents that feel the anxiety, but also the children.

So that's my comment.

Thank you, Rosio.

Is there anyone online who would like to um address this item?

You can raise your hand now.

I don't see anyone, so I'll bring it back to the council.

Um I think you know, to organize the discussion, we should start with um what does the council want to do about yes or no provide funding?

Um the balance of of the shortfall that some of the groups received in the um appropriation last year.

Let's start there before talking about the future program.

Councilmember Johnson, I'll start with you.

Sorry.

Um co-side help was at 43%, and uh Sunrise was at four.

It was at 43%, and everybody else is at 50 and 100.

Um I feel comfortable with what we're doing here, but I'd like to see the numbers, you know, higher so that we can get them back up, is what I would like to see.

Uh, because I know we went through this last year and we were trying to hit this budget target that we were trying to meet, and I think a lot uh uh what was it, a loss and abundant grace were the ones that we kicked up a little bit higher.

No, that was uh coastside hope and abundant grace got their full ask.

Right.

So yeah, I'm in agreement with this, but I'd like to see those two kind of get back up.

Which two?

Uh co-site hope and the uh Sunrise uh dental because they're Cosite Hope was at their their full request.

Cosite Hope and Abundant Grace were 100% of their ask.

Okay.

Um and the others got a percentage.

Maybe um you could review yeah, yes.

To bring everyone up to their current to their previous funding.

Everyone or just those not the two that are already the other, but the remaining the ones that got partial funding, they can receive their previous uh allocated allocations.

Yes.

That's yeah, do we do we have a I don't have a figure?

I didn't do the calculation.

Um, but it would be let me go back to one slide.

Um so yeah, yeah.

And and so this has the technical assistance, so just as a reminder for council, we usually keep about 10% for the technical assistance.

Um we had allocated two 20,000 dollars for sorry, no 20,000 dollars for technical assistance uh for the current fiscal year.

Um last year when we came and presented the closure on the opportunity center of the coastide, council directed staff to move 10,000 dollars from the technical assistance to continue covering the portion of utilities until uh the lease ended.

So that's why there's a shorter, so it would be a total of approximately two uh 90 sorry, two eighty-six thousand all together.

So so the delta between if you if you take out that ten thousand dollars for technical assistance, the delta between what was funded this year and fully funding the remaining nonprofits is sixty-three thousand dollars.

That's what it would take to go back to full funding.

Yeah, okay.

Right.

And then there's one issue with that.

I just wanted to point out, and that is we won't at least under the current process get a report on how those funds are being used.

You know, when we when we allocate the money in previous years, everybody gets you know their request, and then um well, no, maybe they're wrong about that.

They'll do a an end of year report.

End of year that is provided to us um in June.

Yeah, okay.

That answered that question.

July.

But yes.

Right.

So council member Johnson, do you are you good with that amount?

Yes, I am.

But I when you're saying the report, you're saying the report that we're actually seeing here is they talk about every person and what they do.

Is that the correct?

Well, that's their mid-year report.

Mid year report.

But I apparently there's an end of the year report.

Correct.

They reminded me about that.

So yeah.

Uh Councilmember Nagengast.

I I think 63,000 is a good number to try.

Because we originally had committed, well, didn't commit.

We suggested 300,000.

And I and I thought that was the good discussion to try and find a something come back later because of our budgeting, and that's part of you know what we do.

So I'm comfortable with uh 63.

Right.

We're saying it's 63,000.

Well, 63,000, what that would do is it wouldn't affect the funding for abundant grace or co-side hope because they receive the full budget allocation at the beginning of the year.

It would restore the remaining nonprofits to the previous amounts that have been budgeted in past years through the end of the fiscal year.

And then of course, the next policy question is start to talk about next year.

Councilmember Brownstone.

I agree with our my other two council members.

That sounds like a good number to bring everyone back.

Vice Mayor.

If it were up to me, I'd double the number.

Okay, I'm I'm good with the 63,000 too.

So I think you have sufficient direction on that.

Okay.

So what we do this is just direction.

We'll bring a resolution back at our next meeting.

We'll just put it on consent to you know to confirm this.

Um correct.

We need we need official action.

Yeah.

So we'll bring a resolution back on consent on March 17th.

In the meantime, we'll start working on the amendments to the agreements with the remaining um organizations.

Councilmember Johnson.

So I remember when uh uh Mayor Um Brownstone and I were on that committee and we talked about this, and I remember when we had this long discussion and we were trying to do this midpoint thing, see where we are, see where we're gauging because we're hurting we were doing pretty bad last year, and you know, this whole discussion.

And that's what made us do this midpoint thing and to see where we're at and to hear what we're at on the financials.

And that's why Ken, thank you so much for that report, because this is the gauge that we needed to say yes, we can up the anti on this.

And so now this mechanism's working.

I like how it's working, and then we check in again and we check in again.

And if we can, we can.

If we can't, we can.

Last year was tough.

And that's what I was bringing up as uh Mayor Ruddick was bringing up is uh abundance grace and the other one that we you said full funding right away because they're doing a certain thing that you felt was pretty important, which I agree with, but at the time I was we were trying to cut back.

But so the ones that are uh that we have full funded, I think is is great, but I also think is best that we can, we can do what we can when we have the money in the bank.

Right now, I think we did a really good job here, and I think this is should continue no matter what in the highs and the lows.

But you know, if we can do better, we'll do better as as uh vice mayor says.

But right now we have to kind of stick to what we can.

Thank you.

That wasn't what I said.

I didn't say if we can do better, we'd do better.

I said I would double the amount.

I think we are making cuts that are egregious.

And we're cutting funding and considering cutting funding to the people that it hurts the most.

Um so let's let's move on.

Uh envisioning um the future of this program for fiscal year 26-27.

And and as a reminder, we do have a subcommittee of the council that staff works with.

Um, but it's it'd be great to have some direction tonight on some of the things we want to consider in next year's program so that we can sit down with the subcommittee and start working out some of the details to bring back to you for approval later.

Go ahead.

Just one last comment.

Uh I would recommend to council members who haven't had a chance before the next cycle.

Um go go to some of those programs as a council member and you know, give yourself an hour or more to really ask them all like details of what they do and how it gets done because it's really um quite remarkable how many how much service they do provide and all those services have a um huge effect on we've already heard mental health, good teeth, less homelessness, less domestic violence.

Um but when you actually hear it from the folks who are doing that work, um it's very informative, and you'll have a much clearer idea of if you feel the money is being well spent and how it's being spent.

So if you haven't had a chance, recommend it.

And there are other organizations too that you know.

I I I do volunteer.

So um I I wanted to my my main thing was this group of nine.

Is that something it sounds like that's something probably still more practical to this group of nine to keep it there?

I don't know.

Yeah.

Right.

So I mean I'm okay with yeah, again this year, or I guess for next year.

Would that be another two-year cycle?

Is that what you're thinking?

That's what we've uh recommended last year or yeah, last year.

Again, this is to remove the uh burdens on both um nonprofit and CD uh staff, more than anything, we want to increase the collaboration and to allow the nonprofits to see each other as partners and not competitors when trying to um secure funding.

And and when that two-year recommendation doesn't we understand, you understand the nonprofits understand it doesn't guarantee the funding, but it does start to you know focus those efforts as we're making decisions going forward so that we're not if if we wanted to open it up more broadly, um that that obviously takes more work, more effort, more energy.

And so if you were to decide to continue with the nine that are focused on safety net services and commit to a two-year approach to it, um, then what we're really just talking about is funding amounts each year.

So it's it simplifies the process for everybody, but um that's that's just a recommendation.

So I'm I'm hearing you're saying that you'd rather just skip the whole subcommittee business this year and just give it away.

I still think you need to go through the subcommittee.

Why?

Well, for funding, right?

And that were we decide how much money I thought you were saying you just wanted to repeat.

Well, I meant a two-year cycle.

The the cycle.

The two-year cycle.

You know, I don't we don't know our budget yet, right?

So I don't know if we can make a decision tonight how much money should be in there at this time.

I was looking at just the setup of the nine uh nonprofits and how the reason we did a two-year cycle is the way I understand it.

Uh less burdensome on staff and the nonprofits, but they still have to give us report, right?

And I like the idea of this mid-year.

They do and just to add on to that, we've always had that practice.

We receive a meeting your uh report and at end of your report.

Okay.

So the purpose of our meeting would be what money?

If I if I would, I I think what I'm hearing is the the subcommittee would still take the applications from them because every year that we do this um at the beginning of the two-year cycle, all of those nine nonprofits still submit applications.

Here's where the needs are, here's how we would serve them, here's how much money we're requesting.

And the subcommittee could decide one um a recommendation to the full council of how much the overall program should you know be budgeted at, and how that should be broken down.

Okay.

Is that is that fair?

Councilmember Nagas?

Okay.

Um, I I do want to raise this issue, and I'm happy to discuss it, but you know, a portion of our property tax goes to the county for mental health services.

So the question is, you know, do we want to fund local mental health services when our property taxes already go to the county for this purpose?

The county is the social safety net provider for you know, mental health and and you know um narcotics and and things like that.

You know, maybe one strategy for us is to determine what the local need is here to hear from providers and for the city to represent our our needs for mental health support to the county and make sure that the services that we need here in Half Moon Bay are being represented in the county budget, you know, for mental health and um uh addiction services and all those kinds of things are being met.

Um I I think maybe would be beneficial for us to take more of an active role rather than us providing those services when it's not really a function of the city, that we become you know, the advocate for those programs at the county level and have the county fully fund what's needed here.

So I wanted to raise that issue.

I've had it raised to me.

Uh like, hey, I thought you know, 10% of my property tax already goes to mental health support.

You know, what do what are we doing here?

And I understand there may be need that's you know fall through the cracks because the county has its its own restraints this year around VLF and other things too, and they're worried about measure K being oversubscribed and stuff like that.

But we might have a discussion about how can we make sure the county is funding what we want and what we need in our community as far as those services are concerned.

Yeah, I'm I'm thinking back to my county budgeting days, and I'm not sure where that like 10% figure comes from.

So that might be part of the discussion first with the county is how much of the services we're getting from the county are coming from local property taxes versus federal and you know other sources.

Um there is a I believe there's a pie chart online.

Okay and the person was wrong, it's not 10%.

Okay, it's more like six to seven percent.

Okay, but there is a pie chart online that I that I saw where the county where do your property taxes go.

Okay.

Mental health, county board of you know, all that stuff.

So, you know, let's take a look at that and we can have a discussion with our supervisor that says, you know, um we want to make sure when you're budgeting that you are adequately funding the services that are needed here.

Um you know, why should we let them take so much of our property tax without us having a say in how that property tax is being used?

I think it would be great to have whoever's at the county level, you know, revise health services and mental health services, invite them down.

Let's ask them.

What do you what do you provide?

How does that show up here in Half Moon Bay?

And ask them where are the gaps, you know, where are the things that maybe they want to fund more if they feel they can't hand it locally help fund.

I don't know what it is, but have them here so we can ask them, get some real detail around that, right?

And get a feel for that.

That's a good idea.

Um, you know, and then one ask would be show us where you're spending the mental health dollar and half moon bay and the coastide.

Who's who are who's getting that money, what type of services are getting funded, and then we can identify the gaps.

Um you know, I'm guessing that mental health issues are only going to intensify given what's you know going on in the world.

Um the other thing I wanted to say is, you know, a huge chunk of our population, I think it's over a third, is um over 65 and over.

So senior services are super important.

And that runs the gamut, you know, from food to housing support to dental.

Um so we we want to make sure that we're, I think covering those costs.

Um it's a big chunk of our community.

They, you know, they need to be there needs to be needs need to be addressed in this program, I think.

Um, and I'm guessing we're gonna hear from Alcove.

I don't know if they're gonna go through Coast Pride or whether they're they haven't they're not here tonight.

I don't know what they're intending, but they made a presentation.

I got the impression that there was an ask there.

I don't know, but I I don't know.

I'm not uh aware enough to do that.

Today we haven't been approached for funding, but but I think it's safe to assume that any nonprofit is going to be looking for support at some point.

So there's a lot of need, but if in fact we can get those needs funded by the county, you know, who should be actually soliciting our input on that, um, let's let's do that.

And that frees up a little bit more money for you know the other programs that aren't so much funded by the county.

So, I I think you have adequate direction there on that item.

Yeah, what I what I'm hearing, just I want to make sure we're clear, is um a consensus.

Well, I've I actually haven't heard a consensus, so maybe we want to clarify that, but we heard a recommendation and no opposition to continuing the approach we've been using, which is the nine um service agencies that are providing these safety net services for a two-year cycle.

Um, we'll continue to work with the subcommittee and we'll do some additional analysis on needs and what services are being provided by the county and ensuring that before we're supplementing services that the counties really we're getting that return on on tax dollars locally that if we're giving X number of dollars from our taxes for mental health services as an example, that that's being returned back to the community um at that level or higher.

Um, and if not, that's where we should be advocating before we're funding supplemental services.

Yeah, you know, our taxpayers shouldn't have to pay twice for for mental health services.

They should get what they need, but the the right agency should be paying for it.

And we should know what they need, and we should, you know, collaborate with the the other agency to deliver those services.

So I'm sure that the service providers would welcome that advocacy um on behalf of of them and the community from the county.

Okay.

So we're gonna take a five minute break.

Reminds me of uh Mark's Brothers.

Um, the next item is we're going to discuss our homeless services update and consideration of an ordinance to address encampment on public property.

Hi, everyone again, Julie Sacasa, community services analyst.

I am here to present to you a homeless services update.

Uh, particularly on within the city of Half Mumbai.

I know the last time we did this is a couple of years ago.

We continue to address homeless encampment encampments on public property and provide services and resources.

But it was time for an update as many things have changed over the last couple of years, or additional support has come over the last couple of years.

But before I do that, I wanted to just highlight some of the challenges that our on house community face and present to you some of the contributing factors to homelessness.

While this is a very simple list, it's not all the causes, but definitely what we've heard is housing affordability or access to housing mental and health issues, substance abuse, economic instability or access to income or stable jobs.

And when somebody's on house, access to shelter or you know, oftentimes shelters are at capacity and it making it very difficult for homes for folks who need um stable uh shelter to get into support services.

Luckily for the city, uh, we partner with many organizations, including uh several county agencies.

We particularly work closely with the Center of Homelessness from the county.

Uh we receive uh support services too from behavioral so behavioral health and recovery services, which is VHRS.

Um, also the uh county clinic.

Uh and uh I want to highlight uh that the county funds directly organizations like Pacifica Resource Center to conduct um outreach and resource connection to folks on the coast.

And you've heard from any deece uh in the past and a different council meetings presenting updates to you on the coast.

Uh we also partner, well, the county partners with Coast I Hope.

Um, they oversee the coordinated entry system, which is when somebody who is unhoused is seeking services and is willing to look for shelter and additional resources, they have to go through a process of enrolling and updating their information so the county can then in turn uh process service uh when available.

And um, as a local uh nonprofit agency, we also partner with uh Abundant Grace, who uh, like you've seen in the previous presentation, they receive uh they receive folks who need um access to uh food, showers, uh temporary shelter, who are um looking for support services in terms of uh job placement, and they also provide um job you know information.

So these are just some of the partnerships that we have.

Um I want to uh give you a general um overview of what the services uh look like when somebody is on house.

Obviously, uh, like you've heard in the past and uh you'll see throughout the presentation tonight, a lot of uh the efforts that we conduct around homelessness are outreach.

Um it takes a long time to establish trusting relationships with those who are on house.

And um, you know, heads off to the to the case managers and the outreach teams that go out into the encampments and try to engage with folks, especially when dealing with different circumstances like uh mental health um cases.

Um oftentimes folks who are in-house also receive access to housing vouchers or temporary uh placements.

Um we also try to make sure that folks have access to health care, um, oftentimes because you know, living in non-cheltered shelter conditions leads to um health deteriorator deteriorating.

Uh, folks need access to medical care.

Employment services when folks are ready to transition uh out of homelessness into uh more stable conditions that will require them to maintain and secure job.

Um, obviously, substance and and mental health counseling and education and training when appropriate too.

Um oftentimes organizations that we partner with provide additional training and certificates to to folks who are living in shelters.

Um there's a very successful case, and I often see the person who graduated from one of the local academies at the local shelter, and he's now transitioned into permanent housing, has a stable job, and so some of those resources are available, um, especially as for folks navigate this period.

Um I wanted to highlight before I jump into the encampment resolution fund, um, just for additional context for council members that were in here a couple years ago in 2021.

Uh the county uh purchase uh the Coastide Inn and turn it into a homeless shelter.

Uh that is a coast known as a coast house.

During that time, that was before my time, but I understand there was um heavy community outreach and engagement.

Uh, there's a committee established to help navigate some of the communication between uh city, county, and the community uh just to help folks understand a little bit more and then provide feedback when appropriate.

And so the Coast House has been operating since 2021.

Um it's a county program, and they secured the property management.

Um it used to be uh life moves a couple years ago.

It transitioned over to Project We Hope, and they are the ones that uh take care of the property and clients uh right now.

They have 24 uh 247 security, they have access to training, access to additional support services, connections to DMV for folks who are needing to uh reestablish uh identification forms.

Um, they have transportation services, meals on site.

Um I checked in with the staff and just uh it's not included in the staff report because it took a little bit to get that information, but I wanted to let you know.

Um right now at Coast House, we have 54 adults, uh, some of them are couples and 10 children.

Um so it's just an additional uh piece of information for for council.

Um throughout the time that we've had access to Coast House, many folks have transitioned.

I do want to point out that the approximate length of stay for folks at Coast Houses the recommended is 120 days, just to go over the services and try to connect folks to resources.

However, that can be extended if employment or housing is spending.

So if somebody's sent a path to permanent housing or employment and they've reached the 120-day capacity, uh staff from Project Weep hope will work directly on a case by case with individual or individuals and grant an extension if again housing or employment is pending.

So when folks are on their path to recovery out of homelessness.

Um I now want to jump into some of the uh additional services that have come to the city from other entities.

Um in 2024, uh the Department of Housing and Community Development uh created a uh an opportunity opportunity for funding uh for different county agencies and city agencies as well to address homeless encampments that were in the public right of way.

The county applied for this funding and included the city of Half Moon Bay and other areas on the coast, but I want to just point out some of the areas that receive additional resources from this particular funding in the coast.

Um the map is kind of small, but you can see some of the areas are behind Safeway, um, under the Highway 1 and 92 underpass, uh the area behind the post office, uh Train Depot in Higgins Canyon area, and the Wave Crest near Smithfield Road.

And I want to point out that uh last year we particularly work with different organizations, including Pacifica Resource Center and Abundant Grace to coordinate uh cleanups.

Um Pacifica Resource Center focuses specifically on outreach and services.

Abundant Grace will help us once the encampment is closed off, they can help the coordinate we coordinate with them so they can do the cleanup.

And because of the additional funding, the county secured from the uh ERF, uh we were able to move the folks that were on Wave Curse Road.

That was uh there were several RVs parked there.

There was also a fire lane um access issue.

And so folks from PRC connected with the individuals that were there.

Um a lot of them transitioned into different situations, uh, but we were able to remove all the RVs uh from there.

Uh throughout 2025, we conducted approximately eight encampment cleanups throughout different areas in town, mostly the post office, some areas near Main Street and the Pillar Cedars Creek, which is a it's a very common area for our in-house populations to habitate.

And um, additional to that, we removed um RVs from different three different locations.

One was Waypress, like I mentioned earlier, uh, some on the south end of Main Street, and then some in Seymour.

So again, this is not possible without the collaboration of many key partners.

The first one is uh Pacifica Resource Center to provide outreach.

Then we coordinate with different departments.

Uh, sometimes it includes myself and other staff from uh public works or community development for code enforcement, and when appropriate and when needed, we coordinate with the sheriff's department as well to address some of this concerns.

As you can imagine, uh some of this um issues brought to us our focus on health and safety conditions, um not just for the folks who live in different encampments, but for the environment and sensitive habitat area.

So it's something that we're trying to balance when we address the homeless encampments.

The next thing I want to present to you, well, um, I talked about the encampments, but this is just as a general overview.

Uh we collected over 10,000 pounds of trash um last year.

And again, it was uh multiple uh partners at the table to make sure that this happened.

Um I want to pivot a little bit more now and talk to you uh about the Hopeful Horizons um ordinance that was adopted by the county last year.

Uh, and this is just the second part of this staff report.

Uh the county uh adopted this ordinance to address again uh homeless encampments in public uh areas.

The goal of this is to um again aim or work towards the functional zero, which is we're having more hope more folks transition into permanent housing that we're having into going into homelessness.

Um this is another program that requires heavy collaboration between different partners.

The way the program or the ordinances structure is if somebody is unhoused, um they and there are resources available, they are required to accept the resources.

Um they choose not to within a 48 hour period, they receive a series of notices.

And by the 72nd hour, if they decline services, they can be uh cited or charged criminally.

Um, and so this is something that we're presenting to you for your consideration.

Uh, the only other uh there's two cities within the county that have adopted uh an ordinary.

Well, Redwood City adopted this ordinance pretty much in its entirety uh last year, last fall, and they're working towards implementation, and City of Millbrae implemented their own ordinance.

So it's slightly different from this, and they address other um areas such as private property.

Uh, but just wanted to bring you up to date on who else has decided to adopt a similar ordinance to address uh homeless encampments.

Um, so the objective again is to preserve the health and welfare of individuals and mitigate the risk of homelessness.

Um the premise is obviously it's um unlawful to camp and shelter again must be available to individuals and offered uh at the time of uh an encampment closure.

The process is as you can see here, the step one is we notified uh the individuals uh that their encampment will be closed within 72 hours.

Um, obviously offer shelter at the time.

This requires prior coordination with the count uh with the county and the center of homelessness to ensure that there's shelter um availability.

And then if folks decline at that time, then 24 hours later we come back with a second uh written notice.

And if by the third time we the the second time they decline, we come back a third time.

Uh that's a 72-hour mark, and that's when we uh do enforcement.

Enforcement in this context is provided by the county.

Um retired uh law enforcement officers most likely handle that portion, but coordination of resources and encampment closures and cleanups is still part of our responsibility if we were to adopt this ordinance.

So I know I'm giving you a lot of information, and there'll be more time for questions.

I just want to go over the last couple of details.

We are required to store personal property uh for 90 days.

That is just whether the ordinance is in place or not, that's just a requirement.

Um in the context of this ordinance, um, there's also folks who are uh part of the um encampment will be required to participate in a diversion program.

And um there are other exigent circumstances where we can push for a faster timeline, meaning a 24-hour notice, and that's when there's a higher uh risk of safety or health at risk.

Um that's the general overview of the county uh hopeful horizons ordinance to address encampments on public property.

Um I wanted to also at the same time, because this was a new item to discuss for council.

We did preliminary um community engagement just to see where folks landed with this idea of a potential new ordinance.

And depending on council direction, uh, if you decide to move forward with this, we'll definitely do heavier outreach and community engagement and more focused groups or study groups.

But I wanted to let council know we met with several of the nonprofits that provide services to uh our own house on the coast.

We met with the homeless advisory committee, which was an advisory group uh from the Coast House uh shelter.

We also created an online survey uh where folks can just submit their answer.

And it was uh four simple questions just to try to gauge interest from the community.

Uh we also went to different downtown uh association meetings to again just try to get a feeling of where they were in terms of um a homeless ordinance and checked in with property owners as well.

We received over a hundred responses all together, uh combined with the different the different groups that came to us.

But um, I wanted to share the highlights of the feedback we received.

The number one thing was housing aboard affordability, um more training for outreach teams and for sheriffs.

Um, should uh uh an ordinance be adopted, definitely more training for law enforcement.

Um another thing uh was conduct heavy outreach and try to engage with more uh with folks more frequently.

Um provide more access to supportive services and create pathways for midterm and long-term housing, not so much um short-term opportunities.

Some sometimes what we heard from uh the community and some of the nonprofits that tends to fade away and uh or ran out uh faster, and there are many mid to long-term housing options for folks.

Um, additional additionally, uh some of the uh feedback we received from from some folks is exploration of a safe parking program, which we tried a couple years ago, um, to have clear metrics from all standpoints, whether it's city providing services or nonprofits providing services, how many folks are transitioning out of homelessness and to what types of services?

Um, and make sure that there are there's shelter availability if we're going to explore an ordinance.

Uh I would say uh this is just the general um the general themes that came to the top.

Um, obviously there were some additional comments, but this are the general feelings that came to the top after the um little engagement that with the with the community.

So I this is um the gist of my presentation.

This is the gist of the feedback that we received.

I'm happy to take more questions.

I'm sure there are going to be a lot more questions from council for either of the two parts of the presentation.

Thank you very much, Julisa.

Very comprehensive report.

Um how do you want to begin?

Do you have questions about the current process?

Do you have questions about the ordinance?

Um, what are you doing?

So what's different?

Okay, go for it.

Oh, here this is for the county's ordinance.

Yeah.

Is that it?

Is that the one you're seeing?

Uh PCT will have it up in just a moment.

It has to connect there first.

There you go.

Yeah, I just had two um quick questions.

Shelter must be available.

What is the availability of shelters?

Um that's a very good question.

That varies, it fluctuates.

Uh, obviously, the coast houses oftentimes at capacity.

There are many, there are many times where we have rooms available at Coast House.

Um we have the navigation center in Woodwood City and other different centers throughout the county that have more accessibility.

However, the challenge is particularly with the um folks on the coast, is that they don't want to leave the coast.

No, I understand that, but but are there shelter beds available for those people that agree to take those beds?

That's the condition.

When we so before we move forward with uh with the first notice, we have to ensure that there's a shelter available.

If the if shelter is not available, we have to postpone our process.

Okay.

And then the other one was written warning uh notice.

What if somebody doesn't read?

That's a good question.

Uh we we haven't encountered that.

I'm assuming there will be a verbal.

I don't know, Denise, if you're aware of anything, maybe not.

I'm not aware specifically of how the county would handle it if there's somebody that doesn't read, but I think the requirement is that they be given the written warning, and then hopefully there is somebody there that can help or assist in reading the notice to the person.

Okay, that's good.

Clarifying questions.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Councilmember Nagencast.

So what do we do now?

What is this different?

And almost like maybe this is how you have to do it.

But in what I read in the report, nobody's everybody's trying hard not to do that.

And it doesn't sound like it anybody's been correct.

So far, when we met with the county and city of Redwood City, who have the essentially the same ordinance, nobody had been charged because of the engagement that has been done previously.

And folks tend to accept the help before it gets to that third notice where somebody will get charged or cited.

If we are notified of an encampment, we first visit city staff will first visit to assess the situation, determine we then connect with uh Pacifica Resource Center so they can conduct outreach, and then we follow up with them.

Once the individual or individuals have moved, if they choose to move, then we conduct cleaning in partnership with abundant grays.

But then that obviously we follow the process, we have to post a 72-hour notice.

We store property when when it's necessary.

If folks take their belongings, that's you know, we then we don't store anything.

But if there are um items that we need to to store, we do that, and then after 90 days to get the to get disposed.

So our process is similar, with the exception that we don't have um uh an enforcement officer that will come in and sight.

Um we still try to coordinate with shelter availability, but again, our process doesn't dictate that in order to clear out an encampment, we must uh ensure that there's shelter availability, right?

Especially it's I guess the lines are a little bit blurry right now with our process uh in comparison to the ordinance, because we have a little bit more um I guess a flexibility um in terms of moving forward with the outreach and enforcement.

If it's um uh public property, we continue to do heavy outreach, we continue to do uh monitoring, but it slightly varies, right?

And in the case of the ordinance, it is very clear that we must follow that timeline um when clearing out an encampment.

I I hope that makes sense.

Yeah, I'm absorbing it.

And then another follow-up is so what's considered public property versus private?

Because you mentioned Safeway.

We mentioned I know 92.1, but there is a trail there, so I don't know if they kind of cross over.

Correct.

So I mentioned the safe way area, and I'll just go back to the map quickly.

Um it's the oops, it's well, it should be up on your screen.

So is the top left uh area uh marked in red?

That is uh the area behind Safeway.

So it's not necessarily the Safeway shopping center, but it's the area along the Pillar Cedars Creek behind Safeway.

That is public, that is public.

Um, and and so just to clarify, the encampment resolution funding is only for encampments in public right-of-way.

So not addressing any private property.

If somebody's dealing with an encampment in their property, this funding doesn't necessarily serve that um encampment.

We still connect with Pacific Resource Centers so they can provide um services.

However, this particular funding doesn't um go to that.

Most of the properties indicated here are city-owned properties, uh, including the area behind Safeway.

The one exception would be the next one down um where it crosses under the highway, and that's a combination of city-owned property and Caltrans right-of-way underneath the Highway One Bridge.

Councilmember Johnson.

I don't think the mic's on on the nota, where would you store the items once you've gone through?

We've typically store them at the courtyard, uh, depending on uh the amount of items.

Oftentimes uh items that can be considered as uh trash or disposed, but we're required to store uh store personal identification um documents, birth certificates, medication, um things that appear of value, and we'll store them for 90 days.

Uh if the person doesn't come and claim them after 90 days, um, we dispose of them.

And that is clearly noted in the notice that we post at the encampment.

But before we clean up an encampment, we provide a 72-hour notice letting them know that on after the if I marked today, 72 hours from today, we were gonna come in and clean this area.

There, my contact information is there.

The contact information for um the outreach team is there.

Should folks want to engage with uh resources.

And um we also include the date of when the items will be disposed of if they're not uh if we're not contacted by by the owner.

So I mean, I've seen some of the encampment stuff.

I mean, they they have um lamps, uh, there is a power washer, bicycles, random things that they think you know that's of value, but they you know they grab it from somewhere and they think that they're gonna do something with it.

Are we gonna store that too?

We have in the past, it doesn't always come to that, but it it uh we sort of make a judgment call, but would they're also required.

So typically it's things that have apparent reasonable value.

So uh bicycle would definitely have a a reasonably apparent value.

Uh a lamp may have value, it just depends on what condition it's in.

And then the city would store it accordingly because these are people's possessions, and so the cities generally want to treat them as such.

And if it's it does look like it is not hazardous, not obvious garbage, then it would be um retained for that 90-day period.

Okay.

And then uh because we have I've been to most of these camps.

I've actually gone all the way down into the rivers and I've actually seen the damage that they've done.

Um, and I've seen a guy coming up, I haven't seen him personally, but a friend of mine didn't went in there and he cleaned out a lot of that stuff in those last year.

Um, Decker, I think his name was.

And he got approached by a guy with a gun.

I mean, so it's kind of crazy in there.

It's and it's over by the Safeway side.

And what they've done with the pallets, they've grabbed all the pallets and they've dragged them all in.

They build structures with the pallets, they use the cardboards for the beds, and they grab that grab that from Safeway.

So I'm looking at the cleanup now.

Are we gonna do the at some point it's A, B, and C and D, and then there'll be a cleanup.

Now, we'll do we have a plan in place for the cleanup at some point.

Who's gonna pay for that cleanup?

And then if we go from private property to public, so then if we go to private, where I'm thinking the safe way is private, or is that public?

Uh again, when we left safe way, you know, right where the trucks and the unloading docks are.

That's all private property.

Any of the paved areas private property there.

Yeah.

And then it's so you go from public to private.

Because and then you're saying we can only enforce, you follow me.

You're gonna say no here, then they're gonna end up going there.

Because if you go to Monitis property, it's the same thing there, and they've got structures built there.

So no matter where you go, you have the structures that are being built in the creek beds, and they're using the pallets to cross over the creek.

So once you go into one area, then they go to the other area.

They have a whole trail system back in there.

That's correct.

I want to point out that City of Milbrae addresses uh private property in the ordinance.

And should that be the direction that council wants to move, then we would explore that uh with the niece.

Um, again, to follow the appropriate rules that have been already placed.

Uh, but this ordinance, the um whole form horizons doesn't address uh private property.

But there it's a possibility.

And then the other thing is when we get to that point of cleaning up, because they've done so much damage in that area, and I literally saw a toilet and a hot tub built over there.

They built it, and it's still there.

If you joke go by the bridge, you'll see it.

Who's gonna remove that?

That's gonna take some layer.

Public works is gonna have to go in there and chop up the hot tub they built.

Uh the toilet's gone, by the way.

Um, but it's just like now do we have to get a CDP to go do this?

And and we have to go through the form because now we're in riparian habitat when they were in the riparian.

Now we have to go in and clean in the riparian.

So is that in the big picture also?

Sorry, I'm getting comments from folks as well.

Um the cleanup is an important part of the process.

And and again, it depends on if it's public or private property.

Um, I'll give an example.

Uh, in 2017, when I arrived to the city, we had a massive encampment issue behind, say, if we 80 people at one point living back there.

And we spent 18 months doing all the work to work with the individuals back there, get services offered, get them into programs and services.

And when we finally closed it, everybody had left.

Um I don't want to say of other of their own accord because they left because we said that they had to leave, but we didn't have to do any arrests or any, you know, any force movements out.

But once all those people left those encampments, um, we spent over 100,000 contracting with a specialist that came in because the impacts of that encampment were so severe.

There was so much garbage or there was so much work to do, so many structures to be removed.

Um on the smaller encampments, um it's a combination, abundant grace, uh, their coastal cleanup team can be helpful in some of those situations.

Our public workworks team can do certain work in certain situations, but there's union regulations that govern how much they can go in and do.

And then sometimes, depending on the severity of the damage and and the the mess it's left behind, you have to go to a specialist, a third party.

So the goal always is to prevent encampments from getting to that point where those massive expenditures come into play.

I've seen a lot of needles, I've seen a lot of things of drug paraphernalia in there.

I've seen weapons in there, I've seen they're chopping trees down.

They're just ruining that whole area.

It's so sad.

Up on the post office behind there, when I went back there a year ago, it was people were having chicken raising chickens back in there, and they had a full-on camp.

And I saw that the city posting and saying you're not allowed to be here.

I watched as you guys went through this process.

I wasn't really, I was on council or wasn't on council, then I got on council, and I kept going back in there to go see.

Now it's clean and it's posted.

Uh it's safe.

They were coming out and the people going to the church where they're always, they were scared.

And now when you go from Burger King to the bridge, what a difference that has made.

It's now feeling safer.

I brought the mayor in there, brought uh Rick Hernandez was in there, and it was like night and day.

We're getting somewhere where you can actually feel safe on these passages and actually utilize these roadways.

So I think this process that we're going through is great, but we have to go through, like you said, we have to find a place for these people.

We have to go through the process.

We have to store their their pro their products, their personal belongings, which I've seen can be crazy.

And I know people personally, I've gone and meet, and I know a lot of homeless people in this town.

I can call them right now if you want me to.

And they this is their stuff, and their stuff can be pretty big.

And if you take away something that's that personal to them, that's not a good thing.

And then if do we have the storage at the facility?

I mean, honestly, we have enough for our tractor, but do we have for well again?

We've we've been doing this.

The the ordinance isn't a drastic or dramatic change from what we've already been doing for the past several years.

It's it's additional um tools towards enforcement.

Um to date, we've been okay.

Um, as the city attorney pointed out, um, the law requires us to make those determinations about what has value, what doesn't.

Part of the reason we work so hard with our service providers and we we are more patient.

We don't just go in and shut things down, is when we work with the individuals that are unhoused and they move along again.

I I don't want to say willingly because they're being they're being compelled to move along.

But when you do that, often they will collect the items that are of value to them, and they essentially abandon what's left behind.

And it's much easier to make those determinations that you don't have to keep that and store it.

So that's sometimes people get frustrated.

It's like, I see an encampment and it should be gone tomorrow.

I we don't have the bandwidth, the financial wherewithal, any of those things to just go in and do those cleanups immediately.

But when we kind of thread the needle working with the service providers and providing that that time to work with people to get them into shelter, get them into a better situation and have them move more willingly, that eliminates some of that back end work that you're talking about.

Because I mean, under the bridge, when you go down the main street bridge, there was a gentleman living down there's a couch down there.

That's his couch.

Are we gonna store his couch?

Typically, things that are made of fabric and and furniture, it gets so contaminated and soiled that we do not keep those types of things.

It's not it's not sanitary to save those types of things.

So what do you need tonight?

It sounds like we need an ordinance.

The advantage is it's it standardizes a lot of what we're already doing, like you said.

Um makes it a uniform process.

So everyone understands the expectations, whether it's service providers, whether it's um folks uh who are on encampments or thinking about it.

It standardizes roles and expectations of everyone.

Um sounds like we're able to benchmark Millbury and Redwood City.

I'm not sure about that public-private thing you're talking about, because then I'm also wondering if it's private property, should the private property owner pay for something if we tell them you know, that process uh I wasn't sure about, but um but it sounds like it it gives the city a lot of advantages to um have a process that it's codified um and it does standardize the approach and the expectations, and that's when you can start really fully assessing additional needs, you know, where do we need money?

Does the county come in?

Are there other organizations?

Because the more you have a really solid standardized process, the more you can get grants and people are willing to invest because then you have metrics to show this works this way, et cetera.

So is that about right?

You need that um terms of direction or what what we're looking for, part of the timing of this, of course, is we have priority setting coming up in a week and a half, and this is an item that's been discussed for a couple of years since the county presented it and wanted cities to consider it.

And so we just wanted to make sure that you had this information, had a chance to have a discussion about it.

Um we actually don't need any direction tonight.

Um that could be reserved for discussion as part of priority setting, unless it's something that you want council, you know, staff to move forward with, and then it's simply do you want us to continue to explore and pursue this ordinance?

Are there specific elements like the private property question and other things that um Julisa's mentioned that you would want us to explore further?

Um so this is this is just a discussion, there's no action to be taken tonight.

It's just an opportunity to get some feedback and inform you before going into priority setting in a couple of weeks.

Do you have uh one public speaker?

Um Sid Young.

Thank you.

Um this is kind of interesting to me because for a long time I volunteered at Glide Memorial in the city and uh worked with the uh homeless pro um, you know, they feed the homeless there um three meals a day.

And um I volunteered in the children's program too, but so I don't want anyone to think that I'm being, you know, heartless, but sometimes you have to speak the truth too, and there's a lot of levels of people who are homeless, and you know, there's seniors who really might become unhoused at any moment because of the way our current federal administration is treating homeless uh seniors and cutting back on Medicare and in Social Security and stuff.

So, you know, there are people that um abuse drugs and alcohol, and there's also people that don't want to live in a temporary shelter or accept um help, but there's people that need it.

So uh part of the problem I think here, I actually I'll just say I I look on YouTube a lot, and the homeless problem goes from Seattle to San Diego.

It's not a half moon bay problem.

And um we're on the super highway right here because there's Pillar Citos Creek and we're on Highway One.

So part of the thing is they do find they tend to like to stay in creeks, and you'll see that down in San Jose.

They stay in the uh creek bed around the Guadalupe parkway.

And um it it does uh I remember Don Horsley saying when you move them out from behind Safeway, and Matthew, you mentioned that problem.

They'll go to a different part of the creek, and they did.

And then later, you know, they had to go and clean it up over there.

So that's a problem.

And some of the just the tritis that's left behind, um, you know, that might be property that has been taken from people's yards.

I hate to say it, nobody wants to say it, but people lose stuff at night, and it gets dragged down into the creek because they collected it.

And that's not nice to say, but that's where it goes sometimes.

So you know I think it's nice to have this program that you're talking about.

Grant grants past Oregon, the Supreme Court passed that ruling.

I think this might be part of it because in half uh sorry, San Francisco, they started um clearing all the encampments there.

And they did give another thing with giving out vouchers for um places before they cleared the encampments.

So I think it would be nice to have the Millbrae ordinance for the public.

I mean the private right-of-way too.

So you probably need to do something.

And I did is that the beep for my am I over time?

I'm sorry.

I was just gonna say that I did work for the last three times every two years on the homeless um count.

And I this time I was lucky enough to work with the woman from the resource center in Pacifica.

And we counted up there in um sorry, Princeton.

So they do a really good job with the resource center.

And um, I think the RV situation is getting a little bit better, even though I was afraid it was gonna, they were all gonna come down here from the city.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Uh, there are no other speaker slips here.

Is there anyone online who would like to address this item?

If so, please raise your hand.

Seeing none, I'll bring it back to the council.

Um I do want to um oh there we go.

You want to say something.

I mean we can take that if you want to open public comp.

Oh, sure.

Yes, no, I I want to hear from Miss Race.

So sorry.

Um I I just wanted to to note that um the intention of the Hopeful Horizon is to be um compassionate in terms of how it's implemented.

And the fact that most services were accepted before it had to get to enforcement is a testament to the additional resources and support that happens on the front end.

Um so if you're going to move forward with something, at least this comes with the additional resources that you don't have now, right?

And I would also just encourage that when you think of this issue to think of it um regionally.

So really partnering with the other coastal areas like Pacifica and even through Pescadero, although Pescadero has some other challenges in terms of the homelessness there.

Um, but I think that it's really important.

And I think that you'll get more support from the county if it is a regional approach rather than a citywide.

That is the feedback that we often get from the county is that if you're asking for just a city, they're less willing to support it than if you're doing it regionally or thinking in terms of how it impacts.

I mean, Coast House is a perfect example, right?

It started out as just Half Moon Bay, it expanded through the coast.

It is part of the county's continuum of care, and for that reason, it has additional resources and support.

So I would really encourage you as you go into your goal setting, and I'm telling the same thing to City Council in Pacifica, because I think that this is the way that we can really address homelessness is by working together on approaches that you know serve all of our purposes.

We have very similar challenges with the Coastal Commission, and for that reason, I think it's great whenever we can try to partner on solutions.

Um, including, as I mentioned last time, the safe parking program.

There could be ways that we can expand that to include more deliberately uh folks in Half Moon Bay.

We already do to some extent, but um, and I think that that could also lend or lead to some additional resources from the county as well.

Thank you, Anita.

That's very helpful.

Um I agree the regional approach, I think is super important.

And um, you know, people move up and down highway one, too.

They go back and forth.

Um, so I I believe working with Pacifica and South Coast is a really good idea.

I do support having an ordinance.

Um I totally support the idea of you know working with service providers and having a compassionate approach.

But the longer that people are in, say the creek for us, you know, the creek is the big thing.

The worse the damage is, the more expensive it is to fix that problem afterwards.

So you you don't want to drag out uh enforcement.

Um 72 hours seems reasonable to me.

On the other hand, when we're going to remove encampments, we need to fence off the creek.

So we need to keep people from going back again and repeat the same problem and then having to do more expensive, extensive cleanup.

So I'd like to know where our fence is along the creek.

You know, where's that project?

I think that's gonna be an important piece of this.

And I'll just share um I think it was not the last planning commission meeting, but the one before we finally got all of our permits for the fencing that will run from behind Safeway to the footbridge over by Burger King, which of course that that is where that original encampment was and is a hotbed of activity, but we're going to need to replicate that into other parts of the city to protect the creek, as you pointed out.

But that that um should be going out to bid in the next couple of months and up this summer.

So it's a long time coming.

Um I'd like to uh Sid's comment about looking at Millbrae too.

Uh it seems to me that we have some residual issues on private property, and maybe it's not requiring them to clean it up, but maybe it's incentivizing them through penalties or whatever, you know, to not allow it to establish itself and and to to reach out and consult, you know, with the city on these things.

Because I think in some places we we need private property cooperation, and how do we do that?

Madam Mayor, if I may, uh just on that note.

Um, so it's important to uh let you know that Milbrae's ordinance was adopted after the grants passed decision.

The speaker mentioned the grants pass versus Johnson et al.

case that was a supreme U.S.

Supreme Court case that came down that basically said that enforcing no camping regulations is not a violation of uh the Constitution's Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment.

So that basically contradicted and undid the Martin versus Boise decision, which was a Ninth Circuit case that found that criminalization of homeless encampments is a violation of the Eighth Amendment.

So that opened up the door to cities to continue regulating homeless encampments, and that's why there has been an increase in regulation by cities.

Um important to note that the counties ordinance was adopted before grants pass decision, and Millbrae's was adopted after grants pass.

So that's why there is a distinct difference in the way they approach the regulations.

I also wanted to say that most jurisdictions regulate private property through just their code enforcement regulations, so property nuisance um provisions in their municipal code.

That is what they look to to enforce for these types of homeless encampment ordinances, asking the private property owners to make sure that their properties are maintained in a manner that's not considered a nuisance to the city.

That's very helpful.

Thank you.

And that is our current practice.

Yeah.

Um, so you know, the county's ordinance doesn't address like things like environmentally sensitive habitat, which we're required to protect under our local coastal program land use plan.

Um it doesn't address the fact that there are you know water quality prohibitions about you know disposing of soil or anything else, basically in waters that are subject to the um the state water resources control board regulations and the clean water act, things like that.

So the encampments like in these areas are violating the law, many laws.

And um that's something people in the community can't do, and we shouldn't allow it to happen, you know, for certain specified populations.

Otherwise, why have any rules at all?

Madam Mayor, if I may add, uh the City of Boywood City when they adopted the ordinance, they added some language specifically related to waterways and close proximity to schools.

So it's something that we can explore uh with our attorney should we decide to move forward in this direction.

So it's just thank you.

That that would be helpful.

Um, yeah.

So I guess I'm saying I'm in favor of an ordinance in favor of looking at amendments that address more localized conditions.

And I I do agree that you know, continuing close relationships with resource providers, looking at these problems regionally.

Um, it's it's this is a big issue, and homelessness is a big issue.

I believe it's gonna become more of an issue, and we want to create an environment where we can look at these problems broadly and um work with a lot of different parties to solve because we can't do it ourselves, but you know, we do need to address.

I wish we could have a safe parking program.

Yeah.

Um there's been a lot of resistance to that, but it seems to me that yeah.

Oh well.

Vice Mayor.

Fencing and a safe part parking program.

Both of those.

I said uh safe parking program and fencing along Perisma Creek.

Uh okay, I I think so I think this is something that could be um discussed further, a little more direction when we get to priority setting.

Um I I do want to share just because this was one of the biggest issues that came to me when I first started with the city nine years ago.

And um it's it's pretty incredible how far things have come.

Um in the last nine years, um, our service provider resources have grown significantly.

Abundant Grace was a very fledgling program, and now they have this incredible workforce center that was supported by the city and great programs that continue to be supported by the city, and they do great work.

Um PRC was not available um previously, and they've been such an incredible addition to the work that goes on here and doing outreach and serving the community and the Coast House, I think has had a significant impact.

People maybe forget that in 2017, 2018, again, there were 80 people living behind Safeway.

That the parking lot behind Safeway, you couldn't even drive a car through it.

There was so much going on back there.

And the areas around CVS and round table pizza, I mean, it there was a lot more happening.

And I think through this work, and it's not that we're we've somehow eliminated a problem, but resources have been made available that have changed people's lives.

And really what we're dealing with now is people that just have much more significant challenges.

And unfortunately, we're finding more of them living in these sensitive areas because they're off the beaten path, they're a little less obvious to people.

And I do think it's important to point out that as we continue to address this and and protect the creeks more, it may become a more visible problem again.

And it doesn't mean that there's more of it, it's just kind of being brought out of the shadows, and that will probably require some additional support from the community and and additional resources.

But I just want to acknowledge how far we've come in the last nine years because it is actually very, very significant.

But until all these people are housed and sheltered, there's just more work to do.

So yeah, you know, and we have lots and lots and lots of state park land that I think could be portions of different ones might be used and managed for safe um clean, as we say, dignified living arrangements.

You know, government agencies can um get concession agreements with state parks to do a lot of different things.

And I don't know, it's something that's probably people don't want to talk about, you know.

Um our pristine state parks, but there's a lot of land there, a lot of public land there.

It seems to me that that's something that's been you know untapped, at least looked at.

You know, is there a way?

You know, if we're all about access to our natural lands, if there's a population that has to or wants to camp, you know, how do we somehow accommodate that and the facilities that we have, maybe even attract additional investment that can remedy some of the you know billion dollars of state parks deferred maintenance, you know, just thinking out of the box here, but you turn the Matthew Rodriguez Bill, please sorry.

Okay, so now the next discussion is about uh Senate Bill 707 and amendments to the Brown Act meeting requirements relating to new laws that change how we conduct our meetings and receive public participation.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Denise Bazano, interim city attorney, and I'm joined this evening by City Clerk Maggie Rodriguez.

And we're going to be speaking to you tonight, as you mentioned on the Brown Act and changes to the Brown Act through the bill SB 707, Senate Bill SB 707.

So just for background, for some of the people in the audience that may not know, the Brown Act was enacted in 1953 and governs how local public agencies conduct their meetings.

It ensures that those meetings are conducted in a transparent and open manner.

But since the Brown Act was enacted, it hasn't really been updated significantly to address and modernize the way the public and officials participate in the meeting.

So comes into fruition Senate Bill 707.

It was signed into law on October 3rd, 2025.

Senator Maria Alena Durazzo authored the bill to help ensure that working families and unrepresented communities that have faced barriers to participating in local government are not shut out of the civic engagement that they wish to participate in.

SB 707 was sponsored by the Student Senate for California Community Colleges and supported by a broad coalition, including the California State Association of Counties, Urban Counties of California, rural county representatives of California, Hope, Latinas, and numerous community organizations.

Portions of the bill take effect, they took effect on January 1st, but a majority of the provisions relating to eligible subsidiary bodies, and we're gonna uh eligible legislative bodies, sorry, we're gonna talk about those in a bit, take effect on July 1st, 2026.

Uh the bill sunsets January 1st, 2030, and as I mentioned, it's aimed at improving public access.

So SB 707 makes significant to revisions to the Brown Act in three major ways.

First, it requires eligible legislative bodies to allow members of the public to participate remotely.

Eligible legislative bodies is a new definition introduced through SB 707, and it specifies that eligible legislative bodies are either a city council or a city with a city of a city with a population of 30,000 or more, a county board of supervisors of a county, or city and county with a population of 30,000 or more, a city council of a city located in a county with a population of 600,000 or more, or a board of directors of a special district, and that special district has to meet certain requirements.

So the city of Half Moon Bay falls into this definition because it is a city council of a city located in a county with a population of 600,000 or more.

So when we're talking about eligible legislative bodies, we're only talking about the city council for the city of Half Moon Bay.

So it allows members of the public to participate remotely for city council meetings.

The second way that the Brown major revision to the Brown Act is it changes the way officials can participate in a meeting remotely from an undisclosed location.

So previously, when COVID-19 came, uh the state legislature provided methods for officials to participate remotely in meetings from an undisclosed location.

That's different from the traditional teleconferencing under the Brown Act, where you have a location that's identified in the agenda.

Somebody can come to that location and participate remotely.

These new requirements still allow officials to participate from an undisclosed location, but it changes the requirements for that type of participation.

And we're going to talk about that in a little bit.

These are advisory bodies that can participate in a meeting remotely, and the whole body gets to participate remotely if they meet certain circumstances and if the council allows and authorizes that body to meet in that manner.

And SB 707 opens up remote participation for the public.

And it requires remote participation occur in two different ways.

The council gets to decide which way it wants to go, but it's either a two-way auto audio visual platform, which means an online platform that provides participants with the ability to participate remotely via both uh you know an internet connection, video conference connection, and a two-way telephonic service.

So this is like a Zoom meeting.

That's what two-way audio visual platform is, or a two-way telephonic service.

This means a telephone that's set up that allows people to call in and participates to dial to telephone in and listen and verbally participate in the meeting.

There are a number of requirements for eligible legislative bodies.

Again, this is the city council.

So if the city council decides to use a two-way audio visual platform, so a Zoom, real-time captioning must be activated.

Um that function is included in that two-way audio visual platform.

So with, say, for example, uh Zoom meetings, there is a method in the platform to allow that automatic real-time captioning to occur.

So if we had that platform, we would enable that feature to allow the captioning function to uh be viewed by the members of the public.

There's also a requirement that the city reasonably assists members of the public who wish to translate a public meeting or receive interpretation by another member of the public.

The city already does that.

We offer translation services, so I'm not too concerned about this requirement.

The city must also adopt a policy regarding telephonic internet disruptions.

And this is a policy that the council would have to adopt that provides procedures for recessing, reconvening if there's a disruption in the internet service or the telephone service, and specifies how the body is going to make reasonable efforts to restore the service.

The policy must also indicate that the good faith efforts that the city is going to make done for at least an hour.

And if the if the internet telephone service isn't restored within an hour, then the council can reconvene the meeting, but there may need to be special findings made to reconvene if the service is not restored.

So again, trying to ensure that the public can participate in the meeting.

And this is the way that the legislature thought it would be appropriate is to have this disruption policy enabled.

More requirements for the eligible legislative body.

We do meet the requirements to translate the agenda into Spanish.

It's only the agenda, it's not the uh agenda documents, so staff reports and resolutions wouldn't need to be translated, but the agenda does need to be translated.

The city also is required to uh create and maintain an accessible internet web page dedicated to public meetings.

So we'd have to sort of beef up our website to give more information to the public about the meetings.

We have to include an explanation of the procedures for how somebody can participate remotely, calendar of all public meeting dates with calendar listings, an agenda that's posted online, which is already something we comply with, um, and links to web pages and other information about attending uh the public meeting itself.

Oh, I sorry.

We also must make reasonable efforts to invite groups that do not traditionally participate in public meetings.

So we have to conduct outreach to identify groups in the community that may not typically attend a meeting to try to engage with them and encourage them to participate, come to a meeting, be involved in the city council affairs.

Now we're going to talk about uh officials teleconferencing into meetings.

So we're moving away from the city council meeting requirements and now talking about optional alternative teleconferencing for all legislative bodies.

So these requirements for uh alternative teleconferencing would apply to the planning commissions and other subsidiary bodies, committees, commissions established by the council.

Those are legislative bodies, and they can participate remotely if they can meet these requirements.

They used to be called AB2449 requirements.

Um, and that was the bill that established the just cause circumstances and emergency circumstances.

Well, SB 707 does away with the emergency circumstances and morphs it all into just cause circumstances.

It changes it a little bit, but it's basically all just cause now.

These are a little bit different in terms of the requirements for participation in that.

The teleconferencing official must use both audio and video.

So telephone, a tele two-way telephone system isn't going to be sufficient.

You have to have video capability so that the official can appear on video.

And the participation must be identified in the minutes, specifying that the official is participating remotely.

Voting must be by roll call and a quirky requirement.

I don't know why it is included, but it continues to be included.

It was in AB 2449.

Before an action is taken by the official that is participating remotely, they have to announce anyone in the room over 18 years of age.

So I just have to comment there.

Yeah.

Oh, oh, I'm sorry, that's right.

It should be, oh no, it's it's over 18 years of age.

So they're making the mistake, not yeah, and because you it we don't want to know about a minor.

What I think the intent is is to identify adults in the room with you.

Um yeah.

Yeah.

So um, yeah, over 18.

I thought I'd miss typed it.

And I'll just uh say as well, there are limits to how often an official can use the just cause circumstances.

Um if the body meets five um, if the body meets twice per month, then the official can use the just cause just cause circumstances five meetings per year.

If the legislative body meets only once per month, then the official can use the just cause circumstances two meetings per year.

So here are the just cause circumstances.

They include caregiving, child care for designated family members, a contagious illness, that's the one that's most frequently used.

You don't have to identify the specific medical condition.

You just need to use these specific circumstances when you're uh reporting that you're going to be appearing telephone or remotely under the just cause circumstances.

Physical or mental condition requiring teleconferencing.

Uh, travel on official government business.

So only if you're traveling for city business, not personal business.

Um in that circumstance, you could just use the traditional teleconferencing requirements under the Brown Act, but you'd have to identify your location on the agenda and it'd have to be accessible to the public.

Physical or family medical emergency or military service obligations can also uh qualify under the just cause circumstances.

So now we're going to talk about the third major change under the Brown Act, the teleconferencing for eligible subsidiary bodies.

This is brand new, and it um it only applies to these advisory bodies.

So an eligible subsidiary body has to be advisory only.

It cannot take final action on legislation, regulations, contracts, license permits, et cetera.

It cannot have the primary subject matter jurisdiction over elections, budget, police oversight, privacy, restricting access to library materials, taxes, or related spending proposals.

Um to use the alternative, this alternative teleconferencing option, a lot of the same requirements for teleconferencing under the just cause circumstances would apply.

So the legislative body uh must make uh they have to be roll call votes and um there has to be um somebody in the physically in the meeting location, a member of staff in order for the meeting to go forward.

Yes, so teleconferencing must also be used both audio and video.

And um, as I mentioned earlier, the council authorizes these eligible legislative eligible subsidiary bodies to conduct these meetings in this manner.

And if the council authorizes these eligible subsidiary bodies to conduct these meetings, the council needs to make certain findings to do that, and it has to be reauthorized every six months.

And it has to be reauthorized every six months.

So this isn't really an easy approach to allowing completely remote meetings, but it is an option that the legislature felt was appropriate.

SB 707 makes a number of other changes to the Brown Act.

It confirms that an official with a disability may participate remotely as a reasonable accommodation.

So this was always an uncertainty with the Brown Act prior to SB 707, but the legislature has confirmed that a member with a disability may participate remotely if as a reasonable accommodation under the applicable law.

So they have to be on camera, unless that disability-related condition requires audio only.

So there was previously a provision in the Brown Act that allowed emergency teleconferencing for members of a local agency, but only if that emergency was declared by the governor.

SB 707 changed that to allow emergencies declared by the governor, but also local emergencies, which is really important because that's usually when the emergencies occur, they're local, not statewide.

So that's just another way that the body can teleconference if there's an emergency.

It extends the prohibition on officials communicating on a social media platform.

So before the Brown Act had a provision that prohibits members of the body communicating directly with each other on a social media platform.

SB 707 removes the sunset date.

So it's it's almost a permanent feature.

So very specific occurrences where somebody is disrupting the meeting.

And if they don't, then they can be removed.

SB 707 clarifies that those disruption procedures apply to people participating remotely as well.

Requires distributed SB 707 also requires distribution of copies of the Brown Act.

So maybe you've all gotten your copy.

And it also requires a list of meeting locations be provided to all officials.

Yes.

Okay.

And next steps are going to be covered by City Clerk Maggie Rodriguez.

All right.

So as Denise mentioned, a lot of these deadlines are for July 1st.

So right now we are evaluating our staffing and technology needs and some necessary upgrades to comply with the public participation requirements for council meetings.

Some of our equipment is outdated.

And as we all know, our chamber is multi-use room.

So we double as a pickleball court.

So there are just certain things that will need to be upgraded to make sure that we're complying with all of these requirements.

And then we're developing a plan for outreach to encourage the public participation in the meetings.

And continue to increase that outreach.

You know, with I think senior co-siders, ALAS, Co-Side Hope, our local faith leaders, the school district, abundant grace, potentially Alcove, once they get here, just really trying to get more people in the seats so that we can have as much participation as possible.

And we're also open to any other council suggestions for increased participation.

If you have an idea that we're missing or not seeing, please let us know.

And then again, we will also be upgrading our web pages to make sure we're compliant there.

And then we're going to continue to work on the disruption policy for connectivity issues.

Internet is always iffy on the coast side.

So we want to make sure that we really nail down a great policy there.

And then we will look into further training for council and staff on any new procedures or requirements.

Yeah.

And um, and with that, we are um we are happy to answer any questions you might have.

Council members' questions.

I know this is riveting stuff.

Well, it's really important stuff.

It is.

It's all, you know, I would say a majority of every day of my work day is taken up answering or reviewing or analyzing questions relating to the Brown Act.

Yeah, the county has one county council who pretty much spends most of his time on that stuff.

So yeah.

Very important.

Well, I appreciate the uh the presentation.

Um it's daunting, you know.

I haven't wanted to know about it.

So and I can still ask questions, right?

Yes, you can.

No, not right now.

I just meant if I have a question about a meeting.

Yeah, and we like um Maggie said, we'll be coming back with a disruption policy once that's prepared for the council's consideration.

And then, you know, I mean, there will be questions as after the effective date of July 1st where when we start to enact some of these regulations that affect um your your body.

And we say disrupt disruption uh policy mostly a process for how to handle that, right?

Exactly.

Yeah.

I would say I I don't think we should, as a small town, we should focus intensely on one set of community members like nonprofits.

I mean, we want as many people to participate as possible.

You know, we can reach all of our community members fairly easily.

So I think we just want to you know double down on you know communicating with with everybody in town.

And and maybe just to clarify when Maggie is referring to the nonprofits, is using them as a tool to get communication out to lots of people.

But as you mentioned, we have great reach with our e-news and our social media and next door for better or for worse, is a great way to get the word out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I mean, nonprofits too, but you know, as many ways that we can make the touch on people is good.

Yeah.

Also, most organizations and nonprofits, probably the easiest first thing to do, have their own newsletters, outreach, communications.

So always having announcements of our meetings there, then maybe once in a while.

A little article in why it's important to show up and it's uh it's a certainly a good multiplier.

Absolutely.

We're gonna find that we have questions as we go along, especially about remote participation and all that stuff.

All right.

So do we have to do that?

Oh, yes.

Um is there anyone in the room or online who would like to address SB 707 and changes, recent changes to the Ralph M.

Brown Act.

Sure.

Come on to the mic though.

I came to the microphone several times tonight, but I am a public official and I were I am a director for MWSD.

And I usually never announce that because I'm not a bragger that oh, I'm a director.

But every time I came to I only said it the first time.

If at future public meetings in July, after July 1st, will I have to say it every time I make a public comment, even if I've said it at the very beginning of the meeting?

That's just a question.

It's redundant.

Could you answer that question?

Sure, I can answer that question.

Do you want to close public comment first or do you want to just have me answer it now?

No, we can continue the comment, but I thought as long as she was there and the only one.

So the Brown Act doesn't require you to disclose that you're you're making a statement as a member, a private citizen.

That is more a feature of the fact that you are not authorized.

Usually um people, individuals are not authorized to make comments at a public meeting on behalf of the legislative body that they serve.

So it's consistent with the Brown Act, but it's not necessarily a requirement of the Brown Act.

It's just making a statement as an individual rather than on behalf of the body.

And that's important to do.

I would just add very important to do.

Everybody knows who you are, said.

Yeah, it's I think what I heard from our city attorney is that announcing it at all is not a legal requirement.

It's more just a good practice.

So it's a BMP.

Okay.

Is there anyone in the room who would like to address this item?

Is there anyone online who would like to discuss this item?

And you can raise your hand now and you will be unmuted.

Seeing none, I will bring it back.

And I think we can move on to item 12, which is commission and committee updates.

Do we have any of those?

I'll I'll just share last week our recreation commission met.

Um and they uh had a guest speaker, which was Dr.

Miramontes from the school district, our superintendent.

And he talked about the pool project and other ways that the city and the school district can collaborate, which has been a priority for the city and and the rec commission specifically, because the school district has so many great facilities that we would love to provide more access to.

So it was a great step in that direction.

And then the commission talked about priorities for the coming year and tried to hone down kind of where they want to focus their energy in the coming year.

So their next meeting is not until the the end of this month.

So we'll bring back a preview of that at a future meeting.

Are they in the bike and pedestrian committee potential candidates for the eligible advisory bodies to meet remotely?

Sorry.

Did they fall under the subsidiary?

Oh, subsidiary body.

Yeah.

So uh I believe that we we determined that potential bodies for the eligible subsidiary body category were the parks and rec, uh the uh architectural advisory committee, and the yeah, the bicycle pedestrian advisory committee.

Yeah.

Those three.

So will you be having discussions with them about this or well?

It's it's a council decision.

So we would probably first bring it to the council if there was interest to authorize them, those bodies to meet remotely.

Okay, so they would have to maybe initiate it and say we'd like to do this, and or the council could initiate it.

You know, okay.

And I'm happy to go to those meetings and put it an item on their agenda and discuss it with them too.

Yeah, that'd be nice.

Sure.

Um, that's that's speaking of the B PAC.

Um, they have a meeting on Thursday night at uh 6 30 p.m.

in this building in the South Day room and also on Zoom.

And um one of the main topics of discussion are a variety of things around e-bike and e-bike regulations.

So um if that's we know that's a continuing topic of interest, so um, you know, people should tune into that, and that of course will inform a future council item to discuss that even further.

Can people watch that meeting on Zoom?

They can.

Yep.

The the agenda is already posted, and uh the link is on presume is that it starts at six 6 30 p.m.

6 30 p.m.

Correct.

Very interesting.

Thank you for reporting that out.

Okay.

Um any future discussion of potenti uh possible agenda, future agenda items.

Okay, hearing none.

Move on to city council reports.

Does anyone have anything to report out from meetings attended?

Other boards they sit on.

Okay.

That's a no.

I just want to say I really like what we're doing with the sign on Highway 92.

And I know there's some issues to be worked out around that, but I just want to thank uh council member Patrick Johnson for spearheading the effort to draw attention to our lovely downtown, our charming downtown.

Our loving downtown.

I gotta say the merchants are inspiring me because they're all digging it.

And I was I sent a photo of it to Marianne Stark, who's having issues of getting people down south of town on Main Street.

And when you can inspire somebody, that sign inspired her inspired her that we are trying to do the best that we can.

And I like the fact that everybody, when I pull the picture of what I'm trying to conceive, I'm doing a vote and a vote of uh we like it or we don't like it.

And you know, it's it's a community thing.

So I think it's a it's not just me, it's everybody.