That's necessary for the supportive programs to help our youth, our young ladies that are involved in this trade in really an interesting bad position in life.

This law will be a game changer and will allow police and prosecutors to do our jobs of protecting the most vulnerable.

San Diego is not a place to traffic in children.

And if you do it, you're gonna have a police department that's gonna arrest you, and you're gonna have a DA that's gonna prosecute you.

Don't do it here.

We're planting eight trees and giving the park a fresh look by painting our park furniture and the playground.

And this event's part of our ready set grow San Diego effort to bring more shade, more beauty, and more green space to neighborhoods like City Heights.

Teralta Park is a special place and a product of community members coming together to provide a central gathering place to mitigate the division of the neighborhood that the 15 freeway brought.

And before this freeway was here, there were homes here, right?

And the freeway had a huge impact on the community.

We're standing above a fruit on a park that's above a freeway.

And that's not common.

It's one of the first places in California that that happened, and it was a direct result of community voice.

Having you all here to help with these kinds of tasks and to help make this park better by you all being here creates ownership.

And when you all feel like you own this park, you'll want to come back again and again and again.

It's about the the what we're planning for future generations.

So currently here at the Miramar Greenery, we separate any contaminants from our organic waste materials and compost through a screening process that removes most of the contamination and our end compost has less than one percent contamination by weight.

This process that we're piloting right now removes contaminants on the front end of that process, which then will result in a lower amount of contaminants at the end, which is a better compost product to put out in our community.

Organic materials when they go to the landfill create both methane and leachate, though which then we have to control through environmental containment systems and can create air pollution as well as water pollution if not managed appropriately.

When we divert organic materials through composting programs like this and other programs around our region, we're able to reduce that amount of methane, capture a viable, reusable resource, and could and get it back out into the community.

Compost can replace chemical fertilizers, which then improve the overall environment that we all live in.

Well, the green bin it's meant for all of your organic waste material.

That would be all of your yard trimmings, so maybe your grass cuttings, maybe your trimming bushes, um plants, flowers.

It also includes all of your food scraps.

So any any vegetable, fruit, even your meat and bones, your bread, as well as food-soiled paper products.

And when I say that, I mean think of a coffee filter with coffee grounds in it, or napkins or paper towels that have been used and soiled, all of that can go in your green bed.

The city is educating all of our residents, people who live and work in the city in San Diego about their green bin and what they are allowed to put in it and what they're not allowed to put in it.

So we do not allow plastic bags or compostable bags at our greenery composting processing facility.

In fact, it was exactly two years ago today that we stood on this piece of land, what was then just a patch of dirt to break ground on this project.

Two years later, here we are to dedicate and add a hundred new units of affordable housing to our city's inventory of homes that everyday San Diegans can afford.

This is difficult work, and the fact that we have people who are passionate about this issue, myself included, is why we're making some progress and hopefully people start to feel it in their pocketbooks.

This is a proud moment, not just for the community, but for the entire city because today we're opening up 100 new affordable homes for families.

This is how we address the housing crisis with action, but also with compassion.

And today, this commitment stands right here in an embodiment at the IRS.

The Iris is more than just a building.

It is a bold statement about our values.

This is not just housing.

This is thoughtful, sustainable, and connected development.

The county is dedicated to improving health outcomes, fostering stability, and opening doors for residents to thrive.

I think that's important.

When we ask communities to accept more homes in their community, it should not just benefit the new folks who arrive in the community.

It shouldn't just help the new folks, it should help the existing people who live in the community.

And that's exactly what we're going to do with Howard Lane Park so that they can all feel like their quality of life is being enriched by this new housing, which I believe that it does.

This truly is a great day in our city.

And the future of the tens and thousands of students who call SDSU home during one of the most important chapters of their lives.

This is the first comprehensive plan update in more than 30 years.

And for me, the best thing about it is more options for future SDSU students to stay close to the campus.

What I heard was a community that wanted to elevate their community.

A safe community, a community with a high quality of life, a place filled with belonging where everyone has the opportunity to be where they want to be.

And a community that's it for everyone.

A road diet and a usable park will not only activate the corridor, but connect the various neighborhoods and communities of permanent residents and students that tend to be isolated.

From housing affordability to transit access, safe streets, welcoming public spaces, all directly affect whether or not students can focus on their learning, graduate on time, and build their futures right here in America's finest city.

The goal was and is to make the college area a destination and a place people want to live in.

This is smart growth.

It's growth that supports our city's climate goals, it supports our local small businesses, creates safer and more vibrant streets, and growth that reflects the reality of a major American university inside a top 10 American city.

Electrification of a building is removal of natural gas burning systems.

So switching from gas furnaces and kitchens to electric systems, which allows us to remove uh greenhouse gas emissions from the environment.

The financing agreement is cash flow neutral.

We're essentially shifting our operating costs from energy bills over to loan repayment across a 25-year term and with no upfront cost to the city.

Construction should begin in summer of 2026 and will last for around two years since we have so many projects to uh to to get completed.

Exactly a year ago, you would have seen anywhere from about 75 to 100 people living in this island area.

It's important to remember is the outreach that we launched in July was four months earlier, so that we could take the time to engage individuals and actually better understand what someone wanted and what someone needed instead of just coming in and saying, okay, we're cleaning it up, you gotta go.

So from July all the way to November, they were out here trying to get people into some type of shelter option.

So by the time that we came out here, there had already been months of outreach occurring.

So when we came, that was the day where we were actually gonna be getting all the trash, all the people, everything out of here, so it could go back to being what's supposed to be part of the river.

Since then, uh park rangers have been out here daily, and that's been a very big group effort.

So getting all that, but when I see the wildlife that's out here, you see ducks, you see cranes, you see things that we didn't see a year, year and a half ago.

That's one of the ways I know that we did good out here is seeing the wildlife returning.

Can you try it one more time?

It's not just a little echo.

Thank you so much.

Good morning.

I'll call the city council meeting of Monday, February 9th, 2026 to order.

Please note, closed session for Monday, February 9th, 2026 has been adjourned.

Non-agenda public comment will be taken during the morning portion of the agenda before all information or discussion items.

As the 2 p.m.

session has also been adjourned.

With that, Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell?

Here.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster?

Here.

Councilmember Von Wilper.

Council President Pro Tem Lee?

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Councilmember Moreno.

Present.

Councilmember Ila Rivera.

And Council President LaCava.

Present.

Also attending the meeting are Assistant City Attorney, Michelle Garland, Independent Budget Analyst Charles Monica, and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Council Member Reynolds participating remotely.

Do you have a statement to make?

Thank you, Council President.

Um I'm present and I also uh would like to notify the council that I will be attending uh the meeting today remotely due to just cause related to child care.

Uh pursuant to the Brown Act, I'm disclosing that there are no individuals 18 years of age or old who are present in the room with me.

And I will update this disclosure if it changes during the course of the meeting.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

And with that, the quorum is now present.

We will begin this morning with invocation by Clerk Fuentes, followed with the land acknowledgement and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Council President Pro Tam Lee.

Grant those who hold office in this city the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice, that with steadfast purpose they may faithfully serve in their offices to promote the well-being of all people.

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

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

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

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

We stand with Kumeay Nation, connected to our past and committed to a thriving future.

Ready to begin.

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 public comment.

Or if you're a calling participant, star nine.

If I can have the following individuals, please come up to the other reserve seats.

Terry Rhompson, Travis Bushard, and Paul Krueger, starting with Terry.

If Terry, you can come up to the mic, the taller mic.

You'll have two minutes.

Please proceed when ready.

Good morning, Council Terry Thompson.

I'd like to thank Mayor Tub Gloria for removing the parking fees for Balboa Park for city residents.

I would ask the city council to provide efforts to remove the fees to county reference of the city of the council, or sorry, San Diego County members.

This is a park that is recognized by all of us and free, should be continued to be a free entity to all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Travis.

If you can come up.

Thank you.

Good morning, counsel.

Joe?

I hope your home has an HOA.

We're here.

You got no future as a president of this organization.

So HOA is in your future.

You have no leadership, no strategic thought.

Last time I was here, you laughed as you voted to continue extorting six million dollars a year.

From standing over residents.

Literally laughed as you voted.

Here's some strategic thought for you, for all of you.

And for the mayor's office.

A bond.

Ballot measure for a bond for Balboa Park.

Okay.

There's other ways to generate revenue other than extorting us for parking.

You build a parking garage at the parking lot south of park.

You have a free shuttle that takes people into the park.

Okay?

That's shuttle staffed by union employees, because you all care about unions, right?

Not Ace.

The hypocrisy of hiring Ace while having unions sit here and back, you guys is pretty crazy.

In addition, you with that money, rip up the lots at the Oregon Pavilion.

Rip up the lots at Aaron Space.

Anything left over goes to Todd to do whatever the hell he wishes.

So you can die on this hill with Todd, right?

This is political suicide.

80% of people agree with me.

They're just too apathetic to be here.

Or you can do the right thing and repeal parking.

Todd needs to stop spreading propaganda too.

Parking was not repealed.

It's not free.

Got asterisks all over it.

Using social media spread propaganda is a playbook straight out of Netanyahu's playbook.

Pretty fucking embarrassing.

Thank you.

Paul Kruger.

Hello, and thank you for listening.

I wanted to uh first compliment uh council member Lee for his comment to the voice of San Diego.

Um about the uh fact that this so-called compromise has removed from the public an opportunity to discuss today the issues involved.

Um that a public hearing about paid parking would have been uh more than appropriate and important.

Um in addition to that, I'd like to say that um the confusion around where we now stand with parking was uh demonstrated by our first speaker who said that he wants to thank the mayor for removing paid parking for city residents.

And as we know, the we have not removed paid parking for city residents.

I I'm continually bewildered by the disconnect between uh what the mayor and what you as councilman with no fault of your own because you live within a uh epicenter uh a microcosm of the work you do, uh your disconnect with the public and how the public processes this.

They don't know that most people do not understand the difference between Upper Palisades, Oregon Pavilion, Inspiration Point, Pepper Grove.

No one is gonna know where it's free and where it's paid.

Um most importantly, I think there's tremendous dissatisfaction with this continued charge for county residents.

I would really urge you to please think through the basic uh logic of this idea that someone who lives across the street from someone else can no longer park, you know, does not have the same uh privilege of limited paper.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Um, Aaron Bries.

Hello.

Um I've never done this before, so I'm gonna try to make this point as quickly and saliently as possible.

Um I work here in San Diego.

I moved here uh just a year and a bit of change ago when I first moved to San Diego.

The the one thing I kept thinking about was oh my god, everything is so expensive.

But where was a place that I could go that I didn't have to spend money for me and my family?

That was Balboa Park for me.

It had museums that I could go see on Tuesday that were free.

I even have employees here that work with me at Balboa Park.

They're losing money.

The money that we work through our work to get by paying for parking fees.

If you think about San Diego as a collection of places with beautiful things that you can go do, how many of them can you do for free?

We have the parks.

The Balboa was the biggest and the most impressive, and the one I love the most.

I I don't have a good solution for fixing the revenue for San Diego, but I'd like that third place to exist again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment, not agenda public comment here in Council Chambers.

Going to those participating remotely, we have nine speakers with their ten speakers with their hands raised.

The five-minute timer has begun.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

All right, thank you.

Uh Blair Beekman.

Um happy February to everyone.

Um, I'm also in agreement.

Uh thank you that you are looking at ways to repeal the parking issues.

Uh I think uh the debate should be cut in half straight over for both uh city and county residents.

Uh I think that would be a good way to compromise at this time.

Also, um, I wanted to offer an overall comment that uh as the C prol has just passed, and we're still in our early February trying to figure out how we're going to be budgeting with this year and what our plans are going to be for this upcoming year.

Um, I hope we can be really start to settle in on how to address our uh current overmilitarization that we have going on, not just at the local level with ICAG's, but at the international level, and what Trump is he's going to be wanting to promote war in this upcoming year, it sounds like we have to be ready here in San Diego for those concepts to be taking place.

And I just wanted to offer reminders that you guys already know how to do some really good best practices towards ideas of peace before war when you see uh war practices coming down from the uh federal level, and we just have to be ready for that.

We have to be ready that you know, on the international level, they're starting to use sonic equipment as military hardware as uh and uh is that military hardware is going to start to be used uh domestically, locally, on everyday demonstrations and community more L branch systems.

I'm talking about sonic stuff, microwave stuff.

Um what are we gonna do about those questions?

I think we have to start asking those questions more often.

And as I mentioned previously, our police have to be really prepared and know how to practice peace and de-escalation and not war at this time.

Um it takes all of us to work on this stuff.

Good luck how we can work on that together in this upcoming year.

Thank you.

Next is Barbara Gordon, if you can please unmute.

Um good morning.

As a public health educator, I wanted to share with you some growing body of scientific evidence raising serious concerns about the health impact of marijuana use.

Public health messaging messaging is crucial to educate users about these risks, particularly as the city continues to permit this drug to be sold.

According to a peer review, an edit editorial published in the British Medical Journal and also the British Cardiovascus by the Cardiovascular Society, it reports marijuana use has emerged as a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, drawing attention from researchers and health care professionals alike.

The active compound in marijuana, particularly THC, can lead to increased heart rate, blood pressure, straining the cardiovascular system.

The potency of marijuana, typically measured by the THC concentration, can significantly affect cardiovascular risk in several ways.

Studies indicate that marijuana users may have a higher risk of heart attack, stroke, especially in individuals with preexisting conditions.

Moreover, the method of concept consumption, such as smoking, can exasperate risk due to the insulation of harmful substances that affect lung health.

Understanding the relationship between marijuana use and cardiovascular health is essential for informed decisions making and the risk management.

I hope you will take all of the scientific evidence in as you continue to promote the sale of this drug.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Next is Peggy Walker, if you can please unmute.

Thank you, and good morning.

When I was leaving the airport parking lot Saturday, it was a beautiful sunny day.

The kind that reminds us why we call San Diego America's finest city, the harbor sparkled.

But as I turned off Harbor Drive and down Laurel Street, that image was abruptly disrupted by a glaring billboard, bright hot pink, advertising cannabis with the slogan, Love is in the air.

This massive billboard dominates the area.

Only this repugnant billboard screaming for attention.

For visitors arriving from the airport, families, business travelers, or tourists.

This is their first impression of our city.

A giant marijuana ad.

And that's not the welcome message we should offer.

We prohibit tobacco and restrict alcohol billboard advertising because of the public health implications.

So why, council?

Why are we allowing advertising of high potency marijuana?

A product that raises considerable public health and safety concerns, and from an industry whose messaging is highly controversial.

Most of us take pride in how our city is represented.

This billboard cheapens the image.

We have worked so hard to cultivate.

Please take a closer look at this issue and consider prohibiting outdoor marijuana billboard advertising.

First impressions of San Diego should reflect our values, our beauty, and our pride is America's finest city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is the original.

If you can please unmute.

And the five-minute timer also concluded.

Eight speakers had their hands raised.

No additional speakers will be taken after that.

The original, please proceed.

I think it's important to uh listen to the names of the people who have lost their lives due to the city and dreams for change and downtown partnership, living at Tent City.

You guys want to laugh about it.

You want to cover it up, even the rapes, but I think it's important that we know who these people are and don't let them fall through the cracks.

Tammy Groverek died of systemic failures.

William Pendavaris died of systemic failures.

Martin died of Narcan overdose by Dreams for Change staff.

Ralph Threat, accidental overdose.

He was laced.

Jane Doe froze to death, no blankets offered by Dreams for Change.

Todd Jackson, medical equipment failure, no power.

Jane Doe, medical equipment failure, unplugged.

Don Denise, Dennis Lane, weather systemic failures.

Rita Chambers, unknown cause of death.

Big E, fentanyl overdose, Michael, fentanyl overdose, Jane Doe, um methamphetamine overdose.

Jane, John Doe, methamphetamine overdose.

Jane Doe, a rat attack and an infection, destiny, internal bleeding, and sexual assault, Oscar, fentanyl overdose, Tammy Jackson, alcohol poisoning and systemic failures.

Dominique, fentanyl overdose, Matthew, tent fire, Shannon, also known as Sky, accidental overdose, which she was laced.

Bobby Dillard was also laced and overdose.

Erica had a fentanyl overdose.

Meatball is an unknown death.

Shorty died of a fentanyl overdose, and a whistleblower died of an overdose and a death in the car after the day he was fired.

So I think that you guys need to really take a look at yourselves in the mirror and what you're doing with your budget and the money that you're allocating out to people or entities like Dreams for Change and Downtell Partnership.

No more people should be dying because we're paying for you to encourage that to happen.

Your time has concluded.

Next is William Darsa, if you can please unmute.

William.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Okay.

So I thought I would come in with some solutions today because it seems like you guys have a problem with this budget, and your solutions are to tax the people.

And it's like you guys have connections and the ability to, you know, make things happen, and you're not using your creativity very well.

So here's some ideas.

One, research when San Diego had a tourist surplus and figure out what we were doing then and do more of that.

Two, create a fund pass for San Diego tourists to combine tourist attractions to uh or for a vacation package.

Invite more tourist attractions to draw in more tourists.

Look at what keeps Vegas a 24-7 city and learn from that.

Bring back beach drinking.

Because when we had drinking on the beach, there were more people on the beach, thus more tourists coming into town.

Invite more big Comic Con type of conventions to the city.

More conventions equal more tourists.

Bring back street scene.

Also invite promoters to build other big street festivals, equals more tourists.

Host a fancy art gala, invite states' wealthiest collectors, invite city artists to auction off art.

50-50 split between artist and city.

Activate spaces using local artists and performers in areas to draw in tourists.

Clean up tourist areas.

Cut SVO rangers back a little because there is no vending, so the SVO team is kind of a waste of city funds.

Hire creative thinkers, build a budget think tank.

13, tourism ads, drawing more national and international tourists.

14, invest funds into AI robotics and other evolving tech.

15.

Cut the pay of some city staffers back a little.

I have more that I can send in to you guys.gov, and those will be distributed to the council.

Clifford, if you can please unmute.

Hi, I'm Clifford Weiler.

I already sent in some comments.

I think that's number 15 on your list of uh public comments.

Um first let me say I really do like the traffic circles, but I'm here to talk about parking fees in Balboa Park.

I think it's inevitable that it's you're ultimately gonna eliminate the parking fees.

Maybe it'll be in uh in June or July or something like that.

But after you hear from the Naval Medical Center, the volunteers, and you're hearing from the museums now.

I and you're gonna hear from the constituents.

I think it's inevitable that you're gonna become logical and remove the parking fees.

But how will you do that?

And here I'm I'm again trying to offer you some constructive suggestions.

Go to ordinance 2026-5.

That was the ordinance that allowed the mayor to implement the parking meters, especially in action items section two.

The mayor is authorized to install parking meters and the necessary signs and markings within the Balboa park meter zone.

That's what you have to repeal.

If you don't repeal the whole ordinance, at least repeal that part.

And in terms of solutions, um I'm also concerned about what's going to happen now, or if you do remove all the parking fees, the mayor's gonna dump it, dump the solutions in your lap, even though it's a strong mayor develop of a strong mayor city.

Um I have uh espoused several times before to you to look at middle management.

And I finally looked at my notes from before back at maybe around 2024.

I did a study.

I picked out the San Diego Housing Commission.

Not that I don't like them, but as an example, they had 23 uh team leaders.

I was able to look at 20 of them.

The total salaries back in uh 2023 were 3,269,000.

But you add benefits to that, that's 5.3 million.

Look at the middle management in the structures.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is 1384, if you can please unmute 1384.

If you're raising your hand after the five-minute timer, you will not be taken.

Hello, Ernie Casco, senior resident pilot, Tory Pines glide report.

It's February 9th.

Your leaseholder has me currently blocked out of the glider port, completely under federal, forcing residents to sign an illegal contract to use Torrey Pine's glide report.

It is well documented that the complaint is on your desk.

It needs to stop today.

Your leaseholder claims to be doing his job that nobody has complained or stopped them.

When it's your job, Todd Gloria and Joe La Caba to protect our constitutional recreational rights and freedoms.

Failing to do so is a violation of your oath of office.

It's time to stop the war over control of Tory Pine's gladiator cascal purse.

Your leaseholder is in conflict with residents and free pilots, constitutional recreational rights and freedoms, fighting over employment, money, power, profit, and control of the Glitterport.

How dangerous is your leaseholder?

I was poisoned with a biohazard, now dying with deadly uh virus at stage for cancer.

I reported serious allegations directly to your office in San Diego Police Department.

Most recently to the City Council Real Estate Assets Department.

I have been paying your leaseholder while understood the violence, and your leaseholder refuses to provide a copy of the access pass and waiver in question.

The truth is coming out at University Community Planning Group.

Where are the police reports for victims who have been damaged?

Why haven't you taken action when you have a legal solution ready to go at your desk?

I expect an immediate reply from your office, Jill Lakabit, not another rabbit hole.

It's time to stop the crime.

Reverse, uh revise the permanent reinstatement of Tory Pine's Gladaport Advisory Board and implement the proposed San Diego recreational waiver as a PUM solution that ends the dispute.

It's a win for city council liabilities and restores recreational rights and freedoms.

Becky Rapp, if you can please unmute.

Becky Rappick, there you go.

Good morning.

My name is Becky Rapp, and I'm here out of concern for the city's ongoing budget shortfalls in mid-year deficit.

As the city looks for new revenue, I urge you to focus on strategies that do not rely on addictive products or the normalization of drug culture.

Revenue generation should align with public health, community safety, and the long-term well-being of our residents.

San Diego is an expensive city to visit, but that's not the only reason tourism is down.

What drives people away isn't just the price, but it's the experience.

And when visitors travel through downtown, Pacific Beach, and other high tourism areas, they encounter visible drug use, homelessness in crisis, and frequent emergency responses.

At the same time, these same corridors are saturated with marijuana billboard advertising, reinforcing the message that drug use is a defining feature of our city.

And that perception has consequences.

Drug activity drives repeat emergency calls, strains first responders, and increases public health and safety costs.

If we want a financially responsible city, we must stop leaning on revenue tied to addictive products and instead invest in prevention, cleanup, and family-friendly economic activities.

A city that is healthier and safer for residents is also more attractive to visitors and far more sustainable in the long run.

Our beaches, parks, neighborhoods, culture, and quality of life.

Let's send a message that San Diego prioritizes public health, prevention, and puts its residents and families first.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Judy Strange, if you can please unmute.

Good morning, San Diego City Council, and uh happy February as well as we head towards Valentine's this week.

Um several years ago, I was the representative to a PTA representative to a Marcha Dimes campaign that put together an ad that eventually became national, started here in our county, and it showed two sets of baby footprints.

One sort of regular size and one a little bit smaller.

And underneath the ads whose mother smoke.

The role of smoking and now, of course, vaping on the role of prenatal health and the outcome of babies, in this case, birth weight and size.

And so it is of great interest to me that we are seeing again the role of marijuana use in pregnant women and how it affects the outcome with babies.

And I think it's important for us to remember that the health of children predicts the health of a community.

So it matters what our pregnant women use and are they getting the appropriate information.

It was recently suggested in addictive behaviors that 7% of all pregnant women use marijuana.

But unfortunately, it seems to be a group that are very vulnerable.

They are younger, they are unmarried, and have serious psychological disturbances as reported by the hospitals.

And they also report concurrent cigarette and alcohol use.

So in other words, our young women are not getting the messages they need about their health and the health of their baby.

And I wonder if this is because of what they see here in our city and the messages that we're sending and the role that we all have to change that so that young women understand what good health looks like and it doesn't include marijuana use.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nexus Kathleen Lippett.

If you can please unmute, and then our final speaker is at 8700.

Thank you.

Good morning, council.

I have worked to raise community capacity to advocate for policies that increase public safety and quality of life for years.

But first, I'd like to address the myth that bringing back alcohol on city beaches would be a viable strategy to increase city revenues.

Nearly all coastal beaches in California had been alcohol-free for years.

But the city's long-standing inability to adopt a policy of alcohol-free beaches for decades, had ended up with tons of trash, tipped over porta potties, violence, and a place that was not safe for parents to bring their children.

After the policy was adopted, alcohol-free policies, that is, a lifeguard commented that for the first time in his career, they were watching to ensure the safety of children, not from dangerous drunks, but from ocean undercurrents and the water.

So it was a wonderful policy.

And those kinds of policies need to be considered early on, kicking the can down the road while you avoid adopting these policies because you think they might be politically not expedient or etc.

Didn't does no one any good.

And it was begun by Marcella Turan.

She now is she put up signs to say if anyone else is upset with the drunken hazards and the drunks walking through the city, please come to a community meet meeting.

And a hundred people showed up.

That agency has got that act that organization has grown to 350 individuals.

And the founding members, Marcella and Marcy Beckett, Scott Chipman and Monica.

Thank you, uh Joy Sanyata, District 3.

My topic is budgets.

And it's the big picture that I'm showing to everyone in offering.

Last year, at the beginning of the budget cycle, I chose the word resilience as my guiding principle.

This year, I chose the word opportunity.

Because for me, the best way I can be resilient is to look for the opportunities in the challenges.

Right now, governments on all levels are uncertain in so many, many ways.

City, state, federal, and the global uncertainty provides a big challenge.

Yet the other side of that, which is always present, is opportunity.

I followed last year's budget cycle and its implementation.

It was a bumpy ride.

Yet San Diego people seize the opportunity to participate and fight for a consensus-based budget.

Many voices were loudly heard.

Thank you to everyone who did that and continue to do that.

That is our gym.

I find the best thing about opportunity is the chance to do it better.

Together, let's do it better with our FY27 budget.

Thank you for listening.

Have a great week.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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

All right.

Thank you, City Clerk.

And it was nice that a little bit of joy was back in Council Chambers.

With that, Clerk, please introduce item S400.

Item S400 is fiscal year 2027 updated city council budget priorities.

This item is not subject to the mayor's veto.

If you'd like to speak on this item, now is the time to submit your speaker slip to the front of the room in the clear box, or if you are participating remotely, please raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you very much.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

I'll turn it over to the Office of the Independent Budget Analysts.

Please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need for the presentation.

Thank you.

Um, Council President and Council Members Charles Moddock, your independent budget analyst.

We are here to present the update to your FY27 City Council budget priorities.

After council reviews this item and approves it, it will be transmitted to the mayor to be used in guidance for the preparation of next year's budget.

Obviously, the city is facing a pretty significant deficit that will need to be filled in the next year.

So to that extent, a number of the priorities are more consistent with maintaining service levels and necessarily adding new ones.

But to go over those priorities, I will turn this presentation over to Lisa Byrne and Sergio Alcalde for my office, and then we'll also be available for questions once it wraps up.

Thank you, Charles.

I'm going to begin with some brief background information.

Council approves its initial budget priorities resolution, which includes its one cent TOT recommendation in the fall.

For fiscal year 27, it was approved last November.

Today, council has the opportunity to update its priorities resolution.

Last Wednesday, the budget committee forwarded our report 23, or excuse me, 2603 on council updated priorities to this council with one modification, which is to include all expenditure priorities supported by four council members in the fiscal year 27 updated priorities resolution.

As uh Charles mentioned, council may make additional changes, and once it appropriates it approves the updated resolution, it will be submitted to the mayor for consideration in developing the fiscal year 27 budget.

Last uh December budget committee chair Foster issued a call memo requesting council members submit their priorities updates to our office, which they did on January 9th.

Notably, the call memo again referenced a future presentation on zero-based budgeting or ZBB and requested that each council member identify departments they would like included in related discussions.

Based on their January 9th memo, January 9th memo, two council members maintained their recommendation of homelessness strategies and solutions and transportation departments for ZBB consideration.

Two other council members supported exploring this approach.

We understand that the Department of Finance is going through a ZBB exercise for external contracts in the current budget development process.

In light of the currently projected 105 million dollar baseline revenue shortfall, we anticipate that city services for fiscal year 27 will be reduced as there are not enough near-term increased revenue opportunities to address this shortfall.

We also stress the need for the city to address its structural budget deficit and not rely on one-time resources to fund ongoing services and the related expenditures.

Without resolving this issue, the city will remain unable to use increases in ongoing resources to enhance services, putting it in a position of having to continually explain to the public why increased revenues do not produce enhanced services.

Most of the council members' January 9th memos highlight concerns with the structural budget deficit and related funding constraints.

Our report on council priorities provides decision makers with insight into which priorities are currently ranked highest.

There may be additional factors to consider and rankings of priorities included in the budget priorities resolution could change as the budget process unfolds.

This slide outlines several components in our report, and I'll start with uh how resources were addressed in council members' memos.

Although no specific resources were identified by a majority of council members, a majority did discuss exploration of new revenues and resources, including grants and state or federal funding opportunities.

A majority of council members also referenced exploring potential operational efficiencies, including several mentions related to evaluation of managerial or unclassified positions, as well as several references to implementing various audit recommendations that are expected to result in efficiencies, savings, or added revenue.

Additionally, our report highlights council members' collective support for expenditure priorities and the potential for updating council's recommendation for use of the one cent transient occupancy tax revenue.

I'll now turn to Sergio Alcalde to cover those items.

Thanks, Lisa.

The tables on this and the following slide list priorities included in the initial budget priorities resolution that retain support from four or more council members based on the January 9th memos.

These include homelessness and housing operations priorities shown on the left table and other operating priorities shown in the right.

Here on the left are additional operating priorities, and on the right are infrastructure priorities.

I'd like to note that the descriptions and initial number of mentions for each priority can be found on IB.

IBA report 25-32 REV.

Additionally, our report, our office reviewed the January 9th memos for priorities included in the initial budget priorities resolution that have no longer support from four or more council members.

We identified no such priorities.

First is the office of the city auditor.

Six council members support restoring $55,000 in ongoing non-personal expenditure expenditures and budgeting this amount as a one-time reduction for fiscal year 2027.

Four council members also noted that independent offices like the city auditors should be reasonably funded to implement mandated requirements.

Five council members prioritize additional funding for brush management and abatement in canyons and open space areas to reduce the risk of wildfires.

Because these two priorities are majority supported, they will also be included in the updated budget priorities resolution unless council chooses not to.

Moving to new priorities supported by four council members, of which there are three.

First is recruitment, retention, and employee-related compensation.

Next is the avoidance of across the board cuts.

Four council members addressed how the how these types of cuts negatively and disproportionately impact underserving vulnerable communities.

And third, unimproved streets and alleys.

These three priorities, along with all four council member supported expenditure priorities, have been recommended by the budget committee to be included in the fiscal year 2027 updated budget priorities resolution.

Consequently, these priorities will be included in the updated resolution unless council chooses not to.

As Lisa mentioned, council may update its one cent TOT recommendation as part of the updated resolution.

For reference, council members' support for penny penny for the arts based on the January 9th memos is divided into three into these levels.

Six council members support partial funding at 4.28% of TOT, which is the same percentage allocated in fiscal year 2026.

Two council members support full funding at 9.52% of TOT, and one council member did not know funding for penny for the yards in their January 9th memo.

Lastly, we would like to go over the next steps with you.

Our office recommends council adopt the fiscal year 2027 updated budget priorities resolution based on our report with any desired modifications to the updated expenditure priorities and the council's one cent TOT recommendation.

Subsequently direct our office to deliver the report together with each council member's January 9th memos to the mayor for consideration the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget.

That concludes our presentation.

We're happy to take any questions.

Thank you.

Any concluding comments?

All right.

Uh well, thank you for the good work that you do every, or actually I would say twice a year in terms of our updated budget.

Uh it really is very, very helpful.

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

Thank you, Council President.

Starting with Christine Martinez, if you can please come up to the microphone.

If you can please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

Christine.

You'll have a minute and a half.

Hi, good morning.

My name is Christine Martinez.

I'm here with Arts and Culture San Diego, a group of more than 150 different arts and culture organizations who span all nine of the county of the city districts.

I want to thank you so much for including all of us in the process and being so open with all the facts and figures.

We understand we are not we're not blind to the situation that this very difficult budget year.

Um it has been for several years, but especially difficult this year.

Um we know you all are trying to get creative with ways to balance that budget, but we also appreciate and we've seen over the last few years your consistent support of arts and culture.

That just shows to all of us that you understand that arts and culture isn't just a nice to have, it's a need to have.

Um we um are an economic engine.

We fuel TOT, job creation, small business, and we build communities and we spark wonder in adults and children alike.

Please help us stay flat this year at 4.82 percent so we can continue this good work in all of your districts without interrupt interruption and keep the valuable programming that serves your communities going.

Um as you know, 4.28% of TOT is not um it's not an increase.

We're not asking for that.

And with inflation and and the cost of everything going on in the city, um, it's actually you know, probably less than we need.

So we appreciate that concluding comment.

Thank you.

Carlos.

Thank you.

Dear members of council, uh, council president.

My name is Carlos Christiani, director of corporate and government affairs at the Fleet Science Center.

I want to um first share our sincere gratitude for the overwhelming support for arts and culture funding in your priority memos.

Your investment in arts and culture as core services for the city always comes back several fold in social and economic prosperity across districts.

We cannot forget this abundance of positive impact that we have together.

Over 10 years ago, with much less support from this dais, we were able to grow arts and culture funding from seven million to fifteen million in three years.

To date, we have been unable to even keep up with the pace of inflation, basing inflation.

In the meantime, cities like Austin have increased their arts and culture investments to the tune of over 20 million dollars for the year 2024.

Even federal grants have been reinstated and funds appropriated with a slight increase.

We stand at your service, ready to help and serve our most needed communities and all of San Diego for a city that is for all of us.

The future is brighter and possible, and we can do this together.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Bob morning, Council President, Council members.

My name is Bob Lehman.

I'm the executive director of San Diego Arts Matters, the region's region's largest arts advocacy organization.

I want to thank the council for clearly designating arts funding as a priority.

At a time when many cities are pulling back that leadership matters.

When San Diego invests in arts and culture and invest in connection, belonging, economic value, and trust across to every neighborhood.

Parks, arts, and libraries function as a central civic infrastructure, preventive systems that support well-being before crisis escalate.

When we invest in the arts, we see stronger community connection, more opportunities for youth, a more vibrant tour economy, and healthier civic dialogue.

Arts organizations are already doing more with less.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment here in Council Chamber starting the five-minute timer.

Go to those participating remotely, starting with two four six three.

If you can please unmute two four six three.

After that, William Dorsa and then Andrew Ebbing.

I can unmute for you, star six to unmute.

2463.

I will need to move on to the next caller.

Okay, William Dorset, if you can please unmute.

Can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Okay.

I'm just gonna uh finish the list I started earlier since this is about the budget.

Um I have some more ideas that will help with the budget.

I think audit the current laws and ensure that there are no laws that violates um current state or federal laws or is outdated that'll reduce a lot of liability.

Uh number 17, give more civil rights training to local law enforcement, including rangers.

Um, I think that'll also prevent liability.

18.

Look to other thriving tourist mechas, copy what they are doing right.

19.

The port is collectively owned by several cities.

Currently, it's sitting on a surplus of money that could be activated to cities that are in need of funds.

Um, and then number 20, create a local city discount pass for city and county residents for all the tourist attractions so that they are being accessed more, generating more revenue in the city.

Um, I am sure there's plenty more things that could be created to solve the budget issues.

You have an arts and culture group that you're funding, activate them.

There are a lot of smart creative people in the city.

Use them to the advantage of the city to fix this budget crisis.

Thank you.

Sorry, next is Andrea Ebbing, if you can please unmute.

Hi, this is Andrea Ebbing, and I uh appreciate the arts and culture as being a priority.

Uh well, that will definitely drive revenue, um, travel and tourism into San Diego, which we desperately need to um help with the budget deficit.

Um, also I saw that the homeless funding is a priority when I think we really need to take a look at what that as a priority and maybe shift the uh gears from homeless funding to auditing the homeless funding.

That's what the real focus should be.

Because the more we spend on homeless, the more homeless we have, because it's all just a racket of kickbacks and bribery and blood money, and it's really really destroying our city.

Um, I don't want to be paying for people's crack pipes or needles or um for them to shoot up in the middle of the street.

Um and uh went and got my hair done this weekend, and somebody said that there was a guy who had his pants down um fondling himself for six hours right in Hillcrest, and the police did nothing.

So the homeless funding, uh, let's let's audit the homeless funding where that money is actually going.

Um, and also the if we're in such a massive budget deficit and everybody really cares so much about the county and city.

Maybe we should look at the pay because we're making our city council members are making around 600, six to six ten a year.

When Los Angeles is making like 200 or less.

I mean, obviously, it just feels like a uh a code of silence for a whole lot of money, but it's on Transpera, California, and everyone can see it.

Thanks.

Next is Blair Weekman.

If you can please unmute all right, thank you, Blair Beekman.

Uh yeah, for myself, um budget issues.

Uh I've been trying to, you know, I I'm I've moved from the uh San Francisco Bay Area in the past few weeks.

Um Oakland, uh they have uh a larger budget deficit uh to you guys, only the lar only a larger, the only city that's larger than yours.

They worked really hard to make sure city services have come through, and they have a philosophy, you know, that these these budget deficit issues can take a few years.

We don't have to do everything all at once.

And I hope you guys uh you're trying, I think you're learning that approach.

It's a lot to learn, and uh, we want to fix the deficit issues, but it can, if we're aware of it, maybe we can take an additional year or two, three years to work on it and and make sure our services are intact.

I've talked continuously about how cutting certain uh uh surveillance tech can give you uh a hundred thousand dollars in savings a year.

And um we just and still practice good uh neighborhood public safety.

We just have to want to make the steps to do that.

I know we're at a difficult time to take those steps, but you've seen what Oakland's done with their flock issues.

They've left flock, they've compromised to slowly leave flock.

We can do the same sort of process, and we just have to be constructive in all of our budget decisions and creative.

Good luck and working together.

Uh let's solve issues, please.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The five-minute timer did conclude.

There are two speakers left in the queue, the original and then 8700.

The original, please proceed.

We should absolutely be drawing back, pulling back your the funds for your salaries until you guys can manage the money that you get from the people that work really hard in hopes of having their community be in a good place.

And you guys talk about homeless solutions.

You don't have any solutions unless you're talking about creating homelessness.

Because what you guys should be doing, like Andrea was saying, is that you should be auditing.

And I've been telling you guys that.

You should be auditing dreams for change in downtown partnership, especially because of what is happening at Tent City and the people that are dying, the drugs that are being distributed, the trafficking that is going on, the sexual abuse that is going on, the code violations.

You guys know what's going on.

You have your staff there.

So you talk about getting more money.

No, because you're going to put it into the pockets that of people that are doing nothing to help, especially when you have a mayor here who sits and says there, you guys fixed homelessness.

They're down there on the streets every day.

Like I tell you, they're right outside your chambers, laying there.

80-year-old women every night.

And so you guys don't have a solution.

So no, you should not be getting any more money until you audit the money that has been spent and prove to us where it is going that it has helped at all.

Until then, you should not get any more money because you're not helping the homeless.

And that is what is so sad.

That money should go to people that will actually give a damn and actually treat these people like human beings, not just a number, not just a dollar sign, not just something that you can just walk over and spit upon.

Your time has concluded.

Our final speaker is 8700.

If you can please unmute star six.

Thank you.

Uh Joy Sanyata District Three.

I have three big thank yous.

Uh, number one is the IBA.

Number two are all the city council members and their wonderful report.

Uh number three is a special shout out to my district three, uh, council member Stephen Whitburn.

Your priorities, as always, were just right on.

Thank you so much for your work.

Uh, yes, let's include all the council's votes, all of the votes.

I always feel good about including the four vote items.

Mayor Gloria, this is my favorite mantra.

One people, one San Diego.

Together, we'll do our budget better.

Thank you for listening.

Have a great day.

Thank you so much.

That does conclude public comment on this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

With that, we'll turn it over to our council colleagues for any questions, comments, entertainment motion.

And we'll start with the chair of the council's budget committee, council member Foster.

Hey, thank you so much, uh, Council President, and thank you to the IBA and their team for their efforts as they um go through this process.

Um, we have um in the past couple of years increased um our engagement, um, and and so of course, increased um your workload and how you guys um conduct your analysis.

Um also like to thank my colleagues at the budget um and government efficiency committee for their work um and their um comments.

Um I like to say we had a robust conversation as we have both items, the mid-year um report and also um this updated budget priority uh memorandum.

Um so just want to say um thank you.

Um again, we know it's going to be a very difficult budget cycle, um, as everyone is diligently working as we approach the April 15th um deadline per the um charter um in the proposed um budget.

So with that, just really happy that we were able to add some items um that received um four mentions, um, of course, recruitment retention and compensation, which uh impacts our uh police um department um in the overtime.

Um at some point we have to get our numbers where they need to be so we can stop paying um said premium for uh making sure that we have coverage and and also for our fire department.

Um also just really really um happy to see that we included also the lifeguard wellness program um and also when we talk about avoidance of across the board cuts.

Um and of course, uh for um districts uh four and eight, um, and also probably there's probably some in district nine, but making sure that we are uh always going to be um discussing and addressing unimproved streets and alleys as it is a very significant impact um to our older communities and our communities of concern.

So with that, I would uh move to accept the IBA report 26 SU3 revised with the desired modifications and direct the IBA to deliver that report together with each councilmember's FY 2027 budget priorities memorandum update to the mayor's office for consideration during the preparation of the FY2027 proposed budget.

And that concludes my comments.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, sir.

We have a motion by Council Member Foster to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll start by seconding that motion by uh budget chair Foster and thank the office of the IBA for their work on their support.

Um I think I've mentioned it in my previous memo in this one understanding that the city is uh looking to address some significant um challenges in our financial outlook and uh in doing so we still need to find ways to address the underinvestment we have, systemic underinvestment that we've had in citywide infrastructure that this council will continue to seek to protect neighborhood services, uh to uphold public safety and health uh and to address issues uh regarding to affordable housing.

Um I too was glad to be able to include the four priorities, uh the priorities that are supported by four council members.

And of those four priorities, um the one I think I emphasized in the committee meeting um is the uh fact that the council and the budget should not rely on across the board cuts, and that where possible we should continue to evaluate the programmatic utilization of city services so that as we if and as we have to make cuts that we do so in a way that's commensurate with the services that we're providing and how they differ uh in different areas of the city.

So uh again, with that said, I'll second the motion.

All right, thank you, sir.

So we have a motion by Council Member Foster and a second by Council President Pro Tem Lee to move the staff recommendation.

We will go next to Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you, Council President.

As we work on the fiscal year 27 budget, I must continue to stress the need to protect core city services while ensuring that we properly balance the budget.

I will also emphasize the importance of using taxpayer dollars as efficiently as possible, which means avoiding revenue projections that are unrealistic and unachievable.

This approach allows us to remain fiscally responsible while continuing our commitment to homelessness prevention and wraparound services, programs that we know are effective and make a real difference in our community.

At the same time, we must support our critical public safety needs by ensuring our fire and police departments have the resources and personnel necessary to protect our neighborhoods.

We also need to continue delivering the infrastructure improvements residents have been waiting for, safer crosswalks, timely street repaving, properly functioning sidewalks and street lights, all of which are essential components of public safety.

And finally, we must try to maintain and modernize the public amenities that our residents rely on every day, our libraries, rec centers, open spaces, coastal assets, while also preparing for long-term climate challenges through investments in stormwater upgrades, brush management, and coastal protection.

I would like to just say that in terms of streets and alleys that are unpaved and also sidewalks that are unpaved.

Um understanding is, and I would I would like to ask either the IBA's office or even the city attorneys or anyone who knows, Council President may know because he's an expert in these matters of uh civil engineering.

It is my understanding that when housing is built by developers, it is their uh their place to put sidewalks in.

And uh therefore, in many areas, even in my district, we don't have sidewalks because that decreased the price of the housing they were building.

If they put sidewalks in, it was a little bit more expensive for the house.

And so sometimes they didn't.

Um I know the public thinks that all the sidewalks are city sidewalks, but I don't think they are.

So I'd like to get that clarified if possible.

I don't know if anyone here can answer that.

I know it went way back.

We can follow up with you, Councilmember.

Okay, great.

And uh the same with the streets.

I uh other cities that I've lived in, the developers are required to build the streets, the infrastructure, the piping.

They're they are required to pay for that when they build buildings and housing.

And so uh I wonder if the city should consider that uh as something that we should demand of developers.

And I uh look forward to working with my uh council colleagues.

Uh there are four of us five that are not on the budget committee.

I would hope that the budget committee members would consult with the four of us uh if possible uh to work on ways to balance the budget.

And uh I am a little bit distressed that priorities of only four, which isn't even a a majority of the council, are being taken in consideration and named priorities.

Um I think in the future we need a little more guidance in terms of our our memos.

The ones we put out in September were supposedly wish lists, and so they weren't realistic necessarily.

And I and I also think the ones that we did in January did not reflect the need of council members to think about what needs to be cut.

So um I appreciate the work of our budget committee and our budget chair, and I hope that uh they will consult with the rest of us council members.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

Uh we'll go next to Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Um thank you very much, and thank you to our IBA for the great work and uh the presentation on this item.

It's not easy to keep track of the moving target that is our city budget uh because we have so many new revenue sources coming on board, such as parking and trash collection fees, and we have further cuts that need to be made um, especially given that the federal government can be and the state's budget can is also in flux.

Um so I did have a question about um, and this may be more appropriate to brief with our EMS uh providers.

Uh when the new Medicaid restrictions come into play, how is that going to affect our collection of ambulance transport transport fees?

Because we are now the city is now the collector of these fees as we provide um 911 service.

And so have we I know it has not hit yet, but it will be soon, and so have we prepared for that?

Uh we have prepared just through legal analysis, uh PPG EMT, uh, which I don't know what that stands for, but that is the primary um funding source that helps uh reimburse us for ambulance services provided by the federal government.

Um that has maintained through all of the actions you've seen at the federal level and has sustained itself at a at a healthy level where we are confident in our projections.

And so you are correct that the city does handle EMS billing now.

Um we do all that in-house, um, but our experts within the fire service and the fire rescue department have been confident that our projections will hold steady um as we see a lot of um turbulence at the federal level.

Okay, if we could continue to be apprised of that, that would be very helpful.

I was just touring Palomar Hospital, which is a district hospital that serves part of North San Diego, including my district, and they are extremely worried about the cuts coming from the big bill that um you know Donald Trump signed to cut many p many, many thousands of people off of the Medicaid roles and how we're still going to have to answer now in one call is whether or not people are insured or not.

So um I'm worried about it hitting our budget as well.

Um I also want to uh thank the police department for working so hard to reduce their overtime costs.

Um that it f for the first time in years where I think we're going to see a police budget in which the overtime costs are lower than they were last year, which is a big change in the trend.

I know that our our friends in the fire department are still trying to achieve that given that we have so many more wildfires and strike teams we have to deploy to that is not as easy to do.

Uh but I you know when we do make our budget cuts, we cannot cut 901 response times.

I mean, that is the basic you know province of government is to make sure that we keep people safe.

So I know that they have not their priority zero calls are still, you know uh is the short as we can possibly be, but I know that our priority one calls are holding a little longer than we'd like them to be.

So um and with our infrastructure budget, I am quite worried that the less we put into maintaining our streets and sidewalks and roads and street lights, then it's going to be more expensive to fix them over time.

And uh so I know the Department of Transportation had come recently to tell us about all the challenges they are facing.

Uh, but the more we can do to cut our costs the better.

Um we're gonna be hearing, I think tomorrow a good news item from PUD that they are able to cut the cost of some of the chemicals that they need to buy in bulk to keep our water safe and drinkable, which has been a huge fight for them, and I'm really glad to see it.

I'd like to see the cost of our services somehow if we can buy bulk asphalt or gravel or anything else.

I know we've talked about that for years, um, but that would be very helpful to you as well.

Um thank you very much for this work and um and also the proactive communication.

I did see that our new um CFO Rolando Charvel has announced that he will be more proactive in communicating with the council.

It would be great to be able to have these discussions before a couple days before the budget is unveiled in April.

So uh the more discussions we can have the better.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Um I'm not seeing anybody else on the light, so I'll jump in with a few concluding comments.

I too want to thank the Office of the IBA for the good work that you do in pouring over the nine memos and trying to discern them and put them into a nice neat matrix.

And I know mine might have been especially difficult this year.

So a couple of thoughts in that regard.

For the phone calls that we got to our office this year, I didn't do line item priorities because of the scale of the budget deficit, which is now actually much larger than we had heard about a month ago, as well as the continual reliance on one-time funding.

And so I wanted to see a bigger bigger landscape in this conversation.

It doesn't mean that any of the items that my colleagues supported that I won't support balanced against the meeting, uh, the many competing priorities as we try to navigate 110, 120 uh million dollar deficit going forward.

Um I did emphasize public safety, uh police, fire, and lifeguards broadly.

Uh I did reiterate my support for the Northwest Northwest Division, uh, which is in District 1, which was a bit of a conversation, last budget conversation.

Uh, and then I'll just a little bit of a plug for stormwater that has been chronically underfunded over the years and led to some of the problems we see, and especially to how much money we spend uh on emergency repairs, which often costs double or triple uh what would have cost to just do stormwater repairs on a more timely basis as we do with sewer and water projects.

Um beyond that, um, I think as Council President Pro Tem Lee said, uh, I also put a strong emphasis that uh we are a very diverse city.

Uh we are the diverse collection of communities and neighborhoods, and budget cuts on city services can have more of an impact in certain communities than other communities, and would uh really request that we be more strategic in terms of where the cuts are.

Uh, you saw a lot of pushback from council last June in terms of libraries and recreation centers in particular, uh, that makes this conversation particularly challenging.

Uh, to the public comments, there are a number of things that are being looked at.

Um I know that the Department of Finance has heard loud and clear some of the suggestions and is hard at work trying to understand what does that actually mean.

Um, you know, the one thing that doesn't help the budget conversation is that the middle managers that people refer to are one of the hardest working uh back office components of what drives our city uh in terms of making sure that everything comes together and manages the projects and the programs that we say are important to us.

Uh, nevertheless, in terms of efficiency, uh right sizing thing is going to be one of the paths.

It is not the silver bullet by any stretch of the imagination, but it's one of the paths that is going to help us.

Um I saw emphasis of not um cutting frontline workers that actually do the stuff that the public sees every day.

Um, and again, how do we navigate uh that uh but I know that there is a commitment by the Department of Finance to try to figure out how do all these pieces actually fit together for a balanced uh budget?

And I appreciate one of the public callers like saying, don't do it all at once.

We have to do it all at once.

We have to deliver a balanced budget.

And I think the challenge is what we saw in 25, the calendar year 25.

Um the public and I think frankly, the elected officials are exhausted in trying to develop any new revenue measures.

So unlike last year, where we tried to generate some new revenue, um, I don't see that as being a very practical solution.

Maybe a little little tweak around the edges, but new revenue is not going to help us out of this budget.

So and I think the hard part is going to be some additions where they could result in just the regular business generating new revenue.

Um I know that the uh city auditor identified our real estate transaction.

Uh, we're not gonna get that new revenue.

We're not gonna get those leases updated unless there's more staffing in EDD to be able to deal with that backlog that they inherited.

Uh so it's gonna be a particularly challenging year.

Uh I stand ready to work with our budget chair, Councilmember Foster and my colleagues and operations to figure out you know how do we protect city services, protect vulnerable communities, and actually balance the budget.

So with that, uh we have a motion on the floor by Councilmember Foster and a second by Council President Pro Tim Lee to move the recommendation.

Clerk, please call the vote.

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

Councilmember Moreno, if you can let me know your vote for the record.

Motorino, yes.

That passes unanimously 8 to 0 with Councilmember Campio absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk, and again thank you to the Office of the IBA for your good work.

So with that, Clerk, please introduce item S401.

Item S401 is to approve a covenant between the California Department of Transportation and the City of San Diego prior to city's acceptance of approximately 2.5 acres of rural property along Interstate 5, bounded by Boston Avenue, 29th Street and 32nd Street for a non-motorized transportation facility.

If you'd like to speak on this item, please be sure to submit your speaker slip to the front of the room in the clear box.

If you are participating remotely, now's the time to press star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, City Clerk.

And with that, staff, as you settle in, please introduce yourself yourselves.

Oh, Councilmember Moreno.

Are you just want to be first to speak?

Yeah, okay.

Just want to make sure.

Uh uh staff, please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need for the presentation.

Hi.

Hi, I'm Mary Carlson, economic development real estate with me is Britney Bailey from the mayor's office.

We need about maybe eight minutes.

So this item is to obtain authorization for the mayor or designee to sign a covenant between the city and Caltrans.

Caltrans owns property located south of Highway 5, east of the 15 on Boston Avenue in Council District 8.

In 2021, the city and Caltrans were together to enter into a memorandum of understanding towards Caltrans relinquishing the property to the city at no cost for transportation use.

Caltrans spent 3.16 million dollars to improve the property with clean California funding and installed a DG pathway, street lights, a privacy wall, and retrofitted the pedestrian bridge with an ADA accessible ramp.

In February 2025, City Council authorized a relinquishment agreement to accept the land from Caltrans, subject to Caltrans obtaining approval from the California Transportation Commission.

I'll now turn the presentation over to Brittany.

Good morning, Council members.

As additional background, Caltrans acquired the property for the development of the I-5 utilizing federal funds.

The use of federal funds means that the property is subject to oversight by the federal highway administration and requires FHWA approval to relinquish the property to the City of San Diego.

As the property is no longer needed for state highway purposes, FHWA has provided approval for the relinquishment based on the covenant before you today, which ensures continued transportation use.

Also included in your backup material is FHWA's justification memo, which notes that bicycle and pedestrian facilities are federally recognized transportation facilities.

In addition to FHWA approval, Caltrans must obtain California Transportation Commission CTC approval before relinquishing property that is no longer needed for state highway use.

Caltrans and FHWA require that the city sign a covenant prior to Caltrans taking this item to California Transportation Commission for final approval of the relinquishment.

The covenant states that Caltrans is not responsible for any hazardous materials.

Caltrans has provided environmental disclosure memos and the cities performed both phase one and phase two environmental studies.

The memos and studies have been reviewed by staff and city staff have no additional concerns.

The covenant also states that if the property is no longer used for public transportation purposes, ownership would revert back to Caltrans.

In addition to constructing a 12-foot-wide bicycle and pedestrian path, Caltrans is aware that the city plans to develop a portion of the property as a public park, and as Mary mentioned, has assisted the city with park pre-development improvements.

If approved at council today, the final relinquishment hearing is planned to be heard at California Transportation Commission in March.

In conclusion, this item requests the council to authorize the mayor or designee to sign the covenant on the Boston F property.

Representatives from Caltrans, the Director of Economic Development, Christina Bibler, and Melissa Abels and Delmar Williams from City Attorney's Office are available for any questions you may have.

This concludes our presentation.

Thank you.

All right, thank you for the presentation.

With that, Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

We have several speakers here and council and in the virtual queue.

We'll be going to a minute and a half each.

Ernesto Castaneda, if you can please come up to the microphone.

And if the following individuals can please come up to the yellow reserve seats in the front row, Amy Castañeda, Christ um Christiana De Benedict, Cristiano de Benedict, Teryl Rackley, Caridad Sanchez, Julie Corales.

I might as well have Anthony Avalos come up.

You can all be in the front row.

Ernesto, you'll have a minute and a half.

Please proceed when ready.

Good morning, Council.

My name is Ernesto Castañeda.

I am a field representative for the office of a slave member David Alvarez.

So Member Alvarez previously served as the District 8 council member for the City of San Diego.

The seat that is now held by Councilmember Moreno.

During his time in office, he worked closely with the community during his time and to expand access to green space, improve safety, and promote healthier public spaces in Barrio Logan and surrounding neighborhoods.

Barrio Logan has long, Barrio Longa has been born to the impacts of highway infrastructure without the same investment as other communities in the city of San Diego.

This item represents meaningful and necessary step forward to addressing that long standing imbalance.

The approval of this government between Caltrans and the city is long overdue and well deserved by this community.

Assemblymember Alvarez strongly supports this item and appreciates the collaboration between the city, Caltrans, and community stakeholders that has helped move this project forward.

Thank you, Council, for your time, your consideration, and let's get Boston Linear Park built.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Amy.

Good morning, Council members.

My name is Amy Castañeda, and I'm the Associate Director of Policy with the Environmental Health Coalition.

I'm here to uh voice our strong support for item S401 to transfer the parcel of land along Boston Avenue from Caltrans to the City of San Diego.

This is a critical step to unlock TCC funding and start the development of Boston Avenue Linear Park.

This park has been a 50 years in the making and will bring much needed green spaces to this EJ community.

I would like to personally thank Caltrans, the mayor's office, special thanks to Brittany Bailey, our Council Member Moreno, and the thousands of community members who have engaged in this process with us.

And again to all the city staff who made this a reality.

Thank you.

Thank you, Christiana.

Good morning, Council members.

My name is Christiana de Benedict.

I'm Senior Director of Environmental Initiatives at San Diego Foundation.

We are San Diego Foundation, we are San Diego Region's community foundation, have served San Diego for more than 50 years, and we promote charitable giving, partner with other regional leaders on solutions to community needs to improve quality of life.

Since 2023, San Diego Foundation has been working closely with the City of San Diego, Environmental Health Coalition, and a large coalition of dedicated community groups and residents to secure 29.5 million in transformative climate communities grant funding from the California Strategic Growth Council.

The grant includes 3.9 million for the construction of the new Boston Avenue Park Project in Barrio Logan.

This underserved community has been waiting for over 40 years for a park at this site.

The project will transform unused I5 freeway right of way into much needed neighborhood park with a company multi-use pathway in an area lacking green space and recreation options.

With council's approval of this item today, we will be one step closer to making this park a reality.

We're so grateful to the mayor's office, council member Moreno, and city staff, along with Caltrans, for all their hard work with us to keep this project moving forward.

Thank you for your support for this item.

Thank you.

Next is Terrell.

Thank you for the opportunity.

And I really have a fond respect for every single person here.

And what I'm looking at is the fact that we're not looking for any money from anyone.

We understand that there is a budget deficit, but we are trying to beautify the city of San Diego, improve the lives of community members in San Diego, taking money that has already been acquired through the efforts of everyone that's standing behind me or sitting behind me.

So with that opportunity, I do thank uh uh councilwoman Moreno for her efforts and and everyone here, uh Joe uh when in Sacramento that that was part of the conversation of uh what you're doing here.

So um for all those that are concerned about the livelihood of those residents in San Diego and without any constraints uh to the budget, because I know that's a big conversation.

If if you could uh yes would be great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Garida Sanchez.

Good morning.

Nice to see you here today.

I'm excited to be here.

Uh Carida Sanchez, I'm representing uh Caltrans.

Uh it's likely before 2020, but that's when at least I got involved in trying to make this um green space happen.

We long heard from the community and my predecessors that they were looking for some parks, some green space uh in along Boston Avenue.

And the really neat thing about working in government is that you can do good.

And the other thing is recognizing when there's opportunity and it collides with money, and that's what Clean California allowed us to do.

It allowed us to take a look at that property, see what we could do to create a green space.

And that's what we've been doing diligently since 2021, uh 2022.

Uh, there have been a number of obstacles that have made this very difficult.

It's the state.

Uh there are of course also federal government regulations, but we're here today because we've up we've overcome those.

We have still have one more.

Obviously, we'll we still need to go to the California Transportation Commission that will be in March, and we're ready to do that after your vote today.

Um there are a few things in exchange uh for, and I know there are some questions that I'm happy to answer, answer those, but the requirement essentially for the exchange of gifting this land uh to the city of San Diego is to maintain its transportation use.

Very specifically, its transportation use is the multimodal uh path, which bikes uh and pedestrians, that is the commitment uh to maintain.

Uh there is really nothing else to maintain.

Uh that's that is our understanding.

Uh I want to say though, I do want to say that this is actually very personal.

When you can actually make something happen and build it, thank you for that.

Here we are.

But thank you so much.

Julie Garanis.

Hello, Council members.

Um, thank you for having us here.

Um, I really just I just want to say thank you to Councilmember Moreno for her support moving this forward to Brittany, to everyone that's uh got us to this point.

It's been a long journey, as Caridad mentioned.

Um a lot of folks have been stepping up to make this happen.

Um, and so this is just one one one more obstacle um before CTC.

So I just um ask you to vote yes um and to continue your support for the area.

Um I know the city is uh working on the SA issue, SA recycling and their polluting uses.

Um, and there's you know the other lot on the other end that is um we're working to ensure becomes also a community serving use.

So, yes, please vote yes today and continue to support our changes in the area.

Thank you.

Thank you, Anthony.

I always have to lean down.

I'm trying to not do that this time.

Good morning, uh city council members.

My name is Anthony Avalos.

I am a third or fourth generation San Diegan, kind of depending on which story you believe.

Um I do want to start this morning by giving appreciation.

Uh Brittany Bailey, thank you so much for all of your hard work.

Council member Moreno, this is happening predominantly in your district.

Thank you so much for being a champion for this.

Um Councilmember Ilo Rivera.

You consistently show up and support Project New Village, one of the main partners in this grant space.

Uh Councilmember Foster.

You constantly show up and try to make sure that budgeting is not forgotten in the places that we come from and that we are often forgotten.

And to the rest of you who we need a win, and it's nice to be able to actually come together to say yes, let's bring some money to San Diego, and let's let the state help us make San Diego better, especially with the major federal budget cuts that have happened this year.

This whole um project was in flux.

So for us to be here now, it was some minor miracles.

You guys can sprinkle a little bit of minor miracle on there with us, and yeah, let's let's take this win home for San Diego.

Thank you so much, y'all.

Thank you.

Sorry, the five-minute timer going to those participating remotely, because that does conclude.

The original I candidate.

There you go.

Yes, so um, you know, it's it's like you guys paint a good picture of things that could come into the community, but as one of the speakers was saying, it's always when funding collides with something because then you always have an opportunity to get money.

And then when you get that money, you misuse it and you mismanage it and you give it to the wrong people to, you know, that claim that they're going to provide something, and then you don't hold them accountable if they don't.

And so, you know, I just don't see this as being something that is even gonna come into fruition or be able to be maintained.

Because, you know, look at towntown.

It is and just the you know, communities around that.

It doesn't look good.

So I mean, until that stuff is fixed and you can actually maintain what you already have.

I don't think you should be, you know, sending your tentacles out into other avenues, which just bring in more funding because at the end of the day, it just seems like you're gonna fill your pockets and tell people that you're gonna be able to provide this and then have a lack of funding, so you're never ever gonna be able to complete it until you ask the people for more money.

Um, you know, and so things just get drawn out.

So it's really sad because you know, you you kind of, you know, have people, you know, believe these things are gonna happen, and so you then they're let down later on.

And it's like when you can see clearly that that stuff is what happens, it's just very nefarious and negligent for you guys to do that when you're already talking about the deficit that you guys have, and you know, then you go into another item and act like you know, this is just such a glorious thing that's gonna happen when it isn't.

Thank you, Nexus Blair Beekman.

If you can please unmute.

Blair Buller.

Hi, yeah.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

Thanks for this item.

Uh, my previous public comment, uh, my words are meant to how do we prioritize our budget issues uh with time constraints.

How do we work on that?

There is ways to work on that.

I was trying to make that suggestion.

Um with that said, um yeah, but this item, this has been work uh for a lot of people for a long time and a lot of effort.

And thank you for everyone's effort in in trying to make this come to light.

Uh make it happen.

Um, I think with the beginning of memorial park issues a few years ago, we've entered a new conversation with uh our parks and the future of tech.

Uh the tech placed in our parks.

I I think we were lacking how to have better conversation uh with memorial park issues and tech.

I hope we're learning better with this sort of item, how to have those conversations about surveillance tech.

I think the people working on this item have learned a lot.

And it's important.

The park department themselves, with the new Trump administration has made important changes in how they view data collection with their tech issues, and they've made it very clear they have to put on the brakes sometimes, and we all do uh in this new administration, and that's good.

That's a good thing.

But uh tech accountability does not have to be partisan, it's about best practices.

When we practice best at the local level, everyone shines, all votes rise, and we build a better positive community.

Good luck and thing you have tech accountability with this issue.

Thank you.

Has concluded, Andrea Ebbing, if you can please unmute.

Hi, good morning.

It's Andrea Ebbing.

I I see these um concepts come through.

It does feel very sort of abstract and conceptual from the public standpoint, unless you're um somebody that's always involved, and like we kind of the people that tend to attend attend these meetings and participate know um somewhat what you guys are talking about.

We have a better idea than the general public.

So I think um it's almost like an abstract, seems like a concept until it's like activated in the public.

What I don't see happening is leaders out engaging with the residents and constituents.

I'm not seeing town halls, I'm not seeing any situations in which stuff is being presented to the public about the initiatives or even like the community improvements that you were just discussed.

Um, I think uh it's time for like we're the city of San Diego, and right now we have all these billboards up in multiple different languages, like for example, Chinese for one safe place in my neighborhood, which is not a Chinese neighborhood.

Um, and then I saw some in uh Vietnamese in a non-Vietnamese neighborhood.

So maybe if there's more involvement in these types of initiatives that you're discussing here with actual people and actual participation from the leaders in their districts, um that would be helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment for this item.

Wow.

All right.

Uh with that, we'll turn it over to council members' question, comments, and or to the motion, and we'll start out with council member Moreno.

Thank you.

Um first off, thanks staff.

Uh I want to thank staff for the recommendation.

I'm very pleased to voice my support for this covenant between the city of San Diego and Caltrans, which is the final step needed to move this much awaited land transfer forward for approval by the California Transportation Commission.

I'm excited, finally see this land become accessible, welcoming, and community centered, a place that people can walk, bike, gather, and enjoy.

And as was mentioned, a multimodal path we all known as Boston Avenue Linear Park.

I want to thank Caltrans.

You guys did a remarkable job on Boston Avenue installing features such as the retaining wall lights, adding park grade, park grade soil.

Thank you for your commitment to our community.

Also thank you to Environmental Health Coalition for your leadership and advocating and actively participating in every single step of the way in bringing this project into reality.

Julie Corales, Amy Castañeda, I don't think we would be here without you guys.

So thank you for that.

Thank you for everything you did.

Mary Carlson and Brittany Bailey and all city staff.

Thank you for your work on this project.

This was, I think, an uncommon arrangement.

And I want to thank city staff for working nimbly and uh for your steadfast leadership.

Um last but not least, uh, I want to thank Ernesto from Assembly Member Alvarez for your support.

Um District 8 will need is gonna need a whole lot of state funding uh for not only for this project for but for many more.

So we um we appreciate uh assemblymember Alvarez's uh commitment to the community.

Um now these types of projects happen when one community has a vision and really doesn't wait for anybody to tell them no, and they move this vision of their neighborhood forward.

Also when state and city departments unite with community and when elected officials actually listen to the community.

Um positive changes have been occurring on uh Boston Avenue Linear Park since the beginning of my tenure as a council member in 2018.

My office has had a total of 27 cleanups just on Boston Avenue, and we've seen it change from just a dirt area that had an ungodly I can't even explain what I've picked up on that street.

Um to now, what we have is lights installed on the street and the modernization of this bridge.

And I just truly can't wait to provide yet another uh space, another park for the community of Barrio Logan and Logan Heights uh to enjoy uh for generations to come.

So I am very proud uh to move item um S401 Boston Avenue Covenant uh forward.

And I thank everybody and I appreciate everybody's help.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

So we have a motion by Councilmember Moreno to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to Councilmember Ilo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Um I'll start by seconding Councilmember Moreno's motion um and then just um express some appreciation um to Councilmember Moreno and her office um for all the work that they've done to get this to this point.

Um Brittany, thank you for your work on this, and then uh the folks who showed up today, uh Caridad, um obviously I think you're starting to say that this is personally meaningful to you.

Uh that shows in your uh in the commitment you've you've shown to the project.

Um Julie, thank you for your work.

Um EHC, thank you for sticking with this.

Um and then Amy, like you know, I think this has obviously been a project that's long in the making.

Um I I love the way that Councilmember Moreno spoke about um the the vision and then just like the commitment to seeing that vision through.

And I because I'm looking for you know glimmers of hope in anything I can find right now.

Um I think this is really powerful because attempts have been made to derail this, and you all just won't let it happen.

And so and when I say y'all, I mean like collectively, and I think that that's um demonstrative, not just of the ability to get a project done, but of like the the resilience of our communities.

Um that you know we have a vision for what our community and communities should look like, and um they can throw um obstacles at us, they can try to rig the game against us, they can change the rules midway through, and at the end of the day, we have a vision for our community, and we're gonna see that through.

So um thank you, Councilmember Moreno, for your leadership and working with the community to make that happen.

Uh, thank you to everyone who didn't give up, even though you you've been throwing some substantial, substantial um curve balls um along the way.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

So again, we have a motion by Councilmember Moreno, a second by Councilmember Yilo Rivera to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to Councilmember Von Wilpert.

Thank you for the work in the presentation.

This is fantastic that we're getting money from the state.

Thank you, as um Councilman Moreno said to your advocacy and to Assemblymember Alvarez and to Caltrans and to the community.

You know, if there's more properties like this that we could uh take over and become parks, that's a great idea.

This could be the first of many.

Um maybe some of our smart state legislators can streamline this process for us at the state level as well.

Uh but just congratulations to a really great job well done, and I look forward to seeing the park come to fruition.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Wilburt.

Not seeing anybody else on the lights.

Um I'll offer a couple of closing comments as well.

Thank you, Councilmember Moreno, uh, your steadfast leadership and your persistence uh to make projects like this happen to benefit uh your constituents in district gate is really laudable.

Um it takes a lot of patience uh to make it to see it through, and you've done it time and time again.

So thank you for that, uh Brittany and Mary for the good work you do.

And when people wonder why the city can't get more stuff done, it is all the obstacles that get thrown in our way that we have to navigate uh and persist and figure out solutions to get around those hurdles.

Uh and this is certainly a great example of the good work that you've done and what city employees do to make good things happen in our neighborhoods, Caridad, Caltrans, thank you for helping us navigate all those conversations going forward.

Uh and uh I'll close by saying I wish two of those public speakers actually been in person to actually see who is driving this conversation.

Uh it is not the city, it is not council members, it is the community.

Um, and their willingness to identify things that can happen in their community, bring the council member along as a strong partner in that, uh, and then have the incredible patience and persistence to never give up despite what obstacles were thrown in your way.

Uh this is really a tribute to the council office uh and to the community members to make that happen.

Um and the council plays a tiny role uh on these key votes every every so often to to kind of close the deal.

And we're hoping this does close the deal uh with today's vote, um, and we'll see that money flow uh ground being broken and uh park and multimodal transportation element uh built on that site to the benefit of that uh neighborhood.

So with that, we again have a motion by Councilmember Moreno and a second by Councilmember Ilo Rivera.

Uh clerk, please call the roll.

Please cast your vote.

Councilmember Moreno, if I can have your vote for the record.

Morning, yes.

Thank you, and that passes unanimously eight to zero with Councilmember Campio absent.

Thank you, Council President.

You can clap a little louder.

Go ahead.

Well done.

Uh and again, congratulations to Councilmember Moreno.

So with that, we will now adjourn council to the next regularly scheduled council meeting on Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 at 10 a.m.