Twenty six City Council meeting.

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Councilmember Brownstone.

Here.

Councilmember Nagginast?

Here.

Councilmember Johnson?

Here.

Vice Mayor Penrose.

Here.

We have a quorum.

I would also like to ask for a motion to approve the agenda.

So mood.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Now we have two proclamations.

And allegiance.

I was gonna skip it.

That's your prerogative.

That's right.

All right, two proclamations.

Two proclamations, and our city manager, Matthew Tittister will be presenting those.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Very exciting to present these proclamations tonight.

Our first proclamation is to recognize a really, really, I think important program here in the state of California.

It's called Friday Night Live.

And I'm just going to read a few key portions of the proclamation so people understand what this is about.

So whereas the Friday Night Live program, which was established in 1984 as the model program for the state of California in engaging young people as active leaders in their communities to reduce underage alcohol use and address other challenges faced by their peers by building partnerships for positive youth development.

And the Friday Night Live program engages youth partners from grade four through high school and beyond, ensuring that they benefit from the continued growth and enhancement of this youth-led youth-driven program and the unique opportunities it provides.

Now therefore, be it known that the City Council of the City of Half Moon Bay does hereby recognize that the month of April 2026 be recognized as California Friday Night Live month and applauds Friday Night Live youth leaders and their adult allies who are committed to improving the quality of life for present and future generations.

And I think they've got uh few words they want to share.

So please awesome.

Thank you.

Good evening, Council members, council staff, and community members.

My name is Ollali Quenka Kang, Bay Area Director of Programs at Youth Leadership Institute.

It is my privilege to speak to you today on behalf of Half Moon Bay leaders about the city's proclamation of April as Friday Night Live Month.

As a city manager mentioned, each year Friday Night Live Month serves as a statewide opportunity to elevate youth voices, highlight the impact of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention, and celebrate the powerful work of young people across communities and in California.

More than a celebration, it is a coordinated effort to raise the profile of Friday Night Live, spotlight youth leadership, share accomplishments, and strengthen the partnerships that make our schools and communities safer.

This year, youth leaders are tackling vaping.

They have research and identify the harms and risks of vaping and their impact it has on their bodies, their mental health, and the environment.

Part of their public health advocacy has included developing youth-centered public service announcements, classroom presentations at the Half Moon Bay High School, as well as developing a first of its kind healthy alternatives pledge that encourages youth to engage in activities that bring them joy to support their overall well-being, such as singing, dancing, playing cards, sports, creating art, and so much more.

Our youth leaders thank you for your ongoing support and look forward to working with any member of the city council as well as any city department to further our advocacy efforts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Does anyone in the public have anything that they'd like to comment on or say?

No, okay.

All right.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Our second proclamation doesn't need as much context, but I will share some of the words here.

Our second proclamation is a recognition of the Half and Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce.

And I'll just share a little bit from the proclamation.

The Halfham Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce is a local nonprofit that has been serving the businesses of the San Mateo County Coast for more than six decades.

And it was formally organized in 1963 to support the local agricultural industry, and then it grew to serve all types of businesses on the coast with a mission to advocate and form and support the coastside business community through leadership and the power of collaboration and inclusion.

The chamber has played an important role in a variety of areas, including the transition of the local economy from its historic industries to a more diverse economy supported by tourism and small businesses, while preserving the historic legacy of the coast, improved infrastructure and transportation for residents and visitors, and ensuring all businesses on the coast have professional and informed advocacy.

And uh of note is that the chamber became one of only 23 California welcome centers sponsored by Visit California in 2025, and that is the state's official tourism marketing entity.

This designation makes the chamber a frontline tourism hub and brings new statewide visibility, enhanced marketing, and support from the state to ensure visitors around the world know about our incredible incredible community and all it has to offer.

And all this is happening in a beautiful new facility that they celebrated this week in a in a really nice ribbon cutting.

Lots of folks were in attendance.

It was a really nice evening last Thursday.

And so the City Council of the City of Hafmo Bay hereby congratulates and recognizes the Hapmo Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce for its new home in the heart of downtown Hap Moon Bay and for its designation as an official California Welcome Center.

The city appreciates the work of the chamber and its partnership in promoting and advocating for the businesses of the coast side and as the coast side as a premier international destination.

Thank you, Matthew.

Anyone in the public have any comment?

Do you want to say?

If not, we will welcome the chamber president.

Thank you so much.

Um, Krista Lynn, the CEO of the Halfman Bay Coast Side Chamber.

Thank you to everybody who was able to come out to our ribbon cutting on Thursday.

It was a fabulous event attended by the loveliest of people.

And um thank you so much for helping uh steward us into the new location.

We're really excited to be right across from City Hall.

Um just today we had 55 visitors come in, which I think normally probably would have clogged City Hall.

So it works really, really well uh with everything that we're doing, and we're really excited to be there.

So thank you so much for recognizing that.

We really appreciate it.

Okay, thank you.

Now we move on, Mayor's announcements.

Uh I have none.

Uh report out from recent closed session meetings from our attorney Denise Bizzano.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor.

Uh this evening the council met in closed session to discuss discuss three items on the agenda.

There is no reportable action for any of the items.

I do want to note that uh Councilmember Nagangas did recuse himself for item four C.

And that's the end of the report.

Thank you.

And Matthew Chittister, our city manager with updates to council.

Yes, uh, thank you, Madam Mayor.

We have um three items that were listed on the agenda and two additional informational items that we'll share as well.

Um we're trying something a little bit different tonight.

Um at the end, sorry.

It's called Commission Report Outs, and that's to update the community on the happenings at our commission meetings each month.

Whether it's the Planning Commission, the Recreation Commission, we have the bike pet advisory committee.

And often by the time we reach that point of the evening, people are tired.

We don't really have an audience anymore.

And so we're gonna try something different and bring these to the beginning of the meetings.

Um and tonight we're gonna do it as part of the city manager's update.

We'll keep them brief, but it's an opportunity for the community to hear what's going on in those meetings and what they can expect at future meetings.

So we will start with an update on the Parks and Recreation Commission, which met most recently on March 25th.

And just a couple of highlights from that meeting.

There was a discussion on the letter of support for the high school pool project, which is shifting to a collaboration between the council and the commission on a letter of support.

Um there was an update on the volleyball courts that we put at Poplar Beach as part of our summer programming, and some of the location um has been up for discussion, and that should be coming back with an update soon.

Um lots of planning for the FIFA World Cup coming this summer, and the city has some plans and our businesses have some plans, so there was some discussion about that.

And then, of course, um the the commission discussed some of its priorities for 2026.

Uh the next meeting is on uh Wednesday, April 22nd at 6 p.m.

These meetings are held on the the fourth Wednesday of each month um at 6 p.m.

at the library, but they're also available on Zoom.

And at this upcoming meeting, uh, two of the items that we know we'll be discussing are the fee structure for Carter Park, which will be coming before the council in the future as well, and then uh continue discussion of the priorities.

Next we'll have um Leslie Lako, uh, our community development director, uh, just share an update on a couple of meetings of the Planning Commission.

Hello.

Uh yeah, so the planning commission um got a couple meetings to brief you on.

On March 10th, we um we brought forward the annual progress report, which um this council has since approved and has since been submitted to the state housing community development agency and the state.

Oh, what do they call themselves now?

What used to be the Office of Policy and Research and is now the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovations.

Um so that has been done and those have been accepted.

We also um looked at the measure D allocations.

The planning commission allocated six um measure D's in addition to the 17 that the council approved in the phasing agreement.

They also made a recommendation that um while staff is looking at code amendments to increase transparency and efficiency in the measure D process, that we look at shortening the time between uh when the allocations are awarded in March and when the transfers happen in September to around 30 to 60 days.

Um on March 24th, we brought forward a self-storage facility at 215 San Mateo Road.

That's where Curly and Reds is now.

So this facility would be uh for 68 units that are in the back of the lot.

Um, some fencing, retaining walls, um paving, uh a bio swell.

It's really a it's a retention pond.

And um then some landscaping along the frontage there to improve the way that facility looks from the highway.

Um and then our next meeting uh we're bringing forward uh Verizon Tower extension.

So there's a Verizon Tower at the end of at 200 Lewis Foster Drive, so up on the top of the hill, right near the water uh storage facility.

And um those water storage facilities are being increased in size, so the tower is being extended up higher.

So that's going before the planning commission.

And then uh the Coastside Land Trust is gonna provide an educational presentation on um a restoration of coastal prairie habitat project that they're embarking on.

So that's it.

Yeah, can you tell us a little bit more about this self-storage facility?

Is that a private business?

And are they paying for all the landscaping and the the swales and the paving and stuff?

Yes, they are.

So that's um that property is owned by the Cardoni family.

Um I can't quite hear you, Leslie.

Could you speak a little?

Oh, yeah.

Am I not right in the mic?

Okay.

That property is owned by the Cardoni family.

Um, and uh they have proposed the storage facility they're paying for all of the landscaping improvements and all the all of the improvements there and and also working to keep their existing tenant curly and reds um functioning in the in the meantime.

Great, thank you.

Uh-huh.

All right, thank you, Leslie.

Next we'll have um Todd Sewley, our interim um director of public works talk about uh the bike pet advisory committee.

All right.

Let me see, let me show we're enough.

All right.

Madam Vice Mayor, Council, uh, thank you for having me this evening.

I'm here to talk about the last bicycle pedestrian advisory committee meeting, or BPAC as we like to call it.

It was on March 5th.

Um so we had several items go that night.

Uh we had an update from staff on the e-bike and e-moto safety form that I know several of you attended, and a lot of city staff attended as well.

Very topical and timely.

Um we also discussed and finalized the draft amendment to the uh Municode Section 103140.

Uh, we're going to be bringing this to council soon.

Um, it had been reviewed by the previous city attorney, and we're trying to schedule some time just to take another stab at it legally before we bring it back to you guys, but we expect uh have that uh update to the meeting code brought back in the coming months.

And also we uh recommended some trail signage for staff to take to you for approval, um, primarily some speed limits for the trail.

I know with the e-bike and e-moto stuff, that's that's something that's at top of mind.

And it's uh some informational signage for the trail.

There's only going to be a couple of them, but we will take it back uh before we uh install those signs.

Uh the most important thing for us was the meeting was attended by a potential youth member at the time, Angela Garnier, and uh she got actually got appointed by the council at the last council meeting.

So this report outs a little late, but thank you for uh appointing her to our committee, and she's really excited to be part of it and serve with us.

And uh we also had a detailed presentation regarding uh some grant opportunities from uh primarily the CCAG TDA Article 3 grants, which I'll touch on in a slide in a little bit.

Um the next meeting is scheduled for May 7th at 6 p.m.

Uh it's gonna be primarily focused on the South Corridor study.

Uh it's gonna be running in conjunction with uh tool design group who's gonna be running a bunch of focus groups May 6th, 7th, and 8th.

So that's a lot, and we'll be bringing that back at the next council meeting as well, just with more information about locations.

We're trying to finalize locations, finalize times, all that stuff with the with the design consultant um potential locations for those would be at either the EOC or Fire Station 40 or possibly the library, we're just not sure yet, or or even a combination of the three, but we'll have more information definitely uh at the next council meeting for that.

Um so since we discussed the grants, um, we're here to talk about a exciting we think is an exciting grant opportunity.

Um it's primarily for repairing of the coastal trails.

It is that C CAG TA Article 3 grant I mentioned previously.

Um there's two separate paths in the grant, and we're actually gonna be applying for both paths.

One is a $750,000 capital grant amount for construction and $200,000 grant amount for uh for planning documents.

Uh applications are due on April 16th, and the engineering team is finalizing those as we speak.

Um for the construction side of it, really what we want to do is do an overlay of the coastal trail, kind of following that blue line.

It's it's it's hard to see, but it's it's it's a long stretch.

It's from the Seymour Bridge to Maraudha Beach, basically.

So more than a mile of trail.

Um it's the tentative plan would be to do some sort of glass grid overlay, which isn't going to make everything better, but at that price point, it's definitely gonna be an improvement.

Um conservatively without accounting for the count the the cost of gasoline right now, the cost of oil right now uh to do a full-depth reclamation of that stretch would probably be in the 10 million dollar range, probably more, just based on uh materials and everything and mobilization.

So we're we're excited about the opportunity to at least get a little bit more life out of the existing coastal trail.

And as you guys can see, part of it is in state parks property.

Um the engineering team has reached out and secured at least a verbal agreement at this point to get some matching funds.

It is a 10% match, so the city or whatever the project boundaries would end up being would be you know seven seventy-five thousand dollar contribution.

States state parks is offered 35,000.

So you know, nearly half of our 10 percent match, which is which is substantial, and especially their trails are in worse shape anyways, but we're not looking at it that way.

We're looking at it as a partnership.

We want to be able to get together with our our other stakeholders in this community and get stuff done.

And the second part of the grant is the 200,000 for planning, and that would be used for updating the bike pad master plan.

Um it's due for an update, and this 200,000 would certainly help us uh get a consultant on board to be able to uh get that document going and adopted as soon as possible.

And with that, any questions about these grants?

I think it's important to point out on the construction side of things.

It's it's uh it's a maintenance job, and so we're not looking at changing the trail or expanding it.

We do think that the project will restore it to its original width, which is probably much wider than people are experiencing right now.

Um and so the thought is basically from the Marauder Bridge South, the coastal trail is gonna feel like a new trail.

It's it's a really exciting project, and I'm really proud of the public works team for the creativity and the vision to not just think about what's the city's responsibility, but hey, there's funding that can really improve this stretch of trail, which is heavily heavily used by all people on the coast side, um, and and really add some life to it.

And and so I'm I'm really excited about this concept.

I was blown away when they presented it to me.

It is very exciting.

I do have one question though.

What does the word overlay mean?

So paving to there's several options with paving.

The one would be the typical thing where you think where the milling machine comes in, takes the old stuff out, and then you put new material down.

What we're proposing would be a synthetic glass grid type material that goes down and a thinner layer of asphalt goes over that, right?

Over overlaying it, kind of raising it up at about about an inch and a half is what we're looking at.

So it would be basically raising the trail up about an inch and a half with a synthetic well, it's like a glass grid.

So you put the grid down and that kind of what adheres the two surfaces together.

Yeah, so you just put a fabric on the old stuff and you put new asphalt on top of the fabric.

It saves us a lot of money from having to remove the old material.

I get it.

I I just for a minute there thought you were putting plastic into the coastal trail and not freaking out.

No, no, no.

But no, I'm wrong.

Thank you.

Good.

I didn't think you'd do that, Todd.

No, not at all.

Okay.

All right, thank you, Todd.

We have one more um update.

Uh Julissa Acosta from the city manager's office, uh, just as a quick uh reminder for our local students and their parents.

Good evening, uh, Madam Vice Mayor, uh counsel.

Uh, just here to remind folks that the student award application period is open now.

This is for our high school students and eighth graders um for um sorry to receive uh funding uh for uh the demonstrating um leadership um initiatives and achievements and for the sustainability awards we have two um uh grants for high school students.

Um all they have to do is write a prompt around foot uh food sustainability in Happen Bay.

Um applications are due by April 30th, and we'll have subcommittee review.

Um so encourage folks to apply.

Thank you.

They're always fun.

I love those awards.

And that's is that it for um that is it for our presentations.

Okay, is there any public comment on any of the city manager reports?

Okay, seeing none, I will open the um open uh open us up for public forum.

Our first speaker is Joaquin Jimenez, followed by Mariana Stark.

If anyone else wants to speak, they can get a speaker card right over there at the table by the door from Leslie.

Good evening, uh honorable bias mayor, council members, uh city staff, uh, members of the public.

My name is Joaquin Jimenez, uh Joaquin Murrieta in social media, and I'm uh running for county supervisor for district three, Samatil County.

You heard me uh you heard me talk about the co-side of Samateo County being the largest farming ranching community in the Bay Area.

You also heard me talk about uh food production and how important that is for community.

We have over 2,000 acres in the coast side that haven't been farm for years.

That will be a big benefit to the county.

Right now, the farming industry is bringing about uh 150 million dollars each year.

We as a coast amateur county, we should be bringing half a billion dollars easily.

And we're not doing that.

We are missing that opportunity.

One of the things that I'm proposing is uh to reopen or to open a slaughterhouse in the in the coast.

We have a lot of ranching communities here in the coast, a lot of ranchers that have been ranching in the coast for for generations.

They will benefit from a slaughterhouse.

Also, a dairy farm.

I don't know if you know, but uh been doing a lot of research, you know, uh speaking with uh our local ranchers and uh old farmers.

The coast we've had about six dairy farms throughout the years.

And I met with several members of our community on the coast side and some in in the county, you know, about the idea of having a local dairy farm.

There's a lot of interest.

It's uh it'd be a great benefit, you know, to our students.

Uh FFA.

Um, and a lot of other groups in our community that are interested, you know, in ranching.

They just haven't had the opportunity.

We have a large group in our community that are interested, you know, in farming.

They haven't had the opportunity.

We know I am the founder of an organization is called Rancho San Benito.

We have at least our property about 76 acres here in Haiphone Bay.

We're making a lot of changes with it being some struggles, but we are getting ready to start our program to work with our community to educate and to train uh new farmers, including our high school graduates.

So let's think about and protect the open spaces for ranching and for farming in our community.

Think about fresh meat, fresh milk, a dairy farm, slaughterhouse.

Something to think about.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joaquin.

Marianna Stark.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hold on, I gotta get used to this for a second.

Okay, I think that's good.

Hello, my name is Marianna.

Has the touch.

Okay, great, thank you.

Hello, my name is Mariana Stark.

I am the principal of MStart Gallery at 727 Main Street, which celebrated three years in January.

I have been a dues-paying member of the Chamber of Commerce since 2021.

My gallery is a small business and also a free visitor-serving attraction featuring only peninsula artists in solo exhibitions.

My average foot traffic is about 50 visitors total per weekend.

Other visitor serving businesses on my block are Coast Pride, by the Tea Shore Tea House, Kelly Mumford Gallery, Seascape Succulent Nursery, and soon to come Half Moon Bay Brewing Company.

Thank you for making kiosk signage in MacDutra Plaza a city priority for 2026.

As you know, a kiosk is a sign with a map and a list of stores by category, such as apparel, gifts, home, etc.

This will allow visitors to know what Half Moon Bay has to offer above and beyond the stores in close proximity to the town square.

Please continue to prioritize signage measures like gateway signage and posts with signs at the corners of each block, like in Sonoma and Carmel.

The reason I am here tonight is because last week, downtown merchants received a notification from the downtown association that monthly merchant meetings will no longer take place.

The downtown association is a 501c3 whose board primarily represents a handful of businesses in the 400 and 500 blocks.

So all businesses were invited to the monthly meeting as a courtesy.

That monthly meeting was important because city staff and elected officials attended, so it gave a voice to merchants who are not located in the Heritage District.

This is confusing because they own the branding for all downtown, such as at Downtown Half Moon Bay on social media, but they do not represent all downtown businesses.

Now that the meetings have been discontinued, there is no forum for non-heritage district merchants to meet with city staff and elected officials, while other large organizations will continue to have a forum.

This includes Main Street north of the bridge, South Main Street, Church Street, Parisima Street, Kelly West of Maine, and Shoreline Center.

With the discontinuation of the monthly downtown merchants meetings, I respectfully ask the city work to develop a vehicle for all downtown merchants to weigh in during the early planning phase of proposed emissions that impact downtown before they are brought to City Council nearly finalized.

Some options could be a regular email newsletter with project updates, or a quarterly meeting here at TED Adcock for all businesses, or perhaps an official committee, such as those that gave their updates here earlier at this meeting.

Perhaps the time has come for a BID or business improvement district for all of downtown, although I have heard that that is potentially an expensive endeavor, and most of our merchants do not even have budget to pay dues to belong to the Chamber of Commerce.

At the very least, I want City Council members and city staff to know that the Downtown Association serves the Heritage Corps, and I ask you to please find a way to include input from merchants who are not represented by towntown association when considering initiatives that impact us.

Thank you.

Any speakers online?

Okay, that ends public forum.

Okay.

Is there any public comments on any of the consent agenda items?

Seeing none, may I have a motion to approve the consent calendar?

And please read the list of items on consent.

Thank you.

I move that we adopt the consent calendar, including items eight A, waiving reading of ordinances and resolutions.

Item 8B, approving minutes of the March 10th, 2026 special meeting.

Item 8C, approving minutes of the March 14th, 2026 special meetings.

Item 8D, approved minutes of the March 17th, 2026 regular meeting.

Item 8E approving minutes of the March 18th, 2026 special meeting.

Item 8F, the award of professional services agreement with Gainey Science for an amount not to exceed 46,014 for preparation of an initial study and mitigated negative declaration for proposed development at 1049 Railroad Avenue.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Roundstone.

Yes.

Councilmember Nagengast.

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Penrose?

Yes.

Motion carries.

Now we move on to ordinances and public hearings.

We have none.

And so we move to item 10.

So we're moving on to resolutions and staff reports.

That's so weird.

Good evening, Vice Mayor, Council members, members of the public.

So sorry, technical difficulties.

And then I'll turn it over to Chris Lynn, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, who will walk you through the 2025 annual report in more detail.

I'll start by briefly going over the purpose of this item.

So tonight's item includes three considerations, three actions for council's consideration.

So first is accepting the twenty twenty five annual report prepared by the Chamber of Commerce, the major the managing agency for the BID, which outlines how BID funds were used over the past year.

Second, adopting a resolution of intention to continue the BID assessment for fiscal year 2026, 27.

And third, set up public hearing for April 21st, 2026, which provides an opportunity for businesses in the public to provide input before the assessment is formally approved.

To help frame the discussion, I want to start with how the city's lodging sector contributes overall.

So the transient occupancy tax or TOT is one of the city's most important revenue sources and makes up about 40% of our annual operating budget.

So when we're talking about attracting visitors and increasing overnight stays, it's not just about tourism, it's also about supporting a key revenue source that helps fund city services.

So with that in mind, I'll walk you through the BID, um, how that works and how it has evolved over time.

Um as a way for hotels to collectively fund marketing and tourism promotion uh through a one-dollar per room per night assessment.

Um the idea is that by polling resources, hotels can have a greater impact rather than they would um individually, especially when it comes to marketing efforts.

In the beginning, the BID applied to hotels within city limits, but in 2017, the BID expanded to include other lodging establishments along the coastside, created a more coordinating and coastwide approach.

And during the same year, the Half Moon Bay Coast Chamber of Commerce was designated as the managing agency that oversees BID operations.

More recently in 2024, there was an increase to the assessment, which is now $2 per room per night.

And this increase was about keeping up with the program effectiveness.

The rate hadn't been changed since 2004, even though marketing cost and competition from other destinations have continued to grow.

So I'll just provide a brief, I'll probably I'll briefly frame what you'll be hearing next.

The annual report reflects activities and performance for calendar year 2025, including how the funds were used, what marketing efforts were implemented, and what outcomes were achieved.

And I'll hand it over for to Kirslin who will share more details about that.

Thank you so much, Irma.

If the slides perfect awesome.

So Crystal Lynn, CEO of the chamber, and as mentioned, we help manage the business hotel business improvement district.

This year, uh 2025 was an exciting year because it was the beginning of the new chapter of the visit Half Moon Bay project.

With the assessment going up to the $2 in 2024 that started taking an effect in January in 2025.

And so we were able to start realizing some of the things that we had been trying to reach and just didn't quite have the funds to do it.

Some notables in 2025 was that we were able to combine what was previously two separate contractor contracts.

There was one for a professional PR person and one for a group sales coordinator.

Both of them were part-time, but to be honest, one of them got paid darn near full-time.

So not only does Ranger help with the group sales and coordination and concierge services, but he also helps us with visit California, also helps us with the counties conventions and visitors bureau, the SFP, helps with the visitor operations inside of the office, and also helps with media.

So for a $20,000 reduction in cost, we were actually able to get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of more hours of productive visit Half Moon Bay centered time.

And so we did start to see a jump to getting closer to those pre-pandemic numbers.

That's a fairly decent number.

And there has been some room stock removed from the rooms, so we were working with about 716 rooms in the whole of the coastide.

Half Moon Bay rose 6% to 60%, and the unincorporated areas actually had a small dip of 3% and dropped to 64.

Next.

So as mentioned, we have goals that we set forth at the beginning of each year.

And top of that list is the mid-week corporate occupancy.

We are, as we all know, fine on the weekends for the most part.

And so those are not the travelers that we are trying to use these marketing funds to attract.

We are trying to attract people who are coming for either corporate group retreats or are going to be here for like a week.

So they're filling the rooms in that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday time frame.

Unfortunately, in 2025 meeting planners and corporate groups were still really sluggish on coming back.

Every time we would start to see some movement in the corporate groups, all of a sudden, a tech company would lay off 4,000 people and it would slash and burn back down.

I will say we're again optimistic.

The end of last year started to show that peak once more.

We have quite a few people who are coming into the visitor center during the weekdays saying that they are at the RITS for a company convention of some type.

So with that sentiment, we have started moving forward on a what's called a fam trip, a familiarization trip, which we will invite meeting planners who have not been to Half Moon Bay before, and we will spend two days with them showing them different hotels, different activities, different things that they could do with their groups to hopefully entice them to book their next corporate conventions, groups and retreats here.

So that will be happening in the uh beginning of May, and we already have some signups, so we're looking good.

And then last year, and thank you so much for honoring our designation earlier tonight.

Because of that California Welcome Center designation, we have officially hit the Visit California.

We've just we've we've hit their purview.

So even just as we speak, our visit Half Moon Bay coordinator is out entertaining some travel influencers from Italy.

And at the end of last week, he was uh showing some travel influencers from Korea, and we're working on getting some travel influencers from Australia.

And so we hope that they go back and share with their travel companions.

Um they typically work for larger travel companies and include Half Moon Bay in travel packages that will bring people out here for weeks at a time.

And we have gotten so uh with the help of our in-house coordinator as well as our marketing company uh Crucial Creative, we have actually yet again increased the articles written about the Half Moon Bay and Coastide to 85, so that was 14 more than last year.

I will note that these are articles of quality.

So there's actually about 160 articles where Half Moon Bay was mentioned for any reason, especially towards the beginning of last year when there was um the hope that the Maverick wave had been a record breaker.

So we do not count those individual articles as a part of this number.

This was just individual qualitative articles from a notable writer.

We hosted media, um 17 people, so that was 10 more than last year.

Um the bulk of those media came from Visit California, but they are also had a great group that came from the Conventions and Visitors Bureau, the SFP.

And then we also through our Visit California designation had the opportunity to be a part of two different conventions that were specifically geared towards networking and promoting the coastide to other destinations.

Um then I did include some of the magazines and articles that we were included in, like edibles, Silicon Valley Forbes, KQED, and Surfer.

Thank you.

So what is a marketing plan without digital and print marketing?

You gotta have a little bit of everything.

And so with the help with city staff, we were able to vet and hire a outside destination marketing firm to analyze our destination, our current audience, but the audience that we wanted to get and helped create a five-year strategic plan that we have started to implement.

So hopefully we'll see the fruits of that at the end of or at next year's annual report.

And we also finished all of the data collections for the visitor study and are putting all of that together.

We got way more statistics than we thought we would have, so it's taken a little bit longer to get it all together and make complete sense of it, but that's coming soon.

As you could see, and I won't name them all off, but all of the major digital statistics went up in a positive way.

And thanks to Crucial Creative and the wonderful insights from Irma, we were able to add TikTok, Blue Sky, and Threads to increase social media awareness, and those channels are growing at a good rate.

Next.

And we'll uh continue to gain insights from that.

Some of the software that we have access to, um, we still have access to it for a couple more months, so we will continue to gather data as long as we can.

And for 2026, now that we see that the um corporate group sales are hopefully starting to make some kind of a rebound if all the tech companies could just like take a moment and chill on the letting people go and slashing their budgets.

Um we will host the meeting planner fam trip.

Um we were working with the city to support the FIFA activities that hopefully will happen here.

Um we have been working with the SFP on all kinds of um fun things like flavors of the peninsula, to which through our efforts um at the co-side has a very big part in that, and we will continue seeking groups of all types.

Um we even had a call today of somebody who wants to host a car club extravaganza here.

Um and then with the help of that five-year strategic plan that Noble Studios created, we will implement all of their um recommendations, which they thoroughly put together in a very palatable and easy way to implement.

It was all very um good information and useful information, um, and so Crucial Creative is putting that all into play right now.

And I can take any questions.

Okay, um there any clarifying questions from council?

Thank you for the report.

And um are we cautiously optimistic?

Is that the term we always we use these days?

Yes, that is a good descriptor.

I will say with the corporate groups, we've kind of been clobbered over the head about three times in the last year and a half, thinking like now's the time.

Um but the feedback that we've been getting from the writs and from some of the other properties and just again being in our location, and we've gotten better about our data collection at the visitor center.

We we're really hearing a lot more about people coming for um corporate events.

So that you suspect that may pick up again again, is that yes.

I just to be totally honest, the whole Oracle layoff is a little bit of a you know hanger out there.

Um, but we're hopeful that because we are gonna be um seeking meeting planners of all different sizes of companies, not just the Googles and the Facebooks, and really trying to entice meeting planners that have not been here before, that that'll help open open up an array.

So then this whole travel or travel influencer.

What are they and how did you find them?

I just curious on that.

That to me is a new term.

Yes.

Um so we get approached by Visit California, and they basically set up trips from um influencers predominantly from other countries who want to learn about different areas to create packages.

Um if you've ever gone on like group travel, and they like you're gonna stay at this hotel, and then you're gonna go, you know, choose one of these two tours.

Many of the influencers are that type, and um so visit California creates a package for them that takes them all up and down the coast.

So we're typically receiving them from either them coming up the coast from the south or coming down from the north to the south.

Um a lot are coming from Napa, or they've been in San Francisco, they've been in uh San Luz Obispo.

And so they have them for sometimes up to two weeks, and they just bop them up and down and around California based on what travel sector they're in.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Yes.

Um is this annual report on your website, or if not, the one you just showed us, can you send that to all of us?

Oh, um we typically give it to the city.

I'm not sure if the city puts it on their website, but we can definitely do that.

I don't I I think I don't think we share on our website, but I can I can make sure that you all get up to the and also I'd be interested in the um so that Nobel Studios strategic plan is all completed and now in implementation phase, right?

Yes.

Can we also see a copy of that?

That uh strategic plan.

A copy of that has been given to staff.

Because that would give us a lot more you know, thoughts about where we can help or what that plan looks like, and where you know, yes.

I will say the the crux of that plan was um digital advertising and how to go about it and how to do it better, um, including some changes of taglines and leaning into different parts of the coast side instead of just always showing the beach all the time.

Um so it's a lot of that type of 120 pages of that.

Well, it helps us understand the impact of what are you know different efforts that are underway because we can always come up with numbers, you know.

We had 8,000 people do this for blah, blah, blah.

But you know, whatever actions are taken, how does that impact um you know, hotel occupancy rates, et cetera.

Um I do think there's a lot of opportunity.

There's a lot of um, you know, a lot of folks aren't necessarily thinking of traveling to Europe for a while.

And the you know, costs of the euro, but there's just a lot going on, and people think more maybe we should just stay in the US, you know.

Um to exactly to your point.

In in the documentation, it shows how strong our biggest travel segment is the other Bay Area cities and how many people are just driving here from Sacramento, from Fresno, escaping the heat, or so many from San Mateo County, and this is just their weekend getaway.

So we do have a ton of that, and um we we try to lean into it uh the best that we can.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Great.

Thanks for the good report.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay, Patrick.

Um Kristen, I I gotta say something.

You I hung out with you over the weekend, checked out because I think I couldn't see the remodel Thursday.

My wife went and she said it was excellent.

Um and you did a great job.

It looks really good.

I'm so proud of you and how it looks and being close to City Hall, and just watching you and because Ranger wasn't there, and I've seen him in action too, because I just kind of sit around and and there's so many people coming in.

It was crazy.

We could have this discussion, and we're talking about the banners, and then all of a sudden she's got to go to the front, and then we sit down and then she goes to the front again, and the phone's ringing.

Yeah, I mean 50 people, right?

That day, and then she's logging in everything, what they're talking about, what they're asking for.

It's not just where's the beach, where can I get restaurant, where's the best place for lunch?

It was amazing to watch you do that.

It was great.

And I I see the importance of the chamber after that.

I mean, I've seen this before, but last weekend was just like because everything was new and fresh, and you did a great job.

Thank you.

Um I saw a group that was over by Nanos that was unloading, I thought it was interesting, and it was called City Whisperers, it was an Asian group that bought in a big busload, and they literally just unload and they tour our town to see all the historical buildings.

It was an Asian group that bought in a big busload, and they literally just unload and they tour our town to see all the historical buildings.

I thought was cool.

If we could tap more into that, that would be great.

The other thing I noticed that um, and you already hit on this was when I went horseback riding to and I paid for my trip to go writing, and then coming back for the photos, you know the whole gig.

I'm asking people where they come from, and that that that was like six months ago.

It's all from the Central Valley.

Everybody was from the heat, hot area coming here to cool down and chill.

And then as you sit in Nano's, and and you've done this because we've been there before, you to ask people where they come in from because they stumble into nanos, and they're all from the the hot areas, you know, the Bay Area when it's too hot over there, they come over here.

So if we can focus on that group, you know, and then the other thing would be the do you remember the elf on the shelf for the thing for the Christmas that I think Mark was doing that?

I talked to him the other day, and I thought it'd be great if we can incorporate that like to Mr.

Mr.

Cool hanging out in Half Moon Bay, kind of incorporating you know, cool down and and show all the cool things in Half Moon Bay, and he he doesn't know about Mr.

Cool, but I'd like to he we were thinking about a mascot, right?

Which was showcasing all the things you can do in Half Moon Bay, places you can eat, places you can have a beer, places to hike, and all that everything that you're doing, he's doing online.

Um the other question I have is like uh Cameron's I saw his numbers are really low, but they have been consistently low.

And then I was wondering uh San Benito, but I think because San Benito's low on that, is that because they converted or they were remodeling?

Is that what it was?

That was the remodel.

So for the majority of the year they were still closed, they reopened, I think, in August ish, but also in their remodel, they went down because I think a couple rooms got turned into double wide suites.

So they went from I believe 12 rooms to seven.

And then Zabella House that did can get it got converted.

It's no longer well, um Zabala House now has a new name by the sea.

Um it is run by I believe the same company, a group of individuals that run the mill house and Nantucket.

Um, although they didn't purchase the Zabala House, they run it as a management company.

Um but the prior to that, Zabala did take all of the upstairs rooms and converted them into apartments.

So that was 11 rooms that were taken out of inventory.

Um the numbers that you will see for Zabala slash by the C in have seemed to so far be improving since the change in name and management, and I believe they did a small um cleanup and renovation.

And then the other thing was I think in 22 uh we were higher a little bit higher in February, March, and April.

Can we kind of because you see the dip down in in your graph here?

Is there and I think that's after or during COVID.

Sir, exactly.

People were can we is there any way we can kind of focus on February, March, and April and try to do a little up shifting and trying to get people to come here, or is that it's just always gonna be kind of a low.

Um we we try to find enticing reasons for people to come during those times.

However, because it is directly after the holidays, a lot of people have spent their budgets on their Christmases and their Thanksgivings and all that travel.

Um so January and February in particular just tends to be really, really slow.

But that's another reason to go after the corporates because that's what corporates are having their um you know, beginning of the year retreats, their planning, their priority sessions.

Wouldn't you love to have a priority session somewhere fancy and cool?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

No, I appreciate everything you're doing, and uh it's it's working.

It is.

Thank you.

Yes.

I know we have public comment.

Okay, any public comment.

Any public comment online?

Okay, seeing no public comment, I will entertain a motion.

Um I move that we approve the Half Moon Bay Hotel Business Improvement District 2025 annual report from the Half Moon Bay Coast Side Chamber of Commerce, the designated managing agency for the district and adopted a resolution declaring the city council's intention to levy an assessment for the Half Moon Bay Hotel Business Improvement District for fiscal year 2026 through 2027, and directing the city clerk to schedule a notice a public hearing on April 21st.

Can I have a second?

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Brownstone.

Yes.

Councilmember Nagengast.

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Penrose.

Yes.

Motion carries.

Okay.

We now move on to item 10B, National Night Out update.

Thank you, Irma.

Good evening, Council.

Eddie, if you oh, there it is.

Because Irma already opened it up.

Awesome.

All right.

Uh thanks, Council.

This is an informational item mostly, but we are seeking some feedback and direction from you.

We'll we'll provide a little bit of context and presentation and then kind of talk about what we're seeking from you.

So National Night Out, most people here should know what it is.

It's a very popular event in Happen Bay.

But this is really, it's an annual event that takes place across the country the first Tuesday of each August.

And the whole purpose of National Night Out is to bring together the community to build better relationships with public safety, you know, first responders, law enforcement, and and just build community through neighborhood gatherings.

And uh something we participated in for a long time, and right now we are averaging about 500 members of our community participating each year.

So very, very popular.

Um I'm gonna turn the time over to Eddie to talk about um our role that we've played over the years and and how we've done it.

Take it away, Eddie.

Thanks, Matthew.

So background and current approach.

Um National Night Out uh are several uh individual community-led neighborhood events uh where uh to participate in the program, we just ask that uh our residents open up their uh driveway or their yard or garage, or in some cases, even uh collaborate with multiple residents to uh form a block party.

Um the city provides here uh administrative coordination and some limited financial support uh meant to offset some of the costs that go into uh hosting one of these parties.

Um it has been 10 years since we've had official direction from the council regarding National Night Out, so uh it's nice to be here tonight to talk about it.

Uh historically, the program was managed by the city manager's office, emergency preparedness staff uh who left the city a few years ago, and uh with that vacancy, uh recreation stepped in and offered to uh carry the load and keep the keep the event moving forward.

And uh I won't take all the credit for recreation.

We actually had a couple other folks in the city manager's office that that were uh very helpful in this.

Um the current city support from the administrative side, uh there are quite a few things we do.

We uh create and manage the event website and also the registration process that goes into that.

Um staff also creates the uh event map uh for national night out and we coordinate with all of the participants of that program, uh both the answer questions to help provide information, guidelines, and parameters for the for the event.

Um we also coordinate heavily with our partners, which are the uh public safety agencies, so the San Mateo County Sheriff, uh the fire district, and the Half Moon Bay Library.

Uh part of that coordination is um we l ideally like to have each one of these individual events be visited by at least one representative from those agencies, if not multiple.

Um so that's part of the coordination that goes into um working with our partners for the event.

Um we also work heavily with the public works department.

Part of the registration process offers the applicant the opportunity to uh close a street if it's necessary, or public works just deems it necessary for safety reasons.

Uh so we're very closely with public works there.

Um and then also internally in the city manager's office, everyone always tries their hardest to go in and visit as many of these uh residents as possible.

Um from the financial uh angle, everyone that applies for uh this uh program is allowed one 150 dollar gift card again to help offset the the cost for the supplies, materials decorations for the event.

The fiscal impact.

Obviously, the costs vary by participation.

Um in the last few years we've seen uh the gift card amounts from 3,000 to 6,000.

So that's just to stick to that's the amount that we that we uh expect each year just for a gift card allotment.

And um any future costs obviously depend on any direction from council this evening.

So what we're really looking for tonight is some feedback from you all.

As as Eddie said, it's been 10 years since the council really talked about this, and it's kind of been on autopilot for for the last 10 years, obviously very popular.

The council has supported it by participating and visiting these uh events each year.

But there is an opportunity here before we really kick off this year's planning to uh engage the council and get some feedback on on how you want us to proceed going far further.

So some of the questions we have is should we be limiting the the number of events, right?

Um, as Eddie showed, the the cost to the city varies depending on how many of these events sign up.

You know, I think we've had as few as 20 block parties and as many as 30 plus block parties.

And and so is there kind of a cap we want to put on the number of parties?

Um it's it's a gift card that we're giving to these folks, and it's kind of the honor system that they're gonna use it for these events.

We've never had any reason to believe that that money wasn't spent to put on these events, but there isn't really uh we don't collect receipts or any of that kind of stuff that would add to the administrative costs of it.

Uh we have had events that didn't go forward, and we've had to go back and say, hey, you need to give back the gift card.

You didn't have an event and haven't had any issues with that.

Um of the areas that has happened is sometimes you'll have residents of uh one neighborhood, maybe two streets apart, say let's just combine our parties and so they'll get their two gift cards, and now they have $300 to spend towards the party.

We've kind of chalked that up to hey, if you combine your parties and more people participate, that that's fine.

But looking for some direction on that.

Um historically, we have only given gift cards to parties that are within the city limits, with the exception of Moonridge.

And I don't know where this started.

It was already happening.

The first thing I went to when I came to work for the city was I went to Moonridge for their block party that was sponsored by the city.

Um historically, I know that the thinking was that you know, residents in Moonridge, their their kids go to school in Half Moon Bay, a lot of them work in Half Boom Bay, and so informally they've been you know included in this.

Um but you know, there are generally several parties there, and so there is a cost to the city, and we don't offer that to other neighborhoods.

If someone from Moss Beach or Monterra reaches out, we tell them contact your supervisor and see if the county wants to support.

And I don't think the county ever has.

Um that's something we're looking for some clearer direction on.

And then anything else that, as you all have participated over the years that you've observed, um, any feedback on the program if we want to make changes to it if we choose to move forward with it.

Um so again, first question is what is our role?

Do we want to continue to sponsor these events or just let the community kind of do it on its own?

Um how much or if any financial assistance we want to provide?

Um do we want it to just be open to as many events as possible, or do we want to limit it?

Do we need to refine the selection process and do we need to be um stronger on accountability for the use of these funds?

What's the date this year again?

Um the date of national night out this year would be August 4th.

We should always start with that.

August 4th.

August 4th.

It's the first Tuesday of August.

You know, that's okay.

We always cancel the council meeting that night so that we can all be very active participants and um and again the support's been there.

But yeah, August 4th, 2026 would be the next um event.

Yeah, you know what I've noticed is that um uh I visited a lot of neighborhoods and uh checked it out.

First of all, I think it's a great event.

I like the fact that it's not you know overly scrutinized that people can kind of do what they like in their neighborhoods.

Usually people in the neighborhoods are contributing a lot.

I mean, a hundred fifty dollar gift card doesn't go that far anyway, so but people will set out some grills, barbecues, provide drinks.

It's really considered kind of like a um yeah, kind of like a group community party that everybody contributes.

But it it's a centering device that gets people to come together, which I really love.

Um I could see maybe um, you know, sometimes people are might be starting out.

We could maybe publish some of the things that people do do in other neighborhoods that are fun.

I've been shocked at some of the wild things that some people do and have on their parts just like really neat things for good music and all kinds of cool stuff.

Then the fire trucks come around, police cars, the kids love it.

Um yeah, maybe just a general you know, small marketing thing.

Yeah, here's some of the things neighborhoods do, how they would spend the 150 dollars wisely or whatever, and here's what neighbors come together and organize, things like that would give people some motivation and ideas.

Um yeah, I'm glad we're having it again, and we just always hope it's not a crazy foggy night where it's raining.

But even that doesn't deter the enthusiasm usually.

It's it's happening.

People just they do their thing.

Yeah, they move into someone's houses later.

I mean, you know, it's cool, a lot of after parties, so it's great.

Block party contest.

Is what I'm hearing.

Block party contest.

It's like a block party.

Yeah.

I like it.

Yeah.

Uh Moonridge, I'd like to continue on with.

I definitely want to see that.

And I definitely want to continue on seeing police and fire and Matthew and the truck and the lightning showing up.

That was cool.

Um I think I I like it.

It was good.

And then people are doing their own thing.

They are bringing more stuff in.

I mean, our neighborhood, they were it was obvious the 150 dollars was just no a block party contest.

I like it.

I think Mr.

Cool should show up to judge that, right?

A couple of things.

I first I I if you're going to extend to Moonridge, then why not El Granada?

Montterra.

I mean, I that's where I start.

You know, these are city funds.

And if the county is not participating, why won't why isn't the county participating?

But you know, I I think it should stay in the city uh half Moon Bay.

So I can are are we are you seeing increase of staff time on this?

Are you are is this impacting us?

I mean it's a great thing to have, and I think it's wonderful.

You get to shut a street down.

Oh my God.

That's a cool thing to do if you're in you know in the hood somewhere.

You'd love to be able to sh close the street.

And you know, the only thing I will throw out there, it's 150 bucks.

Is it liquor?

Is you good using them at dispensaries?

Um I I just I throw that out there if it's a problem or not, you know, that we're supporting and that money could be spent on that.

Does that come back to Honness?

It just asked the question.

So a couple of things that are.

But I will say we've never seen any issues with any of those things.

These are very family friendly.

And uh, you know, the money is probably spent on paper plates and tablecloths.

I know, but uh nobody accounts for everywhere.

Right.

And we we have it in the world.

We're supporting parties giving the money.

Does that ever come back?

Could it come back to us?

Yeah, I mean, I think that it would be something easily addressed if the council wanted or gave direction to us to prepare some sort of agreement or you know, simple document saying we're providing you a hundred and fifty dollar gift card.

The assumption is you're going to spend it towards paper plates, sodas, whatever napkins you need for the event, but not these things.

Alcohol, you know, illicit drugs, things like that.

Yeah.

I might feel more comfortable, you know, with that, not knowing, you know, similar, you can't use some cards in a grocery store for alcohol purchases.

You know, I don't know how you lock that up.

But um again, two is how much staff time is this.

Is this starting to impact us?

Or is this something we need to I I wouldn't say it's uh it's a huge amount of staff time.

Obviously, the last couple of years with the the shrinking staff numbers, it's been a little bit more of a board burden.

But the and and Eddie can speak to this because he's really been running it the last couple of years, but I don't think we've seen an increase of staff time over time.

It's it's a pretty well-oiled machine.

And um, you know, there's there's some work that happens up front.

But Eddie, you want to speak to that over the last couple because you've made some improvements to the program, I think, over the last couple of years.

I don't feel like there's been a huge impact.

Um we're we're built and geared for special events, so we like it, and it's what we do.

Um, and it's fun for us to add to it and and and and improve it.

Um I would say from uh public work from Todd's uh standpoint.

We have it down with the street closures, you know.

I'm speaking on behalf of the public work staff.

Um we understand that for this event, um our staff are usually off by four or five o'clock.

Folks get home about that time and set up for for the event.

So public works has been really great about leaving these barricades out and allowing the residents themselves when they're ready to start the event to do that in their own on their own time.

Um I think from recreation, it's uh it's standard.

Standard.

Yeah, my feeling is that um it's okay for the city to give away something every now and then, and that what we get back from it is all of the public goodwill and the public being proud to be part of a city that does something like this for them.

Um it's a chance for the public to have fun, and and they do it with it with city staff being part of the fun, and with with our police department, our sheriff's department and our fire department being part of the fund and the cert volunteers are out there doing their thing.

Um in terms of restricting it to non-alcoholic use and non-drugs.

I mean I don't care if somebody has beer at their block party.

I don't uh to me that's not an issue, and that's not something I really want to be policing.

Um I don't think we said policing, just sign something saying, yeah, I'm not sure.

I don't I don't think I don't I don't want to have them signing anything.

I don't want that's my opinion, which is different from yours, obviously, but my my feeling is that if people want to have a beer on a on a Tuesday night in August in their neighborhood where uh all their neighbors are watching and the sheriffs there and the fire departments there, by God, have a beer, have two.

That's my sense.

Can I clarify something there?

Sure.

Um I maybe I'm hearing two different things, but I think what Councilmember Nagengas was saying is people agree not to use the gift card to buy those things.

Not that the events won't include, well, you know, there's they shouldn't be we have a smoking ordinance, so they shouldn't be out there smoking stuff in the street.

But I think I don't know if that you that was the same nuance you caught, but that's the way I heard it.

Well, the yeah, that there's that, but there's also the idea that we're giving them a gift card, it's a gift card.

It's it's I don't want to restrict the use of their gift card.

I don't want to tell them how to use it.

That's my feeling.

It's about having a party and having fun.

And um I think if we get to the point where we start to have problems with somebody who's, you know, taking the gift card and going out and buying themselves a pair of new shoes or something.

I mean, then the neighbors are gonna tell us about that, and they're gonna report it to the city, and then we could do something about it if we have to.

But to presume that something like that is gonna happen puts a damper on it, in my opinion.

Anyone else?

I haven't heard a lot of police reports or negative actions.

So um sometimes we just kind of trust people until proven otherwise.

So that's where I'm coming from.

And I want to start looking at receipts and this and that.

Now you're adding bureaucracy, you know what I mean?

I I'm just asking, if you're gonna get a gift card, just agree you're not gonna spend it on alcohol or drugs.

That's all.

That's my feeling.

And and however it's spent, I mean, I'm not gonna nobody's gonna verify receipts or anything.

It's just uh I don't think we should use city funds for people to buy alcohol with, and just asking them not to do that.

That's again my feeling.

Um if I may, Madam Vice Mayor, it could also be something less than an agreement, like an acknowledgement, you know.

Hey, acknowledge that we are providing this gift card, it's it's supposed to be used for um the the events, and we would request that you do you know, use it for these items rather than these items, something like that.

Or just an acknowledgement that the city is saying that you shouldn't use that for alcohol and drugs.

I I wouldn't mind something that said uh we are giving you this to buy paper plates or supplies, but I don't want anything said about alcohol or drugs.

I don't want that to be part of the party.

It's a party pooper.

Do we have any other council members that would would um would agree to that type of direction, an acknowledgement where it says the gift card is to be used for these items, but not identify the things that it can't be used for.

And the items could be uh, you know, a pr fairly comprehensive list, or it could just be for party decorations, event supplies, something like that.

Such supplies such as paper plates, napkins.

I don't know how you isn't it a shorter list, just say no drugs and alcohol.

Just stating the affirmative rather than the negative.

So I think that's the intent is to just keep up from if you're gonna drink it's you know, whatever you're gonna do, I I don't have a problem with it.

I just tried to meet city funds, you know.

I try and say whatever is easiest.

Somehow I'm making this more difficult.

I like the idea of saying what we uh would like the money spent for food, beverages, you know, um and um cooking supplies, whatever.

I just rather would keep it positive until again proven otherwise.

And you're never gonna be able to track where people have their alcohol in the first place when it's out there.

So, you know.

People are gonna bring it out of their home.

That's uh it is more like a block party, like you said.

So anyway.

So that's two.

Do we have a third?

Patrick, do you have a thoughts on this?

I just want to party.

I don't really care.

Um but if you want to be and I get what Paul's saying.

Um, but I don't know.

We haven't had a problem in ten years.

Have we had a problem in ten years?

Uh uh uh until we have a problem, we just put a rule down.

But right now we don't have a problem.

And I and I could barely get a beer out of my neighbor when I went over there, so I'm not really worried about it.

And you were there.

Matthew was there.

I was sitting there.

Is anybody have a beer?

And they were like, no, we don't have any beer.

I'm like, okay, I'm like having a beer.

So I didn't have that.

I can actually confirm that was exactly what he said.

So I don't I didn't see it as being an issue.

Everyone was gathering.

It was a great event.

My neighbors, some of them haven't seen me in a while.

They they knew that I was on council when I met them back in the planning commission days when I was in so it was fun, and we had a great catching up.

Matthew, you saw it, all these people were talking.

It wasn't about drinking and smoking pot.

It was about having fun.

I'm I'm hearing an affirmative approach.

So we'll we'll we'll take that and um.

And uh the question of um including Moonridge or not.

I I I want to keep it in the city.

Uh to me, if you're gonna include Moonridge, why wouldn't you include El Granada, Montana, you know, anything outside the city, even down the 92 corridor.

Right.

That's where I'm coming on this.

I have no problem including Moonridge without worrying about all the other cities.

The reason why I'm including Moonrooms is number one is the kids that are out there.

Number two, we have gonna have police out there and firefighters.

You want communities to engage with firefighters, police officers, city managers.

I think it's the right approach.

And it's close to our city.

That's the reason why I want to do that.

That's uh I I think it's the right thing to do.

It's a right message.

It's it's equality, and that's what I'm looking at.

I agree.

I just want to say it's city funds being spent outside the city.

Thank you.

And then any sort of constraints on the number of parties each year.

Do you want us to cap that?

No, let's wait until we see w what happens this year.

I mean, it's it's I don't see it getting much bigger than 20 to 40 at the most.

But you know, if we if it starts to get unreasonable, we can always clamp down on the number.

That's my sense.

Right.

We don't get any complaints, right?

Oh, we haven't uh uh uh I mean how do you have complaints when you have fire sheriff showing up and see folks and party on, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And actually the trend I've seen is what you said earlier, more blocks for consolidating.

So in fact, it doesn't create you know a million more independent parties, they realize the value because you get then you get more volunteers helping out and people bringing stuff.

So that's what I've noticed in my neighborhood.

And by the time I get to the party, there's usually no beer, anything left fun.

I like the contest idea though.

I really do.

Sorry.

I like the contest.

Like if combining I've got this burning man feeling right now, like you combine something, creativity.

No, I'm serious.

It was cool.

Our block did it.

They combined it, they had a jumpy, they had the cert certification people where you saw it.

It was kind of cool.

It's a combined one.

They just turned it into really cool vibe.

Oh, the kids were all playing.

I thought it was awesome.

So maybe what we can do is have the agencies that are participating just have like a little their favorite part each, you know, like top three, and then we can compile it.

And we can, as part of our we always do a report out at council after these events, and we can report on who won.

And there could be some kind of uh, you know, pat on the back.

Gift card for alcohol.

The other thing I'm thinking too is for our social media, or the gal that's doing it, she's doing a great job, by the way.

I see everything on Facebook, I see her on Instagram.

If we can get her out there taking photos, because she's doing a hell of a good job, I gotta say, and get that promoted because that shows community involvement of everybody's having a good time.

Yeah, I think we'll see more media come out of this year than we've seen before.

The other thing I'll just share, and and um, you know, the sheriff's office has a huge presence out here every year.

And it's not because oh, we've got to do something special for the coast side.

They come out here because we do this better than anyone else.

Um, you know, I lived outside of the community for a while, and I even hosted one of these parties when we were living in a different community.

It's not the same.

We we really do it well here, and and it draws in other people that are really interested in it.

So uh I'm I'm really proud of it, and I am glad to hear the support and understand some of the questions and the comments, and I think it's good to reaffirm some of this.

But um I'm kind of hearing keep going and let's let's create a little competition to up the ante.

As long as that ante doesn't up with uh some kind of rager or a burning furnace, you know, artwork in the street.

Yeah, no effigies, folks.

That's when the rules will start coming in.

So just to be clear, Burning Man is basically everybody has their camp and they have do their camps with with decorations and themes, and the food is free and the and the and the drinks are free.

Everything's free.

It's you go to each camp.

So that's kind of where I got the idea.

Yeah, yeah.

Everybody comes back with their dirty cars and their dirty bikes and dirty bodies.

So I think I think staff's got pretty clear direction here.

Uh we'll we'll uh continue forward.

I think the community will be happy and we'll report out at the second meeting in August.

So thank you for that.

Um do we need to do public comment?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is there any public comment?

Any public comment online?

Okay, we move on to item 10 C purchase of a new all-electric Hyundai.

Iana Q.

Can we just vote on it?

Yeah.

No, Dodd.

Taj wants to talk about it.

Memorize the light up now.

Really?

All right.

Technical issues have been resolved.

Madam Vice Mayor, Council.

It's a pleasure to be here with you this evening.

My name is Todd Seely.

I'm the interim public works director, and I'm here to talk with you this evening about the opportunity to purchase a new uh 2026 Hyundai Ionic 5.

So let's get started with why we feel a new vehicle is needed.

Uh the current pool vehicle is the second oldest piece of equipment in the city's fleet.

The only older piece of equipment is a 2005 F-350.

We're gonna target that for replacement next year.

But um, this is without a doubt the the next oldest piece of equipment.

Um, as mentioned in the staff report, the vehicle does have unusually low mileage.

Uh 33,500 and some change.

Um, some safety and mechanical issues have presented in the last few years uh because of the age of the vehicle, not necessarily because of the mileage on the vehicle.

Um this replacement was budgeted and in FY24.

Uh we had to shift our focus midstream and acquire a tractor so we could do the mowing because of some uh structural changes that happened with the member of the community and was not able to do that mowing for us anymore.

Um and but again, it was deferred for operational needs.

Um as mentioned, the vehicle only has 33,000 miles on it, but we have had some recent issues with the current vehicle.

Um there was a rat nesting in the engine bay of the vehicle and chewing on some of the electrical wiring.

Two recalls for airbag safety defects, faulty wiring in the brake lights and turn signals, windshield wipers that work when they decide they're going to.

Driver side window only rolls up and down in short bursts, so like two inches at a time, and then you have to keep going over and over again.

Again, not a deal breaker, but it is just we're just highlighting kind of where we're going at.

Um and some existing seals, the location is actually unknown.

Uh we've looked at it and tried to figure it out.

We're just not able to.

That may be older dry rotted and causes dampness in mildew during the raining season.

Uh some potential benefits of this new vehicle uh would be able to remove a gasoline vehicle from the city's fleet and replace it with a zero tailpipe emission EV.

Uh gasoline is approaching very rapidly, seven dollars a gallon, and uh it would be a huge cost savings for the city just on the gas piece alone.

Uh significant greenhouse gas reduction by replacing with an ice vehicle.

Uh the best estimates that we have based on a couple of sources about four metric tons a year would be uh of greenhouse gas would be uh would be reduced by eliminating the current vehicle.

And the new um I'm sorry, that says van purchase, but the new vehicle purchases would get the city ahead of state mandates uh the California Air Resources Board with regards to electric vehicle purchases.

As mentioned in the previous slide, greenhouse gas reductions uh earlier or late last year, we were able to acquire an all-electric van for the recreation department.

That lowered us down to about 41 metric tons a year of uh that's across our entire fleet.

Uh this vehicle would get us down to about 37 metric tons a year uh if we were going to replace with an electric vehicle.

Uh some existing some pictures of the the current vehicle that we have.

Uh it does appear to be dirty.

It's important to note that those are not uh that's not dirt, those are actually caked on stains.

We've tried to wash those out a couple times.

We could probably send it to a professional detailer, spend a thousand dollars and get it back up to snuff, but um it's just the coast side uh one again on this one and the air out here is kind of just done a little number on the paint.

Uh again, just not a modern look on the inside.

Uh uh 2010 safety features, so obviously there's been marked improvements over the last 15 years as far as safety features goes for staff and electeds that would be driving it.

These are a couple photos of what we are proposing to purchase.

It is a decent sized hatchback.

It has a little bit of cargo space in the back for anything for if if someone needed to travel out of town briefly, or if uh someone in the planning department needed to go out and post some notices for a potential project, something like that.

There's there's enough room in the back to to make all that happen.

Four seater, all the bells and whistles on the inside.

Um it is an extended, not all the bells and whistles.

We're not going leather or anything like that, still clost seats, but it does have uh we are proposing the extended range package.

It would get up to 318 miles per charge, which is pretty substantial.

Uh it's obviously not as much as you would get out of a uh a low mileage hybrid, but uh because of the requirements that we're having to deal with, we feel that this is the best option.

Uh just a kind of brief table of the purchase pricing, Hyundai of San Bruno came in with the lowest bid, 41,697 and four pennies.

And with that, that is my down and dirty presentation.

I would be more than happy to take any of your guys' questions and answer anything that you guys may have.

Yeah, I have I have one question.

Who uses this vehicle?

And for what reasons?

You you mentioned planning goes out and puts up notices.

What other uses does it?

Sure, sure, sure.

So I mean, just a base use of of the vehicle uh would be say that there's a seminar or something in San or like over the hill in Redwood City, and we needed to take six or seven staff.

Uh you could get four in this car and four in another car and reduce the number of vehicles that you need to take over the hill.

So the the purpose of a pool vehicle is to be open to anyone in the city to include elected officials.

Like if you guys had an overnight trip that you needed to go on, this would be the vehicle that you guys would use for that.

We were told we couldn't use it.

Yeah, last year I think they said we couldn't use it.

Anyway, uh that's not that's not why I questioned my my question is if it's uh how often do people use it for extended overnight trips kinds of things.

And I mean, isn't it mostly just used by people who are driving around the city?

The the primary use I would say is for code enforcement um or in inspections.

So we have staff that are pretty much every day out um visiting either project sites or going out and doing code enforcement actions, and we want them to be an official vehicle when they do that, not taking their personal vehicles and that kind of work.

So that's the primary use.

But you know, I've taken the pool vehicle to drive elected officials to meetings.

You know, we went to the e-bike meeting previously.

Right.

Um other staff may need to take it to a conference or to a training or something like that.

So it just it provides a resource um to allow people to, you know, not have to use their personal vehicles all the time.

Yeah, I I understand that, and I understand the reason for it.

My my question is based on on my uh thinking.

Uh we're gonna buy a brand new car, fancy car, cute little Hyundai Ionic Q or whatever it is.

Um just to do code enforcement for the most part.

It seems like a big expense right now when we're in uh we're in a deficit situation.

Uh the car is not unable to the one we have gets you there, right?

It just has a little rat nest in it, which is not nice.

But you know, somebody could take the rat's nest out.

Oh, it's been taken out.

We've taken the rat's nest out of that.

I mean, do you get my point?

No, I I understand where you're coming from.

So um that's all I'm coming back.

And I'll shut up and let other people talk now.

Um, you know, I got a family member who just bought a really sweet Kia, similar vehicle.

It was only 35,000.

I don't know, it's like faux leather seats that were beautiful, but really felt like leather.

Even blows air up through the seat like to cooling it down.

It's like all kinds of you know, all those bells and whistles, only 35,000.

I think there's and again, if it's just code informant, code enforcement.

Hell, a nice hybrid camera, man.

You know, that those nothing.

After five years, nothing goes wrong with Toyota's.

I mean, it's such low upkeep.

Not as nice.

I would uh I'm just saying there's other or um RAV4 or something like that.

I just think there's brands that have better um uh repair records, you know.

And uh and again, the key is about the same size and it's very high ratings.

That's about six, seven thousand dollars less.

Um I'm just wondering if you did any of those comparisons or what do you think?

Definitely compared to the Camry hybrid.

I have a bunch of real world real world experience with that thing, and even mashing on the freeway, you're I'm still getting 50 miles per gallon in hybrid.

Unfortunately, with the with the carb stuff, they're a hard no on hybrids.

They want all plugins all the time.

Yeah.

And that's kind of what we're up against.

Um as far as this the specific model that we looked at, we just kind of went out and did a me as the fleet manager, I'd want a Tesla.

Elon kind of lost that business, you know, about a two years ago, and Teslas are the most reliable, they're reasonably priced, they're maintenance-free for the most part.

Yeah, like a Tesla.

But it's a little gaudy and it's you know, a a little unrealistic to get a Tesla.

Uh we feel that the the Hyundai just comes in right at the right price point, and I mean, full disclosure, we didn't compare against the kid just because of some recommendations that we'd had from other folks about the Ionic.

I've talked to a couple of people in town that own them and they love them.

They're they're actually absolutely thrilled with them.

And that that was kind of the the j the starting point for where we're at now.

Could you get them to kick in an extended warranty?

The warranty is actually pretty robust.

So the the warranty that comes from the factory is like six years and eighty thousand.

Uh the battery bumps up a little more.

I think it's like eight and hundred, something along those lines.

So pretty realistic.

And and you obviously see the mileage that we have on the existing one.

We'll never get to the mileage part of it.

Um we will have to worry about replacing all of the electric vehicles in our fleet at some point based on the fact that uh just some stir surveys that I've seen from from consumer reports uh between 13 and 17 percent of vehicles need total battery replacements after about 10 years.

And that's a $15,000 proposition, right?

So the State's mandating it without taking this into consideration and offering us any recourse or relief.

So it's something it's why we need to stay on top of the replacements once we start getting these electric vehicles and the state mandates no hybrid.

No hybrids.

Even though you're driving on the electricity, it's local driver on the good to know.

All right.

Yeah.

Well, in the state, interesting, right?

One bad California wildfire, and that blows all these charts you're showing me that we're not doing years.

I mean, literally, it's amazing what a wildfire can do.

Absolutely.

And we're all worried about whether I have an EV doing code enforcement.

Did you look at used EVs?

Because there's so many on the market now.

We didn't look at used EVs because of the thing that I'm kind of referenced earlier with the battery and battery replacement.

Because of the unknowns of we don't know what the previous owners, what care they they would they put in that vehicle.

I I'm guessing it would probably be easier to determine to determine how much care was taken with an internal combustion engine, you know, oil changes, receipts and stuff like that, but charging receipts would be harder to gather.

If vehicles are driven to zero and then recharged all the way back, our our research has shown that that's not necessarily the best for the vehicles.

You want to recharge electric vehicles between like 80 percent and 50 percent to get them back up to full charge.

If you let them go all the way down, it just destroys the batteries.

And we have no way of knowing what a previous owner would have been doing, what their habits would have been, what kind of what their driving habits would have been like.

We we just don't know those.

That's a lot of unknowns and uncertainty.

And do we store these are these chargers under roof and a garage?

I mean the chargers for the electric vehicles.

Yeah, I mean, part in part of our problems were these vehicle how these vehicles were stored over the years, so I have rats nests and everything else in them.

So we currently don't have any covered parking in the city, because this vehicle would be assigned to City Hall.

It yes, primarily it is a code enforcement vehicle, but other people use it.

Like, for example, communications took the electric truck today and was gone for a couple hours doing an event at the high school.

So other folks in the city use it.

Um as far as the chargers go, the primary charger that we use downtown is right on the side of City Hall.

It's a public facing charger.

We just have cards that we are able to use to charge city vehicles going that route.

So we don't have cover, we don't have garage or covered, so we don't have garage for any of our city for any of the.

We still have that living on the coast and yeah, having exposed vehicles exposed to the elements.

And then uh it it's I think how I'm feeling it's like you have to buy this.

Right?

I mean, uh to us the decision is whether we defer it a year, you know, with our budget.

Yeah.

Even though it was budgeted, I I know that, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to spend it.

And you know, we're trying to figure out our uh uh budget this year.

I'm just wondering, because it w I know it was included last year, but right now we're a couple of FY24, yeah.

Yeah.

But you know, that's that's what I'm trying to figure out if it's uh prudent to purchase it this time.

Yeah.

Well, just so you have the information to make that decision.

We will be bringing most likely a vehicle request replacement for next year as well, and that would be to replace the 2005 F-350.

Still same thing as this one, fairly low mileage.

I can't even give you an exact number, it's probably in the 40,000 range, but well past this useful life, and it's something that needs to go.

That electric too, you have to prove it.

That one would not be.

So again, with carb in their regulations, they do give us some carve-outs.

I think up to 25 percent of the fleet we can carve out to still have internal combustion engines.

So we would replace that with an internal combustion engine, probably a four by four, because we don't have very much capability to get onto the beach in the event of an emergency or something catastrophic happening down there where we needed to get equipment down there.

So we're looking at probably a 4x4 F-250 or F-350, something like that in next FY.

That's our primary target right now that we've identified for replacement next year.

Thank you.

I think uh I think I looked at the photos, and these are our vehicles, it's sad because they all sit outside.

And and I I've had my share of rat damaged cars, believe me, and they do a number on these cars, and all you gotta do is let them sit.

Even my truck got eaten up sitting in my driveway in 2018.

Um they do a number.

And so number one, I just want to throw something out you um there is this little sensor you can buy on Amazon.

You can hook it up to your battery, it does this laser, it does this little beep, it keeps the rats out.

And it's I would highly recommend it because every car in in our neighborhood has rats.

And I'm one of them, I have it.

Number two, that car, it looks still good, you know, at 33,000.

You're talking about safety and mechanical issues, kind of minor wiring issues.

I mean, have we assessed it?

The window could be just self-learned.

Do we know what it is?

I mean, little little things that you brought up.

Does that really bring the criteria that we really need a new car?

Can we divert defer this for maybe another year or two?

Oh, yes, of course we could defer it for another year or two.

Um our thought process is and is that we have the funding for it now.

And again, we we I briefly mentioned that we're gonna be having to bring more vehicle replacements in in the future.

We when we took the van to uh you guys for approval the second time and kind of just laying out the plan.

The easiest way to keep O and M down for the entire city fleet is to get onto a 10 to 12 year replacement cycle, right?

When you're replacing every vehicle every 10 to 12 years, it keeps OM down.

You get a bigger return on your investment when you go to get Cisel to surplus them and get the money back.

It's it's just the cheapest way.

It's a pretty standard practice in municipalities, and it's obviously something that we've not done for for quite some time.

So we'd like to get to that point.

And that's kind of this is kind of where we're at.

This is the first step in the process.

Let's get rid of the older vehicles, get newer ones in, and start looking at how we can get these vehicles on a 10 to 12 year replacement cycle so that we can keep our vehicles fresh, keep them current, keep them safe, and and still have a semi-modern fleet.

I'm not proposing uh that we're gonna be replacing vehicles sooner than that, because that's obviously unrealistic.

Even in good budget conditions, that's still unrealistic.

But I feel that we have a bit of an opportunity here with the current funding that exists to kind of take a stab at getting rid of the one of the oldest pieces of equipment in our fleet and just starting fresh with it and and moving forward and developing a better program moving forward.

I my feeling about that is that I I'd really like to see the statistics, the reports that you're talking about about municipalities replacing things every 10 to 12 years.

That may have been true back when you were talking about internal combustion engines.

It may not uh be true any longer.

It may be true, it may be even more important now.

I don't know that.

Sure.

But I don't think I think when we are still talking about a deficit, um that we can't look at things like a 45,000 dollar purchase and just say, well, it's been budgeted in the past, therefore we can spend that money.

We could use that money to bring down the deficit and for things that are more important.

And and I mean, I I think um I think going at least one more year, maybe trying to see how that um of replacing municipal b vehicles every 10 to 12 years, how that would pan out, how it does save, what you know what what it really brings us.

Um that's what where I'm coming from.

Okay.

Through the through the Vice Mayor, is that how I request?

Yeah, sure.

Um I I would feel more comfortable, I think, waiting um till you know, we have we know there's contract negotiations this year, we know the matrix is also uh looking at personnel.

You know, I I'd like to see our impacts to our uh personnel budget.

And if we can get another year out of this, I I would like to try and do that if possible.

And and I also look at and I and maybe we could if you're gonna get some more information provided to you, is use EVs, their lifespan.

Now, maybe it is totally dependent on the battery if it's already gone, and I don't know, Patrick, if I'm gonna rely on your expertise a little bit here, but I don't know how much experience you have with you know your shop EV.

What Todd brought up was exactly right.

Yeah, because I was talking to a Uber driver and he said the same thing.

You don't know what you're buying, and if you run them low, it ruins the battery.

And then I said, Did that happen to yours?

And he goes, it did.

I was lucky it was under warranty.

There was some glitchy so yeah, you don't know.

And and there is there is gonna be a market out.

There is a market, but you don't know what you're gonna get.

And and also like these Tesla's are having problems with the control arm.

So you might be buying a used one, then you have this big expense with the control arm, and then they're having problems with the rack and pinions.

You don't know what you're gonna get.

You're buying it from a dealer.

Do you think he's gonna check it?

No, he's gonna flip it and move it along.

Is there certified do they have certified programs on do you know if I'm not aware of certified programs for electric vehicles, obviously for internal combustion and they do, but I'm not aware of ones for electric vehicles.

I mean, what I'm hearing is let's defer this until the next fiscal year.

Um it just may mean that we'll roll this funding over and be bringing multiple vehicle purchases next year.

We'll get through negotiations, we'll do some of this additional research.

Um, I I want you to know that part of the reason um you know Todd is here is he has experience managing a large municipal fleet.

And he's trying to bring best practices to us so that we're not, you know, shortcutting something by dragging it out a year, and it costs us more down the road.

So it is coming from a place of of knowledge and understanding, and you know, we we have deferred this already for several years.

We're well beyond what we normally would have done.

But we also understand the situation we're in, and we can certainly make that car work for another year.

And um, you know, hopefully we won't have anything catastrophic come before then.

If we do, we'll be back looking for a new car anyways.

So I I think we're comfortable deferring this for to the next fiscal year, not deferring it for a full year, but let's get into the next fiscal year and see how some of this other stuff plays out.

Yeah, and and I we really could use some education.

If you can educate us on that, that would be great.

Absolutely.

And um I think what I'll also bring back when I come back next time is unfortunately I have the kind of the carb requirements locked up in here.

2035 is the rolling target where they want 75 percent of our fleet to be electrified.

There's obviously a car battle that I mentioned about emergency response vehicles, and if I were to venture a guess right now, I don't think that there's any way the state's going to enforce 2035 just because there's not enough electric options available for sp for certain pieces of equipment.

Like we have a small F 550 dump truck.

There's the current equivalent that exists for that is the size of a freightliner, right?

So there's just not the technology hasn't caught up yet, and the state's gonna have to adjust those those goal posts as we move along, but we'll deal with that and we'll uh we'll sharpen our our approach as we get to there.

But for right now, we still need to get a couple electric vehicles in the fleet by 2030.

Which is realistic and doable.

It still gives us a couple years.

So well, thank you so much for your time, and I'll be back next year.

Madam Vice Mayor, we need to take public comment before we move on.

Is there any public comment on this issue?

Is there anybody online?

I don't see anybody, so thank you.

Thank you guys.

Have a wonderful evening.

Okay.

We now will move on to item 10 D, which is an award of professional service agreement with Miller Planning associates to update the implementation plan and associated sections of our municipal code.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council members.

So we're here um for this item to um look at the contract for the implementation plan update.

So this is a comprehensive planning code update.

The project um involves not just a comprehensive update, but really an a complete overhaul of the implementation plan and several additional sections of code that relate to planning permits.

Um it involves public outreach, mapping, agency consultation.

A little history.

Um in June of 2025, council approved 200,000 really with the intention of matching a grant that we were going to apply for with the Coastal Commission.

Uh in July then of the same year.

Um council authorized us to apply for the $5,000 $500,000 grant application with a $361,000 match.

That would be the $200,000 set aside and the 161,000 um for staff's labor.

The start date for that is uh was January 1st, 2026.

The first thing that we did was send out an RFP to hire a consultant for this, which was the intention.

The RFP was sent out on January 20th.

We followed the steps that are outlined on the slide here.

The deadline was February 23rd, um, deadline for submittals.

Uh we went through the process of um ranking proposals.

We only received two proposals.

Um we conducted interviews with both of the um consultant groups, and then we selected uh Miller Planning Associates.

Miller Planning Associates um really demonstrated a clear understanding of the project.

They have extensive experience updating zoning code and working in the coastal zone.

Um they also partnered with M Group um and with staff members from M Group that we already work with and who are already familiar with our plans, which was a big bonus for them.

Um the project budget, um the RFP uh noted the $500,000 grant from the Coastal Commission, but left the um upper end of that, uh the remaining contribution um open um and Miller Planning Associates um budget in their proposal was 699,946.

Um after we selected Miller Planning Associates, we agreed on a 10 percent contingency, which brings the total to 700 six seven hundred sixty-nine thousand and five hundred and eighty-six.

I'm sorry it's getting late for me.

Um so that's where we are now, and that's what's before you this evening.

Um I'm happy to take questions and um we also have Martha Miller from Miller Planning Associates online.

Just one quick question.

Out of the 769,500,000 is covered by a grant.

That's correct.

So coming out of our general funds is a hundred about 170,000, right?

Um 269,000.

Did I do that math wrong?

Yeah, right, right.

260.

Yeah, right, right.

Yeah, one of the slides that made it look like it was 699 or something.

Right, right, right.

Got it.

Okay.

So 269 out of our budget, 500 is covered.

The other 500 covered by a grant.

That's correct.

Right.

Okay.

Yes.

Thank you.

So is this the uh the update that's gonna be done by October?

This update is scheduled to be completed December 31, 2027.

So 2027.

So that's another date that is this part of the date that HCD was talking about that I saw trying to understand.

I think he's talking about rezonings.

Yeah, so there are there are we are currently um in the process of doing uh some very minor amendments to uh rezone um as required by HCD.

Those rezonings relate to program one-one and the housing element, and they are very surgical and very specific.

So this this is different than that.

This is different.

Those rezonings were initially part of this, but we pulled them out.

I think that's important.

Yeah, because HCD um wanted them done immediately.

Right.

And then the other thing I have to ask.

Uh because it's it's come up uh it's SAM board actually came up.

We were talking about AI.

And how much is uh included or not included as part of something?

I know there was um uh yeah, uh there was a comment from one uh a community member about AI, and I don't know, and maybe uh uh the representative from Miller can explain.

But does is AI a pro part of this process, or is this something you know now?

We're starting to even talk about, oh, it's old school if you have to write a report yourself as opposed to ask a question online and AI will answer.

I don't know if there's a relationship that AI can be a part of this, or is it something comes later?

But I didn't know if there's something you or the somebody from the firm could talk a little bit about how AI is or isn't a part of you know to do our implementation plan.

Yeah, um well, I will ask Martha to speak to this, but but but before she does, I will just say that that AI is a tool that um we all use pretty frequently now.

Um it is it will likely be used as part of this project at some point.

Um however, planning planning code is very nuanced.

Um that is that is part of what we're getting at here.

And um, you know, you want to you want to create it so that it's as objective as possible, but you don't want to box yourself in to the point where you can't be flexible when you have to be.

So in that way, it's very it's very nuanced.

Um but it also um also part of this package is uh community outreach and a lot of bringing agencies along and planning commissioners and um coastal commission staff um throughout the process.

So we don't end up in the end with an implementation plan that isn't approvable.

So um so anyways, uh Martha, do you want to speak at all to some of the AI questions?

Sure.

Um thank you.

Um Martha Miller with Miller Planning Association, and I appreciate the opportunity to kind of talk about this and answer any other questions that you have.

Um but what Leslie said is kind of exactly right.

AI is a tool that we use where we can.

Um I would say probably the most common use of it that we have in our work would be summarizing you know, maybe community input.

Results of a survey, um, open-ended questions.

Uh we may use it to for meeting notes, things like that.

But it really isn't something that can be used to write the code for you or do the analysis for us.

Um it's a pretty complex project.

Um so it's really something that um takes working with the community, customizing it towards Half Moon Bay.

Um I guess the short answer to your question is we use it where we can, where it's helpful, but it isn't kind of an overall large effect on um really kind of the work that goes into updating this code for you.

Um thank you.

Uh it it helps because I think there's some uh well in my head trying to understand it it's not like something, uh chat GBT can you can you see what type of zoning you can do, but you know, some blah blah blah, and boom it answers your question.

Um our implementation plan would be different than in other agencies, right, based on what how we're different than everybody else.

Right?

So and we're learning more about what AI is just a tool.

It's not the uh the solution to everything.

Correct.

So that helps.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Yeah, and I appreciate what Paul is saying, and I and I also read the comment from the constituent and stuff and understood what they're driving at, but I just can't imagine a more customized kind of document than a local coastal plan and the coastal commission goes over with a fine-tooth comb.

And when we produced that plan a couple of years ago, um the accolades we got from the Coastal Commission were unheard of.

I mean, it was just UNA, just like a very customized work of art, and one of the few cities that are totally in the coastal zone.

So it is very nuanced.

I mean, you can go into AI, but they can only use all the existing research.

There's not that many cities to compare it to, even that are like that, you know, on the California coast.

So I think it's good to be um, you know, rely on expertise of people who work directly with the Coastal Commission anticipate their um things that they want to see, and um and most of it's covered by a grant, so I feel just it'll be money well spent either way to have that customized expertise using AI where necessary to um yeah, cut the time on analyzing surveys, et cetera, and input, which is you know sounds about right.

So thank you.

So the same constituent called me today.

So but he he brought up forward, and I tried to text him now because he called me when I was like knee deep in my stuff.

Uh he wanted to know if our legal team would have experts that would oversee this documentation to make sure that it's on it's on track.

So that's kind of what he was asking.

Is this something the documentation or the final product?

Well, during the process, I think is what he was trying to say.

I think uh um I'll I'll let the director also chime in, but I think our team would be involved certainly in the process.

As the the the service the update is developed and reviewed, we would be involved in that process as well.

Director Lako, please correct me if that's not the plan.

I wouldn't undertake a project like this without a city attorney involved.

They'll always be involved in reviewing um new policy or um or code.

The AI thing, I think what it was his he was trying to get at, and I appreciate you guys bringing it up, is just we're he's trying to look at trying to say cost effectiveness is what he's trying to do, and also to protect ourselves based on what happened recently.

So that's why he motion.

Can we uh entertain a motion?

Oh, wait a minute.

Is there any public comment?

Any public comment online?

Thank you, Martha, for your input.

Um there is a someone who wants to speak.

Evelyn D'Souza.

Um hi, I just happened to be listening and actually using AI while you were talking.

And um I just was curious why AI wouldn't be used here to potentially do things like uh model future coastal conditions, run what if scenarios, um, identify high-risk zones, etc.

Um, so I just wanted to throw that out there.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Evelyn.

Any other public comment?

If not, I'll entertain a motion.

Um I'll make a motion that we adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a professional service agreement with Miller Planning Associates for an amount not to exceed $769,946 to update the local coastal program and implementation plan and associated sections of the city municipal code.

Do I have a second?

I'll second it.

Can we have a roll call, please?

Councilmember Brownstone?

Yes.

Councilmember Nagengast.

Yes.

Councilmember Johnson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Penrose.

Yes.

Motion carries.

Next we have commissions and committee updates.

Anything took care of at the beginning of the meeting, so we did that, didn't we?

Yeah.

Okay.

Future discussion, possible agenda items.

Anyone?

Okay.

City council reports.

Anyone?

Uh Councilmember Nagengest.

Thank you.

I just wanted to report out on March 26th.

I uh as a member of the um League of Cities, Transportation Communication and Public Works Policy Committee.

I attended our meeting in Costa Mesa.

Our focus was on e-bike safety and legislation being uh proposed in Sacramento.

And apparently uh I wanted to learn how the sausage is made, literally, right?

And finding out a lot of these laws that are being proposed will never become laws.

It's fascinating because it's an election year, a lot of items are going to come up.

However, there are some that we will, as League of Cities, which we're a member of, that we either support support with amendments or oppose.

And what I want to do when the e-bike um uh is gonna come to council in the near future.

We're gonna talk about that.

I know the BPAC committee, our local BPAC's been busy.

I I will uh assist in that report, and I also want to include updates what I've been seeing on the state level and where we have Boom Bay.

Great, wonderful.

Uh can you also tell them that the only solution to the e-bike problem is licensing.

Thank you.

That did come up several times.

I think that's it.

This meeting is adjourned.

And you win the prize.

He said nine.