Good morning, everyone.

I will now call the budget and government efficiency committee to order.

A quorum is now present, consisting of myself, uh Councilmember Montgomery and Councilmember Campbell.

Vice Chair Kate is not here today.

We believe his wife is now having their second child.

So he gets an excused absence.

Is there a motion to approve or amend the committee record of actions from the February 5th, 2020 hearing?

Great.

Thank you.

All in favor?

Aye.

Great.

That motion passes unanimously.

We will now proceed with non-agenda public comment.

This portion of the agenda provides an opportunity for members of the public to address the committee on items of interest not on the agenda.

Let's see, we have a number of speakers, and each person will have two minutes.

Do you want to give me all of them?

Yeah, okay.

So uh we'll uh if you all want if you I'll just call three at a time, and if you want to line up over there, that would be great.

Uh first we have Sal Espinoza, second, Christy Dunning, and third, Chuck Dunning.

Good morning.

Hello, my name is uh Sala Spinoza from Communications Workers of America, and I'm here to discuss the budget impacts of the Verizon San Diego Partnership Agreement.

Last April, our mayor signed a public-private partnership with Verizon Wireless, giving the company cheap access to public property and unrealistic timelines to install 1,500 4G LTE small sales in the right-of-way by December 31st, 2021.

The partnership has limited community benefits, does not require equitable build out of the network to lessen the digital divide, and does not address our labor standards to ensure worker and public safety.

CWA has identified several budgetary concerns in the Verizon Partnership.

First, the public does not know does not know what the actual fiscal impacts of the partnership will be because the administration failed to perform a cost study.

Based on public records requests, it is unclear if and when a cost study will be completed.

The agreement gives Verizon lower fees and shorter permit timeline time frames that the standards set by the FCC reducing potential revenue that could have supported additional staff to process permits and required time.

The community benefits promised by Verizon are only provided if certain deport deployment benchmarks are met, which we know those are not close to being met given the current deployment status.

We believe the community benefits of phones and tablets for public safety departments are heavily one-sided because it keeps them locked into Verizon contracts.

Finally, Verizon is only required to report to the city if an accident occurs that is over $50,000, making it difficult for the city to recoup all costs associated with Verizon and its subcontractors and hold the company accountable for injuries to workers in closing.

CWA is disappointed that the partnership appears to negatively impact the San Diego budget.

Thank you.

Have a good day.

Thank you for seeing us this morning.

Hoping that you will agree to finance the wildest choice that Audubon has come up with along with other community groups and science groups as well.

As a person that uses the bay and the oceans regularly as a swimmer, I am really interested in keeping this water clean.

So today is a beautiful rainy day out there after a really rainy day yesterday, and I can't swim.

So we are all connected.

We're not above nature.

What was 40,000 acres of wetlands is down to 40.

So the wildest option allows for growing that number to 75, taking climate change into consideration.

So I urge your support to fund the wildest option.

Thank you.

Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to speak.

The ReWild Coalition is now 40 groups strong.

Represents tens of thousands of constituents throughout San Diego County, with supporters from labor, religious groups, local, regional environmental organizations, public health committees, environmental justice crusaders, childhood education groups, and local businesses that all need a clean mission bay.

The opportunity to consider the wildest plan is a small small step in what will have an impact for the next 100 years.

You, your children, your grandchildren, and your great grandchildren will benefit from a thorough study and the correct amount of information to come to this conclusion.

Thank you.

And please excuse me if I misspoke anybody's name.

Good morning, Council members.

My name is Dan McKernan.

I'm a board member at the Environmental Health Coalition.

Next month we plan to celebrate our 40th anniversary of fighting for environmental and social justice in the San Diego region.

We have recently joined the ReWild Coalition as we recognize the value of supporting their wildest alternative as is consistent with our campaigns and our work.

We have been engaged with the city in the development of the climate action plan since the beginning.

The desire for improved water quality that wetlands offer has been a consistent priority of the bay's surrounding community.

The wildest alternative should be analyzed for the significant carbon sequestration that is offered by wetlands restoration.

If this analysis is completed, we believe the city will be empowered to make an important land use decision that truly combats climate change and achieves goals of the climate action plan.