Great.

Good evening, everyone.

And thank you for joining our regular city council meeting of March 9th, 2026.

We hold meetings in a hybrid format with both in-person and virtual participation available.

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

And members of the public may provide comments as follows.

In-person speakers will be called first.

Speaker cards are located at the back table in council chambers and must be turned into the city clerk here at the Dais.

Please be sure to indicate the edge of the agenda item number which you wish to speak on.

And attendees who have joined us by Zoom will be called to speak after the in-person comments have been given.

Detailed instructions for public comment will be provided on the screen when the time for public comment begins.

If there's a high volume of public comment this evening, we may decrease the time allotted for each comment or limit the total time for public comment.

In the event this occurs, please feel free to send your full comments to the city council at Council at Redwood City.org.

Written comments are not read aloud, but will be made part of the final meeting record.

And I'll not turn it over to our city clerk to call the roll.

Good evening.

We'll start with Councilmember Chu.

Here.

Councilmember G.

Present.

Councilmember Howard.

Here.

Councilmember Petia.

Here.

Councilmember Sturkin.

Here.

Vice Mayor Aitken.

Here.

Mayor Martina Sabayos.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

And with that, we'll move to the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God.

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, everyone.

Item number four is not applicable this evening, so we'll move on to the next item on the agenda, which is our presentations and acknowledgments.

And although we don't have any items scheduled for recognition this evening, I did want to call attention to multiple sclerosis or MS Awareness Month, which is recognized in March to educate our community about the autoimmune disease affecting nearly one million Americans and two point eight million people worldwide.

It focuses on supporting patients, highlighting research breakthroughs, and encouraging the wear of orange to promote awareness and advocacy.

A key focus is on promoting early diagnosis of us of MS by educating people about potential early symptoms, which include numbness or tingling in the face or limbs, blurring vision or eye pain, extreme fatigue, muscle weakness, and bounce problems, and encouraging individuals to seek medical attention if they experience concerning signs.

Timely diagnosis is essential to begin treatment and achieve the best possible outcome.

And the National MS Society has been instrumental in supporting efforts to enhance the lives of those living with MS through education, advocacy, and fundraising to support continued research and efforts to combat the disease.

To learn more about resources in our area in our community, visit national mssociety.org.

The City of Redwood City stands in solidarity, collective action and hope with those with MS to have greater access to resources and support systems.

And now I'd like to welcome our Commissioner, Pamela Swintz, to say a few words.

Thank you for being here, Commissioner.

Thank you so much for that.

It means the world to me that Redwood City would put such enthusiastic support behind the MS Society and myself.

It truly means a lot.

And just to um I am my name is Pam.

I'm on the Redwood City Arts Commission.

I'm a volunteer with the Center for Creativity Downtown, which is fantastic.

But just to reiterate, um I ignored my symptoms for over a year.

Um creeping up numbness through my body and just figured it was a pinch nerve situation.

Um it was not, as it turns out.

So um just reiterating just the importance of following up with your doctor and being uh proactive and advocating for yourself and just to get on the early treatment as early a treatment as possible.

We've lost all our federal research funding to for MS this year, last year, and we um just awareness of that and uh just supporting other people with living with NS and thank you so much.

Thank you again for your words tonight, Pam, and for all your work in the community.

And with that, we will move on to item six.

Turning now to the public comment section of the agenda.

We will now take public comment on the consent calendar, matters of council interest, as well as items that are not on the agenda.

We welcome speakers providing public comment, but please be advised that this is a limited public forum.

As such, speakers must address matters within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city.

If speakers do not, they will be warned.

And if they continue to disregard city rules, their opportunity to speak will be limited.

If you're attending in person, please fill out a speaker card and submit it to the city clerk here at the days.

And if you're attending virtually, feel free to raise your hand on Zoom at this time or press star nine if you've joined by phone.

Once we've gathered all the speaker cards and raised hands and have begun public comment, no additional speakers will be allowed to queue up to speak.

And I'll now turn it over to our city clerk to facilitate public comment.

Thank you, Mayor.

We have one in-person speaker card.

So last call of the audience or any folks on Zoom to be recognized for public comment.

Okay, we have two total speakers.

We'll start with our in-person speaker, Mike Flynn.

Welcome.

There's a timer on the podium.

The orange blinking light is your 30-second warning, and the red light with the beep.

Hi, everybody.

Um, I only have two minutes, so I don't have I can't give a lot of facts and other stuff.

But the problem is that people are coming to me about, and I've been here for 65 years in Redwood City.

Coached hundreds of kids.

So parents and everybody come to me.

We're talking about the roadway, Farm Hill, how rough it is, and just having back surgery, believe me, driving back to Port to Kenyatta.

It's like torture.

Same with Jefferson.

A lot of people are also up in arms about turning it into one lane.

They nobody's been talked to.

I went to some of those meetings and they don't listen at the senior center.

Um people are upset about some of the roundabouts.

Somebody even filmed the one on Roosevelt, and it was like a Benny Hill show.

Um the speed bumps on Kenyatta Road or on Canyon Road.

Um Hopkins is really nice, but the ones on Redwood and Canyon Road, a lot of people complain about.

And I gotta admit, I went to Canyon Inn and wasn't pleasant on my back.

Um people are asking me what can we do about it.

Um that's something that I'm gonna have to ask everybody that it needs to be brought more to um than just these people that were at the senior centers that are only pretty one-sided, and it was about computers and statistics and all this other stuff.

Well, we're not computers, and Redwood City is not a computer and doesn't work on AI.

People are shooting up my street to get off of Jefferson off a farm hill at Alameda and zipping down our street, and we got little kids on Lancaster, and then making a left on Dover so they can go south on Alameda.

And we have little kids, and this is gonna get worse on Vera and Madison and all these other streets where these things are going on.

Um besides that, I'm hoping to hook up with the city manager and uh being an electrical and mechanical engineer using some reason and logic and common sense in some of these city things that are going on.

Also, some follow-up on the things that are going on on our streets, the repairs so that we can make it smooth for the people of Redwood City that are paying for it.

Thank you all.

Thank you, Mr.

Flynn.

We'll turn now to our Zoom folks and Michelle Irachetta.

You may unmute and begin speaking, and the timer will begin when you start speaking.

Welcome.

Hi, good evening, Mayor Martina Sabayo, Vice Mayor Gene, the members of the council.

First, I want to thank you for recognizing MS.

Um acknowledging health conditions that affect members of our community that really helps bring visibility to issues that are often overlooked.

I'm Michelle Cheta, I'm a Redwood City resident.

I'm also the editor of the Redwood City Pulse.

I just want to make a note that I'm speaking tonight on my on behalf of myself and not on behalf of the publication.

I'm here to ask that the city consider recognizing March as endometriosis awareness month.

Endometriosis is a chronic disease that affects one in 10 women, roughly it's as common as diabetes.

Yeah, many people have never heard of it.

The disease occurs when tissues similar to the uterine lining grows outside of the uterus, causing severe pain and other complications.

But despite how common it is, the diagnosis can take seven to eleven years, sometimes even more.

And I know this personally because I have endometriosis and I went through multiple surgeries beginning in 2016 through 2019, 2020.

And all those years, it was about four almost five surgeries before I finally found a specialist in Houston who was able to treat the disease properly.

So this is something that a lot of women have to take.

Unfortunately, the the path that they take.

And these symptoms begin really early, and they're usually dismissed as normal period pain.

Since the city regularly recognizes important public health and community issues, I think acknowledging March as endometriosis awareness month would help bring attention to this disease that would that does affect millions of women and encourages people to seek help sooner.

And we have a lot of people in this city and in this region that would really benefit from this type of awareness.

Thank you.

Thank you, Michelle.

And that concludes public comment, Mayor Thank you to our city clerk, and thank you to everybody who made public comments.

Um we will now go to item seven, which is our consent calendar.

Items on the consent calendar are routine in nature and are approved by one motion.

Are there any items on consent from which council members are recused?

I'll go to councilmember G.

Thank you, Ms.

Mayor.

I will be recusing myself from item number seven F is in Frank.

Uh I serve as a director on the board of first community housing.

Thank you, Councilmember G.

Announcing any other lights on.

Is there a motion for all items?

So moved.

Excuse me, with the exception of item 7F.

So moved.

Thank you, Councilmember Chu.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

That was a motion for the approval of all items with the exception of item 7F motioned from Councilmember Chu, seconded by Councilmember Howard.

Could we get an electronic vote, please?

One more vote, please.

The motion passes unanimously.

Great.

Thank you, everyone.

And now is there a motion for approval of the recused item 7F?

So moved.

Second.

Great.

That was a motion from Councilmember Serkin, a second from Councilmember Howard for item 7F.

Can we get an electronic vote, please?

Thank you.

The motion passes with six votes with Councilmember G recused.

Wonderful.

Thank you, everybody.

With that, we will move to item eight, and we have no public hearings scheduled this evening.

So we will move to item nine, beginning with item 9A, which is the proposed suspension of the Mills Act contract application intake.

And senior planner Ryan Kutching will give us a presentation.

Good evening, Mayor Sabalos Sabayos and Council members.

My name is Ryan Kutchnig, Senior Planner.

I have uh just a brief presentation for you.

Uh the purpose of the staff report is to provide a summary of feedback, the Mills Act program, including what was provided at the city council meeting on December 8th.

Additionally, the report outlines potential next steps, areas of further study uh based on preliminary research of existing programs found elsewhere in the state.

Applications of the program are due annually on July 1st.

So staff is recommending an immediate suspension in the acceptance of new MILS Act contract requests until the adoption of the historic preservation ordinance, which is currently going through an extensive update, including study of the uh updated program.

Study of the uh HPO, as we call it, was part of a recently adopted HRAC work plan.

Uh so just provided one uh basic question for you tonight.

Uh, does council have concerns about the pausing of the Mills Act program while we study council's recommended changes to the program.

As I mentioned, staff presented an update uh to the program in December and received several comments.

I've listed several of them here, but there's a more detailed list included in your staff report.

Uh the first one I've listed limit uh limitations of new contracts to 10 years, addressing concerns with large tax breaks for properties in wealthy areas, requiring more frequent inspections or check-ins, potentially every three years instead of five.

Assist I'm sorry, uh establishing a maximum number of contracts per year or total contracts allowed citywide and requiring that improvements generally meet or exceed the property tax reduction.

Excuse me.

I think I skipped ahead.

I'm sorry.

I skipped ahead.

Okay.

I think I restated some of the some of these um but up.

We are uh we have recently begun the process of updating the historic preservation ordinance, which in part will address the considerations and concerns expressed by city council.

This is a partial list of ideas that staff will be researching, and you can also reference the report for for more ideas uh listed.

Um establishing a specific 10-year contract guidelines is one item, and that would be a list of qualifying maintenance projects.

Requiring a formal renewal process after an the initial 10-year contract period, requiring more frequent inspections than state law requires, and establishing a maximum number of contracts per year and requiring that improvements generally meet or exceed the tax reduction.

So at this time, staff is not recommending any changes to the status of the city's 41 contracts.

All existing agreements would be honored.

Okay.

Um staff has preliminarily begun research on other jurisdictions programs and are currently working with the consultant to develop a scope, including a timeline with community engagement opportunities for the uh ordinance and mills act program.

A joint session with the HRAC and Planning Commission on the topic is being considered to obtain feedback before formal recommendations are made and adoption is considered by the city council.

So during this ordinance and program development period, existing contracts would be continued to be valid.

Um our recommendation is to approve by motion uh and direct staff to pause the intake of new MILS Act contract applications, study, analyze potential updates to the historic preservation ordinance and Mills Act contract program, and return to city council with recommendations on such updates.

And so I've just put the question back up on the uh on the uh video there.

So that concludes my presentation, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ryan.

Before we bring it back to the council, we'll open up public comments and I'll pass things over to our city clerk.

Thank you, Mayor.

We have one in-person speaker at this time.

So anyone on Zoom who wishes to speak on this item tonight, please go ahead and raise your hand.

Once we begin public comment, we'll close the speakers list.

Okay.

We'll proceed with our one in-person speaker.

Welcome, Glenn Babbitt.

Well, good evening, members of the council and members of the community.

Um my name is Glenn Babbitt, uh, approaching my 30th anniversary as a resident of Red Good City.

Um a member of uh the historic resources advisory committee, but I'm just offering personal opinion tonight.

But uh I've been on the committee for a while, and based on my experience there, uh I've had the opportunity to meet many of the applicants for MILS Act uh contracts, and I've observed very broadly speaking two perspectives.

The first is that a tax break is great, but the restoration work on this house is going to cost way more.

What matters most to us is that the city recognizes and appreciates the historic work that we're doing.

The second perspective is oh my gosh, this house, we couldn't afford historic restoration work if it weren't for our MILS contract.

So to be very clear, the first is people with ample disposable income.

And the second perspective is held by people of modest means.

So what I think is important here is that the MILS benefits are disproportionately more beneficial for families of modest means.

There is no reason really to end this support.

What we're talking is affordability and housing affordability is in a crisis state.

This is one small way that the city is actually addressing that.

We are helping families of modest means to do something with that we actually want.

We want historic preservation.

We want them to do it right.

It makes sense for us to help them do that.

So my recommendation tonight is that we should definitely study the program.

But adopt the alternate recommendation of continuing the program during the study.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, Mr.

Babbitt.

And that concludes public comment mayor.

Thank you, City Clerk, and thank you, Mr.

Babbitt, for the public comment this evening.

I'll now bring it back to the dais for council discussion and any council questions.

Who would like to get us started?

Thank you, Council Virginie.

Thank you, Mr.

So thank you so much.

The first thing I wanted to do was express appreciation for all the work over many, many years that this Historic Resources Advisory Board has done.

And I think you really love and appreciate and protect the history of our city.

And I think everybody, you know, on the dais shares that goal.

So that's the first thing I wanted to express.

And so I think the second thing we have to really think about is what is our uh intended goal with this policy.

Um and so I I was looking into it, and the the pol the Mills Act was actually passed to save the uh Coronado Hotel in San Diego during a time when disinvestment and demolition of historic resources was a widespread problem.

Uh and so without the Mills Act, we wouldn't have, you know, very likely wouldn't have uh the Coronado Hotel and many other important historic resources.

Um I don't necessarily think that that set of conditions holds true in you know Silicon Valley in the year 2026.

Um I think one of the things uh that we need to consider as we think about what we want the the policy to accomplish going forward is without this uh uh benefit, would these restorations take place?

And so for example, when you know when a husband and I bought the house, I loved the house, it was from the 1940s, and we replaced, you know, it had knob and tube wiring and disturbed asbestos and all the things uh that make a house affordable in the Bay Area.

Um so we had to do all that, and I special ordered, you know, reproduction tile and original floor, you know, we restored the house to its 1940s glory.

Um but the the primary beneficiary of that was us, and that was going to take place because we loved the house and wanted to respect the history of the house.

And so um one goal of mine would to see the the Mills Act be deployed in places where that kind of restoration would not otherwise take place, and so maybe considering means testing or something along those lines, uh, and then to target the benefit, you know, so restoration has a huge spike in it in um expenditures early on, and then they tend to level out.

So you see the first few years is very expensive, and then uh it flattens out.

And so to deploy this benefit in such a way that it it uh accomplishes uh restorations that would not otherwise take place.

Um I think some other things that I really love us to think about is you know, what constitutes a public good.

So uh the oldest most beautiful historic and important house in my neighborhood uh went on sale uh two years ago, I think.

And I and I'd really been thinking about the Mills Act in this concept uh in this context, in that you know, if you think about the incredible value that the Courthouse Square adds to our city, um, it's a public good.

Uh you know, the the Fox Theater is a public good, and it makes everybody's lives richer and more fun and and exciting.

Um and in the same way, I'd also like to see us think about how we can deploy the Mills Act in a way that enhances public goods.

So, for example, acquiring properties that that can be used for historic or historic properties uh that can be a public benefit.

So anyway, um all of this is to say um I I think until we really winnow down, what are we trying to accomplish with this policy?

Would these improvements take place without the policy?

You know, if if a family can afford to buy a home in Silicon Valley these days, they typically have resources.

And typically would intend to improve the property with or without the Mills Act.

And so considering how we can target the Mills Act to properties where that would not otherwise take place.

So really optimizing for for value for all of the citizens of Redwood City and not just the owners of these historic homes.

So I think given that we haven't really resolved all those questions, I'd like to support a pause to we can really figure out what are we trying to accomplish with this act, and how can we best optimize it for for the benefit of everybody?

So I will I will be supporting the recommendation to to pause at this time.

And that doesn't mean in any way that I'm not supportive of historic preservation and don't see the value of it for our city.

Thank you for getting us started, Councilmember Chu.

I'd like to go next.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Ryan, thank you for the presentation, and thank you and the team for capturing of the comments made by the council previously.

The only problem I have, and maybe it's me because I didn't read it, was there was no date certain for bringing this back.

I think I just caught a year and a half ish if I read the report right.

Can we put a date certain?

And then if there's more work required, we can extend it.

But I just don't like it being open.

Um because things tend to drift.

Thank you.

Um Jeff Schwab, community development director.

Uh we have just received a proposal from one of our consultants, and they are anticipating a year and a half time frame that assumes that nothing goes, you know, a different direction through the community engagement process.

That's um what we had estimated and when we wrote the report, and it was validated today with the proposal that we received.

Um I would say we could report back as to how it's going and and let you know what that is our goal is to try to bring it back in a year and a half.

So, Jeff, thank you.

So we're pausing, so we're not going to receive applications typically that we do July 126.

If I do my year and a half, we're not going to get July 27 if I do my math correctly.

And so we're going to get this done before July 128.

That would be the goal.

Can we get it done sooner?

We can try.

Um, you know, I think some of this will depend on the information we get.

The consultants do have some experience with this.

We may be able to, as Ryan had indicated, we're looking at potentially some joint meetings between the planning commission and the council that could eliminate some of the lag between meetings to get to you.

Um and then we'll commit to you know giving you progress reports along the way.

The progress reports will be good.

So the July 1 date is kind of working backwards from property tax.

Is that assessment?

Is that the way that works?

That's correct, yes.

So we don't have we can't do it in the middle of the year.

So yeah.

It's hard.

And and one of the things we have identified is that you know, it goes through all of these boards and commissions, but the planning commission's role is really not that significant in in the in the scheme of things.

Really, it's the historic resources advisory board that has the specialty.

So maybe in the refined streamlined process, we could have them just make a recommendation to you.

That's one of the things we'll explore.

So I'm again, I think everyone caught the council comments pretty accurately.

I'm not too crazy about putting things off to July 128.

Um so I'd like to just see if we can do it by July 127 with periodic progress reports, and if we need to extend it because more work is required, so be it.

But to also streamline the process so that we're not delaying things unnecessarily.

We hear you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember G.

We'll go to Councilmember Howard.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ryan, and thank you, Jeff, for the report and all the information, and uh I really appreciate it.

I would support uh what councilmember Chu has said, which is I would support a pause because when the historic resource advisory committee came to us with your work plan, a lot of interesting dialogue happened that evening, and I took copious notes because it was the first time we were really discussing the Mills Act in an incredible amount of years.

I can't remember when we last discussed it and said, are there changes that need to happen?

Are we in time?

Are we up to the times?

Are we in compliance with the state?

There are a whole host of questions that we didn't really have good answers for.

So I would my own personal opinion is I know the staff will do their best to bring it back in a timely manner.

However, I want it done right.

And I'm glad that the Historic Resource Advisory Committee is going to take this on.

The Planning Commission can be helpful because they'll bring a different perspective and add to the conversation.

And then when it comes back to us, we'll have something fresh to offer the people of Redwood City based on the questions that we have here.

Some of these questions are really interesting, and I'm looking forward to hearing.

Excuse me.

Um addressing concerns about the loss of property tax, reevaluating the program and look for more specific Redwood City requirements instead of just based on state minimum requirements.

Things like that, I think, are worth the conversation.

Redwood City is worth the conversation.

So I will support this suggestion, this amendment, and thank you for bringing it forward.

Thank you, Councilmember Howard.

We'll go to Councilmember Padilla.

Thank you.

I also appreciate staff's time.

And I also agree that something done to do something well.

We're just now engaging with the consultants.

I think we should see, make sure we address all the boards and commissions, all the stakeholders and get the data, get the information.

Like Councilmember Howard said, it's been a long time.

Let's make sure we address this.

The one there was one thing that I wanted to share with everyone that I thought very stood out to me.

Um we all get these staff reports.

I appreciate the equity impact, and then there's the fiscal impact.

And that this is something I think is worth reading out loud.

Fiscal impact.

There is currently a fee of $780 to apply for a Mills Act contract, which is a partial recovery fee.

According to the city's most recent comprehensive user fee study, the estimated staff cost to process a Mills Act application is approximately $6,500, reflecting about 32 hours of staff time.

So I just want us to get an idea of that.

One application is about 32 hours of our staff time.

I just I think it's important that we can imagine these numbers and see what it really is.

The current fee recovers only about 12% of this cost.

Meaning that roughly 88% of each application is subsidized.

And do you know where it's subsidized from?

The general fund.

So that is something I want us all to be reminded of as well.

This is a subsidy.

This is a subsidy we are providing, so I think it is very important that we review it.

And it's meaningful.

I want it to go further.

This is even the calculation does not include additional costs for consultants that are used for the evaluations.

And these are paid by the property owners through deposit-based fees.

But I'm just saying that I want us all to understand how costly the I understand, yes, preserving historic resources is important, but I think we need to always have the the cost, the man hours.

We have had a very humbling meetings about the budget situation that we are in.

So I think that we all need to keep this top of mind.

I really appreciate the work staff is doing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Padilla.

Councilmember Howard, your lights on, just double checking.

Can I just ask perfect?

We'll go to Councilmember G.

Sorry, Councilmember Sterkin.

Councilmember Did, thank you for raising that.

So I want to just ask our city manager.

We've had several meetings over the past couple of years about cost recovery.

But we didn't do a carve out for this, so is there just a misalignment?

That's a great question.

I'm probably gonna ask Jeff Schwab to step up, who actually led the um the fee study process for us.

Well, I don't want to take credit for that because I didn't lead it, but um the fee study did identify this as one of the the items that isn't uh cost recovery, but there was a lot of input about trying to make the program available to those in need.

And so there was a decision not to actually do the full cost recovery at this time and to reconsider it the next update.

Which should be in another year or so, and that kind of aligns with this program update as well.

Um I'm sorry, I'm just getting old because I don't remember that carve out, but I would just ask that our city manager that whatever update we do, it's been strategic that we do this council, or maybe the previous council said we want full cost recovery.

So if there are any other exceptions, the council should know about it, not just the Mills Act.

I don't know if there are any others.

But they should be all brought forward so that Council can take a look at it and make a decision.

Councilmember, thank you for bringing that forward.

Thank you.

Councilmember G.

And we will go to Councilmember Sergio.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much to staff as well for um responding to the council's feedback and the community's feedback and preparing this uh staff report and presentation tonight.

I would just like to agree with my colleagues' comments uh with regards to um some type of means testing.

I think Councilmember Chu put it.

To ensure that the program is equitable.

Uh and also I would agree with Councilmember G's comment with regards to having a fixed time frame for this process to go on.

But also from the angle of since we have received you know three to four applications uh or interest from three to four uh families in applying for the program, we don't want to leave them in limbo for too long, right?

We I think it we owe them uh certainty.

Um I think um Mr.

Kutring, you had said something about the opportunity to hold a joint meeting between Planning Commission and HRAC, my guessing.

Okay.

Great.

I appreciate um that that offer.

I understand there's no guarantee, but if it can help expedite the process, I I do appreciate that suggestion.

And I really appreciate uh Councilmember Padia and Councilmember G's comments with regards to the the true cost of running the program and achieving cost recovery for services that we're providing to residents.

But also from a different angle from the angle of our our budget, knowing that about 122,656 dollars in property tax revenue are lost each year from this program, but also our local schools in that Rabbit City Elementary School District loses 312,773 uh you know 100 dollars each year.

So let me try that again.

312 uh thousand seven hundred and seventy-three.

So it's really imperative that we get this right and ensure that we are as um trustee Mike Wells that put it during public comment last time.

Um we consider the full value and I would argue the full cost and consider guardrails to ensure that no one entity's budget is is impacted uh by this program.

Um so I am supportive of the PAUS as well and appreciate staff's time and the community's time as well in contributing to this process and looking forward to seeing uh what y'all come up with and the community's feedback.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

We'll go to Vice Mayor Aiken.

So I want to thank one moment.

Sorry about that.

I want to thank staff for this considered report, and I've really learned a lot by listening um to my colleagues.

I I um was on the HRAC for six years, and I had the privilege and the honor during that time of working on Redwood City's downtown precise plan, which was passed in 2011 and became the blueprint for the vitality of the resurgence of downtown Redwood City, and I am extremely proud to have been a part of that team.

And so I just want to make a few remarks about historic preservation.

So, first of all, uh Councilmember Chu, you mentioned about the public good and about the enjoyment of historic resources and what it's called, um, these buildings have what's called character-defining features.

Placemaking.

So if you're standing there, you know you're not uh in Century City surrounded by a hundred high rises.

You know you're someplace special.

Redwood City is the oldest city in San Mateo County.

Something that I learned when I worked on the downtown project is we go to Broadway in Maine, and very historic, beautiful trees.

You've got uh you've got the Sequoia Hotel on one side, you have the Fitzpatrick Building on the other side, which was the first bank in San Mateo County.

It just speaks feels special.

You may not know it's historic, you may not know you're surrounded by historic resources.

You may not know you're hearing echoes from the 19th century, even though you're in the 21st century.

You may not know that the bay came right up to behind the Fitzpatrick building.

You may not know any of that, but you know you're in a special place.

So you go Fitzpatrick Building, then next to the the next building over, which now houses a pizza restaurant and a coffee restaurant.

After that, coffee restaurant, which has a historic sign that says Young's stationers, and it hasn't been a stationary store in decades, but from that point you have to walk two and a half blocks to find another historic resource.

All of those historic resources between the coffee shop and courthouse square have been lost, destroyed, gone.

So I just want that for place finding.

So when we say, oh, what the heck, two and a half years, who cares, resources won't be preserved as a result of this two and a half year delay.

I'm not cavalier about it because I care about our downtown.

And by the way, um I had a consultant say to me over Christmas time, very, very pro-development consultant, and uh he was talking to me because he's you know, because I'm on council and he's hoping to get business.

But one of the things that he said was part of the reason that the community has accepted the downtown precise plan and the drastic increase in development that has occurred over the last 20 years in downtown Redwood City, is because we have so many historic resources in downtown that people can still feel and that people still feel are familiar.

Um I'm hearing a little bit, and I just say one more thing about well, actually.

So you know, historic preservation, another word for that is culture, art.

Uh that's what historic preservation, it's part of our soft arts.

It's part of what speaks to our feelings.

And um, you know, it's there's always been art and there's always been money problems.

You know, if if you look back to the Louis XIV, there were a lot of poor people at that time, the Sun King.

If all he had cared about is money, he never would have commissioned a young Mozart to write happy birthday.

And there were poor people then, there were huge needs then, but there's always throughout history a recognition that we must take care of our arts.

So then I just one other thing I wanted to address is my colleague who mentioned 312,000 dollars that isn't going to schools as a result of our current Mills Act tax forgiveness for historic preservationists to preserve our built environment.

That is less that is less than one one thousandth of one percent of Redwood City's entire education budget.

And um I just I don't think it's fair for the tale to wag the dog here.

Yes, of course, Redwood City schools have huge funding problems.

But to say that we're gonna solve it by destroying all historic resources in Redwood City is it is not true.

Um so I I was I just want to say, Mr.

G, that I I share your and others' concerns about um loot, you know, a two and a half year window at the minimum.

And um so I don't know if if you are and I hear Mr.

Babbitt, who's a subject matter expert uh serving on the HRAC.

Um so I I would be willing to consider um am I hearing you right, Mr.

G, that you're worried about the delay or um I was just more interested in a date certain.

When there's no date, there's a tendency for things just to kind of work however long it takes.

Um I'm not trying to impose a certain deadline.

The deadlines can change based on discovery through the work process through community input.

But when I just see a date kind of fuzzy, it's just I'm not I'd like to see a date, and then as we get progress reports, if things need to move, they move.

But when you don't have a date they kind of tend to just drift, you know, and other work, more pressing priorities kind of replace when you don't have a deadline.

Okay, th thank you, Mr.

G.

Um I I appreciate your clarification.

I um I guess I just finally I want to um let my colleagues know and uh Mr.

Babbitt, thank you so much for being here tonight.

I really appreciate.

Um and thank you for serving selflessly on the HRAC.

I I just want to let my colleagues know that because I spent six years on the HRAC and I went to a lot of seminars in Monterey, in San Francisco, I learned a lot about historic preservation that not all of us have.

And it's okay that we don't have it.

I'm not saying I'm better or worse or anything.

But I really would like all seven of us to be really careful about um deferring to the subject matter experts.

It's like anything else.

You may intuitively think you understand it, but it's like anything else, it's complex.

It's very um there are many facets to it, and I would hate for us a year and a half from now to uh oversimplify something and then as a result lose even more historic resources and the place finding and what makes Redwood City special.

I'll I'll I it sounds like I'm the only one.

Um I at Mr.

Babbitt's uh recommendation, who is a subject matter expert.

I I agree that we should we should not pause these resources while we're studying.

Um but it sounds like I'm the only one thinking that way.

So I'll leave it there.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I'm not saying any other lights on, I will I'll add my thanks to staff for the the wonderful presentation and the work to get us here and to Mr.

Babbitt for his service on the HRAC.

Um, I appreciate the robust discussion tonight and think that with all of the policy questions we still have to define and gather input from our um our colleagues on planning and the HREC.

I think pausing the program in the interim makes a lot of sense.

Um I am curious to, you know, as my colleagues have mentioned around defining what what historical means and what those cultural resources look like.

Uh it makes sense that we take a fresh pair of eyes to what those definitions mean and with the financial uncertainty of not just the school district but the city want to make sure that we're stretching this program as far as we can get and uh appreciate HRAF including this in their work plan because I know trying to stretch the benefits of this program to other parts of town was something that that body was discussing too.

So uh I agree that you know I will would prefer a uh a certain dates, right, so that we can keep this um always keep this moving, but um you know we'll defer to staff on on what that timeline looks like with with some frequent updates.

So uh I agree that you know I will would prefer a uh a certain dates, right, so that we can keep this um always keep this moving, but um you know, we'll defer to staff on on what the timeline looks like with with some frequent updates, but um lastly, just wanted to thank staff for also reaching out to the folks who were interested, hadn't applied yet to let them know of these changes uh just so that we're setting expectations, everyone's on the same page, and no one's surprised when they're getting their paperwork ready, come down to City Hall and find out that we've paused it for the rest of the year.

So um thank you for our staff for doing that work.

But with that, are there any final thoughts?

Uh I will accept a motion.

Councilmember Sirkin.

I'll make a motion to approve the staff recommendation.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

That was a motion from Councilmember Sterkin and a second from Councilmember Chu.

Can we get an electronic vote, please?

Excuse me, Mr.

Mayor, may I make offer a friendly amendment to the maker in the second?

Please.

So to the maker of the second, what I'd like to do is just kind of put a deadline in here, like December of 2027 with six-month progress reports, no later than, and then if if the discovery process says you need to change it, so be it.

But at least there's a target, and that there's six-month progress reports.

Um, and not asking the to shortcut the process or not to do a good job, but just to put a deadline out there so that everyone can see and visible and the property owners that are interested can then get ready from potentially July 1 of 2028.

So at least they can plan.

Thank you, Councilmember Council Mr.

Sirkin.

I agree with that amendment.

Thank you, Councilmember Gene.

As do I.

Perfect.

That's head nods from the the motion maker in the second.

Can we get an electronic vote, please?

The motion passes with six votes.

Vice Mayor Aiken opposed.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone, and again, thank you for the great discussion on this item.

We'll now go on to item 10, our study session, beginning with 10A on the Redwood City Pavement Management Program update.

Our study session item this evening is to receive an update on the city's pavement management program.

As a reminder, study sessions are intended to gather input from the public and the city council.

No action will be taken on this item tonight.

And engineering and transportation director, Tanisha Werner will give us a presentation this evening.

Thank you.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council, staff, and members of the community.

My name is Tanisha Werner.

I'm the director of engineering and transportation, and it's my pleasure to provide an update on our pavement management program.

Before I go into the presentation, I do want to give a special thank you to all the staff in engineering and transportation and public work services who are really the people behind this program.

And I have two of them here with me tonight.

I have Malaha O'Rang, who's our principal transportation planner, and Jaime Rodriguez, who is our consultant pavement manager.

Next slide, please.

For tonight's presentation, I'll go over a brief background of our pavement management program.

I'll go over a few different proposed approaches to maintaining and increasing our pavement condition index.

And then we have a large list of projects that we have coming down the pipe in the next one to two years.

So I'll go over the planned projects and then highlighting some mobility and safety enhancements that we're incorporating with each of our pavement projects, and then a discussion on funding.

As you're listening to the presentation, I just want everyone to keep these three questions in mind.

Do you have any questions or recommendations about the information provided by staff?

Do you have any questions or recommendations about the upcoming approach to the pavement management program?

And finally, would council like staff to study whether the city should pursue a higher PCI?

That's the pavement condition index score, as part of the next fiscal year's analysis.

Redwood City has approximately 158 centerline miles of roadway.

This is an incredibly valuable asset.

It has an estimated asset value of 387 million dollars.

This is a very significant asset for all of our community.

And our goal in engineering is to maintain our roadway network to a very high quality standard, and that is through focusing on routine maintenance and preventative measures rather than allowing roadways to deteriorate to the point where we have to do more intensive measures or reconstruct them.

Our program looks at feedback from staff.

Our program looks at feedback from staff, it looks at community survey input as well as reports from MTC.

And the latest round of community surveys really highlighted the fact that the community wants us to address potholes and roadway condition, and our pavement management system really highlights adhering to that goal from the community.

So, what is a pavement condition index?

So if you remember nothing after today, please remember PCI.

The PCI is a numerical measurement that rates the condition of the surface of the roadway on a scale of zero to 100, with 100 being a perfect brand new road and zero being a road that is significantly deteriorated.

We have four pictures on the slide that show four different PCI points.

The first one on the top left is a PCI of 85, and that's a roadway that's in really good condition.

The next one on the top right is a PCI of 60.

This is a roadway that is starting to experience some deterioration.

You can start to see some of the longitudinal cracking.

The pavement picture on the bottom left has a PCI of 40, and this is where we're starting to see more distresses in the pavement.

We're starting to see more cracks that are forming the shape of blocks, and so we refer to those as block cracking.

And then the last picture on the bottom right is a PCI of 20.

And this is where you'll start seeing potholes.

You see a lot of cracking, which we refer to as alligator cracking.

It looks like the back of an alligator.

Our goal in Redwood City has been to maintain a PCI of 70 or higher that puts our roadway condition in the good category.

And we have been just having a few different connection points with council to ensure that we're on point with that policy direction.

Next slide, please.

So there's a lot going on on this graph.

The first thing I want to highlight is the purple line.

So the purple line is showing how Redwood City's pavement condition index has changed since the year 2015 all the way through the year 2024.

In 2015, our PCI was pretty good.

It was at a score of 78, and then over the years we've had a downward trajectory with the latest PTAP report showing that we have a PCI of 69 in 2024.

If we extrapolate that out to 2026, we're seeing that we have further downward trajectory to around the PCI 66 mark.

And another thing to highlight on this draft is we haven't changed the amount of funding that we've put into the program annually since 2015.

And so we could do so much more with the funding more than 10 years ago.

Now with the cost of labor materials, we have tariffs, all of that has really inhibited our ability to do more with less money.

So it's a very colorful way of showing that we have a large variety of different PCIs throughout the various streets in the city.

On this map, anything with a green color indicates roads that are in pretty good condition.

They have a PCI of 80 or higher, and then as we go down the color scale down to the dark blue, those are the roadways that are in the PCI 20 or lower category.

But one highlight for this map is just that not all the streets are wearing at the same rate, and we have quite a variety of PCIs within our city.

So in 2024, our PCI study showed that we were at an overall network PCI of 69, and in 2025, the PCI study showed a downward trajectory of 66.

So with our roadway maintenance approach, one thing that we look at whenever it's time to resurface a road, we look at it as a blank canvas, if you will.

You can see in the picture on the right, when we're doing resurfacing, we get a nice clear pavement surface where we can incorporate different pedestrian bicycle facilities through striping improvements.

And it's really our opportunity to look holistically at a neighborhood or even a zone in the city to see what we can do to further make things better for all users of the roadway.

We really try to focus on not deferring preventative maintenance because the single act of saying we can wait until next year to do that project means that the roadway doesn't freeze in time.

So its condition is going to change whether we do something to it or not.

And so we really want to stay into the category of preventative maintenance where we're doing small surface treatments that are less costly per unit price than something as substantial as a reconstruction where we've got to rip out the whole roadway, rebuild it, and then resurface it on top.

Our pavement program really looks at ways to improve accessibility and mobility in the area.

We look at doing high visibility crosswalks.

Um can we shorten the crossing distance by incorporating bull belts to the design?

Are we able to extend our bicycle network and incorporate high visibility green bike lanes as a part as part of our striping improvements?

So a new pavement service is really just a great new opportunity to add in more mobility and safety enhancements.

The PTAP report really just provides recommendations based off of different funding levels on what the city can do to maintain a certain level PCI or even increase it.

When we're looking at our paving program right now, staff's goal is to get us at least up to PCI of 70.

And in order to do that, we do need a pretty substantial infusion of funding.

The first strategy is looking at over the next five years, increasing our overall PCI to 70.

We would need approximately $35 million over a five-year period or roughly $7 million per year in order to get up to that PCI 70 level and maintain it.

Another strategy would be to increase that PCI goal even further to 74.

And over a five-year period, we'd be looking at approximately 49 million dollars, which equates to about 9.8 million dollars per year.

These numbers are quite a bit higher than the amount of funding that we currently have, which is about $5 million a year, unless there are one-time funds that are reallocated to the paving program.

But just as kind of a rough order of magnitude, if you think about every million dollars that we add to the paving budget, we can do about one mile of resurface roadway.

And we have 158 centerline miles of roads.

So that's a lot of millions of dollars to get every roadway done.

Next slide.

And we're going to be doing an overlay project on that on those portions of the road, which will bring the target PCI for those individual sections all the way up to 100, which is a brand new perfect road.

The cost of our project is about 2.6 million dollars, and of that 2.6 million, we have almost a million dollars worth of 88 improvements.

As we're doing more substantial treatments on roadways, we do trigger the requirement to upgrade curb ramps to meet current federal standards, and that introduces a lot of new concrete improvements to an otherwise uh pavements resurfacing project, and that um is what also contributes to the upward trajectory of our project costs.

This is also Broadway, and this is just showing the striping plan.

Couple things I wanted to highlight on this.

We will be incorporating high visibility crosswalks, introducing green bike lanes to connect this bicycle network, and then we're also going to be transitioning from in-pavement vehicle detection devices to video detection devices, and there are two intersections along the stretch of Broadway.

Um, this is between Maple and Chestnut, where we will be upgrading the intersections to video detection, which is a really great new page for our pavement program.

We have a few other sections that we're looking at for 2026.

There are two neighborhoods that we will be focusing in on the Centennial neighborhood as well as the Stanbaugh Heller neighborhood.

When we look at Broadway, Centennial, and Stanba Heller, we're looking at approximately 12 to 14 million dollars worth of paving treatment, which is what's really needed in order to get those numbers up for our overall PCI scores.

And these areas will be done in the late spring, early summer time.

When we're looking at 2027, we're really looking at where can we get the most bing for our book?

Where can we look at roadways that haven't really had a treatment in the near past and have experienced a lot of utility cuts or deep trench cuts in the roadway surface, which just further leads to more deterioration?

Um, so if we do one click, okay, maybe two clicks.

All right, so the first neighborhood that we are going to be focusing in on is Edgewood, and that's the first red box.

Then the next one is uh Stanbaugh Heller, and then the third one is in Friendly Acres, which also has a large concentration of our equity priority areas.

Our program really relies on a heavy infusion of funding through grant programs, and staff has been very successful in grant applications.

These are only a handful of projects that we're going to be incorporating in this year's paving program that are funded through grants.

We have the Vera Avenue Bicycle Boulevard, Roosevelt Avenue Traffic Calming Project, and then in the summer through the fall of 2027, we'll be looking at Jefferson Avenue between El Camino Real and where Farm Hill starts, and then in early 2028, we'll be looking at a complete street project on Bay Road.

So looking into our funding sources, we have three main buckets of funding, if you will.

The first one comes from Senate Bill 1, SB1, and that is a recurring infusion of about 1.5 million dollars.

The next one is a sales tax measure that comes from the TA, the Transportation Authority, and we get roughly one to two million dollars per year.

And then our third large bucket comes out of our capital outlay funding, and that is targeted funding for pavement management as well as our ADA transition plan.

Looking at some of our key goals.

So our pavement program and our approach is in alignment with one of the city council's key goals, which is to increase roadway safety and the experience for all users.

It is also in alignment with one of our city managers' key goals, which is looking at a comprehensive review of all city infrastructure and utilities in the next fiscal year, which is 26-27, and pavement is certainly part of that.

So for next steps, we will be transitioning into an outreach and construction phase in engineering.

We have quite a number of paving projects planned for the next two years, and so hopefully in our neighborhoods, everyone will see the really great things that we're trying to do to improve the safety in the roadway.

And then just to remind you of the questions that um wanted you to keep in mind as you went through the presentation.

Questions are on the screen.

And with that, we're happy to pass it back to the clerk.

Thank you for the great presentation, Tanisha.

Before we bring it back to the council, we will open it up for public comments and I'll send things over to the city clerk.

Thank you, Mayor.

Looks like we have one speaker card.

Anyone else in the room or on Zoom who'd like to get public comment on this item tonight?

Okay, move forward with our one in-person speaker.

Dylan Finch, welcome.

Hello, council.

My name is Dylan Finch.

I'm just speaking for myself today.

Um, I just want to say it was it was awesome to hear that um the ball belts are considered when doing the concrete work as part of the larger projects.

I think that's a it's a great time to do it a lot cheaper than that rather than having to re-bring out the concrete truck and everything at some later time.

So I've and it's a great way to just kind of slowly make those improvements over time.

That's awesome.

I'm also in favor of trying to uh of making the uh red no-parking daylighting zone around intersections, making that concrete as well, so we don't have to have the police um enforce all of the red curves.

Um, but I understand that that's more expensive.

But uh anyway, yes, that's just great to hear.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dylan.

And that concludes public comment, Mayor.

Thank you to our city clerk, and thank you to Mr.

Finch for the public comment this evening.

With that, I will bring it back to the council for any questions or comments.

Thank you, Councilmember Howard.

You're welcome.

Um very good presentation.

Uh I was going to ask a question about slide number six.

Okay, thank you.

Um I noticed that um surface seals kind of fell off the map as we came into recent years.

And I'm wondering, uh, could you explain?

Is it a totally new technique now where surface seal is no longer necessary, or is it shown to be not very helpful?

Uh could you explain that?

Because there were some huge spikes there, and then all of a sudden it just disappears.

Yeah, so surface slow surface sills are typically our slurry so or microsurfacing treatment.

They're used where you have a really high quality pavement.

So you want a pavement that's 70 to 80 PCI, and then you're just resealing the surface.

You're not seeing a whole lot of cracking or areas of distress.

Um we look at 2015, our overall PCI was at 78.

And so that is perfect time to start doing huge slurry so programs.

As the PCA PCI starts to have that downward trajectory, then we really have to look at other types of treatments and not just rely on slurry sills.

But the goal is to get the overall PCI back up so that we can rely more heavily on the slurry cells.

Have the materials or the process to repair the roads improved over time.

Uh materials haven't really changed much, but I'm happy to I will introduce you to our paving manager.

Um, his name is Jaime Rodriguez.

Good evening again.

My name is Jaime Rodriguez for those of you that don't know me, and uh I'm your temporary contract pavement program manager, so I'm happy to be here and I'm happy to answer questions.

So I believe the specific question was has there been change in pavement reconstruction methods?

Was that was that generally it?

Uh there actually have been some advances in in pavement treatment types.

Uh Tanisha specifically mentioned the difference between say slurry seal or or microsurface.

Bricosurface is not significantly old treatment, it's relatively still new, and a lot of cities are still trying to transition towards there.

A slurry seal is more like a sand mixture, it's very watery, you know, but it's really easy to spread.

Uh versus a microsurface uses a much thicker aggregate in there.

So it's still applicable applicable, so it's kind of spread out with uh with squeegee's when they when they install them or with a large truck.

Uh but the microsurfacing is really ideal to help you get it get a longer life extension.

Where there's been more advances is is in the larger reconstruction.

So when you have to rebuild a roadway, uh there's a lot more eco-friendly uh measures.

Specifically, one of the treatments that's been advanced in the Bay Area is called cold and place recycling.

Usually it's super expensive, and it's super expensive to like grind a roadway and then haul the grindings off to get recycled at a landfill uh versus newer treatments for straight sections of roadway that you actually grind, but then take the grindings and re put them back into the ground to create your brand new base layer.

That's a really nice application.

It's very cost effective, let you kind of re-slope the roadway for drainage, but you have to have a straight roadway segment for that to be in use.

So where you have a lot of curvature in the roadway or up in the hills, it really isn't a good treatment.

So definitely there's advances in the industry.

Um I think our specific target right now has been more in focusing on what's what's tried and true that's really cost effective.

And one of the measures that we're specifically looking at in the fiscal year 26, 2025 26 program is a treatment called a cape seal.

So a cape seal uses a combination of two treatments.

One was called a an uh old chip seal type program that puts down a really nice thick layer of cadatar or oil, they're gonna call it, and then they kind of spread rocks and compress them into the pavement, and then about a week later we follow through with a really nice thick microsurface.

That actually increases the PCIs anywhere back up to say 75, upwards up to 75, depending on the original conditions of the roadway.

So of all the treatments that we have available to us within our bucket, cape seals are one of the most effective treatments we have.

Um I did see some of the city council questions that were kind of sort of sort of over to Tanisha for a response.

And there were some questions about the I believe it's called the Centennial neighborhood, kind of north of uh north and south of Whipple, out near industrial.

And that's a really good example of a rotor that it doesn't look as bad as people really think it is.

But that was a cape seal that was done about 25, 27 years ago.

The and it still looks great, right?

It still looks awesome.

Uh then you look at like say Stanby Heller, that was also a cape seal done about 20, 22 years ago, but it doesn't look as good because there's uh more traffic kind of up and down that area off of chestnut.

There's been a lot more utility reconstruction in that area in the Stanby Heller neighborhood.

So we're that's that's just good examples how how cape seals can uh stand the test of time depending on how the roadways are maintained.

So we're we're strongly advising the city to consider cape seals uh as a longer treatment for Redwood City because it'll it'll really bump up your PCIs over time.

Sorry, long answer, but hope you answer the question.

No, those thank you.

That was really very helpful.

Uh I remember the days back when they did the CAPE and the slurry seals and so forth.

It was quite a process, but there was a lot of engagement from the community.

They got door handles, letting them know when it's happening, and and it really was quite successful back then.

But uh knowing that part of the problem is money, and I'm sad to see that the condition is going down.

So, what I did want to ask is um I know you have to contract out a lot of this work because we don't have the employees and staff to do some of these procedures, is uh what I'm guessing it hasn't changed.

So I just hoping that we spend a little time making sure we get the most qualified, the best price, of course, but the most qualified group, because we did have a a company back in the day, if they just had to keep going back to repair or fix things they'd done.

And I kept thinking, what a waste of time and money.

Let's get somebody who does it right the first time.

So I'd really like to be very picky about who we choose to do this work considering the cost has gone tremendously high.

And we want our roads to be in excellent shape as best we can and for what we can afford.

So I'm hoping we can do that a real stringent uh discovery of the best company who would like to come work in Redwood City.

And then I wanted to know oh, the customer satisfaction survey we did not too long ago.

As we know, what came out number one, streets and sidewalks and safety of our streets and sidewalks.

So I know the public will be happy we're doing this.

So I'm saying that I know it sounds like we have a shortfall of money, I think we do, to do the desired PCI of 75.

But whatever we can do to provide extra money or do get money into the fund to save to to do further work to get us to a point where we're not always playing catch-up with our streets.

Because that is going to be additional money down the road every way you look at it.

So those are my comments for now.

But thank you very much for your explanation.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Howard.

We'll go to Councilmember Pidia next.

Thank you.

Uh I appreciate the presentation.

What I really appreciate, Tanisha, is every time you present, I think it's so efficient.

I love that I feel like every time you come up, it's what else can we get done at the same time?

How can we maximize this?

You know, if we're gonna disrupt it, let's make it more you know, ADA accessible, let's make it safer.

So I just I really appreciate that every time you bring a project, it's how can we get our bang far back?

How can we make it safer?

How can we make it more inclusive for our community?

I just would I just thought it was worth mentioning when you for the Broadway project, the the one million dollars of ADA improvements.

I think that would be and just to see where that cross cuts across, how impactful that will be in our community.

So I just wanted to thank you for that.

And I think that I I heard you also say that had we made some of these investments, it it's not going to get cheaper.

So I am one who believes that if we can somewhere find the money, I would love to have a higher PCI score as well.

I I saw some of those pictures.

I I also like Councilmember Howard don't want to keep seeing crews back out there just you know covering up holes and then they're appearing again.

I think our city is worth investing in, and that's the infrastructure.

Our roadways are important for everybody.

So I if I'm all about finding some money for our roads.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Padilla.

Like to go next.

Go to Councilmember G.

Thank you.

Tanisha, thank you very much for continuing the lessons about pavement condition index.

Um this is you know, as my mom always taught me it's always about money at the end of the day.

And the challenge we have is the color of money that we use for pavement rehabilitation.

And the in the staff report we talked about SB1, which is gas tax revenues.

And one of the tensions with gas tax is that with hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, fewer vehicles are needing gas.

And the vehicles are heavier, um, and but they don't pay their fair share for pavement, you know, deterioration.

Um Measure W is sales tax.

And we heard in our mid-year budget update, sales tax is not on this uprise, it's actually on the decline.

And so between those two, we have about on the high end on a good year, three and a half million dollars per year in monies dedicated to pavement rehabilitation.

And then with any grants we get from OBAG, one Bay Area Grant or MTC, we can get higher.

But even in a good year, five million is probably a good year.

And so when I do the math, if we look at 158 miles of center line roads at an asset value of about 387 million, as you indicated, we should be investing around 10.2, 10.5 million a year to maintain if everything was built at the same time, which it wasn't.

So that five plus million dollar a year gap is where we're struggling to deal with what we have to get our PCI up to 70.

And that 3.5 million isn't a guarantee in the sense that sales tax is declining, and we know folks in Sacramento are looking at something else other than gas tax because they're looking at vehicle miles driven and other revenue measures to replace the gas tax fund for streets.

That's why I hope that finance committee and others can take a look at what we can do to bridge this gap, because the deterioration you showed on slide six isn't gonna stop.

It's gonna continue.

And you know, as a homeowners association president, we reseal our streets every seven years.

Because if we don't maintain our streets, we're as a director, we're held liable for not managing our assets.

And I can guarantee you we're not resealing every seven years.

We're lucky to do every 20 years, if at the best.

And so one of the things that will be coming forward as San Mattel County has opted into SB63, is the potential if it passes is return to source.

For Sam Mattil County, it's about 50 million a year, and staff will be coming to all the different city councils and different stakeholders to talk about what that return to source should fund.

One of the possibilities is it can help with street rehabilitation where there's a fixed route for Sam transes.

But if there's in the future street rehabilitation and if SB 633 passes, there is an opportunity for additional funds if if that happens.

And the neighborhoods that you showed, you know, Stan Bon Heller, Centennial, um, Councilmember Shoes District, SamTrans is a high, those are high service areas.

So there's an opportunity potential for additional revenues if if that um makes it to the ballot first.

And number two, if the voters say yes.

Two two major milestones there.

As we I think what you've done and what you presented is great for our city and for those neighborhoods.

Just a couple different questions.

One is do we still have a moratorium on digging up the streets that are newly paved?

Yes.

So we have a five-year moratorium on any streets that have received an overlay.

That's perfect because that is one of the things that will undo all the work and money spent in a heartbeat if someone comes up and digs a trench down the middle of a street that we just paved.

So I think number one, given the program you just outlined, we need to make sure everybody knows that that once it's done, you can't dig the street up for five years.

Number two, these are highly dense neighborhoods, and so having managed pavement rehabilitation in my regular day job.

It is highly disruptive to the neighborhoods.

And so community outreach is going to be extremely important when mom's late trying to get their child to school and there's a asphalt, asphalt truck in the front of their driveway, nobody's happy.

And so a lot of outreach needs to happen, even if you're a business to have trucks blocking your driveway and your customers can't get there.

Community outreach, boots on the ground, door hangers, I think as Councilmember Howard mentioned, are gonna be extremely important to minimize the disruption.

People are still gonna be surprised, no matter what you do.

But the more you do, the better off it's going to be.

The last thing I just say is the cost, as you mentioned, isn't gonna get any less expensive.

I mean, during this period of 22, 20, 21, 22, 23, asphalt prices were going at about 10 percent per year increase.

And with the um global conditions going on right now, that's not gonna change, it's gonna go up even more.

And so the million dollars per mile is probably gonna be a million dollars per maybe 0.8 miles within six months.

And so it is really important on the slide you talked about.

What is our condition, what do we want it to be, what's that funding gap, and how can we get there?

Otherwise the deterioration is just gonna continue.

Um we can't let it happen.

We've got to stop it, and then we can work about getting it better.

Um and then hopefully we can get the Samchan staff scheduled to come to council before we have to have that expenditure plan put put in place, which is June.

I mean, we're in a very, very short timeline for the SB 63 expenditure plan.

Thank you.

Yeah, I believe they've reached our shooting for April with the clerk, we're working on it.

Yes.

April 13th.

Perfect.

Thank you, Councilmember G.

We'll go to Councilmember Chu next.

Sorry.

Okay.

Um so first of all, thank you for uh this presentation.

And you know, your team is so except exceptional, uh, very forward-thinking, very creative, very efficient, very thoughtful.

Um, and I really view the work your team does as central to public health and equity in our city.

Um, you know, our our three most important priorities as our city, you know, what we've declared to be our strategic priorities are children, uh housing, transportation, and youth.

Um, you know, road safety is central uh for our children, not only to to reach adulthood, um, but to to be able to enjoy the freedom to be able to walk places and bike places independently.

Uh when I was door knocking, one of the things I heard most frequently when I asked an open-ended question, like what things do you really wish were improved in our city?

Often uh, you know, I I feel like people drive really fast down my street.

I don't feel safe on my street.

Um and just some statistics, you know, uh road deaths have been the leading cause of child death in the United States by far, uh, without a close second for about a century.

Um and in 2020 during the pandemic, uh, guns did surpass cars as the leading cause of death, but uh there are about 24 times as many child crash injuries as there are gun injuries.

Uh there are about 50 times as many crash injuries as there are uh cancer cases, pediatric cancer cases.

And so if we can reduce crash injuries, you know, it's like curing cancer.

You know, if we can reduce crash injuries by 50 percent, that would be like curing all pediatric cancers combined.

Um so I think when we talk about reconfiguring our roads to make them safe to walk and to bike, and for people who aren't in cars, we're talking about children becoming old men.

And we're talking about giving people peace and freedom.

And so you know, this work is incredibly important, not just you know, for convenience and comfort and things like that, but as a as an important uh public health strategic issue.

Um, you know, one of the things I most appreciate is that when roads are repaved, that they are reconfigured to make them safer for people on foot and piece people on bicycles.

Um and and by doing that, we make roads safer for all road users.

It's not just that you know, people on foot and pe most people are injured uh in car crashes are actually injured, they're in cars.

Um but when we make roads safer for people on foot and bicycle, they're safer for everybody, whereas the reverse doesn't necessarily apply.

And so that's why uh there's a tendency to focus on those road users because if you fix it for them, you fix it for everybody.

Um so I really appreciate that that is incorporated uh into any kind of repaving project.

I'd even like to see that become you know, road safety and safety improvements being incorporated into all public works projects.

I know um all of the curbs were done on my street very recently, and they were beautiful and gorgeous and magnificent, but there were no increases in the bulbs that bulbouts, there was no narrowing.

Um and I was just heartbroken because I'm like, you know, um, this is a missed opportunity, and I just don't want us to miss those opportunities uh to make our roads safer.

Um I would pretty much deploy whatever resources you you know, I am supportive of giving you whatever you need to to implement these improvements and changes.

Um I would like us to be as aggressive as we possibly can, as data-driven as we possibly can, and is equity uh motivated.

You know, uh we have data.

I really want us to focus our energies on where we're seeing concentrations of incidents.

Um I know how hard your group is working.

You guys are doing amazing work, and you know, think of me as running behind you cheering.

Um I want to support you uh in this incredibly important work.

So I will be supporting doing whatever we need to do to get this done.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Chu.

We'll go to Vice Mayor Aiken next.

I have some questions, but I'm gonna start with my answers to the questions.

I um I do support using a consultant to increase the number of pavement projects we can do, and I do support allocating 49 million dollars over the next five years to get a PCI score to 74.

Um and Tanisha, stay up there for a second.

I the one slide that shows the whole city and the different colors of the roads.

Could you get that one up?

Just have a quick question for you, Tanisha.

That one.

This is fine.

So um I'm seeing that Woodside Road is a purple, which is PCI of 70.

I know Caltrans is in charge of that, not us, but it was just repaved, so why isn't it 100?

Why is it 70?

Sorry, it's Professor McCur's still learning the buttons.

Um the map you see here, this these were the pavement PCI readings from the uh MTC PTAP report that was done in 2024-25.

So the the color coding you see may not reflect any pavement tribunes that were done either by CalCHARS or another agency within Redwood City in the past probably year and a half.

So that would be the discrepancy that you're seeing here.

Okay, so is it reasonable to assume?

And I know you don't know exactly, you're not representing Caltrans, but would it be reasonable to assume that Woodside Road right now, assuming it was repaved a year ago, year and a half ago, would it be reasonable to assume that its PCI is approximately 90 to 100?

Yeah, for sure.

So again, there's there's different pavement treatments, and each pavement treatment gives a reset to the PCI you know after the treatment is done.

When you resurface a road mean that you grind it down, you apply what's called brand new hot mixed asphalt, and you can pack that down like that.

That's a reset to 100.

So if the if the project was repaved a year or two ago, it's probably closer to 99, 98, depending on the volume of traffic.

Okay, thank you.

Um I have some uh so uh actually I I just have a follow-up question.

Uh the the day lighting, something about supporting red pavement instead of red something else, but it's more expensive, and the one the police has to enforce and the other doesn't.

I don't know what that's about.

Can uh can someone explain that?

Sure.

Uh I can try to explain that for you.

So daylighting was a law that was I know what daylighting is, but what what I'll ask staff later.

That's okay.

I I have other questions.

Okay.

Um let me get to my one um so the report said that um so I don't want to micromanage, and I as councilmember Chu said, I'm cheerleading you guys, you guys are great, I want you to do, and I don't mean to micromanage you.

So you are the experts, I am not.

But something that jumped out at me in reading the report um was that both that the Centennial neighborhood currently has a PCI of 70.

And so I'm and it's not in a high needs area.

So I'm I'm curious as to why that was chosen for a major chunk of our 20 our current year work.

Um I understand why Stanby Heller was, because its road is currently at a 50.

And absolutely and it's a high needs area, so that's obvious to me.

But the centennial isn't obvious.

And again, I don't mean to micromanage, but if I I do have that question.

Sure.

And I'm gonna start at the very high level first, and I'm gonna touch on PCI again with you.

So again, this analysis that you're seeing with this, all this different color code, this is based off of a study that was done or helped funded by MTC through their PTAP program.

Uh when cities use the PTAP program, it's a great resource.

You know, they they pay for the consultant, you know, the city staff is responsible for kind of managing them and make sure the work's getting done.

But but MTC funds that level of effort to analyze the streets within your community.

Um I actually spent the last few weeks visiting all the streets of Redwood City that had a PCI of 50 or below, and I can tell you a lot of those streets, probably 90% of them, are not 50 or below.

And and so I I do have a little bit of a reservation towards the PCIs that were shared with you at the City Council, probably over the last couple of years.

I think they're way off.

And and that's just based off of me having done this kind of work for the past 25 years.

And so when you look at specific neighborhoods, and as I was advising city staff on how to implement a program in this current fiscal year, we we didn't we did look at the PCI ratings, but we really focused more on what needed the most attention from the sample of what was impacted the most over the past several years from your utility projects because we wanted to stop any further degradation in those neighborhoods.

So the Centennial neighborhood, which which I'm gonna again bound by El Camino to industrial North City limits down to uh roughly um drawing it back on the on the name.

Uh I want to say maple Whipple, but the That's fine, but that area.

The we'll call it Centennial neighborhood, that and standby heller all had very significant utility impacts.

So what does that mean?

A utility impact.

When at one point over the past four or five years, the city came in and reconstructed the underground utilities.

It was either a water line or a sewer line, and then they they opened up the roadway, created a trench, rebuilt the pipes, and then resealed the roadways.

So a lot of these neighborhoods have what's called like a patch or quilt look on the roadway, and then where the old roadway meets that patchwork, there's begins to become deterioration in those road in those roadway segments.

So as a result, the roadways kind of become a little bit wavy, they're not they're not smooth.

And so you get a lot of what we call rutting, you get ponding, which then allows water to sink back in through those seams where the old pavement meets the new pavement.

And so we we really focused in those two neighborhoods, Centennial and Stanby Heller, because we wanted to stop further degradation.

That's where the Cape Seal is going to come in in Stanby Heller, and we're doing a different treatment, of course, towards Centennial.

That makes total sense and and I appreciate the answer.

Thank you.

Um I I did want to um so I don't want to go too in this is you know the time and everything, but I just have a curious question.

The the the paving um so we're almost at zero sea level, a lot of our downtown, and we're the arguably the most affected by sea level rise of any city in the county that is most affected by sea level rise of any county in the state.

So um I'm guessing that there is no such thing as paving a road and making it permeable, which would help with flooding, but I'm guessing it's either doesn't exist or it's too expensive.

Uh actually permeable pavement recon construction does exist.

Uh it is actually used a lot in uh parking lots and other facilities where you're trying to uh improve roadway or runoff penetration kind of back into the roadway.

But it it does result in creating a lot more what are called voids between kind of the aggregate that supports the vehicles that are kind of shifting weight kind of back towards the earth.

So those voids for heavy traffic would would allow the roadway to break more quickly.

So for heavy volume roadways, it really isn't an application that we typically try to apply.

It can be a really good treatment in lower volume residential streets, uh, but it isn't something that we've we've looked at today because the focus again is to stop further degradation and bring that PCI back up.

Sure.

And and so I'll just conclude by saying that I really would like staff to continue following the improvement in technology in permeability, so that hopefully someday it could be used on high trafficked roads, and also to keep the thought of permeable pavement maybe higher up in some of our neighborhoods where it isn't as trafficked.

Um because flooding and sea level rise and ground level rise is not going away.

And uh so if if we can just make sure we're always on top of that technology.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

I just want to finish off by noting that we are planning at the end of 2027, which is when we have the we'll have the majority of all the current fiscal year projects and projects we're planning in 2027 complete.

We do want to do a reset of the PCI, actually analyze every street, not just a small percentage of all the roadways, so that when we come back to you and we're we're asking for your um you know, open up your wallets to give more money to the programs that we're making sure that we're making the right investments so that that PCI reset that I'm not gonna call the PTAP report at that point because we're funding it as a city that reset PCI is scheduled to be done around end of 2027.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

We'll go to Councilmember Troopers.

Uh I just had a clarification uh uh for Vice Mayor Aiken.

Um were you talking about bulbouts and hardened um daylighting where you physically can't park there?

Sometimes if you bulb it out, then it's not possible to is that what you meant by um I just was hearing the comment from Dylan.

Is that what you meant, Dylan?

Okay.

Those are awesome.

Great, thank you both.

Um do we have any other we'll go to Council Member Sturm?

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, uh Director Warner and um and our consultant as well for your hard work on this.

Really do appreciate the intent to achieve like economies of scale and just align the utility and uh bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and ultimately road you know, reservicing projects uh together so that we can make the streets safer for everyone and save time and money to the set possible.

And so I I'm supportive of uh uh continuing that that moratorium that was mentioned earlier um to make sure that we are getting the highest and best use out of our streets um before they need additional work.

And to just get to the questions here.

I I really appreciate and uh support the focus areas, uh Stemble Heller, Broadway, Centennial, uh looking at Broadway, those portions, stretches of Broadway are the entrances and exits to downtown, and it connects and links uh um friendly acres, uh Mount Carmel to downtown.

And that's really important um to our local economy to our local businesses um and to the safety for families who are trying to make it downtown to shop, to eat, to dine.

So I really appreciate that.

And appreciate the bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure that comes with it, especially at that intersection of in Maple and Broadway.

Um I was looking at uh attachment A and specifically the PCI values for different areas of Centennial, and I noticed that it gets as low as 50 in the area around Mrs.

And I noticed that it gets as low as 50 in the area around Mrs.

Park.

And so I just appreciate the uh attention there, especially given the number of accidents that have happened over the past few years in that neighborhood.

Adding uh al-way stop intersection controls, appending analysis, of course, is um really important to the neighborhood there.

And people have been clamoring for that for for a few years now.

So thank you so much.

And the subject of the third question.

I'm all about aspiring to get better.

Absolutely.

But I will say that I I hope that we can bring all of our streets up to par um before we move the goalposts.

Um so but but again, I am supportive of you know the aspiration as well of a higher PCI sport uh score.

And in terms of funding, yeah, this is so challenging.

I mean, I know I bring up parking every single meeting, it seems like, but I'm really looking forward to through the Finance and Audit Committee and a future meeting having our parking program beasts come self-sustaining so that it's not subsidized by the general fund and that we have more general funds available to for us to uh contribute to the pavement program in the future, among other things, right?

Um of course we have to make trade-offs and whatnot.

But so ultimately very supportive of uh the direction that you uh are giving us here and the priority areas, and thank you for helping you know keep Rebecca City safe for everyone.

So thank you, Councilmember Sterkin.

Please we'll go to Councilmirg.

Thank you, Mayor.

Sorry for interrupting Tanisha.

You know, we had a speaker earlier this evening.

We talked about Jefferson and Farm Hill, so I'm gonna try to do this from memory.

That project is about an eight million dollar project that's slated for spring of 27.

And so if we only get three and a half to five million a year, it'd take us at least two plus years to save enough money to do that project if we didn't do anything else.

And so that project's been in planning for about two and a half years, and we're got the funding, and we are the design to do all the other things.

Um bulbouts, bike lanes, crosswalks, signals when we do that.

So am I pretty close on that?

Yes, so the funding is secured right now.

Jefferson is fully funded, and we are looking at springtime 2027.

Great.

So if you can share that information with everyone, that'd be great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Any other final thoughts?

Not seeing any.

And to what Councilmember Sterkin mentioned around Broadway, making these points of our streets, right?

These entrances to the downtown feel safer is just gonna help activate those businesses, but also those parts of our our downtown that um could use some more food traffic.

So I'm really excited to see how that works.

Uh, you know, something that Tanisha stood out in the staff report was just the the fact that there have been no new annual funding sources for this since 2015.

Did I get that right?

That is crazy to think about.

And um, you know, with with the sources that we do get sort of dwindling and being a little unpredictable from year to year, depending on how people feel about spending their money or filling up their cars with gas, right?

Um so it feels like as much as I would love for our our goal to be a PCI of 74, I think reaching for 70 makes a lot of sense as we recalculate what PCIs look like and give us a better picture of of what we're up against, right?

And what challenges and uh what needs to get reprioritized, right?

So um, I think in the meantime that makes a lot of sense, but I'm also speaking of Jefferson, also thinking about new traffic impacts, right?

And thinking about all of the the other projects we've talked about, how that's gonna change the traffic flow, some of our you know, less frequented or less visited streets are gonna start seeing.

Um I used to live off of Chestnut, so I know how how busy it is there, right?

But I think about other streets that I think about other streets that may all of a sudden see more wear and tear because traffic is coming down their roads or bigger vehicles are now using them as a you know a faster thoroughfare, which I had heard was the fear with Redwood Avenue and IQHQ coming in, but it's been great to see how that uh how that street has really transformed.

Um and then my last sort of thought was just um really happy that we're including the bulbouts with these projects um into our our public commenters point, you know, finding ways to build in the daylighting.

Um when you know we've spoken about this at transportation.

It's it has always been sort of a question mark about how do we, you know, we absolutely need to enforce this new state law, but there is not enough red paint to go everywhere or even sidewalks for folks to uh to look out for this.

So um, you know, finding ways for us to build that infrastructure in, I think makes so much sense.

Um so that way it's there, people see it, it becomes part of the environment, right?

And uh it becomes second nature.

So with that.

I think I answered all of those questions, but really excited to see what the the new PCI data in 2027 looks like.

Um that's gonna be really refreshing.

But I guess if I could ask just one real quick question.

Speaking of utility impacts, I was driving down Veterans Avenue and noticed that there was sort of that, you know, the utility had been placed, or some uh new patchwork um sort of cementing over those those openings.

So just kind of curious where does Veterans Avenue currently fall in terms of uh repaving.

So we just finished the Veterans Avenue phase three sewer replacement.

Veterans is not in our current five-year plan.

Um, but because we did recently finish the utility cuts, we'll take a look at when we can squeeze it in.

Great.

Thank you, Tanish.

And I know again, money is money's tight, but um that's something I'm thinking about.

Sort of how do we bring everything up to 70, and then once we keep it there, how do we maintain it?

And that feels like it's gonna have to be a separate fund or you know, a different strategy just to fundraise for that because it is hard enough to just fundraise for the repaving to get us to 70.

So with that, I know this is a study session, so we won't be voting on anything this evening.

It was for our staff's input.

Um Tanisha, did you feel like you got enough commentary from us?

Yes, thank you all so much.

Great.

Thank you, Tanisha.

Thank you, Jaime.

And with that, we will now go to item 11, matters of council interest.

And one quick announcement before we get into matters of council interest.

Our board, commission, and committee recruitment kicked off this week.

There are 27 vacancies across 10 of our BCCs, and we hope that you'll consider applying for more information and to apply.

Please visit www.revetcity.org forward slash BCC.

And applications will be accepted through May 3rd.

So if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our city clerk to the many colleagues here at the days who have served on a BCC who could share some of that experience.

Um with that, I will move us to 11A.

Mayor.

Oh, may I ask a question?

I just wanted to mention that um when the list was put out as a public service announcement, the Pride and Beautification Committee was not on the list.

And I just wanted to make sure that from now on, could we always be sure to include the Pride and Beautification Committee?

It's different in that you don't have to fill out an application because everyone's welcome.

Our meetings are via Zoom.

We can get the information from public works, but I just want people to know because we are trying to recruit more members, more volunteers, and we've been partially successful.

But when it's not even there, then out of sight, out of mind.

So I'm just hoping that it could be mentioned that pride and beautification may be a separate committee, maybe an asterisk that just explains you don't have to fill out an application.

You find out when the next meeting occurs and you show up.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Howard.

Um with that, we will go to 11A, City Council Member report of meetings and conferences attended.

Do we have any reports?

We'll go to Councilmember Sturgen, then G.

Oh, thank you, Mayor.

Uh, just a quick update uh from CUME.org board of directors that I sit on.

Um their commuter challenge starts April 1st.

And so if you log your trips to and from work or school or otherwise, you get entered in the to uh the chance to win prizes, PF cards, you name it.

Also, they have a van pool program for anyone who um wants to organize a van pool to and from their employer with a new incentive now that's $500 a month.

Um the base subsidy $300, um, and $100 for a large capacity vehicle, $100 for uh long distance van pools to and from the county, six people minimum.

Just want to put that out there in case there's any employers or folks listening in online or in person.

And um, and then of course their shuttles, yes.

Um I I rode one of their shuttles um a couple weeks ago to the Stanford River City Campus, and it's free.

There's two that leave from Rabbit City Caltrain to major employment centers, like uh over there at Seaport Boulevard as well as uh Stanford Rabbit City.

So uh, and there's one in Rubbit Shores as well.

So if you haven't uh taken advantage of these free shuttles that run during peak commute hours to major employment centers, please do.

And that's my report.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Sterkin.

We'll go to Councilmember Howard.

Thank you.

Um I am the council representative on the Caltrain Local Policymaker Group, and we receive updates of Caltrain and high speed rail and such an so much interesting information.

Uh so I just wanted to I did attend the meeting in uh February, and uh we were told that Governor Newsom signed legislation authorizing $590 million loan to Bay Area Transit Agencies, of which Caltrain expects to receive 50 million dollars.

It'll provide the agency with critical near-term operating stability, allow us to preserve current service levels, address the projected fiscal year 2027 operating deficit, provide a bridge while we continue to pursue a longer term sustainable operation funding solution.

So I wanted to thank Senator Josh Becker and our assembly member Mark Berman and others who helped get that to the governor's desk.

Uh they did discuss carter crossing strategy for the uh grade separations.

That's ongoing.

I can report back another time on that because that's not happening tomorrow.

But um it's quite complicated and it's gonna require a lot of planning.

I also was reappointed to the Heart Board at the last council of cities meeting, and I'm very happy to say I am very pleased to be able to serve another term uh on the heart board representing San Mateo County.

I'd like to continue the great work that we've started producing more affordable housing and housing at all income levels, and continue the strong partnerships we've developed with our cities and start the new um housing preservation program of which Redwood City is going to be one of the very first cities that will participate.

And so the houses in the Stombale Hill or neighborhood, and I'll give you more information on that as we go forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Howard, and thank you for your continued service on the heart board.

Go to Councilmember G.

Thank you, Mayor.

And thank you, Councilmember Howard, for serving on the LPMG.

That's what we call the local policymaker group.

Um I mentioned earlier that the Sam Tayl County has opted into SB 63, and part of that legislation is that there is an efficiency oversight committee that consists of a representative from four of the major agencies that are receiving um the emergency loan, Caltrain, AC Transit, Muni, and BART.

Uh I was appointed to be the Caltrain representative for the Efficiency Oversight Committee, in addition to four other members that are appointed by MTC.

We the committee has been stood up.

Our first meeting was last Friday, and uh we were onboarded given our mission.

It's a two-phase effort.

Phase one is before November, and if SB63 passes, there's a much heavier lift afterwards.

And the goal is to make sure that these those agencies are making efforts to make sure that after the revenue measure expires, that they're sustainable financially.

And so that's what the Oversight Committee is all about.

In addition to my membership on the um committee, uh MTC chair Sue Nowak was appointed as the chair of the committee, and I had my arm twisted to be appointed as the vice chair of that committee.

So I'll be sharing information about SB63 and the work plan with all of you and others so that you can see what it's all about.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Not seeing anybody else.

We will move on to 11B City Council Committee reports.

Uh I have a quick report on the ad hoc committee on special events.

The committee held its first meeting on February 26th and discuss potential work top play work plan topics and timelines.

Specifically, we agreed we would focus our work in March and April in anticipation of the coming summer season of community events.

And we'll explore, excuse me, we'll be meeting again March 12th to further explore where we want to focus in support of these events.

And we will move to 11C City Manager update.

So if you're around and want to come, please do so.

And then there'll be a ribbon cutting for the new Milton Development, which is a 119 unit affordable housing uh project on the 19th of March at 9 30 a.m.

located at 900 Chestnut Street.

Thank you.

Thank you, City Manager.

With that, that takes us to item 12 closed session.

We will now convene to close session regarding labor negotiations, real property negotiations, and public employee performance evaluation as identified on the agenda.

Before we convene closed session, I'd like to ask the clerk if we have any public comments on these closed session items.

Thank you, Mayor.

No public comment at this time.

I'll do one last call to the audience or folks on Zoom for public comment on the closed session items this evening.

Seeing none, I'll turn it back to you, Mayor.

Thank you.

All right.

We'll now adjourn to closed session.

As there will be no reportable action, the council will adjourn immediately following closed session and will not be returning back to the dais.

Thank you all for joining tonight's city council meeting.

The next city council meeting is a special council meeting scheduled for this Saturday, March 14th.

We wish you all a great evening and a week ahead, and we'll see you all there.

Thank you.