Good morning.

I will now call the special city council meeting of Monday, September 22nd, 2025 to order.

Clerk, will you please call the rule?

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Councilmember Campbell.

Here.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Von Wilper.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Councilmember Campio.

Councilmember Moreno.

Present.

And Councilmember Elo Rivera.

And Council President Lakava.

Also attending the meeting, our assistant city attorney Leslie Fitzgerald, Deputy Director in the IBA's office, Jillian Andalina, Council of Affairs Advisor in the Mayor's Office, Coda Seizer, and myself, your city clerk, the NF Went this.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Thank you.

A quorum is now present.

We'll begin this morning with a land acknowledgement and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you.

Please rise.

We respectfully acknowledge that the Kumeyay Nation are the original inhabitants of the unceded land now known as San Diego.

Despite enduring the horrors of genocide and colonization, the Kumya spirit remains unbroken.

We honor the resilience of their ancestors who fought to protect their culture and land.

And today they carry their legacy forward, ensuring that their traditions continue to thrive in gratitude and strength.

We stand with the Kumbiai Nation connected to our past and committed to a thriving future.

Please face the flag and put your right hand over your heart, and let's say the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag.

And to the republic where we just stand.

Underground.

Thank you.

I'll highlight the slide on the screen that reviews the public, how the public can offer their public testimony during today's meeting.

Please note that the time allocations for proclamations and consent items for the meeting management purposes is one minute per person, a maximum of three minutes for three items or more.

If you're in person, please complete a speaker slip locate at the entrance of chambers and bring it to the front of the room.

Council ambassadors are available near the entrance of chambers and can assist with questions and speaker slips.

No further in-person testimony will be taken once the council begins virtual testimony.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you.

We'll now dispense with the approval of the proclamation items.

Clerk please proceed with public comment.

The public comment period for the proclamation items is now open.

If each speaker will have one minute per item per person, the proclamation items being approved are items 600 and 601.

I added a couple of numbers to the camera.

Thank you.

And again, if you want that to happen, then you need to provide public transit that's going to be useful for everybody, and it's going to be easy, like they want to do it, where you don't have to incentivize that kind of stuff.

And then for this remote ocean systems, I understand that you know, nuclear defense is something that is, you know, something that's important to, you know, want to pay attention to.

But when you guys are pushing all of this climate stuff, and then you are, you know, promoting something that actually goes and deals with offshore oil and and potentially, you know, watches it remotely or whatever to make sure things don't happen.

It's it's like you're half in and you're half out.

You're in bed with the people that are doing things that you're claiming are so detrimental to the earth and our environment.

And then at the same time, like saying we can't use it and we shouldn't.

So I mean, you can't be half in and half out.

You have to like make a decision because I mean, you guys do it to, you know, potentially like look good, but it's it's very tran evident that what you're doing is like, can you be trusted when you're saying don't do this, but I'm gonna support this.

So I mean, you know, it's just it's confusing for the people.

That does include public comment here in Council Chambers going, those participating remotely, Blair Beekman.

If you can please unmute and let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Hi, uh, Blair Beekman, both items.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.

Um I wanted to speak um, I guess uh first to the uh transit month uh issues.

You know, uh for myself, it it is just nice that public comment to get off my chest years of what has just been welled up inside me, and then I've never been able to say, and now I can be able to say it.

I try to be positive in that.

And um, thanks for Audra's previous public comment.

She tries to really go in depth with things that I lack sometimes.

Um, thank you for her words.

Um, I for myself, transit month for me.

Uh it's important that the SDMTS, they're talking about rate increases, and Sandag is talking about for 2027 and 28, they have to overhaul their whole financial budget package.

So they need help and ideas how to do that, so they don't go through the same thing what San Diego's gone through this year.

Um, in the in that I I before COVID, we were really talking about a future where there doesn't have to be fare increases or fares at all for bus travel for for uh the public.

Um, because of COVID, those kind of ideas and issues got put on hold.

Um I hope we can start to consider those issues again.

It's important, and um to really consider we don't have to be raising fares all the time and taxing everybody in order for social programs to work well.

Um, we're in this really bad pattern of that.

Good luck how we can we're starting to address that before COVID.

Let's hope we can continue.

And with the final item, I just wanted to quickly comment that um glaciers are seriously melting, and um, you know, sea level rise is a serious problem.

We're trying to address that here in San Diego with recent uh city council items.

Good luck in being holistic in that approach to address sea level rise, and that we can at least admit that and from there really address what has been a series of ways to address it.

Um good luck that we we bring everything to the table and just be honest with ourselves about the subject.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is ending in 8700.

If you can please unmute 8700, I can't.

There you go.

Thank you, uh, City Clerk Fuente.

Uh good morning, uh Council President Pro Tem League.

Good to see you uh at the helm.

Uh good morning, everyone.

Uh Joyce and Yatta District 3.

Thank you, Councilmember Whitburn for proclaiming September 2025 transit month.

While I am the thankful person for all forms of transit available to the people of San Diego, I have a love affair with our red colored trolleys daily.

I see and hear them moving over the San Diego downtown landscape, even though I enjoy urban living.

For me, the trolleys add a simple village feeling.

The connections between people and places, a simple ride can create a big thank you to MTS and all of its employees.

Love to all now on the second one, uh remote ocean systems 50th anniversary day.

Wow, this is totally new to me.

Thank you, uh, Councilmember Campillo.

I uh really looked at this through Google, and this is a huge thing, and no wonder it's been around for 50 years.

It's absolutely a stall worth of our uh our nation and uh what we do to keep it all together.

It's just amazing.

I I just couldn't believe what I was reading.

Uh, but I wanted to mention this.

The rare earth um excuse me, the rare earth elements, which are so important to all of our technology, and there's a lot of competition out there for them.

They may be mined at the bottom of the sea.

It's not happening yet, and we don't have the needed vote, but it may happen in the future where they're gonna mine the bottom of the ocean for those elements.

So keep an eye on that.

Have a beautiful day.

We will have a beautiful day, and uh love to all.

Thank you.

That completes public comment on the proclamations.

Thank you.

We'll now take council member questions and comments, uh, starting with Councilmember Woodburn.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Today I'm happy to bring forward a proclamation uh declaring this transit month in the city of San Diego.

I'm pleased to serve on the San Diego Metropolitan Assistant Board of Directors, uh, together with Councilmember Barreno and Councilmember Ila Rivera and Councilmember Foster.

Uh MTS provides trolley and bus and paratransit services at the city of San Diego and nine other cities, as well as a number of unincorporated areas in the East County.

More and more people are using transit in San Diego in fiscal year 2025.

MTS's annual ridership surpassed 80 million passenger trips for the first time since the start of the COVID pandemic.

That is a 7.1% increase over the previous year alone.

And MTS is now at 95% of our pre-pandemic peak that occurred back in 2019.

We have recovered from the pandemic uh at a much faster pace than our peer agencies around the country.

And MTS's customer satisfaction scores have also been rising.

Uh MTS has increased the frequency of service, it's increased the hours of service, uh, and it has improved cleanliness and safety to make our buses and trolleys more welcoming and comfortable.

In fact, MTS was recently one of only two transit agencies nationwide to receive the Department of Homeland Security's highest level of recognition, the gold standard award for all of the work that MTS Security Department has done to maintain a safe and secure transit system.

MTS has also been a partner in helping to provide more housing for our region, uh housing that is close to public transit.

Uh we followed through on that vision with projects like Skyline at Rancho Bernardo, is uh well as a couple of projects in Grantville, Shoreline uh and Union Grantville, uh, and several others around the area.

Those projects help to provide not only the housing that we need so badly, but also reliable and convenient transportation to the employment, educational, and retail hubs that support our regional economy.

So I'd like to thank the hardworking folks from Build SD, uh, Ride SD, and other organizations to advocate uh for sustainable transit in our region.

Uh and most of all, I want to thank the MTS staff uh and CEO Sharon Cooney is with us today here in chambers in recognition of this proclamation.

Thank you, Ms.

Cooty, for your leadership and your dedication to the users of MTS uh and the entire staff uh has a collaborative vision that keeps us moving toward a more sustainable transit-oriented future here in San Diego.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Thank you.

And I believe there was a motion for the proclamation tsunami from Council Member Whitburn.

That would be a good idea.

I'll make that motion.

And uh thank you very much, and we'll move next to Councilmember Ila Rivera.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Um I will start by seconding Council Member Whitburn's motion.

I thank you for bringing this proclamation forward uh to recognize September as transit month.

Thank you, Sharon, for being here.

Um certainly appreciated being able to be on the MTS board, serve alongside uh you, Councilmember Moreno, and Councilmember Foster since joining the council.

I think the data that you you shared, Councilmember Whitburn, uh speaks to the essential role that transit plays in people's lives.

As soon as uh it was safe to use transit again in San Diego.

Um people were back on it and back on it in in very high numbers.

And um to folks earlier points, that just reinforces the necessity the importance of investing in public transportation so that we can have a system that gets people to and from where they need to go in a vast efficient, safe, and cost effective way.

Um and also provides uh folks with options.

Um to me, uh transit is not just a transportation issue, it's an economic justice issue, and obviously a huge environmental issue as well.

Uh so I'm glad we're recognizing this month and uh again very proud to be uh on the MTS board.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Thank you.

Uh we'll move next to Councilmember Moreno.

Thank you, and congratulations again um to MTS on the transit month.

Uh, and thank you for all the work, Sharon and all everybody on MTS, all the staff.

Uh we certainly have been pushing uh staff very hard uh the past several years, and I appreciate your um ability to um what is the word that I'm looking for?

Seize the moment.

Um and I would be remiss if I did not mention that October 1st is uh ride free month, ride free day.

Uh so make sure you're able to uh jump on any of the trolleys, MTS trolleys, or any of the buses for free, um, and um check out your commute.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh we do have a motion by Councilmember Whitburn, a second by Councilmember Ila Rivera.

Um I'll simply add that I appreciate the proclamation for uh transit month.

Um being in District 6, we have the opportunity to uh have seen the significant impact that the blue line uh and the Mid Coast um troll extension has had within the community, and that contrary to a lot of folks who might assume that it is primarily just a corridor for um travel to and from uh UCSD.

Um I can tell you that even in Mira Mesa, uh where I've talked to a number of residents where we have limited options for transit, the extension of the blue and blue line has been a lifesaver for a lot of folks who otherwise have taken um hour-long routes uh to get where they needed um and now have the opportunity to simply get over to EGC and take the trolley down that way.

So um thank you again, Councilmore Woodroom for bringing that forward.

Um Clerk, see no other speakers, will you please call the roll?

I'm sorry, the voting system, please cast your vote.

That does pass unanimously, seven to zero with council member Campillo and Council President Um Lakava absent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now proceed with the approval of the consent items.

Are there any requests to pull items by the council members?

Uh seeing none, clerk, will you please proceed with public comment?

Thank you.

Please not each speaker will have one minute per item per person.

If you would like to speak on three or more items, you will have a maximum of three minutes.

The consent agenda includes items 602 through 612 and 614.

Also, let me note for the record that the potential appointments and reappointments that are on the agenda this morning.

Item 609 is the potential reappointments of Austin Evans, Jenna Hanson, and Sunny Lee, as well as Sarah Mattense, Natasha Salgado, and Juliet Daramine to the small business advisory board.

Item 610 is a potential appointment of Heidi Neff to the International Affairs Board, and item 611 is the potential appointment of Chris Ryle to the Board of Library Commissioners.

We did not receive any e-comments for these items.

And if I can have allegedly Audra, please come up.

She'll be speaking on items 607, 608, 612, and 614.

You'll have three.

All right, so anything you guys are talking about streamlining stuff.

I mean, I know you do things at a snail's pace, but when you talk about streamlining, it's a little bit um frightening to think about because then that's where you know a lot of problems can come in and uh issues that get brushed over.

Um for this ordinance for um this radio system infrastructure, network equipment, and different things with Motorola.

Um there was a recent 5G tower that caught on fire, and it's interesting that we um don't really look at the radio frequencies that come off of these um uh this type of infrastructure.

And you know, you can go back into the you know early days of when radios became something that was being used all over the place, and the radio frequencies were making people sick, but it's a good way for people to say that it's something like COVID because it has the same type of symptoms, and so it's just really you know, people need to know the truth.

So then you're also doing this pipeline installation and maintenance agreement.

And when you guys have already shown that you know you can't even keep up with infrastructure, therefore, people you know suffer the consequences of it, you know.

Now this is gonna be in the um by the the Navy.

So hopefully, you know, they're the ones that are gonna be taking care of it, and you guys have nothing to do with it, so that people don't lose everything because the infrastructure isn't kept up with.

There's no point in spending money on stuff like that.

Um, and then the 390,000 for the police collision.

Um, you know, again, we need to be mindful because it's like when people do things, we don't have the protections of like the police department who, you know, we're paying because this officer hit someone.

So it's like that should be upon the officer, not the people to pay for it.

Um, and then with the declaration of the um continued state of an emergency with Tijuana.

This is just so sad that people have to suffer for 30 years that we're collecting data, and it's like Mexico, they don't want to turn on their system because it floods out into the streets.

Yet they're talking about doing pure water, which is even more crazy because you guys are spending you've already spent over a billion dollars on that.

Where are they gonna get the money to do it?

Or is are California gonna help them do it?

And that's what's so crazy.

It's just the things that you guys spend our money on is um pretty nuts.

And then this appointment with the um on the police practices.

There was one of the gentlemen that you guys selected that actually has worked for the city for a long time, and that's a little bit um concerning th knowing that what takes place in the city and how things could be omitted or you know, whatever, knowing how um things work and with the mayor being the boss of the police, I just feel like he doesn't necessarily do um what he could be doing to make sure that you know police practices and things that happen in the police department are are good and that they're actually you know doing stuff that's beneficial to the people and not harmful.

Um but when you're in bed, whatever.

Dennis Lasai, Lisa.

You'll have one minute.

You're speaking on item 603.

Yes, good morning, City Council Dennis LaSalle, company of LaSalle Solutions, a member of ACC San Diego and APWA, American Publix Works.

We're here to support the amendments to the City Council uh charter, the municipal code to support the progressive design bill alternative method for the ECP so they can uh use it for big projects.

I can tell you that Metropolitan Water District is also using this type of uh delivery method, and they're going forward with a pure water program.

So, what I would strongly suggest city council start moving forward with a phase two.

You do not want to be behind metropolitan when you start bidding out on projects because you won't get competitive bids.

So you have to be ahead of, as always, ahead of Los Angeles.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I'll start with the five-minute time we're hearing council chambers going to those participating remotely.

We have Blair Beekman.

If you can please let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

Item 602, 609, 610, uh, 612.

Hello?

Yes.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Uh, yeah, hi, Blair Beekman.

Um, to speak to item 602, uh, our first approval of council minutes.

You approved uh all the council minutes for uh July or most of them.

Boy, just to try to help remind uh sorry to be overbearing about it, but you know, July was a real tough time to talk about our trash issues, and um people are pretty upset about them still.

Good luck in putting off uh finalizing any trash things now and that we can wait a month or two, everything doesn't have to be done by the beginning of October.

Kind of the same with parking issues, it can be okay to put things off a little bit.

And with that, I'm really hoping the public can channel their anger towards you know the the RFIDs for the trash and and for the parking meter issues, you know, to channel that anger.

How can we get lower parking rates?

How can we have better open public policies for both the tech in the trash, the RFID, and the tech in the parking meters?

Can we have a focused anger to really address those things?

It can it can work well.

Compromise is being asked for and worked on by council really well.

I hope uh the public wants to do the same.

Thank you.

With that said, um items uh 60 um 604 or 609 and 610 are uh appointments to commission things, and um small business uh that's that's parking issues.

I hope small businesses really want to gather together and feel comfortable, they can openly talk about their parking concerns and meter issues and tech involved and how tech accountability can work in their favor and not doesn't have to work against them.

Uh International Affairs Board is related to um the uh for me the the sentiment issues of Tijuana, Mexico.

Um Audra just possibly very nicely reported that is Mexico starting to work on pure water issues themselves.

I don't know if that's happening.

Um they were previously working on desalinization issues for their uh Tijuana River future.

If they're starting to address pure water, I think that's actually kind of interesting and hopeful and helpful.

Good luck that we just have open dialogue and we make that dialogue clear, so we're not just continuously backbiting each other and and just harping when we don't know what's going on, because we make it a point to not know what's going on with Tijuana when we should.

So good luck how that could be an open conversation for all of us.

Uh I think we can get some really good results.

I'm really hopeful and in good results with Mexico and Tijuana at this time.

To conclude, um uh about the uh future uh uh members, ad hoc uh alternate members for the commission.

Again, uh just the importance of I really hope police uh and and commissions can get together and how to share information and learn the dialogue and and trusting relationships to do that.

I know the privacy advisory commission is doing their best to offer good practices and they're doing okay.

So good luck to uh police commission review persons as well.

Thank you.

Our final speaker, 8700.

If you can please unmute and let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Thank you, City Clerk Fuentes.

Uh Joy Sonyata District 3, 04, 12, and 14, please.

Please proceed.

Yes to the ordinance approving First Amendment to contract with Motorola solutions for radio system infrastructure network equipment and support services.

Contract expires 82638, 13 years of public safety.

That's public safety, radio services.

Thank you, IT, and thank you, County of San Diego.

Now, uh, from me here on the uh amend increase expend chart.

There's just a portion of it that's not clear to me.

And it's at the end there with year 38 and the TBD.

So need clarity on that.

And on the EOC workforce, there's only 30 admin employees of county employees.

Yet there is some underrepresentation.

Thank you so much for looking at that.

Uh number 12, state of emergency raw sewage, solid waste, and sediment coming from Tijuana, Mexico, Tijuana and San Diego, Mexico and USA sharing a border interdependent.

Now, this is from Google.

Insufficient and fraught with challenges.

Yet 2025 shows a significant shift towards stronger, more committed collaboration and cooperation.

Isn't that a wonderful paragraph?

And for me, I say this is this the beginning of one people, one Kali Baja.

Love to all people, love to all people.

And then lastly, on 14 uh appointment alternative members of the ad hoc committee to recruit uh executive director to the commission on police practices.

I value and appreciate the designation of Council President Lacava and Councilmember Foster the Third as labor negotiators.

What a partnership.

I value and appreciate the entire CPP process from the very beginning.

And as said in the staff report, determined that the committee will remain in place to complete its work.

Yes, all the way to the winning moment and more than that.

Chief Wall, thank you for your focus and priority on trust.

And that is the bridge that is needed for CPP and SDPD partnership.

So love to all and thank you so much for listening.

Thank you.

That concludes public comment on proclamations today.

Thank you.

We will take council member questions and comments, uh, starting with Council Member Von Wilbert.

I said proclamations, my apologies.

I meant consent.

Thank you very much.

Um I'm happy to make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Oh, wait.

We already did the proclamations.

Yes, sorry, now we're all very confused.

Um I have item uh 611.

I have a few points to make for the appointment of Chris Ryle to the Board of Library Commissioners.

It's my pleasure to nominate Chris Ryle for appointment to the City of San Diego's Board of Library Commissioners.

Uh, Mr.

Ryle is the co-founder and publisher of publishing images comics imprint and a former chief executive officer at IDW Publishing.

He has over 20 years of experience in the publishing world, contributing to both creative development and industry growth here in San Diego.

Um, in addition, he is the writer and co-creator of several renowned graphic novels, including Zombies versus Robots, Onyx, and the Hallows, making significant contributions to the modern literature and comic storytelling, which is a very, very vast tradition here in San Diego given that we gave rise to the Comic Con.

He has successfully adapted works by literary giants like Clive Barker, Stephen King, and Richard Matheson into graphic novels.

He's also served as a guest instructor at UCSD's Clarion Writers Workshop and is an ongoing consultant for exhibits at the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park.

He's also an executive producer on Netflix's lock and key, and therefore Chris has proven that he has a track record of working across media to enhance the uh the reach of creative projects, connecting literature to visual storytelling in impactful ways.

He's also an passionate advocate for expanding library services, and Chris believes the importance of offering diverse forms of media, including graphic novels and digital content to younger generations to foster lifelong learning.

With over 20 years in San Diego's creative and publishing community, Chris Fayelle is deeply connected to the city, making him uniquely suited to contribute to the growth of our library, and I'm honored to appoint him or nominate him for appointment to the Board of Library Commissioners.

And with that, I move the uh consent agenda.

Thank you.

We have a motion by Councilmember Von Wilbert.

We'll move next to Councilmember Ila Rivera.

All right.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

I'll start by seconding Councilmember Von Wilpert's motion.

And uh there's actually lots of good stuff here on the consent agenda today.

Um I want to start by um expressing my appreciation to um ATI committee for bringing forward uh I think which is actually a very important change in policy uh related to uh Progressive Design Build and Construction Manager at Risk procurement methods.

I think that um we've actually really missed out by not having those tools in the city's tool belt.

Um so uh excited to see that change.

I I do think that that's going to help keep costs down uh in improve the speed with which projects are delivered and not just keep costs down, but actually be more transparent about what the actual costs will be.

Um I think for a long time the council and the public um were led to believe that costs were were going to be lower than they they than they actually were going to be as a result of the the procurement methods that we're using.

So I think this is actually super important, as was mentioned in public comment, uh getting this change done before the next phase of Pure Water is incredibly important.

Um so glad to see that and want to say thank you again to the ATI committee uh for the work to bring that uh and staff uh to bring that to uh to us for approval today.

Um a very quick thank you to Parks and Rec and the and San Diego Unified uh for working together to bring uh a joint use agreement to uh City Heights and the Castle neighborhood, uh joiner elementary um the the field there is gonna provide really really important open space for a community that very much needs that open space.

Uh it's a really dense community, and we've got some some pocket parks, um, but nothing like the the open space that they'll get a joiner.

And then um last but certainly not least, uh saying thank you to the folks who are stepping up to serve on the various boards and commissions.

Um, thank you for uh continuing to serve the the city.

I know you have a very, very uh long history of work in the international affairs space.

Um thank you for the work that you've done outside of the city and for willing to being willing to contribute your skills and experience uh here with us as well.

Uh I want to say thank you to uh Ms.

Solgado for stepping up on the small business advisors board and continuing to serve there.

And then um Mr.

Flores and Harvey for their willingness to participate as alternate members of the ad hoc committee.

Uh just uh I I don't usually make a point of saying this sort of thing, but the person who was referenced as having worked for the city has demonstrated a remarkable willingness to speak up and um hold the city accountable in a variety of ways, um which is exactly why he's an important member of the Commission on Police Practices.

Um career with the city um does not necessarily equate in any way whatsoever to an unwillingness to speak up and tell the city it needs to do better.

And uh the appointee listed here is certainly an example of that.

Um so thank you again, everyone who's stepping up to serve.

Um thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Thank you.

Seeing no other speakers, we do have a motion by Councilmember Von Wolpert, a second by Councilmember Ilo Rivera, and we'll turn next to Councilmember Foster.

Thank you.

Um Pro Tem Um Just uh first and foremost.

Um I just really would like to congratulate um all of the um boards and commissions of appointees for volunteering your time to serve.

Um we we understand what it takes, the uh I guess sacrifices that you make, um, especially folks who who sit on the um small business advisory board as you're running your own business and taking the time to come out and uh assist the city and uh the decisions we make um to make sure that we are um taking into account the needs uh of our small businesses.

So thank you for that.

Um also um would like to thank the council president um and his team for quickly docketing um item 614, um the alternate members to the ad hoc committee for recruitment of the executive director um to the commission on police practices.

Um just congratulations to Mr.

Flores and Mr.

Harvey on being appointed for this role.

Um, as we all know, um this is a very important role that we need to fill so we can make sure that the commission is continuing to move forward and doing the good work that it's doing.

So just want to really thank um those two, um especially Mr.

Harvey for all the work that he does.

Um and as my colleague said, having someone that um with lived experience, what he brings to the table in that willingness to have honest um conversations, which are sometimes uncomfortable, I think is um of much uh needed value.

Um also um Dennis, always good to see you continuing to work.

We met some time ago.

Um you were very instrumental in the small local business enterprise program.

Um and thank you for um continue efforts um with our engineering and capital projects um folks in um making sure we're making improvements and staying current with the times and changing as uh technology changes, as delivery methods change, and making sure that we are staying competitive.

So thank you so much.

Um and with that, I will be supporting um the consent agenda.

Thank you.

So we do have a motion by Councilmember Von Wolpert, a second by Councilmember Ila Rivera.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Sorry, the voting system, please cast your vote.

And that does pass unanimously.

Seven to zero with council member campio and council member Lacava absent.

Uh we will now take up non-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 hearings.

Um Clerk, will you please proceed with any public comment?

Thank you, allegedly, Audra.

If you can please come forward.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

All right.

Well, Marxism is in full flux in San Diego.

How cool is that?

But the good news is I was at the Charlie Kirk Memorial Um in Arizona.

It was beautiful to see because a revival is upon us, and you know, people are turning away from this world and are heading heaven-bound because Christ is king, so it's awesome.

Um, and I hope that more people do that.

In fact, I hope you guys have a change of heart and understand that you are loved by our creator and that he would love for you to turn to him and you know, change your life.

But that's a choice that you make.

Anywho, so the socialist programs that you guys offer are interesting because it's sad that people trust a government that is actually not out for you know, to make sure that their lives are good.

It's about total control.

It happens incrementally, and people have Stockholm syndrome.

And it's really sad because they think that these socialist programs, which are gonna lead to communism, are good.

That, you know, having being dependent upon the government is good.

You you encourage dependency.

You don't encourage being independent and like, hey, we want you guys to not use these programs.

We want you to thrive in life.

You know, instead, it's like if people like billionaires make money, we're gonna condemn them for you know having money, and then you're gonna make it so that society condemns them too, acting like we should all have the same.

But there's a lot of people that don't even want to work.

A lot of people just want to have those programs and want to be able to, you know, just kind of live off of that.

It's a generational thing that happens with people.

And it's sad because people are used in the process of that.

Just like all of these abortion clinics.

Why do they put them in black neighborhoods?

It's messed up.

It is, because there's targeting certain people.

And it's just sad that people don't see it and turn away and call you guys out for what it is.

But Sean, I got my pen for you.

Socialism sucks.

Do you want it?

Your time has concluded.

Going to those participating remotely.

We currently have four individuals with their hands raised.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

You'll have two minutes.

Please proceed.

Hi, uh, Flair Beekman.

Uh thanks for the morning meeting.

Yeah, to quickly offer um, I hope we can channel our uh energy and anger and righteousness towards um, you know, the creature of garbage, I mean, and uh parking issues to to lower parking rates.

We can continue to lower parking rates and not be set in what they are now.

Uh good luck that we want to be doing those sort of things.

There's different ways to be working and not just losing one battle is not losing everything.

Uh thank you to the words of Audra today.

Um I I always like to hear her words.

Uh I'm in disagreement, however, that I truly believe that socialism is uh a very definite way to better define our collective future and and care that we have for each other and that our health and safety are in spec that way and taken care of and and respected.

And we we practice democracy within those terms, and I think it can be accomplished.

Good luck how we balance that out, work that out together.

Um I wanted to comment um uh in the overall broad view of how national issues can relate to our local issues.

Um to me, the Charlie Kirk uh things have happened.

Audra herself has offered some interesting comments that you know uh Charlie Kirk was starting to question uh Israel actions at this time and how we could have taken a much different approach.

Israel could have taken a much different approach in how to address what's going on in that area at this time.

And um, you know, it is it quite possible that the way assassins work uh in this country, assassinations of high political figures, is that they set up a dummy like Lee Harvey Oswald, like other people, and then uh as the dummy gets gets blamed for the issue, there's an actual real assassin who goes scot-free.

And that clearly could have been the case with this instance.

It was one shot to the net.

So it was a very good uh tart shot that was made.

And um, we have to question that.

And I think we have to question if there's an Israeli right-wing lobby involved with this assassination.

For Trump to go off, uh question it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is 8700, if you can please unmute.

Thank you, uh, City Clerk Puentes.

Uh, Joyce and the other district three.

I'm on part three of the grand jury report on the uh the gas lamp uh situation.

Uh and and I I like the title, uh Gas Lamp Needs Help.

So how can I help?

Well, I want to start with first of all uh recouping a little bit about what I said.

I was stunned by the grand jury report.

Thank you, IBA.

Uh number two, I we all look at the world at our community, at our nation from a lens of a perspective which is uniquely ours, and it's beautiful.

Uh, but that's the challenge to bring it all together into compromise.

So now my experience of a gas lamp is that I love it.

I'm still healing, as I said, from the loss of the promenade.

But still, I've been walking it since 2004, and I love the gas lamp.

And so looking at cost-benefit analysis, thank you so much, Councilmember Foster the Third.

How do we honor the pie for what the grand jury says if the vacancy and the budget situation stops our wonderful police department from doing the things that the grand jury is recommending strongly?

What do we do?

How do we take money from other things and put it into public health and public safety, which is our number one priority?

I don't know.

This is the big question.

How do we analyze all of that?

We must do that.

We must begin to do the difficult work of cutting the pie in different slices.

And everybody has to get on board and accept the city.

Your time has concluded.

My apologies.

Your time has concluded.

Kathleen Lippitt, if you can please unmute.

Then after that, we have 1384.

Kathleen Lippett.

Thank you.

I have followed sound methodological and non-economically biased, honest researchers for decades.

One of the best ways to authenticate good research is to look at how accurately it put it is predicted.

Their predictive value.

Since 2011, I think it was 14 years in advance.

And yes, there are other factors that are probably at play, but it is very disturbing that they might decide to just throw Tylenol under the bus.

Not that Tylenol isn't dangerous because the harms that it causes to the liver, similar to alcohol, uh have been documented for decades as well.

So it probably is a multifactorial spectrum of things that are causing it.

Not the least of which is probably the early and heavy vaccine schedule the U.S.

has been using.

But at the pre at present, both Big Pharma and Big Marijuana are likely breathing, hopefully only a temporary sigh of relief.

Because if pregnant women are directed to abstain from alcohol from Tylenol, that's not going to be much of a profit loss for them.

As a diagnosis, there is a lot more to consider.

And I think it's really wise to look at what are the economic interests that are coming into play.

And it's important to look at all the predicted, the things that were predicted with legalizing marijuana.

They have all been documented and but they continue to be ignored as their power of that industry and the campaign contributions they've made has have increased.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you.

And our final speaker is ending in 1384.

If you can please unmute five minute timer did conclude here in Council Chambers.

Please proceed.

Hello, Ernie Castle, senior resident pilot at Torrey Pine Spider Court.

I'm here to stop the commercialization of Tory Pine Splad Report by an out of control.

Snacks up flight director.

The leaseholder is using his pillar of authority to rob the public, pocketing the money into private accounts, turning our freedom into a privilege to our license and fee is completely illegal under any terms.

The $10 a day or $200 access pass and waiver in question needs to end $400 annual pass to use the glider port by trend of violence or else it's completely unacceptable under any terms.

This is public extortion by City Lee folder and misappropriation of public funding.

Tell me, Joe Lacava, where has all the money gone?

San Diego Recreational Waiver does just that, ends the dispute by separating the business from normal public access.

It is a compromise where pilots will be paying $200 annually for a rating card in assurance that it or equivalent, which will keep the park and school open to all users without discrimination.

This other buy pilots with insurance and flight rules that exceed FAA legal requirements.

Any other administrative fees, such as an access waiver and pass in question to use a free public park is illegal to collect hang lighting and paraglid, both are free sports like surfing, boating, and scuba diving already covered by California reparational laws.

These collected were for site improvement, never intended to be an illegal pass and waiver into private accounts.

This is misappropriation of public funding.

All funds collected, every penny needs to be accounted for.

Thank you, and thank you to the public for their comments.

We will now adjourn for the noon recess and we convene open session at two o'clock PM or shortly thereafter.

Thank you.

This service gives homeowners valuable information to make their homes more insurable and defensible against wildfires.

We are asking every San Diegan to take simple yet critical steps to be prepared.

This includes clearing brush and debris on your property.

Develop an emergency plan for your family, including what to do if you are asked to evacuate, and downloading the Genesis Protect app and registering for the Alert San Diego Text Alert Program to make sure that you stay informed in the event of a emergency.

And lastly, right behind me is our Com One unit.

Another key addition to our response capability.

Okay, so here's the website, and I just need to type in my code, and I can even look up my address just in case.gov to create your account and select your bins.

And if you need assistance, please contact us at Trash at San Diego.gov or eight five eight six nine four seven thousand.

Good afternoon.

I will now reconvene the special city council meeting of Monday, September twenty-second, twenty twenty-five.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Campbell.

Here.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Von Wolper.

Councilmember Campillo.

Councilmember Moreno.

Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Present.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

And Council President Lacado.

Also attending the G the meeting are Assistant City Attorney Leslie Fitzgerald, Fiscal and Policy Analyst in the IBA's office, Noah Fleischman, Council of Affairs Advisor and the Mayor's Office, Coda Zizer, and myself your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Thank you.

A quorum is now present.

We'll start with Mayor, Council, City Attorney, Independent Budget Analyst or City Clerk comments.

I do know that Councilmember Campbell has a few comments she'd like to make.

Unless we want to Okay, we'll start with uh Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you.

Today there was a lockdown at Claremont High School in my district because of a potential shooting threat that was made toward the school.

No doubt this has caused fear and stress among students, parents, and faculty, and a lockdown at the school.

I want to thank SDPD school officials and the first responders involved for keeping our students and staff safe.

Gun threats in our schools happen far too often in America, and it is totally unacceptable.

Incidents like this are a painful reminder of the ongoing gun violence crisis facing our country.

When Senator Diane Feinstein had a federal assaults weapons ban that passed through Congress and was in place from 1994 to 2004, mass shootings were less than a handful per year.

Since Congress has allowed this bill to sunset, gun violence has grown exponentially to several mass shootings per week in America in our schools, our neighborhoods, our public places that have borne the consequences of this lack of vigilance over weapons.

No child should ever have to fear for their safety in school.

No parents should ever have to worry about receiving a call about a shooting threat in a school lockdown at their child's school.

Data shows that gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the United States since 2020.

This is wrong.

We must continue to step up and do everything we can as leaders to curb this terrible epidemic.

Our children deserve classrooms filled with learning and opportunity, not fear.

My office remains in communication with our officers at Northern Division, and we will keep our residents updated.

They are currently finishing going through the process to make sure there's no harmful anything going on at the school.

And uh they are responding very well to this incident since this morning.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

Um, next we have Councilmember von Wolper.

Um thank you, Councilmember Campbell, for highlighting what is going on in our country since Congress has allowed the assault weapons ban to lapse.

And thank you to our SDPD and our city attorney's office and for working so hard in our district attorney's office to keep guns out of our schools.

Um I'm hopeful that will resolve very quickly.

Um a different note, I also wanted to announce that uh tonight we're going to be handling the very first flights into the new Terminal One here in San Diego.

I sit on the airport authority for the city of San Diego.

I was in the infrastructure chair overseeing this $3.8 billion project for a few years now, and very excited it's opening on time tonight.

And at tomorrow morning, all Terminal One travelers will be going through the new Terminal One.

This is a huge success story for San Diego.

It was built with a strong project labor agreement that kept the project on time and on budget, and it's going to be absolutely wonderful.

Then the airport will be commencing construction on the rest of Terminal One.

It's going to be taking down existing Terminal One into the ground.

We thank the existing terminal for its service and uh building up the rest of the new terminal.

So very exciting news for the city of San Diego.

This is a huge project, will bring a huge boon to our economy and make our travelers a lot happier.

So uh congratulations to the airport.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Councilmember Von Wolper for your leadership there, and uh, Councilmember Campbell for um your remarks.

Um certainly it's not unique uh in any neighborhood, even just at the end of last week.

Uh Mayor Mesa High School had an incident with a student who was uh detained with a loaded handgun on campus, and so um thank you to all both SDPD but also Santa Unified School District's uh police department as well for all they're doing to address these incidents.

Um seeing no other comment, we'll go ahead and move uh to our agenda.

Clerk, will you please introduce item 613?

Thank you, Council President.

Item 613 is an informational item, informational item regarding the fiscal year 2025 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report, the CAPER for the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD programs.

If you are here in Council Chambers and wish to speak to this item, please be sure to submit a speaker slip to the front of the room in the clear box.

If you are participating remotely, please be sure to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Thank you, as staff get situated.

If you'll please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you'll need.

Good afternoon, Honorable Council President Pro Tem Lee and members of the Council.

My name is Melissa Villalpando, and I'm a community development coordinator with the Economic Development Department.

Nadine Hassoun and Ashley Gain, both community development specialists are with me today, and it is our pleasure to provide with you provide you with a brief overview of the draft fiscal year 2025 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report, and we respectfully request 15 minutes for the presentation.

Thank you.

The U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD, requires local jurisdictions to prepare the CAPER to continue to receive entitlement grant funds.

The CAPER is a year-end report discussing the expenditures and outcomes of the fiscal year.

It shows HUD how the city is doing what it said it would do.

The CAPER summarizes activities implemented with three federal entitlement grant programs, community development block grants, also known as CDBG, home investment partnerships, also known as home, and emergency solutions grants, also known as ESG.

The report covers the July 1st, 2024 through June 30th, 2025 timeframe, which is year one of the current five-year consolidated plan cycle.

Our presentation today will highlight the FY25 expenditures, accomplishments, and progress made on the goals outlined in the city's five-year consolidated plan.

This slide lists the five-year consolidated plan goals.

These goals help the guide the investment of HUD entitlement grant funds with a focus on affordable housing, homelessness services and shelters, small businesses, public and nonprofit facility improvements, and community services.

The city continued its partnership with the San Diego Housing Commission in the County of San Diego to implement certain HUD program activities.

The Housing Commission administered the ESG and home programs on behalf of the city.

And the county has been designated as the city's alternative HAPWA grantee.

HOPWA is the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program.

As a result of this alternative grantee designation, HAPWA activities will be reported by the county and its CAPER and will not appear in the city's CAPER or this presentation.

During the fiscal year, the city partnered with over 60 nonprofit organizations to support 125 unique projects.

The city invested over 39 million in federal HUD programs funds to support these unique projects and completed the 59 projects discussed in aggregate in the CAPER.

Outcomes include serving over 33,000 people, 76 households, 353 businesses, and improving seven nonprofit facilities in one public facility.

When we report people served, we count individuals benefiting from direct services offered by our nonprofit partners.

These are unduplicated clients, meaning the clients are counted only once during the course of a contract term.

For example, a meal delivery program would count a person served when the first meal is delivered.

That person could receive hundreds of meals throughout the course of a 12-month program, but they would be counted only once.

We also count people served by certain facilities, such as parks or community centers with defined service areas.

I'll now spend a few minutes highlighting the fiscal year 25 achievements for each of the consolidated plan goals.

To begin, the consolidated plan includes the goal of investing in affordable housing options that reflect community needs.

The affordable housing goal is funded with CDBG and home funds.

An FY25, 15 households benefited from the construction of new affordable rental housing.

This slide shows an example of an affordable housing project.

The developer national core received $2 million in home funds to construct 15 home units in a 74 apartment community, Nestor Senior Village, for low-income households serving households at 25 to 30% of the area medium income in Council District 8.

This slide lists the five-year goals, FY25 outcomes and progress to date for the affordable housing activities.

I'll pause just a moment so you can take in this information.

This slide lists the five-year goals, FY25 outcomes and progress to date for the affordable housing activities.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Another goal of the consolidated plan is to develop and strengthen small businesses and local entrepreneurs.

Using CDBG funds, economic development projects supported 353 small businesses and 635 low and moderate income entrepreneurs.

This support includes microenterprise technical assistance offering general business support, business plan development, and marketing assistance to launch or expand businesses with five or fewer employees.

The Corin organization, for example, provided City of San Diego residents with business counseling to establish or expand their business.

The Corin organization offered business counseling sessions to 48 CDBG clients.

And during the project year, the Corinne organization supported one existing business expansion and two small, two new small business owners to start their business in the city of San Diego.

One of those businesses is the AYA Mini Market pictured on this slide.

The other microenterprises include programs include, or two others include the Somali Family Service of San Diego Microenterprise Program on the left, which created economic opportunity by providing technical assistance and training workshops to eligible LMI East African refugees and immigrants in City Heights to establish or expand microenterprise businesses in the city of San Diego.

On the right, Logan Heights CDC Supporting Emergency Entrepreneurs Project supported 10 microenterprises and empowered 10 individuals with technical assistance and resources to build sustainable businesses.

This slide lists the goals, outcomes, and progress to date for small businesses and local entrepreneurs.

I will now pass it over to Nadine, who will go over the remaining goals and additional information.

Thank you.

Thank you, Melissa.

Another key goal of the consolidated plan is to develop vibrant neighborhoods by investing in critical infrastructure and supporting both public and nonprofit facilities.

One example of this is the Santa Cedra Health Center Solar Energy Project.

With support from CDBG funds, the project installed a state-of-the-art solar power and energy storage system.

The goal is to enable the San Isidro Health Center and the Maternal Child Health Center Clinics to operate independently from the utility utility grid in the event of an emergency.

This investment ensures that San Isidro Health patients have uninterrupted access to critical medical services, especially during emergencies or natural disasters.

This slide shows outcomes, goals, and progress made so far for our public facilities and infrastructure activities.

Infrastructure projects have longer timelines, typically 24 months or more from start to completion.

As a result, outcomes for projects funded in fiscal year 2025 may not be reported until fiscal year 2026 or later.

We currently have 16 projects in the pipeline pipeline representing continued investment in community infrastructure.

The city's HUD funded homelessness programs are administered in partnership with the city's homelessness strategies and solutions department and the San Diego Housing Commission.

These efforts directly support goal four.

In FY25, CDBG and ESG funds totaling approximately 2.1 million dollars were invested in a range of programs positively impacting more than 7,600 individuals experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless.

Specifically, overnight shelter operations served over 1,000 people, and rapid rehousing activities supported 37 households.

The image on the slide features the family shelter program operated by Alpha Project.

This program provides emergency housing and supportive services to families with children, helping them transition to longer term or permanent housing.

It follows a housing first model, which prioritizes safe, stable housing as a first step before addressing other challenges.

The goals, outcomes, and progress to date for the activities related to improving housing stability are listed on this slide.

The final goal of the consolidated plan focuses on public services or community services.

Projects funded in this category promote equity by provide by improving or expanding access to community programming.

In fiscal year 25, 24 public service projects were completed, benefiting more than 9,800 individuals.

Services delivered through these projects include behavioral health support, meal delivery and food distribution, hosted senior lunches, language assistance, and educational advocacy for children in the juvenile dependency system.

On the left-hand side of the slide is a photo from Bayside Community Services faces of food security project.

Bayside's senior programs and services project provides weekly food distributions to food insecure families, case management, daily lunches for seniors, and monthly food deliveries to homebound homebound seniors in Linda Vista and surrounding neighborhoods.

On the right, you'll see an image from Mama's Kitchen, which operates a home-delivered meal service for low-income San Diego San Diegans facing serious illnesses such as cancer or HIV.

This program ensures that clients and their dependents receive the nutritional support that they need during extremely vulnerable times.

A final example of a community service project is the Reality Changers Expanding College Readiness Programming, which aims to increase college readiness by providing college and career focused academic and leadership support for low-to-moder income students in San Diego.

The goals, outcomes, and progress to date for community service activities are listed listed on this slide.

The economic development department engaged in a number of administrative efforts in fiscal year 2025 to ensure the delivery of quality programs.

These efforts included conducting over 1,600 programmatic and fiscal desk audits as well as construction site visits and remote monitoring.

Also, to increase the capacity of nonprofit organizations, staff held 65 technical assistance meetings with nonprofit organizations to better position of those organizations to receive grant awards and deliver valuable services.

And finally, the city in partnership with the Legal Aid Society made strides to affirmatively further fair housing by operating a fair housing hotline, investigating fair housing complaints, and conducting workshops and training sessions for home buyers, tenants, property managers, landlords, and nonprofit agencies.

I'd also like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the commitment and energy of the consolidated plan advisory board members.

The city achieves its goals with the assistance of its dedicated partners, and we thank the board members and each of our partner organizations for helping to address the most urgent needs in San Diego communities.

This also includes a special thanks to the 14-person HUD grants program team and the economic development department and our fiscal operations colleagues.

The draft keeper was released for a 15-day public comment that began on September 3rd and ended on September 18th.

The CAPER was presented to the ED and IR committee on September 3rd and to the Consolidated Plan Advisory Board on September 10th.

These were additional opportunities to receive public comments on the document.

All public comments received during today's meeting and at the committee and CPAP meetings will be incorporated into the final draft of the keeper before it is submitted to HUD on or before September 28th.

Staff responses to all public comments will also be published at that time.

Once the caper is finalized, supplemental materials such as infographics and project profiles will be provided online at the CDBG webpage.

This concludes our informational presentation on the draft keeper.

Representatives from the housing commission and the economic development department are available to respond to any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Click, do we have any public comment?

Yes, allegedly, Andrew if you can please come forward.

And then after that, we'll be Carla Camacho.

First of all, anything to do with juvenile dependency is part of the child trafficking network.

Anywho, why don't we ever talk about the data that shows who you aren't helping?

Because you guys talk about who you do, which that's great, but why don't we show the data of like who's waiting to be helped, who is not getting services because there isn't funding?

Um, because you guys sit here and talk about uncertainty of funding, but I mean, I'm just wondering how you plan to fund all of your socialist programs because there will never be enough funding, even if you take money from the billionaires.

I mean, the people fund all of the programs.

So even if you give somebody a raise, they're just gonna give that money back to the government in hopes that they're going to be providing some kind of a service when you guys don't.

There's a lot of fraud, waste and abuse going on, and then you want to blame the federal government for the funding cuts.

But it's like if you weren't engaged in fraud, waste and abuse, maybe that kind of stuff wouldn't happen.

But as long as you have some kind of a scapegoat to you know, blame so that it takes the eyes off of you guys when people should be looking at how you're actually what what you're doing to help people because HUD, it's like what about the class or group of people that are below the 25% AMI that we don't help that you know go to places like Tent City that die there, they die quicker than getting any kind of housing or help.

So I mean, is if we sit here and we're only showing like you know, things that on the surface look good, but if you're not showing the data of like who who's not getting these services, and you talk about uh rapid rehousing of 37 households.

Well, I know that I don't know if it's in this data, but it was at least last year when you guys took the people that were sitting at, say, Sir Travis Park who came across the border illegally that were undocumented, and you put them in the front of the line to get them into housing.

All while people who have been living in this city have been waiting for decades just to get housing.

So I mean, these are the choices that you guys make, and it's just sad that nobody is here.

Uh, Carla Camacho, if you can please come forward.

Good afternoon.

My name is Carla Camacho, and I'm here representing Ocean Discovery Institute.

And for many years, your leadership in allocating CDBG funding to our program services has enabled our organization to reach thousands of young people in the City Heights community.

And so we're so thankful for the support that you provided because it's offered our students tuition-free after school programs and full week summer camps, um, all based in science, so that someday we know that they could um step into careers in science and and break those cycles of poverty.

So, on behalf of our students, families, and our staff, we want to thank you so much for these community service um programs that you're providing in our community of City Heights.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry the five-minute time recording, those participating remotely.

We currently have five speakers in the queue, starting with the gambler.

After that will be Blair Beekman, then Becky Rapp, if you can please unmute.

I got a question for you.

Why does our homeless continuously go up and we continuously feed money into this machine that doesn't really help citizens?

And it seems like it helps migrants.

I understand that this year is the first year that our numbers are actually starting to go down, but that's because Trump wants to know where that money is coming from.

Now, I understand that you're going around and picking up homeless people because you have an upcoming election coming up and you want to go ahead and commit voter fraud, or you know, quote, turn the blind's eye while it's happening, because we all know that there have not been any investigation on the registration cards that you lobbyists.

I mean lobbyists that got you guys elected.

Um hit it.

I mean, if we see that right away, we understand why you guys don't listen to a damn word we have to say.

Then you ignore every single aspect and we go ahead and beg plead and say, hey, please stop wasting our money.

You just doing the check mark right now, just listening to me, but you're not really paying attention because you think that this fraud will never get discovered.

Here's the fact it's getting closer and closer.

And as soon as this happens, you know how many lawsuits people are gonna be able to file for all the wasteful spending that you guys did.

Are you aware of that?

I mean, you should do a little bit of m figuring uh calculations out there.

Because you're not acting on our behalf, you're acting on your lobbyists' behalf, and that's kind of fucked up, especially if you're feeling our money to go ahead and do that.

There is things that the people can do, but as soon as we get that investigation on the lobbyists.

Our hands are tied.

But as soon as that happens, yeah, the most corrupt of you are going to get.

Your time has concluded.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute after that, Becky Rapp, then phone number ending in 7499.

Please proceed.

All right, uh, Blair Beekman.

Thanks a lot for this HUD item.

Uh yearly review process.

Um, I think all of us at the local level have really grown to count on HUD funding in California and the HUD process, I guess overall, uh, more specifically.

Um it's turned out to be a really good process.

It's kind of like uh nonpartisan, and all sides can uh contribute and ask questions about its services and and how it helps local communities.

Um I think it's really interesting and hopeful how we can be addressing um the next four years and and work towards a nonpartisanship to solve our issues, uh working together to solve our issues and really provides a space to do that.

So good luck in this continued good work.

Um the picture of uh uh bridging the digital divide is actually involved with hedge funding.

Um so good luck to include uh how to add tech accountability to the process of bridging the digital divide and what that exactly means.

Uh it's interesting stuff for our future.

You have to make an effort to get there to do.

I think it's very satisfying and rewarding what real positive sustainability is for a community.

You'll be working towards those terms.

Um thank you to the words of the previous public speaker.

It takes time to understand some things from our public comment sometimes, me too.

Um, but it it's set a course on how to I can better consider things in the future.

So thank you for that.

Uh the same with my work in tech accountability.

Uh good luck that um I never met addressed the concept of acute uh income uh levels, uh low-income levels.

Uh I guess extremely low income, but not acute.

That's even lower than extreme uh low income.

Good luck that we can work on those issues, really address those things.

It really can help with the unhoused issues.

And um, you know, in in working uh nonpartisanly on these issues, uh, it's important.

Uh I hope we can address that with Trump.

Our time has concluded.

After that will be 7499 and then 8700.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Becky Rapp.

I'm a public health educator and a member of my local planning group.

Um, I come here today as I um as you as you review the CAPER, I want to highlight that much of this funding from C D BG, home and ESG, it goes directly into affordable housing and community development.

These investments are critical, but to truly protect residents, they must also come with policies that ensure healthy living environments.

HUD already requires all public housing authorities to be smoke free, and San Diego now has the opportunity to lead by extending that same protection to all HUD funded multi-unit housing projects that are supported by these funding programs.

By setting smoke-free housing as a standard, whenever city funds are invested, you protect children, seniors, and families from secondhand smoke, you reduce fire risks, and cut long-term maintenance costs while advancing the strategic plan goal, which is to protect and enrich every neighborhood.

I urge the city to tie its federal housing investments to smoke-free policy.

So every affordable housing unit built with public dollars is also a safe and a healthy home.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is 7499.

If you can please unmute after that, 8700, and then Judy String.

Seven.

Bob Kazuski here.

Last night I drove back from Phoenix, Arizona, where I attended the memorial for Charlie Kirk and where President Trump was the final keynote speaker.

Over the years, both President Trump and Charlie Kirk have laid out common sense policies for dealing with homelessness.

I encourage this council to seek out those policies and heed them.

In particular, on July 24th, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order on quote, ending crime and disorder on America Street.

I urge this council to adopt support and embrace all of the President Trump's executive orders related to the humane treatment of homelessness in San Diego.

It is well known that drug abuse is a large contributor to the homelessness problem.

Every week you have a group of dedicated citizens addressing this council on the issue of drug abuse, and yet you ignore them week after week.

This is more of the rules for the but not for me attitude of this city's government.

Shame on each of you.

That concludes your comments.

Yes, it does.

Thank you.

Next is one number ending at 8700.

Please unmute.

Joyce and Yata District 3.

I don't have a main point here.

I'm going to just have some various things.

So first of all, on the ESG program, I'm really concerned about that.

I believe the current one ends next year.

And uh scuttle but is that it is going to be terminated.

So I hope we're following that.

I know the housing commission is very concerned, and uh I'm not sure the latest on that.

So regarding the draft, uh the final will be ready for HUD, and that's what will be said.

What's a question for me?

What changes are allowed on the draft, and what changes shall be made?

82 pages on the draft.

So I'm a little concerned as to how the public knows what's changed on those 82 pages.

Um this was good a good sentence.

HUD reports to the US Congress.

My favorite highlight is 59 workshops and training sessions, nonprofit city building and fair housing.

I love that.

Uh, in the draft report, please correct city attorney's name.

It still shows as Mara Elliott.

She was wonderful, and I do miss her work, yet we have a new city attorney.

Please, please correct that.

And then lastly, from the staff report from last time, I think at EDIR, but I think it's still in there.

Key stakeholders, that sentence, that paragraph.

This five and a half sentence paragraph is very touching to read as it spells out all the types of people who benefit from these programs and services.

I almost had tears.

I certainly had a lump in my throat when I read those very raw descriptive uh sentences.

Your time has concluded.

My apologies.

Judy Strang, if you can please unmute.

After that, is Peggy Walker, your final speaker.

The five minute timer has concluded here in Council Chambers.

Judy Strength, there you go.

Yes, good afternoon.

Thank you for this opportunity to share some thoughts regarding the annual performance knee evaluation for housing and urban development programs.

I am well acquainted with in particular the 15% set aside of HUD money that goes to often nonprofits that assist the very population that HUD serves with its other 85%.

And I too, I have to agree with Joey that that the rhetoric that describes the population of people is very moving, and particularly as the rhetoric talks about children, and that it is something that had spotlights in their work that these 15% of their money that goes for social services reaches the children served by HUD housing money.

And many of us have spoken about how valuable it would be for our children to have clean air.

And I'd just like to add to that comment that clean air policies in HUD funded or any affordable housing are very self-enforcing.

It doesn't require comprehensive programs, it just requires signage.

It can be very self-enforcing for the people who live there that they can stand up for themselves if the signage is there.

And let's just remind yourself how important public health is, not only to the public, but for those of us who pay taxes and fund poor public health.

Better that we have good public health to begin with.

So smoke free MUH, multi-unit housing project, smoke-free public air would all be extremely valuable to hear to us here in San Diego.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And our final speaker is Peggy Walker.

If you can please unmute.

Peggy Walker, I can't unmute for you.

We will have to move on.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm sorry.

I couldn't see it there.

I I would like to support the idea, frequently suggested of setting smoke-free MUH as a standard for all public housing.

In fact, I would say that it should be the standard citywide for every multi-unit housing because everyone deserves to breathe clean air.

There are there's just too much data on the health risks of inhaling and living daily with tobacco smoke and marijuana vapor.

I hope that you understand that it is the most vulnerable communities who stand the most unprotected from smoke-free policies.

And these really are essential to public health and safety.

Every affordable home, every home should be smoke and vapor-free if the residents so desire.

A simple look at the data shows our most vulnerable communities are again, are those most likely to be exposed to uh drug to drug dispensaries and places where drugs are available.

Um, we need to look closer at our policies to ensure that those communities are better safeguarded from the huge amount of marijuana and other drugs that are currently flooding our markets and often linked to homelessness.

Thank you for hearing my concerns.

Thank you.

As noted, the five-minute timer had concluded.

If you raise your hand after the five-minute timer, you can submit comments to City Clerk at Sandigo.gov, and those will be distributed.

That concludes public comment on this item.

Thank you, Council President Protem.

Thank you.

We'll move to Councilmember questions and comments.

Uh and as a reminder, this is an informational item.

Uh, no motion is required.

I'll take the chance to thank you for the report.

I I know this is part of our annual process given all the various federal entitlements that we receive.

But in particular, I think the report really helps to highlight several areas in which the funding has a pretty significant impact across our communities in very different ways.

Of course, looking at the list of organizations that help to provide services from everyone from youth to seniors.

We had an opportunity to celebrate the groundbreaking of one of those just this uh last week and just shows uh one of the areas that the city is obviously touching upon.

And then finally, um some of the emergency solutions grants and and the programs that are supported when it comes to shelter rapid rehousing um workforce training.

I mean, etc.

It's it's amazing sometimes to understand how much of this is really touched upon through the program.

So for me, the summary is just a way to acknowledge that.

Um it also probably is a chance for us to recognize that with the uncertainty sometimes that is coming from what we're seeing from the federal government in terms of future funding, that these are the kinds of things that become at risk.

Um, and they're not it's not the city that by itself as a as an entity that perhaps is at risk, but it's the very um people, the programs, the housing opportunities, shelter opportunities, and more.

Um that's what ultimately is at risk um if we see a shift in funding.

So um I'll turn next to you, Councilmember Von Wolber.

Thank you very much, and thank you for the presentation.

Um and the work on this.

I too am very glad to see that we are doing more with the home program and getting more folks housed.

Uh, I do want to thank you for working with the county as well and uh with the housing commission and everyone else, including our solar sustainability work is great to see too.

Um I do have some questions about uh some things in the reports.

One of them is the um sorry, I just put up in my document.

The homeless response center, we moved it because we're we sold the indoor skydiving center to Father Joe's, and so where is that operating now and are they still operating?

Uh thank you for that question, Councilmember Christine Marcella, Deputy Director for Economic Development.

It's my understanding that the homelessness response center has moved to the central library, um, though the economic development department is working with a provider to continue to provide some services in the original Imperial Avenue location to fulfill our CDBG requirements for that location.

Oh, we didn't move out.

I thought we had moved out because they were going to do construction.

Um the Father Joe's project is still in their due diligence period.

There is still a period of time that we, as the city have to meet providing services at the location.

So the economic development department is working to fulfill that obligation.

The program of the homelessness response center, it's our understanding, um, has been moved to the central library.

Okay, then what are we still doing at the homelessness response center?

What services are we providing there?

At the Imperial Yes, Imperial.

The Imperial Alban Location, we are working with the downtown partnership right now for them to execute some of their um unhoused workforce development programming for the duration.

We have about six months of time left that we have to fulfill to meet the five-year national objectives for CDBG funding.

Um, and so we're working with them to ensure that we fulfill that requirement so that we could deliver the building to Father Joe's without any any additional time frame or requirement for them to maintain those uses.

Okay, got it.

Um understood.

I'm glad that they're still on track to do their project.

Okay, we definitely need that to be converted to housing.

Um then other questions about how any of the the services might be cut off soon.

I'm not sure if HOP was still gonna be a grant source under the Trump administration.

I know the county administers that, but have we heard anything about whether Hopwa will still be a program that we do?

Housing for persons with HIV and AIDS.

Thank you for that question, Angela Nazareno Clark, program manager.

Um the county is still overseeing the HOPA program, and to date we have not heard any further guidance from HUD on the HOPA program.

Um they do carry a an agreement between the city and the county to operate through the consolidated plan year, which will be 2029.

Okay.

I do know that most of the funding for HIV AIDS medication and research has been cut and so the UCSD has already shut down its HIV program and others, so I just didn't know if the housing program was also going to become a couple of years.

So I just didn't know if the housing program was also going to become a good question.

Council member.

I'd also just note that in the continuing resolution being debated right now.

The only thing that's been discussed in I believe the House version is cutting home funding.

And the Senate version, I believe that the home funding is still in there.

There hasn't been any uh discussion about cuts to Hopla from what we've heard from federal partners that home is still likely going to be safe because the Senate version will likely prevail.

But if there's any changes to that, we'll update your office and work with government affairs on that as well.

Okay, thank you very much.

I appreciate it, Noah.

Um what what do we need to do going forward?

What's the most important step we can do going forward to get you know people, especially senior citizens, housed and off off the streets.

I mean, I think what we are doing, which is that as of right now, we just submitted our federal grant agreements for the fiscal year 26, which is the funding that you all approved in the annual action plan that was before you in June.

Um we have really strong communicative relationships with our HUD representative in Los Angeles so that we stay abreast of this very dynamic, um these very dynamic changes that are going on and to the extent possible our department continues to look at other state funding like the PLHA funding we've used and other sources that we can continue to support our most vulnerable populations.

And so the coordinated data efforts that we've been doing with the housing commission with the county, um, and then seeking whatever grant funding is available to continue the programs that we know are so impactful that we've reported to you today.

Okay, and are we spending the grant funding down at a reasonable rate?

It's not just sitting in accounts.

So, based on the conversations we've had before on timeliness, I mean we are moving the money for the home key over to the housing commission for that project.

We are in the midst of the agreement for the funding for their NOFA to for them to be able to add to their affordable housing NOFA.

Um, and so we are spending down as we are also looking at potentially the amount of money that we might request for ROPs in next fiscal year.

So we're always trying to kind of stay ahead of what budget we might need, and also in close communicate communication with the IBA and with the Department of Finance as well, to just try and be as proactive as we can, understanding that this federal funding is part of these very ever-changing conversations that seem to be happening regularly.

Okay, all right, thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Seeing no other comments, that concludes item 613.

Again, this was an informational item only.

Uh that's why no motion was necessary.

We will now adjourn council to the next regularly scheduled council meeting on Monday, September 29th, 2025 at 10 o'clock a.m.

Thank you, and we are adjourned.