time

Oh my god.

Oh my god.

Oh my god.

She's just out there looking.

Woo!

All right.

Members of the public, thank you so much for tuning in to Star Wars City Council Edition.

And inside out, we have Joy on the podium.

City Clerk, will you please call the roll.

Thank you Mayor Pro Tem.

Council Member Kaplan, Council Member Tao, Council Member Valenzuela, Council Member Getta,

Council Member Jennings, Council Member Vang.

Vice Mayor Maple will be absent tonight, but we expect the Mayor momentarily and Mayor Pro Tem Telemontes.

Wonderful.

And Council Member Gell, will you lead us in the ad knowledge mode, please?

Thank you Mayor Pro Tem.

Please rise for the opening acknowledgments in honor of Sacramento's Indigenous people and tribal lands to the original people of this land.

The Nissan on people, the Southern Maidu Valley and Plains Mewok, the Puttman and Wintun people, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria.

Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's Indigenous people's history, contribution and lives.

Thank you all. Please face the flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, individual liberty, justice for all.

Thank you so much, Council Member Getta.

We do have three special presentations and we are going to be starting off with breast cancer awareness month by a Darth Vader Council Member Kaplan.

Thank you Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you everyone. I never miss a chance for Halloween to dress up, which by the way is my daughter, Asha's Darth Vader is her favorite character and I want to thank my staff for playing along with.

But on a serious note, this is a special presentation regarding breast cancer awareness month and Albia wears 20th anniversary.

You know, I said this last year and I will say it again. I lost my aunt to breast cancer in 2011. Her girls were teenagers.

So this is personal to me that we acknowledge this and understand how breast cancer can affect everyone because in the United States, it is one out of eight women and one out of 726 men who will develop invasive breast cancer.

This year alone, more than 42,000 people will die from this disease.

We know that as technology and therapies improve, breast cancer is becoming more treatable and early detection offers the best chance for effective treatment.

Founded by her husband Doug Carson, Albia wear's mission is to provide life saving breast cancer testing, prevention education, advocacy and compassion support.

Throughout the month of October, Albia wear has partnered with local businesses and organizations to provide breast health information and mammogram services in areas with the lowest rate of services in the city.

Let me say that again. They are providing education and services to those who lease know it and could potentially be most affected by that.

Albia wear recommends that individuals 40 years and older receive a breast exam and mammogram screening annually, especially if there is a history within a family.

So on behalf of the city council, thank you Doug and thank you Albia wear organization for all that you do, the work that you do every day saves numerous lives and will continue to save lives in the years to come.

I would now like to welcome some of the board members, Julie Solz and founder Doug Carson to the podium to share a few words on behalf of the organization.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good evening and thank you council member Kaplan for sponsoring this recognition. I'm Julie Solz and I'm honored to serve as the chair of the board for Albia wear.

I'm joined tonight by Doug Carson, our founder.

We have Ann Graffate, one of our board members here and Melissa Manzo, who is one of those feet on the ground doing the work to help individuals every single day.

I just want to share a few words about Albia wear, which you were gracious enough to share some as well.

We're very excited to be celebrating our 20th anniversary this year.

We are one of the largest nonprofit organizations that's dedicated solely to breast cancer in the greater Sacramento area.

As you have been told, obviously October is breast cancer awareness month and I want to bring some attention to some branched cancer statistics.

I'm going to be a council, Kaplan was already shared some of the facts with you but just to let you know it is estimated in 2024 approximately 30% of all new female cancer diagnosis will be breast cancer.

She shared some of the facts about the numbers that we face among women and men and the numbers that they are being diagnosed but also to point out that black women are 41% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women.

And Hispanic women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer at later stages, which is more difficult to treat.

Breast cancer is also increasing among Asian women living in the US and the LGBTQ plus community.

Educating about the importance of early detection of breast cancer and empowering individuals to take control of their breast health is critical to combating these health disparities.

And the detection saves lives. When breast cancer is found early and hasn't spread, the five year relative survival rate is 99%.

And as you heard recently, the recommended age to start getting mammograms has changed from 45 now to 40.

And I'll be aware would recommend that a clinical breast exam and screening mammograms annually for individuals 40 years or older.

The visual has a family history, has genetic markers or symptoms that may need a mammogram more frequently starting earlier than age 40.

Finally, I just want to share with you some of the incredible work that I'll be aware has been doing to help your constituents and those in the greater Sacramento area.

First and foremost is awareness.

Activities like today events where we are just sharing with the community and with folks that we really need to be aware early detection is key.

This is sharing information about getting exams and screenings is one of the most important things we can do.

But we also do patient navigation. When someone realizes they need to get screening or treatment, they can contact us in Melissa.

Right here in our crowd will help them navigate either government programs, insurance or the health care system.

We can also provide financial assistance for those who do not qualify for screenings or having difficulty with their insurance or through government programs.

And finally, compassionate support and support services to breast cancer patients, survivors and their families.

Thank you very much for spreading the word and the importance of breast cancer screenings with your constituents.

And for recognizing October as breast cancer awareness month, we really appreciate it.

Mayor, would you out, Doug, Julie, board members? If you want to come on down, Mayor, would you like to join?

I'd be honored. I would be honored. Thank you.

While they're going down there, Mr. Mayor and Councilmember Kevlar, I just want to thank Julie for her tireless commitment and public service to the people of California.

And her day job.

Thank you.

Well, a very important way to start our meeting.

We now move to something that is 1,000% happy.

Yes.

And I'm going to turn it over to Councilmember Jennings for this presentation.

Thank you, Mayor. I am proud and pleased to present to some and introduce to others.

The Land Park Pacific Little League team. Please stand please.

Okay.

As we'll turn around and face the audience while I present you to them, it is my honor to recognize the Land Park Pacific Little League team.

This exceptional group of young athletes, their coaches, their families, and community leaders who have bought great pride to the city of Sacramento.

In case you didn't know, this Land Park Pacific Little League team of 2024 is an all-star team and they had an unforgettable season.

They clenched the Northern California State Little League title and showed us that, all right, you can give a applause to that.

Yeah.

They clenched the title and showed us all the power of hard work, dedication, and teamwork.

To the players, you not only excelled on the field, but you have shown values to make our community strong, sportsmanship, commitment, resilience.

Your success is a testament of what can be achieved when you work together towards a common goal.

To the coaches and the families, let's give them a round of applause, if you will.

Your support, guidance, and encouragement have been invaluable to these young athletes.

They will remember you forever in all the lessons that were taught.

Behind every team is a great group of dedicated coaches and families.

Together, they provide a strong foundation of love and support.

And to the league president and all involved in leading the Land Park Pacific Little League, you have created an environment where our youth can thrive, they can learn, and they can grow, both as athletes and as individuals.

So on behalf of the City of Sacramento, it is my privilege to present these certificates of recognition to the Land Park Pacific Little League.

And I congratulate you on your incredible achievement and thank you for making your families, your communities, and the City of Sacramento for making us proud.

Give them another round of applause.

So I'm going to come down and we're going to call out the name of each player and you're going to meet me in the middle.

We're going to take a group shot so this moment can be in history in the Sacramento Annals forever.

Okay? I'll be right there.

And, Roy is going to tag team with coach, Councilman Virginia, to call your name.

I'd like to apologize in advance if I pronounce your name, or I'm going to do my very best.

But I'm going to call out your name and you can come up to the dius right here to meet coach Jennings and he will present you the certificate.

So player number nine, Andrew Perez.

We have two more players but they weren't here today, Brian Lopez and Bryce Zimmerman.

Player number 99, Dylan Chu.

Player number three, Dominique Grand Needy.

Yeah! I hope Joy got that right. I hope I got your last name right.

Awesome. Player number 11, Henry Hastings.

Player number one, Cassyn Lim.

Player number 28, Liam Musante.

Player number 13, Luke Wyatt.

Player number 25, Mason Eby.

Player number 27, Patrick Casila.

And player number 22, Tyler Chapman.

I also want to take this time to give a shout out to coach Chapman if he's in the house.

And coach Wyatt. Coach Wyatt of your house.

And manager Jeff Simmons who is not here.

And accepting on behalf of the league board, Tori Sullivan, Mr. Sullivan.

All right, let's take a big group photo.

Oh, and Paris.

Take a big camera.

You taking one picture with that phone?

No, I'm going to take one picture of that phone.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

So everybody who wants to be on the pitch, we want more people with that.

All our bucket-bond parties.

Grandparents, uncles, aunts, best friends.

And I'm going to take a big picture of you.

I feel like it's a whole different thing.

Why does she have blue hair?

Yeah, I'm going to hold this.

Okay.

So if we can get you to our miss eye,

just, yeah, right over there, and fill in a little bit.

That way we can get everybody in.

Okay. On the count of three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

Perfect. Thank you.

Now, I don't remember who handed me this phone.

I'm going to be the one of the best.

I'm going to be the one of the best.

Tori, how do you want this back?

This looks nice.

Very good.

Very quickly.

I need one parent and I need one player.

It's going to come up and talk about what this season meant today.

Gotta be quick.

We talked about this.

Come on, Dominic.

Hi, you guys got it.

What does season make you feel good?

You're the first one.

So this season was super special for not only the kids,

families, coaches, but for the community.

The city to have everybody come around and support our team,

especially heading down to San Bernardino.

I'm very proud of the amount of support we received from our community was amazing.

I can't say anything other than how proud I am for every one of these kids,

every one of these parents, how much time and dedication they put into this.

And they should be very proud of all the accomplishments they've achieved.

It's been a summer to remember for everybody.

Thank you for everybody.

Appreciate it.

You know, kind of what he said, but like when we,

like, like, I always knew we were always going to win districts and maybe sections.

But getting the last out of states, it was just a dream come true,

even though we didn't get it done in regionals.

We still had a time of our life.

I've heard through a couple of you already when I talked to you.

You say you didn't get it done this year.

But there's always next year.

And we coming back, right?

No, no.

Aged out?

Okay. All right.

So next ones up will be able to do it for those in there.

But thank you so much for being here today.

And thank you for an incredible season.

Thank you for making your parents the community and Sacramento City proud.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

We have one more presentation.

Recognizing Latino physicians day,

Councilmember Getta and I have a dear friend in the audience here.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor.

It's my pleasure to recognize today a resolution by the City Council

recognizing National Latino Physician State.

It was established in October 1st of 2022 by Dr. Cesar Paredilla and Michael Galvez,

as well as many other physicians who share the concerns of the lack of representation in our healthcare system.

For the National Latino Physician State was created as a celebration of

recognizing the existing professionals but more so to inspire an increased awareness

of the need for more members of the community, the Latino community to join the medical fields.

Its mission is to improve the quality of care in the United States amongst all people

and specifically those of Latino and Latino patients.

The mission was inspired by the historical and existing health disparities

disproportionately affecting the Latino community, non-English speaking patients,

undocumented communities, and the health disparities that have worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic.

We know that that pandemic highlighted, highlighted so significantly those disparities.

And it's important because there is an unfortunate striking statistic

that only 6% of all physicians in the US are Latino or Latina.

In the United States population, Latinos are the 19% of the population and growing.

And in California, it's 40% of Latinos.

But yet that striking number of the lack of physicians in those categories has been

troubling particularly when we're trying to educate the public about much needed health

disparities and ways to improve public health.

Having Latinos being represented in medicine is necessary to help address the healthcare barriers,

the inequities, and poor outcomes many in our communities face.

We see that in our air quality, we saw it in the pandemic,

and the one way to achieve that is to increase the amount of representation.

Not only that, but the careers that are afforded by the medical community can change so many lives.

I know having grown up in poverty, where we only had a clinic on a portable off of a state highway

that was only open a few days during the week, we saw the challenges that many farm workers

and communities face. And I also saw the benefit of being able to get a career in STEM education,

how much that changed our family's life and our ability.

And today I'd like to bring up to receive the recognition of National Latino and Latina

Physicians Day is Dr. Sercio Aguilar Gacuola. Here, let's give him a big round of applause.

No, he would not like this presentation because I'm going to recognize a bit of his accolades.

This is a local healthcare hero, a local healthcare champion. Dr. Aguilar Gacuola is the founding

director of the University of California Center for Reducing Health Asperities at UC Davis.

There we go, I was waiting for that. I made it. I threw the softball for you guys there on that one.

He has received the Vanderbilt Distinguished Alumni Award.

And most recently also received the recognition by the Mexican Embassy of the prestigious

Utli Award, the highest award that the Mexican government can recognize a citizen.

His research has been known internationally for mental health in ethnic populations.

And his cross national epidemiological studies on the patterns affecting psychiatric disorders

is well known across all of Latin America. He's a local Sacramento here. And during the pandemic,

he worked tirelessly around the clock to save lives. His work, and I remember being on the phone

with him at the beginning of the pandemic before we had ventilators, before we had vaccines,

trying to educate folks about the dangers of COVID-19, and how to also get local governments and

other healthcare institutions to respond to that. And partly because we had so many few physicians

who could speak Spanish, who could connect with the community. So while this recognition is about

Latino Heritage Day, I'm very proud to welcome Dr. Sergio Aguilaro Aguilar for his tireless work.

And I remember seeing him how he did not sleep many days in distress and talking about how much

physicians and workforce folks in the nursing community as well were all overworked during that

much needed time. So with that, let's give a warm recognition for Dr. Sergio Aguilaro Aguilar.

Well, thank you so much for those very kind words, Council Member De Re. I'm delighted to be here.

When I'm not just. And I just prepared a few words for this, really for us, a momentous occasion.

The Latino physicians of California, we call them Elpoc because of the acronym. And the National

Latino Physician Day chair our heartfelt gratitude to you, Council Member Guerra,

and to the Sacramento City Council and to you, Major Steinberg, for this wonderful resolution.

As Council Member Guerra, I'm Sergio Aguilaro Aguilaro Aguilaro and he presented some of the

affiliations that I have. And I'm here today on behalf of the Latino physicians of California,

and currently the vice chair. And I'm one of the founding members that we started this in 2011.

To represent, and I'm here to represent National Latino Physician Day, the Elpoc and the National

Latino Physician Day want to bring awareness to a critical issue about this remarkable disparity

that you highlighted. And that shows that even though we are a little bit above 40% in California,

here in California, currently Latino physicians represent about 6.9%. And one thing that I

is important to highlight is that there is a remarkable unequal distribution across the state

because there are some places like the Bay Area in which there is a highly representation

that are other places like the Central Valley or Imperial Valley that they don't have too many,

too many, especially Latino physicians. And there is a tremendous disparity by

language as well. So these remarkable healthcare workforce gap underscores significant inequities

in healthcare access and quality for our Latino communities. And other communities because

Latinos not only see, they see anyone who is in need, any population who often do not receive

the cultural linguistically appropriate healthcare they need and the serve. National Latino

Physician Day is not only a day to bring attention and shed light on this key issue,

but also a time to celebrate the Latino physicians who dedicate their careers to serving their

communities. As clearly revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Latino physicians were on the

front lines and continued to be on the front lines bridging cultural divides and making a real

difference in the lives of Latino parents, their families and their communities. As Californians,

we must also look toward the future. And this is very important for us as an organization.

We did the next generations of Latino doctors. We want to encourage

young Latinos to pursue careers in medicine by creating a supportive environment through mentorship

and institutional backing. They are our future and the future of healthcare and they will help

address this critical gap. Finally, Elpoc and the National Latino Physician Day

urge institutions from hospital boardrooms to medical schools to meaningfully partner with us

to address this significant shortage. We can attest the Latino communities eager to engage with

these institutions to actively work toward increasing Latino representation in medicine, ensuring

that our health care workforce reflects the communities it serves. This is not just an issue

of numbers, but an issue of advancing health equity and health equity in access to care and

the quality of care that they receive. Together, we can make meaningful lasting change for the

ultimate benefit of the Latino and other communities that we serve. No matter who is those

we serve, we do it with the spirit of service. Thank you so much for this wonderful resolution

and we are honored to receive it. I'm delighted to be here and see wonderful

faces that I have known before and that I'm looking forward to seeing the future as well.

Dr. Aguilaga-Ciola, dear friend, I just, I just, I just want to

elevate that a little bit here. This man, many of you don't know him, he doesn't come to City Hall

often, but this is a treasure not only in the Sacramento community but throughout the state of

California who has done more to address the health inequities around mental health for communities

of color and especially the Latino community when the Mental Health Services Act passed and he

was one of the early supporters of the Mental Health Services Act. He made sure that we have tried

to live up to its original promise by ensuring that cultural competency was a,

was a commitment, followed through on as we extended these billions of dollars and your work has

been groundbreaking. You're very humble and modest man but you are treasured and I just wanted to

say that on the record. Thank you. Well one act late I forgot to mention he was the 2018

Mental Health Champions recipient of the Steinberg Institute as well. No doubt the biggest honor.

But you know again I would say that why would a City Council recognize you know Latino

physicians day on a health care issue and that's because fundamentally not only is it important

for us to have a healthy community because it's the right thing but we cannot have a strong economy

if we don't have a healthy workforce and we cannot be an innovative and future driving economy

and Sacramento if our kids grow up in poor health conditions where they cannot succeed in themselves

and with five medical institutions significant health care industries to only have 6% of our

representation in those health care institutions is a, is I think a blaring gap that needs to be

addressed. So with that big another round of applause for Dr. Joaquila a resolution recognizing the day.

I do want to add that he's a Natomas resident. You know it is so when I still go to doctor's

appointments with my mom because she doesn't speak English and she's just shy to talk to physicians

and so having you do the work that you do and that cultural component of it is so important

and we're just honored to have you here. Thank you so much.

The business portion of our agenda and we begin with the consent calendar are there items that members

would like to discuss or vote on separately start with councilmember valance weiola.

I just wanted to make a comment on item 16 please. Let me just a second. Very good councilmember

town. I'm sorry. Sorry. I actually just want to move the consent calendar.

Okay. I'm really excited to do that. Okay. There'll be a second on that so that takes

care of that. That's good. Now councilmember town. It's going to make a comment on 7 and 8 together.

Okay. Very good. Councilmember Kaplan. Comment on 13 and 16. Very good. Thank you. Councilmember

Getta. All did a brief comment on 7 and 8 together and 13.

16 is in the lead right now. Three.

Okay. Let's hear. Yeah. Just keep those you keeping scored home. All right. We.

Read to the record. I have number 15 is going to be withdrawn. Which one? I'm sorry.

Item 15. Okay. So let's have your motion and second as amended. Thank you.

15. All right. Let's hear from the public and then we'll turn over to councilmembers.

Thank you. I have one speaker Ron Elmsley on item 16.

I hope that you don't give any more money to 522.

Those are the most powerful union in the city of Sacramento. They charming what they want which is money.

One time I had a sign that says 522 are money suckers.

I turned into one of the five to two bros,

reached over my head and grabbed my sign

because he told a cop, he said,

he didn't want profanity to be the children in this chamber

because he read it as fuckers instead of suckers.

Now,

these people, they had no idea.

Try to where you're talking about, Mr. Holmes,

I don't know what item you're referring to.

Oh, 16, I'm sorry.

What does that have to do with language used

in the chambers, I'm sorry.

I don't want you folks to give any more money.

Okay, we got your point, thank you.

But what's your point?

Okay, you were talking about somebody using profanity.

My point is they abandoned my wife.

We called, she had pneumonia and they said that we were

playing the system.

She didn't want to go down there

unless she was taken in a stretcher.

We had to wait to the next day so that we could help her

and they admitted her immediately for five days.

These are the type of people that you're going to give

more money to.

You got to quit doing that.

They have no shame like you folks, seriously.

So you'd be good now.

Darryl.

Thank you for your comments.

Mary, have no more speakers on the consent calendar?

Okay, let us now turn it over to the members for comments.

For item seven and eight, I guess council member

Gertis stepped out for just a sec.

Council member Tal on item seven and eight together.

Thank you mayor.

Wanted to commend city staff,

and Brian Praige, Lil' Yallien,

and the whole city team for going out for this grant

in January.

Wanted to commend the mayor as well,

when you represented district two

when there was no vacancy, you took charge

and working with the city and going out

and get this grant, $18 million to address homelessness

on the Northern Sacramento bike trail,

and the city as a whole.

But then the focus with the bulk of the

on the Northern Sacramento bike trail,

and this is something that's really what the community

has been coming out to council

and voicing their concerns about.

And we need to do more than just chase

or push the homeless publics out.

But how can we expand our services,

expand our Roseville road shelter

and create more capacity?

And this is gonna be very instrumental

in making that happen for North Sacramento,

for the city as a whole.

And so, want to commend staff for doing a great job

and great work on this.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you for your,

well I'm gonna comment a minute,

but thank you for your advocacy as well.

You came in and that river parkway now,

the bikeway is much cleaner,

and more people are getting help.

Thank you.

Councilman Getdown item seven and eight.

Yes, thank you.

I also wanted to echo those comments

and also to thank our city staff.

We had a productive conversation today

with the policy committee staff

of the state Senate and state assembly.

And I think the fact that we have

so many folks who live in our city

who also work at the state,

it's an important opportunity for us to not forget that we

should look at Sacramento's continuing to be the innovator

and leader in this.

And I do wanna thank the mayor on the work that we've done

on the four by two to get to this

and to match our funds is only gonna help us move forward.

But I wanna take the opportunity

to thank our city staff for their engagement.

Thank you.

Just on this item as well,

I wanna thank the city team as well

for putting together such an effective application,

but mostly showing proof of concept

that led to us getting this grant.

I know things are not perfect around homelessness

far from it, but I defy anybody who can claim

with any credibility that things aren't better

than they were.

Both the numbers, 41% reduction between 22 and 20 and 24,

and just the plain visibility and nobody ever attributes

the fact that eight years ago we were funding

an operating list on 100 beds with this grant,

which by the way is gonna give us capacity

for at least 200 plus beds, at least 200,

some of that permanent housing.

And then when you add the South Sacramento Well Space

project, which is coming online,

we are going to be north of 1500 beds

every single night in the city.

And that doesn't include the permanent housing,

the permanent housing that we have led on

over the last number of years as well.

So those of you who are nothing but critics constantly,

at least acknowledge some of the progress

that has been made over these last number of years,

thanks to the dedicated work of a city team,

and thanks to the policymakers up here

who have insisted that this issue continue

to be a community priority.

Thank you, 18 million bucks, not a bad day of work.

Appreciate you very, very much.

All right, item 13.

That is Council Member Gettah again,

and then Council Member Kaplan.

Thank you Mayor, I just wanted to again thank

the city staff on this.

We went through the process of creating Vision Zero

and changing the way our public works department

and our city looks at safety in our streets.

Now we've developed an action plan created

an active transportation commission.

The Vision Zero plan was put out forward.

And now this is an ability for our city staff

to take actionable steps.

It gives again, our city manager the ability

to begin an issue of contract

so that we can make some visible actionable steps

to increasing the safety for pedestrian and cyclists

in our city.

I was, you know, remiss if I didn't say that,

unfortunately not just in Sacramento,

but the presentation that we received

at our Council of Governments

showed that deaths across the nation

on pedestrian and bicycle are increasing

across the board everywhere.

And even in developing countries

that have just as many vehicles and have issues,

deaths are actually declining on pedestrian cyclists,

but in our country and in our city, they've increased.

So this is our actionable steps to actually address

the issue of pedestrian and bike safety.

So with that, it's going to get one

to take the opportunity to thank the staff

for making another step forward

to improving our safety on our streets.

Council Member Kaplan.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I just want to ditto in thanking staff

it's something where not a week goes by in Sacramento

that we do not hear about a scooter bike

or pedestrian accident or facility in adopting Vision Zero

of which I know Council Member Jennings and Gettah

were on council then when it was adopted,

you know, we had this audacious goal

of having no traffic fatalities by 2027.

Well, we've got a long way to go

because also what we know is cars are heavier,

people are driving faster

and they're driving more distracted by their phones,

which is causing this.

And so updating our data, updating our plan is really important.

I appreciate, because I always harp with staff,

we've got to update our data

and we need the most recent data.

And I know looking at the last 10 years up through 2023

and my plug and push is, you know,

as you get the consultant on in 2024 data comes in

that that is also used because when we have the most up-to-date data

in our plan, it's actually going to make us eligible

for more competitive grants and funding

that we so desperately need.

But I also believe it's going to help tell the story

of why we need a transportation measure in 2026

because we can't make our roads in our bike areas safer

without the funding.

Our staff is doing an amazing job,

Hodgepodge pulling together grants,

but we can do better by our city

and that's got to be a dedicated measure.

And this Vision Zero plan is going to tell the story why.

So thank you.

Thank you very, very much, very important.

And finally, very important item, 16.

I'll start again, I guess in the order here,

Council Member Kaplan, Council Member Valenzuela,

Council Member Getta, and I'm going to say a word.

So go.

Thank you again, Mayor.

Just want to say thank you to our first responders.

It is not easy nowadays.

We as a city have grown,

but yet the amount of firefighters and first responders,

we have on our roads, has not.

And what's important to remember is

they're not only first responders in our city,

but they're also active members of our community,

attending community events.

I just had several out at my 916 day

could have conhot dogs for over 70 volunteers.

So when we recognize the hard work that's being done,

a thank you is in order.

So this isn't enough, but it is a small thank you

for the work that is being done.

And now we just have to figure out,

I need that North Lake Fire Station built.

Our residents need that built.

So that's my one plug as well as congratulations

on this agreement.

Very good.

Did I cancel Valenzuela?

Yes, of course.

Yes, yes, yes.

I won't repeat what my colleague said,

but I just wanted to take the opportunities

and the leadership of 522 is here or watching

if they're not here, because I know Ryan was kicking himself

that he was gonna be out of town today just to say thank you.

It's really been an honor to work with you all these last four

years from the 24 hour ride along to really see

how station two worked through that whole Saturday night

to everything in between.

It's just been a true honor working with you all

and seeing the impact, the positive impact you've had

on the city.

And so I just wanted to take the time to thank you for that.

Very good.

Thank you so much.

Council Member Gettah.

Thank you again, Mr. Mayor, like my colleague said,

I just wanted to thank again,

the leadership of local 522 for working

with our city team to take us to the next step forward.

And to personally thank the firefighters at station six

and 10 who came out to Tahoe Park and supported all the

young folks out there to the firefighters.

I forgot what station it was that also was out there

with the low riders as well.

And also the fire station 60 for being a great generous hosts

for our annual college greens, community town hall.

And to hosting a community center there for us.

And that has been a big aspect of the community.

How engaged our firefighters have been with the everyday

citizen, not just in the work that they do,

but in the civic part of what they do.

So with that, thank you Mr. Mayor.

Very good.

I want to just add my thank yous to local 522

for really stepping up big time.

But I also want to thank my council colleagues

and the city manager for the way this was addressed.

We have a budget deficit as you know.

And at the same time, our firefighters,

our public safety personnel deserve more.

They do for the job that they do.

And so we're in this conundrum.

How do we do this?

Well, the council gave direction and the manager

really carried it out very, very adroitly.

By working with 522 to ensure that the 5% here is offset

by both additional revenue and additional savings.

And so that it is net neutral when it comes

to the city's budget problem.

And you know, these are the little big things

that amidst all the controversies.

Sometimes don't get seen or acknowledged.

But it's really what sort of the day to day work

around here is when we work at our best.

And so I want to thank my colleagues,

but I want to thank and 522 because you consistently show

an ability to both represent your members

and also problem solve and be part of the solution

and it's noticed.

And the city manager for the way you handled this

because I think it was adroit.

And the fact that this is on consent,

we're talking about it.

So it's public care.

But the fact that it's not controversial.

And that's the kind of stuff that sometimes doesn't get

to notice, but it's what moves the city forward.

So thank you.

All right.

We have got a motion by council member,

Mayor Prattum Talamontis made the motion on this.

A seconded by council member Kaplan

on the consent calendar, minus item 15,

which has been withdrawn.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, abstain?

That passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Let's now move to, yeah.

Applause.

Let us now move to the discussion items.

Both really around the same general topic

about how we invest in our neighborhoods.

And let us begin with item 17, the annual report

for the Emergency Home Repair Pilot Program.

Good evening, Mayor and council, I'm Peter Limos.

I'm your code and housing enforcement chief

for the city of Sacramento.

Tonight, I'm here to provide an update on the Sacramento's

Emergency Home Repair Program.

The Justice for Neighbors, Emergency Home Repair Pilot Program

was known as EHRP, was a pilot program approved

by the city council on May 16, 2023.

The Emergency Home Repair Pilot Program was created

and funded in partnership with their city attorney's office

using justice for neighbors funds and the housing division

within the Office of Innovation and Economic Development,

utilizing city health housing trust funds.

The program is managed by the city's housing

and dangerous buildings staff.

Of this community development department,

as well as the staff is located in partnership

with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento,

who staff is here present tonight.

The program is an alignment with the city's 2021

through 2029 Housing Element,

which includes recommended action program,

H-49 for establishment of the Emergency Repair Program,

which would provide grants to low income households

for emergency repair.

In addition, the one time use of JFN resources

is in keeping with the established goals of the JFN program.

The program provided one time funds,

totaling $540 to establish the pilot program.

This program was to assist low income owners

that challenge or the challenge hardships

and home repairs due to tight household budgets.

Unresolved, these home repairs can lead to habitability

and safety issues and over time,

and sometimes result in the loss of the housing in our community.

These types of conditions,

the program would address our code violations

that would qualify the property as substandard and dangerous,

following our city of Sacramento City Code.

So who qualifies?

The properties must be single family owner-occupied properties.

Home owners may not own any other property.

Household income for all residents over 18 years of age

must be less than 80% of the area median income.

Home must be insured and the property must be

in the city of Sacramento.

What types of violations does it cover?

Any substandard dangerous violations

such as substandard electrical,

roofs, structural issues, electrical plumbing,

HVA systems,

eligible household to qualify for up to $15,000

and one time funding to complete the needed repairs.

This is a grant towards repairs

that would be completed by Habitat for Humanity

and their subcontractors.

It's not a reimbursement directly to the home owner.

At this location shown in the photograph,

we had failing substores, failing flooring,

making the shower and restroom facilities

in this location non-usable.

This is what the finished product looked like.

Since program began, we received a 126 request

to be considered for the emergency home reprogram.

Of these 98 were denied for various reasons.

Even though we wished we could approve all of them,

there were various reasons they could not be approved

in the property such as the property was not

within the city limits.

Many duplicate requests, there were owners

looking for reimbursement for work

that had done on the past.

The violations did not meet the qualification

of being dangerous or substandard.

Or unfortunately the repairs were so significant,

they exceeded the funds and grants available.

Repairs of the 14 properties that have been completed

included the installation of new heating systems,

new roofs, electrical plumbing systems,

along with violations that were discovered

during the repairs.

14 additional properties and now 16 as of today

are in the process of review,

hold due to cost or in processing

before they can move forward.

Habitat for Humanity has utilized other resources

and gap funding to further stretch these resources

to complete projects exceeding the $15,000

in grants available.

To get residents the assistance they need.

In the first 14 projects,

Habitat for Humanity has provided nearly $21,000

in gap funding, fund labor and other resources

complete the need of repairs.

They may not be able to continue at this pace

with these projects ongoing.

The properties that were completed

are in the following council districts.

In district two there were three projects completed,

district three, two projects, district five, three projects,

district six, two projects,

and district eight, four projects.

The cost and repairs to complete these projects

and the details were provided in your packet

under the habit of Habitat for Humanity annual report,

2324.

Here we're showing some of the work that was done.

This is the way the heating and ventilation system

was when we received, got there for this family

and this is what a finished product looked like.

To date the grants to four repairs of total $198,000.

To complete 14 projects,

the balance of the one time funding remaining

is $305,576 with 14 projects being processed.

And 16 more as I mentioned coming forward.

With the additional 14 projects that we've estimated,

the maximum amount of these projects would be granted

is $210,000 leaving a balance of approximately $95,576.

That would help in additional six projects now four.

So the estimated time to expend all the funds

where estimating is 10 to 12 months.

For the additional projects in the process,

there's one in district one, four in district two,

one in district four, four in district five,

one in district six, one in district seven,

and four in district eight.

The photo here shows two additional units.

One is the heating unit for property

and the other is the condenser because as they had no heat,

we have to replace the entire HPE system.

So this is the condenser for the air conditioning system.

So success.

The pilot program has proven to be successful

in addressing substandard housing additions

and homes owned by low-income homeowners.

And the corresponding grant has resulted in proving

the housing stock conditions and safety

as well as providing resources to homeowners

that are economically challenged to maintain their homes.

The program has enhanced housing stability

for those homeowners and help to further code violations

and housing deterioration further avoided.

This program has served to prevent homelessness

due to unstable and unsafe housing additions

at these properties.

We know there's more work to be done.

We know we need to help more families

and complete more projects such as this

where we had to complete roof replacement,

including roof covering, sheeding, and structural members.

In this case, this was one that took significant amount

of gap funding from and resources from habitat

to complete because of the cost.

We're aware during these budget times,

there is no permanent funding source for an ongoing program.

If one-time funding funds are made available

for this program, we hope to continue with our partners

and habitat for humanity to enter into a new contract

to keep this program going.

I wanted to bring this tonight to this council

as you were the council who approved this pilot program.

We know there is still great need in the community

for addressing sub-centered housing conditions

in homes owned by lower income homeowners.

And we know the pilot program in course planning grant

has resulted in improving housing conditions

and safety as well as providing resources to homeowners

that are economically challenged

to maintain their homes.

We want you to know that there's 14 additional families

in our city who are not living in sub-centered conditions

or even worse may have lost their home.

In some cases, we are the only resource.

We hope Sacramento will continue this program

or programs like it as long as possible

and funding becomes available.

In code enforcement, it's not always easy for us

to see or gauge our success.

Here we can actually see it.

If you have any questions available

and representatives from habitat for humanity

or attendance this evening, we have N Gambino

in term director of homeowner services,

Michael Gordon, director of construction,

and Brian Busta, home repairs and preservation manager.

Thank you so much.

Really important information, great program.

Do we have public testimony, Madam Clerk?

I have no speakers on this item.

Right, then let's turn it over to the council.

Councilmember Valenzuela.

Peter, who also quickly walked away.

Thank you for that presentation.

I mean, and thank you Habitat for partnering with us

on this.

Go Habitat.

I mean, it wouldn't have been possible

without you as a partner in the funding

you were able to bring in.

So I want to thank you for that.

And I want to reiterate something you said

because I think you can't say clearly enough.

But the least costly way that we fight homelessness

is by keeping people in the homes there and now.

And for a lot of people, these repairs get to the point

with habitability where we have to come through as code

and say you can't stay here.

It's not safe.

There's mold.

There's leaks.

You have to go.

And if you're low income and don't have access

to the credit and resources.

And so many of the programs that exist are rebates.

Which sounds good when you think about it,

but when you think about a low income homeowner

and their ability to afford to do the work and then get

reimbursed, and it won't even cover 100% of the cost

most of the time.

It's just not possible.

So I want to thank you because I mean,

if I'm doing the math on this correctly,

because you're really championing this,

I remember coming into office and talking to you.

And you were like, we sick essentially

of citing people for intempetable homes

when we can't do anything to help them.

I mean, your officers and your teams

are seeing this firsthand with homeowners

who are like, what do you want me to do?

I can't do anything.

And so you really push for this.

And so I want to give you the props for that

because that's really important.

And I think if I'm doing the math from your slide correctly

with $500,000, you've managed to save 34 households

potentially from becoming homeless.

It's 34 households.

It's not even 34 people.

And that would have cost us way more money

if we had tried to do that after the fact

when someone became homeless.

And we were trying to do it with minister services

and trying to get them help.

And so I just want to make sure that you feel that kudos

because that would not have happened

if you had not brought this program forward

and really pushed for this to be a priority in our funding.

And I'm like, I know it's one time money

because I remember doing it.

And I want to figure out a solution here.

And I don't know if that's, if it's just as for neighbors

on going partnership, what options exist

to try to make this a permanent program.

But it's not just important for housing, obviously.

I'm up for all of our climate goals.

We say, well, you should put solar panels on your roof

to lower your energy costs.

Well, I can't do that if my roof is falling down.

You should install a stove that's not gasp.

Well, I can't do that if the electrical wiring behind my stove

is out of date.

There's all these basic alignments that something like this does.

I feel like it's one of those triple bottom line,

very obvious programs.

And so I guess have you seen like best practices

in the ways other cities do this?

I know you talked to other code officers and folks.

And like, do you have any thoughts, I guess?

I want to say in terms of like ideas

for what we could look at as a council to keep this going.

I mean, when we started the program,

most cities were calling us, including the state,

asking how we did it.

Wow.

So with the loss of CDBG funds, back when we lost the redevelopment

agencies, that's when it was prevalent

that we used to do this program a lot.

Most cities are struggling.

They'll do one-offs or do the correction

as we can do a abatement.

And in some of these cases, we actually

had to do that where it was so extensive.

Instead, we evaded it, charged the property owner

to put a lien on the property.

That's what the family chose us to do.

So that is what a lot of cities do right now

as they use regular funds and charge back.

This is a, there's no other grant programs

that are flourishing that we've been able to establish

or make contact with.

Okay.

Well, I will say, I think in terms of alignment

with this energy commissions,

equitable willing decar program.

There is funding in that program for the Northern Region

because a lot of what's happening in San Francisco

and other places too is they're going in

to change out the appliances and realizing, like,

oh no, something's wrong.

And so they do have money to come in

and do those additional rehabilitation.

So I think there could be some synergy

with the climate resiliency work

that maybe we could explore.

But in general, I think colleagues,

it's kind of a call to action when we look at those

funding plans and strategies that we make for homelessness.

I mean, you remember the bell curve type thing

that Yian showed us where it's like,

you know, we're spending $40 million on temporary shelter

and $2 million on housing placement

and $2 million on prevention.

Like this fits so squarely in the prevention bucket.

And so how do we figure out?

And we're stuck a little bit

because you don't want to defund shelter services, right?

Because that wouldn't make any sense

as people are using them.

So how do we shift and find more resources

for that $2 million pot?

Because what we're doing right now

with emergency rent assistance and relocation assistance

is super important, but so is this.

Because there are a lot of low income people living in homes

that they own either because their family bequeathed

it to them or for some other reason,

they got lucky and bought when it was cheap.

And they're stuck.

And I don't want to see, I see too many people

when I was organizing in Oak Park

and in the vice-maries in here.

But there's a lot of people who lost their homes

for very preventable code violations

that were nobody's fault.

But they simply didn't have the money to repair it.

So here's the call to action is like for you

to maybe touch base with the planners

who I know are reaching out to the Northern Region

Equal Billing DeCard program

to see if there's a way for us to find alignment

and hopefully habitat.

I know you're probably aware of that program as well.

But I think there's some opportunities

to get creative here and to really build off what you've done.

But I'm sorry to hear that it's been a model

for so many other places

and we don't have any more money for it right now.

So I just want that to be a call to action, I guess, for us.

Moving forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's going to say before I turn it

if it comes in with Mergeda.

Imagine if we had a robust county wide housing trust fund

funded by a ballot measure that would not only

state housing as a priority, but back it up

with systemic funding.

Imagine that possible.

Councilman Gettah?

Not on air, do you?

No, I concur and wanted to, again, just

thank our city team on this and both the Justice

for Neighbors Program and also in Habitat

because this kind of program is the one that when you look

at many of the people who are affected,

there are many times seniors.

Many times it's the those who have lost their partners

in late in life as well and the home repairs have escalated.

I know so many in South Sacramento

and in my district too are in that same situation.

And also wanted to thank, again, the creative work

when we looked at the issue on illegal cannabis grow houses

and how some of these houses have been bought up

and basically stripped out.

And we were able to retrofit those and work with Habitat

to actually get those back into quality housing.

So I guess one thing I learned from that was that using

the leverage of the city attorney's office

through the not only judgments, the fine process

and the receivership process,

I'd like to actually maybe provide some direction

that we start to develop a policy on when we do get judgments

or fines that we collect, say, from some of these

FST slum lords with larger apartment complexes

or whatnot that if it's a fine or a judgment associated

with housing or housing insecurity

that we allot that and have a first priority

to go into this type of program.

Most of our fines and judgments go back to enforcement

and I think that's important.

But again, a little piece, little prevention goes a long way

and essentially helps us do that work.

So Mr. City Manager, I'd like to actually,

and we did that in the illegal cannabis grow house program.

We were able to leverage both through the civil courts

and civil action and use that either the property

or the fines to be able to repair those homes.

So I'd like to at least have a that standing policy

absent going after big or pots of money.

So Councillor McGarran, I also wanna acknowledge

Councillor Moreval's well as well.

I agree with everything you said.

This is a very important program.

And thank you to Habitat and Peter,

but what's missing here is also the City Attorney's Office

to work closely with all of us to make this happen.

I think that the dollars we put aside here,

this $500,000 have gone such a long way.

We need to consider this as part of the larger budget

discussions that we're gonna have.

But as a starting point, let's take a look at what we can do

to allocate those fines to a program like this,

but having a discussion in a larger context.

Sure, and that's why I meant.

I think I'd like the City Attorney and your team

to come back with a type of proposal.

Again, when we receive a judgment or we collect a fine,

that's unexpected revenue that we weren't receiving.

So there's one, you know, allocating an appropriated

general fund dollars, but at least we should have a policy

that comes in that hey, if we get this, this, this,

I wouldn't want to call it a windfall because, you know,

usually it doesn't cover the cost of the services,

but at least it puts it in a preventative pot.

Like we always need money for enforcement.

In fact, because of the amount of enforcement

or the inability to do more enforcement,

we go on cases that are called to us,

not proactive enforcement.

So I do think that in this case that we should figure out

how to make that balance with that unexpected revenue.

Well, I'll work with the City Attorney's Office

to figure out how we can bring something forward like that.

Great, thank you.

Excellent, Council Member Towne.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to, first off, just want to think Peter

and have a time for humanity for the work that you do

for the community.

You know, I myself know how expensive to, you know,

just do a re-roof.

Recently I just did a re-roof this year

and it cost me about 20,000.

My quotes was like 40,000, 30,000, 22,000.

A lot of the works I see here is 15,000, very cost,

and I know the work is done to really help

our most vulnerable populations.

And I totally concur with Council Member Gara

looking for a program, you know, this is a pilot program,

but definitely from our fees, from code enforcement

or housing and dangerous building,

how we can set up a plan to really look at addressing

this issue moving forward, because I would just look

into my phone and citizen service.

176 dangerous housing, they can be open right now

in the city of Sacramento.

38 of it is in my district, that's about 22%.

That's a lot, you know, and we don't know of its own

or occupied or of its rental or it's just vacant.

And I think this is something that moving

for really old neighborhoods, low income neighborhoods

with very low per capita income really needs this help.

And the great work that you and Habitat did,

I commend you for that.

And for stuff enough, because, you know,

there is very limited funding.

And when we talk about preventative housing

or prevention for folks and, you know,

almost population, vulnerable populations

are always one paycheck away from being displaced.

And so I do, I'm very supportive of looking at how the city

can, you know, make this a robust discussion

on how we can make this work in the future as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to wrap a bow around this

and say I agree with my colleagues

because I think it's looking at almost a bigger thing

that we've looked at.

Even though that, you know, there may be city trees planted

that are now breaking the sidewalk,

but it falls on the homeowner.

All of the things surrounding a house,

it seems like you're never done

once you own a house, fixing a house.

And I think having a comprehensive policy of looking at it,

especially how it hits our most vulnerable

because we're right.

Councilmember Valenzuela, this is the best use of money

for preventative for homelessness.

And how do we do that?

So I just want to echo the support of,

I don't know the right way,

but I think we have to start really looking at that

and creating a policy so that we have potential funds

that, and they become available,

can be a source that we can use.

All right.

We want to do more of this great work with the community.

That's the message and we need to get creative,

need to find the resources and help more people

and avoid homelessness.

Councilmember Valenzuela is absolutely right.

It's the prevention side that often gets not overlooked,

but we don't pay as much attention to that

as we do to the efforts to get people off the streets.

And this is an opportunity to keep people housed,

deserved to be housed.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Senator.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let us now move to item 18.

This is the Arper Framework and Funding Priority

regarding the improvement of approving establishment

of a small business assistant center pilot, Meletti.

Welcome.

Hello, good evening, Mayor, Councilmember,

Denise Melvetti, Deputy Director of the City's Office

of Innovation and Economic Development.

And I'm happy to be here this evening with our team

as well as with Sacramento Investment Without Displacement

Subcommittee to share updates on our offices,

small business programs and seek approval

for the establishment of a small business assistant center.

Sacramento small businesses are the heart of our community

and economy.

They are what make our neighborhoods and districts so special.

And the health of our small businesses is also directly tied

to the city's fiscal sustainability.

It is critical that we continue to support our small businesses,

especially those that are most vulnerable.

Tonight's item builds on the city's commitment

to inclusive economic development.

Although our office has always supported,

prioritized supporting small businesses,

about six years ago, the city committed

to more inclusively growing Sacramento's economy.

And part of that commitment was adding capacity to our office

to better serve Sacramento's residents and businesses.

This included adding staff specifically

to support small businesses.

It also included the creation of the neighborhood development

action team and the community engagement team.

Having this added capacity was critical

when our office was called upon to deploy cares

and ARPA funding and will be essential

as we launched the proposed center.

The proposed center is the evolution of our office's work

that incorporates lessons learned from our recent cares

and ARPA investments and thoughtful input

from SACIWD Subcommittee.

The item before you today is twofold.

First to establish a small business assistant center

to your pilot program.

And it also satisfies one term

of the Aggie Square settlement agreement.

Before I turn it over to McKellen Ginger

to provide an overview of the center,

I want to thank the entire economic development small business

team which includes Sabrina Teft, Valerie Mimoni,

and Michael Young.

I also want to thank the Sacramento investment

without displacement subcommittee members

who collaborated with the city team

to develop the next iteration of our small business programming.

I am certain that this collaborative effort

has resulted in a program that will allow us

to better serve our treasured small businesses.

I am eager for you to hear more about the center

so I will first turn it over to Mikael Dobbila.

All right, thank you Denise and good evening mayor

and council members.

Small businesses are the economic engine

for the nation and for Sacramento's economy.

Small businesses employ nearly half of the nation's employees

and of all business establishments in the county

over 99% of them are classified

and considered small businesses.

So what is the value of small businesses?

I'll just list a few of them here,

but small businesses keep dollars circulating locally

in the economy,

which boosts local employment,

encourage business growth, promote community wealth,

and increase tax revenues.

Also small businesses contribute more to charity

and local community causes

than their large corporation counterparts

both in frequency and impact.

Small businesses of higher giving rates

and donations larger as larger percentages of their revenue

and high volunteerism rates amongst their employees.

Finally, as Denise mentioned,

small businesses serve the local neighborhood

with critical amenities.

They create culture and foster a sense of place

and pride for the neighborhood

and at times they're where memories are made.

So knowing that small businesses are critical

to our economy,

we must nurture and support in a system.

So how does OIED and the city do that?

Whoops.

So I won't take you back to January of this year

when Denise provided a thorough overview

of our offices, programs, and our small business work,

but just highlighting that from small business,

triage and referral services and technical assistance

and economic gardening to fostering a safe

and vibrant nighttime economy

and providing systemic support for our childcare industry

to support our workforce.

OIED does a lot to support small businesses.

And why we're here today is we're excited

about the possibility of expanding on that list

with the Small Business Assistance Center pilot program.

So as Denise mentioned,

staff is excited to put forth a recommendation

in partnership with SAC Investment Without Displacement

to establish a Small Business Assistance Center pilot program

satisfying paragraph three A9

in the Aggie Square settlement agreement,

which says to design a quote small

and local small business protection

and development program for council consideration

and hire consultants to evaluate the center

and study the feasibility of future programs.

So we're proposing that the center is comprised

of six programs or services

and that the pilot phase is expected to last about two years.

It's primarily funded through council directed,

ARPA Small Business Commercial Cord

or Revitalization Funds.

And we also did receive a $300,000 grant

from the US Small Business Administration

that's being applied to this program as well.

So the six programs are an evolution

of what we think is foundational support

that the city should be providing for small businesses.

I did just want to mention too

that the Measure U funding is really for staff time only

and as Denise mentioned,

that capacity built up in OIED helped us engage

with SACIWD, helped us understand what the challenges were

from businesses, take the lessons learned

and develop a program like this.

So we're certainly grateful for that.

Before I hand it to Ginger to talk through

each of the programs, I just want to share that designing

the pilot was again based on our long history

working with small businesses, especially through the pandemic

and through the cares and ARPA funds.

We've seen a lot of success

and we have concrete sort of lessons learned

that we've thought through and designed the center around.

The Aggie Square settlement agreement

provided us the opportunity to work with SACIWD

and collectively we see the center as the foundation

to continue developing resources and potential protections

for Sacramento's small and micro neighborhood serving businesses.

So with that, I'm going to invite Ginger up to talk a little bit

through our pilot programs and services.

Thank you, Mikhail.

I'm going to take the next few minutes

to describe each component of the proposed

small business assistance center.

So the first component is providing $1.1 million

in grant funding to support 10 property

and business improvement districts or P-bits.

A key responsibility of the P-bit

will be to hire business navigators

to conduct door to door outreach to small businesses

within their respective districts.

Building on lessons learned from cares

and ARPA small business investments,

we've learned that the business navigator model works

and the role of trusted culturally competent messengers

is critical to identifying business assistance needs.

The second component is a 600K investment

into a technical assistance or TA program.

This component consists of a two tiered structure

where a core TA provider will serve as the first tier

and field general business assistance requests.

Staff already released a competitive solicitation

seeking a core TA provider and plans to return to council

before the end of the calendar year for approval.

The second tier will consist of TA providers

who possess specialized expertise in areas of greatest need

as identified by previous business TA programs.

These areas include access to capital,

accounting and bookkeeping,

online and web presence, legal assistance

and government contracting.

Staff already released a solicitation

to establish an on-call list of specialized TA providers

but plans to re-release another solicitation

that will stay open for an extended period of time.

The third component is a 250K investment

in a micro grant program where businesses

who received a technical assistance recommendation

from one of the city's core or specialized providers

can apply for up to $5,000 to support implementation

of a TA recommendation.

So for example, if a TA provider recommended

that a business obtained an e-commerce point of sale system

to boost revenue, then the business can apply

for a micro capital grant from the city

to support purchasing that system.

This program really builds on the success that we've seen

from the city's economic gardening program

where there is a similar structure utilized,

where offering TA is paired with a matching grant

to fund implementation of TA recommendations.

The fourth component is a 50K fee credit program.

The free credit program allows businesses to apply

for up to $2,500 in credits for applicable city fees.

Similar to the micro grants,

this incentive program is meant to offer access

to micro capital and reward businesses

who engage in the city's TA program.

The fifth component is a 50K appropriation for data tools.

Here, staff is investing in a publicly accessible tool

that provides businesses with valuable market industry

and location data.

Staff already completed a competitive solicitation

and is under contract with size up.

And another important aspect of the data component

is the deployment of the city's 311 business portal.

Built within Salesforce, staff expanded the city's general

311 portal to include the functionality for businesses

to not only create business accounts,

but also for businesses to submit business assistance requests

for service.

This means Salesforce will serve

as the center's data collection tool,

allowing staff to track service provision data.

The advantages of using Salesforce are many,

including the ability to generate robust

and customizable reports,

as well as having access to real-time information.

So for example, staff will be able to check

on the status of business assistance requests

to ensure timely resolution,

which is something that has proved challenging in the past.

And the final and sixth component

of the proposed small business assistance center

is dedicating five economic development staff members,

specifically myself, Michele Sabrina Teft,

Valerie Mamoni, and Michael Young,

to create a small business assistance team.

In establishing a small business assistance team,

we realized that it would be helpful to brand our efforts

as a small business assistance center,

which is not necessarily a physical building or space,

but more of a way to market and advertise our programs

and services in a way that is easily understandable

and accessible to businesses.

So now that I've provided an overview

of the six components,

I am now gonna walk you through a workflow diagram

which visually depicts how a business will navigate through

our proposed continuum of services.

So as you can see on the left hand side,

the first step of the process is conducting outreach

to generate business assistance referrals.

So the city anticipates receiving most of its referrals

through the business navigators hired

by our 10 P-Bid partners.

The primary responsibility of the navigators

is to build trust and establish rapport

with small businesses with the ultimate goal

of educating businesses on the benefits

of registering and utilizing the city's 311 business portal.

Referrals, however, can also be generated

by community-based organization partners

and even city staff including council office staff.

So the second step in our workflow is basically

for a business to register for the city's 311 business portal

and submit a business assistance request for service

based on their individualized need.

The third step is for the city's small business assistance team

to triage that request and assign the request

to an appropriate TA provider.

And it is important to underscore here

that the requests for business assistance

go directly to a queue managed by the small business

assistance team and it does not go to the general 311 service

agents by designing the workflow in this way,

economic development hopes to avoid bottlenecks

by having direct oversight of the business assistance queue

in 311.

So the next step in our workflow is for the business

to receive complementary TA

and hopefully get the help they need to resolve their issue.

So the fifth step is for the business to access

the city's micro capital incentive programs

depending on the recommendations of their TA provider.

And the final step which is embedded

throughout the entire workflow is continuous data evaluation.

As I already stated, our entire continuum of services

relies on the city's sales force 311 business portal

to capture and track information

throughout the entire workflow.

So with that, I'm going to invite me

kell back to the podium to conclude our presentation.

All right, thank you, Ginger.

And I'll just get through a four more slides

talking about how SAC IWD really helped us design

for diversity, equity, inclusion in this program

and then I'm going to invite Tamika to come up and speak.

So as we worked with SIDWD,

one area that they did lend their support on

is around an ensuring inclusive and equitable outreach

to small and micro businesses.

So we're adding OIED's outreach best practices

to this pilot.

Things like utilizing our community engagement team,

shout out to my end act co lead there to Lynette Hall

and all the great things that that engagement team does

from their monthly communications toolkit

to trusted community ambassadors

that can provide translation and interpretation services.

Their contracts with ethnic media outlets,

we want to make sure we're advertising

these programs and services there

to all their sort of local community events

that get out to these businesses.

We want to create inclusive outreach collateral

that is culturally appropriate and in language

as requested and obviously as resources are available.

We also found that hosting regular office hours

in the community is critical to just being accessible,

showing a face to the city and making sure businesses know

that we're here to answer their questions.

Finally, we want to activate our partner network,

meet them where they are by joining them on business walks,

sharing resources and working with their navigators

who are multilingual and trusted advocates

in their community.

Adding to the who of who we're centering with this program,

we've created a prioritization criteria.

So while the inclusive and outreach engagement methods

are about making sure the information is known

to those folks who sometimes it doesn't get to,

this is about designing the program

so if they do apply, we're centering them

in receiving these resources.

So we've created the prioritization criteria

in an effort to collect more data on our impacts

and who is being served by our programs

and to send our small and micro businesses

that need services that again typically don't get access to them.

So I also just want to be clear that all four profit businesses

in the city of Sacramento are eligible for these services.

We're applying these prioritization criteria

again to center those folks.

And so for example, in the micro capital programs

like fee credits and micro grants,

we're going to be using a more narrow definition

of small and micro businesses.

We're actually pegging it to the California Department

of General Services definition, which says that,

unlike the US SBA definition,

that small businesses, 500 employees are more,

CalDGS is 100 or less employees that defines a small business.

And then for micro business, it's 25 or less employees

with 6 million annual and gross revenue.

So just a more narrow definition to really center

who we're targeting.

In addition, businesses that are located in promise zones,

a HUD qualified census tracts in SB535 disadvantaged communities

are even ones that are in linguistic isolation areas

with a score of 50 or above.

We want to make sure that these resources are getting to them.

So we believe these prioritization criteria,

along with additional outreach supports,

will help reach businesses in these underserved

and disadvantaged areas and help us collect the data

that make us competitive for future funding.

So speaking of future funding, to be competitive

and to be respond to one of our lessons learned

through our past small business assistance,

we've put forward a set of initial outputs, outcomes,

and impacts.

These initial set of outcomes can be found in the table

in your staff report.

But some examples of the outputs are cases resolved

in hours of one-on-one consultation.

Some of the outcomes are loan and grants secured,

the number of and the amount of those loans and grants

and jobs created.

And some of the impacts can be how access to capital

has become easier for businesses

or have vacancy rates sort of dropped in the city.

So we know we need to build a robust monitoring

and evaluation program that sets us up for showing impact

for this pilot program and communicating

to our federal, state, and philanthropic funders

that we are competitive for this grant funds

and we have a need and we'd like to scale up.

So to that end, we are recommending

to hire an evaluation consultant to support this work.

So as you can see on the left, we're recommending hiring

this consultant that can help us design a monitoring

evaluation program and keep these future funding

opportunities in mind so that we are competitive for them

and can sustain potentially beyond the two-year pilot program.

On the left-hand side, I just wanted to say that in addition,

SACIWD was influential in proposing

some innovative programs that we like to explore

in this pilot and could be potentially future programs

of the center.

So we're recommending hiring a feasibility consultant

as well to explore potential new small services

like the ones you see there, a legacy business preservation

program that really provides tailored and packaged support

to businesses that have been around in our city for decades

provide sort of a cultural community fabric and a amenity.

How can we support those businesses, a heritage tourism

program where we're asking folks globally, nationally,

within the state to come visit Sacramento

and it's hidden gems in the neighborhood

but also our sort of local sacramentans

to check out other parts of the city and see what there is

to offer.

And finally, a social enterprise incubator program.

We know there are businesses out there

that have a mission and purpose driven.

They also want to provide a public and community benefit.

So how are we supporting those programs

and incubating programs to start off as a B corporation

or as an employee owned corporation or a cooperative?

So the feasibility consultant will look at these models

from other cities, the resources it takes to implement

and the impact that these programs could have in Sacramento.

So finally, those are the next steps.

I'm not going to go over these

but I did want to invite Tamika to talk from Sac IWD

up to the podium.

Of course.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

I just want to, as she's coming up,

just thank Sac IWD again for all their work.

Tamika Tammy, Matt Amy, who's not here today.

Thank you.

Partnership, thank you.

Let's bring my crew up with me.

Our small crew.

There's more of us in the back.

Hello, Council Mayor.

My name is Tamika LaCleuse.

I'm the executive director of Sacramento Community Land Trust.

I'm also the vice chair of Sacramento Investment

without displacement.

I'm joined by Rashid.

Tammy Jamer Rashid of Lula.

Tammy Jamer of Organized Sacramento and Matt Baker of Ecos.

And I just want to thank city staff

for all the work and dedication.

This was three years in the making.

This came, as Nikhil said, out of the UC Davis Aggie Squirt

settlement agreement that this council

needed to take up this item.

So I'm glad that we're finally getting to it

towards the end of 2024 here.

Given that this crew are team in our organizations,

SAWD makes multiple organizations,

including Sacramento Act, UpD, CWA, Ecos, ASE, United Latinos,

Lula, Organized Sac, Sac CLT,

Everyday Impact Consulting, Thread, Sac Housing Alliance,

and Building Healthy Communities.

We don't do this work alone.

We do this work as a team with you all

and with the residents and businesses of the city of Sacramento.

And our work on this, our diligent work with Nikhil and Ginger

and the city staff over three years

really does demonstrate our commitment.

But also your guys' commitment to our small businesses.

We're hearing a lot right now about them,

especially on the national stage.

And we know that the small businesses and microbusiness

are the backbones of our communities.

And we want to keep them here.

We do this in the spirit of business stabilization.

And we see this as an opportunity to bring more resources,

to bring more protections to expand upon what you're doing.

But also be really critical of the things that aren't working.

The data collection in this piece is what was really missing.

When we came to the city staff and said,

well, how are your programs doing?

Where's the data?

There wasn't any.

And so the data piece, the language justice,

the community navigators, Lynette's and DAT team,

these are the folks, these are the things that are going to come

together and really make this program work.

But this is not where we want this to end.

We want the City of Sacramento to be bold, to be brave.

Go out and fight for that additional funding.

Be more aligned with where the state is

on protecting our small and local businesses.

We hope that in the future that we can come back with more protections

for our brick and mortar businesses,

for our nonprofit organizations, for us all.

I want to give a moment maybe to Matt or Tammy to say a couple of things.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, Matthew Baker,

and the board member of SIDWD.

I had a member, the team that was working on this.

And I just want to reiterate to make his comments

and SIDWG support of this program that we think

it was really worthwhile work done and well thought out.

And it's crafting.

Not only do we think that this is a great economic decision

for the city to help keep local dollars circulating locally,

but from the Sacramento investment without displacement perspective,

we really do think that support of our small local businesses

is one of the best ways that we can weave and reinforce

and maintain community fabric,

especially for our most marginalized and vulnerable communities.

I also want to re-emphasize our appreciation of the work of staff

of Michael and Ginger and the team,

and their openness to work with SIDWD.

You know, we think that's really representative of the kind

of collaboration we've went with the city from the start.

Excuse me.

And since this did come out of the settlement agreement

around Aggies where there were things that we were thinking

about at that time and the context of community benefits agreement

for a major catalytic investment like that.

And we think that there are further things that are left on the table here

that were outside of the scope of this program

that would require further action from the city.

And we want to continue to work with the city to think about how

we could evolve these protections for our small businesses.

And one of the first opportunities to do that would be hopefully

in upcoming community benefit ordinance, agreement ordinance

that we hope it's going to be coming before he soon.

And also, you know, there's thinking going on in the state legislature

about this, about these issues, too.

There's, you know, thinking about policy around commercial tendency protections

and the way that we've more commonly talked

about residential tendency protections.

And so I think this is a fantastic start,

and that with the adoption of this program,

I think that the city of Sacramento is greatly positioned to be a leader

in this area.

So we're proud to do this work in and are committed to keep you on working

with you strongly, urgent I vote.

Yeah, just real quickly, I just want to re-emphasize

that how important this data piece is and the authentic cultural outreach, right?

Because if we don't know who's out there, then we're not going to know

how we're going to apply for those federal and state grants, you know,

depending on what happens in the election next week, you know,

it may rain for Sacramento with small business growth, right?

And we have to be prepared to be able to draw down federal and state dollars.

And we don't want to be caught off guard.

So we need the numbers and we need the demographics.

And if we don't have that, then we're not prepared to draw down those dollars.

So that's really, really important.

So I also urge your I vote.

Appreciate it.

So just to wrap up, we just want to thank you all for letting us have city staff

for three years.

We'll continue to work with them as well as our small business leaders and residents.

Because this didn't just come out of the air.

This was from survey responses and resident feedback and small business owners

saying we need more.

We need the city to do more.

And so we thank you for taking this up.

We think this is again a great demonstration of how how a government and

community can come together for something positive that can grow and

can evolve and can help our most vulnerable business communities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I just can't.

We'll turn it over to the public and my colleagues.

But I can't tell you just how happy this conversation makes me.

Because it is to see the community that was once the litigant against the city,

but not really against the city, trying to make the city perform better.

Now do better.

Working so closely with the city team on the principles and

underlying pieces of this settlement agreement in such a collaborative and

team oriented way is just exactly what we all wanted to come out of this.

So thank you.

Let's hear from the public.

Thank you, Mary.

I have nine speakers on this item.

Kathy Rodriguez, Aguayo, Selena Priya, Jay King, Bill Nolington, and

then Rashid Sidik.

Hi everyone, I'm Kathy Rodriguez-Aguiri.

I am the president and CEO for the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

And I've also had the pleasure of working with the city team very closely for

the past year and a half.

Ginger and Macal, Michael and Denise, they're probably on my speed dial.

And that's how close we've gotten in the work that we've been able to do together.

So I really want to emphasize how wonderful the city team has been and

the partnership that we have.

And saying that and seeing this whole presentation that came to be today,

I think this is, you know, and it's hard a good thing.

I think it's good for the city to show that they have a focus and a support in our small businesses.

They're more than our backbone.

They're the engine that is running our city.

And many of our diverse corridors that didn't close during the recession,

they didn't close during pandemic.

That's where our tax dollars that we're looking at right now and the city came from.

So as someone who's working with the businesses day in and day out,

one of the things I would like to stress too is as we look at these diagrams to remember that

we also need to be a little bit nimble.

Realize the businesses when they come in, sometimes they're needing something right away.

And sometimes they're going to come back to you at a different time.

So I'm looking for a little flexibility in that.

And I also want to include in the support in there, especially the ethnic chambers.

Because when we have marketing out there, it doesn't stop.

We get people coming from everywhere.

So our work actually increases with anything that comes through.

But having said that, I think this is a good start.

And I think it's a really good place to be.

And I can't commend the city enough for the work that they've been doing,

especially out in the Northgate corridor with us.

So with that, thank you.

Thank you for your comments, Salina Pryor.

Good evening.

I am really excited about this establishment of the Small Business Assistance Pilot,

Assistant Center Pilot, sorry, I'm a little nervous.

BSBA, the Black Small Business Association of California, has seen the powerful impact

of cares and ARPA programs in supporting small businesses during tough times,

especially during the pandemic when we started.

We're extremely supportive of Agenda Item 18.

And it's ARPA-based funding priorities, which offer a smart, balanced approach

to strengthening small businesses, P-Bids, and technical assistance providers, which we are.

The proposed pilot programs, including funding for the different components

that were mentioned before, will empower us to better serve local businesses

who are also categorized as socially, economically disadvantaged individuals,

and will foster sustainable growth within our communities.

We look forward to collaborating with the Office of Innovation and Economic Development,

and city staff to develop inclusive strategies that promote equitable, economic revitalization

across Sacramento.

We respectfully request your support for this initiative,

as it represents a crucial step towards building a resilient, thriving community.

We want to thank city staff for their efforts.

Also, council members, Jennings and Kaplan, for your leadership.

And we are extremely excited again about the establishment of this small business assistance

center here in the city of Sacramento, and available to discuss how we can further

contribute to the pilot's success.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Jay King, then Bill Nolton.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm Jay King, the president and CEO of the California Black Chamber of Commerce,

the 97.5 FM, KDE, Sacramento's number one community radio station.

I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to the city of Sacramento,

Mayor Steinberg, and the entire city council for your commitment to supporting small businesses

in our community.

The creation of the small business assistance program of the vital step towards fostering

entrepreneurship and economic growth in our city.

Your efforts not only provide essential resources and guidance, but also demonstrates a deep

understanding of the challenges that small businesses face, especially in today's rapidly

changing landscape.

This program will empower entrepreneurs, create jobs, and enhance the vibrant culture that

makes Sacramento unique.

Your leadership inspires confidence in our local economy and encourages innovation.

Thank you.

We're prioritizing the needs of small businesses and for believing in the potential of our community.

Together we can build a brighter future for Sacramento and I thank you all for being

the leadership of that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your comments.

Bill Nolton, Rashid Sadeek, then Matthew Baker.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I would like to take a minute to acknowledge and to thank Sabrina Teth and the entire

economic development team for their support in making inclusive economic development a

reality on MacRode.

The small business assistance program will be instrumental in making sure the community

we serve has every tool available to be successful in an ever changing business climate.

With the help of the small business assistance program, we will have a business navigator

that will create a direct link to our city partners and the services they provide such

as 3-1-1.

We will conduct business walks and business events which will address the specific needs

of our community and we will also use this to purchase a used maintenance vehicle to

enhance our ability to keep our district clean and safe for the people who live, shop

and work in the Macro district.

In closing, I would like to thank all the city partners, city council members, especially

council member Maivang, who represents us as well and I wanted to take a minute just

as well as here to thank our Sacpiti partners.

I know it's not really part of what we're talking about but the efforts of Lieutenant

Zach Eaton and Captain Zach Bales along with Maivang always a phone call away and just

wanted to say thank you.

Good evening, Sacramento City Council members, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you for having me here today.

My name is Corey DeRue and I'm the executive director of the Florentred Partnership representing

and supporting approximately 525 businesses and 320 property owners in South Sacramento.

We are here tonight to thank you for the ARPA, ARPA Recovery Grant Fund.

This grant will provide much needed funds for many facets of our programming and new

maintenance vehicle.

We've been around since 1997.

This is something we've never been able to afford before so this is quite something for

us.

This will also allow us to purchase new maintenance equipment and of course have a dedicated

city business navigator which is so important.

The additional security hours allows us to flex our needs around the demands of our small

businesses and especially our micro businesses who don't have the budget for private security

and their businesses.

Without which we would not be able to provide any of these services.

Finally the Florentred Business corridor would not be where we are without our law enforcement

partners as Bill alluded to and our friends at the city notably district five and district

eight as Florentred runs north and south of both districts.

We thank you for believing in and investing in our flourishing Florenture.

Thank you very much.

Good evening.

I'm Devon Strucker, executive director and resident of the River District and I can't

really add much more than what you already heard from Florentred and Mac Road but River

District and our 830 acres including three miles of riverfront is just very grateful for

this.

Our small businesses are still struggling from COVID.

I know for most people it's a memory but for our businesses it's very much still an

active struggle.

So thank you so much for investing in our small businesses.

We greatly appreciate it.

And Florentred has some gifts for everybody.

Oh you brought gifts.

Oh man.

Our next beaker is Rashid Sidik, then Matthew Baker, then Khalil Ferguson.

I'm here today just to and support of the small business initiative that's just approved.

I think it was great.

A lot of our black and brown communities suffered through the COVID and now this is a

lifeline that they are provided and hopefully will allow them to flourish.

And I also want to just thank the SIDWD crew for staying.

Stayed fast on the mission.

It's been a three long years but we're getting close and this is one of the great win and

I want to thank the city staff for working with us and being patient and as we're being

patient.

But this is a great opportunity for the city of Sacramento and for some of our low income

communities that depend on these small businesses on the daily basis.

So I just want to say thank you and I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Matthew Baker.

Good.

Khalil Ferguson.

Following Khalil is Marbella Salah.

And James Allison Lee the final speaker.

Good evening city council.

My name is Khalil Ferguson.

I'm a three-year-old at the George School of Law.

I'm also the president and CEO of nonprofit called the Nutter Coral Alliance.

We are a legal aid organization and if you look at all of our programming, the underlying

theory of our programming is increasing fostering economic mobility in communities that have been

disadvantaged and creating generation of wealth.

If you're familiar with my work at SEC State, I studied economics and public saw and now

pursuing a corporate attorney at McGeorge upon passing the bar.

You will see that my research really focuses on inclusive economic development.

That is reflected in my time as a measure you committee member and the youth see as well.

So I really am supportive of this measure.

I wanted to bring to this council's attention that SB 1103 was adopted by the California

State Legislator, which provides incremental protections for small business owners and

the commercial setting.

I know it's hard to provide commercial protections for legal protections for commercial

tenants.

However, that bill at least provides some sort of disclosure and transparency requirements

when increasing rent and hidden fees for small tenants.

In our experience in our research, one of the significant impediments to growing a small

business is not having legal protection.

As reflected in the report on your guys's dius or in front of you all, one of the

significant parts of this program provides legal assistance, but specifically lease assistance.

And that is usually the biggest barrier to even keeping your business upon when gentrification

encroaches on, specifically, Del Paso Heights right now.

And if you look at where gentrification is headed, one of the biggest ways that we lose

a lot of our small businesses is because the lack of access to attorneys or knowledge

of the law.

So having a small business owner will greatly reflect in our ability to keep and retain our

small businesses as Sacramento develops and grows in the near future.

Thank you all.

Thank you for your comments.

Marbella, the James Allison.

Good evening.

I'm here as the president of Garland Northgate Neighborhood Association.

And first I just want to say thank you to Ginger, to Mikkel, to Michael, the Sacramento

Hispanic Chamber because over the last two years they've been instrumental in working

with our small businesses and all a variety of issues and getting grants and assistance

and it's made a difference.

And I'm here because I found out by mistake kind of positively about this pilot program

and the proposal that's before you because I called Ginger yesterday.

And I was asking for guidance on how to help a community member who wants to open up

a new another restaurant that had to close during COVID.

And he asked me, where could I go?

Did the city have any programs?

I need some support because I really want to move into Jim Boy's tacos that is going

to be closing their doors.

And I was at a loss because that's not my expertise.

I'm expert in a lot of things but not in that.

And so I called Ginger and then when she told me about the center and I got really excited

because this is exactly the type of resource that our community needs, our small businesses

need.

And that while the Hispanic Chamber has been a great partner for us and they've been

a blessing in our community.

I think that having a center where all these different components come together in one

center so it's not in a silo or it's broken apart or they go here and go there will be

beneficial.

And I, in my community, could direct a, you have a center here that will be able to offer

you assistance and guidance and resources.

So thank you.

I applaud this effort.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

James Allison will be your final speaker on this item.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members and staff.

My name is James Allison, Executive Director of the Power and Alliance representing over

30,000 jobs in 1500 businesses here in Sacramento.

And I should have just come up with Bill a little bit earlier.

I'm here today to offer our support for the small business assistance center pilot and

the allocation of necessary funding needed to support this program and the businesses

within it.

The challenges facing Sacramento's businesses are myriad and certainly not limited to our

city, while major employers nationwide have made great efforts to cope with the economic

realities we are all facing.

It is the small business community that has faced the greatest challenge in fighting similar

support.

That is why community organizations like our P.B.ids play a critical role in providing

much of the needed backing to contend with these challenges of today.

Our community businesses, the mom and pop restaurant tours, retailers and service providers

that create a robust and thriving city must contend with the rise in costs and underlying

challenges that characterize the current broader economic climate.

We are able to dedicate the considerable time and resources needed to create safe and

vibrant streets, capes and corridors and welcome new patrons and visitation.

We are able to close this gap by taking many of these efforts to support these businesses,

creating an environment where they can thrive by undertaking programs which seek to create

vibrancy, provide visibility and ensure safety and connecting them with the litany of programs

that exist to bolster our small business community.

The proposed program directly supports the continuation of these efforts by both directly

and indirectly supporting these initiatives.

We ask that the council continue to support this direction and the critical work being

done to uplift Sacramento's small business community.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

Mary, have no more speakers.

Terrific.

Thank you all for coming out really, really important to hear the voices of the community,

especially the small business community.

You all have done so much and continue to do for our city.

Let me turn it over to the members, councilmember Valenzuela.

Thank you.

I want to echo the thanks, you know, when I campaigned in 2020, pre-COVID, I was talking a lot

about the idea of a small business on Budsmen position at the city, right?

There needs to be a place that someone can call if it's a permit issue, if it's a tax

issue, if it's a question about whatever and know that they're going to get to the right

place.

I really want to thank you for making this happen because it's called something different

but it's exactly that and more with the funding, with the technical assistance, with all of

the work that you've put into really designing something intentional.

I'm really, really pleased with that.

And I want to give props to Khalil for raising the legal protections for commercial tenants.

I had this grand idea when I came into office that when we extended the tenant protection

program for residents that we would add it for commercial tenants.

And I was super bummed to realize that we couldn't do that because state law preempted

us.

So thank you for raising that issue because it came up a lot, especially during COVID,

especially after COVID.

I'm a lot of the small businesses we lost in my district.

A good chunk of those were because of rent disputes and issues with getting paid back rent

and figuring out agreements with their landlords, which wouldn't have been an issue if we've

been able to protect them.

So thank you for raising that.

I do have two things that I would like to direct add to emotion, et cetera.

The first thing is I want to appreciate that we're learning the lesson of what worked during

COVID.

The part of what I think this is missing are the chambers, particularly the ethnic chambers

and the role that they filled and ensuring that that outreach was happening to small businesses

that don't traditionally get outreach to particularly those that aren't in Peabit areas,

which we know a lot of small businesses in our city don't benefit from being a part of

a Peabit area.

And so I would really like under the bucket that talks about Peabit assistance, I want

to be Peabit and Chamber assistance.

I want that to be an open venue and maybe they want it and maybe they don't.

But I think of what I saw with that inclusive economic development team and what they put

together and frankly what they did with an incredibly small amount of money, Kathy and

Rodriguez's a Curie.

I mean, it wasn't a lot of money, but they were able to hire the linguistically, culturally

competent navigators to really target those businesses that had no idea what was going

on during COVID.

And so I think that would be really important.

I know the Peabits could partner with them obviously and there's relationships there,

but I just think it would be great if they were explicitly included in that bucket so

that they could access those resources on their own as well.

Because I don't see like a downtown partnership, like why would they hire someone to do outreach

on Northgate, right?

I mean, like I think that's something that we're just missing in this proposal that I want

to include.

And then the second point, I'm on 3-1-1, which I love.

If we tell everyone to call 3-1-1 for everything, I would love for there to be an additional

number that someone can call instead of 3-1-1 and just as a way to contact you all directly.

Because sometimes I mean, 3-1 operators are handling everything from my trash and get

picked up to that tree needs to get trimmed to like, hey, I've got a crisis.

And so like I think that would, I mean, it could easily potentially get lost.

And I'm not saying that that's intentional, but someone just might not say the right words

and 3-1 operators going to be like, oh, I think you want to talk to code enforcement.

They're like, no, I actually want to talk to the center of the, whose name I can't remember.

So I would love for there to be like an additional number that they know they can call.

And maybe it's on staff all the time.

Maybe it's just a voicemail.

But at least it's something that you all can access directly and say, oh, no, we're missing

somebody and put it in.

I know it's harder with Salesforce to not have it start at 3-1-1, but it's also not

impossible for us to put data into Salesforce otherwise.

So like those would be my two additions.

And so I like to make the motion to pass this today with those two changes, adding chambers

to the P-bit assistance item and adding a second direct number to the technical assistance

packet so that folks can access you more directly.

And again, just want to give you all kudos for once again showing how nimble the economic

development outreach community outreach team can be.

You worked with a lot of different stakeholders and a lot of people to make this make sense

for what our community needs.

And I'm just really excited to see it move forward.

So that's my motion.

Thank you, Mayor.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good suggestions.

Mayor Protem, Talamontis.

Thank you.

I had the League of Cities conference that I went to last week.

I went to a public law and financing and economic development workshop.

And they had people raise their hands about how many staff people they have in economic

development.

And there are so many cities that said, two, three, I text Howard, I was like, I'm pretty

sure we have a little bit more than 20.

And it's true.

I mean, because Sacramento invests in our small businesses, we invest in getting more

economic engines so that we could continue to grow our revenues and support our commercial

corridors.

You know, I used to have a small business with my brother.

We sold the food truck down, but we kept the rights.

But we want to relaunch at some point in life once we have more time.

But it's something that like, it's tough.

It's tough to navigate it to know how to go about processes permitting at the city,

having a different health permit for the county versus the other county of West Sack,

Yolo.

It's a very complicated process.

So I just want to thank you guys for your tremendous work.

And I want to echo Councilman Rellon's as well as comments on like the small business

like loan assistance, not loan assistance, but like rental assistance, and making sure

that we can help people understand their lease agreements.

I know that something that Kathy Rodriguez with the Hispanic team of commerce has been

doing so much on Northgate that has been tremendously helpful.

And Councilman Rellon's well, I actually had kind of a similar idea about 3-1-1.

Because right now our small businesses call either my office, Eduardo, my district director,

or 3-1-1.

But it'd be nice to have a like 3-1-1 just for our small business owners so that they

can communicate with one another about what they're seeing because the best protection

that we can have is each other.

It is keeping an eye on each other's property and helping each other out with advice and

the recommendations of what's working and what's not working.

And so kind of similar to what you said, whatever economic development can come up with

is something I'd be happy.

So I'd be happy to second your motion.

And yeah, I just want to give Akutas to all the people here from Gina and A, Garland

Northgate Community Association and Hispanic Chamber and Economic Development Team.

I have spent almost one every week I have a Zoom with you.

Whether it's about our taco plaza, our two rounds of small business assistance, banners

on our street polls, street lights, p-bid conversations in the works right now.

We're creating the wish list for our businesses on Northgate, City of Festivals grants.

Like I said, workshops on financial literacy, business acrimento putting us on the map and

highlighting our Northgate businesses before all the concerts started at Discovery Park.

That was really exciting for us.

And it shows that the investment that we make into our community can attract other dollars.

Our Senator Angelique Ashby gave us $100,000 to help us with the taco plaza.

And it shows that what we're doing is working and hopefully it will continue to attract more

minis.

And we'll continue applying for my minis so that we can really make our commercial corridors

the place to be.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Cosmine Gettah.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to thank everyone here for the execution of this component of the community

benefits agreement.

And I want to also not only thank all of the community partners and yourself, Mr. Mayor.

But I want to do a recognition to a former council member, Jason Er, as well in this.

It was, I remember those early conversations on Zoom with Matt and folks when we were trying

to figure out how to get our Zoom to work and just at the beginning of COVID that led

us to this and talking about how do we piece together a functional business assistance

program.

And obviously the housing piece was on the first priority that we wanted to tackle for

obvious reasons.

But this was a fundamental piece there.

So I think it's exciting to see that we're getting to this point.

The complementary, the complementary, complementary technical assistant piece was a big part of

that conversation early on just because the challenges, those small businesses are trying

to keep their doors open.

They're trying to do their current, you know, meeting the current life demands and don't

even have the bandwidth to go out and do the extra research to find out these tools.

So with that.

And I also finally wanted to also thank Ginger Weigraff for a wonderful presentation.

You know, I think this is your first time presenting and would expect nothing less from

a alum of the Masters of Public Policy Administration at Sac State.

Just think her's up.

I just want to, uh, strengthen our economic development department.

Well, I just want to end on that point that you just made, and I think Mayor Prattam

Talamontus made as well, the perspective of going to the league, the cities meetings,

and seeing that in cities, you know, we've had this discussion all the time that cities

are municipal corporations that have traditional and very vital service functions, right?

Public safety, that's the way cities are built.

And yet I've always argued and we've all, I think, really moved in this direction.

And yet for big cities, modern cities, cities that want to grow, cities that care about equity

and opportunity, that we need to do that, the basic services and so much more.

And the fact that through hard times, the pandemic and even a bit of an economic downturn,

in part because we were smart about how to invest the ARPA money, in part because we

passed that measure you again, that second half of measure you.

We now have this robust economic development department that is able to, Michael Jaso

and I have a chance, thank you, that is able to have the expertise to work on some of

the biggest deals and projects that require that kind of attention.

And we are able to provide the leadership to work with all of our communities and our

small businesses towards this aspiration of genuine and inclusive economic development.

And of course, we're never there, right?

We never have done it all.

And that's never, but we need to keep striving because the ARPA money is going to run out

and that's one of the things it is, well, it's running out.

It was one time.

And now, are we stretching it?

And we spent what, 80% of our ARPA money on the community.

And that was an intentional decision of this group of leaders.

And then a great staff that takes it to heart with a community organization that is fighting

in the right way for the right things, we can achieve great things.

But now, how are we going to sustain this into the future?

For the next two to five to 10 years, don't have to come up with those answers tonight.

But this is too good to let go.

And we're going to have to figure that part out.

Great work, everybody.

And thank you.

We have a motion.

Did you have one more?

Go ahead, Eric.

No, thank you, Mayor.

I mean, you sparked something in that hopefully, hopefully, you know, as the next council comes

in that we think through because it was, I think, 2018 where we made the conscious decision

to add, I think it was 10 FTEs in the Economic Development Department.

Might have been seven, but I remember it was a significant jump.

And there's one just adding numbers to it.

But also in the recruitment of our department, that it also reflect our city.

And I think that is an important aspect that not only growing an economic development

department because our strength in finding the solutions is in our human capital.

And also that the capital that is inside our city is directly reflective and connected

to our city.

And I hope that as we get into tougher times, it's really quick to all of a sudden figure

out, okay, where can we shave off the edges?

And I know one opportunity was to cut out the end debt in the last budget cycle.

And we put it back in.

There's tough choices.

There's no easy choice.

But I think this is one where, you know, making sure that those decisions that help us

generate more money for the purposes of providing for our constituents is something that we

take to hard.

Sorry for the additional, but I just, you sparked something that I think that any time I spark

something, you're welcome to speak again.

Hey, we've got a motion, a motion in a second here.

Great discussion.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

abstain.

Thank you.

That, and great work, staff.

Thank you.

So that concludes the formal agenda for this evening.

Do we have council comments first?

Why don't we do that?

Are there council ideas and questions, Mayor Proton?

This pen.

Yes.

That's not my comment.

I had a side show in city manager.

I had a side show in my district over the weekend and I know I've asked on the diast twice

to be able to have a side show workshop because I know a lot of my council colleagues are

working on various variations of policy.

We all have ideas and would love to get something on the books within the next two weeks to

be able to discuss side shows and what we can do.

I'll work with the Mayor on that, but we have something in the works already that's

going to bypass long-legged and come back to the full council.

Okay.

Is there a date or a...

I don't have a date yet.

I'll get something and report back to the rest of the council.

Okay.

Really appreciate it.

It's been requesting it since summer.

I just want to make sure.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councillor Vance-Wayla.

Yes.

Mine is also for the city manager.

Sorry.

I saw that there's a violent prevention summit this Friday and I'm really hoping that we can

get a council workshop with office of violence prevention soon to talk about their efforts

to address gun violence within the police department.

I have also requested...

I think this is my third time since July and we have this discussion, but I really hope

we can schedule that soon.

It's an important and emerging topic that's affecting all of our districts every week.

I'm sorry I'm getting up here.

I just wanted to go thank a few people from the community too, but definitely.

Yep.

Yep.

We're coming to a...

Not abrupt, but the weeks are shrinking here between now and December the 10th, especially

with the election next week and then the Thanksgiving week.

That leaves us three meetings after this, plus December the 10th, which I guess would

be potentially an afternoon meeting.

I want to gen...

I want to genize everything over the next three weeks.

It's time to have a meeting every weekend, so we've got to make sure we address it.

What's that?

Marathon meetings.

Okay.

We're going to do our best.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to do my AB1234 since I had to leave last week for a family emergency, went

to the League of California cities with my colleagues, attended board meetings, connected

with other council members on what they've done, spent a fair amount of time with the attorneys

learning about new ordinances and laws and things that they're working with in other cities,

passed on a lot of questions to our city attorney, you know, of how we can do things in Sacramento,

but it was a great trip and I appreciate being down there to learn more.

Excellent.

All right.

How many comments on items on the agenda?

I have seven speakers.

Okay.

The first is Jared Landriff, then Rev, then Rebecca Sandevol, then Vanessa Avias.

Hi, Susanna.

Happy New Year, sir.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

Good afternoon, city councilmembers and Mayor Steinberg.

We, I lived out on Althos Avenue and we, you guys have done a very good job of cleaning

that area up out there with all the tents are gone now, which it's made it very safe.

Now there's more people biking out there on the trail, so that situation has gotten

a lot better.

So I appreciate somebody doing something about that.

I mean, that's a long time coming.

But as far as I go, we're still trying to figure out about, there's, it looks like an

illegal gambling that's over on traction, that's over on, that's on, fade masters in this

barber shop.

So we're still trying to figure out what's going on with that.

We also, I've talked to the police, they know about it.

I've tossed some investigators about it, they know about it.

I've called Mario Lara, he knows about it.

So we're trying to get that situation taken care of because that's a really big deal.

So we really need to get that taken care of.

But other than that, everything is looking better out there.

It seems like the area is getting cleaner.

It's getting safer, which is better.

I mean, we still have some issues.

I mean, I was on channel 40 news with the shooting that we had out there.

As I came outside the house, somebody had shot somebody right in front of me and they staggered

across straight and died right in front of me.

That's something I don't like to see.

Being from Brentwood, this is amazing out here.

I've really never seen as much homeless out here than any city I've ever lived in.

It's a major problem out here.

And I understand it.

And it doesn't take, you know, it takes a while to get it done.

I get it.

But something's got to be done soon because to me, we've got millionaires, billionaires in

this country and we have people homeless.

There's no reason for that at all.

And my creative way of doing this is, hey, let's start getting a millionaires, start paying

their share.

Let's have a tax write off for the millionaires.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Rev.

I think that was, I think that was that me just saying.

Hello mayor and city councilor.

I've been on a time out because of an accident that occurred.

Knocked over by a car by a doctor in the ministry.

You just don't think that, you know what I mean?

You think they'd love me because I'm out in these streets serving God.

And I'm just yesterday, I ran across the gentleman, he has a colonoscopy.

If I said it correct.

Living in his car is about 75 years old.

So I'm doing my best to help get him off the streets.

But for those that don't know me up there, I run per and God ministry homeless for heaven.

I have solutions.

I just need money and funding and backing to end some of the homelessness that I know.

Because I speak to him.

I live around him.

So I know what he's going through and I know what they're capable of.

So my mission is to put them to work.

I can line up most of the people who are out of jobs and they got to get you to say

an addictive habit that I can drug test them.

I know the majority of homeless people out there are in something but they still work every

day.

They make things happen.

So my whole thing with them is to put them to work instead of sitting around all day.

They can clean up wherever they are.

They just need the city help in order to make that happen.

Because they clean it up.

I wanted to put it in the middle of the street that they got to in bags.

So to get picked up on the daily.

But I need help.

I'm not just out here just to earn fame or nothing like that.

No fortune either.

I just want to see that the homeless come to an end.

And some different kind of demeanor than it is.

I mean, the city can do a whole lot more.

There's a lot of homes that's open.

I'm not pushing things on homeless.

Now I know just go break into a house so you can stay there.

I can say that to them.

They don't do it tomorrow.

You know?

Over 20 something homes per homeless person that's available.

And they're just out there in these streets.

And right now you can't have a tent there.

They're sleeping around just a blanket.

Looking like a bag of dirty laundry on the street.

I don't even know.

I'm pulling over to everything I see these days.

And I'm just getting there.

Give your comments.

Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Rebecca Sandevol.

And then Vanessa?

I saw tonight you recognize breast cancer awareness month.

I'm a breast cancer survivor, along with four other cancers.

A lot of you don't know that.

But I come up here all the time because I love my community

and I care.

Joshua House volunteer hospice was honored as 2024

nonprofit of distinction by assembly member Kevin McCarty.

Although Joshua House is nothing more than a lot

filled with dirt, three yards from Garne Valley Elementary

School.

In spite of receiving $450,500 of North

A pool of art economic recovery funds in a 50-year lease

at $1 a year and breaking ground in June 2022,

Joshua House is not operating.

Joshua House web page gives false information appearing

it is operating.

How can this be a nonprofit of distinction?

This nonprofit that refuses to produce a good neighbor policy

or answer many questions from the school district or the community.

Recently I learned that the county has approved $1,137,788

in funding to complete Joshua House.

It is concerning the Joshua House, which essentially

is a medical facility that the county board of supervisors

sees this as a way to address the needs of persons

existing homeless coming off of the parkway.

Is this all smoke amirs?

Is this a homeless shelter or a hospice facility?

I come to this council often to express my concerns to five former school board

members concerning Joshua House.

Councilman Jennings, you have contract with 20 years.

Makes the money from us.

Never heard anything from you.

The effects of Joshua House on our youngest learners.

This council, thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Vanessa Alvias, then Ron Elmsley.

Good evening.

Okay, so 30 years ago,

Food Co donated two lots to the public good of Northgate Boulevard.

One of those lots is currently being occupied.

The other one is still open.

That facility, I propose, should be used for a community center or for a park or a library.

However, the Parks Commissioner of District 3 was asked about that.

He had said that it was brought in up seven years ago.

However, it was shot down by the public.

But that's an erroneous statement that was not true.

So technically, it's still available.

However, the sad part is that there is up the street on Northgate Boulevard.

There's the hotels.

Well, there's plenty of homeless children are living children.

But the thing is is that they're playing facilities they have none.

They're playing in the streets and in the parking lots.

And unfortunately, two things.

One, that affects the safety of the children.

And that affects the businesses.

However, if we did have a park or a community center up the street,

it would put a safe habitat to have these children playing,

to have these children have a safe haven to go to.

So what I propose is a positive.

I say that we bring a positive, bring a community center to Northgate Boulevard,

where we do need one.

We need a facility where we can come and people can visit anytime.

Having different programs, being able to have different opportunities there,

or a park, a beautiful park.

So I just wanted to drop that off with you guys today.

Think, take it for food or thought.

See what you think.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Ron Elmsley, then Marbella Salah, then Jeffrey Tartiguiha.

Okay, you folks are too much.

Do you really believe your own lies?

It just kind of builds up.

The one thing that I'm amazed at is your city attorney got a great award.

And there was dozens of people back here backing her up,

saying how great she is.

What happened to the J. Chenier Curtis Park Fiasco?

They nailed you in court.

You had to pay all this money and buy this property you didn't want.

Didn't your city attorney say anything?

Advise you?

Or did you completely ignore it?

What's going on?

You folks are just, you're amazing.

If you weren't in politics, you would fail.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Marbella Salah.

I'm here to just say thank you all for the City of Festivals grants.

That has been such a great program for our communities.

So this Saturday because we received City of Festivals money,

we had a wonderful celebration in Northgate Park for our neighborhood and our community.

And that was the deal to those mortals.

And without these City of Festivals grants,

our community would not have been able to come together,

have fun, have families, enjoying music, food.

We even saw Cocoa the movie.

So it's been a great, the last two years,

and it's been a great program for our neighborhoods and our community.

And I know, and I'm hoping that they continue because during these tough times,

we also need to celebrate.

So thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

I have two more speakers.

Jeffrey Tartigia, then Alexander Hampton.

Well, Mr. D.E.S.

I remember the first time you came into Council.

And when I said, pit, you had no idea what I was talking about.

Right now, my number one interest is finding out if you will talk with the City Police Department

so that November, December, January and February,

dealing with what we'll call enforcement activities and homeless activities

gets reported to the COC.

You know, you have had a quote bulletin board,

but it doesn't seem to have the accurate information.

I have seen how Kathy Mables have managed to get the,

should we say, settlements around the YX location

that was designed to accommodate moving people from homelessness

to transit to the other aspect.

But I'm still sitting here wondering how many failures is sitting on this Council?

The other thing I'm going to ask is what in the world is going on

with the third street motel over there?

It's been vacant for how long and what is the ultimate settlement going to be with that?

I'm sorry that, you know, it's always at the end that you do public comment.

And so there's very little reaction.

And it seems like half the eyes don't pay attention to what is going on for public comment.

The reason I'm here tonight is because when I tried looking on line,

your services just like your website

had malfunctioning going on.

So that's why I'm here now for the time.

And my time is up.

Thank you for your comments.

Our final speaker is Alexander Hampton.

Hello Mayor, Council.

Alexander Hampton, no cow co-op nurse.

First of all, I just want to thank all you guys for, you know,

investing in the community here in Sacramento.

I grew up here in Sacramento, up in here since the 1978.

I went to Luther Burbank High School.

Very much involved in everything in Sacramento.

And just being from the Carpenter's, you know, I know you guys heard us speak before up here

about the apprenticeship and the wages.

And, you know, just being fair to the workers out there.

I just want to just thank you guys, you know,

you guys are doing a great job.

I really appreciate you work you doing.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate you very much.

I know Councilmember Tau has rescheduled as they always are a journey in memory and then

we'll turn the meeting.

Yes.

Thank you Mayor.

Pull the photo.

One of the journey tonight's Council meeting in memory of Adrian Perez.

I got to know Adrian 12 years ago working on the Council.

Adrian is a North Sacramento resident advocate community leader.

He started the, one of the founders was at the San Cristiano Roundtable, Sacramento Taco

Fest, Vidado Oro Foundation.

Five years ago, you know, Adrian came to me and Adrian said, hey Sean, let's celebrate

the Centennial, you know, and this week we're working with Meena, Adrian's wife on the Centennial.

And he passes this Saturday and it's just so heartbreaking, North Sacramento lost a voice,

an advocate.

And, you know, and Meena is still going strong and celebrating this Taco Festival in the

Centennial this weekend.

And so in Adrian's memory, I would like to close tonight in his honor.

I believe so in my colleagues, I would like to make a couple comments as well.

Here, Bertu.

I'd like to say about Adrian.

Sorry.

I said what, what to say about Adrian?

He was kind, he was direct, he loved the community.

He, he, he connected the Latino community even when we disagreed.

And he made us talk about tough issues.

He made us read across the aisle and say, hey, what do we have in common?

What do we not?

And, how did you ask to speak to Meena over the weekend?

And he said to her that he loves our community.

And he wants us to keep fighting for our neighborhoods.

And, her moving forward with these events, I think is exactly what he would wish for Meena

and for the entire family to do.

And I'm just going to really miss him.

He's someone that I can call and say, hey, during what do you think about this?

And he'll give me his honest opinion.

Here's on my speed dial.

And so, I'm really sad he has left us.

But I'm very grateful and thankful for his mentorship, his leadership, and his love for

Northseq.

Nice.

Nicely said.

Thank you, Council Member Gatta.

Thank you, Mayor.

You know, thank you for bringing this to turn in memory, Council Member Tau.

Adrian has definitely left an influence amongst the Latino community.

And when I first had a chance to meet him, I was a college student.

And he and his brother were, you know, the creators of the Latino Journal.

And organizing not only here locally, but at the state level, bringing attention to many

issues.

And always checking elected officials to making sure that they didn't forget the, you know,

as much as you advance in their career, many of them went to, on to big things, that

they would come and address the local issues, the stuff that are happening on the corner

of the Boulevard.

And I got a chance to meet them because they were organizing and helping young Latinos

in, at that exact state, trying to think through about how to also look at, you know, a

multiple of careers in business, in energy, in public service.

And that continued all the way to the variant.

He never stopped pushing these issues.

And even when he, you know, what, what, that became a master at being provocative on social

media and on Facebook to, to keep us engaged.

And sometimes I know he would do it just to, to get us, to get us, to get us engaged.

But that I think is a lasting memory and I want to, you know, give my condolences to

his wife and his brother and his family as well.

And, you know, wish, you know, our prayers are with them and wish them the best.

And five children.

Our hearts go out to this entire family, especially Mina.

It's also, you know, a leader, such a strong leader in her own right.

And thank you, Council Member Talette, to Jern tonight in memory of a great and kind

community leader, Adrian Burns.

Nothing else to come before the council or Jern.