Good evening or good afternoon everyone the Sacramento City Council please come to order with the clerk please call the roll

to establish a quorum. Thank you Mayor Councilmember Kaplan Councilmember Tao Mayor Pro Tem Telemantes Councilmember Valenzuela

here Vice Mayor Maple here Councilmember Gatta Councilmember Jennings Councilmember Vang and Mayor Steinberg here

All right good evening everyone a good afternoon. Sorry. We are a few minutes late as we were in an important closed session and

Begin as quickly as we could let us begin with the pledge of allegiance and the landing knowledge, but I want to turn over to councilmember Rick Jennings

Thank you mayor

Please rise for the opening acknowledgments in honor of Sacramento's indigenous people and tribal lands

To the original people of this land the Nisi on people the southern my do the ballet and planes me walk the Pat win

Whitman peoples and the peoples of the Wilton Rancharia Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe

May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and

Still walked beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing together together today an active practice of

acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples history their contributions and their lives

Thank you

Join me in the pledge of allegiance a pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands

One nation under God in the visible with liberty and justice for all

All right, everyone again a good afternoon. Let us begin with

a couple of special presentations. I want to turn it over to vice mayor maple for a presentation

honoring the leadership of Mr. Kirk Crumb

Right. Thank you mayor. It's a very special evening indeed

I don't typically read these verbatim, but I really want to do that in this case because we're honoring someone really special

So most of our presentations are recognizing our group a group for a remarkable achievement

But today we get to do something really special and we get to recognize an individual who has made an outsize impact on Oak Park and the Sacramento community at large

Kirk Crumb

Started the city of Sacramento as a part-time park's maintenance staffer in 1987

Assigned to the Seymour Park in Green Haven

He rose quickly through the ranks and though given the opportunity to transfer and move into management

He chose to serve as a park supervisor where he could remain on the ground

Where he made the most impact on people and the community and I'm just going to insert a thing here that you know

I live in that neighborhood and I actually get to see you all the time in the park

Oh, no, almost a daily basis so truly on the ground and every sense of the word

Beyond just his nearly four decades of service to the parks department and his relentless dedication to keeping Oak Park's green spaces clean

Safe and open Mr. Crumb was also a relentless advocate for social change

After winning an essay contest where he submitted a personal story about growing up in Oak Park

highlighting the social challenges faced by the neighborhood

He was awarded grant funding which he chose to invest directly back into the community by establishing the Crump Blackwell fields

Name for his father

Harrison Crump senior who served as the president of the Oak Park little league for over 50 years five zero

Mr

Crump has remained deeply committed to our community and has continued to mentor and coach youth in Oak Park

across Sacramento

And as of this month, he is officially retired from the parks department

It is my honor. Yeah, give her out of applause

It is my honor to recognize Mr. Crump's lifetime of outstanding community service and bring him up to say a few words

We please come up

You guys saying all these nice things about me gonna make me blush up here

Again, I like to thank you guys. Thank the city staff

When I first started in 1987. I was just a little kid. I was probably barely in my 20s

After all these years I got real wise and

And I just grew up tremendously to become a man working for the city of Sacramento

Uh, my first

Probably three months on the job

I decided way back then. I said hey

This is what I want to do for the rest of my life

There's no better pleasure is the work outside enjoy the environment and

Helping the volunteers in the community. This is what I needed to do

Again, I like to thank all you guys and I appreciate you

Thank you um, yes

And I know that you're gonna continue on and do great things

And I look forward to supporting you and all your work and in the apart community and beyond and with our youth

And with that I would like to invite all of my colleagues to come down and take a photo and stand with mr. Kurt Crump

Oh

By here in one, two, three, two, one, two.

Thank you so much.

What's my revanger?

I just wanted to say, I think me and a coach Jennings wanted to say a few words about this.

Before we go to the next item.

I just want to take this moment to say thank you to Vice Mayor Maier for bringing this resolution to the mayor and city council.

I congratulate Mr. Crump on his lifetime of service and leadership.

When I became a councilwoman, it was actually Mr. Crump that took my team and I to do a visitation of all our parks in Sal Sacramento.

And I just really want to thank him for his time as service.

You know, our city staff, they're the backbone of the city.

Nothing gets done.

We're mayor and council.

We set the vision, but it doesn't happen without our city staff.

And really just want to take this time to think Mr. Crump for everything he's done for the city and also in the community.

Mayor, I'd be remiss if I didn't say something.

Mr. Crump and I have known each other for a long time.

And in addition to knowing him and the work that he's done here in the city.

And this is about him.

But I thank you, Vice Mayor, for bringing this to our attention as well.

But you know, he follows in the footsteps of his father who, as it was said, has done great things in the O'Parte community and the city of Sacramento for many years.

And what I see happening right now is he has his son, Jaylen, with him right there by his side.

And Jaylen's watching every single thing that he's doing.

And so we'll have another Crump that will go to the next 50 years and take the mantle.

He will take that baton. He'll continue the work that's been done and set before him.

So I just want to kind of acknowledge my friend and someone who I have a lot of love and respect for.

And so just congratulations on his great accomplishment.

It's wonderful. Congratulations in a great way to start our meeting.

Let's move to special presentation number two.

I want to call up Tom Pace, planning director here to present the community development department, Employee of the Year Award.

I didn't know it's where to go.

Thank you, Mayor Steinberg and members of the council for helping us recognize our employee of the year.

I'm Tom Pace, director of community development.

Brooke began working at the front street shelter at the young age of 12 as a shelter volunteer and kitten foster parent and quickly became a valued member of Team Front Street.

Just before turning 21, Brooke joined animal care services as a full time animal care technician and jumped in with both feet and hit the ground running.

Brooke's two years as an animal care tech. They excelled in every facet of their job.

Brooke is caring and compassionate with both human and animal customers.

Their ability to maintain a positive attitude while keeping up with the overwhelming physical and emotional demands of the work is remarkable.

When other shelter teams members are in need, Brooke goes above and beyond to help.

This includes assisting animal control officers with hoarding cases and the veterinary team with surgeries and medical procedures.

Brooke has an outstanding rapport with everyone in the animal care organization.

Thank you, Brooke. For your dedication and determination and we look forward to watching you grow in animal care's ever evolving field of work.

The community development department is lucky to have someone like you who has a great work ethic, a passion for animals and people and an eagerness to learn all with a positive outlook.

Thank you.

You look the same.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you guys.

I've always known I wanted to work with animals. I'd like to give a shout out to all my friends and all my family and everybody at French Street.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

It's important to us to be able to acknowledge our employees in the community development department.

This is one of the ways that we do that with recognizing one employee each year and giving them special recognition.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your service.

The district five team actually just had the pleasure of touring front street just the last week and just saw the incredible work.

And I actually got to see you.

You were rolling a cart and they said, that's the employee of the year.

And I was like, I can't wait to have you at council.

So I just want to thank you so much for all of your work.

It's really hard work and it's heart work in animal care services and not the shelter.

And we know, especially after my tour there, that we do have a lot of work to do.

But thank you so much for just giving it your all every day.

And wow, since 12, that's incredible.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

You know, but I just want to take a moment to recognize the development department's a big department.

And the front street team is a big, is a very mighty team.

And the fact that you stood out amongst your colleagues that they wanted to nominate you for this, that you got it, that so many of them are here to support you right now just says a lot about you and the work that you do.

And I just wanted to note that for folks in the audience who maybe don't realize that like, oh, okay, employee of the year, whatever.

This is a big deal.

And I think it says a lot about how you conduct yourself, your commitment to the city.

But front street, I mean, of all of the teams in our city, I mean, it's just been so hard.

And I know it's been hard, you know, it's not just staffing.

It's the number of animals that need your help.

It's the work that you're having to do every day to keep things going smoothly.

And to know that you keep showing up and you've done it in a way that's really stood out.

I mean, I just, as a rescue dog mom, I really thank you and your whole team.

But in general, just want to take a moment to appreciate this achievement for you.

You gave a very short remarks.

So I'm making them a little bit longer.

I'm on your benefit because it's just, it's incredible to see.

And I just want to thank you on behalf of a grateful district floor and a grateful city for all that you're doing for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Very proud of you.

Congratulations.

That's really important to get the recognition for a hard work.

Before we go to the consent calendar, I just have one point of personal privilege, if I might it, even though it's not on the agenda.

This is my chief of staff, Marilyn Villingas last meeting.

And she has been with me in our city for over six years and has done an incredible job on my behalf and on behalf of the city.

Started as communications director, but became the chief of staff and led so many portfolios, including the housing and homeless portfolio.

And it's one of the sad things for me in leaving this office to see a lot of people I really care about and who've done such a great job for the city, understandably moving on to other things.

And Marilyn's going to take a great leadership job at the state.

But I just wanted to take a moment to say publicly and I'll say it at the various parties we have, et cetera. But thank you.

In front of everybody for doing an incredible job for me and for the city of Sacramento.

And she's right there in the audience.

Yeah.

She promises to come back every Tuesday night for meetings which I don't understand.

But that'll good.

All right, let's move to the consent calendar.

And are there items on the consent calendar that members would either like to discuss separately or to be voted upon separately?

Yes, council member Kaplett.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just want to pull item 12 again.

We're having an internal staff meeting and until we can kind of figure that out.

Just want to keep building that.

Okay, without a date specific.

Not a date specific.

Okay.

And then just two seconds on item three speaking.

Okay.

Anybody else?

I don't see anybody else.

Is there a motion on the consent calendar with the exception of item 12, please?

Sorry.

Okay.

In accordance with, we have two speakers.

Let's hear from the speakers and then we'll vote the consent.

Then we'll have Councillor Kamplin on three and then go go.

I'll take Councillor Neill.

Why don't you go, council member on item three and then we'll take the public testimony.

Absolutely.

I just want to thank, as we all know, I do all the water stuff in the city and just highlight updating our water policies as they on proposed developments for our affordable and lower income households.

And that they update this process.

I think it's needed.

And I appreciate staff being mindful and being as up to date as possible on how we can all work together.

So that was it.

Just a shout out.

And thank you.

Very good.

Thank you.

Let's hear from the public, please.

I have two speakers.

Charles Foster on item one and Ryan Masano on item two.

Good evening.

I want to highlight that Tyson Foods is under investigation right now by the federal government for its labor practices.

And using migrant, immigrant and a sily children to work its factories.

And a sily child labor is almost always slave labor.

So keep that in mind.

I know you guys don't necessarily have anything to do with what the city purchases.

But it might be worthwhile to look into having some say in the city purchasing stocks and companies that have child slaves.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Your comments.

Ryan Masano on item two.

Ryan Masano of msano news.com.

I'm opposed to Lisa Kaplan being appointed to the California League of Cities for the following four.

Point of order.

Can we make sure that he addressed the full council?

Please address the full council.

This item mentions Lisa Kaplan being appointed.

So I'm addressing the item.

Okay.

I think it's rude as always, but probably appropriate or necessary to allow you to speak under the rules or overrule the objection.

First Sacramento shouldn't be in the league of cities.

You have plenty of work to do in your own city without getting together with other Democrat communist dysfunctional cities and planning on how you can wreck cities worse than you already are.

It is funny, isn't it?

The cities you meet with the vast majority and I didn't even look because birds of a feather flock together are in just as bad a condition as your city and many are worse.

It's like telling the F students in a class to organize to improve the school.

It makes no sense.

Second, the government is already too big.

The solution to problems is not to give more activities, but it is to drastically reduce the activities, staffing and funding of our local, state and federal governments.

That government governs best which governs least.

10% of America is employed by local, state and federal governments which hasn't improved America at all.

Third, we look at history and see what these leagues are up to and it leaves me decidedly unimpressed.

This city council in mayor, the worst in the history of Sacramento history, the less you are entrusted with, the better.

Based on the terrible condition of the city, your pay and activity should be being dramatically reduced.

After World War I speaking of leagues, we had the League of Nation which was thankfully overthrown.

But it was replaced before the end of World War II by the United Nations which has been an unqualified disaster.

Fourth and last, Miss Kaplan has major issues with controlling our emotions and learning to objectively listen to speakers and not let her religious outlook

I have nothing to do with you. Go ahead.

I guess I should have laughed. I'm sorry but I didn't.

Hey.

Yeah.

All right. We do have a motion on the consent calendar with the exception of item 12.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Oppose abstain.

The consent calendar passes.

Let's now move to item 13 which is the public road easement issue.

Good evening, Mayor.

Madam Clerk, the members of the City Council.

I'm Thomas Adams with the Department of Public Works.

The item before you is a request to vacate the public road easement along our street and

RISAL located being second and third streets adjacent to 1800th street.

vacating these areas listed and the report will help facilitate their approved

Diggs mixed use development project that will provide up to 132 unit dwellings office,

retail and restaurant space.

This portion of the public road easement along the south side of our street is

accessible.

The public road easement is a priority.

The access and its maintenance as private landscape.

RISAL also has no accessible public driveway along third street and both areas of the

vacation are not necessary for present or prospective public use.

There are no conditions associated with this vacation request.

The action recommended with this request is consistent with the Sacramento 2040 general

staff along with various agency support this vacation request.

Staff will be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding this application.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We do have councilmember, do we have public testimony?

Councilmember Valenzuela, your district.

Thank you, Thomas.

I'm happy to open and close the public hearing and move the item.

Move, moved and seconded.

I think councilmember Kaplan got in there first.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed abstain.

Very good.

That passes.

Thank you.

Item 14.

This is the Ardenway issue.

Good evening, Mayor.

Members of the city council.

Sean DeCorecy, preservation director with the community development department.

I'm here tonight to present the landmark nomination for 1950 Ardenway.

This is the former home savings and loan building at the corner of Ardenway and exposition

Boulevard.

Let me begin by acknowledging that the owner of this building has contested this nomination,

citing their intent to redevelop and demolish the building.

In 2016, however, the building was identified by the city as potentially significant in the city's mid-century

modern historic context and survey project.

Specifically, 1950 Ardenway was recognized in the report.

As a prime example of new formalist architecture.

Despite initial efforts to find a new tenant, the owner eventually proposed demolishing the

building to develop the site with new restaurants, including possible drive-through establishment.

This nomination is intended to clarify the building's eligibility for listing on the Sacramento

Register.

The city council should focus solely on the building's eligibility for historic designation,

since no formal application for redevelopment has been submitted or agendas.

Following my presentation, I will give the property owner a chance to address the council as part of staff's presentation.

The building in 1950 Ardenway qualifies for listing on the Sacramento Register under city code,

criteria 3, 4, and 5.

The new formalist architectural style, its association with master designer and artist Miller Sheets,

and the high artistic value of its mosaic support this recommendation.

The buildings are rare and significant example of mid-20th century commercial architecture and corporate art in Sacramento.

Particularly in Northern California where sheets designs are not common.

Staff's recommendation to list the building is reinforced by substantial evidence and expert opinions attached to your staff report

that refute the historic evaluation commission by the owner, which suggests the building lacks historic significance and integrity.

Given the architectural style, the involvement of the significant designer and artist Miller Sheets,

and the building's unique artistic elements, the building has exceptional significance to the history of the city,

justifying its historic designation even though it is 46 years old and not yet 50.

The preservation commission reviewed the arguments in favor and opposed to listing and unanimously recommended the city council

list the building on the Sacramento Register, which reinforces staff's recommendation that the building holds important cultural and historical significance to the people of this city.

Let me conclude by noting that over 60 comments in favor of staff's recommendation to list the building on the register have been received.

Only two objections to the listing have been submitted.

These include the objection from the property owner.

Now I'll give the property owner a chance to address the council and present their arguments. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor. Members of the council. My name is Amy Hyghera. I'm a partner at Downey Brand and I'm here tonight representing the 1950 Art and Way building owners.

I'm also joined this evening by Dr. Monty Kim, who's a senior architectural historian at Doodak, and Mr. Armand Vasquez from Market Street Development, both of whom will make brief statements after I do.

I wanted to start by noting, as Sean mentioned, that the only question before you tonight is whether the building meets the standards for listing in the Sacramento Register.

Anything about the proposed future uses of the site is not currently before you. That will be subject to a separate review and approval process before any redevelopment of the site can move forward.

If we're just looking at the standards for listing, it's important to keep in mind that because this building is less than 50 years old, it has to meet that standard of exceptional importance in order to be listed.

And so this is a higher burden than would apply for an older building. And we included a few examples of structures that have met this standard in our letter that was submitted last week.

So it's things like Cape Canaveral, the California Aqueduct system, those were listed at less than 50 years old, and those, I think, are things where the average person would look at it and think, yes, that is something that we should preserve even if it doesn't meet this sort of 50 year standard.

But here we have experts who are in pretty strong disagreement about whether the criteria for listing can even be met. And so given that we don't believe the city has met that higher exceptional importance burden for listing.

I also want to mention the lack of notice that the owner had regarding the potential for listing. So they purchased the property in September of 2021.

When they were doing their due diligence on this property, there was no indication of any historic significance. After they purchased it, they started working with city planning staff for well over a year before the issue came up.

A minor point of clarification, the staff report says the owners approached the city about the drive through use in August of 2023. It was actually first discussed in July 2022 to see in the timeline.

They also first mentioned a use that could require demolition. That was actually in May of 2022, and that was when the potential for residential use was raised. And staff at that time indicated that they supported that potential use.

But even if the owner had never proposed demolition, they'd only presented reuse of the building. This question of its historic significance would have been relevant at the very outset of any of these discussions. And that's because rehab, reuse of a historic structure requires meeting certain specific standards and guidelines.

So it's not just demolition that would have triggered the need to notify the owners. It should have come up right away.

But the issue was not raised until July of 2023. And then in August of 2023, staff pointed us to the city's mid-century modern historic context statement as the source of notice.

So you can see the only place where 1950 Ardenway shows up is on this single page. It's in a discussion of new formalism and it's in the architectural context chapter. So that is just sort of a description of what is currently existing in the city.

There's a later chapter that is the survey results. And that is where buildings that were identified for potential listing show up in 1950 Ardenway does not show up in that chapter. So we don't believe there was adequate notice.

But despite that and despite due to its conclusions that the building does not meet the standards for listing, the property owner has looked into whether the murals can be removed. They had an engineer go up to the site.

And they do believe that the murals can be removed and preserved. And so we provided you with this rendering of what that could look like if it were preserved on site.

We anticipate including preservation of the murals as a project feature when we submit a new site plan.

But we're also willing to work with city staff to determine whatever the appropriate location and handling of these murals will be and will work through that as part of the project approval process.

And so with that, I'll pass it over to Dr. Kim. But just want to thank you all for your time this evening. And we're all here and happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Good evening mayor council members. My name is Monty Kim and I'm a senior architectural historian at doodak here in Sacramento.

And I oversaw the preparation of the home savings evaluation. And I'm here in support of our finding that this property does not meet any of the criteria for listing in the national register, the California register or the Sacramento register of historic resources.

While we recognize that there are former home savings and loan buildings that are worthy of designation and landmark status, the building on art and way is not one of them.

Architecturally significant examples of home savings buildings from the 1950s and 1960s reflected the artistic influences of Miller Sheets, who incorporated Lewis Sullivan's two story, Jewelbox Bank Building form from the 1910s into the design of home savings buildings.

However, unlike the Jewelbox form that characterized the quintessential home savings building form, the art and branch was larger in scale, three stories in height, and lacked the largely windless slab like walls of its predecessors.

The art and branch is not the only surviving example of a home savings building in the area and buildings with a historic association with home savings are not considered rare.

In Sacramento, there are still eight remaining former home savings buildings and four additional branches in the surrounding area and over 30 statewide buildings with meryl still intact.

Completed in 1978, the art and branch is also a weak example of late new formless architecture, which reached its peak in popularity in the mid 1960s.

While the building does feature a heavy and broad overhanging box fascia, it lacks three elements critical to new formless design, including an arcade, a colonnade, and architectural screens.

Without these three character defining features, the art and branch does not qualify as an exceptional example of the new formless style as the city claims.

Finally, in closing, Dudeck evaluated the property as a whole, recognizing that elements such as the murals, which we believe were executed by the artist Sue Hurtel of the Sheets Studio,

are notable but insufficient to render the whole property significant, especially since more important examples of new formless architecture exist in Sacramento, including the former metropolitan life insurance building at 2131 Capital Avenue, which was designed in 1963.

So, the image on the right is a representative example of good new formless architecture, that's the metropolitan life insurance building.

The image on the top left is a representative example of what home savings considered the jewel box form, and this particular example is from 1960, and it's located in Blenapart in Southern California, and then the image on the bottom left is the art and branch home savings.

Thank you very much.

I got a question.

When you say there are eight additional savings and loans in Sacramento for in the additional area and 30 statewide, are they of the similar architecture of the art and way that we're talking about?

These are buildings that have an association with home savings, but they were not designed by the Miller Sheets Studio.

So, three of them have potential association with the Miller Sheets Studio, but the rest of them are buildings that home savings occupied.

Are they the similar architecture regardless of who designed them?

They're modernist architecture, they're modern architecture, but similar to the architecture for the property and question or not.

Now, this is the closest building that exemplifies the new formless style.

To why are you contrasting in these other buildings that aren't part of the reason we mentioned that is to say that home savings buildings are not rare.

Okay. Thank you.

Next.

Good evening, Bayer and Council members.

I'm Armand Vasquez with Market Street Development.

It was our full intent when we acquired this building in September of 21 to lease it to dignity health care for an imaging center.

That's what Market Street does. We are developers and redevelopers of existing real estate for medical clinics.

With that said, in the 11th hour after we purchased the building, dignity backed out of the deal.

And we had to pivot. We asked our teams at callers and CB commercial to approach the national and regional players in this space so we could backfill the building and redevelop it.

In the end, the likes of Adventist Health, Kaiser, Sutter, all the major players turned it down.

We then pivoted to a local brokerage team because they had the resources and the platform to market the building effectively.

JLL has a database of over 11,000 decision makers in the medical and office space arena.

They networked with over 230 brokers in Northern California.

And they marketed our property on three major MLS platforms.

Coastart, CREXY, and Loopnet.

And not only did they just didn't scan NPDS on the site, we also included drone video.

So if anybody was interested, they could hit a link.

And you would get a panoramic view, an aerial view of the property, the amenities surrounding it, the vehicular connectivity from I-80, CalXBO, and Arden Farimall.

We did a tremendous job in terms of putting the marketing together for this property.

In addition, we didn't rely solely on brokers.

I personally drove the trade area any time I saw an office building that was listed or a medical building.

I took down the broker's information and made sure that I personally sent them a package on the site.

At the end of the day, we, and over a year of marketing, we had barely any interest from office, medical, or otherwise.

The first inkling of a deal that we came to, we tried to bring to fruition was with Capital OBGYN.

And they were going to take the top floor, we're considering relocation.

So they were part of a multi-tenant strategy for the building because we couldn't find a single tenant.

And considering that, we put together architectural renderings, floor designs, everything that they needed to make a decision, and even presented financial terms.

At the end of the day, they turned down the location.

Not too long afterwards, Sutter Hospitals to our surprise requested and had an RFP for the sites.

They were together a tour with their real estate team, their facilities management team, and several others with the organization.

In preparing for that meeting, we put together full architectural renderings and elevations.

We also put together floor plans and imagery on easels and fully toward the building with their team.

It was between us and another owner of an office building on Folsom Boulevard.

At the end of the day, Sutter turned it down.

To date, those were the qualified parties that were interested in the building.

And we had one other party in the recent past who had a restaurant slash entertainment user.

The broker that brought it was a belief of a restaurant consultant.

And we had told him that the building had, we signed two leases on for this site, and that we would stay in touch.

In further discussions, we recognized that the tenant was under capitalized.

And we know that a similar situation in Sacramento with an entertainment slash restaurant use backfield the bank and failed.

We didn't want to make the same mistake.

So at the end of the day, we ended up pivoting to retail.

We have these two restaurants that are national chains that are interested in the site.

And we pursued them.

And we met with council over Zoom.

There were several emails that, you know, where we presented site plans.

And really hadn't heard.

There was no written record of the historical significance of the building.

And there was no communication to us whatsoever that the building had any historical significance from an architectural perspective.

Thank you for your time.

And I'm here to answer any questions that you may have.

Sure. We can, and I know I already asked some questions.

We can do it one of two ways.

We can take questions now, which is fine, or we can finish the presentation and take the public testimony.

Either way is okay with me.

Go ahead.

I just had a super quick question.

Can you give me the timeline that you were talking about that you've been approaching other office users?

From the time we found out that dignity health was no longer interested.

So fall of 2021 and then marketed it.

And you sign on with the real, the current businesses that you're pursuing.

I'm sorry.

And when did you sign on to these current businesses?

Earlier this year.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Are you finished with your presentation?

Oh, no, I mean, I'm trying to keep it short and sweet.

Yep.

And I'm here for, you know, for any questions.

Okay. I think what we'll do is, as I said, that was a good clarifying question.

But what we'll do is we'll take the public testimony.

And then we will open up to questions of the staff and or the opponents of the proposed resolution and have a good discussion.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's hear from the public.

I have 14 speakers on this item.

The first is Frankie Welch.

Robin Detell.

I'm not seeing movement.

Please line up in the aisle.

As I call your name, Frankie Welch.

Robin Detell, William Berg, Angelina Sorakin.

Frankie.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and City Council.

My name is Frankie Welch.

I am the said restaurant consultant and developer.

I came across this home savings building not too long ago and reached out to ownership and found out that they were going to demolish it.

I spent, I've spent a lot of time working with individuals, restaurant owners, entertainment individuals to develop properties.

I went through the planning process and permitting process.

And this building is a special building.

It's a unique location.

It's a unique building.

And it's something that can be utilized for the city to create jobs, revenue, and realistically be developed in a way that's positive.

Bring more drive-thrues.

Bring more entities like that to the city, especially to this area.

I'm not going to cause congestion and more issues than I could see at hand.

Yes, I am under capitalist.

I myself don't have the money to take down a property like this, but I do have connections.

I have a lot of connections to a lot of people who could potentially come and finance this or even purchase it.

Today we brought an individual who is interested in potentially purchasing.

Now, understanding that they may go through with redevelopment and turn this building down,

who's to know what they would ask for the property, who's to know what price that would be.

These are negotiations that we'd have to go through that I've been hitting a wall at every point because they are at this point with the city council to determine whether or not they're going to register this property.

If you guys do, I will be moving full force ahead with my team and my connections to see what we can do to redevelop it.

Thank you for your comments.

Robyn Detell, and then William Berg.

Hello mayor and council members. My name is Robyn Dattle.

I urge your yes vote on adding the home savings and loan building at 1950 Ardenway to the Sacramento register.

I attended high school in Sacramento in the early 1970s. I lived at Woodside. I saw movies in the century domes and I shopped at Arden Fair Mall.

In 1978, I wrote my master's thesis on the emergence of the preservation movement in Sacramento and recognized that as time marched on,

it would and should have a growing impact beyond the city's original grid.

I later spent much of my career at Sacramento State teaching urban geography.

Staff's documentation of 1950 Ardenway's art and architecture clearly establishes its significance as a local high quality example of late new formalism and modernist decorative arts.

It would be misguided for the city to support public arts initiatives such as our growing mural collection on the one hand and on the other to allow the destruction of important existing works that grace the city.

I want to make a couple of additional points. First, the function of savings and loan associations was to provide institutions where ordinary Americans could deposit their savings and obtain affordable loans for buying homes.

In our time of housing crisis, it doesn't make much sense to demolish a structure that helps tell the story of an important institutional innovation that delivered housing to the American middle class.

Second, it also makes little sense to demolish a grand and interesting monument with tons of embodied energy that will be wasted if the building is torn down.

And those strictly not at issue, it is also a shame that we would encourage more drive through restaurants, which we already know are rather climate unfriendly designated and preserving this business, this building.

Thank you for your comments. Your time is complete. Our next speaker is William Berg.

Thank you. William Berg from Preservation Sacramento. I had originally planned on talking about why a drive through is actually a prohibited use under the new 2040 general plan because this is going to be a high frequency transit corridor.

But you've been asked to talk about eligibility. So instead, I'd like to talk about what exceptional significance means. You don't have to be Cape Canaveral to be exceptionally significant.

And so is this building. Now, we have an option here. We can either at the city's boundary. This is at the edge of the city. At the only five point corner in Arden Arcade, we can either have a monumental landmark or a drive through.

The Alhambra was designed by a locally significant architect. This was designed by a nationally significant architect. It meets the test. And I've got a few seconds left, so I'd like to ask for those in the audience that support listing this building. Would you please stand up.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Angelina Sorokin, then Ella Cross.

Good evening, and thank you for your time. When I was thinking about what words I could bring with me today, and more importantly, which ones would hold the most weight.

I started looking at a pair of chairs, original chairs that I have from the Alhambra Theatre in my room, which was demolished here in Sacramento in 1973, 51 years ago, and unfortunately, way before my time.

The Stanis' Relics from a Grand in Historic Building that was demolished instead of preserved and taken from future generations like myself.

These Stanis' reminders to what could have been. I stand here today as an artist from the community and as someone who frequently drives past the special building, and who also patrons the businesses in the same plaza like Hobby Lobby and Coals.

Both the building itself and the mosaic art of the renowned artist, Millard Sheets, which is ingrained into the structure and have lived together on the corner of Ardenway for so many years.

There is hope that life can be brought back to this special area and for someone to see the extraordinary beauty that the building possesses.

Currently, the highest bidder on the site is only seeing the beauty of the land and what profits they can add to their already large corporation.

I urge the Sacramento City Council to list this historic bank building in the City of Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources and to give it a second chance for new life that the Arden Area deserves.

Arden is already brimming with restaurant options, and since there is an alternative to demolition, shouldn't we take the chance to preservation?

Businesses today are looking for historic spaces, and if listed, this one will undoubtedly become another example of creative reuse that encourages a sense of pride in our city's identity and that creates a unique landscape, one of second chances.

Thank you for your consideration and your time.

Thank you for your comments. Ella Cross, the Gretchen Steinberg and Sasha Steinberg.

Hi, my name is Ella Cross. I am an architectural historian and I am a board member of Preservation Sacramento.

I am the person who did the initial research for the city in my work as an intern there during grad school about this building.

When the developer and their representatives say that there was no possible way that they could know that this building was important, they knew that it was a home savings and loan.

The simple Google search would have shown that there is a very large, beautiful coffee table book, very well researched by a very smart PhD.

All about these buildings, there's lots and lots of information about these buildings and about their historical significance.

They've tried to obscure the fact that Sacramento has only one, Miller Cheats designed, building of any kind, and it's this building.

Miller Cheats is a major California artist and at no time that I have ever been able to find has an artist been in charge of an entire architectural program for a bank all across the United States.

That's exceptional and we have one. Let's preserve it. Thank you.

If you're comments, Gretchen Steinberg, Sasha Steinberg, and Alan Steinberg.

Hello, hope you've had a relaxing summer. We all know a lion mark with high artistic value when we see it.

It is demonstrated in the former home savings and loan bank at 1950 Ardenway.

The Mosaic murals by Miller Cheats are the only public art pieces in that area and are integral to the building.

The city's preservation office and commission, a worldwide expert, historians.

Preservation organizations and community members unanimously agree.

The building clearly meets the criteria for land marking.

The owner's evaluation has already been systematically debunked.

Meanwhile, they have neglected the site which violates city code.

Their poor stewardship has been at the expense of the community.

This parcel is literally the point in Point West and sets the tone for the entire neighborhood is a unique gateway to the city.

It is an anchor for what can become a great street that meets the goals and intentions set forth in the 2040 general plan.

A plan that most of you passed at this very spot six months ago.

Here's your chance to innovate and make the gateway better.

A chance for it to become something special.

With well planned landscaping and trees.

An oasis in antidote to the current row of fast food franchises in big box stores.

Shake-shap can do an adaptive reuse project as demonstrated in their sandy Utah site.

They already know how to do the right thing.

Do the most sustainable thing by preserving, repairing, restoring and refreshing a landmark building.

Made with Italian Travertine.

An art by a master designer and artist.

Why destroy elegance and beauty for cheap, stucco buildings?

Your decision today reflects your legacy, your vision, and investment in the future of Sacramento.

A beautiful landmark community asset that depicts the history of Sacramento in our sense of place.

Or boring drive-throughs that can be seen anywhere.

Adaptive reuse of existing site can breathe new life into the area and set the pace for positive change.

Please vote in favor of landmarking and a shake-shack likes to say stand for something good.

Thank you for your comments.

Sasha Steinberg, Alan Steinberg, and Ellen Mallory.

Good evening.

This message is from Justin Wood who couldn't be here tonight.

I urge you to support the landmarking and adaptive reuse of this historic bank building at 1950 Ardenway.

An architectural icon in Sacramento that stands as a beacon of craftsmanship, individuality, and cultural importance amidst the sea of generic development.

This building is more than just a structure.

It is a testament to the design and care that went into shaping our city over the past hundred years.

Offer your reminder of a time when we valued creativity over conformity.

It seems like Sacramento and its effort of modernize has often been too quick to discard elements of its history that do not directly tie to the Gold Rush era.

But our city's identity has been shaped by much more than that single chapter.

The bank at 1950 Ardenway represents an era of intentional place making that we must not lose in our pursuit of convenience.

Among the sprawling chaos of cars and chain restaurants, this building offers a distinct sense of place, a connection to the cultural fabric of our city that deserves to be reserved.

Demolishing this landmark to make way for yet another drive-through would not only erase a piece of architectural heritage but also contribute to the growing issues of traffic and deshtan and increase the distance of the city.

In addition to the fact that this is a place of urban emissions, this area is already over saturated with fast food chains and generic retail outlets.

We should be striving to create a city that reflects our diversity and history, not one that buries it under concrete and convenience.

Moreover, failing to support this landmark effort would contradict the city of Sacramento's 2040 General Plan which you overwhelmingly endorsed.

This plan emphasizes pedestrian safety, sustainability, transit-oriented development and the creation of vibrant and healthy communities.

The surrounding neighborhood, including Point West and Western Arden Arcade, deserves better than another chain restaurant, especially as these areas have been recognized as environmental justice communities, home to residents who need better access to community friendly services, not more drive-throughs.

I urge you to nurture a partnership between preservation developers and the creative and architectural community to transform this site through the adaptive reuse into something we are still proud of in the future.

Please vote in favor of preserving 1950 Arden Way by adding it to the city of Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Alan Steinberg, then Alan Mallory, then Kathy Strickland.

Good evening. Honorable Mayor Steinberg, city council members, as the fourth Steinberg in the room.

No relation to the mayor.

Even a proud husband of Gretchen who has been a preservation force in this city for decades and proud father of Sasha who came in here to support this effort as well.

I'm not going to be here speaking as to the technical issues.

I think that it's been well established that this landmarking is appropriate and should be approved.

I also think that it's important to realize that we're faced here with an 11th hour presentation from the owner and their hired attorney and their hired expert to come in here and tell you why it should not be landmarked.

Please keep in mind that every point they've raised, we can counter.

Every point they've raised has been debunked or challenged in the materials that have been compiled, collected and submitted, not just by the preservation department here in the city,

but also by members of the public.

I would just make a quick point. If you look at the photos that were displayed, I can turn it around for the city council to see.

I think these photos in himself is demonstrative of what's going on here. Notice the view of the building.

Notice the view of the home savings building an issue here. It's shown in its least, it's least favorable light.

You have the jewel box up top where you can see the art and the obscure the art and the front face that really instills upon you the significance of the location, what you see when you walk and approach the building.

They're showing us a different angle.

So with my remaining seconds, I just want to say it's been great to be here today and to see city representatives honored for their hard work.

Mr. Crump, Ms. Bombak, but I also think we have to recognize the work of the community development department and the preservation director.

When they have spoken, we should really honor what they've said.

Thank you for your comments. Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Ellen Mallory, then Kathy Strickland.

Good evening, Mayor Steinberg and city council members. I wanted to thank you all for your service.

My name is Ellen Mallory and I am on the board of preservation Sacramento. I moved here three years ago to Sacramento and one of the major reasons I did move here was the robust commitment to historic buildings.

So I encourage you to list the home savings and loan building on Ardenway as a landmark.

It's said so often that the only way to go forward is to honor the past and the architecture and especially the mural in that building are important examples of history.

They're beautiful and they're unique.

So thank you. I concur with the thoughts and comments of the prior speakers.

They've stated our case very, very well and we thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. I have five more speakers. Kathy Strickland, Deborah Van Holstein.

Good evening, Mayor Steinberg and council members. I am the historian in Arden arcade. I am an EJ member of the Sacramento County in environmental task force.

And West Arden arcade is an EJ community from Arden fair to Fulton Avenue to Auburn Boulevard to roughly Norda.

Through about Hurley. One of the things that we have there that is quite disturbing is the number of children with asthma.

The percentage of kids with asthma and West Arden arcade is astounding. It's one of the highest in the state.

To have the idea of tearing down such a magnificent building for in and out type structures.

Buggles the mind the in and out directly across the street actually of cars that are just checking out carbon.

As they sit there waiting to have their meal prepared for them.

We had businesses in Arden arcade that have burned the ground and rebuilt according to the mid century modern look.

We have every home in Arden arcade is a mid century modern home that was built between 45 and 65.

After 65 there was very little room left to build upon. The city boundary is Ethan way.

So we are across the street from the building. The building is like a monument. It's like the grandfather pointing the way into Arden arcade.

It's a beautiful building. Take everything else aside. Look at the murals. Take the time to go. Look at them.

These murals are telling sacramento story. This is phenomenal that they thought is even out there to take these down and put in carbon copy in and out type story.

Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Deborah. Then Patty Brown Todd. Thank you so much.

I'm David evening city council mayor. My name is Deborah Van Holstein. I recall when I first moved to sacramento in 1979 seeing this building and I paused and I looked at it and I said that's beautiful and it's still as beautiful.

I wanted to read something from Lucy LaPard. Her book The Lourdes Local really says it all about sacramento.

She says the lure of the local is not always about home as an expressive place. A place of origin and return. Sometimes it is about the illusion of home as a memory.

It is defined by memory but no one who remembers is left to bring these memories to the surface. Does a place become a no place or only a landscape.

Please not take those murals off and put them somewhere else. They belong on the building. The building belongs where it is. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Patty Brown Todd and it's my honor to be here tonight to advocate for this important modernist building with its stunning mosaics.

The gift designer of 1950 Arden was an artist and professor Miller Sheets but more importantly to me he was my friend. In 1982 just out of college I landed my first job with Laguna Beach Art Museum.

He was a assistant director William Arden, plan, curate and travel a retrospective of over 100 of Miller's paintings. As father of the California Watercolor School professor of scripts college and collaborator with the omensens Miller may not be a certified architect but he was a visionary designer recognized for his work even when his name wasn't.

In his first time art critic called him a one man history lesson and she's the legend of California art. In Miller's L.A. Time obit retraery doctor Oton said as a man of many talents Miller Sheets has influenced the art world for 60 years by incorporating good design, a love of life and a thorough understanding of art history. His artistic efforts have contributed significantly to American society.

He is the manager of California State Parks historic sites and here in the capital district and also former Palm Springs communications director who help revitalize the idea of modernism in Palm Springs. I understand the value and the pride buildings like this can bring to a city.

Don't let this work with its beautiful mosaics that beautifully render Sacramento's history become a trope to fast food and fast culture. Do the right thing recognize and preserve 1950 Arden tonight.

Give your comments James Creedler and Elizabeth Achoa.

I'm going to be more neutral on my comments today.

I'm not a huge fan of the architecture style but I'm not a huge fan of the architecture style.

However, I'm still neutral on this today given the words from the speakers today so I just want to take that into consideration as well as you know the 50 year mark has not been reached so it would take a lot of you know negotiation to try to get this past and I just not I'm not sure if it really meets that mark yet even I do respect preservation and I respect preserving what was in the past personally just not for this building and I fear that you know we may lose potential.

Tax revenue if we don't have you know this building if it turns into a historic site so thank you.

Thank you for comments Elizabeth Ochoa is our final speaker.

I'm a native sacrament and an early generation X and I remember when this building was built and I always love this building.

I want to focus in on the significance regarding financial crisis with this building.

I find it very interesting that this building is a savings and loan and many of you remember the savings and loan crisis of the late 80s that lasted well into the mid 90s.

What makes this also makes this building unique is that it has artwork on the front of it that's reminiscent of the art deco artwork or the artwork of the works progress administration that FDR funded to get us out of the great depression.

So to me this building has the significance of financial booms and bus which we go we live through.

I just think it is a wonderful building it should not be torn down there are many uses for this building and I urge you to preserve this building.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments Mary have no more speakers.

Great thank you very much for all the members of the public who have come out tonight.

We now want to open it up to the council for discussion and potential action and I want to begin.

This is actually in the deferred area which I guess I'm the council member for the deferred area but really I believe that once January 25 takes place that this will be part of district 2.

And council member Tao who is the council member for district 2 till the end of this term we're sharing the district so to speak.

And so I'm going to turn it over to you to begin.

Thank you.

Thank you mayor.

First off you know I am torn on this item you know a part of me wants to preserve history and preserve the legacy of the home savings loan.

Another part of me is the rational part but first off I would like more info on just the history on the destination so Sean can you give us a you know just share the staff.

So I would like to have a lot of my set around the policy of preserving the home savings long as a destination.

Sure the so the you are referring to the process by which the property owner approached the city and then how we got to the nomination.

Okay so the property over owner first approach the city with the various reuse concepts that you heard discussed.

So the initial conversations with staff were revolved around reuse of the site so there wasn't there wasn't discussion of demolition of the building until as I mentioned June 2023 when the property owner submitted a site plan showing the building demolition requested a pre application meeting.

At that time the project was routed to me because it did include demolition our code requires requires all projects that involve demolition of a building to be reviewed by preservation.

I noted it was identified in our mid century modern historic context statement and survey in 2016.

I will note that buildings that are identified in a historic resources survey as being potentially significant are required under the public resources code.

Third and that is based on the local policy of the city and the public resources that were approved by the city to be presumed historic resources until substantial evidence says that they are not.

So the nomination process is to answer that question on whether this building should or should not be considered since it was identified in 2016.

for a context statement in survey has been posted on the city website since it was approved

by city council in 2016. So that information is available to the public. It has been

available since 2016. So the notion that the property owner couldn't have found that

information through their due diligence research before buying the property isn't really

accurate. So then the nomination process was initiated when the property owner, we give

the property owner the opinion that we thought it was significant based on the identification

and the option to either revise the project to preserve the building or go through the

nomination process to resolve the substantial evidence question required by the state

law. Does that answer your question?

Yeah, yeah, this is probably a timeline. Is there any concerns about the 50 year mark?

Because I know the buildings at 47. Does that have any, because you know, where do look

at that designation today? And have we in the past designated any buildings that hasn't

reached that year mark as historical before?

So to the second question, I'm not sure when the last time we listed a building that was

not 50 years old, I'd have to, there's a lot of nominations there that I wasn't a part

of. So I can't, I can't speak to that. But I will say that our code states that our

practices and procedures regarding historic preservation are to be consistent with state

law. So the California has registered has certain criteria for listing. That says that a

building that sufficient time should have passed for a building to gain a scholarly or for

the public to gain a scholarly perspective on the significance of the resource. So we

rely on this on this state criteria as well as what says at our code, which is exceptional

significance. And this, this particular building has volumes, literally volumes written on

it, most notably by Professor Aaron Sin of Man, the chair of history at Manhattan College

who's the preeminent expert on Miller Sheets and savings and loan designed architecture.

And sufficient time to passing to gain a scholarly perspective, staff believes has been well

justified by again the volumes of work published by Professor Aaron Sin and others about the

significance of Miller Sheets architecture and art.

Can I, I'm sorry, I mean, I just, this is an important question. I want to make sure that

it's clarified and answered. Do you know of any buildings in the city less than 50 years

old that have been so designated? I don't.

Okay. Thank you.

You know, there's a, you know, my heart, I'm a history major. I went to Davis. I love history.

I love preservation, but there's also a rational part of me too that, you know, I grew up in

District 2. I know the neighborhood, the disinvestment of vacant buildings, you know, just some examples.

We've designated multiple buildings in District 2, Assist, Oracle, and those buildings today

remain vacant. You know, my, my, my fear is, you know, with this designation, we will have

a vacant building for the next 10 years. And I know that, or even more, you know, the

Grand Theater is one example on the possible art. It's been sitting vacant for 40 plus years.

North Sack Elementary School, you know, it's been sitting vacant for 20 plus years.

I know that investment that my community believes that it's going to come North Sack

Middle has not been there. I really want to look at this and say, yes, let's preserve this

building. But I know from a rational point of view that we might not have the investment

into preserving the building or keeping it ready to be used for the next couple years. You

know, my fear is also that the damage, I think the applicant, if you could speak on the

vacancy and the damage to the building and the cost of rehabilitation.

Yeah, our mom can give specifics, but since the building has been vacant for several years,

there has been a lot of vandalism. They have had, you know, they've had security service

out there. They put up a security fence that was stolen. They've had people break into

the buildings and remove the water fixtures without turning the water off. So the building

has been flooded on the inside. To rehab the building on the inside is a multi-million-dollar

effort. I don't have the exact number, but it's somewhere between $3 and $6 million to

just renovate the inside because it's all of the HVAC system. It's not ADA compliant.

It's sort of all the windows, just everything has to be rebuilt on the inside. So it's a

pretty significant investment. And that is one of the reasons that Market Street, you

know, is working with these larger medical providers because they do have the capital

and the funding to be able to undertake a project like that. But it would take, you know,

a tenant who really has some significant capital backing to renovate.

Can I just respond to one other thing about the notice and whether the mid-century contact

statement is adequate to provide notice? You know, it did not come up in due diligence,

but it also did not come up in any of these discussions with a pretty senior planner

who we've worked with a lot and who was very knowledgeable about city policies, city

guidelines. And he was unaware of this designation. So I think that's pretty significant that if

even staff isn't aware of it, I'm not sure how, you know, somebody coming in and purchasing

a building would even know to go look at a mid-century contact statement. So I think

that's still an issue. And I also, I know several of the speakers talked about the murals

and their importance. And again, I just want to reiterate that the building owner has

looked at whether those can be preserved and it's feasible to do it and they're very willing

to do so. Should they move forward with their project? Thank you.

Okay. Yeah. You know, I remember this being because this is the first thing that I open

in my bank account with Washington Mutual. You know, Washington Mutual bought it in 98.

I, you know, 2001, got my first paycheck went there, free checking, opened up my first

bank. You know, it's a hard thought for me. But, you know, I am truly looking at this

at a really rational position and also looking at the lens of, you know, the preservation

committee and all the steps. And I truly believe that, you know, if we can be halfway, I

am okay with preserving the art with suggested from the applicant. And that's my motion.

So again, just to clarify, because I think this is a key point, Miss Higeta, is the applicant

willing to preserve all of the art on site for a reconstructed building?

You mean like if they demolished the building but kept the murals?

Yeah, kept the murals on site. Yeah. Yeah. That's the rendering that we were showing you.

That's, and so I assume councilmember Tao that if you make a motion, that that would be

part of your motion as a condition. Well, it's not a, it's not really because we're

not approving a project. I understand that. But that, that's the, that would be the clear

direction of the council as part of councilmember Tao's motion. But I want to factually,

our, is the applicant, whatever they do with the building, with their investor, are they

willing to keep the, the artwork, the mural on site?

So there are three murals, two on the outside, one on the interior. And they, I, my understanding

is that all three are salvageable. And the two on the outside would be displayed outside.

The one on the inside, I don't think is appropriate for preserving outside. So we'd have to come

up with somewhere else to, you know, preserve that. But that's possible.

But it's possible. They can all be removed and without damage.

Okay. Let's, it's you forming your motion.

Well, my, my motion will be tonight, you know, to not declare the 1950 Ardenway as a historical

register landmark on the condition that all arts by Miller sheets are preserved and on site,

or development.

Can I just, for clarification, like, I don't know whether, you know, that's preservation

staff's preference to keep them on site. But that is, we're, we're willing to work

with staff. They can come back to the future city council.

Right.

At some point, if that changes, but I think the stronger the intent at this point, the better.

Yeah. And, and now open and close.

Okay. That's a motion. We'll get to everybody now. Council member Getta, there is a motion.

So continuing discussion.

Excuse me.

Well, second for, for continuing discussion.

Thank you very much, Council member Getta.

Mayor May I clarify, Council member Tauy, you didn't open and close the public hearing

correct and the motion was to deny the action with some specific direction.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Council member Getta.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Appreciate the conversation here and also appreciate the, the history that

and personal experience that Council member Tauy has with this building.

First, I want to thank, you know, all of the preservation advocates who are out here

because of the work that you've done for many years have kept some of the, the jewels

that we do have in our city. So I do appreciate that work that's been out here and particularly

Patty, you're, you are always so very eloquent, you know, and we're happy to have you as

a public servant for our state as well. And, and, you know, I think you can drive around

our city in many places and see those efforts that have, that have happened to, to maintain

our, our, our history. But I, I think from here from the presentation that we've heard

in this public hearing, for me, it's pretty clear. One, we have to try to have as much

as a clear standard as possible. And for me, I worry about what I see here in the moment.

And let me say I appreciate staff's work on this for reviewing and doing due diligence.

I feel it's a pretty, it's a, it's a pretty clear overreach. And I'll tell you why, for

me, it's very personal and concerning. One, we're in a very positive momentum of reviving

and reenergizing many of our commercial corridors. Many of our commercial door corridors

fall within this 30, 40, you know, sometimes 50 year era where there's questions whether

something is highly exceptional or has, or has a highly exceptional importance. And,

and maybe art is in the eye of the beholder. I would say, you know, that yes, you know,

there's the Cape Cranau, a Canaveral argument, you know, this is not no Cape Cranau rule,

but I think also the comment that was made that to equate this building to the Royal

Chicano Air Force or the bust of Father Miguel Ilegal, I think that's a false comparison.

I mean, there, my home was built in 1952. I would say it's a beautiful home, great architectural

home. It's an old home, but I wouldn't say it's historic in that context. But nonetheless,

I think we have to look at what's the facts before us. And number one, does it meet that

standard? Now, if the community had come here and there weren't any definition or any objections

or questions from other experts saying that this is, that this is, you know, historical,

then I would be willing to support it. But even this question mark about whether it meets

the standard, I don't want to set a precedent where many of our commercial corridors like Stockton

Boulevard, Fulsan Boulevard was mentioned earlier, you know, Franklin Boulevard, I just

heard the issues in Del Paso Boulevard and in Marysville Boulevard where a lot of these

buildings were built in the 50s or 60s or 70s. And yet they stay vacant and they stay, you

know, under-invested. And what it sends to me is a very concerning message about, you know,

whether these are areas where we want to invest. I heard already today how much the struggle

was from various options and opportunities to try to keep this building. And yet nothing

was happening for a questionable historical building. Now, the artwork, I tend to appreciate it.

I think that fact that the applicant had proposed to protect the artwork that's there. You know,

maybe that's my own personal preference. I like the artwork. I think the mosaic is important.

Thank you, Councillor Member Tau. I think that motion to include and protect the artwork is

important. I would say, though, from what I heard, is one of the pieces may not be adequate for

outdoors. So I think when that comes back through the land use process, that can all be discussed.

So those are those pieces. The last piece that I'll say that I find concerning is the adequate

notice because, you know, we have, in particularly, I'll mention Stockton Boulevard, a lot of immigrant

and refugees who came here and started and said, no one wants to invest here. We're going to

focus and we're going to invest here. We're going to buy these old buildings that have been vacant

for 20 or 30 years. And if our own staff isn't there notifying or knowing that something has a

potential higher cost risk, I mean, that to me puts a lot of pause on all the efforts we're doing

on Stockton Boulevard. And to that point, the fact that you still have buildings that have been

vacant for 40 years. So, and not everything is about leveling and bringing forward, but today,

this item is more about, it's a questionable historic mark. We have passed over the last three

weeks a number of locations that have been unanimous. And only because it requires public hearing,

where they're not in consent. I think this council has been very committed for many years to support

historic pieces, but one that's questionable and an area that you already see the vacancy rate

pretty high since the pandemic is, I think, troubling. And more so, I think I want to make sure that

unlike other cities, and maybe this is for the city manager of future conversation,

unlike other cities that are not over 100 years old, they're not over 50 years old. I mean,

the city of Rupa Valley is only less than 10 years old, you know. So, they don't have these many of

these concerns, but we do, and we should be helping to make sure that we don't fall into this

quagmire. So, I'm not sure how we approach that, but I do have a concern that this would be an

overreach, and I would support the motion to deny the staff recommendation. Thanks.

With the condition, yes, with the condition. It's direction. Yes, with the direction,

yes, very much. Yeah. All right, thank you. I hope I didn't inadvertently knock anybody off the

queue here. If I did, just pop right back up. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mayor. And vacant buildings

and vacant parcels that we have on our commercial corridor deserves a lot of time of policy

conversations for us here on the Sacramento City Council, like all our commercial curators are

facing the same burden of just empty parcels and absentee landlords that don't live in our

communities. So, I definitely feel like that's something that we need to bring to council as soon

as possible, especially after doing a ride along with councilman Brattal in District 2. So,

something city manager for the future. Anytime I travel to other cities, I always see things that

look unique, and the architecture looks unique. And I'm like, wow, that's so beautiful. And gosh,

they used to make architecture back then so nice, and it's so creative. Now we don't really do that.

And then I also think, gosh, I wish Sacramento had preserved more in the past to keep our history

and to tell people our story and to allow buildings to get to the 50-year mark, to allow buildings to

get to the 100-year mark. You know, I have a project in my district that I considered also

tearing down, and I heard loud and clear from my community like, hey, don't you dare touch that,

and I said, okay, sounds good. So, I stopped, and I haven't pursued that. Because I heard from the

people, at least in my community, and now I'm hearing from a lot of the residents in District 2,

that you want to save the history of a building that's been there your whole lifetime, that you

have memories to, that you enjoy the artwork for. And so, I just, you know, I guess I find myself

now in a unique opportunity to build on something that could be historic. So, I will be voting yes

on this motion to not tear down the building to make it historic. No vote. Sorry, no to the

current motion on the table floor. And I truly hope that we can work with our economic development

department to make something happen in District 2, because the District 2 community deserves it,

and this building can use love and support from our city team. And so, I just want to preserve

Sacramento's history, and I will be supporting anything that comes that's historically unmarked to

to my bias. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Valenzuela. Thank you. Yeah, I was reflecting on this

item about, I mean, a lot of you know that Midtown and downtown Sacramento used to look very different,

and used to look very different. And the result of some direct policy decisions that were made to

demolish historic housing, flight to the suburb areas, there was a point in time when Midtown

was at risk of not becoming the beautiful, incredible community that it is. A big part of why it is

that way is because people who lived here fought for historic protections, they fought to protect the

big Victorians that we love, they fought to protect the buildings that made this area unique, and

I'm so grateful for that, because when I go to other cities, I've had the opposite experience of

my colleague, I've gone to other cities where you could probably honestly not tell where you were.

Like just the same cement buildings, the same square box housing, the same whatever, and you're going

around doing these tours and like look at these cool things we're doing, and I'm like, uh-huh,

like it kind of like, where's the culture, where's the, I believe that we've preserved this in

Midtown and downtown, and we were still able to turn around this community to become the thriving

central city that it is now today, and so it's not counter to say historic preservation doesn't deter

economic investment. We have found a way to do this, we know how to do this, I fully appreciate

my colleague's concern, and just all of the work he's doing for District 2, a very thankful job,

and I think you can also over tell for all you've been doing, but it's not the historic

designations that are leading to this investment in District 2, it is policy design, it is frankly

a little bit of racism, it is zoning decisions that were made a long time ago, that we need and should

be doing so much more to correct District 2, deserve to preserve their history, and see economic

prosperity and investment, and we have shown that it is possible not for this to be in either or,

and so I really think we do ourselves a disservice when we frame it as an either or, because it's

always going to be cheaper to scrap and rebuild, it will always be cheaper to not do the improvements,

but we, if we make that happen, if we do that work, it is such a great reward, I don't live in

District 2, but I love this building too, I see it all the time when I go to the doctor up there,

when I'm going to businesses in that area, and I love that that's there on the corner like this

beacon of what was in that community, and I think it's so possible for us to figure this

out, and I can't count the number of times I've had project owners and developers come to me and say

it's just not possible, it's just not possible, and when the council said no, I'm sorry, you have to

figure out, guess what? Usually they do. Usually they find a way, and I'm not saying this at all to

discount the market for office right now, I get that it's tough, we have a lot of vacant office

buildings in District 4 right now as well, I know that it's going to be a really hard journey,

but it is so short-sighted for us to take this one moment in our economic journey as a city,

and to justify doing something that we simply cannot undo, we cannot undo this action,

we say no tonight, it is gone, and we know that it is gone, because this is the only thing that

will protect it from being there for the long run. I think I covered all my points, I'm looking

at my notes, I know I really got into that one, but I will just say that I'm going to join my

the mayor pro-tim and voting no on this motion, again with all of the respect to my colleague from

District 2, I think this is so short-sighted of us, and I really trust what our team is saying,

you know, guidelines are guidelines for a reason, there's a reason these things come to council

for a vote, it's not meant to be a hard and fast, if it was hard and fast, then we would never

debate this, and I think to stop at 46, because we say oh it's not 50, just feels so incredibly

arbitrary to me, that's four years, that's nothing, the last four years have already passed like a

blink, it'll be 50 years before we know it, and by then it'll be too late for us to do something

here, so I want to thank our city team on this, I know it's not easy, and I know that none of us

celebrate when there is a disagreement with the parcel owner and the city team on things like this,

I think none of us take this lightly, and so I do want to appreciate the work and time that you

have all spent and that all the advocates have spent, you've been hitting our mailboxes and our

email boxes for weeks, and I just know that a lot of personal research, a lot of advocacy,

wanting to get into this point, and I just want to thank you all for that, thank you.

Thank you, councilmember. I'm going to say a couple of words here, everybody speaks from the

heart, and really well, and this is a tough, tough issue, the one thing though that I just want to

clarify from what councilmember Valenzuela said is, I don't think this is the end of the question,

because if the council supports councilmember Tows motion tonight with the direction,

when the project, whatever project comes before the Planning Commission and the council,

the question of historic preservation and whether or not the project meets the criteria for

maintaining the historic integrity of either the building or the artwork is absolutely relevant

for the city council, next city council, because this won't come for a while to consider.

So this is not the end. In fact, this voting no on the motion would sort of preclude a broader

discussion about how we might do what is our hard job up here, that is to try to find the

proverbial sweet spot here. And I have read all of this and fascinating to learn the history of

Miller's sheets and I read the arguments back and forth about how much Miller's sheets actually

participated in the architecture of the development for the building and reasonable people I think

could come to different conclusions on that. You do have the legal standard which says, and we have

to follow the law here, this is quasi adjudicatory, and it does say that there is a difference between

a 50 year threshold and more than 50 years. And we owe fairness if this is like a court

to both the historic preservation advocates and the applicant, we have that legal duty.

And so that law and that line may be arbitrary, but it is what the law is. And the law says it has

to be extraordinary. And so you look at this factual dispute about how much Mr. Sheets participated

in it or didn't. And I don't, I can't conclude that it meets that legal standard. I know I'm

playing lawyer here, but that's part of what we're supposed to do in the quasi adjudicatory

fashion. And then I look at what the applicant has put on the table and what council member Taua

is included in his motion. And I understand that it is intent. It's not a condition. I do understand

that because there's no project before us. But it's a very important and strong intent. And I think

it's our best effort at this stage of the process to try to find that sweet spot. And I think you,

and whoever else remains on this city council, whenever a project comes back, has to hold to what

was said tonight to hold the applicant to the commitment. And I heard it tonight to include

the artwork on site. Because that when you read this as well is sort of the core, the core of the

the historic issue. I know it's not the only thing. It's the broader architecture and disputes

about whether there are enough colonnades in this and that. I mean, I read all that. But it's the

artwork that everybody keeps going back to is central. The economic issue is relevant too,

especially given the higher standard when we conduct the balance. And I must say I'm compelled by

council member Gettys argument here. I'm going to give my state of the city speech on this issue

of investing more in our commercial corridors. And because I think the city has traditionally

disinvested in our commercial corridors. And we're just beginning to have some intentionality

around our strategies. I'm going to do this out at Aggie Square on Stockton Boulevard. But the same

message could apply. Ardenway or Del Paso Boulevard or Franklin Boulevard or any of the other

historic boulevards. But I think on balance given this higher the higher legal standard,

that we at least have to give the applicant a chance to come forward with a project

and pass the test, the test being that you better preserve the artwork at a minimum. And you may

need to do more when an actual project comes forward. And I think on balance that's the right

thing to do. So I will support council member Tows motion. All right. I see no other speakers.

I see a motion on the floor. Please call the roll individually.

Thank you. Council member Kaplan.

Council member Tao. Mayor Pro Temtele Montes.

Yeah. Council member Valenzuela.

Vice Mayor Maple. No. Council member Gera.

Aye. Council member Jennings.

Yes. Council member Vang. No.

Mayor Stainberg. Yes.

Yes.

Mayor that motion passes. Motion passes five to four. Thank you very much.

Great debate. Great discussion. Really appreciate it.

Okay.

Okay. We now move to item 15.

We now move to item 15, which is the annual military equipment use policy.

Chief Lester and team.

She'll be right. Okay. Actually, she's right there.

All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Sacramento Police Department is really proud to present to you tonight our annual report on

the availability and the use of less lethal and specialized equipment known as our military

equipment use report. In a moment, Captain Clayview-Cannibal walk you through the key elements of

this report and we will attempt to answer any questions you may have about it.

First though, please allow me to share my thoughts really on the importance of the report

and on the philosophy and principles behind its preparation. The report is obviously required by law,

but it's also part of our department's ongoing efforts to safeguard the people of Sacramento in a

way that is professional, accountable and open to public view. That's why we've really embraced

this report as an opportunity not only to be fully transparent and identifying and describing

every piece of the equipment that we use, but also to identify areas in which we can improve

in our professionalism and accountability. The equipment is described as military equipment,

but as we all know that is somewhat of a misnomer. Today, the term military equipment and the report

covers materials that are decidedly non-military and in some cases, integral to responsible professional

policing. The report includes, for example, all of our less lethal equipment and options that

are central to resolving dangerous situations without having to resort to deadly force. This

council and our community have made it clear their desire that we seek at all times to deploy

as little force as necessary and to consider deadly force only when the options are afforded

by this equipment and technology are unavailable or exhausted. Responsible policing and the protection

of a community requires that we prepare not for what we hope will happen, but for what we know can

happen. We know from the effective use of new technology and equipment that we can keep individuals

officers and neighborhoods safer. We have undertaken to compile a report that is comprehensive and

as thorough as possible. The report you have tonight represents literally months of work by our staff,

our professional standards unit, our data analysis staff as well as our department leadership.

And I would like to thank that team really for their exhaustive efforts in auditing,

cataloging and preparing this report as well as their involvement in community outreach.

This outreach included the solicitation of public input on the report both through a community

survey and also from testimony and conversations with members of the public in a meeting held

on July 22nd of this year. The work is necessary. We undertake it eagerly. We agree whole

hardly that we need to know as precisely as possible what equipment we have, where it is, what it

costs and how available it is for use. And more than this we need to continually examine whether the

equipment matches our mission and is up to date with policing strategies and tactics that are

continually evolving. Our track record on the subject is really solid. We have in prior years

demonstrate that we are very careful stewards not only of the equipment that we have but also

of the public's funds needed to buy and maintain this equipment as well as to train our personnel

and it is responsible and safe use. Same time we always know that we can improve in key areas.

At our law and legislation meeting council member Jennings really talked about the importance

of transparency and continuous improvement. I think this report is an example of that.

We know that we have been in the business of acquiring and we are housing this type of equipment

for 175 years and the task of precisely accounting for all of it is a significant one.

We are not naive enough to think that we won't have errors in inventory accounting or occasional

challenges in verifying that everything we have is where it is supposed to be. That is why we ask

the city auditor to come in and examine our processes from top to bottom which they are currently

doing. We want to independentize and expertise to help us identify where we have fallen short of

our goal and complete accountability and where we can focus our efforts to improve. So that audit

remains underway but there are already key learnings that we have been putting into action to

improve the report and our overall systems of equipment inventory and use.

So in conclusion this report is a key element of that commitment. I ask you to consider it

carefully and help us in our goal of truly professional and responsible policing.

Captain Clayview Cannon will now present the report in a bit more detail and our team will be

glad to answer any questions you may have. Thank you for your consideration of our report.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Counsel and City Manager. I am Captain Clayview Cannon. I am here today to

give an overview of the Sacramento Police Department's military equipment use policy and annual report.

Before I begin I would like to thank the community for providing feedback regarding our military

equipment policy report. I would also like to thank the Sacramento Community Police Review

Commission for providing recommendations to allow us to provide a better report and policy each year.

We're asking you to approve Sacramento Police Department's military equipment use policy

general order 410.06 and we send Sacramento City ordinance number 2023-0018. We have dedicated

countless hours of staff time and creating this year's report to be fully transparent and we

had made several changes to report based off recommendations from council, the community,

the Sacramento Community Police Review Commission, ACLU, Amnesty International and Legal Women

voters. This year's military equipment policy is an example of an ongoing 18-month initiative

to streamline department policy. This is an effort to increase the ease of understanding,

increase time efficiency, enhance compliance, increase accessibility and to provide

consistent performance across the entire department. Our response to the military equipment

recommendations. We received a total of 50 recommendations from 2022 and 2023 regarding our

military equipment. Out of the 50 recommendations, we fully partially implemented 39 of those

recommendations into this year's annual report. Two of the recommendations are still under review

and research and nine of the recommendations we were unable to implement. We cannot implement

five of the recommendations due to legislative mandates, city codes, government codes or legal

opinions. Four of the recommendations were directed to Mayor and Council and were not the

per view of the police department. A few highlights of the implemented recommendations regarding

military equipment include we added demographic reporting, detailed usage reporting, more defined

authorization for each type of military equipment and detailed annual cost by military equipment

type. If you are not aware, we have been working on the Police Commission recommendation response

since February 2023 and we have completed 143 responses. These responses gussù many hours of

staff time in addition to their daily duties. I would like to provide an overview of the seven

step recommendation process that we follow at SAP PD. Step one, my team, the professional

standards unit conduct research of each recommendation, you're sure accuracy, legal compliance and whether

the recommendation has been established as a best practice. Step two, staff works to formally each

response. Step three, or step three, each response is presented to the entire team for analysis.

Then each recommendation is compared against existing general orders, reference manuals,

office orders, directives and training. Frequently, single recommendations have evolved revision of

several policies at a time. Step five, revised policies need to be reviewed by the city turns

office to ensure legal compliance often require an additional revision based on feedback.

And six, all policies are simply reviewed by the respective labor association in which they are

provided two weeks to provide input. Sometimes additional revisions is required after review.

And the final step is the chief is provided the final policy. Regarding the 2024 EU recommendations,

we just received these responses 10 days ago and have not had adequate time to research,

respond or implement recommendation changes. Additionally, one of the city auditors findings during

their 2021 performance audit of the Sacramento Community Police Review Commission was to establish

a protocol regarding recommendations and responses. This protocol was established between SPD

and the commission and providing responses today will not follow that process. I can tell you there

are some items that we are committed to considering some of them as a recommendation regarding the

timeline. We have to avoid this crunch time. I know the city auditor is working on that currently

as part of their audit process and I'm really looking forward to the responses in their options for

us. We're also committed to working on the recommendation or considering the recommendation of adding

comparative reporting, reinstating the policy and philosophy statement and creating a hyperlink to

policies that are referenced in our MU policy. Community outreach. In collaboration with the

Sacramento Community Police Review Commission on the community meeting, we held a community meeting

on military equipment used on July 22nd. The city and the police department's public information

office advertised the meeting on all their social media platforms as well as the city and PD web pages.

The military equipment used policy and annual report along with the community survey were posted

at SPD's Transparency page late June early July. Several community members and attendants supported

this year's military equipment used report policy. Approximately 19 people provided statements.

In our analysis, eight of the statements were favorable towards our policy report, four were

non-favorable and several were neutral. We also this year's community survey was posted on June 21st

and was left open for 45 days, which is one half month longer than last year's. We received

298 written responses and our analysis 49% of the responses were positive towards our policy

and report, 35% were negative and 16% were neutral. Odds. This year, SPD or OSA did not receive any

formal complaints regarding the usage of military equipment. To come to this conclusion, we audited

internal affairs personnel complaints, supervisory message, inquired with the Office of Public Safety

and Accountability and reviewed all uses of force involving Department of Military Equipment.

Since the inception of AB 41 in 2021, we have tried to provide the most accurate report.

As an agency with more than 170 years in the business of the acquired equipment, this report is

a huge task for staff to undertake and we pride ourselves in doing the most accurate job as possible.

It would be naive and me to say that we won't continually find corrections as we move forward

every year, but it is our commitment to continue to provide accurate and transparent

audits and inspections. Last year, we asked the City Auditor's Office to conduct a performance

audit of our MAU process from top to bottom. This allowed for independent auditing experts to

examine our process and to help us identify areas where we could improve. The City Auditor's

report has not been finalized, like they chief said, but their feedback during the process has

already helped us improve our practices. This year, we conducted 12 internal audits and inspections.

Out of the 12, four of the audits identified actionable items for SPD. Additionally, we had six

equipment, six equipment inventory corrections, which is a 75% reduction from last reporting period.

Expanded our, Expand a Military Equipment Use Data. In the report, we will see that this year,

we included several pages that detailed the incidents when military equipment was used.

The usage table includes police and council districts, zip code,

demographics, equipment used, reason for use, and how the incident concluded. We had 324

incidents that involve military equipment, and forced was only utilized 17 times, which represents

force being used less than 6% of the time. There were a total of 324 incidents. On 20 of those

incidents, military equipment was solely utilized to search for an object or to gather evidence.

There were 115 incidents where military equipment used, but we were able to locate any persons.

The three most common types of equipment used were our uncrewed aerial systems, which was

utilized on 302 incidents. Armored vehicles, which was utilized on 130 incidents, and the long range

acoustical device, which was utilized on 122 incidents. These three items are primarily used,

primarily used to safely search and provide protection and to attempt to de-escalate a situation.

They represent every 7% of total military equipment usage. It should be noted that every

armor vehicle deployment requires a notification to mayor and council. We have completed this

notification since last year's presentation, and they are generally sent on the same or next day.

There were approximately 212 people that were directly involved in instance where military

equipment was used. As a reminder, force was only utilized 17 times during all these contacts

with potentially armed or violent subjects. A hundred fifty-five subjects were arrested.

A hundred thirty-six of those were arrested for felony charges. With felony fire arm possession,

robbery, assault with a firearm, resisting arrests, and assault with a deadly weapon being

the top ten list of charges. Total annual cost. In this year's policy report, we included more

itemized total annual costs for each type of military equipment. The total annual cost includes

staff hours, training, and maintenance costs. Training and maintenance staff hours are already

a part of our employees annual workload or schedule. Staff costs are recorded in time and employees

utilizing a piece of military equipment during an operation. Training are when conducting maintenance.

Training equals proficiency, and we want to ensure that our officers are properly trained in the

use of equipment to provide the safest response for our community. I would like to highlight that

these are ongoing costs that are already budgeted for. These are not costs that are going to

increase our budget or cost to purchase new equipment. Proposed acquisitions. When asking for

councils authorization to purchase new equipment, we are asking to replenish the items or purchase

new equipment in the reporting period if necessary. If the equipment, if the authorized equipment is

needed in the reporting period, then a notification is sent to mayor and council, but just because

our authorized does not mean that we will always purchase them. This year's proposed acquisition

total cost is approximately $95,000. This is over $140,000 less than what our proposed

acquisitions were last year. The only new item that we are asking for typical is a new model of

uncrewed aerial system. We are asking to replenish 12 types of items, the replenishment of our

inventories vital to ensure we have the necessary equipment for training and operational use.

These items need to be replaced to expiration or no longer function or to consume which has been

expended. Possible updates to our next year's report. In next year's report, we plan on adding

comparative data from this report. We also will be adding a usage table listing the number of

uses by equipment category type. We are currently researching an easier way for the community to

access the department policies that are referenced in the M.E.U. policy. To answer the concern of

alternative piece of equipment, we are currently researching how to document reasonable alternatives

or practice of authorized uses of department military equipment. And finally, next year's report

will include the purchasing memorandums that council receives. In conclusion, we are asking to

approve this item. This year's report is better formatted, more detailed, more transparent,

and we will leave much more informative to the community. In my research, I have not found an

agency in California with a more inclusive report than ours. I want to thank our team,

Lieutenant Jeff Sharashy, Sergeant Jacob Sela, Administrative Analyst, Page Branum, and Reserve

Officer Bob Mueller for their countless hours of work on this year's annual policy report.

And I want to thank you guys for your time and we are able to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you. A couple of comments before I call up a representative of the commission for

a very brief presentation. This law is an interesting law. It is a law of transparency.

It is intended, and I think well intended, to give the public and the elected officials an idea

of what equipment the police department is purchasing. It is not intended for us, in my view,

to micromanage or the police equipment budget, or to become experts ourselves in what is and what

is not required for modern policing. And so sometimes the purpose is, I think, it is confused.

And I think another commission is grappled with this. And there are, I know a number of what I call

process and transparency discussions that are taking place about how to take this process,

which is now, and it is what third year. And I appreciate the statistic that you just said that

39 out of the 50 of the prior recommendations have been adopted by the police department.

That the key to this is for the department to just work collaboratively with the council and

with the police commission and the community to just work to make sure that this information is

out there. And if there are serious questions about one or two things, obviously, to be able to

ask them, but not to put the policy makers in a place where we are becoming experts or seeking

them experts in things that we are not experts in. I just wanted to say that as an opening.

And I thank you for the presentation. Is there a representative from the police

commission, Mr. Police? You're the chair of the commission. And I'm going to ask you to keep

your presentations in no more than five minutes. And I know you have a couple of slides and we'll

accommodate your slides, but five minutes so that we can then get to the public testimony

and a discussion among the city council members. Thank you, Mayor. And the rest of city council

for engaging with this in this process as well as for offering our commission the opportunity to

present to you our recommendations in detail. For everyone who doesn't know, my name is Keon Bliss.

I use he hymn pronouns and I'm the chair of the Sacramento Community Police Review Commission.

Is there a slide presentation? I didn't receive the slides until the meeting

start time so I don't have slides. So logistic.

Is there a way to accommodate here and at this point, maybe Mr. Bliss, if you had,

do you have the slides that you could put on the platform here and have them be shown up here?

I do not have a print off because I do not have a printer, unfortunately.

Okay. I had sent these at least.

Okay, we're not, I don't want to get into, there's just this happens in life. It's okay.

I want to make sure that you have five minutes to present your information. Can you describe

the slides for a belief for us and then pass them out? We'll make sure that we get access to a

printer, get the slides and make sure that the members of the council get the slides. All right?

To work with us, I'll work with you. Okay.

This is a detailed report that has taken a lot of work and actually covers not just this year,

but also for the last two years, which includes up to 30 recommendations, several of which have been

improved following our annual approval process of our recommendations. So there have only been

30 recommendations issued around military equipment use by the commission.

For those who don't already know, Assembly Bill 481 is a state law that requires law

enforcement agencies to obtain approval from the governing body prior to making certain actions

relating to the funding acquisition or use of different types of military equipment.

And by May 2022, all police and sheriff departments in California were required to publish a written

military equipment use policy or MEU for use in its annual military, or for uses of military equipment

defined under the law. The intent behind the law is to create a transparent process that involves

the public and local governing bodies before local law enforcement agencies acquire military

weapons and equipment, which the California legislature grounded in the understanding that the

acquisition and deployment of military equipment in our communities negatively impacts our public

safety, welfare and civil rights, as well as being more frequently deployed in low income,

black and brown communities. It also established too that the public has a right to know about any

funding, acquisition, or use of military equipment by state or local government officials,

as well as having their input to meaningfully consider the public's welfare, safety,

civil rights, and civil liberties in order to inform and better improve the policy. My first slide

would have been to just go over which military weapons and equipment is actually governed under

this law so that members of the public who are ultimately supposed to be included and informed

about this process can accurately understand what this equipment entails, which I wish the slides

would be up right now. Those include drones and robots or uncrewed aerial ground systems,

armored vehicles, including such as the rook, weaponized aircraft, firearms, a 50 caliber or more,

including assault weapons, flashbangs and tear gas, tager shockwaves, and other equipment.

A B41 established for the City Council as the governing body responsible for which may only

approve military equipment use policy for the Sacramento Police Department if it means all four

of the following minimum requirements. First, that the military equipment is necessary because

there is no reasonable alternative that can achieve the same objective of officer and civilian safety.

Two, the proposed military equipment use policy must safeguard the public's welfare,

safety, and their civil rights and civil liberties. And three, if purchasing the equipment is

supposed to be reasonably cost effective compared to available alternatives, these alternatives

must be equivalent meaning they should be able to achieve the same level of officer and civilian

safety. Previously owned military equipment and previous use of the equipment needed to

comply with the MEU policy it was an effect at the time must have been in compliance but a lot

of law enforcement agencies did not have a written policy at this time. So if prior equipment used

to not comply with the existing policy it is supposed to state and fix those non-performing uses.

Can you maybe get right to the recommendations because I think we know the law and the public

we can all put out the law but get to the commission's recommendations. I know there were several pages

and I think that would be most productive and helpful. Sure I'm going to start with just a quick

summary of the 2022 recommendations which included 13 recommendations that the commission had produced

within a very short time frame that year. And we only learned last week that the department had

provided written responses to the council for our previous recommendations. Several of which have

been implemented but we are still waiting for council to provide to review and approve the following

recommendations which include requiring all annual procurements, acquisitions, or purchases to

be submitted separately from the annual report or policy updates for consideration by the budget

and audit committee and adding written language to clearly state the limits and conditions for

SPD's use of each type of military equipment and compliance with AB48 and AB41 including specific

details for when it is authorized for use and when it is unauthorized for use. Also requiring

written justification in each annual MEU report to provide context for why the equipment

and SPD's inventory is necessary and how it will achieve both officer and civilian safety

while safeguarding our civil rights and civil liberties. 2023? It was a 2022. Okay what was 2023?

2023 was based on many comments and suggestions from community members during the previous two years

and we consistently heard about meaningful changes they wish to see. Some of those that have been

implemented from last year's report include included having the department track and report all

military deployments in its annual MEU report rather than reportable uses of force as well as

removing ambiguous language that allows SPD allows military equipment and deployments in virtually

any situation such as when the department has a tactical advantage or for crowd control purposes.

There are still several recommendations that are still not implemented and there are nine

recommendations from 2023 that we are still waiting for those rear consideration. Designating

independent oversight of SBD's compliance with AB41 and its MEU policy outside of the department

and the city council given the close relationship and the funding authority the city council has

over the department's equipment and also to clearly state in the policy when and where military

equipment use are prohibited from deployment and use or discharge separately from authorized

uses sections currently in the policy. So 2024 let's get to 2024 and as I understand 2024

because I read it carefully that the import of the 2024 committee commission recommendations

were to require or ask that the department provide even more detailed information about the

justification for the purchase of the equipment. Is that the import of the 2024 recommendations?

That's key. Let's keep it to it improving our transparency and continuing to add more

comparative analysis to that but each one is very specific. I mean beyond just the

improvements that it made in using more plain speak and less legal jargon the department may

have over corrected in simplifying the general order's language and particularly over concerned

about that which is why we recommended that for our first recommendation to amend the purpose policy

statement to the language that was approved in 2023 as well as restoring the philosophy section

which grounded the policy the department's use of military equipment in the first place.

Okay so as part of the record we will put into the record the 2024 recommendations and discuss

them here tonight and the letter which as I understand it was signed by the chair and three other

commissioners accompanying that. We'll put that into the record. Would you like to summarize and

conclude please? It's were over five minutes but I'm not pressing you I just want to we all have

the 2024 recommendations and- I want to note that the department received ample amount of time

as paid employees and I am here as a volunteer on appointed by the like by the city council

to provide this report and there was a lot of work that went into this within the span of less than

three weeks. Thank you. With that I would like to actually go through each recommendation for 2024

so that we give in that we don't have our slides up there and that would have been easier for me to

just summarize and move through it had there been. I'm going to give you two minutes to go through

the recommendations Mr. Bliss that's what we said five minutes and we're well over it and so

go through it but go through it do give us a summary of the recommendations and then we will

take it from here okay and the public will as well. Go ahead. Recommendation number two was a

mending section F of the general order to require SPD to list the current quantity and ongoing per

unit's approved situations for use restrictions total annual cost and fiscal impact of each military

equipment type in both the general order and the annual use report because we had noticed that

current quantities for each item of the of the of military equipment was removed from the general

order but listed in the annual report which is not included separately on their policy and transparency

page and then annual cost or fiscal impact of each type of military equipment which was removed

from the general order but listed in the annual report though not nearly in this greater detail

as previous years as well as restoring the authorized usage and approved situation sections was

removed from the general order and replaced with a statement that refers to multiple different

general orders and reference manuals listed on the website that doesn't that requires members of

the public to dig through the city's web pages and look through hundreds of pages of potential

policy to an order to understand when this equipment can be used and when it cannot be used.

Number three, a mending section C to add the verbatim language of AB 41 to specify the four

minimum requirements for city council to approve the military equipment use policy. As stated before

assembly bill 41 is not a polite suggestion. It is a statutory code that requires all law and

enforcement agencies and governing bodies to follow and uphold in public policy practice and conduct.

So with that said it requires that this any the current policy as well as purchases of new

equipment must be necessary because there's no reasonable alternative. It has to safeguard the public

safety welfare safety civil rights and civil liberties is also reasonably cost effective compared

to available alternatives and previous uses prior misuses were fixed in the current policy.

And you want that statutory language to essentially cut and pasted into the policy itself so that

it reiterates what the requirements of the law are. Correct. I'm going to ask you to sum up here

because I want you and I want you to get to the six questions because I think that's the key piece.

I understand because I've read it carefully that excuse me that the commission is asking

that various the key parts of the law be put directly into the policy but then I think you do

something that is even more interesting which is yet you recommend six questions that that the

department answer either now or in the future that will provide the public more information and

detailed information about the reason for the purchase of the military equipment.

We can read that I'm inviting you to describe the six questions and then I'm going to ask you to

please let us take the rest of the public testimony.

Council beyond just justifying the current inventory of those six questions that we're talking about

also would pertain specifically to new equipment purchases namely

prompting the department to provide explanation for why the equipment is necessary that

there's purchasing especially within the current fiscal years compared with cost-effective

alternatives. For example one of the things that we had wanted to show both council and the

members of the public was the number of uses that a department has compared of each particular

type of military equipment with the commission had actually conducted analysis on and how those

compare with the proposed acquisitions such as SPD currently owns 74 uncrewed aerial systems or drones

but is requesting additional nine units for $55,000 while drones by far had the most usage in the

last reporting period. Seven of these units are from the most expensive brand in its inventory costing

over $7,500 each. So thank you for providing the example of why you want more detailed questions

I appreciate it so I'm going to ask you to take you see please thank you we understand the summary

and we have it all before us and we're going to and well the public it's part of the record

let's begin the public testimony thank you I have 15 speakers on this item the first is

Guy Steven Barossa Ryan Masano Rick Stevenson and then ArchT.

Merrill Stuyberg and City Council I have the utmost respect for the police and the sheriff's

department but I do not and I'm going to make this clear I was in the military for a long time

I don't think that where we need to be where we're at right now with purchasing military equipment

all military equipment as you know is designed and made to do one thing and one thing only

and you know what that is that's called into life we used it in the military in the Middle East

I don't think in the civilian world that law enforcement agencies should have military equipment

now some people might disagree with me and say no they need it for this or for that I don't

agree with that there's other ways there's other companies that sell equipment like drones you know

but use an armor vehicles from the military the only reason the police would buy it would be for

the fact that it's cheap you know what I mean and they can buy it from the GSA the government

surplus but in my point of view I don't think I really don't believe that the police department should

have any type of military equipment period but that's my own opinion and thank you very much

have a great night thank you for your comments Stephen Barrossa

it's not available no no thank you

fair enough greeting city council you know as we've learned this is not military

great equipment AB 481 specifically talks about surplus military equipment being given by the

federal government to state and local jurisdictions for law enforcement and none of this equipment on

the list falls under that category and it's all new equipment is being procured I mean there's

bean bags there's non-lethal options for engaging the public most of it I think even the 40 millimeter

rounds are collapsible non-lethal options there's other tools for you know entering premises

and even the armored vehicle is not a military equipment it's a custom vehicle with armor it's

not an assault vehicle it's used for defense for to protect the police and to protect the public

in the event of an active shooter which they may encounter when they're serving warrants so I just

feel like this whole thing is not transparent it's gaslighting the public as the last speaker

illustrated everyone's thinking oh gosh you're militarizing the police it's simply not true

and sitting here hearing the speakers they said military use how many times word count 50 times

it's ridiculous I just feel it's this totally dishonest this process that we're going through

and what really concerns me is today city council is evolving we may get more radical members on

the council who want to defund the police and it could create you know a very dangerous situation

for the law enforcement to do their job get the equipment that they need to protect the public

and so I urge the council to walk this back fix this before it gets out of hand thank you thank

your comments Ryan Misono then Rick Stevenson I'm strongly opposed to militarizing the police

for four reasons first we do have a crime problem but we don't even know the extent of our

crime problem because millions of crimes are unreported and are reported to the FBI in example we

know the rape rate which has officially gone from nine rapes per 100,000 in 1960 to 40 rapes per 100,000

in 2019 officially is seriously skewed the rate is likely closer to 100 rapes per 100,000 because

women aren't reporting rate due to two reasons police have been caught cooking the books to make

their democrats purers look good and men who view porn which is likely 80% of American males are

less likely to believe women reporting rape so women are reluctant to report it second sacrameno

and many democrat cities refuse to report murder violent crime and rape rates by race there can

be no equality without equal responsibility at your point this is not within the jurisdiction

disgusting currently please keep your comments related to the item that's false it is within your

jurisdiction you do not report crimes by race for rape murder and violent crime and please stop

interrupting the Lisa this is actually relating to the military equipment you so the comments must

be related specifically and it is related because I'm dealing with the fact that if you can't be

trustworthy to keep your comments related to the item because I'm saying that Lisa's irrational I'm

simply saying that if we can't report data objectively on this then why should we trust you with

military weaponry it's entirely rational to all but those who I just said were too emotional and

she just went and proved my point so as I can you please give me back my time I was at 109 before I was

interrupted just continue 109 please your time was paused when you were interrupted yeah well yeah

well I need to explain myself why she interrupted me to take 30 seconds of my time so I can't get my

full comments out this is the strategy and this is why you keep trying to arrest me because you keep

trying to deny me my right to speak now if Lisa can't handle what I say leave Lisa I mean I don't

have anything against your comments at the entire council yet man that's not again see this is

now I'm not leaving here you want to go ahead and arrest me you go ahead and do that I'm going to

get my two minutes and I'm standing here until I get my two minutes so I don't know why I have to

keep doing this time after time after time after time but I'm gonna win I have the right as an

American citizen your time is complete please take your seat Rick Stevenson then Rt T then

Diane Rosenblum Rick Stevenson

Mr. Stevenson come on up and speak there we'll work around this guy if you have to go ahead

Stan thank I can speak loud enough I don't need a microphone go ahead Mr. Stevenson yeah I am

absolutely in support of this equipment being acquired it doesn't matter how much how many times

you use it in a year if you don't find an insurance claim in one year it doesn't mean you crop your

insurance it's better to have things and not use it or not need it than to need it and not have it

and most of it has a very long shelf life I've fired ammunition from World War I it works just fine

so the point is get what is needed get what seems likely to be needed and frankly even a little more

or and if you don't use it great but if you need it you've got it it's insurance thank you for

your comments Rt T falling art is Diane Rosenblum Jeanette Egan and Karen Corpse

Good evening City Council good evening mayor our major head so I'll make it quick

our please note we use military equipment for several things as far as definition

but when you go to the Golden One Credit Union and you see an armored car pull up what do you

think they're doing there's not a squad of people coming out just money going in and out so

that definition is for its military equipment kind of baffles me a little bit now I wanted to say that

I've had sat PD on the back because they're to do the job to get into the armored car and do

rescue somebody safety and security for all thank you if your comments Diane Rosenblum

then um Jeanette Egan and Karen Corpse

City Council I'm sorry to hear from comments that I read on the e-commerce that some people feel

vulnerable or unsafe in their homes or their neighborhood especially after events that happened

years ago I'm not here to criticize our police force I am here today to remind City Council that

you have a legal responsibility to make sure that the mandated military equipment use policies

and the acquisitions requests follow laws AB481 and AB48 this means properly scrutinizing the changes

that have happened in the use policy in their attempt to simplify the use policy the sack PD took

out required and important explanations around safeguards around approved uses this needs to be

restored and it needs to be done this year we don't want either the public or government officials

or police officers put in a position of not fully understanding the rules around this equipment

this is dangerous equipment many containing chemicals that are harmful to the environment and human

health left lethal weapons can still be lethal suspects are rarely in isolated areas you other

community members may be nearby and affected by the deployment of military equipment physically

or through the trauma of seeing that type of equipment in their neighborhood over and over

it is appropriate that it is regulated and carefully used it is very important that everyone

is completely clear on authorized uses last year you made the wise choice to ask for demographic

information in the report this has been helpful and we hope that the sack PD uses it to think

carefully about how and where they deploy military equipment this year please ask for transparency

for approved uses to be clearly listed and rationals for all new acquisitions especially those

that haven't been used in many years i hope to hear a motion tonight asking the sack PD to

give your comments your time and use policy i'm going to ask mr. Roberts in a question

it's my prerogative because i thought your testimony was constructive and helpful and i don't

know what your expertise may or may not be but what what when you refer to gaps what specifically

are you referring to you're asking you asking me so last last year in 2022 there were

lists of approved uses in 2023 they even went far enough to even say some some non authorized

uses which was great that's something that the public had asked for this year all of the authorized

uses underneath every piece of equipment has been taken out and instead there is now a list of

general orders and manuals that you can go to and you can search through if you have the time or

the energy or can find how it pertains to that particular piece of equipment and that's all that's

there now this is important a chief or captain can you respond to that please sure our team actually

talked about it because we had listened to the comments at Lon Legend so this year i think our team

did a great job with listening to other comments that the public really wanted a simplified report

something that was easier to read so in an effort to really simplify that we took lots of sort of

language out and tried to just refer to it but what we are talking about doing to make it

easier since a lot of people look at this online it's just to create hyperlinks to those areas

like the specific policy to so to the point of the public they won't have to go and try and dig

through policies mean the information's all there but i totally understand you know what our

concerns are right so your comment is being heard in real time um thank you thank you so much

appreciate it next speaker is jenette egan good evening mayor and council um i have some concerns

about the military equipment use policy just to make sure it's properly monitored in the way

the law prescribes um because i know you are governing this for us um the i agree with the

transparency needs to be returned so that the public can easily see what the allowed authorized

uses are and not i i note the language from the ab481 itself pointing out that the majority of

people these equipment will be deployed upon are um black and brown communities low income

communities and that from the data that i saw out of the two when they're counting ethnicity

there were 210 instances of use of military equipment and 165 were against people of color which is

79 percent i just really worry about us dehumanizing people um when we have the weapons there's a

tendency to use them however it seems like there's some stockpiling going on i know there needs to be

equipment for training but there's things like the breaching munitions um they have 173 they're

asking for 110 more and there's no record of their use there were quite a few things there that

thankfully were not used but then why do you need more and um the flashbang chemical projectels

are a big concern for me i would just really ask that um the sack pd work really closely with

the uh review commission and with the city council to hear our thank you for your comments thank

you for coming next speaker's care in corbs then fido vido sugromo then gym randlett

thank you mr mayor and city council i'm here today to ask city council to please support and

approve the military equipment that the sacraments police department is requesting first i am

totally confused as to why it's called military equipment since it is purchased commercially not made

for the military but i digress the equipment that the police department is requesting is necessary

to enhance officer safety respond to high risk situations and can neutralize threats more effectively

for instance specialized vehicles can protect officers during active shooter incidents hostage

rescues domestic violent situations and peaceful protests that turn into violent riots in riots

in addition this equipment may be needed to counter heavily armed criminals who possess firearms

capable of piercing of piercing standard police armor resources like drones can be outdated very

quickly so it's important for the police department to have new resources that have state-of-the-art

technology but not only is it important to have this equipment for the police officer's safety

it's necessary to have this equipment for the safety of the citizens who live in sacrameno

if our police department lacked the essential equipment needed they may struggle to effectively

protect the community the last thing i want to see happen is our police department at a significant

disadvantage when facing heavily armed criminals interestingly most of the items we are talking

about are tools to deescalate situations for a safe resolution i can't imagine living in a city

where our police department does not have the tools they need to keep the public safe if our police

department does not get the equipment they need then criminals will feel emboldened and residents

will feel unsafe i've said this before you've heard me say this before and i will say it again

and again my friends my neighbors the the people that i know who live in sacrameno want a well-funded

well-trained and well-equipped police department thank you thank you for your comments veto

then gym randlett then Christina Rogers mayor city council and city manager i'm here to encourage you

to support this measure and in support and and make sure that the police have the tools the

safety tools i think it's been mislabeled as military equipment and during my 37 years or more

at the state capitol i had to work very closely with fby's with the police with with uh stay police

chp and many dangerous situations if this equipment was available to them they not only would deescalate

but it would have saved lives both for the police and for the citizens i strongly encourage you

to support the police thank you thank you for your comments um gym then Christina

mr mayor and members uh my name is jim randlett i'm a resident of the city of sacrameno

i'm here to ask your i-boat and figure of this uh motion that's uh the proposal is before you

most people would say that uh protecting citizens is the number one function of government

and so what you have here today i think are your experts in protecting the public coming to you

and saying this is what we need this is the tool we need to do our job and uh i have trust in the

police department and i hope you do too and if these are the tools they need i would suggest that you

approve them thank you thank you for your comments Christina Rogers i have five more speakers

following christian is michael h hi city council i support the new technology non-lethal and lethal

weapons is requested by the police department for instance armor piercing bullets should be on hand

if someone is wearing armor and taking hostages or shooting up the school or public space

non-lethal tools like pepper balls and shot launchers if angry mobs decide to tear up our downtown

again closing businesses and harming the quality of life for others these tools should be available

to push back it is not right for some to decide to tear down what hardworking folks have built up

replenish existing tools our city is the state capital and govern governor newson talks about

being the best and an example to the rest of the united states then let's ensure our men and women

and blue are equipped with the best training technology and tools to handle crime and finally drones

crime is up neighborhood vandalism happens every night now a drone could also help keep track of

those trying to break into cars and homes maybe alert an officer of a prouder before another woman

is murdered while sleeping in her home alone these are real problems in sacrameno and police need

drones to be the extra eyes to make up for their low numbers technology changes quickly and far

city is to have the best law enforcement team in california we must provide them the tools training

and support they deserve to get them there thank you very much thank you for your comments michael h

then a then jp

hello i'm here speaking in opposition of adopting the uh any you policy as is without incorporation

of the recommendations from the sacrameno community police review commission i'd be able to speak

to it in more detail except the commissioner that works uh on behalf of the community who is not

given the proper amount of time to speak uh was was given uh parliamentary uh sort of guard rails

where as other people were allowed to speak in uh ten minutes will ten ten minutes by the way

okay but make your make your point okay make your point thank you very much yeah your your grace was

uh very evident in the uh in the proceedings i appreciate that it's very kind of you thank you

very much and so once again i stand opposition without the incorporation of the recommendations

from the commission thank you for your comments i have three more speakers a jp then tatt

um dan tibits is there an a

following a is jp then dan tibits

uh i am opposed to request for military weapons and equipment across the board um it was said

earlier tonight we don't wish to use deadly force and yet this is exactly what happens what is

more deadly than using militarized policing uh to kick people out of safe and accessible housing

specifically at camp resolution which happened just on monday yesterday uh we all witness there

an exorbitant and excessive amount of police and police equipment used against community members

that should have never been forcibly and violently removed from their homes the continued militarization

and with it the increased funding for sacked bd has done nothing to keep us safe and instead

is proven to work against our most vulnerable populations i urge the council to require the

implementations of the recommendations made uh by the public and also by the community police

review commission including written justifications for spending on military equipment and any

alternatives that have been considered and as always reinvesting in our communities through fair

housing health care schooling food programs will always prove to keep us safe not armored vehicles

not chemical weapons not drones and not grenade launchers thank you for your comments jp

following jp is dan tibits who will be a finer speaker on this item

i'd like to first respond to the the urge to remember that we're not experts and that we need to

leave this to the experts um we are the ones who are seeing how this equipment would be used

against our community members we are the ones who are seeing how police is currently harassing

folks who are at risk harassing and how is folks um you know the police is already doing violence

against our community members and so to say that we need to step back and let them

let them do their thing and let them tell the story of whether or not they are correctly

responding to situations feels um it it it doesn't feels like we are just being told to be to step

out of the way and it's also not in line with ab um sorry this is what in line with ab 41 which does

afford us that right to actually have a sane how this equipment has been used and to give approval

not just transparency there's been a lot of talk about whether or not this use is transparent but

transparency without genuine say in how it's used in like genuine collaboration um it doesn't

it feels like it doesn't it wouldn't we would just know about more maybe but still not be able to

do anything about it and that's what we saw tonight was oh we have a commission the commission

does all of this great work and puts forward these recommendations and then still they're told

exactly how to present and their entire um their work is micromanaged and their work is marginalized

work whereas the police presentations are given full you know able to be entirely in the center

and so um and to to say that this is not not even military equipment when we know of people who

are have like permanent injuries from equipment like this or we know we see how it's being used

to suppress people and to take away people civil liberties and to get people out of the way

thank you for your comments your time is complete i just i want to respond to one thing

appreciate your testimony i really do and i respect what you have to say um i just want to know

that the commission is indicated or the police department has said that they have adopted 80 percent

of the commission's 22 23 and 23 24 recommendations and i think everyone i've heard from agrees that

they are working together to try to incorporate the 2024 recommendations so i think there's been

some progress here it's not um it's it's it's it's better than it was i appreciate the response but

i also want to say like sitting in that chair seeing that number but not having any information

about what exactly those recommendations were or what and to hear it only from the police it felt

like i like just trust us like oh we do a really good job are we supposed to know when it's just

80 percent 80 percent we take these recommendations but we don't actually thank you for your comments

your your time is complete and i was the one who asked the question thank you i appreciate your

response and tibits

mhm

mayor steinberg council members thank you for having me this evening my name is Dan tibits

i'm here to support the police and strongly support chief's lester recommendation regarding this

policy next week september 3rd marks the third anniversary that my sister Mary Kate tibits

was brutally murdered in her house in the land park neighborhood my sister died from a confluence

of bad legislation prop 57 prop 47 and then zero doubt and what i found sense is that my sister is

merely a statistic of a skyrocketing crime rate some say that violent crime is down

well for implementation of proposition 57 there was about a hundred crimes recategorized from

violent crimes to non-violent crime such as rape of an unconscious person domestic abuse and

certain forms of human trafficking when you take all those hundred crimes out of the violent

category yes you can make the argument that violent crime is down common sense tells you that

violent crime is actually up

with violent crime being up we need the police force to be adequately equipped with the

tools necessary to not only protect us the law abiding citizens of the city but also to protect

themselves we're asking them to go into harm's way the very dangerous situations we need them to

have the tools necessary they're going into situations that the criminals have in some cases

fully automatic weapons you need to give them the tools they need the weaponry and the surveillance

equipment thank you for your comments Mary have no more speakers on this agenda item thank you very

much let me now turn it over to the city council vice mayor maple thank you mayor and I just really

want to thank everyone who came here today to give us your point of view it's always really important

to have the communities perspective as we have if we discuss these topics and it's always going to be

a continual process I really want to thank chief lester and captain Buchanan for your efforts I

know it's an ongoing process but I see that you are working hard with that to continue to repair

the relationship with sack pd the police review commission and the community and it really shows

I see that every day I also want to thank the police review commission for all of their work

and recommendations over the years these are community members that just volunteer their time

and it's really important that they have that oversight and that we hear from them I also had the

opportunity to attend the community meeting in oak park in july and just appreciate all of the

residents weighing in and presenting their questions and comments it's just for something that is

pretty specific and nuanced there's been a lot a lot of engagement I think that says a lot about

sacramental people care about what happens in their communities and I just appreciate hearing from

them the reality in my mind is that we are only going to make progress when we work together especially

when we disagree maybe 481 is a fairly new law and I just want to uplift that this is an iterative

process it has taken time to find the right balance of what this report should look like what it

should include or not include how it should be designed for example many thought last year that

the report was too long jokingly but you know I think it was quite a few hundred pages and that's

because you heard hey we want to see all these things in there and we heard this year that it might

have been too condensed and I think that that shows that hey we're listening we're continuing to change

and update things based on the feedback that we're hearing from folks and I think that the back and

forth is actually a good thing it means that we're working together to implement the best format

possible and I believe just making a few more changes next year is going to get us into even

better place and hopefully the ultimate place that we'll get in is that this will be like clockwork

every year and people are getting the right information that they need when they need it in the

format that they need it and so I just really want to appreciate all the work I heard loud and clear

from some of our police review commissioners including the district five commissioner Kim Carter Martinez

that there's still a desire for some outstanding questions and concerns that we're outlined in

their letter and that we have here to be addressed and so I'm going to suggest I'm actually with

that I'm going to move that this council do the following three things one that we adopt the

proposed in the U policy and report tonight two that we direct the police department to work with

the community police review commission to address the outstanding questions and obstacles outlined

in their letter as soon as possible and one of the things that was I heard tonight and was

suggested is that during the city auditors upcoming process I think that might be a really good time

to bring everyone together and have those conversations because there's a more holistic view happening

and that'll include formatting technical terms justification reasonable alternatives timeline

demographics and comparative analysis and three ensure that the commission's questions are

addressed annually during MEU process on an ongoing questions that are referenced in the recommendations

correct yes for for number two and then for the third that's a directive yes correct

and then for the third component is that we do this on a annual basis so just making sure that as

the commission has questions and comments and concerns that come up through their process

that that's getting addressed in the MEU process and again recognize the timeline's a big issue here

everybody's under a really tight time crunch that's no fault of our own that's the state law that

that sets the parameters and so I think if we can put our heads to the drawing board and find a

right timeline that works with everyone so that we can have those questions and concerns address

in the report I think it's only going to make it better so Mayor that is my motion thank you

thank you councilmember mayor pratton talamontis

all right I do want to thank everybody that has worked on this really important policy

everyone here in the audience including my commissioner as the Wayne Johnson for being here today

I appreciate all the time that you've given the commission and honestly just being a phone call

away from me for me anytime I have questions about anything at city hall any kind of policy that's

going to impact our our community so thank you so much for being here today last year at the

September 5th meeting I heard that this report was too rushed and they were that we were too close

to the September deadline yesterday I received a letter saying we're a few weeks ahead of that

deadline and that it's also too rushed last year on September 5th I heard that this report was too

long it was too multi hundred pages and yesterday I received a letter getting complaints that it's too

short and it has too many abbreviations last year the city council asked for demographics of when

the equipment is being used and what zip code it's being used in because the council districts

don't work for us and this is now done last year the city council asked for procedures on how PD

will go about a protest that has gotten violent or has become destructive this is now done

AB481 is quoted verbatim in the preamble it covers the use of equipment and what the direction

will be from PD during protest this is a 14 page document that goes step by step on what will happen

last year there was complaints that we weren't in the community this year we worked on being more

intentional about it and we'll continue doing better as a years go by sack PD has adopted fully

or partially 39 of the 50 MEU recommendations from the commission ACLU amnesty and legal women voters

from 2022 2023 now are we perfect no is it work in progress absolutely are we going to continue to

do better yes AB481 was signed in 2021 and has been in effect since 2022 in the two years since the

city PD and the Sacramento Police Review Commission have worked together we've been trying to make great

strides and we're working on communication with each other something that I know other agencies

across the state of California are also working on so moving forward we need to make sure that the

police review commission responds to recommendations for the prior year and that we come back with

staff reports that include the MEU recommendations from the police review commission so I'm happy to

you know continue that consistency that continuity continue communication and I'm happy to second

vice mayor maples motion thank you mayor pertin tell amount this councilmember valance wella

thank you mayor and I just want to start by noting that folks are right you know not all of the

equipment in this report would probably be considered military equipment outside of the definition

of this law even though it's very similar to what's used in war one example is that chemical

agents for example are actually prohibited in warfare but are for some reason allowed on the streets

of Sacramento which is the fact that I still can't quite understand I want to start by just

expressing some frustration that I feel at long ledge we had a very thoughtful presentation and

discussion and it really felt like we had made some ground on building some understanding and

we had given direction in the motion for the commission to present and for sacked beaded

provided response and I do want to appreciate that some responses were given tonight in the mayor's

effort to try to make it work but I just need to note that this could have just been done so much

more thoughtfully even just as simply as including the commissions recommendations as an attachment

in the staff reports that the public and my colleagues who aren't on long ledge could see them

more readily it was just another misopportunity it feels like we do this every year we kind of

manufacture this really tense moment at council and and I don't understand how that benefits any

of us because we could be having a very different conversation building understanding coming to

consensus on what should be included in this report and I feel like we just keep missing those

opportunities I do want to note that as my colleagues mentioned there has been some significant

progress made and I don't want that to go by the wayside I think the demographic data as I mentioned

to the captain when he presented at long ledge I'm sure that was hard to see and to put into that

report because it doesn't tell great story about the use of military equipment but I appreciate

that it's in there because now we know for instance that you know military equipment is used

almost 53% of the time on people who are black or African-American when they represent less than

13% of our population and we can also see that young people and age 24 and under are almost a third

of the total incidents that are being used and I just want to say that again because I think that's

important that young people under the age of 24 are experiencing the use of this equipment one

third of the time that it's being used on our city streets because I think that's important for us

to think about and reports like this are supposed to be an opportunity for us to step back and

have those conversations you know why is that happening what what decisions are being made outside

of the individual field decisions which I know have oversight and there's processes for complaints

and no complaints were received it's still a chance for us to step back and say okay why does this

keep happening why why are we seeing I don't believe that people of color more likely to commit crime

I know there are people out there who probably disagree with me on that but I don't believe that's

the case I do think that they are being subjected to this equipment more frequently and the data

shows that out over and over again so what could we be doing differently to really learn from

this data and these trends and try to ensure that we're being proactive in our policies and our

training and our actions so that we're correcting those trends so that next year when this data comes

out it shows an improvement and not a continued trend because I know that's distressing to many

in my community who've taken time to talk to me in detail about their thoughts about this report

but I will say again this requires time and so I appreciate the department

acknowledging upfront that we need to talk about the timeline and I'm glad that you've already

started talking to the auditor about how we could bump things forward because ideally as we said in

long-ledge you'd have the report drafted you'd have community meetings you'd have the commission

get a chance to think about those meetings and provide their recommendations and then it would

come to long-ledge and we did it again a little backwards this year it was a community meeting day

before long-ledge and then the commission hadn't met yet so and again I mean I know some like I know

my colleague mentioned that we solve a lot of time but the deadline is next week so it doesn't really

a lot of time to say hey do this before you finalize this report because it's next week and none

of us want to be in a position where somebody's in trouble and that we can't do the things we need

to do to help them so I want to thank you for being acknowledging that and for your work with the

auditor to bump this up and thank you to the auditor and her team for their work on this I will say

in summary because I know my colleagues who aren't on long-ledge have you should see it it's in

your email boxes now in terms of the commission's recommendations I thought the chair at law and

ledge set it very well when he said we think we just over corrected it's not so much that we think

that there might have been malicious intent I know there was a lot of feedback last year on how to

make this more readable how to make this more accessible and we just over corrected because some of

what they're looking for was stuff that was in the 2023-2022 reports and just needs to be re-added

and so I appreciate you thinking about how do we strike that balance between hyperlinks and other

links versus including more information in the report one of the things that's not included in the

police commission's recommendations that I'm very interested in is in usage numbers and I'm

repeating that today just again for my colleagues who weren't at long-ledge in prior reports we used

to say this is how many times this equipment was used we don't say that in this report you did

provide us that data as an attachment but it doesn't line up like I can't do like a analysis

of prior year because they're counted differently so these are the sort of things that we should be

able to say to the point that was made earlier if it is it being used more frequently you know are we

seeing certain things use more frequently because if that's happening again that's an opportunity in

this report for us to step back and say wait a minute why is that happening what's going on is

this alignment with our goals as the city and as the department as a department so I guess that's

really it for me on this I do want to appreciate I just I appreciate the progress that's being made

I hope that we can include I actually would love for this to be like a supplemental report to

council as soon as you get the feedback on the commission's recommendations that was my hope

tonight just to say yeah we think we can do this or no we don't think we can I mean they're not

super super specific so I hope that that's doable and just to say again I don't think that

I don't think any of us want we all want the same thing you know I think we all want to live

in safe communities we all want to know and the intention of this law was really so the public

could engage in discussion and what the commission's asking for is just some more explicit crosswalk

on hey why is this needed are there other alternatives why did you choose this expensive option

versus that option there could be a very good reason for that right but if we don't provide that

in the report then the public just sees information after the fact and says hey wait a minute

why did you do that you know it's just an opportunity this equipment is very serious and we did

that some of it the most of the equipment that's used is not lethal and sort of force and I

appreciate that but some of it is and I think it's justified when folks from Amnesty and others

are saying hey why are you are you stockpiling this stuff why are you buying so much more of this what

are you seeing in terms of usage trends that justify spending money on these equipment at this time

so I guess I just want to state that once again I feel like we're missing a little bit of an

opportunity here I do feel like we're making progress and I appreciate the progress that's been made

but just wanted to express those comments thank you thank you very much council member council member

vengue thanks mayor um first I just want to take this opportunity just to thank all the

residents who came today to to speak and to share your story and your position on on this issue

I also want to take this moment of thank chief and captain Buchanan for your presentation

and also just providing updates on the military equipment use policy and I just want to echo my

colleagues that I appreciate the progress and the updates that have been made to the policy

I also want to say thank you to chair Keon Bliss my commissioner Renee Carter and all of the

commissioners for their hard work something I just want to point out is that I don't believe that

progress would have been made with the policy I don't think those recommendations would have

happened without the advocacy and the recommendation and the push from the commission and so really

just want to take this moment to thank the commission I know there's still a lot of frustration we

still have a lot of work ahead but without your advocacy we wouldn't be where we are today right and

so I want to commend the chief and the team for you know incorporating the updates and will the

community will continue to push you right this is about continuous improvement but it can't happen

without the commission so really just want to thank all of our commissioners and then mayor you said

something about we're not that we're not the expert and you're absolutely right we are not the

expert but as policy maker we got to make sure that we're in alignment with AB481 and when I

talked to policy makers and advocates I know that this law was created so that there could be oversight

because even our state leaders believe and have seen how military equipment or just equipment

have been used on our most vulnerable communities and yes it's also been used to deescalate as well

right but you can hold both truths at the same time and so I do believe that the detail is really

important and what chair bliss and the commission is asking for is reasonable right I've heard from

the community their question when I speak to them is really about the why why this equipment in

particular and I appreciate that in the document in the policy we lay out the equipment we also lay

out and it's much shorter this year so thank you it's a little bit more clear how it will be used

but it doesn't explain the why it is necessary and that's the piece that I I get from my

my own commissioner when I'm out the community that's the questions that I get and I'm not the

expert so I can't explain to a constituent why it is necessary and I leave that to PD to answer

and that's the reason why I think the commission's question of on why is it necessary it's important

it's not because they're anti-police it's because they really just want to genuinely understand

because I also have to explain to my constituent when they come to me council member you approve

this policy you know this council approve these equipment why is it necessary I have to answer them

right and I want to make sure that you can provide me that answer so I can provide it to my constituent

I so I do believe that that's a reasonable ask and I also want to uplift vice mayor's motion I

appreciate the motion to include the six questions I want to thank chair bliss for emelling that

to the entire mayor and council and as I'm reading the six questions the outstanding questions

they're pretty reasonable what situation is the deployment or use of this equipment necessary

for keeping civilians and even officers safe right so this is not about this is about all of us

right and I feel like these questions are very reasonable and if we can get answers to these

through the audit by the end of the year that I think that's a great move forward I I actually think

these six questions should be in the document every single year when we're reviewing the

policy and so I don't know if that was completely part of the motion that is part excuse me that

is part of the motion that's very clear that's the intent of the motion and that's why I think

this respects the commit and up lifts the the the commissions work in a in a real way thanks thanks

mayor and so again those are my comments and really just want to thank sacked pd for your work and

also our commissioners we wouldn't be in this spot today have it not been for the advocacy

from from our community members so really just want to thank everyone for their hard work thank you

thank you comes from the gennings thank you mayor I I want to support the motion is on the floor

I want to start off with that I want to thank the speakers who came out tonight we listened to you

and heard you clearly I too do not know why it's called military equipment I haven't figured that

out but what I do know is that it's equipment just needed for training and also to protect

citizens of this of Sacramento area and that that should be as one of you said our number one

priority is to make sure that we protect the citizens and we need to give our police force the

tools that they need for their training and to protect us we have to do that because if they

don't do that then who will protect us in our time of need especially when well I'll stop there

and I do agree that as I said the protecting citizens is our number one priority and I

appreciate the progress that we've made so far when I take a look at the recommendations 39

recommendations implemented out of 50 78% and if you get to two more that are under consideration

that takes us all the way up to 82% and so that means we're making significant progress I look at the

community outreach that took place and I was pleased with the community outreach by the Sacramento

Police Department and listening to the public also we just want to as far as police review commission

I want to apologize on behalf of the council for not being able to get your materials up I know you

were frustrated I saw it in your non-verbal expressions and so I want to apologize for that but I

also want to make sure that whatever you had to present gets out to everybody who needs it whether

it's people who are in the audience and especially all of us and I think I heard that you sent it to

all of us in the council already so therefore we have it as well but I want to make sure those in

the audience who don't have it and weren't able to see it that they're able to get that as well so

we can take care of that so anyway I just wanted to support this motion that's on the floor I want

to support our work together I want to make sure that police review commission in Sacramento

Police Department are working together as a team that's going to make a difference and that the

citizens will see that we're working together as a team and so that's one of my number one priorities

in direction is that we do everything we can to work together to protect our citizens and protect

this process that we call life thank you thank you a final comment councilmember van's comment

prompt me to want to clarify what I said at the at the beginning so thank you and I stand by

what I said that the council should not be in the position of micro managing every equipment

purchase and not but and I do think we have the response our responsibility and our oversight

responsibility to ask of the police department to provide more specific information about the

justification for the use of this various equipment and that's exactly what the six questions

that vice mayor maple incorporated into her motion included from the commission it requires more

specificity and a little bit more depth now and we're asking you to turn it around in a week here

we're setting future policy and direction and combined with the audit where our our interim

city auditor will will assist with helping us to refine how to make sure that this is done with

the most transparency possible I think will continue to improve this process which has already

gotten better since since 2022 so with that I'm going to ask all those in fear in favor please say

aye aye opposed that's a nine to nothing vote thank you very much

all right um should we take council ideas first or

let's hear from the public on items not on the agenda

I have nine speakers for items not on the agenda the first is page Perez

please proceed when you're ready um hello mr. Steinberg and council my name is page

Perez that I'm here for the girl scouts to explain why we should put back boxes in parks

first off let's want let me say how the prep what the sorry um the back boxes main thing is for one

bat already creasing in California slowly year by year so these bats will be a habitat for them

but also give a meal to them because in parks and by lakes mosquitoes tend to lay their eggs and in

California the main thing that bats eat for the dietary meal is insects oh sorry the paper you're

receiving is just information about bats and mosquitoes and what they can do for the earth basically

anyways these these these mosquitoes um can for some people not be that bad because they're bites

um but for some people who are allergic this could be deadly um and the reason that they do bite is

so they can reproduce eggs in lakes because they need the blood

um

and

we got this yes sorry you got to take your time um but I do overall sorry I just have one question

about where we should put the boxes because there are some parks that had mine for California

like oaky park in um college Gwen or by just Sacramento River American River where mosquitoes

tend to lay their eggs um yeah so I'm trying I'm sorry I'm trying to think who in the city

department we should connect you with uh within the city organization we should connect you with

because you have a really interesting idea here and so I want to make oh I want to make sure we

take the next step here so any suggestions Ryan Moore Ryan Moore does okay so we're going to

we get the information okay um mr city manager I know I'd to take a a break here but we want to

make sure that the assistance city managers right there Ryan Moore a good guy meets with you in

fact you could do it right now um to talk about how to take your really interesting idea to the next

level and maybe pilot it or make it happen thank you you have an ask of us what's that oaky park in

district six yes is uh there a garris district my old district so I didn't want to ask of you

do you have an ask of us what's all right what's it what are you asking us um just to

make me get the word out basically about parks and given back boxes in the parks I love it

so thank you first of all we want to we want to thank you so much for coming here tonight it is

really important and empowering when young people come to the city council and address their elected

representatives and even though you're not yet of the age where you can vote your voice really matters

and so keep coming and keep getting involved in your community and keep being passionate about

whatever the good ideas that come from your heart and your head are okay because it makes a

difference that's how all of us here in one way or another got up here I don't know that you

want to do that but that's another story um that that it matters to care about something in your

community and then you can make real change and that's what you're starting to do tonight so page

before you leave as a girl scout mom is this part of an award there you work in your gold

award uh yeah well myself or award you're silver award all right you're my gold award but

complications so I'm just finishing it up all right you we can make sure she gets her hours

thank you and pay to me I show your contact information with the Sacramento mosquito and vector

control district reach out to you thank you oh okay uh may pretend telemante's did you have okay

okay okay super thank you thank you for coming okay

okay

our next speaker is Guy Stevenson Charles Fost Mary Tappel and Julius

they're all Steinberg Mayor City Council members I wanted to say thank you last week because

I adopted a Afghan girl um about four or five years ago and she is the

world to me uh I brought her whole family in here and I have talked to her and the community

about the Afghan community and they really super superly appreciate you people I sent pictures of

all you to them I said that you people need to be coming to the city council and meet the elected

people because I want them people to feel like they're a part of the community and that what they

see means something and I went back and talked to the he-man I also talked to several several people

with the Afghan community and they want to come more but language barriers so that's probably one

of the good reasons they don't know but Katie uh and uh the rest of you I really superly

appreciate you treating those people the way you did that meant a lot to them and they send

their love and respect to the city council thank you again thank you your comments Charles Fost

I don't see Charles Mary Tappel falling Mary is Julius and Ryan Miss Fano and Kyle Williams

uh Mayor Steinberg and members of the city council I called to I'm up here to thank you so much

for allowing the clearing and and and cleaning out of camp resolution but I also want to say I'm

working with a bike trail cleanup group and we are doing special outreach to the Afghan community I

know I'm not supposed to address other things but but we are doing that for a big community bike ride

um that's going to be held October 5th so we are also trying specifically to reach out to the Afghan

community but I think the clearing and cleaning out of of of camp resolution was so necessary for

public safety that unfortunately uh very violent behaving people were attracted to the

primord of that camp there there were there was a homicide both in 2023 and in 2024 very near

the camp and uh most homicides are aggravated of course uh they don't come out of clear blue sky

about nothing uh individuals who know each other and have disputes escalate there's some very

violent lifestyles out there and uh because the camp resolution is right along the Sacramento northern

bike trail and right before on the trail right before it enters our beautiful um American river parkway

people's people were have been restricted in their ability to be feel safe in entering the American

River Parkway by people blocking the trail right near camp resolution by people having very aggressive

pit bulls by people having fires that are unattended and very dangerous and of course the people

most at risk from being uh burned by fire were the people in camp resolution themselves who with the

same locking out of the city social services type of people offering them outreach uh they also

locked themselves in if there was a fire during the night coming from outside the camp or from inside

the camp they were in very grave danger i couldn't believe that somebody welded them shut um

somebody inside the camp well-knit it shut but uh that was so dangerous thank you for your comments

next speaker is Julius Ryan Masano Kyle Williams John Jew then James credler

i don't see how Sacramento can move forward if we're not even given the chance to fully speak about

our concerns about Sacramento and its leadership the city council members have told us time and time

again that they want to hear our voices until our voices are telling the truth when an American

citizen was speaking that this podium last week the city council members cut the microphone

preventing him to be heard are you seeing the hypocrisy the city council or sorry the city of

Sacramento has a council rules a procedure which is applicable to the city council members one of

those roles is not to interrupt a speaker who was addressing the city council yet the city council

members have no problem breaking that rule are you seeing the hypocrisy another rule when the

dress in the city council members it's not to use swear words yet the city council member specifically

one of them have no problem breaking that rule when it comes to speech they do not like rules for

the not for me if they can break that rule and cut off the microphone prevents the member of the

public from speaking they can do it to you and to anyone to speak that they do not like we have

the first amendment we have the brown act and if i were to talk about who controls the government

which falls in line with city ordinance and how it affects the city i should have the right to say so

i also want to pull this up if you guys don't mind pulling this up for me there is no camera available

please proceed speaking there's no camera available no camera available so i want to kind of

just mention a little quick about the when it comes to the military and the police and the crime

you mentioned that you know it affects black and brown communities but i have here the Sacramento

police report where it shows robbery instances from 2020 to 2024 a lot of those crimes came from

so-called black communities which black on black crime black on Hispanic crime black on white

crime black on Asian crime is skyrocketed thank you for your comments your time is complete our next

speakers Ryan missano thank Kyle Williams then John do

all right so you're likely going to interrupt me again you've done it quite a few times when

i come up here to speak i appreciate the council members who do who are polite and who do this and

those who don't hurt people hurt people you just can't help yourself but

the brown act is being routinely violated so the brown act says any attempt to restrict the

content of such speech must be narrowly tailored to effectuate a compelling state interest specifically

the courts found that policies that prohibited members of the public from criticizing school

district employees were unconstitutional i goes for city councils too these decisions found

that prohibiting critical comments was a form of viewpoint discrimination which we all just saw

here tonight and that such a prohibition promoted discussion artificially geared toward praising and

maintaining the status quo thereby for closing meaningful full public dialogue so that's what we

just saw tonight and it has to change i've been trying to say this for about a year and a half

it's very stubborn because we're not dealing with reason here we're dealing with emotions

and when someone has a deep set emotions that are religiously based in synagogues then that's

going to have to be a problem and i think what we should have is a sign in the back when you walk

in that no criticism of derls thineberg and leesa kaplan synagogues is allowed because that's the

problem we're facing right now it's not anti-semitism this is just simply you know and i don't hate

you there's good juice i have plenty of Jewish friends you just don't happen to be one of them

and then the problem is i hear you know katie maple and the rest you go on about dehumanization and

marginalization while you cut off my free speech i mean if you don't see that's hypocrisy and i

don't know why you're laughing i mean we should drug test some of you i just i don't see what

you're laughing there's nothing rationally funny but uh the thank you for your comments your time

is complete our next speaker is kyle williams john jiu james credler

how was everybody today good good thank you for your service

appreciate how's your back swing mr. mayor good he gets nervous when i'm here and i'm never going

to let you down chief don't don't be nervous uh independence and republicans you need to show up

more often we have a lot of democrats in this room we need everybody um i'm i want to ask somebody

about phone numbers i live near the marshal school i don't know if anybody knows it

and there's a new proposal out for pending right put up the little for sale sign proposal pending

and the stuff gets taken off of it right and then it tells you the two numbers you can call

ones three one one and the others two nine one six two six four five zero one one which is three

one one and three one one has no phone number for you to call to the developer you can only email people

so i want in everything i'm doing today everything's becoming emailing

it would be nice to be able to phone people more often you know we kind of lost our humanity

one of the reason is is that thing you're looking at is a cold medium

texting is a cold medium emailing is a cold medium phone and human touch is very human

so please do what you can in your workings and with like this proposal pending thing

yeah how do you get a hold of a developer and then of course they hide it

they do the feel good advertising i don't know if you've noticed that with these developers

they don't really follow up to your email they just act like they care these developers they're

real good at it so anyway a phone number makes them more accountable something to consider

and who's the 5g specialist up here anybody 5g specialist i got seven seconds left do you realize

what this is doing to us and none of you know about it and you're putting it across our city thank

you for your comments your time is complete i have three more speakers john jugh james creedler

christina rogers hi mere cymburg hi hello rick hi city council i have three questions really

that i'd like to present and i'll answer them for myself first but i think i've got a pretty good

idea i think i've got a pretty good idea for the city of sacrameno and what it is is the three

questions who who am i and then i would like you guys to ask yourselves who are you as far as

representing city of sacrameno and then the second question was where would you like to go

and then how are you going to do it okay so i'm going to answer those for myself and then

throw it out there so when i say who am i i'm a 75 year old

person who loves to play golf but also i've created a new industry it's called the health

and wealthness industry and i you know i'm not i'm a pretty humble guy but at the same time

i think i've created something that is very much for the community very much for the community

and what it is it's it's addressing the two major problems that we have in our communities today

that's the health of our individuals health of our people i'm like i said i'm 75 years old i've never

been healthier in my life and what it is is i've done things that are not in the norm because where

we are today in our society is we are very unhealthy and then also we're very un as far as our

wealth goes we've got generational poverty in our communities i've got i've spent a hundred

thousand dollars of my own money for this and i'm donated i'm running out of time but i would love

to have a conversation with you Rick on this where we can i'm from district seven justina

an hour at a time and i know that we speak the same language so i think we can do something for our

communities thank you thank you thank you for your comments james creedler and Christina rogers

i don't see james christina the christina will be our final speaker

all right i get to close this one out tonight um now we get to speak okay yay um okay first all i

i just want to say camp resolution i'm following in the news and social media and i really appreciate

everything the city did you guys did your best to work with the residents uh you provide services

available you gave them ample notice um i feel like the him homeless union really lost an

opportunity here i think in our world if you get something you have to give something back and you

got to follow the rules you got to compromise you don't continue to make more demands and expect to

do things the way you want on somebody else's dime you know there is a compromise involved so this

experiment proved that self-management at camp resolution didn't work um some residents did their

best but no one was being held accountable for the criminal behavior the campus is source of theft

animal abuse assault now there's being connected to some murder investigations so um i feel sorry for

the people that needed that camp and you know i feel like uh the people that needed it the most

were let down by their own advocates and i hope that this is a lesson for everybody and maybe

moving forward something smarter better uh can work out so these people in need can get the support

they deserve thank you thank you um counts ideas in question if it's okay i'm going to go first

is that okay and then i'll usually go last but um a couple things one i guess i need to make what

do you call it a one two three four report is that what it is eighty one two i was last week in

Chicago um at the democratic national convention not um at any city expense um so i just wanted to

report that because that i think is required and uh let's just say it was very exciting and uh

terrific so i want to say but i want to say something else about camp resolution because

i appreciate the last speakers comments and i want to uh agree with them and i want to talk about

something maybe just a little bit different um then what has been highlighted um thus far in some

of the the public discussion and the media first of all to me there is nothing wrong with trying

something new nothing wrong with it shouldn't apologize for that sometimes it works sometimes it

doesn't work so well it doesn't mean that the concept itself could not work elsewhere

that's number one number two um i think the city team did an outstanding job uh between the city

manager uh mr. Laura mr. pedros sana alcala and team um in very very difficult uh circumstance

and contentious circumstances were frankly your uh the speaker was absolutely right the homeless

union um undermine this whole thing and everybody knows anything about it uh knows that to be true

so much so that mr. maryne who's i think is a good faith actor here decided that he had to

and the least because he couldn't deal with the fact that people who were allegedly in charge were

not doing right by the people out there but that's not really why i want to speak um i want to say

something else about this whole experience whether it was intentional or not especially over the

last several weeks the effort to offer everybody in that camp multiple options for temporary housing

and by the way there was permanent housing on the other end of it if we had gotten a little bit

more cooperation but the effort to offer everybody what i call two and a half options are there

roseville road a tiny home the oec and or a motel room for those who need electricity and we

want everyone to have electricity but those who need electricity for their medical equipment needs

and combined with the county and its mental health workers coming out to that site continuously

combined with well space health and other providers being out there consistently and by the way

accumulatively 60 times i'm told 60 times the kind of intensive outreach that i know i have called for

for a number of years to not just do flybys and hope that people will accept help in services

but that you've got to build something to try to get people in and you at least you got at least

10 people in side and and hopefully more to come in an ironic way i know because of all the

controversy and and sort of what led to this and the litigation and all that this is exactly the

way the city county partnership agreement is supposed to work that we that we navigate in these

encampments intensively and try to help the people and offer them as many alternatives as possible

surround them with the services the whatever it takes approach that they need and

help as many people as possible and then to say yes from a public safety perspective and a public

health perspective then that when we have offered people on multiple occasions help

i don't believe in my colleagues some colleagues made disagree with me but i would say what i

believe i don't believe we should ever put somebody in jail i don't believe we should find people

but i also believe that they can't continue to be in camp where they are camping

and and with some of the tools now that are coming online from the state level the care courts

and the conservatorship reform for those people who cannot accept help because of the nature of

their condition there will also be some other tools but i just want to say that i hope that

the intensity and i know we can't get everywhere that's a resource question i get that

but that the model that you practice there and maybe it's not 60 times but as many times as possible

is exactly what we need to replicate and the only way we can do it is to continue getting more

resources from the state and from the federal government to build bed capacity so we can offer

more to people and to continue to work with the county and in partnerships so that there are more

full service partnerships and more more mental health and substance abuse services for people

so i wanted to call it that part of it because it is and bodies this idea that i think most people

support we should have a moral obligation to offer people help who are in the worst circumstances

possible and people have an obligation to accept it because we can't have people living in these

encampments it's not safe it's not healthy and we can do better and i think this showed

how we can do better thank you for indulging me but i wanted to say that because it's obviously

on everybody's mind and i'm not sure it's been expressed maybe in the way that i just expressed it

so thank you thank you council member vengue thanks mayor just a few announcements i just really

want to take this moment to thank everyone who came out to our fourth annual South Sacramento

Festival that took place this past weekend at Valley High Park we had hundreds and hundreds of

residents that came out it was an amazing event perfect weather except for the last hour when

it just poured like crazy so the concert went on and we were just dancing in the rain and i was

completely soaked but it was a lot of fun but i just wanted this moment to really think matt

molissa and the entire special events team they do so much for our district but for our entire

city so many of us up here on the dias put on events for our communities and none of it can happen

without our special events staff so really just wanted to say thank you to them and then just

you know a quick reminder as well the metabee farmers market is every sunday at the metabee light

rail station from eight to twelve p.m. and encouraging folks to come out to that and then lastly

the racial equity council and alliance have been holding listening session throughout the city

one in north one in the south but for those that can't make it i just wanted to just quickly

announce that their last listening session is actually going to take place via zoom so for those

weren't able to make it it's a virtual meeting so really encouraging you all if you're able to

attend if you're at home with your loved ones you can jump on zoom from six to eight tomorrow and

their rzp link is really long for me to read so i just told my staff to create a short

url so you can go to heartenhealthal.org backslash r e a slash listening slash session

to sign up for the zoom session and we'll make sure i believe it's already posted on all of

most of our social media posts as well and so just wanted to announce that thank you mayor thank

you so much councilmember councilmember Jennings thank you councilmember van tell me again when the

metabee farmers market is it is every sunday from eight to twelve at the metabee light rail station

okay and so on sunday you have it is sundays which is great we encourage you to come to the green

haven farmers market on Saturdays at the ox lodge from nine to one p.m. and if you miss us then you

have the opportunity to go to the metabee farmers market on sundays so either way you get your

fresh fruits produce treats just homemade treats all the great things that they have and we encourage

you to go out there and support our local farmers and small businesses second announcement is we

encourage you to join us friday september the two oh i'm sorry yeah i'd say it already

uh... join us for friday september the 20th friday last trucks and such of the year this is the last one i know

i'm saying the same thing that's right it's um you know wonderful event with about ten to eleven

food trucks and we've got some music by vivian lee the incredibly talented jazz artist vivian lee

she'll be performing from six to eight p.m. you can bring your chairs your blankets family and

friends and july enjoyed the delicious foods and the smooth sounds of vivian lee once again

that's on friday the 20th from five to eight p.m. at garsha bin park thank you

and such or touch a truck

um last but not least mayor pro tem all righty so uh it is labor day weekend uh so i do want to

think all the workers out there and my wonderful husband who uh fights every day for working families so

excited to go to fairytale town to honor workers and i heard that the mayor is going into the

dunk tank again absolutely good cause rumor on the street that oh monday monday monday monday

okay and then on a personal note um i get the honor of serving as bridesmaid to vice mayor

kate meeple and her wedding next year that's a great announcement thank you that's happy that's happy

that's really great well listen out that's a good note to end on if there's nothing more to come

before the council were adjourned