Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Here.

Councilmember Moreno.

President.

Councilmember Ilo Rivera.

Council President Lacava.

Present.

Also attending the meeting our City Attorney Heather Ferber, Independent Budget Analyst, Charles Bodica, Council of Affairs Advisor and the Mayor's Office, Coda Zeiser, and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

A quorum is now present.

We will begin this morning with the land acknowledgement and the pledge of allegiance led by Councilmember Campbell.

Please stand.

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

Despite enduring the horrors of genocide and colonization, the Kumiai 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 Kumya Nation connected to our past and committed to a thriving future.

Please face the flag, put your right hand over your heart, and join us in the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

Our nation and indivisible liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Council President.

Please note that the time allocations for proclamations and consent items for meeting management purposes are one minute per item per person with three minutes maximum if you're speaking on three items or more.

The order can be found on the agenda summary, found online or at the table in the back of the room.

If you are in person, please complete a speaker slip located 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 person, no further in-person testimony will be taken once the council begins virtual testimony, and the information to attend virtually is found on the agenda front page.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you for that.

We will now dispense with the approval of the proclamation items.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you.

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

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.

Proclamation items being approved are items 30, 31, 32, S500, S501, S502, and S503.

We have several speakers here in Council Chambers.

Again, just a reminder, one minute per item.

So please plan accordingly, starting with Blue Eagle, if you can please come up to the microphone.

After that, we have Councilmember Jamie Le Brake, if you can please come up to the yellow reserve seats, as well as Margaret Ikazaki, Sean Ellis, and Sermio Estrada, Eugenia Welch, and Jackie Sangzang Hui.

If you can all please come up to the yellow reserve seats, and you'll have one minute, please proceed.

Hi, my name is Jamie the Break, Council of Seaqua.

I'm going to go ahead and start this with a blessing to honor both our Ruth Ann Thorn and Martha Rodriguez for their achievements.

And I just want to, before I start, just share my gratitude.

I wanted to be here today to give thanks to the San Diego City Council for your efforts and recognizing the great efforts of our people and our community.

It means so much as we continue to build and amend policy, but most importantly, building our bridges to us who better serve the city of San Diego.

Thank you.

Sir, I'm sorry, before you begin.

How long?

You only have 30 seconds.

Is that going to be enough time for the blessing?

Can I have a minute, sir?

I'll get through a quick question.

Can somebody from the audience give him an additional minute just to treat everybody equally?

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Sorry.

We gather today in gratitude for the gifts she placed among our people.

We lift our voices in honor of Martha Rodriguez and Ruth Ann Thorne, two indigenous women who hands hearts and spirits strengthen our communities.

My haw, bless Martha, whose stewardship of Kasoy Market keeps our traditions alive, feeding not only our bodies, but our connection to culture, family, and place.

May her work continue to remind us of the beauty in our everyday ways.

My heart, bless Ruth Ann, whose vision.

In the arts lifts our stories into the light, showing the world the depth, resilience, and creativity of our people.

May her path continue to inspire generations to come.

Creators surround them with protection, wisdom, and joy.

May their journeys be long.

Their voices strong, and their contributions remembered far beyond this day.

For all they have they have done and all they will continue to do, we offer our deepest respects.

Sorry.

Next is Margaret, if you can please come forward.

My name is Maggie Kazaki, and I am a 10-year volunteer at Alzheimer's San Diego.

In the 10 years I've watched Eugenia and the staff develop an array of services for the families.

Lastly, I'd like to say that every dollar raised remains here in San Diego County for the families in San Diego County.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Sean Ellis.

Sean, you have time seated to you.

If they can please raise their hand by Barry Kenny.

Thank you.

And John Bennett.

Thank you.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Uh good morning, uh Council.

Uh Council President Pro Temp Lee, Council uh President Locava.

My name is Sean Ellis.

Many of you guys already know me.

I'm the political director for the United Association Local Union 230.

I stand here today and being grateful.

Thank you for this day of recognition.

Our local union has been here for 125 years.

So I don't really have anything to write, but as I was driving in, I go, you're speak, but I have nothing to read off of.

And I go, you know, what am I going to say to the people?

What does it mean for 125 years for our membership, our local union, and our movement?

Before this downtown was built, our members was put in the infrastructure for this place.

From the very home, residential home that a lot of you guys live in today, to the uh Pure Water Project, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and every industry that makes this America's finest city.

Well, you had America's finest local union here doing the plumbing and pipe fitting for this for this city and for this this great time.

Um, what I also want to say is labor here lives here in San Diego with our labor Fed, with our building trades, and with every um local union here, labor lives here in San Diego with your great leadership and all the great opportunities that you've given the people, the working people, an opportunity to go into that middle class.

I want to say thank you on behalf of all the labor movement.

Right now they're out there on strikes, they're on picket lines, but labor here lives in San Diego, and it starts with the very smallest local union to the big labor fed.

So that's all I really got to say.

God bless you guys.

Thank you for our day of recognition.

And if all my members were here today, they would be here thanking you and just waiting for another 200 years, 300 years of making San Diego the finest city in America.

So once again, God bless you guys.

Sean Ellis, local 230.

You guys have a beautiful morning.

Thank you.

And Sarmin Estrada.

Hi, good morning.

Good morning, everybody.

My name is Jacostrada, political director for the San Diego Building and Construction Trades Council.

Want to echo everything my brother with the UA has said, and really appreciate all of you, especially you, Council President Pro Tim Kennedy for bringing this item forward.

A lot of us uh go about our lives without really considering the the just magic that happens every time you turn on a faucet of water and clean water comes out.

The infrastructure that we all rely on that we have relied on for years, you're looking at the union that spearheaded that it continues.

Whenever I hear Sean talk about his members and the work they're engaged with, it's inspiring because that's the pride that they have in their craft.

It's a pride knowing that what they do matters, and that they're not gatekeeping that information.

They want to build and expand their union because they know that uh a society as robust as San Diego, as large as our county, requires that kind of knowledge, and they're at the forefront of that.

So I want to thank this council for acknowledging their work and acknowledging everything that they're doing for our region.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Eugenia Welch or Eugenia Welch.

If you have time seated by Carlo Sacchetto, if you can please raise your hand, Carlo.

Um I don't think he's here, but I have someone else who's Okay.

Then uh Kay Faulkner Bogger Bugger.

So you'll have two minutes, please per se.

Okay, I'll try to cut it down.

Um December 3rd, 2015, Alzheimer's San Diego is born from the desire to serve the needs of San Diego's dementia community, to be nimble and responsive to the specific issues and challenges here at home.

We wanted to make sure that the needs of locals were prioritized, and that the funds raised here in San Diego stayed here in San Diego County to help our community.

In the 10 years we've served San Diego, we've seen the need grow.

In 2015, there were an estimated 64,000 San Diegans living with dementia, and approximately 141 caregivers supporting them.

And those numbers have grown astronomically, and now almost a hundred thousand San Diegans are estimated to live with dementia, with 300,000 caregivers providing unpaid care.

We know those numbers are likely underreported, and the true numbers are higher.

Because Alzheimer's San Diego is completely local, we can and do quickly and efficiently respond to the changing needs of the community and tailor our programming to fit the distinct challenges for specific populations right here.

Whether those are individuals who only speak Spanish, families navigating the dual challenges of developmental disabilities and dementia, or simply navigating the complexities of finding services in a county as big as San Diego, we are here to help them all.

Someone who can connect with Alzheimer's San Diego can be sure that they're getting information that is local, relevant to their needs, and vetted by people who know this community.

Alzheimer's San Diego provides completely free support, not only to caregivers, but also to those living with memory loss or dementia, including including the incredibly vulnerable individuals who live alone with dementia in our community.

Our programs are designed to support people through every stage of the dementage journey.

We consider ourselves the boots on the ground for people who need help today.

It is our honor to have Alzheimer's San Diego's 10th anniversary recognized by the city.

And while we hope for a day when our services are no longer needed, we will be here in the meantime.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jackie.

If I can have the following individuals, please come up to the microphone and then come up to the yellow reserve seats.

Jackie Sang Sang Hugh or her, uh Van Vanton, Vantanoon Penn, Lem Sang Sing, Greg Kauf, Rotha Kelly, Chris Chan, Lisa Chang, Mimi Lu.

If you can all please come up to the first row, and then Jackie, if you're here, you can come up to the microphone.

Good morning.

Good morning, uh Council Pro Tem, uh, Council and Staff.

My name is Jackie Singh Sanoi Hang.

I'm here on behalf of Cam SD.

And I want to thank uh Council Pro Tem, Council Sean Ilo Rivera, and Council Member Foster for bringing this uh item forward.

Um we appreciate the support and the help for our Khmer American community.

Uh I am a proud refugee.

Um I am here today with some of our board members.

Um, and with uh today's current news, we see a lot of uh stress and uh uh where causes tension between neighboring countries.

I am by on behalf of Cambodia would like to pray for peace, metak, and compassion to that.

Uh we brought in some lotus blossom cookies for council.

Um, this is indicative of uh the meta, compassion, and love.

And I pray that you all be happy, you all be peaceful.

Thank you so much for your support, and please we're just gonna share our uh one minute.

Go ahead, ma'am.

Quick introduction.

Um, my name is Van Thowen Penn.

Um currently a lieutenant with neighborhood policing, also the uh SWAT executive officer uh with summoned here, just uh on behalf of our folks here uh as a Cambodian American being here for so many years uh escaping the atrocities of the country that we've we fled.

Um it's a day of uh gratitude.

I just want to echo thank you for the uh the opportunities here being a department member for 23 years.

Um I'm on my last leg of of my career here to hopefully still offer to retirement someday.

Um so that's what's my two words, the all the opportunities here afforded by the council, the mayor, and everything else that comes along with uh my position here, and that's all I have to say.

Lem Sansmoy's sergeant of uh Sanegal Police, Multicultural Storefront, and also uh community youth services.

I just want to thank everybody here uh for making this proclamation possible.

We are the minority of the minorities and the atrocities that we've endured at our families and stuff like that.

But what I just want to say is that we just want to thank the United States, the city of San Diego for the opportunities that we were given.

And um being in charge of the multicultural storefront is like paying it forward because we benefited um from all these uh programs or whatever outreach that we've and then now I'm in a position to do that.

Um I just want to thank everybody for the opportunity and the recognition.

Thank you.

Sincerely thank you.

Thank you for the record.

I did add the additional time for Lamb.

Uh he did submit a speaker slip.

Greg.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Um, my name is Greg Kurt, uh, Kamaya American Usual Association of San Diego president.

I am honored to be here and grateful for all the council members here.

Um I am a proud refugees myself.

Um thank you, the United States of America.

I thank you, the state of California, state of San Diego, and the county of San Diego.

I am a retiree uh with 31 years with the county of San Diego.

Right now I am uh full-time focusing in volunteering to strengthen and collaborating with the community members in pursuing our vision, which is to promote and preserve our Khmer culture.

So thank you so much uh for what you do and continue to support us.

Our new year celebration is April 2026.

So I hope that uh I see one of you at the Colina Del So Park.

That is our plan and our intention for our celebration.

Thanks so much.

Thank you, Rotha.

Hello, my name is Rotha Kelly, and I thank you so much, Council members, for this proclamation.

Um, as a Khmer refugee, I am so excited for the proclamation of November 2025 as Khmai Refugees of San Diego Month.

As an educator, I'm excited about this proclamation.

Growing up, I never learned our history or saw us depicted in our community on a larger level.

Um, outside of a Kamaya community where I grew up in.

I grew up in Long Beach, which has a huge, vibrant um Khamaya community.

Last November, I had the opportunity to attend the Orange County Department of Education's Cambodian American Studies conference in Long Beach.

At that conference, I saw our community and history celebrated.

Um I saw our traditions on display in a way I had never before.

I brought 40 San Diego Unified Educators to this conference for two days of learning and connection to learn about our thriving community and bring this model curriculum back into our schools.

As a mother of two young children who are mixed-race Khamae Americans growing up in the city of San Diego and currently attending San Diego Unified Schools, I'm excited for this proclamation so they can see their vibrant community and history afflicted in our vibrant community.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chris.

Chris Chan.

Good morning, Council members.

Um, Council President Lacava and Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Thank you so much for bringing forward uh the proclamation honoring Peter Chu.

I have served on the board of the C CBA San Diego for a few years now.

I'm so grateful uh for Peter Chu's leadership, dedication, and knowledge and wisdom.

Uh, besides hosting the Chinese New Year Fair every year uh and other cultural events, our organization also manages an affordable housing complex in the gas lamp.

It was built for aging Chinese workers, uh, but also available to all low-income residents.

Uh Peter's legal expertise and hard work have allowed us to successfully manage the building and continue providing housing for these residents.

His dedication to the community and help for immigrants through his work are an example of how one person can truly have great impact on a community of uh people.

So thank you, Peter, and and thank you, City Council.

Thank you, Lisa.

Hi, I just want to thank you and congratulate Peter Chu, my stepfather, for being officially recognized by the city of San Diego as a visionary leader.

Um he for the past four decades, he wasn't just a lawyer, but he was a storyteller who told and retold the stories and the heritage of the Chinese immigrants, and he helped them write the their new chapters in America.

He didn't just build affordable housing, he built a community where these people can age gracefully.

I know just one day in the city.

However, I know that he spent an entire lifetime building a legacy that will impact generations.

So thank you so much again and congratulations.

We are so proud of you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mimi.

Good morning.

My name is Mimi Liu, and I have the honor of serving on the board of directors for the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.

Thank you so much for taking this time to recognize Peter today.

I stumbled into CCBA 15 years ago, and Peter encouraged my involvement.

He's humbly led our organization, supported our members, enabling programs for our seniors, and led a massive overtaking for the renovation of low-income housing project that Chris mentioned.

But Peter seeks no recognition and continues to influence others to uh care, including his family who often comes out to volunteer at our programs.

One of Peter's greatest legacy is how he has empowered young leaders.

Thanks to Peter's tutelage and his care.

Peter has made San Diego from Home from Me and so many others.

Thank you for taking the time today to recognize humble leaders like Peter Chu.

Thank you.

We're gonna have the following individuals.

Please come up to the yellow reserve seats and Blair Beekman come up to the microphone.

We have Blair Beekman, Joseph, Joseph Rosat uh Rosato Ramirez, Evan Kim, and Victoria Thatch.

If you can all please come forward.

Blair Beekman, you can come to the microphone.

You're speaking on items 30 and S502.

Please proceed.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

Um hi everyone.

I'm here, I'm back.

It's nice to be here.

Um item 30.

Uh, Mayor Gloria and Councilperson Campbell Whitburn announcing Native uh American Heritage Month.

It's really important to me that um this uh working with the many tribes that are in San Diego County is unique.

And um I'm hopeful in the efforts of tech accountability work that I do and how that can be shared with the uh uh tribes of San Diego County.

Um it is hard, it's difficult to describe best practices of American culture and values and ideals, but I think it it creates the ideas of tech accountability of public participation and and sharing and cooperation.

Um, that bringing these to uh tribes can actually bring out their own best characteristics.

I'm trying to understand how to say that better.

I think that's how to say it.

So good luck in those efforts.

I think it is really important stuff for uh uh uh the future of tribal work in San Diego County.

Um then to mention um the S item S502 about uh Kimmeri refugees of San Diego.

Um thank you for the previous public comments.

Um I went to Cambodia for the first time last year.

I'm planning to like move over there and live my rest of my life out in Southeast Asia.

I'm very sorry what's going on with the current um uh border issues between Thailand and Kimir.

The most recent uh issues I think can be solvable, and good luck that we can be working to uh towards peace.

Um good luck to everyone that that that we can consider the cultures of Southeast Asia and how do we turn to them at this time and build and build dialogue for all of us.

Good dialogue.

Thank you.

Peace.

Thank you, Joseph.

You have time ceded to you by Lim, Chung.

If you can please raise your hand.

Thank you so much.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Hi, everybody again.

Uh Professor Joseph Rwand Roman is Professor Jojo, Southwestern College.

Um, last time I was here was midterm season, so finals is coming up.

And so, like my students, they'll probably cramming um anything the last couple weeks to try to get things done.

Um, the trauma of war is always there, but erasers worse.

And so being part and being recognized in this uh month is allowing Cambodian American Commercial American history to be part of San Diego history.

Uh, some of the first temples in the United States from the Cambodian community was here in San Diego.

They all came here, a good amount of them came May 1st, 50 years ago coming into San Diego port before moving to what we know now as like Cambodia Town, Long Beach, and other parts of the country.

So it is very essential that we put Cambodian American history, come here, American history here in San Diego, that it's not just hogged by Long Beach, even though there is a good population there, we have our population here as well.

And to start those sort of rhetoric and sort of education, what would I be again if I'm not gonna be here for your future book uh things?

One thing I would appreciate um apologize for is for the Native American community.

When I come here next month for their final, I will give books for them as well.

Um so three books from two of them are my friends, uh Luang Ong, first that killed my father, a daughter of Cambodia remembers.

It's a memoir.

Slow Noodles by Chanta Nun.

Um it is a Cambodian memoir of love, lost and family recipes, and the book that I use in my class, it's a graphic memoir by Tian Vyasna, Year of the Rabbit.

And so today, two of my students will be coming up to speak about their experiences.

One of them came last year as well.

I would like to highlight that Vika's artwork would be shown at Southwestern College about on the refugee experiences of Cambodians in San Diego, which is also going to be a future cover of a book on critical refugee studies.

And Evan, who was here last year and also was interviewed by NBC 7, will be presenting his presentation at Hawaii this April.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

Good morning.

I want to talk about a community that often gets overlooked.

A community that came to San Diego, not because they wanted a fresh start, but because they were escaping something far worse than anyone here could imagine.

This community arrived with almost nothing.

No money, no language, no support, just a way of what they survived.

But even we'll follow that.

They're now a big community, but their strength is huge.

Their story is powerful and their impact on San Diego is real, even though most people don't know it.

You're on you're wondering what is this blank community?

Well, what do you think of when you hear a Cambodian?

Thank you.

Thank you, Victoria.

Hi, my name is Victoria Vika Thatch, and I study art and Asian American history at Southwestern College with Professor Joseph Ramirez.

Oftentimes when I hear the word Cambodian, I look around to see where it came from.

I constantly seek out these things because when I was growing up, the only mention of Cambodia I ever had was a sentence or two in an old Rowdy textbook.

Despite the vast community of Cambodian Americans I grew up with here in San Diego, my culture only gets a mention in history class.

That's just disregarding the hardships that my family faced first immigrating here to America, disregarding the Khwai community that not many have even heard about.

When people look at me, they don't assume I'm Kwai.

They don't even know what or where Cambodia is most of the time.

And that's disheartening for a kid growing up in a place where nobody else seems like you.

Getting more education on Cambodian American history is not only important for me, but for the Khmai kids who grew up in similar situations as I.

That way, when I meet someone new, they no longer assume I'm not Cambodian.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I started the five-minute timer here in Council Chambers because that does conclude public comment here in Council Chambers.

Going to those attending remotely, Peggy Walker, if you can please unmute and let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I um I wanted public comment.

Okay, thank you.

That does conclude public comment on the proclamations.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, city clerk.

We will now turn it over to my council colleagues for any questions and comments uh and entertain a motion, and we'll start with Council President for family.

Thank you, Council President.

I will start by moving the proclamation's agenda.

Um and first off, I want to thank my colleagues for bringing forward today's meaningful proclamations.

Um I want to start with uh thanking Mayor Gloria, Councilmembers Campbell, Whitburn, and Von Wilbert, in recognizing November 20th as Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Uh this year's proclamation includes a special reference in memory of Julia Jiggs Legaspi, a proud Filipino American transgender woman, small business owner, community advocate, and pioneer as the first transgender person to serve as a commissioner at the city of San Diego.

And the third, uh appointed to a public office in the United States.

In District 6, we're honored to pay tribute to Julia's legacy tomorrow on her birthday, as we gather to unveil Julia Legaspi Way on the corner of Penticton Way and Crater Drive.

Um and so I join my colleagues in remembrance of all trans lives, especially those taken too soon and unjustly.

For the remainder of my time, I'd like to comment on items 32, S500, and S501.

Um on item 32, I am proud to help honor United Association Local Union 230 today for their 125th anniversary.

Um based in District 6, UA Local 230 is the longest operating craft union in San Diego.

And since its founding in 1899, has represents represented skilled plumbers, pipe fitters, welders, HVAC technicians who have built and maintained the region's essential water, gas, mechanical systems.

As you heard from Sean, whether it's from housing to offices, biotech, pharmaceutical, and more, uh, they have been critical to much of the infrastructure we consider throughout our region.

And I want to thank uh Sean as well as um and Sermio for coming out and all the members of UA Local 230, um, coming out to celebrate today.

Um, congratulations to all of you from those who were there 125 years ago, to all the members and leaders who are with us today.

Thank you for all you do for the social well-being, the economic prosperity, and the people of San Diego.

And with that, we are proud to proclaim November 6th as United Association Local Union 230's 125th anniversary day.

On item S500, I'm happy to join, be joined by Council President Lakaba and Council Member Whitburn in honoring Peter Chu, who is retiring next month after 14 years as the board president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, located in the Asian Pacific Thematic Historic District, right on Third Avenue in downtown.

And um, Peter did not know about the surprise proclamation for him today until I believe you read the agenda in the room.

And so I'm gonna thank the coordination of all of his family, colleagues and friend and friends for allowing for this special surprise.

Um, over his 14 years, Mr.

Chu has been fulfilling CCBA's mission of educating and preserving Chinese culture and heritage in San Diego.

Uh, throughout community events such as the San Diego Chinese New Year Fair, the Qingming Festival and Mid Autumn Festival, the management of the C C BA Senior Garden, which is an affordable housing complex that serves low-income and aging Chinese immigrants, and through his 43-year career as an immigration attorney, founding of the law offices of Peter Chu, proudly based in Convoy, that has been serving immigrants in San Diego for over 30 years, and especially through a variety of underserved languages, including in Chinese, both Mandarin and Cantonese, uh, Korean and Vietnamese.

Um, thank you, Peter, for your service to the city and to the residents of San Diego, and in honor of your time on the CCBA board, we are proud to proclaim your birthday, October 19th as Peter Chu Day here in the city of San Diego.

And finally, on item S 502, I want to thank uh the Khmai community for bringing forth this proclamation to our office.

Uh community which this year is remembering and honoring 50 years of their new lives here in San Diego.

I also want to thank Council Members Foster and Ila Rivera for joining us in this recognition.

Um, from the horror of war, genocide, and displacement 50 years ago after the fall of Phnom Penn and the Khmai Republic, Khmai refugees first settled in San Diego in May of 1975, establishing the first San Diego Khamae community in City Heights.

Over the years, as the humanitarian crisis continued, San Diego continued to welcome Khmai refugees, resulting in the proud culture and community we see represented in those in attendance today, as well as the speakers that we've heard from in chambers, as well as through the temples, small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and community festivals all throughout San Diego that the Khamae people have started, not only to serve their fellows, but also for all San Diegans to learn and remember from their experiences.

As Professor Jojo just shared, today's proclamation is our opportunity as a city.

And I'll take my additional three minutes.

Today's proclamation is our opportunity as a city to not only declare once again how much we value our immigrant and refugee populations, but it's also our opportunity to ensure that the stories of Khmai refugees and Cambodian Americans, including the trauma, the rebuilding, and their successes, is not erased, but instead is shared as a part of our country's history and especially as a part of San Diego's history.

In November of each year, the Khmai celebrate Bun Um Talk took the Cambodian Water and Moon Festival to commemorate the end of the monsoon season and the start of the new harvest.

And so it's in our honor of the 50th Water and Moon Festival this month that Khamae refugees have celebrated in America, that we also honor 50 years of Khmai memory, resilience, and achievements here in San Diego by proudly proclaiming November 2025 as Khmai Refugees of San Diego Month here in the city of San Diego.

That concludes my remarks, and thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

So we have a motion by Council President Pro Dam Lee to move the proclamations.

We'll go next to Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you so much, Council President, and I'm happy to second the motion on the proclamations and congratulations to every group and every individual that's receiving the proclamations today.

I would like to speak on items 30, 31, 32, and S503.

First of all, thank you for all of us that we have our Native American Heritage Month, a time to honor the history and resilience of our country's first nations.

San Diego sits on the ancestral land of the Kumeyai Nation, whose people have stewarded this region since time immemorial.

Today, indigenous community members continue to shape the very fabric of our city.

Native owned businesses in San Diego helped to preserve and uplift the culture and traditions of the Kumeayi Nation.

Kosai Kumiai Market in Old Town in District 2 is a hub for Kumeyay art, and Native Star Boutique in District 3 highlights the work of Native designers.

Ruth Ann, owner of Native Star Boutique, is here in Chambers today.

Thank you for joining us today and for your efforts to promote indigenous designers.

These businesses help to amplify the presence of the indigenous community and spaces that have historically been excluded from them.

This Native American Heritage Month, we reaffirm our commitment to visibility, partnership, and respect for the Kumyai Nation and for our nation's First Nations.

And now I want to thank Mayor Gloria, Councilmember Whitburn and Councilmember Von Wilbert for joining me in proclaiming November 20, 2025 as Transgender Day of Remembrance.

This is a solemn day dedicated to honoring the lives and of transgender individuals who have been taken from us due to acts of violence, hatred, and discrimination.

Today we speak their names, we hold space for their memories, and we recommit ourselves to building a world where our transgender community can live safely, openly, and without fear.

Here in San Diego, we believe that every person deserves dignity, safety, and the freedom to live as their authentic selves.

At a time when the transgender community is facing escalating threats and targeted attacks across the country, it is even more important than ever that we stand firmly with them.

As I have said before, and I will always say to our transgender community, I see you, I hear you, I respect you.

And most importantly, I thank you for your resilience and the invaluable contributions you have made to San Diego.

Today and every day, we commit to ensuring that San Diego remains a place where you are protected and honored.

The City Council and Mayor are honored to make this possible.

Next, I'd like to congratulate the United Association of Local 230 union on reaching 125 years of representing San Diego's plumbers and pipe fitters, welders, and HVAC technicians.

UA Local 230 is San Diego's oldest graph union.

Also has the longest-running active registered apprenticeship program in the entire state of California.

Through this program, they have ensured that generations of young workers are able to receive quality training and enter the trades where they gain access to economic stability and opportunity.

Congratulations to UA Local 230 and all its members, and thank you so much for your hard work to maintain San Diego's water gas mechanical systems.

Congratulations on the 10th anniversary of Alzheimer's San Diego, an organization that has become an incredible support system for people with Alzheimer's disease and their families.

Alzheimer's San Diego provides resources that make a real difference in many people's lives, giving education to caregivers, family members, support groups, and professionals.

They provide these services for free to ensure that every person diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease can have compassionate and high quality care.

Congratulations to Alzheimer's San Diego on reaching this milestone anniversary and thank you for your dedication to improving the lives of San Diegans with Alzheimer's and that of their families.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you.

So we have a motion by Council President Pro Tem Lee and a second by Council Member Campbell to move the proclamations.

We'll go next to Councilmember Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

I too want to acknowledge all the recipients of proclamations today.

Thank you all for being here and for your service to our community.

I'm pleased to join Mayor Gloria and Councilmember Campbell in recognizing Transgender Day of Remembrance.

And I want to thank my colleagues on this council who have consistently stood with our transgender community, not just today, but throughout the year.

Last year, as many people know, a string of pellet gun attacks on our LGBTQ community in Hillcrest led to a lot of fear.

And in just this past Saturday at Baker's Hill, uh pellet gun shots were fired at members of our transgender community.

I know none of us here uh will stand for this.

Our transgender community deserves to live in peace, not in fear of hateful attacks.

Uh, and in honoring and mourning those we've lost, we owe it to our transgender community to continue to strive for a city and a country where every transgender person could live openly, safely, and fearlessly.

I'm pleased to join Mayor Glory and Councilmember Campbell at recognizing Native American Heritage Month and honoring those communities whose history and culture are at the very heart of our region.

San Diego's home to more tribal nations than any other county in the country.

We're fortunate for the leadership and partnership that they bring to our community.

Right here in downtown, as we heard, Native Star Boutique has become a place where people can experience modern indigenous art and craftsmanship, and we thank its owner, Ruth Ann Thorne, for being here with us today, and we thank her for all that she does.

I'm glad to join Council President Lacava and Council President Pro Tem Lee in bringing forward the proclamation for Peter Chu Day, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, where Mr.

Chu has served for board as board president for the last 14 years, has been an invaluable partner to our downtown community.

Their Chinese New Year Fair held downtown since 1983, continues to bring culture celebration and community together.

And thank you to Council President Pro Tem Lee for bringing forward United Association Local Union 230 125th anniversary today.

For 125 years, Local 230 has trained generations of plumbers, pipe fitters, and HVAC professionals through one of the strongest apprenticeship programs in the country.

Their memberships build and maintain the infrastructure that all of us rely on from our water and sewer systems to hospitals and schools and homes.

San Diego simply wouldn't be the same city without these workers and their commitment to their craft, and we thank them.

And thank you, Council President.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

We'll go next to Councilmember Ila Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you to my colleagues for bringing these proclamations forward.

Thank you, Count Uh, Councilmember Campbell and Councilman Whitburn for the proclamation recognizing Native American Heritage Month.

Thank you to the community leaders, the tribal leaders who are here today.

Always appreciate an opportunity to share chambers with you.

Thank you for everything you've done, everything you do.

Appreciate the recognition of Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Not much more to say.

Council members appreciate you bringing this forward and ensuring that we honor and recognize the members of the transgender community.

Sean, thank you for uh being here today and representing uh UA local uh local 230.

Um really appreciate the the context, the history.

Um literally able to kind of picture what you're saying there, right?

Of laying the foundation that the city was built on and a great reminder of why it is so important that we have a um strong labor movement here in San Diego and how what we have would not exist without workers.

And last but not uh least, um thank you to uh Council President Pro Tem Lee and Councilmember Foster for joining me in proclaiming November uh community refugees of San Diego Month.

Um certainly a very important part of um the District 9 community and the San Diego community and um the American community at this point.

Um thank you so much for your contributions.

Um I think the story shared today um certainly um were impactful to me.

And I think we're a really good reminder of why it is so important for the United States to keep its doors open uh to folks when they are seeking uh um asylum or refugee status here.

Um it's not just because of the the danger and atrocities that are being fled from, um, but because of the incredible contributions that come from the communities that arrive here.

Uh, you all are a great example of that.

Your community is a great example of that.

Um, and also we learn so much, not just about resilience and um uh about uh new ways of life and um all that is enriching, but I think that there's um certainly some important lessons for all of us to learn about um paths that we don't want to go down ourselves as a country.

And so uh thank you so much for um everything that that you've contributed.

Um thank you for sharing your story and definitely uh appreciate the opportunity not just um to bring the proclamation forward, um, but very much appreciate that um Cleaning Del Soul Park is often the time uh the place of of um celebration uh for the community.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Ilo Rivera.

Not seeing anybody else on the lights.

Uh I'll jump in here.

Um thank you to my colleagues for all the proclamations and all the individuals that are being served, Local 230.

This is a city you all built.

Uh and in addition to that, you did that by ensuring that there was good wages, good safe working conditions.

So we can't thank you enough and look forward to the next 125 years going forward.

And to the other items, thank you very much, and I appreciate your recognition.

I think this is a great opportunity to actually talk about what makes our city special.

So with that, I want to talk about a few items myself.

Science, technology, engineering, and math, professional skills, and meaningful in industry connections.

Its immeasurable impact over the past five years reflects a deep commitment to equity and excellence with students demonstrating higher rates of STEM persistence, college success, and professional growth through its data-driven programs and partnerships.

City of San Diego proudly commends San Diego Squared for its visionary leadership, collaborative spirit, and dedication to ensuring that San Diego's innovation economy reflects our community.

Congratulations on a very successful five years.

As the son of immigrants, I have a deep understanding of the great contributions that immigrants made to this country, no matter what path they chose, whether it was just simply seeking a better life in this country or escaping persecution.

And whether you came through uh whatever channel as a refugee is seeking asylum, we could not be the country we are today without this good work.

And those who choose to uplift all immigrants who come to this country.

As Council President Pro Tim Lee mentioned, he's dedicated 14 years as board president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and extraordinary work, including the housing that was built originally for aging Chinese immigrants, but now serves all populations in San Diego's Asian Historic District.

Mr.

Chu, your tireless efforts have not gone unnoticed, and so honored to proclaim October 19th as Peter Chu Day in the City of San Diego.

And I'll take this time to invite Lily and Chu to say a few words.

Good morning.

That's a really long walk.

Thank you, President Council, or rather, Council President Lakava, for my time.

And good morning.

That's right.

Here I am.

And good morning, Council members.

My name is Lillian Chu, and I have the great fortune of being the daughter of Peter and Andrea Chu.

And not only that, but I also have the privilege of having them as my mentors in our family business, the law offices of Peter D.

Chu.

Growing up as the child of two working parents meant that my childhood was spent in the office.

I was drawing, coloring, misusing the copier, but most importantly, seeing firsthand how my parents impacted the lives of new and intending immigrants to the United States.

Watching my dad deafly guide his clients through a complex legal framework with kindness, compassion, and just the right amount of dad jokes inspired me to become a lawyer too.

It is my firm belief that without him, the immigrant communities in San Diego, especially those that comprise the convoy district, would not be as they are today.

In addition to this work, my dad has also served the greater San Diego community in several board positions at nonprofits, including the San Diego Opera, the Asian American Repertory Theater, and most recently the CCBA.

His selfless dedication has shown me the importance of what it's like to be a part of something that is bigger than yourself.

So thank you so much for acknowledging and recognizing his impact.

The man the mystery, Peter D Chu.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lillian, for those well-chosen words.

And I'll close on S503, Alzheimer's San Diego 10th anniversary day.

I want to thank Council Member Campillo for recognizing this and bringing this proclamation forward.

I'm gonna go off script and make this a little more personal.

So yesterday, with the 15th anniversary of losing my dad to complications to Alzheimer's, and 15 years ago, there was still a base of support by dedicated individuals who helped supported those who were suffering from the affliction of Alzheimer's, the families who were struggling to support them and trying to make sure there was greater wellness, uh awareness of this very awful, awful affliction.

I'm so heartened to hear about uh the formation of Alzheimer's San Diego, uh, that makes sure that we uplift that level of support uh to the families, um, to the individuals that are going forward.

And I'll close with this.

The thing that I think most about besides losing uh my father at who was otherwise very healthy, very vibrant, uh, but became afflicted with Alzheimer's.

Yes, I don't know when was the last time I had a conversation with him where he was fully intact, and he knew exactly where he was.

So as you think about that for your parents, your friends, your grandparents who may be on the verge of suffering from that.

Think about that opportunity to make sure that you have that last connection with them.

Because otherwise, you lose that and you watch them go through this awful, awful situation where they don't recognize their wife.

They have an affinity of talking to neighbor, uh, excuse me, to strangers, but not to their family.

It is just a traffic awful, and as I said, my father was healthier than I will ever be, but his mind went much, much too early.

So thank you for the support that Alzheimer's San Diego gives and the comfort they give to everybody involved with this affliction.

Uh so with that, um, we have a motion by Council President Pro Tem Lee, and a second by Councilmember Campbell.

Clerk, please call the roll.

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

That passes unanimously seven to zero with Council Member Foster and Council Member Von Wilbert absent.

Thank you.

If you could lead this effort.

So look for who's six.

And she will call up the first group.

All right.

Always appreciate the proclamations and the opportunity for photos.

So we will now proceed with the approval of the consent items as a reminder to my colleagues.

If there are any no votes on items or sub-items, such as item fifty-six, please note those uh note those no votes during your remarks for the record.

Before we proceed with hearing public comment, I believe we have remarks from staff on item one oh one.

Coda?

That's correct, Council President.

I'm gonna turn it over to Everett Hauser, who is on Zoom.

Yes, good morning, uh Council President.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide an update to the environmental impact statement in item one oh one.

We had some late advice from city attorney's office.

And so we appreciate the opportunity to update that and continue this item moving forward.

All right, thank you for that clarification.

So with that, are there any requests to pull an item by my fellow council members?

Not seeing any.

So uh again, thank you, uh, Coda and Everett for that clarification.

Uh City Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

Please note 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 ten.

That's item fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two, s five oh four, fifty-three to fifty-nine, and one hundred through one ten.

We do have uh Blair Beekman here to speak on several of these items.

If you can come up to the microphone, fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-six, fifty-nine, one hundred, one oh one, one oh three, one oh six, and one ten.

You'll have three minutes.

Please proceed when ready.

Thank you.

I'm already up here.

Um, I want to do, I guess, quickly a first couple of house cleaning items.

Uh, I didn't see a report out from the closed session agenda yesterday.

If there will be council comment on it here today, is there public comment allowed uh from that council comment?

And uh to also um offer um uh Joyce Sinata has not been here for a while.

Um she usually has very good public comment.

I think she's missed uh here at the community process.

I hope she is okay and that um if I can get uh some answers where she's at at this time at some point.

That would be hope helpful also.

Mr.

Beekman, yes.

Do the house cleaning at non-agenda public on the focus on the consent.

Thank you.

Very sorry.

Okay.

With that all said, which is I was about to say, um, item 54, uh SAP stuff uh with between San Diego and SAP.

Uh I hope that um uh that can be an issue that we can uh involve uh three one one issues uh that I think a lot people within city government have been much working on that we can include that into the future SAP process.

Item 56, uh master lease agreements uh for uh for solid waste fund refugees and recycling bins.

Good luck that RFID technology and the recycling bins, that can be an open process of uh policies and open accountability.

Uh that we could have good conversations with the public exactly what the RFID will be doing.

Um really make those attempts.

You gotta make the attempts to be make the future of the garbage thing a clear open process.

We gotta work on that as a community.

You guys uh we've hit a lag in how to do that better.

Uh, I have to really emphasize that.

Good luck on those efforts.

Um parking issues.

Um, you have an upcoming parking item, hopefully, that you can be talking about.

This is a good one.

Uh, the tram issues, they always do good work.

I'm really concerned about how um the parking issues on the far parking lots of Balboa Park.

There are still may only be two hours.

I think that's a problem.

I don't think that's resolved.

I think it has to be three or four hours for people in the faraway places to get to the main centers, and we have to work on that issue.

Um good luck.

Um item 101 is reimbursement of sand egg uh for uh bike improvement issues.

That is important in terms of uh just good tech accountability practices.

Uh good luck in those efforts that we are talking openly.

It's part we have to have those open conversations, guys.

You can't keep things closed, like with the uh parking commission issues.

That's horrific.

We gotta work on that.

And um item 106, my final item to speak to, uh, pure water issues.

It's good that you worked out good relationships with with union persons on that.

I hope you can talk more uh in the future about pure water, what his place is and why prices are being raised in for overall.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does for that concluding remark that does conclude consent here in chambers going to those participating remotely.

I'm sorry, the five-minute timer, Dr.

Rhodes.

If you can please tell me which item or items you wish to speak to on consent.

Yes, not Dr.

Rhodes, but Catherine Rhodes, number 58, exempt from council positions.

Um exempt of council representative positions in council district nine from classified services.

Is that one item?

You'll have one minute, please proceed.

Thank you.

Not sure how many existing positions through the city are already exempt from classified services, which greatly increase salaries and long-term pension benefits without a financial analysis or actual actuary analysis.

This is not just district nine, every department in the city does the same.

The practice of changing normal union staff positions to non-union classified service to exempt managers start in 2013 as a loophole to the five-year pensionable pay freeze.

I would request the IBA write a report of how many regular union classified positions were changed to non-union.

Um right now there's at least just one manager for eight council district nine staff employees.

Now Count Sean Itler Rivera wants to add two more.

And so now there will be three managers for six staff employees instead of one managers for eight employees.

Each manager will now be in charge of two employees.

The only reason to do this is to increase pension benefits and increase the budget.

This is not fair.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment on the consent agenda.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, uh City Clerk.

So let me turn it over to my uh council colleagues for any questions and comments and entertain a motion.

And we will start with council member Campio.

Thank you, Council President.

I will move approval approval of the consent agenda, but would like to register uh a singular no vote on item 56 with respect to sub item B on sub item A.

On that, I was a yes at full council, but a no on sub item B.

So that would be my registered no, but moving the rest of the consent agenda as well.

Bye-bye.

Oh, all right, great.

Thank you very much.

So we do have a motion by Councilmember Campio to move the consent items and go next to Councilmember Moreno.

Um regarding item 56.

I will record a no vote on sub item A and a yes vote on sub-item B.

And that concludes my comments.

Thank you.

Okay.

So we have a motion by Councilmember Kempia, and I think we took that as a second by Councilmember Moreno to move the consent items.

Uh I don't see anybody else on the lights.

So with that, uh clerk, please call the roll.

I apologize.

Please cast your votes.

That passes unanimously 7 to 0 with council member Campbell.

Uh, sorry, Councilmember Marnie von Wilper and Councilmember Henry Foster absent.

Registering no votes for council district seven on sub item B and Council District 8 on sub item A of item 56.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

And if I do my math correctly, that does confirm that 56A and 56B though both have six votes.

So just wanted to highlight that.

So uh with that, do we have any comments by Merrill, the mayoral office, city council member, city attorney, the independent budget analyst, or the city clerk.

Councilmember Campillo.

Thank you, Council President.

Simply wanted to state for the record, because of the um decision by the city council yesterday to appeal the suit relating to the height limit in the coastal zone as it related to the ballot measure from 2022, as it was uh disclosed by the uh city attorney yesterday.

Uh I was one of the no votes as it related to that, and simply wanted to express uh the reason I've uh voted no on that, uh, an analysis of of the case law and precedent as it related to the very specifics of the appellate court's uh language and decision.

Uh did not think that it was a high likelihood that the city would overcome that.

Uh and uh furthermore, it seems that uh given the representations in the media from uh the midway rising team that there are other avenues for them to uh construct their uh project.

Did not seem that uh the appeal would be uh necessary uh for the city support of their project.

Uh and therefore um given that it seemed both unnecessary uh as it related to a specific project or likely to not succeed, whether it was being taken up by the Supreme Court itself or succeeding at the Supreme Court level, uh, formed the basis of why I decided to vote no on that, and I appreciate you allowing me to put that on the record.

Thank you.

Absolutely, sir.

Um not seeing anybody else on the lights.

Uh we will now proceed with um non-agenda public comment.

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.

Clerk, please proceed with non-agenda public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

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 the city council.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

Please note if there are eight or more speakers on a single topic.

The maximum time for the topic will be 16 minutes.

If you're in chambers, please submit your speaker slip now.

If you're speaking virtually, please raise your hand to speak by tapping the raise your hand icon or call in participant star nine.

Paul Emmas, if you can please come up to the microphone, and then Robin Davidoff, as well as Blair Beekman, if you can please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

Paul, I know you have a video to show, so we'll get that up.

I'm Paul Eamus, please play the video of the California Coastal Commission meeting.

I'm Nathan Brenner here on behalf of the Sierra Club Seal Society.

My colleague Carol Archibald and I will be speaking on wildlife harassment and the critical need for better management of the La Jolla Cove in San Diego.

Tourists from all over the world come to La Jolla Cove to view our beloved sea lions.

And there is no sign of this trend slowing down.

The sea lion pupping season begins in six months.

Accordingly, we feel it is necessary to report to this commission regularly so you can understand the crisis at La Jolla Cove looks like.

And more importantly, to determine what steps can and must be taken to better manage the area.

We have a short video of the ongoing wildlife harassment.

Please start the video.

Give us a moment to bring it up.

The harassment of wildlife is constant day and night, day after day.

There are no rangers on the beach.

The Sierra Club docents often serve as de facto crowd control instead of being able to focus on educating the public.

The Sierra Club docent are trained to educate and foster empathy so that visitors to the area learn to respect the wildlife.

Here, a severely injured sea lion was awaiting rescue by SeaWorld when the crowd flushed the sea lions into the water, making the rescue impossible.

Thank you.

That doesn't include your time.

Next is Robin.

If you'll give us one second to get your video up.

I'm Robin David Ops CR Club SEAL Society Chair, and you'll see the video continuation of that meeting.

We support keeping the La Jolla Cove open, and we urge you to ensure that it stays open by staffing rangers at the Cove daily.

Thank you, Chair.

Um also great work, Commissioner Eckertly.

Appreciate it.

Um I want to just briefly speak um as I have been doing pretty much every month at the with the what was called crisis at the cove in La Jolla, and I don't think they're being hyperbolic on that.

I I really think this is a dangerous issue.

Continue to say that.

Things like having a park ranger present, um, tape cones, more announcement signage shouldn't be that difficult.

Um I'm again going to, because we're down in San Diego San Diego County next month, going to request uh specifically from the mayor's office that they show up in person to give us uh a layout of what their plan is, what has been tried, what has failed, if they have a plan at all.

And I'll just say that you know, I've met with um council president Joe Locava several times on this, and I know that him and his constituents do not want to see a closure here.

My experience talking to the mayor's office, I'm not sure that they share that viewpoint um because of, and I can see that with the lack of meaningful movement or improvement here.

I also don't want to see see a closure, but I think something needs to be done sooner than later.

So um I'm going to make that request, and I think some of my other commissioners would probably agree with that.

The other offer for myself is I'm be willing to take any kind of commissioners of staff out to the COVID next month when we're down there, not only to take a look firsthand at the C line issues, but also some of the spraying issues that were mentioned by the Alberta line.

So I appreciate their showing up and uh appreciate time to talk on this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Vice Chair Hart.

Thanks so much.

Um, just a couple things.

Um, first of all, like I agree, and I think it would be great both to do a site visit.

I went down and visited that area last time I was there, which was now it's been a couple years, and obviously nothing has been done.

I really appreciate you, Commissioner Mally, for everything you're doing.

It's just disheartening that the situation continues.

Next is Blair Beekman.

And then after that will be Paul Kruger.

If you can please make your way up to the yellow reserve seats, hi, Blair Beekman.

Thanks for the report out by Council Person Campillo, who is very informative.

Is there C line sea level rise issues for the midway area?

And should that be a factor in this thinking at this time?

I think the environmental review ports are important.

I'm questioning your current uh going to court with this until better review of the environmental reports are done.

Council President Campio and the uh recent public safety committee public meeting on the future of ALPR use policies in San Diego Wednesday, November 12th, gave good examples and names of the many different companies that can be available as a future vendor and data coordinator for San Diego AOPR technology.

He seemed to be asking if he could if he could have a larger community conversation on these topics, but yet he was a bit exasperate exasperated in not hearing a more clear conversation from the San Diego community on this subject.

Very much of a thank you to Council President Campillo that he tried to offer good examples of how to build thoughts, ideas, information sharing, and the community process for everyone, no matter your side or position on flock issues.

I felt his inform information and ideas on different ALPR providers was incredibly helpful and encouraging at this difficult time.

I don't think we are at the end of the flock issue in San Diego.

I think there can be an important moment in realizing how all sides can continue to be working towards positive, more clear dialogue and negotiation and conversational good terms at this time.

And from this, I'm hoping we can continue in San Diego to have a more open conversational, trusting community process in the next six to twelve months to more seriously consider the choices of a new AOPR vendor besides Flock while still maintaining good neighborhood public safety practices for San Diego, and that we also can start to become more clear with each other to consider a community surveillance technology as responsible, limited use and minimal placement.

To conclude, uh there's an Oakland public safety meeting tonight, 6 p.m.

on full community uh Oakland discussion on flock issues.

Good luck to our efforts.

Thank you.

Thank you, Paul Krueger.

Um thank you very much.

I'd like to thank Councilmember Campillo and his absence for taking the initiative to explain why he voted the way he did yesterday on the midway uh Pacific Highway Density appeal.

And uh I'm disappointed that the rest of you didn't explain why you voted for or against the appeal.

As I stated yesterday, I think that it is more an issue of policy and politics than it is of anything to do with money.

Yes, the appeal will cost the city uh whether it wins or loses, but I think your vote yesterday reflected how you stand on an issue of uh importance to all San Diegans, whether for or against.

And I do intend to send you an email, each of you, and ask you to please briefly explain the way you voted yesterday, and I'll add it to what I'm gonna write about Councilmember Campillo's comments.

Um then I'd like to restate again my disappointment with my um inability to find out the most basic procedural information about the closed send uh closed session agenda.

For example, that includes my inability to find an answer to who submits items for review on closed session.

Does anyone review the submissions if they come from the council president or the mayor?

Does the city attorney review the submissions and place them on the agenda?

Who has the final say on the agenda?

I spent much of last week trying to find these answers and uh except for uh somewhat fruitful and polite conversation with the council president's chief of staff, which didn't yield any substantive information.

I got nothing.

And the fact that I would have to submit a public records act we've pressed on something as simple as this is really unacceptable.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

I'm sorry the five-minute timer going to those proof.

Those attending remotely.

We have seven speakers in the queue, starting with Terry Ann Skelly.

After that, Becky Rapp, and then 1384.

Terrian, if you can please unmute.

I can't unmute for you.

I will have to move on to the next caller.

Becky Rapp, if you can please unmute.

Good morning, my name is Becky Rapp, and I work in public health and youth prevention.

Dr.

Danielle Amen, a psychiatrist and founder of Change Your Brain Foundation and Brain MD, shared alarming insights in a recent interview about how drugs, specifically marijuana, can severely impact brain development.

He explained how these substances disrupt neural connections, impair cognitive function, and increase the risk of long-term behavioral and emotional challenges.

Despite this evidence, we are witnessing a dangerous trend of normalization of substance use driven by misinformation.

This normalization combined with a lack of education leaves families ill-equipped to make informed decisions that protect their children's health.

In the interview, Dr.

Amon described what we're facing as a community when he shared a conversation he had with the owner of Justify Run, a triple crown racehorse winner.

The doctor asked the owner if she would ever feed justified junk food.

And she rolled her eyes and said no.

And then asked if she would ever get him stoned.

And she answered, of course not.

Then he asked if she would ever give get justified drunk.

And of course, the answer once again was no.

Dr.

Raman asked the question, why?

And she replied, he would never live up to his potential.

Dr.

Amen's point was powerful.

Why aren't we even more careful with what we allow our children and families to be exposed to?

This is a story about priorities.

As you consider policies related to youth health, substance access, neighborhood safety, and enforcement.

I urge you to remember this comparison.

Right now, our kids are living in a community filled with high potency marijuana products, flavored nicotine, and other substances that impair development.

The mental health crisis we're facing today is only the beginning of our behavioral health crisis.

If we compete continue down this path, policy must be put into place now.

Your time has concluded.

1384 after that, John Stump and then Kelly McCormick.

1384, please unmute.

Erin Casco, senior resident pilot, Tory Pine's Glad Report.

Former La Jolla Trustee, Tory Pine's Glad Report subcommittee.

You pour me in, Joe La Cava.

It's time to stop the illegal commercialization and privatization of Tory Pine's glide report.

Joe LaCaba, you knowingly signed the contract while I'm under threat of violence and control.

I won the agenda speech for January at University Community Planning Group, so the truth will be coming out.

My home was invaded.

I've been poisoned with a biohazard over the commercialization of a public park.

I'm under threat of violence, dying of a deadly virus and stage four cancer.

Your leaseholder has committed genocide.

He has me uh my life under threat of violence, false reports, false arrests, further lawsuits, and I have lobbyists terrorizing my home.

This is a blatant attack on and a violation of my constitutional rights and freedoms, which is an automatic forfeiture of your chair of office and a violation of your oath of office.

This is public extortion by city council leaseholder contract and considered an act of treason for knowingly allowing this to happen.

This needs to stop immediately, not tomorrow, not next year.

I have hundreds of signatures demanding authorities to stop the illegal commercialization and privatization of San Diego Parks.

It's time to implement the San Diego recreational waiver as a working solution for Tory Pines glide report and end the dispute.

Thank you, Ernie Casco.

Next is John Stump.

If you can please unmute after that, Kelly McCormick and then Catherine Rose.

Hi.

I want to amplify Paul Krueger's remarks about the closed session.

When will we get the results of the closed session?

The I'm sorry.

I've got an active office.

I'm sorry that took my time.

Next, I want to talk about affordability.

The council needs to add to any analysis for any item.

What it does on affordability to regular residents and businesses.

Every time you enter into agreements like the SDG and E franchise Agreement, you reduce the affordability for uh residents and businesses.

And there are hidden costs.

Today you talked about pure water, which is mainly an electric pumping process.

And its costs go up because you have entered into an affordability scheme with SDGE.

Why you need to add to your analysis?

What something is going to do to the affordability for residents and businesses.

Finally, I again want to take umbrage about the racial bias shown by the San Diego police department, where the size black on black crime.

Um it's just wrong.

That report about the Lo Cresta hotel murder showed the victims' race and the perpetrators' race.

You're talking about Kelly McCormick, if you can please unmute.

Hello, this is Telly McCormick.

I'm a public health educator with a focus on youth substance use prevention.

I would like to share important new findings about the use of nicotine vaping products by teenagers published by JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Among teenagers who vape nicotine, the rate of those who vape daily has increased substantially.

A higher number of teams also made unsuccessful attempts to quit.

The JAMA study included more than 15,000 teens.

Of those who use e-cigarettes, the rate of those who vape every single day rose from about 15% in 2020 to nearly 29% last year.

That's almost double the rate of daily nicotine use in just a few years.

In addition, more than half of these teens reported trying to quit last year without success.

Numerous studies demonstrate that vaping is harmful to the mental and physical health of teens.

For example, a 2024 study in the tobacco control journal showed that teens who vape frequently have increased levels of lead and uranium in their urine.

The amount of nicotine in today's popular devices far exceeds that of traditional cigarettes.

And the liquid nicotine salts are absorbed more easily into the bloodstream.

Here's a quote from an online vape retailer.

It's no wonder more teens are going from occasional use to daily use and are struggling to break the habit.

Thank you for listening and for supporting uh reductions in uh flavored tobacco.

Please put an emphasis on more enforcement because the flavored vapes are still being sold in stores.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The five-minute timer also did conclude there's six speakers in the queue.

No additional speakers will be taken.

Catherine Rhodes, if you can please unmute.

After that is Peggy Walker, and then phone number ending in 7499.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

This is Catherine Ribbs.

In order to allow 24-7 overnight parking for homeless RVs at Barracks H and Liberty Station NTC is part of the bloom settlement.

All the city of San Diego needs to do is an amend a coastal development permit with the California Coastal Commission.

That's it.

A new source of homeless funding revenue has that's never been used, and it's available.

So 2020 Measure C for the committee center expansion that has 31% of revenue for homeless.

So far, 11 million has already been collected with annual revenues of at least 22 million.

This is 22 million you have not put into your budget.

Therefore, the city has money to help the homeless and apply for an amended coastal development permit for barracks H or any other safe parking lot.

And then this is separate.

The deadline to submit ballot propositions for June 2026 ballot passed on October 24th.

Since I missed the deadline to submit ballot propositions, I request that council member Raoul Campio put forth my 2022 ballot proposition to include online travel agencies as hotel man um hotel operators in the municipal code through a public vote.

This is not a tax increase, only a tax clarification.

Hotel visitors would not pay anything more.

Based on the San Diego County Lodging Association analysis, the online travel agencies are taking 20%, at least 20% of the transit occupancy tax paid for by visitors that belongs to the city's general fund.

Based on measure C passing the um tax paid by Hostel should be around 40 million.

A 20% increase would be a free 80 million in taught revenue that the city council is now gifting to out-of-state and out-of-country online travel agencies in 2022.

No one followed up with me, including the IBA or um followed up with me, or the San Diego County Lodging Association that we're ready to help you.

A missed opportunity for 80 million.

And so um uh and I know that the online travel agencies do not want anybody to know that would be the stries and the case.

Your time has concluded.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

Peggy Walker, if you can please unmute.

After that, 7499 and then Zoom user.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

I'm a public health educator and youth mentor, and I'm here to call attention to a new state ban on the dangerous addictive drug Kratum and the related drug 7 hydroxymetrichine.

It's a long word, but it's commonly called 70H, extracted from Kratom.

San Diego banned Kratom in 2016 as a precautionary public health measure.

Thank you for that.

However, as 70H has exploded in popularity in the past few years, Kratom and 70H are now widely available at gas stations and smoke shops, which means it's easily accessible to minors.

I urge the city to renew enforcement against Kratom sales to protect youth from yet another pernicious drug threatening young brains and futures.

Last month, the California Department of Public Health initiated a statewide ban on Kratom.

Dozens of stores and distributors were raided, and over five million dollars worth of Kratom items were embargoed and seized.

Kratum and 70H are psychoactive with effects including addiction, seizures, insomnia, severe withdrawal, and respiratory depression.

Related deaths have been reported in San Diego.

Victims of Kratom and 70H reportedly are showing up in San Diego recovery centers in increased numbers seeking withdrawal treatment.

This underscores Kratom's availability and the need to enhance enforcement of San Diego's and now the statewide ban.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, 7499.

If you can please unmute after that, Zoom user.

Bob Baduski here.

Year after year, we keep hearing about smugglers from Mexico bringing people and other things into this country via Ponga boats.

Several just died.

They were not the first.

Where do they plan to come ashore?

Where along our coast can relatively large boats come ashore without being seen.

You all know the answer.

It's a long stretch of dark beach below the Tory Pines glider port.

How many nights have we seen buses?

Sometimes many buses parked near the glider port, waiting with their empty with their engines running, waiting empty with their engines running.

I've seen it myself.

Is that why any oversight of the management of the Tory Pines glider port has been strictly avoided by this city government?

Is that part of the corruption that we've seen for decades at our public park?

Joe Locava, you could reactivate the Tory Pines glider port any time.

It's in the city charter that the council can create advisory boards.

The glider port is in your district, Joe Lakava.

So none of your fellow council members would oppose you.

Yet for years and years, you do nothing.

Shame on you, Joe Locava.

Reactivate the Tory Pine Glider port and implement a waiver for citizens to use their park without belonging to any private organization that try to muzzle the people.

Thank you.

Thank you, and excess Zoom user.

If you can please unmute.

In a response to all the women that are really concerned about our youth about the marijuana thing.

You know, during that uh invasion sponsored by Joe Biden, who let all the drug dealers in, like four years of just 20,000 a day.

I hope they didn't vote for Joe Biden to facilitate that invasion of the drug dealers.

So now we have all these drug dealers exposing our kids to drugs and the and the other people.

Now what are we going to do about it?

Here's what action we could say.

I proclaim January as a deport them all month in the city of San Diego.

All the illegal aliens, they gotta go by January.

Ice is coming in hard.

The praxin now in Chicago.

When IC's here in January, it's gonna be a robo.

We're gonna roll them all out, send them back to Insenata wherever they gotta go.

And then right now, there's thousands of new young Mexican kids going against the Capitol in Mexico City because they're tired of the drug dealers.

The young Mexican kids are tired of it.

All the politicians in Mexico are criminals.

They're all on the tape.

Some of you guys might be on the take of Mexican drug dealers.

No allowing those guys with the Tory Pines Beast just to just to come ashore.

But anyway, that's gonna be great.

And then we could change, we can have a new song in San Diego.

The new official song will be Ice Ice Baby.

That'll really get everybody going.

We got the camera set up.

The protesters gotta go too.

Well, we can cuff them up and take them, you know.

It's gonna be a they gotta rename that.

Trump's gonna name the thing called Taco Time.

In January, it's gonna be Togua time in San Diego, and we're gonna deport them all.

Thank you.

Next is Madison, if you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you.

Good morning, Council members.

As a follow-up on Lung Cancer Awareness Month, I want to highlight why this conversation shouldn't just happen in November.

Lung cancer continues to take more lives than any other cancer.

And while it affects every demographic in our city, the risks are not distributed equally.

They are shaped by commercial forces that design, market, and place addictive products directly into our communities.

Tobacco and vaping products don't become popular by accident.

They are engineered for dependence and promoted through flavors, packaging, and online messaging that specifically appeal to young people.

Meanwhile, the financial burden of these products, which include the health care costs, lost work, and the toll on families falls on cities like ours, not on the industries creating the harm.

San Diego has made progress, but we still see tobacco and vape retailers concentrated in areas with fewer resources.

And we continue to see new products appear faster than our prevention efforts can keep up.

These patterns reflect deliberate industry strategies.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

That does conclude our agenda public comment for today's meeting.

All right, thank you, City Clerk, for that.

We will now adjourn for the noon recess and reconvene.

Open session at 2 p.m.

or shortly thereafter.

Just a reminder to those who are here in Council Chambers, if you are speaking on an item and somebody seeding you time, please be sure to submit your speakers all together to make sure that all that seated time is together.

We do have quite a number of speakers for item S505, so it does look like we're going to be going to one minute apiece.

And if you are participating remotely, please keep your hand lowered until we actually call the item.

When we call the item that you want to speak to, that is the time to raise your hand.

Thank you so much.

And we'll have a great meeting.

Thank you for coming.

Yes, thank you, Council President.

Uh notifying the council now that I am attending this meeting virtually due to just cause related to child care needs related to a contagious illness.

Thank you very much, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Campia.

We hope for the best there.

Clerk.

Please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell.

Here.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Von Wilper.

Present.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Councilmember Campio.

Here.

Councilmember Moreno.

Councilmember Ilo Rivera.

Council and Council President Lakava.

Present.

Also attending the meeting, our assistant city attorney Leslie Fitzgerald, independent budget analyst, Charles Matica, Council of Affairs Advisor and the Mayor's Office, Codes Eiser, and myself, your city clerk, the NF Wenthes.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, City Clerk.

Uh quorum is now present.

I think I see a lot of uh first-time visitors to the city council chambers.

So uh I'm gonna read the uh uh how we conduct ourselves in the council chambers during the course of the hearing.

We uh I want to remind everyone about the city's practices and procedures for public comment at City Council meetings.

The city welcomes public participation at City Council meetings.

Speakers may address the council during public comment and also connection with the specific item of business on the agenda.

However, the city must make sure that no one person or group of people disrupt the meeting in a way that prohibits other speakers from expressing their ideas and their opinions.

So to make sure that everyone here has an opportunity to address the council, I will alert an individual or individuals if I think their conduct becomes disruptive.

If the disruption continues, I will roll the individual out of order, and if the disruption continues further, I may declare a recess so we can restore order.

At that point, I will direct the individual to leave the room, and if the individual refuses, police will escort the individual out of the building.

Yeah, that sounds kind of harsh, huh?

If we have to repeat this process of warning and recessing the meeting, all members of the public will be excused from the council chamber, credential media will be allowed to remain.

Once again, we have these procedures and practices to protect the rights of other speakers who wish to address the council and to allow the council to conduct the public's business.

So thank you for bearing with me on that.

So with that, clerk, please introduce item S505.

Thank you, Council President.

Before I introduce item S505, I did just want to note for the for the public that the agenda items were reordered from this morning.

The order of items for this afternoon would be item S505, item 331, followed by the public facilities financing authority, meeting items of 330 FA1, approval of the minutes, and on agenda for PFFA.

Item S505 is the update to Bobolo Park, paid parking user fees for special events and parking passes.

If you'd like to speak on this item, now is the time to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon, or if you're hearing council chambers to submit your speaker slip.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you for that introduction and that clarification.

So with that, staff, please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need for the presentation.

Conrad Warren, I'll need 10 minutes for the presentation.

All right, begin when you're ready.

Great, thank you.

Good afternoon, Council President and Council members.

My name is Conrad Ware, program manager with the Parks and Recreation Department.

Presenting with me today is Balbo Park Deputy Director, John Richards.

Also in attendance from staff from various departments who have assisted with this effort, including the City Attorney's Office, Office of the City Treasurer, Special Events and Filming, Department of Finance, and the Transportation Department.

We're here today to present on a Baobo Park paid parking user fee update, specifically regarding actions related to special event fees and the establishment of annual and quarterly and monthly parking passes.

On this slide, we outline the proposed actions before you today.

To note, we are proposing that the new fees become effective January 5th, 2026, which is the first Monday of the new year.

This effective date will provide staff the necessary time to properly inform the pub public, install payment related infrastructure and signage, ensure the finished development of the resident verification portal, and continue to coordinate with various Bobo Park stakeholders following the outcome of today's hearing.

As a reminder, on September 15, 2025, Council authorized new parking rates for Balboa Park lots and park roads.

However, those rates were contingent on two conditions.

First, the availability of quarterly and annual passes for park visitors, and the launch of a resident verification portal.

On this slide, we outline the rates that were approved by the council on September 15th.

To summarize, council approved the following.

For verified residents parking on level one lots, the cost is $8 a day or $5 for 4 hours.

For verified residents in level 2 lots, $5 all day.

And in level in the level 3 lot, located inspiration point, $5 all day and the first three hours is free.

For non-verified residents, rates are approximately double.

Level one lots at $16 a day or $10 for four hours, level two at $10 a day, and level three is $10 all day with the first three hours free.

Lastly, parking rates on park roads are $2.50 an hour, up to a daily max of $10 with no time limit.

In response to council's September 15th action and request, we are proposing new quarterly, annual and monthly parking passes as seen on the slide.

Specifically, an annual pass for verified residents is proposed to be 150 dollars a year, whereas the non-resident pass is proposed to be $300 a year.

Staff was originally considering a $300 annual resident pass, but after feedback and consultation from the Baobo Park Committee meeting on November 6th, the proposed annual rate for verified residents was reduced by 50% to 150 dollars a year.

These passes can be used in any Baobo Park parking lot, including level one lots and park roads, but cannot be used in the parking lot located at the San Diego Zoo or on street parking outside of the park, such as Sixth Avenue and Park Boulevard.

In addition, the passes are not eligible to be used in parking spaces or lots that are reserved by a special event, such as December nights.

Passes will be made available through the city treasurer's online parking permit portal.

This slide compares annual parking permit cost to daily parking rate cost.

For example, a resident parking three times a week in a level one lot would spend about 1,200 annually parking at the daily rate.

The proposed resident annual pass is 150 dollars, providing significant savings.

Even at lower tiers, users save hundreds annually with a pass.

In level two lots, there are still considerable savings for residents, up to 480 dollars a year for those frequent visitors visiting the park three or more times a week.

On this slide, I'd like to provide a brief overview of the online verification portal that will allow users to purchase passes and daily permits.

To receive resident rates, users will complete an online verification using residential information such as a driver's license or a utility bill.

After the resident pays a one-time $5 verification fee, which would be valid for three years, resident verification will take place between 24 and 48 hours.

The user will then select their pass, which will then be tied to their license plate of the vehicle, and the pass will become active on the purchase date.

Moving on to special events, as Baobo Park's parking lots are now revenue generating, closure for events could cause a potential loss of revenue.

To address this, we developed a formula based on the number of spaces affected or made available, unavailable to the public by the special event, an applicable rate adjustment of 50% for nonprofits and morning only use, and the applicable lot or meter rate where the event is located.

For example, a nonprofit organization hosting an event within the Oregon Pavilion parking lot until 10 a.m.

would pay $704 for the parking related permit fees specifically.

This would include all 352 spaces at the lot.

Additionally, special event fees would still apply.

New special event fees would apply to reservation of space applications submitted to the special event and film office on or after January 5th, 2026.

Projected revenue impacts from new special event fees is limited to approximately 30 out of 40 special events held annually within the park.

In order to simplify planning for event organizers and provide affordable options, we are also proposing flat fee options for standard run, walk, and marathon like events.

Event organizers will have the ability to pick two template route options to minimize costs and expedite fee calculations and approvals.

For a smaller route, proposed rates are $500 for a half day and a full day for $1,000.

For larger events, such as a $5K, half day rates are proposed to be $1,800 and a full day for $3,000.

These flat rates are designed to be more cost effective than custom calculated events and reduce administrative burden on staff and event organizers while maintaining affordability for them as well.

In October, the Office of Special Events held seven meetings with event organizers representing nearly 40 annual Baobo Park special events.

The purpose of these meetings were to inform organizers of the proposed fees.

We also sent email notifications and have planned follow-up communications for event organizers ahead of a January 2026 implementation if the new rates are approved.

As a reminder, the zoo operates under a long-term lease that expires in 2034.

The amendment approved by the council on September 8th provided the zoo more flexibility in how it manages parking.

The zoo is no longer required to charge those parking the same flat rate, which allows discounts for special rates for residents, employees, and volunteers.

As such, the zoo has full discretion over paid parking operations, including special events and policies subject to existing lease terms.

As we move forward, state city staff is committed to clear, accessible public outreach leading up to full implementation.

With assistance from the communications department, staff will initiate a communication strategy that will include ongoing presentations to the Baobo Park Committee for ongoing feedback, on-site signage improvements throughout parking areas, updated pages on the city website, which can be found at WWW.sandiego.gov backslash parking, backslash Baobo Park, press releases to ensure media and broader community awareness, and social media campaigns for timely updates and reminders.

Our goal is to ensure residents and visitors are well informed before visiting the park.

As mentioned in our previous presentation, staff will measure five key indicators to evaluate program performance and provide opportunity for potential revisions.

These are proposed to include parking occupancy and unique vehicle counts by tier to evaluate demand and pricing effectiveness, resident participation in annual quarterly and monthly past programs to ensure the discount is reaching its intended audience, revenue collected versus projections to assess financial sustainability, compliance with enforcement based on citation data, and stakeholder feedback gathered through regular meetings.

To summarize, simply by implementing paid parking, the city will have additional data and information to make informed policy recommendations for the future.

These metrics will be reviewed quarterly with a formal one year evaluation report provided to council that includes recommendations for rate adjustments if necessary.

In terms of next steps, council consideration is obviously today, and if approved, followed by kiosk and signage installations through December, with program launch expected for January 5th, 2026.

With that, I'd like to ask Emily Penattanesi from the mayor's office to provide us some additional updates and concluding comments.

Thank you, Conrad, for a quick additional update that was not covered in the presentation during the September 15th City Council meeting.

You all asked that we work with San Diego High School as well as San Diego Unified School District to find a solution for the high school students.

After discussing per San Diego Unified's request, the parks and recreation department will designate a set amount of free parking spaces and inspiration point on a first come, first served basis.

While these spaces cannot be legally reserved for the students, this does provide a free option for the students.

Additionally, if this is not sufficient for the students after initial implementation, the school district will coordinate directly with the city to let us know, and from there we will happily negotiate a cost neutral agreement to move forward with them.

And then lastly, should the district or high school want to purchase parking spaces for the students, they can also do that as well.

And the parks and recreation department will happily coordinate that as well.

Thank you.

I think that concludes our presentation.

All right, great.

Thank you for the presentation.

I'll now turn it over to the office of the IBA for additional comments.

Sorry.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh Bakup Patel from the IBA's office.

As you just heard, the proposal before you today is in response to council's action on September 15th, which required staff to return with parking pass options before implementing the approved daily park paid parking rates within Bebo Park.

As council considers the impact the proposed pass rates may have on city residents and non-residents, you should also balance your decision against the potential of further budgetary impacts if rates are lowered beyond what is currently proposed.

As it stands, our office estimates that offering the proposed parking pass options would decrease FY26 revenue by 1.4 million dollars from the initial package that was approved by council in September, bringing our total revenue estimate for the program to approximately $4 million.

Although actual revenue will vary depending on behavior, and this is slightly more optimistic than staff's revenue estimate of $2.9 million.

Both estimates are significantly less significantly less than the 12 and a half million dollars in revenue that was assumed in the budget to be generated from the program in FY26.

And it will be important to revisit the city's overall revenue and expenditure projections at the mid-year in case budget mitigations become necessary.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you because we always appreciate the uh office's uh participation in these conversations.

So with that, um city clerk, please proceed with public public comment.

Excuse me.

Thank you, Council President.

If I can ask the following individuals to please come up to the yellow reserve seats at the front of the room, and if I can have Mike Warburton, please come up to the microphone.

The next individuals, Kira Olsen, Michael Schmidt, Peter Kaminsky, David Lee, Jennifer Estella Stallric, and Katie Kathy Vandenhuewel.

If you can please come up to the yellow reserve seats and Mike, you'll have one minute proceed when ready.

Thank you.

Mike Warburton, uh San Diego Model Railroad Museum.

Two groups come to mind this time around.

The first is the my membership group.

Uh a family membership is $85 for a year.

Now, even at $150, you have to do the math of the consumer.

It's more than doubling the cost of a membership for them.

So that's that's one group that I'm thinking of.

Um, but the other is we have a ton of people who come through our doors for free every year.

We participate in residence-free days, um, library programs, EBT programs, and kids 12 and are always free.

I'm not joking, I did the math.

We could fill Snapdragon Stadium with the people that have come through already this year for free to the museum.

The concern is if we have a decrease in paid admission, that will affect our ability to service free admission.

So all of these things are problems that we need to track, and we need to make sure that city staff is actively collaborating with us in the park to make sure that we understand the impacts, and that city council not just getting a report, but also puts it on the docket to discuss it.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

Kira.

Hi, I'm here speaking on behalf of the volunteers in the San Diego Master Gardener Association and at the beekeeping society.

A lot of our members come from further out in the community and are on fixed incomes.

And this is going to force us to move our meetings somewhere else.

We're volunteers.

We give our time to the community.

I have over a thousand hours with the Master Gardeners, and I'm newly on the board of the Beekeeping Society.

It's really important that we provide these educational opportunities to all the members of our community.

And not only are the people who receive what we're volunteering not going to be able to come because of the cost of parking, which seems silly.

The people who volunteer are gonna have to pay to volunteer.

So it seems like there's got to be a way to figure out validation or volunteer passes or something so that the we don't lose our volunteers.

We're critical to teaching the next generation about the importance of our environment.

And I know that we're B City USA and you guys.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

Michael Schmidt.

No, you're a good money.

No, you're good.

Hello, you guys.

Um, I'm Michael Schmidt.

Um, I think this is wrong that you give that you are providing Balboa Park now to make people pay this much for parking or for the past for I just think you guys should not do that for Pub, I mean for the city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Peter Kaminsky.

Good afternoon, council members, council president.

Thank you so much for coming to Balboa Park Committee the other evening.

Really important uh that your voices uh you'll you you are seen and that uh the voices are heard.

While the cultural partnership remains opposed to the introduction of paid parking in Balboa Park, we very much trust that the city and council will actively analyze and address the negative effects per the slide that was shown by the city.

Today I'm just going to offer two brief comments.

First, I want to actually appreciate that express the appreciation of Mayor's Office, Park and Rick Special Events and Transportation, who've worked to refine this proposal.

I think there's potentially work to do, but right now it's a good uh it's a good effort.

We also very much appreciate the members of the Balboa Park Committee who with very clear concern was expressed, but also the willingness by city team members to change that proposal.

I think if we can move forward with a vision that this is not the end, and that's not just driven by revenue, but many other reasons about Balboa Park that are critically important for our community.

That's better.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, David.

Hello.

Uh I would like to remind you that Balboa Park is not a city park, it is a regional park.

And you've had the uh verification thing.

I think that's very good, but you need to include more regions around San Diego that feed into all the clubs at Balboa Park.

Three people commented to me, and I'm a club member myself, that half or more of the people that come to the clubs come from outside the city, and they still are the people that are being serviced by Balba Park.

That would be easily added to the verification if you just decide on what radius you want to use.

I wanted to remind you that we have visitors to Bubble Park, we have students who go on educational tours, we have volunteers, and those people should not be charged.

You could have a system that has the people volunteering, get a sign off by the groups that they're volunteering for, and they could be given a free pass.

The students who are there on an educational situation that are on buses should not be charged.

It's that simple.

And then finally, you have um that's cousin.

Thank you.

If you have any right comments we'd like us to distribute, we'd be happy to do so.

Jennifer Estella Stallwork, you have time seated to you by Julia Gregory, if you can please raise your hand.

And Lynn Koch, thank you so much.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Jennifer Estella Stalwork, and I'm a member of the Redwood Bridge Club.

I'd like to acknowledge the process the city has made with the new proposed residential parking permit fee.

It's a great step forward.

However, I live in La Mesa and like many residents of surrounding cities.

I'm deeply connected to Balboa Park.

In fact, about 40% of the members of our bridge club come from outside the city of San Diego.

Yet we all spend time and money here and help sustain the park's institutions.

This is why the proposed $300 non resident fee is too high.

We're asking for a reasonable fee of $200 annually.

Even though many of us don't live within city limits, we do pay taxes to San Diego County, and we support San Diego's economy every time we visit.

Balboa Park is truly a regional asset and county residents help keep it vibrant.

For the past two years, construction workers have taken up most of the West Mesa parking from early morning to late afternoon, making it extremely difficult for visitors and club members, the people who actually use and support the park to find parking.

Given this, we request that the council consider a four-hour parking permit in the West Mesa area.

This would increase turnover, ensure access for the taxpaying public, and better support the community the park is meant to serve.

As a retired nurse practitioner, I consistently saw that patients who stayed engaged, who showed up, participated, and stayed connected, had better health outcomes.

This has shaped my own retirement since moving to San Diego eight years ago.

Staying active by coming to Balboa Park has been essential to my physical and emotional well-being.

Engagement is essential for health, and Balboa Park makes that possible for thousands of us.

Please support a fairer permit fee for county residents and implement reasonable parking limits that improve access for everyone.

Thank you for your time and for your continued commitment to this incredible park.

Thank you, Kathy Vanden Hill.

Kathy, you have time ceded to you by Theresa Wolf.

Thank you.

James Kahn.

Michael Ricky.

Reiki.

Thank you.

Okay.

So good afternoon, Council members.

I am Kathy Vandenhuval.

I have spent the last 25 years living and volunteering in Greater Golden Hill on the Community Planning Committee on the Golden Hill Community Development Corporation and as the Balboa Park representative for Golden Hill.

But I am not here speaking for any group or organization, but just for myself.

I'm here to speak on my objection of charging for parking in Balboa Park.

I understand that the item before you is in regards to the parking passes and event fees, and I am asking you to consider lowering the price for the parking fees.

I want to thank the city council for delaying the paid parking until the discounts for the residents were available and for ensuring three hours of free parking at Inspiration Point.

I also want to personally thank President Lacava, who showed up in person to the Balboa Park Committee to hear from people firsthand the impacts that this policy is going to have to our park and our communities.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Ocava.

I would really like you to add a sunset clause to any paid parking in Balboa Park.

I'd also like you guys to recognize that it's not happening in a vacuum.

The council has also been considering paid parking at Mission Bay Park and at our beaches.

And from what we hear in the media, the consensus is we don't want residents to pay.

And I am wholeheartedly against having to pay for parking in any beach at any park.

However, it shows the inequity between our coastal communities and Golden Hill.

And I just wanted to point that out as well.

Greater Golden Hill does not have any parks other than being adjacent to Balboa Park.

In our community plan update in 2016, as part of our recreations need assessment, quote, an overwhelming majority of residents supported the use of Balboa Park for local parks and recreation.

Our community plan references Balboa Park 121 times.

Golden Hill does not have access to a library, and there are no convenient access to public meeting rooms within the community.

However, we do have access to meeting rooms in Balboa Park.

Due to the challenges of topography for Golden Hill and the lack of direct public transportation to the park, this parking fee will affect my neighborhood more significantly than other parts of the city.

In the Balboa Park Master Plan from 89, it was assumed that there would be trolley access to the park by the year 2000.

A hundred years ago, we had street cars in Greater Golden Hill that provided us with better access than we have today.

As you consider voting on these passes, I'd like you to think about the families in Golden Hill who will now have less access to their park.

The seniors who might not be able to afford participating in their bridge club, and the educational events that may no longer be able to be holding their events in Balboa Park because of how expensive it will be for these event parking passes.

These fees are going to hit the people who can afford it the least.

Please consider lowering the passes for residents, elderly, low-income, military families, and please consider adding a sunset clause, so maybe this can be reversed in a year or two.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Elizabeth Givens.

Philip Philip Agney, Catherine Cabinean, Steven Musser, Blair Beakman, and Paul Gwynn Gunn, my apologies.

Paul Gunn and Paul Krueger, if you can all please come to the front row.

Please proceed.

Yeah, it's highly likely that the costs to implement parking fees will be greater than the revenues raised.

I include both the obvious cost and hidden costs.

Obvious ones, fewer visitors, resulting in lower museum and restaurant revenue likely leading to staff layoffs and shortened hours.

Other collateral damages, these various nonprofit clubs and organizations that you're hearing from today, losing membership and perhaps moving to another place.

Lower income people will not be able to visit.

And of course, that leads to the loss of enrichment, especially to the children who can gain so much from what they experience here.

I think probably all of us, including you, can point to enriching experiences in your youth that have served you for your entire lives.

I could go on and on, four pages worth, but I don't have that time.

You seem narrowly focused on revenue from parking fees, like a magic bullet, but you are not considering the collateral damage and all of their costs.

It's long, thank you.

Um also parking fee is quite complex.

It involves an address error for that.

Data protection, data security, and all of the costs that could go when there's a lot you're not thinking of all of these collateral.

David Walters.

I have four minutes.

Yes, Dennis Williams, Dennis Williams, if you can please raise your hand.

Mary Platter Reger and Elizabeth Helly Healy.

Kelly.

Kelly, my apologies.

You'll have four minutes, please proceed.

Uh dear council members, on behalf of the Redwood Bridge Club, I want to express our appreciation for the time and consideration you have already dedicated to the Balboa Park parking issue.

After many months of discussion, we are grateful to see the annual permit price lower to the level we originally requested.

Your willingness to listen to community feedback has not gone unnoticed.

We do, however, have a concern regarding the disparity between resident and non-resident pricing.

Currently, San Diego residents would pay 150 dollars, while non-residents would be charged 300.

Approximately 40% of our members live outside the city of San Diego, as do many participants in the hundreds of organizations that operate throughout the park.

For so many county residents, a $300 fee is an undue burden and will prevent many from purchasing a permit.

If the city's objective is revenue generation, we strongly recommend reducing the non-resident fee to 200.

This price point would increase participation and generate more total revenue than a higher fee, which discourages county residents for part from participating in programs and activities within the park.

Currently, most available parking is being used by construction workers.

As a result, park visitors, especially our players, often must walk a quarter to a half mile to reach our facility.

This reduces attendance and diminished diminishes the park experience for regular users.

Number two, when meters are installed, they're scheduled to be installed for all day limit.

We request a four-hour limit to encourage healthy turnover without penalizing legitimate park activities.

If possible, we would like the permits to be reserved for park users, not employees or contractors in the surrounding areas.

Their purpose is to support equitable access to Balboa Park, not to subsidize long-term work site parking.

Given these conditions, it's important to emphasize that many of our players will be reluctant to purchase permits if convenient parking is not readily available.

Uh reliably available.

Balboa Park is a regional treasure relied upon by residents across San Diego County.

Policies that support accessibility, fairness, and broad participation benefit both the park users and the city's long-term interests.

Thank you for your attention and your continued commitment to Balboa Park.

We appreciate your consideration of these adjustments to ensure that all who rely on the park can continue to access it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Philip.

You have time seated to you by Mary Hall.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council members.

I'll be very short.

No to any fees for parking.

But if we have to, we participate.

The $150 permit is somewhat reasonable.

The $300 for non-resident is not reasonable.

We are in a period right now economically where low income, middle income, and fixed income people are more and more and more squeezed.

And to have a city administration and council members who ran their last campaigns on providing more affordability to its citizens, and now turning around and being the ones that are raising the prices does not make sense to me.

So we have to we have to be a little bit more, I think, um aware of the overall context, the financial context that this population, myself included, are finding ourselves in.

Thank you.

Thank you, Catherine.

You have time ceded to you by Susan White.

Please raise your hand, as well as Lucer Sha Luck.

Thank you so much.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

My name is Kathy Kabinian, and I want to genuinely say thank you to each of you of all the council members for responding to our proposal back in September when we came to you with a permit option for Balboa Park.

I primarily use the West Mesa and the Bridge Club, occasionally a restaurant, occasionally a museum.

I am not a resident of Sandy, the city of San Diego.

I am on the West Mesa at least three times a week, sometimes four.

So I am one of the boots on the ground, so to speak.

You feel that you have a dilemma because you feel you must have more money.

I disagree.

But I also agree with several council members who have voiced over the last week that they don't like any parking fees at Balboa Park.

But here we are today, debating how those permits will be priced and implemented.

My main point is this.

After we have gone through all of this, please don't mess it all up.

Here's the problem you have.

Non-residents like me who come to Balboa Park in the West Mesa are major parkers at Balboa.

And charging $300 for non-resident permits will destroy your plan to make money.

And we will use me and my particular situation as an example.

I spend four hours.

Currently, these are my options.

Option one, ignore the permits.

Pay $10 a day, three days a week.

That's $30 times 50 weeks, $1,500 a year now.

Doesn't that make you feel bad to charge seniors $1,500 a year?

Option two, purchase the annual payment.

$300 a year for parking.

It's still a lot.

Option three, stop going to Balboa Park altogether and play bridge in Bonita.

Because I already found eight people in my area that would like to play bridge with no parking fees at all, and also no Redwood Bridge Club membership fee, and no battling the construction and employees who are in our limited parking space on Balboa Drive.

We can hardly find parking as it is.

So which one do you think I'm going to choose?

$1,500?

No way.

300?

Probably not.

Or none.

I will choose none.

And so will a lot of the other elderly rich players because Redwood Bridge Club is not the only club, Ridge Club in San Diego.

So what does this result give you?

My socialization and brain enhancement has gotten limited.

Redwood Bridge Club might have to cut back or close altogether.

And what have you gained?

Now you have lost the opportunity to get any money from me at all.

$300 per year for non-residents is a non-starter.

It's too much.

Back to the my main point in the bottom.

Thank you.

Your count your time hasn't mess this up by getting greedy.

Thank you for your consult.

Stephen Muser.

Good afternoon.

We're here because the council already put parking fees on Balboa Park.

And that's after doubling parking meters, taking away the free Sundays, adding hours on the parking meters.

That's after adding the trash fees with the bait and switch on that ballot measure.

I can hardly open the paper today.

Two articles.

The first one on the front page.

Amid Red Inc.

City halted review revenue review on Mission Bay.

We've got a big budget deficit, and we're just not doing the right things to get the money.

And instead, what we're doing is squeezing all of our residents.

My plea is not to you all, although I'd like to see you undo that stuff.

My plea is to the other voters in this city.

Don't vote for incumbents.

Claire Beekman.

Hi, thank you.

Thank you.

Whenever I come on and get a little bit overly strong about items, uh, you guys come back with some pretty good presentations that was happened for this item and explanations.

And it sounds like you guys are on a good track.

Thank you.

Uh I heard community uh who've been working uh to solve issues with this, and they they are being addressed.

Thank you.

Um I'm concerned that um what does the future hold uh for these things?

I think a very nice idea was offered about the idea of sunsetting the program if possible.

Um we've done that with the uh recent California state of California redistricting items that will be uh sunset in ten years.

Can we think always that we can be reducing prices to the two dollar range?

Uh you're talking about that here, but um it's mentioned, but good luck on Rulia.

We always can be talking about these things.

It's always in the front of our minds.

Uh it's good, it's good practices.

Thank you.

Next is Paul Gunn.

Paul, you have people seating you time.

Brian Miller, please raise your hand.

Peter Smith.

Vincent Umise, thank you.

And Adam Hearst.

Thank you so much.

You'll have five minutes, please proceed.

Thank you.

I would like to first acknowledge the city council and in particular Joe Lakaba and Stephen Whitbone for their commitment to the environment and the good work you've done to help Honeybees in San Diego.

My name is Paul Gunn, I'm the president of the San Diego Beekeeping Society, which meets in Balboa.

One of 38 nonprofits being pushed out of the park because of the proposed parking fees.

The groups I represent are nonprofit clubs that have been meeting for decades, some over 60 years, who are now being forced to pay parking fees because our current city officials have blown out the budget.

If the goal is to end the deficit, then there are other places you can look to tighten the city's expenditure that do not disproportionately affect local residents.

The fee structure was rolled out to the Balboa park committee on November 6th, and with very bad response.

The park committee suggested that the zoo should participate as it stands now.

They're not.

The park committee recommendation was to set a fee at $99 for residents, the same price as a zoo membership that comes with free parking.

Meanwhile, your current proposal is still at $150.

I'm worried that this after this meeting you will settle on $99 as if it's some kind of grace to us, and it's not.

We want free parking that protects local access.

There should absolutely be no fee for people to just get the privilege of tiered parking prices.

It just won't happen.

People won't pay.

They'll either come to the park, they'll pay one time, two times, then they'll stop coming.

Either way, the plan is going to fail, and it will directly damage the fabric of this community.

I hope that you can reverse costs, look into the expenditures of the expenditures of the city and revise the decision to charge locals for parking at Balboa.

We as residents don't get to choose how you spend our money, but we should absolutely voice our concerns now that San Diego is becoming more and more unaffordable.

A validation system for people attending club meetings would work.

It would be so simple to integrate and would barely take from the projected revenue.

So please make it free for all of the participants of our educational nonprofits for all of the meetings and events for a validation system for in-person attendance.

That's all we ask for.

Thank you, Paul Krueger.

Paul, you have time to you by Kate Callan.

Please raise your hand.

And if I can have the following individuals, please come up.

Kathy McDermott, I think, Jesse Jones.

That will be the end of our speakers here before we go to those participating virtually.

Please proceed.

Hi, thank you very much for listening to the public and remembering that you have not yet approved paid parking in Balboa Park, and you have a chance today to save all this heartache for so many people.

Quickly through the reasons why this proposal remains inequitable.

To charge non-city residents $300 a month.

These are people who live on our borders who grew up here.

They live in La Mesa, El Cajon.

They live in Chula Vista National City.

They work here in San Diego.

They pay taxes here in San Diego.

They go to businesses here in San Diego.

Some of them work for the city.

Number two, the impact on the arts.

It's been explained to you.

You pledge not to cut arts funding, but listen to the devastation that this would do to uh attendance and membership.

Number three, these special event prices are too much for nonprofit charities.

Number three, the impact on uh volunteer educational and other nonprofits.

They're gonna lose the people whose only source of recreation is the free park.

So let me close by saying please do not implement these uh parking fees this year.

You're looking at a revenue gain of between 2.9 and 4 million dollars.

Don't take that money.

I think that a the bulk of San Diego's would live with the trade-off that you're gonna have to make other cuts this year.

Our libraries may be closed for more days for this fiscal year.

I think that people can live with that more than they can with the loss of parking and access to Balboa Park, and then next year you'll have a chance to completely revisit.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Katie.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council President, members, the city council.

My name is Katie McDonald.

I'm the president and CEO of Forever Balboa Park.

We thank you for your continued care, support, and work regarding Balboa Park.

Um, as we've stated in the past, Forever Balboa Park is not in favor of paid parking in the park.

However, we are well aware of the budget constraints and concerns that the city has.

We do appreciate the tremendous work of the city staff to work through the creation of this program and also these various iterations of going back and forth and testing out different levels of funding to mitigate the negative impacts on people.

My biggest fear now is that having made this enormous decision to charge for parking in Balboa Park, that the funds will be low enough that we're still gonna have to cut park and rec's budget, and that in the end it's gonna be a negative for Balboa Park.

May we adopt the philosophy of continual improvement and make sure we track this and track it carefully so that we continue to make the park better and make this policy work better for everybody.

Thank you.

Just wanted to confirm Jesse Jones, you were ceding your time to Paul Gunn, or did you want to speak?

Hi there, my name is Jesse Jones.

I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist here in California.

I moved down here nine years ago when I became a student, and part of the reason I stayed here in San Diego and chose to build my career here and pay taxes here and become a community member here was because of Balboa Park.

When I was a student, I couldn't afford many things, but Balboa was free, it was accessible, and I really want any emphasis to remain at a public park should be public.

So please, whenever you're making your decision, remember that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ethan Quesada and Terry Thompson submitted speaker slips in opposition, but did not wish to speak.

We also received 45 comments in opposition via our e-comment form, which have been distributed to the council.

I will start the five-minute timer and go to those participating online.

We currently have 12 speakers in the queue, starting with Jeremy Hawley, then Catherine Rhodes and Nicole Hayes.

Jeremy, if you can please unmute.

Hello, thank you, City Council members, for seeing me today.

Um I am speaking in opposition of the current proposed structure.

Um clearly there was already a downfall in shortfall in the cost of what was expected to be generated from the second graders and the independent financial budgeting that presented previously.

Um additionally, you guys have a 300,000 300 million dollar deficit for the government in the city of San Diego.

This will now only generate two million.

I have another place that has two million dollars.

You all city council members, as well as the mayor, annual salary is 1.9 million dollars.

We need to make cuts starting with the top down.

This is unacceptable.

Your platform is affordability, and here you are continuing to just drown us with all these costs, the cost of water, the cost of trash, Balboa, and now you're coming after our beaches too.

Shame on you all.

And for you on Wilper, who's running for Congress.

Hello, this is Catherine Ritt.

Um, and I just wanted to say that um, you know, you have a new excuse me, you have um so much money that just came in for the convention center expansion that um instead of doing this, you could get um right now you give, I believe 3.3 million dollars for the convention center, and instead of um having this, instead of you gifting 3.3 million from the general fund, you could allow um, you could not give the money and instead have the convention center get their money, um which I think they already got like 20 million dollars, and they should be getting probably about 40 million dollars every year that comes there.

So they don't need your 3.3 million dollars anymore.

So, what I would like you to do is not do this right now and see that you actually have more money coming in.

Um that and next year you won't actually have to um gift any money to Time Center.

Nicole Hayes, if you can please unmute after that is Ilka, then Ali Crump and Richard Bloom.

Good afternoon, City Council.

I am Nicole Hayes, a resident of North Park for 15 years and a lifelong San Diego County resident.

Uh, my family uses Balboa Park every day.

And if you recall, I came to speak in front of you at the last time we spoke about this.

My daughter is one of the dancers that performed for you guys at your uh inauguration uh last year.

Um, and that is a topic I want to continue with here.

Uh I'm very concerned about the plan that is set forth.

We use the war memorial building that's in the zoo parking lot, and the zoo is not included in this parking, nor is the parking on park boulevard.

Um, I vote no on any parking fees, but if this is something you guys still need to consider, perhaps consider lowering the cost and uh make it a 40 fee for both residents, non-residents, visitors.

I think you'll get more people paying into that than what you're going to with this current plan.

Um, I am concerned also that you're not going to even get the money that is um that you're trying to get.

Your time has concluded.

Thank you for your comments, Ilka.

If you can please unmute Yes, hello.

My name is Ilka Weston.

Uh, I want to do a shout out to Michael Schmidt, who made it there in person to say exactly what we all feel.

No parking costs at Balboa Park.

Do you know when you visit every great which San Diego it's not, by the way, great city or county, there's something that is for free.

Now, growing up, my parents brought me there a lot.

But even raising a son as a single parent, which parents like Raul and Dr.

Jen and uh uh Vivian, as well as many others, should understand uh you you count on your places that are free and don't have parking costs.

I invested in the zoo membership in museum memberships.

Uh I want to say that everyone on the board should agree to lose 20% of their income and not staff members having a loss in order to stop charges at Balboa Park for single parents and all people included.

Thank you so much.

Your time is concluded.

That also concludes the five minute timer here in Council Chambers.

We currently have eight people in the queue.

No additional speakers will be taken after that.

Alia, if you can please unmute.

Hello, I strongly oppose all aspects of parking fees at Balboa.

Parking passes or not.

You are making Balboa Park and other public services less accessible, especially for minimum wage employees, in order to cover your budget shortfalls.

Who primarily works at Balboa Park?

Answer.

If you plan on voting yes, could you explain to them why you want them to pay to park at work?

City council, do any of you make minimum wage?

I doubt it.

You are actively pushing low-income people out of public spaces.

This is yet another tactless blatant cash grab.

To my rep, Mr.

Whitburn, I understand you intend to vote no.

I appreciate that.

From what I've heard today, every single person opposes 505.

Council members, will your vote match the sentiments expressed by your constituents?

Will you vote in our interest?

Thank you.

Next is Richard Blum, then our whole hostler.

If you can please unmute Richard Blum.

Hello, my name is Richard Blum.

I'm an active member of the Redwood Bridge Club and a member of the board of directors.

As have others, I'd like to thank you for all of the efforts that the city council and the city staff have made to get to this point.

I would like to reiterate points made by Jennifer, David Walters, by Kathy, which is that a fee of $99 to $150 for city residents will probably work for most of our members and be satisfactory.

$300 for our non-residents of the city will probably not work.

That's gonna hurt the club, it's gonna hurt the members, and it's gonna hurt the revenue stream for the city as well, as you've heard.

In addition, as uh has been mentioned, we have a problem with construction workers.

We need help on that.

We need a way to make sure that people aren't taking up spaces for the whole day when people who need the club should be parking there affordable.

Your time has concluded, sir.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Hosler, if you can please unmute after that is John Stump, then Shane Harris.

Thank you very much.

My name is Rachel Hosler.

I am a longtime resident of North Park for over 20 plus years.

Um I strongly oppose the proposed parking permit fees in Balboa Park.

These permit prices are simply just too high.

Um, and it will disproportionately harm low-income families, people on fixed incomes, disabled residents, and seniors.

Requiring personal registration for parking also poses real data and security concerns, especially for vulnerable groups.

Youth and high school students who have already attended several several several disunder underfunded schools, should not be forced to bear additional costs just to access their public park.

Um, you know, volunteers and people who live outside of the city are are punished even more by these fees.

My nonprofit hosts meetups and community events in Balboa Park for financially struggling residents, and these parking costs would force us to move programming out of the park, hurting community access.

Please reject these fees.

Balboa Park should remain open.

John Stump, if you can please unmute John Stump, then Shane Harris and Sally Small.

John Stump, I can't unmute for you.

I will have to move on to the next caller if you can't unmute yourself.

There I dropped off.

Next, John Shane Harris, if you can please unmute.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Good afternoon, Council members.

This is Shane Harris, head of the Office of the Public Advocate.

I want to begin by saying that I have been opposed to paid parking at Balboa Park.

However, given where we are, I support the lower 150 dollar annual fee for city residents because it is far better than the original proposal and better reflects the balance between the city's financial goals and community affordability.

I want to thank David Walters and the Redwood Bridge Club as well as Council President Lakava for their advocacy.

Today I'm asking the council to consider two amendment options.

Option one, go down to 100 per year for city residents and 200 per year for non-city residents.

Option two, keep 150 dollars for city residents and lower the non-city fee to 230 dollars for non-city residents, recognizing regional use from places from cities like Chula Vista and Escondido.

I also urge the city council to explore scaled feed system, including reduced rates for low-income residents by considering these amendments and a schedule still tomorrow.

Sally Small, if you can please unmute.

Good afternoon.

Um definitely a no on parking, given a choice.

Doesn't sound like we have much of a choice.

So if it must be um a four-hour max, okay.

Uh 100 dollars per residence for a year, still too much.

It's not okay.

I guess that could be doable for some people.

For those of us that are low income, uh, whether we're talking elderly families, young families, people that live outside of the uh city zone who can't ride bus number seven going up the route.

Uh they need to be able to get closer into the park.

We need to really work on getting the zoo having the parking and the paid parking with local residents uh getting a discount if that must happen at all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next to Zoom user, if you can please unmute.

Thanks for thanks for taking my call.

Just everybody remembered, just remember like 20 or 30 years ago when uh we were in San Diego, and when right was right and wrong was wrong.

This is just plain wrong.

Look at all the older people, man, they're gonna suffer.

You want your mom to go out, hey mom, go and pick up your girlfriends and go out there.

Go mess around at the park.

Why don't you just walk and drive up there and Sally will pick you up and go?

No worries.

You don't have to collect rental fee from your girlfriends.

This is just wrong, man.

Anybody that votes yes for this is I don't know, Matt.

How about charging the surfers to surf waves?

They're young guys, they got money.

Let's put a fee on the surfers catching waves.

Every wave costs four bucks.

And we'll have, you know, old people don't want to go to the beach.

Huge parking at the beach, no more young kids dancing, they gotta pay.

Next is Dana Givitt.

If you raise your hand after the five-minute timer, I cannot take you, but you can email City Clerk at Sandiego.gov and your comments will be distributed.

Dana, please proceed.

The last San Diego bastions of free enjoyment are Balboa Park, Mission Bay, and the beaches.

These are places almost all families can afford to take their kids for a day with a picnic lunch.

When will the mayor and council stop punishing San Diego residents for not approving the one cent sales tax increase?

San Diegans didn't cause the financial problem San Diego is experiencing.

They didn't vote on the city budget.

They didn't vote to buy 101 Ash Street.

They haven't increased the number of city employees while the population remained constant and infrastructure deteriorated.

Charging for bell parking at Balboa Park, Mission Bay, and San Diego Beaches is beyond the pale.

Please vote no on parking fees for Bell Ball Park.

And when the time comes for Mission Bay and the beaches as well, do it for San Diego's struggling families, please.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment on this item.

All right.

Thank you, City Clerk, and thank you for everybody that uh showed up today in person or participated remotely.

Um we do appreciate uh that input.

Um, because we do have one council member remote.

I wanted to alert you, sir, that I am first in the lights, Councilmember Campbell's next, and then we'll go to you, Councilmember Campio.

Just so we do recognize your hand is up.

Uh I want to thank the amazing staff that did a lot of work, whether you like what they did or you not didn't.

They did do spent a lot of time over the past several months.

You, John, Conrad, Amad, Bethany, um, and everybody at Parks and Rec and Transportation and the Treasurer's Office, and a special thank you to Emily Piazanesi for your leadership throughout this process, uh, and especially at the Bellbo Park Committee.

Um, I've never seen a crowd that was so angry and so frustrated, but so courteous uh in their comments, uh, and want to thank you for that.

Um, I view this as the city council making a decision in September and bringing and making a request of what we wanted to see, or at least the majority of council members what they wanted to see.

And I think we owe the courtesy to operations to take an up or down vote on the proposal that is in front of us.

And so I'm going to use the privilege of the chair to say I'm going to make a motion.

If it gets a second, we take an up or down vote, make your comments, of course.

If that doesn't succeed, then we'll open it up to alternatives or uh modifications or amendments going forward.

But I think that's the courtesy that we ought to extend for the past two months that they've been working very hard to respond to our comments.

As was mentioned in the presentation when paid parking uh was presented to the council on September 15th, there were issues that the majority of council made clear that their vote was really dependent on.

We had to further prioritize San Diego residents.

We recognize that hourly or daily rates were not viable for frequent visitors.

We let's see, let me get shorts great, and that we must not start charging until a user pass is offered and in place.

In developing the idea of passes monthly, quarterly, or annually, finding the right price point, mean balancing between engagement and understanding the potential fiscal impacts, as several mentioned.

We know that paid parking will give the park its long need a dedicated revenue stream, but price too high, we lose visitors, as several of you pointed out.

Price too low, and we lose the funding for the park.

As was mentioned, an initial proposal was presented by staff to the Bellboard Park Committee earlier this month.

Those rates prioritize residents over non-residents and offered flexibility with monthly, quarterly, and annual pass options.

Members of the committee and park users in attendance made it clear that these rates were too high.

They pretty soundly rejected the proposed $300 annual rate for city residents.

They wanted an annual rate akin to that recommended originally by the Redwood Bridge Club back in September, or even lower.

They wanted to see greater flexibility and lower rates for families that use the park more frequently on a monthly or quarterly basis.

And they wanted to ensure that anything we do directly benefits Balboa Park.

Now I didn't hear those recommendations as and several people mentioned this.

I went there in person to actually hear it for myself so that I can make sure that I understood the frustration and the suggestions and the perspectives about how people use Balboa Park.

And as much as I took those suggestions and accounts to heart, it's clear that city staff did as well.

The monthly, quarterly, and annual pass proposal before us today today reflects the adjustments that were made in response to what they heard at Balboa Park Committee that night and we've heard today, and we've been hearing through a variety of sources.

This proposal also addresses the concerns that this council raised back in September regarding the creation of passes, prioritizing city residents, not starting uh charging for parking until the portal was open and people could purchase those passes, delaying the implementation of paid parking, and working with the school district.

So thank you, Emily, for that update and the good work in talking with the district.

So what we have before us reflects what the majority of the council support in September with the request that we made, and that will get this program of investment we need for Balboa Park underway.

I will add that several issues that were raised today were in fact addressed and answered at September's meeting, and were not repeated here today because of the narrow focus on responding to the council members' uh request.

But I trust that the decisions that have been already made that talk about how employees will be handled, how volunteers will be handled, will be clearly articulated so that anybody can find.

I think there were a number of people that thought that employees would still have to pay for parking uh volunteers will, and I know John, you're working very diligently to work with the permit holders in the park about how that will be navigated going forward.

I'll take my three, but I'm gonna wrap up here.

So it is for that reason that I will make the motion to support the SAF recommendation.

The mayor and the staff have presented is what we asked for at the council, and I want to honor that with the vote strictly on the action before us.

So thank you for everybody that has participated in this difficult, difficult conversation.

So with that, I will go next to council member Campbell.

Thank you, Council President.

I will second your motion.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

Uh we have a motion by myself to move the staff recommendation and a second by council member Campbell.

We'll go next to Councilmember Campio.

Thank you very much, uh, Council President for recognizing me, and I want to thank the public for their participation, uh, particularly uh folks from the Redwood Bridge Club with whom I met as well.

And I want to thank the public for their participation, particularly folks from the Redwood Bridge Club with whom I met as well.

And I want to thank our parks and rec department for their work on this issue.

I do have a question for staff.

First, how much do we know a contractor that will be secured to verify residency of San Diego residents if this system moves forward?

Do we have a sense of how much that's going to cost and what they are going to make per vehicle or system wide for this type of uh verification process?

Thank you, Councilmember, for the question.

I believe we have um Bethany Nakone with the Office of City Treasurer who could uh best answer that on the line.

Yes.

Uh thank you for the question, council member.

My name is Beth NoCon.

I am the parking program manager uh with the office of the city treasurer.

So um IPS was the vendor selected to uh do the resident verification portal.

Um is cost neutral to the city.

Uh they will be um charging a five dollar verification fee um per resident for that verification of the residency.

And that is because IPS will be conducting, you know, the review, the manual review, basically, of the documents that are uploaded.

Um and so that is to pay IPS for the staff that is being brought on to do that manual review.

Um, and then the funds of the past will be remitted to the city.

Okay.

Um, what how's that figure negotiated?

Um, seems to me that when we have a verification uh process like they're putting in place, should be some sort of fixed cost for the programming and then maybe percentage cost as it relates to each vehicle or something five dollars per car.

That sounds like our contractor could be making quite a substantial amount because that fixed price is five dollars per car.

So it was um responded.

We did an RFI, so we did an informal solicitation for this vendor, and it was in their response that we received.

And so it was um just what the vendor put out for what they would charge for this verification.

I will say, based on um the other companies that responded, it was it was in line with other companies' um costs.

Other companies were charging upwards of seven dollars for vehicles for verification.

Did any of them offer a sliding scale or percentage cost as a instead of fixed cost per vehicle?

They did not.

It was all fixed.

Okay, understood.

Um, second question to staff.

Um, have we done any sort of market research or had a market survey done to see how many people would choose to come to the park at various prices.

Councilmember, no, we don't have that level of of data on hand.

I think that's part of the complexity and the and the um difficulty in some of the projections when it comes to the attendance um at the park.

We did adjust though for when it comes to general projections, a potential um elasticity factor.

So folks may find other ways to get to the park due to the um due to the fees that were um were approved last um at the last meeting, and then these proposed fees as well.

But no, we have not had that level of of um of input.

Understood.

It seems to me that a market survey would have been an incredibly important component to set an actual permit price.

At this point, we don't have any idea how much money we'll actually collect.

We have a projection based on spots and how many people we know come right now when it's free.

Um, and so we have no idea that we if we could actually lower the cost while actually increasing the revenue.

So that's um that's that's definitely a big missing component of what we should have done.

Third question for staff.

Uh, do we have any set?

I assume the answer is no, considering the answer to the last question.

Do we have any sort of economic analysis that determines how much the state the city stands to lose in sales tax revenue if fewer people go to Balboa Park?

We don't have that level of analysis.

No.

Understood.

All right.

So these are just uh two components uh that seem to me that we could actually be losing money on this, and then therefore need to reduce services and maintenance within the park as a result.

Um, you know, uh I didn't get the opportunity to vote on whether the city should charge for Balboa park parking as it was as I was out of the country at the September time.

Um but as I said during our July meeting about Baboa Park parking district, and then the feedback on the entire idea when I did vote no.

Uh it is my position that charging for parking uh at one of San Diego's most important assets is just a bad idea.

I believe it's going to have unintended consequences that will ultimately undermine the very purpose of introducing this fee in the first place.

I did express my concerns this summer when the concept was being floated and encouraged staff to find other creative ways to help.

I appreciate that some of the work has been done, but as my question pointed out, it doesn't seem that we've done the requisite amount of research to actually have a good sense of what to price.

We're rushing to collect money instead of focusing on improving the experience for residents, which would draw in more visitors, whether they're local, countywide, or more.

And so charging more money for the exact same product that communicates to the public that we might be wasting or mismanaging their money.

I also have an issue with charging non-residents more.

As I've said before, it it this money still matters to our city budget to bring it in.

It seems strange to me that we are continually making our revenue problems into a resident versus outsider debate about who should be paying more and who should be paying less.

But as people have pointed out, this is a regional asset.

I want everyone to come to Balboa Park and spend their money.

Don't we want everyone to come here and spend their money?

Money from a person from La Mesa is just as valuable as from a person from Tierra Santa.

And by discriminating against San Diego County residents relative to city residents, we're simply hurting city residents as well.

This really just doesn't make sense when you think of the second domino and the third domino and the fourth domino that falls from this whole idea.

We could save money by simplifying the verification process and collect more revenue by not creating a system for city versus county.

That verification process would probably be a lot quicker and a lot cheaper if it was simply you have to look at whether they're from the county or not.

So I really believe we ought to charge county folks the exact same as city residents so we can keep drawing them in.

I've also repeatedly stated at various public meetings that the whole budget process and the city having to plug our 350 million dollar budget hole was supposed to be about living within our means.

But what the city seems to keep doing is living within our residence means.

And we haven't really looked inward to scrutinize the spending before turning to the taxpayers.

And in this particular case, I feel like I pointed out two important parts of the research that could have helped us actually plug the whole in a better way that's cheaper for constituents.

When City Hall fails to do this sort of thing, we definitely undermine the public trust and we weaken the integrity of the entire budgeting process.

Next year, when we go through budgeting, people are going to ask how much research have we done to get this actually right?

So we owe our residents a budget built on accountability, and I feel like we're really rushing this.

So what is happening with the Balboa Park parking fee, including this Balboa Park parking pass that is being proposed today.

It's instead of tightening my three minutes, please, instead of tightening our own belt, the city is tightening the belts of the very people it's supposed to serve.

So shifting responsibility away from internal reform.

We are therefore placing the entire burden on the folks who want to visit Balboa Park.

So the entire plan not only makes Balboa Park more exclusive for those with money, it hurts middle class San Diegans and those who struggle.

We have to stop making our city's government budget problem into every San Diegans problem.

And these parking passes are not adequately priced to protect our residents and the businesses and the nonprofits that rely on our residents.

I take issue with the point that the rates will be recalibrated after one year of data is collected.

I suspect that it will be recalibrated upward based on needed revenue, not downward based on the lack of people willing to pay to come to Balboa Park.

I also wish we'd listen closer to the institutions in Balboa Park that are asking for something related to parking, which is more of it.

We should have way more parking there to allow people to come.

We haven't really adequately addressed that.

Some have said we need thousands more spots.

And my personal experience and my trust in the museum and nonprofit leaders leads me to agree with that.

Last but not least, I truly believe that while the city collects less and less revenue from this plan, we will see a double hit of inflation on those who do choose to come to the park.

As fewer people spend their money at Balboa Park, the institutions will see their revenues drop.

With their dropping revenue, they'll be faced with two options: raise their prices, called inflation, or reduce their workforces.

So job losses.

Chances are they're going to do a little bit of both.

So a policy that causes inflation and causes job loss, both of which make the cost of living worse, will never have my support, particularly as it devastates one of our best assets, Balboa Park.

I feel confident that no business, no nonprofit, no household would make this same decision.

So I'll be voting no today.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, sir.

All right, we'll go to uh Councilmember Whitburn.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Uh, thank you to our staff.

Uh I have spoken against this before, so I'll keep it brief today.

San Diego are deeply unhappy about paying for parking in Balboa Park.

First, there's the price.

People are struggling with the cost of living.

Many cannot afford this.

Second, there's the principle.

This feels like an admission charge to Balboa Park, and that really rubs people the wrong way.

I think everybody for sharing how you will be impacted by these parking fees.

I hear you and I will be voting no on this proposal.

Thank you.

All right, you had two rounds of applause.

Let's go back to the waving of the hands, which is very effective for those of us up here on the dais.

So Councilmember Campia, Councilmember Whipper, you got your big round of applause.

You got in first.

So we'll go next to uh Councilmember Ilo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Um thank you, um staff for all the work that you all did on this.

Thank you to uh residents for engaging in the conversation, um, for providing feedback.

Um, and I want to give a special uh shout out and appreciation to um folks from the bridge club and and other groups that really sat down and tried to um put um tangible um workable proposals forward.

Um there's just a couple things that I want to address, Council President.

The the the first is and we I heard less of this this time than I heard last time, and that's good, but I I I do want to make sure it's addressed each time.

There is not a blade of grass cut, a window cleaned, a bathroom cleaned, um, a road paved, a light fixed at Balboa Park or anywhere else in the city without city employees.

So the idea that the way to have the things that we want is by having fewer city employees or worse paid city employees, it's just not true.

And I have to say that because of the city's history of blaming librarians and electricians and very modestly paid city employees for everything that we don't like about how the city is is doing things and what's happening.

It's not fair to them, and it's just objectively false.

There are no city services without city employees.

Um so that part again, I feel like needs to be said, and I do appreciate that there's less um scapegoating of city employees this time than I I've heard in the past.

Uh the the second uh thing that I I just feel like is important to share here, and and I I understand a lot of the frustrations.

And I think it's important to have an honest conversation about um how we actually provide the things that residents want.

I have never ever heard a constituent say cut library hours, period, let alone cut library hours so we can subsidize non-residents' use of city facilities.

I actually I've heard that once now.

That is not a widespread belief.

It is certainly not a widespread belief in my district.

It's not a widespread belief amongst the people who depend on the libraries and rec centers and parks throughout this city.

So my preference, of course, would be that there would be a free there would be free parking for residents.

And I want us to be honest about the budget gaps that we're trying to fill and what and how we ended up in this situation.

Widespread city frustration, um fear, and uh absolute rejection of the idea of reducing those other city services.

And this council attempted to do what we could to find resources to avoid those cuts.

We never have have folks show up here and say they want fewer firefighters, fewer lifeguards, fewer librarians, and I certainly don't hear that we want fewer life uh fewer potholes filled.

And I also never hear that we want uh less to happen at Balboa Park.

And so I do want to acknowledge it is fair to have higher expectations for what you see, feel, and experience when you visit the park if we're going to charge folks for parking.

One hundred percent.

I am a thousand a hundred percent with you on that.

If we're gonna charge folks to park, you should expect clean bathrooms, you should expect a better experience, and I believe in our city employees to be able to deliver you with deliver you that when we adequate adequately resource this city.

The the last thing I will say is is this and and it's it's fine to have a different sort of opinion here.

I think that city residents carry the burden of this city being a tourist destination.

And while we we can simultaneously invite visitors to this city and expect them to pay their fair share.

It's getting paid one way or another.

And for too long, it's been San Diego residents who overwhelmingly carry that burden.

So to propose a sales tax and then simultaneously say it needs to be uh belt tightening to fix our our city's budget woes does not feel consistent to me and does not feel like we're telling the full story to city residents.

We need more resources.

I think it's fair for us to expect visitors to pay those uh to pay for those additional resources.

Um I I am sorry to those of you who will be negatively impacted by this, but I do think it is a thing that we need to do, which is why I will support the motion in front of us.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Hilo Rivera, and we'll go next to Councilmember Moreno.

Uh thank you for the uh presentation.

I I've been very clear about my ever growing concern on the multiple rate increases that San Diegans have taken on in the last few months.

Uh user fees, parking meter rates, and water rates, they're all increasing.

In September, this council approved paid parking at Balboa Park.

I voted against that parking rate increase.

Uh today is a continuation of that discussion to determine the monthly and yearly pass rates alongside special events rates.

The rates associated with these passes will have a significant impact on the quality of life of seniors and low income residents.

Balboa Park is the crown jewel of the city of San Diego for everyone to enjoy.

It can serve, and it does serve many different purposes to residents.

It's a place where everybody's able to enjoy the beautiful scenery of San Diego.

Youth and senior citizens are able to recreate.

Balboa Park is a Nexus hub where students experience culture, history, and knowledge throughout the many museums.

The park is incredibly accessible to residents that are economically challenged.

You can go there for an entire day and have a different experience without having to pay much of any money.

Charging for parking will absolutely change this.

Right now, a low-income senior can go and socialize at Balboa Park through the incredible recreation programs they have currently.

And what this proposal is asking of is for low-income seniors and families living on fixed incomes to pay more into the system and essentially get less.

Everyone is feeling the impact of the increases in water rates, electricity, grocery, housing, and now paid parking at Balboa Park.

So what we're saying to them is that if a city resident wants to be able to park at Balboa Park to attend a regular social event like Plain Bridge, for example, then you need to pay 30 bucks each month.

Well, 30 bucks is 30 bucks.

And for many people, that is not discretionary income.

It is already being spent on something else like food or rent.

So if a senior resident is using a Balboa Park recreation program as a way to regularly socialize, which I think is incredibly important for many seniors living on their own, they have to now choose whether to continue participating in an activity with their friends or continue buying the same amount of groceries each month.

Ultimately, I do not want to lessen the accessibility to Balboa Park for my constituents, and paid parking in the park will do exactly that.

And I do understand that there will be accommodations for residents like the resident rate or limited free parking.

But the message the city is sending is that if you have money, you get a better easier park experience.

If you do not have the money, then you have to navigate lot hours, residential portals, and tram schedules just to have an equitable experience.

Balboa Park was the place I actually had my first job.

And it was at the Starlight Bowl in the concession stand, and it was an amazing experience there, and one that I will always treasure.

I will say that as a young Latina coming from the South Bay, I wouldn't have taken that job.

Simply put, I would not have taken that job.

And I don't want to close that experience for another young Latina here in the city of San Diego or the region of San Diego.

So I will not be supporting the motion before us today.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Moreno.

I don't see anyone.

Oh, Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Thank you very much for the uh work on this and the presentation, and thank you to everyone who has come in multiple times now to City Hall to be here and engaged.

Um I appreciate you.

I thought we had a very good conversation the prior time we were here about the difference between you know visitors who are using the park for a one-off or you know, two off museum experience or play experience versus folks who are using the park as more of a parks and recreation center and coming regularly.

And um, you know, when the the parking pass annually was originally proposed, wasn't the proposal much higher than this?

It was what 300 for residents and what for non-residents.

Yeah, correct.

It was 300 for residents, 375 for non-residents, and then we had that feedback from the Balbo Park Committee and we reduced it.

Okay, to where it is now, which is 150 and 300?

Correct, yeah.

Correct.

Um something I I didn't hear in the presentation, but we talked about before though, are volunteers still going to get free parking?

Anyone who volunteers with any nonprofit?

Yeah, volunteers and employees of those SUP holding institutions will receive that those that free parking in the level two and level three lots.

But John, I'll defer to you if you have anything else to add to that.

I'd also like to add the museums to the leaseholds as well.

So anyone who's employed at the museums or the theaters or yes, ma'am, or all the member organizations as well, so they're volunteers or their staff, yes.

So those are the special use permit holders.

Okay.

Um got it.

So the folks who volunteer to do the beekeeping society or the volunteer to do the um bridge club would get free parking.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Um it seems that some folks were not aware of that, but if that's what we're telling people, then how will they know?

How will they get that parking pass?

After this, we will be rolling out communications to work with those groups to verify those volunteers and staff.

Okay, so the city treasurer will provide them with a permit or parks and rec or we don't know yet.

Parks and recreation will be working with city treasurers on on a plan.

How do we put them into the system?

Okay, but that will be ready before January.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Um I want people to be able to work at the park as well and get their first jobs, and so I don't think they should be charged for parking if they're working there.

Uh and then what are remind me what the free options are again in some of the lots during the day or during the whole day?

Yeah, the free option for um inspiration point is three hours free.

After that, it would be five dollars if you're a resident ten dollars for non-resident.

Okay, per day.

And we did just vote last week on um increasing the shuttle service between the lower inspiration point, and so can you tell folks what the new shuttle service options will be?

Sure.

Our proposed plan for the new shuttle options would be uh for the green tram would be 8 a.m.

to 8 p.m.

Effective January 5th upon implementation of paid parking, and then additionally for staff or volunteers, a morning and evening um hours for on-demand service, 7 a.m.

to 9 a.m.

and then 6 p.m.

to 11 p.m.

Got it.

So if staff or volunteers are leaving late, they have an option for a free ride to any any parking lot in the in the park.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

And we're working with Ace Parking on that.

Okay.

Um can I ask um Miss Bizak about you know the initial returns that we're expecting for this according to the staff report are you know, 2.9 million dollars for this year, but it's gonna be lowered by the cost to implement this.

And so Baku, I'm sorry, if you may have said already what what do we anticipate the first year to generate?

Uh our office's estimate is four million dollars.

Staff's estimate was two point nine.

Again, uh there are data gaps, so it's hard to get a precise estimate that, but our best guess between staff and our office is three to four million.

Okay, so between three and four million dollars.

So, what are we gonna be using that money for?

I mean, there are restrictions on this.

This is a parking meter charge, so we can't use it for anything.

But yes, thanks for the uh question, council member.

Uh Bethany Bizak, acting deputy chief operating officer.

So, yes, the requirement is to spend the funds within the park for essentially any infrastructure upgrades and maintenance activities that would include your typical infrastructure like sidewalks, street lights, those types of things, as well as building maintenance as well.

Okay.

What I mean, is the sewers, storm drains, water, is that all separate?

I I don't know specifically about the stormwater infrastructure, but it's essentially any of the infrastructure that uh needs to be maintained within the park.

Got it.

And I know there's a lot of roofs that need to be replaced.

I think we heard from the Fleet Science Center that needs a new HVAC.

Would that be would that qualify for these funds?

Yes, building maintenance activities that would.

Got it.

Okay.

Um and every year it could only go to park purposes.

That's correct.

There is entirely a restriction on the use of these funds within the park boundaries.

Okay.

And I I know that there is a long list of things that need to be done at the park.

So would you already be ready to go with the list in January about what we would be using funds for?

Uh yeah, so we have a long infrastructure needs list across multiple different departments that would include work that would be performed by general services, uh, the parks and recreation staff and as well as the transportation staff.

And and there's many competing needs.

So quite frankly, this will go towards a lot of those core services.

Uh, but there will even be needs that are above and beyond the resources that will be available for this.

Okay.

Um I mean if we are getting a dedicated funding source for the park, though, I I would expect the services that the park users are experiences to be improved.

Um, you know, we we do hear about back maintenance all the time and restrooms that aren't working and and and we do we need to thank our city employees.

How many of us use restrooms for free all the time at Boba Park and don't think about who cleans up after everybody?

There are workers who do that um day and night, and I and who who cut the grass and who open the museums and clean the floors, and I really want to thank those employees for what they do because it's not easy work.

Public bathrooms are dirty and they clean them for us.

Um but I would expect that our services would be enhanced if we did have a dedicated funding source.

Yes, uh, council member, there's been pretty extensive coordination internally about that expectation.

We understand uh that expectation within Belboa Park as well as parking meter districts that there is an expectation that where the payment is provided, enhanced levels of service are going to be expected through this FY27 budget development process, that's gonna be pretty extensively discussed with uh Department of Finance as well as stakeholders moving forward.

Okay, um, thank you.

I appreciate you letting the public know uh what the park needs are.

Can we also get assurances that the many folks who who participate in the managers like that?

We have so many volunteers.

We have friends at Balboa Park, we have all the the cultural partnership.

We have so many folks who day in, day out see this park and use it.

Can they also be at the table to talk about what the park's needs are and what we should use this money for?

Um yes, we absolutely can make that commitment.

I'll defer also to John uh to speak to you or Emily to speak to any other engagement that's already planned with the stakeholders.

Yeah, I can speak to uh a committee that Forever Bubble Park has, which is called the park improvement committee.

So I sit on that and Andy Field as well.

So we attend that regularly and you know hear about the needs of the park on a regular basis.

Okay, so would you commit to bringing forth if there's a new revenue source, they should be included in how it's gonna be spent since they help maintain our park.

Yes, absolutely.

Also, in the spring, we uh received a report on the prioritization framework.

So once funds are recognized or available, then we can run it through that um and find out, you know, what the what excuse me, through that uh framework, what is um you know prioritize for which work we can and cannot do.

Okay.

Um I appreciate that very much.

I also am wondering about the $300 for non-residents up front.

You know, every year that's a big lump payment.

You know, we we all are gonna pay our car registration, for example, in January, and many of us have to pay our you know property taxes twice a year.

And so is there a way that payment could be split over two payments, one fifty and one fifty?

That's easier to absorb than a January payment of another $300.

I'm gonna defer that question to Bethany NoCon, who's online.

That would have to be a question for our vendor with IPS.

Hi, Councilmember.

Yeah, thank you for the question.

Uh Beth Nocon.

Um I will need to look into that with IPS as Emily mentioned.

Um we are currently working with them with building the system.

I'm not 100% sure if splitting that payment um would be a viable option.

I would need to investigate further.

Okay, I mean I imagine it's just a software ask, and if we can do daily or monthly or quarterly, we could do semi-annual.

Um I just I feel like that would be an easier pill to swallow for a lot of folks every year.

So 150 every six months, I think would be a much easier thing to do than a $300 bill all at once.

But I know that nobody wants to pay for uh parking at Balboa Park.

I voted against many of these increases because I don't I don't believe we need to charge for Sunday parking.

I don't think we needed to buy the new trash cans for everybody.

Um, but I do know that Balboa Park is struggling as an entity.

And I have heard it over and over.

And so if we can get assurances that this funding will stay in the park and that the folks who manage it will get to help contribute to how it is spent.

Um then I I could be in support of this right now.

But I want to assure I see Rolando is here too.

So you are our new um uh chief financial officer for the city.

Could you also come up and assure us that this funding will be spent in the park?

And I mean, I have full faith in Miss B Zach, she's excellent.

You have done wonders at the Department of Transportation, and we're grateful you're here.

But from an accounting standpoint for the right for the whole city, can you help assure us that this will contribute to the vitality of Bellow Park?

Absolutely, there are legal restrictions to how the funds can be spent and they have to be spent within the park.

So yes, I can make that commitment.

Okay.

Um, thank you.

I mean, I don't love this.

I don't don't think anybody loves this.

Um this is the kind of fee I'd like to see go away.

If we are able to pass a sales tax next year, and we don't have to dip into reserves to keep the other facilities open at the city.

Um but given that there are going to be free parking options for everybody, residents, non-residents alike, and we've increased the shuttle service.

Volunteers will get free parking year-round, correct?

As long as they're volunteers.

Yes, ma'am.

And then park employees will get free parking.

Everyone employed any of these special use permits, the museums, the everything.

Yes, while on business in the park, yes.

Correct.

Yeah, you're right.

They have to do it for working hours, understood.

Um it's gonna stay in the park, and we're committing to let letting the friends of Albolo Park and in Forever Bellboa Park and everybody else in the cultural partnership include in how we do this maintenance.

Um I'll support it today.

I do want to see when this is gonna come back in a year though, to be see how it's doing.

Absolutely.

At that point, we'll have a lot of data to be able to kind of scrub and see, and as I mentioned, the staff report, we'll be able to um potentially uh recommend rate adjustments, whether up or down, depending on how that data comes in and what and what those trends are.

Okay, and you'll get back to us on whether we can split the annual payment into two for residents too.

I mean, you know, 75 and 75 would be easier than 150.

Yes, Bethany, we'll check in with IPS and then we'll get back to your office on what their capabilities are.

Okay.

Um got it.

Well, I just and I and I want to hear how this money is spent and how it's gonna be used to improve Bebo Park.

I I don't want to see this gem falling apart.

I don't want to see leaks, I don't want to hear about the museum can't open because there's no HVAC.

Um so given that that this will stay local.

I know that I don't love this, um, but I do love the park, and if this is what we have to do to keep it open right now, then I'll support the item today.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Von Walbert.

Uh not to anybody else in the lights.

We'll go back to Councilmember Campillo.

Thank you, Council President.

Just very brief follow-up questions with staff.

I know we're planning on bringing this back a year from now.

Uh is there uh going to be particular do you plan to bring any updates to maybe uh community neighborhood services or uh other committees to be able to see quarterly what the projections are looking like since we're flying a little blind here.

Yes, council member, I believe on the last slide we indicated that we would be doing quarterly um updates to look at the data, but we're happy to come back to any committee that wants an update on um on what's going on with Balboa Park.

Very good.

I appreciate that.

Uh just for the institutions uh working throughout Balboa Park, I'm happy to bring uh next year uh hopefully uh if I'm still the chair of EDNIR next year to EDNIR to understand what the implications to the businesses and nonprofits and employees are.

So um I'll be working with them on that to make sure that we're highlighting uh what the impact on our institutions are there.

Thank you very much, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Campio.

Um again, I don't see anybody else on the lights.

Um so we have a motion by myself to move the staff recommendation and a second by council member Campbell.

Clerk, please call the roll.

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

If I can get your sorry I over I spoke over you, my apologies, council member.

Can I get your vote for the record?

No.

That passes six to three with council member Moreno, Councilmember Campio, and Council Member Burn voting no.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you to staff.

Thank you to everybody that took the time to show up this morning.

Um this afternoon, excuse me.

All right.

So we have more business to do this afternoon.

So clerk, please introduce item 331.

Thank you, Council President.

Item 331 is the fiscal year 2027 City Council budget priorities.

If you'd like to speak on this item, please submit a speaker sip to the front of the room.

And or if you are participating virtually, star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh City Clerk with that, the amazing staff at the office of the IBA.

Please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need for your presentation.

Thank you, Council President.

I'm Lisa Byrne with the Office of the IBA, and with me is Donnie Nguyen.

Uh we need about uh 10 to 11 minutes.

All right, when you're ready.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, uh council.

I uh again am Lisa Byrne, and um I'm going to be beginning the presentation with some background information.

The budget priorities resolution is the first step that council takes in providing input for the upcoming annual budget.

The resolution is initially developed and approved in the fall, and then it's updated again in February.

Both the initial and updated budget priorities resolutions will be submitted to the mayor for consideration in development of the fiscal year 27 proposed budget.

Next slide.

As requested through the budget committee's chair's call memo, the council members submitted their priorities memoranda to our office on September 24th.

This year's call memo offer also referenced zero-based budgeting or ZBB, including a future informational presentation by our office and the Department of Finance.

ZBB is a method that builds the budget from the ground up, starting at zero, rather than using the previous fiscal year's budget as the starting point.

Additionally, the chair's call memo requested that council members identify departments that they would like included in related discussions.

Two council members provided departmental recommendations for ZBB.

Those were the homelessness strategies and solutions and transportation departments.

Once our office reviewed council members' priorities memos, we reviewed them and summarized priorities receiving majority support and IBA report 2532.

Notably, Council President Pro Tem's memo deferred outlining his priorities given the city's current budgetary challenges until January, when more information about the implementation of the fiscal year 26 budget is available.

Several other council members noted similar concerns and scaled back their priorities memos to varying degrees.

Also included in our report is the economic development and intergovernmental relations committee's recommendation for the use of the one cent transient occupancy tax or TOT.

This is known as the Council Discretion Council Discretionary TOT.

As part of the council policy on TOT, the City Council, through the budget priorities resolution, is to provide the mayor with a recommended use of the one cent TOT.

The first step towards this recommendation is for the EDNIR committee to provide the budget committee with its recommendation.

On October 8th, the EDNIR committee recommended allocating 4.28% of TOT revenue, currently estimated at 14 million dollars for arts, culture, and community festivals.

This is the same percentage as in the fiscal year 26 budget.

The remaining TOT funds estimated at 17 million were recommended for use in balancing balancing the general fund budget.

Next, our report includes a section on budget resources and mitigations, which I will discuss near the end of the presentation.

Our report also includes priorities supported by four council members, indicating that those priorities will not be part of the budget priorities resolution unless council designates them as such.

To that point, on November 5th, the budget committee recommended that council accept IBA report 2532 with one modification to include four council members supported expenditure priorities in the priorities resolution.

Now, Donnie Newin will provide highlights of council members' priorities that are included in our report.

Thank you, Lisa.

The majority supported priorities are grouped into two sections, operating and infrastructure priorities.

The list category the list of categories within these two sections will be reviewed in the next several slides.

I'll first discuss the operating budget priority section.

There were five priorities under homelessness and housing that received majority support.

Seven council members mentioned the preservation and creation of affordable housing in their memos, with five council members specifically supporting continued funding of the affordable housing preservation fund.

Six council members supported the housing disability prevention program, which provides rental assistance to low-income households.

The remaining priorities in this slide were supported by five council members and include the eviction prevention program, which offers education and legal services for renters facing eviction, homelessness prevention and diversion, and shelter beds and wrap-up around services for LGBTQ plus individuals.

Other operating budget priorities are shown on this slide.

Six council members express various levels of support for penny of the arts, and five council members supported additional funding to implement the climate action plan, the addition of a marine safety captain to the lifeguard division, we abandoned services in the public right-of-way, maintaining the FY2026 funding and or operating hours for libraries and parks, and the addition of a deputy city clerk to position to support work related to legally mandated functions within the elections and city connections division.

Moving on to the infrastructure budget priority section, a majority of council members prioritize transportation and mobility safety specifically.

Seven council members supported the pedestrian and bicycle safety measures as well as traffic calming and control measures aimed to reduce vehicle speeds, and five council members supported repairing or replacing street lights.

The next investment in street in street infrastructure and sidewalks, as well as additional resources for stormwater operations received from seven council members.

A majority of the council members also raise a need for improvements to existing facilities.

These include the parks and recreation facilities, which receive support from six council members, fire rescue facilities, including funding existing or new fire stations, which were supported by five council members, and lifeguard towers and stations, which were supported by six council members, with a particular focus on Ocean Beach and North Pacific Beach lifeguard towers, and the replacement of the Mission Beach Lifeguard station.

Lastly, five council members expressed support for variety of projects with Americans with Disabilities Act improvement components.

The slide shows the priorities that were supported by four council members.

As Lisa mentioned, the budget committee recommended these priorities be a part of the FY2027 budget priorities resolution.

On the left are the operating priorities.

These include funding to operate additional shelter beds at Veterans Village, full funding of the climate equity fund, enhanced police recruitment and retention efforts, continued funding of the no-shots fire program, which supports services aimed at preventing and reducing gun violence.

Increased funding for library materials and library maintenance, increase or maintain funding for equitable, equitable parks programming, such as parks after dark and complain outside.

Providing lifeguard to lifeguards to access the fire rescues wellness program and SD Access for All, which provides public Wi-Fi access and city parks and libraries, and a mobile hotspot lending program.

Infrastructure priorities shown on the right include improvements to traffic signals and library facilities.

Now I'll hand it over to Lisa to cover budget resources and mitigations and recommended actions.

Thank you, Donnie.

Excuse me.

No specific resources were identified in a majority of council members' memos.

However, six council members discussed exploration of various new resources, some of which included a sales tax increase, general obligation bonds, non-resident revenues, and a fee for vacant storefronts, among others.

Additionally, five council members referenced exploring grants and state or federal funding opportunities.

One item was supported by four council members, paid beach and bay parking for non-residents, including several ideas for parameters for such fees.

Given the fiscal challenges the city faces and that there were no specific resources identified by a majority of council members, our office recommends that council include any preferred revenue options it may have within its budget priorities resolution so that the executive branch can consider and present a plan to implement options that are feasible in fiscal year 27 and if need be future years.

To wrap up, we request that council consider the components of the budget committee's recommendations, including the majority supported priorities, the recommended one cent TOT allocation, and the expenditure priorities supported by four council members, which are all included in IBA report 2532.

The council may make further modifications to the budget committee's recommendation.

We also recommend that council include any preferred revenue and resource options it may have as part of its budget priorities resolution.

We ask the council to formally adopt the fiscal year 27 budget priorities resolution by accepting IBA report 2532 as modified by the budget committee with any desired further changes.

The second action is to direct our office to deliver a modified report to the mayor for consideration in developing the fiscal year 27 proposed budget.

IBA report 2532 will be revised to reflect the budget priorities resolution adopted by council and will include the council members' memos.

This concludes our presentation.

We're here for any questions.

All right, thank you very much for the presentation.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you.

We do have several speakers.

We'll be going to a minute and a half each.

If I can have the following individuals, please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

Bob Lehman, Mary Sorriano, Blair Beekman, and oh actually, Linda Burke did do a speaker slip, but would like to just register her register her position in opposition, but did not wish to speak.

So Bob, if you can come up to the actually have two minutes, please proceed.

Good afternoon, Council President, Council members.

My name is Bob Lehman.

I'm the executive director of San Diego Arts Matters, the region's leading arts advocacy and service organization.

I'm here today representing Arts Cult Arts and Culture San Diego, a coalition of more than 150 cultural institutions across the city.

Thank you for the many council members who included arts and culture in your FY27 budget priority memos.

Your support is noticed and appreciated.

Arts and culture are a powerful force for healing, strengthening well-being, building community bonds, and uplifting youth and families.

They're also essential to the freedom of expression, a cornerstone of our democracy.

These investments reach every neighborhood, support thousands of jobs, and help build resilience public health opportunity across San Diego.

They also have a multiplier effect, helping organizations unlock private philanthropy and secure state and federal matching funds.

We respectly asked the council to keep arts and culture funding flat at the 42.4.28% of TOT as recommended by the budget committee and by staff.

With rising costs and significant cuts at the state and federal levels, flat funding still represents a challenging year, but it maintains a sensible stability.

Thank you for your leadership and for keeping arts and culture a priority in San Diego.

We look forward to working together throughout this budget process.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mary Sorriano.

Mary Suriano, President of La Jolla Town Council.

La Jolla Town Council will have a public discussion on metered parking at beaches during its monthly meeting, December 11th.

We invite coastal town councils, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, and Ocean Beach.

La Jolla historically has strongly opposed meter parking.

For a year now, I have seeked pros and cons.

Community concerns are with the fine print contract with the city.

One, the city's contract of the city's control of metered parking.

Two, the percentage of what a town receives and what are the underlying costs before a town gets their share.

The limited use of metered funds.

Four, loss of customers.

Five, limiting enjoyment of beaches for all.

Positives expressed.

One, alleviate traffic congestion.

Two, increase bus frequency.

Three, relieve congested streets where fire evacuation is a concern for a quick way to raise funds.

See you at La Jolla Town Council December 11th.

And on another note, this Saturday is a free multicultural festival by the sea and parking is only five dollars.

I'll go ahead and pass on the um flyer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Blair Beekman.

Hi, thank you, uh Blair Beekman.

That was really nice previous public comment.

Thank you.

Um, she seemed to be describing with her issues.

Um is that is she describing why the parking commission process has been ended?

Um you know, the resiliency that that the parking commission people can have towards the process.

Um my questions I was gonna speak on this item was about for budget issues is how can we be better addressing overall um the future of our democratic good practices and exactly this matter of the parking um commission situation that uh I'm I'm really upset and heard.

I don't know uh better understand the issue, but uh the hat is as that as it has been ended.

I'm just not comfortable.

And um, we've had these trash issues we're trying to better develop.

Um I I think an important concept is that we when we're talking about these items, we're talking about the previous parking items.

There was no mention of the technology that is involved in all of this, and then all of our projects and situations.

We make a real specific point to keep our tech totally removed from these types of conversations when I think we have to start developing in 2027, little carve-outs and little time spent for each project item that has a little time for the technology involved and the policies for it, what what the tech will be doing, and not fear that conversation about tech that we deeply deeply fear.

We don't want the public to understand the process, and we have to get out of that mind frame.

So I hope you can think of carve out things for tech talking about tech with our projects like this.

Um, I hope we can be working on um yeah, that those kind of things.

Thank you for allowing a broad picture to be spoken about.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

I'm sorry, the five-minute time we're hearing council chambers going to those participating remotely.

We currently have five speakers in the queue.

John Stump, if you can please unmute.

Hi.

Hi, uh City Council Johnston.

I'm sorry I missed it the last time.

Uh it was up, uh, but I was working.

Um look at is it quite clear that the city council budget priorities are the inhabitants and residents of San Diego, not um and no one else.

Uh I heard uh my council person talk about employees.

Well, the majority of city of San Diego employees are not even residents.

Um I hope as you make budget priorities, you follow the charter, and you go on the basis of providing the services that are required in the charter, and that they be for inhabitants, and that affordability becomes one of the key words.

The council has consistently taken actions which favor non-residents, non-inhabitants, over people who don't live here, and for services that are not provided by the council.

I have been attending council meetings and been with the city for well over 50 years, and I remember when the council had no staff.

If you want to save money, um, each of you go down to two staff.

Maybe go into no staff.

You're full-time now.

You got plenty of money.

You want staff, take it out of your own salary.

Okay.

Please think about the residents, inhabitants.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Next is Jeremy Holly.

If you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you, council.

I want to um thank the six members that voted in favor of the parking.

Um, you have officially priced me out.

I'm a South Bay resident, and due to the costs, I will no longer be able to visit and spend the hundreds, if not thousand dollars plus yearly I spend at those arts and cultures.

So thank you for that.

Um I want to address uh council member Ilo Rivera's comment about us talking about cutting individuals and cutting librarians.

That has never been brought to the table.

We have asked to cut from the top down.

You guys should be the ones taking cuts.

I want to let the city of San Diego know while we're not being heard, we're not being honored as constituents.

Councilman members foster Lee and Lee are up for re-election 2026.

Do not revote them in.

Get them out.

It looks like council member Campbell's reached her term limit.

So I'm glad that she will now be remembered not caring about the city of go with her vote.

Now the beach paid parking situation.

In January of 2025, this year, San Diego parking demand management didn't recommended that it not move forward with paid parking.

Why are we disregarding your constituents and even studies done by the city?

It's just disgusting.

I want to thank Council members Whitburn, Capillo, and Moreno for speaking for the people and being a democracy when everything we represented, everyone almost everyone was opposed, but you still voted in favor of the stockholders.

Um Wilper, I know you're running for Congress.

I will personally make sure that I can this where you are not elected.

You speak on affordable living and you just voted against it.

Shame on you.

Next is Olga, if you can please unmute.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Thank you.

Yeah, how are you doing?

Morning is Felipe Carrillo.

And I'm Olga Carrillo from Vista Pacifica, and we are asking that in your budget you prioritize safety enhancements and traffic calming measures.

Those representing Vista Pacifica on this call today are not able to attend in person because we're all working.

We're families with young kids or have elderly parents staying with us.

But we are here virtually and in spirit because we need your support to make our Vista Pacifica streets safer.

We've been very patient.

It's now the end of 2025, and we still don't have one.

Our neighborhood is beautiful, but unfortunately has winding roads that create dangerous blind spots that have caused too many close calls.

And just recently, we tragically had a hidden run, much like council member Raul Capee Capillo had in his district seven.

Fortunately, Tiger, who was hit, is doing much better and recovering.

But how long do we have to wait to get a stop sign?

The area that we're asking for a stop sign is next to a school bus stop area where there are at least 12 to 16 kids that are picked up every day and come from all over our neighborhoods and stream to this park location to get picked up and dropped off.

And it's also very active in the evening and weekends with little lead teens and birthday parties.

All we ask is that you prioritize safety in the Vista Pacifica community with an additional stop sign.

Thank you for your time, and we hope you can help our community out.

Thank you.

Uh we have four speakers in the queue.

The timer has concluded.

No additional speakers will be taken.

Catherine Rhodes, if you can please unmute.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Hi, this is Catherine Rhodes.

Six of you asked for a new revenue source.

This is your solution to put onto your budget priority resolution today.

I miss a deadline for ballot um propositions.

I request a full city council put forth my 2022 ballot proposition to include online travel companies as hotel managers in the municipal code through a public vote.

I sent an email and Twitter link of the proposal to all of you.

And could be found online at tinyurl.com slash 2025.

1118 C.

This is not a tax increase, only a tax clarification due to TOT on only the wholesale rate instead of the retail rate by expedia price light travelosity.

The cost to hotel visitors would not increase.

Based on the San Diego County Lodging Association analysis, online travel companies take at least 20% of the collected transit occupancy tax paid by visitors that belongs to the general fund.

Based on measure C passing, the annual talk from hotels is around 400 million.

A 20% increase would give you 80 million dollars in TOT revenue that the city council is now gifting to out-of-state online travel companies.

After the 2022 rules committee, no one followed up with me or the San Diego County Lodging Association that were ready to help you.

The IBOA applying that travel companies would rec negotiate the wholesale rates paid by hotels.

But so far, no nowhere in the United States has that ever happened.

So I don't believe that.

Also, Measure C already collected 11 million for homeless, which is 22 million a year new revenue.

And then in the 2024 annual comprehensive financial report, you still have 104 million in hoarded cash from about 15 years ago that you still have not spent, and you still have not budgeted.

Please spend it.

Your time has concluded.

Zoom user, if you can please unmute after that, Noel, and then our final speaker is Tony Campbell.

Thanks for taking my call, Ben Howard here.

You should hire that girl to uh start getting somebody for the city.

She knows her stuff.

Anyway, I the priority spent now is we have to focus our priorities on double charging the La Jolla community and all their beach parking, double the rate there, and put in parking meters on all the residential streets of La Jolla.

They got a view of the ocean down there.

They can afford it.

It's only like five bucks an hour.

We'll give them the special rate, five bucks an hour, 24 hours a day, of course.

So they they won't be able to park on their own streets unless they want to pay.

Why did that why do you guys rob banks?

Because that's where the money is.

The money's in La Jolla.

We gotta put the screws to them and tax them.

You know, now we're playing a Babola Park, so La Jolla's got to pair 10 times their fair share.

Life isn't fair.

Nobody's got a sidewalk down San Sidro, not like those sidewalks in La Jolla.

That's been going on for decades, man.

Maybe it's time to pay it to pay back those guys in San Sidro.

We'll give them free parking at La Jolla shores and make the other guys pay 20 bucks a day.

Now that sounds reasonable.

You said anything about being reasonable, man.

Anyway, so the priorities now.

This is like the budget, man.

You guys are gonna be so much in debt, you're not gonna get any grants from the feds.

You think you're 300 million in debt.

I'd say you're more like about 700 million in debt when it when it starts rolling down the road.

So it's coming at you, and it's the county just announced today that 300 300 million in the red.

The county of San Diego is in the red.

They're trying to figure out their plan.

So your time has concluded.

Next is Noelle.

Please unmute Noelle Sir.

There you go.

Hi, yeah, I'm sorry.

My name is Caroline.

I'm on my son's account here.

I'm a resident of uh Visa Pacifica.

Um requesting for installation of speed bumps, painting of red curves, and our stop signs on the most dangerous streets in our neighborhood.

A couple of months ago, our son Tiger, simply enjoying a bicycle ride and exercising, became the victim of a hit and run.

He was knocked unconscious.

Me, my husband, and our two younger children found him on the sidewalk, bleeding profusely and unconscious.

He suffered multiple injuries.

Voiced by our residents over the years, have been advocating for that this for years now.

The lack of effective traffic calming measures has allowed reckless driving behaviors to persist.

Now, this hit recent hit and run, which resulted in serious injury to our son, is a stark reminder that urgent action is required.

Our community cannot afford to wait for any life, any life to be altered or lost by preventable accidents.

Please take action now.

I beg you.

We respectfully ask that city leaders listen to our concerns.

Please heed the lessons of this most recent tragedy and invest in tangible improvements in our neighborhood that will make our streets safe for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And our final speaker speaker is Tony.

Please unmute.

Thank you very much for allowing me to speak on this subject matter.

Again, this is uh talking to the point of uh providing additional measures to um slow the traffic down in front of Vista Pacifica Park.

I am Tony Campbell.

I'm a Dean Athletic Director at Cuyamaca College, and I am also been the uh president of the uh uh brush management uh community uh uh organization for 20 years.

Um there are two factors that I wish to bring to everyone's attention that there is a when you look at the the uh the overview of the community the uh Avenidas de la Vista has a slow right turn.

That slow right turn prevents visibility to the park as you're coming up the heel.

This is one reason why uh individuals, especially crossing that street, why it's so dangerous with kids, dogs, or just individuals themselves uh come into danger because there is not a stop sign on uh the corner of uh uh Vista Santa Rosalia and Avenidas de la Vista.

There are three stop signs on that one corner of the park, uh San Ignacio uh and uh uh uh Avenidas de la Vista, but there is a missing stop sign on that main corner, which we're really concerned about.

Uh Vista Santa Rosalia and Avenue de la Vista.

In the past, we've had uh the city come out and extend the red painting, which gave a little bit more visibility, but it's it's not enough.

This is a structural defect in the design of the community, and we're just simply asking for you to do your due diligence in creating a more safe and uh uh equitable situation for all of our community members so we can access the the uh park uh safely.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment on this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Uh we'll now go to my colleagues on the council for comments, questions, and entertain a motion.

Uh and council member campio, there are two council members in front of you, and then we'll go to you.

So we'll start with the chair of the budget committee, council member foster.

Uh yes, thank you.

Um, council president, and again, thank you to the IBA um for their presentation.

Um we did um have a uh what I thought was a healthy discussion at um the budget and government efficiency committee um this month.

Um so I won't go into a lot of detail or um reiterate my comments.

Um but I just want to make sure that um we keep in mind our um budget challenges um just even as we look at the item that um was heard before this um item.

Um it looks like we do have some anticipated shortfalls um based on what we projected in the um current budget.

Um and so it's my understanding that budget budget uh mitigation memos have gone out um to the various departments last week.

Um so I'm interested to see what type of feedback you receive, Rolando as you um get that in.

Um and also just as a reminder um to the council we will have another round of budget uh memos um due in January 2026.

Um but we have a lot of work ahead of us.

Um and so um I just think everyone needs to manage expectations because every shortfall that we see this year uh makes the FI27 short or budget process even more and more um challenging.

Um so with that um council president um I move that we accept IBA report 25-32 as modified by the budget and government efficiency committee and direct the IBA to deliver that report together with each council members FY27 budget priorities memorandum to the mayor's office for consideration during the preparation of the FY27 proposed um budget.

And that concludes my comments.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Foster.

Uh, and thank you for the motion as shown up on the screen there, and we'll go to Councilmember Moreno.

Happy to second the motion, thank you.

All right, thank you.

So we have a motion by Councilmember Foster and a second by Council Member Moreno.

We'll go to Councilmember Kempio.

Thank you, Council President.

Um IBA again, great work as always.

Uh, and especially for your health-producing estimates for the EDNIR committee's TFT recommendation.

Happy to see uh that the budget committee uh also supported this recommendation.

Uh do you have a quick question about um the uh policy the priorities as as listed in the report?

Um based on my reading of the report.

I see a total of five council members referencing brush management services, uh and the council added additional resources for this in fiscal 27.

Um is this listed as a specific priority or is this not considered even though it's got five could you repeat the question, Councilmember?

Could you repeat the question, Councilmember?

Yeah, I based on my reading of the report.

I see five council members referencing brush management services.

So this is this is rush management is listed as a priority, right?

Uh for this particular document.

Yes, I believe so.

Um I know that we added additional resources for this in fiscal 27 or excuse me, 26.

Um trying to make sure that we we don't see this compromised.

Uh this continues to be a really a top uh priority of mine, and um considering that well, next next year we never know when fire season around the corner is.

Uh I'm I appreciate that we have five council members who have put this forward.

Uh, I think that uh as we move into our uh amendments in January or our proposed uh additions or revisions moving into January.

Um I hope more colleagues will emphasize this.

Uh I think that it's uh important to the public safety of the entire region uh and and especially not just uh life and property, but uh economically, uh, it's really important to make sure we move towards this.

Um I do want to note I know that uh there's been a lot of discussion on this item, the public comment, and um, some mentions in the press about the issue as it relates to um how we might consider charging or not charging folks at Mission Bay or our beaches, um, specifically non-residents, um, I think that uh to put put it on the record, my position on this, it's it I think it's a big problem.

Um, I wouldn't support charging at Mission Bay or our beaches, uh, whether it's residents or visitors.

Um as a former alternate for our region to the Coastal Commission.

Um, the Coastal Act treats parking as a form of public access under our state laws and cities are required to protect and encourage and maximize public access to the coast.

It's considered a critical access component because for most visitors it's the only practical way to reach the beach.

So any policy that raises the cost of beach access or restricts access based on residency, like a barrier for non-local uh visitors versus local visitors, uh, will undoubtedly be treated as a restriction to coastal access, which the coastal commission has jurisdiction over.

Um, I think that as we try to create ways to uh keep costs down for our residents, uh I I see a big legal problem with trying to create this pay versus non-residents uh because of coastal commission jurisdiction.

Um in the past, the commission has repeatedly opposed parking policies that favor local residents over the general public.

Um, and because of that reduction of low-cost access, uh, in essence, the position of the commission has always been consistent that access must remain available for all people of the state, not just local residents and nearby purviews.

Um, for my research, I know that policies have been proposed for resident-only beach parking uh or preferential beach access passes, uh, but places like Laguna Beach and Malibu, Ventura, Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay have seen these types of uh ideas rejected in years past, uh, or at least significant roadbox placed in the way.

Um, and uh ultimately if we moved in this direction, I think we'd have to end up getting a development permit or a uh LCP amendment to try to go down this direction.

In other words, the Coastal Commission would get a formal veto.

Um, and because the Coastal Commission has cares so much about low-cost access, uh, the the parking fees facing non-residents uh would be evaluated as reducing equitable access, creating that barrier, uh, creating a disproportionate effect, uh, and often to less affluent communities.

So considering that that's the many many of the items that I saw during uh my time as an alternate um coming before, and ultimately these types of proposals end up being prevented.

I think that it's important that we um uh set this one aside uh while we look for more revenue.

This one has significant and major barriers.

Uh I won't reiterate the economic reasons uh that I think would equally apply to the comments I made from Balboa Park parking, the item before to the beaches.

Uh, but I have met with business owners who say that uh a hum uh a giant chunk, uh close to a majority, and some have pointed to a majority of their revenue coming from non-residents who come to San Diego for tourism, being part of their revenue stream.

Um so the market relying on tourism to that much would not be able to withstand such a drop in tourism.

Um so with that, uh just wanted to place that component on the um on the record uh as to that.

And uh I will be uh supporting uh the items uh in in this budget priorities uh document, and I appreciate the IBA's good work.

Thank you.

Just council member, just a quick response on the revenues and resources side.

Uh majority of council members did support exploring grants and state federal funding opportunities as a resource of revenue coming into the city, so that would be included.

Um there were four council members in support of various other individual revenue items, as those were not included in a majority of council member revenues.

Uh those are not included in the resolution that is set to go to the mayor, unless this council would like to change that.

There was a discussion about including them during the budget and government efficiency committee, um, but ultimately those were not included in what was recommended to you as a full body.

And just for additional clarification on the uh brush management and weed abatement, that is a priority that was expressed in the majority of council member memos, and it's is included in the report.

Very good.

Appreciate that clarification and appreciate the uh elucidation on on the uh on the revenues component, which is why I'll be supporting right now.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

We'll go next to Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Oh, did you want to jump in?

Okay.

Just really quick.

I just want to make sure I understood the IBA's comments.

My motion was to include the amendments, which were the items that received the four votes at the council member.

There was a discussion during committee where expenditure priorities that received four votes or above would be included.

Correct.

Um, and the revenue or additional kind of fees would not be included.

Um that is what's before expenditure priorities with four or above yes revenues currently now.

All right, thank you for that clarification.

Now, council member von Wilbert.

No problem.

I'll always refer to our budget chair to ask questions.

Although the city attorney is on, do you have a caution or anything for us?

Okay, all right.

Um thank you for all the work that you've done on this and for the for the presentation.

Um, and thank you for the clarification on expenditures, but you know, because I I too would have great hesitation with including any more parking fees in this city.

Um but I do want to thank everybody for you know supporting things like brush management and um you know public safety, our firefighter apparatus and our police, our 901 response times, all of that.

Um I do just have one flag for the IBA.

I just want to make sure that that you all are engaged in the conversation around the county's co-interest in managing the El Capitan reservoir because we had quite a debate in the last budget cycle about keeping our reservoirs open, and they've offered to provide funding, but they're asking questions about how we manage.

So are you guys included in those discussions?

Uh we have not been, but we we would be happy to going forward.

Okay.

COTO, do you think you could get the IBA involved?

Yes, we can get them involved with our government affairs team um as they go through those negotiations and coordinating with county.

Okay, thank you.

And I would welcome the county to be pitching in um for the use of this reservoir.

It is located outside of the city geographically, so many county residents use it.

However, it is our asset, so we do have to manage it.

So I appreciate that very much.

Um, and I also want to thank the folks who called in about transportation safety, and um, you know, it it is awful to hear about people being hit, pedestrians, bicyclists, um, and hit and runs in particular.

And uh, you know, we're gonna be having one.

I'm so sorry that you've experienced this, and we're also gonna be having another discussion, a budget-related discussion about um streets and infrastructure coming up around um whether we've continued to fund our smart street lights and our ALPR systems, and this came up during our public safety hearing.

And circulate San Diego actually wrote a letter to the city supporting the continued use of ALPRs and smart street lights because they have been used to resolve and prosecute felony hit and runs of pedestrians and cyclists multiple times.

Um so when we do talk about public safety in terms of pedestrian safety and bicycling safety, I do want us to remember that when we have that conversation about whether to continue to fund that technology going forward.

So just want to note that for the callers who are calling in about um pedestrian and bicycle safety.

So thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Von Wolpert.

Uh Ms.

Gerald, do you want to jump in now?

Yeah, thank you.

Yes, thank you, Council President.

We just had one minor clarification to the motion.

There was a slight difference from what the council members said and what's on the screen, and I'll defer to Chief Deputy City Attorney Brett Bartalotta, who's on Zoom to clarify that for the council.

Thank you, Leslie.

Uh yeah, just for clarification's sake, after the word priority, so where it says analyst budget analysis fiscal year 2027 report on city council budget priorities, it should then say with the modification that the expenditure priorities supported by four council members be included.

Just to be clear to match exactly what was intended coming out of budget committee.

I'm fine with that.

Okay.

And Councilmember Moreno.

Okay.

So if that could be updated so that all the council members know exactly what they're voting on.

Thank you for catching that.

Not seeing anybody else on the lights.

I'll jump in with a few questions myself.

Or we could just stare at Councilmember Campio and his cute son.

Hope he's not over 18 years old.

The law doesn't require me to stay here, right?

Exactly.

So I want to thank the entire staff at the Office of the IBA for your good, very, very good work in navigating all our budget memos from each of the council offices and trying to translate them.

Very curious this year how they differed from past years.

I appreciate the conversation at committee at the budget committee and the inclusion of the priorities of four council members, the expenditure priorities of four council members.

At this stage, with the information that we have, it was difficult for me to provide priorities and apparently the 10 as well.

We have preliminary projections, but we have not seen the mid-year monitoring port for FY26, which is a good indicator for what we can expect in FY27.

Further, our ongoing deficit means our business as usual memos with a list of community priorities could be considered unrealistic for FY27.

We will have to continue to have conversations about cuts, not expansions or improvements.

And I recognize that these memos serve many purposes to show our constituents that we hear them and their concerns to uplift critical issues and to reflect our values.

However, I would caution members of the public about the probability of many of these being funded with our current resources.

There are no lock boxes except those protected by the charter or state law.

And to add programs, projects, and even to continue existing ones, we will need additional revenue, which have been very difficult, which have been very difficult conversations this far.

And as some of you have heard, um, last year this council came out very strong, but very last minute, and some of the things that we wanted to change about the budget, especially revenue ideas, and I would continue to urge all our council colleagues to be much earlier in the conversation about revenue, about cuts, so that we can fully vet them and make meaningful contributions to whatever the mayor puts out in the preliminary budget come April.

The more time we can spend on difficult conversations and build consensus, the stronger our budget adoption will be going forward.

Um with that, I will again thank you to the Office of the IBA for your good work in preparing this annual report.

And not seeing anybody else in the lights, we have a motion by Councilmember Foster and a second by Council Member Moreno, which is listed there on the screen with that uh little editorial change to reflect council member uh foster's uh intent.

So with that, city clerk, please call the vote.

I would just like to note for the record that we did receive 61 comments in opposition and that this item is not subject to the mayor's veto.

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

Councilmember Campill, if I can have your vote for the record.

Yes, I can't see that does pass in uh unanimously eight to zero with council member Campbell absent.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, City Clerk, and again, thank you for all the good work.

So with that, Clerk, please introduce the City Council and Public Facilities Financing Authority related items.

Thank you.

Item 330 is the authorization for the public facilities financing authority of the City of San Diego Sewer Revenue Bonds, and item FA1 is the authorization of the public facilities financing authority of the City of San Diego 2026 a sewer revenue bonds.

This item is not subject to the mayor's veto, and item 330 requires six votes pursuant to charter section 99.

If you'd like to speak to this item, please be sure to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon or submit a speaker slip to the front of the room.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Madam City Clerk.

Well, as been our usual practice, we will take the staff presentations on these two items together, and also public testimony and council comment on these items will be taken together.

We will, however, need separate votes on each item.

So with that, staff, I see you're seated there.

Please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need for the presentation.

Good afternoon, Council Preston and members of the Council.

Jody Pantlou, Assistant Director with the Department of Finance, and presenting with me here today are Kevin Werner, financing coordinator and DOF, and Deputy City Attorney Marguerite Medal.

We'll need about 10 minutes.

All right, when you're ready.

Okay.

This afternoon we are seeking authorization for the issuance of sewer revenue bonds to fund the utilities capital program and refund existing sewer bonds to realize cash flow savings.

As background, uh the wastewater utilities capital improvement program includes the Pure Water Program as well as pipelines, pump stations, trunk sewers, and treatment plants, together what we are referring to as the baseline CIP program.

The proposed bond financing of up to 240 million will fund this baseline program.

Of that, approximately 108 million is projected to reimburse expenses that are expected to occur between now and uh approximately March 2026, and the remaining 132 million will fund projects through approximately the end of fiscal year 2027.

In addition to funding new projects, the authorization allows to refund prior bonds issues, prior bond issues, the 2020 2015 and 2016 A sewer revenue bonds to achieve cash flow savings consistent with the city's debt policy.

As will be referenced later in this presentation, the CIP to be funded with these bonds has already been incorporated into the four-year rate case recently approved by the City Council for the sewer utility.

Additionally, bond covenants includes several covenants, such as requirements for proper system maintenance and a rate covenant that obligates a utility to maintain rates sufficient to meet coverage ratios required for the life of these bonds.

With that, I'll turn it over to Kevin.

Thank you, Jose.

The key financing elements include that this the issuer will be our public facilities financing authority of the city of San Diego.

This will have the same structure as prior bonds we've done 2022 and 2024 on new money bonds.

The repayment source will be net system revenues under a tax exem basis.

The final maturity for this is 30 years for the new money, and then we have match maturities for the refundings, which means that we will not go beyond what the original uh maturities for the 2015 and 2016 bonds.

That means we'll the the uh maturity for that will be uh fiscal year 2039.

The lien will be either senior or subordinate.

That will be decided uh closer to March when we uh uh plan on doing our negotiated sale.

The financing team includes our municipal advisor PFM, our bond and disclosure council Nixon Peabody, our trustee, the U.S.

Bank Trust Company, and then the underwriter we will bring back in March when we come back to council.

I'll talk a little bit about that schedule in a minute.

Uh, the 2026 sewer revenue bonds, this is the new money portion.

We're looking for bond proceeds of up to 240 million dollars.

Uh the estimated true interest cost is 4.6 percent.

That's based on interest rates as of today, no um in November.

Uh those things can change as we get closer to our pricing.

The estimated annual debt service payments is $15 million on average through the life of the 30 years.

And the bond issue is supported by approved sewer rates.

The 2026 sewer revenue bonds and refundings.

We have a unique opportunity uh every 10 years or so that we can optionally call out some of our old bonds if they have higher interest rates uh to uh issue new bonds with lower interest rates to create savings.

So that's the opportunity that we have here in front of you for the 2015 and 2016 A bonds.

The estimated debt service payment savings is about 36 million dollars as of today.

That would be about 0.3 million dollars savings in FY2026, $3.1 million savings in FY27, and $2.7 million savings uh annually from FY 2028 through FY2039.

That comes out to be about a 9.8 net present value uh savings.

Again, this is all subject to markets uh when we come closer in March, which I'll talk about right now.

So the anticipated timeline is the introduct introduction and approval of the finance ordinance uh going forward.

And then in early March, we come back as we do with all our bond issues.

We come back with the disclosure document of the preliminary official statement.

The preliminary official statement contains all of the uh important information for investors that talk about the utilities' finances and talks about uh where the money is going and what's happening with the with the bond funds.

Uh so we will be back to council.

Uh we plan to be back to council in early March 2026.

And with that approval, then we'd be able to move to the bond sale and a bond closing in mid-March and late March.

With that, I'll turn it over to Marguerite to talk about legal structure.

Thanks, Kevin.

The issuance of the 2026A sewer revenue bonds requires agreements involving the city and the public facilities financing authority.

The structure for these bonds is similar to the structure of the previous sewer revenue bonds issued by the authority.

The bonds are limited obligations of the authority and secured by the installment payments made by the city from the net revenues of the wastewater system.

The next two slides list the documents necessary for the issuance of the bonds, which will be issued under supplements to a master indenture and master installment purchase agreement.

The supplemental indenture between the authority and the bank trustee sets forth the terms, interest rates, use of the bond proceeds, and the nature of the security for the bonds.

The supplemental indenture between the authority and the bank trustee.

And the city makes installment payments to the authority.

The continuing disclosure certificate details the city's ongoing obligations to file annual reports and notices of certain material events with the municipal securities rulemaking board for the benefit of the bondholders.

The bond purchase agreement between the city authority and the underwriters, which is necessary in a negotiated sale of the bonds, sets forth terms for the underwriter to purchase the bonds, include including the purchase price, interest rates, maturities, and redemption of the bonds.

Finally, the escrow agreement between the city authority and bank trustee sets forth terms for funds to be deposited into an escrow account to refund the outstanding 2015 and 2016 sewer revenue bonds.

This agreement details how the funds will be invested until they are expended to refund the bonds.

And now Jothi and Kevin will finish up on the screen is what we're asking for approval for.

We are uh that concludes our presentation.

Do you have any questions?

All right, thank you very much for the presentation.

Now Clerk, please proceed with public comment for these two items.

Thank you.

Can I have uh Blair Beekman please come forward?

He'll be speaking on items 330 and FA1.

Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.

Thank you for allowing two minutes, I suppose.

Um I wanted to comment uh for this item that uh with the recent rains we just had in this past week, we were really nervous and preparing for the worst.

And I guess it hasn't been quite as bad expected, but um you had a uh closed session agenda item talking about um 2024 uh flood issues, Mr.

Binkman.

Yeah, I'm coming.

This is for sewer.

Yes.

Not so.

Let me come into the what I'm talking about.

Thank you.

So um uh it's my feeling.

Uh I guess correct me if I'm wrong after I state this, that um with our sewer issues.

If we had good sewer plans and issues in the works in 2024, it could have helped avoid flood issues.

I don't know.

Good.

Okay.

That means that you've explained this before that stormwater issues compared to sewer issues could be two different subject matters completely, and it's very frustrating that those happened.

But what I've noticed with this item, all right, thank you for that clarification.

What I've noticed with this item is that this can be a quick way to get funding going, possibly, which interested me and how I connected it with flood issues.

But you described here before stormwater and sewer are two separate entities, and I wish they could be more together that could have helped avoid the 2024 issues.

I think you're trying to connect how we can have easier funding in the future uh and possibly more quickly when uh emergency events happen.

Um this can be an item that explains that.

Thank you.

Um I'm trying my best here.

Uh, thanks for your patience.

Thank you.

I'll go to those participating remotely, starting with John Stump.

I've started the five-minute timer.

Will you be speaking on both items, sir?

Thank you very much.