If all council members can return to their seats, we're getting ready to begin.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the city council meeting of Tuesday, October seventh, twenty twenty-five.

Before I call roll, if we can have quiet in the chambers before I call roll, I will go over speaker card instructions.

If you would like to speak on any agenda item on this agenda, you must fill out a speaker's card before the item is called for discussion, or one hour and thirty minutes after the start of this meeting, making that five.

Again, if you would like to speak on any agenda item on this agenda, you must fill out a speaker's card before the item is called, or an hour and a half from the start of this meeting, which would be five.

Council Member Five.

Council Member Gaio.

Council Member Houston is excused.

And again, reminding council members, you don't have to press the button.

I will unmute you.

Council Member Ramachandron present.

Council Member Unger.

Council Member Wong present and Chair Jenkins.

One excuse at this time, Councilmember Houston.

Before I go to the first item, Council President, do you have any announcements?

Yes, we will have item 3.2 first.

Everybody, our great state senator is here, and we will hear from him first.

Then we will uh hear the consent calendar and then the mayor's state of the city will come after that.

No need to change in the order of agenda items that item 3.2 will be first, followed by the consent calendar, and after that will be the mayor's state of the city.

Going to item 3.2, receive a presentation by California State Senator Jesse Argruen on legislative priorities, recent accomplishments, and opportunities for collaboration with the city of Oakland.

And you do have speakers on this item.

Welcome, Senator Argy.

Well, good afternoon, uh President Jenkins and members of the Oakland City Council.

I stand before you not as your state senator, but as a new resident of the city of Oakland.

Councillor Unger is my council representative.

I'm proud to live in Council District 1.

And I'm here today to provide an update about the work I've done this past year in the California State Senate.

I know many people are here to hear from our great mayor, Barbara Lee.

So I will do my best to get through the presentation quickly.

But um just want to thank the council president, members of the council, including Councilor Fife and Counselor Ramachandran that have supported the work we've done this past year, including coming to Sacramento to testify in support of important legislation.

I want to thank the city staff for their partnership, as well as Nicola De Luca from Townsend Public Affairs, your legislative advocate who's doing a really great job on behalf of the city of Oakland.

This is my first year in the California State Senate, but I've been honored to have been selected to chair two committees, the Senate Standing Committee on Public Safety and the Senate Committee on Human Services.

Both of these issues are extremely important, not just to our fellow Oaklanders, but also to people throughout the East Bay, as well as serving on eight standing committees as well.

And this has been honestly one of the most challenging years we faced as a state.

From the catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles County to the Trump administration and the attacks on not just our immigrant communities but on our state.

We had to defend our immigrant communities against violent raids, as well as stand for our California values, but I'm proud to report that we have been able to accomplish a lot over the past nine months.

I want to just touch upon the partnership with the city of Oakland.

I want to reiterate that work has already been achieved in delivering results to improve public safety with crime rates in Oakland decreasing.

The partnership between the City of Oakland and the California Highway Patrol has been an effective one.

If we can I'm gonna go to slide two.

With thousands of vehicles recovered and scores of illegal firearms removed from our streets, I believe that this partnership and the work the city is doing, including its ceasefire program and public safety reforms, have contributed to these improvements in public safety.

More recently, I was very happy to help secure one million dollars from the state budget, even though we face very challenging budget times, to help support Oakland's macro program, which provides expert care for uh individuals with mental health or or substance abuse issues, deploying trained social workers rather than our police officers.

And that program I think is a really great example of a comprehensive public safety strategy that we can take to cities throughout California.

Um in addition, we work to advance several pieces of legislation important to Oakland, including Senate Bill 304, which authorizes the Port of Oakland to be able to better lease property at Jacqueline and Square.

And if we go to Jacqueline and Square and we see the vacant waterfront hotel, we see all these vacant storefronts, it's a very sad situation.

But we know that Jacqueline and Square, like many of our commercial districts in Oakland, are um really incredible places of community and economic and economic prosperity, but they need help.

And so because of some of the restrictions, because this is state land, state state trust land, um, it's been difficult for the Port of Oakland to lease those properties more expeditiously.

So this bill, Senate Bill 304, which is on the governor's desk, is gonna allow the port and the city of Oakland to better maximize the opportunity at Jacqueline and Square to lease properties to bring new businesses in, to bring more economic development to Jacqueline and Square and to help support Oakland's economy.

In addition, nearly 139 million was secured in home key funding since 2020, including uh creating 599 deeply affordable units for people experiencing homelessness.

And that includes a 33 million dollar award to the city of Oakland just last month to rehabilitate 109 units.

And so these are just some examples of how we are able to support the important work that Oakland's engaged in around public safety as well as addressing unsheltered homelessness and the behavioral health crisis on the streets.

Just briefly on the next slide, obviously, issues around immigration are extremely important to our Oakland community.

I was proud to author a bill, Senate Bill 81, which the governor signed a few weeks ago, to ensure that our hospitals and health facilities in California are safe spaces and to restrict ICE from coming into hospitals and health facilities to ensure that health care is a basic human right.

Nobody, regardless of their immigration status, should be denied health care in California.

In addition, the state of California took immediate action right after Trump was elected to allocate $50 million, 25 million to allow our attorney general Rob Bonta to take legal action against the unjust and unconstitutional actions of the Trump administration.

To date, we filed over 30 lawsuits unfreezing billions of dollars that Trump tried to take away from California in cities like Oakland.

Funding for health, health care, funding for education, funding for nutrition assistance, as well as fighting things like his attack on birthright citizenship, on reproductive choice, on trans rights, and so many things that are central to the safety and well-being of people in Oakland and throughout California.

And 25 million that we've been using to provide resources for organizations like Central Legal that does work to defend our immigrant communities from deportation.

We know that if somebody has a lawyer, they're more likely to be able to fight deportation.

And so this is an initial investment that we hope to build on to make sure we can protect our immigrant communities that are under attack by this administration.