Ready whenever you are.

Okay.

I'd like to call this meeting in order at 5 06 p.m.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Bless you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Kaplan?

Here.

Councilmember Dickinson?

Councilmember Plucky Baum.

Councilmember Maple?

I am here.

Mayor Pro Dem Guerra?

Here.

Councilmember Jennings?

Councilmember Vane?

Here.

Vice Mayor Telemontes?

Here.

We have a quorum.

Wonderful.

City Attorney, is there any report out from close session?

Okay.

And so today we will do the Grant Union J R O T C Color Guard to present colors first, because they practiced it.

And then we will do the land acknowledgement, and then we will do the Pledge of Allegiance.

So go ahead, Grant Union.

Color.

Can we stand up?

If everyone could please stand.

Thank you for standing for the land acknowledgement.

This is the opening acknowledgement in honor of Sacramento's Indigenous People and Tribal Lands to the original people of this land, the Nissanan people, the Southern Maidu, Valley, Plains, Mewak, and Patton Winton.

Peoples and the people of the Wilton Rancheria, Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

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

Thank you.

And now if you would join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, I pledge allegiance to the United States of America.

And to the Republic for the United States.

Thank you.

And thank you to the Grant Union JROTC for this lovely presentation of our colors.

So today we have one special resolution, and this is for CalFresh Awareness Month.

If I can have Amanda and Sam come to the podium, please.

So May is CalFresh Awareness Month, a time to set highlight a critical resource that helps families and individuals access healthy, nutritious food.

In Sacramento County, one of four neighbors is at risk of hunger, a reminder that access to food remains a real and growing challenge.

CalFresh helps thousands of households stretch limited but with strict stretch limited budgets and helps prevent impossible choices between food, housing, health care, and other basic needs.

This year, that work is even more important.

Recent changes to the program are impacting eligibility, benefits, and work requirements, making it more complex for households to navigate and even stay on CalFresh.

That's why we have two very trusted community partners here today.

River City Food Bank, who has been serving Sacramento for 58 years, and Alchemist CDC, who helps with address food disparities and access to healthy food, green spaces, and entrepreneurs, and runs a mobile market and food deserts.

Beyond food distribution, they help neighbors apply for, renew, and manage CalFresh benefits, ensuring people can access support today and into the future.

CalFresh strengthens families and our Sacramento community.

For every dollar spent on CalFresh, approximately $1.79 is generated back into the community through retail sales and farmers market.

And I like to turn over to our partners for a few words.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, and to the whole city council tonight for recognizing May's CalFresh Awareness Month.

I'm grateful for your continued support.

At River City Food Bank, we've been serving the Sacramento community for 58 years, and today the need we are seeing is both significant as well as growing.

In 2025 alone, River City Food Bank distributed nearly 3.2 million pounds of healthy nutritious food across 326,000 visits.

Here in the Farm DeFort Capital, one in four Sacramento residents is at risk of hunger.

These are working parents, their seniors on fixed incomes, college students, veterans, and families doing everything they can to stay afloat as costs keep rising.

Recently, a mother visited our food bank and quietly shared she was skipping meals so her kids could eat.

No parent should have to make that kind of sacrifice.

Yet these are the stories that are becoming all too familiar.

And this is really why CalFresh matters.

It is so much more than a program.

It is truly a lifeline for so many people in our community.

It helps families keep healthy groceries in the household.

And as the Vice Mayor said, it really helps people avoid those choices between buying food and paying for rent.

As the changes to this program continues, uh River City Food Bank remains committed to helping our neighbors not only with healthy food today, but we want to help them apply for, renew, and keep their CalFresh benefits for the future.

Thanks for your partnership, your leadership, and for your commitment to our neighbors facing food insecurity.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I would like to thank the entire city council and especially Mayor McCarty and Weissner Delamontes for inviting me here in recognition of CalFresh Awareness Month.

An equitable food system ensures that every one of our neighbors can reliably get enough of the foods they want and need so they don't have to worry about the source of their next meal.

CalFresh is an incredibly effective tool that gives people the ability to choose what they eat, but it only works when they can easily spend it on a variety of foods without traveling far from home.

We at Alchemist Community Development Corporation are proud to cultivate places where our neighbors throughout the city can spend and double their CalFresh benefits on local groceries.

We operate our own farmers' markets near Southside Park on Floor and Road in Meadowview.

We partner to provide CalFresh access at the Natomas, Midtown, and Capital Mall farmers markets.

And we also keep a list of the communities who still need this kind of access to guide our strategies.

And uh a few months ago, when Center for Land-Based Learning reached out to us, told us that they were ready to bring their mobile farmers market into Sacramento for the first time.

We got to work, connected them to the communities on our list.

North Sacramento, South Natomas, CSU Sacramento, Oak Park.

And of course, Alchemist Public Market will meet this need next year for the River District's many residents who currently have to travel three miles to buy groceries with CalFresh.

When people spend their benefits of local producers, it also stimulates our local economy.

In 2025, nearly 1.2 million dollars in CalFresh and Market Match incentives were spent in farmers markets and farm stands in the city of Sacramento, generating more than $2 million in local economic activity.

Promoting CalFresh access delivers benefits for every city budget priority, public safety, youth development, affordability, and economic development.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And if I can get all my council colleagues to join me down there for a photo, please.

Oh, comment from Councilmember Dickinson, and then we'll go down there.

I just I just didn't want to miss this opportunity.

Sam alluded to it, but last Friday we inaugurated the mobile farmers market uh in North Sacramento at the at the corner of uh Arden Way and Del Paso Boulevard, where it will be the first and third Fridays of uh every month from now until October from 10 to noon.

Uh all from local farmers produce.

Um, no corn and and tomatoes quite yet, not ready, but uh a great array of fresh fruits and vegetables.

It was terrific to have uh the truck there and uh great response from the community.

Looking forward to it throughout the the the summer months into the fall.

So um just thrilled to have that uh as part of the community, and take EBT too.

So uh anybody can anybody can shop there.

Yep, and the North Natoma's farmers market also accepts it, right?

Council Mark Kaplan, help start that one.

So awesome.

Sounds good.

All right, come on down.

You're gonna take the reason.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Are we going to use the insurance?

Everybody smile, can't say Cal Frash.

I don't think that's just the same.

Thank you.

All right, and we will be switching up the calendar today.

We will be hearing um the discussion calendar, the proposed budget, and then we will go back to the public hearing on the Thomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan.

So for our planning staff, hang hang tight.

And we welcome Pete back to the podium.

Thank you.

Um good evening, Vice Mayor, Council members, and members of the public.

Um Pete Coletto, the city's finance director.

Uh and today tonight you're continuing council's deliberations on the fiscal year 26-27 budget.

Give the presentation.

Okay.

Um, so just as a reminder, uh, we held budget hearings on May 5th, May 12th.

Uh, we're having another hearing tonight, and uh we're shooting for uh budget adoption on June 9th.

So just a quick review of uh what we've done so far on the fifth.

You heard uh presentation of the proposed budget, so 1.7 billion dollar budget, all funds, roughly 900 million in the general fund.

It closed a sixty-six point two million dollar budget gap.

Uh council had questions, deliberated, and then we're directed to submit budget amendment memos uh for deliberation and council uh deliberation and council direction on the 12th.

So on the 12th, uh council voted and provided direction to incorporate some restorations into the budget with associated financing.

So council voted to restore the 1.3 million uh violence prevention grants to community-based organizations, uh restored the waiting pools and recreation swim hours.

Uh, these restorations cost roughly 1.9 million dollars, and they were funded by eliminating parking enforcement vacancies and a shift of state homelessness funding.

Uh council also directed staff to incorporate other budget restorations, uh contingent upon a financing plan uh that we're going to talk about a little bit uh tonight.

So the restorations were were uh the North Sacramento Economic Development Project, uh North Sacramento Code Enforcement Project, Hart Senior Center, Park Maintenance Worker Positions, Summer at City Hall, Youth Violence Prevention Grants, and the Yipsey Workforce Development Positions.

These restorations uh totaled roughly 1.8 million dollars, and council directed us to fund the restoration from the following uh sources.

So park maintenance contract savings, freezing the community ambassador stipends, reducing commission meetings, accepting the planning commission for a target of roughly $30,000, one-time savings in the Department of Community Response of roughly $500,000, and reducing the contribution into the economic uncertainty reserve.

So staff met and we are coming forward with the following financing plan for council consideration.

So I'll go through them item by item.

First is a park maintenance savings.

We're estimating this at roughly $200,000.

We're looking at this as a pilot program to bring select landscape services, including some of the CFD, those Mellow Roose district funded contracts back in-house and using dynamic staffing, so providing maintenance based on need in other parks and able to uh in order to accommodate this.

The community ambassador stipends totaled roughly $108,000, and so staff is bringing forward freezing those.

For the Department of Community Community Response Savings, so this savings is a result of the current uh top choice for our safe parking site, needing less infrastructure uh improvements than budgeted.

So we had budgeted 500,000.

We were for there's some infrastructure on site, we think it will be cheaper, and we're also we also budgeted operating for a full year.

Uh, we don't anticipate that uh opening until we're into the fiscal year.

So we're projecting roughly 500,000 of savings there.

Um reduction in commission meetings.

So uh staff met with the clerk's office.

We have uh 23 commissions that we reviewed.

Of those 23 commissions, uh 11 met either four times a year, three times a year, once a year, or as needed.

And so we accept we did not include them to be reduced.

They're already meeting very infrequently.

Um so that left uh 12 that met 10 or more times per year.

Uh, two of those commissions, one was the planning and design commission, which uh per council's direction we are uh holding harmless and leaving alone, and the other was the housing code advisory and appeals board, and we also uh held that harmless and left that alone that has to do with appeal hearings and is is related to building and economic development.

So that left uh 10 commissions that all meet 10 times a year.

So the active transportation, animal well-being, arts culture, and creative economy, community police review, disabilities advisory, ethics, measure you community advisory, parks and community enrichment, preservation, and youth commissions.

And the staff proposal was to have no more than five meetings per year, and we are estimating roughly $35,000 of savings, and that is from reduced stipend payments.

Just a reminder: the stipend amounts are set by the compensation commission and reduced overtime in the clerk's office.

We also anticipate other organizational efficiencies as it will free up other staff time, and then finally the balance is a reduction in the contribution to the EUR.

Again, not dipping into the reserve uh fund, but contributing less than in the proposed budget, and that was roughly $973,000.

So a summary chart is on this uh slide.

You can see the $1.8 million of restorations along with the $1.8 million of financing.

And we now turn it over to council for deliberations, and staff is here to answer any questions.

Thank you so much for the presentation, Pete.

We will do public comment and then we will do council deliberations.

Thank you.

We have quite a few public comments.

Um, our first three speakers will be Marilyn Morton, Kawami Curry, and Marbea Sala.

Shall I go ahead?

Yes, please.

Uh good afternoon.

My name is Mayor Owen Morton, and I'm here in behalf of the Hart Senior Center, and uh thank you, Vice Mayor, and City Council people, members for having us.

The census data indicates that senior growth has been up 40 to 50% in the last decade.

This is especially significant when you consider that currently people are relocating here from high rent communities.

Senior services should be promoted in a city that has proudly stated its commitment to supporting older adults.

While HART benefits from the dedication of volunteers such as myself, volunteers cannot replace the experience, the consistency and accountability provided by professional staff.

Volunteers play a valuable role, but they are meant to support, not substitute for the staff needed to sustain these programs.

We respectfully request that the Sacramento City Council continues to support the wellness activities, social programs, educational opportunities, and services for the specialized programs at the Heart Center that allows Sacramento seniors to support their health needs, offers a continuous continuity of services that foster independence and cultivates community interaction.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Kwame.

Good evening, everyone.

Talking about the NDEP program that you guys are looking at freezing funds and doing all of that stuff.

One thing that's surprising to me is that every time it comes to programs that deal with the you know certain communities, divide diverse communities, all that kind of stuff like that.

That's like one of the first things that's on the chopping bark.

That's the first thing that want to get frozen.

That's the first thing that get touched, which is, yeah, exactly.

Uh which is kind of crazy.

And the problem with that is is that a lot of you city council members, not to be funny, but a lot of you guys don't even live in the communities that you guys represent.

And so you guys have, you know, people like Lynette that you know puts together programs and stuff like that to um to bring in people that are actually a part of the community, and you know, try to represent you know you guys, and then kind of go from there.

Um I've been an ambassador for two years when that when I first came into the program.

One of the things was I was kind of skeptical about that because there's a lot of people in our community that don't even trust the people that are sitting up here or other people that are in office.

So uh that's a big deal.

The other thing is I do a lot of stuff for the community.

I just don't like to get recognition, you know, for the stuff that I do for the community and stuff because I feel that if I feel I'm supposed to be doing that, and one of these programs is you know, really impactful for the community and reaching out to the people that um you guys represent.

So I think programs like that should stay.

I think that the funding should um actually uh not be frozen and that you continue to allow so that you guys can be represented because you're counting on us to represent you guys, but you want to cut.

Thank you for your comment.

Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Marbea.

After Marbea, we have Wilma, Rick, and Lambert.

Hello, I'm back.

I'm Marbea, and I'm I'm here.

Um I'm the measure you commissioner for district three, but I'm not representing the measure you commission because we found out about the recommended rejection and last night, so we weren't able to collectively send a message.

But my message to all of you, I understand where you're what's happening here, and there has to be if we're adding these programs, something else has to be cut.

Um, and so what I would ask you to consider is measure you.

We only meet 10 times a year, and we barely can can finish the work that's needed.

Um, meeting 10 times, and basically what we're responsible for is we're accountable to the community of how measure you funds are being distributed.

We're also out there promoting and talking about measure you and where the money's going.

And in addition, we're developing benchmarks, so there's a lot of work that's being done.

So to cut us to five, we won't be able to do the work, and you're gonna lose the voices of the community because all of us that sit up there represent the community.

And in addition, and if you're trying to come up with reductions, I I was on the measure you commission for four years before I realized, oh, we're supposed to get a stipend, and then I started getting a stipend.

I'm not doing this work because I'm I'm I expect to get compensated.

I'm doing this because I care, and I'm all the commissioners feel the same way.

Don't give us stipends reduce the for suspend the stipends for a year and see how that goes because I I can tell you most of the commissioners they do this for because they're committed to the community and it's not about getting stipends.

If you're trying to save money, get away, do away with the stipends that you give the commissioners.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next three speakers, Wilma, Rick, and Lambert.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council members.

My name is Wilma Whitfield, and I am the general manager of the observer newspapers.

And I'm here to highlight a vital institution in our city and its relationship to the city's community ambassador program, and that is the Sacramento Observer.

Our publication stands as a fundamental cornerstone to Sacramento's community ambassador program.

While individual messengers build bridges to communities of color and underrepresented neighborhoods, the observer provides the institutional media framework necessary to amplify and protect those efforts.

The observer enhances the program through the following methods.

Facilitating access to essential services, moving beyond simple flyer outreach, the observer program, the ambassador program utilizes the observer to deliver culturally resonant and comprehensive information.

This ensures residents are fully aware of resources for workforce development, economic mobility, financial empowerment, and housing assistance.

The second thing is strengthening feedback via investigative journalism.

While ambassadors collect community input, the observer backs these voices with data-driven reporting by documenting structural structural disparities in areas like housing and health.

Effective cultural justice in Sacramento requires that grassroots efforts be supported by trusted black media like the observer to validate and broadcast messaging to those who need it most.

True inclusivity in our city must include the black pressed.

Thank you for your comment.

Your time is complete.

Rick, our next speaker is Rick.

Everyone here tonight, as you are sitting there, you may take a moment and just let yourself sit up a little straighter.

As you notice the sensation of the chair or even your feet on the floor, and the simple fact that you're here now in this moment of choice.

Good evening, city.

Good evening, City Manager.

Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Mayor, Vice Mayor, that one.

Backwards.

And council.

As you continue to feel that contact with the chair, and perhaps that subtle warmth or coolness in this room, you may also want to begin to realize that what is actually happening tonight is much larger than a single vote.

A part of you can start to recognize that you are quietly shaping something future generations will simply call your legacy.

Emerson suggested that nature wears the colors of our spirit, and as you imagine the city's streets, parks, and people in your mind's eye, you might begin to wonder what colors your decisions are painting into the place into this place.

And you wonder about that.

Another part of you can notice the difference between the color of courage and the color of fear.

The feel of integrity and the feel of pressure.

Well, you're sitting there, you don't have to analyze intimidation to know it.

Your body already knows when power is used to make the room smaller instead of larger.

And you may have to find and find it interesting to consider that long after one mayor or one council has left these chairs, these trees, the river, the streets, you will continue quietly reflecting on how the power felt in this room, whether it felt like protection or a threat.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Lambert.

After Lambert, we have Juan Carlos, Annabelle, and Jay.

First of all, I would like to thank whoever invited to grant union uh ROTC, junior R O T C.

That was impressive.

I know most of their parents and grandparents, uncles and aunts.

It was good to see them.

I didn't know that was going to be today.

That was a treat for me.

Also, the Sacramento Observer.

I didn't know they were going to be here.

By the way, the late great Mrs.

Catherine Lee, who was one of the founders of Sacramento Observer.

Shout out to them because on their 40th anniversary, they celebrated them at the Sacramento Convention Center.

And Mrs.

Lee had our lemon cheesecake there, so shout out to the observer.

Much love to them.

Yesterday I was at Measure U.

And it's stunning what they're doing there.

There's a lot of money that goes there.

Shout out to Mayor Steinberg who came up with that.

I went to a lot of meetings.

And that money was supposed to go to underserved communities like Del Paso Heights.

But last night I found out that they're now going to cut the commission to meet only five times versus 10, and they didn't even have enough time to get it done with that many meetings.

That's intentional.

That's what's called institutionalized barriers.

That's put there for a reason.

Ash Ragani should be reprimanded for that.

Also, the economic and innovative department, they came up and did a presentation, and they violated the Brown Act because they didn't QA, didn't let the uh commission QA.

Plus I was waiting to speak.

They only charged them nine minutes.

The economic department they receive a lot of money of measure you.

They should have to come in front of the commission before they get funded.

Our next speaker is Juan Carlos.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for allowing me to speak to you, Council.

Thank you.

Um I'm here to oppose the defunding or the freezing of the money for the neighboring developing action team ambassadors program.

I'm one of the ambassadors.

I have been since its insect inception, one of the ambassadors.

And I'm here to tell you that these program has achieved a lot of things.

One of them is to breach the gap between the trust of uh underserved communities and yourselves, and that's not a minor thing.

It's very difficult for many of the members of underserved communities to approach you because they don't have the value to come here, sit here, submit the comment or whatever.

This has breached that gap.

One of the main obstacles that you guys have removed as a language obstacle, the way to approach them with somebody they trust, somebody from their community.

And now you want to take that away.

I don't like it.

I think it's a bad idea.

This program has been recognized at the state level and regional level for its achievements.

Some of them are expanding your representation.

Increasing engagement with those members of your underserved communities, the development of special neighboring projects that bring people together.

So I don't know how many of you have come to meet the ambassadors, how many of you have met some of the ambassadors?

As I said, I'm one of them, and I have not had the privilege to speak to all of you.

But I will welcome you to approach me and have questions.

If you want to see other outcomes, I welcome that too.

But I think freezing the stipends is not the solution.

It's not a lot of money, really, it's very small money.

And it doesn't do the difference for us to do the work.

We do it because we want to help you.

We want to help the community engage with the members of our communities on the other way around.

It's a great program.

It's actually a good practice program.

It shows the way.

Don't cut it, don't freeze it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Annabelle, and after Annabelle is Jay King.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Annabelle Gonzalez.

I'm a North Natoma's resident and 10-year child care business owner.

Imagine a solar flare hits.

Satellites go down, cell towers stop working.

You can't call 911.

Where do you go?

On Friday, March 27th, around 1 p.m., I tried to find out.

I searched police station on my phone, drove to Del Paso and read the sign, temporally closed.

So I drove to Richards Boulevard, nobody there.

Signed said, go to Freeport.

Finally drove to Freeport, pulled a number, waited, got an investigator, not a patrol officer.

Three locations, one Friday afternoon, no one, not one patrol officer.

So when anyone needs immediate help, there's no station to run to.

What happens when phone lines go down during a power outage, during an actual emergency, and now the city wants to add a 40-unit homeless facility to my neighborhood?

Who is going to respond?

This is why I do not want a homeless shelter at 3511 Arena Boulevard.

The audit says Sacramento spends 588,000 every year managing homeless belongings, over 8,000 hours collecting and storing items mostly never claimed.

Other cities hire third-party companies, costs less and keeps officers available for emergencies.

Sacramento keeps spending 588,000 doing it the expensive way.

But here's what the audit doesn't tell you.

The city also funds a seven-officer impact team plus a department of community response with at least 30 employees, all while facing a massive budget deficit.

But somehow there's money for a homeless shelter.

Here's a better solution.

Move it to the North City Yard or ask Sacramento County to lease you land for one dollar.

Because if the city can barely afford to warehouse belongings, can't keep three police stations staffed on a Friday afternoon, then the city cannot afford to shelter people.

And North Natomas will not be the ones to pay for it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Jay.

After Jay, I have Antonia and then Kevin and then Cornelius.

Good afternoon.

Sacramento is strongest when every community feels heard, seen, and connected to the people making decisions that affect their lives.

The community ambassador program is not just another line item and a budget.

It is a bridge between City Hall and neighborhoods that often feel overlooked, unheard, or disconnected from government.

For just 150,000, this program creates direct relationships between the city and the communities.

Each ambassador represents.

These ambassadors are trusted voices.

They understand culture, the challenges, the language, and the real need of the people they serve.

They help residents navigate city services, communicate concerns, attend meetings, and become active and part active participants in civil engagement.

Without that connection, many voices simply never make it into this chamber.

The value of this program cannot always be measured in spreadsheets alone.

It is measured in trust, it is measured in communication, it is measured in reducing misunderstanding between government and community.

It is measured in helping people feel that Sacramento belongs to them.

Cutting this program sends the wrong message at a time when communities are asking for more engagement, more inclusion, and more accountability from local government, not less.

The community ambassador program gives the community, give the people in the community representation, access, and dignity.

For many neighborhoods, these ambassadors are the first and only real connection they have to city government.

I urge the Sacramento City Council to protect this investment, support the people doing this important work, and continue building a city where every community has a voice at the table.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, Antonia.

All those are so heartfelt.

I want to thank you for allowing me to be here.

I'm Antonio Lopez.

I'm the vice president of Manitos, the largest Spanish-speaking club in the city, operated out of a community center.

In three and a half years, four out of one out of four adults in Sacramento will be a senior.

And the Heart Center is a hub, it gives us a model for the kind of services that include not only health, social services, mental health, food nutrition programs, and just individual assistance that we can provide each other.

The volunteers that serve heart are supported by the staff.

We could not do it without them.

Perhaps next year you might be able to examine the kind of partnership that you have with volunteers so that you can value the service that we provide.

Put some dollars behind the kind of service we have.

My own club has 10 volunteers.

We must be putting in about 20 hours a week, every week, a hundred and two hundred and forty-eight weeks a year for the last 27 years.

Please value the kind of partnerships that you have.

Understand the cost that you'll be actually saving because of this other city services won't be called in for emergencies.

Whether you people give each other help around housing reparations, transportation, nutrition.

We are not a warehouse.

Once upon a time, child care was considered babysitting, and then we grew to child care, and then we became child development, and now we know that it's brain and health development.

Adult senior services needs to be understood that way.

We can't be 25% of the population and still be considered warehousing, be considered recreational, be considered a place to stay.

We provide health and services to the people who care for others.

We give them respite.

Those costs need to be considered when you really thank you for your comment.

Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Kevin.

Hello, my name is Kevin Ains.

I never imagined myself doing this.

I don't even know what I'm gonna say.

Most of us don't even know how underserved we are.

Finding out that those resources are available.

We just never knew about them.

And the end that program is the way for us to know about them.

And it surprised me to know how diverse the group was and how many different communities don't know about these resources.

So, you know, I'm very against defunding this program.

You need to um put more into funding the program because it's definitely not enough because not enough people know about these things that we need to know about.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Cornelius, after Cornelius, I have Gary, Mark, and Zion.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.

Cornelius Burke, proud represent uh resident of District 5.

Um, congratulations, council member on your newborn, the first kid of Sacramento.

Congratulations.

Um, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak this evening.

I just want to highlight three issues with the budget that's before you tonight.

Um, yes, you have to make tough choices, unfortunately.

We're in the red when you get in the black.

Um, number one, I just want to say that you should do all you can to preserve the community ambassador program.

It's a very innovative program to get folks into City Hall, as you heard tonight from folks who showed up.

I've worked at three cities, City of LA, City of Manhattan Beach, City of Beverly Hills, and none of those cities have a program that's as innovative as the community ambassadors program.

So please do all you can to preserve the funding.

Number two, I want to highlight there there's massive cuts for the Office of Public Safety Accountability.

Um, I I would urge this council and the mayor to think about how best to reimagine that office.

I think independent council and mayor oversight of our public safety departments is critical.

It's critical, critical, critical.

Um, and just lastly, we haven't talked about it at all in the presentation, but I am really really concerned about the unfunded pension liability that the city is facing.

Um, we need to devise a strategy to reduce those costs.

Um, once again, budgets are tough decisions.

We have a major budget situation in front of us.

Um, tough choices have to be made, but I implore you not to cut the community ambassador program and definitely think about the pension liability the city faces.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak before you tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Gary.

Good morning.

Uh good afternoon, I should say good evening.

Uh mayor, city council, and uh uh new city manager.

My name is Gary Simon.

I am the executive director of Sacramento Juneteenth, Incorporated.

Uh I'm here in support of the ambassador program.

Uh, as some of you may know that nearly 20 years ago, while with uh Visit Sacramento, I served in an ambassador uh role as the director of multicultural affairs for the Sacramento Convention and Business Bureau at the time.

And that role also consisted of what these ambassadors do uh in engaging with the ethnic communities specifically uh connecting them to city resources.

Uh so I'm in full support of the ambassador program, but also we mentioned about the a couple folks mentioned about the uh measure U dollars and their allocation.

I think that a lot of that needs to be looked at.

I know that the Measure L and the measure, well, the measure U and the measure L uh dollars, some of those dollars are going and funding the fire departments given 1.4 million dollars for some of those funds and things like that.

Those dollars should be going into the community more so than back to the city and city departments.

Uh the ambassador program is like a hundred and eight thousand dollars that we're proposing out of uh sixty-two million dollar deficit, a hundred thousand dollars that they're costing the city is a lot more important than the hundred thousand dollars that it shows on the paper because of the work they do with the community and bridging that gap for the community.

So I'm in support of the ambassador program.

We also have uh reached out to all of you to invite you to some of what I am the ambassador for, which is the Sacramento Juneteenth Festival.

Shameless plug right here.

But we would love for you all to uh be a part of that.

Thank you for your comment.

Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Mark.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council.

My name is Mark Freeman, and I am the special project manager for the Sacramento Observer.

I'm here tonight to urge the council to fully protect and fund the community ambassador program in the upcoming budget.

As we navigate this difficult budget season, we cannot afford to balance the city's ledger by cutting the very lifeline that connects City Hall to our most vulnerable residents.

The community ambassador program is not a luxury, it's a vital infrastructure for equity.

The community engagement requires showing up constantly, not when it's convenient.

When we cut programs like this, the cost isn't just financial, we pay it in a loss of trust.

Deeper disenfranchement and the future, further insulation of our marginal communities.

Budgets are a reflection of our values.

If Sacramento truly values equity, inclusion, and meaningful engagement, we must prioritize the people who do the work on the ground every day.

Please preserve full funding for the community ambassadors program.

Now I also want to say just one quick thing.

I'm an alumni myself.

I know many of you are alumni.

And I want you to remember that that program brought diverse communities together and then communicated back to the communities that they're from.

And that was very successful.

You guys all benefit from that.

I just want to remind you to think about that program when you're thinking about a program for the community ambassadors program, which needs that type of support for this community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Zion.

Hi everyone, thank you for having me.

My name is Ian Tadessa, and uh so I'm here to support the community ambassador.

I've been in the ambassador program the first year and then right now, last year.

And uh I believe that program is uh very essential part of our community, how we can actually educate and inform our community what is uh available for them, especially when it comes to fund resources and a lot of um opportunity.

What you guys put out there, a lot of our community, especially the minority community, the underserved community, they don't know.

I have to all the time dig stuff out to even know, you know, some, you know, we can actually support our small businesses in our community, our nonprofit and everything.

So 150,000 is not that much when we have 1.7 billion dollar budget, and taking it from the community that needs it, especially when it's diversity, you believe in diversity, equity.

Then I mean we might as well be with uh Trump and say we don't want no diversity and equity in our community.

So this is the program that really supports and bridge the gap between the the uh city councils in the community that you serve.

And we've been doing a good job really informing our communities of what it is there for them.

So why would you take that?

I mean, we don't even get enough money from the fund, the budget, 30 million dollars going to the police, and and the fire, 80% of the budget is going everywhere else, but the community, but taxpayers' money really is supposed to be helping the community that is underserved in the minority and the underserved community.

So I really honestly why why you take the money from the for our community that who needs it?

So all the time, don't attack our community budget.

Attack the the money that you spend, unnecessarily 80% of the budget goes to police, fire and other things, and our community.

So please.

Thank you for your comment.

Your time is complete.

Our next three speakers are Karen, John, and Krishna.

Good evening.

I've been attending City Council meetings for nearly a decade, and every budget season I hear the same conversation.

Cuts to public safety, reductions to police staffing, and discussions about how Sacramento is expected to do more with less.

What would be refreshing is to come here next year and hear things like we are investing in public safety, we are investing in economic development, and we are building a safer, cleaner, and more prosperous Sacramento.

We should be aggressively pursuing business, technology companies, investment, and higher paying careers that expand opportunity and strengthen our tax base naturally.

We would be encouraging smart development projects like the Blue Diamond Project that generate long-term revenue to support police, fire, infrastructure, and city services.

Instead, residents and local businesses continue to hear about more fees, more red tape, higher costs for business permits, and of course more police cuts.

And while these debates happen, the Sacramento police officers sitting in this room are forced to listen to conversations questioning whether their positions and their resources are truly valued.

Because at the end of the day, when any one of us, anyone here in this room, faces danger, we all would do the same thing.

We would pick up the phone and dial 9-1-1.

And the men and women of the police department would respond without hesitation, regardless of politics or circumstance.

Imagine the impact if officers came to a council meeting and clearly heard from the dais.

We support you, we value you, and we need you.

And I do want to acknowledge the members of the dais who have stated that and who have consistently supported law enforcement.

But at the end of the day, Sacramento has incredible potential, but the city needs a reset in priorities towards growth, safety, accountability, and economic vitality.

I sincerely hope we see that change next year.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is John.

Good evening, John Vinocchi, CEO of the Regional Business Leaders Council.

I have been uh pretty public about pushing for cuts to OPSA, so I'll just uh say that I got a great endorsement today from the Sacramento Bee from Robin Epley.

He said we shouldn't do it, so feel like I'm on the right side of history there.

Uh, one of the points here that they made in the articles as a quote, I definitely worry that we're not gonna have any type of oversight in Sacramento.

And actually, I think that's the exact opposite problem with OPSA.

Police department in particular has the police commission, the city council, the city manager, and internal affairs in the Sacramento B went two days in a row without telling the whole story here.

That OPSA agrees, I believe, with internal affairs over 98% of the time.

And so this is an easy 1.3 million dollars.

I would call this a low-hanging fruit that we could pull out by just getting rid of a department that has no real over authority and put into other programs that will actually make a difference.

I think there's some great programs here.

We've heard about right that we could easily take this money out and put it towards a much more valuable purpose that adds value to our community.

So thank you for considering my request.

Our last speaker is Krishna.

Good evening, and Namaste.

My name is Krishna Giri.

I represent Nepali language school.

That is diversity, makes the community stronger.

So we are adding to the Balu uh to our great beautiful city of Sacramento.

And uh, Mr.

Miller, council members, and our friendly friends of Great City of Sacramento.

Good evening.

And um, so now the school is facing a couple of challenges.

That is one for the space.

But thank you to our council member Lisa.

Uh she has helped us to find a space in the South Notomos uh community center.

And however, um we have to do the um uh always a request uh for P waiver.

So uh we don't have that resources, so uh so I would like uh you to consider for that view waiver.

Um but that is our stepping stone.

So our goal is to find a permanent place for the school so that we can our students and the uh they can emerge as a good citizens, and they also can add the cultural values and the language, multilinguals to our beautiful cities.

So I would like to work with um Mayor McCarty, our great leader, great mayor, and I uh if he remembers this uh he's a good friend of mine too.

But uh so with all our um committee, we would like to uh work together and uh thank you for this uh opportunity and thank you as a tomos committee center for helping us until now and hopefully it will be continued until we find a space permanent basis.

So thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Councilman Lisa and all of you wonderful leaders.

Thank you, thank you, my friendly friends of second.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Mayor, I have no more speakers.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh back to the city council for further deliberation on this.

And again, I'll I'll just focus on the the big picture as we near the end of our of our budget process.

Um so thank of course for for for Pete and our team or thought for bringing back uh some options.

And so the big picture is it's a roughly a nine hundred million dollar general fund budget, and we're focusing on I think one point eight million, which if my adult school math is right, makes it 99.8% of the budget is pretty much settled.

So there's two tenths of one percent that we're trying to reconcile.

And these are all terrible choices to everybody.

We've had to make terrible choices for three years in a row.

Laying people off, eliminating uh positions in every department from you know, code to animal to tree services to police and fire.

So nobody has been left left unscathed.

And uh we're trying to focus on a budget that is responsible that um allows us to uh mainly address the structural deficits and come back next year without having to make these.

And as the past speaker just talked about, hopefully zeroing on economic development and talking about exciting projects in the city of Sacramento, so when you bring in more money to restore um some of these issues.

So as we look at reconciling the last two-tenths of one percent, I I do support the direction that Councilman Riguerra laid out, which you uh outlined, and and I will say that that the things that were taken off the table, I agree that they're important as well, but the things that we're putting back on are just as important.

Like we hear potentially the dollar amount for the ambassador program.

Well, conversely, summer at City Hall is also the same amount, and so is you know, restoring the Yipsey workforce development position.

So they're all choices that we have to to make.

And I think I I want to uh applaud our our council, I know our city manager and I.

We we focused on this that when we ask council members to come back and say don't do this, to come up with a suggestion.

And so, you know, we've we've done that.

Um this is for for our second week now, and uh I I still uh support the outline laid out last week by council member uh Kieran at the right time I think we could engage in that, but um of course uh of course first want to allow council members to uh deliberate and share their position.

So we'll start with council member Kaplan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I appreciate the opportunity to have another discussion and give the public an opportunity to discuss because uh the second half of the proposals where there was some disagreement, we really didn't get to discuss what the impact of certain cuts um would be.

Um I have a couple questions of staffs, because I wanna understand um the impact um for the ambassador program.

Would it be Ms.

Hall to ask some of those questions?

Uh no, it's the plans to the budget director or the city manager.

Um we're not bringing people at the cherry pick debate here, so city manager or budget director.

Wanna restraint your question?

Well, if uh our city manor can answer specifically what the ambassador program does and why we're cutting it and the impact of the budget cut, I would happily hear from the city manager.

The city manager, before she answered, the city manager is not proposing to cut it.

It was the council directive up here is one of the ideas.

So they're evaluating whether or not it would have the amount that we outlined in the position.

So if you have questions to your council colleagues, so Mr.

Mayor, are you saying I can't ask questions about the impact of the cut?

You can ask that, but but I just want to clarify that they didn't propose cutting it.

The council last week on a six to three vote asked to put on the list to consider reduction to restore.

I think the idea that you put back on the list too the Yipsey workforce development positions as well as summary city hall.

So thank you.

But I didn't propose the ambassador, so I'm just trying to understand the impact.

Fair enough.

Go ahead.

So council member, we have 18 community ambassadors that I think you've you heard from the public comment how they work with the community, uh, try to engage them with the city, and those ambassadors get a $6,000 stipend.

And so that makes up the $108,000.

So you know, cutting the stipend means the community ambassadors would not get that stipend if they wanted to continue to participate in the program.

So can you then answer what's going to happen to the program?

Um the program at this point would go away.

Okay.

So there would be no further community ambassador program.

There would not be a community ambassador program, but we would have to redesign what that looks like.

Thank you for asking that.

Um city manager uh want to ask question.

Um I do not support because I think our community voice is really important, and it has been stated as important with our public as well.

Is asking how can our boards and commissions have more voice.

Can you explain to me the thought process on reducing the amount of meetings of our boards and commissions?

So I didn't make that recommendation.

That was a recommendation that was made from the dais.

Um, but what I will say, I do think uh there is an opportunity for us to assess the number of meetings that we do have.

We do have a lot of boards and commissions.

Um, I'm not as focused on quality quantity as I am on quality.

I do think that there are some commissions that probably need to meet 10 times a year.

There are probably some that need to meet eight and maybe sometimes some that need to meet five.

Uh actually uh the clerk and I, she's not here today.

We have had this discussion uh prior to talk about assessing, you know, some of our boards and commissions to see what makes sense and how we could get the best um out of our boards and commissions, and I've also had conversations with council members prior to the budget session to have it to talk about you know, are you getting follow-up?

Are you getting feedback in the rotation when we have the boards and commissions?

Uh so I'm not saying that it needs to be five, I'm not saying that it needs to be ten, it needs to make sense based on the work product that's put forward.

So, where did the number five come from?

I think we just split it in half.

We just said five.

That was just a recommendation, but the recommendation that I would like, and this is up to council as well, is just to allow us the um a direction to be able to assess the work product and the number of meetings.

So, not necessarily.

So, if if council moves forward, you're not looking for the exact five, you're actually looking for direction to give flexibility to maximize it and make sure.

So, it could be some meet ten, some meet five, some meet six.

That is correct, because I think when we did some assessments, there were some that met three.

There are a lot of commissions that get counseled.

So, and we want to be fair to our volunteers.

We want to give them some predictability because that is their time, right?

So we want to make certain that they know when meetings um are gonna be held, whether it's five times, whether it's eight times, and whether it's ten, and we're not in the same um situation as we were with COVID.

A lot of uh community members could participate online, and we just don't have that luxury anymore.

So, you know, some people have to take care of their families.

So, you know, we just need to be mindful of how we structure this moving forward.

Thank you.

Um I would like to follow back up two weeks ago.

I asked our um our fire chief some questions.

I'd like to bring him back up for the impact on that.

If I think what would be helpful if we could just um and this is a message from me, so we could be respectful through to the um authority of the city manager if we could pose the questions to the city manager, and I can either direct them to the director of the department or to um the budget director, that'd be correct.

Absolutely.

So uh two weeks ago I asked um, and and I I will apologize.

This should have been in my budget letter um in the short timing to get it in.

Um there is a recommendation to eliminate 17 firefighter positions, and um I would like to see that we actually freeze them and not eliminate them.

Uh, what is your thought process and what is the impact of the difference between freeze and eliminate?

So I know the chief uh spoke to dynamic staffing, and I know he has spoken to bringing a couple of um, I believe, classes forward.

So, chief, I do not see you, I don't have my glasses on.

There you are.

You want to come up and speak to that, please.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, City Manager.

Um, so as I spoke a couple weeks ago, dynamic staffing um it allows us instead of a a brownout situation, it allows us to look, evaluate um, like a heat map and areas that have good coverage and areas that have not so good coverage.

Um I'll go back a little bit.

Um, and please forgive me, but you go back to Prop 13.

The city started moving, and I know it's like I'm going way back, but the city moved eight companies out of its core uh to address the growth around the city.

Valley High, The Pocket, Florence Perkins, and we did not infill the city with new stations at that time.

Now, today you get to a busy metropolitan city.

We run 110,000 calls a year, our stations are not close enough, and we cover more than the 99 square miles with the fire department.

We have our contract areas we cover with our fire department as well.

We've moved stations in the north area to cover the north area.

We have built some stations with new communities in the north area, uh we keep up there, but with dynamic staffing and the removal of the the elimination of the positions you're talking about, um, it's going to reduce our ability by about two companies, and that's the conversation that I think we need to have.

Is what does that look like?

Uh when you play it out, it reduces our response time or increases our response time about two and a half to three minutes, depending on where you're at in the city, and it's going to affect not always the call we're going to right away, like the other night we had a call at 27th and C.

Engine 2 got there in uh three minutes.

But if it took them five minutes to get there, that fire increases by 16 times.

And these are just facts.

This is math science that we work with every day.

So by having to move around two companies and not knowing where that is going to happen, um, it affects our response, it affects our city.

So Chief, I just want to make sure that's one one more thing, Mayor.

It's every community we're in.

Hold on, Chief.

Every child, every adult.

I just I apologize.

I should have told the council tonight.

We're not relitigating other issues.

So I'm asking the council to focus on the proposal put forward by councilmember Garrett, which was voted on, I believe, six to three, the restorations and the possible sources for the restoration.

So this is a fine debate for another council hearing, but I think that we need to keep to the focus.

So thank you, Chief.

The eight restorations though did not address public safety in the fire service.

I hear you.

I disagree.

This is an item, and I have a First Amendment right for freedom of speech to ask the questions as a duly elected council member.

So I just respectfully disagree with you, and I think the public needs to hear the impact of these cuts.

So I'd like fire chief, if you can just finish.

What's the impact of freezing versus eliminating?

So the freeze, um, the freeze gives us the ability to work with council and the manager to run our academies, two academies a year, and flatten out the cost of uh forced overtime or mandatory overtime.

It also helps we have 45 people off on injury right now, it's about 10% of our workforce.

It helps us staff the department when we have those injuries and injuries will go up with call times.

So call times, injuries, and then staffing and flattening the overtime.

So thank you, Chief.

Yeah, council members, with the proposal before you I don't think it's out of the realm to say uh and it is no budget impact if the difference between freezing positions for a year and cutting those positions because we have one current class of firefighters going in, of which there are positions, and when we talk about equity in this city and treating uh departments and individuals fairly, the police department has the ability to hire and fill firefighting positions.

If we eliminate these 17 firefighter positions, the fire chief and city manager will have to come back to us to ask to hire, which is putting our residents and public safety at risk.

So why wouldn't we just consider instead of eliminating freezing these positions for a year?

Because the next class is going to start in January 27, and if we don't have these positions available, the fire chief can't hire these individuals, and it's something that I think we should absolutely look at.

Um, you know, I I have stated from the beginning when I got elected, I believe we should do a two-year budget cycle.

It is smart.

This every year cutting and balancing to begin at a deficit the next year is is unacceptable.

We have 7.4 million dollars in general fund money available that will not cut anybody that will not take any services away from anybody sitting in the department of community response.

Why wouldn't we take some of that 7.4 million dollars to make sure our amazing community ambassador program that'll cost a hundred and eight thousand dollars to continue?

Continue because we talk about and we have a racial equity committee.

What does it say to us in our community when we talk about equity and we talk about diversity, yet we're cutting a core program where we have community ambassadors, and that's just a hundred and eight thousand dollars that we can take that from the capital expenses in DCR.

No one housed are going to be infected, no programs are going to be lost.

Why wouldn't we do that?

And by the way, the community ambassador program, and you can confirm if not, gets 400,000 from SETA for this that we would have to pay back.

So uh council member, just to um step in for a second, we would not have to pay back the set of funds.

So the set of funds are for a different program, the economic mobility ambassador program.

Uh, there is some overlap.

So there's 12 community ambassadors who overlap with the economic um mobility ambassadors.

Uh however, the SETA grant, we would be able to um we would be able to fund those ambassadors with and not have to give up the set of funding.

So if I understand correctly, we would keep the economic mobility ambassadors and delete the neighborhood.

The commute the community ambassadors, so the uh community ambassadors are funded by general fund, and it's the economic mobility ambassadors that are funded by SETA.

That program could continue and we would not have to return those state funds.

Thank you.

I I appreciate that.

But again, if we're talking about as a council with our core priorities, when we talk about equity, we're talking about economic viability, but our community and our neighborhood ambassadors are not just as important.

I'm just disappointed in, and we talk about priorities and the priorities that have been put forward.

That is why I voted no last week.

Of just freezing the firefighting positions and not eliminating them, and taking that hundred and eight thousand dollars from the facilities fund within DCR.

If we can't do that, I truly can't support it because that's not the core of who we are as a city.

As yes, we are arguing over little things, but we really didn't go far enough to address our structural deficit when we know HAP funding was cut 11 million.

While the unhoused is down in the city, we're gonna get less money from the state because you saw what the governor put in.

We have to do more with less, but by doing more with less by cutting our fire, by cutting our police, by cutting our core of community ambassador programs, we're saying to the public that public safety and equity and diversity doesn't matter, and that's not a budget.

Uh I can support.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um first of all, I want to extend uh my thanks to the to the staff for the uh work they they have done to respond to uh the council's direction last week.

I really thought it would take a little bit longer as I expressed it to Pete, but uh uh you have responded in a very uh thoughtful, I think, and timely uh fashion.

Second, secondly, although uh it's tempting to expand the scope of the discussion tonight and debate differences we may have over where we find ourselves in the moment.

I'm going I'm going to personally resist that that temptation, take the the mayor's uh advisory to uh talk about what's in front of us uh as presented in the in the staff report.

And I would I would just note that um as uh the mayor said at the outset, and I I think uh it bears repeating uh these are not easy choices and per and perhaps choices none of us would would prefer to make, but uh they are choices that uh we need to make and must make in the in the uh conditions and circumstances in which we we find ourselves.

So with that in mind, uh I think the proposed restorations uh are ones that that should be uh priorities of of ours.

Among those uh suggested sources to cover those those restorations.

Uh I am in uh uh general agreement with um the uh suggestion, and I make this as a suggestion that um we consider in lieu of simply uh on some more or less um arbitrary basis, reducing the number of meetings uh commissions can have that that we do one of two things uh instead.

If the if that is the will of the council.

One one would be one proposal would be actually to to, and uh I'll form and make this in the form of a question to Pete uh would be to freeze the ethics commission for uh one year uh including the funding that goes to investigators and the funding that goes to stipends for that that commission, and whether that would offset the thirty five thousand dollars otherwise saved in overtime as I understand it with the reduction in commission meetings overall yeah uh council member that that's correct so freezing the ethics commission would generate slightly more savings than the thirty five thousand uh that's before you right now for reducing all commissions and thank you thank you for that Pete and and I make that suggestion uh not because I think ethics are unimportant but because there are very viable alternatives uh for those who uh believe that uh there's some uh uh claim to be made uh there is resort to the fair political practices commission there is also resort to the district attorney so there are at least two other sources for consideration of the kinds of issues uh that uh are in within the scope of the ethics uh commission so uh for me I'm not sure we need three different sources uh especially when we're trying to find um funding to keep some some very uh vital uh elements such as violence prevention grants and summer at city hall and the others that are on our restoration list so I so I I just lay that on the table as a possible alternative the second one the second alternative to me would simply be to take that 35 thousand and add it to the amount that we're transferring we're shifting from the economic uncertainty reserve uh to help us uh uh find the funding we need for the restorations uh when we're talking about I think it's nine hundred and seventy three thousand dollars moving from the reserve to help us cover another thirty five thousand is uh somewhat on the on the margin but I would make that suggestion with the additional uh proviso that actually picking up on what the city manager had to say that in the coming year we do an assessment of of what really uh are the number of uh uh uh missions of the commissions we have and how much they really do me to need to need I I do think there are some that uh have significant work that would take more than five we that we pick five but but some may take less so um that would be the that would be the uh codicle to the uh to the suggestion of of the 35 coming from the uh from the economic uh reserve uh there's nothing here that uh is insignificant or unimportant and uh the uh issues that have been raised I think uh maybe very uh appropriate to to discuss further at uh another time but we have gotten to this point in the budget process with consideration of those issues we have set the the direction that that we we want to go uh and uh I think it is uh at this point in time better the better course to resolve the the questions that are in front of us r rather than to uh reopen issues uh that we have have previously considered so um mayor with uh those comments uh I look forward to taking action tonight on our restorations and and our offsets uh to those and moving forward with the budget process.

Thank you council member care.

Great thank you uh a couple things one it let me start off with the commissions because uh I think this is uh an important one too I heard from the active transportation commission one of the benefits of the active transportation commission has been that we've been able to be competitive for grants and the concerns of uh of the reduced number of meetings might mean they may not be able to meet in time for those competitive grants and we've obviously seen some direct physical improvements around from the work that they've done so I agree with uh councilmember Dickinson on the I think on the necessary uh areas to look at whether it's it's uh it's the one-year freeze or the EUR.

Um, you know, the only thing I would caution is you know, the more we we uh we dip into the EUR, then that puts us in a much more vulnerable situation come the next year.

So I know we have we're doing it now to make sure that uh we can move forward.

Uh but I still you know want to make sure that uh moving forward here that number one the people who are working for our city at our senior center, the employees who are helping our seniors, that needs to be number one focused, you know.

Um second, again, uh protecting the um the workers that are maintaining our city, particularly this weekend.

I don't know how many parks and trees were falling down and uh and the issues that they were going to Daniela.

I I want to thank her for her work.

Um, you know, she was willing to jump on a meeting we had pre scheduled, but in the meantime, you know, uh they were dealing with massive, massive number of dangerous trees around the parks, and so the park maintenance workers are essential.

I mean, essential to make sure that those places are safe, particularly on this weekend as well.

And then also the uh the Yipsi employees that were uh there as well.

Um, you know, these uh we've got to make sure that we we look at uh our youth parks and employment um uh uh workers as well that were already uh in the in that in that cut as well.

So that is uh I think the the focusing point is like what do we need to maintain uh and um focusing on our seniors and our um workers that are maintaining safety in our public spaces.

That's first and foremost.

But I do agree with the commission piece.

We can't have an uh hearings um delayed where someone needs to have their their item heard uh or their permit process while they're trying to actually get their development moving forward.

This is why I brought up the concern about the planning commission uh and that we heard about the appeals here.

You know, this is exactly why we asked staff to look in deeper here.

So uh only have I think that's the direction we need to move forward, but we'll only have one question for the city manager here uh as well.

And my understanding, and staff can correct is this is that uh the action is to suspend the stipend, not to eliminate the program.

Is that correct, city manager?

Because I'll tell you that's the way that the motion was made.

The it will be to suspend the stipend.

Now the volunt they would have to volunteer and whether or not they wanted to continue with the program.

The individuals would have to determine whether they wanted to continue with the program without the stipend.

So because I've not had that conversation, I can't govern.

Okay, very good.

Yeah, and many of our many of our our offices and other folks are engaged in this is here.

But I think when I look at the priorities here, we have to look at how we're gonna balance ensuring that we don't lay off the necessary employees that are doing the vital work with our seniors and our park workers.

That's I think uh the priority here.

So um I'm open to discussion on the way that we can address the commission piece on the FPPC, but we have to backfill one way or the other uh because the FPBC is only seven blocks away.

I think your your point is well taken, Councilmember Dickinson.

Uh, but again, um I have hesitation on the EUR because uh if we dip it into it this year and we have uh a significant change in next year, then we're gonna be falling further behind where we may have to le lay off other employees.

That's the purpose of the EUR.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Jennings.

Uh thank you very much, Mayor.

Um my question is on um I'm gonna stay with the commissions just for a few minutes here.

Um, the assessing the boards and a commissions, which I think is the recommendation that's on the table now.

I just want to know the process of that and how long it takes to do that in order for us to be able to make a decision on how we move forward.

I will answer this the best way I can without uh the city clerk being in the room.

But the first thing we need to do is look at the charter of the commission and what the purpose of the commission is supposed to be determined if it is actually meeting its stated goals.

Um I think we need to assess how many meetings have been canceled in the past, how many meetings they have uh need to have moving forward.

Um but the first thing we need to do is actually look at the charter.

Then we need to make an assessment on how many meetings were canceled prior and what the work plan is moving forward because all boards and commissions should have a work plan.

Some of that work plan will probably actually take 10 meetings, and we need to be able to assess that.

And I can work the clerk will actually lead that and we'll work with the department liaisons uh to have that discussion along with the the boards and commissions, the volunteers who actually set on the commissions as well.

And once you do that assessment, will that come back to this council?

Yeah, we'll bring that back to the council.

I mean, we could come back with no changes, or we could come back with several changes.

Okay, so then there would be that's when we would make the decision on what needs to be changed based on week on doing that assessment and bringing it back for the to the council.

That is correct.

It would not just be a recommendation from the city manager.

Perfect, perfect, perfect.

Okay.

So I'll leave that alone.

I'm in support of doing the assessment that needs to be done in order for us to have the information needed to be able to make the best decision.

So I just feel like this is not a lot of savings for a huge amount of just huge amount of participation from people who are doing great work on the front line.

Sometimes uh people will go to a commission before they even come to this meeting.

Um, so and and this is also a grooming ground for many who want to move up in government and do more than just uh work as a commissioner.

So uh I don't want to take that away, and I want to make sure that um we do a proper assessment.

And then I just wanted to kind of give um a shout out to all those who came and spoke to the community ambassador program.

Um this is a best practice in my opinion in the city of Sacramento that I don't think that we can do without.

Um quiet as is told, my Uncle Tommy was my community ambassador.

Without him, I wouldn't be sitting in this seat today.

And so I know many of you who are who are who are nodding your heads up and down, you feel the same way because somebody made a difference for you, and that's why you're here today, and they were your community ambassador.

So, as it's been said all day long, it's not easy choices.

Um I'm really pleased with the restorations that were brought back to us.

I think they're they're great.

Uh, this is one that I want to really have an opportunity to see what we can do some way somehow to keep that program going forward, um, because I think it has more good to us in the city of Sacramento than bad.

And so whether it's grants, whether it's um getting the community involved and helping us to run it.

You know, I think there's got to be some other way to keep this program going forward because it is a best practice that I don't think we can do without.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Talamantes.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so last week I was trying to save some city attorney position, and then the city clerk's deputy position, and then the automation system.

And you know, I said we're not sexy but functional uh subjects to be able to advocate for, and um, you know, and the mounted horse unit.

Um, unfortunately, you know, council member Kaplan, Councilmember Bang, and I were on the losing end of that vote, and we decided to move forward as the city council on this budget.

Uh, with the reductions that people proposed with the programs that people wanted to save, we all submitted memos saying, hey, this is what I'm interested in, and so we find ourselves here today.

So I do want to thank city staff and our new city manager, Marakisha Smith, for all the work that you guys did and putting this together, especially Marakisha getting here in January into a big budget deficit and being able to find us like 70% and ongoing cost savings for the next budget cycle.

Just thank you so much for for your work and uh really working with us to find common ground on this budget and being able to move forward.

So, with that being said, I'd like to move adoption of this uh item.

Unless Councilmember Dickinson already did.

He did it, right?

Okay.

Thanks, Mayor.

Uh, just want to take an opportunity to just thank everyone who came to speak today.

Uh, look, last council meeting, I voted no on the proposal that was on the table, and I'm gonna continue to vote no.

I know that we were able to restore some critical programs like Summer at City Hall, which other cities are now following us and following that model.

It was a program that was started here, so it's great to see that that program was restored, but I have a feeling we're gonna be back here again if we don't continue to fight for it, violence prevention grants, park maintenance workers, and so much more.

And so, do appreciate some of the restoration on the proposal uh from last week.

Uh, but in totality, the budget doesn't really reflect my values.

Um, and there hasn't been much much change since uh the last conversation since last week.

Um, and in particular, for me, um, eliminating the stipend for the community ambassador program was not even in the original city manager proposal.

Um, and it was just proposed last week for mayor and council to figure out where we could use the money to restore some of the programs.

And I feel like some of these programs are so important.

At the end of the day, they're pitted against each other.

Um it is literally 108,000.

That's dust dollars that you can absorb from PD vacancies, vacancies that have been open open and empty for many years in our office in particular.

Uh, we actually utilize our language access coordinator to translate our flyers for the community.

Um, and several times uh we've actually been connected to our ambassador to assist with the outreach, the translation the translation for a week turnaround.

Um, our ambassadors uh not only speak different languages, but they actually understand the various cultures and and our diverse communities.

I think it's so important.

It's the language piece, but it's not just that, they're cultural uh brokers, um, they understand our neighborhoods, um, and oftentimes they are our trusted messengers.

And yes, we talk about protecting core city services, but you're not gonna be able to implement some of these city services if our diverse community can't access them and doesn't understand what's going on.

Um, and that's the reason why I see this program and the stipend for these community ambassador a critical component of what we do here at the city, and so I cannot support this budget in totality.

I know that the mayor did ask us all to submit a memo because if you want to restore a program, you gotta take it from somewhere else.

Um, and every year I feel like we always have the opportunity to reimagine what our budget can look like, and more importantly, what our priorities say about who we are as a city, and every year we do end up balancing the budget on our youth and our working families.

Yes, it's only like a small percentage of our budget.

It's 900 million general fund, and we're up here debating, you know, uh less than one percent of the budget.

Um, but our debate of that one percent is a reflection of our priorities in this city.

Um, my proposal on the table two weeks ago was that the city currently has substantial funding tied to long-term vacant position, including millions and millions of dollars in unfilled police department allocation.

And my proposal was absorbing some of them, not all of them, just some of them, to maintain some of these programming, and um I don't think my colleagues are in alignment with me on that.

Again, every year uh we get an opportunity to reimagine what this budget may look like for our community, and in totality, it does not reflect the values of the people that I represent in my district.

Um, and I know that this is not the final adoption for the budget because coming back in June for us to vote on, uh, but I don't see any major changes from last week to this week, and so I'll be voting no uh on the budget as it stands.

Thank you, council member Mayful.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, and I I like I like my colleague um the vice mayor, really want to thank staff for getting to this point, um, especially our city manager, our budget staff, and really actually all every department uh in the city of Sacramento, every single one of our departments has been asked to make sacrifices that have been incredibly difficult.

Um, and it that's not lost on us.

I look at this and I, you know, it would be my wish that we keep everything that we have and do more because that's what the community demands of us.

But unfortunately, that's not the budget position that we're in today.

We must make very difficult choices.

And I'm uh as the mayor mentioned, we've been doing that process for months now.

Um, and we have landed in a place where we agree on a big chunk of it, um, and we are now talking about the margins, and I think that's a good place to be because the some of the most difficult uh decisions are actually behind us.

Um, but that doesn't mean that there aren't hard choices right now in front of us.

Um, you know, when we had our discussion last week and the weeks before that, I was really keen on ensuring that we are protecting jobs first and foremost.

Um, as I've mentioned before, we I have we all have city workers that live in our districts, um, live all around our communities, and we want to make sure that our employees are able to feed their families, um, that they're able to put a roof over their heads and put gas in their cars and everything that they need to do, and that's a very high priority for me.

So I'm very glad through Councilmember Gera's uh motion that we were able to protect those jobs um to move forward.

Pools, community centers, senior centers, our our our programs in Yipsey, all of that is so so important because that's people's lives, and it's also how people get connected in addition to our ambassador program, that's how people get connected to the city too and figure out what's going on in their lives, um, figure out how we can help them.

And so um, I just think I think it's important to note not just what we're talking about today, but all the things that we've done to date, and as was mentioned, we still have we still have time to go.

There's still discussions ahead of us.

Um but with that said, we're all gonna have to make c sacrifices and compromises.

No one's gonna be happy at the end of this budget, I can guarantee it.

There's probably not a single person up here that's gonna be like got everything I wanted.

Um, of course not, because that's not the situation that we're in.

Um, and I know you know, just in the conversations that I've had with community members, our town halls, our meetings, um, talking with different organizations, our CBOs, our churches, and so on.

Um, everybody wants to tell you exactly all the things that you should keep.

Um, but people will not tell you where else you should cut very rarely.

Um it's very challenging, and that's the hard position that is our job.

And so that means that ultimately we sit up here today and in future days to be able to have these conversations and make those choices, and they're not easy.

Um, so with that said, um, one of the questions that I do have, um, because there are I want to appreciate all the speakers who came to talk today about the community ambassador program and other things, was um, do we for that program do we track it all like outcomes or data?

Like, do we know how many people are connected to certain city programs or end up in one place or another through that program?

I have not seen any data that's come from that program.

Okay, well, my suggestion or my thought here, and I'm not gonna make any suggestions to change this because I um I hear there might be some more direction coming on this, but you know, I think this is a great program.

I I've met many of the ambassadors that work in in my in the communities that I represent.

Um, and I think that to the extent that we can figure out a way to keep it going, we should.

I also recognize that doing stipends right now in the budget deficit while we're talking about pot people possibly losing their jobs or other very important city programs is a challenge.

It's very hard for me to go to community members and explain why someone might be losing a job and then we're paying stipends on the other hand.

It's and I understand how important that is, but it's very challenging for a community member to understand that at times.

And so my my question is is do we I heard that we can push pause, not necessarily in the program, but on the stipends end, figure out who might be willing to still participate, and then on the flip side, is it possible for us to also pursue other grants opportunities to try to backfill that?

Yeah, we can have a conversation with the volunteers and see if they would like to continue, and on the flip side, we can continue to look for some grant funding to see if we can continue to pay the stipends at some point.

I do think um there is an opportunity for us to provide some feedback and some data.

Um but I think also we part of that data should be touch points too, and how communication flows from some of our communities.

We want to make certain that our disadvantaged communities, and you know, always say the people across the railroad tracks uh get the information and that they are able to participate.

So I think we could do a better job of bringing information back to you on those touch points as well.

Okay, I think that'd be great, and I I you know, for the record, I do think it does great work.

I just think it's important that we track it because if we are going to be seeking grant funding um or other funding opportunities for this, there those they're we're gonna have to be able to track that and say what we're doing just like every other grant funded program out there.

So I think that's important.

Um, so how many people are touched, what programs are being accessed, all of that.

Um, but it is my hope that you know, even if what we end up moving forward with is pressing pause for an hour pause on the stipends not on the program, that we find other ways to fund the program moving forward.

Um, so thank you.

Thank you.

And and council member, you uh you pretty much did what what I wanted to do, but I'll do I'll do it one more time.

Which is no, you didn't you're amazing, is is just to clarify and read the list because two weeks ago we we talked about the budget that was presented by the city manager on May the first, and there was some things that we didn't like, and the community came out and spoke in droves, and so we worked to restore violence prevention programs, the uh gang prevention intervention task force, waiting pools, recreation swim hours, the North Sacramento Economic Development Project, the North Sat Code Enforcement Project, the Hart Senior Program, Park Maintenance uh worker positions summer at City Hall, round two of the violence prevention uh programs and the Yipsey workforce development positions, but there's no free lunch in life as a council member, so we have to make choices.

Certainly not everybody on the city council, but I I do um you know respect everybody for participating in the process and putting the ideas out there.

And I did want to just amplify what you said.

So I know there was some um back and forth about the elimination of the ambassador program.

So uh the motion that was put forward by council member vice mayor Tolamante, seconded by Guerra, is to eliminate the stipends.

The program would remain.

We we'd certainly hope to potentially reimagine it.

Um people could potentially volunteer.

I do think that there are foundations that support democracy and making sure government connects with communities that aren't always connected to, and there's value in that.

Uh but as you said, articulate, you know, at a time we're doing that versus giving somebody a pink slip who works from the parks department.

We have to make those choices, and you know, whether it's a hundred grand, that hundred grand is is a position in the city of Sacramento that we're getting rid of.

So I think that overall this was a um a balanced choice, and we have do you have one more comment before the vote?

Yes, I do.

Okay.

Just wanted to clarify um Vice Mayor Telemonte's motion on having the commission restated with the um review and study.

So I just want to make sure that's a part of that motion.

That and then we'll add um as part of the motion the direction from the mayor and uh council member maple to explore avenues to secure grant funding to be able to pay our community ambassadors, um, keep the program going, but being able to you know explore different funding opportunities.

So for both okay.

Pete, is that good?

Thank you.

Yes, okay.

We got that.

Okay.

Thank you again.

So Pete, can you uh recap what where we go from here?

Because it's only May, what is it?

19th.

We don't have to adopt the budget till mid-June, so we could mess around and 45 years.

What we're saying, right?

So mayor, as you know, the budget needs to be adopted at a public hearing that needs to be noticed.

So uh that public hearing will be noticed for June 9th.

We will bring back a final budget incorporating the changes that council has directed us to make both last week and this week.

Yeah, so just it's um after tonight's action, reconcile that, bring back the document, publish it, bring that document for a final vote on the 9th of June.

That's correct.

So at this time, council, we're not considering any additional adjustments, just to making that clear.

Okay, thank you.

We have a motion and a second.

Uh, please call the roll.

Councilmember Kaplan.

No, sorry, Councilmember Dickinson.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Telamantes.

Aye.

Councilmember Pluckybaugh.

Councilmember Maple.

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tum Guerra.

I.

Councilmember Jennings?

Yes.

Councilmember Ving, no.

Mayor McCarty.

The motion passes.

Seven to 2.

Thank you.

Yep.

Next item.

We have the going back to item number one, the public hearing, the Thomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan fee, the 2026 adjustment.

Um I'd like to open the public hearing.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members, Vice Mayor, City Manager.

I'm Matthew Isla, Associate Planner with the Community Development Department, and I will be providing a brief presentation on the annual adjustment to the Natomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan.

You want to 20 second timeout.

Isn't that the MBA, Roger?

Don't you have 20 second timeouts in the NBA?

Right?

Is that true?

Am I making that up?

I'm waiting for you.

Okay, perfect.

All right.

Please proceed.

I will be providing a brief presentation on the annual adjustment to the Natomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan known as the HCP.

It will be slightly different than in years prior.

All new development within North and South Natomas is subject to the HCP and the implementation agreement executed between the city and federal and state wildlife agencies.

The HCP specifies avoidance measures and mitigation for loss of habitat and incidental take coverage.

Prior to new grading, development in Natomas is subject to the payment of HCP fees.

Per the requirements of the city's HCP and the HCP implementation agreement, the city considers a fee adjustment on an annual basis in order to ensure the accuracy and funding to implement the HCP.

The Natomas Basin Conservancy's economic consultant completed an updated finance model that indicates a necessity to adjust the HCP fees in order to successfully implement the HCP.

There are two pathways depending on the size of the project.

Small projects on parcels under 50 acres in size pay a full fee to cover their development impacts, while projects 50 acres or greater in size pay a reduced fee but must contribute land dedication to the conservancy.

This year, the Conservancy is recommending a $536 increase per acre to both pathways.

This represents a 1.1% increase for projects with land dedication and a 1.6% increase for projects without land dedication.

This brings the total per acre to $33,817 for projects with land dedication and 47,567 for those without.

The component that is different this year is that due to new case law coming out of the city of Palo Alto, the city attorney's office has made planning staff aware that the fee must now comply with the mitigation fee act, which requires the adoption of a Nexus study as well as additional noticing requirements.

The Nexus study demonstrates proportionality between the fees imposed and their use, which has been included as part of this year's finance model.

As a result of this case law coming to our attention, we've had to delay bringing the fee recommendation to council to ensure compliance.

Normally the fee takes 60 days to become effective after council adoption.

So staff is recommending urgency procedures that would allow for the immediate adoption of the HCP fee, which requires a four-fifths vote.

This would allow for the immediate but temporary implementation of the fee for 30 days.

At which point staff would return to council seeking a 30-day extension of the fee.

At the end of this period, the fee would take permanent effect and would require no further action.

The reason for doing this is so that any development that comes in for a grading permit from now until the end of the grading season pays the current fee rather than being subjected to the old fee.

That concludes my presentation.

City staff is available if you have any questions.

Thank you.

Yes, I have one public comment.

It's Keon Bliss, please.

I don't know if it was was it this item you want to talk on?

Okay.

Yeah.

You know.

Habitat conservation is certainly important.

And uh there are also a lot of people in the community that uh could be getting a lot more uh getting a lot more savings had you all done the deliberative work um and looking at all the vacancies and trying as many combinations as possible to actually figure out uh how many like what you could keep without let it making any layoffs or cutting any community programs or this uh uh habitat conservation program.

Umfortunately, y'all didn't care really to do any of that.

Um there's a lot of money that goes into this city council every single year, which I believe is why majority of you have actually refused uh to actually take a deep look in this budget.

Um for example, uh if you want, I could actually show you.

If I had access to um the teleprompter, which city clerk uh years ago decided to deny to the rest of the public, I could show you uh exactly the number of savings you need to avoid making not only saving your priority programs that you've been talking about for the last week, but actually save uh saving and avoiding any layoffs from these positions.

And you can do it all with vacancies and a few unused strategies, no more than seven.

But unfortunately, y'all are interested in that.

It probably has to do with something over about the two million dollars or so that uh majority of you have received from the special interests that have been showing up week after week.

People like uh John Vignoki, who's the CEO of uh the region business association, uh, who's given no less than $9,500 to uh a majority of you, uh, including you, uh uh Councilmember Pluckabom, 3300.

It could be people like the North State uh Building Industry Association, 58,000.

Or secondary, thank you for your comment.

Your time is complete.

Mayor, I have no more speakers on this item.

Okay, thank you.

Back to back to council.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, this is a really vital important uh item, council members, because the sustainability of the Natomas Habitat Base and Conservancy really is conditioned on when development happens, making sure appropriate fees are paid to cover the increased costs that it is to operate and to stay compliant with the um the basically the the agreement with the federal government to to build out and get permits for Natomas, even more so uh important now than ever because of the potential proposed county development and housing that may put in jeopardy the Natomas Habitat Base and Conservancy that if it actually goes through could mean that the city loses the ability to build out any further housing in Natomas, and that's not something we want to consider consider.

So yes, this is a four-fifths vote because it took a little longer uh to get this report to us.

So while my colleague opened it, I'll make a motion to close the public hearing and move it.

Second, it's been opened and uh seconded.

So Clerk, um, do we need a roll call vote or can we just do all eyes?

Do a roll call set side.

Okay, sounds good.

Okay, roll call vote.

Councilmember Kaplan.

Aye.

Councilmember Dickinson?

Aye.

Councilmember Plucky Baum.

Aye.

Councilmember Maple.

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tem Gera.

Councilmember Jennings?

Yes.

Councilmember Vang?

Yes.

Mayor McCarthy is not up here right now.

Uh council, nope, sorry, Vice Mayor Talmontas.

Yes, okay.

Okay, the motion passes with eight yeses and one absence.

Okay, wonderful.

And thank you to our planning staff for hanging in here.

Thank you.

All right.

So now moving along to public comment matters not on the agenda.

We have nine public comments not on the agenda.

The first three speakers, Stephen Walton, Dale Bernie, and Pastor Ronnie Walton.

Good evening good evening, Mayor, City Manager, City Council.

My name is Dale Bernie, and I'm a 65-year resident of District 2.

Faith-based organizations of all persuasions, meaning Protestants and Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists, among many, many other faith traditions, would all be negatively detrimentally and adversely impacted if we are excluded from being on the sensitive use zone list.

Faith-based organizations provide ministry and service to the same demographic or people groups, and in some cases, we provide more services than other protected service providers that are on and will remain on the sensitive use zone list.

These facts are indisputable and undeniable.

As faith-based organizations, we're not asking for special treatment.

We are simply asking for equal and fair treatment.

Our value and worth cannot be measured in terms of dollars and cents.

However, our value and worth are incalculable to our respective communities in particular, as well as to the city of Sacramento in general.

The fact that we are currently on this sensitive use zone list strongly suggests that previous City of Sacramento councils appreciated, respected, and understood that value and worth.

There is no rational or reasonable justification for taking faith-based organizations off the sensitive zone list.

The real question before us tonight is does this current city council likewise appreciate, respect, and understand the value and worth of faith-based organizations?

If so, thank you for your comment.

Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Stephen Walton.

Thank you.

Stephen had to step out.

Okay.

Pastor Ronnie Walton.

Stephen had to take the baby home.

So the mayor and the city council, city manager.

Again, I'm addressing the same thing.

Fairness for the faith-based organizations.

And what's what's happening is a new sacramental ordinance would allow cannabis dispensaries, consumption laws as closest to neighborhoods with removing protection for faith-based organizations.

What's the what's the matter?

What's the problem?

Protected are parks, community centers, libraries.

Not protected is the faith-based organization.

Why is this wrong?

Unequal treatment of similar community service uses.

Policy inconsistencies, potential legal concerns under equal protection and religious land use and laws.

Even the planning and design commissioners recommended that the faith-based organization stay on the ordinance, but the powers that be rejected it, and so that's why we're we're here.

What's to fix at faith-based organization back to the sensitive use list and apply the same buffer protections for faith-based organizations.

We have many pastors here that represent not just the north area, but north and south areas.

And we're very concerned, and we're going to stand on what we believe we think that we need to be on that list.

Don't take us off.

And it's not the last time you will see us.

We'll be back.

Don't take us off the list.

There's a number of pastors, and some of them will come up and talk.

So thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Our next speaker is Bishop Weldon.

After uh Bishop Weldon will have Lambert and then Jay King.

Mayor and City Council.

I am Pastor Katie Weldon of the Harmony Church, which is nestled in uh district five.

And I am here in support of keeping our face-based organizations on the sensitive use list uh zone list.

I want to express my deep opposition to uh the Sacramento Ordinance that would allow cannabis dispensaries and consumption lounges closer to the neighborhoods while removing protections from faith-based organizations.

While protections remain in place for schools, parks, libraries, community centers, and rehab facilities.

They exclude our houses of worship.

Many of our churches serve the underserved who are fighting with addiction and who are in the process of re-entry.

And some of them are fighting addiction as well.

And so again, I express um my total opposition to this ordinance without including the faith-based organizations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Lambert.

After Lambert, we'll have Jay King, Aaron Cardoza, and then Keon Bliss.

First of all, I wanted to say that I'm impressed with the new city manager.

You have to make decisions, you can't worry about being popular.

That's the problem over the years.

They passed it on, and then you came.

Also, uh it says that the economic, this has to be dealt with.

The economic and innovative department, they did not do a uh QA.

That's vital.

They only had nine minutes left and they made a decision.

As Ragani led the charge.

A lot of people panic under pressure, they panic, they had nine minutes left.

They should have gone to public comments and asked them to come back.

That department receives a lot of money, economic innovation, and I'm gonna reach out to Pete and ask him how much money are they getting because they need to come in front of the commission and pitch it to them.

You can't just come up and hope that you're gonna get through.

Not with a native watching.

The other thing is I think it's time to start docking people that don't sit on this rostrum.

If you're not on this rostrum, you shouldn't get paid.

The only one who should be leaving back and forth is somebody who's pregnant.

Otherwise, she doesn't even leave.

So if you're leaving a lot and we have documented somebody leaving, we even saw somebody outside after the meeting last week.

Not a good look.

When public comments are over, you should still be on this rostrum.

You get paid.

And I never heard any suggestion of anybody at City Hall, including city managers, taking a cut.

Other than the next speaker is Jay King.

No?

Okay.

Aaron Cardozo.

Good evening.

Councilman, Mayor.

My name's Aaron Cardozo.

I've been here every time that there's a meeting about cannabis moving into our neighborhoods.

I work with three different types of uh youth programs.

Uh I'm a youth minister.

That means I'm in a church teaching kids about God, right?

Um also I'm a teacher, right, at a school called Miracle University.

Um, that's in the midtown.

Um also I have a community center in Del Paso Heights with our kids, my youth.

I brought over 50 kids one time, 20 one time, three tonight.

The reason I'm here to speak about it is because I don't want them to bring cannabis deeper into Del Paso Heights.

That's mostly where I serve.

That's what that's the area I serve, and I understand what they're trying to do, but if you get closer to parks, schools, and churches, it's nothing to do that, but affect our kids.

It's gonna make our city even worse.

Um, where they're at now, where the where the cannabis is at now, that's cool.

That's way out the way.

Our kids don't even know where our cannabis club is at in Del Paso Heights because it's out their eyesight.

But as soon as it comes to their eyesight, it's gonna affect them, and I say that in in the most um positive way to try to keep my kids from um going into these uh cannabis clubs or even trying to get somebody to buy them marijuana and things like that.

Um, but also away from our churches or our churches is one of the things, one of our sanctuaries, one of the ones where we come and get peace.

So you imagine smelling some pot or having people around when they're coming from church after having a good Sunday.

We know we don't want that.

We just want some good football afterwards, right?

So that's why that's why I'm here, you guys.

Um thank you to Rick Jennings, too.

Also to you, brother, for um looking up for uh our youth, our youth programs, and that's what I serve as the youth in the city of Sacramento, and we just want to make it safe.

I know it's not on the agenda, but just keep it in mind that don't do that, don't put that in Del Paso Heights.

Thank you for your comment.

Your time is complete.

Our next speaker is Keon, besides the eight million three hundred and fourteen thousand seven hundred and twenty-four dollars that this council has left on the table in savings that could avoid layoffs.

Uh, I'd like to talk about something that keeps coming up year after year.

Uh, this is the actually this uh second year uh that's coming up.

What is the fiscal practicality and legality of departments maintaining non-budgeted positions using vacancies?

Of the city's 82 non-budgeted positions, 76 belong to police and fire departments uh that claim that these vacancies are necessary to address a staffing crisis.

But that justification actually deserves a lot more scrutiny than you all are willing to show.

If police and fire are genuinely struggling to fill positions, why are there 13 fire recruit slots uh that have sat vacant since July 1st, 2021?

Nearly five full years, representing double the department's authorized fire recruitment complement that this uh council approved last year.

The answer may be there, uh maybe that there isn't one.

What the incentive exists to fill them?

Analysis from the police commission and the SAC B found that a small number of police officers and fire fighters are receiving overtime pay that exceeds 70 and in some cases 100% of their base salaries, while hundreds of other uh city staff uh go uh receive little or none.

Maintaining these unfilled positions isn't just a staffing inconvenience.

Uh it's a mechanism that allows police and fire to perpetually exceed their overtime budgets by using vacancies uh to justify the overtime in the first place.

This creates a self-reinforcing cycle.

They can claim a staffing crisis, uh, leave positions vacant, pay existing staff premium overtime to cover the gap, and then point to the ongoing shortage as proof that there are more resources that are needed.

Fill the vacancies and the overtime revenue disappears.

From a legal standpoint, positions carried for years without active recruitment raised with legal uh serious legal questions that this council would be obligated to uh investigate, should be.

Do you have the appropriation authority in the city office?

Thank you for your time.

Our next speaker is Zion.

But again, Zion.

Please step aside so that our next speaker can have their time.

Actually, ask this part quickly.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Don't worry.

We still got time.

Hi.

So I'm actually here for a separate uh thing.

So I know I agree with the, you know, not having cannabis around church and all that, but we're still in the cannabis industry, whether it is legal right now.

So uh I just wanted to say, just I know I reached out to Katie Maple's office for the policy that we need to adapt uh to really have um uh temporary uh event permit.

Oakland has it, uh San Francisco has it, only Sacramento don't have it.

I don't see a reason why only uh Cal Expo, which is so expensive, people like us who has like a private land, uh we can have a private uh cannabis event that uh I need to put that on your proposal.

So uh mayor, if you can just uh put it on your form so we can have it as agenda next time, so we can really uh get a permit to have an event instead of just uh at the college book.

So I don't see a reason why people like us who are in the cannabis industry to have our own uh in our backyard or in our own private property to have a cannabis event uh permitted, just like any other uh events, but it would be just temporary.

I don't know how you're gonna come up with it.

But if we uh, you know, I I know I reached out to your office, but what they said was we need to put it on the agenda.

So I don't know how we're gonna do that.

Uh if Mayor can um be able to put that on your agenda, would be great.

But I'll reach out to you on your email.

I know I tried to reach out to you stuff, but they have not um reached out to me yet.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And maybe our our staff member, Lisa Paola can can talk to you.

Um about the I'm not sure if what you're asking requires us to agendize it up here.

I don't know, so we'll look into the issue and get back to that.

I've already have the policy.

We just email it to you.

Thank you if you can communicate with them.

Our last public speaker is Stephen Walton.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

I'm here today to discuss the proposed cannabis ordinance and why the removal of faith-based organizations from the sensitive useless raises serious concerns about fairness, consistency, and equal treatment.

Under the proposed ordinance, we are protecting parks, libraries, community centers, and youth facilities with buffer zones.

That makes sense.

These are places where families gather and where children are present.

But faith-based organizations which serve many of those same exact functions are not included.

Faith-based organizations host youth programs, they provide counseling, they run food programs, recovery groups, and community services.

In many of our neighborhoods, especially in District 2 and other underserved areas, faith-based organizations are not just places of worship, they are community anchors.

So the simple question is why are we protecting some community spaces but not faith-based-based ones doing the same work?

Even more importantly, the planning and design commission already recognized this and recommended adding adding faith-based organizations to the sensitive use list.

That recommendation should not be ignored.

This is not about special treatment, it's about equal treatment.

If a building serves children, families, vulnerable populations, it should be treated the same way, whether it's called a community center or a faith-based organization.

We're calling on the council to apply its own policy framework and logic consistently and fairly.

Thank you.

Mayor, I have no more public speakers.

Events or report outs.

Councilmember Vang.

Yes, uh, just wanted to give a shout out on a few things.

Um, our Medavie Certified Farmers Market is uh in season and in full swing, uh, happening every Sunday at the Medaview Light Rail Station, and so just wanted to share that.

We also have a new pilot program by the health education council called Walk with Friends, and it's debuting this year to actually gather folks in the community to walk together to the farmers market.

So you can actually join the Walk with Friends program at the MetaView Certified Farmers Market every Sunday for 25 dollars of vouchers to spend with the farmers uh with the farmers market that same day.

Um also want to just give a shout out to Saba as well.

They're gonna be there this Sunday um to fix bike, especially because May is bike month, and so wanted to share that.

Um, and then a shout out to Active Uh Transportation Commissioner Tong Tao and former D8 Commissioner Ron Brazil for coordinating this event.

And then this Saturday, um, please join us at the macro block party happening this Saturday uh from 11 to 2 at the Macroad Valley High Community Center.

This event is in collaboration with councilwoman Katie Maple as well, the uh the macro partnership and my office.

There's gonna be activities, fun events for family face painting, food, and so much more.

You can go to heart and hustle.org backslash block party or sac adefy.com backslash block party to sign up.

And then lastly, uh every year we have the district eight heart and hustle scholarship.

The application is now live and we're accepting application.

You can go to myvailing sacramento.org backslash scholarship.

Uh, my office actually award scholarship to high school seniors that either live in the district or go to school in the district, and the deadline to submit is June first.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Dickinson.

Thank you, Mayor.

And just a couple things I wanted to mention.

First of all, of course, this weekend uh we will be uh marking memorial day uh throughout the weekend with ceremonies, but one ceremony in particular that uh I think is is special as one that's held on uh Saturday at 11 a.m.

Uh at the old city cemetery, and it's a uh special ceremony for a number of reasons, but but one certainly is uh that this that the local scouts uh plant flags across the across the green uh for recognition of those uh who gave their lives in service of uh our country.

Uh it's uh it's a very moving picturesque scene to say the least, and and uh a very moving ceremony.

So um I hope I hope uh those who are uh uh here in town will be um interested in attending that.

Second thing I wanted to uh start and will continue to promote uh celebrate North Sacramento, which will be coming up June 6th from noon to four at Robertson Park.

We have uh lots of uh food, entertainment, uh information, uh, and uh a lot of good times for for everybody to celebrate all the all the great things that we do have uh in North Sacramento.

So um again, June 6th, Norwood Park, noon to noon to 4.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember Kaplan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, just want to echo.

I hope people find time to uh go to a more memorial day event to thank all of those that served.

I am particularly uh happy and pleased and want to thank our park staff went above and beyond because the new sign for Veterans Park, which is going to be located in North Netomas, has is going in in the next couple of days, and we're having the official ribbon cutting on memorial day at about 2 p.m.

So Sacramento will have its first, the city will have its first official veterans park, and then mark your calendars not this coming Saturday, but May 30th, the one Notomas Farmers Market will open for the year 8 to 12 30 p.m.

And then our fourth annual Juneteenth celebration for Notomas will be Friday, June 12th.

Mark your calendars, come on out.

Thank you.

I do have one AB one two three four travel report.

I traveled with visit Sacramento to Florida to uh meet with local officials and partners to explore uh expanding and enhancing our existing marquee festivals in the capital city of Sacramento.

Thank you.

Do we have any adjournments in memory?

I do not have any adjournments in memory.

Okay, thank you.

Meeting adjourned.