I don't know anybody's sorry.

Okay.

All right.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you so much for joining us today at City Council.

Clerk, please call the role.

It's 5 02.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kaplan will be absent this evening.

I expect Councilmember Dickinson and Flecky Bomb momentarily.

Councilmember Maple.

Mayor Pro Tem Gara.

Council Member Jennings.

Here.

Council Member Vang.

Here.

I expect Mayor McCarty momentarily and Vice Mayor Talantes.

Here.

You have a form.

Wonderful.

Councilmember Maple.

Will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance in Latin landed land?

Please stand if you are able.

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

The original people of this land, the Nissanan people, the Southern Maidu, Balian Plains Miwok, Patuantub peoples, and the people of the Wilton Riveria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

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

Remain standing, salute and pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all of us.

Thank you so much, Councilmember.

Welcome to the dais.

Do we have report out?

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

During closed session, the City Council unanimously appointed Jody Johnson as the acting director of the Office of Public Safety Accountability, Effective Immediately.

Councilmember Kaplan was absent.

Okay, congratulations to him.

Next up, we have two separate resolutions.

We're gonna start off with Hindu American Awareness Appreciation Month.

So I'm honored to join my colleagues in recognizing October as Hindu Heritage and Awareness Month in the city of Sacramento.

This month we celebrate the Hindu American community whose faith, traditions, and contributions strengthen our community.

Sacramento takes great pride in being diverse and an inclusive city.

The Hindu community embodies values of knowledge, compassion, service, and unity, which continue to uplift our neighborhood and enrich our civic lives.

On behalf of the city council, we're so excited to designate October 2025 as Hindu Heritage and Awareness Month.

And I'm gonna pass it on to my colleague, Council Mayor.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you so much.

Um it's an honor to join Vice Mayor Talamantes and my colleagues one to recognize Hindu American awareness.

I think at a time when so many of our communities of color are under attack across this country.

Uh, it is our duty as public servants to make sure that we not only stand in solidarity, but to use this moment to pause and really center and uplift all of our diverse communities.

And so just proud to join Vice Mayor Talamantes again to honor what makes our community beautiful and strong, and that's the people.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for the other.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, I also want to, you know, uh thank you for uh introducing this.

I've had the opportunity to introduce it in years past.

Uh and it's just a great recognition of how much the community have been educators fought in our armed forces, our business leaders, civic leaders, uh, and uh in ensuring that we are all representing each other here as well and uplifting the community.

We're excited about it, and again, uh uh thank you for being here and a big round of applause for the all the community members who came out today.

And to receive this presentation is Sandeep Shet Shaykh.

Welcome to the podium.

Okay, very good evening to honorable vice mayor, esteemed council members, distinguished uh guests, and friends.

On behalf of the Hindu community and the harmic organizations of the Greater Sacramento, I would like to express my profound and sincere gratitude for officially recognizing October as Hindu awareness, Hindu American awareness and acquisition month.

This proclamation is a meaningful acknowledgement of the contribution of many Hindu Americans in many many walks of the life, playing an important part in making Sacramento a culturally diverse, vibrant, and thriving city.

This uh recognition arrives at an opportunity time, a special time when we gather over here to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights.

So this spirit of Diwali is captured perfectly in this timeless verse of ancient Upanishadas.

This is a universal prayer, which means leaders from ignorance to knowledge and wisdom, from darkness to light.

It is a powerful call for triumph of hope over despair and for triumph of good over evil.

This prayer goes hand in hand, hand in hand with our called principle of our dharma, which is our way of life, which is the principle is seva or selfless service, which is uh which is as I mentioned heart of heart of our dharma.

We are guided by the motto of Nar Seva is Nara and Seva, which means service to humanity is uh service to divinity.

So uh so we put this practice, uh this principle into practice through a national initiative called Seva Diwali, so where uh where the spirit of giving is amplified into a powerful force for good.

This project unites thousands of volunteers across the nation.

So the volunteers, they are Hindus, giants, buddhists, six organizations who fight against the food insecurity, uh insecurity in the local communities.

We collect canned goods, warm clothing, and uh and share it with food banks as well as shelters, ensuring the light of Diwali reaches who the who need it the most.

The result of this effort is really amazing.

Last year there were almost 3,000 volunteers across 200 cities, 38 states, so we collected more than 700,000 pounds of food and donated to the uh various uh communities.

So uh, you know, in all there are more than two hundred and forty seven organizations which were involved in collecting these goods, and we donated to almost two three hundred and sixty-six local pantries and shelters.

So these numbers don't just represent our donations, they represent our connections, compassion, and the incredible power of community united in the service.

Ultimately, this proclamation serves as a bridge of understanding, testament of our partnership, symbol of our shared aspirations for a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous sacrament.

Thank you, Namaste, and a very happy Diwali to all of you.

Thank you so much.

And if we can get you to come up here, we're gonna take a group photo.

I can get my council colleagues to join me down there.

We need the young ones in here too.

Do we get everyone to just lay squeeze in?

Squeeze, and I have sentences.

I don't think you remember that.

Thank you.

Yes.

I think we might have to do it.

Yes, of course.

If you join what's left, thank you.

How are you?

Okay.

And then next up we have another resolution.

This one's recognizing Diwali appreciation.

As you know, the state of California declared it a holiday, and we got a lot of requests from the community to for it to be heard here at council.

So we said absolutely.

So I'm honored to join my colleagues in celebration of Diwali, also known as Diwali, one of the most important cherished festivals for millions around the world, including many here in Sacramento.

Diwali, meaning a row of lights, symbolizes a victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.

A message that continues to inspire hope, renewal, and unity in communities across our city.

So thank you so much.

And Councilman Rang, would you like to say any words?

Yeah, thank you so much.

I also am proud to join Vice Mayor Talamantes in recognizing uh Diwali as well.

Um, and so uh such a beautiful holiday.

And then it was also brought to my attention that there are members of the South Asian community from our Sikh community that's also celebrating um Bandi Shore D as well.

And so just wanted to um hold space for both of these holidays just to talk about the shared powerful themes uh that they both have in terms of uh light over darkness, freedom and unity.

Um, and I think that these recognitions really reflect the values that we strive to uphold as a city when we talk about inclusivity, when we talk about equity and cultural recognition and belonging.

And so thank you so much, uh Vice Mayor Talamantes for bringing this forth.

Wonderful.

And here to accept the resolution is Nethomas Unified School District Trustee Samidi Meta.

I think we had a oh Mayor Potem Garrett.

No, you you beat me to the punch.

I failed to recognize when I mentioned civic leaders that we had our local elected trustee in the room.

But you you uh you uh cleared up the room here, so wonderful.

Big round of applause for our school board members who meeting as a trustee.

Thank you.

Uh everybody has talked a lot about Diwali, so I'm not gonna go into details about Diwali.

And uh Councilmember Wang was absolutely right.

Diwali celebrated among so many cultures and religions in in not just in India, but in Malaysia and Burma as well.

And uh there are a lot of cultures and Sikh community uh celebrates as Bandhi Tor Davas and Diwali, they light candles at the Sikh Temple.

Hindus go to their temples and they have their prayers and pujas as well to do.

And we have different things in uh Nagwing.

Uh I don't know how many of you have seen um Weissmare and uh I have Weismere had sponsored an event where we were uh at the Witter Ranch Park.

It got featured in Sacramento B.

So I'm thankful for you.

I'm thankful to Sati Ruperai, who's going to be here, but she's the vice president of the Sikh community, uh Sikh Heritage as well.

So glad that you could do that and have uh all the communities come together.

It's uh I will just read what was uh written in the article in SACP, that we think as Indian family feels close to those traditions, and they uh and they want their kids to learn those traditions, and it can only be kept alive if we keep bringing them in our homes and keep celebrating with all of you.

With saying that, I also have Diwali Dias for each one of you.

So please let me know if you can if I can bring it right now and give it to all of you for keeping it on your tables.

Okay, wonderful.

Thank you so much, trusty meta, and sorry guys, we're gonna go down there one more time, take a good photo.

Um with trusty meta.

I tried to make it.

I think we have to go to the video.

Maybe give it to the right.

We have 7500.

Oh, wow.

So we can make a speaker.

Yes.

I know you want to make one.

Yeah, I know you want to see one.

I don't want to go to the order.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, that's perfect.

I have the leadership.

I do love that.

You called this.

Supervision relatively people.

Okay.

Okay.

We're going to try to be a good question.

I think this one would take out.

Okay.

Okay.

I think that's what I'm saying.

Oh.

Oh, yummy.

Thank you so much.

I don't want to be active.

Okay.

No.

Okay.

And then Kevin, just for this last one, only us go down there and everybody else wants to stay up there.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Happy Bivali.

Okay.

And then the last resolution that we have for day today is recognizing digital inclusion week.

Um thanks to our city department.

We have now distributed over 4,000 laptops, 2,400 hop spots, 240 tablets to residents and students.

We've delivered digital literacy training to more than 300 residents across Title One schools.

We've hosted STEM workshops that have engaged over 800 Sacramento Area children and families.

And probably the biggest accomplishment from IT department is we received 38.7 million dollars in last mile connectivity project, which is now underway and that will extend high-speed fiber internet to 2,700 underserved locations, benefiting more than 43,000 residents, 93% of whom live in low-income areas.

I think that digital equity is something that was truly highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we need to make sure that kids can get connected to the internet for homework, for life.

Everything that we do is so technology dependent, and our role in government is to make sure that people can get connected at the speed that they need in order to do their homework or to be able to learn.

So to present here for the city of Sacramento, we have uh Navy Hundall from the Valley Vision and Natasha Greyer from the City of Sacramento.

You guys can both come to the podium.

And I'm a program specialist in the city's IT department.

Our director, Darren Arcolino, is out of town this week, but he asked me to share a few words on his behalf.

First, I want to thank Vice Mayor Talamantes for always being a strong champion for digital equity in our city.

You've helped make digital access a cornerstone of equity in Sacramento, and we appreciate that.

Digital Inclusion Week is a time to raise awareness and promote action for digital equity solutions.

For us, it's also a time to celebrate the progress that we've already made in closing the digital divide.

And here in Sacramento, we have a lot to be proud of.

Over the past decade, the IT department has led several initiatives to address the digital inequities that exist.

I was personally honored to lead the project that brought free Wi-Fi to our parks and distributed thousands of laptops and hotspots to Sacramento residents.

We also partnered with local organizations to help families, seniors, and students get connected.

For many of us in IT, our work happens behind the scenes, supporting departments that directly serve our community.

But these digital equity initiatives remind us that our work has direct and deep human impact.

It's incredibly rewarding to see how technology access can access can change lives, helping a student complete their education, a family apply for jobs, or a senior to say stay safe online.

This year's digital inclusion week theme is community driven digital futures.

And I'd like to share a short note from one of the Sacramento State students who received a technology kit from our digital equity event a few months ago.

Dear City of Sacramento, thank you for this generous donation that you all have gifted to us.

I look around and see the smiles of everyone who received laptops and hotspots, and I just know you made a positive difference in their lives.

I, for one, will definitely be using these gifts for a long time.

My laptop that I used to have was really slow and overall unreliable.

So I'm glad to finally have something reliable that I can use for work and school.

I also don't have reliable Wi-Fi whenever I'm outside of school, which can make it a challenge to get all my work done on time.

Thanks to the city of Sacramento, I won't have to worry about that anymore.

You all have made a huge impact on my life because I will never be more, I will be more productive now than ever.

Thank you.

That message captures exactly why this work matters.

Ensuring that every Sacramentan, no matter their zip code, has the tools to connect, learn, and thrive in our digital world.

Thank you.

I would like to say thank you to Vice Mayor Talamantes for bringing forward this resolution and council members for your approval.

The city first passed a resolution launching National Digital Inclusion Week in October 2019.

Now, six years forward, Digital Inclusion Week continues to celebrate the partnerships and commitments essential to delivering digital inclusion programs and resources throughout our community.

For Sacramento residents and beyond, these efforts ensure residents have the ability to access basic needs, job opportunities, educational pursuits, and other services improving quality of life.

Valley Vision is honored to speak on behalf of our partners and highlight active projects within Sacramento.

These include the Capital Region Coalition for Digital Inclusion, which was developed in 2019 through several partnerships, including the City of Sacramento and the Sacramento Public Library, as well as investments from the region's workforce boards.

The work of the coalition identified digital skills training and affordable internet access as a priorities for addressing our region's digital divide.

Currently, Valivision supports two digital navigator programs, the Connecting Minorities Pilot Program, led by Sacramento State to serve residents of Lemon Hill, and to date has delivered digital skills training to over 3,000 participants.

This also includes the AB 617 Communities Empowerment Initiative led by the California Emerging Technology Fund to deliver digital skills training and low-cost internet enrollment support through the CTF call center, which is available to all Sacramento residents in several languages.

It is through the strength of our partnerships that we're able to impact our communities for the better.

Thank you to City Council for bringing this resolution forward.

Thank you.

All right, and if I just get the mayor to come down there with me and take a photo.

Thank you.

One more for me.

There you go.

So we now move to the consent calendar.

I have three speakers on the consent calendar.

Are there any council members that wish to make comments or poll any items?

Councilmember Maple.

Quick question on number six and then comments on twelve, please.

Mayor Pro Temgetta.

Brief comments on 26.

Thank you.

Okay, let's go back to Councilmember Maple on six and then twelve.

Yeah, and then this is a good Brian Pedro question.

Sorry to cut you off guard.

Um, I was reading through the uh this agreement.

Um, and my my question is it states here that uh this additional one million four hundred and fourteen thousand two hundred and seventeen dollars um is due to unforeseen facility repair costs, staffing costs, and inflation.

So do we expect uh any of these to continue on past this time, or is this just truly a one time we didn't see these expenses coming?

Yes, this is the final closeout of Xtree from uh the contract coming over from SHRA to us.

Okay, so this is the final payout.

Awesome.

Under your your wonderful leadership and very efficient.

Okay, thank you.

Um, and then do you want me to move on to 12?

Okay, and then on item 12.

I'm really excited.

I want to um give a shout out to our incredible staff from the public works department and for always thinking big about Sacramento and how we can be even more connected.

Um, and then as a representative on SACOG along with my colleague Council More Jennings here, I'm really excited to see these projects be recommended um through the SACOM process, including Envision Broadway in my district, which um is in sorrow.

Sorely in need of the remainder of the funding here.

So I'm hopeful that we can shepherd this through and just want to thank the staff.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatta on item 26.

Thank you very much.

Um, I would I wanted to thank uh you know both the public work staff and also uh a shout out here to our uh council member and vice chair of the library authority.

Uh Councilmember Maple.

I appreciate their due diligence and um in uh looking doing everything they can to get our beloved Colonial Heights Library back up and running.

It's been over a year that uh tragic uh fire in July of 2024 that uh has uh left us without a library and both uh not only in district five uh uh but district six as well.

And uh, you know, one of the things that the library is, is more than just books.

Uh, and um more uh visible than not, it's been our vote center, and unfortunately, we won't have a vote center in that area.

I do want to thank our uh Oak Park Community Center for being a nearby vote center for those.

But it's just a reminder how much uh our libraries are uh such a significant community location, and uh I do appreciate the fact that both Chair Brewer and Vice Chair Maple of the Library Authority are working to help us get this moving as soon as we can.

With that, I know the issue is not controversial, much more uh uh procedural, but it's uh one that's an important one for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have three.

With that, Madam Clerk, I'll go ahead and Mr.

Mayor, I'll move consent.

One second.

Thank you.

I have three speakers on consent.

The first is Lambert on item nine, then Lynn Lindsay on item 28 and Edith Backer on item 28.

Number nine, and I I hope that the entire rostrum pays attention because this is very important when you are a business owner and you see uh suspend competitive bidding.

There's been uh terrible uh history of whenever you don't have competitive bidding, it could be what's called bid rigging and bid pedaling.

Now, if you don't understand what those are uh that's a very cruel practice because you can submit a bid that's sealed, and they can rig it by opening it up behind the scenes and say, okay, this is the one we're going with, and you never know.

So this is a bad precedent.

And when I studied the millennials who keep me informed, they told me that uh let's look at the report.

So I went and looked at the report, and you're not supposed to uh suspend competitive bidding if it's 250,000.

They don't really say how much this is, but if it's with the soccer stadium, that's millions of dollars you're talking about.

And it did have a clause for the city that said if you vote two-thirds, you can override that.

That's a uh terrible precedent because as a cheesecake company, I would like to get no big contracts.

Walk into the room and say, okay, you give me the contract, I supply you with this, we sign like that.

That's not fair.

It's not fair at all.

And if it is fair, then start giving us uh no bid contracts.

And I bet you we'll meet the demand.

Then Edith.

Uh good evening, Mayor and members of the city council.

My name is Lynn Lindsay.

I come before you tonight as a Notomas resident, a 23-year resident of Westlake, where this proposed project will be will impact the South Industrial Warehouse Project.

As you know, the North and Thomas Community Plan was first adopted by the city council in 1994.

I have the original plan here.

In the late 1990s, the city said, please come and live here.

And here is a plan for your quality of life.

The plan embodied a new direction, provided a vision, blueprint for future.

There have been several updates, however, the principles of growth in the plan have not changed.

There is nowhere in the plan that calls for six million square feet of warehouses in residential neighborhoods.

The North and Thomas Kennedy plan is a refinement of the goals and objectives of the general plan.

And I don't see anywhere in the city's general plan where warehouses are being proposed to be built near residential neighborhoods and schools.

The city has pivoted netomas greatly from the plan.

However, I don't see any pivots from development plans in the rail yards, R Street Corridor, Aggie Square, Township 9, the Bridge District, Delta Shores.

This is just poor planning.

How does six million square feet of warehouse out your front door equate to quality of life?

The key responsibilities of our city council is to prioritize the public good, set values for quality of life, and separate incompatible land uses.

Thank you for listening.

Your comments, Edith, on item 28.

Thank you for your time.

I am also a neighbor of the Airport South Industrial Project and a member of volunteer of ECOS.

Thank you for planning an information session on this project in November and a vote in December, which gives the community better more time to participate and also to read the 911-page document that you're going to be voting on later today.

Airport South Industrial is two and a half miles by one mile.

This year on that land, tomatoes were harvested, as was hay.

I've gone out in that area, bird watching several times and seen 40 species of different birds, different birds, not just 40 birds, and coyotes.

I mean, it was fabulous.

And one day, chasing a tractor, I saw 11 Swainson's hawks and nearby a fledgling and an adult.

In other words, this is not just a piece of dirt.

This is an ecosystem where a lot is going on that's important.

ECOS has submitted to you questions.

We hope you'll uh read them and address them on the November at the November 18th meeting.

I realize some may be addressed in the 900-page document, but I just wanted to.

We wanted to get those questions out there.

Our concerns center on the what will happen to the Notomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan as a result of this project.

We also have questions about the need for more warehouses in this location.

Is there possibly another location that would work?

And how much of the business that will be in the airport.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

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

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll have plenty of uh opportunities for ample debate on this topic in the coming weeks.

Thank you.

With that, we have we have a motion and a second.

Uh yes.

All those in favor, he saw it.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

He knows your abstentions, one absence.

Kaplan.

Mayor we now move to public hearing.

Item number 29 is temporary street closure time extensions of 112 alleys streets.

Good evening, our distinguished council members.

My name is Thomas Adams with the Engineering Service Division section of the Department of Public Works.

The item you have before you is a request for the time extension of 12 and 100 112 temporary street closures for the alleys and the streets that are actively closed.

The 112 temporary closures exist within seven of the eight council districts and are listed with this report, which have which has been previously approved to secure these public alleys and streets with security gates and ballards as a means to assist preventing persistent, preventing occurrence and reoccurrence of serious criminal activity to keep the and maintain these existing security gates and ballers as part of the temporary closures.

An 18-month time extension is being requested at this time for California Vehicle Code Section 21101.4 in Sacramento City Code 12.16.

An 18 month time extension for the temporary closure of public streets can be granted with city council's approval.

We ask at this time, we ask at this time a time extension request be retroactive approved as of October 9, 2025.

Approval of this temporary closure, time extension will keep the security gates and ballers in place and still allow the adjacent property owners and residents continue to access the city's public works staff, the police department, fire department, and transportation division all support this time extension for temporary closures to help deter criminal activity for another additional 18 months.

That concludes my presentation.

I may answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you.

I have no public comment on this item.

Council McGuerra.

Thank you, Mayor.

I know a lot of these are in District 6, and so we'll with that.

I'll go ahead and open and close the public hearing and move the item.

Okay.

Motion is second.

All is in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

No, sir.

None.

Thank you.

Measure passes eight zero.

We now move to item 30 on the discussion calendar, city attorney recruitment process and next steps.

Mayor.

Yes, Councilmember Jennings.

If I may, I'd like to introduce the item.

Yes.

Uh tonight we will hear from our consultant with CPSHR on the process and timeline for the city attorney recruitment.

Pam has already met and spoken with the mayor and the full city council.

Her presentation tonight will include a recap of those conversations, the candidate profile, the outreach plan, marketing brochure, and timeline.

As indicated in the staff report, we had a salary survey completed in connection with this effort, and the recommendation is to leave the salary range for the city attorney as is.

I am hopeful that we will have the next city attorney identified by the end of January 2026.

I want to take a moment to thank Shelley, Ebony, and Jennifer from our HR department for their guidance and support.

It is my pleasure at this opportunity and at this time to present to some and introduce to others, none other than our consultant, Pam Derby.

Hey, Mr.

Walker's law.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Good evening, Mayor, Council.

Do you have my PowerPoint?

Great, thank you.

Uh so yes.

Uh we started this process talking to all of you about three weeks ago.

Um, obviously, we were starting this as we were ending the city manager search.

Um, but what we have done, uh, we're gonna talk about tonight.

As we know, I'm very bad at this.

Um, is what engagement we're going to do.

What we've done, um, the recruitment brochure, and the recruitment timeline.

So uh for engagement, we have spoken with each of you individually about what you're looking for in this the next city attorney.

Um we are going to deploy deploy an online survey as we did with city manager search, uh, that will be open to all members of the public, staff, etc.

Um, that will run the entirety of the open process for the city attorney search, and then we will gather all of that information so that the council may use it to uh for your questions of the city attorney candidates, etc.

Yes.

Okay.

With the feedback that we received from all of you, we have created a uh brochure that I believe was disseminated to you last week.

Um, and what we need now is for the city council to give us any input and approve the brochure so that we can go live.

We anticipate that to be tomorrow or the first part of next week.

Uh so tonight you would approve the brochure.

Our recruitment period would be active until November 24th, right before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Uh the online survey would be active during that entire time period.

Uh we would be doing our screening interviews the week of December 1st, and then we have time scheduled on December 9th with the council to talk about the candidate pool.

Um, and then we anticipate all selection processes with the council would happen in January of 2026.

So at this time, I will take any questions.

Uh obviously, what we're really excited about is um hearing any input on the recruitment brochure so that we can get this recruitment live.

One speaker.

I have one speaker on this item.

Should we take that now?

Yes, please.

Thank you, Lambert.

I think we need to encourage Mr.

Davis to sit closer to the front.

The question should be why would I come here about the city attorney?

Well, the one that just left was a wonderful person.

Her name was Susanna Wood.

Uh not only did she come to Grant High School, I thought she would have been here today to, but she's probably gone to San Jose.

But uh, not only did she come to Grant High School, but they were inspired by her because obviously she's a woman, lawyer, and from LA.

Lot of LA roots at Grant High School, a lot of LA roots, and um I just got back in town and they they told me that they were doing a recruitment.

So the the lady who just came up here, you got a tall task to replace her.

She was a person with tremendous integrity, she deserves whatever's going on in San Jose, and uh somebody in my family told me that when she was here, she spoke, she she used my name when she was talking about Minty Cuppy, and uh my family showed it to me, and what she said was true, which is uh you should recognize a person that uh is at almost every meeting I go to, and I go to a lot of commission meetings, and she was in the pen, she was in the uh chamber during the pandemic, and uh a person with that kind of integrity uh should not only be on hiatus because a lot of people are working remotely that were not in the chamber during pandemic, and a lot of the people who were at home broken remotely didn't know how to use this.

They must have been baby boomers, but uh shout out to uh Susanna Wood and also Minty Cup.

Okay, thank you.

We have no more public comments, questions or comments from council members.

Uh no, thank you.

Just again, thank you to our P and P committee chair for overseeing uh this as well as other imports and uh executive searches.

We're keeping you busy, and most importantly, uh moving the city forward.

And I know we're um ably served in the interim by our interim city attorney, and thank you for your work and uh we look forward to this process.

I'll make this item.

Okay, we have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

And those are abstentions.

Eight zero, one absence.

You have council member plucky bomb and Kaplan absent.

Oh, it's it'll go.

Next item.

Uh, the next item is the item 31, city county Partnership agreement to address homeless crisis update.

All right, uh good evening, Mayor Council.

Uh Brian Peter, Director of Department of Community Response.

Uh tonight uh we are bringing forward the uh six-month report, the update for the period of January uh from January 2025 to June of 2025, and it is the uh city-county partnership update, and I want to start by thanking the county who has uh come to sit and uh help us get through this and answer any questions that you may have.

All right, so uh we are almost three years into this agreement, and um as you can see from the uh picture the excitement on our uh electives and our executive staff when we were bringing this forward um as we announced the partnership agreement uh it has been a uh in my eyes, it has been a successful agreement.

Uh when we uh the objective of this was to coordinate efforts and resources to address homelessness through increased shelter capacity, uh enhanced outreach, uh behavioral health services, and a unified strategy.

And also the agreement formalizes the roles and responsibilities to better serve our unhoused individuals.

But there were some other things that were in that.

So it was to build and scale a countywide coordinated access system.

Uh it was to uh ensure current and new emergency shelter interim housing, uh increase our permanent supportive housing, expand prevention and diversion, and uh invest in community capacity building training.

And we also adopted the LHAP, which ended up being the RCAP and then version two of the RCAP, and um, and then to add adequate uh mental health and substance use services.

So there is actually a lot in this agreement that uh is much more expansive than I think people can uh appreciate.

Um so in our breakout of this, we've done this for uh uh for the past uh two and a half years anyway.

Uh we have broken out into uh sections.

The first section is outreach, and as you can see by the green dots, that uh we have fulfilled all the requirements in this uh portion of the of the agreement.

And so this uh essentially outlines uh our daily response to um our homelessness, uh, where what staff is needed, uh makeup of the staff, where they would be deployed, and um this is our pretty much our daily response to engage with our homeless community and make connections and uh this is something that we do very well, and uh obviously we have met uh all the expectations.

So for this period, we served uh 8,718 unique locations.

Um we provided 40,000 services to 2,738 unduplicated individuals.

So in a six-month period, we're essentially making contact with almost all of our unsheltered homelessness in the streets uh and the uh I think the uniqueness of this is that the locations so we're pretty consistent on that 2700 to 3,000 of out there making contact with individuals, unduplicated individuals.

Um what we saw an increase in is the unique locations.

Uh, I believe some of this is that since we have had the incident management team in place, uh the large encampments are now smaller, smaller encampments, and so we're going to more locations.

Um, and the fact that we had uh 40,84 services provided.

Um I think that's um about 40,000 reasons of argument against people aren't willing to accept services.

Um so I think that's the probably the significant thing to see on this slide is that uh we are out in the streets every day, and to show you uh what our staff makeup looks like of this is we have uh 16 uh NRCs from DCR that are out in the field.

Um we have a hope contract that has 13 outreach specialists.

Uh we have a contract with Step Up that is case carrying outreach workers.

We have the county behavioral health team, the heart team that is out with uh 12, and then 15 CalAM workers, which is uh currently community health works.

So that uh our agreement has uh we should have 50 out in the field.

We actually have 67 currently.

Uh I will say that the community health works calm agreement is ending in October.

Uh this was a um the project that was funded from um HIPAA funding.

Uh it's ending in October.

Um I know that uh the county and the city both have anticipated this, and we have uh both figured out a way to cover losing uh community health works CalAM funded.

This last piece on outreach that I want to show is the significant uh increase in how we are providing our street outreach and getting people into positive exit rates.

Um part of this is because we have awesome outreach staff that is making connections and getting people the services needed, and I believe part of this increase is because we have more to offer as we expand our shelters and other services that we are uh we have available.

The comparative data on the right is comparing Sacramento with Los Angeles, San Diego, and the national average.

So as you can see in 23, we were performing under the average, and we are now far surpassing uh other cities in positive exit rates, and when I say positive exit rates, that essentially getting people off the streets and into either a shelter or getting them back home and someplace off the street.

Uh the next category is services.

Uh and this essentially is that we still have our core drop-in centers opened.

We have our uh sobering centers, our outpatient treatment, uh FSPs, and um our um uh substance uh treatment centers, and attached to this is also our um behavioral health services that we have.

This is the homeless engagement and response team that's out in the field with this.

This is the county's heart team, and over this uh last six month period, their uh outreach contacts were 1,179.

Uh 73% of that uh is within the city of the outreach that's uh of the heart team's outreach, and uh than 26% is in the greater Sacramento County, and this has significantly changed.

Uh there uh back at the beginning there was uh more work and outreach in the county, and this uh is now obviously meeting the demands of the city's um homeless with behavioral health.

So one of the things that we changed in the last six months is the instead of just having our behavioral health in the outreach settings and trying to make those contacts in the outreach settings, we move them into our shelters uh where we have a more stable environment, and they can make contact with the individual in a place where they're in a more stable and not worried about surviving on the streets, and actually can talk to somebody and about their behavioral health concerns.

And uh with this, we are uh definitely seeing an upward trend in placement from this model.

Um this is the uh behavioral health assessments, and so what this shows is these are uh the heart team making assessments and determining if an individual needs to be referred for behavioral health.

And so within the city, we had 391 individuals, and uh as you can see the breakdown, so uh it's almost half and half right now, and like I said, we just shifted over to the shelter but our behavioral health are about half and half from the outreach setting and shelters and then um what I think that uh is not realized is that we also have the community based referrals and so this is someone picking up a phone call to call the county and say hey uh either I need service or my family member needs service and if that individual is in the city limits then heart team also manages that and so what I would say is that our heart team the 12 that we have on our staff are uh spread very thin between our outreach our shelters and covering these community-based referrals and that would be an area of my recommendation if possible to uh to beef that out this shows after we do the referrals of getting successful linkages so from that 391 that were assessed we ended up with 185 linkages again 71 from our outreach and 65 from our shelters and then 49 were from the community based referrals and uh if I'm trying to uh express this from the county's data and uh county if there's anything that uh you want to add or anything that I'm uh not uh providing please feel free to to add in on this and then the the uh other thing that I wanted to look at is outside of the heart team itself and looking at other ways that we can have behavioral health referrals so we have our core centers we have urgent care clinics and other referrals that are coming in so as you can see here this was 2,225 other referrals from 1500 individuals and so you have more referrals than in than individuals in both cases because some get referred to more than one service and uh in this what you'll notice is that um many of them here are from uh unsheltered we do have some in our shelters we have many that were unsheltered and then some in transitional housing and some in our bridge program I don't have data on the linkages on this because this is through a separate system that we don't have visibility on but if uh requested uh we could get that and then last thing I'll show is uh significance of the increase in our uh full service partnership and uh just to reiterate that uh FSP we've talked about FSPs many times uh this this can be housed unhoused or sheltered where you're in an FSP program it doesn't it's not synonymous that if you're an FSP you're housed with a full service provider and as you can see by what we have here most 73% of them are housed but we also have some in our shelters 14% and then we have 9% that are literally homeless but have a full service provider and then we have some that have a full service and are unknown where they are currently and then the other thing to note on this is that our contracted capacity is 3,071 and we are at 2,913 so we're close to capacity on FSPs being served right now in the shelter and housing we are also green again this is looking at making sure that we have uh shelter bed build out and shovel ready sites we have integration into our CAS, and then we obviously finalized our affordable housing plan a couple of years ago, and then we are constantly seeking uh more funding by uh grants uh HAP, ERF, and any other way that we can get funding for this.

What I want to show on our shelter and housing is the what I think are very impressive numbers.

Um, countywide shelters.

Currently, we have 2,865 shelter beds, and uh within the coming year another 810.

That'll give us a total of 3,678 shelter beds, and equally impressive is our affordable housing.

So we had 634 in 2023, 1,086 in 2024, and in development right now, we are in uh looking at 2,249.

So again, total of 3,969 PSH and affordable housing units.

So are those countywide shelter and affordable?

Are those city and unincorporated county combined?

City and county combined, combined.

So like for the shelter beds, it's almost half and half, right?

Shelters are we have like 1700, something like that.

Breakdown on this.

I have a breakdown on PSH.

We don't have a breakdown on shelter.

That's like everybody else.

Yes, we didn't know.

Yeah, I don't know about that.

Uh so you can keep you can go on.

It is about 5050.

Yeah, ballpark is about 50 50.

Yes, okay.

So we're um thank you.

Continue.

We're almost uh to four seventy-six hundred units that we've developed over the last three years, uh two years actually, which is an impressive rate that we're building out, despite uh everybody thinking we're not moving fast enough.

Um and then training information.

Uh this was just uh mental health first aid training, some public health educations, 5150 training.

Um, this we've had completed for a couple of years already, and we continue to uh keep the training current and complete.

Uh I wanted to show what all that work has done for us as a county.

We had the 29% decrease in overall homelessness in our pit count for 2024.

Um I think this uh well, I know that this number represents the largest decrease in big cities in California.

We had the largest increase, and uh I don't think that we took enough credit for our work and efforts that we did to decrease our counts.

Some of the things that we did to help with this decrease in that 29% drop is that we uh had our city county partnership agreement, we built out our CAS system, we expanded our capacity as you saw.

We did a street to housing program of 100 units, we built out our RCAP, we uh have our permanent supportive housing, we have a homeless management information system, we implemented the IMT, we uh had the 311 system up and running.

We have our full service partnerships, sobering centers, core wellness centers, uh weather respites, we identifying metrics and tools to be evaluated.

We have substance use disorder beds, inpatient outpatient, behavioral health, 988, crisis response teams, some of the overdose teams.

If all of that doesn't make a difference, I don't know what does, and uh I can tell you that I don't know how it's possible that our system is broken with this many things and the work that we've been doing and the numbers that we are putting on the board.

Um of uh some of this reading and running up to next week's meeting.

Uh I started looking back because we never get a chance to take a breath and look at our accomplishments and what we accomplished.

Um I did go back and I looked at the grand jury report and uh that grand jury report in 2022 or 2023.

Looking back at 2022, it beat us up pretty good on our pit and comparing us to other cities that uh have different programs in place at the time.

And so if we look at what the trends are in 2022, they were comparing us to uh Solano County, Riverside County, Orange County, all with decreased pits in 2022, and comparing that to our increase of 66% in Sacramento.

And if we fast forward with all the stuff that we've done and look at 2024, Solano, Riverside, and Orange County, Solano up 56%, Riverside up 27%, Orange County up 37%, and Sacramento decreased 29%.

I would say that our system seems to be the system to follow.

Some examples of looking back of what we used to see in 2022.

That picture was taken October 17th, 2025.

This was the infamous commerce circle that had over 200 RVs in it.

Currently, there are no RVs in it.

I know that the naysayers will say, Well, we just moved them around, you moved them somewhere else.

Uh it's uh whack-a-mole out there.

But here's the piece of that that doesn't make sense.

If we have the same number of people on the streets and we move them around, there will still be the same impacts.

They'll just be moved in different places.

We are seeing less numbers on the street.

We are seeing places that aren't repopulated after they've been cleared, and uh, I can tell you with great confidence that our numbers we have gotten people off the street, and we are continuing to get people off the street, and the real challenge I think moving forward is not our structure or our behavioral health or our caste system.

Uh it's it's going to be the challenge of how we keep the momentum going with our funding getting slimmer.

And I really um the number one strategy I really think moving forward is how we sustain our system and keep our uh our motivation and moving momentum on this.

Uh, sustainability is where we have to have our mind, and that's where I've been from day one of trying to not put the as the mayor says, the Cadillac system out there, but put the uh Honda Toyota that's going to be dependable and uh last for the long run.

Um and then the uh last thing I wanted to show you as I started digging through all of this uh and sleuthing out what we're spending versus our other cities that are equivalent to us and uh have a similar pit count to us.

Uh and it was an astounding um hooray for us that we are spending 51 million, which is well, that's a lot of money.

Uh, but you look at San Diego, that's uh their budget for uh homeless was 316 million, and San Jose is 236 million.

Um, as you can see in the small numbers there, the percentage of our total budget, because I'm sure people were gonna say, well, yeah, but what's that compared to your budget?

Um, and then I also looked at what percentage this is of their uh overall population of the city versus their homeless count, what that percentage is.

So for the city of Sacramento with a pit of 3,053 and a population of 500, a little over 526,000, we're at 0.6% of our population.

San Diego, San Diego has 1,384,000, a little over that.

They have a pit of 3,353 unsheltered, and uh they're at.23.

And then San Jose has just under a million population.

Um their PIT was the last pit was 3,959 unsheltered, and that puts them at 0.4%.

So the difference from us being at 0.6% and San Jose being at 0.4%, that 0.2% drop, they are spending outspending us by five-fold.

Um, I say credit to us for doing what we've done with the budget that we're working.

And I think the other thing to point out here is that people are we we always talk about um best practices, what's the best practices, and who who are we looking at for the best practices?

We are the best practices, and best practices are only created after there is a solution there hasn't been a solution of how we solve homelessness yet and how we get everybody off the streets otherwise we would look to that city and take their best practices and make them right now we are in the middle of taking those uh calculated chances of creating the best practices and seeing what is working for us uh I would say that we are leading the way if you look at what we're spending and what we're doing and what our count is we are by far leading the way on this it's tough to see this when every meeting you go to you're you're getting yelled at that you're not doing enough um and that uh there's still people in the street I I completely understand that we'll continue to work hard to build capacity and get more people off the street uh but I just want to take this opportunity for us to show that the city county partnership is working it has worked our system is being built out we are moving the needle it may not be as fast enough for everybody uh but we are certainly heading in the right direction and I can tell you that every time we are on a phone call whether it be the West Coast peer-to-peer calls uh or local cities calling us they're calling us to find out what we're doing uh they're they're excited that we have a city county partnership we've sent our agreement out to another city that has uh they're amazed at the city and county talks I I literally heard a city that we were on a phone call with say that we were told not to talk to our county parts our our our county counterpart um and so there are cities and counties out there that literally aren't talking to each other and uh I'm fortunate that we talk to our county partners every week and we've been engaged in this and we're working on it together and uh with that I uh would like to end on I'm constantly looking at the glass half full no matter what uh anyone says or uh tries to tell me it's not half full uh available for questions yes thank you plenty of food for thought thank you for your effort and for our team and I'll have some comments in a moment uh councilmember maple first thank you mayor um I just want to say thank you for bringing forward this item and it's um it's important for us to be able to constantly assess how we're doing um and and also do that in a public way so that that the public can see what we're doing as well and I just want to say um thank you I know the work that you all do is incredibly difficult and that's our county partners too um and it's really heartening to see such improvement in such numbers and I think that speaks to the work that's happening every single day um in our communities and I I can tell you you're probably right you know I I if I can search through my email just in the last you know couple months and I'm sure you can find you know a couple hundred people who don't think we're doing enough um but that that you know I think the data speaks for itself that that we are and that we're constantly um learning and growing and and and learning from even some of our mistakes that it may have happened and so I just want to say that um I think this is a wonderful partnership and it is something that that other cities and counties should be thinking about and modeling after I've heard that too by the way when um I'm on the League of Cities uh board of directors and when I when I talk to colleagues from across uh the state they are all they're asking what do we do and and especially after the reported decrease um the 29% decrease that was um historic and so I just want to say thank you and I know it's really hard to do this work.

Um I just have one quick question um around so it's 2,738 individuals that are unduplicated and then it says 2,357 uh housing search slash placements does that mean people who are placed into housing or does that mean what does that mean?

So you're this is on the statistics page of the report, page four the staff report or page four of housing search slash placement um I I the 2,357 is um people that are willing to take the time to sit and talk with us put their name on the do the that initial interview get their name on the list to be placed in shelter and and some are placed.

Okay.

Yeah I think it'd be really helpful for me and maybe for others here for future reports um to be able to really see what's that what's that number where people actually ending up in housing.

Even if it's not a good one I think it's important for us to understand that because when I when I read something like housing search and placements it's kind of unclear um if that means that people are actually getting placed into housing or not and I think that's an important metric.

It's not every metric I know that we have um when we say positive outcomes that can mean a lot of things and a lot of those things are good.

It can mean that you're reconnected with your family it can mean that you're you found another place or another situation or another program that's working well for you so getting placed into housing isn't the only answer for everyone.

But I do think it's an important data point for us to be able to see like top line when we look at this information so that I can think to myself okay here's how many people we've connected with and here's how many people actually found housing.

So that is my only uh major comment and I just want to also say um you know I know that the public and others hear me me often say from the CIS talk about a joint powers authority and the need to coordinate in yeah an even more formal fashion but I want to be really clear that when I say that I don't mean that the system that we have is broken.

I don't mean that uh the work that's being done isn't really great uh it is and I don't want to take away from that at all I it when I say those things I mean that we can do even more together and and that is my hope uh between us the county and uh other jurisdictions within the county um so that's more for the public who may the five people who may be watching this live stream um but thank you so much for all of your work thank you thank you council member Dickinson thanks mayor uh and um thanks for the th thank you for this report Brian uh and uh to those who contributed to it I think I think uh it is um very valuable I I do have I do have some qu actually I have lots of questions but you're you're only gonna have to suffer through a few of them just this this evening uh and some and mostly just for the my own uh better understanding of of what you're reporting um so uh to start with you talked about the change in uh where the heart uh team is is working moving from off the street into the and to the shelters uh in various ways and I'm curious does uh the inference from that is we don't have the heart team doing uh outreach or connection with anybody who's actually still on the street now is that is that an uh correct inference they're still they're still out in the street on um I think it's one out of the three days that they're in the outreach uh capacity and then uh the other days they're in the shelter bless you so they're in both right now but we're more in the shelter than we are in the outreach setting okay uh and um so to the extent that that they are have shifted where they're working and and I'm not critical of of that particular I see the lot the logic in that uh but they were the they were uh uh the outreach component in many ways of the of the teams that were the multidisciplinary teams that were going going out to the to the street and uh and I'm assuming they were the primary agents of trying to at on the street connect people either either to shelter or to services and so if that's correct then what for the now the presence they don't have on the street what if anything is taking that that role who is taking that role and what's taking that place yeah so they're still available and uh if somebody wants a behavioral health connections, so they're doing their their own outreach.

If somebody one of our other teams uh comes upon somebody that wants behavioral health, uh a connection to behavioral health, then they communicate with each other out in the field and get that individual, get that heart team over to that individual.

Um, and then as you see in our last six month report, we're even at that shift into the shelter, we're still at like 50-50 of of outreach contacts and shelter uh contacts and getting people to engage.

Um I'm not a BH expert, but I can tell you just looking at the numbers is very challenging to get somebody from those thousand contacts that they made with uh in the uh outreach setting.

There was 400 of them that that they were able to get to the next step to even get a referral, and then from a referral to actually getting linkage is another half of that.

Um, and it's a challenge.

It's to keep them engaged and and to be able to strike all the irons hot, so to speak.

And I infer from those numbers you were just talking about that it's a reflection of the number of times you have to have contact with someone in order to get them to be willing to entertain taking those those those next steps.

Is that is that fair to say?

Sure.

Um, and so my question then remains: what's what's substituting for that?

I mean, it's one thing, uh it's one thing for a police officer to be out cleaning, helping to clean up an area, and somebody says, you know, gee, if I could get in, if I could see a psychiatrist, uh that would be great.

Oh, okay, I'll connect you to these people.

I I'm I'm dubious that that happens very often, that it's more likely somebody who is uh is is trained and experienced with the kind kinds of skills to approach a person and then get them ultimately to to say I'm I'd be interested in or I'd be willing to, or I I'd like to, and so I'm wondering if if by shifting we're missing and I understand there's capacity issues here, so so I'm mindful of that, but I'm just wondering if we're we're now simply shifting to a different part of the population.

Um we may be getting more people uh because they're in the shelter to be willing to take that next step, but are we are are we missing something still on the street that leaves us with people who get moved but don't get let's just say generally speaking into the system?

Hey Tim, so come on up and thank you uh right council member uh and tire council.

I'm Tim Lutt's director of health services for Sacramento County.

Um great question.

So uh I'll clear a couple clarifying points.

Um first of all, heart.

Um the way that we've set heart up with uh the city county partnership is we will deploy based on how DCR would like to utilize our teams, and so that that is a constant ongoing going back to those weekly meetings, an ongoing iterative process about how best to utilize those resources.

Um DCR is providing a lot of linkage and support in the field, as is um hope cooperative with with the city's agreement.

So what we've really tried to look at is how do we best utilize heart and get engagement?

If you look at the early numbers with um with the partnership agreement in heart, there was a lot of quantity, but when we look at what the quality is, are we turning those touch points into someone agreeing to be linked to services?

And so what we've what we've been trying to find is that right balance of where should heart be where we're much more able to connect with people, develop um the relationship, the trust to then help them into treatment, whether it's an FSP, whether it's a core center substance use treatment program, so that absolutely continues to evolve.

We're more than happy to continue to evaluate that based on how um DCR would like to deploy the team.

Um but right now, as as Brian alluded to with the numbers, we're seeing good outcomes, good conversion of outreach attempts to actually agreeing for the referral and then being linked to services far better than we were a year ago, a year and a half ago early on, into this endeavor.

I I I take the point and and uh it may be uh completely justified to have made this shift in emphasis under the circumstances that my question will goes more to what are we giving up by by doing that we're getting we're getting better outcomes because the CART team is uh I mean one would assume is dealing with people who are more receptive I mean they've come into a shelter they're they're more receptive to taking the the next step and uh that they may need in in many cases but but what have we given up?

What have we lost on the on the street in in that process given that we have the the hope in DCR teams I I would I would surmise that we're not giving up a lot and I say that because some of the challenges we were seeing with heart is they'd go to an encampment again you alluded to a lot of touch points seven eight ten touch points to really develop that trust what was often happening is that um halfway through that um that camp could get swept and then they lose that person they don't know where they went um then they're having to start all over again so speaks to a di which speaks to a different issue.

There was a lot of a lot of situations where um the team was not feeling that they could be as effective and trying to develop that that trust and to try and connect people so I the important thing is the teams particularly with DCR side hope are still going out providing all those other array of resources we're trying to make sure we're focusing heart where we think we can have the highest impact.

Fair enough but I I mean I think you've you've actually indirectly brought up part of part of the challenge here that if we end up move moving people that the heart team for example as excuse me building uh some level of relationship with and you're they're starting over or somebody starting over then what's the impact of that what's the and so is that is that a deficiency in whether it's the heart team or others uh who are uh in our interacting with those who are on the street is that a deficiency in in our programmatic approach that that causes us to be less effective if we're if if we're losing contact with people and have to then reestablish it and I I just I don't necessarily um you can respond if you want you don't need to I just leave that on more as an open question.

I think that that is a great question and one that certainly our teams grapple with a lot.

Yeah thank thanks for your comments and I want uh move on um from from this and um Brian I wanted to ask uh on your page three of your statistics uh you you have a figure of of uh nearly 28000 for general case management and then you've got a number of subcategories of other elements what in that context is general case management mean uh so that is light touch case management so not spending in-depth case management with with that person like a case manager would spend hours and hours uh with one individual it is a somewhere between outreach and saying hi do you want services to moving down that continuum and getting some light case management but not being tied in our challenge on this is how much time to spend with an individual and trying to uh contact as many individuals as we can.

And so there are um there are discussions, many discussions about what model is effective.

Is it going out in light touch?

Is it uh uh light case management?

Is it heavy case management?

Obviously, heavy case management is going to require a lot more people.

Uh light case management is only making contact to try and get some relationship with that, and then the middle road there is to do a little more than just touching with someone but going into making that contact and getting to that next step.

And so that's where we're we're we're trying to run all three lanes because we have our contract with step up that is case carrying.

Um we have uh hope that is on the making many contacts and DCR sitting in that middle lane there trying to.

So this is more like contacts than case management, it sounds like uh, but it's heavier than uh you're spending more time with them, you're spending more time with that individual trying to get what other service that they need as opposed to just making a single contact, maybe getting their information, uh putting them in the system, um you're going that next step and not only putting them in the system but going back to work with them and and trying to make those contacts again.

So if we have if we have five thousand people on the street, uh uh on an average, every one of those people has been touched with something you're calling case management five times in six months.

It's been it's been touched by either um so if I make contact with you today and do case management, the services are not unduplicated, the individuals are unduplicated.

Um so if I come back to you and provide you case management uh two times uh and we go out and hit everybody, then there's five thousand times that we've provided case management.

Yeah, no, I g I I I get what you're I get what you're saying and uh in that that respect, but um I suppose it's just a a different definition of case management than I I'm used to hearing, which is you have somebody who is a case manager who actually helps a person over a period of time connect to the services and resources they need and helps helps them on a uh on a uh uh basis that that is not measured in in minutes, it's measured at least in months.

Sure.

But this sounds like it's significantly less than that, that kind of definition of case management, right?

Okay, uh uh okay, then um uh on page uh eight of the uh of the well it's the handout we have on the on the slide about positive exit rates, which um certainly are uh uh encouraging.

I'm just I'm just curious, does that represent the 7%, the 17%, the 33%, does that represent people who uh exit to shelter of some kind from the street?

Does it represent something other than that?

What does what uh and for what period of time?

Uh I I don't have data to give you a period of time.

Most of it is to shelter.

Um percentage of it is um family reunification, um, but most of it is shelter.

Um and I do have some other uh data that is um it's not um it's duplicated, but uh I'll give you a idea on those numbers.

So uh 4,586 people served, and 927 of them were put into shelter.

Um, so and then another 578 completed an assessment.

So um about a third are either going into shelter or taking the time to uh complete an assessment with us and put their name on the list to go to shelter.

I see.

So it's not actually necessarily returning to family or some other uh uh uh sheltered arrangement or going into a shelter, it's it's partially that, but it's also partially just people who are saying signing up saying, Yes, I'd like to go into shelter.

Um this uh graph is representing people that are actually going into shelter.

Okay, okay.

And then that's entry, that's not after two months or six months or a year.

Are they still are are they still sheltered?

It's correct?

Right.

Right.

Okay, and I um I know how hard it is to track people, but I do think that's one of the one of the elements we have to continue to work on how we can do that more effectively.

Maybe some of it through HMIS, maybe some of it, I don't know, with Cal Aim.

I don't know what the mechanism might be, but I do think that that's that's what really starts to be meaningful to people.

It's meaningful that people uh come off the street and into shelter in some form or manner.

Um for the public, I think it's even more uh meaningful to know how many of those people actually progressed in a sense, progressed in a sheltered existence, whether it's into permanent supportive or permanent housing uh of some kind or back to family, whatever, whatever that might be.

And so uh, you know, I just hope you will keep that on your list to to try to uh figure out.

Uh and this isn't just our challenge, obviously, this is a challenge everywhere, but but I think that's one of the things that that the public uh attaches to accountability.

Accountability is uh uh uh measured in part by what they see, um it's also measured by what uh information they get about success, meaning people who become sheltered and then stay sheltered over time.

Um I was I was um curious uh and and by the way, for our own part.

I mean, to me, this is all part of how we measure success, frankly.

Um I was curious what linkages means in the context that you've used it in the in the in the presentation.

Um I'll give you my version, but that's um for Tim to come back up here.

Um so an as an assessment, determine that you need behavioral health, refer you to a service, and actually getting signed up and going getting linked with a service provider is my version.

And they take it.

Today, great job, Brian.

Yeah, and so important to know we'll make referrals into a service or multiple services for an individual.

Um that's that's the first step.

The second step is when they actually either show up, meet with the provider, engage, and become linked to that provider.

So that would be the linkage, the difference between when we refer them to it and they actually engage in services as a linkage.

So linkage means actually not just referral, it means actually going and receiving services.

That would be for us the more successful measure is what we want to look at is how many people are actually linked to services.

So we have a chart uh in the material that uh was provided along with a staff report, for example, it says linkages by heart areas of concentration to behavioral health services program type.

It was in all the material we received it with a report.

It was it the pages aren't numbered, but it was 15.

And it so it says 195 referrals resulted in a linkage to a service provider within behavioral health services, and then it and then it's got a bar graph on residential outpatient uh narcotic treatment program out uh mental health uh outpatient, um, mental health full service partnerships.

And so I just I'm just using that chart as an example.

So we don't have on this uh on this page how many referrals were made, but my recollection is um there were something like 400 over 400 referrals.

Two pages before that it shows 411 referrals.

That's that was that that's what I and I wasn't quite sure whether these two are.

That's what that's showing is how many referrals, and important to note um that you will have duplication and referral.

So somebody could be referred to an outpatient mental health or core center.

Someone can also at the same time be referred to substance use treatment services, so you can have multiple referrals for an individual.

Um so that number um could be dupe do duplicate depending on the individual, but yes, okay, 411 referred and then the one ninety-five um were linked.

So them they could be that those are not uh those are not individuals necessarily the you could have multiple uh behavioral health referrals in that 411.

Um typically it would be a behavioral health and like a substance use or other uh a different service other than multiple times, unless for some reason within this reporting period we made multiple referrals to behavioral health for that individual and they just kept not showing up and never were linked.

Okay.

So it's a little hard then to uh divine exactly how many individuals were actually referred and how many individuals actually uh trying to pull up the accepted or received the services.

This report's a little different than ours, but we do have some data in terms of um I'm trying to see if I can find it quickly.

When there's a different chart that shows you total services across a few different service lines.

So it says Greater Sacramento shelters, community-based referrals and city partnership.

Um those we actually did do deduplicate where we had of um 320 individuals, 411 referrals um uh were actually resulted from those 320 people.

So the deduplicated number is 320 people.

Oh, okay.

So this goes back to the 1612 outreach attempts to individuals who are on house, 349 individuals screened for BHS services, 320 individuals referred to county BHS programs.

That's what you're referring to referring back to, and then 178 individuals linked to and served by county outpatient programs.

So uh seems like every time we come here we find different ways that you might be helpful to slice this data.

Happy to continue to find different ways to highlight it based on what um council would like to see.

I I think the data is all here, it's just exactly tracking it is not always the easiest uh uh process.

So I mean, what I'm trying to ultimately get to is of the of the people who are on the street, how many have we reached, how many have we gotten into shelter, how many have we gotten to the services that they need or want, and how many people have we not been able to do any some or any of all uh or all those things with?

That's that's really what again I I think uh helps us make the uh case that what we're doing is meaningful uh cost cost effective and ultimately will reduce the number of housed people on housed people on the uh on the street.

So, you've helped me uh understand at least some some of this, so I uh appreciate that.

Uh uh I have one more um thing I wanted to ask about.

Thank you, and I appreciate the indulgence, Mayor.

Um, I'm thinking about the partnership agreement, which I which I think has been very actively and faithfully uh executed, at least that's what it appears to me.

Um, but it makes me also wonder what are the opportunities to expand or improve the the partnership agreement.

And the first thing that jumped out at me was coordination and setting um uh goals and direction on prevention.

Is prevention something that would be beyond the scope of this in your judgment, or is it a logical next conversation?

What uh uh and I invite anything else that would help us make even a better partnership agreement than we have.

Sure.

Um there is a uh a mention of prevention and diversion in the partnership agreement.

Um it's not that extensive, but then in the RCAP we go a little bit further, and then we do have a team that's getting together as we speak to determine a better prevention program or how we want to tweak it to get more people.

Um currently, most of the prevention comes through a two-one-one call of uh getting a hold of somebody.

Is there a tie-in to this?

Sure, there's there's always um a tie-in.

I I think you would be surprised at how much coordination we're doing out in the field between the teams, um, and it's uh through sharing Teams apps, literally teams, um, and communicating with each other, texting or on phone to talk about hey, I have someone over here that you connected with.

Um, so there is a uh and kind of going back to the behavioral health.

There is like our teams are talking to each other out in the field, it's not one team's over here and one team's over here, and I'll see you at the end of the day.

Um there's a lot of communication that's going on.

Um, yeah, we'd uh we could look at how to tie that into the outreach, but uh most of that is trying to catch it before they end up being contact in the street.

Uh so that's where that focus is right now.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's uh I think it's a distinct element uh and it's before people are on the street, not once they're there.

So um, but uh maybe that's a subject in part for next week.

Sure.

So, um, okay.

Um thanks, thanks uh both of you.

Uh and that's the mayor, thank you.

Yes, thank you.

Councilmember Plucky Ba.

Thank you, mayor.

Uh, and thank you for doing this, Brian.

Um, uh three years in, you know, uh, like uh Council Member Dickinson, I'm thinking about opportunities for improvement and what we can do to strengthen this agreement and build on the successes that uh the city and the county have had by working together.

Uh, thank you to our county partners for being here tonight.

Um one of the things uh I'm thinking about in addition to um opportunities for prevention is uh what we're doing with our uh core behavioral behavioral health service centers.

Um I I think uh, you know, we we we've we've met the test in establishing one in the central city, but uh having one closer to where we are now uh more in the core of the core, I think uh would be worth uh considering.

Um so as we were moving uh ahead in uh developing updates uh to this, if there's an opportunity to do that, and I also share your concerns about uh sustainability for this work.

Uh uh, an incident command model is useful for an emergency.

Uh we are in the third year of this this program, probably well beyond uh what is reasonable or practical for that type of uh a model.

I I am concerned about not just the uh fiscal sustainability, but the actual practical burnout effects that that kind of a um a burden will have on on staff.

Uh, and so thinking about you know uh more operational uh the sustainability in that space.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Thank you, uh Mayor.

Uh thank you so much, Brian.

You do this work day in and day out, and you just keep plugging away.

Thank you to your team, Tim and Hezekiah, Yayin.

You know, you have a small but mighty little army of employees that do so much for our study, so just appreciate all the work that you do.

Uh I think Council Member Dickinson framed it just, I mean, perfectly, right?

The residents of Sacramento don't care about government jurisdictions, they care about results, and it's a lot about storytelling.

It's a way of how we frame it.

How many people have we reached, how many have accepted services?

Also, how many people have denied services?

Have said, go away, don't talk to me.

Um, and then how many people did we house?

And then how many people got successful reentry?

And so these measurements of success.

Um I think the data is wonderful, so thank you so much to the county team uh for this data.

But like we need to make sure that we're able to tell this like quickly in storytelling to our community.

Uh so I do have a question on outreach page two.

Says that county mental health workers will deploy 67% of work within city limits.

Can you expand on this?

Oh, sorry, 67% of the county mental health workers, so the city-county partnership agreements states that um that behavioral health will deploy 67% of the time in the city, and as we saw by the chart, they're actually 73% of their deployment is in the within the city.

So we're exceeding what the partnership agreement is requiring from the county deploying into the city.

And are they deploying to certain areas every single like week, every two weeks?

How often or how frequent is it?

Uh well, they're in the city with our teams every day.

I mean, they're part of the heart team is deployed within the city to some degree, whether in the field in our shelter, or um the community-based referrals.

And that's if there was anything that we uh could look at, and um even uh council member Dickinson talked about a little bit, is having more behavioral health capacity out there to be able to be in the shelters, be our community-based referrals uh that is a heavy lift, and these the what's not appreciated is on the behavioral health side where you're doing a heavier, more time-intensive case management, it's a longer period that you're with each individual, and so your time gets eaten up quickly, and workers get uh, you know, their their time is gone on a handful of people that they can manage.

So the more uh VH we can have out there, more clinicians that we can have out in the entire system, the obviously the more people that we can get to actually accepting and getting treatment.

Got it.

Um I've seen the county health like mobile trailer that goes out.

I've seen it underneath the overpass of the 160.

How often does that go out on a county staff?

I think I've seen it like twice a month.

I'm just curious.

You know, people do go to it, so I think they've your team has.

Yeah, it it does.

We and it ebbs and flows.

Um, we we try and deploy it as much as possible.

We've actually recently expanded within our public health teams to include it.

There are other um street street medicine providers um across, and we've actually been working on rolling behavioral health into it, recognizing it's it's focused on health, but a missing component is is that behavioral health side.

We'd love to have it out every day, it's sometimes just staffing and getting enough resources.

Um I think we have a schedule.

I'll um see if I can send that over.

Happy to share that to show where it's at.

We try and coordinate monthly, we meet with the other providers to make sure we're not duplicating where we're going.

Um so we have maximum um reach for those street medicine services.

Okay, and you know what, since you're on the podium right now, um, I do have a question.

I know CalMatter is abridged.

I have a lot of like media that's been reporting on CareCourt and how local governments haven't used it, haven't utilized it enough.

What has your experience been at the county level on it, and then if Brian Pedro can fill in for the city side?

Yeah, um generally I think we've uh done pretty well to implement care court that there's always opportunities for us to to look at um really referral sources.

Um we're actually we being behavioral health is one of the highest referral numbers, which means we're referring our own people, recognizing that they would be appropriate for this program.

Um we family members, not surprising, are um really the next highest where we're seeing um referrals coming in um from care.

Um it's it's one of the tools in our toolbox.

I think the important thing to remember is that um what what the courts it's all it is voluntary, and so the individual has to you know agree to participate.

What the court is ordering is us behavioral health to engage with them, do the assessments, um, but not the individual um compelling them basically to to agree to those services.

So it is still a voluntary program, which means you know it's it's those barriers of just ensuring that we can get their participation.

Yeah, Brian, do you want to fill in on city side?

Uh so the city side initially I started the program, it was turned over to fire, fires running with it with our city attorney's office.

Um like Tim was saying, it's uh and that is why they're re-looking at care court to put a little more teeth into it.

Is that uh it we can put the applications in uh a judge can say yes, uh county, you need to uh uh look at this individual, and if it's determined that there's a uh service provided uh it's voluntary.

Okay, may I think I would request then to put make sure that care courts and anything associated with that goes underneath DCR who's you know working with our own house population daily and maybe even do a workshop on it in the future.

Okay, um, and then two more questions for Brian.

Uh let's see, okay, uh Councilmember Dickinson did the math on the number of touches of 40,000 divided by 2,000 is about 14 touches in order for someone to be able to trust our our city staff.

Um, do you guys also keep track of how many people tell us just to go away?

Um yes, actually.

We started keeping track of this uh from a county request actually, um, where we started tracking what what the denials were and how many and so I I will give you a short version.

So we have um this is not including let's see, the first graph's not including our shelter.

Okay, so this in uh engagements with 4,500 people served, um, two different things here.

Uh so let me tell you this so of 7500 people engaged and 4600 people declined with this overall talking to 12,000 people.

So uh 62 percent engaged.

Now it doesn't mean they're accepting shelter, but they engaged with us, and then 38% said no, I don't want to talk to you.

Um, high level, and I can give you this information more in depth.

So shelter acceptance.

We had um 1,900 uh 21 in our shelters, 43 percent, um, just groups or express interest, exception.

Okay, so here's our this is our barriers of what shelter is.

So barriers to accepting shelter is pets, congregate shelter, location, uh scheduling, and they didn't like the curfew.

So those are why people aren't accepting shelter, and then the shelter acceptance status we had uh 927 in rapid replace rapid placement, um 578 from our CAS assessment completed, almost a thousand declined a gas assessment, and then another 1900 were the barriers of uh not accepting shelter.

So I can get you this data, it's it's extensive to show all the breakdowns of white people didn't accept the biggest picture that we have on it, really, is that 62% are accepting services, not necessarily shelter, but they're accepting services of some type, and 38% are declining.

Got it.

Okay, thank you.

And then two more questions.

HMIS, I know the last time we talked about this, a lot of the nonprofit providers were still getting training and and putting the number of beds.

Is everyone fully trained?

And does your team have access to the number of beds daily if one bed becomes open?

Yeah, we have uh there's a daily um shelter bed report that's that's sent out.

So we have good visibility.

Um, and and going back to the the question of um out making uh contact with an individual and having them accept services, again, in our shelter, how long they're staying in our shelter, we have all of that data.

It is a challenge to uh without looking at each individual to see, like, hey, we took Joe from the street and he went to a shelter and he stayed in the shelter and he ended up in a program and continued in that program.

We have that, but you would have to look at Joe and you'd have to look at Susie and you'd have to look at Mary all individual because there's so many services available out there, you'd have to look at each one of them individually.

Um but what I can tell you is that our shelters are of capacity, and if we had more, we would fill them up.

And there's plenty of people that are still accepting our services and accepting shelter.

Okay.

And then my last question is um on FSPs, we're not now at capacity with three thousand seventy-one.

What's our goal?

Do we have a goal or is that something that we can discuss next week on Tuesday?

And uh, the last time we did this, it was like once we 75%.

I think we used percentages last time, and so right now we're using numbers, which I think is great.

Uh, thank you so much.

Um, but we'd be curious to see what the county is doing on MSP.

Yeah, we I mean our FSPs continually are um flexible based on need.

So we're at 95% capacity that that looks bad, but that's by design of um, because this is a much more expensive high level um placement.

We don't want a bunch of idle resources um or excess capacity.

So if the need continues to expand, we have the people in FSPs, we will put them in FSPs.

Um additionally, we're in the midst actually of a um redesign of our FSP program, and um in part tied to work happening with um Behavioral Health Services Act or Prop One and also um BH Connect, an initiative that we've opted into, um, where we'll have different levels or categories of of FSPs.

Um the highest level, um typically what we call FSPs today, and then uh a medium or lighter level of an FSP again based on the person's need and and and readiness.

Um so we're in the midst of this redesign, um, but again, we will continue to add capacity if if there is need.

Okay, sounds good.

Thank you.

Um, yeah, that's all my questions for now.

Thank you so much for bringing this report prior to the Tuesday meeting.

I think it's good to have a refresher.

Okay, council member Guerra.

Great, thank you, Mayor.

Uh first, you know, thank you, Brian, for for the report and all of the team here.

I do want to thank the our county partners who are here today to answer questions and participate and um and and yeah, I think that that first that first picture that you know we we took when uh we signed the agreement, um no one was smiling, but you know, it and uh but at the same time it was a sobering step forward, you know.

Uh and I will say that that, you know, having having gone through that experience, it really showed what uh what can happen when we sit down at the table and dialogue and identify each other's strengths, weaknesses, also you know, uh have honest conversations about our expectations of each other.

I mean uh so what and and the as you mentioned earlier, the results uh on the numbers, you know, are are true fact numbers.

Now if I'm a person from the public and my n constituent of mine and they're going to the crocker and they see the encampments over on Third Street, if you're going on the American River Parkway or you're going up Garden Highway to Swami's or something, you're gonna you see some of those encampments out there and and you you're frustrated.

You know, I uh I think there's still clearly no question more work that has to be done and needs to be done.

Um but the but as the grand jury r uh report uh discussed the successes even within that first year uh when it was uh put together about how it how we can move forward.

And I'll just say like for example, uh, you know, when I think back and I was looking at the the actual language here, you know, it the the point about the partnership agreement, uh and I do want to thank our former city attorney Susanna Alcalawood because in those meetings he was like you have to be very clear and not fluffy or soft on the language, because if not, no one's gonna meet the targets.

And I think that was an important piece about the language.

And if you look at it, the city and county shall fully integrate all of their emergency shelter beds into a coordinated access system.

Before there was a lot of talk about how we would do this, and everybody has proprietorship, and you know, uh, you know, will they have their system and we have our system?

And and and rightly so.

There's there's reasons why we had different systems, but the fact of the matter is making uh a legal document and and hard standards of this is what we expect uh is important.

Uh and in throughout the entire uh agreement, as you saw, it showed that we needed to meet those how many people were gonna hire, where we were gonna hire.

Um as you mentioned it, uh uh it was a calculated risk, or or might have been Tim who mentioned making a calculated risk.

That didn't that didn't mean we knew the right process, and in fact, some of the processes turned out to be wrong.

Like our first approach to go into encampments and focus on uh treatment at the encampments was not the was not the best use of our time.

I wouldn't say that it wasn't useful, but we found out that it was much more useful to divert to the shelters.

Uh and at that point, you know, one of them being the WX shelter, which you know, it was very inspiring to be at the opening of the Stockton Boulevard Heights, and you know, the mayor and I were there, and one of the the first recipients and now reunited with their family and grandchildren was uh a woman who was uh homeless underneath the freeway, ended up at the VOA shelter.

The coordinated system that had been what we are helped process that person through that, and now they were in permanent housing and not permanent supportive housing.

They were now living on their own with the job and income, and that's a that that's exciting to see.

And that's a that's a result of a uh a very clear accountability standards in a partnership agreement.

Um I think the the the points of unduplicated context and the number of unduplicated context shows that we became much more effective versus our team going out there and then the county team going out there.

I think the fact that we've been able to manage um those limited staff resources uh have been important, but that that agreement also is was done at a different time when there were things that such as care court weren't even in there.

So even um what one of the requests that I would like uh mayor is for the staff to look through this and go with our county partnership and identify where we should amend the agreement now so that we don't wait five years.

You know, we we've been able to achieve everything within two and a half years.

And we saw that there was slow progress, but as so as soon as we started working together, the escalation of that ramp curve went up much faster.

Uh and uh uh and because of that, uh I think we met that agreement uh the those those standards earlier.

I'll point out section um uh H5.

Uh, first of all, for example, and thank you to Vice Mayor Talemantes for pointing out the the focus on care courts.

Care courts wasn't even a thought at that time.

We were talking about Lore's law and the ineffectiveness of of getting Laura's law.

So we put in there directly how we need to start working and addressing Laura's law and making sure that we could uh use outpatient treatment and uh support for that.

So amending those pieces there, and specifically, you know, on the on the Lore's law uh or the care courts piece, uh, you know, it's it's we're we're we're creating an interesting partnership.

The city started on its own as uh as filing uh for petitions.

Um and now it seems to me that uh uh there was some conflict at first with the county, but it seems now that the city is in the county are working out a scenario where the county can the city can do a lot of the early leg work and then the county can take over in that receivership uh model.

So I'd like to see how we amend the partnership that clearly identifies how we will execute in the future these the the work on CARES court as it evolves in the legislature as well.

And I hope through that process we can also uh uh craft clear recommendations to the legislature on how we can improve CARES courts because the challenges that we're starting to see now as we are effective uh in moving people off the streets is that the folks with the most chronic disease, uh the diseases, illnesses, and um um uh mental health issues and substance abuse issues, those are the folks that are uh still uh that are that are left behind, and so it's gonna be even more challenging with the population that we serve.

So that's where I think um, you know, identifying this uh receivership component uh being uh a critical piece.

Uh SV 43, um, you know, little at least as I'm understanding the county's about two years out on that but we should be prepared in that time frame and having those in um in our agreement on how we will engage in that aspect of it uh if my understanding of the reason why um you know the um the the just a clarification the fire department is taking this and and maybe clarify this because I um is that you need a a clinician a licensed clinician um to be able to submit names or recommend names is that is that correct and so it's our it's our basically medic units that are out there um submitting names uh so you need a clinician uh we when it was in DCR's house we had a clinician we were ready to put pen to paper and um because our clinician was a psychiatric nurse practitioner there is language in the nursing side of it that didn't meet care court's uh piece of it and so that language is being cleared up which will allow that so in that absence uh the um fire department has a actually county clinician that's um in in their um crisis response rig that uh and I believe that they're contracting out with a clinician um but um again like um council member palamante said uh all of that work sits squarely in DCR's lane because we have social workers we have many of ours that are master's degrees and looking to get their uh their clinical license and so that is uh simply just us taking the clinician over and doing the uh uh the high utilizers out of DCR versus the fire department and so this is a good example of those suggested recommendations to the legislature about saying hey what what would work best for us so I think if that could be part of how we amend or update H uh section H5 of the agreement would be an important one.

The uh the the last piece here that I would say is the um is that as we move through this I think what's important for next week as we start to identify where uh for example where we can hold each other accountable on the housing numbers I think you know Councilmember Maple has brought up some uh important questions about how we uh how we identify true exits uh and make sure that we're not repeating or follow having people fall back into the area so uh if we can look at those sections again on the housing piece in the partnership agreement that would be helpful as well I know we've made progress now also on the sobering centers uh you know on South Stockton Boulevard where you know Wellspace is looking at some work with um their their future facility so maybe that's another place where we can say okay where does the city and the county's commitment come into this and uh updating that that agreement um you know uh finally I'll just say I think the the you know the the to your point uh the agreement works because it allows the staff to understand what what we want it's very clear and it keeps the politics and the noise out of it um uh the challenge will be is sustainability as you said and uh and I think that that an updated and uh clarified partnership agreement will help us be able to better have that sustainability because then there isn't any room for there there's there's any room for the fluff it's it's here's exactly what we need to accomplish and who has the responsibility in my case it's not the Cadillac version but it's the Kia version you know that 2006 Kia that's still running you know everybody knows it you know so um so I I guess that would be my my uh my recommendation on that and all to say is that it's been a it's been a journey but uh one that um you know uh as we learned uh with our county uh partners that as we go through that journey, we learn through the experience.

Yes, we will take those calculated risks, but I think uh when we write things on paper when we can be very clear and deliberate, uh and hold each other accountable and have some kind of uh uh authority to hold each other accountable.

Uh it could be a joint powers authority that has access to you know levers for accountability, uh could be a legal document.

I think though that is the the most important piece that have come out of this.

Um, and you know, it really hasn't had a lot of fanfare, which is fine.

I I don't think it needs to.

Uh I think what's important is the outcomes that need to occur from it.

So uh all to say is thank you for again the update uh and uh some um you know going down memory lane, it's it's it really hasn't been that long, but there's a lot of work that's been done that long.

And if I could ask you to push that put that there's uh that slide, I think it was, um, that showed kind of the our our our ramp up um uh up real quick.

That would be helpful because I think that that showed how when we started working together, um there we go.

When we started working together, you see how immediately much more effective we were, and we were able to communicate better.

And I think that that to us, it's even though the issue is still prevalent.

The question becomes how much more are we doing as we move forward?

So uh so thank you very much.

Well, thank you.

Uh this was actually gonna be on the consent calendar.

So I'm I'm glad that we did not put on the consent calendar.

This is a big deal.

And uh I know this doesn't have all the answers to it, but you know, voters and the public have been looking for us to to better coordinate.

You know, voters stepped up and passed measure O a few years ago.

It wasn't you know the perfect path, but the quest was to have us work better together, and this sets the stage next next week.

We're as we know we're having our I we were saying it's our first meeting in five years or so with the city and the county.

I believe it's our first meeting ever with the city and county and the other mayors to talk about an issue like this.

So I don't know if we're gonna get all the answers tonight or next Tuesday, but talking together and working together is half of the battle.

And so I just want to, you know, thank you and all these numbers that they speak for ourselves.

But you know, I I often say too much that that two things can be true.

The math up here looks good, but our eyes don't lie as well.

So we drive around and we still see a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done in all of our districts and throughout the city and right side here at City Hall.

So if I could just maybe have you recap it and and just help us three years in, we're heading in the right direction.

What focus, what are some of the focus areas where we need to zero in on for improvement?

How would you focus us for improvement?

Well, um, Mayor, all this goes back to capacity.

It all goes back to capacity.

We are outreach workers are doing great work, our behavioral health is doing great work.

The system is collaborative, uh, it's not perfect, but we are talking to each other, the system's working.

If you pick up a phone and call two on one, you will connect with somebody.

All of that works, but all of that will stay static if we don't have somewhere to place somebody.

So we need capacity, capacity is what's going to keep this is why you see from 23 to 25.

We not only in improved the services available, but we improved our capacity, and that's why we're having people uh get positive exits off the street and into somewhere when we don't have that available.

This is going to sit uh where we are.

We're full on, we're we're full of capacity.

We you see everything that we're building out, um, everything is full right now, and as we open anything we open is gonna be filled, and that's the only thing that's going to move the needle on this because we can provide all the behavioral health services and uh all the help we can.

If there's not somewhere to have somebody live, they're still gonna be in our streets.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

We've got our quest.

Uh, we're on the same page.

I forgot we had two uh public speakers an hour ago.

I forgot you, but uh, hope you're still here.

And then one answer, of course, I have Brian Manning and Keon Bliss.

Brian.

Yes, good evening, council members.

My name is Brian Manning, and I'm uh business owner and property owner over on 1830, 15th Street.

And actually, it's kind of fortuitous that this agenda item came up.

I was gonna hear be here and speak on the uh non-agenda items because I wanted to tell a story of what I experienced yesterday with uh between myself, a gentleman named Javon, and the city services and county services regarding mental health issues.

It was about 4 30 p.m.

and Javon walked into my building uh and up the stairs and started talking to one of my employees, and she got a little nervous, and so I went out and talked to Javon, and it was very clear that Javon was having a mental breakdown.

Um, and so I asked Javon if he wanted help, and he said, Yes, I do.

So I went took him downstairs, got him some snacks and some water, and um called 911.

The 15 minutes later, as he's sitting in my lobby, nobody ever shows up.

So I called them back and said, is anybody coming?

And their response was yes, this is still pending, we don't know when he's going to come.

Do you want us to put you in touch with some crisis mobile crisis?

I said, yes, whatever it takes.

I just want to get this person help.

I got in touch with mobile crisis well space.

They started asking him questions, including whether he was suicidal, and he said yes.

And on a scale of one to five, five being the worst, what was it?

He said five.

I have 17 seconds left.

The long story short is nobody ever showed up.

Javon started to get nervous and he left.

And how we cannot hold somebody like Javon, who is clearly mentally unstable, suicidal.

There is something wrong with that.

If your comments, your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Keon Bliss.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You know, the need for clear and accurate data cannot be overstated.

Um I really appreciate uh Councilmember Dickinson's uh probing questions that really looked critically at the information that was presented before us because based on my analysis and I study on I study these issues in the city policies on a regular basis.

A lot of these charts are deceptive uh in not tracking some of the basic questions that several of you uh raised uh and lack critical context to present this glass half full positivity.

There's nothing wrong with keeping a positive attitude, but even positivity can be toxic, especially when it avoids or ignores inconvenient facts or truths presented by reality, such as the fact that we continue to sweep homeless people, but we call it by a different need, such as outreach services.

It's rooted in the fear of discomfort, a hallmark trait of white supremacy culture, which continues to run deep within city management's culture.

For example, look at the context excluded from that comparative homeless budgets uh chart that only showed one year of homelessness spending.

Sacramento is a city population of over 400 535,000 people spending 51 million dollars out of a 1.7 billion dollar budget.

San Diego has more than three times Sacramento's population at 1.4 million and spends 316 million or 5% out of its 5.8 billion dollar budget.

And San Jose the Simbler, uh, almost twice Sacramento City's population spending 230, uh, 4.2% of its $5.5 billion budget.

These are just basic information that we should actually be looking at and compare like and actually examining further.

Because there are already examples rather than that leave that allow us that provide actual solutions rather than spending millions of dollars on code enforcement or having police officers sleep.

We could actually be investing in housing first models that actually get to the root causes of homelessness.

Thank you for your comments.

Mayor, I have no more speakers on this item.

Okay, thank you.

Next item.

So we now move to council comments, ideas, questions, and AB 123 reports.

Councilmember Dickinson.

Oh, thanks, Mayor.

I just wanted to mention a couple things coming up this weekend or soon that are of interest.

Uh at the Robertson Community Center, hosted by the Mutual Assistance Network and a host of others with games, food, safe trick or treating, raffle prizes and giveaways.

I'm sure there'll be music.

There's always music.

Lots of vendors and food too.

So that that is always a good time.

Also uh on the 28th, we're we're and uh Yipsey, I think is actually the primary sponsor of this uh is a uh Halloween party at the Hagenwood Community Center from from 6 to 8.

So Tuesday the 28th.

So for all of you who make it through the joint meeting on the 28th, and you're looking for a little relief, Hagenwood Community Center, 6 p.m.

be there or be scared.

Are you in about that?

Y'all, I'm always what is this?

This is this is my costume for the day.

Um uh this Thursday uh the 24th from 6 to 7 30.

Uh Bright Braille is actually presenting Anthem Blue Cross with uh information uh and also free dinner.

Uh information about health insurance and and related topics.

Also at the Robertson Community Center.

For those of you who don't know, it's 3525 Norwood uh Avenue.

And again, that's that's um 6 to 7.30 that uh this Thursday evening.

And then Saturday, November 1st.

Uh it seems like a long ways off, and it'll be here soon at the Sacramento Horsemen's Association, which is 3200 Longview Drive.

For those of you who have not been there, uh United Cerebral Policy Saddle Pals, bubbles at the uh at the barn.

So there'll be light appetizers, beverages, learn about saddle pals, which actually is a terrific program to uh support those with uh cerebral palsy and and horses are uh uh a great way for those with cerebral palsy to uh enjoy um a little bit of the fun side of life and very therapeutic as well.

Uh and that's from 11 in the morning to to 1 p.m.

You're invited.

Thanks, mayor.

Okay, council member Gera.

Thank you very much, Mayor.

Just wanted to uh invite everyone to the annual spectacular at Tahoe Park at starting at four o'clock.

I want to thank the Sacramento Lowrider Commission.

We'll do be doing a trunk retreat with beautiful artwork of low riders uh out there.

Uh the parking gets kind of crazy.

So uh thanks to the Sacramento Bike Association for um uh joining us.

Uh we've sponsored them at all of our food truck events, but they will also be there uh to uh do a free bike valley.

So ride your bike over there.

This is one where we encourage everyone, including adults, to be in uh full time uh full uh uh Halloween spirit.

Um, and that's again from four to eight.

Uh we'll have uh the costume competition as always, and uh and a photo booth there as well for all of us.

Uh and then also on the next day, uh we hope you wake up, uh, get out get out of that coffin and join us at 9 30 in the morning for the uh annual Elmhurst Neighborhood Association Pancake Breakfast at the Coloma Community Center.

That's from 9 30 to 11 30 to have some delicious pancakes and traditional eggs and sausages uh out there as well.

Uh and then finally, I just wanted to also thank um you know the uh College Glenn Neighborhood Association for uh an amazing uh annual neighborhood association meeting.

We had all of our folks out there, the mayor was there, county supervisors, flood control trustees, school board members, uh just about every different agency you can imagine.

Um, they're uh out make have making sure that they're answering questions for the community.

Uh and uh last but not least, I just want to thank uh John and Annette Deglow specifically for so many decades of uh uh engagement.

I think you know, uh Councilmember Dickinson was there as a supervisor before.

So uh thank you with that, and thanks, Mr.

Mayor.

Okay, thank you.

I think we skipped to you, Mr.

Jennings.

I w I will go now then uh I also want you to join us for a sputacular evening of fun at the Lake Chris Halloween party.

Uh we want you to bring your little ghouls and goblins for an amazing evening full of treats, entertainment, and festive surprises.

Costumes are highly encouraged.

The event will take place.

I'm gonna be a raider.

I can't find any any raiders that are playing right now, so I'm gonna be a writer.

The event is uh on Friday, October the 24th from 4 30 to 6 30 in the Nugget parking lot located at 10 40 Florin Road in the Pocket Green Avon neighborhood.

Also want for all my pickleball players, the annual Halloween, fifth annual Halloween pickleball bash is gonna take place on October the 29th from 4 to 9 p.m.

at Garsha Bend Park on Pocket Road.

Pickleball in your costume.

We're gonna light up the courts with Halloween spirit, prizes for the best costume.

We're also gonna have wonderful treats to share for the populace.

There will be a coat, raincoat, and sock drive for to help those in need.

So sign up on playtime scheduler for more detail or call my office and tell them you want to make sure you're there.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilmember Vang.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um, just wanted to have just wanted to give some quick announcement.

First, um, join us for our last meta view certified farmers market event for 2025 uh season.

Uh it's gonna be the Sunday 901 at the Medeview Light Rail Station.

It is the last um market for 2025, and we will restart it next year again.

But SACRT is providing free rides to the market operating hours, um, and don't forget it's dot by the market for kids' bucks that we actually give to youth under 12, and they get a five dollar voucher to use uh at the farmers market.

Um, and then this Saturday is our district eight movie night in partnership with Champs.

Join us at the park that's adjacent to the Pennell Community Center.

We'll be watching Kung Fu Panda 4.

Um, this is a free family event, popcorn, inflatable jumpers, kids activities.

We'll also have a light dinner provided as well, but you gotta RZP at W W.

Heart and Hustle.org backslash movie night and d8.

Um, and then lastly, just want to have folks save the date to join us for our SAC RT virtual workshop regarding uh meta view and a transit oriented community study.

That's taking place Thursday, November 6th from 5 30 to 7 via Zoom.

Um, and you can also register by going to our link tree.

Those are my updates.

Thank you.

Councilmember Maple.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just a couple quick updates.

We are also having a spooky movie night this Friday.

Come join us.

We are watching The Nightmare Before Christmas uh at Phoenix Park in partnership with the Rhodes Family Creative Empowerment Center.

Um you can join us at 7 p.m.

uh at Phoenix Park.

It's gonna be a lot of fun.

You may or may not catch me in a costume, and there's only one way to find out by joining us.

And uh for those of you who don't know, um I am a costume official and have several in our office upstairs if you ever want to borrow one.

Uh in years past, I have been a hot dog.

Um and uh at all as well as many other things, and so come come see and find out what I'll be on Friday.

And then on Monday, November 3rd at 6 p.m.

Join uh me and our department of community response as we host a community meeting about the proposed micro community uh in our area that's gonna take place at HW Harkness Elementary, located at 2147 54th Avenue.

Come join us, come hear about the model, share your concerns, questions, and comments.

Thank you.

And my turn.

Yep, Vice Mayor Talamante.

Um, I'm hosting, what's my costume?

I don't know yet.

I think I'm gonna be like Cinderella, Little Mermaid, I don't know, like Disney something.

Not sure.

Okay.

Um I am hosting a Dia de los Muertos event at Northgate Park, and so I hope people can join me.

It's a day to remember loved ones that are no longer on Planet Earth, uh, but somewhere else, and you go and you put up a photo of them with food or whatever it is that they like, and it's such a beautiful celebration of life, and so I invite people to come join us, and we will have an altar.

So if you want to remember one of your loved ones, give me your photo, and I will make sure to put it in the altar for our council member office.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

So mayor I have four speakers for public comment matters on the agenda.

The first is Lambert, Brian Manning, Patrick Bankert, Keon Bliss.

Uh I really don't need an audience behind me because I came to talk to everyone on the rostrum about this first.

I want to send a shout out to uh City Councilman Dickerson.

That was an outstanding town hall meeting he had last week at Hagenwood Park.

It reminded me of when uh City Councilman Alan Wayne Warren was there.

He used to have a lot of town hall meetings, and I met a lot of people, not just from Sacramento, but from where we're focused right now, which is in Southern California.

So that was outstanding.

Then when I got back in town last night, the uh family and the millennials told me they were concerned about something that you should be concerned about.

Uh I was one of the few people that came to the press conference for the new uh city manager, and as I was there, they gave me this negotiated term sheet.

They handed it to everybody, and I believe the city, this rostrum up here has missed one thing that's valuable that should be brought to your attention.

It says no cause termination.

Now, the people that are talking, you should pay attention to this.

It says no cause termination.

That means, and Mr.

Uh Jennings, you might want to relay this to her and her lawyer.

That means to me that if uh a group of people at City Hall get together and say, Hey, let's terminate her.

They can, and they only have to give her nine months base pay, which means if they do that next year, uh, she will not get her last two years.

Now, that lawyer for her should send me a check.

I don't have time to check on things like this, but that's a crucial thing.

I've never heard of a no-cause termination for anyone.

Who would want that?

I believe that Brian has left, so Patrick, and following Patrick is key on bliss.

I'm even thank you so much for the honor.

Um it's a beautiful evening in Sacramento, but I don't believe it's a beautiful evening.

Um every day can't be a bowl of cherries.

Um, but um, course of a spring under a massive zero, so um the other day I was I got off work and I was going to the bank and I was had to go in the grocery store to wash my hands because I'm like if I don't wash my hands I could die or be tortured for another 10 years, um, because there's been a uh company, I think they're in Texas, been causing me a lot of hurt, and my reason is totally subjective, and I'm sure I'm feeling, but uh I've been trying to find care and concern, and it's been tough.

But uh I do see light.

Uh there is I I filed the restraining order uh to try to find some protection from this company in Texas.

And um, I just want to say thank you to all of you.

Uh thank you to the good many women in the military and the police.

I do believe that I have friends that care, um, and thank you to to you, Mayor.

Um McCarty and Ray Tunings and all of you.

Thank you for lending me your spirits of mercy and innovation, and lending me your stability, and inspiring me with your courage, and I believe we can celebrate because because of the suffering that I've endured for the past uh and it and it's not over yet, but um, and I don't know when it's ever gonna be, but I think we can celebrate because I don't think other people will have to suffer the way I have because we can know what all the story is.

I'm sorry that I don't have more answers.

I know my argument's totally subjective, but I I'm hoping on the 31st that the judge will accept that.

So thank you, my father, for our town, and um, and may all the uh men, women, and children here and in Texas.

Thank you for your comments.

Your time is complete.

Our final speaker is Keon Bliss.

Did anybody here notice that in the last year you've lost among two of your highest ranking black staffers here in the city?

The OPSA director as well as the inspector general, Dwight A.

White.

And I don't think that's a coincidence.

I think that is emblematic of the deep-seated racism that it permeates the white supremacy culture that permeates every level of city management culture here in this city, especially within the Sacramento Police Department.

And now when I say that SAC PD is unequivocally racist, it is not hyperbole, but it actually is supported in factual data.

For example, we have at least four separate studies that have shown that among traffic stops, black motorists are stopped at least three times as often as white motorists.

And once we're stopped, we are subjected to searches at least three times as often.

Non-traffic stops are no better.

We're in 2019 we learned that black people experience non-traffic stops, pedestrian stops, over six times as often compared to white residents.

And use of force, we are subjected to at least four times more than the national average or four times as often as white people, which is twice the national average at the time.

We have a continuous problem when we can't even keep a former police chief.

We can't even stand up for a former police chief who's just trying to do her job to hold our police department accountable and ensure that they are like their service outcomes are reflective and like are of the values that we are supposed to share as a community.

Y'all failed her, not just the police chief leadership, which I know full well has a problem working with black people, which is indicative of the lack of black staffers in the police department and especially among leadership.

But what do you all do to defend her?

What did you do?

Thank you for your comments.

Mayor, I have no more speakers this evening.

You've concluded the business of the city.

Okay.

Thank you.

No adjournments in memory.

Correct.

Thank you.

With that, we will adjourn.

Um,