Okay, good evening, everyone.

Welcome to our council meeting here in Redwood City of October 2nd, 2023.

Want to welcome everybody being here.

I want to make a few comments as we get started.

While we continue to offer in-person and remote options for our city council meetings, I wanted to take a note that we have temporarily changed our public comment procedures.

This is due to many recent disruptions during public comment at open meetings throughout our region and throughout California.

The city welcomes public comment on topics within the city's subject matter jurisdiction and on topics within the city's subject within our agenda.

And public comments can be made in person this evening and by email ahead of this meeting.

Again, I want to emphasize at this time we're temporarily suspending public comment provided by Zoom.

We want to ensure that the city can continue to conduct the city's business in a manner that allows all residents to participate.

Those comments have been racist in nature, anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacists on topics not before that public agency.org by five o'clock will be read into the record by the interim city clerk and also made part of the final meeting record.

Comments that were emailed to public comment at Redwood City.org by five o'clock will be read into the record by the interim city clerk and also made part of the final meeting record.

Both in-person and emailed comments are subject to the two-minute time limit.

Lastly, as normal, items will be taken in the order they are listed on the agenda.

So Jessica, would you do the roll call, please?

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Aguirre.

Here.

Councilmember Akin is absent.

Councilmember Howard.

Here.

Councilmember Martinez Savallos.

Here.

Councilmember Sturkin.

Here.

Vice Mayor Espinosa Coronica is also absent.

And Mayor G.

Present.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jessica.

I'd like to invite you all to stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Our next item of business is our presentation acknowledgments.

Today and tonight, we're representing a pro presenting a proclamation recognizing Filipino American History Month.

America, um, this is the month of October, and it is Filipino American History Month, to acknowledge the Filipino community's immense contributions to our city and to our nation.

I'd like to take a moment to read a few excerpts from tonight's proclamation.

Whereas the celebration of Filipino American History Month in October commemorates the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the continental United States, which occurred on October 18th, 1887, when Linzone Indios came ashore from the Spanish Galleon, Nuestra Senora de Esperanza, and landed and landed at what is now known as Morro Bay in California.

And whereas the Filipino American community is the second largest Asian American group in the United States, with a population of approximately 3.1 million people, and represents more than 10% of the population in San Mateo County.

And whereas the San Mattel County Filipino Mental Health Initiative improves the well-being of Filipinos in San Mateo County by reducing the stigma of mental health, increasing access to services, and further empowering the community through outreach and engagement.

Now therefore be it resolved that as the mayor of Redwood City and on behalf of our City Council and the people of Redwood City, we do hereby proclaim the month of October 2023, Filipino American History Month, in honor of the rich culture that Filipino Americans have brought to Redwood City community, and to express our appreciation to the county's Filipino Mental Health Initiative for supporting the Filipino community with culturally appropriate health, mental health, and social services.

I'd like to now welcome Filipino Mental Health Initiative co-chairs Christy Morales Kumisawa and Stephanie Garma Balian to the podium for your remarks.

And I'll join you down there.

Thank you.

Can you hear me okay?

Okay.

Thank you, Honorable Mayor and City Council members of Redwood City.

My name is Stephanie Balan.

I go by pronouns she her.

And I am a licensed and marriage licensed and marriage family therapist.

Also the Filipino Mental Health Initiative co-chair and co-founder of and senior director of Capua Cultural Center and Cafe in Daily City.

And so we are so thankful for the chance to be able to share the evolution of our work and how it's making our, her, and history, and how we stand on the shoulders who came before us.

We are here in this timeline because of our ancestors seen and unseen that have paved the way for us to be here today.

Just a little bit of um history of uh we're not going to do a whole lesson or anything, but we just want to um pay tribute to um one of our ancestors, our dear late um Dr.

Don Boalano Mabolon, who is a historian, educator, and activist, and she speaks to um the Filipino American History Month and says history is inclusive of heritage and culture, but it's also about the ways we have built and changed this nation.

Our stories, political struggles, transformations, labor, migration, activism, impact of imperialism and war, victories, etc.

Whereas heritage is more limited to what we pass down in terms of culture, tradition, and legacies.

History is inclusive of heritage and much more.

We made history.

We helped build this nation.

That's what this month is about.

So 55 years ago, um, in the late 1960s, long it's uh took place uh the longest student strike at um SF uh San Francisco State University.