Okay.

I'd like to call this meeting order at 5 11.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Yes.

Councilmember Dickinson.

Councilmember Jennings.

Council Member Vang.

Let's see.

And Councilmember Maple will be absent this evening.

I expect the others momentarily.

Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Here, you do have a quorum.

Wonderful.

So please rise for the opening acknowledgments in honor of Sacramento's Indigenous People and Tribal Lands.

To the original people of this land, the Nissan people, Southern Maidu, Valley and Plains Mewak, Patwin Winton peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancher, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

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

Thank you.

Salute pledge.

And to the Republic for which it stands on God and Isabel with Liberty and Justice Verse.

Thank you.

And so today we do have a special presentation by Councilmember Jennings honoring Sacramento's fire department for receiving the American Heart Association mission, lifelong gold award target, heart attack honor a roll award.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

It is with great pride that I make this presentation on behalf of the American Heart Association.

This wonderful award is great news for the City of Sacramento and the Sacramento Fire Department.

But the true residents are each one of you the resident of the city of Sacramento.

It recognizes Sacramento's commitment to providing world class care for cardiac and stroke patients consistently exceeding industry standards.

This isn't the first time that our team has achieved this recognition.

In fact, there is a lot of talk about it being nine years in a row.

I've heard that.

Joining us this evening are Andy Holt, Quality Improvement Manager for the American Heart Association.

Andy, are you here?

All right, come on up.

And our own Sacramento Fire Department Chief, Chris Costamante, Costamania, our outstanding ES MS team as well.

Let me say that right.

Our outstanding EMS team as well.

So let's give them all a big round of applause as they present.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and members of the council.

I'm Chris Costamano, the fire chief.

You know, we're up here to talk about this, and I'm it says right on here, I'm not supposed to say that we're better than anybody else, so I'm not going to say that.

Um, but I will say we're here for the ninth time in a row, and that's something special.

And it says something special about all the men and women that work for the Sacramento Fire Department and provide service to the residents and the citizens in the city of Sacramento.

Um it's actually three awards.

I don't know if I mentioned that.

Yeah.

A three P.

Well, it's a nine P three awards.

Okay.

Yeah, so like 27.

Fantastic.

Um, so it's a Mission Lifeline Gold Award, which is uh our speed and accuracy is measured there.

Um, and us working with the hospitals as well.

Um the capability to identify the cardiac event and get the patient to the right hospital.

Uh the stroke honor roll, which is new this year, is also a part of the award.

And that also takes our team identifying the stroke patient early and getting them to the right hospital.

Um that can provide the level of care.

And then the target heart attack honor roll.

Um highlights collaboration again with all the hospitals, and I don't want to not mention the hospitals, so that's Kaiser Kaiser, uh common spirit, formerly known as Dignity Center, NUC Davis hospitals.

Um, and that that award is centered around 90 minutes after the event, getting the person to the hospital.

It doesn't take 90 minutes to get them to the hospital.

It's the whole intervention taking 90 minutes.

And I would be remiss.

A personal note in our department this week.

We had a one of our uh engineers go down in a fire, witnessed cardiac arrest.

He was in ventricular fibrillation, which the doctors can explain that to all of us.

They helped do CPR.

The fire, the engineer's captain resuscitated him, had to shock him, got him to the hospital, and he's now recovering.

So yeah.

Come on.

So to say we're a little bit proud of this team is an understatement.

And I'm gonna let some other people talk now, but I want to thank the men and women of the Sacramento Fire Department for everything they do.

Rightfully so.

Rightly so.

Oh, you know what?

Um I have very similar notes from as Chief has there, but I think um first of all, you know, I can't that was awesome.

It's so great to hear uh that in action and and in action every day and what these guys do and gals do out there, and um it's a real honor from the American Heart Association to give them this award for a ninth time.

I don't know what we do on the tenth.

Better than the Patriots is super bowl, right?

Um so it it's it's just an honor to give this to everybody here uh that stand with me here at the podium, and really what we're here to do as an EMS agency, fire department, and hospitals as mentioned, is collectively create a system of care.

That is our goal at American Heart Association, is to make sure that um the public, the patient gets that care quickly, effectively, and then obviously through the system itself, the appropriate care and the appropriate amount of time by the the right people, and then hopefully leave the hospital, whether it's into a post-acute or something else, or even going home.

That's our goal at HA.

And um they are playing a huge role in getting that done.

So um, I won't go any further.

I just want to say just it's amazing that they've hit a ninth time, and um, I just congratulate you guys again.

It's it's great.

Thank you so much.

And picture, and we have the actual award, and then probably got a wall of us at the station.

But I'm not gonna miss this opportunity to take a picture with a nine-time champion.

Yeah, right.

So I want to invite the entire council to come on down to the to the bottom to the floor, and uh we'll come down there with you, and we'll take this picture together as you show the award that of course shows the greatness of our fire department.

Okay, just honorary firepart.

All right, one, two, three.

Right.

And thank you.

So, Assistant City Attorney Ruyak, before we move on to consent, did you have a report out from closed session?

We have nothing to report.

Thank you.

Okay.

So, Mayor, we move to the consent calendar now, items one through 14.

I have one speaker on the consent calendar.

If you'd like to take that first, please do.

Thank you.

Um, Henry Harry on item number 13.

Thank you, members of the council.

Uh, I've been before this council many times before because I am deeply concerned with how data and information is withheld from the public.

Whether it's crime data on the number of rapes in the city, or in this case, the absence of any details in this contract on the spending of 127,000 on an investigation.

The bedrock of American government is trust, and that the people own the government.

You say the city is transparent, yet you don't say the reasons for this investigation, the nature of this investigation, or who's involved.

You just want us to pay.

Is this an investigation of the fire department, the police department, the mayor, or a council member?

Does it involve low-level staff or is it related to the care and custody of young people?

At least one of you should not want to vote on this and have the details placed into this contract about what it's about so that the public can review it.

In that same vein, I think all city lawsuits, payouts, and settlements should be posted online in PDF files.

So the failure to share public information is so troubling to me that I'm going to post it in an open letter on my website for people to read at Goharry.

Thank you.

And uh please don't raise our taxes.

Thank you for your comments.

I have no more speakers on the consent calendar, Mayor.

Do we have comments from council members?

Councilmember Jennings.

Did you have questions or comments on the consent calendar?

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Just a comment on number two.

I don't see anyone else punched up to speak.

I don't either.

Please proceed.

Okay.

I just want to give uh congratulations uh to my new uh police review commissioner Larry Coleman, uh, who's here with his family.

So congratulations and thank you for bringing your family and a future firefighter to city council.

Oh, and with that being said, I'll move consent calendar.

Thank you.

We have a motion by Vicemor Telamantes, a second by council member Kaplan.

Yes, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

He knows our abstentions.

One absence passes eight zero.

We move to item 15, a public hearing, which is Birchway and Tobas Apartments rezone.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor McCarty.

Uh, members of the city council.

My name is Jose Quintanilla, associate planner with the community development department.

This item is P24033, Birchway Apartments, Birchway at Nathomas Apartments rezone.

A request to construct a 378 unit apartment development and a 165-space park and right facility on an undeveloped 12.9 acre site at 120 promenade circle in the Promenade at Natomas Planned Unit Development, or PUD.

The project requires approval of the following entitlements.

Development agreement between the city and landowner.

A rezone from the employment center, EC50 PUD zone, to the multi-unit dwelling R3A PUD zone.

Amendments to the promenade at Natomas PUD schematic plan to designate the site for residential and park and ride uses, and an amendment to the development guidelines of the PUD to update the language on residential allowances.

165 park and ride vehicle parking spaces to serve the future green line extension and other site improvements totaling 350,005 square feet.

And lastly, a tree permit for the removal of four private protected trees and six city owned trees.

Staff recommends that the city council approve the requested entitlements because the proposal complies with the goals and policies of the 2040 general plan, and that this residential development makes use of a vacant parcel to provide much needed housing adjacent to future high quality transit, creates additional four rent housing opportunities, and further encourages the creation of an interconnected neighborhood with pedestrian and bicycle amenities.

That concludes my presentation.

Staff and the applicant are here should have any questions.

Thank you.

I have one speaker on this item, Jeffrey Tardi Gia.

I'm expecting Mr.

Tardiya may want a handheld micro sorry, Councilmembers.

My voice is a little rough.

Um I've spent two weekends in the hospital because I have a bleeding ulcer.

Um got out yesterday, but the reason I ask in this when you rezone and you do these things.

One, you've done a number of things lately, changing things, being triplexes and other things.

One to be sure that this project in here has been checked for ADA compatibility for senior citizens' ability for the other adjustments, or you just zip rezoning something.

Um I'm concerned with the other projects, and we'll be talking about the later ones in the agenda.

But this is your first item you have on there that brings that, and I hope someone brings to the attention of making sure these plans out there are totally appropriate for seniors, totally appropriate of universal design and the other things that are in your supplement, but many developers don't utilize and review those and approve those.

That's my reason why I'm having a conversation with you tonight and why I'm here in person.

Thank you for your comments.

Mayor, have no more speakers.

Thank you.

Council member Vice Mayor Telemontis.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I'd like to open and close public hearing and move this item.

Uh, it's gonna create more units in Sacramento and Atomas, more housing.

We desperately need more housing today, tomorrow, and yesterday.

So gonna keep living with that.

Thank you.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second.

No further comment or questions.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Saying no's abstentions, saying none.

One absence, Councilmember Maple passes eight to zero.

So, mayor, we now move to item 16, also a public hearing, an ordinance listing 12 landmark properties and the new Helvetia Helvetia Historic District on the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources, and adopting the historic district plan for the new Helvetia Historic District.

Hello.

Yes, please proceed.

Um good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Henry Fuse, preservation planner for the city of Sacramento.

I'll be presenting the ordinance listing 12 landmark properties in the new Helvetia Historic District on the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources and adopting a historic district plan for the new Helvetia Historic District, which are associated with the African American Experience Project and Survey under file M23003.

The African American Experience Project, a project to create a historic context statement and survey of African American history in Sacramento, was accepted by City Council in 2023.

The project identified several properties of historic and cultural significance related to Sacramento's African American heritage.

During the project, 12 individual properties and the new Helvetia Historic District were found to be eligible for listing on the Sacramento Register pursuant to criteria described in Sacramento City Code Section 17604210.

The 12 landmark properties include the following: the office of Dr.

Arthur Trent, Sacramento's first African American dentist, the Leon Residence, a house designed by James Dodd, the Anthony Francis Residence, a founding member of the Oak Park Neighborhood Council, Dunlap's Dining Room, a prominent restaurant, the House of Verna and Clarence Canson, known as the uh mother of the civil rights movement in the West, the Morgan Jones Funeral Home, and the Harrison Crump residence, longtime president of the Oak Park Little League.

Also included are the Oak Park School of Afro American Thought, the Negro Women's Civic Improvement Association, Architect James Dodd's offices, the Lewis Nelson Crawford House, Sacramento's first African American owned real estate office, and the Canson Law Office and NAACP Credit Union.

The New Helvetia Historic District was which which was listed on the National Register in 2014, was identified in the African American Experience Project as a significant site associated with the fight for fair housing, a subject of landmark court case that barred housing discrimination based on race and federally funded housing.

The district is also significant as an example of 1940s public housing and for it being designed by a group of prominent Sacramento architects, including Dean and Dean, Harry Devine, and Starks and Flanders.

The criteria shown are consistent with the criteria identified as part of the national register listing.

Accompanying this nomination includes the adoption of a historic district plan for the New Helvetia Historic District.

As required by City Code Section 17604300, the Historic District Plan supports general plan policy HCR 1-4, which calls for the establishment and maintenance of historic districts to preserve and restore areas of historical significance.

The plan provides a framework for managing changes within the district and supports policy HCR 1.3 by ensuring that new development alterations and rehabilitation projects are compatible with the district's historic character.

It emphasizes the importance of scale, massing, and design compatibility within historically significant environments while also allowing for infill development and building upgrades.

The African American Experience Project was a subject of extensive community outreach and participation spanned over a year.

As for the nominated properties, notices describing the proposed landmark and district nominations were sent to the property owners as required by city code.

Relevant community organizations and neighborhood associations have also been notified of the proceedings.

Staff has been conducting property owner outreach over the past two years and has received one letter of opposition during the hearing process.

However, following a meeting with staff, the property owner has indicated support for the nomination.

Staff has received over 20 additional letters of support from members of the public along with community organizations.

On June 18th, 2025, the Preservation Commission held a hearing and passed a unanimous motion recommending the city council adopt an ordinance listing the nominated resource on the Sacramento Register, as well as adopting the historic district plan.

This concludes my presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Public comments.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have five speakers on this item.

First is Chris Logano, L.

R.

Roberts, Clarence Caesar, William Berg, and Marchery Smith.

Thank you.

My name's Chris Lango, and I'm a local video producer and documentarian, and I wish to give full support to this item.

As a filmmaker, I've created several videos and films over the past dozen or so years, highlighting the significance of Sacramento civil rights history.

Many of these pieces spotlight the impact of two families associated with places on this listing, the Canson family and the Collie family.

And I'd like to highlight a couple of things with them.

Neither Verna Canson nor Nathaniel Collie were from Sacramento, but when they went to college at Tuskegee, they met and married Sacramentans, and then came here with their spouses in the 1940s and used Sacramento as a bet as a battleground to help make the world a better place for millions of Americans.

In the New Helvetia case, they put a stop to the segregation in public housing, which paved the way for the ending of that practice throughout California and the United States.

And it was Attorney Collie who secured that injunction, and it was Mrs.

Canson who documented the fast moving fight.

And I say fast moving because right then, in 1952, River Oaks, which is now known as CV Circle, was about to open its public housing project on a segregated basis, just like what was happening at New Helvetia.

But Mrs.

Canson was able to find three people about to move into River Oaks to be plaintiffs in that lawsuit.

Willie Franklin, Marion Reynolds, and Norma Johnson.

I just wanted to state their names because, in a sense, they are our Rosa Parkses when it comes to desegregating public housing.

And though the New Helvetia district is what is on the table here today, going forward, New Helvetia and C View Circle, are connected when it comes to this history.

In fact, when you look at Rosa Parks' apartment in the public housing project in Montgomery, Alabama, that building looks very much like a building that would reside at New Helvetia or CV Circle.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

LL Roberts.

Maybe you don't want to admit how many decades you know me.

Because then it tells everybody how old we are.

So my beloved husband died two Januaries ago, Richard Perry, and he was raised at New Helvetia.

So his father had left the family, and Richard's mother was very disabled, and it gave her a place to live.

Some years ago, I went to a planning meeting where they were talking about putting in high rises, and I just was very concerned that that does not happen, you know, that they don't replace uh what's what's good housing with yards with with high rises, I don't want that to happen.

So this was a good place for him to be when he was growing up because he he needed the help.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your comments.

Clearance, then William Berg.

Thank you, members of the city council for hearing me out about this particular and valuable project.

The uh Nathaniel Collie Civil Rights Coalition uh supports the listing of the proposed 13 important African American properties in the historic district in the Sacramento Registry to be included on the Sacramento Register of Historic and Cultural Resources.

The Colleen Corps Coalition's mission is to help educate Sacramento residents about the contributions of prominent African Americans who contributed to Sacramento's social and cultural history.

The African American Experience Project lists prominent organ individuals, organizations, and events that were instrumental in providing crucial social, commercial, and community services in Sacramento while at the same time fighting for equal rights for black Americans in Sacramento and throughout the country.

I was involved in this particular project as a subject matter expert who reviewed the drafts of the study to ensure that they were accurate and complete in their scope and information.

Many of the people in organizations and institutions noted in the study are well known to older Sacramento residents.

But there are many other Sacramento residents who are unfamiliar with the their contributions, thus the value of the study in and of itself.

As members of the earliest, one of the earliest NAACP chapters founded in Sacramento.

Similar stories noted in the study bring to life the contributions of men, women, businesses, institutions, and organizations associated with all the properties proposed for inclusion on the Sacramento Register.

The events, the efforts of Nathaniel Collie and the NAACP in New Helvetia emphasize how important New Helvetia is to this story.

Because of their efforts, the New Hell Visa Historic District is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places because it meets three criteria of historic thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is William Berg.

Good evening.

William Berg with uh Preservation Sacramento.

Uh we've been involved with this project since its beginning.

Uh and we've seen it through all the way, and uh, this isn't the conclusion of it.

This is just the the next step.

But it's an important step to take because it's actual tangible result of listing 12 individual landmarks and uh new historic district.

And uh the landmarks have been mentioned, but the historic district is worth mentioning again, uh, both for its past but also for its present day.

This is a neighborhood that quite frankly needs a win, needs some good news.

So, what's the good news about being a historic district?

All you have to do is look at the city's other 30 historic districts, uh, both in the central city and in Oak Park, or uh similar individual landmarks like the uh um North Sacramento School off of Del Paso Boulevard.

Um our historic districts are places where the historic resources are being rehabbed and revitalized.

The the rules for maintaining them uh don't seem to stop people from reinvesting and repairing them.

And the historic district plans are the critical part.

That's the special thing about this.

Our historic district plans means that instead of having to ask the question of what can I actually do here?

Am I gonna have to go through endless cycles of review and correction and revision?

There are objective standards that uh developer and builder can follow.

That's why all of our historic districts are growing.

In the central city, we're getting as much new in fill housing as we are outside of the historic districts because of that lack of ambiguity.

All of our historic places have room to grow.

This is a place that needs some growth, regeneration, repair, reinvestment, and some love.

So there's been some discussion of CV Circle as well, but it's a separate neighborhood outside the historic context of New Hell Visha that requires its own analysis, but don't let that delay you from listing uh New Hell Visha and these 12 landmarks tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Marchery Smith is our final speaker on this item.

Hello, and my name is Marsh Cherie.

Um I live in New Havisha.

Um I've been in that place literally all my life.

Um I just don't understand like why it's so hard just to do the renovations inside.

Um, as I've been living there, I've been dealing with multiple things.

And it people say you can move out, you can leave, but the comfortability of being able to afford on top of being able to provide for my kids is what kind of keeps me there.

Um, but this the way that it's built now and the way that it's comfortable for us and our families.

If it is turned into a marisol village, um I'm afraid that there's gonna be a lot of issues.

I've been over there a couple of times, and it's really uncomfortable in those buildings.

Uh the elevators are always going out.

There's tons of flooding that's happening that's like flooding the whole entire um multiple units inside of it.

Marisol Village just like this year had like maybe over 20 units that were victim of a simple like uh something sparked and the water sensor went off, but it flooded and made the whole time property flood.

Um we're just asking for like just to come inside and do just kind of like basic renovations or whatever may need to be done.

I think that that's not too much to ask for instead of tearing it down, putting us in all these different places and then giving us an option to come back or not, which will be really uncomfortable.

So hopefully you guys will kind of keep it historical, just have them come in and just do some renovations for us.

Thanks.

Your comments, mayor.

Thank you.

Councilmember Jennings.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um this is uh item that's very important to me, and it sounds like a lot of you who are in the audience.

Um it has been said in life that those who who do not understand their history are destined to repeat it.

And this is a great opportunity to understand history at its greatest point, especially in Sacramento.

When they said since 1952, I I realized that that was before I was born in this world.

And so this is that place has been there for a long time, and it is in need of rehab and revitalization.

This project allows us to do so.

So the African American Experience Project is one that I think will be a great project for that property, opportunity for us not only to revitalize and rehab, but also to teach and make sure that the rich history that has gone on there will be taught for generations to come.

So I'd like to move the item forward and um move it forward, and I look for a second and unanimous decision from the council.

I'm sorry, second.

Open and close.

Open and close it then.

Officially make this an open and close and uh move the item.

I think I already heard a second.

All righty, thank you.

Thank you.

Next, council member plucky bong.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just a couple quick questions about um what the effect of this designation might have on the ability to rehab and renovate existing properties.

Will there be any additional costs, impediments, time delays associated with this designation?

So, as we mentioned in the presentation, the the properties are already listed on the national register, so it would be required to go through uh a federal process regardless.

Um so the local designation doesn't necessarily change any any aspect of how that's gonna that process is gonna look like.

Um, this is really just merely an honorary designation for the most part.

And our historic district plan is going to give us some local control over what changes are made to the buildings, and so we've uh in the historic district plan we've included like a uh a height standard for infill development.

We've specified what the windows and roofing should look like, but a lot of these are standard materials, so we're we're not talking um millions of dollars added to the cost for um for what's being required as part of the plan.

Thank you.

I'm happy to support the motion.

I just want you to hear that again.

Uh what we're trying to do is is create the highest quality uh public housing that we can, and and we're working to improve those conditions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Dickinson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Uh thanks, Mayor.

Appreciate the uh coming to us.

Uh maybe.

Thank you.

Okay, yeah.

Okay.

I'm delighted to support this.

I'm delighted to support this, um, being familiar both with a number of the people and the places that that uh we're uh honoring uh with this uh design designation, but it also reminds me that uh it is so important to preserve uh this history and these places uh for one of, if not the earliest African American church in Sacramento stood where the current county garage stands on 8th Street, and that church is long long gone, although we marked it with a with a plaque, which I I hope is still still there, but it's uh insufficient uh indication of the historical nature of uh of that presence in uh our Sacramento history.

So uh I think it for me just underscores the significance and the importance of the kinds of actions that we're taking tonight.

Thanks.

Thank you.

I I just want to note that I I love this this item, and uh as Councilmember Jennings said, this is important about Sacramento history and certainly our black African American experience.

And since some of these properties are well known, but I'll just point to one that the Lotus House, Lotus Avenue House, um, which is the Canson House, uh the uh mother of the civil rights uh movement.

Um where was it right there?

Right there in um Hollywood Park area.

I read about that a couple years ago.

I drove by the house.

I did I never knew about it.

It's in a quiet neighborhood and just you know brings opportunity to talk about uh Sacramento's uh rich history.

So uh some of these are are more known than others, and some of these you're bringing to our attention.

So uh I fully support this item and thank you for everybody involved with it.

And with that, we have a motion and a second.

Uh all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

No zero abstentions.

We have one absence with maple measure passes eight zero.

Thank you.

We now move to item 17, also a public hearing.

Independence in Natomas.

Good evening, Mayor McCarty and members of City Council.

My name is Deja Harris, associate planner with the community development department.

This item, P22047, independence in a Thomas, is a request to construct a 107-unit residential development on 10.8 acres located within the Creekside Planned Unit Development in North Natomas.

The project requires the following entitlements: a rezone of 10.8 acres from single unit or duplex dwelling, R1APUD zone to multi-unit dwelling R2APUD zone, a tentative parcel map for condominium purposes for 170 residential units, a tentative parcel map design deviation for a non-standard street section, and site plan design review for the 170 unit residential development comprised of 85 duplex buildings with deviations to rear yard setback and accessory building height requirements of the R2A zone.

This project is before the city council this evening as a rezone requires approval from city council.

The planning and design commission forwarded a unanimous recommendation of approval to council at the meeting on July 28, 2025.

Some key points about this project.

Uh subject site is immediately adjacent to Wild Rose Park to the north, Red Bud Park to the east, and Creekside Parkway and the North Nathomas Regional Park further south.

The project will complete the class one bike trail along the eastern property line of the subject site, and the project will enhance pedestrian safety and provide traffic calming features such as a new speed table, raised crosswalk, and always stop.

Staff recommends approval of the proposed residential use.

Staff finds the proposed use and proposed residential use and its density is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood and the goals and policy of the 2040 general plan.

The project also provides a high quality architectural design consistent with city design guidelines.

Lastly, the project builds a new housing on vacant underutilized parcel, creating additional rental and home ownership opportunities.

And this concludes my presentation.

Applicant team and staff are available for any questions.

Thank you.

Mayor I have one more and one speaker, Jeffrey Tardi Gia.

Okay.

I already brought up the concern because uh well, I saw some time ago with these San Francisco Yimbies, is that you were at property in Oak Park that was becoming a triplex, and a triplex would not work for ADA development because of the stairs and the steps.

So with these projects that are going forward and with everything else that is changing going on, is are they been fully assessed and evaluated in that nectar and neckward of being equitable and situation-wise of uh availability in there is compatible?

I'm not wanting restrictions development, it has been recognized if you do it first, it's much better than you having to correct an ADA compatibility or other issue.

So just wanting to reiterate to the board here is all of these things there.

One of the things that realized for me was your earlier birchwood in there is the reassessment of removal of the um RT restrictions in there on the property.

Just wondering what why everything was in a sense blanked out.

PGE is still in there and the others, but you have reviewed this, is what I'm making strict concerned about.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Mayor, I have no more speakers.

Okay.

Thank you, Councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I want to thank uh the developers.

So this was first set for single family residences of approximately like I think was it 130, 120, 130.

And through looking at us passing the 2040 general plan, and where is somewhat of the missing middle?

Um, there's a change that I hope we can look at, because I don't believe an item like this should necessarily have to come back for council for a zoning change.

So we approved approximately 130 uh single family units, and in actuality, they're making 85 style single family residence that is actually split in two, which creates a duplex.

So I'm concerned about um when we're talking about streamlined Sacramento.

Uh this is one one of the items I think we should add to it that should not come back to council for a rezone.

That if it's single family going into a duplex in the style of a single family home, it should not come and be viewed as a multifamily uh situation.

It's you're taking the same footprint of a single family resident.

So uh through their innovation, we're actually going to be able to get 170 units with 85 style single-family homes, which I think is really important when we look at where the location of this is, live, work, play.

It's adjacent to three parks.

And one of the things I want to point out, which Deja, you pointed out, but said very quickly, um, the developer uh was not obligated to provide a table crossing crosswalk.

So it's the it's the table that cars go over, but it connects and creates that class one bike trail that is that is missing, and also working with our public works.

We're moving a stop sign so it aligns.

And when we talk about traffic and slowing cars down because North Park Drive, uh, people move too fast.

Um, in working with the developer, we are getting that added extra benefit that was not initially laid out of additional safety as well as a raised crosswalk because many kids who leave intercom may be going through our park and may be going that way, as well as kids leaving uh Westlake Charter and walking home.

This creates additional safety measures.

And I know some of the comments talked about lack of shade trees.

Um, the developer I've also talked with going above and beyond and are willing to provide um trying to get a hundred additional trees that we can plant in Natomas in and around there, um, so we can provide uh additional calming measures and shade uh for the surrounding community.

So there is power when we have these conversations uh and trying to make things the right way of bringing in new housing, but also added benefits to the community.

So um, you know, we're still missing the public transit from RT.

I will tell you that.

Notomas does not have enough public transit, but uh I'm still working on that, but we do have increased bike uh and walking, and with that I'll I'll move opening and closing uh this public hearing.

Okay, we have a motion and second, council member Dickinson.

Um thanks.

Uh I want to just actually to follow up on this uh issue about the shade trees, and it wasn't it wasn't clear to to me why uh the uh city code exempts uh developments like this described a single unit and duplex dwelling parking areas uh from uh shade any shade tree requirement.

So can you expand on that for me a little bit?

Uh our city code, uh a duplex is a dwelling containing two units.

In this case, this project is comprised of 85 duplex buildings, in which case a duplex is exempt from parking tree shading for the parking area and maneuvering areas.

Well, I get that, I get that part.

What I don't get is uh the reason I mean you you it's this is not like a single duplex or two or three duplexes.

This is how many eighty-five?

Eighty-five.

That's what I uh recalled.

85 duplexes.

This is a lot of area, a lot of parking and um I don't know what the developer has in mind on site, uh hopefully some trees.

I heard the there is there's a significant amount of trees that can fit in within this small area that accomplish shade-esque, but I think if I hear you correctly, why are single and duplexes exempt in the first place?

That's the ultimate question, yes.

I mean, we have both the development itself, but the larger question, why are the why are these exempt?

The developer can stand up and say I argued about more shade trees, and that's how we came to the compromise of additional around, but also learning about the exemption.

Okay, but uh perhaps it shouldn't require that.

What you can you give us some of a history here.

I think our code didn't contemplate an entire development of all duplexes.

I think the code uh that shade requirement exempt single family and or single units and duplex dwellings because those were typically found on corners.

Uh, and so it wasn't considered a multifamily where you need you had dry vials that led you to your garage.

So now that we're seeing more development that has uh clusters of duplexes operating as multifamily rental sites, it's worth probably looking at how that ordinance reads and perhaps including uh those maneuvering areas into a tree shading calculation.

Yeah, I would I would absolutely encourage uh re uh revisiting that uh especially.

I mean, just a few weeks ago, we we adopted a uh a new tree plan and uh we all recognize the benefits of that and the need for that, especially with uh heat island effect on climate climate change, and yet we have these instances where we don't seem to uh to align our what our our uh code requires with what our objectives are.

So um I I certainly hope you'll take a uh uh a look at that and see if that uh needs to be re revised as a as a result of what we're now starting to see in terms of uh development applications.

Thanks.

Yes, thank you.

I I I just want to note that if Mr.

Berg was here, he talked about the history of Sacramento of our making certain neighborhoods illegal to have duplexes and triplexes essentially, and to make housing more affordable, not just subsidies, it's making them affordable by design, and this is um exhibit A.

So I know we're gonna speak in a few moments about ways to streamline development and you know put this to the list of things that we can do to make it easier to build housing at all income levels.

So uh I've been full support of this.

We have a motion and seconds.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any no's or abstentions?

Uh hearing one, we have one absence, Councilmember Maple.

Next item.

We now move to item 18 audit of the City of Sacramento's animal care services division.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Julian Metcalf, and I'm joined by my colleague Eric Spidek.

We are from GPP Analytics, and we're here to talk this evening about the audit of the animal care services division.

Just for a little bit of background, um, we presented in April to the budget and audit committee, and then in May upon council's direction to the animal well-being commission.

And I believe some members from the commission are here tonight if there are questions from them in their motion.

Um, and just for background, you may already be familiar with this just from the work of the city auditor who does this as well.

This audit was conducted using the generally accepted government auditing standards.

Uh this is performed, it's called the yellow book as well.

But the background of this is really to have evidence-based analysis, independence, objectivity, and quality control in the process.

So the scope of the audit was relatively broad, covering things from animal welfare to staffing, morale, leadership, services, operations, policies, procedures, laws, regulation, compliance.

And with that, we had 10 findings, and it shouldn't be too surprising with such a broad scope, and 31 recommendations.

The introduction section of the report has a brief area of reviewing different schools of thought on animal care.

And this is an area where there's a great deal of differing opinions, and we put this in here because if you think about the context of our audit work of being an objective, there are many ways of looking at this and many strategies of looking at this, and we wanted to present to the council and to the public the different perspectives that are out there because we were not opining on the exact strategy because at the end of the day, there is only so many resources that the city has available and greater need.

And I think that's the theme of the audit throughout there are resource constraints that are to be considered, and we put forth recommendations that we felt worked within those constraints as best as possible.

Also, within the report, you'll see a section on other information.

This is just background information.

We covered a lot in this audit, and so we included it in there.

It's not a finding, but we wanted to present some of the information and statistics that we compiled at the same time.

And then finally, there's an appendix in the report which covers an employee engagement survey that we conducted as part of the audit.

And before I go on, I just want to thank the division as well.

It's not easy to be audited.

They were very open with their time and resources.

They allowed us to do on site three days of on-site work and observations, and they were very responsive, and I want to thank them for their time.

The first finding covers the challenge that the shelter faces.

As you may already be aware, it's not, it doesn't have sufficient capacity to cover the demand of the animals there.

And with that, you can see in these charts, they're often animals held above the design capacity of the facility.

A recent study suggested this would be approximately 50 million dollars to replace.

It's our understanding that this is not within the current financial resources of the city to do.

So we tried to look at some of the root causes here.

As you can see in the charts that there's a spike in kittens that are brought in and cats in particular, and then a growth over the years of dogs who have been housed in the shelter.

If we look at the numbers, and the first finding gets into this, you see that many of the animals are brought in because they are strays.

This is something that, especially for dogs, the city is legally compelled to house these animals and care for them.

But when the shelter is at an overcapacity, it adds additional stress on the animals.

This additional stress is the animals stay there longer, increases their behavioral challenges, which unfortunately drives the euthanasia rate of these animals.

So there is a relationship between the building and the facilities and the care that they're able to offer, and some, not all, this is not a panacea, but some of the outcomes of the animals.

And we recommend addressing the strays because this is something that is within the city's financial resource to some degree through increased spay and neuter services.

And we also recommend in the audit to consider community partnerships with other jurisdictions in the area to share limited resources.

This is a model that occurs other parts of the state and other parts of the country as well, where different jurisdictions work together to share resources.

Our second finding focuses on the employee engagement and recruitment strategies.

As you may be aware, the division has struggled with chronic vacancies over the years.

And as you can imagine, this disrupts daily operations if you're understaffed.

It's difficult to get normal work done.

It also affects morale when there's high turnover and creates a challenging work environment.

A lot of this was fed by our understanding from the engagement survey and just speaking with staff, but also looking at the numbers.

And we have recommendations around improving some of the job listings to help increase recruitment and retainment of staff and further engagement.

And it's our understanding that since the audit was released that the division has made some progress in the area of replacing and retaining staff in some of the vacancies.

I will let them speak to that.

That's not what we audited since this is a little backwards looking.

They can speak to some of the progress that they made in this area.

A third finding focuses on the need to finalize policies and procedures.

And this again relates to some of the staffing challenges.

Having policies and procedures gives you a clear guideline for what you should do every day and understanding what your boundaries and frameworks are.

It's also really important for accountability.

It's our understanding that the staff, of course, with the pandemic and some of the other challenges they've had.

We're not able to complete finalizing these policies and procedures.

It's something that they have spoken to us about prioritizing now, and then again, they can update you on their progress with this.

The other area is the animal control officers in particular.

For a period of time, they did not have a leadership position, a chief position in this role, and staff were stretched thin and in a position where they had to prioritize their work in the field on their own.

We recommend filling that position.

It's our understanding it may have been filled, and hopefully it still is.

On the division's website, they have routinely reported information about animals currently housed in the shelter and their outcomes.

But also the division was reporting out on the city's open data portal.

This was an automated system that was pulling data from their shelter management database and pulling that into the open data portal.

They were not aware of this connection.

Unfortunately, because of how it was operating, there were 41% of the fields had a blank outcome.

And while this is a minor thing because they were doing a good job reporting on their own website, the risk is that it undermines public trust because there are these two data sources that seem to conflict.

Finding six speaks to the need to increase veterinary capacity, especially if the city seeks to increase spay and neuter services mentioned in finding one.

This is important because right now, at least during the scope of the audit, I should say, the shelters was serving two things in their medical department.

They had shelter medicine, which is responding to animals' needs.

It's kind of like an emergency room facility.

Animals come in and they have specific needs that need to be treated and then treated while they're in the shelter.

And then there's more routine spay and neuter services.

The facility is relatively small and they had limited staffing as speaks to the some of the vacancies that the division faced.

So while they were addressing shelter medicine with the resources that they had, spay and neuter services were falling behind, often with a six-month wait time.

Without getting too far into the weeds here, because the shelter had limited capacity, they were also using a system with foster to adopt.

While the animals would be in the city's legal custody, they would before being adopted, they would have to be spayed and neutered before they could be officially adopted.

So while in the city's legal custody, they would be held by the adoptee as a foster until the time of which the animal could be spayed and neutered, which usually had a at the time of the audit had a six-month wait.

So getting these animals fully adopted and processed and outside of the city's legal custody and liability would be an important factor for increasing veterinary capacity.

Along with adding the veterinarians and filling those vacancies, of course, there's the space that goes along with that.

And since there is limited space at the current shelter, we recommended a prefabricated option that's relatively affordable, much cheaper than the $50 million option for a brand new shelter that could be considered, though this could be solved with other ways.

This was just the recommendation we had that seemed the most tangible at the time.

There could be other facilities and services that could accomplish this as well.

Finding seven focuses on the licensing compliance.

This is estimated.

I want to be clear that it's estimated because 14% of dogs and cats are licensed.

There is not actually a good record of exactly who owns what cat and who owns what dog in the city.

And that's part of the problem.

So we don't know how many animals are actually in the city, of course.

There is a legal requirement under city code for the animals to be licensed.

There's also a reporting mandate that the rabies vaccinations get reported back to the city.

Those only get reported for the licensed animals, and there's an opportunity to increase the licensing, bring in more revenue for the division, and of course, offset some of the costs to the public for the animals who have a cost to the city.

Finding eight speaks about an opportunity to improve some of the transparency and information around a relationship with the Friends of Front Street organization.

Friends of Front Street provides tremendous amount of volunteer and financial response support to the animals and to the city to the shelters.

But they also act as a vendor to the city, providing contract veterinary care through them.

And in this dual relationship, it creates the opportunity for conflict.

Our recommendation here is simply to negotiate an agreement so that this relationship has clear boundaries and is defined.

This is something we did speak with Mr.

Haupitt about, who had written a letter to the council prior, and we spoke with them at length and heard his opinion.

I don't think we see eye to eye with him on that, but we really believe that having an agreement that defines the relationship that the city can negotiate.

We're not suggesting exact wording for that agreement, but that would help prevent potential risks around the complicated relationship of these two organizations.

Finding nine focuses on the homeless out uh assistance program, which is often called the Hope Program.

It was originally authorized with six FDE or full-time equivalent staff by council.

Um, due to the staffing shortages within the division, they had been operating the program with just one.

Um it's our understanding that the staffing of this has been increased, but we felt it was important to bring it to the public and the council's attention to consider if the policy intention of those six FTE were being met with the current implementation.

And then finally, volunteers are the lifeblood of how the shelter operates.

Um there's a tremendous amount of volunteer hours, 93,000 hours a year in the period that we looked at.

Um I suspect the shelter could not operate as it does without that work.

And this is a small finding, but just simply a metric, some metric reporting that we recommend because they're so important to the shelter operations.

So I'll end it there.

Um myself and Eric are happy to answer any questions that you may have about the audit.

Okay.

Presentation, yes.

Okay, thank you.

Uh we'll have plenty of questions at the end, but now we have public command.

We have 15 speakers.

18.

I have 18 now.

18.

So I'll read off a few names, please line up in the aisle.

Paul Hefner, Elise Mice, Julie Verga, Layla Adoro.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mary McCarthy and members of the council.

As uh chair of the Animal Wellbeing Commission and a shelter volunteer, my perspective is uh, as you might imagine, shaped by the work that I've done alongside the folks who do day-to-day animal care here in Sacramento.

And let me tell you that the Front Street frontline shelter employees are true heroes for this city, and they need our support and our help.

This audit confirms what you can see for yourself at Front Street every day.

People stretch too thin by chronic understaffing and outdated facilities.

There's no lack of care or effort at Front Street, but many shelter like many shelters, we've not kept pace with the demands of modern animal welfare.

I thank this council for uh allocating funds recently for some uh badly needed uh shelter improvements, and I also thank the many members of you who uh contributed to our spay it forward effort, which uh just last weekend uh uh uh resulted in the spay and neuter of nearly 200 animals.

We really appreciate that from members of the community.

Um, but the fact remains that the facility itself is simply too old and too small to support the mission that we've entrusted to it.

So while the audit's recommendations about policy and the documentation and management are sound, they are no answer to the shelter's largest and most constant problem.

Too many animals in too little space.

Faced with this these kinds of challenges, the natural tendency is to become defensive and shy away from scrutiny.

Um that's why our commission has focused on expanding the public dialogue and trying to re-engage with some of our longtime critics.

We don't always agree, but we believe that everybody deserves a chance to be heard.

Here's my two cents.

Use this audit not as a cudgel, but as a call for action.

Um help us foster honest discussions about the daunting challenges, and frankly heart rending decisions that are required.

Thank you for your comments.

Our next speaker is Elise Mies and Julie.

Good evening.

Um, I'm just gonna start out because I have a lot of information in two minutes.

For over five years, we've been bringing a council and city management examples of illegal practices, dereliction of duty, public safety issues, the squandering of public funds, and retaliatory practices of the leadership of Front Street.

This independent audit has echoed many of our concerns.

A new facility, although needed will not cure these issues of failed leadership.

Nor were these issues so prevalent under prior leadership with the same exact facility and much higher animal intake.

This shelter director has allowed an over $50,000 grant in badly needed Spain neuter funds to expire.

He's had that grant money for almost three years and never spent it.

That fiscal irresponsibility, especially with such a large city deficit, is inexcusable.

Children should not have to play in a park with a dead dog oozing its bodily fluids on the sidewalk and the health risks that come along with it for over a week in a Sacramento summer summer, despite multiple calls to 311, which was the case just a few weeks ago.

Also, as seen on the front page of the B, the current director and the interim city manager signed off on the hiring of an extremely controversial person in Stacy Danes at the top of the pay scale at $60.87 an hour.

The irony of tonight isn't lost on me when we are honoring the African American experience of Sacramento, yet a blind eye has been turned to the hiring of not only an incompetent leader, but also one with purported racist tendencies.

Quite honestly, that might be the most disgusting piece of this in a city that takes such pride in its diversity.

Miss Danes was hired to replace Liz Thompson, who quit without another source of employment when Director Zimmerman rescinded his retirement early this year because the toxic leadership became too much for her.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Julie Verga, Layla, then Kim Pacini Houch.

Good evening.

For over five years, we have spoken out about illegal practices, mismanagement, and negligence that cost animals their lives at Front Street shelter.

Many of our concerns were validated by the audit findings and give the mayor and council the chance to change course and to show that our elected officials not only value animals' lives, but also public safety, even when the departments entrusted with that duty have failed.

Unless the council insists on oversight, accountability, and transparency, nothing will change.

As the mayor's appointee to the Animal Wellbeing Commission said, this audit reflects colossal failures across the board by management.

Councilmember Dickinson called the audit a call to action, saying we must take fundamental steps to improve services and be as aggressive as possible about spay neuter and public safety.

Thank you.

Councilmember Dickinson, we completely agree.

In the last five years, more than 15,000 animals have been turned away under illegal reduced intake programs.

Their offspring now roam our neighborhoods, overcrowd our shelters, and put public safety at risk.

The death toll of over 6,000 animals, animal lives at Front Street should not be in vain.

We must do better.

We must value the lives of animals and public safety, and we must restore public trust in our city leaders.

We respectfully ask the mayor and this council to step in where others have failed.

Please protect the animals, protect our community, and make the changes that are so desperately needed to restore Front Street to the once amazing shelter it was.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Layla Adoro, Kim Pacini Houch, then Millicent Tigwell.

Hi, my name is Layla, and I'm speaking on my volunteer experience at Front Street.

Up until 2024, I spent years volunteering at Front Street, working with dogs at risk of euthanasia.

I shared their videos on my social media, and by networking them, I saved several hundred dogs.

Although I work full-time and manage at management, I devoted weekends, holidays, and vacation days to the shelter, sitting with the scared and lonely animals who wanted nothing more than love.

I know with certainty the more people who know their stories, the more lives can be saved.

I was never political, never critical of the shelter.

I only wanted to save lives.

But I was told by the director that I could no longer volunteer by continued to use the words at risk for euthanasia on my personal social media.

Even though those words were the truth.

And instead of being supported, I was retaliated against for speaking honestly.

My life-saving work was stopped in its tracks.

I could not agree with their terms.

My integrity matters.

I know other staff and volunteers have faced the state treatment.

I'm here to ask you today to please help change Front Street.

For more than five years, these harmful practices have continued.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Kim, following Kim is Millicent.

Good evening.

My name's Kim Pacini, and back in 2016, I started a home for the Polidays, and we paid for personally and rescued 1,103 animals at my personal expense and raised money, tens of thousands of dollars to spay and neuter those animals that were adopted.

So my heart has been in Front Street for all these years, and I'm sickened, sickened by what Zimmernan has done to this shelter.

He has gutted the culture, the heart of the people who volunteer and donate, and we have had to distance ourselves emotionally due to the pain of watching our beautiful city shelter, which was mainly a no-kill shelter as best as possible.

And so please don't buy the sympathy card for Director Zimmerman because he's going to pull that out.

Reserve your sympathy for the thousands of animals killed under his failed leaderships.

And I say killed, not euthanized.

Euthanasia implies mercy for sick and suffering.

What's happening at Front Street is killing healthy adoptable animals simply for space, and it's inexcusable.

I ask of you all have you ever been to Front Street?

Any of you on the council, mayor, any of you, have you been to a euthanasia room?

Have you watched these beautiful animals die?

Have you looked in the eyes of their soul and said goodbye to them?

I'm sorry we couldn't help you.

Has any of you done that?

And if you haven't, I ask you, please do go and see the pain and the suffering of the people that have to kill these animals because there's pain in their eyes too.

So while we get to this audit, which really gave a lot of great information, I hope that you'll consider the needs.

And I also hope that you'll consider increasing the funding to a city shelter.

And while you're increasing housing, you're not increasing funding for a shelter that continues to be overburdened.

I thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments.

Millicent Kidwell.

Lisa were you.

Good evening.

My name is Millicent Tidwell.

I'm here on behalf of animals who have no voice.

First of all, I want to thank the mayor and the city council for conducting the audit in the first place.

And then taking a look at the audit findings, I think should everyone should be concerned.

The audit confirms many of the criticisms that have been raised repeatedly by advocates for over the past five plus years.

I'll repeat some of the bottom line that Julie Verga said about the 15,000 plus animals needlessly turned away under illegal reduced intake strategies.

Also another 6,000 plus killed due to mismanagement and wasted resources.

A direct quote from the audit itself says a colossal failure across the board by management.

I'm recently retired from 30 plus years in state civil service, overseeing in leadership positions a variety of programs and services on behalf of the state.

And if I ever got an audit like this about my leadership, I would not expect to keep my job.

So uh we call on the mayor and the council to protect the animals, protect the community, and demand accountability and oversight and change at Front Street.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

Lisa were you and Jeffrey Tardi Gia.

Lisa, following Lisa's Jeffrey Tardi Gia.

Estella Drake.

Hi, my name is Lisa Were you, and uh 14, 15 years ago, Sacramento City had an animal shelter that had a horrible rate of animals who made it out alive.

Only about 20% did.

In fact, the city was thinking of shutting it down, and the person to oversee this was Gina Nepp.

But instead of shutting it down, she facilitated improvements.

And by the time she left in 2019, over 90% of shelter animals made it out alive.

She did a lot, you know, she hired associate social media specialists to promote shelter dogs and cats on Facebook, as we just heard that's a great way to uh get adoptions.

She respected and encouraged workers and volunteers, and now we have Zimmerman who discourages, ignores, and even censors workers.

Um we all know how important spay and neuter is on uh there was a uh uh the first time that SNP, which is a mobile spay and neuter program, was scheduled to come to the shelter.

Zimmerman canceled it.

And as you've also heard, he allowed a $50,000 grant for spay and neuter to expire.

Um I know that the small small place is an issue, but Mr.

Zimmerman, you've had five years to come up with some ideas.

Things like bond measures, fundraisers.

You know, the SPCA's doggy dashed raised 237,000.

And so instead of hiring Stacy Danes, who was such a bad shelter manager that euthanasia rates went up 72%.

Why didn't you hire somebody who could find ways for more spay and neuter, expand the shelter?

Our shelter deserves better leaders than Zimmerman and the case.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Jeffrey Tardi Gia.

Estela Drake, then Rebecca Kirk Kirkeron.

Well board.

I raised the question of the completeness of this audience.

I raised the question in regards to where the published findings and the interesting things that may not be there.

Now I've been to the county Bradshaw facility.

I have not been to your frontier facility.

So I speak from Los Angeles experience when I volunteered for the animal shelter in Los Angeles.

And yes, I can answer the question about dealing with a fractured personality of an animal that needed to be and was going to have to be put down, but at the same time being that comfort to that, which I believe you have volunteers that understand and do that.

But for you here, you need to figure out the main way of addressing the many animals out there, and whether you are exporting them to other places, or whether you're doing educational outreach to explain for cats how big they can expand without the spade and neuter.

I don't really see those things in here included in there.

Maybe it's there, and I missed it as your audit, and it is whether financial nature looked at, whether you looked at this aspect or the other.

It just leaves me puzzled as far as this the purpose of what you achieved with this audit and how you, as a council, are going to use it.

And I see so few eyes that are willing to look at it.

I thank you for the eyes that look and see what is here and a problem that you thank you for your comments.

Estella Drake is our next speaker.

Then Rebecca Kirchron.

And so many citizens didn't even know we had a shelter, and everyone called it the pound.

When but when new management came in, embraced volunteers, welcomed the public, everything changed.

On any given day, hundreds of us were helping animals, supporting staff, and giving hope to our community.

Front Street became a beacon of compassion and a place where people knew they could find help.

All of that changed when Director Zimmerman arrived in 2019.

The culture shifted immediately, and not for the better.

Longtime volunteers who questioned his practices were pushed out.

The shelter doors closed under managed intake, and what once was a bustling life-saving place became a shell in its own former self.

Because I spoke out, I was no longer welcome.

Today I have to keep friends friendships with staff secret because they fear losing their jobs if they are seen with me.

Rescue groups tell me the same thing.

They cannot risk speaking up because if they do, they may lose the ability to save animals from the euthanasia list.

I'm here because the animals have no voice but ours.

The city manager's office has looked the other way.

We need you, the mayor, the council, to make sure this audit is not swept under the rug and to restore a culture that values volunteers.

Rescues and above all the lives of the animals who depend on us.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Rebecca Kirk Brown.

Following Rebecca is Jenny Baldini, then Don Tomatia.

I would like to share just one of the many negative experiences I've had with Front Street and Animal Control.

In October of 2023, my neighbor purchased a brand new puppy.

I saw that he had this 10-week-old puppy chained to a weight larger than her.

She was crying and struggling.

I informed him that it was not legal for him to tether the dog, and he needs to provide her with water and shelter if she will be living outside.

He told me to F off.

So I called animal control.

They came out, but nothing changed in her situation.

I called again and then I was ignored.

I was given the number to Officer Chanel, and she informed me that what she what he was doing was indeed illegal, and that she saw the ticket and she would get to it.

Nobody got to it.

Nothing changed in this dog situation.

She lived outside with no accessibility to water, no shelter, and no human interaction.

She would be chained to a pole in the yard for days at a time.

I continued to call animal control and officer Chanel with no response.

I called and texted Officer Chanel and Animal Control at least once a week from October of 2023 to June of 2024, begging for animal control to help this puppy.

I sent pictures and documentation.

During this time, I also decided to contact Mr.

Zimmerman directly to help this dog.

He informed me that the dog was an appropriate weight at the time of the first call, and I told him over the course of a few weeks she was being starved and her ribs were showing.

He said that the small patio overhang was considered a shelter, but it has no walls.

If it's raining hard, she's in the rain.

If it's freezing, she's freezing.

I responded with a picture emailed to Mr.

Zimmerman after clearly showing that she is starving and her ribs showing, and stated that I had to feed and give her water in secret.

And I was the only interaction that she had.

He did not respond to any more of my emails.

Animal control refused to come out.

That's when I knew that there was not gonna be any help for this puppy.

It should not be my responsibility to keep my neighbor's dog alive.

And this is just one of the countless dogs that could have been saved if Front Street did their job.

Thank you.

Thank you for a comment.

Jenny Baldini.

Then Don Tomatia.

Hi, good evening.

Um, my name's Jenny Baldini, and um before I get started, I just want to know how long we're gonna do the dance.

We come to you, we tell you what's going on, and we don't get feedback.

We have to hire an auditor for things that we've been telling you.

And if it's not you, it was prior to you, and if it wasn't them, it was prior to them.

It's it's ridiculous, it's sad, it's almost criminal.

This is what you guys do, this is what you get paid for.

I mean, Zimmerman is the worst we've ever had.

The people he's hired is the worst we've ever had.

I mean, come on.

This is this is disgraceful.

I mean, really, it's just it's disgraceful, and it makes me sad for the city of Sacramento.

So now I'm gonna start.

Uh, over 1,250 animals have been killed this year at Front Street, and the killing spiked the very same month that Stacey Dane started, and this was predictable.

Because Stacy Danes was forced out of the Los Angeles Animal Service Services being placed on leave for gross mismanagement and discrimination.

So let me repeat that.

She was asked to leave for gross mismanagement and discrimination.

Would any of you hire somebody that was asked to leave at a job prior to being?

You know, can I just can I just interject here?

Uh we welcome this public participation.

We'll give you your another 30 seconds or so.

Um, we are talking about the audit, so if we could ask people, I I gave it a lot of leeway, but naming individuals who are people, I I would ask that you focus on if you could the merits of the audit, suggested changes and not be mentioning.

Well, within regards to the audit, we do pay her a lot of money.

Thank you.

But if you could focus on that and not focus on individuals' names work for the city, you can talk about my name, but people work for the city.

I'd ask you to refrain from disparaging remarks about them.

Okay, well, she was hired uh because she was a friend of Mr.

Zimmerman, bottom line.

And uh the city manager, the interim city manager looked the other way.

We just want this crisis to be over.

We want for leadership to change.

We need to get some good leadership in there.

You know just as well as I do, this isn't working.

We had to pay how much money thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Don Tomatia is our next speaker, then Tamara Morgan, then Jamie McDoll.

Okay, can you hear I'm chart?

Can you hear me?

Yes, yes, thank you.

Okay.

So actually, my name is Don Tomita, not Tomatia, but thank you.

Um, so you guys asked for an audit.

Um, if you're gonna spend the money to have an audit, then I hope you actually do something about it and take some action.

Because if you're not gonna take any action, you're just gonna dismiss dismiss the findings, then basically you're saying that the suffering of the animals and the safety of public are not important.

You know, you spend this money.

I'm a I'm a um volunteer for um the Sacramento SPCA.

I foster it for kittens, and you know, there's a lot of kittens out there, and I had someone who had a kitten from Front Street, and Front Street didn't know about, didn't know who had that kitten because a lady called me because I know her because she was gonna adopt one of my foster kittens, and she's like, Well, they're telling me um that I can't bring them in to be fixed, it'll take like a week or so, and she's like, he's already in my care, he's scared, so you want me to bring them back to the shelter and put them in that environment and traumatize him for a week, you know, and it's like they're so disorganized, and it's like poor management.

If you have poor management, then you're gonna have a lot of turnover.

So look at the turnover, because if you have a toxic environment, you're gonna have people leap.

And I'm telling you now, I've been an auditor for a long time, and I work for the state auditor's office.

So I hope you really look at this audit and take it to heart and do something about it.

Because I mean, there's problems there, just don't ignore them.

Please do something.

The animals are suffering.

And dying.

Thank you.

We could do better.

Right.

Thank you.

Tamara, then Jamie.

Tamara Morgan.

Following Tamara is Jamie McDoll, then Kelly Kittle.

Uh hi.

Um to thank uh the mayor and the city for allowing this uh time to discuss the audit of the animal care services of Sacramento, right here.

I've read it several times.

I find that I would I personally, as a taxpayer and supporter of Front Street in the past years, not now.

I have no confidence in this audit.

It is without any financial information to determine how money was spent.

I don't call that an audit.

There's no generally accepted accounting principle financial statements, there's no budget expenses and no that have been made available that I know of.

I have not seen it in the audit, even in the attachments, the charts and the metrics and et cetera.

So I don't know how you can call this an audit.

It doesn't say where did the money go that I not only donated but through my tax paying, and what was it used for?

If there's supposed to be money set aside for unhoused homeless animals, and trying to fix that problem, which is huge, can cause all kinds of uh health issues, uh rabies epidemics and everything else.

The sanitation, I up and down Broadway, all these people with their homeless tents and their animals.

This can't go on like this.

There needs to be transparency.

Then the council and the mayor, please, I beg you.

Look into this.

Do the cost benefit analysis, find out where our money went, who spent it, what was it spent for, and is there fraud, waste or abuse happening here?

And I'm not using anybody's name.

I'm gonna try and give everybody a little grace here because this has been going on long before many of you were on the thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

I have five more speakers.

Jamie McDoll, Kelly Kittle.

And again, I have five more speakers.

Hey, good evening.

Uh, this audit confirms that there's both an animal crisis and a public safety crisis.

Uh the backlog and animal control calls increase from 200 to over 2,000.

And in Zimmerman's response, uh, it was shrugged off, and he even said that having 500 unanswered calls was acceptable, but it's really not.

I mean, that's public safety.

You've got animals out there who could be out of control, you've got risk of of the public getting bit.

Uh, you've got increased risk of disease such as rabies.

Adding to that, you've got uh the health and safety issues of the policy to turn away stray animals, especially cats and kittens.

Not only is that cruel and illegal under Haydn's Act, um, but the Segal, as the audit pointed out, the city is legally required to impound and house strays.

And that is not happening.

So releasing unvaccinated and unaltered animals back into the community not only increases the risk to the public, but also exacerbates the overpopulation that we have.

This audit highlights the need for a robust spay and neuter as a practical solution.

Not only, it was only after the audit highlighted this, was there some effort put in by management to increase the spay and neuters.

And yet, still $53,000 grant for spay and neuter was allowed to expire unused.

That's that is pure mismanagement.

Also, they sabotage the $15,000 in free spay and neuters for the shelter animals in favor of euthanasia.

As of today, Front Street is euthanized 1,274 animals.

The policy of manage intake and foster to adopt forced animal care on the public, reducing the shelter's workload.

And yet, I think if your comments, your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Kelly Kittle, then Maddie Hyatt.

Hi.

Um I can't afford to lose 50 bucks.

You put 50K on that table.

I'm not gonna let it sit there and expire.

Uh so it costs me roughly because I rescue a lot.

Uh I spend about 125 dollars for a small, about 250 to 300 to spay a medium, and 500 to spay a big.

Think of how many dogs you can spay with 50,000 dollars.

And that's me, a citizen.

I'm not getting special rates per se.

So um that is insane.

Uh that's literally not given a flying.

So uh the direction of the prior city council seemed to lack a rudder.

We have some newly elected members who specifically stated they supported concerns about animal welfare.

Thus far, I've seen nothing.

It bounces from committee to committee to committee.

Um, and uh, if you continue to allow the interim city manager and the city manager before them, and hopefully not after them, should just so flagrantly fail at supervising such an extraordinarily poorly performing director.

I think every one of you should spend an eight hour shift doing nothing but help euthanize healthy puppies and dogs.

And when I say that, I mean, I mean, I want you to go to the kennel, you're gonna leash that dog up, that dog knows something positive.

It's all gonna happen right now.

They're just sure of it.

You walk them down to the youth room, you take them in the youth room, you hold them while they get killed and they're healthy, you put them in the bag in the trash bag, you just start that day's pile of dead bodies.

And you spent all day long doing that, every single one of you.

And then come back and tell us not to do anything.

I just drove to LA to adopt my 25th dog, not all at one time, but uh I want to dot from here.

Well, he put me on an animal abuser list as a retaliation because I speak too much, I guess, but nonetheless.

I uh I hope you do better.

Next speaker is Maddie Hyatt, then Danny Summers.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I'm Maddie Hyatt.

For 15 years, I've lobbied for California Civil Liberties Advocacy on transparency and good government practices.

Estella Drake introduced me to Julie Verga and Save Our Shelters, and they asked me to look into these community concerns and to try to help articulate them constructively.

I will try to articulate them as constructively as I can.

And I do want to give this group of volunteers a lot of credit for shining a light on these issues and holding government accountable on their own time and their own dime.

I will limit my testimony to the agenda.

The city auditors' report is clear.

Overcapacity, months-long spay and neuter delays, incomplete standard operating procedures, and oversight gaps in animal control.

Error-prone public data and an informal relationship with friends of Front Street that needs to have a formal memorandum of understanding.

The public needs timelines, milestones, and sunlight.

Number one, adopt a quarterly implementation dashboard, intake outcomes, including euthanasia by cause, animal control officer response times, and spay and neuter throughput.

Two, finalize and publish the Friends of Front Street memorandum of understanding with clear roles, fundraising boundaries, and procurement rules.

Number three, sustain spay and neuter surge until the backlog is cleared with monthly progress updates.

Number four, standardize ACO operations, written policies, triage standards, supervision, and report priority one response metrics.

Number five, fix and govern the open data feed so the public can trust the numbers.

We value the work of city staff and the volunteers.

The goal here is partnership.

Let's turn this audit into very visible improvements.

Thank you.

Danny Summers.

Then Hillary Bagley Friend Zoia Hi, my name is Danny Summers.

Um, and I have been a proud volunteer of Front Street Animal Shelter since May of last year.

I go in four or two, five days a week, and unlike everyone else speaking of past, I've been there this past year.

And I'm just really angry hearing this because no volunteer and no staff while I'm there wants to put an animal down.

And this murder versus euthanasia, the fact is they have to take in every stray, and when they're full, that's the gross, disgusting, horrible situation we're in, and we need people to step up and help.

That's what the audit was on.

They keep saying we need help.

Thank you for doing the audit, which is the first step and getting help.

And now we have something we can follow and do.

They the audit also came with the $50,000 or $50 million price tag, which it's a city funded building.

So please help us.

Um with that, I just want to tell you guys a little bit about what I've seen in the past year.

Um we actually have increased adoption rates.

We have now um animal pups and pjs, um, animal doggy day out.

Um we have uh jog a dog where people can come take these dogs out, reduce the kennel stress because yes, these kennels are outdated, small, not enough.

We are on two acres and we need seven acres.

Please help us.

We also have animal balance, which is an increasing community span neuters and the and their spay noters, and they actually are the foster to adopt, has actually decreased already um down to about uh right now that's you have they have to be spade or neutered before they go home.

We are at goal.

Um, also in um, and I got to be a part of that last weekend um as a volunteer with many people coming to get these animals, the spay and neutering, because we agree we don't want animals hurt, we want spay neutering, and we want all of that.

Also, the Hope program has just got their van going on the clinic, and it's going in a great direction, and we do need help.

We do need more money, and we need those animal control officers.

We also need more to handle all of the needs out there.

Thank you for your comments.

Hillary is our final speaker on this item.

Please, council.

Mayor McCarty.

My name is Hilary Bagley.

I'm a new appointee to the council.

I'm a new commissioner.

I thank you, Mayor, for appointing me.

Um, I was a DA for over 30 years.

I had a specialty in animal abuse.

I'm an expert in animal abuse and neglect.

In addition to all my other caseloads, homicide gangs and everything else, I always took animal abuse.

And in the last three years of my career, I handled nothing but animal abuse.

I had my own task force, and I loved it.

It was my passion.

I'm an expert in it.

I've trained officers all over the state, including city cops and sheriffs.

I've been very open about opposing the policies, operational policies that Mr.

Zimmerman brought.

I am telling you they are unlawful, and you know where to find me, and I can give you a written opinion, and I can explain it.

They fly in the face of your city ordinances, they fly in the face of state law, including rabies laws.

They facilitate breeding, which is very, I'm very sensitive to these policies.

Whenever you leave an unaltered dog out in city streets, any time you tell the public to dump them out into the city streets, any time you don't take them into the shelter and you tell the people to go ahead and privately shelter them themselves, and 90% of them are unaltered.

They're going to breed, and worse.

And manager Zimmerman knows this.

This is part of a movement.

I think that's what you probably haven't heard tonight.

This is a part of a movement that he's involved in across this state, and it's been going on for five years.

Now, even if I agreed with community sheltering and reduced intake, I would tell you that this audit shows nothing but dismal lack of accountability.

To me, it re Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Mayor, I have no more speakers on this agenda item.

Thank you.

Before we get to uh mayor and counsel, we did have a presentation from the department.

We had a little staff who didn't have the pre didn't have the PowerPoint, so please come up and and uh present your PowerPoint, and then we'll have some QA with with you and with the auditor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, good evening, uh Mayor and Council.

Um so I'll just go briefly through some of the findings.

Um obviously this has been kind of a delayed process, and so we've already jumped started on this prior to even audit being finished, and then after the auto is finished.

Um so finding one was uh to contact our regional partners uh to see if there was additional housing uh for animals.

Uh so we reached out to YOLO, SACA SBCA and the County Bradshaw Animal Shelter uh all responded with they absolutely have no space uh for additional animals.

They're already struggling with space issues with our own organizations.

Uh finding two uh regarding employee engagement and recruitment strategies.

Um as the Animal Care Services Division struggled recruiting employees as the entire city department did, uh we were no we were no different.

Um, and so we have been working with HR on it addressing some of the issues specifically with our veterinarian uh compensation and the job duties of that of that position, in addition to talking about some of the um Mr.

Zerman.

Do you have the uh I'm sorry?

Um so addressing the the low cost uh the low veterinarian salary of our position.

We have been successful in recruiting three veterinarians, two for our our shelter and one for our hope program.

Um but uh but retaining them will continue to be a problem when we are uh one of the lowest paid in the state of California for municipal shelter uh veterinarians.

Um we have done more promotion of job openings, including our social media accounts, um, and we're making great progress uh with our uh recruitment efforts.

Uh employee recognition, um not only does our department do a great job of employee recognition, all of our divisions in our department uh can nominate employees for the employee of the month.

We've actually had an animal care services division that was an employee of the year for the department last year.

Um so we do a lot, and quite frankly, the the staff themselves do a lot to support themselves because they do have such a difficult job.

Um we are working with the HR and the labor unions regarding our policies and procedures.

Um as many other departments, HR is very short staffed as well.

Um, and so they're backlogged with assisting departments and divisions with those policies.

Um, but we have come come up with a uh creative way to uh provide some direction to staff, and and so we're creating some memos with approval from the HR department, and that's already been implemented as well.

Um, our current um staffing, we have four ACTs that are vacant.

We have uh selected three employees.

We'll be doing interviews here shortly.

Uh we have one CSR in our administration area that's vacant, and we have one officer vacancy and uh one officer in backgrounds.

Um, and we did hire the chief uh in January of this year.

Um with the hiring of the chief, we went from having over 2,000 calls pending for service to now routinely being under 500.

Would we like that to be less absolutely?

But that is a major decrease because that we they now have that oversight.

Um due to the the city's budget deficit, we're we're not gonna ask for additional funding positions to pick up deceased animals and such.

Um can we can we just please I I know we have opinions and we value them, but we're not gonna have this like the commission hearing.

I I've I know many of your names and faces.

I value your opinion.

I appointed some of you to as my slots on the commission, but we're not gonna have you disrupting this hearing.

So please please please let please let the the gentleman present and please don't interrupt.

I don't want to have to alter the hearing.

Thank you.

Um so one of the suggestions was that we hire somebody to uh you know at a lower classification to pick up deceased animals, and that that sounds really good, but unfortunately, with the city's uh deficit, that's just not something we believe that is gonna be um possible.

Um five.

All right.

Um here we go.

The uh data um as the auditors mentioned, we do have a very robust um statistical data on our website.

Um I have actually never seen anything uh across the nation that has this information uh that is updated every two hours.

You can see how many animals we have in the shelter, you can see how many animals we have in foster care.

Uh, you can see the intakes, the outcomes, the live release rate.

Um, and one thing I I think it is important to note here.

Um, and it was also noted in the audit.

Our live release rate is not, it's not, it's it's in the realm of other shelters with the same resources that we have.

So I think that's important to note in the audit.

Regarding the the city's open data portal, we we have worked with IT and corrected that to make sure that they are pooling accurate data, and then we're checking in on our end to make sure that it's accurate.

In regards to increasing veterinary capacity, you know, one of the recommendations was to hire an additional uh veterinarian again with a current uh budget deficit.

That that's not going to be a possibility.

Um the the clinic in a can is something that some smaller shelters have been able to incorporate for a fairly uh low cost.

Um but unfortunately, when you're taking in 10,000 animals a year, we need a more high volume spay and neuter clinic.

So that is something that's not gonna work for us.

And so we're exploring some of those possibilities, and it definitely will need to be a public-private partnership to increase shelter spay neuter not just for shelter animals, but also for our community as well.

And I think one thing that's really really important to highlight as the auditors mentioned, we were backlogged six months with the foster to adopt, and again, it was something that shelters are doing today, even today.

Uh shelters in our own community are still doing this today.

Um, it was a way to decrease youth in Asia and get animals out of the shelter because we didn't have the ability to spay and neuter them.

Um at our highest, we had 872 animals in foster to adopt.

Uh, as of today, we are down to 21 animals in foster to adopt.

Regarding um licensing compliance, uh, over the last several years we outsourced our licensing uh to DocuPet, uh, which has allowed them to process things much more automated.

Uh they have technology that we don't have, um, and so it it took away, it took staff time a lot longer, and that's why those became backlogged.

Uh, last year was the first year that we actually made our licensing revenue.

Um, and so we anticipated in this upcoming year budget another $50,000 because we think we're gonna be able to do that as well.

Uh, we have sent out letters to veterinary clinics, uh 51 at this time, and we've already had 17 beginning to send us the rabies and the owner information on a regular basis.

Um, and we are going to be actually uh sending uh our chief and some of our officers out to actually have conversations with the veterinary clinics, explain to them why it's important for them to send us this information.

We have also um contracted with a collection collection agency for people that are not paying their expenses.

Um we've only been in and using them for the last two months, and we've collected over $3,000 in revenue that will be coming directly to us.

So again, we see um some additional revenue uh increase there as well.

License outreach and advertising.

Um again, we're we're using our social media, we're using uh next door.

Um again, uh, we've created some um applications in English and Spanish working with our our vendor to make licensing your pet more attractive.

So it's not just about licensing your pet.

Should you should your animal become lost?

This is your your animal's way of getting home.

Uh so again, just kind of changing the narrative with our community members that licensing necessarily isn't a tax, it's it's really just a way to get your animal back home should it end up in our shelter.

Uh the on uh foot canvassing program.

Again, many shelters did that uh due to budgetary concerns.

Many of them uh did away with that because again, it's just it doesn't you don't really get your return on the expense.

Um we have removed uh in the in the current uh fiscal year uh that you all passed.

Um we uh did remove a lot of fees that we don't charge and we did increase certain fees, including our licensing fees.

Um the city can't the city run uh licensing kiosks and vet offices, that is something that we are going to be having conversations with those vet offices when we go out there because we want to be mindful of of their staffing and their issues and if they're gonna have the ability to provide that service.

Uh regarding finding eight, uh our our relationship with the friends of Friends of Front Street.

Um, again, with with your your approval of this audit, uh, we we do believe that is important.

Um Front Street is known across this country uh for being a shelter that really is able to go above and beyond and treat many animals that a lot of municipal shelters can't.

And so we need to make sure that we we keep that um we protect that um with our donors uh again, not only locally here, but but across the nation and across the world.

Uh we have a large following on Facebook, and without those donations, we would not even be able to save the number of animals that we do.

So we think that's really important that we identify the roles that both of our organizations one of the uh things that were highlighted was when you do go on the city's website and you do hit it online donation, that money does go to friends.

Um and so we cleared that language up so before somebody even clicks it lets them know that they are going to our partner.

And we are open to working with uh our financial legal team and our procurement department regarding some of the additional concerns that were brought up.

Um regarding our homeless assistance program.

Um happy to say that it's fully staffed.

I mean, it's a small but mighty team.

We we know our unhoused community members, a lot of them have pets, and while we have one veterinarian and two RVTs and an uh uh animal services coordinator and eventually two officers, that's a lot of work for a very small team.

Um I don't know if you've all seen, but it gets a lot of attention from our community.

They're very supportive of it.

They're donating to to the program because they're so supportive of it.

Um and so again, we're really looking forward to amp that program up and and and most importantly to try to get those unhoused community members and their pets into permanent housing, which I know is is all part of our goal.

And last but certainly not least, the the use of our volunteers.

Um, you know, our volunteers donate uh just shy of a hundred thousand hours a year, and that's the ones that actually log their time.

We love our volunteers, but they're they're not always great at logging their time.

So we actually anticipate that number um is larger.

The system that we use for our volunteer database is actually a city-based system that uh different departments and divisions use, and we did check in with them, and unfortunately, they don't have a way to give us that statistical information besides the hard data.

So that is something that we would actually have to spend staff time or volunteer time to um see what our retention rate is and some of the other things that were suggested in the audit.

So, with that said, I'm open to any questions that you have for me or the auditors.

Okay, thank you.

Let's have both you and the auditor uh stay close by.

Uh I'll have some questions, but we'll start with council member Dickinson.

Oh, I'm sorry, I I apologize.

I knocked him out.

We're gonna go back to Councilmember Gera, who I will note was prepared with uh a list of questions, and he took a little bit of pushback, but he wanted to make sure both our audit committee and our animal welfare commission had the chance to weigh into this audit before it came to the full council for vetting.

Councilmember Gera.

Thank thank you, Mayor.

I I first I appreciate this.

Um and yes, I do want to appreciate the the audit committee and staff for and the members of the commission for diving into a number of those questions and for getting back to me.

First, uh first let me just thank all the the members of the community who had reached out to me prior, uh and many of why I worked with um you know to raise money for Front Street to remember having our first food truck events with our previous director and and raising money there.

Um, you know, by uh by large, Tahoe Park mayor was the largest uh supporter of that fundraiser.

It also had to deal with beer sales too, but they were the largest in the city as well.

Uh but they were big advocates of Front Street, and I appreciate all of their commitment as well.

Uh and I also wanted to thank those uh like Estella who reached out early about the importance of uh of education in multiple languages and uh increasing those efforts, which we've seen that uh but most importantly, I want to thank the members of the community and uh and volunteers, people who have volunteered who asked uh uh me to uh request this audit.

And I'm very glad that this audit is finally done, and uh at my request and my motion, and I do thank the the audit uh committee as well, because I know there's a lot of different audits we want to do, and you know, when we prioritize uh an issue, it speaks, I think, volume to what the issue is.

And I think one of the key things that have come out here is that yes, we do have uh a uh a responsibility to our taxpayers uh to run an efficient uh shelter and to run one that addresses the needs of the community, but we have an ethical obligation as well uh and a moral obligation to also be responsible for the animals.

And you know, as someone who was involved uh in uh in agriculture and husbandry, and then you know, um, and um and had my own uh uh you know uh animal uh uh at that time, uh Jake, uh a very silly and lovable lab.

Um, you know, it it brought a lot of experience to me about what we do as a city is more than just what's on paper.

Uh and this audit, I think it's important that the city acknowledge uh the facts of the audit and that the city uh staff itself uh you know take serious concern about all of the issues that it has brought up.

And the number one issue that I think it has brought up since my time on the council to where we are today is the question of public trust with the audit.

And I I I want I want to acknowledge first all of the people who work at Front Street uh and who volunteer at Front Street, and I've gone to visit them and I've gone to see them, and to somebody asked about what it's like to go through the youth and agent process.

Jake gave us 13 beautiful years, uh, and it's not an easy process.

It's not an easy process at all.

Uh but the audit clearly identifies that there uh has been a breakdown in that trust.

And one of the clear things that I want this audit to be not just something that normally happens where we put it on a shelf and it gives recommendations and it may or may not change, but that it actually be a roadmap.

And and I addressed this to our city manager.

This audit must be the steps to make our front street regain that public trust and address the very clear issues that was brought over by our uh chair of the commission.

We have a lot of need for animals, and we have very limited amount of resources, which means in order to do to manage that very critical issue, we're gonna have to be working together.

Community, the city, volunteers, the foundation, we have to be working together.

And that's not going to happen unless the city regained its public trust.

One of those critical findings, and what I want coming back to uh to the council, if not at least the budget and audit committee, and especially the commission is a clear timeline on policy implementations.

The audit identified multiple inconsistencies and policy changes.

And whether the decisions for changes in policy were good or bad or done with thought behind it, the inconsistency, that is where it creates such immense of lack of public trust.

So the making sure that we identify and move forward with those clear um uh uh implementation of those policies, I think it's going to be critical.

Second, I do want to thank the council against a very difficult budget.

We had identified money for improvements to the shelter.

But um I haven't, and we approved the contracts, but I want to hear uh see uh a clear timeline also come back on the how we execute those because what finding number 10 showed is that our shelter is predominantly being supported by volunteers, and those volunteers as well as our employees must be in a safe condition.

And if we have gates that are uh that are not being managed well, and if there are conditions that make it safe, unsafe for volunteers and employees and the public who come, that has to be addressed immediately, very clearly.

Um I I could go in to many of these issues, Mr.

Mayor.

You want to ask some of those questions.

I think you threw some out of the Well uh, you know, I guess if you have uh a clear timeline of how you're going to implement these policies, then yes, but I don't want an off-the-cuff response.

I want clarity and clear timelines responses.

So if you can answer those now, yes, and if not, then I want to make sure that they are done very specifically so that we don't have this audit that just gets approved today and recognized, but moving forward.

So Mr.

Zimmerman.

So two questions.

One you you mentioned the facilities update.

So we've already met with um public works, the contractors, so that process has already been started.

We're hoping to have that finished by the end of the year, those interim improvements that were approved.

Uh regarding the policies, uh, again, we are in communication.

There is a city workflow policy uh flow, um, and we have to abide by that policy.

Um and unfortunately, I'm not gonna I I can't give you specific dates because we don't just get to write in-house policy um and then not go to labor, not go to uh the labor organizations.

There is a process.

Um what I can what I can tell you we can give updates of what we're sending to labor, um, but there is gonna be there is gonna be a delay because this this message then goes to the city manager that it's important again.

Let me go back.

I understand that we have we have collective bargaining process, there are issues in how we uh maybe through legal resources, what needs to get approved, what needs to be reviewed.

That's all that's all understood.

But the bigger issue here again goes back to public trust.

And so without a timeline, without being able to provide a clear direction to the public, because it seems to uh to be that this this uh this trust has been eroded, that we need to regain that, and we only regain that through transparency and communication.

Yes by by the end we're hope we've already met with everybody public works the contractors have been selected we're hoping by the end of the year.

Okay.

All right um you know I've got a little issue with our local public library and how long it's taken to get get that construction going.

So let me let me be clear I uh you know hopefully by you know I understand these issues I want some more clarity because those are safety issues and our we had a whole evening on liability for the city so I I'd like to get some clarity uh on that so mayor um you know I I know we've got a long evening but I want to move the that the city council accept this audit with a direct message that this become a roadmap for us to uh to make improvements I think that you've heard that over and over again from the public testimony that the audit findings are significant and that they need to be uh they need to be responded and what I would hope is that when you complete a finding or when you are making these improvements that that be communicated publicly back to those who have concerns the Commission is a one vessel to do that.

And I do want to thank you know Commissioner Hefner and uh Commissioner Hayes from District 6 who is appointed for moving through this forward and that the Commission again I've heard the issues there here too that the Commission be uh be given more ability to work with the department okay uh there this cannot be a combative situation we have to be working stronger together.

With that mayor that's what uh my motion is is that uh we move to accept the audit report and then uh have some clear deadlines on the policy changes and how those policy changes are going to be done back to the council.

Okay.

Thank you.

Now we'll go to council member Dickinson thank you.

Thanks Mayor um first of all I I want to express my uh thanks to all who uh have uh been part of the part of this uh conversation uh uh uh and have devoted their time and energy and attention um to this subject for for uh for a long long time and um gentlemen I think you can take a seat because I don't think I have questions just some comments um so uh we won't I won't keep you standing at the at the podium uh as uh as was referenced we did we did take up the audit at the at the budget and audit committee and a number of us made uh comments at that time I made some some rather uh extended uh comments and so I don't intend to to repeat those uh in their entirety this evening by any stretch uh what I what I will say is that uh uh this audit and I've looked at lots of audits uh through my time in uh public office uh this audit uh is one that uh uh calls out for uh a very very uh deep and extended undertaking to course correct for uh the department in my in my judgment uh this work really covers a very very broad range of nearly every activity engaged in by uh the department and uh the I guess I should say the division um it's not an audit that that says you know we're doing some things really well and we're doing some other things not so well and we need to make some recommendations to to address those things we're not doing so well this this speaks to almost every aspect of operation of the division and that's of deep concern frankly now I think it is only fair to say that clearly there's there um has been work done by the the division since the the audit was originally uh released uh and the credit should be given for for the those efforts um but this is a a deep hole frankly to to dig out of and there's a long way to go and so actually uh mayor pro tem if I if I may I would I would offer a small friendly amendment uh to which is I think we need to come back to this council uh with uh with a future report uh from the division that the public has an opportunity to see and comment on whether it's in 90 days or a hundred uh 180 days three months six months something like that I think the way we get that clear roadmap and then we we have accountability on whether it's being implemented or not is for for the issue to come back here.

And so actually, Mayor Pro Tem, if I if I may, I would I would offer a small friendly amendment which is I think we need to come back to this council with uh with a future report uh from the division that the public has an opportunity to see and comment on, whether it's in 90 days or 180 days, three months, six months, something like that.

I think the way we get that clear roadmap, and then we we have accountability on whether it's being implemented or not is for the issue to come back here.

So I would just offer a friendly amendment that that we also we also add to to your motion a direction that that this be agendized uh appropriately uh at an interval in the future uh for the council to consider.

I would concur with that, and I would agree.

Thank you.

Thank you.

What I what I do want to stress in particular this evening, uh, out of all the things that we have talked about, all of which uh are important, is the necessity under the circumstances we face, and this isn't just for this division, it's really for all of us uh in the in the city uh is how we do better with resources that aren't growing.

How do we have more effectively deliver the services that we uh uh must must uh deliver and ought to deliver in a more effective and efficient way?

That is uh I think an overriding question for for all of us throughout throughout our city uh operations, and it certainly must apply to animal care.

Uh how do we do a better job of preventing uh unwanted animals from ending up and being turned away?

How do we reduce euthanasia of uh animals?

How do we take better care of the animals that uh are uh in our custody as the city?

And how do we do that without being able to build a new shelter or or dramatically expand our capacity or a number of other things that cost money?

That's the question I think we have to keep asking ourselves.

For me, part of the answer, and a big part of that answer, is to put a much, much more heavy emphasis on spay and neuter.

My experience dealing with these issues in the past at the at the county level convinced me that you can never build a shelter big enough.

You can never have enough volunteers.

You can never have enough money if you have a population that have unwanted animals that continues to proliferate.

And so rather than trying to address that proliferation at the back end, it's critical to address it at the front end.

That means that means putting much more, in my opinion, much more emphasis on spay and neuter in our communities on a on a basis where people can come to that service, but where we also take it out to people.

We have we this is one of those areas where it makes complete sense to me to meet people where they are, and they're out in our neighborhoods.

They're out in our communities.

They're out trying to take care of animals, but in many cases, don't get them spayed or neutered because it's not something that can fit into their schedule or their budget.

We have to recognize that and do whatever we can to meet people where we are in that respect.

And I I have to say that uh having observed this over a span of time at the at the county level uh that uh unless and until we are much, much more active on uh making sure that we have spay and neuter services available broadly and inexpensively, we are going to continue to struggle with these issues, and we will be back here talking about the same things.

Maybe they won't be uh in such a quite a critical stage, but they will be the same issues in many at their core.

So I hope as we look at where we're we're going for the future on that roadmap, coming back to to this council, a big part of what we're doing is engaging the community, engaging the veterinary uh resources that are available uh in our community, engaging our volunteers who are wonderful, engaging our staff who are also wonderful.

People who get into animal care, just as a side note, um, have a special uh a special affection and calling.

There's no question about it.

Uh and they're they're working from the heart.

So that certainly should be acknowledged and and and recognized.

But what we have to do is let them succeed.

Let them succeed.

And when they succeed, when we succeed, uh, we'll have a community with fewer unwanted animals.

We'll have a community where euthanasia is much more rare, and and we will have a community that respects and appreciates its animals in a way that uh I don't think uh people would ascribe to uh the uh prevailing sentiment currently.

Thanks.

Okay, thank you.

Well said well said, and I do support, I'll talk about it a bit the the adjustment to the amendment with some specific follow-up on the audit findings.

Next up is Councilmember Plucky Bomb, then Vang, then Talamates.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to support everything that uh council members Garrett and Dickinson just said, and um ask that uh you know we have this on the agenda until the public is satisfied that we are getting the results that uh that we rightly deserve and and the um for that public investment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, we have councilmember Bang.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, just a few comments, and I actually do have one question for staff as well, and would like to add an additional amendment to the motion on the table if uh the motion makers so approve.

Um, first I uh just want to take this moment to thank GPP um analytics uh for conducting this audit uh with our city auditor in partnership because I know her workload is incredibly uh full.

Um, so really appreciate you all uh doing the hard work to get us to this moment.

Um I know that this audit is a long time coming, and now it is finally here uh for consideration in front of the full council, and also want to take this moment to thank Mayor Pro Tem Gera for his leadership for asking for this audit as well.

Um and I also wanted to thank all of the community members that came out today who spoke so passionately about your concerns um and the very much needed improvement that I think we are all in consensus that um that the improvement that's needed at Front Street.

So really just want to say thank you for taking the time to come out here today to share your insights with the mayor and council and want to take this moment to acknowledge the frustration that we all hear from each and every one of you.

Um I know that I don't just speak for myself but my entire all my my colleagues that we're gonna do everything we can to improve Front Street.

Uh we know that this is uh such an important issue, and we all care very deeply about it.

Um the other piece I just wanted to mention that I absolutely agree with uh Mayor Pro Tem Gera that uh this audit is uh the first step to continuous improvement um and that it is only good if uh we actually address the findings and actually implement accordingly, and that it can't sit on a virtual shelf.

I too echo I think it's a good idea for us to have this audit come back to monitor the implementations of the recommendation, um, and so I'm in full support of that.

Um I also agree that it's incredibly important that we continue to build public trust.

Um, and if the audit does come back and we're monitoring the recommendation, I do believe that it helps build that trust that's uh that may have been eroded.

Um I do have one question for for city staff in particular because um several community members uh came up here and discuss um uh a grant uh that we receive, I think a 50K grant, um, and uh a speaker mentioned that we let it expire, and I kind of walked over to the interim city manager asking if she can also speak on that, but she said I could direct the question to you.

Um so I do think in full transparency, want to have a better understanding of that grant, what happened, why we did not use it, why did we let it expire?

If you can speak on that, um that would be great.

And then I have um just one more comment after that.

Yeah, so uh the original grant was in the amount of 53,500, and that was for our homeless outreach assistance program, so providing veterinary care span neuter services.

Um we did struggle with spending those entire amounts because one, our community partners, uh, community span neuter and SAC SPCA also have limited capability to provide span neuter services.

When we provide those services in-house, uh, when we charge a grant, it's at a much lower cost.

So we did have trouble spinning the first grant.

Um we managed to do it.

Um they were so impressed with our work that they gave us a second grant for 53,500.

We then had trouble expending that grant for the same reasons.

We asked for an extension, and not only did they give us an extension, they also gave us an additional 40,000 dollars.

And that's it's been um extended till June 30th of next year.

Okay, do we foresee uh issue because it sounds like you know, um, even when we do receive the dollar, we are you know we're still struggling.

So uh, what are some lessons learned and ensuring that we actually utilize those dollars and be really impactful with the grant?

So be being fully staffed will definitely help so we will be able to do more in-house uh for for our unhouse community members and their pets.

Um we are constantly looking for new partners, unfortunately.

Um, because of procurement, anything over $10,000.

We really struggle with getting um low-cost span near clinics to really want to partner with us on a on a contract basis because we do require a lot, insurance, liability, uh the BOT that we we struggle.

So we we pick partners uh in the Sacramento region that we can get under that 10,000 threshold and spend spend those funds.

Um but that is our our plan going forward, and again, being fully staffed will be will be critical.

Thank you, Mr.

Zimmer.

I appreciate that response.

Um I think one item I just wanted to highlight from the audit is really um the audit also show that you know we definitely lack some standard operating procedures.

It's really great to see that um in the audit staff did response to all of the recommendation and that you're beginning that process to make sure we have internal protocol, so that's really great.

Um, something I just want to share because I know that there's been a lot of frustration regarding perhaps management or um city staff.

Um, I just want to share with the public that you know, um, as mayor and council, we do not have um the power or it's not in our purview to actually um evaluate city staff.

The only folks that we can evaluate is our interim city manager and our charter officer.

Um, that said, however, um I actually would like to add uh an amendment to the motion on the table because um I would like to direct the city manager to actually utilize this audit to evaluate the performance of management at Front Street.

I think that's really important.

I know that that is not within the purview of city council, uh, but we can direct the city manager to use this audit as an evaluation performance.

I think that's really key.

I know the motion on the table is one that we use this as a roadmap to uh heard from Councilmember Dickinson that we have this item come back, and then the third I would like to add is to direct the city manager to utilize this audit um as an evaluation staff performance at the management level as well.

Yeah, I'll agree and I'll concur with that recommend that dec that direction uh to the city manager because that is true.

Our direct report is the city manager.

Thank you, Councilmember Bay.

Yep.

And that those those are all my comments.

Thank you so much.

Vice Mayor Calamante.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, you know, I can just say I think that all of us here in this room care about our four-legged friends.

Uh, from city staff to the mayor and council to the volunteers to the donors.

We all care about our four-legged friends, and I just wish that we had more money to be able to achieve what we hope to achieve, and more you know, vets completing school and more technicians that we can hire.

There's a lot of challenges, and you know, I had the chance to to give my comments at budget and audit, but you know, now that we're here, and I'm really glad that we moved in, had the suggestions from the animal well-being commission, you know, using our commissions.

Um, and now we're here for for next steps.

So I just want to say, like, we all love our four-legged friends, and that's why sometimes the conversation gets so intense, and that's why feelings arrive.

And um, I just you know, I just want you guys, everyone, to kind of think about that, and we're all humans, and so as we move forward with next steps, treating each other with compassion and being kind, I think is so important to be able to achieve real progress.

So just want to kind of give my two cents on that.

But I agree, you know, with a lot of my city council colleagues, audits or audits, they're always recommendations for improvements.

And here at the city of Sacramento, we have a lot of departments.

We have over 550,000 people in the city of Sacramento, and like these audits are gonna help us be better, and it's gonna help us be more efficient.

And so I'm just you know, really looking forward to to next steps, and I guess for me, the most important thing that we can do for the next step is have a clear MOU and see what works well in other cities and what their accomplishment because we are very unique here in Sacramento because we have a commission for the city of Sacramento where volunteers who are animal advocates, you know, spend their time and energy here at City Hall to implement policies.

Then we have the friends of the Front Street Animal Shelter who host amazing events and attract donors and do their best to get money for for these programs.

Then we have our city staff who are working really, really hard with the lack of resources, lack of funding, and just a lot of things coming their way.

So having a clear MOU that ties all these things together to define roles, to define responsibilities and to really set goals that are measurable and achievable so that we can say, hey, we did this part and we did it good.

Okay, let's move on to the next thing.

Because it's a lot of work.

And I think we all love and we all want to give back.

And so let's find ways to find small successes in how we move forward.

So I'm just directionist city staff.

When you come back, I know that there's a long laundry list of recommendations.

But for me, I think that the first step would be establishing that MOU because I think that that MOU will help us with all the other next steps.

And we can, you know, just really look forward to to working together.

So I know that the mayor always says this in everything, City of Sacramento from coming from the state capital.

He always says, how do you do more with less?

Right.

We're just continuing to grow as a city.

Our budget deficit is very real.

We have very limited resources.

So then how do we work together to achieve more?

And so I just want to end it with that, and happy to support the recommendations today, but just remember that like we all love our four legged friends.

Jennings.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll be brief because much has been said, and I agree with the motion that's on the table.

Uh I think we're going in the right direction.

Um there's a couple of things that I don't know if we can change, but we need to figure out a way, a path going forward.

So I would just want to add as far as um a topic uh topic area of what we need to do is figure out how we can take two acres that we have when we need seven acres, and to develop a plan of action of how we're going to operate as a shelter, whether we change the numbers or whether we change the location.

We just have to make that decision because as long as we don't have enough space, we're we're always going to be in a deficit.

And so I think that's a huge hill to climb.

And so I want to make sure that that's at the top of the conversation in the first when we first come back together again to look at how are we going to operate as a shelter with two acres of land needing seven acres to be able to do our work.

Okay.

Yeah, council first uh city manager.

Thank you.

Um one of the things that staff has already been engaged in is looking for sites to do spade neuter separately.

So you take the pressure off the actual shelter when you're providing services somewhere else, and that requires very specific um has very specific requirements for a location.

So we haven't found anything yet, but staff is continuing to look at alternative um models to provide that service outside of the shelter.

And then the second is I'm you know, we will definitely look at the opportunity around um performance related to the audit, and I'm gonna work with HR on that and to figure out how how we do that.

And um, one of my concerns is holding someone accountable when, as council member Talamantes pointed out, we have very limited resources.

So I want to make sure if we are doing things like preparing timelines and delivering things, that those are the places where we have accountability and not on things where an employee doesn't have an opportunity really to make a substantive change because we haven't provided the resources to do so.

So I want to make sure that we're setting something up that is um fair and and with the standards and also um working with the representation of the appropriate employees to make sure we're not running afoul of any um agreements.

Thank you.

Back to uh Councilmember Gera.

Uh thank you, uh Councilmember Jennings.

I think that question is uh is a is a critical one.

I mean, it we have we have a uh an old facility.

Uh and I do want to thank uh Chair Hefner and the members of the commission because they have brought this issue up that we need to be going and moving to developing a capital campaign and finding and looking for places where would be suitable for something that we'll be proud of.

Uh but one thing that uh is also true is that we will never have a successful capital campaign if there isn't public trust in our facility.

And as I mentioned earlier, we will only uh succeed in uh in the responsibility to the taxpayers and the responsibility to our animals unless we're all walking together.

Okay, and I don't mean that in a punt, by the way.

So we're but so that thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Uh we have a motion and second, and uh most has been said.

I just want to uh reiterate a few points.

Um, one, this was an important audit, and it's it's come upon us to ask the tough questions.

You know, not all these issues are easy, it's it's not all uh puppies and kittens and love sometimes.

We'd like to see those.

Can we just get puppies and kittens in here every now and then at council meetings?

That'll make it much better for us, yes.

Um, but we you know, we we we we all care about the same things, whether or not you work at our animal um facility or you serve on the commission, or you're an advocate for friends of Friend Street or fix fund street front fix front street.

You all we all care about our four um legged friends, and so we need to step it up and be better.

I I concur.

It's not always about money, I think there's some policy things in here too, and I I think we asked the hard questions, and we're not done asking these questions.

So I I did uh want to bring up four things.

One you already asked, Councilman Ravang is that the resources from that grant, and we did get a clarification on that.

I certainly have been to the Friend Street facility.

I know we all have um, you know, it is super crowded.

I went in there and took a tour of my our our mayor's learning tour and went on a ride along with some of your staff out there and and saw where you have the spay and neutering facilities in the back, and it's super cramped.

Um so I think that's a fabulous idea.

You know, it would be great to have an amazing new facility that's not in the cars with a budget deficit at tens of millions of dollars um the next couple years every year, but what we can do to relieve pressure due to elsewhere, I think that's a great idea.

I just wanted to focus on these two issues, and I think whatever you each think about all these issues, it's two things ring ring in my head true is what can we do more to do spay and neuter?

I think Councilmember Dickinson is spot on.

Um, you know, we had this incident a couple months ago with this nonprofit that want to step up and it didn't quite work out.

So, what can we do more, director, to utilize um our nonprofits to help?

Because we can't do it all.

We don't have the money to do it all.

There's not enough resources, so what can we do more in that front?

So that's question number one.

And then you know, I saw this past week.

I thought it was great.

We put that word out there that no waiving the fees for adoptions through I think it was you know the 24th of August, and so I'm I'm not sure if that worked.

I hope it did, and you know, it tugged my heart that knowing that we were at extreme capacity, and so we needed to do that.

So what that's those are the North Star issues for us.

More spay and neuters, and how do we get our our average down so we get to be a hundred percent no kill facility?

So maybe you can come back up and just help enlighten us and close us out, Mr.

Mr.

Zimmerman, on those two issues to help us point in the right direction for those key North Star markers.

So I have a good news story.

Yeah, so you know, just uh one touch on the spay and neuter.

Um and council member Talamante has touched on it just a few ago.

This is not a sacramento issue with the lack of spay and neuter.

This is a nationwide problem.

Um and so I I certainly don't expect any of you to help me solve that problem because I can't solve it alone.

You all can't solve it.

It it is a huge, it's a huge problem.

Um one of our other local shelters here also is currently struggling with spay and neuter with almost a thousand animals and foster to adopt.

Again, not because they're not wanting to do their work, but they're struggling.

Um, and so I I want to do everything as this uh interim city manager mentioned, you know, we're we're looking at a uh off-site uh high volume spay and neuter clinic, private public partnership, community animals, shelter animals.

So again, we're not on top of each other.

Um that will help, but that one alone is not gonna solve the problem.

The Sacramento SPCA is is truly a high volume spay and neuter clinic.

They are not currently able to staff their own facility.

There they have the ability to spay and neuter tens of thousands of animals, and they're not meeting their their goals that they had originally set because there are not enough veterinarians, they're not enough uh support staff.

Um, and so I I just want to be very clear about that.

That we all want spay and neuter.

We we we all want it.

Um we we do know it is uh basically the number one solution.

Um but we're not gonna solve it alone.

Um there's organizations around the country that are they're trying to figure out one of the things that they're that we're trying to do is create like a mid-level practitioner, so between an R VT and a veterinarian that could do spay and neuter?

Maybe just focus on what policies do we need to work on to help others, whether or not they have their paperwork in order with the AG and nonprofit, like what do we need to do to help others sponsor and fund more spay and neuters?

How can we help others help us?

So I again um funds for community spay and neuter.

You know, I I know the stint bus, um, it did not work out with us because of city requirements, but they're out there, they're doing spay and neuter for the community.

They're filling up.

We were you know, again, able to fill up a hundred and sixty-nine spots this weekend.

Um the need is is huge.

Um there's not a there's not just not enough resources that we're that any of us are gonna be able to provide to solve that problem, at least not not in the near future, especially with many veterinarians leaving the veterinarian field.

So as many service providers as we can get to come into our community and help, again, whether that be uh community-owned pets, which is really where the the need is out in the community.

Um that that's gonna be key.

Um and then maybe focus on the the second point as far as what can we do.

No city is perfect in their um adoption rate and having a no-kill facility.

And I know we don't like that word, but it's the truth.

Um euthanasia kill, we put animals down, and um, you know, sometimes they're unadoptable pets for a variety of safety reasons, health reasons, which you um uh uh you know um illuminate to me.

Uh can you talk what what we can do to to get better in that and come closer to a functional zero?

So uh spay and neuter will definitely be tight tied in with that.

Um we as the open emission shelter due to the sheer volume of underage kittens that we take in.

Uh that that is why you know we have consistently struggled over the years of always having a less than 80 percent uh say rate for kittens.

Um dogs, you know, we're always around the 85 percent.

So we're we're doing we're doing good compared to some other organizations uh of similar size and resources.

Um one of the reasons that that the no-kill can can work for organizations that can absolutely control every single animal that comes into that shelter.

So a small nonprofit uh organization has the ability to shut the doors down to not take any animals in if they are at their capacity.

We unfortunately we don't have that luxury.

Um we can do all that we can, and we have been asking community members to try to locate owners before bringing the animal to the shelter, but at the end of the day, that is our responsibility.

Um and so we're we're gonna continue to struggle with that.

Okay, uh, we're gonna have our our city manager um uh close us outline some things as well.

So I I think what we're gonna do, um, and and um staff doesn't know this, but I've already asked for a meeting.

So we're gonna um put our heads together and we're gonna come back with some timelines around policies, procedures, construction, um, what we can do as a city to increase spay and neuter and what we can also do to increase adoptions.

And I think what we'll do is um a better job of reporting that out to you all and what those efforts are and and what they um resulted in and or didn't result and how we might want to um change that up to do something different the next time because I think one of the things that we now have discovered, and we'll talk about you know, stray animals like it's not we have a um um many programs that we put in place and we have now discovered we can say, hey, this isn't working, what can we do differently?

And to document that for you.

I do want to end on uh kind of a good note because mayor, you said we should bring animals to City Hall.

There was a shelter and uh dog today at City Hall, and we had a city employee who literally ran out of the building to go adopt that dog.

So that was um and and you know the tech the tech's work, what was the dog's name?

Do we know?

Journey Journey, yeah.

So hopefully Journey has a new home either today or tomorrow.

So Philip, make that happen because staff's gonna be really disappointed if it doesn't happen.

So um it it it is happening, and they are out there working all of the angles they can work in, and we will work on sharing that with you better and more frequently and in more depth.

Okay, thank you.

Uh with that, I think this was an important conversation.

Um we have a motion and a um uh a second.

We have clarity on the motion.

Yes, we do.

Um all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any no's or abstentions?

Uh hearing uh none.

We have one uh absence today in Councilmember Maple.

That that measure passes.

Thank you.

Oh, Mayor, we have one more item this evening.

Item 19 is streamlined Sacramento, a status update on the city's development process improvements program.

Yes, all right, good evening, Mayor and Council members.

I'm Matt Hurdle, the assistant director of community.

So, Matt, maybe uh before you start, let's let the uh room clear and maybe we'll do a quick little stretch.

Okay.

Unless y'all want to hear how we're making the city better to develop housing and business and hotels.

Stick around.

Okay, uh, thank you all.

I'll I'll start this off.

First of all, uh thank you in the city for working on this.

This is first of all, I know on the agenda it says this is uh the mayor and council member pluckybonds, but no, this is the entire city council from District One, Kaplan, Dickinson, Talamantes, um, uh certainly Mr.

Pluckybond and myself on the others, because we all are in this together, all of our districts.

We could certainly do more.

And I just want to say that we've had a lot of attention to this.

A lot of people are taking notice.

And as you do your report, I just want to say that this is gonna tie into all these issues we're trying to focus on building more housing, getting more revenue to address our budget deficit and our coffers, to fund more parks and animal services.

And so this is uh part and parcel for what we're trying to do moving forward in the city of Sacramento.

And as you go over this, just want to say that this is a snapshot in time.

We're not just filing this report today and we're done.

You know, we're we're good.

We're at you know, this is an ongoing process to make uh Sacramento a better place to build housing and and uh foster business.

So thank you, and please present.

All right.

Thank you very much, Mayor.

So, yeah, this evening I'll provide an update, highlight actions that have been completed, those that are underway and discuss next steps.

So, as a reminder, Streamlined Sacramento is a 2025 initiative focused on the four steps of the building approval process shown in blue.

The goal is to increase efficiencies, speed up approval times, and provide more certainty to the process.

The five departments that interact with development projects have been hard at work implementing the ideas that we have received from the development community since January.

And following tonight's update, the team will continue to advance these process improvements.

And although Streamlined Sacramento initiative will come to a close in December, process improvements will continue with cross-departmental coordination meetings and semi-annual convenings with the development community.

To date, we've held 10 internal working groups, established a web page and subscriber outreach list, held a variety of in-person and virtual meetings with the development community, conducted informational interviews with other jurisdictions, and have checked in with all of you along the way.

We've also received many software demonstrations to learn how AI technology can support the streamlined efforts.

And the potential actions table now includes 36 actions and is attached to the staff report.

The potential actions are organized under these six categories.

The status of each action is indicated as exploring, implementing, instituted, or ongoing.

17 actions have already been instituted, including the small business liaison program with expansions underway, such as the dedicated web page, an additional staff member, and coming soon will be a permitting one-on-one class for businesses that require tenant improvements.

Several plan review measures have been put into place, such as practically intervening with projects that have stalled, training up additional plan review staff in urban forestry, and adding consultant support for plan reviewers in the Department of Utilities.

Signed permit applications have moved from email to the electronic plan check portal with real-time tracking.

A pilot launched in August that doubles the speed in which new addresses for residential subdivision maps maps are assigned.

The new financing tool, bold, that council authorized in April has received its first application.

Demolation permits are now automated and no longer require in-person sign-offs from each of the departments.

And a number of tweaks have been made to the building inspection process based on feedback from contractors.

Notable projects underway include the small project rapid review program with project reviews to be completed within 72 hours.

And in October, a six-month pilot will be initiated to expand public counter services on Mondays and Fridays.

We've had excellent collaboration between the five city departments and are establishing regular coordination meetings with other agencies, such as the County Health Department, which is critical to the timely openings of restaurants and PGE and SMUD to ensure smooth infrastructure planning and prompt hookups.

Many of the development and trade-related positions are experiencing generational turnover, and as a result, we have a 26% vacancy rate in the building division.

Therefore, we are exploring new job shadowing and internship programs with trade schools.

And we've been evaluating many different AI tools and are currently piloting Ichi, an AI co-pilot for our building code that will assist with training, plan reviews, and inspections in the field.

And we're developing a pilot to use drones during building inspections of rooftops and facades.

So for next steps, the quarterly in-person meeting with the development community is on September 10th at 2 30 at the North Matomas Aquatic Center.

And then of course we'll be focused on implementing the remaining actions that are underway.

We'll return to council in early December to wrap up Streamline Sacramento.

However, the work will continue and will be institutionalized into the operations of the development related departments.

With that, that concludes my presentation.

We got representatives from all five departments, as well as Joe Yee, who has been assisting with this effort as a request of Councilmember Pucky Bomb.

So thank you for to Joe and all that 20 or so staff that have been instrumental in moving this work forward.

Thank you.

We have public comments.

I have two speakers, Jeffrey Tardi Gia and John Vignoki Vignoki.

I'm not seeing Jeffrey.

Johnny, good evening.

I'm glad the animal folks went ahead of me so I could uh put my son down to bed.

Crazy.

Uh 90 minutes.

Um so glad to be here with you guys tonight.

Good evening.

Just want to reiterate uh how uh impressed we are with the work that you all are doing and how important this is uh to our businesses, not just to the development community, not just to the folks that build housing, but to the folks who want a piece of the American dream to start their own business and how we've seen just uh a lot of businesses fail to get started and off the ground just due to red tape and regulation and also a lack of awareness and knowledge, and so it's it's so great to see uh these programs and all these efforts happen.

Uh I think there's a couple things in here that we really love, uh, like self-certification for plan check and for inspections.

I think these are things that uh states like Texas do, and I know hearing uh what red states do might be a little triggering to some folks, but that's who we're losing businesses to.

And uh I grew up you know making fun of Texas and Tennessee, and now California is kind of a laughing stock.

We need to do a lot better.

We're operating in a very unfriendly business environment.

And the more that the city of Sacramento can do to support their small businesses, the better off we will be as a community as a region.

Um, and this is a really bipartisan thing.

So uh just being able to open up your business, operate faster uh and navigate through the process quicker will will really benefit the entire uh city.

So thanks so much for all of your time, effort, and dedication and support from uh the council.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Mayor, I have no more speakers.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to thank you and uh your leadership and council member plucky bomb, Mr.

Ye.

Um this is something that I think that's been in the works that we needed a little push to uh make it comprehensive and push forward.

And I just want to reiterate one of the things to potentially look at uh not having it need a rezone when a basically single family resident footprint is made into a duplex so that it doesn't come back to council um as as multifamily unit, which adds time and cost, and we're looking at streamlining things, and I know this helps uh address our missing middle and what we need to do, but go forth and conquer.

I really like what you've done so far, and um, I'm sure there's many other things we can do, but uh we've done a lot so far, so thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Guerra.

Thank you, Mayor.

I I just wanted to thank again you and uh Councilmember Pleckibaum for this um this effort here to uh highlight the the need uh to improve and move forward.

Uh but uh um and uh and and uh say that I think the the the closing point that it was made by our representative here from region business as well, Sher Vinyoki was that you know a lot of small businesses they face a significant challenge when the burden to open up is delayed and delayed.

And um, and I remember talking to you know, even uh Ernesto Delgado the first time he was trying to open up uh you know Maya Well, and uh every day that they're not open, they're losing money, and it's it's incumbent on us if we are able to get you know more tax revenue that they are successful.

The larger businesses that have you know uh many land use attorneys that have you know more capital that have the ability to maybe weather that time, they're gonna be all right.

But I think what is the the the concerning part is that it's our local folks that are trying to start out that are trying to build up, those are the ones that uh that face that challenge.

So what I want to appreciate uh a lot of these points that were brought up.

Um but I also want to do thank our our city staff on a number of uh fronts here.

Uh and uh one, they did respond, I think in 2015 when I first got elected, region business brought up some of these ideas, and we did make some changes.

So I think we should celebrate that some changes have been made, uh, and it led to things uh like advancing our our um our permitting of uh housing and looking at the uh waivers for affordable housing and being able to move that.

And we see that because of all of the development that happened on Stockton Boulevard.

Uh we've heard it for Mercy Housing that now has 200 units of affordable housing.

And at their uh at their event at their I don't want to call it ribbon cutting because people were were all uh were going there, but uh their moving day, I'll call it.

Um they clearly said if it wasn't for the city looking at expedited its permit process for housing, they would have never been able to actually financially build housing for people.

And and that I think to me is uh is a testament of the work that has been done.

So I do I think that our staff should be recognized for that work.

There's more work to be done.

Yes, we are making those changes, but it's that type of attitude that says how do we how do we move that forward?

And I again I want to thank um you know again uh region business who had brought some of those concepts and ideas up and we did them.

The last piece I do want to encourage you know uh mayor and council and our staff to to look at uh is the ADU uh process.

Uh it was intended to be a very simple, easy process, but I've just you know worked with at least two constituents, one um in Elmhurst, uh Mayor, who went through a grueling painful process that we have tried to say it's a it's an easy process.

And and I and I think that if we're going to try to help with the expansion of smaller units, affordable units, ADU units, we need to be much more um uh uh nimble on this.

And uh and I'm not sure how the solution is because we have competing priorities on the planning side.

But um, but having seen the cost and the stress that an individual homeowner was trying to do with an ADU for a family member, not even to rent out, but for a family member, um that uh that uh was uh was again uh frustrating.

So um I want to thank uh uh the all of the staff and and our leadership here for taking this forward and uh excited to see what changes are to come.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Councilmember Dickinson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um I think there's uh uh a lot here to to like, and I um uh really applaud you as uh mayor and and council member pluckybom for kickstarting this, and I I uh applaud the staff for um taking this on uh uh and I think such a earnest and meaning meaningful way.

Um I I especially uh uh like using technology where we can with the drone drone assisted building inspections, doing something that really started uh during uh the height of of COVID with virtual inspections um where the inspector doesn't actually need to go out to the to the location but can work with the contractor to to um uh uh remotely handle an inspection, uh doing more to the extent that we can with plans that are off the shelf.

We've done that with ADUs.

Um we could uh uh perhaps explore uh expansion uh uh of that.

So um there are no there are a number of other things here, but I uh I think this is all good.

The one the the one challenge that I would I would present, and there's work here still to do, I'm I'm sure, but it's the next challenge is to help streamline approvals from agencies outside the city that nonetheless have to sign off on something before you get you get permitted.

So sewer, restaurants, health, uh, uh smud, uh, you know, there are the the schools.

There are a number of different agencies that we don't control, but but I but our uh uh are um elemental to getting something built, getting it permitted and built.

And so we can streamline all we want, and that will help, but if it takes one of those agencies uh another six months to approve something, then we really haven't helped the the customer ultimately get to where they want to go, which was something that Mayor Pratem uh Gera was referring to.

So uh my challenge is for us to get to that step of what what can we do with those other entities that that we have to deal with and that our customers have to deal with in order to really completely streamline the process um to make it more efficient, more effective, and less costly.

Thanks.

Okay, thank you.

Lastly, Councilmember Plucky Baum.

I've been ordered to say more than 10 words.

I will say at least 11.

Uh really, I just want to say thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for um making this a priority for the city.

Uh you know, during the campaign, I know you and I heard loud and clear how big an issue uh housing availability, affordability, accessibility are for people in the community.

Our stated goal as a city is to be the most livable city.

And you can't be a livable city if you can't live here.

And so this is uh a great opportunity for us to um you know create good uh living wage, uh, you know, career jobs that uh you know produce the kind of housing that folks can actually uh embrace and and afford to live here and enjoy the quality of life we all do.

I want to especially uh thank staff who got a you know running head start on this uh you know, even before we were sworn in uh doing this work uh and and have been continuing to you know uh embrace and support this pro housing designation that we've earned.

Um I'm I couldn't be more proud to be a part of a council that supports housing development, is willing to stand up against NEBIism and and push back at every opportunity to to make this a place that not only can we all you know be proud about, but that our our kids and grandkids can afford to be here and and make it a destination, a community of choice, a place that people want to continue to be in that's the the way that I think we'll we'll get the kind of investment that we need.

Uh I would uh you know just fire one parting salvo on you guys uh to the rest of the city.

Uh let this be a uh you know a challenge to every department in the city.

Uh there are opportunities to streamline all kinds of things.

Um if there's something out there that you think we could be doing better to uh improve uh performance, you know, deliver uh a higher quality product to the to the customers to the taxpayers.

You know, let's hear it.

Uh you know, this is a uh uh a great time for us to be focusing on you know how to how to do more with less.

I'm sorry to say it, but it is.

And um, you know, if there are things out there that you think we can be doing doing better, doing differently, um we're all yours.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Well said uh council member.

I I just want to thank um Matt and Tom and your team for working on this.

And um, you know, not everyone knows about this.

Um we have 550,000 people in the city, as Vice Mayor said earlier, and I I don't know if any more than 50 are watching this right now.

So I I will say that I met with um a housing developer this week who lives in District 7, Land Park, he's been working here for a number of years, put a lot of housing, and he had no idea we were doing this.

And I said, why aren't you why aren't you doing more projects in Sacramento?

He said, Oh, I have something I'm working on in Vaccaville and Reading, and I said, why?

He said, Oh, it's just kind of hard here in Sacramento.

I said, You know that we're actively working to make your life and others' lives easier, not just him as a developer, but entrepreneurial homeowners and who are building ADUs, let's not forget they ADUs built in people's backyards are you know sometimes 20 percent of all housing built in cities.

So I I just want to implore us to to one not be done today.

It says ongoing, and two, keep inviting people, keep talking about this because this only it only partially works if we just do it on our own.

Um we need to make sure that we that the public and their greater community knows about this.

And then lastly, um this individual did say that um they want to make sure that we're open on Mondays and Fridays.

So I just want to let you know I have a witness in my office, and they did say that exact thing thinks it wasn't prompted.

Um so with that, this is a received and file.

Uh thank you for your work, and uh we will continue on this quest.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So, Mayor, we now move to council comments, ideas, and questions, and then public comment for matters not on the agenda.

Councilmember Plucky Bong.

I'm breaking with tradition.

I just want to say happy birthday cruise.

I know you're watching, and uh he is the the youngest in intern in our office.

He submits more uh graffiti 311 complaints than and all the other interns in our office complaining.

So happy birthday cruise.

Also, if you're in the Freeport uh park area, there are three uh terriers loose.

Please call 311.

Thank you, Councilmember Jennings.

Thank you very much.

Um just want to announce that our last trucks and such of the year is taking place in September, September the 19th.

It's Friday, September the 19th.

Want you to join our office and our partners, ACC senior services and Sacto Mofo for the one last trucks and such for the summer.

The event will run from 5 to 8 p.m.

at Garsha Bend Park in the pocket neighborhood.

We encourage you to bring chairs, blankets, family and friends.

We'll make sure there's some trucks out there with food in case you need something to eat, and we're gonna have some music out there as well.

So come on for one last year, one more time.

Once the last one of the year, trucks and such.

I'll see you on Friday.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Seeing the other council members punched up to speak.

Um, congratulations to our city attorney, Susanna Alcala Wood.

Uh she uh let us know today that she will be the city attorney for the city of San Jose.

So if she is watching city council meeting right now at 8 06 after that big announcement, I just want to just say congratulations to her and uh wish her the best out there, but she'll be back at council.

Okay, and we have six public comment.

Jeffrey Tardi Giaz, our first speaker, then Renee and Todd Jonick, then Bassam Abraham.

Oh dear Kevin, um, you don't get to hear me make the comment about please move and listen to now.

I will offer two solutions.

One, regional transit is dealing with public comment in a different manner.

It would be much more effective that public comment not be the last item on the agenda.

This board has made it where it seems like they don't take seriously the public comment.

Now, the second thing I will offer and say is uh once again, since Kevin unfortunately is not here, is Kevin.

Your campaign you left in November on Folsom Boulevard looks exactly like you left it, which seems to imply to me things are needing to be cleaned up.

Sorry, should we say mayor?

And Phil Punky Bone, I'm still wanting to work with you and your staff says they can't find me.

Well, I apologize.

The last two weeks I have been in the hospital, so I've been fairly unavailable, but still say to you, text messaging is the best.

And for Rick, I'm hoping in September that we get the address, the questions and concerns for the future of regional transit and our low floor vehicles, because there is an impact there, just like here is this you need to figure out in the city what in the world public transportation needs to look like and how it needs to be funded.

And as I heard the thing with uh, I will say I went to uh the state treasurer's office because six percent does not get you the affordable litters needed.

15% is what we made sure the state tax bonds were, and they used all of that money up.

And I think that's down to my time for now.

So the next time I so hopefully it'll be a while before I come back here and see you.

But please improve the website so you can get so you can see the things.

All right.

Thank you for your comments.

Um Renee and Todd.

Hi, well, Renee and Todd, Yonick.

Um, actually, really disappointed.

We uh in the agenda it had streamlined Sacramento about housing.

So we uh weren't able to put our comments in.

But the interesting thing that you're saying about I love that everybody's patting each other on the back about the streamlined Sacramento and the public housing.

But we've been talking to our city officials, and I spoke to Matt Hartell just two months ago, and Phil had been talking to you since 2023, and none of this has come up.

So I'm sitting here and I'm watching what Matt has on the screen, and it knows in no way, and I had a whole presentation of what the core problems are, but none of this has been made public.

There's a lack of transparency, a lack of guidance, hidden costs, and and and move it moving targets.

It is bureaucratic roadblocks, inconsistent and punitive processes.

None of that is on your uh streamlined Sacramento website.

But I've been speaking to you about this for two years, and I literally spoke to him two months ago because we're in East Sac with a wine bar, and we're trying to move to Midtown, and we're dealing with the same issues with the building department, and everybody's coming to me, and I'm I was not emotional before, but I'm I'm enraged at everybody's high-fiving each other.

When I've been talking to you all this year, you and many other people have been like, just oh, move to another business.

I'm actually having ABC telling me to leave Sacramento because ABC, alcohol beverage control, is telling me to leave Sacramento.

You sure you want to open another bar here?

You sure you want to do business with Sacramento?

Matt Hotel sat with me two months ago when I was saying we were dealing with issues with our building department.

You are copied on a long thread of communications, and nobody has said a word.

And I have been professional, I have been, I have receipts, I'm consistently communicating out.

No response.

Dave Gole was supposed to reach out to me last week, just disappeared.

So when you say you want to support the city, when?

December?

So should every business that wants to open this year just pull up stakes and wait until it's fixed?

Because that's what I'm seeing.

Nobody's talking about what people are dealing with today.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Renee, your time is complete.

Todd, did you also want two minutes?

You have lots of time.

Thank your time is complete.

If Todd wants to speak, he may, but your time is complete.

I would say for sure we haven't seen any of the benefits of what was presented by Matt to date.

And city representatives.

Well, and in the interplay between the departments.

Certainly there's not a lot of detail behind it, but but we certainly haven't seen any benefits from that.

A 72-hour approval process for small projects would be fantastic.

That's still not happening.

It's Todd's time to speak.

Yeah.

So yeah, I would say uh certainly disappointed in that that those those things haven't been implemented yet.

Um I don't know if we're ever gonna see the benefits of it for sure.

Yeah.

Um yeah.

Just people need to think twice.

This is what's so disappointed.

Uh you want to say anything else?

No, that's it.

Next speaker is Basem Abraham.

Uh does this work?

Okay.

Um hello, and I'd like to thank you all for letting me have this time to do a public comment over here.

I am uh Bassam Abraham.

I am a member of Strong Sac Town and a resident of Megan Park.

I would like to uh bring forth a current issue with uh Fruit Ridge Road, which actually before I say that, I would like to say thank you for making all sorts of improvements to our streets.

For instance, uh Broadway.

That was pretty nice.

But I'd like to bring um bring up Fruit Ridge between 24th and Freeport.

The current design of the road consists of a frontage road to the north, two lanes of traffic going, not two lanes, traffic, two lanes going one direction, two lanes going another direction, and a sidewalk down south.

There's only one pedestrian crossing of the north and the south end, which means people regularly will jaywalk in the middle of 40 mile an hour traffic.

Along with this, the sidewalks are not ADA compliant.

There's a curb on James and Fruit Ridge that just kind of like just kind of sharply drops like that.

If you're cycling, um you got to avoid it.

So it's very hard to cycle, it's very hard to be a pedestrian.

And then driving is also very difficult.

There's no protected turns on that street with 40 mile hour traffic, too.

Which means cars can't, you can't really, it's hard to turn in to your side street.

So one thing I oh, my time is left.

What I would suggest lowering the speed limit and adding a center left turn lane and really fixing the road there.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Levi Johnson, Juan Gitteris, and then Devante Morris.

I'm not seeing Levi, Juan.

Good evening.

Um thank you for allowing me to speak to you.

Um two weeks ago, I raised the question about the use of unwritten guidelines by the Sacramento Office of Code Enforcement and issuing a notice and order and assessing a fine against the homeowner.

I was wondering if the city council had had a chance to discuss the matter with the head of code enforcement.

And um was also requested, I had also requested the city council to consult with the city attorney to determine if the Office of Vote Code Enforcement was being operated in accordance with the city code.

Has the city council contacted the city attorney?

And finally, does the city council agree that under the city code a homeowner should have notice and a reasonable time to correct a city code violation before Sacramento City Code Enforcement assesses a fine.

Thank you for your attention.

Anna That's all.

Thank you so much.

Devontae Morris is our final speaker this evening.

Hello, uh, my name is Devante Morris, and I am a calling on the City of Sacramento to contact the state of the state officials to introduce to pass legislation that will uh eliminate that would um remove restraints and restrictions on uh democratic uh and progressive and liberal voters that speak out against oppressive issues.

Uh ever since Donald Trump got into office, um Facebook has been uh strict in censoring and shadow banning uh our posts and stuff and preventing us from reaching out to uh important people that we need to reach.

Um, even I've seen um elected officials have trouble uh reaching out to their constituents, uh reaching out to us.

Um we can't um uh they you guys have low followers because um is social media isn't letting you guys reach our constituents uh because of the things that we discuss, and um they're not exactly conservative.

So um, like I said, we need to introduce legislation because AI is not going to um get rid of misinformation, only humans can.

Uh, we have problems with our cell phones and video games regarding AI and whatnot, so we can't rely on AI to come combat misinformation.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much for your comments.

Vice Mayor, I have no more business to come before the council.

Okay, this meeting is adjourned at 818 p.m.