Okay, thank you. It's called this meeting to order.

By PM meeting, a sacrament of City Council, please call the roll.

Thank you, Councilmember Kaplan.

Councilmember Dickinson.

Vice Mayor Talamontes.

Councilmember Plucky-Bong.

Councilmember Maple is expected momentarily.

Mayor Prattemgetta.

Here.

Councilmember Jennings.

Here.

Councilmember Vang.

And Mayor McCarty.

Here.

You have a gorm.

Okay.

Councilmember Garo, you do this in the pledge in the land.

A acknowledgement.

These rise for the opening acknowledgments in honor of Sacramento's indigenous people

in tribal lands.

To the original people of this land, the Nisanan people, the southern Maidu, the Vali and

Plains, Miwok, the Putman-Winton people, and the people of the Wilton-Rainteria.

Sacrament is only federally recognized tribe.

And we acknowledge and honor the native people who came before us and still walked beside

us today on these ancestral lands by choosing to gather together today in the active practice

of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples' history,

contribution, and lives.

Join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

Republic, stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

So City Attorney Ruyak, do we have any report out from closed session?

We have nothing to report Madam Clerk.

Thank you.

So Mary moved to special presentations.

I need to report that special presentation A, which was seek awareness month, will be

post-poned due to a scheduling conflict.

So we'll move to special presentation B, and I'll turn it over to Vice Mayor Talimante.

Thank you so much, Mindy.

I am so excited today to give this resolution to Trustee Samiti Meta from the Natomas Unified

School District.

You know, right now it's been living kind of dark times and when there's something exciting

and historical happen, how that happens in our community, it's time to celebrate.

So Trustee Samiti Meta made history by becoming the first Indian American woman elected to

Trustee as an Natomas Unified School District.

So we'll run a applause to her.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So Samiti is first generation born and raised in India and moved in Natomas 14 years ago.

She's super active in the community, whether it's Jive working on the different school bonds,

working well as a student, you know, as a board member for NP3, the National Woman Policuls

Caucus, and she was a former Parks Commissioner.

So today we had the Parks Commissioners presenting and I just thought to myself like you got

to start somewhere with your civic engagement and your involvement.

And you're a perfect example of getting involved with local governance and seeing what

your passion, your drive, and your love for the community can do.

And so I'm just really excited for you and wanted to give you this special resolution

on behalf of the Sacramento City Council to honor you and all your contributions to our

community.

So congratulations.

Thank you.

If you want to say a few words.

Yes, I will.

So I had to take up a handout because I can't read on my phone without my glasses and

because of my thick accent, it becomes very difficult to keep things like this.

So I'm deeply honored to stand before you all today as a First Indian American woman

elected to this position.

As an immigrant woman, this journey was far from easy, but it was made possible by unwavering

support for so many incredible individuals.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Senator Anchley Gashby, her mentorship and belief in

me have been truly inspiring.

To Weissmeyer Kalamanthes, your steadfast support over the years has meant more than words

can express.

A special thank you to council, my councilwoman, my Wang, the first long woman elected and councilwoman

Katie Mippell.

I don't see her.

But throughout this campaign trail, your kindness, encouragement, carried me through

some tough moments, especially those phone calls that meant a lot.

As I've often said, stepping into a public arena is never easy.

Throughout this campaign and even before I faced judgments about my cultural values and

was mocked for my thick Indian accent.

But today, as I stand here in this room, I know that every challenge and every doubt

I overcome was worth it.

I would not have been here without my family, my husband, Siddhip, who's my rock, my son

Akshaj, who's studying in UCLA right now, and my son Akshaj who walked miles alongside

me knocking on doors every day.

My in-laws are here, my father and lousy proud retired Indian Navy officer.

To my incredible support system, my dear friends, Sathi, Shari, Jag, they're not here.

My NWPC board, Michelle and Maria, who have lifted me up.

I'm forever grateful.

Special thank you to my exceptionally talent campaign team, Crystal and Dagnie.

Behind the scenes of work was nothing short of amazing.

There are so many people I might be missing because they're not here, but they're sitting

Melissa Mang, Michael Grant, Sharon Machini.

There's so many people I would like to thank.

This victory is just not mine.

It belongs to all of us who believe in representation, equity and power of perseverance.

Together we are all breaking barriers and paving the way for future generation.

Thank you, Council Member Thalamanthes.

Thank you.

All right, and do you want to come up with your family and we'll take a group out.

Yeah.

Okay.

A little bit closer please.

Can I声 a little more closer?

Yeah, you can.

Here we go.

One, two, three.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The council member Plecky-Bom is recusing from 19.

18.

18.

Thank you.

Let's not do it again.

So council member Kaplan?

Just quick comments on items 8 through 12, just through the all on call.

And council member Dickinson.

I'll also recuse my cell phone item 18 out of an abundance of caution.

I have both council member Dickinson and Plecky-Bom recusing on item number 18.

So back to you, council member Kaplan.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Consent items 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 are all for our on call professional services.

Be it from architects engineering, construction management, real estate, environmental.

I just want to highlight this as something Madam City Manager.

I know we don't have enough staff, but also how do we control costs in a budget deficit year?

I want to make sure we've got controls in place for how we use our on call services.

And how do we start minimizing that?

Which means that I understand in a budget deficit year, if we're doing that, we're also minimizing what actually gets done.

But I want to see if that's another way for potential budget saving area.

Looks like we have council member Tim Gatta.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

So late to the punch here, but item number on item number 13 when that's appropriate.

Please proceed.

Okay, item number 13.

One, I just wanted to thank against staff for all their great work.

Leslie Fritchie, particularly, and now this contract is going to be going to unseen heroes for us.

Part of the UC Davis Aging Swear Community Benefits Agreement and the outcomes of this for the first time home buyer program.

Again, this is part of the effort to put together not only did we do the development of affordable housing down on Stockton Boulevard, but also the workforce piece.

And now this piece, which will be the first time home buyer program.

And so I wanted to again thank everyone involved in putting this together.

Wexford as well, UC Davis and our city staff.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So that concludes council comments.

I do have three speakers for public comment.

I'm Sally Shapiro on item number three.

Mac Worthy on 10 and 13 and Trisha Malone on 19.

Sally.

So again, following Sally is Mac Worthy.

Then Trisha Malone.

Publicness was your top priority before you were all elected.

But will it be your top priority now that you are in office for four years?

You weren't elected to build stadiums or hotels unless these can contribute significantly to your top priority.

These are luxuries.

Having housing that's affordable to everyone is a dire necessity.

Healthcare equals housing. Housing equals healthcare.

No one can be healthy without shelter from the elements and a private space to feel safe and relax.

Our citizens were born in hospitals, but now they have less legal standing than farm animals and are left to try to survive in the open fields.

Homelessness has been accepted by government as the status quo for over 30 years.

This acts as a terrorist threat aimed at workers who are willing to do anything and for longer hours than is legal in order to avoid being homeless.

This threat undermines everyone's mental health.

We all have moral PTSD because of witnessing suffering without any recourse.

Given the length and scope of this crisis, we feel it would be wise to put homelessness on the agenda every week.

Then we who advocate would be spared the gory details of hiring a city manager to the tune of 400,000 a year.

This one yearly salary could house 400 people in a tiny home for the rest of their lives.

We need to know every week how many people have been housed and what type of space.

Given the 10,000 in need, the yearly quota would be 2500 people housed.

Thank you for your comments. Your time is complete. Our next speaker is Mac Worthy on items 10 and 13.

I spoke to this consent thing on the monthly investments.

I've got other plans to reason that I have come to this because if I get those plans, some people are going to have to be subpoenaed in Calv.

This is why you have an accounting problem here.

When we look at a teen, we want to know what is construction management.

Any contractor will tell you to go to hell and manage his contract.

That's free and a product.

Then we look at 13.

We look at 13.

Somebody lying here. Those two housed in front of me, we're going to look at that first time home buys.

How did they get two black people get chosen right in front of me? Somebody lying here waiting this.

Did you tell them when you own a first time home buy, there's a marital room before you can do anything that helps.

Tell them the truth. That's a lie, too.

These things come when we got people that your property here, you use by the rule of thumb, you know, use an appraiser.

You got some of them to do their praise if it's called for.

But used by the rule of thumb and people you are being pimped to value your property.

No property in America.

Out of state of California, one percent increase per year.

That theory came from job was gained.

One percent of face value would be your tax.

So people wake up because I got something.

Had we been to America, we'll bring to the attention once I get along.

Thank you for your comments. Trisha Malone on item 19.

Hello. I just wanted to say thank you to vice mayor telemantez for your support of our 95 single family homes, 115 affordable housing units.

I'm going to send a sound while we will be building at Fong Ranch Park.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments. Mary have no more speakers on the consent calendar.

I do have council members Dickinson and plucky bomb recusing on item 18.

Okay.

Holy consent as amended.

Okay. We have an emotion and a second as amended with those two abstentions recusals.

All of the favor please say aye.

Aye. Any nos?

Or abstentions? Previously noted that my name is pass.

We move to the discussion calendar.

Item 20 is an ordinance amending Sacramento City Code chapter 5.108 related to entertainment establishments and the creation of a limited entertainment permit.

Good evening. Marin City Council.

I'm Tina Lee vote nighttime economy manager with the office of innovation and economic development.

With me is Dustin Hollingsworth assistant director with the convention and cultural services department.

Today we're asking the council to adopt an ordinance amending chapter 5.108 of the Sacramento City Code relating to entertainment establishments to create the limited entertainment permit.

The council is providing some background council adopted an ordinance to regulate the operation of entertainment establishments in 2003 to protect public health and safety due to problems with unruly events and activities.

The entertainment permit programs successfully addressed many of the problems that there were unintended results.

One was that the code does not differentiate between different business sizes and activities.

The small cafe that wants to occasionally host live music faced the same application and operational requirements as a large nightclub.

Recent studies reinforced the need to address this inequity.

The office of nighttime economy completed the social city assessment and in-depth analysis of our social economy while CCS conducted the Sacramento music census and regulatory review and analysis of our local music industry.

Although these studies had different purposes, both identified a need to create multiple levels of entertainment permits to support the city's current nighttime social and creative economic objectives.

Last year staff presented a report to council that proposed amending the city code to create a new permit type that allows smaller businesses to provide entertainment at a lower cost and without the same application and operational requirements that night clubs and larger establishments face.

At that meeting council directed staff to come back with an amendment to create this new permit type.

Following that directive one and CCS collaborated with key stakeholders to amend the city code and create the limited entertainment permit or LEP.

The following are the key criteria for LEP.

Total occupancy of 299 or less.

Entertainment must serve as a secondary operation.

Entertainment ends at 10pm on week nights and 11pm on weekends with entertainment hours extended for New Year's Eve.

The amendments also renamed the current entertainment permit to general entertainment permit, clarify the name of special entertainment permit to temporary entertainment permit to avoid ongoing confusion with special events permits and it adds trivia as an exemption.

They also revise and add fees to implement the new permit type. Please note that CCS will be returning to council to approve the new fees if the changes are adopted.

Although the LEP has fewer application requirements and operational restrictions, there are still measures in place to ensure public health and safety.

General and limited entertainment permits both require the following. Applications are reviewed and approved by the city entertainment team including police, code and fire.

Applications are routed to the appropriate council office and if applicable, P bed for review and comment.

Letters are mailed to property owners within 500 feet of the business to advise them that an application has been submitted and to allow them to provide comments.

Although general applications are subject to full building and fire inspections and approval, limited applications must still receive fire approval.

Both permits are issued under a set of operational conditions. Although limited permits will be less restrictive, there will still be conditions related to entertainment type, days and hours allowed, sale management and crowd control.

Both permits will also require that a manager be on site when entertainment is occurring. Both permits will be valid for two years and eligible for a no cost to your extension if there are no significant violations.

Since originally proposing the LEP last year, our offices have received ongoing inquiries asking when the new permit will be available.

The CCS Entertainment Services Division will oversee the implementation and administration of the LEP. Our offices will work on an outreach strategy to educate people on the new permit type and the application process and it's anticipated that applications will be available by June.

We appreciate your support for this new permit type. Your approval of the code amendments will reflect the city's commitment to fostering a safe, dynamic and well-managed social economy while supporting our local businesses and performers.

This concludes my presentation. Dustin Hollingsworth and I are available. Dustin, if you have anything else that you'd want to add?

No, if you have any questions, I have to wear it. Good answer.

Thank you. We'll come back to you in a second. We have one public comment.

I have one speaker, Mack Worthy.

People you have to laugh at this one because you're saying health and safety.

Why are you using those and every damn thing you get ready to say, do we live tonight closed?

People are not able to put up the money to set those things up.

People are not able to have that ticket to go through the system. I was involved in the first black box of motor here.

We had 18,000 tickets though and somebody come with a bad eye and it had to go back.

But now you got that certain things had to go through a ticket cell.

What are you doing is going back to slavery with pofos in this town. It going to blow in your face.

Now I get a permit for entertainment. I got to come back and fund you in two years.

What is the constitution now to your parents? Wake up.

Thank you for your comments. Mary, I have no more speakers on this item.

Thank you. Count some member Dickinson.

I do have a couple questions. Oh, there you are.

I appreciate this work and supportive of the direction you want to go.

There are a couple things that I wanted to drill a little bit more deeply into.

I understand that if I understand currently and this is not proposed to be changed, a venue that has 49 or fewer patrons is exempt.

That's correct. That would continue to be an exemption.

You are setting the max for this limited permit at $2.99.

It would apply between $50 and $2.99.

Correct.

I am just curious how those numbers were selected.

Was there a rationale to them or just they sounded good or what?

Typically 49 is the number where fire designates. If it is 50 or above, it is an assembly use.

Then 2.99 is the number that fire uses when additional fire requirements are needed.

Usually if somebody wants to go above 300, there are extra requirements that fire pits in place for fire suppression.

We thought those were pretty good numbers.

We have 10 to found, at least my experience in issuing permits.

Usually when a venue goes above 300, their shift from secondary to primary entertainment goes with that.

We thought 2.99 was a good number for the fire purpose as well as make sure people are doing it as a secondary use.

Were you able to or did you try to do any kind of survey of venues to get an idea of the alignment between what you just explained as a rationale and how venues are actually operating?

Not really a survey but just I have been doing entertainment for about a dozen years and so in my experience.

Usually when there are over 300, their primary focus tends to shift from more that they are doing entertainment as maybe something that is a secondary use to something that they kind of shift toward to more of that.

That's what I think is the best way to do that.

That's what I think is the best way to do that is to shift toward more of a tight club or entertainment becomes a more primary purpose.

You're not proposing to change the requirements, really to the exemption for PBID sponsored events.

I'm curious whether you have run into any issues with respect to the administration or including code enforcement of events that PBIDs have sponsored.

At this time we're not looking at doing it symptoms and I might let Dustin speak a little bit more to that because we are looking at doing a little bit of a deeper dive into the ordinance.

Exactly. So this was we were really tasked with trying to implement this limited entertainment permit for this run through.

We're aware within the entertainment services division that we're going to actually come back to the overall entertainment permit this ordinance overall and do a deeper dive into this.

There are some other things within it that we believe need to be corrected as well.

I see. Okay. So it just wasn't in the scope of what you were looking at but it's on the list to take a look at it.

As you look at the more comprehensively at the ordinance is that correct? Yes.

That's correct. Yes.

Okay. And then I always enjoy sections on fees that list no fees.

So in order to adhere to prop 26 the fees are lagging a little bit because we wanted to make sure that the fees were appropriate and that there weren't any taxes or anything hidden in there that could be misconstrued as an inappropriate.

Okay. So you need to go through a separate fee setting.

And we're hoping to exercise. Sorry. Yes.

And then and so what do you anticipate in terms of timing? Obviously you can't really implement this. The changes you're proposing assuming we adopt them until you have some fees to associate them with.

So we're hoping to bring that back actually within the next month while the during the wait period after tonight assuming a pass this evening.

So within the next 30 30 days. That is the hope. Yes.

Okay. Thanks. Those are the questions I had. I do think this as I mentioned at the outside. I do think this is a step in the right direction. We have a lot of smaller venues.

And they may offer entertainment on a much more limited basis than can justify paying fees and going through the requirements associated with the general entertainment permits.

I think this can be a great boost to the kind of entertainment associated especially with secondary purposes as as a secondary purpose to many of our restaurants clubs, other wine bars.

Even smaller just venues that have occasional events. It'll make it practical. That'll create more opportunities for entertainment and attractions in the community.

That's something that we are keenly interested in in North Sacramento and District 2. So I applaud those who voted to start this process.

And I thank you for the work work you've done. Look for some more on the issues that you haven't had a chance to address such as the P-Bids as we go along.

But I'm glad to see this here before us tonight. Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you. Mayor Prozem Gara.

Thank you, Mayor. First I wanted to thank staff for their work on this and reaching out to a lot of folks.

I think particularly when I've heard from some of my constituents and who owned businesses down in the Stockton Boulevard area south of the area.

They see a particular opportunity where they could create a type of entertainment zone.

Their primary business is restaurants. And that's kind of what keeps the lights on every day.

But they do see a growing interest in trying to actually activate that area, activate the excitement.

And so I'd like to make sure that as we execute this program, I know a lot of it is some of the smaller shops in the coffee shops or little restaurants in the Midtown area that have historically had been an impact on the public.

And I'm glad I'm glad to have historically had some type of concert activities.

But I'd like to make sure we get outside of the central city and start looking at those commercial corridors, which I think could benefit from that.

Now on the flip side, there are parts of my district where we have had entertainment permits inside businesses that are next to residential.

And sometimes there's been a little bit of conflict with the neighbors.

So what is the reporting time that you want? Are you going to keep the council up to speed?

It doesn't necessarily have to be here. But what's the feel of like, okay, this is how we're seeing the interplay between someone who has a coffee shop but wants to have, you know, it's above, well, coffee shop under 49 people.

But it's a little bigger that might interface with residential communities because I think that's the concern.

I've had some neighbors who are close to small venues where they've had constant events who have had to upgrade their windows and make sure that the sound wasn't too much.

So can you maybe discuss what the feedback loop is going to be as we execute this?

One of the things we always do is we always work really closely with the council office to make sure there's no concerns.

Typically, most of our venues are in the central city, so we work very closely with the central command.

But one of the things that does not I did when we were initiating this process was to go out and work with all of the sector command captains as well so they were aware of it so we can get feedback from them.

The beauty of our program is that we have operational conditions.

And so what we really try to do is we try to work with folks to make sure that any business that their conditions address specifically those concerns.

So we'd be able to do things. So for example, 10 is kind of the latest that a building business could be open.

But if they were next to residential or if they were next to a sensitive use where maybe we needed to have that be a little earlier, it may be that maybe for that particular business, they might end at 8.

Or we might put some other things in place to make sure that we can address any kind of residential concerns.

That also is really what's fortunate about the letters that we send.

The letters are really useful in developing the conditions because if we get a lot of feedback from residents who say that they're concerned about noise, then we make sure that those conditions address and put into place different kind of things that can address that.

So for example, a lot of our businesses are not allowed to have their doors open or their windows open to make sure they can contain their noise.

So we really try to have the conditions meet the business. So we also have to say there are like snowflakes no tour alike.

So we really try to make sure that we work with that fine balance of quality of life, but also kind of a thriving business.

Great, thanks. Look, I think there's an opportunity for a lot of our commercial corridors where we have spaces where they're a little larger to benefit from this opportunity.

And so I'm excited about that aspect and I hope that you guys will, you know, I know historically you've been in the central city, but I know a lot of neighbors who don't want to drive or uber down and sometimes Uber can be like 30 bucks to just get down.

And so having something more locally and helping those businesses that maybe only rely on on the lunch traffic to stay open to be able to have a secondary form of income, I think is positive.

So I encourage that and then I do want to let work closely on the on those of where they are closer to residents and whatnot.

I mean, I know if you know during the weekdays 10 o'clock may seem early, I remember the days where I was getting ready at 10 o'clock, but usually I've got my kids in bed and homework's been packed up and ready to go and I'm getting ready to go to bed at 10 o'clock.

So if we get out of out on Tuesdays, so but to that point, I'd like to make sure that we're working on those and it's not give and take, right?

Maybe maybe on a Thursday or Friday night might be appropriate, but for the later 10 o'clock hour, but I'd like to see how we play this out.

And with that mayor, I'll go ahead and move the item.

Your motion is second. Councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you, mayor. I want to echo the questions and comments from my prior two colleagues and really say thank you.

And I think as we always think about like vibrancy, a lot of the times it is as councilmember Getta said, is you think about the core?

When we went through the general plan update, one of the things I constantly heard is, okay, we don't have enough entertainment in North Natomas.

You know, there might be one place in town that plays music. You know, where else can we go to enjoy somebody playing a guitar or something and how do we bring more arts?

That shows the vibrancy of our culture, especially in North Natomas because it is when we talk about community in place.

Expanding the arts and expanding venues that are not just downtown in the major core is where I'm hoping to go because we've got a couple places that do it, but I am mindful of, I appreciate the streamlined, but also with small businesses and restaurants, you know, every penny counts.

And how do we streamline this and not overburden it with fees because everything's getting more expensive. And with a restaurant, you know, should they have an inspection each time?

Should does the fire marshal need to come each time or is it a blanket one time and how long does that last so that we are mindful, especially of the 50 to 200, they are small businesses.

And so how do we make all of that work? So I'm curious in your thought process how that was discussed and brought up.

So fire does annual inspections of any assembly usage space that's that naturally occurs and is just a good brawmider to be able to keep track of these assembly use spaces, whether or not they have entertainment permits or not.

So will if they get an entertainment permit, is it another inspection?

We'll be using the fire inspection. So for example, if a business had recently gone through an inspection inspection with fire and they passed, we wouldn't have them go to another inspection again.

So we have them go through fire just so fire can kind of give them the thumbs up. A permanent valid for two years unless a business is really bad and has a lot of violations, they'll get an extension for another two years.

So we have to come in for renewal until four years. And so that's one of the things that we try to do to help reduce the cost.

And so we really thought that at least having fire make sure that they're okay, we're making sure that the venue is safe because that is the premise on which the program was built.

But you're correct not having them go through multiple inspections is one of the ways that we're working to streamline those costs.

Which I think that is really great that you brought that up. So when this goes live, are you guys looking to have a potential Q&A?

Because these are a lot of the questions that all hear from businesses. How do we do this? What is the cost? How many times do I have to have an inspection?

Oh yeah, we'll be doing a lot of outreach. I spent a lot of time with Dustin and we're doing a lot of things in terms of outreach.

And even before we did this, we took a lot of time in terms of going out beyond the core. We really wanted to go to all of the different commercial corridors.

And so we met with so many different people outside of the central city to make sure that they were aware of what we were doing.

And so we will continue to do that. We will put together a program where we can have folks come in because we want people to be successful when they come in and apply.

Because it's not entirely about the occupancy of the space. It's also what the intended use. If they really want to push into those later nights and things in that nature.

I appreciate it. And just remember North and the show must we don't have a peabid. We don't have a business district. So getting me as much information that I can get out to my small businesses would be helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm in full support of this and thank you for our briefing the other day. And this is something that I heard a lot running for mayor last year.

Is that you know you can have thriving entertainment districts in the central city but also across the city and neighborhoods and aren't the core.

And also respect neighborhoods and it's always about a balance. But one thing that I heard loud and clear which you're attempting to address here is it's not always even the not apples to apples.

Some are amplified music and hundreds of people some are you know a lounge or coffee shop. A little cafe that like to bring in you know live music on a on a lower scale more kind of a lounge type experience.

And so I do appreciate that we're providing that and having adjusting fees and I guess my only point of this all is I'm we have a motion of second I fully support that is hopefully we can follow this and revisit it and and tweak and adapt if needed.

And so make sure there's a process to focusing on implementation and feedback as we go along.

We can do that. Okay thank you with that we have a motion and a second all those in favor please say aye aye.

Any nos or abstentions hearing none. And as your passes.

Next item passes unanimously with council member maple absence.

We move to item 21 budgetary adjustments for old sac revitalization and improvement project.

Good evening mayor council my name is James Christianson and I am here to discuss the replacement for the dining deck located over the Sacramento River it's located at 1110 front street this is formally the real city cafe.

Okay well let's start out why does the deck need to be replaced so the wooden deck is over 30 years old it was installed somewhere around 1993.

During those 30 years it has been exposed to sun wind rain moisture and has deteriorated significantly.

We had a report done in 2018 of the facilities condition assessment and that FCA facility assessment recommended a full structural review and in their mind that the deck need to be replaced.

So actions what is he done what we found since 2020 so in early 2020 we hired a structural engineer to evaluate the deck.

They monitor the deck since then they monitor the deck every year to ensure its safety.

We've had to close a couple of areas of the deck that we were unreliable and we've installed additional shoring particularly on the north side of the deck so that the deck can continue to be used.

Unfortunately in April of 24 we had to close the deck completely because for safety reasons.

So our engineers review.

So this photo kind of tells it all how we ended up where we're at so you can see on the on the right side of the photo the lower portion there how the deck is sagging significantly.

You've had a lot of dry rot there not as it's sagging you can't see it in the picture but the deck is pushing out towards the water in addition to that.

So once this was evaluated this is what basically closed the section of the deck and this was in 2020.

Later in 2020 we brought our or structural engineer back out again to look at it.

This time we had some scaffolding installed they were able to see more of the deck and under the deck and by doing a more thorough review they came up with some new evaluations and new in the engineer recommended new closures.

So we ended up closing another part of the deck and we ended up limiting access to some areas of the deck.

So this is a plan review if you were looking up above and looking down at the site you see the building down below the Sacramento River at the top and then you can see the deck area in the multi colors.

Over on the right side you see the northwest section that was the section that was closed I showed you the picture earlier of the show the most damage that in the beginning had the most damage when the scaffolding went up and they were able to look at more of the deck.

We have the other area that's kind of in red and the center of it that area also had to be closed.

It opened for dining that's the center area there that's most of the area that was under the covered patio and wasn't it too quiet as much because it had the cover from the patio.

Then we have the yellow that was passage only so exiting or staff moving back and forth there but they could no longer use that area for dining.

In 2022 we had a couple of wet winners and the damage it got worse and particularly once again on that northwest side which is what it got us out there in the first place.

So the engineers recommended additional supports and so we added additional shoring to the north section so that even that section wasn't being used it wouldn't deteriorate so bad as the fall and the floor completely fail and making so the rest of the deck not be used.

Quick little photo here that just shows what all that entailed working over the Sacramento River is a challenge you've got water levels that go up and down you've got currents that move fast and you've got multiple right with the agencies.

And so this picture just kind of shows you everything that takes to work underneath there all the scaffolding had be put up at a time when the river was low enough and get the folks in there to do the shoring.

So the new deck from 2020 to 2024 we've been working as everything else I told you was going on parallel with that we're working on the deck design.

And so the engineers contractions city had been working on that for almost four years and finally in January of 2024 those construction documents were completed.

The outline of the new deck is basically the exact same outline of the old deck which allows us to do this under a maintenance contract with with simplifies our agency reviews.

So because it's such a complex project I mentioned the water levels going up and down the current that we've got time of the year I'll explain that in a second that you can work out there.

This is a picture showing underneath the deck looking from the docks down below kind of just gives you an idea of what you're up against.

In this picture everything above the top of the pole has to be removed that big board that's called a glue lamb columns going the other way all of that stuff has to come out.

So we decided to use the design assist approach and that's where you bring a contractor in a little bit earlier in the process to get them to work with the consultants to end up with a better set of plans and you get to choose a contractor on quality to start with and then they ultimately come up with what's called the GMP guarantee maximum price to build the deck.

So try a minute was chosen through the process we went through.

As I mentioned earlier working over the Sacramento River we've got a lot of different agencies with that have jurisdiction so the US Army Corps of Engineers we've got state agencies including fish and wildlife state lands but protection board.

And because of the policies and procedures of these different agencies you pretty much can only work on under the water or oak to me over the water from May through October unless you've got some special permission.

That's what we're shooting for.

Time line update so April 2024 project was paused we had to close the deck.

January 2025 we are restarting the project which is why we're here today and our goal is for this to be constructed and completed during the from May October.

If this is approved today we will hit the ground running because there's a lot of work that has to be done up front before we actually physically get get out there and start building so we're really hopeful that will happen.

Talk about funding real quick so back in 2324 we were unable to steer funding and 2024 Ceta California ordered the city of 4.6 million dollar grant through the budget act that gave us the funds to do this project.

We counsel adopted that in March of this past year in 2025 we've got a final construction cost of 2.95 million approximately 3 million dollars.

Understand that that's construction only that doesn't include contingencies construction management inspections special inspections etc.

So I think the last but total budget we put together was right around 4.3 so the 4.6 should get us get us home.

And there you go. I'm available for questions.

Okay.

Mary have no speakers on this item.

Okay we have questions or comments from council members Mr. Pucki bomb.

I'll open up close the public comment period and wave staff.

We have public comment move staff recommendation.

Motion.

Second.

Motion the second.

Council member Dickinson.

Thanks Mary.

And looking at the drawings it wasn't clear to me whether whether some portion of the deck with the plans you have now excuse me not to have the deck of the building will be lost in this in this process.

I think it was only a very small section that I kind of didn't get into.

It's over on that northwest side it was it's that there's a small section that was scabbed onto the building at a later date that extends over the deck.

And so we're going to just kind of chop that off along the way and rebuild that wall.

And then that's the only change to the building itself.

During the cafe was operating low was that space used for you know.

I think it was an office space.

The extension of the office or storage I'm not positive.

And roughly how many square feet are you going to lose?

I'm thinking it's maybe four by eight.

Four feet by eight feet is relatively small.

I just wondered whether that that becomes a little bit of a challenge in terms of someone else coming along who might.

Obviously it can adapt to the space available but losing that space is unfortunate.

Understood. Understood.

It wasn't permitted. It wasn't installed correctly.

It needs to come down. We would then have to rebuild it.

And we probably would want to rebuild it in a different way.

So then it's going to add costs to the project.

And that's in the end it was like the best solution for the building and the deck was for that little section to go away.

And we are where we are but I will just say I have heard so many comments from people that were deeply disappointed that the city did not find the way to address the deck in a way in a time timely manner that would have allowed the cafe operators to continue the long time cafe operators.

Obviously we want to go forward but we should be mindful and in my judgment of those kinds of circumstances when we see them in the future because I can tell you for a lot of the people I've spoken to.

It's left a very bad impression.

Very a very bad sense about how this this was handled.

And so you can't on ring the bell. You can't go back in time but hopefully there are some some lessons here for us as we look at other circumstances in the future.

Understood.

Councilmember Jennings.

Thank you mayor.

So that last bridge lasted about 30 years correct.

And so with the new materials and different kinds of maintenance and different time in time how long do we expect this bridge to last.

That's a good question. So one thing I didn't bring up is the lower portion of it is going to be in steel this time.

So the larger beams the larger columns or the I think they're called with the ones that come off trusses right that's all going to be steel.

So that lifetime is I don't know what it is but it's a very very long lifetime right above that will be your wood.

And so it depends on how well it's maintained how well it's painted. I suspect we'll get at least 30 years out of it.

And if we do get to the point where we have to redo it we won't have to go all the way down as it won't be as expensive right.

Well pretty much be above the basically the wood deck and above is what we have to get right down.

Still on the bottom. So you're thinking another 30 years.

What kind of maintenance can we add to that on a yearly basis yearly maintenance.

Sure.

Last longer. I think one of the things that happens here is when we when we do our leases so if we do a new lease for this to make sure we really look at the lease and we look at the maintenance and the lease and the responsibilities of the lease and make sure that we're happy and comfortable with who's going to do that whether that's the city or the leacy.

Because sometimes that gets us into trouble so I think that's making sure that the correct words we can work with our real estate staff to assist at least I think and get us in a better location.

And and you'll give the city information about the maintenance is required in order to maintain the bridge.

Yes we can provide that and then the last thing was you were awarded in 2024 4.6 million congratulations and I heard that only 4.3 is going to be needed for the budget.

So the extra money goes to maintenance.

I love that. I'm not sure at this point but let's not get ahead of ourselves right we've got an estimate it's an estimate we've got a budget let's get this deck replaced and let's hopefully have some savings.

Yes well thank you I know we have a motion to second I want to say this is very positive news and all we can do is move forward so I just want to note that a big picture the river is the marquee place in our city.

It's our city was formed the confluence of two rivers. We always the men when we go traveling across the globe everybody on the skies that they go to other cities and they don't we don't activate our rivers much as we should.

So this has been two areas where we can go not to several along the Sacramento River right there an old Sacramento so we've seen it firsthand and it was unfortunate what what happened and I just want to note that at the very end of my legislative career when the final

votes that we took was to adopt an amendment to the budget to include resources to to focus on old Sacramento infrastructure just this so just to clarify there wasn't a grant of months in in the in the waiting.

This became part of the public domain some some leaders frankly in our state saw oh wow this is a state asset state of California actually owns as we know old Sacramento and thought you know what this is our you know responsibility as well so there there was thankfully an opportunity to include some resources to focus on the state asset which the city is a partner with to upgrade.

This this important piece of the city of Sacramento and lastly you know last night was a big deal here in Sacramento we have major league baseball in our region people are walking from the downtown through old sack to the ballpark and I want them to see a sign hey coming soon improvements being made on public access to our riverfront so this is very very timely and I expect us to be done before October so this will be.

Ready to roll and have a new operator by next by next year.

Thank you congratulations with that we have a motion in a second all the favor please say aye aye noes or abstentions hearing none item passes eight zero thank you very much.

May I now move to item number 22 transit occupancy tax TOT past present and future presentation.

Right good evening may our members of council I'm Megan Vervora director of convention and cultural services for this city we manage the enterprise fund which for your reference includes the funds that come from the convention and performing arts district plus the transient occupancy tax.

And so in that capacity I was to take I was asked to take the lead on this presentation but I will tell you it's a team effort everyone from the finance office to the treasure's office to economic development and in between and so those folks are all here today to answer any other questions that you might have that I don't get to.

So today I'll be focusing mostly on the transient occupancy itself what the law is what changed with the passage of measure and where the money comes from and where it goes.

I would also like to point out I'm joined by my test of president and CEO of visit Sacramento who is also was here there you are.

Who's also be available for questions and is an amazing partner for us in the department of convention and cultural services.

All right so the uniform transient occupancy tax is section 3.28 of the city code it is a voter approved tax on what they call rent rent is defined in the code at hotels motels etc it applies to stays fewer than 30 days.

And its fundamental purpose was to support and maintain facilities and activities that stimulate visitation that's always been a part of the purpose of the code and even with the change it remains a critical.

It was originally passed in 1964 and has been amended over the time frame mostly from the perspective of the actual tax itself most recently in 2022 and in 2022 it included updates to the uses of the funds which I'll go through in a minute.

So the tax itself is 12% which is generally comfortable to other markets that we operate that that are also applying taxes of this nature.

It is comprised of a 2% general tax which goes to support the general fund and can be used for any governmental purpose as well as a special use tax which is 10% and is restricted by code and includes and defines an annual payment to visit Sacramento as a part of the code.

By way of example if the nightly rate is $100 then the tax would be $12 and that gets split with $2 going to the general fund and $10 to the community center fund.

From 1964 to 2022 the uses were focused on really this public assembly and convention halls themselves so you can see actually the old photo there as well as the public

as well as all of the infrastructure to support those public assembly and convention halls that might be rights of way that we could be like parking etc.

And then also visit Sacramento's annual payment.

Things like administration of the chapter lease payments interest in principal payments on the bonds this is something that's going to come up in a minute those were always a part of the code and they remain a part of the code with measure N.

2022 the city pursued measure N to give greater clarity and flexibility on the use of funds while remaining in the overall intent of the objective of the measure which is to advance

visitation. I'll walk you through the code itself right now call out the specific changes and implications.

The first use is fairly straightforward administration of the provisions of the chapter.

Economic development projects to create local jobs was added to the code in 2022 and so far in terms of interpretation we find that economic development projects are considered within the larger context of the statute which once again is encouraging

visitation or enhancing the city as a visitor destination. Intentionally these are these are catalytic projects in terms of the work the one time two million dollar contribution to support iconic events that you all did in November qualified within this category of the code.

Language was added to clarify that facilities be visitor serving facilities that promote tourism economic development and other activities that bolster the local economy within that context theater and arts venues were added as allowable expenditures against TOT this has so far been interpreted to include only those facilities where the city has a possessory interest.

The addition of theater and arts venues meant that some other visitor serving city facilities like the Crocker Art Museum the zoo et cetera we're now eligible for TOT.

The rest of the chapter remains largely intact from its origins and delineated here expenses in connections with proposals to acquire facilities interest in principle on bond payments related to those facilities is defined in section three.

Least payments for the lease of any of those facilities referred into referred into that section.

The section shown here is actual TOT revenue from FY 2018 to our projective revenues for FY 25. You'll note the steep decline in revenues in FY 2021 which were partly pandemic related luckily we had already factored in that the facilities would be closed for construction and renovation.

You see the rebound in recent years and a stabilizing of TOT revenues.

Here you see the split of TOT revenues to the general fund and the community center fund.

So 7 million in 2025 35 million to the community center fund.

And the change in contribution to visit Sacramento over time again that amount is defined in the code and adjust based on the CPI.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the critical role visit Sacramento plays in positioning the city as a visitor destination overall.

It's not just conventions they're really influencing the full 42 million dollars that you see there with their work.

So when they fill rooms for conventions and other events those leftover rooms become more valuable the prices go up and when those prices go up that means we also get more TOT.

So it's just really important and also visit sex just an amazing partner.

I have received a question of what the balance in the TOT fund is and I just wanted to clarify that's really important.

There is no TOT fund. There is the enterprise fund which is combined of the revenues that come from the Safe Credit Union Convention and Performing Arts District as well as the TOT.

And you'll recall that last week I shared that there is something of a symbiotic relationship between our earned revenues and TOT.

For example, we'll forego room rentals on certain events if they meet certain room night thresholds so we can capture the TOT revenues and Ancillary revenues.

You can just see here earned revenues in the fund to follow that trajectory that we saw earlier.

They are on a growth trajectory and have exceeded their pre-pandemic numbers which is quite exciting.

Here is a chart that shows TOT by region. It is shown by region as opposed to district so it is not to disclose any one business's revenue.

North Sacramento makes up about 31% of TOT revenue collected. Central Sacramento makes up about 53%. South Sacramento makes up about 9%.

And then short term rentals account for roughly 6% of collected revenues.

To take a minute to share the FY25 Community Center fund TOT expenses and obligations.

So debt service which makes up a really significant portion of that pie is for the $300 million plus renovation and expansion.

And also because we don't talk about it often did include funding for the memorial auditorium as a part of that effort.

Convention Center includes a $1.5 million annual contribution to CIPs in lieu of franchise fees that are around $1.7 million in lieu property tax fees around half the million and $4.3 million for operations.

Cultural partners includes those partners where the city has some possessory interest of the facility.

For example the Crocker Art Museum which makes up the largest portion of that at $2.9 million.

There are the collections and the building are the cities and we also employ city staff at the Crocker so it is very much us.

The zoo Center for Sacramento History, Sac History Museum and Mozac operations are also considered here.

Oh, don't go back.

Sorry about that.

City expenses include citywide support expenses of around 2.5 million so we have the city cost share we're responsible for like other departments like all of the important things that the city offers to us in terms of services as well as insurance.

Includes a risk loan of $250,000 that believe the city took up in the early 2000s.

Fleet of $141,000 in ITCIP of 60.

Aside from this we have the Golden One Center possessory interest tax which was moved to the fund in FY25 and visit Sacramento's annual payment which includes $100,000 for the sports commission.

Notably on the FY25 slide this does not include the $2 million for iconic events that's expected later just wanted to call that out.

Just a few considerations to share in regards to the future of TOT.

One the Waterfront project phase one we were obviously talking about that that was approved for $25 million and we're in process in terms of moving that forward.

It's my understanding that because we got the extra funding for the deck that that project will likely come a little bit later in the year in the second half of the year.

The Waterfront phase two which includes the North and South public markets I do believe the Waterfront phase one includes design for phase two correct.

The Mozac Bond payment so this is something that is largely for the most part about a million dollars a year 600,000 of it which is born only by the TOT if the TOT comes in higher than budget.

So typically the general fund will have this responsibility for paying this unless our project are we coming on TOT higher than we anticipated in which case it can be moved to TOT.

Deferred maintenance which is ongoing and it's worth it to consider the fact that we do we will likely eventually have capital needs we're doing a really good job of keeping up with all of that at the convention and performing arts district but that's likely to eventually be a need.

The Crocker Art Museum I will just point out has something on the order of seven million in deferred maintenance there other buildings history museum what happens with his use site like these are all places that you might imagine that we might turn to for.

And then any other commitments by council subject to the requirements of the code.

I talked about bonding capacity and I know we have John Colville here and he's definitely more expert at this and so we'll be available answer questions but future bonding capacity is subject to TOT growth and the scale of any anticipated projects factors include factors influencing capacity itself includes the inherent risk in the project itself projected revenues for the TOT the prior 12 months of revenues.

So that is my brief presentation staff and my test are available to enter answer any questions you might have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm Eva Hill.

Mac Worthy and Sheryl Lane.

Hello, Mr. Mayor and council.

Thank you for your service here.

I'm Eva Hill and I'd like to just tell you I have the answer for part of your TOT issues.

I have a hotel project that's been planned and designed and put through the building with a shovel ready building permit for 9th and L street.

It is 265 rooms with 55 apartments on the top one half of which are affordable by design.

And I'm here the project has been put in front of the city for the last several years with a request for assistance and that's primarily because the interest rates went up 5%.

And when you have a hundred million dollar loan 5% means you need to make another $5 million a year.

So I would just like to tell you I'm going to be bringing this back to the city again and I would like for you to give it some earnest attention.

We are shovel ready the permits are ready to be pulled and I would like to just ask that you do the right thing and help get this project going.

Thank you very much.

Any questions for me?

Thank you.

Next speaker is Macworthy.

What's in the TOT tax was first came in because it was a hotel that any homeless people go into that hotel.

That's slavery. That's controlled by the system.

Free enterprise is not designed that way.

Every job here going to you right to go through the city to get on the TOT people that's ridiculous.

What they have in New York TOT tax you had people homeless in there and you had people illegally here in that now we may find that we get to write investigators here is what you are done.

You talk about a long term and short term stay.

You ain't had no big converse is you're in years so what are you saying to the people you line to the people that's you doing you are lying to the people in order to have this a state on everything that you're doing and it's going to be sad down the line.

That's the reason we tell Trump cut all federal grants to the state of California because they miss using the money we needed investigation and we had outside audit to tell you where that money is ridiculous.

Thank you for your comments. She or Elaine is our final speaker on this item.

Hi, my name is she or Elaine I'm with HM 916 creative innovation center for sustainability. Thank you council.

We are located in old Sacramento we see about 148,000 people a year.

We are in the tourist district and I would love to see TOT go more to the creative economy in any way that that can happen.

There's a lot of opportunity to happen in old Sacramento we need to see more arts in old Sacramento.

This is where a lot of people go for tourism they want to see the local art and I feel like there could be more so thank you.

If you're comments Mary have no more speakers on this item.

Okay thank you council member Tala Montes.

Thank you mayor and Mr. Cobal our city treasure can you please come up.

Back on especially for you.

Thank you.

Last year when we were going to use exercises of how we're going to spend our TOT co-votes department was not looped in regarding any of the conversations which I found unacceptable since there are city treasure and have been heavily involved with the past.

The logic the history behind it so moving forward to staff direction make sure that the city treasures office gets included as part of these conversations.

Mr. Cobal can you tell us what our bond capacity looks like can you run through the numbers.

Well.

That's a difficult question now after the great presentation.

I think she identified some of the uncertainties right now when we gave past.

Valuations about what was what was available was based on 12 months past revenue so based on that there's a 90 to 130 million dollar.

But the problem exists now with a passage measure and not only did you create more opportunity to use it to TOT but you also increase the universe of TOT expenses.

So now we're trying to incorporate expenses into the cash flow so trying to determine what's ongoing or what's one time is going to make it difficult for us to determine at this point until you do your budget analysis what's really going to be available because you're taking more money out of TOT that was used to be paid by the general fund.

So you're kind of reducing the capacity of the TOT because the general funds off loading some of its liabilities.

That's a key point.

So I think that's a key point.

That's a key point that we should zero in on could take a little time.

Can you go to that slide and walk us through in great detail?

I think that's a key point that we should be able to do.

That's a key point that we should zero in on could take a little time.

Can you go to that slide and walk us through in great detail?

Specifically before and after.

Well, I would talk to Pete having come up and talk about what's before and after but a lot of the cultural partners those expenses were born by the the general fund last year.

And again, they're going to be this year to offset some of the loss the budget concerns.

So in the past those were paid by the general fund.

That's why I could give you a credible number on available cash for the TOT capacity.

Now, not knowing what you're going to agree upon, what you're going to what you're going to offload from the general fund.

It's hard for me to determine what exactly is left to pay the to pay the debt service.

Does that make sense to you all?

Wait, so yeah, actually that actually opens up kind of a can of worms here.

So we are already using TOT dollars as a city from that we used to general fund.

Now we're using TOT dollars.

We use that last year.

And so this 3.3 is going to be annual every year so far next year the following year.

We already made this commitment for the measure and dollars.

That's correct.

When you adopted the FY 2425 budget.

I thought we did just for one year.

City manager, you want to speak up on that?

What was included in the proposed 25 budget was permanent and ongoing.

2425 budget.

Last year.

Okay.

Yes.

In that case, the current year budget that were in 2425.

Yes.

I knew we made these commitments last year.

I just didn't realize that we were doing it permanently forever.

You're moving forward.

So, okay.

I mean.

That creates the dilemma.

I don't, it's hard for me to determine what's available because I don't know what's going to be spent out of that fund.

So last year when we were having these conversations, I requested from staff a strategic two year plan.

Five year plan.

Ten year, like plan, like a guiding framework of how we're going to be able to use these measure and dollars.

And that's, I guess, now I'm glad we're doing direction because I still want that.

You know, we have to be really strategic on how we're going to use these money to increase more money that we can have as a city.

The whole goal of this is to put a dollar in and get a dollar back out.

I mean, that's equal.

But put a dollar in and get three dollars out.

It's to grow our revenues through getting people to Sacramento.

We need someone from Austin or York or any other city, the Bay Area to say, hey, I want to come to Sacramento for this reason.

Therefore, I'm going to say in a hotel room for this reason.

And that's a whole goal, TOT.

And I think for me, moving forward, having a strategic plan with measurable, like, I mean, with goals and metrics and seeing, like, when we're going to come back and see if what we're investing our money on is working is so important.

Do you want to do an answer to that?

Sorry, look at you.

Like you want to punch out.

No, I appreciate the desire to have a plan.

It is a bit challenging as John has seen for a couple of reasons right now.

Number one is in some ways it reflects on what we put on the TOT and cultural partners and other things.

It's also a function of the growth of the TOT.

So, for instance, we are looking at what the growth of the TOT.

And I think in that chart, you saw that post the pandemic, the growth kind of skyrocketed.

Now, as stable as the stabilizing down to about 2.1% per annum.

In this year, we hope and believe that maybe that will hopefully be, I think, was in the table that you have kind of like.

But honestly, we don't know that for a fact, for a number of reasons, you know, visitation will probably be affected by the economic environment we're entering into.

So, the idea of a plan becomes a bit difficult.

Council can identify, you know, certain priorities.

And I think those priorities were laid out in the sense of clearly we want to maintain our existing visiting, serving facilities.

Whether that's the waterfront or certainly the convention center or the memorial auditorium.

That's probably a first priority.

Just keep what you have in good shape.

And then we look at other opportunities with respect to that.

We had focused on the waterfront just as a reminder, because the waterfront is the number one location of visitation to Sacramento.

On something on the order of, I believe, Desmond is perhaps as high as 5 million visitors a year.

So, it makes sense for us to invest in the upkeep of the waterfront.

As the mayor pointed out, it's the front door of the city.

It's, you know, the iconic place for the confluence of two important rivers.

But looking beyond that, at least right now, is probably a little bit difficult.

So, from a plan perspective, that becomes a little bit difficult.

From a priority perspective, I think we can clearly out what are the priorities from a TOT perspective?

Yes, city management.

The other thing that we are looking at, and you saw the dip, which, well, you didn't see the dip, because you saw the COVID and the closure dip.

But the recessionary dip, and one of the things that I'm concerned about as we continue to see the economic fallout from our current administration, if travel declines, and our TOT does not grow, the path that we thought it would prior to the last three months.

And, or takes a hit because people stop traveling and stop spending money on that, which we're starting to see everywhere else.

This picture and that analysis changes also.

So, that is something that we're going to keep an eye on for over the next, you know, 12 to 24 months.

Even our ability to issue Toronto one, and when that will happen, and if that will happen.

So, piggyback what Lane just said is we just did analysis, we had CPR, we run an analysis, we just got draft one back.

Yes, Friday, I believe, that we're going through.

It's showing not a huge dip in tourism, mostly it's going to be affected by border towns like Seattle and places like that, not much here, but the growth rate is slowing.

Growth rate is slowing.

So, I think that's a lot of an average of, since the inception, I think average of 3.5% growth rate were down in the twos now.

So, if we do issue any debt, we'll do similar to what we did in 2019, we'll do a stress test, and, you know, plus or minus a standard deviation will determine whether we can pay the debt.

It was a great activity then, but the COVID kind of was a black swan event that didn't fall into the parameters.

Okay, all right, well, thank you.

I'm sorry, you're going to be more specific, but that's kind of the one I'm dealing with.

Okay, go ahead.

On the same line, on the same line, if we were to hold the funding that council voted last year to take general fund to use TOT to support the current cultural services, if we help that, what is our bond capacity?

I know you said that you can't really estimate, but let's say that we just use that, we didn't do any more, because something that council vote, we can always un-vote, right?

We can always change it, but if we held that constant, what would be the bond capacity?

If you still paid the three, like the three million to the crocker, I have to go through and do the analysis with the community center fund and see what the actual expenses are, but, you know, like I said, prior to that, we're at 9.0 to 130.

Okay, 9.0 to 130.

That's what that was.

Yeah, we'll come back to you.

Well, that was after the 25 million for the old sack.

Oh, so that, okay, that's after that.

Okay, we'll come back.

The first stretch.

Talamonte, can you finish first?

Yes, okay, thank you.

That's actually that 9.0 to 130 was kind of what I was looking for.

I know we had discussed that in the past.

Okay, that's helpful.

That's what I, that's a number I wanted to hear, but I guess for staff moving forward from my direction.

I really want to make sure that we have a two-year goal, five-year goal, ten-year, like a framework of how we're going to operate as a city with the measure and dollars.

That includes the input of visit Sacramento who's helping us get all these hotel rooms, the downtown Sacramento partnership, and the different just stakeholders here in this region.

We need to work together as a team to bring more tourism here.

I'd also like to see, you know, a review of the last five years of TOT investment and how it's panning out, which I think the numbers already do on your slides, so thank you.

That was going to be one of my asks.

And then, you know, all of us here have different ideas for our council districts of economic drivers.

I have one.

I have them at Klondock.

I have my Taco Truck Plaza.

I have different projects in my district that I'm thinking like, okay, well, what can I do to bring to my community so that people can visit?

I know all of us are kind of thinking and floating ideas in the community.

So how are we going to go about council request for projects?

And then also like, are we making the decision now this year, next year, or, you know, do we hold off on some monies for future generations to come so they can also make those decisions?

Or do we allocate all the monies now and then don't leave future councils the opportunity to also, you know, participate in these dollars?

And say a great opportunity comes on our way.

Mr. Testa brings somebody who says, hey, somebody is interested in Sacramento for X-Wine.

The reasons we've proven that where it can be a major league baseball team or soccer, like, do we have capacity as a city?

And then how will we know that and how will we gauge that as we move forward with our measure and dollars?

So I just, you know, making sure that TOT is distributed throughout the entire city of Sacramento is really important to me.

I know people don't think about Natomas sometimes as like a destination, but let's talk about the North Natomas Community Center and Aquatics Facility and all the parents and families that are coming for swim meets and staying in hotels overnight.

Like, this is all something to consider and not just our downtown core, which I love our downtown core, but something for staff to consider, like, how are we going to go about projects moving forward as they come down the pipeline for all the communities? So I'll stop there.

Yeah, because if you talk about the Aquatics Center, it wasn't allowable spends at that time.

I remember. I remember very clearly.

I was there. Thank you.

You were there. You remember it all too well. All too well?

Yeah.

Council Member Vang.

Thank you, Mayor.

First, I wanted just to thank Megan. Thank you so much just for your very thorough and high level presentation.

I think it's really important just so that we know how TOT operates.

I really just want to say thank you to you and also Mike as well.

And thank you, John, for being here and being able to answer any questions.

And I remember when we started the conversation, me and the former mayor went to you.

Additionally, to figure out how we could redirect some of the TOT funding for a potential project in South Sacramento and hearing that, you know, the Aquatic Center, the North Natomas Aquatic Center, couldn't utilize some of those funding.

As you know, in 2022, the voters pass measure N to give more flexibility, right, on how we could use those dollars outside of the city core to generate more TOT for economic growth and job opportunities.

I do want to share that the language that we that we updated on, it is the intent was to just broaden the language so that we could use it.

We can have the flexibility, right, to use TOT in a way that we weren't able before.

And I just want to share because I was part of those conversations as well as that.

We kept the language broad enough because we wanted that flexibility so we could use those dollars in other parts of the city that would bring economic opportunities for underserved communities.

And the actual language that we changed to, if you actually look at the red line, we kept us so broad to the point where it says bolster the economy visitor, serving facility that promotes tourism, economic development, and other activities, right.

We kept it pretty broad so that it would, it could, it could basically be more flexible, right.

And the reason why that's important and I want to talk a little bit about that graph that you saw the dip during the pandemic and I mentioned this during the 102 acres workshop as well is that during the pandemic downtown was hit hard.

No concert, no events in downtown, no conferences, no convention, right.

And that hurt us city wide because we've always made investment in downtown, right.

And so that's why you saw the dip in TOT funding in 2020 and 2021.

I think one of the very few tourism sectors that did not take a hard hit and Mike Tessick can talk about this as well was regional and national youth sports, like even during the pandemic, right.

And I say that because I think it's so important that we have to diversify the use of our TOT spending that when we only invest in one sector, like we're going to pay for that if we're in a pandemic, if there's a recession coming, I think it's really important to diversify our TOT.

And I only mentioned that because many young people and community members in South Sacramento want to see a multi-use sports complex in the area in South Sacramento.

And I also just want to acknowledge very similar to vice mayor Talimontis that I also am cognizant that there may be shovel ready projects in other district that might be able to use TOT.

And I would support them wholeheartedly as a council member from district eight, right.

We have to make sure that all districts are doing well.

However, I also just want to say that there are projects like the 102 acres in Med of you that might not be ready until five or eight years or other opportunities and underserved community like district two or district five and six, right.

And it's important for me that those dreams and those neighborhoods become a reality too.

I say this because I see the stats, I see the data South Sacramento brings in the lowest TOT, but that's not by accident.

It's not by accident because we never had invested in those neighborhoods.

So you're not going to see the return, right.

And something I just want to share with my colleagues is that as policy maker, like we should also do our very best to set up frameworks and policy now to ensure that we actually don't reinforce wealth and racial disparities, right.

And so while yes, downtown is the heart of Sacramento.

I hear that while downtown forages, we can't, you know, ignore red line communities that continue to struggle and development and lack of infrastructure.

And so for me, I know that vice mayor, Talamont, has provided some direction.

I also want to provide some direction as well.

Because this is really important and because this is a workshop to provide direction, I do want this item to come back because I do think that it be important for staff to.

Take lots of notes and figure out like really what that framework would be one.

Vice mayor Talamont has requested for three things I heard.

One is a guiding framework for two years, five years, ten years projects.

The second one, she also mentioned was that she wants a review of five years TOT investment performance.

I'm in alignment with that.

I think I love to see like how we've done the past five years.

Our investment, our performance and then she also mentioned probably an annual report on TOT.

In addition to that, I want to provide staff direction that as you're creating this framework to ensure that revenue is distributed across the city.

I'm not going to say what percentage and what district because I really want to make sure that we leave that flexibility.

But with a particular focus on supporting growing economies and underserved communities.

Secondly, I also think it's really important to have safeguard to prevent underserved areas from losing potential funding.

If we're not intentional about the dollars, we're never going to see the investment in these neighborhoods.

I'm also cognizant that when we use some of the TOT dollars, it will replenish.

We're also hoping that the other dollars will come out on the other side.

But I like to ask staff to bring back options.

I don't know if other city has done this, but even a threshold on TOT spending so that we have funding set aside for future projects that may be in the pipeline.

I don't know what that may look like, but really trust staff to take our kind of guidance and figure out what would that threshold be.

I don't know like 50%. I'm not sure.

I don't know what other city has done, but I think that's really important.

But to also allow that flexibility, that's why I'm not saying district 8 in particular, I think allowing that flexibility is really key.

Those are the two things that I would add to the direction in addition to what Tala Montes had mentioned.

The other piece I'll share is that I've heard it.

I've heard from folks that if we invest in South Sacramento, there's not a lot of hotels there.

We're not going to generate TOT.

I feel like that argument is like scapegoating because you've never invested in South Sacramento.

When you do that, resources and funding will come.

But you never have to take into chance on South Sacramento.

When I say you, meaning the system, and as policymakers, that's our responsibility.

That's our job is to make sure that we don't reinforce wealth and racial disparities.

We have the opportunity as policymakers to do that.

I think we have the opportunity to do that with TOT.

To show that we can still have a really strong economy.

And that we can do that while we're investing in underserved communities.

And that has to be a central part of TOT.

That's really important for me.

Because again, I may not be here in eight years or so when something breaks ground in 102 acres or in other parts of the city.

But that this policy governing body made a decision that we're going to set aside a certain amount for TOT to be invested in underserved communities.

And so that would be my direction on this item.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Gera.

Thank you, Mayor.

First, I guess, right off the bat, I want to clarify with City staff on the 3.3 million.

Because I mean, I clearly remember indicating to both the community partners because I made the motion or at least the combined motion for the History Museum, MoZAC.

And I think the other one was the crocker that the sudden dip in our sales tax revenue was unexpected and unexpected for them.

And so that this could be a bridge funding for the short term.

So let me be very clear about what I said.

And you can pull up the tapes and recall recall reminded.

And that's was in the budget committee and also in the full committee.

So there was a misunderstanding.

It's important that we are sympathetic and understanding and the need to recognize that MoZAC, our Sacramento History Museum and the crocker.

And so there are important assets.

But if I recall correctly, we were sending a signal to the boards that they needed to figure out what the long term gap, how they were going to fill that out.

Now, MoZAC, clearly, obviously, have been advocate for science.

They just started.

They got their footing on the ground.

So one, whether it's one year, two year, but not in perpetuity.

I think let's make that clear.

And I want to make sure that chair, you know, also chair Dickinson here in the budget committee that we have that conversation again because we want to make sure we were figuring out how we're using these TOT dollars.

Those are important assets again.

And I want to figure out how do we how we support them.

The second, I think, piece, and I was again, I wasn't going to punch up here, but this conversation has led me to also think through of some direction.

You know, there are drafters of an initiative.

And then there are the people who vote for the initiative.

And I know clearly, you know, the folks who, you know, thought about this initiative in my district and voted for it.

And I think it's important to support it because they wanted to see more stimulus in the entire city.

They also wanted to see stimulus in their neighborhood as well.

But they, and it wasn't particularly one project or another, but that's one of the reasons.

And yes, and I think, you know, you sports was a factor in it.

And so, as I know, you know, how much I spend when I have to go to San Jose for three days, two nights, for my kid to basically compete for, you know, maybe 30 minutes, you know, and the cost of that.

But you know, that tax revenue stays in Santa Clara County.

So, you know, there is a huge piece for that.

So, my direction then would be to staff here is that they work with Visit Sacramento.

They've been doing studies and the studies have done it during different times where the economy was in flux.

But I think it's important that we work with Visit SAC to get the most optimal activities as we stated, activities that stimulate visitation.

And I believe, you know, yes, I think we should look at the windows of timing here.

You know, I think you should understand kind of where the economy is.

I mean, in a couple days, the 25% tariffs may hit.

And that may change a lot of την behavior.

But maybe people won't be buying new minivans and now we'll have more money to spend in hotel rooms, so let's go figure.

You know?

I'll just tell you that because we're from going through that.

But my point here is, I think it's important to understand and change the economy.

But fundamentally, I think we need to prioritize funding on projects that will create more hotel demand and more hotel construction.

Because the more, at least what I understood the presentation, and correct me if I'm wrong, Megan, and John, is that when we have significant events that fill up big chunks of the budget,

big chunks of the hotel block, then that high demand increases the price of the available other hotel rooms.

And then that increased price delivers a higher return on the TOT.

Is that my understanding on?

That's correct.

Okay, so again, this is I think where we need to work clearly with VisitSec, our economic development team, to identify, okay, how do we, how do we do, how do we achieve that?

And I do feel that, you know, the youth tourism or family tourism, because it's not just one individual who's coming out here for after shock or whatnot.

It's usually, you know, three or four that are coming, plus grandma and grandpa who want to check out their grandkids.

It is an option.

But I don't want to prejudge outcomes. I want to look at what are the most optimal best use.

And I'm glad that we heard about more hotel construction because I think that's the other issue.

I understand we're supporting our convention, you know, as convention center as well.

And as I understand the economics of the convention center is that we need to fill up our convention center so that it increases a demand to build another hotel to be able to grow our convention center.

So it kind of, it's like this given take. So, so, you know, so let me, let me, I guess my direction, then then the question, my direction would be that we prioritize, come back staff, come back to think of a framework or policy around prioritizing funding projects that will create the most hotel demand and demand for construction as well.

That doesn't mean that it all has to be downtown. And frankly, I know we've got a couple in the works, but I do feel, you know, that there are a number of hotels like the one in Jack's property that I think, you know, finally got constructed under my watch, but got started under Mayor McCarty's watch that are, that are full that are building capacity.

And so I'm first I wanted to address your point about looking at events, kind of investments that foster overnight visitation. And I think that's an operative word here because we are speaking about filling hotels.

So it's not just visitation in the city. It's a visitation that results in overnight stays at the city in one of our many hotels.

So that and we have been working with visits at looking at sports, kind of tourism, you know, as a basis and looking and I believe visits act has been doing the lead at looking at, kind of such facilities, what it would cost, what it would take, where would they be placed.

And also in that context, what would we potentially need to kind of invest in because the assumption is not necessarily that the city would need to pay for all of it.

Correct. If and when. So we are looking at the viability of that and we've been working and we'll continue to work closely with with visits act on it with respect to the general kind of need for more hotel rooms.

What drives that for I'll turn it over to Mike, etc. other than I think and Mike will certainly is we know we are under hotel.

So and Mike and elaborate on that probably we are under hotel. That's a new term, but it's an actor one. First of all, let me say that I think that the council members who have talked tonight you're educated on what TOT is the vice mayor said very well for every dollar that goes out we should be getting two or three dollars in whatever we spend on TOT should automatically replenish TOT.

You think about the projects that TOT is funded in Sacramento from the Safe Credit Union Convention Center to the theater. Those are local amenities that the visitor has funded.

So the more projects that we can get the visitor to fund for the people who live here, the more valuable value tourism has. From a hotel standpoint, typically when a hotel is at 70% occupancy, if the market is at 70% occupancy it tells you that you need more hotels in your market.

Currently downtown is at about 82% full. That tells you we need more hotels. You look at some of the events that we can't compete for. Everybody talks about the NBA All-Star Game. We're nowhere close to getting NBA All-Star Game. You need 6,000 rooms in your downtown.

The NBA wants to be able to walk out of your hotel and be in the middle of the party. We've got under 3,000 rooms in our downtown. So the NBA All-Star Game is a long ways away.

But there are some conventions. There are some events that we would go after if we did have more hotels. So I think that the point earlier we should be making it easier for people to build hotels in Sacramento because there is a return on that investment.

More hotels mean more TOT. I thought Megan in her presentation did a great job of explaining the demand that tourism creates or the visit Sacramento creates. When we book a convention five years out we take all those rooms.

The rooms left in the market become more valuable and the TOT is higher because of that. I would also ask this council to think about when we expanded the Safe Credit Union Convention Center, one of the conversations we had was don't judge the power of that building based on the balance sheet of that building.

If it's losing 200,000 a year or making $200,000 a year, that's not the value of the convention center. You'd think about the overall economic impact. Just from the events that we've booked, whether that's conventions or sporting events or music festivals, in 2022 the economic impact was $229 million.

That's $850 million of economic impact over three years. The local business community depends on that tourism revenue. So again it's not just about the conventions or the TOT that the city is collecting. It's the revenues that it's striving to local businesses.

Councilmember Van, you made the comment about sporting events and Councilmember Garry, you did too. Indoor sporting events, flat field sporting events. If we look at the numbers we've commissioned we believe that sporting events let's take a flat field as a example would bring in between 50 and 120,000 new hotel room nights a sacrament every year of which the city would collect 12% TOT.

Those visitors would spend between 28 and 72 million dollars based on a 21 field complex. We would book that complex 33 weekends a year. That's what TOT should be spent on. Invested in the community that drives revenue back to the community and since we're only using it 33 weekends a year, guess who's using it the other weekends? Local youth, local amateur sporting groups.

There is a great payoff in investing in things that attract tourists that benefit the people who live. You're not only from the revenues that it drives but from the uses that it provides.

Well thank you, thank you Mike. And I guess that sparks two points. One on the policy side, the making it easier to build more hotels. And I want to make a caveat that I support that 100%. Obviously we have two major ones that we know of.

But I also think it's important that we look at the mid-size range hotels, the Hamptons, those products that are at a lower price point and they can be built in South Sack. They can be built in other areas of the city to meet those family leads.

I think when we look at the Marriots or the residents in where there's a little more room but it's not your downtown price point either.

Because we're collecting hotel tax on those rooms as well. And they can be probably placed a little easier around the city, particularly if you had a flat field facility, closer to those proximity areas.

I guess the last question I would say is a, or ask maybe Mike and Mike and Mike.

I guess given the current climate where things are going and I always almost say like youth demands are somewhat recession proof. And that's not true for everyone.

But you know almost appearance will sacrifice a lot to make sure that their kids are happy. But have you looked at based on the worthy economy is going.

We certainly looked at that through the great recession. We looked at that post pandemic to your point council member appearance typically will spend their dollars as a priority on their children first.

So youth sports has been a sound investment from a convention standpoint. You know the company that used to send five delegates that can mention now will send to because of that concern about the economic.

So there are things that that are a little more insulated. I think music festivals are similar. You know there's folks who would like to go to three and four music festivals a year.

And I think that's not as economic as a little tighter they may go to one they may go to none. Some of those things are are you know not necessarily something they have to do and I think people perceive things for their children as things that they have to do.

You know we've also looked at future years in Sacramento what we have booked and we have events booked out through twenty thirty one.

I will tell you this year October will likely be down we're seeing bookings down about twenty percent this year because of the cancellation of golden sky.

At the same time we're hosting the X games this year for the first time in August so I would expect August will be up September we're hosting to our moderate a big international food comments I expect bookings in September will go up so typically these things will balance out we were on a significant growth trajectory.

And again some of those things are out of our control but if I look at we have a benchmark that we set ourselves against for future years what we're supposed to be hitting for twenty twenty.

I'm sorry for twenty twenty six we're one hundred and seventy seven percent of that ahead of that benchmark for twenty twenty eight we're three hundred forty six percent of that benchmark ahead of it.

So our future bookings are strong in the next four years could that change of course it could if the economics for this country change and people are not spending and traveling the way they used to then these are just what they are forecast right that those numbers could.

So what I'm hearing here and then maybe they have this direction back to my prior to prioritizing funding projects that will create hotel demand and construction.

It's essentially those things that are multi day events that will that essentially because we can't look I mean there I'd like to expand like some of the baseball fields in in my area and I'd love to be able to use measure in to to fund it the TOT to fund it but they probably may sort of only day day long games or whatnot they're not going to bring in overnight state.

So I guess my direction would be to look at okay what are what are the approaches that are going to bring in that multi day stay for overnight expense because that's where we make our our returns not just the the you know the lunch that they buy but it's the overnight stay and that is the exact right approach there's a reason the hotels next door to the convention center.

Do well and are more consistent in occupancy there's a reason that hotels located by the hospitals have a more consistent occupancy because they have a regular feeder of business if you build a sports complex I would not be surprised anyway if they if a hotel followed on that property because it would have a feeder for roommates on that property so you're absolutely right that if you build things that generate those overnight stays you'll you'll see that come to fruition.

Thank you thank you miss thank you mayor. Thank you councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you mayor thank you Mr. Testai was going to actually ask you how many hotels were were down so you you somewhat answered it but I remember we've talked about some other things and what are some items we are missing in our hotels to book the bigger conferences some rooms or spaces.

A lot of what we have our challenges on the number of rooms in hotels you look at the high in the shared in the two biggest hotels in Sacramento there 500 roommates 500 rooms each a lot of our hotels are between 100 and 250 rooms you take the example of the wine and grapes symposium which is Sacramento's largest convention they sign contracts with 22 different hotels that same convention could fit in the Hilton towers in San Francisco without the use of a convention center.

It is a competitive disadvantage for Sacramento that we ask a meeting planner to sign so many contracts with so many hotels so when we go up against other cities and that's what our businesses we compete against other cities they look at well I can fit my event into three hotels in X city but in nine hotels in Sacramento it's a challenge for us so we we don't have big enough anchor hotels that's why that that hotel that's been proposed that would connect to the the safe credit union convention center is so important.

How many rooms with that potentially they're looking at around 350 rooms and so how many potentially planned hotels do you know of are working on in around downtown.

Even Hill mentioned hers that one's been talked about for a few years Roger Hume who opened the high at house is looking at a hotel downtown that would be about 100 rooms the convention center hotel that I just mentioned another 350 rooms.

I hear about eight or nine new hotel projects every year and I'm always hopeful that one of them will come to fruition hotels are tough to build it's not like an apartment building where everybody needs housing year round it's harder to get the the financing to do and especially in this climate with rates so high they're very challenging to build.

Thank you well district one is providing those hotels yes you are I appreciate that question to staff one of the things we have

that we haven't talked about with TOT kind of taking it back a little bit what effective practices do we have for tracking TOT O'd so that we avoid revenue loss.

We also track the hotel payments monthly and will follow up so if we don't see a payment come through or if we see a major difference in in payment amount will follow up with hotels for short term rentals we actually the platforms actually remit the payments on behalf of the the rent or less e so if you go to Airbnb and you try to rent a property in Sacramento you'll see the transient occupancy tax.

We track those monthly as well and just to I do want to get go back one second to the budget just because I think there's a little bit of confusion in that there were kind of two shifts of cost over to the TOT to the community center fund so there were a number of costs like crocker and some other institutions and some debt service payments that were shifted over in the proposed budget.

The proposed budget also had permanent and ongoing cuts to Mosack and the art museum eighty seven thousand dollars each those were restored by council in as part of the final budget I just don't remember whether we have that in there as as ongoing or one time so I'll double check but those for that first round of reductions those were all ongoing so those all the ongoing but I apologize I mean to hijack the line of questioning.

No I think that's that's great answering questions that were left hanging are always appropriate. Besides Airbnb and VRBO we also know those other private entities private individuals do short term rentals how do we keep track of that?

Yeah so we do I mean there are ones where we regularly get remittances and so we know about them and people who you know are permitted we know about and so we can check up on them for unpermanated folks we work with code enforcement to try to bring them into compliance.

Thank you I think that's that answers most of my accountability because we have to look at like one we need to make sure we're being paid because it also is this is revenue into the city are you funding in the audits because I haven't seen one of them are our hotel years and bigger companies in compliance.

For the most part yes and when they are out of compliance they also get charged a late fee if they're delinquent and we work with them to bring them into compliance so there are no major offenders.

The other thing I just want to note for council you heard from the city auditor one of her priorities is auditing the the TOT and so we're working with her with her team right now giving them the information on all of our processes and procedures and to the extent that you know she finds out that she's not going to be a member of the city auditor.

So I think that's the only way to find things that we could be doing better you know I'm certainly in support of of doing those things.

So totally off topic but just thought about it for our motel voucher are we which we are paying for people to stay are we getting the TOT that is being collected.

Yes.

Okay just wanted to make sure.

Thank you for that.

I thank you Pete.

I want to echo what some of my colleagues said specifically when we come back because it does say you know when we passed measure and that it really is economic development projects.

And while I want to look at everything with an equity lens we also need to look at it with an economic development lens because it really is about I can tell you two weeks ago the North and Thomas Aquatic Center had a thousand people for a regional

and the western competition that probably resulted in four or five hundred each night room nights of people from out of state.

This coming week we are having a national competition at the Aquatic Center.

So it was a great investment for the city because there are several more national competitions coming into the Aquatic Center.

And it was also really important that we don't get ahead of ourselves and we also put in when we are talking about how we use our TOT funds the infrastructure the infrastructure part because how do we maintain what we have because of something breaks at the Aquatic Center and we have to cancel something that's millions of dollars lost.

So how do we build in because measure N was also about the infrastructure and making sure we stay on top of things.

Old sack I think is a perfect example of why where it's the number one visited we've got to one get the hotel.

You're going to get Senator Ashby in the state of California to build the hotel in old sack.

I mean I feel like we're late we've got the A's here what not I think we're missing out on significant opportunity.

So I think one of the things we have to look at of where we invest our money is the short term and the long term short term is there a shovel ready project that is going to bring in significant economic development versus a long term project that may be eight or ten years and how do we plan that because I can tell you what I constantly hear from my hotel years.

So our money is going downtown and yeah we have the Aquatic Center but we don't have a you sports facility in the city of Sacramento that is a tragedy woodland has one rosevills everybody's building them but we don't have something.

So what can we do I get the 10 year plan but what can we do in the short plan that brings economic development because you sports you will always win you know and that's part of what I've discussed with North Nautomas in my regional park because I have space and it can be done now.

And how do we do that because I also have hotels where people can walk to the regional park which that's the economic driver we're looking at and if you look at where revenue by region well you know Nautomas is that percentage that's bringing it in and yet we're not seeing the return on investment just saying one time we we gave for the Aquatic Center I think we're missing on the city of what can be done right now as we are facing budget cuts how do we grow.

Our revenue and what's needed I know I'm talking to developers and I've got three or four more hotels that are potentially in the works coming in one is opening this year one open to year and a half ago we just approved one to start construction which may be done in two or three years and I got a couple more coming in so I have space for economic development that we need to look at so for staff direction I think it's a balance.

One we need to keep it open for the flexibility because we don't know what t ot will or will not bring but we also have to look at what's in return on investment not an ideal while at the same time how do we address certain inequities but acknowledge some places are are more adept to construct something right now to bring in more local economic funding so I look forward to the continuing conversation in this regard and I'm going to talk about the

garden thank you mr. Testa for all that you're doing and visit Sacramento to bring in a significant amount of funding it is money well spent for the economic driver of our city.

Yes thank you.

Councillor McGara.

Yeah briefly I just wanted to highlight something that Councillor McLaren brought up that yes on our motel voucher program we are collecting to t ot but one thing that I'd like to also give staff direction on this is that

on the home key projects we do not so so choosing I think site selection on home key projects is critical and we have this discussion about certain motel here in the downtown area that was used for that that program and we should probably be much more thoughtful about

you know the you know older motels that aren't doing as well that aren't performing as well that use those versus those that have that are higher high return and the reality is the the the the amount that is offered to a motel year is such a high number that some for them it would be an easy decision to sell the motel because of how how the hotel home key project

funding is allocated but that's at a loss to us for this particular reason so I'd like to make sure that we are much more involved and direct and engaged with with SHRA on how those sites are selected so that we're meeting both needs one using those old motels that probably could

would do better for the adjacent community by redoing them and retrofitting using the home key project but not sacrificing the t ot revenue they can come from from those so that that's that's my next piece there thank you thank you councilmember Dickinson

thanks mayor it's really apparent to me from this discussion that the need for the short medium and long term framework as it's been called or plan is a manifest so I look forward to to seeing that that development I just want to make one other observation then you know we're talking about lots of different forms of generating visitors

whether it's for conventions or use sports or a host of other things one of the things we haven't touched on is experiential turn tourism which is which is growing very rapidly and thinking about who the tourists are it's opposed to the convention go or the the tourists are getting older just like the population is getting older there and a lot of people are looking for what's authentic about a community what's what's different what what

what's unique that's the experiential side but it's also what are what are places that people who are older and may have some some different interests and challenges and how they how they they travel we need to I think be also cognizant of those elements and I don't know Mike if they're if there are if there's data at this point about that the on the experiential market but it's certainly

looks to me just from from casual observation like that may be the fastest growing category of of travel leisure travel of occurring but whether it is or not it certainly it certainly is an increasingly significant element so so you know this is always a difficult

equation to a certain extent you want to have you want to have occupancy availability where your attractions are but at the other end you want to generate more locations that become attractions that then drive occupancy so I think that's why trying to figure out where a road map of where we were where we want to go becomes so significant and important with respect to limited resources to get

where where we seek to arrive.

Okay so this was a informational item to review comment and provide direction yes smiling.

Yeah thanks very much I am smiling and I think there was a lot of directions yes from the Dias so I do feel for staff yes to have to rewatch this but I'm also going

to be working with council of ice mayor telemantes just for a council proposal because they get important to put something on written paper so just wanted to fly that for staff as well so yeah but yeah there was a lot of directions from this council which is great I mean it's it was a great

conversation and and then looking forward to staff taking all of that and helping us develop the framework with all of those ask so so yeah thanks mayor.

Yeah I just wanted to book it on the big picture why I wanted to agenda is this is for us to just get the one on one on what TOT is because I think there's a lot of misconception over here and I think as Mr.

Testa said the council members know this pretty well and I think myself and Mr. Dickinson plucky bomb get the gist of it but there's a lot of hopes and dreams for this this is there's

a lot of things that are you know unpredictable and certainly we made some overarching promises issues in the fall I support some of that vision that the mayor put forward our prior mayor about the waterfront but we need to focus on being eyes wide open and you put something here there's less over here so I'm going to

say I'm not saying on four nor again so it was put forward in the waterfront but we need to see the big picture and you know I think that there's some confusion oh why can't we use this to backfill the general fund to pay for the potential cuts for police and fire

fire why can't we use this other areas across the city and so I think we need to be focused on what this is this is a fund we collect from visitors to Sacramento to focus on a purpose to to be smart about this is essentially our reinvestment fund in tourism to get a solid return so I I think that we didn't have a wide lens I'm not adverse to looking city wide to see where projects we can

invest city wide to bring in resources but this is not our discretionary general fund to focus on projects that have other purposes we need to be crystal clear that every penny we spend here we should look what is our return on our investment and that should you know be

priority number one keep our eyes on the price so I think you get the gist we we we want to come back with as I view some analysis focusing on focus basically three things you know how much there is has our treasure noted how much we could bond against in the future based upon current

and you know stress test versus staying the same getting worse getting better and then I think we should talk about ideas there's all kinds of ideas there are nine of us would have a bunch of ideas you could put a wall up there with a bunch of red dots and you know we could have lots of different ideas I'm not sure that's the best way to go about it but I think we should look as far as what type of projects that we want to zero in on that would make the biggest difference for our city

and not just to be a place that people want to visit but more importantly to bring in more revenue and to keep those existing projects going in the future and then just again zero in on just which ones would get the biggest return on our investment and I think we need to be smart too and I hear every council member of this different area you are all you are all here to represent your districts and the city as a whole

too but some of these projects I'm not sure if you invested in a soccer complex in a certain area of the city are those going to be hotels or people stay that are in the city or outside of the city and so that's the thing we need to look at too which of these projects are going to focus on zeroing in on on furthering return on an investment for the city and as far as the budget I wasn't here then but I

do think it's important to know is we could undo that but then you got the fund the money find the money somewhere else goes those are all city priori so those are all city basically partnerships or things at the city own city assets and so we could focus on that in the budget but there's no as we talked earlier Mr.

here no free lunch here no free lunch but but with that I just wanted for us to get a big picture perspective on TOT the past the present the future and I think we could come back with some options and we

go from here so thank you so with that this was informational no vote here thank you so Mary now move to council comments ideas questions and AB123 reports okay council members

council member Jennings thank you very much I've got a wonderful announcement for district seven the district seven east of

Hunt is going to take place on Saturday April the fifth at 10 a.m. at Garsha Bend Park in the pocket neighborhood now if you arrive at 10 o'clock you can get a picture with the east of

bunny and make sure to bring your Easter baskets so that you can get those eggs that are filled with goodies that'll start at 10 30

short also while you look into all those eggs you want to look out for the golden eggs which offer a special surprise in each one of them the sun will be out and there'll be plenty of

treats and fun to go around for everyone more information you can look at my Facebook page on my Instagram to get more information on this but once again this is Saturday April the fifth at 10 o'clock at Garsha Bend Park for the Easter egg hunt

thank you mayor thank you for your name thanks mayor just wanted to let folks know that I have office hours this month on April 17th at cafe la vie off of center parkway 8775 registration will be

required and more details will come but you can just always swing by my staffs as registration require but my staffs going to be upset at me when I say

this swing by anyways if you have an out of chance to register I love to say hello to you sorry Lex she's probably like no council member registration because there's so many people okay but just

swing by and come say hi and then I'm also want to just to let folks know that I have a citywide as you know there's citywide

earth date cleanups happening throughout April and in particular I want to just highlight district eight we have two locations in

district eight actually this Saturday from nine to 12 p.m. one of the project is led by Yipsi at free port park which will include planting mulching trash pickup and then

another one led by our DOU department at a drainage basin near the Dutashoor shopping center and you can actually sign up for any of these events

throughout the city at www.cityofsacromanel.gov backslash earth day not just for district eight events but all events throughout a various district and then

also wanted to let y'all know that this Saturday as well from 11 to 2 at the panel center Yipsi's access leisure team has their open house and so you can learn more about our city's

adapted recreational programs meet staff learn about scholarship opportunities and you can learn more about that at www.tinyurl.com backslash

ACO open house 25 those are my updates thank you council member Dickinson thanks just a couple quick announcements this this Friday starting at 11 a.m. homemade sacramental and first step communities is going to are going to be celebrating the

beautification of 50 cabins that provide emergency bridge housing for transitional age youth at the Grove which is at 2787 Grove Avenue in north sacramental so for those of you who would like to come out and

celebrate that accomplishment you are certainly welcome and then on Saturday morning beginning at 9 9 noon come out and join the river city waterway

alliance working on cleaning up arcade creek behind the sacramental horsements association building on what long

long view thank you I was going to say long fellow and I knew that wasn't going to work so long view yes like you long view drive so that's that is always a

a very productive exercise so come join us thanks thank you

public comment thank you mayor I have nine speakers for public comment matters not on the agenda Wilbert Joseph

John Jew Kaya Williams Mcworthy Michael Andrew Barnbaum is Wilbert here

you know Wilbert John Jew

following John is Kyle Williams yeah hello mayor city council thank you for the great job you're doing in our great city of

sacramental much appreciated I've lived here since 1990 my family and I've seen the things that sacramental can do

and I want to continue that I want to address the biggest problem that we have in the city right now

and I have some ideas some solutions some action plans to take care of that and that is the health of our people

okay it's the health of our people and that is a passion of mine that I'm I live I live by example I'm 75

years old and I've never been felt better and what it is it's what we need the solutions that I have

it's a paradigm shift in our thinking about who we are as people as how we take care of our elders

and where they're going because right now our elders are looked at in such a way that our society has

given them a look that says you're getting old and gray you're getting you know worn out we don't

have any respect for you anymore because you don't have any cognitive function going on and it's

a big problem it's a huge problem and it's because of our and I'm not going to knock our health care

system but it's not working for us our health care system is not working for us and I'm a specialist

in a paradigm shift in the thinking it's it's called lifestyle medicine it's it involves our

diet it involves our exercise and it involves our stress management it involves sleep it involves

taking risky substances that are not good for us all these medications they're taking us down

as well as um social connection we need to be socially connected that we can all help each other

so I do have solutions I have um this is actually I retired at 56 I'm 75 now like I said

and what I can do is thank you for your comments your time is complete our next speaker's Kyle

Williams and Mac worthy thank you for your comments your two minutes is complete thank you thank you

how's everybody doing today I'd like to start off by just reminding

independence and republicans that we need you in here because from my knowledge we've got all

democrats on the panel most likely all democrats behind me and no city runs by all republicans

or all democrats if you were an augt in newton yet 95% of you that were republican wouldn't you be

a little concerned 95% of this room is democrats one way of thinking it's not working so anyway

I'd like to see actual equality we used to have this now we got this I'd like to see a quality come

back to our city so that I don't have to leave here most of my friends have left here I wonder why

nothing is you know so uh Phil I'd like to work on you with you on um leaf blowers it's gay three

presentations I still hear them buzzing away absolutely makes no sense I'll leave my card with her

you can call me I'd appreciate it I've called the mayor's office eight times asking for no 5G within

a hundred yards of my house nobody calls me back I talked to Phil about it he says the federal level

made a a juncture on it for all of us to have 5G well mill valley petaluma monoray las altos has

said no way to 5G why are you allowing a radiation I mean do you stand next to your microwave

lilysa stand next to your microwave for any period of time you have your phone next to you city

attorney there you hold your phone next to your head all day so anyway you guys represent the future

of children and all of our health in 5G nobody's looking into this from what I could tell none of you

you're just allowing it and it's based off of a weapon so maybe somebody could take this on and

kind of start looking into it and other than that I look forward to not having leaf blowers blow

all the time when there's not even a leaf on the ground thank you for your comments Mac Wurley is

our next speaker then Michael Andrew Barnbaum Mr. Wurley oh first of all I want to tell you

to your tea will not give jobs here it won't work it won't replace me because you ain't got nobody to come

you too nothing you gave up your dollar I tried to show it equity in your property in build a low

income housing you would have that supplement income it will you listen we're going to get off

grants you're going to go to hell off grants because I'm going to continue how that the president

cut fellow grants until we get this order we listen to the first meeting in this it's beautiful

y'all it's beautiful oh well it's my staff why the hell your staff being old in the outhouse and

back in the kitchen you have people with ideas and experience bringing the top folks in every time

I look up it's down in the people you know we got a scam on police department wow I think I mean

here we look at that eight million dollars other week and then two hundred million dollar grants

you can't make it you can't make it people wake up you blew everything the honor privilege

neighborhoods you blew it because you couldn't listen you allow who to be put in your district to

represent you look at the office I just man here should have come in but no you owe that boy

you owe them and Monday I'm going to show you after this government come here why are you owe

because his family that's how you owe him he had money in that and you owe them that's from the

Vietnam War I say but you you're going to have to oh just like the man say Republicans are going to

have to come back to town it's not enough people come you got something going that the kids

thank you for your comments our next speaker is Michael Barnbaum then Frank Morgan

hello good evening thank you for having me up for a public comment want to make a couple of

announcements many of you if not all of you back in December and January received the

more as possible ceramic mug that I'm showing here so now I want to just step aside and while

continuing to speak in the microphone show my shirt which says I believe in a spectrum of

possibilities autism awareness so this is April first and I want to welcome everybody to

autism awareness month throughout the world and here in Sacramento there will be a festival

I would like to announce to you all and hope you can come it will be the Sacramento Autism Festival

at Ridge Point Elementary School it'll be from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday April 19th the locations at

4680 Monument Drive Sacramento 95842 the nearest bus stop is on Galbreath Drive and Wollerga Road

in Sacramento County sorry it is not in city limits I apologize for that and the last announcement I

want to make don't forget on April 11th premiering in theaters nationwide the movie Sacramento

check your local theater and show times for exact times to publicize to folks but again that

premier of the movie Sacramento is in theaters beginning Friday April 11th thank you thank you

for your comments Frank Morgan then rev I have four more speakers this evening

good evening everyone I still haven't had my problem resolved you know I've been commenting

commenting comment I see the mirror is gone I've talked to the feet I talked to the tail I

talked to the body I talked to the neck maybe I need to talk to the head you know if I could just

get a few minutes with him to help me resolve my problems because they haven't been resolved I know

Kathy Maple is my my representative and her guy ran up to me the last time I was here he said I'm

gonna call you in the morning never heard from him I'm still waiting on police reports it's just like

it's like I can't get a get a police report and it's I'm the victim and I can't understand that

and it's just like it's like it's it's crazy you know I'm just asking for you know just some

some accountability or if something was done to me or if I did something to somebody please

let's rectify it and let's make it happen you know it's just life is so short and just you know

we just we got so much going on in our city we have a beautiful city and we really need to bring

it back up you know and start helping each other and start doing things for the people in the public

you know I see it's a lot of other people not here today but you know it is what it is sorry I

missed a couple of meetings I have to take care of my mother but uh God is good and like I say I

just I'm still waiting and you know if I come meet with somebody or somebody could help me you

know give me a card I can call somebody you know I got a lot of stuff on my back and I just wish

I could just get it off you know and you guys you're the council you guys said hi but you look

low so you know we need you we're with the low ones that you look at we need you and like I say

it's very important that we come together and and make this city a great city because it is a great

city thank you guys thank you for your comments Rev Chirilane and Jared Hill

you

less seems to you all that know how to receive it I'm not a Democrat or a Republic I'm a child of God

I don't vote for a mere man I don't know you like a fly on the wall I'm not voting

I vote for my homeless people because I live amongst them and I know them

yeah I act like they just a piece of dirt in the road I had to stop three of them the other day

like put down that broom what you doing I'm cleaning up the area I'm at forget that they don't

throw away your stuff anyway let them clean it up because I know what they'll do if I put a massive

out not get a clean up day area your area paint all the walls do your planting of your little trees

that you saw my young lady my homeless people getting done yeah I act like they'd be tarnished

and done like they came out of the woman it was dirty on the street and then he grew up and

out of out there no day was working Americans as y'all have out in here in America make America

great as Trump is always talking about those people are part of America I'm still a part of

and I'm a working person I have four non-pops and five LLCs I'm about to get into everything I can

do with that just so I can make sure I help my homeless my damn self because I don't care

y'all know y'all are still 24 billion dollars y'all probably up front of police probably got a

little bonus raise probably got a new hair piece on your head whatever you got you know do

hair do you two also probably got a new guns you feel me don't look away I'm just saying everybody

gets on what you smile at what you get some new lipstick yeah pretty too yeah but don't don't

take my homeless people money to do it God said if you steal and you get caught you're going to

jail so I'm pushing through I already tried to call a district attorney to help fight against

whoever got that money I'm called police department to go lock up whoever got that money but I guess

I got to go to the federal government final whoever got that money give it up stop stealing really

cuz it ain't right I can let him go in your house and steal what you got I can tell my

homeless people to turn the whole new collar go stop traffic or something you see what I mean

y'all don't think about what they do it's a massive amount of art there and it's don't care

God bless you all hope you survive life thank you for your comments sure Elaine then Jared Hill

hi sheer Elaine with age room 916 creative innovation center for sustainability um I just

wanted to say thank you for mentioning experience uh that is really important and short term and

long term goals with DOT sorry um come enough of cold um one idea I think like when we're talking

about DOT we talked a lot about events and these are spiked events so that means like we have a

lot of people coming in and a lot of people going but one thing to consider is like consistent events

like anytime you come to Sacramento you're gonna have a good time just like anytime you go to

norlings you have a good time anytime you go to Austin you know you're gonna have a good time

we need to have that vibe here that anytime you come to Sacramento you're gonna have a good time

because these events and they're doing an amazing job you know visit Sacramento does an amazing

job but these events do cost the local residents right because like there's police and so suddenly

there's not enough police for the residents sometimes when we have these events um and also to

consider that when we do have these events they are good for um beverage food and beverage retail

not so much for regular retail but what's good for regular retail is when we have that consistent

tourism um one idea is to have in old Sacramento when people visit old Sacramento they get served

in styrofoam and sometimes that's all they see so they come to Sacramento and they think oh my god

like they still serve food in styrofoam so we could be doing projects like creating sustainable

reusable dishware in in old Sacramento that is themed to old Sacramento this would elevate to

ecotourism people travel further and spend more for ecotourism and also revitalizing case

street I think doing a project that kind of revitalizes case street this would increase dollars

creating a vibe creating a vibe that you want to come and visit and hang out so thank you

thank you for your comments Jared Hill is our final speaker this evening

good afternoon or good evening council um Jared Hill one of 10 core participants

ordered dispensary license in Sacramento uh came out tonight to say thank you heartthulk thank you

from myself my team and I for the extension granite uh because we were one of the three other

ten who did not meet today's April 1st 2025 deadline to be open uh we needed well not one more

year we'll be open in 90 to 120 days from now at our new location so uh we we welcome you guys out

to come by and see that location in district two Roger you know I have talked about that location

a little bit but hope to see you all there um at our soft opening grand opening uh whether you're

cannabis head or not while I'm here talking though cannabis is not all we do uh we're from

district two we're from Sacramento we love Sacramento born and raised um happy to have the ace here

happy to be uh you sports coaches this baseball season that we are on fire and um this TOT

uh reminded me of something a movie uh called um um uh we we Kevin uh not Kevin's spacey but

but uh Kevin someone the field of dreams if you build it they will come uh the Mediview one of 120

project uh some some uh district two is owed something at the Robinson Center uh when Kevin

McCarty sat as a councilman was the first time I met him when my mother was alive um

this door at the hill uh they closed down the Robinson Center we came to ask for it to put a

little leak facility there to build a regional park there in district two district two is owed

district eight is owed district seven is owed the same things that district one has

beautiful plan in district one but spread it out a quality all quality delayed is equality

your comments um I have another speaker said will Joseph mr. Joseph just one more

yeah thank you uh thank you for uh we see the uh uh i'm here not because of grievance i don't think the

grievance is that significant but the principal behind it means a lot to me uh i live in district one

i sent a letter to miss uh email miss kaplan a couple of days ago i'm sure she probably hasn't

received it but i hope that she does pursue it afterwards uh i was under the impression when uh

owner issued a lease rental agreement to a tenant the tenant becomes responsible for what happens

on the property but maybe not what happens to the property uh court enforcement goes out and issue

all this is for discrepancy of issues that happen on the property in the issue

those signs to the owner i do not think that it's fair i do not think it's legal and it's probably not

if a tenant does something to destroy or shoots someone off the property the owner is not

responsible if a tenant kid damaged some windows on the property the owner is not responsible

so i don't know why the city of sacramena has pushed it to the point to where the owner becomes

responsible for things that adult citizens do on their property it just doesn't seem fair so uh

what i would like to do uh again i hope miss kaplan uh pursue this and uh get a resolution uh

at least have court enforcement have some type of empathy uh uh to work with

chinas in all those situations like this happen or that's all i have i appreciate you guys time

thank you thank you for your comments vice-marie have no more speakers wonderful we adjourned this

meeting at 739

so