I'd like to call this meeting to order at 2 03 p.m.

Please call the roll.

Thank you, Councilmember Kaplan.

I expect Councilmember Dickinson momentarily.

Councilmember Pleckibon.

Councilmember Maple.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatta.

Council Member Jennings.

Here.

Council Member Vang.

Here.

I expect Mayor McCarty momentarily.

And Vice Mayor Chalamantes.

You have a quorum.

Mayor Pro Tem Garrett, will you please lead us in acknowledgement and congratulations?

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

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

To the original people of this land, the Nissanon people, the Southern Maidu, the Valley and Plains of Miwoke and the Putnam and Winton people, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the Native people who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands.

By choosing to gather together today in the act of practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples, history, contributions, and lives.

To join me in the pledge, salute, I pledge allegiance.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much to everyone for joining us today for the two o'clock meeting.

We do not have a 5 p.m.

today, but do have a lot of uh discussion items to hear today.

And uh to kick us off with special presentations, we will be doing Indigenous People's Day, presented by Councilmember Kaplan and Mayor Pro Tem Gall.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, it is my honor to co-sponsor this afternoon's special recognition and presentation, recognizing October 13th as Indigenous Peoples Day.

Um we know with Indigenous People's Day, it is here truly because we must honor the perseverance and courage of indignant indigenous people, express the gratitude for their contributions they have made to our state and nation, as well as renewing the city's commitment to justice, equity, and the recognition of tribal sovereignty.

And I think that's really important that sometimes individuals don't necessarily understand is that our tribal nations that are recognized, they are a sovereign nation, just as much as Canada, Mexico, they are the controllers and must be treated with such respect, and today as a day is a good reminder of that.

We know our Indigenous friends through their tribal governments have safeguarded their identity, their languages, and cultural traditions, sustaining their communities long before the arrival of European settlers and the establishment of the United States government.

They have faced genocide, violence, and forced removal from their homelands, and were compelled to assimilate into systems that prohibited them from speaking their native languages or practicing their religion or culture.

Every day, our indigenous friends and family members contribute to every facet of our society, including education, public service, environmental stewardship, health care, arts, economic development, all way all while maintaining a strong connection to their ancestral lands and the traditional practices.

California is home to more people of Native American heritage than any other state in the nation, which makes us special, representing over a hundred federally recognized tribes and many others that remain unrecognized yet continue to sustain their cultures and advocate for their rights.

Sacramento Valley, we know and we just heard through our land acknowledgement, is home to several tribes, but continues to be home to the only federally recognized tribe in Sacramento Valley, Wilton Rancheria.

Though our indigenous friends and family members represent only 3.2% of the city's population, their cultural, civic, and community presence remains strong and continues to enrich the region through advocacy, education, and the perseverance and of enduring traditions.

So that you will also have a voice on our parks commission with our parks, which contains many of your ancestral uh native lands.

But with that, I'd like to turn it over to Mayor Pro Tamgarra to say a couple of words.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilmember Kaplan and Vice Mayor.

Uh first of all, let me just uh thank the uh chairman and the vice chair uh and also the tribal council members for being here today.

One uh to thank you for your leadership and your stewardship uh not only uh in this recognition, but in our our first recognitions that happened, I think it was in 20 uh 16 at that time, with much uh unfortunate controversy.

And uh and I and I think the leadership of uh of uh your people and the uh has led us to a better understanding not only about uh the importance of recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day for Sacramento, but what it means to uh the issues affecting other communities throughout the world too.

The impacts that are can in continuing to happen, and I have appreciated uh the the recognition that uh that many communities face this uh throughout the Americas, uh throughout other uh communities that have led to uh unfortunate migrations and displacements.

Um and so to not repeat those errors.

Uh also uh most recently I do want to recognize the work that our tribal communities have done to uh address the the terrible atrocities uh that have happened here in California to just our own environment.

The fact that we have now the Chinook salmon, you know, moving back forward here, not only in uh Sacramento along the American River, but uh along other rivers by looking at stewardship, the management of our forests and making sure that we are maintaining uh what some would call one of the largest watersheds, you know, and making sure that our uh uh our forests that we're the snow can maintain maintain itself so that it is available for us in the summer uh time, and also uh re uh uh management of the richness of our soil and land that unfortunately through uh all of the mining efforts have uh moved the clay underneath on top of fertile soil, and that work is being led and and moved forward by many of our uh of our tribal communities throughout the state.

So to that, I just wanted to say, you know, thank you here.

Uh we are uh we continue to work together and to make sure that we never repeat the atrocities and make sure that our young kids uh our future also remember the importance of this state today.

So with that, thank you, Vice Mayor, and I appreciate all uh our tribal leadership for being here today.

And I'd like to welcome the chairman up to say a couple words.

Um on a day like today, I want to take the time to also uh show uh not only yourselves, but I think you guys all know, but even for our citizens of this great city, um, that when you talk to about tribes and our sovereignty uh behind me, we have our elected officials who do our tribes government work.

So I'd like to call my vice chairwoman and my tribal council members up here and have them introduce themselves to you, um, just so that even though I know you know them, the the people behind us could know them too.

And again, I think that's part about these acknowledgments is making sure that the visibility and understanding and education about tribes and who we are is necessary because the work that you guys do for this great city is the same work that my elected officials do for my one thousand and a hundred and eleven citizens of our nation.

And so again, I'd like to call my elected officials up here to introduce yourselves.

I'm the vice chairwoman for Wilton Rancheria.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

My name is Kevin Singh.

I'm the tribal council spokesperson.

And so again, I wanted to start that way just to acknowledge my elected officials as well.

But on behalf of Wilton Rancheria's Sacramento County's only fairly recognized tribe, I want to thank you for recognizing Indigenous Peoples' Days here in the city of Sacramento.

This acknowledgment isn't about rewriting history.

It isn't about facing it, honestly.

It's about facing it honestly.

For Chester, for centuries, indigenous people were displaced, silenced, and erased from their own homelands.

And we can't change the past, but we damn sure can tell the truth, honor it, and build a future of respect and stewardship here in the city.

Indigenous Peoples Day is about recognizing the first peoples of this land and celebrating our survival, resilience, and contributions to the region.

Every time that we gather here, we stand on land that has had song.

And every time we stand here on this land, it is the land that has told stories since time memorial.

And so with that, Wilton Rancheria is proud to continue to invest in this community through education, cultural preservation preservation, economic development, and partnerships that benefit everyone who calls this region home.

And again, in closing, I just want to to say council member, your words were were very well received.

And it is the intent behind our nation, not to be ahead of the city, is to be standing with the city and to bring good things to all of our citizens for us now, but more importantly for those coming to us.

Another one, one, one, two, three.

Perfect.

And I did forget to ask our city attorney to see if there is a report out from closed session.

Nothing to report out, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Moving along to consent calendar.

Are there items or members that want to punch up to speak on any items?

Yeah.

Councilmember Kaplan?

Comments on item three.

Okay.

Councilmember Maple.

The speed lump item, which I believe is number three, please.

Okay.

Yes.

And Mayor Protangera.

Item number three on the speed lumps.

Sounds like speed lumps are very popular.

But first we're gonna hear uh public comment on the consent calendar.

We have one speaker, Amri Sehota.

Who I know will be appointed as a youth commissioner.

Oh, okay.

I guess we're taking public comment on the entire consent calendar, and I believe you'd like to speak on item number 10, which is thank you so much for clear commission appointments.

Hi, Amory, welcome to the podium.

Hi, all right.

Good afternoon, esteemed council members, vice mayor, and everyone else in attendance.

My name is Amrith Gore Sota, and I am so honored to be appointed as Sacramento's Youth Commissioner serving in CS.

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to all of you guys, let you know a little bit about where I come from and my goals in this position.

A lot of people know me as the girl.

So some people know me as the girl who graduated high school when she was 16.

Others may know me as the director of public relations for American River College.

Some may even know me as their after school teacher, Miss S.

over at Natomas Park Elementary.

But for most, I'm simply Umrit.

As a child, I had the privilege of attending Sacramento Valley Charter School.

And it was one of the first schools in the nation to have my language, Punjabi, as a class.

From that moment on, I understood the real value of having representation and a seat at the table.

As a young sick woman, I was always taught by my family the value of SEBA, selfless service, and to treat everyone as equals.

In my faith, we are all one.

And so we shouldn't shun, um, we shouldn't shun, disinclude or otherwise discriminate with anyone that is different from us.

Instead, we should accept them, cherish them, and uphold what they have to say as our own.

As a youth commissioner, I want to serve as a vessel.

Using this role, my goal for the future is to uplift the efforts that I see in my community with peers from my age, whether it be holding free health clinics for those who aren't able to otherwise be served, or volunteering at animal shelters and zoos in the community, or simply being a kind person.

I strongly believe that we all deserve the chance to call a place our own and to talk about our passions.

I have long seen the value of representation, and I hope to be able to connect with the city in any way that I can.

Thank you.

Wonderful, and congratulations.

Okay.

Council comments.

Uh Councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, I just really want to thank the city.

Uh I think it's universal in this in our city.

We all want people to slow down.

We want safe neighborhoods.

Uh we've seen an increase in people speeding in our neighborhoods and while uh we called them lumps are are not a final solution.

It is a part of a solution.

Um, and I just always hope that we keep looking out for the new greatest thing that we'll get people to slow down that we can we can still use.

But um, I really appreciate you going out and listening to our community and looking at areas where we can we can install them to slow people down and hopefully avoid more accidents but I just want to thank um everybody with our public works team uh our safety team for what you do day in and day out to try and make our city safer thank you councilmember maple thank you madam vice mayor also on speed lumps very exciting but I wanted to share a very brief story so several months ago I was invited out um to one of our my residents homes on 16th Ave some of our incredible city staff thank you um and during that time we had uh neighbors from all over the community come back and express their deep deep concerns with 16th Avenue in a park um how fast people went how there were accidents in fact there were three different houses that we could physically see on the one spot that I was at where you saw uh damaged towns where cars had run into the homes that's how um fast people are driving on these intersections and so um the staff moved incredibly quickly listened to those concerns and they were able to get the petitions out make it happen and the fact that we're voting on this today shows just how effective and and wonderful it's been some really thought to support this today and just want to thank you.

Wonderful uh Mayor Pro Temera.

Uh thank you very much Vice Mayor I again I want to thank Megan Carter and uh and her team uh for the all of this work here today um you know for for speed uh lumps humps uh and bumps and then there's undulations you know they're all uh they're all you know tools and tables yeah speed tables too yeah um and uh they're all tools for us to address what's unfortunate uh a uh a degradation in driving behavior you know and I think that's the uh the thing that uh we also need to call out in this effort is that uh it's our neighbors many of the times who are the ones that are speeding it's parents who after they drop off their kids forget that there are other kids being dropped off at the same time a drop off and you know and we know how difficult the mornings can be if you're trying to you know uh put that seatbelt on and get people in and then you're trying to get to work and get the kids on time and the kids don't want to get a tardy slip and the mornings be can be a a difficult issue but I think the fact that uh I want to make sure that we call out that it's the the behavior that we have to start to change.

I do want to appreciate um the time that uh and this is for the constituents of district six you know the we're we we can't do every speed lump everywhere but the ones that we have prioritized are areas not only where the citizens and the voters have said we uh absolutely want them um this is a democratic process as well it is one that you know there are people who hate speed lumps and the people who like speed lumps and there isn't an in between uh but it has been through a voting process and I appreciate the fact that that we prioritized in areas where we're close to school or we're walking to uh where kids are walking to school into parks uh 21st Avenue specifically um I I want to thank you for addressing that and that's one that uh has had in the past uh failed attempts but then the voters decided to say hey we want to we want to change here um I also want to thank staff that through this conversation we discussed other areas of district six that uh have issues um 60th Avenue and 15th Avenue by Talic Village um and uh and also um you know the the challenges with both Broadway and 14th Avenue being um early designed as uh arterials but they in fact are neighborhood roads where uh where communities are need to cross regularly so I wanted just to thank again staff on on those points and for those that are listening I want you to know that our city staff um care about these issues many times they are are also biking through there I I want to recognize Jennifer Donlin White because she actually bikes through district six very regularly and looks at these and I think through our first inter encounter we were doing a Stockton and Broadway assessment on safety, and an accident occurred right as we were talking about the need to slow speeds down.

And so they're out there every day.

So with that, thank you very much, and uh Mr.

Mayor, uh glad to move uh the consent calendar and uh support this effort.

I'll second.

Thank you.

So, mayor, we now move to a public hearing item number 13, which is 2025 drinking water quality public health goals report.

I do have no public comments on this item, and at this time I will open the public hearing.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

And we're supposed to good afternoon, Mayor McCarty, Council members.

I'm Mark Severed, the water quality superintendent for the city's Department of Utilities, and I'm here today to present the department's 2025 Public Health Goals Report, which is a mandated evaluation of Sacramento's drinking water quality as compared to public health goals established by the state of California.

Another city is required to produce this report every three years and present the findings in a public forum.

There we go.

Before we get to the report, I'd just like to provide some background information on drinking water standards.

Uh regulatory standards, such as maximum contaminant levels are legally enforceable requirements established by the state and the federal government, and they're designed to minimize risk to public health, at the same time taking into consideration uh technical and economic feasibility of achieving regulatory compliance.

In contrast, oh, sorry, I didn't I didn't think about that.

In contrast, uh public health goals are non-enforceable target levels uh developed by the state of California, and these represent a level below which there is near zero risk to public health.

And when establishing public health goals, the state doesn't take technical or economic factors into consideration.

Um the 2025 report identifies five contaminants in city water, which were detected at concentrations greater than their respective public health goals.

However, the key takeaway is that the city of Sacramento continues to provide drinking water of the highest quality to our residents and customers, and I'm pleased to report that the city's drinking water quality meets or surpasses all applicable state and federal requirements.

And these are arsenic, hexavalent chromium, radionuclides, and two of the PFOS compounds, PFOA and PFOS.

It's important to note that the detection of these contaminants was limited to groundwater sources, which make up approximately 20% of the city's drinking water supply.

Surface water sources, which account for around 80% of the city's supply, were not affected.

And uh in response, we risk to a question we received from council.

Uh, the contaminants identified and the extent of contamination was unchanged from the previous public health goals report, which is in 2022.

Finally, the 2025 report does not recommend any action at this time, concluding that additional water treatment processes or analytical techniques required to meet public health goals could significantly increase customer water bills without offering any guaranteed increase in the protection of public health or an effective reduction of contaminants below their already low levels.

And uh that's that's what I have today.

Um, of course, we'd love to answer any questions, but I understand this is a busy agenda today, but we're certainly available to answer any questions that council or the public have uh at a later date.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilmember Kaplan.

Oh, I have one question.

Oh, yes, which um I I appreciate you you bringing up.

Um it is a 96-page report, and you can kind of see the discussion starting on page eight about the contaminants, but what I would love is to make it a standard in the report, because I think it is valuable when I appreciate you saying nothing has changed significantly from the prior report, but having that historical context so that uh somebody could pick up this report and see, oh, nothing has changed in the city of Sacramento, or we've actually improved our water quality would just be uh really helpful in in that regard.

So that truly is kind of like my one request of doing that.

And then what is the city doing to look at kind of like best practices because PFOS and all the chemicals of leach kind of into everything with our drinking water?

Um how are we monitoring and what are we looking as for best practices in the United States and around the world for really addressing that?

So as I mentioned, and as you pointed out, you know, groundwater uh sources are the ones that's that are especially uh affected by PFOS chemicals and by a lot of other uh chemicals, but um what we've done essentially is we've stopped using a lot of these sources that are affected because we the uh unfortunately treatment um at most of our groundwater sites isn't um very practical.

Uh most of the sites are they are small and they are old and uh they are somewhat inefficient, and it's kind of not worth spending the money to install treatment systems at them.

It's uh better use of our money to develop new uh well sites as we have have done uh in the last few years.

Uh so that's that's what we're doing as a best practice.

We're uh the city's involved in uh statewide and national uh water quality uh associations and and we you know try to interface with our our colleagues uh across the state and across the nation as well.

Thank you.

Okay, councilman McGuerrett.

Uh thank you very much, uh Mayor.

Um, uh thank you again for this great work.

Uh I think we this this is something we approve every five years.

Is that every three three years, three years, and uh um one of the uh it's in that since that time um the state has um started to phase out hexovalent chromium for trivalent chromium, and so I guess the the question on the on the wells are about 14 wells that were identified with uh with amounts in there.

Um were those wells associated next to some of our industrial sectors or or uh the location, or is it it's more of a pronounced uh you know proliferation of uh uh of hex chrome that's available.

Well, you know, most of our wells are located.

Uh I'm sure you're aware most of our low wells are located in the north area.

Yeah, and so that's where where these wells are are located.

And are there industrial um sites around them?

Yeah, yeah, there are.

Um, but it's it's really difficult to sort of trace back and say, aha, that place caused this hexavalent chromium contamination.

Very difficult to do, but absolutely.

Um I will say that, you know, and I think uh you obviously looked at the report and you noticed that m most of these wells are currently offline for various reasons, uh, sometimes for water quality reasons like uh hexavalent chromium, uh, sometimes for mechanical reasons, because as I mentioned earlier, they're old facilities and things tend to break.

And uh sometimes offline because we're keeping a lot of our wells offline to encourage aquifer recovery uh as part of the uh local groundwater consortium.

Okay, very good.

Well, I appreciate again the the work.

I I still uh uh you know EA Fairbairn is in District 6 and appreciate the tour that you've done with uh uh all of our uh community leaders in the past to to show how how um how uh great water quality we do have in the city and uh and the fact that we test it regularly and and it's a higher testing standard than bottled water.

So, so uh you know, so we can do we could be much better stewards than buying single-use plastics and and using uh you know your um your hydro flasks and and using the great city of Sacramento water.

So true.

So I uh appreciate that.

And with that, Mr.

Mayor, I'll go ahead and move a move to accept the report.

Um I would say uh the.

Oh, yeah, open and close a public hearing.

That's what I was I knew I was for risk, so it was like open and close the public hearing and move the item.

Okay, we have a motion and a second.

Yes, uh Councilmember Dickinson.

Um thanks, Mayor.

I just I wanted to pick up a little bit on what my colleagues have been talking about historically.

North Sacramento was very dependent on well water.

Yes, sir.

And um uh if I heard you correctly, and correct me if I didn't, uh I you said that uh in the case of uh well, particularly those wells that are producing over the um public health goal.

You're increasingly taking those offline and and substituting uh I I gather water taken withdrawn from one of the rivers.

Is that is that the case?

Can you um can you describe where you are in that respect with in the geography of North Sacramento?

Are we still largely relying on well water in that part of the city, or have we moved away from that pretty significantly?

Hmm, that is a really difficult question.

Unfortunately, it's not possible just to uh you know follow drops of water around in the distribution system, so we don't always necessarily know exactly where they're going.

I would say that North Sacramento is still predominantly served by groundwater, but we have lowered the number of active wells quite a bit so that the active wells are wells that don't have any water quality issues.

Uh there are um uh ways that we can get surface water up into the north area, but in general, and David wave if I say something wrong, but um uh in general, the plumbing isn't set up that way to move surface water into the north area, and that's uh a thing that uh probably needs to be uh addressed in the future.

And and I know there are there are plans, for example, to bring a uh they're quite distant plans, but plans to bring a third water treatment plant online north of the city, and that would I think that would probably serve to push some surface water out into the north area.

Well, um if if uh if it's not too difficult to do, uh if if you wouldn't mind, excuse the expression, drill down a little bit on this issue.

Uh I'd be interested to know the extent to which we're still relying on on groundwater, particularly from the wells that you've identified that the report has identified as being uh beyond um public health goals.

Uh you know, it's just uh it's another indicator of how I think that part of the city has often not been included in um some of the improvements we've made in other parts of the city over time.

But I'd be interested to know what the current status is if you can if you can trace those drops of water for me.

Sure.

I I think we can do that.

I can't I don't I won't be able to do it here today, but no, I mean as a as a follow-up.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

Okay, thank you.

We have a motion and second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any noes or abstentions?

That's 7-0 plucky bomb absent.

Next item.

Thank you, Marin.

May I confirm that was a motion by Councilmember Getta and a second by Kaplan?

Jennings.

Jennings, thank you.

I knew I had it wrong.

Okay, next item.

Please proceed.

And we move to the discussion calendar.

Item 14 is Sacramento homeless and housing system partnership structure.

Good afternoon.

I'm going to kick this off.

I don't need to find my correct set of notes if that's possible.

Awesome.

Um, I thought this would be a good time to have a quick update on the city's county's joint meeting to address homelessness that'll be held on October 28th.

The goal of that session is to strengthen collaboration and build a stronger, more coordinated approach countywide to address homelessness.

Elected officials include the Sacramento City Council, the Board of Supervisors, and the mayor andor uh council representatives from the other incorporated cities within the county of Sacramento.

The agenda for uh the session includes hearing updates on several important items, including from the cities and the county together, about their work around homelessness, which we're calling progress and possibilities.

Um, the county's gonna provide an update on behavioral health efforts serving the unhoused and legal pathways into treatment, which I think is a really important component of all of this, and then in the afternoon, we're going to have a facilitated visioning session on addressing homelessness.

So this conversation on our larger housing and homeless and housing system partnership structure that we have today will be really important to your participation in the visioning session on the 28th.

And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Yagan Io, the city's housing manager.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the City Council, Ya Yen Ail, the City Housing Manager in the City Manager's Office of Innovation and Economic Development.

I'm very happy to be here at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and not 10:30 p.m.

Together with Brian Pedro, the Department of Community Response Director, we bring you this item today to review, comment, and provide direction on a homeless and housing system partnership structure.

So regional coordination, response, and local investment for homelessness and housing have been a priority for the city for some time now.

We've been working with our partner agencies at the County Sacramento Steps Forward, who is the administrative entity for the Sacramento City and County Continuum of Care and the surrounding cities in Sacramento County to discuss what a potential partnership structure could look like.

The goals for this item workshop today are threefold.

One, I will provide background and information on the current homelessness and housing structure.

At that point, I will pause and look to receive input from all of you on key elements that you believe are important to be addressed in a partnership structure.

And then I will come back and present the proposed shared partnership structure from the county and provide a status update from our partner jurisdictions and receive any additional feedback from all of you on the proposed county model.

Before we dive into structures, I think it's important to review how we got here as we contemplate where we should go.

This slide and the timeline that was included as an attachment to the staff report provides some context and an overview of notable external regional and local city-related activities around homelessness and housing.

While homelessness has existed for a long time, it's a relatively new issue to be recognized and organized by the federal government, with Congress passing the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, now known as the McKinney Vento Act in 1987.

In 1994, the Federal Continuum of Care Funding Program was initiated to encourage a coordinated and strategic approach to homelessness.

Between 1994 and 2009, the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development launched various pieces of the COC process that we know today, including establishing the homeless management information system, HMIS, and data standards in 2001, and the biennual point in time count was established in 2005.

In 2009, Congress passed the Hearth Act, which reorganized how funding was awarded and also codified the COC process into law.

Regionally, in the Sacramento area, from 1994 to 2011, the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance served as the collaborative applicant and HMIS lead for the Sacramento City and County COC.

In 2011, the City Council and Board of Supervisors designated Sacramento Steps Forward, a newly formed nonprofit, in the role of the collaborative applicant and HMIS lead for the COC due to a lack of necessary funding at the county level to administer the COC.

Just 10 years ago, the city established the first homeless services manager position, and four years later, in 2019, established a housing policy manager position.

Also in 2019, the first grand jury report is released that calls for a process to identify a coordinated organizational model, and the Sacramento Homeless Policy Council was formed in 2021 in response to that first grand jury report.

While the state had previous funding programs for homelessness starting in 2018 with a program that was known as CESH, and then there was a program that was known as HEAP.

It wasn't until 2019 that the state established the homeless housing assistance and prevention program, which we call HAP, which has become a critical resource for local jurisdictions and funding homelessness solutions.

We recently submitted our joint application for the sixth round of HAP funding in August.

In 2002, back locally, Measure O was passed by voters in the city to take specific actions to address the homelessness crisis.

And in December of that year, the city and the county agreement partnership agreement was adopted.

In 2023, a second grand jury report was released calling for more regional coordination amongst all of the jurisdictions in Sacramento County, and a consultant report on shared governance models was commissioned and completed at the end of 2023.

2023 is also when the city established the city's incident management team, an interdepartmental team led by Brian in his dual role as DCR Director and IMT commander responding to homelessness.

In 2023, the City County and COC also adopted our first regional plan, the Local Homelessness Action Plan, which was expanded and built upon, which became the all-in Sacramento Regionally Coordinated Homelessness Action Plan in 2024, which was recently updated in 2025.

Meanwhile, in the housing world, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, SHRA, was formed in 1973 to merge the staff of the city's housing authority and redevelopment agency.

In 1982, they became a joint powers authority between the city and the county and consolidated our housing authorities and redevelopment agencies under one entity.

While redevelopment was dissolved in 2012, which resulted in the dissolution of the redevelopment agencies of both the city and the county, SHRA continues today as the housing authorities for the city and county, in which they are responsible for public housing and voucher programs, administering city and county federal entitlement funds, and overseeing many of the housing functions of the city and county, including funding housing development.

SHRA is overseen by an appointed 11-member Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Commission and is ultimately governed by the City Council and the Board of Supervisors.

In 2024, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors held a series of workshops and recently approved an RFP process for the county that seeks to identify opportunities to improve coordination and transparency, increase efficiencies and quality improvements at SHRA.

That RFP process is currently underway.

And then finally, in 2025, most notably SB 802 was proposed by Senator Ashby and the counties, cities and SSF and the COC continue to look at partnership models.

So the city, along with our partner organizations, we have been making significant investments in homelessness and housing in recent years.

However, the current landscape we are working in presents some significant challenges but also some opportunities.

We are starting to see reductions in state and federal funding for homelessness and a very uncertain federal policy and funding landscape, with some of the policy decisions have the potential to be catastrophic to our local communities, such as the proposed cuts to the COC funding program, which currently keeps about 4,000 people in Sacramento in permanent supportive housing every year.

Meanwhile, expectations and pressures on local jurisdictions and elected officials to address not only the needs of people who are experiencing homelessness, but also the impacts of homelessness on the businesses and neighborhoods are increasing like never before.

We in the city continue to see thousands of people experiencing homelessness daily, living unsheltered on our streets in dangerous inhumane conditions, or sheltered with no place to go.

While interest in housing development remains strong in Sacramento, we are starting to see a tightening of the housing market in the midst of a continued housing shortage.

There is a lack of critical ongoing rental assistance programs and an inability for the housing market to catch up to the need, particularly for our acutely low-income households.

City staff and staff amongst our various partner jurisdictions are coordinating and collaborating regularly.

However, our programs continue to operate in parallel with decisions being made by different bodies in different areas across the homeless response system.

While we continue to lift up opportunities to further integrate, we not only have an opportunity but a responsibility to take a look at how we can improve our collaboration and structures, braid and leverage various funding sources and programs, and continue to bring in partners and resources from other related sectors.

This slide here attempts to capture our current homeless and housing structure.

While the majority of COCs in California have their COC membership and board as two distinct and separate entities, Sacramento is unique in that our COC board membership and board are essentially the same entity, a 32 member COC board.

Sacramento steps forward, provides staff support to the COC board and its committees, coordinating planning and public meetings, manages data and reporting, and leads the annual funding application process on behalf of the Sacramento COC.

The COC board currently does not include any elected officials.

The Sacramento Homeless and Policy, the Sacramento Homeless Policy Council was our first attempt to bring elected officials across jurisdictions together on homelessness.

However, the SHPC did not have any policy or funding authority.

A couple of overarching questions to help guide that discussion include what is currently not being addressed by the current organizations and structures that we have in place, what would you hope that a new governance structure will achieve, and what do you see as the role of the city of Sacramento in the homeless response system?

More specifically, some key considerations in the areas of authority and governing body, accountability and transparency, funding and project approvals, and roles and responsibilities will be important for us to know as staff as we continue to work with our partners and explore model opportunities.

At this time, I would like to pause and allow for mayor and council to consider and provide input on some or all of these questions before I resume my presentation.

Council, or you want to wait till the end.

Can we go back to the last slide?

Come back.

This one?

This one.

Feedback on each of these pause points.

Okay, so can you go back to that slide and put it up here?

Prompt us.

Next one.

That one.

Yeah, this one.

Questions.

And I and I will say part of this is, you know, we've heard a lot of like maybe we need a JPA, maybe we need this, maybe we need that.

But even within that context, there are a lot of options on how those operate.

So SACOG, for example, is a JPA.

They have a different model, right?

And they have a weighted structure, which, you know, all of their votes have to require a majority of the counties, a majority of the cities, and a majority of the population to move forward.

RT also has an 11-member board, which several of you are on, and they don't report back to the city and the county, but SHRA, also a JPA, they do report back to the city and the county.

So some of these questions around, you know, who do you be who do you believe should set policy and direction?

Is that something that the council wants to delegate to a separate entity or governing board body, or is that something that is important to remain at the city?

What should our representation look like on a governing body if there is a separate governing body that is formed, right?

What should we look at in terms of our representation?

And then you know, who does an entity answer to, who's setting the performance metrics, what are we as a city still accountable for versus what a separate entity or uh not separate entity would be accountable for?

Um and all of these questions about ultimately what is our role in the homeless response system and what is our role in housing development.

So those are the questions uh that uh we you know would love to hear some feedback from all of you, but I'm also happy to continue and go through the county model and we can talk about all of these things at once.

Okay, I guess.

Bope A.

You don't want to okay.

Here we go.

Council member Guerra.

Well, thank you, Mayor.

I I think it might be helpful to also go through the the county model first and and kind of and and compare those two.

I mean, I think on the general though, I will say that there are some key fundamental things that that um both as a governing board and as the public are looking for.

Number one, um leadership and accountability, and and what and how that is.

I mean, the fact is voters are and residents are seeking to their elected bodies for both leadership and accountability, and then the recognition, I think as you met in the presentation, the efficiency of resources giving given the lack of of uh support that we'll see from the federal and the state um in future years.

So I mean, I and and the development of a system that that becomes that engages not only just the city and the county, but say multiple cities and jurisdictions.

We share borders with Elk Grove and only a little bit of a gap between the unincorporated area and the city of Rancho Cordova.

So, you know, the I think the the process of developing something, I it might be futile to start saying how we're gonna design something here.

I think it'll be an iterative process that builds uh ownership and engagement from other jurisdictions.

So I guess I I would say I don't wanna um I don't want to say it's time to to punt right now.

Uh maybe um but I think fundamentally those are the key things that that we should look at is how do we show leadership and accountability that means that council should be engaged and involved and um uh and whether it's a sector of the council, a portion of it.

I think I think that depends on what other agencies are involved, and then on the accountability side, you know, being able to vote on and on budgets and uh audits and as we do in any other function with a joint with other authorities that allows it.

Uh and then frankly, on the efficiency of resources, let me let me go down to say that the division of labor and expertise.

I think those are um uh creating those asset maps, which we have done, and and that's how we develop the city-county partnership, and I I think the presentation showed that since we developed the city-county partnership, our homeless numbers went down because we recognized the importance of the division of labor and expertise.

And so those are I think some of the key fundamental pieces in in uh in creating or moving forward in a governance model.

So I don't I don't know, I don't know how fruitful it is it is to start diving into this many members of the city, this members of the county now, you know, at this point.

But let me let me stop there.

I say that from uh from at least from what I hear from my constituents, those are the things that that they're they're seeing.

Do you want to have engagement from them or just a statement?

Yeah, I mean, if you have a response to that, I mean I maybe that's great.

I mean, I think this is the important feedback that we need to hear as staff because we're having a lot of conversations between um city, county, SSF, COC.

So we want to make sure that we're advocating on behalf of what the council and the direction that the council wants to go.

To that point, on the on the accountability piece, the the thing about the partnership agreement or anything else, it's it's how do you rather than just like our our action plan?

It's what is the accountability measure?

I mean, the partnership we can go to court and sue each other, but it also has a dispute resolution process to get us to a solution.

So, those are, I think those are some uh some points of like, okay.

How how is it that you can set a metric and hold each other to those outcomes?

Uh, and when there is conflict, because there inevitably will be disagreement.

What's the dispute resolution process to get to something that sometimes may not require coming to a full board, but at least that allows the staff a pathway to to get to an outcome.

So I'll leave it at that.

Okay, thank you.

Council member Palamates.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh yeah, will you go to the next slide, please?

The next slide or the previous one?

The next one.

The one with three questions.

Okay.

Uh I have spent a great deal thinking about this, so I come very prepared with my answer to your three questions.

Um, what is currently not being addressed by the current organization and structures in place?

I don't believe there's enough accountability, coordination, or transparency for taxpayers.

I believe that people experiencing homelessness deserve real solutions, and that the city of Sacramento carries the bulk of this regional crisis, but we don't have the authority, resources, or decision-making power to create the kind of systemic change that we need.

And um, you know, we're limited with our dollars, and we're not a health and human services agency like the county.

We don't control the housing placements for shelters and treatment programs like Sacramento Steps Forward.

And so that's why I just really do want to proceed with the JPA with real leverage, and one that allows the city, the county, and the regional partners to combine resources, align strategies, and act with a unified voice.

I also believe we need like stronger alignment with the sheriff's office and the district attorney's office.

Um, I did connect with both of them before this meeting, and neither of them have been briefed on the city-county partnership agreement and what we're up to and how the conversation we're gonna have at the end of the month.

And I think that they place such a large role in this conversation, especially when we're talking about re-entry from incarceration and people being released into downtown onto the streets of city Sacramento from other jurisdictions.

So I think that having law enforcement and the local mayors at this meeting together with the county is gonna be incredibly helpful.

So my ask is that we invite them to this conversation.

They are invited, just yeah, okay.

Well, I haven't heard that they I connected with them before this, and they told me they were invited.

So I understood that the under sheriff intends to be there, and I am not sure about the DA, but we will inquire.

Okay, wonderful.

Okay, second question.

Uh, what would a new governance structure hope to achieve?

Um, all hands on deck ability to act with real leverage.

I believe that we need all five county supervisors on it, the local mayors, four council members, and five people with lived experience.

It should be a weighted voting system where the county will help hold a majority of the authority as it should, since they're elected to the county board of supervisors.

But this would be be a JPA, so it'd create a space to finally have open dialogue aligned with decision making and accountability.

That's been missing for far too long.

So that weighted system, just like RT and SACOG, I think will be incredibly helpful in the balance of power.

Um, but it will also just create a space for us to have honest, frank conversations and have that dialogue there at this JPA, we would create the metrics and the communication and the shared vision that the continuum of care and our city managers and staff currently have at the staff level.

If we can get elected officials at the staff level having the type of conversations that you guys have, like going into the weeds, I think that that's gonna be incredibly helpful for the taxpayers.

Um, and also just never losing sight of why we're doing this, uh, to build assistant route and dignity, accountability, and hope for our in-house neighbors.

A lot of times when we talk about homelessness, it is a humanitarian crisis, it is really hard because we're pouring millions of millions of dollars into it, and people are not seeing results as fast as we need to.

Um people are people, and we need to treat people as people, and we're all human.

So that's important to me in elevating this conversation.

And then what is the role of the city of Sacramento?

Um we need to pick a lane and stay in our lane.

Uh we have a significant budget deficit, and we can't do it all.

So I want to focus like what do we want to focus on here at the city of Sacramento on prevention or the chronic users of the emergency room or focusing on families, seniors, foster youth.

You know, we're the largest city in the county facing the greatest number of unhoused on our streets.

So, you know, when encampments come up, people direct them to us, and the answer from the county can't be called 311 at the city of Sacramento.

We don't have the resources, we don't have the funding, we don't have the capacity, and we need to do better.

That's it.

Okay, council member.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um ditto on what our vice mayor said.

I am I am supportive of uh the structure of a JPA.

There are numerous um JPAs throughout the state that were set up by statute that has city and counties working together, and and here's the thing: if you go back and you read all the grand jury reports and they've issued four, um the county and city all talked about a JPA in 2010 and never followed through with actually creating creating it, correct?

Yes, yeah, um so you know this has been talked a lot for a long time.

Um I'm okay with legislative oversight that sets the state boundaries, and then what are we trying to solve for?

I'm not an expert on this.

I know grand juries bring people in and they dig deep, and so partly my question is how much of this plan is based off of what the grand jury report has highlighted, and are we solving for the issues that have already been expressed and people have already spent time and a lot of resources and energy to present us these reports, and are we actually addressing the issues that have been put forward because part of it is is who's the expert on our team?

You know, what resources have they used?

Who have they called?

You know, are they working with the state?

Did they work with the grand jury?

Did they look at the resources and the research that the grand jury did?

Um, are we using best practices and efforts in that regard?

And then I also want to piggyback on what the vice mayor said.

You know, um, our former mayor passed Prop 63, which really sets that the county receives a lot of mental health resources.

That is not what the city is set up and the resources that we have.

It is not built in our charter.

And I think in our knowing that a majority of the unhoused are in the city of Sacramento in our disagreements and not always getting along with the county, the city move forward with doing something because our citizens and our voters are asking us for us to do something.

But by doing that, we've now expanded our lane, and we're facing a 76 million dollar deficit, and we're seeing an increase in homelessness, and you know, this is something throughout the city that all of us as council members are hearing.

So I go back.

What are we, as you asked, attempting to solve for?

But my first question is in actuality, what is the city as Sacramento's responsibility?

What have we taken on that is really not our responsibility?

And how do we have hard conversations, which may mean it takes state intervention and creating this to force the conversations with the county who do receive mental health resources?

And then there was also a best practices report released out of San Francisco that studied the unhoused and and had basically like six factors.

We know the largest growing unhoused population are single people over 40.

Yes, seniors, but in reality, single individuals.

But in drilling down why they became homeless, we know the largest factor is um rent got too high too fast, and they might have floated around a little bit, but there weren't enough.

And so then that goes into how does SHRA fit into this.

SHRA is set up.

How do we look at the streamlining of it?

I am not supportive of the dismantling of it because the county holds all the vouchers.

And then we create two separate systems, then it creates more government, and then it creates more chaos and hurts those most in need.

So how do we look at where the grand jury port popped out?

Frustrations with SHRA and the streamlining and the cost.

Is there something that we can look at doing differently, but not dismantle SHRA?

But how do we coordinate through a JPA homelessness?

Because homelessness doesn't have lines, and the fact that we as cities and jurisdiction can't always come together.

I think we do need a coordinated regional approach, but still keeps where money that comes into a jurisdiction kind of stays with that jurisdiction, but we have to create an overarching plan of what are the best practices, because one of the things I think we're failing to do is prevent homelessness.

We actually know people are one paycheck, one car accident, one medical emergency away.

In the San Francisco report, it gave a great example of musical chairs, as almost like homelessness.

You have 10 people in 10 chairs.

One chair gets removed.

If one of those 10 people has a sprained ankle, who's gonna end up without a chair?

And that's a simple of those, sometimes it's as simple as that as to who ends up homelessness because they're out of work and they can't pay their bills.

And if we know that, why aren't we investing more on the front end?

Because the city of Sacramento, as we look at housing, that's something that could be our lane that we invest in.

And how do we do it the right way based off of data and best practices for success?

And sometimes I know that's the tug and pull of the cost efficiency versus doing it the right way.

Because if you slap a band-aid on something, you may actually only help one person instead of doing it right and slowing down, you might actually help 20 people, even though the costs so I want to look at, I think we need to continue to drill down on data when we what governance structure has to be built on when we do things that there's a built-in structure for one regional, you could look at all the boards and commissions.

You know, SAC RT has has a deep decent one, and it should be pit or weighted.

People are smarter than me to figure it out.

I'm gonna leave that to them, but there has to be built in an accountability structure that, however, it's created, builds in reports that come back because all of us serve on boards and commissions that our colleagues may not be on, but we don't have a standard practice of somebody coming back and telling me what happened on SACRT unless I pap on SAC RT and see what's being discussed.

So because this is a regional thing, we do need a reporting and accountability structure that comes back.

But I think Sacramento needs to take a step back and say what is our responsibility and how do we do that?

Because what the role we play needs to be based off of reality.

What is it we're supposed to be doing, not what we're already doing now?

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Maple.

Thank you, Mayor.

I was gonna wait, but uh I I want to answer your three questions.

But um, first I'm gonna read directly from the 2023 grand jury report, and I want to thank my my two colleagues that spoke before me because um this is this is something that some of us have been screaming from the rooftops for quite some time, but also this isn't as as counseling Hoplin mentioned, this isn't the first grand jury report.

Uh this is one of many.

Um, in fact, I think four or five over the course of almost 10 years now that have not only discussed this topic in different forms, but always come to the same recommendation.

Um, so when describing the amount of money that has been spent, which at the time was less than we have now at states, that price tag does not include the enormous cost of law enforcement, public health, sanitation, lost commerce, with the impact on quality of life in Sacramento County and its seven incorporated communities.

This is an endless loop of failure.

Leaders in Sacramento County must prioritize a more effective regional approach to solve the burgeoning homeless problem.

County and city leaders must band together to form a comprehensive homelessness strategy.

Too often jurisdiction jurisdictions work independently or informally together, spend hundreds of millions of dollars, and they fail.

The current grand jury saw the need to revisit this idea and investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of a comprehensive organizational model, which I won't get into the entirety of the report because it's several pages long, but I will read the four recommendations that came out of that report, which is very similar to the recommendations that have come out of the reports that were previously issued.

They state that the county and the seven incorporated cities implement a joint powers authority or JPA to address homelessness by December 1st, 2023.

Of course, that date has passed.

The newly formed JPA should be governed by elected officials who are directly accountable to the citizens of the county.

The joint powers authority should develop and manage a comprehensive countywide strategic plan to address homelessness by July 1, 2024.

Number four, the county-city partnership agreement should be used as a model for the six other counties.

And that's something that we have done.

Of course, we have a wonderful partnership agreement.

I can't speak highly enough of that, but I do think it's time that we build upon that.

So let me get to your questions.

First being what's not currently being addressed.

Uh, in my view, our current system does not have a unified authority, and that is what it lacks.

So we do not have the power to make regional decisions on an issue that is regional.

We know this.

Uh you can ask our our um staff that work in our department of community response and beyond.

We know that you can go into any shelter or program in the city of Sacramento and you can find people in those places from Elkrove, Citrus Heights, from Folsom, from Rancho Cordova, from the unincorporated county, and conversely, I'm sure you can go to any of those places I just named and find people from the city of Sacramento.

It's not about pointing fingers and saying it's one thing or another, it's about acknowledging that when you're a human being that's experiencing homelessness, you don't know where you are.

You don't know if you're in the city or the county, or in my district, you can literally be on one side of the street on 14th Avenue and be in the city of Sacramento, and you cross the street, you become the county.

You can drive down Franklin Boulevard or Stockton Boulevard and you can weave in and out of the city and county uh on foot in a matter of minutes.

And so it really makes little sense to me that we have such a siloed system.

Um I really think that we need something that's more coordinated.

And so, in my view, that means uh what was proposed by our Senator St.

Angelique Ashby, that means creating a joint powers authority that includes the county of Sacramento and all of the cities, including the city of Sacramento.

Um, and really aligning our efforts, our strategies, and our resources.

I think the resource piece is really key.

Right now, we act essentially in silos.

We make some key decisions together, but in essence, every jurisdiction, just like our own, goes in and we decide, okay.

Well, how much money do we have in our pot and what are we gonna spend it on?

Occasionally we'll come together to do joint projects, and that's great.

Um, but very rarely is this happening at a larger scale, and I think this is really important because if you want to utilize an economy of scale, we want to say, hey, we've got limited resources and we've got less coming in because we know the state's gonna be giving less money in the future.

We don't know what's gonna happen at the federal level.

Um, I think it's really incumbent upon us to be thinking much more strategically about the resources that we do have collectively and how those can be spent together.

For example, if we wanted to build, let's say a larger campus model, which is something that's often talked about by citizens of Sacramento, it's been talked about in these chambers.

Well, that's something that's very unlikely to happen with only the resources that exist in the city of Sacramento.

It's just the facts.

And so, what would that look like if we came together and shared resources and did something together?

So that's something I think about a lot.

So, shared governance means also shared decision making to me.

So that's where I think that elected official body makes sense.

I agree that it there we have so many great examples, many of them uh I serve on and you listed, Ya Yin.

Um, but I think one that is proportional to population makes sense.

I also think one that um has uh that really takes attention to where the population is.

We know that right now about 70 percent of the unhouse population is in the city of Sacramento Linux.

So I think it's important also for the jurisdictions that are most impacted to have also a say about what's happening.

And that may change.

I mean, hypothetically speaking, we create a joint powers authority of a shared governance, and 20 years from now, let's say we have five percent in the city of Sacramento and 50 percent in all group, I'm just throwing it out there.

Well, that would be a different a difference in um and structure and and perhaps they should have more of a say at that time and so I think looking at population and looking at those pit count numbers is going to be key.

So when I think about what it would hope to achieve I've already mentioned this but really I think one of our key gaps here is is that joint decision making and shared accountability that Councilman or Vice Mayor Talmontes mentioned and the sharing of resources.

So one joint decision making two shared resources and three shared accountability that's another thing that I I'll just be very blunt I think is a challenge.

We know that homelessness is the number one issue for many in Sacramento County not just in the city we know this because we've seen polling we see it people say it all the time at our meetings at beyond um and that can create a challenge because I think everyone's like well I don't want you to be mad at me about it and that can just be frank I think sometimes that can lead to others not wanting to necessarily participate in a greater scale and I can understand that.

But I also think if we came together and we had a JPA that becomes the accountability structure that becomes the place where people go and share their concerns and where decisions can get made and that can be all of us not just one jurisdiction or another.

And I think that's why the grand jury reports have explicitly recommended that path in part.

And then your third question is what should the the role of the city of Sacramento be I really don't think we should be a lead agency.

I think we should be a a partner but not a lead because as the vice mayor mentioned we don't we're not a social services agency we don't we don't provide behavioral health services.

And we know that that's a key component of this it's not everything.

We know that housing is a big piece of it but we also know that behavioral health mental health substance use and all kinds of other things are parts of it too and I think that the agency really needs to be the place where that money and resources are flowing into the county of Sacramento and I think that that count that they should also bring in all of the partners that includes all of those partner cities us, El Gro, Citrusites Rancho, Folsom and beyond um and so but I think we we do have a role we have a wonderful staff.

You work I know that you work closely with county partners every day and I wouldn't want to see that stop.

I'd like to see that grow and increase um but I would I I really think that the lead agency should be the county with us as as supporting partners in the ways that we already do including having shelters okay and so I think that covered most of the things that um I may have more to say later but I just really wanted to make those points.

I mean it's no secret that I'm very very big on the joint powers authority idea I've I've not been quiet about it but I think as more time has gone on I've only become more resolved that it's the right thing to do and I hope that that's something that we can move forward.

Thank you.

Thank you councilmember plucky bum.

Thank you mayor uh I think in general we're already overindexed on process we don't need any more governance to uh achieve the results we're trying to achieve uh unless that governance comes with some additional funds or additional authority uh to streamline site selection.

Thank you.

Thank you short and sweet councilmember Dickinson.

Thanks Mayor I have a few thoughts on this subject but I'm not gonna try to in the time here really to be uh comprehensive about it truthfully because we would be here far beyond anyone's tolerance including my own.

I I think though that I come at this slightly differently in the sense that I start with the question of what are the outcomes we want to see.

Now that's to a certain extent that's your middle question or second question but it seems to me that we have a united view across the elected officials and the practitioners uh the people who are uh involved in one way or another with homeless uh assistance uh in uh terms of those outcomes and um uh they I think boil down principally to two, which is to help people who are on the street get off the street into appropriate settings and ultimately and to permanent or permanent support of housing to the extent possible to reintegrate into the into the mainstream.

That's that's a primary outcome, it seems to me that we are all interested in.

So the question really becomes how do how do we best get to those outcomes in an equitable manner?

What strikes me about what we've seen over time in Sacramento County is a number of different approaches to get to the outcomes that people have sought in any particular circumstance, whether it was transportation or air quality or land use planning or climate change.

We have we have different instruments and different governance arrangements to address those particular kinds of issues which are overarching and not jurisdictionally bounded.

I think, for example, about the regional groundwater authority, as an example where we had the city and the county both as water suppliers, the city of Folsom, and numerous uh water districts across the landscape north of the north of the American River.

None of those folks were particularly interested in getting together and finding a path to a common outcome until they all realized eventually that the outcome they wanted, which was clean water to deliver to their ratepayers and their customers, was contingent on water that they could they could either draw from the rivers or from the ground that fundamentally was in a condition that could be clean to potable drinking water standards.

And when the Fair Oaks Water District understood that what was going on in the Carmichael Water District affected them and multiply that several fold, then there was interest in creating a unified body that could address the issue across boundaries to get to the to get to the desired outcome.

It's getting to agreement that in the old adage, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

And how many times have we talked in this county about issues that we feel face us and are significant, but that view is not shared by those around the entirety of the county.

So part of the landscape here, part of the construct here from my perspective is working on having our fellow jurisdictions understand that even though 70% of those who are on the street may be within the the city limits of the city of Sacramento does not mean that their jurisdiction isn't affected in real and meaningful, significant and financial ways.

Regardless of what governing structure we want to try to set up, we won't be as successful as we need to be unless we can meet that challenge, it seems to me, it also seems to me that in achieving those outcomes, we can only get there by making the most effective use of the resources that we have available to all of us.

Historically, what's interesting is that the city of Sacramento offered itself up to be part of addressing homelessness for various reasons that we don't necessarily need to recount here, but did so at a time when virtually the entire responsibility fell on the county of Sacramento.

Now it's an interesting part of the conversation here to hear some, I think uh suggest that that's where we ought to go back to.

I don't think that's realistic.

And I don't think that's uh desirable from the city's uh point of view.

So uh if that is true, then what we need to think about is what kind of governing structure will integrate the city and the county functionally in a way with accountability and the accountability piece that other others have uh articulated is is crucial to all of this.

How do we effectively integrate uh programmatic and service delivery to rich to arrive at the optimal outcome with the resources that we have available?

So uh uh is there a magic to that being a JPA or being uh MOU or being an agreement such as uh Seattle and King County uh entered into or Portland and Multinoma County or Minneapolis and Hennepin County.

I I don't know that that's the crucial question.

Uh I think the crucial question is what gives us the results that we want in the most equitable, equitable fashion possible and what will work, if anything, and I think that's a big if.

If anything, to have everybody put their chips in the pot.

Because it's only when everybody is committed to getting to the outcomes that we all I think subscribe to, that we will we will actually make progress in achieving the goals that that we're seeking.

So I don't have a formula for you.

I don't know that I have a uh a very good answer in the sense of of uh to your uh especially your first and third uh uh questions there.

But I know I think at least for my own part, what we need to be what we mean need to be prioritizing and emphasizing as we have those kinds of discussions, and if we focus on the outcomes, then I think that can lead us back to the structure.

Okay, thank you.

Plug you up again, just real quick.

I see Lisa Bates in the audience.

If we have an opportunity at some point, I'd like to hear your perspective on this governance model.

Okay, I think she's speaking later.

I'll I'll wait till the end.

So you continue.

Go ahead, yeah.

In great, thank you.

All right, um, so pivot now to this uh proposed county structure.

Um, as previously mentioned, there was an external consultant that was brought on board and was hired by the county and SSF to review our structure and make recommendations and changes.

Um staff have continued to work on refining a potential model, and in August of this year, uh the Sacramento County staff brought forward to the uh Board of Supervisors a proposed partnership model uh for feedback, which includes some key changes to how we are working today.

So this is a simplified version of that model, but the main changes include um formalizing the membership of the COC separate and apart from the board.

So you can see here the COC board um splits and there's a new membership that is established.

Um it would collapse the uh existing COC board functions with the Sacramento Homeless Policy Council, so the policy council uh would essentially go away and establishes a new Sacramento Homeless and Housing Board.

Um it would designate membership on this board to be primarily elected officials and potentially with the seat uh with uh person with lived experience in order to meet COC governance requirements and to lift up the diverse voices.

It would also propose to elevate the Sacramento Homeless and Housing Board to be a public Brown Act body with a governance charter, dedicated staff to support this entity and to ensure that they're action-oriented and making connections back to the work that's being done at each of the local jurisdictions.

This would also include designating and formalizing a strategic leadership group that consists of the department heads and higher staff from each jurisdiction, the COC administrative entity, and the housing authority leadership.

While City County and SSF staff are currently meeting on a regular basis, this would formalize that structure and bring in partners who are currently not participating.

This is the more detailed version of the proposed partnership structure.

This is the version that is being shown to the other city councils.

So key to the creation of the Sacramento Homeless and Housing Board is that they would serve not only as the COC board, but as the regional convener on key housing and homelessness issues.

They would provide leadership, vision, and guidance to the jurisdictional and community partners and staff working on these topics.

While this new SHHB as proposed is smaller and has a more limited board that consists mostly of elected officials, this model, as I previously mentioned, elevates the work of the subcommittees, which is an opportunity to provide meaningful ways for community members to provide their expertise and participate in the work.

It's recommended that these subcommittees be seated with members of the COC membership, and the board can delegate approval of certain deliverables and activities to the subcommittee, or maybe have the subcommittees act and is it as an advisory role to the SHHP.

In this proposed model, this board is setting the overall vision and goals, and the full membership of the COC is providing expert advice and input into the programs and policies, but ultimately the local jurisdictions are still setting policies and budgets with their jurisdictional staff.

Also presented was two options for membership that are being proposed, one of which is all elected officials and one person with lived experience, and a second option that was presented also includes seats for community organizations from the broader COC membership.

So since August, our partner jurisdictions have also been taking this proposed partnership structure to their respective governing bodies for input and feedback.

As I mentioned, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors was the first to hear this, and in general, they all supported the proposed partnership structure.

They generally supported option A being their preference for the membership composition.

The board members felt that we needed change that this model gave us components of a more formalized option without the legal intricacies and complexities of forming a JPA.

They're not so concerned with having a model that is unlike any other jurisdictions, and they are ready to do something bold and different to address the homelessness crisis.

Top priorities that were mentioned during that board meeting include enhanced accountability, transparency, and a coordinated way to move people through the homeless response system.

The surrounding cities, Folsom, Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, and Gults all also heard this item at their city council meetings in September and October.

Overall, the general feedback from these jurisdictions include one homelessness is not at the same crisis level at these jurisdictions that it is in the unincorporated county and within the city of Sacramento.

Just as an example, in the 2024 pit count, the pit counts in their cities were, you know, much lower than the city of Sacramento, where in the 3,000 range for untouched unsheltered homelessness, they're in the hundred under a hundred people range for their unshuttled homelessness.

Many of them feel like they have adequate homeless response, but they recognize the value and the need for stronger collaboration amongst the cities and the county.

They are interested in participating on a collaborative structure and having a seat at the table, but it's important that they also retain local control over funding decisions and project siting.

Some of them pointed to the lack of dedicated homelessness staff, some of them just have like a housing manager and they don't have big departments or staff working on this issue, and they you know seek clarification on what would be expected of them to participate financially and in terms of their staff resource time.

In regards to the proposed model specifically, there was consensus at these cities that while the SHPC, the Sacramento Homeless Policy Council, was a good start, it didn't quite meet the needs of what they wanted to accomplish, and most of them were leaning towards option A in terms of the membership structure.

The Sacramento Continuum of Care Board has discussed this item at two meetings now with a variety of COC board members and guests providing their input and feedback.

The general consensus out of those meetings is that the COC structure should be lifted up more than it currently is to drive local policy decisions.

Many of them felt strongly that the community voice should be embedded and that a COC board comprised of mostly elected officials, the community voice would be lost potentially.

Some of them would like to invite elected officials to join the current COC board.

The COC and SSF staff would like to form a task force which includes elected officials, staff from the jurisdictions, and the COC and SSF, which is also supported by the jurisdictions to engage in finalizing of formal structure.

They request that this process be time-bound with clear expectations for a solution within the next four to six months.

Next steps, the city of Sacramento were the final jurisdiction to hear this item and provide feedback.

We continue to meet with our partners and the other cities to provide the feedback and put input that we've heard from our governing bodies.

And while this may or may not be a specific topic at that meeting, the discussion from that meeting will certainly help staff coordinate development of a final proposed shared partnership structure that hopefully we can all get on board with.

Theoretically, in February, the board and councils could potentially take actions to approve and memorandum of understanding or updates to a partnership agreement necessary to implement a new structure, and could potentially appoint members to this new board with this new board kicking off in next spring summer 2026.

And that is a very aggressive schedule and also a lot of what ifs and people coming together in agreement.

So this concludes my presentation and uh happy to answer any questions and also happy and looking forward to hearing your feedback and direction.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just have a quick question because I also want to hear from the public.

Um, can you go back to this slide that shows the this, yes?

So, under this proposed structure, which I recognize is um not necessarily what we're focusing on, it's one of it's being proposed over there, it's something we can talk about.

Um, how so, for example, if uh, you know, let's say we want to I'm gonna keep using this example because I used it in my last comments.

Let's say we wanted to create a campus model where we've got you know a much larger facility that's able to um you know help help hundreds of people, let's say how would how would decisions get made, like funding decisions and citing decisions get made under this kind of model versus how we currently do it.

I think what's envisioned under this model is the Sacramento Homeless and Housing Board, they would set a vision, and that would potentially be lifted up as a priority.

So maybe they say as a board, okay, we want to develop a campus, and they would then recommend to their local jurisdictions, like we need everybody to chip in, you know, money towards this uh campus model.

Then under this proposed model, that decision still ultimately would go back.

So it would be brought back to the city council.

The SACHB board would like to recommend a campus be developed, and they're asking for the city council to contribute X number of dollars to this uh project.

So right now, that board does not would not necessarily dictate and control the local funding.

Um they would set vision priorities and make recommendations that would then be brought back to the local jurisdictions for decision.

Okay, so so the only key difference between what we have now under the current structure, because what we have now is also advisory in nature, and it sounds like this is advisory in nature.

We're advising an idea, is that then it's required that whatever advice that they give or priorities they set then does come back to the council, the other councils.

I think it formalizes that feedback loop.

Right now, you know, I don't, you know, you all we have representation on the COC board.

Brian is the city's uh COC board member representative.

Emily Halcon at the county is on the COC board as representative of the county, but there's not this feedback loop, right?

You all are not necessarily hearing what's happening at those uh at those meetings.

We do have the regionally coordinated homelessness action plan, but those set activities, right?

Specific activities for a year at a time.

And so there's not really elected officials coming together to talk about priorities across the region and to strategize in that way, and so that would be I think the key difference between what we have today versus this proposal.

Okay, so I thank you.

That's really helpful because I'm just trying to visualize because like right now using RT as an example, funding that comes in that's set aside for public transit, because we know that that's it goes across jurisdictions, isn't it?

That regional board then makes decisions.

Sometimes they agree, sometimes they don't agree, but whatever they do agree upon and have enough votes for is what ultimately gets funded and then operationalized, and they have an executive director and a staff, and their only job is to you know make sure that the things that are decided on by the board get, and so I I guess I'm just really unclear under this proposed structure how things would get decided.

It just so okay.

I I don't want to belabor it.

Um thank you.

If I may, I think one of the distinctions between RT and and very much um SACOG, for example, is that there are explicit funds from the federal government and the state for homelessness services, and those things are a very small portion of what we do as a city, and they are getting smaller and smaller.

So we're not talking about funds that are explicitly available for homeless services.

We would be talking about our putting our general funds into providing this, and that would have to be a decision of this council.

And so that's what makes it just a little bit different than all of those things.

So, nope, this is it for me.

Yes, and or public comment.

Yeah, good public comment.

So mayor I have two speakers, Mike Jaski and John Ju.

Good afternoon, Mayor McCarty and Council members.

My name is Mike Jaski representing SACDACT Act, multi-faith, multi-ethnic organization dedicated to social justice.

Mayor Pro Tim Bureau's district.

I'm gonna summarize some key points.

We sent in written comments electronically and by email.

First, this conversation is coming at a horrible time.

You are being distracted by, and your staff is being distracted by the fear that the reductions in state and federal monies is going to cause a tsunami of people exiting public housing and existing permanent supportive housing.

The NOFA that the federal government is about to release for the COC program is going to restrict the amount of money, the proportion of money that goes to PSH to 30%.

Right now, for the COC, it's 80%.

That's a 50%, more than 50% reduction.

There are numbers of other things leading to this looming catastrophe, unless the Senate and the House will overcome the federal administration, which sounds very unlikely.

That is what you should be focusing on.

That will be doubling, tripling the number of homeless people on the street, unsheltered.

Once that crisis is passed, it may take six months, it may take a year to get a handle on it.

Then this whole reorganization topic will be germane, but not in the midst of that kind of tsunami of unsheltered homelessness.

I don't have time to get into all the details.

I strongly recommend you look at our thank you for your comments.

Our next speaker is John Ju.

Hello, everybody.

I've been listening very carefully to what's been going on and all the uh rhetoric.

I almost call it rhetoric, just because you're not addressing what I think is the most important critical thing.

It's a concept that is not working in our health care system, it's not working in our communities, it only works for individuals who take 100% responsibility for who they are in their health.

And that concept, that concept is treating the root cause of our homelessness problems.

And we're not doing that.

What we're doing right now, what I've heard is all we're doing really is just figuring out the the lay of the land, who's responsible for what, who's gonna do what?

Uh we're really not talking to the actual root cause.

And I know I'm I do podcasts, I do uh well-being things on this, and I'm very much committed to being my age, it works.

I lead by example.

And what we have to do is we have to look at the the actual people.

Well, we look at the actual people, then we address that as the cause of homelessness.

And we're not doing that.

We're just putting band-aids like just like our health care system.

They put band-aids on, all they do is they treat the symptoms, and we need to treat the root cause.

I applaud you for everything that you're doing because you know, there's a lot of action here, but is it in the right direction?

And that's what I really, really see here is that we have to treat the root cause, and I have answers, I have solutions, and and there are ways of doing that.

So, you know, I that's all I can say is that if we can really address those root causes, then we've got something here.

I haven't seen any changes in our homelessness except getting worse over the last whatever number of years as a Sacramento citizen.

You know, it's it's a sad situation.

So that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

May I have no more speakers?

Thank you, Councilman.

Am I done?

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, Ian.

Uh just a couple more questions.

So, in in this county proposal, what are they doing with SHRA?

So, this county proposal, um, I don't know if we want to put it back on the board.

Um, it contemplates the housing authority leadership, participate as part of the strategic leadership group.

Um, and so the staff of this of the so it's not contemplating any changes to the structure of the agency, but it does formalize their participation, their leadership in our regular meetings amongst the strategic leadership group, so leadership from the cities, the county, the SSF, the COC, as well as the housing authority.

So everything for SHRA would still say the same with the city, their structure.

Under this model, there are no contemplated changes.

Now, you know, there's other things, you know, that are happening, but um those are outside of this proposed structure at this time.

Which I get, and I kind of wanted to bring that up because I feel like I and I say this all the time because I was of the Chuck E.

Cheese generation.

We're we're playing the game whack-a-mole, where if we're talking about a homeless and housing board, how is that actually pulling in what we're doing with SHRA?

And then it goes back to what are we solving?

What is the data based off of, and is it best practices?

And I appreciate you bringing us this uh structure and proposal, but what I'm missing is how is this increasing uh us resolving issues?

What data is this based off of best practices and other forms of JPAs or proposed partnership structures?

What is it based off of?

Um, why is this proposal the best thing for us to consider moving forward?

And does it increase and address the accountability that our community is asking for?

And ultimately, is it help doing the trifold of preventing homelessness, addressing those on the street, and getting help for those, especially that we, you know, you look at that are mentally unable to make decisions for themselves.

And this sounds nice, but I want to go back to what council member maple talks about.

I'm I'm missing some of the who, what, why, when, where, and enough data to even tell you that this is great, not great.

Sure, it sounds great.

How do we know it's gonna work?

What data is this based off of?

What evidence-based practices are we using?

What reports?

What experts who work in this day in and day out that they solely live and breathe within our education and university world.

Is this based off of?

And you look at Europe and what they have done, and they have a lot of models.

Is it based off of their best practices?

So I don't know per se what direction to give, other than if we leave it up to ourselves, I'm sure we're gonna screw it up.

Um, but forcing a certain parameter of a state structure and basing it off of best practices and evidence that we know exists out there is something I'm interested in, and I'm I'm not hearing enough to even give you whether this is the right thing or the wrong thing, um, sounds good, but a lot of sounds good.

How is it gonna be implemented and is it gonna address the things we want to?

I don't have enough information to give you that feedback for yeah, and I think that's why I started with those key considerations and questions because I think that is important.

That is what's more important to staff is knowing what your priorities are, what are the important factors that you would want to see in a structure.

This, you know, is a starting point and something to consider as an option.

But I think for me, the more critical input that I'm looking for were the earlier questions, in terms of you know, as we negotiate a structure, what is critical for the council.

Great.

So I'd like to clarify, this is not our proposal.

No, I know this is the county's proposal.

No, I get it, but that's what's being presented to us, and so that's why I had these questions.

The purpose of the questions were to solicit feedback on these key things, which you have certainly given us, and which I'm sure the county will be watching and viewing, right?

So that we can represent you in the negotiations, and it may be that we can't get to a place where everybody is in the same place, but now we have your feedback on how to apply it in our interactions with our counterparts at all of the cities and counties and the COCA.

Yeah, and and I and I appreciate that.

I mean, I think what would help me is if the county came back and basically said, This structure is going to help prevent homelessness because it is based off of these best practices, this, you know, uh these studies, these reports, what we already know has worked and not work, and this structure will help solve this one area based off of all of this evidence.

Yeah, and then we're gonna hold people accountable because it's built in.

Yeah, thank you, Councilmember Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Um, yeah, yeah, and correct me if I'm wrong, or Councilmember Maple, um, but aren't we like one of the only jurisdictions that doesn't have a combined city and county like continuum of care?

Like, there's like we're like three years, oh right.

So the there's like 44 COCs, right?

Is that what you're talking about?

Um, and then the majority of them are the county serves as the continuum of care.

There are like three JPAs, and I think there's like 14 or so that are a nonprofit, such as ours, with the nonprofit organization acting as the COC.

Got it.

And then um I did see Supervisor Rodriguez's Sacramento B article where she says, hey, what does it look like to fold the Sacramento Continuum of Care underneath the county again, as it was before?

And I know that's a conversation that's being had.

Um, specifically, just I mean, just for taxpayer uh transparency purposes.

You know, people tend to watch city council meetings and sometimes county board of meetings, and I'm sure that's steps forward, um, they're doing good work, um, but there's probably not the general public is not aware that it exists, and that's where a lot of this accountability and transparency um is is coming from because people wanna know exactly where the dollars are going for.

But um, I I do want to thank the the county um for continuing this conversation after the Senate Bill 802 conversations that were had over the summer.

Um, and I guess my goal here is I do think that the lived experience is so important to have in the conversation.

I don't know what it's like to sleep outside when it's 110 degrees, and I don't know what it's like to sleep outside in this thunderstorm.

We need that live experience because elected officials do not have all the answers.

So for me, option B is more important, more voices and more opinions and folding and figuring out how we do SHRA and housing.

If you don't have housing, you're unhoused.

Like they they go together.

So figuring out SHRA being folded into this conversation, um, and then just looking at the weighted voting system.

I know that we do that at State Cog, and that's been a conversation that we've had at a lot of regional boards, and something that I'd be curious to see if you guys can look into prior to that meeting.

Um, and at the end of the day, I'm just really looking forward to that October 28th meeting, and I'm hopeful that we can walk out of there and better alignment, better communication, and set some goals of how much affordable housing we're all gonna build because we have a housing crisis.

Thank you, Councilmember Bang, then Garrett.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um, yeah, and thank you so much for the presentation.

I too look forward to the conversation with the county.

Um, first and foremost, I just wanted to state that I do support a JPA.

I think the only way to ensure that we have shared um responsibility and share accountability system with our local and state and limited federal dollars is to actually have a joint JPA.

So I do echo my colleagues who have um been at the forefront of that fight, making sure that uh instead of pointing fingers at each other, there's an actual entity that gets to make the ultimate decision on how our dollars are spent on homelessness and housing.

Um I do just want to talk a little bit about some of the root causes.

Um, and I just did have one question about the housing component.

I think Vice Mayor Talamante just mentioned just ask how does uh SHRA or how does the housing piece uh fall into this model?

I think one um back just back to the JPA.

Um, could we partner better?

Yes.

Are we working in siloed?

Yes, right.

Um, and I just want to acknowledge that um right now in this moment we have a crisis, and yes, I think uh what I've been hearing from constituents and even my colleagues and even um colleagues on the on the board of supervisor supervisors that the immediate need is to get people in and to provide the wraparound services, the behavioral health component part is key.

Um, but I also just like want to take a step back and want to acknowledge that, yes, the county, their responsibility is the behavioral health piece, but I just want to say that even if we had a JPA and the county did the and they did their part in terms of the behavioral health piece, I'm just incredibly concerned that we might still be in this situation.

And I share this because I think now more than ever, our homeless response workers are connecting more people than ever to housing, to shelter than ever before, right?

In addition to the healthcare, employment, income support programs that Brian talks about.

I know that our county partners are doing everything they can on that piece.

Are we working in siloed?

Yes.

Can we better work together?

Yes.

That's the reason why I support JPA.

But I also just want to take a step back and acknowledge that we even among all of this restructuring and when we move towards a JPA, that we will still have a huge problem because we actually do still have a growing population of individuals that are still becoming homeless, right?

And I think it's really important to just name the fact that the resources we have does not meet the demand.

Like I think no one has said that, right?

I think, yes, let's be let's be held accountable to the the to the taxpayer dollars.

Let's be held accountable to local and state resources.

But there's another like big elephant in the room, and that is that more and more people are becoming homeless.

And I think one of the root causes, we can talk about behavioral health piece.

Yes, that's a big component of it too.

But the one of the root causes that we actually in this country and in this city and in the state, we lack housing.

Let's just be real about that, right?

Like only 35 affordable and available rental uh homes actually exist for every 100 extremely low-income rental households, right?

That's a fact, right?

And if that is a fact, that means that we will continue to have that pipeline of homelessness if we don't address the housing component.

Um, we also know that cities and states with higher rents tend to have higher homelessness rate.

That's another fact, right?

And so, yes, let's try to address the immediate crisis.

We talk about wraparound services, behavioral health.

Even if the county did all of that, we will still be in the situation because the pipeline of homelessness is increasing.

And so I that has to be a key part of the conversation, which goes back to my uh really my questions about the county proposed partnership struggle uh structure.

And I know we're gonna have this conversation on the 28th, and I see that we have the strategic leadership group on the bottom in terms of the housing authority, like that has to be a key component.

Um, and when I look, when I'm looking at this, it looks more advisory, right?

Because I feel like if you're not having the housing part be a critical part of the conversation in terms of funding, then we will be right here again, back in the same situation.

And so I get my question is really the housing component piece of it, like what role does it play in this structure, right?

Because if we're not addressing that piece, we're gonna be literally doing the same thing and the pipeline for home, like there's still be a pipeline of unhoused people if we don't really move upstream to address the housing piece.

So that's my question.

Really, where does the housing component piece fit in this model?

Yeah.

Well, I think the, well, because SHRA is a JPA, but they answer the governing body for them is you and the county, right?

So the elected officials, they don't have a separate, they have a commission that's appointed by the city council and board of supervisors, but because you all are their governing body, those elected officials, they get wrapped up together with the Sacramento Homeless and Housing Board in terms of governance.

Um, in terms of staff, right?

This is where that's why we're really we really need to bring in their staff for the better coordination and integration into our projects.

Um, but ultimately, you know, you all serve as their governing body, and so the elected um Sacramento Homeless and Housing Board could also contemplate housing development, rental assistance programs, et cetera, as part of their overarching um priorities.

Thanks, Yah.

And I yeah, I I just think until there's a like obviously the JPA piece, but until there's a shared conversation around housing dollars along with homelessness, we're gonna be in the same situation, right?

And so I know there's a lot of conversation about SHRA in terms of what it will and can't, what it will and won't be, right?

I know that there's a lot of conversation at the county level, even here at the city, but I think my recommendation is unless the housing component is a is a key component of the JPA or the structure of the dollars, I think it's gonna be really hard for me to support.

And I'm just gonna say that because I think the housing component has to be has to be critical to the strategy around homelessness.

And so when I look at this proposal, um I see the ways in which it's advising each other, but I don't see it being a critical part of the decision making of how those dollars are spent on housing.

And so whatever model we end up creating, if it's a JPA, I think that housing component is gonna be of utmost importance.

And so that would just be my recommendation, something that we can't lead to the side, even though we have another JPA.

I think that needs to be a critical component of whatever structure we end up creating.

The housing has to be part of it, and not just like we're doing our housing here, we'll handle our homelessness here.

Like it needs to be in alignment, and the decision should be making the the elected officials should be making decisions jointly on the two items on the housing piece and the addressing the homelessness because they're so um interconnected.

So those are all my comments.

Okay.

Thank you, Councilmember Guerra.

Uh thank you very much, Mayor.

Um, uh Yan.

Um, one again, I I recognize this is the county's proposal, so as best as you understand it, um, you know, uh a couple points here to to maybe clarify um the the a SHB and if it was option A would essentially be all elected officials but one lived experienced person by CO by the uh by the by requirements of the of the COC or federal standard.

Um if and go back to the other design there, so say it's option A since since that's what a lot of the other jurisdictions are leaning towards.

Okay.

Um I'm not saying one way or another, but it seems to be that that's where all the other jurisdictions are leaning towards.

Um, so by essence, um there would be an assumption that that elected board uh would uh would try to at least uh speak on behalf of something that the board of supervisors and the city council would agree to.

Uh in other words, those issues would be resolved at that point.

Um, and yes, we are the housing authority.

Uh we are the housing authority and and the county is the housing authority.

Um, but help me understand the the directive here develop or the SHHB develops system performance goals and establishes the funding priorities.

So the SHHB develops those funding priorities and directs the housing authority leadership.

Is that is that the so I guess though the way I see it here, maybe it's a diagram drafting.

Are they then directing the housing authority or it's still a ratification by the city and and county, um, based on that recommendation?

Yeah, I this structure does not contemplate changing the governance structure currently of SHRA.

So it would be similar to the example that council member maple brought up of a shared campus, right?

There was a housing project or a housing authority item or something that um affects homelessness or a rental assistance program or vouchers or or something like that.

Um this SHHB board uh could make uh recommendations or um you know set some priorities or direction, um, but those decisions would still ultimately go to the governing board, which in the case of the housing is council and the board.

Yeah, so I guess in your perspective is how how much of that is uh and maybe maybe that board is important and teasing out the priorities, but how much of that is is circular work, you know, and I I guess I sometimes say don't commute confuse activity for action.

You could do a lot of things, and you're doing a lot of activity, but it doesn't lead to action if it if it ends up being back at our jurisdiction.

So I guess uh is there an any discussion that the county has discussed to you about how that process would work, and I'll give one example, like at the last meeting I said I think we need to create a HUD um uh a HUD consultation committee where it's the the SHRA HUD staff with the city staff so that we're we're discussing you know what our priorities are many many times we actually have um I'm gonna say like Jack Davis Park is right next to the city a lot of city folks will use it because they're on the uh but it's a county park right that's a CDBG dollars that maybe the county uses Lawrence Park is right on the edge of the county it's a city park but it but frankly a lot of uh folks from the unincorporated county use it so I guess the no how let me go back to again maybe how did the county maybe discuss the the concept of uh of not creating more more duplicative work to get to a solution through this process so a part of it and this is I guess more my opinion than directly from the county I I think it's going to have to be iterative a little bit and I think it's going to have to take some time to build trust in terms of this HHB board and the functions from the partner jurisdiction so maybe initially it's starting off setting strategic vision maybe initially it's only contemplating continuum of care funds.

But then maybe as our jurisdictions are seeing okay this is working it's we're we're hearing the information it's going the direction that we're going then maybe we're like well maybe we should let this board consider our hat money combined and then you know I so I feel like it's it's something that um is going to take some time to build the trust which I think is um part of the uh reason why a lot of jurisdictions want to retain their own funding decisions and sighting decisions right because it's that trust um so maybe that's something that can be built over time so that eventually um more funding or some of these decisions are delegated down to this SHHB board but my um my read of it now is that until that is established the local jurisdictions um still want to make sure that they are retaining that ability okay well I mean I could sit here and pick a part about pick it apart in a hundred different ways I'll I guess I'll talk maybe like okay what are what are uh uh what's the positive of it um I'll say you know it does force elected officials from all the jurisdictions to meet together I would probably say that you know maybe the composition should be enough to get to the Brown Act level pre below the Brown Act level so that there is impetus and pressure and at least some level of buy-in so that um that as something is proposed to the the Board of Supervisors or council that it actually has enough of uh of a movement to provide recommendations.

I think the subcommittee structure um is in is important to really drill down on specific issues obviously we know the complexity of homelessness and housing is not uh is is not my in my opic so I I think that's an important component um I do think that the uh you know that that the focusing on it having uh dedicated and professional staff that's working on this interconnection consistently and not being pulled apart by other priorities that the city has or the county has or other jurisdictions have I think it's going to be helpful um because right now as it as it is you know even to execute the the partnership agreement there the our staff are working on other priorities you know there they're not that isn't their only execution so I think that uh is a is an important tool I recognize that other cities you know uh may say hey we're we're a smaller city we don't have the staff to address this but the reality is if if the city and the county on the incorporated are are effective in and addressing their issues then the so either either those pressures might resolve uh might be pushed to other cities.

So it's important to create that trust with those other cities and buy-in.

So um I'll leave it at that, and you know, uh, more conversation to come, but thank you for clarifying those points there.

Thank you.

Council mayor maple.

All right, thank you, Mayor.

Um, uh sorry to speak several times, but I think just the length of this conversation and the robustness of it, which I I appreciate.

I think it's great.

It's really great for me to hear from my colleagues and understand where their priorities are.

It's also really good for the public to hear from us.

Um, I can tell you that I'm sure like everyone up here spent a significant amount of time on dealing with requests from the public as it relates to homelessness.

Um, and yet we don't often always find ourselves in situations where we're able to publicly discuss it and decide on direction of it, uh, especially in a more collaborative way that impacts our whole region and not just um maybe our own district or within the city limits.

And so I think just this space alone, how much conversation's happening here is it speaks to the need to have a space where that happens on an ongoing basis, which is what happens in every single other joint powers authority board that I sit on, whether that be the air quality district, the regional transit district, the transportation authority, the sewer district, you the library authority.

We all sit on many of them.

Um, but it creates a space where we can talk and make decisions, um, and that's what the public expects of us.

And so again, just another reason where maybe we don't need to take up the time here all the time, uh, because we certainly have uh many, many issues that we have to address on this council.

Um, I think that speaks to why there needs to be a space.

Second point that I want to make is I would really caution against us waiting longer.

I know there's been some comments made by folks of well, maybe not now, or let's try this and go slow.

We've been this has been discussed for no less than 20 years in some form or fashion, whether that be grand juries, whether that be this council, whether that be the county, I have um gone back and watched the meetings 15 years ago in December, was when both the city and county of Sacramento voted on the same day to say that they would like to create a joint powers authority for homelessness.

It never happened, but that's what was voted on.

And so I I just really I cannot impress us enough that that the public expects us to act with urgency on this issue.

We have done we have we have made great strides, and that's thanks to our wonderful staff.

I want to thank you, Yang Yan, Brian, the entire team.

Um you've moved mountains, but you can only do what you can do within the the realm of your of your resources and capacity is the city of Sacramento, and so that is why I think we desperately need to have a more coordinated structure, and that that's why I think 15 years ago those those elected officials saw that as well, and that's why every grand jury report for the last 10 years has seen that.

So I think it's not really a question of like what the right thing to do is.

I think that's my opinion.

Um I think it's about having the political will to do it, and so I hope that we can get there, I really do.

And and in whatever form, whether we call it a JPA or not, that includes a joint decision-making ability that makes sense.

And the last thing I'll say, and then I'll I'll stop talking is um, you know, as I look at this proposed structure from the county, and I mean this kindly, um, it it's more complicated than it needs to be.

That's my opinion.

And I think that um we I would rather almost do nothing than to go to that structure and have keep what we currently have that because it is more complicated and it's really unclear how it's changing the key dynamics in my mind, which is decision making and shared resources and accountability.

Um, and so I hope that that's not the case, and I hope that we can arrive on something where we can achieve these things together.

But I just wanted to call those things out, and I mostly wanted to end by thanking you.

Uh I know that we all have a lot of feelings about this topic, and I know it's not you, Yayen or Brian, or anyone on our staff who is the one who's saying this is the right thing to do.

You are the messenger, and I want to thank you for your work.

Um, I know it's been literally the Lord's work working uh for many years to make this a reality.

So thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh I'll I'll have a few comments, but I'll I'll try to make it brief because most of the council members um hit on this.

But it overall, I I do concur a lot of my colleagues that I think the more bodies talking about homelessness the better.

Um, a couple years ago when I was assembly member, I I heard about this um this grand jury report and I actually voted on the plan on in mode in in question 15 years ago to set up the GPA and uh and uh first-term council member called me up and asked me to draft a law.

It was you, yes.

And so we um we tried that um and then it came back recently in a in an expanded version, which I I'm not in support of in large part because it uses our money to double down on programs that I think are just overly costly and we need to do more, not less.

But I think the big picture there is I'm all in on having us uh meet together in a structured way.

I think that the good point that uh council, I'm sorry, City Manager brought up is most of these boards are on like RT, SACOG and others.

You know, we we have money to spend.

Certainly, we set policy on solid waste, library we spend money set policy.

So this is a little different.

We're there talking about the issue, how we can work together, but we all have our own money coming to the table.

And let me just pause there because there's three things I think are super clear to us.

One, there's less money coming to us.

Less money.

We have a 60 million dollar deficit next year.

Half of our homeless money that we spend comes from the general fund.

We're gonna be talking about laying off public safety, police, fire, parks and wreck, the main general fund departments.

We're gonna be putting more money in their less.

So we have to squeeze on our general fund.

As we know, the state hat money is is dwindling.

We're gonna have less money to do a good job.

Of course, our fit count was down.

We had a one-year cut in the in the um appropriation for for cities across the state.

We're gonna try to get that back next year, of course.

And then at the federal level, who knows what's going on?

You get crazy looking at what's happening every day, but there talks about what they're doing with permit supportive housing money with um getting rid of the continuum of care efforts, and so there's so much uncertainty there.

So I I just know we need to be way more effective and not less.

And that's why I was concerned with the legislative model with some of the strategies.

I just think were overly costly.

But this issue is here at our doorsteps today in Sacramento.

So it's us and the county that are in this.

I yeah, I think it's important to have El Grove, it's sites and other others in the discussion with us.

Heck, I'd like to have West Sack.

They're frankly the city that's most adjacent to us that impacts homelessness going across that bridge more than just heights ranch, of course, or even El Grove.

Um, so you know, having an opportunity to work together is key, but we need to be uh more effective.

I like the county taking over the COC, no offense, but they spend a lot of money, a lot of people doing reports and studies that are binders, and we need every penny building places for people to go.

If you ask people our constituents, like, do you want another analysis on the gap study?

No, they're like, we want more shelter at Tiny Home to get Sally, who's living at East Portal Park the last 10 years, a place to go.

So we need to just cut our losses and double down on actual services and programs to get people off the streets today.

And so I know that's sometimes unpopular, but um that's the reality.

And so uh, you know, you're looking for our brief comments today.

We'll be talking again on the 28th with the county board of supervisors, and this issue is not going away.

But thank you for the discussion.

With that, this was um receive file and comment, which we provided plenty of comments.

So thank you.

Thank you.

We now move to item 15, which is alfresco dining program update.

I'll set this stage here.

Okay.

What's our staff resume?

AC?

I stay C.

I before you go, I'll set the stage on this issue.

So I asked to agendize this, and you did nothing wrong, of course, and whatever we're here, but uh this is an issue that we're all um well-versed with during the pandemic was a very miserable time for all of us, of course, here in California and Sacramento.

One thing that we appreciate is going out and eating more at our restaurants.

We learned about outdoor dining off fresco, and and we tried to to step it up and continue this in some capacity.

Uh, other cities that we've seen traveling um have done it as well.

Sacramento, you know, we're blessed with relatively good weather.

Um, it is raining, but whether it's cold or super hot, people in Sacramento like to go eat outdoors.

And so we do have a program that I wanted to ask that we agendize science to talk about it and talk about its success, its limitations, how many people have participated in it, and what we could potentially do to do more.

Because I think that, you know, with the cost of living, inflation, some of our small businesses are struggling, and the more we can make some of our restaurants attractive to people to go out there and enjoy, you know, Sacramento's uh weather, the better for all of us.

So that's why I asked to talk about this tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, good afternoon, Mayor, City Council members.

My name is Stacey Cranitz.

I'm the parking division manager and the project manager for the city's Alfresco Dining Program.

I'm joined today by Chad Copman with Engineering Services and Greg Lim with parking division.

We're excited to share a brief presentation that highlights how the Alfresco dining program came to be, where it stands today, and the success stories it has generated to our local businesses and community.

The goal of the Alfresco dining program is to make it easier for restaurant owners to build safe, durable, and beautiful outdoor dining spaces that contribute to the city's thriving dining scene and foster more pedestrian friendly streets.

For restaurants, increased dining areas means greater capacity with the dining experience on display for passers-by.

For customers, thoughtfully designed and well-built patios, enhance the dining experience.

And for communities, permitted alfresco patios make it safer and more pedestrian friendly on our streets.

To better understand where we are today, I'd like to take a moment to share how outdoor dining in Sacramento has evolved over the last 15 years.

In 2010, the city created a revocable encroachment permit that allowed businesses to build outdoor cafes immediately adjacent to their properties.

The permit had limitations.

It applied to only sidewalk areas, excluded parkways, parking spaces, and involved a lengthy and complex approval process.

In 2014, the parking division launched a pilot parklet program allowing businesses to convert parking spaces into public seating areas.

While creative, the pilot was not as successful as we had hoped, with strict use restrictions and high costs.

In April of 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the city approved the temporary allowance of outdoor dining, enabling businesses to expand into the public right-of-way.

This was extended through June of 2022 to allow staff time to develop a more permanent and comprehensive outdoor dining program.

From 2021 to 2022, staff engaged with hundreds of internal and external stakeholders, gathering feedback to ensure a new program that would be inclusive and equitable.

We also partnered with local engineering firm to help design patio concepts and guide stakeholder outreach.

The Alfresco dining program was formally adopted in 2022.

We returned to council in January of 2023 to establish a fee schedule and launch the grant program.

We hosted a community workshop where business owners citywide could learn about the program and ask questions.

Since then, we've been working on transitioning temporary patios into permanent Alfresco structures.

One of the most common messages we heard from businesses as we as we did our outreach was that they wanted permitting to be easy, fast, and affordable.

To do this, we developed pre-designed, pre-approved design options to streamline the permitting process.

The first layout is a parking space patio.

This design raises the parking spaces to meet ADA standards and allows for dining directly within the parking stall.

This layout allows businesses to use the sidewalk or parkway for outdoor dining while maintaining ADA accessibility for pedestrians.

This next design is the street corner design.

Many restaurants are located on corners, so this layout gives them an opportunity to participate in the program while maintaining traffic and pedestrian safety.

This layout combines parking spaces and parkway areas, giving businesses additional flexibility and patio space.

And finally, the tables and chairs layout.

This option provides a quick, simple, affordable way for businesses to create outdoor dining areas without building full structures.

In January of 2023, City Council adopted the Alfresco Monthly Fee Schedule.

The fees are based on patio size and location.

Typical patios are $100 per month.

Oversized patios are charged an additional $100 per month.

There's a cost recovery fee of $150 per parking space.

The parking space is used for the patio.

Tables and chairs patios are $25 a month, and legacy or existing permit holders are charged $25 a month.

Thanks to the outstanding work of Leslie Fritschie, Valerie Mimoney Warner, and Sabrina Taft with the Office of Innovation and Economic Development.

The city was able to launch an alfresco grant program that was open for applications through September of 2023.

This program offered grant awards up to $20,000 to help cover materials and labor.

Staff collaborated with Sacramento Chambers, PBIDS, and the inclusive economic development collaborative to ensure outreach was inclusive, multilingual, and accessible.

Through this effort, $365,000 in grants were awarded to 20 businesses.

Now I'll hand it over to Chad Coatman to discuss Alfresco permitting and the improvements we've made to streamline the process.

Hello, Mayor and City Council.

I am Chad Copeman.

I'm the interim supervising engineer in the development engineering group of public works.

And so here we see a few of the kind of temporary structures that were created during the pandemic.

These didn't go through a large plan review process, and I can kind of point out some of the issues that were shown in these pictures here.

Let's see, the one on the left there was a structure that was constructed around an existing traffic signal and a street light right there as well.

And that's a public safety issue.

It makes it difficult for staff to go in and do any kind of maintenance for that traffic signal.

The one up there on top was Old Sacramento, a pretty rudimentary structure there with pallets that were constructed as like a little fence around the area of where people would be dining.

The one on the top right has an issue where the structure has a roof that's actually protruding out into the travel lane of the road, which could obviously create problems with any kind of large vehicles, trucks, things like that that could strike that roof and obviously create a really bad situation.

Again, it was a temporary structure.

The intent was not to have a structure like that built.

And so a lot of these business owners had constructed what they thought was right at the time that we later found had some issues.

Another issue with that one is the sidewalk width that you can see next to that structure is really narrow.

And so while that area might be great for public dining for pedestrians trying to get through this area, it made that really tight.

And then the one on the bottom right had an issue with some some string lights you can see there along the curb that are constructed, and a large kind of tarp structure that could really easily blow blow down in the windstorms that we frequently get here in the city that could lead to all kinds of issues within that structure there.

Our department utilities, our public works group, our traffic engineering group.

We have a structural engineer that looks at the structures themselves that are being constructed in the public right away.

And the standardized design plans, those templates that Stacy talked about that were created by an outside engineering firm, kind of gives the applicants a good starting point.

While we'd still need to have kind of site-specific plans for each one of these sites and each one of these cafe permits, that does give them a good starting place to get started on that design with some of the obstacles that are there in each of these different locations.

And so now we actually created a new type of encroachment permit for specifically for the alfresco permits, known as the cafe permit.

And so that takes the place of both the encroachment permit that is constructing the facility as well as the revocable permit that lets it remain there in the public right-of-way with all the insurances and things that are prepared and submitted by those restaurant owners to keep track of that facility in the right-of-way.

And so we've also worked with our IT department to allow for these permit applications to be submitted online through an online portal and created a nice checklist with very clear application to make it very clear to the applicants all the different requirements that needed to be met to get a permit issued to construct one of these facilities in the right-of-way.

So we have a dedicated staff within our development engineering group as well as the other disciplines that review and review these plans before they get issued for construction.

And we're available to meet with them, with the restaurant owners, with their design professionals to answer any questions, whether it's before they actually submit the application or during that plan review process.

And we are more than happy to sit down with them either in person or remotely over Microsoft Teams.

We've met with them many times at their restaurants to look at the challenges that their sites might present, to look at the plans that they're proposing, kind of give them different ideas, provide feedback, answer any questions that they might have specific to their site.

And so it's something that we do quite a bit on all these different projects to help them through that process.

And so this is kind of just a timeline of a typical process of the permit application through the construction.

So we have a triage price process.

It is an iterative process when they submit this application, and what we do is we have a counter staff that's an engineer in our group that takes a quick look at those plans, makes sure he doesn't see any fatal flaws, and just looks at it and make sure that it's something that is constructable and practical and will work for that location.

And once that staff member deems that it's an acceptable application, then they go through that application process, and the cycle reviews will begin.

And those plans are routed to a handful of different groups that I mentioned earlier from our urban forestry group and public works, our traffic engineering group, department of utilities, development engineering and public works, and a structural engineer as well, if it is like a wooden structure that's being constructed.

And at that point, we will return those comments to the applicant, and we'll require typically for them to resubmit those plans, address those comments that were given by each of those groups, and then we go through that iterative process until everybody's satisfied with those plans, at which point we go into the verify cycle and the final processing, and we will collect any permit fees for the plan check and the proposed construction inspection that the city will provide to make sure that those facilities are constructed to city code and to our public works standards.

And then once that permit is issued, the construction group will have a pre-construction meeting with the applicant with their contractor that they've hired, and they will begin construction at that time.

And after that, they will once the project has been finished, they will uh issue a notice of completion to the applicant, and then the project is complete, and they can begin having folks go out there and utilize those uh outdoor dining facilities.

And I'm gonna hand it back off to Stacey now, and she can talk about some of the success stories with the program.

Thank you.

Alright, so um, we'd like to share a few success stories that highlight the creativity and positive impact of the Alfresco dining program in Sacramento.

Um, and the first being Pazanote.

So this is a video testimonial from the owners of Pazanote.

My name is Tova Nord, and this is my husband.

And I'm Carlo Borrell.

And we're the owners of Patsanote here in Midtown SAC.

So we're here at our Alfresco patio, which we've had open for about a year and a half, and uh we love it.

Our neighborhood loves it.

Um we put a lot of energy into building it and making it beautiful, and the response has been really fantastic.

We get a lot of positive feedback from the locals.

They love going by it.

They say it makes the whole area more walkable and more pleasant.

Um, and it's been a really good response, and we always say that some of our most favorite cities around the world have big outdoor dining programs like Paris, Rome, and New York, and now Sacramento.

So we think it's a wonderful thing.

And then just to showcase some of the patios, we want to start off with Pazanote.

This is one of the most elaborate and thoughtfully designed patios in the public right of way.

It really shows that the sky's the limit when it comes to design and creativity and outdoor dining.

Here we have Good Neighbor, formerly Beast and Bounty is another beautifully designed patio that combines both parking space and parkway areas, creating a welcoming and vibrant outdoor dining space.

Mulvaney's BL, a great example of a sidewalk and parkway patio that creates a warm, inviting extension of the restaurant and embraces the overall streetscape.

Steamers is another example of how Alfresco program, the Alfresco program, has allowed an existing small sidewalk cafe to expand its footprint.

Octopus Peru, this is a shining example of a parkway patio that keeps design simple and cost effective, proving the outdoor dining can be beautiful and functional without expensive construction.

Gunthers, an excellent example of a larger tables and chairs patio.

Through the Alfresco Dining Program, they were able to expand their seating by over 500%, creating a fun and livable or lively space for the community.

Pressed, a perfect example of the simplicity and flexibility of the program.

This tables and chairs patio was permitted in just a few months and transformed a business with no indoor seating into a welcoming outdoor space for customers to enjoy.

Looking ahead, we're building a GIS database to maintain a centralized inventory of all outdoor dining data.

We are gathering existing outdoor dining data for the entire city.

Right now, we have already inventoried the central city, and we've identified roughly 150 patios that were not part of Alfresco that we will be transitioning over to Alfresco.

And we're also working with all of those legacy patio operators to help them with the process on applying, and we will begin billing in September, I'm sorry, spring of 2026.

We'll continue collaborating with our PBID partners and reach out to as many businesses as possible so that we can encourage participation and get the word out about our program.

Additionally, we're launching a marketing campaign that will roll out uh very soon across the city and public work social media accounts to promote the program and highlight its success stories.

And in closing, I just want to add that we are incredibly proud of how far the Alfresco Dining program has come.

We have had to overcome some steep learning curves and hurdles.

We've provided more outdoor dining opportunities than ever before, helping local businesses grow while giving residents and visitors a chance to enjoy Sacramento's beautiful weather and amazing streetscapes.

We look forward to continuing to improve and expand the program, making it easier than ever for businesses to participate.

Thank you, and we are happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Okay, a few questions that one or two in the comment, but first we want to get to public comment.

We have three public comments.

Madeline Noel, Marissa Meredith, and Deb Banks.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council members, and city staff.

My name is Madeline Knoll.

I'm here on behalf of the Sacramento Downtown Partnership, a property-based improvement district here in downtown in our heart of our California Capitol.

I just think exactly what you said, Mr.

Mayor, is perfect for this introduction.

We live in a great city within a great state with beautiful weather.

People like me who live in the city on the grid don't have a place to eat outside, and when the weather's nice, I want to go outside and enjoy a meal and an experience.

I think people are really struggling with the dollar right now, and they want more of that experience in addition to just eating out.

And our businesses are struggling, and this is a perfect economic development tool that the city is leading and being really proactive about, and it just goes to show that if you set the stage with a streamline and sustainable pathway, it really allows us to grow the pie and bring more people to the table.

So really applaud the work here.

Thank you for being proactive and on the update and keeping the process going.

I mean, downtown is really changing as far as the dynamic.

We're no longer seeing people mandated to come to the office, and so we're really transitioning into a hospitality district, and this is the perfect example to bring that and elevate that.

So thank you very much.

Next speaker is Marissa.

Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council members.

It's an honor to have the opportunity to talk to you this afternoon.

Um I'm Marissa Meredith with SKK Developments, the developer and owner of 1801 apartments, home of Patsanote and six other local uh businesses.

Since its schematic development, 1801 has received the support and partnership of the City of Sacramento in many forms and ways.

From the rezone needed to entitle the project to the public financing, which supports the low-income housing component of the project, to the city's parking division, which manages the public garage to the Alfresco program.

Patsanote is a beautiful example of Alfresco dining, and I just wanted to be here today to first um thank you for the many years of support with 1801, but also to second to uplift Stacey and her team.

Everything, all the resources that were outlined, I've seen firsthand, and I've been able to connect their team with our business owners, and it's just a phenomenal example of ways that cities can support our local businesses, and I hope to see more of it in the years to come.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Deb Banks is our final speaker on this item.

Good afternoon.

Council Deb Banks, uh, executive director of Saba.

We love El Fresco.

We think it's awesome.

It helps make our city more livable, it's more fun to ride your bike slowly by and see who's eating out and see your friends, etc.

We have one thing that we'd love to see is a little bit more of a streamline of that process.

It needs to be iterative, yes, for sure, but it can take over two years to go from vision to reality, which is a really long time, and people and some businesses may lose hope, may lose energy, may lose the finances to be able to continue and see their parklet go from idea, great idea, to reality.

So if there was any way that we could somehow shrink or uh just streamline that process a little bit more so that it doesn't take two years at least to um go from idea to people eating, that would be great.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Mayor, have no more speakers.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Councilmember Talamantes.

Um I love Alfresco dining.

You know, anytime I go out to any cities, I always want to sit outside.

I want to see what's going on.

So kudos to the work, and I love seeing these success stories.

Just one quick question.

Uh, what is like the timeline between like when somebody puts in their request to, you know, for their permit, you know, request or interest to the time of completion.

Do we have a goal?

It really varies.

Every one of these is is site specific, so it depends on what type of patio they're applying for, what the site conditions are.

Um I will use Patsanote as the example.

It is definitely the most elaborate patio that we have out on the street, and that one from the time that they applied to the time that it was built was roughly 10 months.

Okay.

So if it's a simple patio, tables and chairs, or even just a simple railing, it could be just a few months, but it really depends on the applicant, and I let Chad speak to this too.

But we get the application, we submit our plans, and then we send it back to the applicant, and oftentimes what we're finding is that it is sitting on the applicant side to address the comments that are coming back from the city.

Um, unless you have one, I think to that.

Yeah, it really depends on how responsive the applicant is to um addressing the comments that were provided by those different groups with the city.

And if they're quick about it, a lot of these folks are really in a big hurry to get those out there, and then it can it can go pretty quick, like like Stacey said.

But it also has to do with the complexity of the project.

But um I think more that the simple ones uh with the timelines that the city has for the review and how long it takes for them to actually do those designs, like a couple months is a pretty realistic time.

Okay, so like two to ten months.

Okay, okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you, Councilmember Dickinson.

Thanks.

We we've uh we've come a long way from the from the days when some restaurant owners that uh that that I know asked about having outside dining or just told flatly, no, doesn't happen in this city.

So uh congratulations on on having traveled that far.

But I I would uh I would also emphasize the uh uh uh brevity brevity of the process as much as as much as possible.

I think for a lot of a lot of those who are uh thinking about establishing some form of alfresco dining, the financial side is the most the most challenging, and so if it takes them a long time to get an approval, and I'm not gonna define a long time, but uh a long time for most people is more than a week, it's it it can be challenging so or difficult.

So I I I hope I hope that will be a point of emphasis.

I just had a uh a couple questions.

One was with respect to the what you refer to as the legacy uh outdoor dining dining locations, and in the staff report you say there's over 150.

Uh that's not clear whether that's strictly legacy, but within the public right-of-way, and then you further down refer to you're doing an inventory of those in the public right-of-way that were established prior to the formal um uh program.

And um my question uh uh is uh for those that you identify that that were established before the official program, is your is your initial approach to them how how we can make sure that you are certified or approved uh without making extensive changes, or what what's what's the way you approach them?

Yeah, so the 150 is what we've identified within the central city, but we are looking to inventory citywide, so that explains the numbers there.

Um for the legacy permit holders, we are not going to be requiring anybody to go through this application or permitting process, it's going to be a simpler, possibly just a one-page application and an inspection, just so that we could put eyes on the patio to make sure that what they have out there today is what was possibly permitted 20 years ago, and that it, you know, it meets ADA requirements, that sort of thing.

So we are trying to make it as easy as possible, and we're working on that right now.

So we're hoping to launch that by spring of next year.

Well, thanks.

I that that's that's good news because there's there's some cities which shall go unmentioned that have gone back to these legacy locations and have made them jump through all sorts of hoops and pay all sorts of of uh fees and charges, uh, and it's caused uh a great disruption and uh huge controversy.

And I I think I think everyone uh feels the same way about the desirability, especially with our climate of being able to dine outside.

So the more we can make that simple and inexpensive, the better.

And that leads to another question.

I noticed I think it was in your one of your slides.

You said uh and uh and I I thought this was with respect to the legacy, but you can tell me who it applies to.

We will after we approve them, start charging them monthly fees.

What what does why would we why would we do that and who would get charged monthly fees?

So anybody with an outdoor dining patio would be charged a monthly fee.

So anybody that's under the Alfresco dining program, that permit would be charged a one hundred dollar patio fee, the additional one hundred dollar for oversized patios, and then the parking space fee.

Legacy patios that we've identified, they would charge they would be paying a twenty-five dollar a month fee for that patio.

It would include basically administrative time and an inspection.

Right now, these patios were permitted possibly decades ago, and no one from the city has kind of put eyes on them or paid attention to these patios.

So we want to be able to inventory them, inventory, make sure that they're compliant with local city codes, and implement some sort of a inspection program.

So you would charge them a monthly fee for inspection?

The inspections wouldn't be monthly, but the monthly fee would be administrative.

We have an administrative analyst that's been hired to facilitate the program, and these are cost recovery fees.

So the administrative cost requirement, I mean, once you approve somebody and say you're good to go.

What is the what's the administrative fee or quite what's the administrative uh uh job that needs to be done with with those other than you could go back like the health department does once a year and say, okay, you're still compliant, or nope, whoops, you guys have have deviated somehow.

I'm I'm still unclear why you need a monthly fee.

So the monthly fee covers the administrative position, it also covers inspections, and it would cover if we get complaints about a patio, if we need to go out and address anything related to that patio.

So all outdoor dining spaces that are using the public right-of-way for their business would be covered under the permitting fee schedule.

Okay, I I I uh I hope you track that and we see what costs really are, complaints really are those kinds of things, because you know, again, uh the uh uh I think we're all sensitive to the kinds of governmental fees and charges that build up and um you know all restaurants have to have health inspections and uh other kinds of kinds of uh governmental oversight and fees.

So the more we keep adding fees, uh obviously the more that cost becomes a burden to the to the business.

Um that just actually connects a little bit to the other question I had is I was just curious when somebody uh applies uh if if they've done that so far, applied for a permit.

Do you do you coordinate at all or refer them, connect them to the county health department?

Because I'm assuming the county health has to take a look at what they're doing as well.

So I don't know if that happens through the city's end, but county health seems to know about it.

Yeah, they coordinate directly with the county, and it's something we check.

They being who the applicant is required.

Well, okay.

So I'm wondering if if it's feasible for us to facilitate that to give I mean, even to the point of saying, you know, here's here's Jill Smith.

She's the person you need to talk to uh at County Health Department as you go through this process.

Here's her number and her email.

I mean, even if it's that at that level, just to try and make it easier so that people don't have to figure out and we have to go to.

I'm sorry to cut you off.

We have a a contact that we are able to share with them from the county that is that they can coordinate directly with, and then they provide that proof of doing so before we issue that permit.

Okay, I just think whatever we can do again uh to make it easier as a process so that people don't have to hunt down who they who had got to get in touch with and figure out oh, I need this form now for them, all that stuff that makes sense when we're sitting on the side of that's their job, this is our job, but when you're a member of the public, you're just dealing with government, and so whatever we can do is simplify, I think would be great.

Thanks.

Thank you, council member Mabel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, most of what Mr.

Dickinson said, I agree with, and so I won't belabor it.

Um, I am a little concerned though that so uh you currently have one uh patios in the central city in the database, and so then you're looking out to other existing patios in other parts of the city.

So that may be restaurants that have maybe done that same thing for 20 or 30 years or something, potentially.

Like I'm thinking about places on like Stockton Boulevard or and um I have you know five or six six different business quarters in my district, and I think about a lot of those, and so then those current businesses um that may then get folded into this program because they're using the public right away, will then have to start paying a fee that they didn't have to pay before.

Correct, but nothing would subs and they'd have to apply to um basically see if they are currently um under operating under the current rules.

It would be a much simpler application process, but yes, we would want to see some sort of an application so that we know who's responsible for it, making sure that it's code compliant.

Okay, and I and I can understand that from a fairness standpoint.

You know, if we're requiring this of all these restaurants in the central city that want to use it, then they might ask the question, well, how come I have to do this if they don't have to do it over here in South Sacra or North Sacramento?

So I can understand that, and from a safety perspective, and because it's the public right away.

Um I do have some concerns though.

If you know we do it a lot of these small businesses are already really cash trapped, so 25, whatever it may be, I'm not sure what the do it's a set amount.

It's set at 25.

It may not seem like a lot, you know, to to you or I, but um it may it may mean a lot to to someone who's trying to who's barely making making ends meet at their at their business, so just something that's front of mind, but I guess we can see has as things go um if we receive those complaints and have those concerns from folks.

Um but more moreover, I just wanted to say that I remember when I first came into office, this was we had revisited this, and um, I know it happened during COVID, and it was a really great thing.

Um, and I think that when you uh some of the cities that I love to go to the most are places that have really great third spaces or really great spaces where people can enjoy the outdoors.

I think one of the things that Sacramento has that's wonderful is we have great weather uh notwithstanding today as you look outside the window, but most days it's sunny, um, and and many days it's warm.

Uh and I think that uh to the extent that we can have more spaces for folks to enjoy um outdoors that that will actually help businesses and help them be patroned and provide a benefit.

So I think that's a great thing.

And so I just want to appreciate staff on on all the work that's gone into this over the years.

And one question that I have is do we kind of take a look at how many um have submitted applications and then how many of those have actually gone all the way through to construction of like building a patio and what that delta is.

Yeah.

Yes, so we have um 16 so far that have gone all the way through the process and completed construction.

There are five currently under construction, and then there's another 21 that we've received applications for and are some stage of plan check, whether we've initially returned those comments and they haven't responded or they've gone through a couple cycles.

Um so we will reach out to those folks uh and ask them, you know, do you want to meet with the city?

Do you have any particular questions about these comments that you have been given to try to get them to the finish line?

Okay, that's really helpful.

Yeah, I'm just curious.

Cause I I did um, I did receive some outreach from some businesses a while back um that had we're trying to navigate the process and felt like it was a little challenging, but I I wasn't, you know, I didn't dig in deep enough to really understand if it was on their end or on our end.

Um but I just hope like most things that I believe, whether it be our planning and building department, that we just try our best to help people navigate the process because not everybody is you know at um attuned to the ins and outs of the bureaucracy of the city, and so um, but I know that you do that.

So okay, thank you very much.

This is really helpful update, and I thank the mayor for for uh bringing it forward.

Thank you, Councilmember Jenny's.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so I'm gonna tie kind of tie into what some of my colleagues have been talking about.

There are approximately 150 that have already gone through the process.

Is that correct?

There's 150 existing sidewalk cafe patios that we've identified.

Okay.

All right, so to go from 150 to a goal of let's say 300, I want to deputy dep deputize nine council members and mayors that will compete to increase it from 150 to 300.

Right?

You with me?

Is it a reading?

And it's uh that could that could be a part of it.

We're gonna you we're gonna work on the prize and all that, and how to keep it to attention, but I'd like to personally go through my district and find out how many more could do this.

I know others want to do that as well, so that we can have the benefit within our district for our constituents to be able to take advantage of.

So we'll talk about setting this up so that we can do a three to six month contest of what district does the most, and there will be five winners at the end of the contest.

Okay, everybody will be a winner, but there'll be five winners that will get something out of it as a result.

You with me?

Yeah, all right.

So I will set up a meeting with you so we can work out the details and get the information to my colleagues.

I think I I just love this idea so much and what it does for communities when you bring these in in place, and so everyone loves to be outside and enjoy a meal, and I think we can have more of those, and I think it'll help the businesses to increase, and so all those challenges of spending the $25 a month for permit fee can be overcome when you have more customers coming into your business.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor, and and thank you, Stacy, for bringing this forward.

I know this has been a long uh difficult program.

Uh, it turns out, I don't know if everyone is aware.

The most controversial thing in every city is parking, and this is uh uh you know in direct conflict with uh some of our um you know most impacted uh you know parking districts.

I think what we've seen is the desire from the public to have these activated spaces outweighs even uh you know the desire for convenience and parking and um uh I would uh love to support any uh opportunity that we have to expand these uh acted activated street spaces and and work to um you know uh replicate some of the success.

I uh agree with Councilmember Jennings if there's anything we can do to think about uh what success looks like and and uh quantify those metrics so that we have a uh a clear sense of um you know maybe um you know what those goals might what it look like and then work towards them.

Uh but thank you for thank you for doing this and and looking forward to more updates like this to come.

Thank you.

I I knew this would be a um a popular topic because it's been a talk of the town, a lot of restaurant tours, and frankly, I'll be honest with you, I get very few calls from people where it went well.

In general, as mayor, I get many more calls and all of us do inquiries where it didn't go well, it was too expensive, the city's standards on materials was too much, it was unfair compared to other legacy projects they see around town.

Like, why are you making me do this?

If you go down the street, they've had that for 30 years, and it looks like it's 30-year-old wood and and um 10 on top.

So hats off for what we're doing, but maybe just a reflective question.

What do you think that we could be doing better so we could achieve council member Jennings' goal and double, if not triple the numbers throughout the city of Sacramento?

That's question number one.

What what could we be doing better?

Great question.

I think when we first launched this program, we did a great job of getting the word out.

We held a community workshop, we had dozens of business owners come and ask questions and engage in the process, and since then it's been pretty quiet.

Um we have an amazing social media and marketing team that are putting together uh blog and a marketing campaign that we plan to push forward um through the city and the public works um social media accounts.

I would love to get that to each of the council members and to the mayor if you guys want to get that into your newsletters to go out to your constituency just so that we can spread the word.

Um I'd also like to add that we are constantly evolving this program, and so as we find ways to improve efficiencies, we are incorporating them into the permitting process.

Um, one of the things that Chad touched on is a pre-application meeting, and I think that that is the most underrated tool that businesses and applicants have at their disposal.

It is a free meeting to meet with the city of Sacramento with multiple staff from across every discipline of the city to talk about their project, for us to look at their site plans, to answer questions, provide our recommendations, and answer the questions that drag the permitting process on additional months.

So we're really trying to make this quick and easy, and the sooner we can get with an applicant before they even submit that application, the better.

So getting that message out to people, letting them know that we're here, we want to help, and we want to get it through the finish line is really important.

Have we ever thought about having open like an open house with the department and using the council chambers and inviting restaurants with certain volumes or certain profiles, say, hey, do you want to learn about this and come on in?

Because I think you could get people earlier in that process.

So that's an idea.

And just um you don't have to answer that, maybe just think about that.

And I do like the idea of having dedicated people to helping earlier on.

That's key.

There are two well in the last few years, there's been some efforts at the state level to streamline and regulate policies that the governor just signed, I think two bills last week on outdoor dining and permitting and cutting red tape.

I'm not sure if you know about those, but I want to see if you could look into them and see if that would make our lives even easier here with what we're doing.

Absolutely.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for your presentation.

Thank you.

Okay.

Next item.

Move to item 16, which is shared youth paths and update on planning and implementation.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

It is wonderful to be with you this evening.

Um, my name is Jennifer Donlin Wyan, and I get to serve the city as the division manager for mobility and sustainability.

Um, one of my teams is the transportation planning team that oversees and kind of holds active transportation in the city, although of course that is a citywide effort.

With me today are Adam Randolph and Megan Johnson who are working on two key shared use paths in the city.

Um, and today I'm gonna provide an update and an overview of implementing shared use paths from the city with a focus on the Sacramento and American River paths.

I'm just gonna wait for my presentation to come up.

There we go.

Great.

Thank you, whomever's in the back.

It went away.

So while we're going, I know it's been a long day, so I'm gonna keep on talking.

Um, so before we get into some of our very specific shared use paths, thank you, Efren.

Um, I'd like to talk about how we plan, prioritize and maintain our shared use paths.

So you may or may not know that our shared use paths, our existing shared use paths, we've got 88 miles in the city, which is pretty fantastic, and we have 113 miles of plan paths.

The network is defined through the bike plan, which will be the Streets for People plan that should be coming before you in December for your review and approval.

Planned shared use paths typically are implemented in two ways.

The first way is through development projects.

So in developing areas like Nathomas or Delta Shores, as areas developed shared use paths are built.

Outside of developing areas, uh, more likely and more common shared use paths are implemented through competitive grants from agencies like SACOG or the California Transportation Commission.

Councilmember Jennings has been a steadfast advocate for us at SACOG for our shared use path.

So thank you, Councilmember Jennings.

And on the rare occasion, we get special dollars like we did for Mayor McCarty when he was in the assembly for two rivers trail phase three that Adam will be talking about a little bit later today.

So with 113 miles of shared use paths and over 350 transportation projects that are planned in the city, we needed a way to prioritize transportation investments.

And in late 2022, council adopted the transportation priorities plan, which defined values and criteria for prioritizing our transportation investments, and prioritize all transportation investments into high, medium, and lower prioritization categories.

And those values are one, improving air quality, climate, and health, providing equitable investment, providing access to destinations, specifically parks, schools, and jobs, improving transportation safety, focusing on our high injury network, and maintaining the transportation system because you might have noticed that some of our infrastructure is a little bit old.

You'll see here in this map, I don't know if you can see it or for the audience in the back, but these are our planned shared use paths in order of priority.

Purple being high priority, golden, medium, and green lower priority.

Some of our priority shared use paths, of course, include the Sacramento River Parkway in the pocket and the Morrison Creek Trail in District 6.

One of the things we have to think about when we're implementing shared use paths is they do incur an ongoing maintenance responsibility for the city, which include pavement maintenance at about $22,000 per mile per year, landscape maintenance through our parks, Ipsy, our partners in Yipsey at $7,500 per mile per year, and then our rangers at about $1,500 per mile per year.

So about $31,000 per year for every mile that we implement.

These are things that we need to think about because our maintenance dollars don't come with grants, they come out of our existing operating budgets and how we function as a city.

So I'm going to highlight some of our great shared use paths that are currently underway.

We have a lot underway.

The Jackrabbit Trail Crossing in Atomas, it's a priority effort for our partners in the Thomas.

We are currently working with that with JIB to implement an improved crossing.

We are currently also working on in trying to seek funding for the New York Parkway gap closure, which would close the portion of the New York Parkway between river garden apartments and the community garden down to the American River Parkway.

It's something that we have been really trying to fund.

And of course, working with the Avondale Glen Neighborhood Association on the Morrison Creek Trail near the Georgetown Community Center.

We have two big ones that we're going to talk about today: the Two Rivers Trail on the Sacramento River Parkway, shared use paths along our major rivers.

So in 2012, Council adopted the American and Sacramento River Parkway plan, identifying strategies to complete the parkways along our two major rivers.

But funding is always unpredictable for transportation projects because generally they come through competitive grants.

We've been making progress and we're going to give an update on what we've been doing.

Two Rivers Trail has some completed segments if you've been on it, such as east, sorry, west of 160 or the segment between 28th Street and the east side of Southern's Regional Park.

Adam and his team have been working on two rivers trail phase two, which is the golden area that you see in the map here.

This is anticipated to be completed in spring of 2026, but we're working with the Army Corps because they're doing work there, and a lot of our work works in concert with them.

Two Rivers Trail Phase 3, which is the blue line on the map, will connect Sutter's Regional Park through to the river district in the Sacramento Northern, which connects up to District 2.

Phase three is fully funded, thank you, Mayor McCarty.

And we expect to complete design in fall of 2026.

We needed approximately an additional $7 million for right-of-way and construction of phase three.

Phase four, which are the purple dots that you see on the map, would build some separated some crossings that we need that are a little bit more complex that we can do at this time.

And that are crossings of the light rail, the rail line behind Blue Diamonds, working with UPRR, and then the crossing at Highway 160, how we're gonna cross across that.

We estimate phase four, needing 24 million dollars for a right-of-way and construction.

What makes the Two Rivers Trail really exciting, and it's one of my favorite shared use paths in the city, is that when complete, it would not only connect folks to the Soto Regional Park, which has great amenities, but also connect a lot of folks to SAC State, which is an important destination for so many students that are going there, giving them an opportunity to walk or bike to school and of course always stingers up for SAC State.

And then our other exciting project that we're gonna talk about this evening is the Sacramento River Parkway.

The Sacramento River Parkway project includes four miles of new shared use path on top of the levee in the pocket Green Haven neighborhoods.

Our work includes preliminary engineering and environmental clearance for the path from Garsha Bend to Zacharias Park.

We've already invested 14 million dollars in this project.

The next phases are right-of-way design and construction.

And what's unique about this path that the levee has many locations where private property extends to the river, and the path will require public access easements in order to complete the path.

For ease of construction, we're thinking possibly having it constructed in two segments.

Segment one will be from Garsha Bend to Audubon Circle, and segment two, Audubon Circle to Zacharias Park.

For segment two, we anticipate needing 9.7 million dollars for ride-of-way construction, and the timeline is uncertain because it's we funded through competitive grants.

Like the Two Rivers Trail, this is another exciting project because it will close the largest gap in the Sacramento River Parkway effort.

It will also connect the Pocket Canal Paths to this path and improve access to the Del Rio Trail.

And our shared use paths aren't only about creating places for people to go to or travel.

I mean, they are, but why are we doing it?

We have a lot of goals.

We have very ambitious mobility goals.

We have currently less than 3% of our travels by walking or biking.

And we have a CAP goal to reach 6% by 2030, which is literally tomorrow in terms of transportation funding, and 12% by 2045.

So these are ambitious goals, and investing in shared use paths will help us get there.

But it's about more than meeting our goals.

It's about providing choices and mobility for people in Sacramento's communities.

Nearly a quarter of Sacramento residents are children and too young to drive to get to their destinations.

And so shared use paths will help provide them access.

And 15% of Sacramento residents are approaching that age, like my dad, who maybe should consider driving is not an option for them, and there are other ways for them to get around.

And so that's a big part of Sacramento's population.

But it's also about equity because owning and operating a car is expensive, whether it be your monthly insurance, the maintenance, or car payments.

And so it's about equity as well.

But it's also about making great places because to be frank, walking and biking on a shared use path is just fun.

It's an enjoyable thing that people want to live nearby and enjoy.

So with that, I would like to conclude our presentation.

Public works is very thankful to our partner departments because we don't do this on our own.

Yep C is an incredible partner in our efforts.

And also thank council for your continued support and your investment in shared use paths in our city.

So Adam, Megan, and I are here and available for any questions that you may have.

Thank you very much.

Mary, I have two speakers on this.

Do you want to take council comments first or our speakers?

The speakers.

Great.

I have Deb Banks and Melissa Harris.

Hi again.

Deb Banks, Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates.

Without a doubt, our shared use paths and trails provide a safe and relaxing way for residents to enjoy healthy recreation and get a good dose of the natural beauty of our rivers and forested areas.

Del Rio Trail, since its opening has attracted thousands, we think, of people from throughout Sacramento to enjoy it.

And the ARBT is one of the most traveled bikeways in the nation.

We want accelerated completion of Sacramento's complete trail network to close those gaps in the system so that residents can experience nature while using our trails as transportation corridors.

Also, Sacramento is geographically linked in a really interesting place because we become a nexus from Lake Tahoe, Sacramento, Sacramento to San Francisco.

And there is no reason why a complete connected trail could not connect those two places.

It would be a fantastic amenity, and it provides tourism for Sacramento.

The one thing missing, we think, and it's small, but it's helpful, is a mechanism to actually know how many people are using our trail.

There's a lot of money that goes into planning and engineering and actually shoveling and creating the thing, but we don't ever really know how many people use it.

And so I would encourage uh council to support the underfunded and understaffed public works department to figure out a way to actually evaluate how many people are using our trails.

SACOG has some counters, we can borrow them.

They don't cost anything.

And at least it would give us a little bit more information than anecdotal information when we are out on our trails and we see them really full, or we don't see them, you know, we see them empty.

So we really appreciate the work.

We think it's fantastic, but some mechanisms that would actually count how many people are using our trails, I think would help us know about our return on investment, and then we'll know how many people are using our trails.

Thank you for your comments, Melissa Harris.

Hello, council, good to see you.

Um, Melissa Harris.

Uh, I am the Hagenman Community Association vice chair.

Um, and I too echo the sentiments we're hearing today.

Um, shared use paths are Sacramento's jewels.

I mean, I don't think there's anyone here who would argue that a walk along the Sacramento River Parkway isn't one of the best ways to spend your weekend.

Um I know I personally uh I drive longer than I get to walk a couple times a week.

I drive uh round trips seven miles.

Uh so I can do three ish miles a couple of times a week, maybe a little more if I'm lucky and have the time.

Um they're safe places to be, and I something I want to highlight is that they actually provide bicyclists and walkers a way to get away from unsafe intersections.

Um, so if I'm walking uh from behind CalExpox State, um, I don't have to deal with cars.

Um, and you see a ton of people experiencing that as well.

Um, and that's part of the reason I travel that distance.

Um, they're, as we talked about, an amazing amenity, and they're a shared experience, and we're gonna talk about some of the crown jewels.

I know later in the agenda, but I want to bring up that their work and the paths we're talking about aren't the only planned projects.

Um Arcade Creek is something that North Sacramento, uh Hagenwood and Del Paso Heights has been asking for three and a half miles of trail to connect us from the Northern Bikeway path to um the community center in Hagenwood.

Um, those are really unsafe areas.

Um, district two has some of the least safe streets, and we also have the least car ownership in the city.

Um, and I just encourage you to be thinking about other ways to keep showing up.

I was thinking as we're talking about this when we had the bridge apartments in Woodlake.

I am I believe it was uh Mayor Steinberg said um there we're gonna move fast on this controversial project, and I hope we can.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Mayor, have no more speakers on this item.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I want to thank uh public works and staff uh that do all of this.

Um we already know what my soapbox is.

Um, I just wish that those that live in North Natomas had the opportunity that I had over 20 years when I lived in South Natomas.

I was poor, I couldn't afford uh the monthly cost for parking downtown.

I rode my bike every day through Discovery Park into Old Sacks, showered at 24-hour fitness, and went to work in the Capitol.

That was the favorite time I can look back that with tons of fondness.

Um, I love Natoma so much I moved to North Natomas.

I don't have that opportunity in North Natomas to safely get to downtown.

And I love riding my bike and I love being out, and it is once again, you highlight and you put that map up there.

Netomas is green, which means we are the least less likely to get invested.

We are the least likely to get connected, which then is leaving out our climate action goals.

We want people to get out of their cars.

We planned in Natomas' master planned to get people out of their cars.

Because it's not only getting people out of their cars.

I have the highest percentage of seniors that live in North Natomas.

What about accessing and having safe ways for them to travel and for them to get out and not just a gravel path, but an actual paved and connected path so our seniors have accessibility and a way to move around.

And then we talk about equity.

Where's the equity and the fact that I have two bus routes?

Takes 45 minutes to get downtown.

If you want to go to the airport from Netomas, you actually have to take the bus downtown, turn around, and by the way, it's called YOLO bus.

Get on the YOLO bus to get out to the airport.

We are the 33rd largest city in the United States, and we don't truly have a connected way to get from the airport and downtown.

I also have approximately 30% of the affordable housing.

How does that work when generally uh those that live in our affordable housing are less likely to have a vehicle?

So how does it work for them if they work downtown in other areas if we don't have accessible routes and we don't have public transportation?

So I know I am preaching to the choir.

You've heard me say this, this Jennifer.

Um, but I am going to continue to push because Netomas is a key for a lot of the goals that we want to reach in the city of Sacramento, except we don't get invested in.

And so I'm scraping and scrimping and demanding from developers and others, but with Netomas being left out, we're also leaving out the city and our seniors and those that live in affordable housing housing in North Natomas to have the same accessibility to get downtown and other areas.

So I will always ask for more, and then I will just always do the plug that I do as I represent parts of Robla that came into the city of Sacramento that don't have sidewalks, and how is that safe?

And how are we prioritizing to make sure the areas in Robla and North Sac and Del Paso actually have complete sidewalks at least on one side so that people can safely traverse and go to and from.

Thanks, Councilmember Guerrera.

Thank you very much, Jennifer.

I really appreciate all the hard work you guys have done.

Um, you know, particularly exciting to see the Two Rivers Trail.

And I I'd like to say that I got a little bit of action to make that happen, and that was with linking you know Union Pacific with uh the city at that time.

And I know there was a big struggle, but many of us know Francisco Castillo, and and when we had when he actually was at Union Pacific, I talked to him about the importance of uh making sure that you know the that they took some time.

That's it's taken a while to actually get uh get to this point, but uh but it's exciting because I remember actually having to walk on the gravel side when I was going through Sack State, and even when I started biking downtown, you had to take the guy with bridge over to the north side, take that all the way down, um, and then take the bridge over on uh to get to C Street.

So you do this big loop.

Got next I got extra extra workout, probably was you know 30 pounds lighter because of it, but um uh but it's exciting to actually see that we're finally completing a project moving forward.

Also, exciting to see the progress, you know, um happening over here in District 7 on and completing that that full connection.

Um can't uh I know we're talking about those two, but I did want to on the Morrison Creek project um uh say that I spoke to the business owners on um that are on Morrison Creek on the west side of Stockton Boulevard, and they actually are inspired by it.

So I'd like to make sure that we look at how we cross Stockton Boulevard on that and figure out how how we make that connectivity.

Um they'd like to see people using Morrison Creek as an avenue to get to their restaurants and to their uh access, and they just built a new housing division there that they could see that as being a bike route to get to uh Elder Creek Elementary School and the George Sim Community Center.

So um uh couldn't miss that opportunity to actually put that on the table.

I do want to thank all those that have been working on on Morrison Creek there.

Um, and uh and glad to see that we're you know we're looking at connectivity through the out the entire city.

Um, the um the evolution, I think the big piece here that I want to leave everyone with is uh with one, yes, Saba.

I support the recommendation of figuring out how do we track usage and um and if if that means working with our other partners, great.

But I think the big key thing is the evolution of the electric assist on bicycles is expanding so much so uh so much more uh on the usage of cycling and um uh and and I think that uh I've seen more seniors now that are cycling because of that and taking advantage of that you also see more families using their cargo bikes dropping off to school we just did a uh a bike train from South Oak Park all the way to uh Broadway and and stocked at the language academy uh for clean air day and so uh a lot of folks were using the cargo bikes and so I think it's important to say that you know some folks are choosing even on a rainy day to skip the minivan and go with a cargo bike and that I think will help alleviate a lot on the drop off areas but it won't happen unless we have connectivity so um proud to support this effort moving forward and thank you for the update we still have uh a large funding gap that we have to uh uh look at how do we close it but uh I appreciate the uh the update here thank you thank you council member plucky bomb thanks mayor uh I am super excited about this work as you know and um look forward to um supporting these projects as they come forward uh in particular I think we have a uh tremendous strategic opportunity as a region uh to to continue to expand our uh our active transportation opportunities uh we all just met not that long ago to talk about what our strategic priorities were and and said economic development was at the top of that list I think uh the tourism that can come from uh some of these uh parkway opportunities is one of those economic development opportunities that we should be uh looking to capitalize on uh particular um you know phases three and four of the two rivers uh trail project I think will be uh a key link uh to us unlocking some of the opportunities to go from the Sacramento River around the corner up into the American river and all the way to Folsom and back uh that is a unique opportunity um uh I'll just do my uh A B1234 now because last week I went to Boston with the chamber with the express purpose really of just looking at the emerald uh emerald necklace uh trail system and having ridden that trail system I'm happy to report the American River Parkway is unparalleled there are some very nice features of that trail system and I'm not knocking it but ours from a uh uh continuity perspective uh has some unique advantages and we should uh lean into those um strategic opportunities those uh geographic opportunities that we have and build upon that uh and I think that we have a real uh uh opportunity to expand um the the the kind of tourism the kind of um sports and active recreation uh uh opportunities that we have so I look forward to supporting as many of these projects as you want to bring forward uh the more that we can build out our our bike and and active transportation network the better.

Thank you council member Jennings thank you mayor um every July every July uh my six grandkids come in town to spend uh cousins connection camp with us where no parents are allowed and so when they come um we make sure that instead of them sitting there watching television or just hanging around the house we make sure that they get out and the best thing that they like to do is to get out and go along the trail in order to get to the the uh park where they can go and play on the slide board and all those other things but they've got a walk through the trail and they enjoy it so much because of all the great things that they see and everything that they learn and they are looking forward to seeing you because we know what a bicyclist you are and always out there doing great things and I just wanted to stop for a second and just say thank you for your leadership in making a lot of this happen.

I mean you have just been impressive and and we can always count on you being a leader that's pushing us forward to make Sacramento a place where everyone can enjoy especially with a walk or ride along a trail.

So thank you for your work so much.

Thank you.

Thank you and I and I know you you're excited to when you came to Sacramento to inherit this amazing amenity that we have.

And eight million people use our parkway every year, the Merrick River Parkway.

And way more than of course go to state Capitol or other places in Sacramento.

So it's a beloved jewel of our region, and we want to in enhance it and connect it to the Sacramento River.

Yeah, it would be nice if it went all up the to the north of Sacramento as well, the north part through Nethomas.

But the the big picture is, you know, we talk about some of the exciting things we do here in we had a big groundbreaking for a soccer stadium.

We built an arena down here, a new state capital.

But this is something that would outlive us.

And this is something that I if we could accomplish one thing during this tenure of this city council is to finish this project to have the bike trail go from literally Freeport to Folsom and not have to get off in a few places around Sacramento.

That should be our legacy right here.

So I know that the next item is a step in the direction, but real briefly, can you go back and just maybe give us a little more excitement on that image and show this?

There's three or four things that we need to.

I think there's actually three in the Sacramento River and three in the American River.

And which ones are in motion and which ones do we have to go for regional money on, and of course we're counting on our SACOG reps.

Where are they again?

You two, right?

Yeah.

And our alternate over here to make sure we get our fair share and can apply for many.

So can you walk through um Jennifer?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So let's start on the two rivers one, Adam.

Okay.

So two rivers.

Um the diagram here is kind of showing the phases, and unfortunately, I think I missed a little bit on the diagram, so I'm gonna talk to it a little bit.

Okay.

Uh we have our phase two project that's in construction right now.

That's the one that's running along the backside of River Park.

So it's going from H Street Bridge to where the easternmost railroad is.

Yes.

Which I think we looked really hard.

We could see in the picture up there.

Yep.

Um that project is under construction right now.

About three-quarters of it is done.

The last quarter is waiting for the Army Corps of Engineers to finish their bank protection project.

Uh unfortunately, I just found out that they are not going to be finishing until very late this year.

So that puts us doing that last quarter next spring.

The last quarter is is up going on.

The last quarter is from where our trail's going to cross up onto the levee top, so just east of the um business AD Bridge.

Correct.

And go to the railroad.

Um, phase three project is what we have in design right now.

Uh we actually have our environmental document coming to council probably early next year for approval on that project.

Uh I'm reviewing the final draft of or the final comments on it right now.

This is one that snakes around Sutter's Landing Park.

Correct.

And that one, as you said, it'll snake around Sutter's Landing Park.

It also has a little connection on the opposite side of the railroad.

Excuse me.

Opposite side of the railroad that helps us get connectivity to the 12th Street Cycle Track and up to the phase one trail back up on top of the levee on the other side of 160.

Um, so that one we have fully funded through design.

We do need right-of-way and construction funds for it still.

Um, I'll also point out that that one includes the actual rail crossing of that eastern railroad too.

So currently there's the existing trail in Cedar's Landing Park that dead ends at the railroad.

Yep.

Our phase two trail will dead end on the other side of the railroad.

Um the big thing about that piece is Union Pacific is actually replacing their bridge right there.

The trestle that leads up to the old steel bridge.

Um we can't cross under there until they finish their bridge replacement.

That's slated for next year.

So once that happens, we'll be looking for the little bit of construction funds we need to finish that up.

We're in the middle of permitting processes with UP, which is really fun when they're in the middle of their construction process, but we're doing everything we can so we can follow right on the heels of the UP project to close that looking.

Um well, UP is building, it will probably be completely closed through there.

Um, once UP's done, it'll look very similar to what it looks like right now.

I will say.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Um then the big hurdle there in the big cost is the phase four going over 160.

Exactly.

Well, so phase four is going over the western railroad and under 160.

And that is definitely the biggest cost.

You see 24 million dollars there, it involves built literally building into the river to get under 160.

It involves um a multi-span structure, not only going over the railroad but going over the approaches because maintenance vehicles need to get through there.

So it's just a lot of structure work that has to happen to build that one.

So do you think this is of course the most complicated and the most costly?

Would this be um would this be competitive for for SACOG?

Active transportation monies.

Uh I can't really speak to that too well.

I know that we're looking at what options that we have.

Um, I would defer to Jennifer on there, um, if I'm not mistaken, there are other priorities that are in front of this one right now, so we haven't really explored that possibility that closely yet.

Okay.

All right, just want to swap over to the Sacramento River, which is a crazy to the next item, but maybe you can give us a big picture here.

Yeah, absolutely.

So the Sacramento River Parkway project in the pocket goes from Garsha Bend to the south up to Zacharias Park in the north, and as the map shows, it's separated into two segments for funding flexibility.

Um segment one is the south segment from Garsha Bend to Arabella or to Audubon.

And that segment is fully funded through design, right-of-way, and construction.

Segment two, um, extends it up to Zacharias Park.

That segment is fully funded for design, and we will be pursuing grant funds for the right-of-way and construction.

So we've identified around 9.7 million needed for right of way and construction.

Okay, and then the other one.

Um, so segment one um is um, like I mentioned, fully funded through all of the phases, and so we have $14 million of funding, it says $14.

That would be very cheap.

$14 million of funding that's set aside for those three phases.

So our action tonight will be to in the next segment to request approval on our environmental document for the full segment, segment one and segment two, that will allow us to move into the final design phase.

So there's money for the construction for segment one, and there's money for um the engineering for the segment two, but not construction.

So we have funding for the design effort for the entire project, segment one and segment two.

Okay, segment one has funding in place for um the rest of it.

So the right-of-way and construction.

And so the only remaining funding needs that we have are for segment two for the right-of-way and the construction.

And that's roughly 10 million dollars.

Correct, yes.

And how do we feel that scores on our SACOG active transportation grant opportunities?

Uh it always depends on the program.

Um, you know, I think and it's um status as a uh priority, and so we have had success in getting it funded through SACOG before through some of their programs, and so we anticipate returning to continue in those same programs.

Yeah, and I'm not sure about this, but back to the first one, the American River, besides SACOG, we have a great chance of going after state money from the American River Conservancy program, which we create we created.

I know we have representation on there.

I think Phil, are you on there?

You're the breath, and there's the new the park bond that just passed.

We can go after some money for that in the wildlife conservation fund.

Are either of those, especially the, I think it's the wildlife conservation fund through that park bond.

Would that be eligible to pay for construction of phase two here on the Sacramento River?

I think that we're always open to ideas to explore.

And so I think that's something that we can look into.

Okay, and then the the second, so phase two, phase two, does phase two include?

I'm not sure the parks are there.

I'm confused to hear Mr.

Jennings, but the the little pocket one, I forgot the park up there.

So does phase two focus on the purple in the little pocket?

So phase two is still within the big pocket.

It's part of that four-mile trail.

Correct.

The little pocket would be, that's not part of this project.

Correct.

Yes.

And what's rough ballpark for that?

We developed costs a while back.

I hesitate to just give you a number off the top of my head, but we can follow up.

Okay, we're good here.

Okay.

With that, thank you for the further presentation.

We're very excited about this, the entire council, and we want to make this a top-top priority.

So thank you.

Next item, please.

We move to item 17, which is approval of preliminary design and adoption of EIR addendum for the Sacramento River Parkway project.

Thank you.

All right, um, let's see right there.

Okay, good afternoon or uh perhaps evening at this point, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Megan Johnson, and I'm a senior engineer with our public works department, and I am the project manager for the Sacramento River Parkway Project.

Tonight I am here to request approval of our preliminary plans and our environmental document.

All right, this project has a long history.

It starts with the annexation of the Pocket Green Haven neighborhood into the city in 1959.

And then in 1975, the Sacramento River Parkway Master Plan was first approved by council, and that established a vision to have that interconnected trail from Freeport up to the confluence with the American River.

Then in 1997, an update to the Sacramento River Parkway plan reconfirmed the intention to ultimately have a continuous lineal on-river parkway trail.

And it also approved an environmental impact report or an EIR.

In 2012, as Jennifer had mentioned, the American and Sacramento River Parkways implementation program was adopted, which established strategies and goals to achieve the ultimate vision of the interconnected river trail system.

And then that brings us to today in 2025, where we're here to request approval of the preliminary plans and the addendum to the EIR for the Sacramento River Parkway project in the Pocket Green Haven neighborhood.

So this particular project will close the largest outstanding gap in the river trail along the Sacramento River.

It proposes to construct four miles of levee top shared use path, along with ADA compliant neighborhood access ramps and pedestrian safety enhancements on Pocket Road at key locations to make it easy for people who live on the interior of the neighborhood to get to the trail.

And that's consistent with the Pocket Green Haven Transportation Plan that Council approved in 2023.

This project also makes meaningful connections to existing trails.

There's the existing levee top trails to the north and south, as well as to the pocket canal trail running through the middle of the community.

So now I'll touch on what we've been doing up to this point.

First, community engagement.

We've held two public meetings.

We've held a series of focus meetings with residents who live in the adjacent homes along the river.

And then we've also conducted an online community survey, which went out and was open to all the residents in the Pocket Green Haven neighborhood.

And we had a really huge response.

We had over a thousand respondents.

And by and large, it showed overwhelming support for the trail, with over 90% of respondents being supportive of the project.

And it also showed that residents felt that this trail was important to them.

They gave it an average score of 8.7 out of 10.

We've been developing, as we go through the preliminary engineering process, we've developed preliminary 30% plans for the trail for the access points and for the intersection improvements at Pocket Road.

And then one of our main efforts has been completing our environmental clearance.

For clearance through the California Environmental Quality Act, or CECOA, an EIR had been certified for the Sacramento River Parkway Plan update in 1997.

And EIRs do not expire.

The appropriate mechanism outlined in CEQA guidelines to account for project-specific revisions is to prepare an addendum.

If the scope of the project is consistent, if the circumstances under which the project is being undertaken have not changed, and if there are no new significant impacts or mitigations that would be required that could not have been known or anticipated during the original study.

To confirm that this project met those conditions, we prepared a new initial study, and an initial study is a technical document that assesses potential environmental impacts under CECA.

So this initial study found that the project is consistent with the original one approved in 1997, and that there are no new conditions, significant impacts or mitigations were identified.

And so, based on this, our finding is that an addendum is appropriate for incorporating project specific refinements as part of our CEQA clearance.

Now we do recognize that the introduction of new public access along the trail is concerning to some residents, and so we've been developing a draft safety plan, which defines the roles and responsibilities of people who are involved in maintaining safety along the trail.

It identifies codes, ordinances, and enforcement mechanisms for preventing and removing unauthorized activity from the parkway.

It highlights safety strategies for the parkway, which we are planning to include with our project, and it also identifies optional strategies that residents may choose to implement on private property.

We've held focus meetings with residents to introduce them to the draft safety plan, and we've posted it to the project web page, and we're in the process of taking feedback and input from the residents.

Now, following the completion of our environmental process, we'll be moving into the final design phase, and so that will involve the preparation of plans, specifications, and estimates, as well as completing the right-of-way process.

So this trail has some unique characteristics to it because in areas that were developed after the early 1970s, the developments included public access easements adjacent to the river.

But in the developments that were prior to the early 1970s, a lot of times those developments did not include that public access.

And so, as part of our project, we will be purchasing the public reac public recreation easements on top of the levy to allow for the trail where it goes through private property.

And then finally, we'll be finalizing the safety plan through ongoing coordination with residents with our flood control and regulatory agencies and with city leadership so that it can be in place by the time this project goes to construction.

So with that, I want to thank you for your time and your consideration of our request to approve our plans, our preliminary plans, and our environmental document.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Um I know it's been a long afternoon, so appreciate you.

Madam City Clerk, how many public comments do we have?

21 speakers for this agenda item.

21 speakers.

Okay, so um uh council member Jennings, do you want to make comments or do you want to hear public comment first?

I'd like to talk first.

Um, and I really want to thank staff for their incredible work on this, um, especially in drafting um the safety plan that has a lot of community input to try to make sure that as we bring in new resources and do new new opportunities into all of our city um that there's a safety plan that the community can be involved in helping to develop.

So I just want to thank you for that.

The environmental clearance, the community engagement, as I said, the draft safety plan and the preliminary engineering.

So again, I just want to acknowledge staff for the great job that they've done.

Um this is something that we've been working on, I've been working on as a council member for the last 12 years, and it's something that I think is very important, and all the constituents I've talked to along the way support having this trail, and they want to move forward.

And so I just want to be take this opportunity to move this item forward and and ask my colleagues to support us as we move this forward.

So I'd like to put a motion on the floor to move it forward.

We have a uh course.

We have a motion and second.

Of course, we are going to get to uh to public comment, but um Mr.

Jennings wants to speak, and I wanted to speak before and also want to open and close the public hearing there.

Yes, and I I'll just say that I'm in complete support of this, and I will make one slight correction to your statement, Mr.

Jennings that I've spoken to a lot of residents out there, plenty support, more support.

There are some that have vehement opposition.

I think there may be some here tonight.

But I'll just note that we opened the new Del Rio Trail, and people were concerned about more activity there, it's gonna bring in more negative activity, and it's been the opposite.

Bring in more, you know, moms on strollers, dads on strollers and bikes, and seniors walking, more eyes on the street, the old Jane Jacobs model, um that rings true, and I think we see that in ESAC as well.

And so, you know, I I know that there's this there's this view about change.

If you if there's change, there's two sides.

There's there's 50 percent that want the change, 50% that are against.

So 50 percent are cautiously optimistic that's gonna be good news, and that's us.

The 50 percent against are 100% certain that it's gonna be very negative.

So I get that change is hard, and I understand that residents have some uh frustrations, and we're gonna listen and try to to the extent that we can mitigate those, but this project is moving forward after multiple decades in in the in the uh shadows, and I'm a hundred percent in support, and you know we'll do anything I I can and we will to make sure we have adequate funding to make this project a reality.

And uh with that, thank you so much for your support for this for 12 years now, Councilmember Jennings.

So with that, let's hear uh public comment.

Thank you.

I mentioned we have 21 speakers, so we would line up in the middle.

I always appreciate it.

Neil Dobrowski, Farla Kaufman, Don Murphy, Tom Monahan.

Please proceed.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to address the council.

I'll be brief and just share my almost 40 years of experience of riding on the both the streets and trails in the city.

Unless you're regularly cycle, it's hard to appreciate just how important it is to have trails for the bicycling that do not share the space with cars.

Since a sore back is ruled out running, I've relied on bicycling for just long and hard exercise to stay in shape.

And while I love the Del Rio Trail, it crosses several busy streets that really presents a challenge.

You have to be diligent of drivers that ignore the crosswalk and will try to take a right on red.

They're looking left.

They ignore the children trying to cross with a crosswalk from the other direction.

It's really very scary.

I've been uh I've seen this happen repeatedly, and I'm surprised there haven't been problems, really, serious problems.

As a consequence, I drive 20 minutes each way to the American River Bike Trail to get to ride on a bike trail uh without being having to interact with cars.

And I mean, think about how absurd this is to spend 40 minute round trip in your in your car, it's a cycle.

So um in short, I think the addition of an isolated trail on the Sacramento levy would be just a fantastic enhancement to the health and safety of the residents south of downtown.

And so with my appreciation and optimism after a very long wait, I really encourage the council to uh adopt the addendum of to the AR and approve the preliminary design of the pocket portion of the Sacramento River Parkway.

Thank you very, very much, and I appreciate you listening, and I appreciate your service to the city.

Thank you.

Arla.

Thank you, Council members.

I am here to strongly encourage you to adopt this resolution.

As an epidemiologist, I know the importance of exercise and clean air for good health.

As a bicyclist who commuted to work for 15 years on city streets, I also know the importance of safe pathways.

This project would advance the goals of the city to improve our air quality, achieve our climate goals, and provide a safe place to exercise for both pedestrians and bicyclists.

In addition, this parkway would provide a safe transportation route, which would connect to other such trails, creating a network of routes.

You've heard it all today.

Great presentations from staff.

It's wonderful.

I am also familiar with these issues from the perspective of being a past chair of the Sacramento County Public Health Advisory Board.

It's obvious that this project is also important for the greater Sacramento area.

Everything is connected.

Air pollution goes everywhere.

Another note, on another note, Dan Gorfane was a dear friend of mine.

Part of the current parkway bears his name in honor of all his efforts to make the parkway a reality of what it is today.

However, Dan envisioned the parkway as a trail that would be continuous and provide all the things that you've heard about today.

Dan has been gone for many years now.

I urge you to make this a reality now.

This is a path to the way forward.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your service.

Don Murphy.

Council members, thank you for uh allowing me this opportunity.

I'm opposed to the EIR being approved.

The reasons for that are plentiful, but probably the best example was the entire presentation and all the discussion on the homeless activities in 1975, 1997.

There were no homeless issues here in Sacramento.

This plan, this EIR, does not address the security and safety of those of us who live along the levee.

Plain and simple.

I'm a property owner.

That's a different subject, but I don't think that enough effort has been put into this EIR that gives us the safety and the security we deserve.

For example, private property still exists on the levee.

How can you prevent people from being on that levee and not getting to the public trust area without trespassing?

That's not addressed.

The patrolling, there's an indication in the ER that rangers are going to patrol the levee.

The levee is going to close at sunrise and open at sunset.

I can tell you on my property, there's people that are coming in there at night early in the morning before sunrise and after sunset.

How is that going to be handled?

You don't give any indication at all that the number of rangers that will be employed.

Am I wrong that that's not in the AR?

I don't think so.

So I also like to urge the city to do a better job at this point of indicating where the private property exists on the levee.

You have to search, search, search to find any indication from uh the city website that yes, indeed, there is private property, and if you're walking on it, you're trespassing.

There's tremendous confusion, there's confrontation by people on the levy thinking that just because they pay taxes.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Tom Monahan, then James Carroll, then Andrew Owen.

Afternoon.

Um my name is Tom Monahan, and I live in Curtis Park, but I use the bicycle parkways all over Sacramento for a long time.

I just want to say that the public access for the river parkway area is long overdue.

Uh, and I would just like to see that the public ass access is approved today, the EIR is approved today, and you could move forward on this project and get moving.

Simple as that.

Thank you.

Thank you, James Carroll, then Andrew Owen.

Hi, good evening, James Carroll.

Um, I oppose this under two points.

Under the CICA guidelines, section 14145 of the CECO guidelines cautions public agencies from speculation and then evaluation of the impacts.

Many a project details are not known, and an EIR attempts to avoid speculation to the precise impacts of many occurrences.

This EIR is 28 years old.

Many of the evaluations of this impact of the CNR, EIR cannot speculate to what the precise impacts may occur today.

For example, we have bald eagles nesting along the Sacramento River in the cottonwood trees in the pocket, they're all over the internet.

You can look them up.

Per federal law, it is illegal to molest, disturb, or get too close to a nesting eagle.

Humans should interact as little as possible with the recommended minimum distance of 330 feet or 100 meters from an active nest.

Federal guidelines also suggest a 660 foot buffer for the construction or other activities during breeding season.

This is not addressed in the original and IRI in 1997 or the addendum.

You don't address it at all.

Furthermore, which I'm gonna run all the time, the biking was supposed to, you got money for biking because it was gonna, people were using it for commuting, but you're not taking into account the EVs that everybody owns nowadays that are reducing CO2.

So it's flawed.

You guys need to do a new ER.

Thank you.

Andrew and then Mark Portundo and Rick Sorensen.

Hi, uh my name is Andrew Oon, and I've lived alongside the eastern levee of the Sacramento River since 1999.

I am not opposed to the idea of a parkway if the city moves forward with a respectable plan.

However, I am very concerned with the city's current addendum to the 1997 EIR, and it does not address the many environmental privacy and safety concerns that I and my neighbors have, especially if the city anticipates five million annual users.

This is a very high amount of foot and bike traffic that will run very close to my home.

Note that the parkway will be designated as a transportation corridor.

Our home sits 10 to 15 feet away from the foot of that levee, and people standing on that levee have direct visual access into several windows of my home.

A levee, again, that runs directly across my private property.

I believe that the circumstances surrounding this trail have significantly changed since 1997.

We just spent, you know, two hours earlier in this council meeting talking about the market increase in the homeless population and homeless encampments.

And that will be coming right into our backyard.

Also, uh, when the levee was open previously for construction work, we had an increase of people on the levee, a tremendous amount of increase in trash on both my side of levy and the other side of the levy, which is still my property, but it it was accumulated there.

People along the levee.

I had a confrontation with someone who claimed they were on public property, and I was gently trying to tell them that no, this is private property, but they would not listen.

So in uh, you know, it's just we've been told by city staff that in in community meetings that the responsibility of after hour safety on the parkway will fall to us on homeowners.

And you know, we we are just kind of at a loss of what to do.

So, in summary, I just would like to ask the city to issue a new EIR to understand the new impacts of this project.

Thank you.

Mark, then Rick, then Tevin Laxer.

Good evening.

My name is Mark Portondo, and I'm one of the property owners that would be affected by this project.

I want to thank Councilmember Jennings and the city staff for meeting with me and some of my neighbors last week to hear our concerns with the addendum.

However, the responses to our questions led me to believe that there would be no mitigation changes to what has already been included.

This project is far different from the original plan.

The 1997 EIR acknowledged the concerns the property owners had and included robust mitigation strategies that included locking gates to align with operating hours, privacy screenings or vegetation at the top of the levee, and unbroken physical barriers separating public and private property.

As of today, none of those things will be included in the actual plan, and these changes are significant.

Sunrise to sunset curfew with no locking gates or barriers means that anyone that has deemed commuting walking from point A to point B can be up there at any time.

This is what rangers have told me, and what currently happens on other parkways and trails.

And our properties are significantly closer to levee than those that are on existing parkways and trails.

Screenings and vegetation at the top is crucial.

Right now, you can stand up there and have a perfect view, not only into my backyard, but to my child's bedroom.

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask the city to mitigate the giant influx of eyes into our properties and our homes.

Most of the private properties in both phase one and phase two of the project extend to the water.

Years of reporting false information with almost no pushback.

Thank you, Megan and Jennifer, for actually pushing back on some of these things.

Telling people that it is still private property, and so you cannot walk down from the levee to the shelf.

So I hope that the um that there should be trespassing mitigation and hoping that new EIR would be released so that property owners affected by it could see the mitigation efforts and talk with the city.

It's been 28 years since the 1997 plan.

I pose the addendum as is and hope that a new EIR or modified version is released.

Thank you.

Rick then Tevin.

Council members, thank you for this opportunity.

My name is Rick Soren.

I'm a lifelong resident, a business owner, and an avid cyclist here in Sacramento.

There's been a lot of talk tonight about all the benefits of mixed-use trails.

Um, I'd like you to focus on one more: the business benefit.

As a businessman here in our community, I know the value of community amenities in attracting companies to locate here and persuading companies to stay here and not move their jobs to other cities or other states.

A recreation network extending from Fulsom Lake all the way down to the town of Freeport and Delta Shores would be an incredible amenity.

It would give us great bragging rights and help to attract businesses to our community.

Now I don't dismiss the fears of homeowners who are afraid that some homeless person might come with an extended trail.

Again, as a business owner, I've had to manage challenges associated with the homeless and manage is the keyword.

If this feared problem eventually comes to pass, it can be managed.

There was a lot of discussion earlier about the huge macro challenges of homelessness, but at the micro level, in front of my business or along a narrow trail, it can be managed.

So extending the river trail is an incredible opportunity for our entire community.

Please keep it moving forward.

Which bike?

Either one.

Okay.

Um good afternoon, Mayors and council members.

My name is Tevin Laxer.

Um I've been a resident of Sacramento for 50 years.

Um I live in the Southland Park.

Um, more than 50 years ago, I was a park ranger on the American River Parkway and very familiar with it.

I'm also a biker, walker, and jogger.

I've also been involved with the Del Rio Trail project from the very beginning.

And I use that trail every single day from the very beginning.

That would be a great benefit to our community, and I look forward to that.

As a park ranger and now as a jogger, biker, walker, you know, I am one of the eyes and ears.

And you know, every single many, many times I've been able to report situations.

On the Del Rio Trail, there have been very few incidents of homeless encampments.

And the two or three that I've seen have been reported and taken care of within one or two days.

And it was his dream to see the parkway along the Sacramento River complete and to have access to a continuous park from the Sackman River all the way to the American River Park.

Thank you for your comments.

Benjamin Goldenberg is our next speaker.

Then Eduardo.

Hi, my name is Benjamin Goldenberg, and I'm here as a resident of District 7.

In fact, I recently purchased a home blocks away from the Sacramento River Levy with the hope that access would be available for all to enjoy regardless of where they live.

I want to thank the council and city for their support drafting the addendum to the environmental impact report, and I urge the council to adopt it without any delay.

This project is long overdue in providing equitable access to one of Sacramento's best resources.

It's an opportunity to connect a large portion of the city to our amazing multi-use trail network that we saw in the previous presentation that provides hundreds of miles of walking, jogging, biking, recreation opportunities for everyone.

Our rivers here are really the true truly the crown jewels of the city and all Sacramento residents deserve access.

And I think the longer it stays in its current patchwork state, the less safe it is for everyone.

As the mayor quoted Jane Jacobs earlier, eyes on the streets really are the key to safety here.

And so I urge the city to adopt the plan and expedite its implementation as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Eduardo, Jim Jim Haupt, then Walt Seafort.

Hello, City Council members.

My name is Eduardo Rubalcava.

I live in South Pocket.

I live two houses away from the Sacramento River Levee.

My daughter, which lives on the other side of the street, and she lives right next to the levee.

We have never had any problems with anything that I have heard from some of the people that that talked about homeless uh security type issues.

Well, she's lived there for I don't know, 10 or so years.

I moved here about seven or eight years ago.

I've lived right next to the levee.

I enjoy it.

I'm a I'm a bike rider.

I like I go up and walk and jog.

I see all the people walking their dogs, taking their kids on strolls, no security concerns whatsoever.

And and we live along the same levee that some of these people are talking about.

There's no uh boundaries, it's all one levy.

I'm also I'm also well, I live in Councilmember's Jennings District 7, like I said, in South Pocket, but I am also I'm not representing AARP, but I am an AARP member and volunteer.

And these type of projects that connect these uh these multi use and and shared use uh parkways, they are part of what AARP calls livable communities.

They they will uh make Sacramento closer to a livable community, not only with with the housing, but for transportation, all of the benefits that have been uh talked about here, safety, uh, environmental benefits, and and just the the pure joy of being able to get out, get people like myself out riding our bikes, out and out, and being able to uh go from one from Freeport all the way down here to I would ride my bike if I could do that.

I would have rode my bike, but I can't do that right now because it's not interconnected.

I urge the city.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Jim Haupt, then Walt Seaford, then Wendy Chioni.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Jim Haupt.

I'm a member of Friends of the Sacramento River Parkway, which quite literally has been working for decades to get the parkway completed since long before my involvement.

Uh Dan Gorfane was actually one of the people who helped to form the group.

I 50 years is a long time to wait for a city to fulfill its promise to its citizens, but it has been 50 years since the Sacramento River Parkway Master Plan was approved.

I want to thank and acknowledge again uh Councilmember Jennings for his steadfast support for the parkway.

We really appreciate the work that you've done on this.

Um, and I'm hoping that it's going to be completed in the not too distant future.

I hope that this council tonight will add its voice to several unanimous votes to the city council in support of the completion of the Sacramento River Parkway.

Thanks very much.

Walt and then Wendy Tione.

Hi, everybody.

Um, one of my first meetings that I attend as this executive director of the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates was a planning commission hearing on the Sacramento River Parkway through the pocket area in Little Pocket.

I said then that our rivers are treasures, loved by everyone.

They belong to everyone.

They're everyone's backyard.

Everyone deserves access to them.

That hearing was 28 years ago.

I think it's high time for us to move forward and do something.

And I urge you to uh approve the EIR and start the planning and access process.

I appreciate the fear the property owners have, but I note as a fact the people who walk, drive, bicycle by my house on 53rd Street have visual access to my house.

And then another aside on a different topic, the two rivers trail.

I urge uh you to consider the possibility, and this may be out of the box thinking, of a floating trail under Highway 160.

I believe they've done that in Portland.

It is a possibility.

Thank you.

Wendy Sioni, then Jim Geary, and Junior Goras.

Madam Clerk, in this moment I want to thank Walt for his uh his efforts this weekend, recognizing uh Maggie O'Mira.

Appreciate your ride with us today, Mr.

Walt.

Let's uh let's give him a big round of applause, by the way.

Thank you all.

I don't see Wendy.

Jim Geary.

Junior Goris, then Deb Banks.

I have seven more speakers.

I guess I should say good evening.

Uh my name is Jim Geary, and I have probably spent more time on the Sacramento River Parkway than any other human being.

I've spent probably about 50,000 hours.

Uh I know the parkway inside and out.

First of all, I can tell you the parkway has not changed at all.

Anybody that argues at the EIR from 20 years ago would be any different than it was done today, is not telling you the truth.

The homeless issue has always been an issue along the parkway within the fences.

We have never had a viable or longstanding homeless camp along the open parts of the trail.

Where they existed was within the fences.

And they were within the fences because the police didn't patrol it, the rangers didn't patrol it, and there were not eyes and ears on the parkway.

The more eyes and ears that there are on the parkway, the safer it is.

And I say that as someone who spent 40 years organizing safety regimes on the American River Parkway.

This is now the time to continue to move on so that my grandchildren who live along the parkway can use it without running into a fence and asking Papa, what is this fence doing here?

One of them is literally on an empty lot.

Thank you.

Junior Goris, then Deb Banks, then Jack Golens.

All right.

Good evening, Madam, Madam Vice Mayor and Council members.

My name is Junior Goris, and I'm the president of the Delta Shores Community Association and a former District 7 resident.

I'm here to express my strong support for approving the premium design and EIR addendum for the Sacramento River Parkway.

This project has been years in the making and represents an important investment in our city's connectivity, safety, and quality of life.

Completing the parkway will finally link neighborhoods to the river, providing safe routes for walking, biking, and recreation, while improving access for families throughout the South, throughout South South Sacramento.

The design reflects throughout the design reflects thoughtful community engagement and addresses environmental concerns responsibly.

Most importantly, it advances quality access and equity.

Opening up the riverfront to residents who have been historically disconnected from these public spaces.

Thank you for your service.

As of about 10 minutes ago, 97 people had uh written online in support of this parkway moving forward.

Plus, everybody that's here, it seems like the tide is changing.

Uh the energy is up.

Let's make it happen.

And I thank you, Mr.

Jennings, for all of your support in this, and I thank everybody in this room that has come forward to talk about it too.

Let's go.

Jeff Gullins, Mark Tavani, Rich Fowler, then Sue Taranishi.

Hi, I'm Jack Gullins.

I'm here to talk to you about demonizing and scapegoating.

And I'm glad you're here to hear my message.

Why has it taken 50 years for us to get the Sacramento Parkway Parkway that was planned for us so long ago?

The answer to that question is that there is a group of homeowners along the river who really do own parts of the levee, and they are protected by law.

Now, these homeowners don't want the trail in their backyards.

I mean, that's understandable, right?

You wouldn't want strangers turning up in your backyard using your property for a recreation area.

So the only way to get the use of the levy for a recreational trail is for the city to purchase from the owners the right to use the land.

This means that means that the board members must use the city budget for this purpose.

The fact is that for all these 50 years, the parkway has not been a high enough priority to get funded.

Now, whom are the proponents of this parkway blaming for not getting what they want?

Are they blaming their elected board members?

No.

They blame the levy property owners who are only asking that they be given the same rights as any other homeowner in the town.

Insacramento, nearly every month.

Excuse me.

I didn't expect this.

You'll find an article by R.

E.

Grasswich.

His articles are full of propaganda.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Mark Tavani, then Rich Fowler.

I apologize, your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Mark, then Rich.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Well, good evening.

My name is Rich Fowler.

And in 2001, my wife and I moved from Washington DC into the pocket area.

And when we moved, we're avid bicyclists, and we were when we moved, we were told the good news that an ERI had just EIR had just passed, and that before long we were going to be able to ride all the way around the pocket, and we were thrilled.

Well, here we are 25 years later.

Now the debate in our family is will I live long enough to ride that trail.

I just turned 82 years old, and I'm I'm just praying that uh I have an opportunity to ride that trail.

I am also one of the founding members of the American River Bike Patrol.

And we signed a contract or an MOU with the city in March of this year that we would cover all the trails of the city of Sacramento.

And we've been doing that.

We are doing a recruiting drive right now in the pocket area to get new members because we want to be ready to go to ride on this trail as soon as it's open so that we can provide some of the safety that we've been talking about today.

We think we can help by being there.

So obviously I'm in favor of this.

And I also just want to thank Rick Jennings.

Rick has been a great friend, a great supporter of many issues, but this one for sure.

So Rick, thank you so much.

Two Teraneshi will be our final speaker on this item.

Hi there.

I came today and stayed for several hours here to urge your support and moving this project forward.

It's great to hear so much support for cycling among you on the council already.

Um the city has a climate action plan.

It recognizes that most more than half of the pollution generated is from vehicles, and recommended that more options be made for active transportation, for walking, biking, and moving this project forward, I think is definitely showing that you're supporting the climate action plan and doing something more than just talking about it.

I agree with Deb Banks' comment earlier about measuring the activity on the trails.

SACOG purchased these bike counters a number of years ago, and as I understand it, still have them available for jurisdictions to use.

So it would make sense to get them and use them for the Del Rio Trail, the Two Rivers Trail, and certainly all uh Sacramento River Trail as it expands.

Um I worked for SACOG over 20 years ago, and it's interesting to hear about um this being a connection finally made over 20 year years ago.

We talked about the goal of having statewide network for bicycling and from the Bay Area to Tahoe.

This is a local decision, but it has regional and state impacts, so it's and it's it's important for jurisdictions to make these kinds of decisions to make these uh connections for a network.

Thank you for your comments for your support.

Your time is complete.

Vice Mayor, have no more speakers.

Thank you so much, City Clerk.

So I just want to thank all the members of the public that came out today, either in opposition or in support of this project.

Sounds like it's been a lot of community conversations, a lot of history in the making.

It was eye-opening for me, you know, representing South Potomas.

So we have our own bike trails that we're working with and dealing with.

So just thank you so much, Councilmember Jennings, for your leadership.

And I know you made the motion to approve of this resolution, um, and I'm happy to second it.

Um, and we will do a roll call vote uh for this item, seeing that there's no members signed up to speak.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Councilmember Dickinson, Councilmember Pluckybaum is absent.

Councilmember Maple.

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tem Gata.

Aye.

Councilmember Jennings.

Yes.

Councilmember Vang.

Yes.

Uh Mayor McCarty is absent.

Um, Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Okay, so uh we are gonna move along to item 18 now, city manager terms and conditions.

As many of you know, we had a press conference about a week and a half ago in regards to the recruitment and hiring of our new city manager, and uh I do have a few uh reading into the record.

So, I'm gonna wait till council chambers are emptied.

So I confirmed this is not five, so I'll be reading this into the record and then I'll have our city attorney's office.

Um, Brett Whitter come up and see if there's anything else that needs to be added after I present.

Okay, so the city council is considering today a contract with new city manager Mara Keisha Smith.

This is a three-year contract that provides one an annual salary of $399,000, two, an additional 5.5% of salary for the city manager to deposit in her city-sponsored 457 beat deferred compensation account, three, an auto allowance of $500 per month, four a technology allowance of 150 dollars per month, five, an annual allocation of 80 hours of management leave time, six an allocation of 96 hours of sick leave upon hire, seven, payment of $50,000 for relocation expenses, eight nine months severance payment if Miss Smith is terminated without cause, nine, all other benefits described in the personnel resolution covering unrepresented officers and employees.

Now, City Attorney, is there anything else I need to add?

Oh, you nailed it.

Okay, thank you so much.

And um, I pass it to Councilmember Jennings if you'd like to make the motion.

I thank you so much to you and Dennis from your team in your office for your leadership role in the recruitment and hiring.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I want to thank each one of you as well for your support in hiring what I think will be an excellent city manager, and we are looking forward to her arrival.

So I'd like to make the motion that we uh approve item 18, the terms and conditions of the employment for the city manager.

Mayor Kash Mayor Mayor Keisha Smith.

I'll second.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

We should all second it.

Okay.

And was we're still gonna do a roll call vote for this item as it is the city manager's contract.

Okay, okay?

Thank you.

And for the record, we have no public comment on this item.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Councilmember Dickinson.

Hi.

Councilmember Plekibong.

Councilmember Maple.

Hi.

You're pro Tem Gata.

Hi.

Council Member Jennings.

Councilmember Vang.

Mayor McCarty is absent.

And Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Motion passes unanimously with McCarthy absence.

Okay.

Moving along.

We have uh council comments, ideas, questions, AB 1234 reports, and then I do have an adjourned memory at the end of Council Comments and Rewards.

Councilmember Bang.

Thanks, Vice Mayor.

I just want to let folks know that we have two more MetaView Certified Farmers Market events happening uh for this 2025 season.

So join us the next two Sundays from 9 to 1 at Medavie Light Royal Station.

Um the season will officially end on October 26th, and then it will restart again uh next year.

And then just wanted to let you know that Halloween is around the corner, but uh we are starting the festivities now.

Starting this Friday, we have our annual event, Metaboo.

Come through at the Pennell Community Center um from six to eight o'clock.

There'll be lots of I was gonna say candy, but I'm gonna be passing out fruits and vegetables.

Um I know the kids are gonna be like, why?

Where's the candy?

Um, so come through 6 to 8 o'clock at the Pennell Community Center 2450 Medavie Road.

Lots of uh family fun activities, and yes, there will be candy and fruits and vegetables.

Um, and then lastly, wanted to let folks know that we are having our district eight movie night and partnerships with Champ for Life happening next Saturday, October 25th.

Um, it is the park uh adjacent to the Pennell Community Center.

Uh we'll be watching Kung Fu Panda 4, so come through.

This is a free event.

There'll be popcorn, inflatable jumpers, kids activity with a light dinner if you are as VP.

And you can RZP at Heart and Hustle.org, movie night, backslash movie night and D8.

And then lastly, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank two of my incredible staff who share the same birthday, Jaime and Samantha.

If you're watching this, happy birthday to both of you, and thank you so much for your heart and hustle in district eight in our community.

Wonderful.

Councilmara Plecky Bomb.

Thank you, AB123 report.

I traveled to Boston uh last week with the chamber to um look at uh opportunities uh not just for economic development but um uh to expand our theater district to expand our uh waterfront uh development to um look at uh expanding our uh museum offerings but in particular as I was talking about earlier to look at the emerald necklace uh and uh opportunities to expand the um uh parkway system along our rivers.

Uh I think there's a tremendous opportunity in that more to come.

Thank you.

Councilmare Kaplan.

Thank you.

I also have an AB 1234.

I went down to Long Beach for the California Cities Conference, where uh while uh getting an update on all the legal changes that have happened with our court systems.

I also uh explored some expanded city private partnerships and was formally sworn in as an at-large director for the League of California Cities Board of Directors for the next two years, and then this weekend on October 18th, we got a couple fun events.

Um, starting at 10, we have the high water jamboree.

So if anybody is interested in what DOU flood city partnerships do, bring your kids out, kids can also get on the big machinery and check it out.

But we also have at the Aquatic Center a little later in the day a pumpkin bob for which you can get tickets to come bob for your your pumpkin and enjoy some fun stuff, and then because we don't um, and then uh the weekend after that, we have our D1 Autumn Festival, which you can come out, get your pumpkins, and we're gonna have a huge trunk retreat.

Last year we had approximately 1,500 people come out.

We've got more people participating, so we're ready for you to come out and enjoy the the autumn festival at the North Natomas Regional Park.

Plus, Kaiser will be joining us to give free flu shots to all who want that.

So come join us, Councilmember Jenny.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Uh it's time for the Fairy Tale Town 39th annual Safe and Super Halloween.

Safe and Super Halloween.

So we want you to join us at the Ferry Town, the corner of Fairy Tale Town.

It will be bursting with interactive activities throughout the park.

Save the dates of October the 17th, 18th, and 19th from 5 to 9 p.m.

Tickets are available at FairyTale Town.org or through the Instagram and Facebook pages.

It will be an unforgettable evening where magic and mischief mischief come to life at every single corner.

So make sure that you put that on your calendar and get on out there and have a great time.

And then also the Lake Crest Village Halloween party is taking place.

Want you to join us for a spectacular evening of family fun at the Lake Crest Village Halloween party.

You can bring your little ghouls and goblins for evening full of treats, entertainment, and festive activities.

Costumes are highly encouraged.

The event will take place Friday, October the 24th, from 4 30 to 6 30 at the Nugget Parking lot on the corner of 1040 Florent Road in the Pocket Green Haven neighborhood.

So put it on your calendar for a spectacular evening of fun.

Councilmember Jennings, I think if there was like a television show to hire to do announcements, I think you could be hired and have a second gig.

Great announcements.

Councilmember Dickinson.

Thanks much, Mary.

Three uh three quick things and then one little shout out.

Tomorrow night I'll be hosting a town town hall from 6 to 7 30, and it's a resource fair.

Matt, are you going to be there?

But your staff's all going to be there.

We're going to have uh we're gonna have uh representatives of uh uh virtually every city department there to answer questions and take comments.

And uh I know Ryan can't wait for it.

So uh that's from 6 to 7 30 at the Hagenwood Community Center.

We look for everybody to come join us uh this coming Saturday.

Uh Community Healthworks is sponsoring a free health and resource fair uh from 10 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

at Grant uh High School.

You can get flu shots, you can get health and dental screenings, you can get health coverage enrollment for Covered California in Medicare.

You can get free fruits and vegetables, you can get housing resources and much much more.

So uh that's a great opportunity for everybody in the community to come join us.

Uh it's gonna be a beautiful day, and we're gonna have a great time.

Uh, I also just wanted to mention that uh Golden One is hosting a uh number of financial wellness workshops at the uh Golden One Financial Resource Center, which is in the Urban League uh building at 3724, excuse me, 25 Marysville uh Boulevard.

Uh they are um on the uh tomorrow.

There's one at the 21st to 23rd, the 27th, the uh 31st.

Um, and so they are a great opportunity to get basic financial uh health and wellness information on uh uh on your condition uh from uh from golden one.

For more information, you can you can email Financial Wellness at golden one dot com.

Uh or you can call 877 465 3361, extension 37-10.

So play this back slowly and you'll get that number.

Uh and then finally, just a shout out to Xavier Cardinus of my staff who is celebrating his birthday today.

Sounds like a lot of birthdays today.

Um, okay, and then moving along, uh, Mayor Pro Tem Gera.

Thank you very much.

Uh a few announcements here.

The annual College Glen Neighborhood Association will be uh at Station 60 in its traditional location at 6 30 this Thursday.

Um we'll hope to see you there at Station 60 behind the Rayleigh's off of Fulson Boulevard.

Uh, also want to start off with Saturday.

Saturday's a busy day at 9 a.m.

We have uh the American River Parkway Foundation will be doing its American uh parkway cleanup starting at 9 a.m., meeting at the Guy West Bridge.

Uh and then um you could go to St.

Rose's Church at Franklin Boulevard after this in the afternoon at 3 o'clock of the lineup for the Bishop Cruise, uh recognizing and remembering the late Bishop and uh Aga Jegos uh with uh a number of the Lowrider Cruise um Lowrider car clubs.

Uh after that, you can head over to the uh Touchstone Brewery to support the Sacrament Area Bike Association for the annual Velo Ball as well.

So cruise and cruise on a on four wheels or two wheels, or three wheels too, you know, three-wheel motion or three wheels on a trike, you know, whichever one you want to do on a Saturday.

Uh and then finally uh on Monday uh is the monthly meeting for uh Tower Park Neighborhood Association.

It was supposed to be yesterday, but uh in recognition of Indigenous People's Day, they've moved it to uh the following Monday, which is this Monday, it'll be an online meeting at 7 p.m.

And uh with that, thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you so much.

And then I have the Thelma Park grand opening on Saturday morning.

Really excited, so really, really tiny small pocket park, but it's been 20 years in the making.

Um, and then Harvest Harmony with Trustee Samiti Meta from Natomas uh Unified Um at Witter Ranch, and then I have an AB1234 reports, just like Councilmember Kaplan.

I went to Long Beach for the League of Cities, and it's just so nice to network to build stronger relationships with other elected officials and city staff, um, and just learn what other jurisdictions are doing uh to you know increase their economy.

And we have two public comments and then we'll do an adjourn in memory.

Thank you.

I have three now.

John Jew, Kyle Williams, and Amit Soto.

Um, thank you again for another opportunity to speak.

Um I would like I'm a 35-year pocket resident, and I give Rick Jennings so much credit for what a what a great place to live.

Thank you very much, Rick.

Done a tremendous job for all of us residents.

Very much appreciated.

Um, what I would like to do is talk about the most pressing thing in why our government is shut down right now, as serious as it gets right now.

It's all about health care, it's all about our health care, it's all about business owners.

Uh Rick, I would like you to, I love what you said.

Deputize every single single council member here to see what we can do to save each come up with five business owners, and I would like to see how much who could save them the most money on their health care costs, as well as who could raise the most who could have the most many many people to actually get health care because it's affordable with what I have to offer.

And Dennis actually knows all about that.

And I think he endorses it.

And I would love, right?

I would love to get it out there and get this thing going to each business owner.

So I'm gonna really read real quickly.

Oh, geez.

Uh the problem, poor health and financial stability, Sacramento mirrors the nation's health and financial struggles, skyrocketing premiums, declining wellness, and an over reliance on profit-driven systems.

This is dependency has created what we call insurism, a mindset where people give up responsibility for their health to external entities that profit from sickness.

The result?

A community weighed down by chronic illness, debt, and loss of hope.

And we can fix that.

We can fix that.

The solution.

I have the solution.

Dennis knows about it.

Um Rick wasn't there, but I think you know we can talk about it further.

But I would love you to deputize everybody and have a contest, and we see how much money we can save.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments.

Kyle Williams, then Amrit.

Well done.

How long ago did you get started on that?

Wow.

Very cool.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Fifty years though.

Wow.

Uh, thank you all very much for your service.

As much as sometimes it frustrates the heck out of me how long things take, you do serve.

Where a lot of people just point, bitch, and complain.

Point bitch and complain in the city.

And here and there.

A lot of us are guilty of it, right?

Um, anyway, I look forward to people getting more involved.

So again, thank you for your involvement.

You're involved.

I don't know if you're doing it as quick as I'd like to see it.

Our independently run federal government has initiated world peace in less than a year.

Wow.

Today's Charlie Kirk Day, by the way.

You're supposed to wear red.

I didn't see any red shirts in here.

Probably tells me there's not many independents and Republicans still in this room.

All Democrats up here.

I like everybody.

My mother's a Democrat, I think.

I think she's independent now, actually.

Most you know most of the countries registered independent, right?

43% of the countries registered independent.

Largest party by far.

Not even close.

But your manipulative I call them the old fart parties.

Democrats and Republicans.

They don't tell you the largest party in America's the Independent Party.

They're still manipulating us.

So anyway, um, let's see.

What did I wanted to say today?

Two minutes.

Do you how do you how impossible it is to have a significant something to say in two minutes?

Do you guys ever admit you're wrong?

Remember that time I said that the other little bit?

Do you guys get just two minutes for your comments?

Would you admit maybe that's wrong to go from three minutes when I first started doing this down to two minutes?

Thank you for your comments.

Um, Reed is our final speaker this evening, and we promise youth commission meetings are not this long.

It's okay, no, you're fine.

I really enjoyed actually being here today.

Just to reintroduce myself, my name is Amrit Sehotha.

I am going to be Sacramento Youth Commission CS, and I just wanted to come up here and let you guys know that today's meeting really inspired me.

I don't know why I initially stayed in that seat.

I could have left after my initial public comment, but something kept me here, and I'm really grateful that I did stay just to watch all of you guys talk and see the work that you guys do.

It may seem insignificant, but this meeting really made me realize that there are so many factors that go into keeping our city running, keeping our city safe, and keeping our city a place that people would want to stay and people will want to call home.

I know initially there were some jitters.

This is my first kind of introduction to government.

And I find it really wonderful that the Sacramento Youth Commission is a thing in the first place.

And I just wanted to say that even though you guys may receive countless complaints, I've or countless praise.

I just want to let you know that the work that you do is valuable.

It may not mean much for me, coming from someone who is right now not much.

Hopefully in the future I'll be bigger.

But I just wanted to let you all know that I see you guys, I see the work that you're doing.

And that was all that I had for this public comment.

It's kind of spontaneous, but just seeing this made me really like passionate and really made me look forward to the work that I may be doing.

And to mention, I don't, the wearing red thing is a coincidence.

I don't want to accidentally align myself with something that may or may not be controversial.

However, again, referring back to my initial statement, I believe that we are all equal.

I believe that we all had the right in the.

Oh, the person left.

But I wanted to let them know that I also believe that they had the right to say their opinion, and I support them in that.

Thank you.

I can't wait to see you.

Fabulous.

Good job.

And congratulations on your appointment.

You're gonna make a big difference.

Um and so now uh we're gonna like to adjourn in memory tonight in honor of nurse Susie Susan Susie Smith of Reach Air Medical Services, who passed away due to injury sustained in the helicopter crash last week.

Uh Susie spent 50 years as a nurse and 21 as a fight nurse with Reach and was devoted to saving lives.

Our hearts go out to her loved ones.

She has been returned home to Palo Sidro, where she may rest in peace.

We are adjourned at 6:41.