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Good afternoon. Let's call this council meeting to order.

There you go. Good afternoon. We're going to call this council meeting to order.

Sacramento City Council. Please call the roll.

Councilmember Kaplan. Councilmember Dickinson. Vice Mayor Talamontas.

Councilmember Plecky-Bong. Councilmember Maple. Mayor Pro Temgara.

Councilmember Jennings. Councilmember Vang. Mayor McCarty. Obviously here.

Councilmember Vang. Can you do the land acknowledgement?

To the original people of this land, the Nissan on people, the southern Maidu valley and plains Mewok,

puttwood and went to peoples and the people of Walton, Rancheria, Sacrament who'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 together today in the act of practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento Indigenous peoples, history, contributions and lives.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

Let's go.

Okay. We have item number one, the Department of Community Development, Convention and Cultural Services,

and Office of Innovation and Economic Development presentations on operational program, planning and deployment of strategic resources and budget.

Presentation started.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the City Council.

My name is Michael Jasso and I'm the Assistant City Manager for the Office of Innovation and Economic Development, the Department of Convention and Cultural Services, and the Department of Community Development.

I'm also the Director of the Office of Innovation and Economic Development.

Today I'm joined by my leadership team that works daily to advance the Betterment for City.

Joining me and presenting today are Denise Malveady, Deputy Director for the Office of Innovation and Economic Development, Tom Pace, Director of the Department of Community Development, and Megan Van Borges, Director of the Department of Convention and Cultural Services.

Denise has worked in local government for over 20 years, most of that time spent in economic development and redevelopment.

She joined the City of Sacramento in 2004 as an Economic Development Program Manager, and subsequently advanced in the city, ultimately being promoted into her current role as the Deputy Director of the Office of Innovation and Economic Development in 2022.

Over her career at the city, Denise has led a number of economic development programs, projects and initiatives.

As a Sacramento native, Denise has always demonstrated her commitment to be part of the continued revitalization of her hometown, and I personally am immensely thankful for her hard work, creativity and leadership.

Following Denise will be the Department of Community Development headed by Tom Pace. Tom Pace has 28 years of experience in community development, current planning, long-range planning, housing policy and community engagement.

Previously, Tom was the planning director for Sacramento, and Deputy Community Development Director for the City of Stockton prior to that.

Tom's experience includes work in Brownfields, Reuse, Railyard Redevelopment, Transit Oriented Development, Short-Term, Home Rental Policies, Flood Risk Management, Infrastructure, Financing Plans, and Development Impact Fees.

And finally, closing our presentation will be the Department of Convention and Cultural Services headed by Megan Van Borges.

Megan joined the city management in 2020 bringing over two decades of public policy and advocacy in the arts and culture.

Most immediately, prior to being named as Sacramento's Creative Economy Manager, Megan was the president and CEO of Arts Cleveland.

In 2022, we were fortunate to be able to name Megan as the Director of Convention and Cultural Services.

Megan has and continues to demonstrate an unparalleled commitment to the city's cultural life as a vibrant, creative and equitable place for residents, visitors, and businesses alike.

As we present OIED, CDD, and CCS today, I would like to stress the following themes.

Collectively, they help shape the physical environment, our efforts to address the need for greater equity, provisioning of housing, the success of our businesses, and the vibrancy of our city as truly unique,

as a truly unique and indispensable jurisdiction within the greater Sacramento region.

This team believes that we as a city need to be intentional on growth in a manner that recognizes the imperative for all our communities to participate in that growth and the determination of the future of our city.

Secondly, our work is done collaboratively with residences, businesses, institutional, governmental, and educational partners.

Less visible is that invariably that work is done through a highly cooperative approach within our government.

You will hear of many projects in programs that cross departmental boundaries.

With that, I'd like to turn over to Denise. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the council.

As Michael said, I am Denise Malvedi with the city's Office of Innovation and Economic Development.

And I'm pleased to be here today to share with you the great work of this team over the past year.

So I want to start by thanking the entire economic development team for their hard work in commitment to the community.

And if you wouldn't mind several of more here, so I'd like them to just stand up real quick so you can see some of the faces that I know many of you interface with.

OID team?

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

It's an absolute pleasure to work with this group.

So in OID, we are committed to growing a strong, inclusive, and vibrant economy.

And we do that by working to retain, attract, and grow businesses and support our residents so that they can participate in the city's economic growth.

In order to achieve that, we are organized in the following teams.

Community investment, economic development, workforce development, nighttime economy, housing, and community engagement.

In addition to the FTE's listed on the slide, there are four of us in the administration unit that works across the team to assist with operations and implementation of many of the projects and programs.

This year is just a quick snapshot of OID by the numbers.

It is a small but mighty team.

There are 34 FTE's and our general fund annual operating budget is just over $6 million.

Over the past five years, this small and mighty team has distributed approximately $200 million in loans and grants to approximately 2,000 businesses and organizations.

Most of that funding has come through federal and state grants to the city.

I am also proud to report that we have been awarded approximately $27 million in competitive grants and earmarks.

This does not include cares or ARPA or HAP funding.

These are funds that we have pursued to leverage other city investments.

Whoops.

Uh-oh.

Oh boy.

Let's go back.

Okay.

So we often talk about our work as organized around people, place, and business.

So I will start with people because we are here to serve Sacramento residents.

And our residents are also the most important asset in today's knowledge-based economy.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'll figure out these arrows at some point.

The community engagement team fosters inclusive civic engagement by striving to ensure that all residents and businesses are well informed about city matters, resources, and opportunities, especially those that have been historically underserved.

You'll see on this slide some of the many ways the team engages the community.

Two related strategies that I would like to highlight are the recent hiring of the city's language access coordinator and our ethnic and cultural media contracts where we contract with entities.

Like the observer and travisional mongdaily news outward and others to ensure we are reaching a broad audience.

A couple of other highlights from 2024 include the third group of community ambassadors who represented 19 different languages.

The community ambassador program is a partnership with the community development department.

As part of our neighborhood development action team, it is a language and cultural justice program that pays residents to establish and maintain relationships with culturally diverse and historically underrepresented populations to broaden the city's reach into the community.

Last month we launched the 2025 ambassador program and this group of 18 ambassadors speaks 21 different languages.

In 2024 we also hosted our second city management academy with 42 participants from throughout the city.

Another impactful program managed by our office is the Financial Empowerment Center which provides free professional one on one financial coaching for residents over 18 through our partner international rescue committee and a number of representatives are here today from the Financial Empowerment Center.

Since the launch of the program in 2020 the FEC has assisted over 1500 residents with various financial needs.

A couple major accomplishments of the program are the reduction of client debt by over $3 million and increased savings of over $800,000.

I would like to repeat that statistic about debt reduced by over $3 million.

Imagine what a relief that is for so many residents that have been relieved of that burden.

The success of the FEC has also opened doors to additional funding including a city start grant that focuses on addressing racial wealth inequities and a small business boost grant that will help expand the FEC work to support small businesses.

Another way that our office supports people is through our investments in the workforce development system.

In order for our economy to grow we must have a workforce that is prepared for the jobs of today and tomorrow.

Our focus in 2024 was the Californians for all program which is a state funded grant to support youth and young adult employment in public and nonprofit career pathways.

We were able to support over 600 youth and young adults including nearly 100 young people here in the city.

Enrolls in public works in Yipsy with both the Landscape and Learning Program and Summer at City Hall and in terms with IT and in council offices.

I am thrilled to share that about two weeks ago we learned that the state intends to award us with another $3 million to support continued programming through 2026.

We will be back to accept that grant soon.

A big thank you to Kevin Daniel who is our workforce development manager.

In addition to working to align training and employer needs we must also remove barriers that prevent our residents from entering the workforce.

One such barrier is the cost and availability of child care.

Sacramento invested 1.5 million of ARPA funding to support expanding child care opportunities and we have since secured an additional 1.2 million of federal funding to continue this work.

A key highlight in 2024 was the completion of our first early childhood education apprenticeship cohort in partnership with Los Rios and Pivot Sacramento who provides the wraparound services.

Apprentices are simultaneously enrolled at Los Rios which is funded by the city and they are getting paid work experience in local child care centers.

This program assists our residents with their career advancement and also assists child care centers by helping address their workforce shortage.

I am pleased to share that nine people completed the first cohort and we currently have 17 enrolled in the second cohort.

I will now transition to place. We focus on place because we want Sacramento to be the place where people want to live, work and play.

And it has been a big year for place-based initiatives and the next few slides show just a few of the highlights.

2025 kicked off with the unveiling of the letters at Taco Plaza.

The rendering on the screen shows what this space on Northgate will be transformed into from a parking lot to a vibrant gathering.

Taco Plaza is a public private place making effort, a partnership of the city, the property owners, the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Gardening and Northgate neighborhood association.

And it is one of the many efforts underway as a part of a $2 million arpa contract awarded to the Hispanic Chamber to support businesses on Northgate.

The city's investment in Taco Plaza has leveraged additional funding from the state and that funding will enable the vision of Taco Plaza that you see on the slide to be realized.

I think it goes without saying that it's also been a very big year for the rail yards with the opening of the Wong Center which is a senior affordable housing development council approval of a preliminary term sheet late last year for the soccer stadium.

And just last week many of us celebrated the groundbreaking of the new Kaiser hospital.

There is no doubt that the momentum will continue in the coming year with the opening of the AJ which is a mixed income housing development and the new courthouse and continued progress on the paint shop and the soccer stadium.

There's also been a lot of activity on the old Sacramento waterfront over the past few years economic development has worked closely with public works and convention and cultural services on a two pronged recovery strategy for the old Sacramento waterfront.

The first being clean safe and marketing activities which include the installation of LED fixtures police pod cameras, way finding signage and kiosks painting of the public markets and a soon to launch old Sacramento waterfront marketing cap campaign to attract locals and visitors to start an end game day in the waterfront.

The second component of the waterfront reinvestment program came before council in November of last year and consists of six projects that can be seen on this slide.

In the coming months you will see solicitations for two waterfront redevelopment opportunities, the start of construction on the children's play area that has been designed in collaboration with the Shingles Springs Band of Miwok Indians and Wilton Rancheria and repairs to the deck.

These initiatives paired with the forthcoming boardwalk replacement, case street, barge repair and revitalization of public markets will be critical to increasing the number of visitors and bolstering the local economy.

It is also a monumental year for Aggie Square as the new innovation center prepares to open. Aggie Square is where university, industry and community meet to create opportunities and it was made possible in part by the formation of a city.

In addition to enhancing the built environment along Stockton Boulevard, the project also provides numerous community benefits, including over 120 million in regional subcontracts during construction, 93 apprentices from targeted surrounding zip codes and 1700 people that have been assisted with housing stabilization.

We are also going to bring more public-private partnerships and place-based initiatives to our neighborhood commercial corridors. The neighborhood development action team was established in 2019 as a collaboration of our office and community development.

A couple of highlights from the past year are the completion of the first two end-up planning efforts. Mary'sville, Del Paso, Forward, Together Plan and the Stockton Boulevard Plan.

The plan was designed so that community and the city co-create plans with the assurance that the plans will be put into action. Following through on that commitment, economic development and community development issued a solicitation immediately following the completion of the Forward Together Plan and are in the process of awarding 16 grants to the community to implement actions in the plan.

Next up will be a similar solicitation to implement actions in the Stockton Boulevard Plan.

I would like to wrap up the place discussion on housing. Housing has been a top priority of the city and is also a critical component of economic development. In order to attract and grow jobs and Sacramento, it is critical for there to be plentiful housing and a range of housing types.

This slide shows the pipeline of about 3,700 housing units that the city is actively supporting through various stages of development and city in a city funding commitment to support the production of nearly 1,500 of those units.

In addition to the city support to create permanent units, our office also works closely with the Department of Community Response and regional partners to secure funding and develop programs to address homelessness.

One notable accomplishment during this past year is the award of $5.8 million of the state encampment resolution grant funds.

In January, we entered into a contract to implement the Street Housing Pilot and the first five households have already been placed into housing.

So in our people placed in business framework, I will wrap up this presentation with business because it is the core of what we do in the Office of Innovation and Economic Development.

We strive to create the conditions for businesses to thrive in Sacramento.

Our local small businesses are the heart of our community. They are a huge part of what makes Sacramento unique and it is critical that we support them, especially as we continue to face some challenging economic times.

Cures and ARPA funding provided us the opportunity to launch programs and invest in our businesses and partners in an unprecedented way.

We learned a lot from our work over the past five years which informed the recently launched Small Business Assistance Center pilot that came before Council late last year.

The pilot program includes an investment in outreach and engagement through our corridor p-bids, technical assistance in partnership with California Capital, micro grants and an investment in data and technology.

One key component of the center is enhancing our business registry, which is on a Salesforce platform so we can monitor businesses as they receive services and identify trends so that we can continue to evolve our programs to respond to the current needs of our businesses.

We also recognize the importance of supporting businesses in various stages. Economic Gardening supports the scaling up and accelerated growth of second stage companies.

These are small businesses well positioned to experience exponential growth. Business is selected for Economic Gardening Program, receive intense technical assistance and expert market research from the National Center for Economic Gardening,

which leads to recommended strategies to grow their businesses and the city provides a matching grant of up to $50,000 to implement those solutions.

The third cohort wrapped up at the end of 2024. So far, 26 businesses have completed the program and they report increased hiring and revenues.

The application period for our fourth cohort just closed earlier this month so we look forward to working with a new batch of businesses this year.

Supporting innovation and entrepreneurship is critical to Sacramento's continued economic growth and competitiveness. One way our office supports growing the entrepreneurial ecosystem is the Sacramento Innovation Grant Program, which had been on hiatus for a few years while staff resources were directed to deploying cares and art befunding.

In late 2023, we launched a solicitation for innovation event grants and ecosystem building grants. The 2024 grantees are currently wrapping up, but we are already seeing some impressive results.

Although the closeout reports are still coming in and some programming is still wrapping up, the ecosystem building grants are already reporting that their participants have access nearly $1 million in capital since starting their programs.

Based on the early reports of success on the ecosystem building grants and due to limited resources, we focus the 2024 solicitation only on incubator and accelerator grants and we'll be working with six partners to provide services to local entrepreneurs through 2025.

In economic development, we do not just focus on eight to five businesses. We focus on all businesses, especially those that create vibrancy and make Sacramento a great city.

Nightlife is a vital part of the city's economy, culture and identity. It has been a busy year for the nighttime economy team as they completed a storefront economic study, conducted their quarterly pubs, clubs and bars training, assisted with facilitating entertainment permits for new venues and collaborated with partners for the community.

We will be collaborating with partners to provide trainings that support businesses and employees of the nighttime economy.

As we look forward to the next year, it will also be busy for the nighttime economy team. You will be hearing from them very soon in partnership with convention and cultural services to discuss the proposed limited entertainment permit and entertainment zones.

Sacramento will also be hosting the annual International Responsible Hospitality Institute conference for the first time, which is a testament to Sacramento as a leader in the nighttime economy.

We will continue to work with our internal and external partners to implement policies and programs to support Sacramento's vibrant nightlife.

I feel like the presentation just scratches the surface, but here are a few other successes from 2024 that you can see on the screen, which include wrapping up a couple of ARPA-funded programs, including the Food Justice and City of Vestables programs.

So what's next? We have a lot planned over the next year. I would like to highlight our support of small businesses with the continued launch of the Small Business Assistance Center

and enhanced business retention and attraction as we must be committed to growing our local economy.

This is critical in order to have a thriving economy, vibrant corridors and neighborhoods, but it is also directly tied to the city's fiscal health.

We remain committed to supporting Sacramento's people, places and businesses, despite the challenging economic times.

Our proposed 15% budget reduction strategies include the elimination of three vacant positions, one in each of the largest teams, community investment, community engagement and economic development, and also the reduction of program budgets, some of which are for projects or programs that have wrapped up.

The work in our office is very human-centered and high-touch, as we often are engaging one-on-one with businesses and residents.

So impacts to staffing create limits to how many people we reach, how present we are in the community, and how quickly respond when new opportunities arise.

I would like to wrap by sharing a video so you can hear directly from a few of our program participants and partners.

Hopefully they can see us in the video.

I'm Melani. I am a lead teacher at Busy Beach or a toddler class. I was in the early Child and Education apprenticeship program.

The program changed my life in a lot of different ways. I felt like I wanted to be a teacher and I wasn't entirely sure, but being in the program really gave me the experience and education at the same time.

When I completed the program was offered the lead teacher position. I get to do what I kind of like, you know, dreamed about doing.

My story started back in Placerville. I was a homeowner for 12 years, lost it because it's a dialogue.

It came home last, living in our band for two years. We ended up at CityNet at the tiny houses.

Was there a conignment? It's filled out the application, entered the lottery for the Wong Center, and we won.

When we moved in here, it was brand new. Nobody's ever used toilet. Nobody's ever cleaned the egg on the stove.

I'm really grateful for the Wong Center and what they've created for seniors. And son, down home.

Believe it or not, since I'm in the high-dash program, the veterans affairs, I'm using my housing choice voucher to purchase a home. They paid that for 15 years.

It's truly an honor to stand before you today. Knowing we are on the precipice of something great.

We, Wilton Rancheria, is deeply committed to building partnerships that strengthen our shared values.

We are not just investing in a sports venue. We are investing in the heart of our community.

In the future of our youth, the benefits of this stadium extend far beyond the soccer field.

This stadium will serve as a hub for entertainment, cultural events, and gatherings that will enrich the social fabric of our region.

The Sacramento Economic Gardening Program has been instrumental in the growth of KJDU product.

Through their resources and expert guidance, we've gained valuable insights into market trends and strategies.

The networking opportunities has allowed us to connect with other local businesses, fostering collaboration, and innovation.

Thanks to the program, we've expanded our reach and increased our project pipeline significantly.

I highly recommend Sacramento Economic Gardening Program to any business looking to grow and succeed in our community.

Our job is to create and design effective outreach and engagement strategies.

And so our motto is, if it's safe to try, let's try it. We're trying to reach folks and we can't expect the emails or phone calls.

We got to meet people where they are. So, you know, this is just another effort to try to reach people in a different way.

I'm glad to be a part of this program and be able to provide them with information, help for information that can have a great impact on our community.

Okay, well, again, I just want to thank the team and thank all of you for the support of our work.

And with that, I will turn it over to Tom Pace, the Director of Community Development.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Councilmembers, I'm Tom Pace, your Director of Community Development.

CDD is comprised of these five divisions that focus on city development, property maintenance, regulation of businesses and care for animals.

Our Assistant Director and Head of Administration is Matt Hurtle. Our Planning Director is Greg Sandland.

Our Chief Building Official is Chuck Clark. Our Code and Housing Enforcement Chief is Peter Lemos.

And our Animal Care Services Manager is Philip Zimmerman.

Our activities have a significant impact on the development and maintenance of housing, protection of public health and safety,

and support for the city's quality of life and economic development initiatives.

We are also integral to the city's infrastructure development, climate initiatives and homelessness response.

The overwhelming majority of our staff and budget resources are devoted to activities that are mandated by law or essential to public welfare.

CDD's budget that supports a staff of 318 full-time employees is about $63 million.

We have a revenue budget of just under $32 million.

And we have a net general fund cost of about $24 million, which is less than 3% of the general fund.

Our Administration Division provides centralized support for our department, and it also handles a number of development-related financial transactions for multiple departments.

Along with the Building Division, the Planning Division plays a key role in the development of our city.

The role of city planners is to help us anticipate and meet the needs of a changing world, especially as it affects us here at home.

Planners analyze trends to see where we might end up, and they help us determine whether to embrace those trends or to take actions to change course for the better.

Planners do this through long-range planning that looks decades ahead, and current planning, which evaluates development projects happening today.

They are supported by environmental planners who help navigate federal and state environmental laws, urban design architects and preservation planners who help shape the look and feel of new development and preserve our heritage.

The zoning staff who provide customer service, keep regulations up to date, enforce zoning requirements and conduct public hearings, and new growth planners who focus on annexations and the special needs of the Natomas Basin.

Our Planning staff reviewed over 4,000 building permits in 2024, processed 414 planning applications, and conducted 644 zoning enforcement investigations.

The other half of CDD's development group is the Building Division. Public safety is the top priority of the Building Division.

Depicted here is the new Safe Credit Union Performing Arts Center, a project of our Convention and Cultural Services Department, that was supported by the Building Division, which helped ensure that it was designed and constructed to protect the safety of visitors who come here.

Our Building Division staff review over 23,000 building construction plans each year, and performed nearly 72,000 building inspections, and nearly all of them are completed on time within the time frames that we commit to our customers.

I want to also mention that over the past five years we've developed and processed development projects totaling $8 billion of construction value.

Spir headed by Mayor McCarty and Council Member Plucky-Bombe, the city has launched Streamline Sacramento. Streamline Sacramento is a customer driven cross-departmental effort to examine the city's procedures for reviewing and improving development projects with an emphasis on housing.

The goal is to identify and implement internal processes that speed up approval times and reduce the cost of construction.

In the last couple of months, an internal working group with representatives from five departments, including public works, utilities, finance, and fire, as well as CDD, has formed, and there have been several meetings with the development community.

A number of action items have been identified as a result, and staff is looking forward to providing council with an update in the next few weeks.

Code's focus is on maintaining the city's housing stock, protecting the public safety from blight, nuisances, abandoned vehicles, and dangerous buildings, and ensuring that businesses operate within state and local guidelines.

A more recent focus area is addressing the growing demand of our nighttime economy for increased services to ensure the safety of our entertainment districts.

Code staff also respond to a wide range of council priorities ranging from tobacco retailer license enforcement to vacant lot and vacant building regulation to ensuring safe street vending practices.

Code inspected nearly 5,000 rental housing units last year and conducted over 33,000 vehicle and abatement inspections in 2024.

We strive to close 60% of vehicle abatement cases in 21 days.

Since 2012, animal care services has turned itself around from an organization that was known mainly for impounding and euthanizing animals to an industry leader that focuses on saving and enhancing the lives of as many pets as possible.

In addition to providing the minimum services mandated by the state, this division sustains this legacy of life saving through the dedication of the staff and managers at our front street animal shelter and a small army of volunteers and donors.

I'll just highlight that we typically see about 900 volunteers each year helping to provide those services.

I'm especially proud of our homeless outreach and assistance program that served 832 unhoused owners and provided services to 1,509 pets that were served by the program.

Key priorities for animal care include addressing the backlog of veterinary and services, providing space and neuter surgeries is essential to getting the animals out of the shelter and into loving homes.

We've had some great success recently with a number of large scale, spay and neuter services that we've offered and are diminishing greatly the backlog and making progress there.

We also see that our kennels are often over capacity and so we're constantly looking for ways to reduce intake of animals that do not need to be at the shelter.

We've conducted a facility needs study that has identified significant deficiencies with our existing facilities and we know that over the long term, it's going to be a substantial cost perhaps 40 to 60 million dollars to build a new facility.

But in the near term, we're looking at using existing budgetary resources to make improvements that will significantly address immediate needs.

Key priorities for the planning division include continuing to streamline housing development projects through citywide rezoning and updated zoning regulations to reflect the recently adopted 2040 general plan, facilitating missing middle housing and helping build local capacity to develop these smaller, smaller scale housing solutions and responding to the avalanche of 110 new state laws relating to planning and housing passed over the last year.

Key priorities for the building division include supporting the mayor's streamlining initiative hiring and training new building inspectors due to generational turnover and retirements and advocating for sensible state legislation that balances regulatory streamlining and increased building safety and energy efficiency.

Key priorities for code enforcement include recruitment and retention of our code enforcement staff so that we can maintain and improve our service response times.

Managing an increased role for code enforcement staff as the city identifies ways to provide alternative public safety response, which has meant new programs like our 19 and its increasing responsibilities to help maintain a safe nightlife in our community.

And addressing vacant lot and vacant building blight and safety concerns through increased regulation and enforcement.

I'm a big believer in working smarter and supporting innovation so I'd like to highlight a few of our recent technological efficiencies.

The planning division has implemented a customer inquiry and response management system that helps us track the communications that we have with our customers and how quickly we're able to respond to them.

Building is implementing virtual building inspections for minor permits and considering AI powered building plan review.

Code enforcement is implementing a new case management system and animal care utilizes automated pet licensing renewal and efficient route planning for field services.

Our fiscal year 26 budget strategy focuses primarily on cost recovery through revenue increases and offsets, which would total approximately $2.6 million.

The elimination of three vacant full time positions for about half a million dollars and reduction in subsidy for our affordable housing fee reduction program of about half a million dollars.

This is my presentation as you can see the community development department has a broad range of responsibilities and services and the work we do is essential to the quality of life in our community.

Thank you.

Now I'll turn it over to Megan to speak to convention and cultural services.

This afternoon mayor and members of council, Megan Van Bora, Director of Convention and Cultural Services.

It's my pleasure to be here today to provide an overview of operations, highlight key accomplishments and outline areas where future direction is needed.

When I think back on last year's presentation, I'm reminded of where we began with a shared understanding of the era we're in.

When 64% of Americans don't believe they can have a respectful conversation across disagreement, when lowliness and isolation have the common epidemic, when our youth face mental health challenges and work to catch up from pandemic era learning loss, when our downtown's look and feel like nothing they once did.

These challenges remain and have in many ways intensified, but this past year has only deepened my belief in the role of arts, culture, history, entertainment and tourism, not as extras, but as vital tools in addressing the economic, social, cultural, and civic issues of our time.

Convention and cultural services is the backbone of the city's efforts to support the cultural and creative life of the city and a vibrant tourism and creative economy.

Each division plays a distinct role in advancing our shared goals.

We fund, permit and support creative individuals and businesses who drive activity citywide and generate local, state, and federal revenues.

We commission public art that builds identity enhances neighborhoods, promotes safety and beautifies our city.

We manage districts and operate facilities that attract millions of people and drive hundreds of millions in economic impact.

And we collect, preserve and share the region's vast cultural heritage.

Our work is increasingly interdisciplinary and that's a trend we're embracing.

My department is comprised of 124.5 employees who it is my pleasure to serve and support.

Outside of the Safe Credit Union Convention and Performing Arts District, which represents about 68% of overall CCS employees, on average the other divisions have fewer than 10.

And I'd like to pause here just a minute to acknowledge all of my staff who are in the room and ask them to stand up.

Last year's approved department budget was 31.7 million.

80% comes from the community center fund, 15.6 from the general fund and measure you and the remainder from other sources.

The general fund measure you portion represents just 0.6% of the city's overall general fund budget.

Yet it supports divisions that deliver outsized impact across equity, access and cultural reach.

I'll focus briefly on three of those divisions, the Office of Arts and Culture, the Center for Sacramento History and Entertainment Services.

The Office of Arts and Culture is the city's central interface with the creative sector.

Guided by the Creative Edge Plan and its six goals, the Office of Arts and Culture placed five roles.

To train, inform, invest, advocate and convene.

The Office manages public art, makes strategic investments and supports professional development, curatorial programs and youth partnerships.

The Office staffs the city's arts culture and creative economy commission and serves as Sacramento County State and local partner for the California Arts Council.

It functions as a regional partner and thought leader and regularly provides technical assistance, essentially acting as an arts and culture help desk.

For artists, organizations and creative businesses. Internally, it serves as a thought partner to other city departments offering expertise on grant making best practices and the integration of arts and culture into broader city initiatives.

One of the most common requests the Office receives is support around access to affordable space, a critical field wide issue that we believe deserves greater attention at a systems level moving forward.

The Art and Public Places team is responsible for percent for art program administration, collections management and technical assistance related to public art and community initiated projects on public property.

It's a cost recovery program that also engages in consulting activities and grant seeking to support its work.

In 2024, the Office of Arts and Culture had 213 grants under management. The previous year, it was the largest grant administrator in the city by number awarded 204 with an average grant size of approximately 43,000.

Through its signature grant program, the Cultural Arts Award, the city ensures all districts are served.

Last year, 67 grantees offered programming at over 2,000 locations within the city of Sacramento.

Through the ARPA Arts and Culture Nonprofit Recovery Program, grantees generated 123.9 million indirect spending.

Attracted over 1.5 million attendees, 309,000 of which were free.

Partnering with Americans for the Arts, we learned that arts nonprofits in Sacramento County drive 148 million in organizational spending, 94 million in audience spending and generate 16.7 million in tax revenue.

In short, the nonprofits were funding or driving real economic value in the city and county.

The Art and Public Places team installed 19 new sculptures, three murals and hosted three dedication events.

They led public workshops, handled a number of maintenance projects and facilitated temporary art projects with local partners UC Davis and downtown Sacramento Partnership.

We were proactive in working with our city colleagues to successfully identify and secure funding through clean California for a number of significant projects shaping the way people experience our city.

I'd like to call out to you were the Office of Arts and Culture played a significant role.

A five mile trail now runs from pocket metto view to land park.

It was partially funded through clean California and half of the project budget was devoted to artwork.

The project employed 27 artists involved 12 community events and resulted in new permanent public artworks along the trail.

The Art and Public Places team worked closely with the Center for Sacramento history to develop interpretive panels as well.

The Office of Arts and Culture and DOU worked closely with community partners along Florent Road led by the creative vision of the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum.

While the most visible elements are found in murals, sculptures, landscaping, and banners, the project involved youth in community cleanups in partnership with Luther Burbank High School and youth led communications campaigns to promote litter abatement.

We were also successful in securing a $4.75 million grant from the California Arts Council for the Capital Region Creative Corps.

We provided grants and developed an artist and government program that deployed artists to develop creative messaging using various art disciplines to reach underserved communities around the issues of climate change, public health, social justice, and civic engagement.

Lastly, through the everyday creative program with culture, we invested in six and 12 week accelerators that support creative entrepreneurs at the start-up and scale-up stages of their journeys paired with financial resources.

Let's hear briefly from program participants.

The creative economy is important to Sacramento because there are so many creatives that live here.

I specifically moved here in high school to go to a performing arts school.

And so to go from a performing arts high school to then study dance and college and get a degree in the subject and then to come back and then teach within the community, it was so important for me.

So recognizing Sacramento as a creative hub is just what I know and it's what I see every single day.

This is the richest amount of information.

This is all of the puzzle pieces that it takes to like make a business go to understand why it's working when it's working and to understand how to properly affect change when it's not working.

I couldn't find this information anywhere else. And we've been looking. We have been looking so to have access to this curriculum is astounding.

It is important that creatives have a path to success and a community that can help them learn about what they're doing, learn how to scale their businesses and learn about their industry in this way and this cohort type of way.

And it's important for them to have this access.

The Center for Sacramento's history's mission is to collect, preserve and share the reasons vast cultural heritage. What does that mean in practice?

The Center houses the most complete set of local government records in California.

This is a letter from the first city manager to council in 1922. It was about four years after the influenza pandemic. There had been a political shift to conservatism and a rise in KKK activity in Sacramento.

In this letter, city manager CV makes clear the city would not tolerate white supremacist activity within its ranks.

Private collections include personal papers from individuals, families, businesses and organizations that document life and people in the Sacramento region.

The Artifact collection features tens of thousands of items documenting the cultural, social and political history of the Sacramento region.

Lloyd Dawson was a Sacramento and a paratrooper during World War II. He created his own flying suit to fly like a bird and yes we have it.

The film archive holds some of the rarest and most valuable film in the nation including 15 million feet of historic footage regularly licensed globally for major motion picture, pictures, documentaries and other local productions.

Digitized films are available online and are accessed more than any other repository around the state.

The photography collection is renowned and has millions of images in a variety of formats. We beat out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland for the Tower Records collection.

This photograph is part of that collection. Russ Solomon used to collect ties of the people he did business with apparently and he would staple their business cards to the ties.

Yes, we have the ties too.

The oral histories include key voices from Sacramento's LGBTQ plus, black and Latino communities just to name a few.

Our collection would be impossible to access if not for our team of archivists. They work daily to process materials in the collection so they can be made available for interpretation and education.

Post those materials to online repositories and support and respond to requests from researchers, educators, filmmakers, curators. You get the general idea.

All those amazing questions, all those amazing collections, excuse me, power the center's ability to expand historical understanding through interpretation and education programs.

Youth programs like Kids and Teens Collect connect students to their own stories. The we are who we are exhibit was the culminating exhibit of the Teens Collect program in partnership with American Legion High School.

The original artifacts were not as easily accessible to the student population as others. To solve that, the center partnered with the Office of Arts and Culture to pair a visual artist with each student to create an artwork based on their lives.

And I just have to tell you, the students were just blown away. That by the idea that an artist was going to illustrate their story and that their works would become a part of the city's collection.

The center's team engages in programming, community outreach, historic district management and films.

The production company on site in this photo is LeBron James' company. Seated with our archivist is a descendant of Daniel Blue, a formerly enslaved black man living in Sacramento County who made his fortune in the gold mines and who won a legal case freeing a young girl from slavery.

It's the last known court case involving an enslaved person in California seeing the archival records brought generations of family storytelling to life.

To wrap up the center engages in public speaking opportunities, response to media inquiries and supports other departments.

Seen here is a city attorney's office engaging in an educational program focused on the history racism series.

In FY24, digital repositories were accessed 291,000 times on social media. The center earned 4.36 million views while YouTube garnered 262,000.

Old Sacramento boasts 4.2 million visitors a year. We're expanding interpretation there to tell a broader story.

We envision our partnership with the Sacramento History Alliance will lead to new programs and activations in the district.

In the meantime, last year saw a considerable amount of interpretive work that will be installed in 2025.

New interpretive panels will surround the theater or judo monument as well as the recently renamed Mary Gregory Park.

And 20 new directory panels situated throughout the district will illustrate the significance of specific buildings and areas of the district.

The center has also been working with the tribes on new interpretive panels along the Embarcadero that will help illustrate their story in the district.

We're proud of the history of racism series now used in classes at Sac State in UC Davis and the John Sutter film used as the opening film at Sutter's Fort.

We're also happy to serve as a resource for many departments and department equity teams who have watched the films and participated in facilitated dialogues.

Launched in FY 25, the entertainment services division brings together Sacramento Film and Media, the Office of Special Events and Entertainment venue permitting to better serve the public.

The team oversees entertainment permitting promotes Sacramento as an entertainment destination, supports the growth of local providers and connects the public to key resources.

The entertainment venue permitting staff oversees about 70 entertainment venue permits in the city.

That number is expected to increase with the introduction of the limited entertainment permit council will consider next week, which has been a partnership with the Office of Nighttime Economy.

Staff officially transitioned entertainment venue permitting over to the new division in February.

The special events team is responsible for permitting events in our city's public spaces.

Events permitting is a complex activity that requires extensive coordination with many competing interests and limited resources.

And yet the number of special event days has grown from 928 to nearly 1300 in 2024.

We're already seeing some great synergies arise out of development of the new division.

The team has been working on an online permitting project with other departments, facilitated with support from IT and funded by ARPA.

It's a huge undertaking that is expected to take a year to roll out.

The aim is to streamline workflows, produce greater accountability for both applicants and staff, and facilitate greater communication among all the necessary parties.

A centralized website and communications campaign is also in the works to help improve communications with applicants in the public overall.

The team is working in partnership with Office of Nighttime Economy to update policies in regards to entertainment related sound.

While we don't have data systems set up yet to track the impact of entertainment venues and special events,

we're looking to sacramental film and media as a model for how this can be achieved.

To give you a flavor for what that looks like, here's a taste of what our investments in film and media have yielded.

In 2024, 74 films were permitted for 136 film days and generated 6.4 million in sacramental spend, 953 local hires, 4,000 hotel room nights,

and the Warner Brothers Pictures film brought 5.3 million in direct spend to sacramental.

Additionally, the $70,000 film grants program produced a return on investment of 4.6 and one grantee was accepted to Sundance.

Now, the behemoth of the department is a safe credit union convention in performing arts district.

The district includes the convention center, the performing arts center, or recalled pack, and the memorial auditorium.

In FY24, the district hosted 244 events, 136 performances, over 800,000 attendees, and produced an economic impact of 166.1 million to the region.

Thanks to the ongoing success of our repeat client, the Northern California Volleyball Association, we were able to secure a large regional event that draws teams from across the western United States.

Further strengthening sacramental's profile is a destination for high level sports competition.

We also saw the return of naturalization ceremonies to the memorial auditorium, marking a profound civic milestone.

Over the past year, an estimated 12,000 individuals took their oath of citizenship in our historic venue, reinforcing its role as a space of civic pride and community gathering.

In the cultural and educational arena, we welcomed back the California All-State Music Education Conference in a major way, utilizing the full convention center and memorial auditorium.

The event brought together over 2,000 student musicians and 5,000 educators and industry professionals from across the state.

Their commitment to sacramental through 2031 ensures our city will remain a hub for music education and youth achievement for years to come.

I'd like to take a moment to help you understand the operations that drive all that impact.

Sales and marketing are split between Visit Sacramental at 12 plus months out, and city staff under 12 months in the pack memorial.

Other core city staff functions include theater and auditorium management, event services, operations, box office and administration.

We also have four in-house partners, including CitexO Live, Encore Smart City and TIGAMESTER.

Ravanew streams include rentals, commissions, naming rights proceeds and TIGIFIs.

CIPs are funded through TOT and TIGIFIs for TIGATED events.

TOT cover bonds, payments, and subsidizes qualifying rentals.

For example, if a convention meets certain room night thresholds, we'll waive the meeting space rental to secure the business, which directly impacts TOT revenue and other ancillary revenues for the city.

Five organizations are in residence at the Performing Arts Center.

The pack also hosts iconic films, paired with live orchestral performances, as well as concerts, comedy, and other theatrical performances such as circuit dreams.

The memorial auditorium is the historic jewel of the district, and we've spent a considerable amount of time unpacking its past, looking at the marketplace and identifying opportunities to achieve greater activation there.

Historically speaking, the memorial auditorium has never had only one identity.

It's been a place where people made memories. They graduated there. They became a citizen there.

They saw a show there. They competed there. They attended a gala there.

But one thing is clear, focusing only on one identity, without also providing the necessary tools to be successful in that marketplace is not a recipe for success.

We've seen progress with bookings.

Battle of the badges and Sac State Collegiate Boxing brought us three new promoters in the fight segment, including all of the wrestling, west side promotions, and Uriah Fabres A1 combat.

As with the fight segment, our dance competition segment has grown. Sacramento's gay men's chorus, Holiday Hits with a splash of sass was also a huge success, and as a result, they would like to perform annually at the memorial.

Napa's here. And just say that we're undergoing a major paradigm shift to our sales strategy and booking structure.

Effective April 1, we've centralized all booking functions for a booking office, and we'll go after all segments of business, without giving anyone preference to increase activation at the facility.

We're looking at each segment and determining what tools and flexibility we need to be successful in each space, and where we need authority, we'll seek it.

Beyond this, we're facilitating greater interaction with other divisions within the department, such as the Office of Arts and Culture, the Center for Sacramento History and Entertainment Services, and we're leaning into existing partnerships, such as those with the Sports Commission, to advance key objectives.

We look forward to keeping you fully informed as this new sale strategy unfolds, and facilitating more conversation about our progress, as we inch closer and closer to the memorial's 100th anniversary.

Last but not least, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the role of the entertainment services division, and keeping us running and compliant.

They handle fiscal oversight, human resources, cultural partner relations, facility management, and old Sacramento property management, in partnership with the Center for Sacramento History.

So here we are. That's convention and cultural services in a nutshell.

So before I close, I'd like to share one final moment with you, and for me personally, this may have been my most memorable moment of the year.

There is something truly special about bringing back a beloved tradition. We hosted 30,000 people in old Sacramento on December 31, 2024, with 17,000 between the two-hour period surrounding the fireworks itself.

It was a lift to be sure, and just when I thought we weren't going to be able to do it, with a partnership of Soul Collective Stage 9, and DSP, we pulled it off.

And there's just nothing better than to answer the call of community, and bring joy to business owners, families, and visitors alike.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve.

Thank you.

Yes, let's go to public comment first. Thank you.

I'll call a couple and we can light up on the aisle. Kai on, Michael, Andrew, Barnbaum, Angela Lowe.

Good afternoon, Mayor and all councilmember. In January, I request the council to discuss SPD-4-I-M-E-T-Fake Police report that killed my father.

In February, the UC Davis internship student emailed me the same fake.

who. do you agree or you agree or you a

complication with my Project B LP party.

right try saying I agree with my Project helped to you a

the presenters for this item, but I wanted to focus on the first presenter

about the arts cultural

community and

entertainment and that first presenter was Denise.

I wanted to speak on behalf of the

sub topic there of the city connect mixers.

They have now been going for one year as of this coming April.

They hold ten community city connect mixers a year and they take November and December off for the holiday season.

These community

city connect mixers

have been hosted by a community engagement manager

Lynette Hall and she has done an outstanding

phenomenal job in hosting these throughout the entire city limits.

I have since becoming a commissioner attended two and will be at the next one which will be in district seven at the

device brewing next to the pocket transit center.

Considering the budget cuts that were presented, it would be very devastating if these mixers stopped and so I'm encouraging for accessibility

bringing city hall out to the people and

making sure that Lynette becomes even more successful than even she is now that you

preserve the budget if not increase the budget to this program.

Thank you for your time.

Angela Lowe.

Good afternoon mayor and council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Angela Lowe and I'm here to strongly urge you to oppose the proposed

budget cuts to the neighborhood development action team and the community engagement team.

These programs represent less than 1% of the city's overall budget, but they deliver an outsized impact especially to our most vulnerable communities.

Cunning NDAT by 50% would get essential support for neighborhood revitalization, small developer training and direct community investment.

Most importantly would eliminate partnerships with trusted ethnic media outlets like Sacramento observer,

set culture hub, KDE radio,

intervision, outward magazine and others that ensure vital city information reaches diverse communities.

These are more than media outlets. There are lifelines for people who depend on culturally relevant messaging.

On top of that community engagement team which brought in over $700,000 in grants just last year would lose their staff member dedicated to securing and

outside funding. That loss makes no financial sense.

These teams have led efforts funded by CARES and ARPA.

Housing assistance, workforce development, childcare programs, nighttime economy, community reinvestment initiatives,

a high impact, all community focused.

Cutting this funding sends the wrong message about the city values and priorities.

Let's not dismantle what's working. Let's invest in what brings real measurable results for the people of Sacramento.

Please reject these cuts and continue to support inclusive economic development.

NDAT and community engagement. Thank you.

Our next three speakers we have Daniel Zavala.

Tara Dearest, sorry, Mathis and Macworthy.

Good afternoon everyone. I'm so glad that I stopped to come and speak on this item today.

A lot of times when we're living in coolness and we don't get to stop and recognize greatness in real time.

But to be able to sit here for the last hour and go through that presentation.

I'd be remiss to say that Mr. Jassal, you didn't introduce yourself and tell them how cool you are.

You should have a round of applause for everything that you've done as a steward of that department over the years.

That is Steve Covey.

Denise Smell-Vading and her team with all the ARPA grants and all the great work they've been doing.

They literally steered the ship as the former director of the business improvement district for North Sacramento.

I can't tell you how much we leaned on this department over the last four years to help us get projects to the finish line.

Right now we're doing several steel ARPA grants for facade improvements.

The community engagement team, the cool stuff they're doing online.

This is the really fun and sexy stuff that we don't get a chance to talk about.

We all know how important public safety is, police and fire and the magnificent parks that we maintain in Sacramento.

But this department, Tom Pace, what he's done and planning with missing middle housing in the zone and the housing element of our hall that we've done.

It's been tremendous and we should become incredibly proud of what this group of folks have done.

And lastly, when it comes to measure you, I was a huge champion of a resident of North Sacramento, the neighborhood of Old North Sacramento,

in the place like Dope House of Woolworth and how critical community based economic development or inclusive economic development is cultural and community.

Megan and your team, you guys have been the stalwarts for an neighborhood like Old North Sacramento.

The murals that we put up, the alley projects that we've done.

And just thank you for being everywhere and hearing everybody out.

This is the department.

This team needs to stay intact.

We need to do everything we can to keep Sacramento moving.

Thank you for your comment, your time is complete.

Good afternoon, my name is Tadaris Mathis.

I'm a client of the FEC.

And the FEC has been wonderful and coaching me on my finances and keeping me accountable and financially setting my future up.

I would recommend the FEC to my family.

I have recommended to the family and friends of others.

It's a wonderful program and I look forward to continuing with the FEC and every time, every time I talk to my financial coach,

she gives me more information on banks and a lot of things to help me secure my future in finances.

It's a really, really great program and I'm looking forward to seeing it around.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Mac Worthy.

You know, people to hear the same thing over and over 12 years, critical grants and bonds.

You can't survive grants and bonds.

Okay, we look at the housing.

We wonder where those people grew up at.

Now, the central city on this, the housing, you got all kind of little off of businesses under.

When you come to Oak Park and there was actually no businesses under.

Who was designing that?

Who was pushing that?

People that didn't know that asked me to hold on the ground about economic development.

You can't depend on the government.

The government didn't build this country.

Free enterprise.

What's going to happen when those dollars go which I hope Trump eliminated a lot of?

You're going to be back on your ass again.

If you go there and do it yourself, you will know what to do when you low.

Are we going to dismiss your deficit organization?

We heard in the previous meeting the insurance people.

People, when a person said they have the ability to help you in finance, ask them what they

develop in finance.

We saw this when small businesses years ago come in.

Just talked to a friend of mine when I did a lot of them in San Francisco.

We know who got those small business loans.

We know exactly who got them.

But how many black folks got them?

Just like the three people on the panel.

How many black folks on that panel?

Here, your city manager talked about racial equity.

Where is the black folks?

Where is one black organization in high five black with a 15 dollar yen come?

Show them to me.

Hey, man.

Kwame Curry.

Hesu Salas and Teresa.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Kwame Curry.

I am a local business owner in the city of Sacramento.

I'm also a second year ambassador for the end of that program.

And I'm just here to talk about that program just a little bit and basically oppose the

cutting of the budget.

When it comes to the city and the community, one of the issues is that a lot of people

in the city and the community don't believe in you guys because of the simple fact of

the information they don't have the information necessary to get to the programs and stuff that's

available for the city.

And so utilizing people like us that are a part of the community that are business owners

or residents and stuff like that, they trust people like us to talk to them.

So if we come to them and discuss and talk to them about these programs and stuff like

that, that gives them some slimmer hope that you guys do care.

I had a lot more to say, but I just, I'm going to use this last little bit of time to

just talk to you guys real fast.

The young Asian gentleman that was up here talking about the loss of his father getting

killed and stuff like that, you give everybody two minutes.

When it comes to the community and dealing with people of the community, it's about respect.

It's about love, showing them love and stuff like that.

I understand it's not a part of what you guys were discussing, but you guys could have

just let him speak his mind for those two minutes and then pretty much go from there because

this is somebody that's a part of the community that lost the loved one and it's coming to

you guys for help.

And it's like he's walking out of here discouraged now.

You know, I had a whole bunch of stuff to say, but seeing that, like I've already had

to deal with that, even dealing with the city of Belgrove the same way when I came to

a council meeting speaking about my son almost being murdered and they wanted to tell

me I'm over my time.

So you guys just need to have respect a little bit more respect for the people of the community.

That's all.

Thank you, Salas.

Hey, Sue.

Hey, Sue.

Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the council.

My name is Sue Salas.

I'm the financial empowerment center program manager.

I'm not here to give you too much information about our clients because you were able to

hear about Tadarius' story earlier.

He's one of our successful client stories and he forgot to mention, but he's soon to be

a homeowner as well.

The entire coaching team is actually here with us supporting our clients.

And yes, I mean, it's our clients who do all the work.

They're the ones who make the sacrifices.

They're the ones who make the courageous steps to go to us, a complete stranger and talk

to them, talk to us about their personal finances, which is something, you know, so personal

and difficult to talk about.

And it's our job just to really provide resources, tools and information to help them achieve

their goals.

I did want to highlight the small business boost program that Denise was talking about

earlier.

It's a great program that we hope to reach more small business owners in our city with

and hopefully get them to, you know, either get started on the right foot or expand their

business with their personal finances in line and in order.

So thank you for supporting the Financial Empowerment Center.

Your support allows for Sacramento residents to have access to these resources and achieve

financial stability and also, you know, create prosperous futures for their families

and themselves.

So thank you.

Our next speaker is Teresa.

After Teresa will have junior and then Zion.

Thank you.

My name is Teresa Riviera and I'm currently a community ambassador and I'm here to express

my support for the community engagement team.

I want to tell you guys it's a really, really good team that connects the community to

the city services.

Not only on one-on-one basis, but all the time when we go to attend events.

So this is the best outreach in education and engagement team that the city has reaching

all communities, providing information and how to access your services.

Mayor, this is the best use of the tax dollar.

Now I would like to share that this award-winning community ambassador program is led by Lynette

and her staff who also empower us, the ambassadors, with information to share within the community.

The ambassador team builds bridges by listening to the needs and providing information for potential

solutions by presentations or attending events or one-on-one assistance.

Examples of how the ambassador program has been active in your community is Lisa, the

Hampton Community Foundation presentation.

Roger, the Benito Guadis Association and care.

Phil, the Cooney Community Center.

Karina, the Stanford settlement.

Kat Katie?

Sorry about the La Familia Center and the presentation that was done there for the Mon community speaking.

Eric, it's the Max Barre Park.

Rick is the four plus one and I'm the one.

My is a potential metal view community center,

present in presentations.

So the community engagement team in

the community is a great partner.

Thank you for your comment.

Your time is complete.

Junior?

Wow, following mentors like Daniel Savala and Teresa is great.

Anyhow, Mr. Mayor, the members of the city council, Madam City Attorney, City Clerk and

City Manager, my name is Junior Gores, I'm the proud president of the Deltos Shores Community

Association, one of the city's newest and growing areas in District 8.

I urge you to look over the painful assignment of determining for as your determining painful cuts for

for Cacic cuts that you please spare programs as the City Management Academy, the land planning

Academy, City Mixer and the Community Ambassador Program.

I am an alumni of both the land planning Academy Class of 2017 and the recent core of the

Management Academy in 2024. Mr. Net Hall has made significant strides in giving communities

an opportunity to have a place at the table where decisions are made.

Ms. Hall and her team have made impact and security credibility back with the city

and community partnerships. The department has so much more to accomplish.

I feel cut for them will just undermine their work.

Sending before you today is an example of the investment the city made.

Because of the department support, I along with my neighbors not only formed a community

association but help create dialogue with other neighborhood associations, other elected

and concerned neighbors. Even one of our own leaders on City Council is an example of the

investment as well. When I took part of the 2017 land planning Academy with a low participant,

a young lady named Katie Maple who not only was a good listener but particularly concerns

about community and where serious attention was needed. I respectfully request that US Council

review the budgets and recommendations and you please think about where you envision the city in

the next five to ten years. Who will be our future leaders? What should the city look like?

The community engagement department and its programs assist in ensuring we are preparing for

the next wave of leadership and community partnerships. Many of you know and will agree with me that

our success in the city, the majority of them have been community led. Community led because of

community engagement. Thank you for allowing me to share my input. Thank you for your leadership

and South South Pride forever. Next speaker is Zion. After Zion we will have Jeffrey Tartaguia and

then O. Shade Johnson. Hi everyone thank you for having me. For me I absolutely oppose the cut.

In fact you need to double it up because this is where Sacramento is benefiting especially the

under-served underrepresented community. If you are cutting from the under-served under-represented

community how are we better than a present Trump? Isn't that what he is doing and now we are doing

even worse because we are really cutting from people like me who has been beneficiary thanks to

the net haul. I have been hesitant here when it comes to outreach to our community also some

fund to be help us get our businesses and our events get going. But when you guys cut the fund

from the people who needs it you really hurt in the community that needs the most. So one percent

is not enough. I would say two percent, three percent, four percent for our community especially in

Del Paso, the South area, Broadway is all rundown so we really need to put in fact more fund

otherwise what is it going to fund to the real status to the big companies in the name of contracts.

So much our taxpayers money is being put into everywhere else but into our community especially

in our black community we need the racial equity. You passed the racial equity we need to see

the money invested into under-served under-represented community especially the black community.

And the mayor you run on that to really support the community that is being left behind. I don't

see where is the agenda, where is the proposal to help us move to the next step. So I really oppose

the cut. In fact double that out. That's what I would say. Thank you.

Next speaker Jeffrey.

Council. Kevin. This is a reminder of me when Kevin you and I first met as dealing with higher

education because this isn't education again about what is here in Sacramento going on.

Unfortunately I look at it and say discussion and it's not saying for the budget.

Whether that's a point of order or not it is a question that like other things you know this

council needs to understand how public comment does affect them and the importance of public comment.

This is why I like to see the eyes that are watching and the eyes that are not.

This is a problem that has been the last not eight years but longer with city council.

Please improve it. Hopefully some questions that were asked.

The city manager will answer. I'm pointing it specifically the egg question that is related

to dealing with I believe also your budget. Other questions in there is you have a complete but I

don't think page 19 of this thing talked was talked about at all. Again accountability.

I may not be able to speak through later on if not on the agenda but the last council member meeting.

You had over a hundred people waiting because they had participated in a rally at the

federal building area and so they did not get in when you adjourned your meeting.

This is something that gives a black note to having not on the agenda your last item on your agenda.

And with that I will use my public comment for all.

Thank you for your comment your time is complete.

Thank you. Our next speaker is O'Shea Johnson.

My name is O'Shea I'm the director of IMF Power Academy and business owner small business owner

sunshine cleaning I'm in district two. I run a youth and community development organization

and I like to start off by saying that I don't believe that we should punish success.

When I look at this organization my wife got married she asked me I did my balance and one of

the things I use action. I said I'm a man of action. I said you never be worried about me not

taking care of my responsibilities and being accountable. So when I look at the development

the never development action team I see action and I can testify that it has been action.

There have been responsible that have been accountable and when I say success my organization

we went from the net hall it wouldn't it wouldn't have been successful and when I say success I'm talking

about I went from 54 youth to over 120. I was able to funding I was able to start a youth football

organization and give children opportunity to play football that would never be that replaced.

When I say that I mean fees for 300 400 dollars to fees for the last. I was an ambassador by being

an ambassador I was able to meet other individuals understanding that language is a problem

and I deal with youth I have to talk to the children to translate to the parents.

Right so mixers I met people in mixers. All these things demonstrated success and being an

individual in district two booths on the ground dealing with the youth dealing with community

development I've been a person I was a CIV for Black Child Legacy Campaign so I reported to

crime scenes I decided set side by side with police officers side by side with infusions with

people bearing their children and things like that and one thing I could say is that this

program with the net hall has consistently. Thank you for your comment your time is complete.

Thank you. We have a number of public speakers. Thank you feedback comments questions from council members.

I'll say something. I'll say something on the queue I want to. Yes. I'll just you know mainly just

comments because this is a high level kind of overview of the of the departments. I really want to

just take this time to think Megan, Tom and Denise really for your leadership and all the great

work that that you do everything from arts to basic city services of code planning to supporting

our small minority own businesses right even Denise your department particular less than 1%

but you do so much even though you're less than 1% of the budget. I think we've said this right we

are in the middle of this conversation right now. Reductions have been posted online of the potential

cuts that may happen in the city and what I will share with you is that you know there's going

to be some really tough choices ahead but for me at the end of the day when we make decision it's

going to be really important for me that we don't balance this budget on the backs of our low

income poor community. That's going to be of most importance for me. I know that on the document

there are also levels of impact from levels one to levels four and I know that we are slowly

not fast enough but slowly to the best of our ability implementing a racial equity tool to make

sure that when we're looking at budget we're actually looking at the budget reduction in a way

that really speaks to equity right and a lot of the programs that you share today touch those

communities right we are growing city and we can only be a great city if we don't leave any of our

residents and our neighborhoods behind and so I really appreciate all the great work that you and

your staff has done and ready for the debate when it happens because right now it's high level

overview but it will come down to priorities of this council right there are going to have to be

trade-offs and that is that is in a few weeks and a few months we're going to have that conversation

and so just again really appreciate the department coming up here and sharing with us that if you

had to make a reduction where would you you know make the reduction and even those reduction

doesn't make sense to me right you know 15% across the board is really tough because especially for

a department that's already so small you're going to fill the impact right and so there's going

to be a debate up here and I just look forward to that conversation when time comes but just really

want to say thank you for all your hard work okay thank you yes and again just to the public that

this is a big picture overview of what the departments do to provide us with a comprehensive high

level view as Councillor Mangs said when we have to make our budget decisions and none of the

choices on that list so far are good they're all terrible but we have to step up and do our job

for the City of Sacramento so this certainly helps put put everything in perspective with the big

picture so again this was informational no vote on this action on this item no action item

next item madam put just for a note for the minutes item number two the transient occupant

tax presentation has been withdrawn and it will come back on next Tuesday April 1st

okay our next item is item number three the storefront cannabis dispensary permit opportunities

for the cannabis opportunity reinvestment and equity core program

yes

good afternoon mayor and council members my name is Fiona Mattson and I am the program manager

for the office of cannabis management I have a brief staff presentation as council considers

providing direction to staff regarding the cannabis opportunity reinvestment and equity program

also known as core for storefront dispensary permit opportunities

the city's the city's storefront cannabis dispensary business permit is the only cannabis operating

permit type that is kept currently there are 40 available storefront permits 29 non core majority

owned and 11 core majority owned 10 core storefront permits were awarded via a request for

qualifications process that resulted in a ranked list in 2021 the original 10 permit opportunities

had three years to receive their business operating permit and begin operations on January 23rd

2024 staff reported to council that five of the 10 had applied for a business operating permit

and were operational the remaining five were in various stages of business development with a number

of those requesting additional time due to various challenges council adopted a resolution to

extend the April 1st 2024 deadline by one year to April 1st 2025 three core permit opportunities

have a deadline of April 1st 2025 and have requested additional time regarding

extenuating circumstances to apply for complete the permit process and become operational

one participant received their permit and is in process of becoming operational pending resolution

of ownership structure issues and intends on being operational before the deadline one participant

has stated they are almost complete with construction and indicated being close to operations one

participant's fan of facility was damaged by a fire and has indicated they are in process of

securing a new location when a storefront permit opportunity becomes available the next core

participant on the RFQ list is offered the permit opportunity the city's goal as adopted by

council is having 50% of all cannabis businesses in Sacramento majority core owned

the following are options council could consider the first no extension the three permit opportunities

will expire on April 1st 2025 and the next three participants on the RFQ list will be given

permit opportunities option two one year extension and no additional permit opportunities extending

the expiration date to April 1st 2026 and the next three parts of participants on the RFQ list

will have to wait until another permit opportunity becomes available or option three one year extension

and three additional permit opportunities extending the expiration date to April 1st 2026 and adding

three additional core storefront dispensary permits providing the next three parts participants on

the RFQ list the opportunity to apply for a permit increasing the total of number of storefront

permits to 43 that would result in 29 non core and 14 core permit a storefront permit opportunities

additionally if council grants an extension under options two or three new core permit opportunities

will be given five years to become operational this concludes my presentation and I'm available

for questions thank you

clerk have have any public comments do we have we have 15 public comments okay let's take the first

speaker our first three speakers will be Alexis and then Aaron Cardoza and Daniel Zavala

good afternoon mayor and city council my name is Alexis in Gulo I am the founder of pretty

imposh cannabis brand and I am next in line for the 2021 RFQ storefront opportunity I stand before

you today to express a fundamental concern with the continued extension of the deadline for a

cannabis dispensary permits under the core program the original intention of the request for

qualifications process was clear to identify the most prepared applicants those with the ability

resources and readiness to establish and operate the storefront opportunity this competitive

process ensure that only the most capable candidates were given this opportunity however by

repeatedly extending deadlines we undermine that very principle the three year deadline was not

arbitrary it was designed to ensure that permits go to individuals who have demonstrated the

capacity to navigate regulatory and financial hurdles in a timely manner in February 2024 we were

discussing a six month extension now we are looking at a 24 month extension completely undermining

the purpose of the RFQ process the original agreement was clear if a participant could not open

within the set time frame the opportunity would be passed to the next qualified applicant applicants

11 and 12 have already received their licenses and by the original rules of this process the next

available permit should be awarded to the next three applicants in line this is not just a matter

of fairness it is a matter of upholding the integrity of the system as of March 3 2025 there are only

seven core approved VOP applications one pending two of the other have never applied for their

VOP this means that two applicants may not even have secured a location with the conditional use

permit making the extension potentially pointless if they cannot move forward at what point do we

hold participants accountable for meeting their obligations by allowing these permits to expire as

planned we uphold the fairness of the process and respect the intent of the RFQ I urge you to

honor the integrity of the system and let the process work as intended thank you

our next speaker is Aaron Cardoza and if we could have people line up in the aisle please as

your names are called we're going to call the next three no Aaron Daniel Savela after Daniel is

Mcworthy and then Carla Black yeah it's totally understand where the where that first comment and

but if we're talking about equity it's really difficult I think the what you're seeing is that when

you have core applicants at the intent of core was to give folks people the color women an opportunity

to play in a business that's really expensive to navigate really time consuming even non-core applicants

as many of you know had spent years if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on tenant improvement

for buildings and architectures and going through plan check it is a cumbersome

process to go through and it just feels at its core pun intended wrong to call it quits on applicants

who are selected because they need help they need some support there is a new grant I hear from

the state that's going to allow the city of Sacramento to perhaps give some additional assistance

and I think that should be on the table as well I'm not in support of an outright no and but with

that said I know firsthand that you have an excellent staff in that department you have folks who

know applicants who know where they are and know where there's capacity or where there's lack thereof

I would urge you to not weigh on the side of a complete black and white no your time has run out

but also take a take a thoughtful look at perhaps a who has capacity continuing where are they if

you haven't even have the location it's been five years I get it but if you're almost at the

finish line it feels almost wrong to cut folks off so quickly particularly on the back end of

receiving a generous grant from the state to help get some of these applicants across the finish line

so with that I urge you to think about it and just don't do a black and white no to some of these

applicants who are perhaps just right there so thank you. Next we have MacWorthy then Carla Black and

then Zion I don't know where you're going with this now how many liquor stores in a second

I think I'm in liquor stores here I've been on black on the two I don't say you're here you're

bullshit to people and a lot to me what it takes you got to liquorice and write money

now the canvas you are using the funds that you have double tax those hope something you are

using those funds why are you are using them not because race because your pocket is not of course

the everything you want to race it's who controls the dollar who makes decisions here a bunch of

thugs that should always should be in jail you got to wake up you got to wake up and look this is the

most high-up hanging business of black man have ever been in the city

we can't even find a decent attorney here why because how you got the system set up

attorney's money we went across town we went across the street and beat a bullshit case here

we waiting on attorneys I got attorneys all over America looking for somebody who really

filed a lawsuit here that's driven sweets whatever I say here I can go across the street and hurt

it but people on this podium can't so quick lines of the people and let these young folks go you have

a law that about youth involved in liquor you can set the same policy on youth involved in

marijuana you can say that but you don't you prefer to keep as many down as you possibly can before they

understand we want to control our own down money they're going to line some to control their own

money and buy what they want to buy good afternoon mayor and city council do I need a way for you

to call me up or no okay I'm not against the cannabis industry or responsible business owners

in fact I support the resolution to extend the expiration date for the current three core

permits to April 1st 2026 but I'm also here today to urge you to stop the continued placement

of dispensaries and smoke lounges in our neighborhoods Sacramento already has more than enough cannabis

remains a schedule one narcotic and is still illegal on a federal level locally this industry has

been built to its limits and it's barely surviving propped up by subsidies and government support

just look at the recent revenue report dispensaries have seen declining numbers for three years

that's not grow that's a warning sign more permits only oversaturate the market hurt small business

and local businesses driving more to fail the city of Davis overlicensed and closed because of

this very reason imagine investing all that millions of dollars just for the industry to fail

there's no justification for coloring dispensaries or lounges at residential or mixed use areas

where families live children's play children play and people expect peace and safety our

neighborhoods should not be testing testing ground for cannabis expansion this isn't about equity

or access anymore it's about volume and the volume brings increased traffic odor,

lordering and nuisance calls it puts unnecessary strange on infrastructure and quality of life

let's be honest these businesses are consistently placed in low income neighborhoods communities

that need youth programs not more more dispensaries that's not equity that's exploitation

at some point we must say enough is enough protect the safety health and integrity of our communities

there are already more than enough licenses to meet demand are your due to support common

sent zoning reject further expansion into residential use areas our next speaker is Zion after

Zion will have dr. Jay Johnson Jared Hill and just Justin Jacinto you can please line up in the aisle

yeah hi again so my name is Zion and I'm the founder of Shasha Mani Institute a cannabis

institute I'm trying to build and I think when we fought for cannabis equity from the beginning

to so black community and brown community are not left behind when it comes to the cannabis

industry I think the when we thought it that was the purpose but right now it's losing the purpose

in fact we black people are not that many of us in the businesses and instead the money being

used in fact to get other community everything has been changed Lenny you you have been doing

miserable job when it comes to the cannabis equity because I really honestly I'd rather you

not being there dealing with our fund because you taking your fund and giving it to everybody else

if our community needs to be renewed why not this is they they invested so much money so much time

to get into the cannabis industry especially as black community but you're trying to use anything

whatever you can now give us the fund now give us the permit and they're not renewing when they need

to so I really really want you to think about this only two three of our community needs that

extension and I encourage you to extend it for them why not they spend it so much money

and their time to three is and it takes a long time to build cannabis industry you know carry

how it is and the same time Lenny is doing a miserable job she's not even getting us the fund

and instead she's giving you to everybody else but not our community I don't even know how we

trust her with the general fund she thinks we need to be held our hands yes we do and then if we

need our dispensary licenses on the next one you need to release it too because we are we need

to get into the cannabis industry we're not going to be left behind thank you for your comment

your time is complete Dr. J Johnson

hey council how's it going I'm Jay I've talked here a bunch of times I'm new to some so I'll keep

it short and sweet this is really an easy find I would say I'm voting for letting the next three go

up and continue to let the next three go if you want to give them another year I mean it's really

very easy and logical the whole purpose of the core program was to bring parity to the cannabis

community and we have to get on an equal level of store for unopportunities but some people have

talked about oversaturation the market's not doing that good yada yada yada I'm in the market I've

been in the market I've had my license since 2018 the RFQ process as a whole to all of our new

city council members I definitely invite you to look into that process and how people were chosen

the most ready were not selected and that's just the that's just the cold cut of it a lot of us

are still waiting our opportunity open up the zoning so we don't have to be in industrial areas

also to our city council members who are new you guys did a study on the impact that cannabis

companies bring to neighborhoods are we a negative impact are we a positive impact overall is

discussed we are not a negative impact we get traffic off the streets we bring jobs to the community

and we bring education at the community also in line with cannabis we have to stop thinking of it

as this and that and where we're putting it at you guys allow fentanyl and opiates to be sold on

every corner but we can't allow cannabis to be sold we're a schedule one drug but schedule one

drug by nature says that there is no health benefits well then how do we call a medical cannabis

it makes no sense but that's on a whole another federal thing you know we're deemed illegal

federally but I pay the IRS six figures every year tell me how that works in in closing here I'll

make it like I said try to be short here but I get on a rant sometimes let the three continue but

let the next three come up and let's even move further let's start the next readiness process

for the next 10 group of licenses open up that zoning so we're not all sitting on top of one

another let free market capitalism rise thank you

Jared Hill

afternoon council happy to be here again today

spoken with you guys on numerous occasions most recently starting out on the fifth of this

month and every meeting since then about this extension reading through the report from

miss matsen in the office of cannabis management just wanted to make a point of clarification we

are the one who's built and burnt down we were most ready we came in the top 10 we earned our spot

we're still ready we have found a new location also still in district two born and raised in

North Sacramento strawberry manners North sack proud 916 proud we are sacraments own sons

and daughters and a lot of these folks in the crowd we have reached out to them to partner with us

rather than partner with monsanto mall burl and the future big corporate folks that want to buy

up cannabis and leave small mom and pop out we refuse to do that we're not going down without a

fight we're here for it we're still here we've overcome many challenges we always will we'll

continue to fight for Sacramento we're bringing jobs to the neighborhood we believe in this and not

just cannabis for people getting high and having fun and good time but as a catalyst to start funding

some of the other businesses we believe in in our neighborhoods rebuild in Del Paso and marries

ville and real linda and North sack and all parts met of you the met of you project you guys talked

about last week so inspired to see that presentation same things that happen in every underserved

community in Sacramento cannabis can be a catalyst towards that and so many other things that you

guys have an eye on doing let us help let us be a part we need your help now with this extension thank

you our next speaker is Justin Jacinto after Justin if you could line up in the aisle Chris Tau

Javier Hernandez and Christopher Cannon thank you council for this opportunity to speak

and council members Katie Maple and my vang for bringing this item to the council I don't disagree

with upholding integrity but all of us in the cannabis industry understand how difficult it is

to navigate this space navigating limited zoning limited real estate limited access to funding

on top of pedatory practices you know create a complex on foreseen challenges you know for

the individuals seeking an extension adding three more additional permit opportunities will provide

more access additional tax revenue and continue to balance equity between core and non core

dispensaries you know Dr. J said it really well so come piggyback on that I am in favor of one

year extension for those remaining seeking that as well as three additional permits from RFK

process thank you next speaker is Chris Tau hello thank you mayor council and staff

I own a business in district six and I live in district eight respectfully ask council to

consider option three on this agenda item this option has not been thoroughly discussed and

presents a fresh approach it provides a crucial opportunity to approve the current extension requests

while allowing three additional applicants to begin their process this pretty much satisfies

whatever we want everything we want we're looking for right now these people are deeply rooted in

your communities they they're success directly benefits to your neighborhoods that they serve we

rely on council support and guidance to ensure we move forward to a more equitable and sustainable

cannabis industry in Sacramento this is like get people to the finish line it's been three years I

know people are asking for more time this is a difficult industry we're navigating federal

utilization and anything local again I support option three thank you for your time

our next speaker is Javier good evening mayor and council thank you for bringing a topic

for discussion today I think it's really important that it happens before the deadline given the

gravity of what's on the line for everybody involved I wanted to show support for option three it

acknowledges both parties which are equally as important on one hand you have those who have been

waiting for the opportunity for four years as well as those who have invested a significant amount

of time and resources into their projects over those same last four years getting the cannabis

license is one of the most difficult things that I've ever done personally in my life and maintaining

is equally as difficult so we understand how difficult and lengthy that process can be even when

things go right I also support the extension to five years from the current three years for

future awardees as that has been pretty standard in other neighboring areas given a full five years

rather than short three option three also ships away at the promise of reaching an equal amount

of core owned dispensary storefronts we currently have less than ten that are operational compared to

the nearly thirty that are non store core owned Sacramento has always shown the equities important

especially in the cannabis industry where there's an opportunity to make an impact on the beginning

solution three will be consistent with previous actions of council which have given us

grace and opportunity that would have led to that has led to more equity owned businesses

that would have existed otherwise thank you

our next speaker is Christopher cannon after Christopher we have Rhonda Ernest Valerie bird

and Mike swell uh well sorry good afternoon mayor and city council members my name is Christopher

cannon I'm a Sacramento business owner I'm a partner with the Jared and four 20 group as many of

you know we've been facing with numerous challenges that have tested our resilience and commitment to

seeing this project be successful in Sacramento from but not limited to secure in real estate

securing the capital spending time all the time yes and the money navigating

navigating the major players and the snakes and then a building catching on fire all right

despite these challenges we are still here and we're ready to move forward we're on the cusp

we're here at the apex of making our vision and our dreams a reality here in Sacramento but now we're

faced with a new challenge critical time constraints so you know why have this important project

become a failure because of I don't want to say arbitrary but because of time restraints when

these group of people are so close to reaching their their commitment here so I recommend option three

adopt a resolution to extend the date for three permit opportunities and expire that April

first date and to add three additional core members for their permits thank you for your time

our next speaker is Rhonda

hi my name is Rhonda Ernest and I am the CEO of natural high I am here strictly

because number three adding three more dispensaries was not the process if you hold on the and

you extend the dates for the like the next the three that's there then there's only 10 winners

I don't agree that you just automatically go to the RFQ line that that whole process was flawed and

you guys know it you guys know that that process was flawed you know that that a lot of the stuff

that happened people were predetermined you guys know that there was people that wasn't even

verified at the time and won a dispensary there's a lot of things that happen in that

RFQ list that is not right but outside of that there was only a hundred participants in the RQ

now we have close to 500 participants verified core members I wasn't around at the time that

this process was taking place so if you go to the I don't even give it opportunity but I'm out here

working I am um operational right now I've been operational for the last three years but I don't

get the opportunity I thought the next time we um decided to open up for new dispensaries we're

going to have a new process that's what we talked discussed on August 20th 2025 I just don't think

it's fair and I understand there's a lot of capable people you to court members in this audience

that is ready to go because they are already operational and I see them I see you I do but what I'm

saying is that it's not fair to us that got up and running I was in the last cohort class cohort

and I was operational six months later I am running a non-store front dispensary and I am I want

to be able to compete in this process you guys keep going back to that old quick list that we know

it's crooked we know that there were some things done that shouldn't have been done and y'all keep

pulling from that pile well what part of the list is good what part of the list is is is is fair what

part of the list is real man I am so disappointed we have six more speakers our next three speakers

Valerie bird Mike and Malachi good evening council members and the new mayor my name is Valerie

bird and I am the CEO and co-owner of smooth elevations delivery cannabis delivery

oh okay I'm sorry I'm here today to address the proposed addition of the three new dispensaries

even in the event that the council decides to extend the existing process I would like to express

my support for the extension of the current grantees especially those from the previous RFQ

however and looking at that I am not for adding the three new dispensaries from the RFQ definitely

night as someone who was involved in the RFQ process I feel is very important to bring to light

some concerns regarding potential discrepancies issues within the original process

especially I am definitely concerned about certain individuals that have been awarded this

dispensary license under the questionable circumstances for one example there was an individual

that was awarded a RFQ dispensary license and currently the co-owner of embarked dispensary and his

name is mr. Johnson when I was in the class in cohort three I was verified and I was able to

participate in the RFQ process however mysteriously when RFQ came out this individual was awarded he

wasn't even verified I do not understand how he was even awarded a license so looking at that

and the people that on the RFQ who believe that they should be the next three in line or get a

dispensary some of them not even operational I am operational I'm working every day and saying that

given these concerns I believe it would be thank you for your comment your time is complete

greetings mayor and council I'm Mike Snell one of the original 10 awarded the the right to

apply for dispensary I'd like to start by saying I support option three with the caveat of I do not

support the sunset or expiration for those that already existing in the pipeline the integrity of

this process as you've already heard repeatedly before me it's already succumbed to it's not

existent so we've already been making changes on the fly as it is this should just be another change

on the fly I just opened it all the way up we're already limited due to real estate that's available

for this special use so there's no need to add any additional manufactured barriers

I was hesitant to come and speak on this personally because I would not recommend in this current

state of this program I would not recommend it to anyone new coming it's built on unstable soil

and that's not even a pun my watch to fellow member miss Betty Mitchell put up her retirement in

hopes to open up and run a successful indoor cultivation business that was unfortunately cut short

due to a consistent airborne cancer cause and contaminant tested positive and every harvest after

this stringent process of opening mind you and it was a contaminant that was airborne stemming

from the soil at a neighboring construction site during the development of the merisobalk village

one of sacriano's gyms of equitable housing so I wouldn't as rapid fraud the grants and loans

issue with no corrective actions to rectify the lack of funding available to the earnest community

members trying to start a business and build that generational wealth that's promised

but with all roads leading to local oversight issues including I mean in particular the city

management as mentioned in this month's edition of inside Sacramento a column written by former

councilmember Jeff Harris notes Laney qualified for the interim manager because she knows where

the skeletons are buried ain't that the truth now the one quick question is that from

thank you for your comment your time is complete our last four speakers Malachi Brenda Jacob

and Carlos

I'm here to respectfully ask and you carefully consider the matter of the application for my

store for on dispensary on March 4th I submitted my application well before the April 1st deadline

yet I now find myself at the mercy of a policy interpretation that doesn't align with the practical

realities of opening a dispensary while the deadline states applicants must both apply and operate

on April 1st the reality is far different the process for approval takes up to 180 days at least

which makes it impossible for anyone to apply and operate on that same day deadline the city's

policy does not adequately account for the fact that approvals take time and that the 180 day review

period must be respected I have submitted my application and I ask that you honor the full

due process afforded to me and vote in favor of allowing my application to move forward over the

past four years I've leveraged approximately 1.2 million in private capital secured state grants

and spent more than 3,500 uncompensated hours negotiating with predators pushing through zoning

barriers obtaining permits and now I'm building a storefront that is 90% complete the construction

is progressing rapidly and I'm on track to begin operation shortly all of you have been provided

with pictures and evidence of my progress to deny me this opportunity now after all of this

investment and progress would be a tragic disservice to the spirit of the core ordinance thank you

for your consideration.

Greg speaker Brenda good afternoon ma'am mccardi and city council members I am with the

Brenda Davis law group and I'm here representing one of the in process participants arise holdings

LLC we support the proposed resolution to extend the April 1 deadline by one year as mr

mean has testified during previous public comments and today the extension would allow arise to

complete the city's permit application process already well underway and acquire the state license

to operate the storefront dispensary the application precedes the operation and has its own set of

rules and deadlines which arise has been diligently pursuing since winning the right to apply

arise has never surrendered this right and has a conditional use permit in place has 90% or more

of its construction improvements completed and has met the deadline of April 1 2025 to apply for

a BLP as of March 4 2025 he has been waiting for the city to process that application we ask you to

consider the core promotes equity revitalizing neighborhoods adding jobs and tax revenues at a

time when there seems to be little patience for equity in our national civic discourse it's a

mean season in many ways and depriving a rise of the ability to finish what it started after

considerable investment of sweat equity and over a million dollars in financials would create a

severe hardship as proposed additional core applicants would not be harmed by the one year extension

of the deadline to April 1 2026 because any new awardees would have five years to apply for a

storefront dispensary and become operational once the applications have been approved of benefit

not currently available we asked the council to approve the one year extension or at least acknowledge

that arise has met the deadline to apply for the storefront thank you for your comment your time

is complete Jacob Smith and then Carlos Ramirez

good afternoon mayor and council members my name is Jacob Schmidt I'm a dispensary owner and a

homeowner in a city of Sacramento appreciate the opportunity to speak after hearing the comments

the e-commerce I want to voice strong support to extending malachai's license and consider

COVID-19 shut down so that definitely took a little bit time off their plate based off the e-commerce

malachai invested a 1.2 million into his business he hasn't even opened yet

that does not include cost of inventory staffing marketing that's the kind of commitment

Sacramento deserves at the same time I'm asking you to protect locally small owned cannabis

retailers core and legacy license holders this business these businesses are the backbone

of Sacramento cannabis industry and they are struggling also protecting current operators

and new by implementing a 2,000 foot buffer from dispensary to dispensary this would give some

protection from aggressive star book style operators the current market is oversaturated since the

end of 22 the cannabis cannabis industry has been in a decline economic conditions have worsened

and adding to more and adding more stores will only pit operators against each other for the same

limited dollar it also stretches the city staff even thinner for context our employee headcount

is down 35 percent we are working harder with less this is not sustainable please listen to

the operators who are already here we've invested in the city we're weathering the downturn and we

will want to be part of the solution thank you guys Carlos Ramirez

little mayor city council my name is Carlos Ramirez and I am the chief compliance officer for

the sanctuary I've been in this position since recreational youth went legal so I'm very familiar

with the obstacles and burdens that new operators have to go through and with that I also support

extending the time limit for the three core operators one because the the extenuating

circumstances that they've encountered can be addressed within a year and two as a matter of

fairness it seems that they've all made substantial progress in becoming operational they've made

substantial investments so it would be it would be unfair for these resources to be wasted

and for that reason I support option two thank you

mayor we have no more public speakers okay thank you to the to the public and for staff

laying out these options I do have a perspective on one of the three but just wanted to give just um

you know back to the room observations for somebody who hasn't been here for the past few years

while the city council has has led on this valently but just going back 15 years you know the city

of Sacramento was one of the first cities that stepped up inside it take out the shadows

this industry and and regulate and legalize this I remember people thought that we were not

doing it and they would have you know political suicide but supporting some of these ideas but

you know time has come where it's mainstream across California but even across the nation so

I'm certainly proud that the city of Sacramento did that it's a tough industry you know I do know

that what we've legalized marijuana state wide sales in 2018 there's more illegal sales now that

it's legal across the state and so to be in this business is really tough so for you that are in

this business or want to get in this business hats off to you because this is not an easy industry

people are pulling back so we do have some difficult issues and on this one specifically I

I was really proud to look at the city of Sacramento and their core program focusing on those

who wanted to get into the game who had been left out didn't have you know institutional money

behind them weren't netbook is people slapping down million dollar leases for their properties

to step it up so I do value and embrace what the city of Sacramento led by a current mayor and

some people on this council stepped up and created this this program it wasn't perfect nobody was

going to like the outcome but we had a process we went and had people participate we had a neutral

entity with the blinders pick the ones who they thought were the best entities to be in the process

you know maybe someone say we should have picked people out of the hat what happy but we had

rules we picked people from a list so you know now we're three three years later and people are

coming up on these deadlines and none of these options have universal support here if I look at

everybody that spoke somebody was against or for all three of them so there there is no you

know perfect solution is going to make everybody happy but I I believe that the best option that we

have is number three where we'll be able to to pick three additional individuals that were on

the list as well as giving the three individuals one more shot to finish their work and one more

shot because I think we've already you know really pushed the envelope as far as

flexibility not just patience but fairness because I think there's arguments on on on all

sides on this but you know none of these options again are perfect but this is something I think

gives us the best path going forward to continue this this work as well as come up with the the

Ferris solution so that's my perspective thank you councilmember Maipal thank you mayor and I

think that was a great articulation of kind of how we got here and appreciate that I had to

had some prepared comments but as I was listening to to everyone speak I want to say first thank you

for coming here and for for sharing your perspectives and I know as he mentioned everybody's got a

very different opinion I'm sure we can pull this whole room and and find a difference of opinion but

I think in part of the reason why we're here is because you know this is what a lot of local

governments have done since since the introduction of legalized cannabis industry in 2016 with

Prop 64 of course Sacramento led and many years before and created our industry but some of what's

happened has been arbitrary and just by a function of of of process and time so initially when there

were dispensaries opened and then all of a sudden the council at the time was like well well we have

30 that's way too many more auditorium was put in place which led us to the place where we had 30

30 retail licenses and then we got to a place where there was a recognition that we didn't have

operators of color we didn't have people who had been historically criminalized by the war on

drugs having an opportunity in the industry which is where the core program came from and that

with that came up promise this idea that we're going to get to parity we're going to try to get

to 50% at least and we're going to try to make it as easy as possible for people to participate in

the industry that normally wouldn't have that opportunity and so the challenge that we find ourselves

in is you know we're also balancing the desires and needs of everyone else in the public and people

who had fears about there being more dispensary licenses and what does that mean for my neighborhood

what does that mean for my community and so that led to this well let's just pick a number the

number was 10 right we created that number and then and then deadlines were picked we won't

picked a deadline three years right not necessarily based on how long it takes to open up a store

it's just based on this seems reasonable and I don't think any of those decisions were necessarily

wrong it's just it's just the nature of how the process worked and and why we're here but I also

think that that's part of the reason why we're in having an issue is now we're we almost have

people pick against each other because everybody wants an opportunity everybody wants an opportunity

participate and I personally believe they should be given those opportunities and they can't

it's just not the reality we only have x number of licenses and you have to wait for your turn

and so you know I've been pretty vocal about this you know that eventually some some day down the

line I think that we as a council need to revisit this and have a real conversation about whether we

should treat this industry like we treat every other business we don't go into coffee shops we don't

go into other places and we say hey you know we regulate from land use we say you can't be in this

space with this sensitive use buffer but we don't necessarily say you can't have a coffee shop you're

in a coffee shop right across the street and so eventually maybe we'll get there I do recognize

there's differences between coffee and cannabis for the record but I think but for now this is where we're

out and so you know I I'm just really I'm hopeful that where we can get is trying to get a face or

be create opportunities one of the things that really struck me as I was reading through the staff

report and then listening to the stories of the people who are just about ready to open or they're

on their way with their permits is we ask ourselves the question of like where are we here why is it

taken so long this happens in government all the time right we have a project we say here's the

project that we're going to build we're it's going to take this amount of time and this is our budget

for it and then we start breaking into the soil and we realize that there's soil contamination oh well

that's going to change our process on our timeline then we go into the wall and we realize oh there's

this bestest in the wall and there's lead in the paint and all of a sudden this project that we

thought was going to be this this amount of money and this amount of time is now we've now extended

our debt our timeline and our budget that happens all the time in government and by the way it

happens all the time in all kinds of construction projects it's just the reality of the world that we

live in that's part of the reason why we're here right you have people who have identified buildings

oftentimes if you're going to find a building that's in the specific zone with the specific

specific sensitive you you sput first that we have put on the building that means there's only so

many in the city you can take the map and you put all the circles on and there's only a handful of

buildings and then those buildings have their own challenges they're in industrial areas or

commercial areas which means they might have problems with the buildings or the building is not

itself set up to be used as a dispensary and it takes a lot of time and money and energy to get

it there that's that that is the policy decisions that we've made and so I think that we need to be

thoughtful and give grace about that it takes time it also takes time to get through our own city

permitting process right it takes time for it to get your conditional use permit it takes time

for you to get your business operations permit there's a lot that goes into it and it's not all

just set in stone it's there's a lot of steps and so I I see that and specific to Mr. Amens

location I live very close to there I drive by it every day I know that you're under construction

there you it looks like it's so close to it being done and what would be really heartbreaking for

me is that if you spent four years of your time and over a million dollars and you're literally

a few weeks away from opening and we as a city to say nope onto the next I think that would be

pretty devastating so with all of that said I'm I'm supportive of option three I think that

we need to not only make sure that the folks were just about ready have an opportunity to complete

the process that they've been working on but it's really unfair that we have people waiting in line

too and I see I see Alexis here like I can completely understand your point of view you're like I've

been waiting I've been doing the right thing I was in line and I just want an opportunity it's

going to take you time to get open to so you know for the public that maybe watching this doesn't

mean that we're going to all of a sudden have you know three additional dispensaries open overnight

they're going to start their process it's going to take time and all this is going to happen

gradually and I think that's a good thing that's a good thing for our communities that's a good

thing for the industry it doesn't mean that you have everything popping up and they're trying to

trying to plan around that so so I would be happy to make a motion that we move forward option three

which would be to extend the date for one year from April 1, 2026 for the three applicants in line

to change the applicant timeline to five years again recognizing that maybe that three year time

frame that we put on is maybe not long enough given all of the challenges that can happen with

buildings in the industry and then to also direct staff to add those three additional

core storefront permits to the next applicants in line thank you. We have a motion to second

councilmember van. Thanks mayor I'll second that motion from council member maple and just

also really want to say thank you to councilman maple as well because she's worked in the

industry before so she knows a lot of the nuances that perhaps some of other councilmember like

myself may not know about the nuances because I've not worked in the cannabis industries I really

appreciate just her knowledge I really just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to

all the residents that came out today are entrepreneurs who came out to really just share your

insight and your experience of the core program in itself the permitting the process through the city

the frustration that I'm hearing I really just appreciate that it's important for us to hear

that and to understand the lived experience that you go through to go through the city process so

I just want to say thank you for that I'll keep my comments short because I've already second the

motion on the table but just really also just want to firm on record that you know the core

program started before I was a councilmember and the intent of the core program was really to

address the historical harm caused by the war and drugs right and particularly in disproportionate

communities that's been affected by criminalization right that's the whole reason why the core

program was started and it wasn't perfect for sure but I think for me at the end of the day the

question I ask myself is that are we as a city creating opportunities in the industry for these

folks like are we doing that and probably answers no we're not doing enough right I think it's

going to be really important just as we move forward that we're thoughtful because as I heard earlier

you know so much dollars in investment has been made even for the core participants that's in

the queue now and so the reason why I support recommendation number three in the motion from

councilmember maple is because I feel like it gives the flexibility for the core members in the queue

to complete and at the same time allows for new additional core members to start the permit

process right because it's going to take a while and so that's kind of where I'm at I also know

that as a city there's still a lot that we have to do in terms of just cannabis as well and I

look forward to learning alongside my colleagues hearing from the advocates on how we move forward

because it's still the beginning like all this work it's still the beginning and I anticipate

there's going to be studies we're going to come back here again hopefully the three folks are in

the queue hopefully we get it complete but I'm not going to say that they might complete because I

don't know like I don't know because I'm not a business owner and I feel like what if something

else happens right but I think making sure that we're monitoring the progress is important and if

they're making if they're making progress I think that's really really important to make sure that

you know we don't we don't stop the process and we do everything we can to make sure that they

get to the finish line so those are all my comments mayor and I'll second the motion. Thank you

Councillor Rackapplen. Thank you mayor thank you everyone for the comments it's always helpful

reminding about how construction starts and it never ends on time a couple of things that maybe

you want us to think about and the motion and the seconder if they wouldn't mind considering

because I'm good with the year extension what I'd hope for is that we can get a six-month

potential checkup of what's the progress with the three that we gave the year extension I think

would be good because either they're making progress or they're not and then I have a little

angst with approving the next three but I'm hoping we can add a little extra to option three

because we created the RFP five years ago we have new players in the industry that weren't able

to apply and are not part of the core that I think we have to be mindful of so I would like maybe

as a as a mid that we approve these next three but then that RFP list goes away and we look for the

office of cannabis to come back yes I accept that absolutely I'm comfortable with the first part

I think that's a great to do a six-month check-in and then I know that there's there's a lot of

things related to cannabis that are going to be coming to a lot of knowledge and so I'm the next

part of your of your comments I think will be addressed as well okay yeah because I can't support

beyond today the list that was created five years ago that doesn't look at the landscape of what has

happened in the meantime so with that I know how things I'm supportive of that I just want to see a

six-month check-in and then I look forward to hearing back and welcome out to the city of Sacramento

who is our new cannabis manager office cannabis management from Michigan so welcome to our

one-weather look forward to actually him having input on what what the next process is so thank you

for everybody that came out today you know nothing's ever perfect but I think we can try and find

a balance on how we move forward thank you thank you councilmember gara thank you mayor first one

I'll be supporting the motion today and primarily I want to thank Alexis Angulo for her comments

and her taking the time actually to kind of sit down and talk through the entire process and

what what everyone goes through to prepare for this process and you know one of the reasons I'm

supporting this here today is one is we the the government or a regulator sends market signals

and people are making decisions and investments based on on those issues are preparing their

financing they're talking to people well before they even come to our checklist and so I think

it's important for us as we move forward that whether you agree with the policy of cannabis or not

that at least that folks who are investing their time and their energy that there's a fairness

in understanding how it goes through now where where I where I think councilmember maples comments

are right on I had written these down is that there's assumptions made at times on the timing of

what it takes to accomplish these the earlier permits given the zoning were probably the easier

buildings easier facilities to locate and work with and the limited the mutations on zoning make it

difficult for identifying other real estate and the problem with the zoning and I'll talk a little

bit more about that later is in the is that it also creates this artificial market and we saw

it when we had you know the on the on the cultivation side the cultivation side created this very

inflated market and as soon as we put a cap in place and that cap was met the property values

all of a sudden changed back to the normal marketplace so the the there there is a there is a there

is a place for for regulation and there is a place for making sure that that regulation is not

overly restricted to make those false marketplaces so I think one I hope the law and let's committee

addresses the zoning piece for the issue of the folks that are getting through the process

they've gone through so much investment at this point that I think it's important not to end up with

stranded assets and and some costs I think it probably benefits not only them but the city to make

sure that those just get done if not those neighbors adjacent to those vacant buildings are going to be

dealt with those those buildings themselves so there's there's that issue and then as far as for

the new three my only concern and hesitation here and this is I'd like staff to at least speak at

the record here if you could come and is and this and I brought this up last time we talked about

the expand looking at additional permits one does staff have the capacity to be vigilant in

monitoring and and again there's an assumption that those that are applying are ready to go and

that they've got their you know tees crossed their eyes dotted and does staff both at the code level

as well as at the permitting level finance level are they prepared and able to manage those

next three applicants because that I think has been the consistent concern about where the city is

in making sure that that they can follow through on there so yes we do have the capacity because

it'll be three additional permits and as council member maples stated it's gradual so it's over time

so over time you know hopefully with the increasing number of permits we look at our staffing but

right now we could handle an additional three permits good thank you and and in that's different

than where it was before where we had a big influx of multiple applicants all at once and I think

that's where the city found itself in a in a quagmire is trying to figure out how to manage that

the the larger influx early on the the the last thing and I'd be remiss if I didn't bring this up

one thing moving forward we're discussing dispensaries today and that's important to make a distinction

there's a CUP process there's a public process for communities adjacent neighbors

to engage in that process to make sure that there's any unintended consequences even as

issues of parking you know get resolved but what I worry here and I intend to bring this up again

and I hope the Long Ledge Committee considered this because I did receive information and concerns

from child action about our current zoning and that is in last year the council took action in a

very split five four decision to allow smoke lounges that dispensaries who meet certain

requirements could become smoke lounges and I do worry that the zoning and what and if dispensary

permits are processed and a dispensary owner decides to become a smoke lounge and they're allowed

to be in or near a any sensitive use I'm not just going to use a child care centers but a sensitive

use then all of a sudden now it's almost a bait and switch where you can become a dispensary and

then later without the CUP process become a smoke lounge and that I think is a problem so today

we're just discussing dispensaries but I want to put make sure that that moving forward that we

address the issue of that of the issue of converting places into smoke lounges so this I think you

know I do believe that as mentioned earlier staff needs to look at the RFP process to ensure that

we are getting the those that are most ready that are capable of executing that I think the

time length should be reviewed because absent changes in in different types of locations in the city

we're going to find that most of the buildings that they're looking at are buildings that are not

going to be ready in a three-year time frame they're going to have issues to ris off so thank you

Mr. Mayor thank you Councillor Rogenis thank you Mayor I'm in support of the motion as well

supporting option three I think it does create a win-win situation all the way around I think I'm

just trying to be clear that the concern that I heard from the speakers about the process that we

have the venue to be able to address that properly and I think you've been talking about that

through law and ledge and I just want to make sure that that addresses the declining industry and

also the flawed process that seem to exhibit so much anger among those who are going through the

cannabis process so I just wanted to make sure that this is the right place for those concerns

and that we can spend time and address it where it's the only topic that's on the subject on the

matter and it creates more of a workshop than just come in and just yeah well yeah yeah so

we'll have Laney address both those okay great

thank you Mayor I don't feel as if I'm in position to to comment on on the process that the

council adopted in the in the past or what's transpired to lead to where we are this afternoon and

consideration of this and I and I see a variety of equities I think the mayor noted that there

those here in supporter opposition to each of the of the different alternatives to there's no

no real suspense here obviously we can all count but and I and and I intend especially with the

cautasoles attached by council member Kaplan to support the motion but I do want to say that

my sense my sense of community sentiment in in North Sacramento and that is one of the equities

as far as I'm concerned in addition to the others that should be included in the in the consideration

here the sentiment in North Sacramento is not for additional cannabis related businesses of

of of any kind and I know one of these applicants is seeking to locate there and that's that's

part of this but as we go into this discussion in the future of relooking at the the zoning

approach and whether conditional use permit should be required in other elements of of that it is

something that that certainly I will will bear in mind as as I listen to those whom I have the

privilege of represent would respect to to their views on on this subject as well so well I do

think that it's it's reasonable and fair to allow those who are hopefully on the cost of completing

the process and and opening their businesses to do so I think it is fair and reasonable to let

the next three begin the the process I think there are also limitations on that at least in so

far as I detect community sentiment in my part of the city as we as we examine these issues

and the months to come thanks thank you city manager thank you the first thing I want to

clarify is we're going to need to do an ordinance change for the additional three and talk to the

chair of law and legislation committee and we're going to come straight back to council for that

we'll do a pass in full so that we don't have to take the time for P.F.P so that should be

fairly quick I want to remind people that we're coming back to the law and legislation committee

with the zoning changes that were promised for the spring our planning staff has been working

diligently through the fall to go through their process they will come back with their recommendations

you may see that staff's recommendations will differ from that of the planning and design commission

our upper goal is to reduce the amount of barriers to opening up and to make it available in more

places in the city so that we don't have only certain districts where this can happen and council

member Jennings I'd be more than happy as I have documented already for the community the process

by which the RFP took place how the Raiders were selected who knew what when I had no idea who was

what number for the entirety of the process the numbers were revealed after they were ranked and

we can share that process with you and I think that what we have looked at are what are other

opportunities for any future permits that might become available that have some criteria and

then it becomes more of a lottery system but we would want to seek input from our community also

best practices from other communities that have done this there is no perfect process that people

don't like the outcome when they're not the winner and that it just makes it hard for anybody who's

administering the process so happy to do any and all of that in a very public manner.

Okay thank you with that we have a motion and a second all those in favor please say aye

need no's or abstentions saying none hearing none measure passes nine zero oh eight nine

mayor we have three speakers for matters that are not on the agenda okay our three speakers are

Macworthy Mike Snell and Zion okay if we can get people in the council chambers to please

take the conversations outside mr. Mcworthy you may start while I refer to this administration a

few years ago as a whole house government and you listen to it there's not a number of people come

up here and what they are saying what happened to them I would have to get a deposition on those

people if I can get the right attorney to go to court now the people here talked about claims

I'm not going on the hundred million dollars people we talk about some big stuff now when you

were here last Tuesday when we saw the group of black people show up out here okay now who

went out you want over here any one of them now when the the previous trick here was mayor say we saw

y'all in junior college okay now you go back to the street since when a pimp choose now where

he catch that when you're young and beautiful so they came right here and then when we look at the

upto here the ask from the board of education and the one that one board of education what can

they bring to the podium nothing I saw them down the line the board of education then you got a

personal here saying I'm an attorney and here you got an attorney said here didn't even know when

the brown hat was right they say it should be worked out at court on the oath and we may move the

city of Mac you're sitting at the move because you got too many liars sit there and lie because you

are ignorant how can this city move and not go move right when you got a job in front of you

yes stick around stick around where exactly

Mike snarl greeting so the last thing I just I didn't get to touch on in regards to the ongoing

conversation that I'm glad you you spotlighted councilmember Jennings with rectifying how did

how do we do better right from the previous the previous process and so with I think we will

discover that a key thing that we should implement as a note at least a secondary review of the

applicants that was that was not the process to begin with it was all the applicants were just

scored and then the highest score got the awards and that that unfortunately opened the flood

gates for fraudulent applicants that can embellish the entire application and get awarded an

opportunity that they don't deserve and so it's important to key in on that because cities like

the like the city of Fresno were able to revoke applicants or applications before issuing

condition use permits due to a process like that they were able to discover inconsistencies within

application or even information that wasn't revealed as such as I believe one of the applicants

they had some felony charge for something that was that was criminal I mean that was violent so

it's it's issues like that that we could have easily steered away from deteriorating the integrity

of our program and then lastly just it's going to come up due to the budget what is the efficacy of

this program on the intended communities right so for instance I was an owner but now there's

only one black owned owner there will be two with or possibly three with the upcoming but

with the current landscape what is the efficacy of this program to ensure the longevity and it's

and it's intended purpose that's all.

Hi everyone again so when we fall for cannabis equity why are we talking about right now we have

with Malakai and Brenda so we can support the community that have been affected by war in drug

so they were able to give us the fund whatever three million dollar but right now 90% of it if we

check 80% of it spent somewhere else but in our community and that is the case with everything

else we fight for fund we fight for space and once we get it we don't benefit everybody else every

other community benefit for our fight but ourselves right now when we fall for cannabis equity

the why we even fall for cannabis equity to start with because of dispensary I didn't even get it

everybody else who did not even supposed to qualify they qualified them that should have been

from the beginning red flagged that's how they do it they we fight as black people community

and they create the system so we don't benefit from that system that we fall for that needs to

be stopped and needs to be stopped because it's not fair every time we black people we don't have

no racial equity they put red lining so we don't get no grants no loan now the loan is actually

holding us hostage they couldn't even give me my grant to be able to get to the next step because

they said I haven't paid the loan which I paid the loan they still didn't give me oh you didn't

move to the next tier they still didn't give us the grant but what is it is going somewhere else

please I need you to take how many percentage of the fund is going to the black community or the

black businesses you'll be shocked not even 0% of it coming to us but we are being used to get

the fund but it's not coming to us and I am tired of it honestly so you you guys need to go

thank you for your comment your time is complete thank you for your comment your time is complete

thank you thank you Zion all right so we are joining this meeting at 448 and then we will resume

the 5 p.m. meeting at 515

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