Well, good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee meeting of November twentieth, twenty twenty-five.

Our committee liaison, Sarah Jordan will provide information and instructions for the public to participate in today's meeting.

Members of the public who wish to provide testimony via a call-in or internet-based service option must enter the virtual speaking queue within five minutes after conclusion of in-person public testimony or before the virtual speaking queue is exhausted, whichever occurs first.

This will allow for better beating management between the two platforms and ensure the committee is able to manage and conduct city business.

We appreciate the public's cooperation.

Chair.

I will now call the Act of Transportation at Infrastructure Committee meeting of November 20th, 2025 to order.

Sir, please call the roll.

Vice Chair, Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Von Wilpert.

Chair Whitburn.

Here.

Also attending the meeting today is City Attorney Representative Dana Fairchild, Mayor Representative Randy Wilde, and IBA representative Donnie Nguyen.

If you are in person, please complete a speaker slip located at the entrance of chambers and place it in the speaker slip box at the table at the front of the room.

Please do so in a timely manner to ensure proper meeting management.

Members of the public can join the webinar by computer, tablet, or smartphone by accessing the link which is listed online in the preamble language of the agenda on the city's webpage.

To join the Zoom webinar by telephone, please dial 1669-2545252.

Inputting webinar ID 160-685-1166 pound.

This information is also available on the agenda and it will appear on the screen during the public comment period for each agenda item.

Please note that if you're watching via City TV 24 or online, there may be delay, and please participate via the audio on your phone and mute your TV or computer when it is your turn to speak.

If you wish to speak to a particular item, please wait for that item to be called and then raise your hand to speak by tapping the raise your hand icon, or if you're a calling participant by selecting star nine on your phone.

If you raise your hand during a non-comment period, your hand will be lowered.

Chair.

Thank you, Sarah.

A quorum is now present.

As a note to the public, we're going to be hearing our agenda items out of order today.

After we take up our consent agenda, we'll hear item number six, then item four, followed by item seven, and then item number five.

So we'll do six, four, seven, and five.

We'll now take up not agenda public comment.

The council members respect and appreciate the public's input and are fully committed to protecting every participant's free speech rights at council and committee meetings.

Sarah, please proceed with further instructions.

Thank you, Chair.

Per rule 2.7 non-agenda public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on items that are not on the agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of this committee.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

And if you're watching on City TV or the live stream online, please dial 1669-2545252 and input webinar 160-685-1166 pound.

We'll begin testimony here in chambers.

Blair Beekman, if you would please approach the lectern.

You will have two minutes, and you will be followed by Paul Kruger.

Hi, good afternoon.

Happy Thursday.

And therefore, a warrant does not apply to current questions of warrants, AOPRs, and data storage.

But I feel this may be an overly broad legal assumption.

I feel there may be a more formal, appropriate legal questions and legal arguments to speak more directly to the legal issues of data collection storage and of the warrant process.

And that is my sincere hope that as it SDPD has already has a very good internal auditing process.

And what can be best practices to make future auditing questions around AOPR issues more clear and accessible to specific persons of San Diego City government, the PAB and community is needed.

And even with the strong well-intentioned city council comments at public safety committee meeting last week, and how to continue good San Diego uh neighborhood public safety practices at this time.

It is still my own strong belief that in the next six to twelve months, we can be starting much more serious, continuing community conversation.

Uh open public meetings and open dialogue to consider more responsible ALPR vendors and to possibly begin possibly begin to prepare a vetting process.

And in the next six to twelve months, we can possibly be ending the current contract with the current San Diego ALPR vendor flock.

I think it is a reasonable and a realistic goal.

What we can be doing in the next six months, how we will be considering our issues, how we can be planning and uh good luck we can be working towards goals of seriously talking about in the open public process uh a new ALPR vendor for the future of San Diego.

It is possible at this time.

It's interesting.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Paul Krueger.

Thank you very much.

Um I wanted to just thank the chair and uh I hope members of the committee for acknowledging over the past couple months the reality of uh people's dependence on automobiles and the problems that we have seen in the last five years with promises that have been unfulfilled.

Uh that the idea of building homes without parking would um encourage or force people to use public transit.

And I just like you to always keep in mind when you are looking at these projects and thinking about transportation, the reality of what we're seeing on our streets, and the fact that 3.5% of San Diegans um take the bus or trolley to work, and that uh as I see in my neighborhood in Talmudge through City Heights and College, that it is the fortunate who own a home and have a garage and a place to park, or who have a driveway and a place to park, uh, are the ones who are not affected by the fact that almost everybody here needs a car or a personal vehicle to live their lives.

Uh and that is those lower income residents who are the most profoundly uh negatively impacted.

Uh that is housekeepers, um, people with two jobs, people who work at night, gardeners and all blue-collar workers.

They more than anybody need a personal vehicle, and they are the ones who are the most disadvantaged by policies that uh prevent us from building or or or supplying adequate parking.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'll be in the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide non-agenda public comment at this time.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

We currently have five hands in the queue, and we will begin with Andrea Ebbing.

Please unmute and begin.

Hi, my name is Andrea Ebbing, and I would like to discuss the uh route or of our cancer, um, the corruption that's taking place here in San Diego.

Um, that would begin and end with the office of our district attorney, Summer Stefan.

Summer Stefan um is the uh district attorney who handles felony crimes and county cases.

Her sister, Raina Stefan, is a city attorney who handles city uh cases and misdemeanor crimes, and her husband is federal judge Dana Sabral.

So if anybody's wondering how in the hell somebody could get away with as much as this woman has over the years, taking money, tons of blood money from defendants, laundering millions of dollars through her campaigns, has two million dollars of identical campaign transactions to Nathan Fletcher.

Um this is a person that is a mob boss uh and running a RICO enterprise out of our district attorney's office on our tax dollars, body brokering, insurance fraud, um, you name it.

This is not somebody who cares about public safety at all.

Um, and I just wanted to share with everybody that she is Brady listed um for a total of 30 times, 30 violations in my case alone.

Then there's other cases where you know sex workers said that she had something to do with some Lake Havasu parties that were of some sort of strange unknown nature.

But some certainly check out Brady List Summer Stefan.

Brady list is an internal prosecutorial prosecutorial and law enforcement database that tracks individuals with a history of misconduct, untruthfulness, or issues that would impeach them.

Her violations include attorney misconduct, bias, coercive plea bargaining, cooperative misconduct, destruction of evidence, extrajudicial sanctions, judicial proceedings, overcharging, witness tampering, whistleblower retaliation, and I wish her the best.

I'll expose her.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Catherine Rhodes.

Please unmute and begin.

Hello, this is Catherine Rhodes.

Yesterday at the rules committee for item two, the ballots, submissions, subitem N from Shane Harris was to balance prior um budget priorities.

And in there, he discussed that the City of San Diego is giving money to the county of San Diego through an unknown contract, a contract that I never knew about, in order to give the county money for the county jails.

So the city of San Diego is subsidizing the county jails.

I'm not sure if you guys knew about it, but I never knew about it.

So I just looked it up this morning.

And the city of San Diego on the their police department budget has something called the decentralization fund and it's fund number 1035.

And what it is is a negotiated agreement for contractual services for county jails for per diem expenses.

And I could um the only information I could find on your website was from 2006 to 20 um 11, nothing after 2011.

But at that time in 2000, excuse me, 2004 to 2011.

In 2004, you gifed you you gave the county 13 million dollars.

In 2011, you gave them 7 million dollars.

I don't know how much money you're giving them now.

But as line items for this, you have um money for jail operating expenses, um, a per diem to take care of female misdemeanors, and uh another for um male misdemeanors in the county jails.

So if somebody could look this up, I think you could say probably um up to um I would say 18 million dollars for your budget.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Kathleen Lippett.

Please unmute and begin.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, committee.

Um, thank you for letting me speak.

Today, I would like to address California law that apparently this California CHP is on record saying it will not put drivers out of service for not speaking English.

It's a common sense uh edict that they should be able to speak English.

Our road signs are in English.

We can't possibly translate them into all of the different languages that are spoken here.

The state will not enforce that English proficiency law.

So the government blocked 40 million dollars from the state because it is the only state in the nation that refuses to ensure big rig drivers can read our road signs and communicate with law enforcement.

That's 40 million dollars the state could use.

Federal highway money, federal law requires that truck truckers be able to read English and converse with the public, understand traffic signs, and respond to official inquiries and complete.

So one of the other issues that goes right along with this is our in California.

We have been allowing repeat DUI drivers to get back on the road, give their light their licenses are given back, sometimes as many as 15 times, which seems on its face to be absolutely makes no sense whatsoever.

So I hope that the city will reconsider.

And I know that anything that is offered or promoted at the federal level, no matter how much sense it makes, will seem to be something that the city would automatically impose simply because it's a party that's a good thing.

Thank you.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you for your comment.

The five-minute timer has concluded.

We have two hands remaining in the queue, and we will take no other callers beyond these remaining two individuals.

Becky Rapp, please unmute and begin.

Good afternoon.

My name is Becky Rapp, and I'm the public health educator, and I'm concerned about the dangerous misconceptions that marijuana is a quote safe drug, especially when driving.

But the scientific data cannot be ignored.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse confirms that marijuana impairs motor coordination reaction time and decision making.

Studies show that driving under the influence of marijuana doubles the risks of a crash of a crash.

And in California, up to 40% of all DUI arrests now involve drugs, not just alcohol.

Despite permitting pot, marijuana still has no, I'm sorry, California still has no THC limit, no road side testing equivalent to a breathalyzer, and very limited public education on the risks of marijuana impaired driving.

This is serious and puts all road users, drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists at risk.

The Department of Cannabis Control has also issued clear warnings about today's ultra-high potency marijuana products and has urged California to adopt public health protective measures such as THC potency caps, standardized and more prominent warning labels, and improved data collection on marijuana related collisions.

These concerns are coming from the state's own regulatory agency, not from advocates or researchers alone.

As this committee continues to advance Vision Zero and build safer, more walkable and bikeable communities.

We cannot ignore the growing contribution of drug-impaired driving to serious injuries and fatalities on our roadways.

Please prioritize THC thresholds.

In order to keep our roads safe, we must be proactive and increase education around this great concern.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And as a reminder, the five-minute timer had concluded.

We had two hands remaining in the queue.

We have one final speaker beyond the one that just provided comment.

Madison, please unmute and begin.

Hi, thank you.

As a mother of three young children and a concerned San Diego resident, I want to discuss how we design safe youth-centered infrastructure and how the visibility of cannabis businesses along freeways and public transit makes a big impact on teenagers.

They are certainly susceptible to advertising.

And the more we see these storefronts and billboards, the more it appears like a normal part of life here in San Diego.

This matters for your committee because the built environment strongly influences youth behavior.

The location and visibility of cannabis dispensaries, especially along walkable corridors and near transit, shape how young people perceive accessibility and risk.

When these routes are lined with storefronts, advertisements, and high potency edible products, we create an environment where increased exposure leads to increased use.

And that use is sending teenagers to emergency rooms with preventable recurring illness.

But we cannot separate that goal from the surroundings they move through every day.

Sidewalks, bikeways, and transit corridors should support their well-being, not normalize substances that are actively harming young people.

I urge this committee to consider how your decisions with permitting and corridor design intersect with youth health.

A truly youth-friendly infrastructure strategy includes safe routes, clean and supportive public spaces, and thoughtful placement of businesses that may pose risk to adolescents.

We have the responsibility and the opportunity to make choices that better protect our most vulnerable residents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And this concludes non-agenda public comment.

And for any hands that had gone up after the five-minute timer had concluded, you can submit comments at council committee at Sandiago.gov.

Thank you, Sarah.

Do we have any committee, mayor, city attorney, or independent budget analyst comments?

Hearing done, uh, do we have any requests for continuance?

Seeing no requests, let's move on to the approval of our consent items.

Uh, do we have any requests for uh to pull an item from the consent agenda?

Seeing no request to do that, uh let's go ahead and move forward with public comment on the consent agenda.

Sarah, please proceed.

Thank you, Chair.

The consent agenda includes items one, two, and three.

Item number one, approval of committee minutes from October 23rd, 2025.

Item number two, a Macy Park contribution agreement, and item number three, an ordinance authorizing the increase of the previously authorized awarded amount of the construction contract by additional two million dollars to an amount not to exceed 46 million and an authorization to execute construction change order number five in an amount not to exceed 1 million ninety-four four hundred and ninety-four thousand dollars and one cent with TC Construction Company for the law media roadway improvements project.

Please note each speaker will have one minute per item with a maximum of three minutes total if you wish to speak on all items.

We have received one speaker slip here in chambers.

Blair Beekman, you have indicated you wish to speak to item number one.

You will have one minute.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

I wanted to speak to item seven from the minutes process of the future of impact fees redo.

You've had several items uh recently, a few about uh how to better be addressing uh impact issues, uh, impact fees for the future.

And and thank you that you have been.

Uh I think we're a bit uh torn between you know, do we work with continual up and downs, or do we create a steady process?

And you're asking those questions here.

Um, thank you.

We worked on land trust issues recently.

That really depends on things, a way to create a steady process.

So I have a natural inclination to want to work towards steadiness and consistency.

It invites a way to uh people they can have good expectations when they work with San Diego and what to expect and and create that way.

Um good luck in how you work on the impact P issues.

And to quickly offer uh the City of Oakland has um uh put off indefinitely their current uh block contract renewal process.

I thought I'd report that out.

I'll probably come back with it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And seeing you know hands up in the queue.

This concludes testimony on consent items one, two, and three.

Thank you very much, Sarah.

I'll go ahead and start off with comments on item number one, and I want to thank Marco Lamandry and Chris Gomez from the Little Little Association for being here this afternoon.

Uh item one is the Amici Park contribution agreement that has been more than four years in the making.

And I want to thank Brian Schoenfish uh from the city's urban division, who's also here with us this afternoon uh for all of his work to execute this agreement.

Amici Park is a beloved space in the heart of Little Italy.

These improvements will enhance the park with updated landscaping, lighting, a new fountain, and other amenities that'll make this space even more welcoming for residents, families, and visitors.

So I will make the motion to approve the consent agenda, and I'll turn it over to Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Um thank you very much.

I'm happy to second the motion.

Um I too know about Amici Park.

It's fantastic.

Thank you to Marco and everyone and to Brian for all your work and just Little Italy in general.

I have tourists who come all the time who absolutely love coming down to Little Italy and they enjoy the space there and the restaurants, and I'm looking forward to the holiday season there.

So thank you for all you do for the district.

It's such a gem in San Diego, and I'm happy to support this uh consent agenda.

Thank you very much.

All right, we have a motion that I made, seconded by Councilmember Bon Wilpert, seeing no further uh discussion.

Uh Sarah, please call the vote.

Chair, the consent agenda passes unanimously 40.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh just a reminder, we're taking our agenda out of order.

We're gonna start with item six, then we'll move to item four, uh, followed by item seven, and then we'll hear item five.

Uh so we are now going to take up our information agenda item six, sir.

Please introduce the item.

Thank you, Chair.

Item number six is the informational presentation by San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, also known as MTS.

And if you're watching on City TV of the live stream online and you'd like to dial in to speak, please call 1669-2545252.

Inputting webinar ID 160-685-1166 pound.

Chair.

Thank you, sir.

I'll uh start off by just saying a few words about this informational item.

Councilmember Foster and I both serve on the board of directors of MTS, the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System.

Uh in fact, we just got back from uh board meeting there uh a short time ago.

Many of the priorities we consider here at uh this committee are complementary to it as some extent dependent on uh the work that is undertaken by MTS.

Uh we are all focused on promoting mobility, which includes walking and biking, and of course, riding our buses and trolleys.

I have seen firsthand the enhancements that MTS has made to ensure that our region's transit network provides safe and reliable transportation options for millions of riders, including seniors, students, and young people.

Uh coordination between MTS and the city is vital for ensuring a robust transportation system.

And I want to thank Julia Tour uh for all the work she does at MTS and for being here to present an informational item which will highlight some of MTS's recent achievements as well as other initiatives that we can look forward to.

Ms.

Tor, please introduce yourself for the record and let us know how much time you would like for your presentation.

Uh sure, thank you so much.

Uh Chair and Committee members, uh Julia Tour, manager of government affairs for MTS.

Um should be able to wrap up this um within 10 minutes.

Yeah, it's fairly quick.

Yeah.

Uh so let's see.

Here we go.

So hopefully everyone is already aware, but just a brief recap if you aren't familiar with MTS services.

We are the public transportation provider for central, southern, and eastern San Diego County.

We have a pretty extensive system in the region providing more than a quarter of a million passenger trips each weekday on average.

We're running about 100 bus routes and four lightweight light rail lines, better known as the trolley.

And we also have a fairly young rider population.

Data from our last customer satisfaction survey shows about 50% of passengers are aged 30 and under, with more than 40% using MTS primarily to get to work and a very dependent transit demographic, with more than three quarters of our riders identifying as transit dependent.

So MTS is at a crossroad, is approaching a crossroads.

And on one hand, we've seen a lot of success post pandemic.

Transit ridership across the country declined steeply starting in the spring of 2020.

And while ridership recovery has been hard for transit agencies across the country, we have exceeded 81 million trips this past year.

The American Public Transportation Association, APTA, they came out with a report earlier this year that the national average for the transit industry recovery is about 85%, and MTS reached 95% of pre-pandemic ridership levels.

So there's a lot of momentum for transit to be celebrated on our system.

When you look at the largest 25 transit agencies in the country, MTS is number two for fastest ridership recovery among the nation's largest transit agencies.

Recent investments into our system, like the UC San Diego Blue Line extension and the youth opportunity pass program have also fueled major ridership gains.

And beyond the numbers, it's also about the purpose of fueling this transit growth.

So, you know, more than two thirds of our riders are using MTS to access vital economic and educational opportunities.

But we're also seeing record numbers of people choosing MTS for special events and leisure trips, seeing that percentage of riders jump from 11.5% to 17.1% over the past two years.

And despite all these really positive ridership trends, in a few years we will hit a major budget shortage where projected revenues are not expected to meet our operational expenses.

And so what you see here on the chart is our projected cost to run bus and trolley services in blue.

And then in red, we have recurring income that we can depend on year over year, things like fare revenues, local funding from Transnet, and more.

And then in yellow, those non-recurring revenues are one-time funds that we're using to make up the current funding shortages.

So stimulus reserves from the CARES Act, SB 125 funding from the state, shifting, shifting our capital reserves to cover operating expenses, that sort of thing.

So when you look at those black arrows on the chart showing the gap, what does that 120 million dollar plus funding gap mean?

And it can be hard to imagine what that much money means in real terms.

So as an example, if we were to eliminate the entire trolley system, that would make up approximately half of the budget gap.

Or if we were to eliminate all weekend bus and trolley service, that's about half the gap.

Or it's approximately the funding equivalent of a decade of YOP passes.

So when you look at our system, the amount of funding is a is a huge portion.

It represents about a quarter of our total operating expenses.

Many of these dynamics are trending with transit agencies across the country, and some of which are having to make significant service cuts right now.

So how is this financial situation created?

Well, there are a few different factors.

Wage increases, a very competitive service sector has created a very competitive situation for labor.

So to keep our bus operator numbers at a stable rate to meet the demands of service, we've had to increase the hourly rate multiple times in the last three to four years, more than a 40% increase in base pay.

And less fare revenue is in is tied in part to lower ridership than pre-pandemic, but also less people commuting to work.

And we've had no fare increases during this time.

Also, local sales tax revenues have remained flat the last few years during that time that we've seen costs also increase pretty drastically.

And then I think we're all aware that the cost of purchasing goods and services and materials is up and utility costs are up.

And then finally, in San Diego, we do have a significantly, we have significantly less local funding.

So when you look at the two other biggest transit agencies in California, LA Metro has a two cent sales tax they collect locally to support transportation infrastructure.

And in the Bay Area, it's one and a half cents.

And in San Diego, it's three to four times less than that at a half cent in transnet funding.

And of that half cent, just an eighth of that comes to MTS for public transportation operations.

So we're certainly being proactive with interim actions to slow or minimize the impact of the revenue shortage as much as possible by delaying planned service increases, slowing our zero emission bus transition, shifting capital funds to operating funds, increasing fare enforcement, conducting a fair study with SANDAG, as well as looking at other cost savings.

And again, these changes will help somewhat in the short term to delay the budget issue, but not solve it completely.

So what next then?

MTS on track is ultimately about identifying plans to determine how we best serve our communities moving forward.

And this effort includes conducting a comprehensive operational analysis or a COA of MTS bus and trolley services, analyzing, which analyzing existing and for future predicted demands to create these two different plans.

So one, if additional funding becomes available, how do we build upon recent momentum and success to make MTS work better for more people?

And two, if no additional funding is available, how do we apply more significant cost saving measures like service reductions to create the most sustainable transit system moving forward?

And this process is really important because the COA, these plans they don't come around often, it's about once every decade.

And the plans that will be developed from this MTS on track effort will really help direct and guide MTS staff and the board for the foreseeable future, including any expenditure plan for a local ballot initiative should our board decide to go down that path for 2028.

One of our goals with our on-track efforts was to engage the community early and often, as well as to get geographic coverage throughout our service area.

So the map here shows participation by zip code through August of this year.

Our team staffed about 450 hours of outreach events from April through August, attending almost 50 in-person events across workshops, community events, and more.

In total, through the first phase of our outreach, we engaged more than 250 people partnering through our CBO partners in person, more than 400 people at transit centers, about 3400 people at community events, and more than 3,500 people online.

At our outreach events, we uh we were primarily asking people to give us data around two questions in this phase.

One, where do you want or need to go?

Writers were asked to participate in a mapping exercise to show us both paths of travel.

And then next, which you see here on the chart is if more funding became available to MTS, how do you want to see that allocated in terms of transit system priorities?

Meaning when we have when we weigh lower fares versus more service on the streets or adding more service on the weekends versus longer hours during the weekdays, that sort of thing.

So should additional funding become available, the top priority was frequency.

In general, people want to see more buses and trolleys on the streets.

People were most citing a desired level at or around 10 minutes with complaints about frequency once we reach the 30 minute levels.

And then along with that, you can see almost tied for second with personal safety was that people want to see buses and trolleys running for longer hours of service, particularly at nighttime.

It is the second overall ranked value, and that does mimic what we've heard in recent customer surveys and public opinion research with some top concerns for the public in general.

So one quick breakout we wanted to pull for this was writer priorities.

So for people who know or can reasonably assume our writers, like how do those priorities shift?

So riders, as we have defined here, are people who are polled at transit centers, and then anyone online who selected that they rode at least once a week or more.

And while the top three priorities are the same in the general audience versus riders, you can see frequency takes a higher intensity of priority for them at number one.

And then not surprisingly, fares are more important for riders than non-riders.

And that priority represents the largest gap between the two audiences in terms of how much is prioritized.

So these are just some of the results found from our outreach.

So for next steps, um, we're going to continue voter opinion research to determine if a local ballot measures is a feasible path for funding.

Um we have proposed a financial strategy to the board to extend the fiscal cliff to 2030, um, which was heard at the MTS board meeting earlier today.

Uh and the board did move forward with that strategy, which includes items like targeting a November 28 um date for a potential revenue measure, uh shifting capital funds to the operating budget, looking at an annual operational savings goal, and uh continue pursuing regional, state, federal, and other funding sources.

Um, and then coming up in the spring, we're going to continue the on-track community outreach, which will focus on project priorities and eventually engagement with writers about any sort of potential service scenario changes.

And that concludes my presentation.

Happy to take any questions.

Thank you, Ms.

Tor.

Sarah, do we have any public comment on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, we've received two speaker slips here in chambers, and we have a couple hands up in the virtual queue.

So we'll begin with Blair Beekman here in chambers.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

You will be followed by Paul Krueger.

Hi.

Thank you, Mayor Beekman.

I wish I could be attending more um uh SDMTS public meetings like today.

Uh, thank you very much for the report.

It was just um I really like the bus service here in San Diego.

I come from San Jose and they use VTA for Santa Clara County.

AC Transit and Muni are the buses of the Bay Area, the big three.

Um there's just a bit more uh it's nice in in the Bay Area, but there's just a bit more flexibility with your buses.

I I ride the three often.

When I first moved here in 22, um the bus service was about 15 to 17 minutes for each bus.

You brought that down to about 10 to 12, and it's that kind of flexibility in how uh you know uh bus service works here.

It's awesome.

And late night service you offer working the college system that travels around late late night.

Um thank you immensely.

Um, with that said, uh, my major concerns is that with the um uh a lot of transit agencies are talking about this 220 2027 number of of having to we rework their budgets.

Um so I'm interested how you know the new mayor of uh New York, I mean, he's talking about creating free bus service.

Uh we were talking about free things a lot more before COVID happened.

Is there any realistic chance that we can have those sort of conversations here?

Everything is geared towards raising prices, reducing service, all the regular stuff.

We really should be talking about how to expand ourselves and new ways of economic modeling uh at this time.

I hope that can be more of these future 2027 conversations.

And I'm very, very concerned that uh MTS is ticketing people at trolley stations in a massive amount, uh, is really uncomfortable what they're doing.

I'm upset with it a lot.

I think there has to be a new strategy there.

Please uh work on it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Paul Krueger.

Hi, I hadn't intended to speak on this issue, but since it um connected so closely to what I had said before about the need for a realistic assessment of how many people can and do use transit.

I wanted to say first that um I didn't want my comments or those comments of those who see a similar reality to what I do to any way um minimize the need of people who cannot afford a vehicle.

Uh I acknowledge that there are people who are transit dependent, and that we need to provide them with a way to get around town.

I do think you all know people who see these double, these two buses joined together going up and down your street with nobody in them.

And I think that you should always be thinking about ways to provide um on demand and smaller uh smaller vehicle uh transit.

Number two is it's important whenever you look at transit ridership to take into account um what your expert referred to as special events because I think it inflates the number of people who are actually using the trolley for anything other than what I do, which is go to Grantville and Snapdragon and all along that line and to PECCO.

And um that goes to my last comment, which is that um those of us who use public transportation uh occasionally should uh never be confused as not having a vehicle, right?

In fact, I noticed that uh proponents of sort of forcing people to use transit have now developed the term car light, which uh is new to my uh vocabulary, and I guess it means yes, people have to have a car, but perhaps they can use it less.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I will be in the five-minute timer for those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment on item number six.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

We will begin with Zoom user.

Please unmute, state your name for the record, and begin.

You will have two minutes.

Howard, thanks for letting me speak.

The uh a lot of this uh MTS and all throughout San Diego and California, it's a product of our democratic failed leadership, all the way from the the guy that headed up the MTS originally was a total scammer.

He gave contracts with buddies that weren't even uh just non-competitive contracts, just give it to his friends, and he he had to bow out of there, but that's one thing.

And then our governor, Governor Newscom up there, who's like taking his buddies out to dinner during COVID with no mask, that guy, and the same guy that was screwing his campaign manager's wife.

That guy has a lot of character.

He spent 10 billion dollars on that high-speed rail to nowhere, and there's no rail even being done.

I say we should have free bus for everyone, just free, like they're doing in New York.

Free bus, he's offering free bus rides to everyone.

We can get the money to the MTSB by getting in uh forensic accountants and going through the skid, the city where they're scamming all these payments, like in the admission bay fund.

30% of the guys don't even pay rent.

You know, they don't even know how many guys actually lease places up there.

There's no one that can give an answer, work on every city thing.

Where's the money going?

Follow the money, you know, and then a free bus rides, free trolley.

You know, the kids are paying 150 bucks a month for the bus and they're making minimum wage.

You're just gouging them.

You you can't like you can't like it's water bill, more money for the trolley, more money for this, and get the trolley going to mission beach.

That's where the trolley needs to go.

Balboa to mission beach.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Catherine Rhodes, please unmute and begin.

You will have two minutes.

Uh hello, this is Catherine Reds.

And I hope some one time one of you actually does something about this.

This is an issue I've been bringing up for literally 20 years.

So, anyway, San Diego is one of 12 grandfathered airports in the United States.

The grandfathered airport is an airport that is on reclaimed tide lands, such as San Diego International Airport and San Francisco, um, New York, New Jersey, um, Chicago, and Hawaii.

And so what they are allowed to do is they're allowed to have um normally restricted FAA revenue diversion, um, where you can take money from the airport and put it into other transportation projects.

For example, MTS.

Um, a lot of the um a lot of the like let's say Grand Central terminal or station in New York was built using airport revenue.

Um, you know, there I think they had about 300 million extra money in the airport since they make so much money and we're getting so much many tourists.

They make some more money in revenue than expenses, even in the last um year that they had financials for, which was fiscal year 2024.

And so this money could actually help you with your fiscal CLIF.

So this is a solution.

The solution is to go to the state attorney general and get a legal opinion if San Diego is one of 12 grandfathered airports.

And of course, the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority tries to say no, they're not.

We somehow lost it in 2001 when it split off from some from Sandag and the port, but that's not true.

You could you could have everything you want.

Your fiscal cliff can be solved.

All you need is a legal opinion.

Somebody please call me.

Thank you.

And chair with another hands in the queue.

This concludes testimony on item six.

Thank you very much, Sarah.

Uh, this is an informational item.

I want to thank Ms.

Tour for uh the presentation.

And I appreciate the fact that you um really pointed out the degree to which MTS does community outreach and uh surveys of both riders and prospective riders.

Um and you mentioned how personal safety uh is something that uh people are attentive to.

Uh and in fact, in response to that, MTS has increased the number of security personnel on the trolleys.

Um cleanliness was another uh thing that uh riders uh emphasized, and and you're seeing a cleaner system uh than we have seen before.

You're seeing more frequent service.

Um there's a new overnight uh bus route between downtown uh and and uh uh the border.

Uh all of that uh in response to uh feedback and input that we have been getting from riders and others in the area.

So uh those comments uh really get taken seriously uh by MTS and in many cases implemented into the operation.

And we're seeing the result of that.

The customer satisfaction scores uh at MTS are quite high these days.

A lot of people are taking transit who uh hadn't taken transit in years.

Um and uh I would encourage folks if you haven't been on the bus or the trolley in a number of years, uh uh try it again.

Uh it's really uh coming along.

All right, let's go to council member von Wilbert.

Um thank you, um chair, and thank you for the presentation and the work today.

Uh I'm very excited about soon to be opening skyline apartments up in Rancho Bernardo with the um small transit area that we have up there.

So thank you to MTS for partnering in that affordable housing project, which is fantastic, um, and to affirmed housing for building it.

Um I glad that we are being open and transparent about the fiscal challenges coming on.

The city of San Diego is facing a financial crisis as you put in your presentation.

So many other transit systems are also facing um financial crises, and so understand the budget mitigation, it's always really uh, you know, scary to take money out of a capital improvement project fund to put into OM, uh, but understand what's happening right now.

Um I'm just wondering about you know, has the impact about federal grants, you know, federal grants have been tied up ever since the new administration came back into DC.

So is there any hope for the federal government to help out with any of this or no?

So uh as of right now, our federal formula dollars that flow to us, um, those are not currently at risk.

Um, certainly um that's something that we want to keep a close eye on.

Um, however, um right now we are whole in terms of our federal funding that we are receiving on a formula basis.

Um, we will be actively participating in any sort of negotiations and discussions regarding the uh reauthorization of the surface transportation bill.

Um, so more to come on that.

Uh, but so far our formula federal dollars are um still flowing to us.

Yeah, got it.

It's not gonna be enough though to help with all the need.

Okay.

Um well, I appreciate the openness and transparency and the improvements to service and um listening to community about what folks want.

So they'll hopefully increase service.

Um how does uh MTS decide whether to cycle through adding new routes, taking down routes that aren't very well used, all of that kind of uh the question we heard earlier.

Sure.

So that is uh the primary uh piece of our comprehensive operational analysis or COA.

So we have a third-party consultant that has been doing this for many years, um, TMD.

Um, and so they are evaluating and analyzing every single route um that we provide, both on bus and trolley, um, and looking at the region as a whole, travel patterns, um, and based on that, they will have recommendations that they will bring back to our board um in the spring, and they will detail how and why they've made recommendations for any sort of adjustments, whether that's growth or any sort of potential reductions in certain areas.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you for the presentation and wishing you luck on all the budget decisions going forward as we're facing here, but thank you for your leadership on the board as well.

Thank you, Councilmember Vaughn Wolpert.

All right.

Thank you again, Ms.

Tour.

Really appreciate you taking the time to be here and uh present that information.

Uh we will now move on to discussion item number four.

Sarah, please introduce the item.

Thank you, Chair.

Item number four is the establishment of a residential parking permit program for Sundays in the downtown, uptown, and mid-city parking meter zones.

If you're watching on City TV or the live stream online and you'd like to call in, please dial 1669-2545252.

And when prompted, input webinar ID 160-685-1166 pound.

Chair.

Thank you, Sarah.

All right.

Uh please introduce yourselves for the record once you get settled in and let us know how much time you would like for your presentation, and feel free to begin whenever you're ready.

All right, good afternoon.

I am Maggie McCormick, a deputy director with the transportation department, and I am joined by Beth NoCon, a program manager with the City Treasurer's Department.

And we will need 10 minutes for a presentation.

All right, little background on the parking meters in the city of San Diego.

There are currently 5600 parking meters citywide, and meter hours range at these parking meters between 8 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

Monday through Saturday.

We are proposing to extend meter hours to Sundays in residential and mixed use areas within three existing parking meter zones in the downtown, uptown, and mid-city communities.

The fiscal year 26 budget assumed that Sunday meter extension would start on January 1st of 2026.

The January 2025 parking demand management studies showed that peak there was peak parking occupancy on Sundays at the parking meters.

You can see this on the chart on the right.

As such, the comprehensive parking reform package adopted in June 2025 allowed for extending meter hours to Sundays, but a provision was added to the municipal code at that time that required a residential permit parking program to be established prior to extending hours to Sundays in residence residential and mixed use areas consistent with the municipal code.

So we're here to bring forward our proposal for this residential permit parking program prior to extending meter hours to Sundays within downtown, uptown, and mid-city.

The municipal code has several requirements for extending or for developing a residential permit program for Sundays.

First, a survey or study must be completed that recommends establishing a residential permit parking zone.

We completed the park and demand management study in January 2025, which demonstrated that there is demand at the meeting at metered spaces on Sundays, and so if we extend this this program to Sundays, then residents will be impacted, which is generating the need to develop this program.

After the surveyor study, we must conduct public hearings as close to the neighborhood as possible.

We have done public hearings at all three of the impacted communities.

And then within 60 days, we must recommend to City Council of the establishment of the area.

And our recommendations must include information regarding the zone, parking regulations, period of day, and permit fee.

So the major of the slides will go over these recommendations.

First is the eligibility of the Sunday residential permit parking program.

We are proposing that residents who who live within two blocks of a street where a parking meter is going to be extended to Sunday, will receive a discounted residential permit option.

If the resident opts in to obtain the residential permit option on Sundays, then they would be able to park at any meter within the proposed residential permit zone.

They will not need to pay the meter, and they can park at the meter past the maximum allowable duration.

So they do not need to adhere to the two-hour, four-hour, six-hour, et cetera limits.

One is in downtown, one is in mid-city, and one is in uptown.

So if a resident lives within two blocks of a parking meter that is going to be extended to Sundays, then they will be eligible to sign up for this residential permit program, and they will be able to park at any meter within the residential permit zone on Sundays.

And they will not need to feed the meter, and they can park at the meter all day.

We are proposing that residents pay a permit fee equivalent to $2.50 per day, which is equivalent to one hour at a parking meter right now, plus the cost of staff recovery time to roll out and implement this program.

The proposed fee comes out to 150 dollars per year, which is equivalent to $2.50 per day multiplied by 52 Sundays in a year, and then plus the $20 cost recovery fee for the permit and for a staff to roll out the program and deliver the permit to that applicant.

We do want to note that full cost recovery if a resident were to park at a at a meter all day every Sunday, which they will be able to do, is a little over $1,500 per year.

Our proposed timeline for this program is uh after this, our hopes are to go to city council in January of 2026.

Uh we would then notify eligible residents via mail that they are eligible for this program, and we would roll out the the permit program through February to March prior to extending meter hours to Sundays in April.

Um applications would be rolling, and so if a resident does not sign up uh for the permit during the February to March time frame, they still will be able to sign up uh for the permit throughout the year.

Residents will be able to apply online consistent with our current residential parking permit program, and they will either receive a hang tag or a sticker that they can put on their car that will indicate that they are are a permittee for this program and allow them to park at a meter on Sunday.

We have attended three community meetings over the past month, one in uptown, one in mid-city, and one in downtown.

I think biggest pieces of feedback that we have gotten from both the uptown North Park and downtown groups is is really two things.

Communication is key here with this program.

Um they want to ensure that not only do we communicate this program at the start, but that we continue to communicate program eligibility on a regular basis.

Um so at the start, we are planning on sending out mailers to everyone who is eligible for this program.

Um we're also proposing to update the website and have a separate website for this program where a resident can go online, type in their address, and see if they are eligible.

Um, and then we we are working with communications department on how to continue to communicate this along with a lot of our other parking updates.

The next is that they've asked us to clearly define eligible blocks and area boundaries.

Uh the downtown, uptown, and mid-city boundaries are all pretty close, um, but we'll have separate permits.

Um at the time that we go to change the signage related to the meter hours, we are also planning to indicate um what permit area that uh parking meter is located in to clearly communicate to the public which permit boundary they they are in.

And last at the downtown community last night, um, we we did hear some feedback on transferability of permits, um things like long-term rentals or buying new cars during the permit period, and we're committed to working with permittees on how to implement a solution that will help mitigate these these issues.

And with that, we'll take any questions.

Thank you very much for the presentation, sir.

Please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Chair.

We've received two speaker slips here in chambers, and we have three hands up in the queue.

We will begin with Blair Beekman.

If you can please approach the lector, and you will have two minutes.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

Thanks a lot for this item.

Um, the first thing that I I thought of um with this item was that um I've been wanting to say it for the past few weeks, I haven't had the right space to, and it seems appropriate now, is that for all our budget concerns at this time and for the next few years, I I'm very concerned that there is a way that we can simply we want a balanced budget.

We want you know make sure our services are coming through.

But we can, I think give up some issues of money and and budget needs for more long term waiting and and and work out our balanced budgets over a few additional years.

We can all have those important goals in mind.

We can all have those important goals in mind, but uh as you're doing these parking issues, I think overly extremely too much.

The Sunday program, I'm not happy with this at all.

There was a very nice presentation here to create free parking on Sunday for the future of Balboa Park, which I thought was really nice thing to do.

Um if that does end up happening, do you have to have these sort of programs to allow the free parking on Sunday at Balboa Park?

I mean, I understand there's trade-offs, but um I I think we have to be working just to limit fees uh on people as much as possible.

And um, the fact that you've ended the parking commission process, they can be adding a whole additional layer of of ideas and advice, and I think you see them as a big harassment, a hassle, and probably possibly legal uh litigation issues that why you've ended their program.

I'm really want to be building democracy, a community as how to answer these questions and address ideas and advice and help instead of limiting it.

But you guys, you're doing that, then you're charging all these fees.

I'm not happy.

Good luck in this effort when talking.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Paul Krueger.

Thank you.

Well, I'm not happy either.

Um, and this is why I came down here, uh for the other comments.

Um, one of the most um regrettable decisions is to extend parking meter hours and to charge for parking on Sundays in areas, especially mid-city, where people do not have another place to park.

These people, I know this because I watch it from where I live in Talmadge.

People come home from work, they spot a meter, they stay for an hour, they move their car, they come back, they park overnight.

Sunday is peak parking because people who don't have a garage or a driveway are parking their vehicle there.

I want to be sure to cover the most important thing before I move back to what I said.

They are proposing a 150 annual permit for this.

Charging people anything over than the $20 cost for this permit is unacceptable.

These people are the poorest of they are working class people who cannot afford to subsidize our budget with a hundred and thirty dollar payment for parking, which is what that's for.

For example, if you live in Hillcrest, you're paying $11.50 a year for your permit to park in the residential zone in in Hillcrest.

Now there's no meters there, but that that doesn't matter because there will be, you know, we're building thousands of more, we're we're installing thousands of more meters.

And in the downtown El Cortez area, there are meters on Dayton Cedar.

These people are paying $11.50 for their annual permit.

So I urge you to make the cost of this permit only the $20 cost recovery.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes testimony here in chambers.

I'll begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment on item number six.

Each speaker will have two minutes and we will begin with the Zoom user.

If you can please unmute, state your name for the record and begin.

I have the same experience to the last guy.

Like you go to Hill Cresco, the doctor, there's no parking there, but the resident parking, then you gotta pay these parking to park or go to the doctor, things like that.

But uh in East Village, everyone's shuffling around for parking.

I worked down there a couple years, and uh all those guys in those big hot uh big buildings are paying like 4,000 a month, 6,000 a month, 10,000 a month.

They have multiple cars and they don't have parking in the building.

They gotta pay extra for the parking.

And they have some other guys have cars where there's their raffling off parking uh spots in the buildings, and so a lot of them shuffle their cars around all the time on the streets, so I don't know what they're gonna do, but well, they gotta pay A's to park for a monthly fee or something.

So the rich guys will pay and they're shuffling their cars around.

But um wow, it's kind of sacrilege charging uh parking on Sunday, no matter where you are, man.

It's like where does it all end, man?

Why don't we why don't we make all the city employees uh take the buses and trolleys that can no longer drive their car, make them, especially the politician guys.

Make them, especially the politician guys.

You guys gotta no more driving your car.

Todd Glory has got to take the trolley from now on.

Todd's got to ride the bus with his bodyguards.

Maybe you guys can talk to him there instead of uh someone have a meeting to talk to Todd once a month, ask Todd some questions in the board meeting, have everybody up there doing it.

That'd be kind of cool, but I guess it's not gonna end now.

We're gonna charge Sundays, we're gonna charge this, charge that.

And no more, don't pay for no more studies.

Three million dollars to study the trash fee.

That's the total scam.

No more studies for anything.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Catherine Rhodes.

Please unmute and begin.

Hello, this is Catherine Red, and I agree with the last few speakers.

Um, especially for mid-city.

Um, I don't think you should um you should have Sunday parking in mid-city.

Um, you know, Sunday is a day of rest, you know, in the Bible.

People are with their families.

Instead of being with their families, they're they're going to have to go around, move their cars all about because they don't want to get one of your ridiculous um high cost tickets.

It's literally just not fair, especially for the poor.

And um, you know, I don't think you need it.

Um, yes, you're trying to balance your budget, but you're trying to balance the budget on a lot of people who can't um who can't afford to, you know, who don't have a garage or now or that do not have a parking space, but they need their cars in order to um you know get to work.

And the parking meters are you know, usually you know, not overnight or at night time, but this is just during the day.

So I think with this, you're just not giving anybody a break.

And and I think you should just not um maybe in downtown and uptown, but for for sure, not mid-city.

I would request that you take the mid-city area out of it, and then for your your um your feedback from residents.

I bet you the residents don't say we want to pay for parking on Sunday.

You you didn't actually ask that question.

So if you could actually ask that question, I'm sure people would say, no way.

And then another thing I wanted to mention for you know, Bell Ball Park, you're gonna have a new community parking district.

And now instead of just using it for parking issues, you're gonna use it for infrastructure maintenance, roof, and air conditioning, which you always could have.

So I'm glad you're actually at least acknowledging that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the final speaker in the queue with their hand up is Michael Schmidt.

Please unmute and begin.

You will have two minutes.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you.

Please begin.

All right.

I agree with the other two speakers, where we can and the other.

But also, I don't like how we're um raising the price.

Um especially down in Elbow Park, it's just ridiculous.

Um anyway, um, I'll talk to you guys layer.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

And Chair, this concludes comment for item six.

Thank you very much, Sarah.

Um thank you uh very much for uh bringing forward this item and for the presentation.

Um I uh requested the uh residential permit program uh be developed.

I represent uh much of this area, uh, the third uh city council district uh and and had some concerns uh about the impact on residents.

I'll elaborate on that uh in just a moment.

Before I do that, I want to turn it over to the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst for some comments on this item.

Thank you, Chair Whitburn and committee members.

I am Donnie Wayne with the IBA as noting in the report.

Expanding parking meter operations include Sunday citywide is projected to generate approximately 2.8 million dollars annually.

However, the level of participation in the residential parking permit program and the corresponding reduction in meter revenue remains unknown.

The proposed 150 annual permit fee is anticipated to be treated similarly to revenue in the parking meter operations plan, though this is subject to city attorney's determination.

If approved by city council, the staff anticipates rolling out the residential parking permit program by April 2026.

Committee members may wish to inquire whether parking enforcement resources are sufficient to support expanding the Sunday meter enforcement citywide.

If not, additional enforcement staffing or resources may be needed may need to be considered during the mid-year budget adjustments to ensure effective implementation.

Because of uncertainties associated with this and other parking initiatives, it will be important to monitor implementation and evaluate both utilization and whether the established meter pricing remains appropriate.

This assessment would be the best informed by a parking management study, which would require which could require additional budget resources.

This includes concludes my comments.

I'm available for any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

So in uh the urban core of the city, uh, as several of the speakers pointed out, there are a lot of people who have to park on the street.

Um they don't have a driveway or they don't have a garage, and so uh they park on uh the street.

Uh and particularly on Sundays when uh more people are home than some of the other uh days during the work week.

A lot of people historically have uh parked at the meters as something of an overflow uh uh since the meters were uh free on Sundays.

Uh when the decision was made to operate the meters on Sundays, uh I um could envision residents uh having to uh go and and uh move their car every couple of hours, uh pay for a meter uh every couple of hours, and the cost of that uh and just the inconvenience of having to do that uh seemed like too much to ask uh residents to do, particularly uh uh those who essentially have to park on the street if they're going to live uh in in this part of town.

Um so I requested that uh we look at a residential permit uh program for Sundays like this, uh and a lot of work has gone into this, and I really appreciate uh you tackling this and bringing it forward.

Um it's an optional thing.

Uh it is not mandatory.

Uh but if uh there are people uh who live uh in these uh metered areas uh in the urban core who would find value in uh getting a year long uh pass to park at the meters in their neighborhood uh for free for a year.

Um you know, hopefully that will uh add more convenience to them uh so they're not worried about where they're gonna be parking on Sundays, uh and it will have the additional uh impact of relieving some of the pressure on the streets that will hopefully hopefully make it easier for other people to find uh parking there.

So again, this isn't mandatory, it's optional, it's uh something that is uh going to be available for those who would find value in it.

Um, and and that was uh the goal of what we're bringing forward here.

So I will make a motion uh to adopt the staff recommendation.

Uh I'll see if uh any of my colleagues have any other uh thoughts on this.

Umber von Wilbert.

Thank you, and uh thank you to staff for the presentation.

Um in district five, we don't have a we don't have any parking districts or meters, so it's not really an issue that affects my district.

However, my residents do often come down on Sundays for all sorts of activities downtown and in mid-city.

So I'm I voted no on um establishing Sunday parking meters.

I think we should still have kept them free, but um at this point, since I lost that vote, I do want to be able to have residents given the option in the areas where they want to park to have uh the permit, so I'll second the motion.

Um I do have a question though for um Donnie from our IBA.

Are we getting the sense that this may be a cost neutral thing at the end of the day?

We're not really gonna make any money on Sunday parking meters given we have to hire enforcement and now we have this permit program, and or we just have to monitor it and see.

Um I can start in if the department wants to help me out.

Um the projection currently on Sundays is based on Saturday utilization.

Um that isn't taking effect any change of behavior.

Um currently, I believe there is um limited resources with parking enforcement, so there would be additional parking enforcement needed.

Um I think it's too early to tell.

I think the parking management study that I suggested in my comments in about a year or so uh would help kind of reinforce if it is cost neutral or if the city is making money or losing money.

Okay.

I would just suggest that if it turns out if the effort to do Sunday parking doesn't actually provide the revenue we think it does, let's just abandon this and repeal the Sunday for and let people park for free again.

But um I will again second the motion.

Thank you for the work to find this creative solution given where we are, and I hope that residents are able to take advantage of this when they need it.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Vaud Wilbert.

Um, just a couple additional questions.

Um if somebody's car is if they live in the neighborhood, but their car is registered to a different address.

Uh, for example, you have some uh military families or people in the military who have uh registration that is somewhere else.

Would they would they be eligible or how would we handle that?

Yeah, I can answer that.

Thank you for the question, council member.

Um so yeah, absolutely.

Um they would be providing proof of their vehicle registration to provide ownership of that vehicle.

Um, however, they can submit you know a utility bill, uh, a rental lease agreement, property tax bill to prove that they are a resident of that address.

Okay, thank you.

And where is the revenue uh from the Sunday parking um is gonna be going?

The revenue it's considered a loss of revenue fee, and so it must be treated similarly to uh parking meter revenue.

And so it will have the same restrictions as parking meter revenue.

It must be used within the geographic area that it's been generated in and must be spent on eligible expenses like parking, traffic safety, and mobility.

Okay, so um and all of those parking revenues are going to be uh the allocations will be part of the annual budget going forward, so uh the communities will have a say in that.

Okay, that's good.

Um right, thank you for answering those questions.

Um seeing no further discussion on the motion, uh please call the roll.

Item six passes unanimously 40.

Thank you, Sarah.

Uh thank you again for the presentation and all the uh work on that item.

Let's uh move on to item number seven.

Would you please introduce that, Sarah?

Item number seven is the fiscal year 2025 year end state of the capital improvements program, CI excuse me, CIP report.

And if you're watching on City TV, the live stream online, you'd like to dial in to speak, please call 1669-2545252 and when prompted.

Thank you, Sarah.

All right, please uh introduce yourselves for the record uh and let us know how much time you would like for your presentation and feel free to begin uh whenever you're ready.

Okay, good afternoon, Chair Whitburn.

Uh my name is Karen McGriff, and we will need about 20 minutes.

Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Whitburn and members of the ATI committee.

My name is Karen McGriff, and I am the assistant director of the finance and operations branch of the engineering and capital projects department.

With me today are Leaf Seaton, our acting dep department director, and also Samira Palisea, the program manager for our project management office who oversees our CIP finances.

We are here to present the fiscal year 2025 year end state of the CIP report.

This report is presented twice a year as an informational item as required by council policy 31 CIP transparency.

The report covers the period from July 1st, 2024 through June 30, 2025, and provides an overview of the city's entire capital improvements program.

ECP is responsible for delivering over 70 percent of the program with the remainder of the projects managed by other departments.

In the report, we will review the status of several major projects, provide a high-level overview of programmatic expenditures, introduce monitoring of our bidding environment, and also assess general CIP performance during fiscal year 2025.

We will also take a quick look at the emergencies declared for fiscal year 25.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Samira to finish the presentation.

Thank you, Karen.

The CIP program and what we accomplish in any given year are dependent at least in part on the funding that is made available in that year.

You can see on this slide, our city investment in infrastructure continues to grow year over year.

The fiscal year 2025 adopted CIP budget was $949.9 million, and various council actions throughout the fiscal year increased this amount by 291.1 million dollars to a total of 1.2 billion dollars in new funding dedicated to the CIP.

This is our highest level of capital investment ever in the city.

For the second year in a row, the capital program expenditures have exceeded 1 billion dollars.

Over the past four years, we have doubled capital expenditures in project output.

In fiscal year 2025, the city invested 1.145 billion dollars in infrastructure citywide.

Shown here are the fiscal year 2025 adopted budgets in orange and expenditures in in blue, broken down by asset managing departments.

As you can see, the largest expenditures are for the public utilities assets, and nearly all funding added in the fiscal year is expended in the same fiscal year.

The next largest groups of investments are for transportation, stormwater, and parks and recreation related projects.

The dollars expended in fiscal year 2025 occurred across 1,341 active projects and improved infrastructure for 13 asset managing departments.

The project count is shown here by asset managing departments.

As you can see on the graph, the CIP's largest clients are the public utilities, transportation, parks and recreation, and stormwater departments.

This also lines up with where we have seen the largest expenditure activity as shown on the previous slide.

Performance measures help to assess CIP achievements during a fiscal year, and by comparing annual performance can help guide the program toward improved results.

This table compares measures from fiscal year 2024 and 2025.

Nearly all metrics show positive improvements.

However, there are some areas that require close monitoring, which we will discuss in the upcoming slides.

By far, our most visible and most used asset is our straight network.

In fiscal year 2025, there was a citywide goal of repairing 357 lane miles using both slurry and cape seal as well as asphalt overlay work.

At the fiscal year end, ASPOR overlay efforts led by ENCP combined with a dedicated in-house mill and pave team and slurry seal efforts led by the Transportation Department resulted in over 564 lane miles of improvements.

This overperformance is estimated to have a two-point increase on our city street network condition, bringing our overall PCI to an estimated 65.

Fiscal year 2025 marked the end of a five-year pipeline replacement program for public utilities.

As the program concludes, PUD is shifting its focus toward the replacement and rehab of critical facilities such as pump stations and dams to support long-term system reliability and resilience.

Going forward, the pipeline program will transition from a mileage-based goal to a criticality-driven approach, prioritizing the segments that present the highest risk and the greatest impact on system performance.

Switching gears to project highlights, several projects that reached a major milestone during the year are highlighted in the report itself.

We will showcase just a few of those projects in the upcoming slides.

It is important to note that project completion schedules depend on funds being available as the projects advance through the delivery process.

The first project that we want to highlight is Palm Avenue Interstate 805 interchange, located in Council District 8.

The project has started the advertise and bid phase for construction.

When complete in 2029, the bridge over I-805 will be widened and the existing on and off ramps upgraded.

AC overlay group 2402, located in Council District 1, 2, 5, and 6, is currently in construction and ongoing.

With construction anticipated to be completed later this fiscal year, the project will have paved approximately 32.15 lane miles of existing asphalt roads.

Construction for Rolando Improv 2, located in Council District 9 is ongoing and anticipated to be completed in 2028.

The project will consist of the installation and rehab of six and eight-inch water sewer mains.

Fire Station 48, located in Council District 5, has awarded the design build contract, locking in our construction costs.

When complete in 2029, Fire Station 48 will be a new 11,500 square foot station located on Carmel Valley Road and serving the Black Mountain Ranch community and surrounding areas.

Lastly, design has begun for the Hammershaw Drainage Channel Upgrade Project, located in Council District 4.

Once complete in 2030, the improvements will include increasing Hammershaw waterway capacity, upsizing six storm drain culverts, installing a water quality basin, providing green space, installing a multipurpose trail and path, and a new pedestrian bridge.

With a very active capital program, constant engagement with the industry is needed to help ensure successful ongoing contract awards and execution.

ENCP hosts regularly scheduled meetings with SLBE ELBE contractors as well as our consulting and construction partners.

All of these events provide opportunities to communicate updates about the CIP program as well as upcoming training and contracting opportunities.

ENCP provides six month look-ahead dashboards as well as interactive maps to the meeting attendees to further highlight upcoming contracting opportunities across the city's nine council districts.

Also, purchasing and contracting, in collaboration with our ENCP construction management teams is hosting boot camps for SLBE ELBE contractors to support their ongoing training efforts.

Finally, something that is not reflected on this slide.

During fiscal year 2025, ENCP also participated in multiple industry events hosted by other organizations, such as the American Public Works Association, Associated General Contractors of America, and the Construction Network to further increase awareness of our program contracting opportunities and processes.

Recognizing the importance of data transparency and accuracy, ENCP worked to renew and redesign the CIP webpage in fiscal year 2025 to better inform the public about CIP activity.

The new design provides up-to-date content on ongoing and upcoming infrastructure projects.

There is a mobile friendly design to ensure broad usability and access.

Vibrant photos and clear explanations, as well as easy to navigate tabs that provide links to reports as well as contracting information.

In addition to the much improved layout, we have also developed three interactive dashboards and have made them available for public use.

These three dashboards are the CIP project lookup, allowing a user to access details on a single project.

The CIP project map viewer, allowing a user to see all projects in a geographical area.

And finally, the street overlay paving tracker, which shows recently completed as well as upcoming paving efforts across the city.

These dashboards offer near real-time data as well as customizable search features.

All of this was designed with a goal of increasing transparency and enhancing public engagement.

New to the report this year for added transparency, we have included a section to monitor our current bid environment.

In fiscal year 2025, the city awarded 44 construction contracts with 129 bids from 55 contractors.

This reflects decent competition.

Parks and transportation related projects drew the most interest.

To maintain a competitive, fair marketplace, we continue to expand outreach by hosting workshops and improving online access.

We are also working to streamline procurement.

All of this supports timely, cost-effective project delivery.

We will continue to build upon these metrics in order to make sure that we are positioned to pivot and respond to the market's constant changes.

Now shifting focus to our construction related activities.

In fiscal year 2025, ENCP issued a total of 126 notice to proceeds on CIP projects to begin construction activities, compared to 113 in fiscal year 2024.

ENCP also issued 100 notices of completions in fiscal year 2025, compared to 43 in fiscal year 2024.

To help manage peak workloads or to provide inspection services services for projects such as Pure Water that require unique expertise, construction management teams have executed as needed CM consultant contracts.

CM teams are structured to provide construction management services for all possible types of CIP projects and inspection services.

This table describes the status of the current as needed construction management contracts in fiscal year 2025.

In fiscal year 2025, the city initiated projects for 15 new distinct emergency projects.

11 of these were stormwater related and valued at nearly 35 million dollars.

One was related to the Mission Beach Lifeguard Tower, and one was slated to the Choyest Yard Valued at nearly 10 million dollars.

And two were related to a public utilities facility for a combined value of approximately $2 million.

Additional details are available in the report itself.

Finally, we'd like to touch on the climate action plan.

Advancing the climate action plan is a priority for the CIP across multiple departments and types of projects.

The council policy on CIP prioritization gives higher weights to projects with CAP considerations and positive impacts.

Shown here are the number of projects by cap energy category.

As you can see in the chart on the left, we have over 10 100 active projects that are related to the climate resiliency flood mitigation efforts.

I will now pass it back to Karen for closing remarks.

As we look ahead to fiscal year 26, our focus is on strengthening the foundation of the city's infrastructure.

We will continue to invest in critical assets by working closely with our partner departments and staying engaged with the community ensuring that our priorities remain clear and aligned.

We're always working to expand our outreach with the contracting industry.

By broadening the bidding pool we can improve competition optimize our contracts and ultimately deliver better projects for the city.

And finally we know that project funding challenges come with the territory we're committed to creative and practical problem solving to close funding gaps and keep our active projects moving forward towards completion.

Overall these goals position us to deliver another strong year of infrastructure improvements for the city and I'm confident in the direction that we're heading we thank you for your time and are available to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation sir do we have any public comment thanks chair yes we've received one slip here in chambers Blair Beekman if you will please approach the lector and you will have two minutes hi thank you and thank you for this item it was nice to hear um well it's nice to see that you you have a certain amount of uh tech projects that you're working on uh smart well street streetlight things and such um uh traffic signals that's the word a few of them and um so uh I'm interested that uh you talked about the importance of procurement and streamlining that can be development with procurement at this time and uh I just wanted to offer the the friendly reminder in these work in this work in this effort what tech accountability is really capable of this time and that um if we do tech accountability well it actually creates a more organized streamlined process for ourselves and we can more efficiently talk about how to place our smart street lights instead of continuously being sued and and having uh continual confusion if we have clear expectations uh best practices and I think um that can be a part of your procurement process it's really important when you present yourselves to other cities how you're going what you want for uh your projects to have a good tech foundation uh an accountability that sets a standard and they know what to expect and it's important um it's a really good way to work um the work um uh there's there's important work with um public safety issues that was at this time we're trying to understand um I think as we're addressing the current flock issues and and changes can be made we are trying to address in public safety as well and how to continue that and we can there are ways to do it so it isn't a far-fetched thing to be still addressing tech accountability as ways to address our CIP issues and uh create an efficiency in uh savings and best practices good luck thank you I will begin the five minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment on item number seven we will begin testimony with Catherine Rhodes please unmute and begin you will have two minutes wonderful thank you and I want to um thank staff that they're finally spending all this money that you've been hoarding for for decades in your fund balances it's great news it's not that you've gotten new revenue coming in you're spending hoarded funds that have been being hoarded but one giant uh fund that you still are hoarding cash in is your underground surcharge um that comes from the franchise trees from STGE for example in the 2024 annual comprehensive financial report it shows that you have 394 million dollars 394 million dollars in fund balance in cash um and uh you know and then um you know you talk about your actuals first your budgeted versus actuals but it seems like um undergrounding must not be an asset owning department because you you didn't report out on that um for example in your 2025 budget you said you're going to be spending 125 million dollars on underground but instead going through your thing you only spent um that I see three and a half million so you didn't spend a hundred and twenty one million dollars that your staff said that they were going to be um spending for undergrounding you know that's not fair you should just try to say exactly what you plan on do it if they put in their budget that they were only going to be spending you know three three and a half million or four million

Um, for example, in your 2025 budget, you said you're going to be spending 125 million dollars on undergrounding, but instead going through your thing, you only spent um that I see three and a half million.

So you didn't spend 121 million dollars that your staff said that they were going to be um spending for underground.

You know, that's not fair.

You should just try to say exactly what you plan on to it.

If they put in their budget that they were only going to be spending, you know, three three and a half million or four million, that would be better.

And then the other thing I wanted to mention, you know, STG.

Um they don't use union crews from San Diego.

The people come from LA and San Diego County.

And when the franchise fees came up, you guys were going to be able to, um, they said they were going to train people in San Diego.

And so I want you to ask staff why is no San Diego being trained on how to dig um dig trenches for underground?

That can give so much cashing.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you for your comment.

And with no other hands in the queue, this concludes testimony for item seven.

Thank you, Sarah.

We will open it up to uh any committee questions and comments.

This is an informational item, so uh no uh motion is necessary, and we'll begin with council member von Wolbert.

Uh thank you, Chair, and thank you very much for the presentation uh and the work on this.

RCIP is incredibly hard to manage, but incredibly important.

Um I did have a question on one of the the budget slides.

Um I'm sorry, I'm pulling up the wrong presentation.

It is um I think side three.

And it's the FY2021 through 2025 CIP budget, and it looks like we go over the adopted budget every year.

And so just wondering where that is.

It's not an over the adopted budget.

The adopt the the budget that is actually adopted gets increased throughout the year.

So you have the adopted budget that is done as part of the annual budget cycle, and then council actions will come forward throughout the year to accept grants, accept donations, increase appropriations, um, allocate new debt, stuff like that.

And that that causes the increase.

So we know that when we start the fiscal year, that with changes that happen throughout the year, we're not done.

Got it.

Okay, thank you.

That if when this goes to full council, I might suggest explaining because I was like, how are we blowing?

I didn't think we were blowing our budget.

Um also thank you.

I appreciate it.

I also um looking at the water and sewer main replacement miles.

I know it's cost.

Uh, we're we're not super far off our goal, but we haven't quite, you know, reached the goal for for these water main and sewer main replacements.

I do understand we've had to put some things down because we're trying to tamper down on cost increases with the cost of living right now.

Um, but can you talk a little bit about if we are there are further federal funding sources, state funding sources, or we just kind of gonna have to keep trying to keep up with the current rate increases.

I I know that public utilities is constantly exhausting.

They're looking for SRF loans, they're looking for the WifiA funding, they're grant funding, they are active pursuance of grant funds for their funding sources.

So there are their multiple funding sources that they're going to be looking to use to add to this program.

Got it.

Okay, um we can ask offline, but yeah, next time hopefully PD can come to back you guys up next time because it's their slide.

Um, I do also have a question about the um the emergency projects.

I know that we can't control emergencies, and especially with stormwater, which is our highest liability.

We did increase the stormwater in-house pipe repair crews at one point um to try and cut down on the emergencies.

What is the status of that?

Do we have one team, two teams?

I can't remember.

Yes, Councilmember Von Wilper, this is Todd Snyder, director of the stormwater department.

We currently have one active team that's working on in-house pipe replacement, and that's because the second team was reassigned after the January 2024 flooding events to keep up with channel maintenance activities.

Got it.

Okay, and that's kind of the capacity of our budget.

Did it help though having a second in-house repair team?

It certainly does.

Yeah, having more active boots on the ground, get projects done faster.

Okay.

Are we are you are you looking to include that next year if we have I mean because could the WIFIA funding pay for the salaries for folks to do this?

WIFIA does support the labor component of it.

Um however, you know, we are basically we know what's on our project list in terms of the wifia, and so we are still on track, even being down to one team, we're still on track to complete all the projects identified in WIFIA, the in-house pipe replacement projects with the team that we got within the WIFIA timeline.

So we would need additional funding to get an additional batch of projects started to give additional teams enough work to stay busy post WIFI.

Okay, got it.

Well, if you you know, if you figure in that you want to have another in-house repair team and want to, I'd be happy to fight for that because I think it does reduce our costs and get things done faster.

I completely understand changing to the channel maintenance after the floods makes perfect sense to me.

But if you want an additional team, um let me know.

I'm happy to push in our budget memos and all of that for you.

Uh and then also um uh fire station 48 that was mentioned.

Um what is the status of the fire station?

And when is we're gonna have a ribbon cutting?

I thought you were gonna ask for groundbreaking, council member first.

Um I think um currently this is a design project, design bill project, and we are um nearing the end of the initial design activity.

So the construction is estimated to start in um let me look at my notes.

Um I think January 26th is when we are um working towards, and if all goes well, the fire station is expected to open in 2020 um 9 as at spring 2028.

Um that we are going to have some more progress, and as um Samira mentioned in 2029, we should have it in service.

We can get the more more accurate date for you as we start digging and making progress in the construction side of it.

So okay, got it.

Thank you.

I we've been waiting for this one for a very long time.

So um hopefully I will be asking in January to make sure that the construction has started uh and that we're we're getting off the ground.

But thank you uh for the updates and thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Vod Wolpert.

Councilmember Foster.

Uh yes, thank you, um Chair, and thank you for the presentation.

I do have just a quick question on a couple of the things.

Um I guess one just to comment, um, and I've kind of said this before, it looks like in this report we're closing out FY25 when we look at emergency projects.

It looks like we expended close to 50 million dollars, right?

Um my concern there is of course 50 million dollars on a TNM basis.

That's a bit much.

Um, and so I think it speaks to the importance of um making sure that we are able to facilitate um moving the CIP forward and taking care of our preventative um type things and and um ensuring we're in a good place.

So um that's a that's an item of concern for me, and something that I'll be continuing to watch.

Um the other thing um with that, I thought I saw in the report there's a section regarding the bid environment.

And I believe in here, and and unless I read it incorrectly, does it say that the bid environment reflecting a healthy level of competition?

I thought we have had previous conversations that said we are seeing a decline in um availability, folks coming um to the table and continuing to bid our projects.

So if you can clarify, are we in a healthy environment or are we not in a healthy environment?

And and perhaps that was looking at the numbers and the average number of bidders that we had per contract.

Most asset types had above had two or more bidders for each contract that we put out.

There were there was one asset type with the pump stations, I believe, that had a one-bidder, one contract scenario.

Everything else had two, three, in some cases, nearly four or more uh applicants per each contract that we put out.

Can that be better?

Absolutely.

I don't have numbers to compare it to to what it looked like in prior years, so we're gonna be adding this kind of metric and tracking so that we can monitor this over in the future years.

You'll see this showing up in future reports now.

Um and that's that's where I feel that if we've got two, three, four people at it asking for each contract, that that's a healthy level of competition.

If if I can also add council member, there is a concerted effort from the department, engineering capital projects and PNC to do robust outreach efforts.

I think we are seeing positive outcomes of that.

And and keeping the line of communications open during the when the projects out a bit answering RFIs, I think that's helping the um improvements I would like to say we've seen compared to previous years, although we don't have data to share it.

So our intent with that statement is not to say that the whether the overall construction uh environment is that healthy or like we are getting bids.

But as a city, we believe we're in a better position than the previous fiscal year.

That that was the intent of the statement, sir.

So you support the statement that it is a healthy competitive environment.

For our projects, that's what we've seen uh with the numbers we could say.

Okay.

I don't think two bidders on what we do is what I would say a healthy competitive bid environment.

I think it actually puts strain on our CIP at the end of the day, especially again, I'll go back to asset type.

If we break down, I think this report shows 60% of our projects still go to PUD.

I think if you start looking at that work, which is basically pipeline, it even constrains our bidding pool even more.

So I think those are things that will need to continue to be addressed and looked at.

Um with that, when we talk about streamlining, I I've heard you mention streamlining.

We went through a very significant streamlining effort in 2012, somewheres around there.

And so I guess what are the things that we when we talk about streamlining, what does that entail or what does that look like?

If it's just increasing mayoral authorities, I don't think that's streamlining.

What are we looking at in regards to streamlining?

Um if I could add, I think um recently, a couple of months ago, um, with the support of the active uh transportation infrastructure committee, we put forward a couple of mini-code um up upgrades, uh updates to have progressive design bills, see them at risk, and alternative delivery methods to add it to our toolbox in addition to the design bid build.

Um, those are going to be the tools that are available, and we are looking at the market to see uh where is the um contractors or the design build teams are leaning towards.

I was just at a um event, uh there were the there was a mention of the um some school jobs being put out, most of them as a design build and receiving 40 bids from throughout the California.

So um uh like we mentioned before, every project delivery method has its own place.

But I think with the support of the council so far, we are um at the same level with the rest of the industry as far as delivery methods available to us going forward.

We will make the best effort to pick the right delivery method for the right asset type, council member.

I think you make a great point.

Um bidder's changes based on asset types, and we will we can also reflect it in our outreach effort as well, based on the dollar amendment sensor, sir.

Okay, I appreciate that because I think you will find if you were to survey my colleagues, I think everyone would every one of them would say that you know the typical response we get for sidewalks is it takes five years.

And I think that is a bit much for um city sidewalks that basically follow regional standard drawings that have a citywide mix that all of the vendors know um what they are, how they're constructed, um, to where I think those are things internally that we need to look at and figure out what we can do to um identify such efficiencies and streamlining, right?

Um my last question is this, and it kind of goes back to the pool of available contractors.

Um I don't see um, and maybe I missed it, um, but I don't see where we're tracking um our spend in regards to minority contractors.

I know we do a separate um report typically on our business diversity.

Um, but as I look at this um when you talk about outreach in this report, I only see a few names.

And one is the associated general contractors of America, the AGC, but I don't see mention of the Black Contractors Association, and I don't see mention of the National Association of Minority Contractors.

Can you let me know as we say we are doing inclusive outreach?

Why I'm not seeing them mentioned in the report, and what are we doing with these types of organizations?

Um I think uh I'll ask PNC to chime in on that one.

But uh we do have a uh standing salbial B meetings that we hold, and I think that's one of the outreach efforts.

But if Claudia Parker or someone from PNC can speak to that a little bit, and we'll make sure that we include that data as well going forward.

Okay, just so we're clear and I always appreciate the efforts of um purchasing and contracting and um what uh Mrs.

Ovarca does, but I'm looking specifically to the department that designs that put that um is responsible to put the projects in place that work with these contractors on a daily basis.

I want to know which you are doing, because you guys are the responsible um department that executes said contracts.

And so by all means, Mrs.

Obarca, please.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Councilmember Foster.

Uh yes, our Equal Opportunity Contracting Program does participate in uh the uh chat and chew with the Black Black Contractors Association, and we also do make meetings with the National Association of Minority Contractors as well on a regular basis.

So can I ask this, please?

Can I have a list of all of the meetings that you have gone to in FY25 with the Black Contractors Association and all the meetings that you have gone to for the National Association of Minority Contractors?

I would like to see P and C staff attendance, and I would like to see engineering and capital projects attendance at these meetings.

I think that uh uh finishes my comment, sir.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Councilmember Foster.

Vice Chair Lee.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, and thank you to my colleagues for um diving into a couple of things.

I um had some thoughts I just thought I would follow up on.

Um I I I recognize in the report um that it it in a bit of a way highlights the sort of expanded efforts that we've had when it comes to CIP expenditures.

Um though in the back of my head, I I also recognize that in the last half a decade or so we've seen some pretty um exorbitant increasing costs across the board to complete projects.

And um not to say that this is overly rosy, but I think one thing I I'm just sort of aware of in the back of my head is how much are we accomplishing for the same dollar uh compared to just even five years ago.

And so the increasing number is one thing.

Um, but I think folks need to also, the public especially needs to understand the the challenging environment that we are facing as a city to accomplish every road mile that we're repairing, every sidewalk, every um park we're building is costing us um this the same inflation that they are seeing day to day impacts the city of San Diego as well.

And that is one thing I just don't feel like is captured here as much, and that is just as important for the public to recognize because we may be spending more money, but there's a degree in which we're trying to actually accomplish the same amount of work that we have in the past with additional funding.

Um couple things that stick out based on some of my colleagues' questions is that I think there's also a difference in terms of the funding that allows us to accomplish an expanded CIP portfolio that is one-time in nature, and so I think of projects like Pure Water, which is a significant infrastructure investment that we are making in the region, but there's going to be a point where that is no longer part of the portfolio, and and there's a degree in which that also inflates our overall the overall numbers in terms of what we are accomplishing that addresses day-to-day needs as well.

Um funding like WIFIA funding that we have sort of tapped into and relied on to to allow for us to accomplish more, again, at some point is going to taper off as well.

Um and maybe just one recommendation of another line that I think would be helpful for us to understand is that outside of what we're spending in CIP specifically, I'm also very curious about what the debt service impact is on our general fund budget year over year.

And I actually think that would be helpful to understand how that's risen because again, from a city's perspective, we may have accomplished more road miles in the last couple of years, but we've typically been pretty ready to acknowledge that a lot of that is funded through debt service that is above and beyond what we've seen in prior years.

But we all here know that that is not sustainable.

And so there's a degree in which residents may be seeing improved road conditions based on what we are accomplishing today.

But if we can't keep up that level of increased road maintenance, for example, in future years, they're ultimately going to see a decline in service.

And I actually think that's it's important that residents understand that that's what we are facing.

And so if we have a way of charting out what our increased debt services as a proportion of the budget year over year to support CIP, uh I again I think that is a way for us to in this challenging budget cycle and moving forward to explain to our residents what we are facing as a city and why some of the decisions that we are making to try to uphold the work that we're doing today, to uphold the city services that we have, that the pressures that we are facing to accomplish that.

So that those are just some of my thoughts as this reporting moves forward.

Um there's a lot of work being done.

We all appreciate it very much.

I acknowledge what Councilmember Foster has said.

I've seen a project or two in my district where we could barely get a bidder.

Um I know that's not the case everywhere, but that is a challenge that I've actually very much expressed to our residents, which is that in in the environment that we're in today, increasing costs, projects that are being um asked for across multiple agencies, that the city is competing in many ways with others to get work done.

And so sometimes slower timelines, increased um expenditures coming out of community funds.

I mean, that all ties together, and I'd rather us actually tell the public that when we can so that again they understand it when we come back to talk about the fiscal challenges that we have as a city to meet these needs moving forward.

So thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Lee.

Thank you to each of my colleagues here for the good questions and comments.

Um I will just close out uh by thanking you for the excellent work on uh the CIP uh projects, uh number of which have won awards.

Uh one of them uh in my district that was particularly uh high profile project was the botanical building improvements in Balboa Park, and that project has won nine awards, including the American Institute of Architects Design Award, the American Public Works Association's Project of the Year Award, the American Society of Civil Engineers Project of the Year, and the California Preservation Foundation.

Easy to say, California Preservation Foundation's Preservation Design Award, and uh and many more.

So lots of good uh work being done and and lots for people to be proud uh about the quality of the work that we're seeing out there.

So thank you again.

Thank you for the presentation and thank you for the update.

Uh that was an informational item, so no motion is necessary.

Uh Sarah, please introduce our final discussion item.

Thank you, Chair.

Item number five is the fiscal year 2026 Capital Improvements Program CIP, mid-year budget monitoring report and CIP budget revisions.

And if you're watching on City TV, the live stream online, and you'd like to dial in to speak, please call 1669-2545252.

And when prompted, input webinar ID 160-685-1166 pound.

Chair.

Thank you, Sarah.

All right, please uh introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you would like for your presentation, and feel free to begin whenever you're ready.

Good afternoon, committee chair Redburn and members of the committee.

Kyoti Pantlu, Assistant Director with the Department of Finance, and with me is Michael Palayu, our financial operations manager also with the Department of Finance.

We'll need about 10 minutes.

Thank you.

This this report is a semi-annual update on the capital improvements program.

It provides budget monitoring updates on several of the more critical program capital program funding sources.

This report also includes a consolidated request for council action resulting from the city's continued cash management and streamlining efforts.

This request includes 37.7 million in appropriations, de-appropriations, and reallocations between projects.

With that, I'll turn it to Michael to go through the details on this report.

Good afternoon.

So this slide shows a summary of the CIP budget adjustments.

The new appropriations, the largest amounts come from the underground surcharge fund and development impact fees.

For the transfers, the largest amounts come from the water CIP fund, regional parks fund, and Muni Seward CIP fund.

It is important to note that the public utilities department continues to carefully prioritize capital improvement projects based on risk with the most critical needs addressed first.

In alignment with project timelines and overall department priorities, the mid-year actions include strategic transfers rather than larger appropriations.

For several years, the Department of Finance, Transportation, and Engineering Capital Projects Departments have been working together to monitor and prioritize the spend down of transnet funds held at SANDAG.

Based upon the current estimated revenues for the fiscal year, it is anticipated that both the congestion relief and maintenance transnet funds will likely have available fund balance at the end of the fiscal year.

The Transportation Department and the Department of Finance will continue to monitor transnet revenue received, and if projections do indeed come in at or above projections, future action will be taken to appropriate the funding.

This graph shows where the city is in comparison to other agencies participating in the Transnet program as of September 30th, 2025, which shows our Transnet cash balance is roughly 107% of projected annual revenue.

The Transportation Department currently estimates that the Transnet Extension cash balance with the city and held at SANDAG will be approximately 38.5 million dollars by June 30, 2026, representing approximately 83% of the city's annual transnet revenue.

The city continues to try and maintain low cash balances held at SANDAG and has been consistently among the lower municipalities, among others in the region that participate in the program.

The Department of Finance works closely with the Transportation Department to monitor and maximize the use of gas tax funding for right of way maintenance and improvements.

Both are volatile funding sources whose revenues can fluctuate depending on both the price of gas as well as consumer demand, so we will continue to monitor through the end of the fiscal year.

Again, based on current estimated revenues for the fiscal year, it is anticipated that both the gas tax and RMRA funds may have available fund balance at the end of the fiscal year.

The Department of Finance and Transportation Department will continue to monitor throughout the fiscal year and take appropriate action if needed on these funding sources in a future request for council action.

Department of Finance also works with engineering capital projects and various asset managing departments to propose the best uses for the general fund contributions to the CIP, capital outlay, infrastructure, and climate equity funds.

This table shows the expected uncommitted fund balances anticipated at the end of the fiscal year.

The small remaining uncommitted fund balances for the infrastructure fund and climate equity fund will be evaluated as part of the fiscal year 2027 budget process or used to mitigate fiscal year 2026 expenditures, and appropriate action will be taken on these funding sources in a future request for council action.

This slide shows the debt-funded capital improvements program appropriations and spend down as of the first quarter of fiscal year 2026.

These appropriations represent the amounts budgeted and expended in the capital improvements program only.

In addition, attachment six of the report shows the fiscal year 2025 debt funded expenditures for the various CIPs funded by debt.

This slide shows the debt supported activity of both the capital improvements program and other capital needs that have been previously approved.

The city has spent down the 2024 A lease revenue bond proceeds.

The remaining authorized appropriations will be financed through future long-term financings, including the recently issued 2025 A lease revenue bonds.

This slide shows the spend down progress on the WIFIA loan.

Many projects have not entered into the construction phase, which is when we will see the spend down really start to ramp up.

City's stormwater infrastructure is largely past its expected useful life, leading to significant system deterioration and failures.

This trend is evident from the growing number of emergency drainage repairs and replacements over the last several years.

Stormwater emergencies continue to consume limited resources, with fiscal year 2025 showing the largest amount, mainly due to the lingering effects of the January 2024 storm.

The Stormwater Department, Engineering Capital Projects, and Department of Finance will continue to monitor and work on ways to mitigate address and mitigate the system failures.

Shifting gears to the Capital Improvements Program administrative budget updates.

The fiscal year 2026 appropriation ordinance authorizes the CFO to modify project appropriations for various fund or project management purposes under certain conditions.

These administrative authorities create efficiencies across departments by saving time and helping to promote and implement cash management strategies in the capital improvements program.

Wanted to take this opportunity to highlight just a few of the various appropriation ordinance sections used during the first quarter of the fiscal year.

There are additional details and examples included in the report.

Section 2C1 authorizes the CFO to add maintenance projects funded elsewhere, which are determined to be of a capital nature to the CIP.

Section 2C2 authorizes CFO to close completed projects and transfer unexpended balances to the appropriate reserve or fund balance or up to $100,000 to an annual allocation of the same asset type.

Section 2C5 authorizes the CFO to transfer and/or appropriate a maximum of $200,000 per project not to exceed 10% of the project budget from annual allocations or fund balance.

This transfer did not impact existing paving projects as it came from project savings from various recently closed paving projects.

Section 2C7 authorizes CFO to swap revenue sources between projects as long as the reallocations do not result in a net project increase.

This authority was used to provide effective cash management and ensure DIF funding was spent down timely while also slowing debt expenditures until the next bond issuance.

Section 2C9 authorizes the CFO to modify capital improvements program project budgets in accordance with the city council approved financing plans.

As we move away from community-based DIFs and FBAs, this particular AO authority will likely be used less and less each year.

Section 2C15 authorizes the CFO to modify the accounting of the capital improvements program projects to ensure the use of the most appropriate project type.7 million dollars.

We continue to have success in the spend down of transportation funds, infrastructure funds, and bond proceeds.

This success is attributed to various cash management efforts and a strong collaboration between the Department of Finance, Engineering Capital Projects, and various asset managing departments.

We look forward to the continuing discussions on streamlining and improving delivery of infrastructure in the capital improvements program, providing effective cash management of the program and increasing transparency.

Effective cash management is important given our limited resources and constraints to the capital program.

And thank you for your time.

Thank you.

I believe Mr.

Wynn from the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst has question uh comments.

Thank you, Chair Whitburn and Committee members.

I am Donnie Wynn with the IBA.

I'd like to highlight uh a few key items from the CIP monitoring report.

First, the FY2026 adopted budget includes approximately 42 million for stormwater emergencies.

As of period three, about 21 million dollars has already been allocated with additional amounts reserved for ongoing and recently declared emergencies.

Stormwater department carefully manages this budget to balance existing commitments with new emergency needs, which can fluctuate depending on the severity of the rainy season.

If additional emergencies arise and existing work cannot be delayed, funding may need to be redirected from other asset types or CIP projects.

Second, the media action includes several project transfers within the CIP.

I want to highlight a few major items and their project impacts.

The largest transfer is 4.3 million added to the Air and Space Museum Roof Replacement Project.

This includes 1.8 million dollars from the Sunset Cliffs Park Drainage Improvement Project.

This project is an environmental review, and the funding is not needed now, but future funding will be needed to backfield this project.

1.2 million is coming from the regional park improvements annual allocation, which had available funding due to higher than expected lease revenues.

And then $875,000 is from the June Borough Sarah Mesa ADA improvement projects.

Funding for this project is not needed this fiscal year.

However, repress replenishment of these funds will be needed in FY 2027.

The combined transfers fully fund the roof project based on current bid estimates.

Next, the action adds $3.2 million to the South Choice Yard Emergency Repairs Project.

About 1.2 million of the general fund debt funding comes from the Alvarado Canyon Road Realignment Project.

The Alvarado Canyon Road Realignment Project still has enough funding to complete the environment environmental phase, but will require additional resources for design.

The action also provides $800,000 for phase three of the Mission Beach Lifeguard Station replacement.

This project is being delivered in three phases.

Phase one covers emergency structural repairs to the existing facility.

Phase two provides temporary facilities to maintain operations, and phase three will support the design and construction of the new station.

This $800,000 represents the first funding for phase three, which has an estimated cost of $26.3 million.

Lastly, the action creates a new striper truck subproject located at the Choice Operations Yard with $598,000 in debt financed funding.

These dollars are being shifted from the bicycle facilities annual location.

No impacts to that program as this will be backfilled with developer impact fees.

Then concludes my comments.

I'm available for any questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Wood.

Sarah, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Chair.

We've received one speaker slip here in chambers.

Blair Beekman, if you would please approach the lector, and you will have two minutes to share your comment for item five.

Hi, thank you.

Um Thanks for these two CIP items.

I think I guess the previous item was a bit more of a broad view of projects, and this is more specific projects, what you're working on.

Possibly my words previously uh would have been more appropriate at this time.

My words were a little tedious uh on the previous item.

I'm sorry about that.

But I wanted to give a presentation, uh, a very nice words by uh council person foster, by the way.

Who I feel the CIP can be a bit, you know, they're kind of like a senator in how they work on funding projects.

And to offer a few words, I tried to offer a few words that you know what we're doing, the day-to-day work uh and um what that entails and to get a feeling of of how to be working towards those things.

Um council person foster kind of uh seem to be working towards in the same direction that uh we don't uh have to be specifically working towards mayor projects is how to build uh more of a full community thinking.

So as the mayor is coming up with all these new um smart street light rollouts coming up and such.

Um I I'm just very concerned that we have to have a certain accountability with it, and that when we do practice good oversight and accountability with our tech, it creates uh a more efficient streamlined process based on best practices.

And I think that's just an awesome combination in our lives.

Um, that I just I want to figure that out more and more.

And I think we should all be so excited about it and hopeful.

We can obviously be doing that with ALPRs.

We can be reducing the OPRs and still operating the same public safety.

That's an awesome concept.

And I hope we can study that more.

And uh and with the flock issues, really quickly, that's just an issue about dealing with um principles.

And um, we may be able to be doing that too at a cost savings.

So good luck how we can consider um our items.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

I'll begin the five five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment on item five.

Each speaker will have two minutes, and we will begin testimony with Catherine Rhodes.

Hello, this is Catherine Rhodes.

Thank you very much to the council members who discussed the pure water cost increase and the additional cost due to cost overrides because of construction cost increase, not because you're actually doing any more work.

So if you guys could ask staff to actually put that information in their reports and slides when the stocks to the full city council.

And then now I want to talk about the big huge problem I have again with staff on on this report.

Um, for in the fiscal year um 2025, uh, excuse me, 2026 budget for the underground surcharge for the undergrounding of the utilities, they were budgeted at zero dollars.

There was a fund balance of almost 400 million dollars in cash sitting there, and it was budgeted zero dollars.

Now they're saying that the um the greatest increase in appropriation comes from 4.4 million dollars in underground surcharge.

So it went from zero to 4.4.

But they didn't kind of they they they didn't explain it to you.

And so what's now gonna happen?

Um, because you have revenues of about 120 million coming each year, and you already have you know uh about almost 400 million, you're gonna have over five half a bill over 500 million or over five half a billion dollars in cash sitting in this underfund, um, excuse me, in this undergrounding fund balance that you could use.

Um, excuse me, in this undergrounding fund balance um that you could use.

Um let's just say um I would say take money from this fund.

Yeah, of course you would have to replenish it at one point, but take this money from this fund and fully fund the um the mission Bay Lifeguard Station or any or any library that you want.

You have this money setting, and the only reason for not spending it is because you're investing it and then getting um and getting interest um from this half billion dollars in cash.

Thank you.

This does conclude your time.

Thank you for your comment and chair with another hands up.

This concludes testimony for item five.

Thank you, Sarah.

Let's turn it over to the committee uh for any questions or comments and to entertain a motion.

Uh I will start by uh thanking uh you for the presentation.

Uh this is uh sound financial practice, it helps to ensure that city funds are used efficiently and uh put to work quickly.

I appreciate all the work done by the Department of Finance.

I'm happy to make the motion to adopt a staff recommendation.

Vice Chair Lee.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh I will uh I'll go ahead and second the motion.

Um, but I'm I'm gonna make one request um based on an item um that's here in the presentation um that I think is a little bit unique, and so I just um want to put this on the record before it goes to council.

Um one of the fund transfers is specifically from a project that was completed in the convoy district.

Um that was funding that was allocated um over two uh budget cycles, um, prior one prior to myself and one in my first year here, and it was through the council's final budget action in both of those budget years.

Um I know those funds were fought for by the community, especially the um in convoy district in the Carni Mesa area, uh, with a strong desire to try to um see how that could be retained to help support the the community specifically.

Um one of the initiatives actually that had been discussed was the possibility of whether um the uh nascent uh parking district at the time uh might might be able to receive um some of the support from remaining funds.

And so my only request would be if if we could work with staff um heading before the item heads the council um on a discussion as to the allocation of those funds.

Um I know we had made requests previously to the departments um relating to any leftover funds to engage our office and or the community and how to expend them, and I I don't believe we've really had a chance to have that discussion.

And so if we could um discuss that, I understand that right now it's being lined for another project within D6, uh, but not within the Carniesa community.

And um again, we just want to ensure that we meet the intent of of the funds that were allocated initially.

So if that would be okay.

Uh we can try to schedule some further discussions with your office and see what swaps we're able to do.

Understood.

So and and I'll maybe just be clear.

I mean, that that is something that is really important to us, and without it, I don't think I could support this at the full council.

So thank you, Chair.

Okay, thank you, Vice Chair Lee.

Uh, Councilmember Vaughn Wolpert.

Um thank you, Chair, and thank you for uh the presentation.

And you know, we did do increased streamlining a couple years ago to make sure that uh there was mural discretion to make the swaps before having to come to council and the report outs are getting more clear as opposed to being in the appendix of the report.

Thank you for highlighting them.

Um it's very helpful.

And I uh have a couple of questions on certain projects uh with the scripts, Miramar Branch library construction.

Uh it's for the parking lot, and I know that the contractor claimed there were unforeseen conditions related to the slope, but the slope was an open and obvious condition.

The slope was not hidden.

And so is the contractor paying more, or we haven't to pay more because of this.

I think Ancy P is going to be a good one.

Good afternoon, Councilmember Louis Charcist and Directors and Capital Projects Department.

So, in regards to that project, there was uh we ran into some undocumented materials that were unanticipated, which requires additional excavation.

So we're still according with the contractor or negotiating that cost to then be able to move forward um covering that and removing that additional material that was unanticipated.

I all right, I had a different understanding.

I thought they were going to actually claim responsibility that they hadn't done the proper due diligence.

And I didn't realize that we were the ones who have to pay more.

So we did a little bit more investigation after the claim came in as far as the depth of the undocumented material and whether or not had to be removed to what they anticipated was going to be the depth required to put in the wall based on what we received from our geotechnical report, we found that there was some merit, and based on that, we sat down again with the contractor to begin those final negotiations to then be able to move forward.

Based on what we received from our geotechnical report, we found that there was some merit.

And based on that, we sat down again with the contractor to begin those final negotiations to then be able to move forward.

Okay.

Got it.

I can ask more offline, but do we know when this project's going to be finished?

Yes.

So we are currently timing this project with the other improvements that's going on with the library.

We're doing the roof and the HVAC replacement.

So both of these projects will be completed at the same time towards the end of next year.

Okay.

Um please keep our team updated because the planning group has been quite upset about this one.

So thank you.

I'm also wondering about the regional fire training facility.

Since we're going to be destroying the current NTC at some point, is this on our CIP list yet?

So currently the training facility is going through the feasibility study, and then eventually we'll get into the environmental stage of the project.

So that that currently is ongoing.

And as far as the demolition, I can get back to you on that information to see what if we have a schedule anticipated for that.

But that's the current uh phase of that project.

Okay, so it is getting attention.

It's not just sitting.

Yes.

Okay.

Um I I think I got an update on the mission beach life car station recently, but that's still moving forward.

Correct.

Yes.

Okay.

Um and the Ranch Monarch Community Park also moving forward.

Yes, we just issued the notice to proceed, so we're happy to report that this project will be starting construction shortly.

Okay, fantastic.

Uh but you know early next year, maybe construction starting.

Uh well, right now we we issue the notice to proceed, so the contractor is going to be putting in their submittals and assuming that uh they'll move forward and then pleasant weather to start construction.

Yes, I would say end of December, most likely early January.

Early January?

Yes.

Okay.

Um my last question is about a transfer from the dams and reservoirs fund to pipeline projects.

Yes.

Especially since Lake Hodges Dam is in such need, so I'm wondering what why we're taking away money from the dams.

Um this particular project was related to the uh security of the different dams that we have within the city of San Diego.

So this project was moving forward in design still is, um, but at this time uh public utilities department is going to seek a state uh uh uh loan to be able to pay for the actual project itself.

So instead of moving forward with the funding that've been identified, now we're looking for that opportunity to secure those funds and then be able to move forward that uh low interest loan and then uh use that funding that we have available for that project for other needs.

So we anticipate that that project will continue moving forward once that loan is is secured.

Got it.

Okay.

Um thank you.

Please do let us know if the if or when the loan gets secured.

Our residents are very concerned about Lages.

So okay, thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Von Wilpert.

All right, we have a motion on the floor uh that I made it was seconded by Vice Chair Lee.

Seeing no further discussion, uh please call the roll.

Item five passes unanimously 4-0.

Very good.

Um, as we wrap up our agenda today, I will point out that this is the last active transportation and infrastructure committee meeting for 2025.

Uh we've had a number of accomplishments this year that I want to highlight uh this committee with input uh from the public and a lot of work by city staff, advanced measures that reduced speed limits uh using AB 43 and business activity districts.

Uh adopted the city's first mobility master plan, a comprehensive transportation planning effort to create a balanced, equitable and sustainable mobility system for the city.

Awarded the city's uh first uh uh project under the new project labor agreement, adopted progressive design build and construction manager at risk procurement methods for public works projects with the capital improvements program, received updates on the current construction bid environment as recently as today, uh, and many more items.

Uh so really appreciate uh my colleagues, Vice Chair Lee, Councilmember Von Wilpert, and Councilmember Foster for a productive year.

Uh want to thank the mayor's office, uh, the Office of the City Attorney, the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst, the committee staff team that keeps all these movies, uh, these these uh meetings running smoothly, uh, the police department personnel who keep everybody safe here, the facilities team, and of course the city TV team uh that broadcast these meetings, uh all the members of the public who participate and all of the departments that bring items forward for this committee's uh consideration.

It takes a village uh to uh bring things uh successfully to these committees and uh forward them on to uh the full city council, and we appreciate everybody's efforts.

Uh and with that, I will adjourn this meeting of the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to the next regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, January 29th, 2026 at one o'clock in the afternoon.

We are adjourned.