Law and Legislation Committee Meeting - March 21, 2023: Digital Kiosk Update and Noise Ordinance Deliberations
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Law and Legislation Committee Meeting – March 21, 2023
The Law and Legislation Committee met on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, from 1:01 p.m. to 1:52 p.m. The committee approved the consent calendar, received an update on the Outdoor Interactive Digital Media Display (Digital Kiosk) Policy, and discussed revisions to the Noise Ordinance (Sacramento City Code Chapter 8.68). Committee members present: Chair Katie Valenzuela (District 4), Vice Chair Rick Jennings (District 7), Councilmember Lisa Kaplan (District 1), and Vice Mayor Eric Guerra (District 6).
Consent Calendar
- Law and Legislation Committee Meeting Minutes (March 7, 2023): Approved unanimously.
- Law and Legislation Log: Approved unanimously. Vice Chair Jennings noted that 11 of 22 items on the log date from before 2022, including items from 2018 and 2019. He requested a clean-up process to remove outdated or completed items. Chair Valenzuela agreed and said staff would confer with the clerk and report back at the next meeting.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Item 4 – Noise Ordinance Revisions: Candelaria Vargas, Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte, spoke in strong support of the proposed noise ordinance. She stated that amplified sound from outside activities disrupts patient care and staff work at health centers, which serve a majority low-income population and people of color. She urged the committee to move quickly.
Discussion Items
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Outdoor Interactive Digital Media Display (Digital Kiosk) Policy – Landscape Report and Status Update (File ID 2023-00260): Staff (Jamie Mosler, Associate Planner, and Madeline Labosco of Third Plateau) presented findings from Phase 1 (best practices research) and an update on Phase 2 (community outreach). The research examined kiosk features (community messaging, digital inclusion, economic development, public safety, transportation/wayfinding) and concerns (privacy, cost, advertisements, location limitations). The community survey remains open through March 24, 2023. Staff will return in spring 2023 with a draft ordinance.
- Councilmember Kaplan supported moving forward but urged caution on long-term contracts (e.g., Berkeley’s 15‑year term), transparency in vendor selection, limiting cameras to existing city rules, and focusing on digital inclusion and air quality monitoring. She expressed 50‑50 support for cameras.
- Vice Chair Jennings emphasized that content should be primarily informational, not advertisements; supported best practices research and community outreach; and noted Sacramento's growth justifies the kiosks.
- Vice Mayor Guerra was enthusiastic about potential for wayfinding, economic development, public charging, air monitoring, and transit integration. He preferred a franchise agreement managed by property‑based improvement districts (PBIDs) rather than city management, and wanted revenue‑sharing to support neighborhood associations.
- Chair Valenzuela highlighted interest in e‑vehicle charging, emergency broadcasts in multiple languages, and data from pedestrian counting. She raised concerns about cybersecurity and privacy, noting she plans to introduce a separate privacy and surveillance ordinance.
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Update on the Status of Noise Ordinance Revisions (Sacramento City Code Chapter 8.68) (File ID 2023-00344): Staff (Angel Solis, City Attorney’s Office, and Peter Lemos, Code & Housing Enforcement Chief) reported that the ordinance language has been drafted and narrowed to focus specifically on healthcare facilities, as directed by the committee. The staff report is being finalized. The ordinance was originally scheduled for this meeting, but was delayed to allow for thorough legal review. Staff indicated they could bring the ordinance to the Law and Legislation Committee on April 4, 2023.
- Committee Discussion: Vice Mayor Guerra expressed frustration with delays and urgency. Chair Valenzuela proposed a procedural workaround: if the committee receives the ordinance on April 4 and makes no changes, it could be placed on the City Council agenda the same evening. Susanna Alcala, City Attorney, confirmed this is possible if the ordinance is finalized and staff report prepared. The committee unanimously agreed to this approach (thumbs up from all members). Vice Mayor Guerra noted the need to balance urgency with proper publication requirements in future similar matters.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Calendar (Items 1 & 2): Approved unanimously.
- Digital Kiosk Policy Update: Received; staff will return in spring 2023 with a draft ordinance after completing community outreach.
- Noise Ordinance Revisions: Staff to bring the finalized ordinance to the Law and Legislation Committee on April 4, 2023. If approved without changes, the item will be placed on the City Council agenda the same evening for adoption. The committee expressed strong support for urgency due to the impact on healthcare facilities.
Meeting Transcript
All right. We'll call this meeting of the law and legislation committee to order. Will the clerk please call the roll to establish a quorum? Thank you. Councilmember Gatta. Here. Councilmember Kaplan. We expect Councilmember Jennings momentarily. Oh, there we go. Councilmember Jennings. And Chair Valenzuela. I am here. Okay, since you all just walked in, Councilmember Kaplan, can I ask you to please do the land acknowledgement and the pledge of allegiance? Absolutely. And everyone can please rise. We are rising for the opening acknowledgement in honor of Sacramento's indigenous people and tribal lands to the original people of this land, the Nissanon people, the Southern Maidu, the Valley and Plains, Mi Walk, the Pat Patwin Windom peoples, and the peoples 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 people's history, contribution, and lives. Thank you. And remain standing and turn and pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands under God. Excellent. Thank you, Councilmember. I think you're only the second person that I've heard pronounce all those names correctly. So kudos to you for studying the phonetic sheet. All right. So we'll dig into our agenda here. And I want to remind anybody in the audience if you'd like to give public comment. Um you can submit forms that are in the back of the room to the clerk. We will stop taking comment cards once we take the first commenter. And if you're online in the Zoom, just raise your hand when the item begins, and we will call on you after we call on those in the audience. So with that, we will start with our consent calendar. We have two items, the minutes and our log. Does anybody have any questions or comments about items on consent calendar? I am good. All right. Oh, Mr. Vice Chair. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Uh I want to talk about the log uh a little bit. Um, if my notes are correct. In looking at the log, there are 11 of the 22 items that are on there prior to 2022. Uh, there are items that are on there from council members who are no longer on the council from 2018. And there's a count, it is items on there from 2019 as well. In an effort to clean up the log, we created a new process that I feel like we should go take these items and go back through that process and see if they're still relevant today. And so I just wanted to kind of put that on the table because if it's on there since 2018, we're now in 2023. Yeah, that's a fair point. I think um, you know, it's funny that you asked that question because I emailed our clerk this weekend because I woke up on Saturday morning and went, wait a minute, what happens to the items that were already on the log?
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