Sit down and you think, hey, this is a nice place to sit down and do what I gotta do.

We always think about the impact on the city.

We do whatever we have to do to make sure the public can use one of the city facilities.

We want it to look good.

We have a little pride in our work.

We want them to be able to walk in and say this is a nice place to be.

We do everything from roofs to floors, walls, ceilings, anything that has to do with basic carpentry and sometimes not basic carpentry.

We build new, we fix, we repair.

For the most part, we're all here working together just to try to make things easier and better for the city.

It is nice to be able to make something a little nicer for the people in the community who need to use things and appreciate what it's done.

I've been with the city for 29 years.

So our day starts in the morning we meet with our supervisor and he if he gives us the work orders.

I just get my crew and say, okay, we're gonna be going to this location.

So I gotta make sure I got enough pain for the day.

I gotta make sure my fuel, my everything's working.

We got it like a free run before it started today.

From there we go to location, survey the area, see what it needs to be done, and from there they just start striping.

Each tote it carries 250 gallons.

That'll be on the yellow and the white.

We carry 80 gallons of black paint and 250 pounds of glass beef, which is the reflective stuff that lands on top of the paint to make it reflective at night.

The Chase truck is the one to follow us after we paint.

It'll be right behind us putting setting cones so that so the paint don't get run over.

If you don't get a work order, you just go do what existing stuff, like maintenance, we just go at it.

Can be concentrated just on the paint.

You gotta look at the whole picture.

Cars, pedestrians, make sure you stay online.

People in a hurry, they don't pay attention.

They pretty much try to get around you.

Sometimes they run over paint and conies.

Safety is first concerned.

Make sure everybody's safe out there.

There's the roads that are nice and bright for people to follow.

My crew, I enjoy every single one of them.

When we're working together, they easily go real quick.

You gotta look at a job that you feel comfortable.

You just gotta be comfortable with what you're doing.

My name is Nathan Cosman.

Uh I'm a senior planner in the city of San Diego and the city planning department.

So we act as uh sort of subject matter experts on the plans uh for um folks in the communities that have questions about them.

There is no typical day.

I could be well working on software to make maps uh to sort of put complex data into something visual and easy to digest, or not just maps, other other visual things uh to present to the community, present to stakeholders.

Sometimes they're working in reports uh to take to the city council or planning commission.

Well I've always been an urbanist.

Um I've always been interested in cities and the way that they work.

I've always been interested in civics and public policy, and so city planning is kind of the perfect intersection of all those things.

San Diego is a place that's growing.

A lot of what we do here is try to plan for that growth in ways that work for all of us so that we can add capacity for more housing in our communities where we need it most, make a mobility network that allows all of us to get around the city and sort of better connect places to destinations and plan for more parks and more public spaces.

I love that I get to work with so many dynamic and engaged community members who are passionate about the city and who want to make it a better place as well.

We don't necessarily always have the same ideas or the same roadmap, but we're all trying to get to the same place.

The work is exciting, the work is dynamic, the work is different, uh, and I feel like the work matters.

I definitely believe I'm making a difference.

I I wouldn't be able to do this work if I didn't think that it made a difference.

My name is Dwayne Bullock.

I'm a sanitation driver for the city of San Diego.

I love my job because I love providing a service for the people.

I was originally born in Boston, but I grew up in the city.

I've seen the city change and I've seen uh parts of the city grow.

I take pride in just being a part of when I look around saying, hey, I seen when that building came up.

Hey, I know when that got built, and love being a part of my city that helps to clean maybe even just a small piece of that up.

This is Claudine.

This is my office.

This is my Cadillac.

This is my baby.

It's like a captain naming his ship.

And you know, and when you go out on the water, if you don't name your boat, bad things can happen, right?

So if if you give her a name, bumpy situation in here.

It's your office, it's your time to think, it's your time to think about what's for dinner tonight.

It's your time to kind of reflect.

Uh, that were just recent in Rancho Bernardo.

When when those fires were going, we came back out the next day.

There was cleanup at work and efforts that we had to do when they had the floods.

There was a lot of cleanup that had to be done after the floods, and people were putting stuff in their cans, and their life in their cans is now in the trash, which got ruined by the water.

Uh, and we're hauling it away.

It was devastating to see, but you knew you were there providing a service in some kind of relief, helping cleanup, taking stuff away, uh, trying to help this community heal.

You'll see different things when you're out and about on the route.

The way little kids are amazed at these big vehicles.

You know, the arm is moving and just the whole mechanics of it is it's just always been awesome to me.

And you're just there to you know, smile, wave, and sometimes that's all it takes to change a person's mind about the perception of what you do.

Yes, we're trash, yes, it stinks, but hey, how you doing?

They wave back, hey, how you doing?

We just made a connection over trash.

And so let's have a day of service.

Let's have a day of cleanup and let's make sure we put our our blood, sweat, and tears into this park and make sure we make it available for the families.

As we talk about the importance of this park, I'm a proud graduate of Lincoln High School.

At that time, Lincoln High School didn't have a baseball field.

And I remember we used to have a walk down here, and this is where we practice.

We're gonna be doing painting, trash pickup, brush removal, and working on this playground behind me.

We're removing weeds and import importing new sand.

And these are the kinds of incremental improvements we can make to help bring it up for the next generation of ball players, whether it's soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, this park is for you, and that's what we hope to bring to all of you as part of little projects like this.

Thank you to San Diego FC for always stepping up and coming out and helping the community.

Continuing to make this their home to make sure that we're getting the resources and the attention that this park deserves.

All right.

Good morning, everyone.

I will now call the City Council meeting of Tuesday, March tenth, twenty twenty-six to order.

Clerk, please call the role.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell?

Here.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Council Member Von Wilbur.

Council President Pro Tem Lee?

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Here.

Councilmember Moreno.

Present.

Councilmember Elo Rivera.

And Council President Lacava.

Present.

Also attending the meeting, our Chief Deputy City Attorney Corinne Newfer, Independent Budget Analyst, Charles Monica, Council of Affairs Advisor and the Mayor's Office, Codes Heiser, and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

Please stand.

Now known as San Diego.

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

Please face the flag.

Put your hand over your heart and repeat after me.

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

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

So with that, clerk, please go over how the public can offer their testimony and continued with the trailed non-agenda public comment for the six speakers from yesterday's meeting.

Thank you, Council President.

Just as a reminder, you will be having two minutes each and per rule 2.7, non-agenda public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on items that are not on the agenda but within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council.

If you are one of the six that was on the queue yesterday, I do have those annotated.

Please raise your hand now by tapping your raise your hand icon, or if you are a call-in participant, star nine.

As mentioned, only these six will be taken now.

The others will be taken during the regularly scheduled time.

Starting with John Stump, if you can please unmute.

Hey, good morning.

Uh happy days.

You know, after yesterday's meeting, I reflected on the homecoming ceremony for Jesse Jackson and the bloody Sunday crossing of the Pettus Bridge.

And seeing how much progress we had made.

Um I was reflecting on that.

During the period, I was a high already a high school advocate and very active.

And reflecting on that and reflecting on yesterday's meeting, I was very disappointed that the IBA and council did not require any report concerning race and equity, um, participation of the six to eight thousand employees, if you include the um uh contractors.

So and what was a race, sex, uh, age, and those other factors, and particularly what I was disappointed from, was that my council districts, district four and district nine, didn't ask how many of the zoo employees at the are from District Four and District Nine.

Why is the council not concerned about employment participation from their council districts?

You know, there should have been a report that said 600 to 800 people were employed from Henry Foster and Sean Elo's district, each.

But there's no data on that.

I guess the progress we made crossing the Pettus Bridge is falling away.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next is phone number ending in 7499.

If you can please unmute 7499.

After that, we'll be a niche.

7499, please proceed.

Bob Kazuski here.

The Tory Pines Glider Port has been a world-famous hang gliding site since the 1970s.

That land is owned by the City of San Diego and is part of the Tory Pine City Park.

But the city doesn't manage the Tory Pines Glider Port as a city park.

Instead, this city, under Joe La Cava and Todd Gloria, leases our city park to a private business and allows that business to ride roughshod over citizens' rights to use their own city park.

Imagine if the city of San Diego leased your own favorite beach or park to a private business and allowed that business to charge money to use the park or beach.

Imagine if the city leased your favorite park to a business and allowed that business to refuse service to anyone they wanted.

Imagine if the city leased your favorite park to a business and allowed that business to require membership in a private club to use our city land.

And imagine if that club could expel anyone they wanted for any reason.

That's what's been happening at the Tory Pines glider port for decades.

Essentially, this city has given absolute power over our park to a business.

And we all know that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

There's been a long history of bullying, accidents, and even deaths at that site under that business.

Yes, Todd Gloria, Joe La Cava, and this entire city council look the other way.

So far, both the La Jolla Town Council and La Jolla Shores Association have submitted written letters to Joe La Cava requesting an improvement of the situation.

Among their recommendations are re-establishing the Tory Pine City Park Advisory Board and replacing the abusive insurance requirements with a simple waiver.

We know that the waiver solution works because the county of Los Angeles has been using that exact same solution at Doc Wilert Beach hang gliding site since 2017.

Yet Todd Gloria and Joe LaCava continue to dodge that most obvious and sensible solution.

The city should never be leasing our natural public lands to a private business.

I'm again for the hundredth time asking Todd Gloria and Joe La Cava to implement the Tory Pines waiver and reactivate the Tory Pine City Park Advisory Board.

Thank you.

Next is Anish, if you can please unmute.

Hi, my name is Anish.

My name is Anish, and I'll be continuing what my friend Jonathan talked about yesterday during the non-agenda public comment, which is about a lack of quality e-waste resources for residents in San Diego.

Specifically, I'll be talking about potential changes that could be implemented to bring a greater awareness and educate the public about proper e-waste disposal while also simplifying things for them.

So uh some things that we thought about was that our local government could have some type of awareness campaign for educating the public on proper e-waste disposal practices, because we held a e-waste drive at the UCSD campus the other week, and we found that the majority of people have no idea of how to properly eat dispose of e-ways and tend to just throw them in the regular trash.

This could be done through social media or something as a pamphlet sent to every residence.

We know that there is an annual flyer, which is the what goes where guide sent to San Diego residents, which details proper waste disposal practices, but there's only a very small section about bringing quote unquote household hazardous waste to Miramore household um hazardous waste transfer facility.

But we believe there should also be a paragraph of information being more specific about the negative effects of improper disposal, which could lead the public to making better decisions on e-waste disposal and understanding what it does to the environment.

Another program which we think could be possibly be implemented is having like we know that there's a weekly like the waste management trucks that come and pick up with the recycling and the waste every week, but instead we said we think that there should also be an e-way-specific like truck or some type of pickup service, which happens like maybe twice a year so that it'd be simpler for residents rather than them having to take appointments with facilities and having to drive to these locations and possibly like you know, face a lot of time scheduling conflicts.

Once again, uh thank you for giving an opportunity to speak about e-waste disposal here in San Diego.

And I hope you take this uh discontent into consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Andrea Ebbing.

Andrea Ebbing, if you can please unmute.

Hi, this is Andrea Ebbing.

I'm sharing some information this morning that I really hope the entire city, please pay attention to what I'm saying.

This won't go over your head.

Um, this is not going to be very complex.

These I found I found quite a massive issue in our budget last night.

Um, I am somebody that found 142 million dollars of something called other pay on Transparent California, issued to city employees, which was not Pentin, which is not benefits, which was not overtime, which was not regular pay.

No one has provided an answer to it.

Uh in 2024, we had 152 million of other pay paid out to employees.

I think uh whatever I'm about to share right now, I think I want it uh on the record, and this should be mandated reporting attached to this.

You can validate my claims on transparent California.

When I looked up Other Pay, there was an individual named Sheryl Looney who is an admin aide who made 537,000 in the year 2023.

Her regular pay was very low, uh, and her other pay was like 337,000 a year.

Um so she was a question mark.

I saw 952 records of a Looney family, all of which make hundreds of thousands of dollars in multiple different roles throughout California.

However, that's not the worst.

What I found was last night that our trash refuse supervisor, Kenneth Biggers, was as an employee that makes zero dollars in the year 2024, but he makes 148,000 in other pay, uh, as well as 147 or something in in overtime.

There's 103 employees in the city of San Diego in the year 2024 that made zero dollars in regular pay, high-level employees.

There are hundreds that made less than a hundred dollars a year.

Okay.

So we have a huge issue that's running through the um uh payroll.

Big time.

Thank you.

Your time has concluded.

Our final speaker for the trailed uh people from yesterday is Becky Rappel.

Good morning.

Um, my name is Becky Rapp, and today I'd like to discuss the socially equitable cannabis program presented at the ED and IIR committee last week.

Was troubling that the conversation revolved around equity for some, but not all.

Our city is struggling financially.

Any decision that requires city funds and resources should be evaluated to the highest level of scrutiny.

Across California, the data shows that these programs have produced very little, very few operating businesses.

A report titled Cannabis in Crisis, produced by researchers using data from California Department of Cannabis Control, studied the performance of marijuana equity programs across the state.

And findings raise serious concerns about whether these programs are actually achieving their intended results.

These programs require administrative staff, oversight, consulting services, and grant funding.

Yet the outcomes across the state show that the number of businesses that actually open remains extremely small, yet costing the city a significant amount of money.

In fact, a Los Angeles Times review of state cannabis licensing data found that over 90% of applicants in these programs never even became operating businesses.

Before moving forward, I urge this council to carefully review the statewide data and take an honest look and consider how this program could seriously cripple our already fragile financial situation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes public comment.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And again, thank you to those six patients for returning this morning to finish off.

Not a general public comment from yesterday's session.

So with that, Clerk, please introduce item 30.

Item 30 is an information, a ceremonial item, the 2026 City of San Diego women of distinction.

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

Or if you're participating remotely, now's the time to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

All right, and please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

I do not see any speakers here in person for the ceremonial item.

Just double checking.

We'll go to those participating online.

You'll have one minute each for the women's of distinction.

Lori Saldania, if you can please unmute.

Yes, good morning, and congratulations to all the women who are working on behalf of the city of San Diego and beyond to earn the honors that they have today.

And there's a saying that well-behaved women rarely make history.

So I'm very proud to be among women who sued the city and have had to do so multiple times to make sure that we have a chance to speak, not only positively and to congratulate people, but when questioning or criticizing the city.

So proclamations like this are important, they're meaningful, and they also deserve full commentary from everyone who wishes to participate.

And I think women made that happen.

Without the women who filed that lawsuit in 2018, you would not be able to hear people make comments right now.

So congratulations again to the women of distinction.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Next is Andrea Ebbing, if you can please unmute.

This Andrea Ebbing, congratulations to all the women who are being honored today.

Thank you so much for your strength and participation.

For example, um, the the woman who gave birth to a baby um unexpectedly in her bathroom, passed out and woke up and her child was uh stillborn, and our district attorney Summer Stefan sent her to prison, um calling it murder.

I also want to honor Alexander Vontander, who's uh whose husband was a predatory doctor neighbor of Summer Stefan, um, and he abandoned her after she was abused terribly, and he tried to commit suicide.

Um the multiple cases in which Nancy Sussman, for example, a 72-year-old USC attorney who Summer Stefan created a fake case against when her son died.

So she sent her to prison two for two years uh with a hot fake high speed chase.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The original, if you can please unmute.

Yes, I would like to add some women to this list.

One of them being Andrea Epping, another being Evelyn Lopez, another one being Jennifer Loyston, and the list could go on.

These are all women that should be honored for having to be tortured by the system, by the city, by the county, by all of the people that are supposed to be there and claim to protect and you know care about the well-being of others.

So I would like to add these women to and all of the other women that in the county, actually, you know what, across the world, that have had their children ripped from their lives.

Um, some of them have had their uh parental rights terminated, some of them have lost their children to the negligence of the county, like Arabella McCormick.

She died.

She uh you guys had to pay quite a pretty penny for her.

So I just would like to keep adding these type of women to the list.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is 8700, if you can please unmute 8700, star six to unmute.

Uh thank you.

Uh Joyce and the other C D3.

Thank you for this beautiful ceremonial item.

It is just a great one.

And of course, congratulations to all these women of distinction.

And and I just want to add this, this just popped up a second ago.

Every single woman's journey, every single human journey is beautiful and it's sacred.

Thank you very much and have a wonderful day.

Thank you.

Next is 7499, and the final speaker on this item.

Bob Kazuski here.

I also want to echo the comments of Lori Saldania about our ability to speak on these proclamations.

In addition to the women that Laurie mentioned, I'd like to thank the local attorney, Craig Sherman, and his Center for Local Government Accountability that he created.

As mentioned by Laurie Saldania, this council had previously passed all of these ceremonial items without giving the public an opportunity to speak.

The city would hand out the items.

Uh and basically the people getting the items would leave the council before the council would hear any of the people speaking on those items who might uh want to endorse or sometimes even oppose these proclamations.

And then the city would uh have already voted on them, but people would have already gotten their awards before the citizens got to speak.

So I want to thank uh the people that Lori Saldania mentioned and Craig Sherman and the Center for Local Government Accountability for giving us the right to speak before the agenda items.

And that does conclude a public comment on the ceremonial item.

All right, thank you to a woman of distinction in her own right.

Our city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Uh now I invite the now.

I invite to kick off the ceremony as well as present his honoree, the honorable mayor of the city of San Diego, Todd Gloria.

Thank you so much, Council President and members of the city council.

It is always a pleasure to join you for this annual gathering to celebrate women of distinction here in the city of San Diego.

Uh, first and foremost, I want to acknowledge and thank uh the women who we are honoring today, as well as their friends and family members who've come to support them.

Thank you all for coming to City Hall today.

Um I also want to acknowledge uh our commissioners from the Commission of the Status of Women here at the City of San Diego, uh, many of whom are with us today to honor celebrate our 10 honorees to our commissioners.

Would you stand and wave?

I think they're all here together.

Very good.

We have uh Gail, Susan, Wendy, Natasha, and Marilyn.

Ladies, thank you for your service and for your leadership.

So uh for 10 years now, dating back to my time in the legislature.

I've taken the opportunity to mark women's history month to reflect on and honor excellence uh amongst women uh in our community.

Uh, women whose leadership, service, creativity, and courage have made a lasting impact on the city of San Diego and beyond.

You can see it in the mentor who helps young people find their path forward, in the advocate who refuses to accept that that is just how things are, in the entrepreneur who creates opportunity for others, in the organizer, the educator, the public servant, the women who show up again and again because she believes that our community is worth it.

Uh, because when we tell the story of San Diego, how we grow and how we solve problems, how we take care of each other, my fellow San Diegans, women are not a chapter in that story, they are the authors of it.

So you need look no further than this dais today uh to see uh some of the great women who are helping to lead our city, and our honorees also uh represent the very best of our city uh as well.

Uh their impact is not abstract, uh it is visible, very visible in the lives that are improved, in the doors that are open in the communities that are protected, in the families that are strengthened, and in the communities that function better because these women decided to step forward and lead.

To these extraordinary women who are here today, I want to say that your resilience, your dedication, and your unwavering love for our city helps to make San Diego an even better place for all of us.

And it is because of you that we continue to grow, thrive, and inspire future generations.

Today, we gather to celebrate you and the role that you play in making San Diego the world class city that we are.

And with that, Council President, it gives me great pleasure to start our ceremony today by recognizing our women of distinction for the citywide uh Maria Chavez.

Thank you, face this way.

Maria is going to be our test case, our forerunner here, right?

So, camera is there for your friends who can't join us uh today.

They can just make sure that they see you.

Uh, Maria, thanks for being our guinea pig.

Um, my friends, let me tell you a little bit more about Maria Chavez.

Uh, she is the immigration legal director at the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans.

Many of you may know that organization as PANA.

She is also the owner of her own immigration law firm, Maria Chavez Law.

Maria's efforts are critical now more than ever to provide high quality legal representation to individuals who are navigating some of the most difficult moments of their lives.

She represents clients in the wide range of immigration matters, from removal defense in immigration court to family-based petitions to humanitarian remedies.

But let's be honest, uh, those words do not truly capture all that it means and all that she is doing.

Because for the people that Maria serves, it's about keeping a family together.

It's about a parent trying to work and provide for their family.

Uh, it's about a young person trying to stay in school and build a future.

It's about someone who is seeking safety after unimaginable trauma.

And it's about a community that is trying to live without fear.

My friends, at a time when the national rhetoric around immigration is so divisive and so inflammatory.

We know that Maria's leadership is particularly meaningful.

She's bringing clarity, compassion, and expertise to communities that too often face fear and misinformation.

And she does not stop there.

Maria frequently educates the public on immigration issues, helps people understand their rights under the law, and gives her time to immigrant rights organizations across San Diego, including the Community Law Project and the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium.

San Diego today, we celebrate Maria Chavez for her professional accomplishments and her unwavering dedication to justice and to the community that she serves.

We are a city that has been built by immigrants, and we are stronger, but because of that, economically, culturally, and as a community.

So Maria Chavez represents those very values that make up the bedrock of our city.

Her work has helped countless families remain together, secure safety, and build stable futures.

It is truly an honor to recognize her as our 2026 citywide woman of distinction honoree.

Please join me in recognizing Maria Chavez.

Well Maria.

Thank you.

Council President, I'll turn it back over to you for your presentation.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for initiating this program uh several years ago.

I am honored to celebrate Karen Bladen.

If you wanted to come up to the mic, Karen.

Executive Director of Shoreline Community Services as District One's 2026 woman of distinction.

Karen began her career as a professional ballet dancer with the Milwaukee Ballet prior to moving to San Diego and focusing on community development and empowerment.

In 2016, Karen founded Pacific Beach Street Guardians, a social enterprise that employed unhoused neighbors to care for her streets, work for local businesses, and provide event services.

This experience provided members with job skills, self-sufficiency, and hope.

This model is one I hope the city can duplicate with our safe sleeping tenants.

In 2020, Karen came on board to Shoreline Community Services, which was then a meal service that Karen grew into a comprehensive resource provider that now includes a drop-in resource center at the Compassation in Pacific Beach, volunteer community outreach to build support and trust, the medical recipite hotel program for individuals released from a medical stay, and the community care crew using her guardian's experience.

And recognize this resource center is in the middle of a single family neighborhood, a testament that you can provide homelessness services and be a good neighbor.

Karen is my nominee not only because of her dedication to service to others, but because of where and how she has been successful.

As I said, Karen provides services and service right in the District One coastal residential neighborhoods.

She built and maintained strong networks and Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, and La Jolla Shores by being communicative, clear, dedicated, proactive, and downright kind.

She is at every community group meeting, introducing, describing, and protecting her work and the people she serves.

Karen focuses on similarities rather than differences, and as it turns out, we all want safe, thriving neighborhoods for all our neighbors.

And with that, join me in congratulating Karen as a woman of distinction in District One.

Thank you, Karen.

And with that, I will turn it over to Council President Pro Tem Lee and his honoree.

Thank you, Council President.

It is my honor to recognize Gemma Samala as the District 6 honoree, who is currently serving her second term as the president of the University City Community Association.

Upon her leadership, the association has expanded its engagement efforts, including hosting open community hours, facilitating direct conversations with local representatives, and launching initiatives such as the Senior Watch Program to better connect older residents with resources and information.

Jim has also served as editor of the community newsletter for more than a decade, overseeing the coordination and distribution of 6,000 copies throughout the community through a strong volunteer network.

Her record of service extends well beyond her current role.

Since 1999, Jem has held various leadership positions with Spreckles PTA, the University City Little League, the Educate Foundation, and the UC High School Centurion Foundation, consistently contributing to the strength of local schools and neighborhood institutions.

She established the Holiday Adopt a Family program at UC High School to support families in need, helped form the University City Fire Safe Council to promote fire safety education, and revitalized the UC Garden Club, which now serves more than 225 members.

I don't know where she finds time, but she does all of this on top of her day job at the Vista Hill Foundation.

Gemma has been a pleasure to work with in District 6, and I think for all those on my team, our staff, and many in the community as a reasoned voice that helps us work together and ensure that we uh provide University City the leadership it needs uh to move forward together as a community.

Through her sustained leadership and civic engagement, she's demonic a clear demonstrated a clear commitment to strengthening community institutions and fostering collaboration amongst residents, and so this morning we are proud to recognize her continued dedication to public service and her meaningful contributions to the University City community.

Please join me in congratulating Jem Gemma Samala.

Go to Councilmember Campbell and her honoree.

Thank you so much, uh Council President, Council President Pro Tem.

This year, District 2's woman of distinction is Lynn Hames.

Lynn has lived in Claremont for 20 years, is an active member of the community.

She works full-time at a company that provides backup power for large entities like hospitals in case of a power outage.

But on top of that, Lynn is a tremendously active community volunteer.

In 2016, she joined the Claremont Town Council, known as CTC for Claremont Town Council, which has many hundreds of members.

And she's held many roles over the past ten years there.

She's currently vice president of the CTC and the president of the CTC Foundation.

As a member of the CTC, Lynn established the Morena Boulevard Banner Program, the partnership with SDGE to have local artists beautify transformer boxes in Claremont.

And she chairs the annual Claremont Garden Tour.

And she planned the Claremont neighborhood 75th anniversary of Claremont birthday party last summer as well.

She's also a member of the committee that plans the Claremont Family Day every year, the largest community event that the CTC runs.

She has uh been honored by the community as the person of the year in the past, and now she is honored as woman of distinction for District 2.

Her service and dedication to improving her community truly makes her a woman of distinction.

There is no test too small or too large for Lynn to take on and succeed, and so I'm so grateful for her leadership as I know the entire Claremont community is.

Thank you, Lynn, and congratulations.

Next up, Councilmember Whitburn.

And thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Mayor, and congratulations to all of this year's women of distinction.

This morning I am pleased to recognize an extraordinary woman whose work has left a lasting mark on downtown San Diego and across our city.

District 3's 2026 woman of distinction, Ruth Ann Thorne.

Ruth Ann is a visionary entrepreneur, gallerist, filmmaker, and cultural advocate who has spent decades supporting artists and bringing creativity and culture into our community.

She's the founder of exclusive collections gallery, which she launched in the late 1990s and which has grown into a respected platform, showcating art showcasing artists from around the country and around the world.

In recent years, Ruth Ann has played an especially important role in the continued cultural revitalization of the Gaslam Quarter.

As a proud member of the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians, she made history as the first Native American to purchase property in the Gaslam Quarter, reclaiming space at an area where Native people were once excluded.

She transformed the historic Yuma building into a destination that celebrates indigenous creativity and entrepreneurship with the opening of her native star boutique in 2025, which features fashion, art, jewelry, and products created by native makers from around the country.

Through her galleries and cultural events and storytelling work, Ruth Ann has created a space that elevates native voices, celebrates indigenous culture, and connects people through art.

Ruth Ed, thank you for your leadership, your creativity, and your commitment to uplifting artists and communities.

On behalf of Council District Three, it is our honor to recognize you as the 2026 District Three woman of distinction.

Thank you.

Next up, Councilmember Henry Foster III in his honoree.

Thank you, um, Council President.

And I want to first start by thanking the mayor and my council colleagues for continuing the tradition of recognizing women of distinction during the women's history month and for uplifting the women who strengthen communities across San Diego.

Congratulations to all of today's honorees.

Each of you represents the leadership, resilience, and service that Women's History Month is meant to celebrate.

I am especially proud to recognize District 4's honoree, Laraza Webb, a proud resident of Southeastern San Diego, whose work reflects a deep commitment to uplifting our people and investing in our community.

Through her leadership at Raymo residence and her background in business and organizational psychology, Laraza has dedicated her career to helping others grow, thrive, and find opportunity.

LaRaza has used art and culture as powerful tools for connection and awareness.

From her environmental art initiatives to co-founding the Block Club, a space that preserves and celebrates Black art and culture while also providing a place for community members to gather and collaborate.

Laraza represents the very best of District Four through creativity, leadership, and a strong commitment to community.

It is my honor to recognize her today as one of this year's women of distinction.

Please join me in congratulating La Raza Webb.

We will now go to Councilmember Von Wilbert and her honoree.

Thank you very much.

And thank you again to all the women who are here today.

I am very honored to be recognizing Diane Waverick as District 5's women of distinction today.

For 34 years, Diane has dedicated her career to the YMCA of San Diego County, helping young people, thousands of young people around our region grow, learn, and succeed.

Over the course of those decades, she has become one of the most respected leaders in gymnastics in the community, not only here in San Diego, but across the entire state of California.

Diane serves as the program director and head coach for our very own Rancho Peñasquitos and Escudito YMCA gymnastic programs, where she creates opportunities for hundreds of young athletes every month.

Through her leadership, more than 700 youth participants are learning new skills, building confidence in themselves, developing friendships in the supportive environment, and getting off of their devices.

Through her leadership, she's also earned recognition for her competitive gymnastics teams of more than 130 athletes, helping guide them through the discipline and dedication the sport requires while teaching lessons that extend far beyond the gym.

Over the past year, Diane has especially stepped into an important leadership role across our YMCA.

As collaborative chair of gymnastics department, she has worked with colleagues across the association to strengthen programs and expand opportunities for all young athletes, regardless of income or where they live.

Recently, Diane was honored with a lifetime achievement award from UASA Gymnastics of Southern California, recognizing the extraordinary impact she has had on so many young athletes.

And what stands out most about Diane is the lasting impact she has on her young people that she mentors.

We have been told that she always comes to work with a smile no matter how tired she might be.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you to the mayor and his staff for organizing this great event and congratulations to all the honorees.

I am proud to announce this year's District 7 woman of distinction, Alison Garner, who is joined this morning by her husband Travis and her parents Randy and Susan and her son.

Last year, tragedy struck our community when a plane crashed in Murphy Canyon neighborhood in Terrasanta.

In the early hours of May 22nd, 2025, 42 families woke up to a terrifying and uncertain circumstance.

Some had lost their vehicles, some had lost their homes, some were significantly injured and nearly lost their lives.

All of them were shaken by this tragedy, as our whole city was.

It was a heartbreaking morning for everyone connected to that neighborhood, and it even had global resonance.

And for those 42 families directly impacted on Sample Street in the middle of that tragedy, Alison Garner stepped forward.

Alison is the director of strategic partnerships and military relations for the Armed Services YMCA and Tira Santa.

She is also a military spouse and mother herself.

Because of those roles, and because of the deep trust she has built within the military community, Alison became the primary point of contact and liaison for everyone affected.

This work was personal for her too, because these were her fellow military families, people living the same life that she lives, raising children in the same military community she has called home.

Alison advocated for them tirelessly because to her, the military community is an abstract.

Those are her family members and her neighbors and the life she lives every day.

She coordinated communications between dozens of federal and local agencies, organized the distribution of donated goods, and ensured that every single family had temporary housing.

She also led long-term recovery efforts, helping families find new homes and even organizing a two-week scholarship to camp hero for the children of the impacted families.

That is why Alison represents exactly what this recognition is about.

She never sought the spotlight.

She's the everyday person with extraordinary heart, who, when tragedy struck her community, stepped forward and made sure her neighbors were safe and supported and not alone.

She made them know that they mattered.

Because of her compassion and her leadership and her quiet determination to take care of others, our community was able to begin healing after an unimaginable tragedy.

While she will tell you that she was just doing her job.

I know, and those 42 family knows, and our city knows the truth that you are a hero, Allison.

Alison, you're a hero, and we are deeply grateful for your service and your heart for this community.

So I just want to say thank you, thank you to your family for your service and your sacrifice.

And we are praying for you and your family and all our military families at this time.

And so it is my honor to recognize you as our District 7 woman of distinction.

Thank you.

With that, we will go now to Councilmember Moreno and her honoree.

Thank you.

Congratulations to all the women being recognized today.

It's with great pleasure to partner with the mayor every year to recognize these astonishing women from all over San Diego.

And it is truly an honor to recognize an extraordinary leader, mentor, fearless Chicana, and advocate for young people in District 8, Miss Mrs.

Sochil Alvarez.

Today we celebrate her as a woman of distinction in the city of San Diego, a recognition that reflects more than 15 years of dedication to helping first generation students and their families navigate the path to college and beyond.

Now, as director of the graduate support program at Nativity Prep, Miss Alvarez has guided hundreds of young scholars through middle school, all the way through college graduation, turning the dreams of higher education into real opportunities and lasting success.

Not only changing the lives of the students, but changing the lives of their whole families.

As a daughter of immigrant parents and first generation college graduate herself, she understands the journey firsthand.

Her commitment to community also extends but beyond her professional work, including being a mom, a good daughter, a sister, a tia, a godmother, also years of volunteering at the Sherman Elementary School PTA, and serving as a Girl Scout leader troop for Troop 617 in Logan Heights.

On top of all this, mentoring your young girls and helping shape our future leaders.

I want to thank all the students from Nativity Prep that are here today to support Mrs.

Álvarez.

Some mama, supapa, Susanas.

So with that, Miss Alvarez, your dedication has changed lives and strengthened our community.

Congratulations on being recognized, women of women of distinction, and thank you for everything that you do, have done, and will continue to do for the city of San Diego.

Muchas gracias.

Thank you.

And with that, we will go to Councilmember Hilo Rivera.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor, for um uh doing this with us.

Uh I before I get started on Ramo, I want to uh make sure I say congratulations to all the recipients today.

Um, and I'll give a special shout out to two who do their work in District 9.

Um, Maria, thank you for your work supporting the immigrant communities um with PANA.

Um, Mrs.

Alvarez, thank you for your work in District 9 at Nativity Prep.

Um, as for Ramo, she is an incredible community leader with an incredible story.

Uh, as the director of campaigns and organizing, Ramo works with the leadership team at the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans to accomplish their organizational priorities.

She trains and meets regularly with PANA's organizers.

She was born in Mogadishu and came to the United States as a refugee and personally understands the many difficulties of adjusting to life in a new country while preserving her cultural heritage.

She uh has led work with young women from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, and founded the International Refugee Girls Association.

She uh worked as the executive director of Somali Youth United, where she worked to ensure young people acquire the critical skills necessary for success.

And she has shown a passion and aptitude for increasing access and exposure to steam for women and girls throughout the African diaspora.

Um all of that is really important work, but what I want to say uh more than anything is that Ramo is an incredible advocate for her community.

And she's doing this at a time where community is increasingly under attack.

And so Rama, I want to say thank you for doing that, for not just not backing down during this time, but standing even taller and being even stronger.

But I just cannot say thank you enough for the advocacy and the leadership that you show, and what a great example of you are.

Thank you, Ruth Anna's neck.

All right, again, congratulations to the 2026 Women of Distinction.

Thank you for the family members and the colleagues that joined in the celebration today.

With that, we will now dispense with the approval of proclamation items.

Clerk, please introduce them and proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

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

Each speaker will have one minute per item per person.

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

The proclamation items being approved are items 31, 32, S501, S502, S504, and S505.

I see no speakers here in Council Chambers for any of the proclamations going to those participating remotely.

We have Andrea Ebbing, if you can please unmute and let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Hi, this is Andrea Abing, and I'm so sorry, I have to pass.

I didn't have a chance to review it.

So I will speak to this one.

Thanks.

Lori Saldania, if you can please unmute, speak on the proclamations.

Let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Yes, thank you.

I will speak to Women's History Month.

And uh well, I'll actually I'll speak to all of them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

All right.

So I'll start just go in order 31 diversionary theater.

Thank you for being a community space and for celebrating and enriching our cultural and musical and uh appreciation on a regular basis.

Uh it's amazing what you have accomplished in this 40 years.

Uh on Women's History Month, as I've mentioned before, uh, well-behaved women rarely make history.

And I think it's important that people recognize here in California, we created when I served in the legislature alongside uh Karen Bass, now mayor of Los Angeles, she made history as the first black woman in America in the United States history to become the legislative leader of a state legislative body.

And when she appointed me to be her speaker pro tem, we made history in California as the first two women in state history to serve as constitutional officers and lead the assembly during a very difficult time in the economic collapse of 2008 and 2009.

So I just wanted to add a little bit of history uh from the state level and even the national level, uh, as we finish up Black History Month, because often uh women's voices are often silenced, and our history is rewritten by others.

And if our voices weren't so powerful, people wouldn't work so hard to silence them.

Uh on St.

Patrick's Day Parade, I want to acknowledge the uh contributions that the Irish community has made to San Diego, and uh their parade is always a boisterous and fun, and uh it's a wonderful day for families to be out celebrating in the community.

And uh Lowrider Stamp Day.

It's amazing how we have gone from criminalizing people who engage in what is really an art form, uh, to now recognizing their contributions to especially Southern California cultural heritage.

Uh, my father grew up in Los Angeles.

He loved his cars, and even though it was uh decades before Lowrider was became a term, he was certainly part of that culture in Los Angeles as a young man who uh treated their cars with what can only be called reverence and respect to turn them into moving works of art.

Um and finally, I will say in response to uh Councilmember Moreno's recommendation.

Umgratulations to her honoree, uh Zoshi Aldarez.

And uh I think that we have to always recognize the the very diverse cultural impacts that's uh people throughout San Diego have.

Uh, seeing the mayor at the proclamation ceremony earlier reminded me that when I was the chair of the legislative women's caucus in Sacramento, we would do our annual uh statewide recognition of women who impacted our state in powerful and positive ways.

So congratulations to Zoshi and uh to all the women who were honored earlier today.

Thank you.

Next is the original, and then it's 8700, the original.

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

Yes, I would like to speak to women's history, um, St.

Patrick's Day, and let's do Jeff Davis Day.

Thank you.

Please proceed.

All right, so what is a woman?

Is kind of what I'm wondering, because you know, we keep changing the definition of things.

We already changed what the definition of a woman is.

So I'm wondering if that's part of the history.

And then if you are all of a sudden saying that men can be women, um, how does that history change?

You know what I mean?

How does that like reflect accuracy of women is what I'm wondering?

Um, because you know, um, it's just sad to see an inversion of everything.

Um, but if you really did want to honor women and all these women who are like activists, like, you know, for that, it's just strange that they don't mind that that's happening.

Um, and women are being erased, because it's like then you don't even know what a woman is, and anybody could be a woman.

Um, but people like Nancy Schaeffer, who were murdered for trying to reform CPS should be one that's honored, you know, along with again the other women that you know suffer on a regular basis throughout the world.

And then for you know, St.

Patrick's Day, all this stuff and you know, parade and all these events for it, you know.

I'm just it's you know, there was a march for children this last weekend on Saturday, and there's actually one coming up on April 11th.

It's gonna be at Waterfront Park, and there's gonna be a march around downtown.

And so I feel like, you know, when we honor certain things and we don't honor other things, it would be nice to see, you know, all of you guys show support for children that are suffering in our you know, like Arabella McCormick, um, Delilah, you know, children who have starved to death because nobody's wanted to do anything.

I'm just wondering when we're gonna um spend some money to you know dishonor them and mothers who are currently suffering.

I mean Patria Ebbing was nearly murdered.

Oh, but you know, let's do other things.

And then so let's go to Jeff Davis Day.

This one's interesting because he's a veteran uh for you know San Diego Housing Commission or whatever, right?

And you know, demonstrating steadfast commitment to advancing innovative housing solutions and improving the lives of low-income families and individuals experiencing homelessness.

I'm sorry, 27 years of that and look at where we're at.

I don't know that I would be giving him an award when you know the state of the city is in such disarray.

I mean, right outside the city chambers again, that building, you know, the awning right there when you walk in right by security, um, is filled with homeless every night.

Um, but then you do have downtown partnership come and tell them to leave, which is always so interesting.

But yeah, let's clean that up and tent city and things before we start giving people awards for that.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Next is 8700.

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

Star 6 to unmute.

Thank you.

32 and F504, please.

Thank you.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Um 32 women's history month, council member Campbell, Von Wilpert, and Mourino, three strong women.

Thank you for this item.

Special thank you to CD3 Honoree, Ruth and Thorn.

So all these women and all women face challenges, barriers, and they do achievements.

Keep making history for equality and equity.

Love to all.

And then F504, Jeff Davis Day for 226, San Diego Housing Commission is synonymous with Jeff Davis.

Dedicated public servant, 27-year veteran of San Diego Housing Commission.

Your leadership, Mr.

Davis, across critical operational areas of both San Diego Housing Commission and beyond is appreciated.

Thank you for your service and love to all.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment on the proclamations.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And with that, we'll turn it over to my colleagues for questions, excuse me, for comments and entertain a motion.

And we'll start with Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Thank you.

I'm happy to move the proclamations today, and congratulations to all the proclamation awardees.

As usual, my colleagues have brought forth very wonderful things to celebrate, including Jeff Davis.

Congratulations on your retirement.

We thank you for all your service to the city and the housing commission over the years.

On item 31 for Diversionary Theater 40th Anniversary Day, I am proud to join Mayor Tog Gloria, Councilmember Jennifer Campbell, Councilmember Stephen Whitburn in recognizing diversionary theater as it celebrates its 40th anniversary here in the City of San Diego.

Since its founding in 1986, during the height of the HIV and AIDS crisis, Divirgin Theater has used the power of performing arts to uplift the LGBTQIA plus voices and create space for our community healing invisibility.

Over the past four decades, diversionary has grown into one of the most respected LGBTQIA plus theaters in the country, producing more than 175 mainstay productions and hundreds of performances.

I have attended many.

It's a fantastic theater.

I encourage everybody to go.

The theater has also served a creative home for many emerging and established artists, helping to amplify voices and stories that deserve to be heard.

Beyond the stage, diversionary continues to impact our region through arts, education programs, and community engagement opportunities for people of all ages across San Diego County.

Congratulations on this incredible milestone.

It is my honor to proclaim March 28, 2026 as diversionary theater, 40th anniversary day in the City of San Diego.

And on item 32 with Women's History Month, I'm proud to be joining Councilmember Jennifer Campbell and Councilman V Moreno to recognize Women's History Month in the City of San Diego.

Women's History Month is an opportunity to reflect on the generations of women who pushed for progress, broke barriers, and helped expand opportunities for the women and girls who came after them.

Thank you to everyone who serves on our commission on the status of women, many of whom we're here today in our chambers.

Across San Diego, we see that legacy every day from women leading small businesses to educators shaping the next generation to community advocates working tirelessly to strengthen our neighborhoods.

This year's theme is leading the change, women shaping a sustainable future.

And it reminds us that women continue to play a critical role in building resilient communities and helping guide the future of our city.

It also reminds us that while we have made meaningful progress, there is still work ahead to ensure that women have equal opportunities to lead, succeed, and thrive.

Women's History Month is not only about honoring the past, but also about supporting the next generation women and girls who are leading our communities in the years ahead.

Thank you, and I move the proclamations.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

Excuse me, Von Wilpert.

God, I haven't done that in two years.

We have a motion by Councilmember Von Wilbert to move the proclamations.

We'll go next to Councilmember Moreno.

Thank you.

Um, item 32 celebrates the accomplishment of women.

Um women's history month is a time to honor women from the past and present, acknowledging the issues that often affect uh women's advancements and celebrate our achievements.

I am proud to partner with Council Members Campbell and Von Wilbert on this proclamation.

Uh many people have tried to erase women's history and our achievements from textbooks.

And women's history month reminds us for a whole month of all of our great achievements.

Um I view women's history month uh with a different lens since I became a mother to a daughter.

And I hope for a brighter future for our next generation of female leaders, and I know my daughter will have a very different experience than I did.

So I want to extend the appreciation for the women that are powering and steering our city, including my colleagues here on the Dais.

Item uh S502 celebrates that this Friday, March 13th, USPS will unveil the first ever Lowrider stamp.

Uh, this historic unveiling will occur in Logan Heights Library within District 8.

Uh, the event is acknowledging Logan Heights on a national level, and it will showcase 21 lowriders that will be on display and feature the talented Logan Memorial Educational Campus, Mariachi Ensemble.

The Low Rider stamp is a huge milestone that showcases the cultural, artistic, and historic impact of the Lowrider movement.

Logan Heights stands out for many reasons, including its proximity to Chicano Park, best known and recognized for its murals and its significant Chicano movement.

On April 22nd, 1970, residents of Logan Heights, alongside City College students and community activists rallied together to suspend the construction of a highway patrol station.

Community resilience is ingrained in the history of Logan Heights and also Chicano Park.

And I would like to thank Dr.

Albert Alberto Pulido from the University of San Diego, Mr.

Rigoberto Reyes from Via International, and the Amigos Car Club for spearheading the stamps development process with USPS over five years ago and making uh turning this vision into a reality.

I'm gonna call you up to see if you want to say a few words.

Um I also want to thank um I want to thank you for all your service to Logan Heights and also for bringing this historic moment uh to the city of San Diego.

Um I also would like to extend an open invitation to everybody here.

The event will be this Friday, and program starts at 11 o'clock at Logan Heights Library, and stamps will be on sale uh before and after the program.

And uh I would like to congratulate all the folks involved, Ike Viva La Rasa.

And I'm happy to second the motion on the floor.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember.

We have a motion by Councilmember Von Wilbert and a second by Councilmember Moreno to move the proclamations.

We'll go next to Councilmember Whitburn.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Congratulations to all of those being honored with proclamations today.

I want to thank Councilmembers Campbell and Von Wilpert and Moreto for bringing the women's history uh month proclamation forward and more importantly for the leadership that they show every day on behalf of their communities.

I also want to acknowledge the incredible women on my district three team, Nancy Zabora Hudson, Bridget Naso, Jordan Latchford, and Christina Gaffney, whose dedication to the residents of District 3 makes a difference every single day.

We must continue pushing forward to ensure that all women have a seat at the table and have equal opportunities to succeed.

I am proud to join my colleagues in recognizing Women's History Month and honoring the women who continue to shape our community for the better.

I'm proud to join Mayor Gloria and Council Members Campbell and Von Wilbert in recognizing 40 years of incredible impact by diversionary theater, an organization that has helped to shape the cultural and artistic life of our city.

Located in University Heights, diversionary theater has been a cornerstone of St.

Diego's LGBTQ cultural community for the past 40 years.

It is the third oldest LGBTQ theater in the United States, and its presence here in San Diego reflects the creativity and resilience and diversity that make our city so special.

Their work has elevated local artists and inspired generations of performers and audiences alike.

And I want to congratulate and thank the leadership and artists, staff and volunteers, and all the supporters who have made these past 40 years possible.

For more than four decades, this event has brought our community together to celebrate Irish culture, music, dance, and tradition.

What began through the leadership of the Irish Congress of the Southern California dedicated community volunteers has grown into one of the largest and most beloved cultural celebrations in the Southwest.

Events like this remind us that San Diego's strength comes from the cultures and traditions that bring people to our city.

Please come up to the podium.

We're all looking forward to the upcoming event and uh would invite you to share a few words.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Good morning.

Council President President Lacaba, Pro Tem Lee, and to all Council members.

My name is Trevor Wesson Lovell, as uh Councilmember Whitburn stated.

I'm honored to stand before you as a member of the Irish Congress of Southern California and of the entire Irish uh diaspora here in San Diego.

As Councilmember Whipurne stated, this Saturday, March 14th, we are inviting all of San Diego to join us along Fifth and Sixth Avenues and in Balboa Park for the 44th annual St.

Patrick's Day Parade and Festival.

As Councilmember Whitburn stated, this event has been occurring for over four decades, and it has served as a welcoming inclusive bridge for our community, bringing San Diegans of all backgrounds together to celebrate Irish culture and heritage.

In Ireland, we have a saying, Cade Millefalcha.

A hundred thousand welcomes.

And that is exactly the spirit that we bring to our city streets.

The Irish Congress of Southern California would like to express our sincere gratitude to the offices of Council Members Whitburn and Foster and to Council President Lacaba for warmly welcoming our committee to discuss the vibrancy and sustainability of what remains the largest St.

Patrick's Day Parade west of the Mississippi.

And to both Councilmembers Whitburn and Campillo, along with Council President Lacava, for accepting our invitation to participate in this year's parade.

As we look toward the future, the Irish Congress is eager to maintain an open line of communication with all of you.

We view the city as a vital partner in ensuring the celebration of culture and community continues to thrive in the heart of San Diego for another 44 years and beyond.

Thank you for your support of this proclamation, and we look forward to seeing you in the parade on the route or in the festival on Saturday.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We are very much looking forward to the parade and festival, and thank you for all that you do for the community.

And last but certainly not least, a big congratulations to Jeff Davis on his retirement.

Mr.

Davis has done a tremendous about to help people experiencing homelessness get back on their feet and ensure St.

Diego's have affordable housing.

Uh, and we are very grateful for all of his efforts over so many years.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

We'll go next to Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you, Council President.

Congratulations to all the proclamation recipients.

Uh what a wonderful day this is.

I would like to first uh recognize Jeff Davis Day.

Uh Mr.

Davis are 27 years in the city housing the homeless.

He has housed thousands and thousands of people over the years, and we are so grateful to him.

We will miss him a great deal.

He stepped in to be interim director of uh the housing commission uh as we look for our new leader, uh Lisa Jones.

And he's just a marvelous person who's always wonderful to work with.

So thank you, Jeff, for all you've done.

Congratulations on your retirement.

And I would like to speak to Proc 31.

I'm honored to proclaim March 28th, 26 as diversionary theaters, the 40th anniversary day in the city of San Diego with Mir Todd Glory and my colleagues, Councilmembers Whitburn and Von Wilpert.

Diversionary theater, as has been said, is the third oldest LGBTQ theater in the United States, founded way back in 1986.

It is truly a unique and special place for the entire community to enjoy gay-themed theater performances.

Most importantly, provides a creative home for many actors of all backgrounds to share their talents.

Cheers to 40 years.

And now on proclamation number 32.

Uh, in March, we celebrate Women's History Month, acknowledge the achievements of women throughout our history.

There's so many trailbacks women in San Diego's history, including Maureen O'Connor, San Diego's first female mayor, Constance Carroll, the first black woman and first LGBTQ person to serve as Chancellor of the San Diego Community College District.

Christine Kehoe, the first openly gay elected official in San Diego, who was not only on council, but went on through the state assembly and as senator in our state.

Also want to congratulate Susan Davis, the first San Diego woman elected to Congress to represent a San Diego district.

Shirley Weber, California's first African American Secretary of State, who also served in many other roles, including the state assembly.

Monica Montgomery Step, our former colleague on City Council, the first black woman elected to serve as San Diego County Supervisor, and my representative on Counting Council.

And my representative on Counting Council.

This morning we recognize 10 incredible women who are making a difference in their communities.

And I want to thank them all for their contributions to our city.

Happy women's history month.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

We'll go next to Councilmember Foster.

Thank you, Council President.

And I just want to speak briefly on a few of these items.

We'll start with item 32, Women's History Month.

Thank you to Council Members Campbell, Von Wilpert, and Moreno for bringing forward this recognition of Women's History Month and for the leadership each of you show every day on behalf of the City of San Diego and your communities.

As we recognize women across our city with this proclamation, I also want to acknowledge the example you three set on this council as women helping shape the future of San Diego.

Women's History Month is a time to reflect on the many ways women have strengthened our communities, broken barriers, and opened doors for generations that follow.

In this moment, I can't help but to think about the strong women in my life, including my mother, my wife, and my daughter, who remind me regularly of the strength, resilience, and leadership that women bring to our families and our communities.

So today I join my colleagues in celebrating the women of San Diego and simply thanking you for all that you do.

Also, we'd like to comment on S502, Low Rider Stamp Day.

I want to begin by thanking Councilmember Vivian Moreno for bringing forward this recognition and for helping highlight such an important moment for our city and for the low rider community.

San Diego has long been home to a vibrant lowrider culture that reflects deep pride, creativity, and community.

For generations, low riding has served as a form of artistic expression and cultural storytelling that brings people together across our neighborhoods.

The unveiling of the first ever Lowrider stamp is a historic milestone that recognizes the culture, signific the cultural significance of this movement and honors the artists, builders, and community leaders who helped shape it.

I also want to recognize Dr.

Alberto Pulido and Mr.

and Reyes, Mr.

Reyes, for their dedication and advocacy in helping bringing national recognition to the low rider community.

I'm looking forward to joining the community this Friday at the Logan Heights Library for the stamp unveiling and celebration and to celebrating this important moment alongside the many lowrider enthusiasts who have helped make this culture what it is today.

Lastly, I would like to comment on S503, Jeff Davis Day.

Just really want to congratulate Jeff on 27 years of service with the San Diego Housing Commission.

Your work has helped advance housing solutions to not only support our families with housing options, but also the work that you have done in regards to our homeless population.

Also just want to congratulate all of the proclamation recipients, and that concludes my comments.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

Not seeing anybody else in lights, I'll kind of wrap things up.

I want to thank the Irish Congress of Southern California for highlighting and celebrating Irish culture here in San Diego.

Keeping culture alive is no easy feat, let alone running a festival of this size for 44 years.

My wife Lorene, who is half Irish, and I look forward to celebrating on Saturday at the St.

Patrick's Day Parade.

However, you choose to celebrate this day, whether you're incorporating some green into your retire or attending the St.

Patrick's Day.

Irish you all a happy and pinch free St.

Patrick's Day.

I was honored to join Councilmember Moreno in bringing forth S504 and respecting his wishes.

I'll simply say thank you.

And on item 32, Women's History Day, uh, recognize uh the amazing women in my life, uh, my mother who immigrated here from Italy to start a new life in this country, uh, a recognition that seems to be lost on so many uh people who call themselves Americans, uh, and the good work she did in raising me and my sister, uh, my mother-in-law, who was a nurse for the early part of her career, uh, my daughter Valerie, who set the standards of what compliance and the industry met, and is now the mother of my grandchild, uh, Olivia Turning Four next month, uh, and my daughter Melanie uh with her PhD in genomics in advancing the conversation in protecting uh endangered species.

And thank you to my colleagues for all the recognitions and proclamations that have been brought forward today.

Um I see Councilmember Whitburn wants to jump back in again.

Thank you, Council President.

Sorry, we were looking forward to uh Jesse Barchisi of uh Diversity Theater being with us this morning.

And it turns out he's uh with us virtually, and I wanted to invite him uh to join us and say a few words.

Uh we are uh very much uh delighted to honor uh diversity theater on its uh anniversary and really appreciate all that you have done to make it the uh great venue that it is, and wanted to invite you to say a few words.

Hello.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi, this is Jesse Marcese.

Thank you so much for having me today.

I'm the director of development and resident dramaturg at Diversionary Theater.

Um, you've all spoke so beautifully about the work and its impact on our city.

Thank you so much.

As you mentioned, we're the nation's third oldest continuously operating LGBT QIA Plus Theater, San Diego's only theater of its kind, and one of very few in the country dedicated to telling exclusively a lesbian gay, transgender, and queer stories.

Um we're celebrating our 40th anniversary this year, and we'll be taking to the streets on March 28th for our Ruby Anniversary uh ball, which we will celebrate under the stars on Park Boulevard outside of our historic theater in University Heights, and I look forward to seeing some of you there.

Uh, if you haven't bought tickets today as the last day to RSVP, please do that.

Um, you've spoken so beautifully about our work and about our free arts education programs, which really are the one of the most important things we do to speak to just how we uh uh work towards the full diversity of our LGBTQIA plus community, our newest arts education program, Front Lines of Pride is a great example of how we serve our community in its fullest.

It's a collaboration with Armed Services Arts Partnerships, and it's a playwrighting class geared toward the healing of LGBTQIA plus veterans and their families.

Um, we at Diversionary really believe that representation matters and that stories have the power to save lives.

Um I I really want to thank City Council for your unwavering support of all of our programs over the years.

With your help, we impact the lives of nearly 10,000 community members, and uh we look forward to doing so for another 40 years and beyond.

Mr.

Markeese, thank you very much for being with us.

Uh, and uh thank you very much for all you do for diversionary theater.

It has a national reputation.

Uh its work has all always been important, and I think uh especially uh in today's national climate, uh celebrating the many cultures that make up our community, and in this case, in particular, the LGBTQ community and the transgender community.

Uh your work is so important and very much appreciated.

So thank you again.

Looking forward to the upcoming event, and thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And thank you for jumping in because it made me realize I forgot to thank uh one woman in my life, and that would be my wife Larie.

So if I want to go home tonight, uh to my wife Lorreen, who is and the mother of our two daughters and now grandmother to Olivia and a beloved kindergarten teacher for 25 years and touch the lives of so many children who still come back and thank her for what she taught them during her kindergarten years.

That was close.

So uh with that, uh we have a motion by Councilmember Von Wilbert and a second by Councilmember Rain on the move of the proclamations.

Clerk, please call the vote.

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

That passes unanimously nine to zero.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And again, we will take another pause for photos, uh, starting with I think item 31, diversionary theater.

Are they here in person?

The virtual, okay.

Uh, then we'll start with the St.

Patrick's Day parade and festival day.

Oh, no photos, sorry.

Boy, I'm just really rattling off.

Uh Women's History Month, do we want to do that?

We're good.

Is there someone here?

Oh, down, yeah, okay.

That sounds good.

And then I'm gonna let Heidi take over because she actually knows what I'm gonna do.

I received fourteen web comment forms in opposition, and item one oh one received twenty-one web comment forms in opposition.

Both all of those were forwarded to the city council.

I will also note for the record the potential reappointments that are on the agenda this morning.

Item one oh five is the potential reappointment of Dr.

Joan Chen to the privacy advisory board.

Starting with those that are speaking here in Council Chambers, if I can have Barbara Holton, please come forward.

And then Gary London, Joe House, and Blair Beakman.

If you can all come forward to the front row, Barbara Holton, you have time seated to you by Tim Holton.

Can please raise his hand.

Package A ordinances and resolutions do not meet California Coastal or Environmental Quality Act requirements.

In addition, item 100 requires that item 55 be passed first.

This domino effect within a consent calendar is unusual and questionable.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Gary London.

Are you here?

Gary London.

No.

Then we have Joe.

Joe.

Okay.

You're speaking on item 101.

You'll have one minute, please proceed.

Hello, my name is Joe Heisler.

I'm with Pendulum Property Partners.

We're asset manage most of the retail and restaurant at Liberty Station.

The former Navy Naval Training Center at Liberty Station is a national treasure, and some of the properties I asset manage are on encumbered by 66 year ground leases.

The uh redevelopment agency has been dissolved for many years, and the city of San Diego is supposed to uh compensate other taxing entities uh market value for the properties.

City of San Diego is currently offering uh a number that is based upon a valuation 15 years ago to pay them currently.

Our company has offered seven times the number for the properties we we control through ground leases.

We also have two other ground lessees at Liberty Station that are willing to pay seven times the number.

I would say this is disingenuous to schools and community college districts within our community.

Thank you for that concern.

Market value should be paid.

Blair Beekman.

You are speaking on items 50105 and S503.

You'll have three minutes.

Please proceed.

Hi.

Thank you, Blair Beekman.

I'm wearing blue today, a blue shirt.

I hope it can be okay.

Um the item 50 is East Village uh Green Phase 1 project.

This project was actually brought to Sandag a few months ago.

They are working uh in conjunction with you.

Um there is a future of smart smitty smart smart city development for the future of this project that's really important to Sandag that has absolutely zero mention in this item.

So I'm a little concerned what exactly you're working on with this item and how you're uh how you're working on it.

Um you have a big parking project involved.

You have art funding for over 700,000 dollars.

That's a lot.

So it's my guess, it's it's my fear actually that is your art project things going towards tech practices at all.

Just to ask, uh, we have to be mindful with so much parking involved with this item.

I hope uh the future of tech can be a real easy subject to talk about.

It parking tech is usually easy to talk about uh for community.

Uh good luck that we are accountable with this tech future you're building.

Uh good luck.

Uh it should be clear and open.

Don't fear it.

Um, that's my always.

I always say that.

105 is appointment to the privacy advisory board.

Really important items of uh we are still working towards how to address flock uh and how to address the future of so much tech placed in the city.

War makes it really difficult to work on best practices.

I tried to offer yesterday.

I think we still can work towards best practices.

Good luck how we can do that.

I think it's our good examples at the local level that um it will give hope to our national and international level.

And they they they can learn from our good examples at this time.

We're not in 9-11 paranoid era of war anymore.

It's our best practices at the local level that creates peace uh for continual war at the international level at this time.

Good luck that we continue our good work.

Um it helps a lot at this point in our lives.

Um item S503 continuing state of emergency realt sewage issues.

Thank you very much for the words of council person uh von Wilper yesterday who spoke on the climate action report in the need of a bit more accessibility and public just uh dialogue and understanding, uh just a bit more fun, basically, in how it describes itself.

Um the water, the sewer issues in Tijuana could have been mentioned, um, what we could be working on together, the fact that we need to be working on things together, uh, that could have made into the report, and uh good luck that we have good uh uh communication.

Good luck in our open communication efforts.

Thank you.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Gary London, and then our final speaker is Mitch Mulanix.

Mullaney, thank you.

Good morning, City Council members.

My name is Gary Lund and I'm here on behalf of my client Seligman, who are the as you know, the the lessees at uh Liberty Station.

I and I want you to know that I don't have a philosophical argument against the city owning city owned properties, there's opportunities always to own it.

This is not one of them.

I think that Liberty Station is an is an opportunity to uh to offer up to Sullivan and um the the concept where they can go ahead as stewards of this property, as owners of this property to do a good job for the next couple of decades.

Um we did a a report which I think has been submitted to you, and I'll I'll submit to Clerk that addresses the financial upside of uh their potential ownership of this property versus the city going forward leasing it, including um the fact that uh what resonates for me is that the city hasn't done a good job with places like concluding comment.

Your time has concluded.

Thank you.

Um Mitch.

You're speaking on item 101.

Good morning, counsel.

My name is Mitch Molinix.

I've been intermittently involved with the Liberty Station issues for about 30 years when I was a staff person for Mayor Susan Golding.

And I think it's really exceeded the expectations in that time of the vision we originally had.

Um the city, with all due respect, isn't a great steward of real estate.

Um, and I think there's a good case example there at Liberty Station now.

If you look at it, it's very clean, it's very productive, it's very nice.

But then you come upon this smoldering heap of ash.

Well, that's building 619, which the city, which was a nice 20,000 square foot building that the city said, you know what, we're gonna keep this, we're gonna redevelop it and make it nice.

They never did anything, they've held it all this time.

The the Navy SEAL Museum wanted to come in there and take over.

They said, No, no, we've got a plan.

Then eventually it you know degraded, homeless moved in, and then it burned to the ground around last Christmas.

The business model that's in place now.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

Any written comments can definitely be submitted, and we will be sure to get those to the council.

If I can have Lori Soldania, please unmute.

I'm sorry, the five-minute timer.

Lori Saldania, please let me know which item or items you wish to speak to on the consent agenda.

Good morning again.

Thank you.

I'll I'll say all of them because you I couldn't see the screen until just this moment.

So put me down for all of them and I will try to read uh from the screen.

Let me just say regarding Liberty Station and other agreements.

You I agree I can't agree more strongly with the speakers.

Your predecessors consistently gave away valuable public resources for private profits.

The city gave the McMillan Corporation the land at Liberty Station for a dollar.

Your your predecessors really uh contributed to the housing crisis we have now, and the development agencies around California have used their assets to build and preserve more affordable housing than San Diego consistently for decades.

This city is an outlier and has one of the worst track records on creating and protecting naturally occurring affordable housing, and that is evident to anyone who drives along our streets and freeways where encampments are popping up faster than they can be taken down.

So I encourage you to reconsider how you're using these successor agency funds, because other cities, as I have stated before, when I was chair of the assembly housing and community development committee, I was invited to other cities to see how they use their redevelopment funds, and it really put San Diego to shame.

Let me comment on the minutes, I believe, of the council uh previous.

Are those part of this as well?

The minutes of the previous council meetings.

I'll just go ahead.

ICE actions were mentioned by one of the council members.

I want to remind you that civil protest is still a basic constitutional right of everyone, citizens and residents, regardless of legal status.

We now have the resignation, thank goodness, of the uh former director of homeland security, and it's a reminder that increasingly violent actions against American citizens as well as immigrants can often be dealt with by following the money.

It's still an effective way to hold the powerful accountable.

And finally, I want to close with an item that has to do with an ongoing uh hearing.

Wait a minute, I'm looking on my website here.

It's hard to say that this is a crisis because it's gone on now for decades.

And I was both uh a plaintiff in a lawsuit to force them to change the design of that treatment plan, and then a research fellow at UCSD at the Center for US Mexico Studies, examining how it had failed on so many levels.

This is almost 30 years ago now, and what is happening now is entirely the city of San Diego's responsibility.

Let me explain why.

You were part of the driving force through your employees, through your agencies, and creating that treatment plan at the border that it's never had a chance to work properly and safely and protect the health and well-being of San Diego residents and others in the Tijuana River Valley area.

Those of us who were working on transboundary environmental issues knew that this failure would come.

We knew that people would be slowly poisoned, and this city promised the regional water board, the state water agencies that you would assist Tijuana in developing an industrial pretreatment program as part of their compliance efforts to keep toxic waste out of that river valley.

The city has failed to live up to that promise.

I encourage you to do that, but stop poisoning your own.

After the original is 8700.

Please let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Oh 105, S500, S503.

Oh, three minutes, please proceed.

First, I want to say that is ridiculous that we spent that long on proclamations as if things are going all hooky dory while you then cut down the people and you know, just always, you know, silence them at with a minute.

You know, it's just so disrespectful.

Um, because you guys sit up there and and spend all this time doing that.

Um, the appointment to the privacy advisory board.

I mean, you guys have sit here, you create this board, but then it's like, you know, you don't you you circumvent all the time.

You basically tell them, you know, like they go and do all this work, and then you know, they get bypassed.

So it's just interesting to see um what's going on there and anything that is having to do with sharing of information that should encompass everybody, not just a certain class of people or group of people.

It should be everybody that is included and not um and these appointments of the mayor and you guys to outside organizations.

It's just like you guys are failing miserably at the city, then you go into all these other boards like Sandag and you know, whatever it is, MTS, you know, water boards, blah, blah, blah.

And if you you're failing in the city that you're representing, and and it should be, you know, driving if you and then you should go to other boards and do that.

But instead, you know, it's just like this incestuous thing that happens, and so all of the whole anything that it touches, anything you guys touch, is going to be tainted at that point.

I mean, again, if you if things were better, it's like you'd be like, yeah, I want them on that, because then they're gonna be doing really great, but it just it's like very disturbing, and that goes into even the Tijuana River Valley and the state of an emergency.

I mean, even with COVID, any time you're in a state of an emergency, you get funding for it.

Your money comes in for certain things.

And it's like it's very sad to see that people have been suffering for decades for decades, and we just like declare this continued state of an emergency.

And it's like, how long are people gonna have to suffer because nobody wants to really get down to the bottom of it, which if it's coming from Mexico, again, quit doing business with Mexico until it stops.

That's a lot of money that you guys obviously care more about because it shows that.

You know, nothing really gets done or mitigated, and even if if you pretend to try with the sewer treatment plan, like you fail at it.

And so it's like, when is anybody gonna be held accountable and people are gonna stop suffering?

I mean, a state of an emergency at the border should have been when people were flooding across.

Now we're seeing the effects of them coming in.

But the fact that they were incentivized in a lot of money of the the nation went to facilitate these people coming across.

And now you're worried about them suffering.

You should have been worried about them being murdered and raped along.

Your time has concluded.

Next is 8700.

If you can please unmute after that is Andrea Ebbing and then 7499 8700, if you can please unmute star six.

Uh, thank you.

I will be speaking on 5051, 52, 53, 104, 105, and F503, please.

Thank you.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Uh on 50, East Village Green phase one.

It's beginning to be a little tough to look at these moving pieces of money and funds.

Yes, this seems appropriate.

So yes to the amendments.

51 construction contracts with Blue Pacific workforce agreement.

Admin 60, 38 are Hispanic.

Trade 99, 81%, 81 are uh Hispanic.

Underrepresentation, Asian female, African American, female construction laborers.

52 contracts with TC construction, 224 employees, lots of underrepresentation.

They state they are monitoring the situation.

Can we trust that?

53 agreement with Luke and Surly 199 employees bitto on what I just said for 52 on 104.

Love you, San Diego Fire Rescue San Diego Project Heartbeat.

To date, 216 people's hearts beating and safe.

Love you, and I give you five-star awards for your work.

105.

Love the PAB board and your dedicated work on the trust ordinance.

A super big thank you for what you've done.

You've helped us come forward so greatly.

I just really, really appreciate all of you.

And 55 Five O three, TJ Mexico pollution crisis emergency.

The momentum seems to have increased.

Please, even small yet effective step steps.

Let me say that again.

The momentum seems to have increased.

Even small, effective steps are appreciated.

Thank you very much for listening.

Love to all.

Thank you.

Next is Andrea Ebbing, and then our final speaker is 7499.

The five-minute timer did conclude.

No additional speakers will be taken.

Morning, this is Andrea Ebbing.

I want to speak on um, sorry, all of them.

Because I can't see that at the very moment, but I want to speak on all of them.

Um, I want to start with the employee um holiday pay, uh benefits package and the repayment of what whatever is has been missing or was missing.

It's very, very, very important that whatever information I'm sharing.

Anybody that um can follow a lead or follow a trail or kind of come to their own conclusions on this information.

I highly encourage you to do.

Um we have um 103 San Diego, City of San Diego employees.

Look it up on Transparent California.

We have a hundred and three critical employees, important employees, high-level employees making zero dollars a year in pay.

Then they're making tons of money in other pay.

So we have money being laundered and filtered and improperly uh um, I guess put into a byline of the uh payroll for the city of San Diego.

So on Transparent California, San Diego has several alerts, which is an anomalous thing.

Several other cities do not have these alerts.

Uh um, this one in particular says the city of San Diego does not provide the cost of pension benefits on an employee level, and as such, the total benefits value for each individual reported is incomplete and significantly understated.

That's really important to consider.

Uh, just as a fact.

So from a very high level, and I don't think this is a city council issue, you guys.

I think it's whoever, Todd Gloria, summer Stefan, whoever's in charge of the RIGO Enterprise that many people are unknowingly operating under.

Okay, so don't blame them.

Look at the leadership.

Now, also on the Teawada uh sewage crisis.

This has been going on for how long, right?

Everybody just mentioned it's been going on for how long.

It's right in front of our faces, but it continues.

And while it continues, we do things, and by the way, I'll be really clear on this.

I am suspicious and concerned about the appointment of Mario Orso to the head of Sandag.

Personally, I think he works for Mexico and not San Diego.

Personally, I think he's helping people move freight, such as uh big rigs and such, uh, over the border and around the border in the name of reducing pollution.

In fact, his since his appointment, he wants to put 1.3 billion dollars into automating trucks to pass at the OTI border.

Everything he does is at the OTI border.

We have uh uh 129 million dollars while the sewage crisis is taking place, being invested into the OTI May supportive entry for underground utilities and grading work package as part of California's investment of three billion dollars to enhance safety and improve travel times while the crisis goes on.

I think this is a drug tunnel, and I think that the uh trucks are narcotics and humans.

Thank you.

Your time has concluded.

I will note for our speakers that we do need you to list what items you are speaking to for record keeping purposes.

We cannot assume or guess which items your comments go to.

So if you can please take the time to review the agenda and let us know.

We will reach out to those that have already spoken to make sure we get that accurate for the record.

7499, if you can please unmute and let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Items 50, 51, 52, 53, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, and S500.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

I won't take all that time.

Bob Kazuski here.

I want to say again that I've witnessed gross negligence by this city in its awarding and managing of contracts.

I also want to say again that this city is not providing appropriate citizen oversight and citizen involvement in the many contracts, leases, and advisory boards in this city.

I may know of these problems through my decades of dedicated involvement with the Tory Pines Collider port, but these problems are not limited to that one property.

These problems are endemic throughout this city, and they need to be addressed.

I particularly want to endorse the comments by Lori Saldania regarding the city giving away and leasing our public property to private businesses.

Our public property should be for the public and not to enrich private businesses and individuals.

Businesses should be purchasing their own property and not hijacking our public lands for their private profit.

Shame on all of you for your entire careers of mismanaging the properties and resources of this city.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment.

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

So I'll turn it over to my colleagues for any comments and entertain a motion.

And if nobody wants to kick it off, then I oh oh council member Von Wolpert uh moves the consent items.

Yes, that I'd like to second by Campbell.

I'm so sorry, I would just like to register a novel in item 53 because it's an expired contract.

However, I do want to note that I received a great email from Bethany Bizak this morning detailing the work the city that she and Claudia are going to do to make sure we have no more expired contracts, but I will record a NOVA on that and move the rest of the proclamation or consent.

Thank you.

All right.

Um again, not so uh we have a motion by Councilmember Von Wolpert and a second by Councilmember Campbell.

Um I actually will offer a couple of comments.

Um S500.

Uh we're revising the appointments.

Uh and the only change that we're actually making is reassignments on the Sandeg Public Safety Committee.

I don't want to thank Councilmember Foster for his brief tenure on that committee.

And thank Councilmember Moreno for stepping up and serving on Sandag's public safety committee.

Um the um I'm just thinking about public comment, and it just distracts me.

Uh I want to register a no vote on the item 55 preservation of progress.

While there's a lot of good cleanup, I cannot support the de novo hearing process, the more limited hearing process have been working for many years.

I also want to uh register a no vote on 50A.

Um recognizing that state of construction cannot be reversed, but stopping this and stopping this action could do more harm than good.

But I want to be consistent with my prior votes.

So uh with that, we have a motion by Councilmember Von Wilbert and a second by Councilmember Campbell.

Uh and there's a few registered no votes, which I know the clerk has captured.

Uh but otherwise, please call the roll.

I started the voting system, please cast your vote.

That does pass unanimously with uh district five voting no on item 53, district one voting no on 55 and 50A.

And the rest of it passes unanimously.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

So with that, are there any comments from the mayor's office for council members, city attorney, independent budget analysts or city clerk, we'll go first to Councilmember Campio.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, I'll try to make this as brief as possible.

I thank you for recognize me, and I uh appreciate my colleagues for bearing with me for a moment.

Uh yesterday, a member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee, who I'm will not name, tweeted something so heinous I felt compelled to stand up for my family and friends and constituents.

The tweet read as follows.

Muslims, he said, don't belong in American society.

Pluralism is a lie, he ended.

Forty-seven thousand people liked that.

Many thousands shared it with praise, and in his safe congressional district, we all know he will not be held accountable for that statement.

But when an elected official says this, he is striking at the American idea that a free people, different in creed and custom can nevertheless live together in peace under God and under law.

The Constitution of the United States doesn't say that only some faiths belong.

The First Amendment rises above that smallness, which led to millennia of religious war and violence.

The First Amendment says the government has no authority to tell a Muslim she does not belong any more than it may tell a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, a person of no faith, or anyone else that he or she stands outside the protection of our law.

And why?

Because in this country, our rights do not come from the prejudices of small-minded politicians.

They come from the God given dignity of the human person, secured by a constitution wise enough to know that freedom must belong to all, or in time it will belong to none.

As President Kennedy reminded us, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

This tweet from a congressman from Tennessee and his sentiment is not constitutionalism.

It was sectarian arrogance.

It was not patriotism, it was pandering to ignorance.

But beyond the Constitution, let us speak plainly about the morality of the statement.

It was vile and ugly and beneath the dignity of public office.

It took millions of people, each a child of God, each possessed of infinite worth and reduced them to a category of suspicion and contempt.

It tells families, including mine, that they are forever foreign.

It tells children they will never be accepted.

It tells peaceful and decent people that no matter how hard they work, and no matter how faithfully they love their country, no matter how honorably they live, that they will still be told they do not belong.

I took this insult quite personally, obviously.

I support my Muslim constituents in Sarah Mesa, largely Afghans, who risked their lives with our armed forces for two decades.

The people in Sarah Mesa asked for nothing more and nothing less than what every American should be able to ask to be treated equally, to live in peace, to raise their families, to worship freely, to walk through this country without being marked as lesser.

I kid you not that the only thing my Muslim constituents in Sarah Mesa have ever asked me for as a council member was to help them fix their fence and to move their bus stop a little bit closer to the front door of their mosque.

I support our city workers and our police officers, engineers, lawyers, road pavers, and an excellent member of my own staff who work to serve the public and improve everyone's lives.

These city workers work hard all day and during this month of Ramadan, eat not a morsel and drink not a drop while serving the people of the city of San Diego.

I love my father-in-law, my other-in-laws, and my wife, who are Muslim.

I know my wife's goodness, and I know her patriotism and the seriousness with which she takes American citizenship and the oath she has taken as an attorney and as an elected official herself to faithfully defend the Constitution of the United States.

She's a prosecutor who holds defendants accountable and delivers justice for victims, and even if she was not, no government gets to say she or anyone like her doesn't belong in America without me responding to it.

She and the Muslims of our city are not strangers to the nation they help sustain.

And then lastly, there's the falsehood wrapped inside the phrase that reflects an absolute anti-American sentiment that pluralism is somehow a lie.

Pluralism is not a lie.

It is the reality of America and every true democracy.

Pluralism is the discipline of coexistence, and it is one of the greatest achievements of human civilization.

It is the understanding that people can profoundly differ and still live as neighbors, honor each other's rights, and still bind themselves to the common civic life.

In fact, his statement defeats itself because the very freedom that allows this congressman from Tennessee to say such a sick thing exists only because he lives in a pluralistic society.

He's exercising liberty in a nation that protects conscience precisely because it refuses to turn one sect into the ruler of all the others.

So in denouncing pluralism, he is standing on the very ground that pluralism built.

The gospel, according to Matthew, teaches us that the man who built his house on such sand, Jesus Christ called such a person a fool.

And as a Christian and Catholic, I must say clearly, my faith does not permit me to hate broadly or lazily or hate at all.

My faith calls me higher.

His tweet is so antithetical to Christian faith, one has to wonder just what faith does a congressman from Tennessee practice.

I'll end with this, Council President.

And the ancient prayer of the Catholic Church.

We say glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to people of goodwill.

Peace to people of goodwill.

That is the call, not suspicion and not exclusion.

Peace, not the sorting of human beings into the worthy and the unworthy.

That alone is left to God.

So let me answer this ugliness with moral clarity.

Muslims belong in America fully, freely, and equally, as all people of goodwill belong.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Thank you for bringing that to attention and your good words.

We'll go next to the city clerk.

Thank you for the time, Council President.

I did just want to note for the record that the following public examination periods are starting to run.

If we can make that a little bit bigger on the screen, um, Kevin, the candidate's statement of qualifications and designation of principal profession, vocation, or occupation runs from March 6th through March 16th.

Ordinances calling the election ordinance placing measures on the ballot is March 9th through March 19th.

The city attorney's impartial analysis, ballot title, summary, and mayor IBA city auditors fiscal analysis will run March 10th through March 20th.

And as noted yesterday, ballot arguments are due tomorrow, and then that public examination period will run March 12th through March 22nd.

You can find all of this information as well as all of the materials to be viewed by the public at Sandieago.gov backslash 2026 elections.

I'd also just like to give a big thank you to my staff, Deputy Director Christina Hernandez, Mark Moreno, my elections analyst, and everyone who helped with the candidate nomination period that concluded last Thursday with a record breaking 25 candidates for districts 2, 4, 6, and 8.

Thank you for all your efforts to make democracy happen.

Thank you, Council President, for the time.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And we'll go next to Councilmember Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh Councilmember Campio's eloquent words a moment ago speak for themselves, but I just wanted to thank him for saying that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Um couple of comments here, given some of the public comment earlier today.

I just wanted to recognize the operation staff and the good work they do every day, and especially those in ADD who have taken over a real estate department that was not in very good shape and has really worked wonders to bring that into shape, and especially updating 700-10, which affects so many of our decisions.

Excuse me, a reminder that we have an evening session uh starting at 6 p.m.

tonight uh for public comment on budget.

I appreciate all those who showed up at the earlier effort, and we continue to welcome uh public comment on the upcoming FY 2027 budget.

With that, um, we will now take up non-agenda public comment, and I hope at least four of my colleagues will stick around.

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

With that, clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, pre rule 2.7 on agenda public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on items that are not on the agenda, but within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council, each speaker will have two minutes.

Please note if there are eight or more speakers on a single topic, the maximum time for the topic will be 16 minutes.

If you are in chambers, please submit your speaker slip.

If you are joining us virtually, please raise your hand now to speak by tapping the raise your hand icon, or if you're calling participants, star nine, backing out the following individuals, please come forward to the front row.

Joel Sharp, you can come up to the microphone.

After that, Jacob Edwards, Barbara Halton, Scott Chipman, and Blair Beekman.

Joel, you'll have two minutes.

Please proceed.

Yes, good afternoon.

I'm Joel Sharp.

I'm a property owner in the University Heights area.

I'm here today to talk about the SDG's underground program in partnership with the city.

Um I bought my property in 2011 on the 10th Avenue finger, just south of Mission Valley, the canyon there.

And when I called SDGE in 2011, they gave me an approximate date of 2026, telling me, of course, that the city controls the schedule since they own the streets, not S D G and E.

But I was a little disappointed, therefore, here are 2026, 15 years later, and nothing is planned to remove the poles in the canyon behind our properties on 10th Avenue University Heights.

The map showed that just a blank, there's no schedule, there's nothing.

So I'm really here to tell you, as a retired architect, that my recommendation is that you guys should be removing the poles and overhead power and all of the canyon and hillside areas of the city first as a phase one, because you have limited budget, and then do the standard concrete sidewalk street installation removals as a phase two throughout the old neighborhood.

That's common sense to me since the canyon locations offers a higher fire risk overall.

As a canyon owner, of course, I'm required to you know manage the brush a hundred feet away from my house as defensible space, which I do out of self-interest, of course, as an owner, but uh for the neighborhood as well.

And SDG, by the way, sent a drone over my area and canyon a couple weeks ago to assess the fire hazard of their equipment in the canyon areas.

So that's my message, really is you guys should be uh doing the canyon area removals for undergrounding first before you do the standard street installations.

That's kind of my my beef and request you guys, given that you guys have limited budget overall, but just do the canyonaries first, then do the regularies next.

Don't use politics or arbitrariness to to make the decision.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Jacob Edwards, if you can please come forward.

Thank you.

City Council for the work you do for San Diego.

I don't think two minutes is enough time to explain this, but um give.

Um I'm speaking about one of the last assassination attempts against me.

Last Super Bowl evening.

I was going around the gas lamp area educating people of what's really going on in this country.

Not long thereafter, I had all black SUV, uh, government SUVs swarming, circling around me, driving them were wise guy gangsters.

Then I was pointing that out, which was being recognized.

Leaving the event I had gangsters approaching me straight in the street.

Being weathered and experienced to avoid danger.

I came here to City Hall under cameras.

At the front door, they put up to a young girl, a teenage girl approaching me head on with a bulge in her pocket, wearing a hoodie.

I yelled, no, you don't, circled around her, startled her.

She was walking off holding a revolver.

A young girl.

Police department handled it very poorly.

I consider it.

Police depart department infiltration.

Days later, I'm in records to get records of how it was handled.

There were two Department of Homeland Security folk in there to request to meet with the chief's office.

Human resources, they said, which is chief.

The lady was laughing at me, laughing in my face.

I said to her, You think this is funny?

She said, Oh, it's hysterical.

Went into the chief's office to probably dehumanize me, invalidate, discredit me, and probably say he's down there to sue you all.

We're here for you.

No, I wasn't there to sue you.

I wasn't there to sue the police department.

I would not sue San Diego.

I was there to show you that concluding federal activity and what it's doing.

Barbara Halton.

I don't see Barbara Holton here.

Scott Chipman.

Good mor afternoon.

50-year resident of Pacific Beach and planning group member and founding member of Save PB, SavePV.org with over 400 members.

On Monday, you will consider the issue of a CEQA exemption for 710 Club Streetery, 710 Garnett Avenue.

Under CEQA, exemptions are interpreted narrowly, and the burden is on the city to show the exemption applies.

On Monday, you will hear that there is a reasonable possibility, even likelihood of significant environmental impact due to unusual circumstances.

Those circumstances include but are not limited to hundreds of noise complaints, including amplified vulgarity and obscenity exacerbated by roll-up doors.

A superior court mandated mediation agreement over noise, loss of critical beach parking, an increased demand for parking by increasing occupancy.

That was two minutes.

No, my apologies.

I think I got confused.

Keep going.

Thank you.

And increased demand for parking by increasing occupancy.

I've provided correspondence from the Coastal Commission.

That should have been distributed.

Uh to protect uh to project manager NHR Sedoghovid.

Quote.

All on street parking removed to construct a streetery shall be replaced with an equivalent number of off-street parking spaces, provided at no cost to the public.

And if there is not a one-for-one replacement of the uh five occupied parking, this project is not approvable and must be removed.

In summary, coastal zone parking is directly tied to public access under the Coastal Act.

The exemption cannot apply due to unusual circumstances.

Thank you.

Blair Beekman, if you can come forward.

Blair Beekman is our final speaker here in Council Chambers.

If you are participating remotely, please be sure to raise your hand.

Please proceed.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

Uh thanks for the morning meeting.

Um we're going through uh some difficult times at the international level that are hopefully trying to ease themselves down.

Um I I don't want to be difficult here uh at this time.

Uh, but I think it's important to point out from the um uh agenda item yesterday on zoological uh society issues uh and their their contract things.

It states in the first memo at the very end, it gives a very clear uh summary that the future of uh parking fee uh issues uh there was going to be three million dollars allocated uh that was gonna go to general fund items that uh also concern the zoological society.

Um that was a beginning promise and and concept that I think still has some validity that I need more clarity about, and I felt uh councilperson uh Lakaba didn't really work towards that clarity.

He worked towards a finality and absolutionism and a certain condescending tone towards the community, but didn't um offer, I think a true you know, idea of what the future of parking fees is like.

So until that is cleared up better, I'm gonna can try to continue to offer here in the public space a shared compromise idea that that some fees are going to Bellboard Park issues, some are going to the general fund.

Uh, hopefully uh conversation can better develop, and I hope that it could be an open, clear conversation problems.

It doesn't have to be peerful.

And very much of a thank you.

Uh, in yesterday's I item that we talked about climate change uh issues.

Um the the purpose of community energy was not also talked about that I hope we can learn to make of a more of a regular conversation.

We're trying to address SDGE.

I think that's an important concept.

Thank you.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Sorry, the five-minute timer going to those participating remotely.

We currently have 10 speakers in the queue.

Uh yes, we have 10 speakers.

That's 20 minutes.

I think we just powered through and get it done.

I know someone's gonna leave, but we understand.

We have five.

Let's hold the five.

Going forward, Andrea Ebbing, if you can please uh mute after that is Lori Saldania.

Please proceed.

This is Andrea Ebbing, and perfect.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Lakava for saying that, because you guys don't want to hear what we have to say.

That's the problem.

If this were a triage and you had to figure out who you could help most immediately in the community, it's the people that are presenting directly to you.

And Mr.

Lakava, a moment ago, you said that you were just distracted by public comment.

What a nuisance we are.

The people that pay your salary, what a nuisance we are.

The people that have the guts to come up and present to you guys, and when we present facts and you roll your eyes and leave, and you don't have a quorum anymore, and we have to come back another day.

Thank God we will come back another day.

But guess what?

When we do, you still don't listen to us, and the comments about discussing the items we're talking about.

That's great, good idea.

However, you guys don't put in our comments.

So what's the point?

Why do I have to follow your structure when the only thing that you put that I say is my name?

Raul Campillo, I am District 7.

I am Linda Vista, and I have often wondered why you have done zero about the father in Linda Vista that got detained in front of the elementary school as a Mexican American man.

I wondered why you wouldn't do anything about that and why you made that Afghan EVAC video, and you said you will not stop fighting for Afghan rights when me, I am your constituent.

I live in District 7, and I present to you every single week, and you look over my head and you leave and you do nothing, and my children were abducted, and you just had a baby.

I wondered why you're fighting so hard for these people you've never met, has nothing to do with Muslim.

We're not nobody doesn't love me.

No, sorry.

There is a huge thing against Muslims.

However, we did go to war with Afghanistan.

They are our war adversary.

Love your neighbor, love your enemy.

Great.

But when people like me are almost murdered and our children are abducted, it makes perfect sense that you wouldn't help me because your prosecutor wife is a prosecutor who doesn't want to help me.

Your time has concluded, Lori Saldania, if you can please unmute.

Thank you.

Hello.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Uh Council President, thank you for reading what people jokingly call the Saldania statement that was required to be read as part of a settlement after a Brown Act violation a few years ago in response to certain council members' efforts to silence public comment.

And related, ignoring members of the public as they are speaking virtually, joking with your colleague next to you.

It shows a disdain for our voices and perspective.

Leaving before we can even speak is even a worse look, especially for those of you who are intending to run or are already running for other elected offices.

We will remember you ignoring the public's comments and talking through our comments.

We see you as you speak.

We see you on the City TV webcast.

And when you leave before or during our route remarks or talk and laugh with the person next to you, it strongly reflects your unwillingness and inability to listen to public voices.

Finally, I want to remind you that April is sexual assault awareness month, something that I've worked with other groups to acknowledge and recognize for decades now.

Uh and for decades, you and your predecessors delayed and denied justice for survivors of sexual assaults and other violent crimes.

Last year, the police department finally acknowledged they had failed to test and identify DNA found in thousands of sexual assault evidence kits.

And over 500 suspects were finally identified, and they're already in the criminal justice system.

And related in November, after a friend and I were assaulted in downtown San Diego, our efforts to report the crime were met with delays to the degree that she has never been able to file a police report.

And I waited seven hours for a police officer to come to my home.

Don't you dare say we are America's safest big city.

Because what is happening is you are simply not listening to survivors of violence, whether it's sexual assault or other types of assault, the police are ignoring our efforts to report the crimes.

Just as you are ignoring our comments during council.

Your time has concluded, the original, and after that is 8700.

That is absolutely true.

Sexual assaults are being ignored, even deaths.

That's what's happening at Tent City.

You guys contract with people who hire people who sexually assault individuals, and you've refused to do anything about it, though you know it, so you are complicit in it, and they are being told not to report it by Dreams for Change staff.

And you guys are sitting here and talking about a St.

Patrick's Day parade and all this stuff at Balboa Park.

Well, right off of inspiration point way at the end of that is Tent City.

And Dreams for Change has been for the last year and a half in the news about clients who have alleged that sexually the staff has been sexually assaulting them at your safe sleeping sites.

And they are actually a subsidiary of the United Way, and we're being paid by the franchise tax board to help immigrants who are not yet citizens, including some undocumented immigrants to get tax identification numbers and file tax returns so that migrants can have cash in hand from the state via a program called the Cal EITC.

The um FTB wants to look for specific families and ask Dreams for Change to do that so they can get more cash back than people without children.

There is a particular focus on families who have children that are six years or younger as they get the maximum cash payout available when they are engaged in this type of thing and two on one is is directing people to dreams for change.

You guys know that Dreams for Change is failing to uphold their contracts because the city is there on site, and there are many, many code violations.

The conditions that these people have to live in are atrocious, and you continue to give our money to them all while they are putting children at risk to be able to be taken from school because of this information that they are collecting in AB 495 where anybody can go in and claim they're a family member and take a child.

So you guys need to figure out what you're doing and quit contracting with these people and actually care about people who are being sexually assaulted.

No additional speakers will be taken.

There are 10 speakers in the queue when the timer concluded.

8700, please proceed.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

I'll see my items in a minute.

Um maybe I won't.

Um can you imagine if our voices were not?

I love this about our country.

We can speak.

And uh can you imagine what it would be like if they were repressed and covertly underground, not heard.

Can you imagine the point of explosion that would happen at some point because of that pressure?

I don't think we want to go with it.

Thank everybody for expressing your views.

You have a right to do that.

We must hear you.

It's critical, it's critical to our democracy.

Okay, thank you for listening on that.

So uh I mean I get through my three items, but I'll try to do it real quick.

Um I really would like us to look further at the idea of um the oversupply of office supply uh in our especially downtown and how to use that.

Um number two, Edel Councilmember Ila Rivera, I think you uh said something very, very important.

You said we need a policy on AI.

Let's do that, okay?

We really, really, really, really, really need to do that.

Can you please put uh an effort into that?

Uh I would appreciate that.

And then uh lastly, uh no, I better skip that because it's too long.

So, anyway, uh it it's a great morning.

It absolutely a great morning.

There is a little bit of everything.

That's the excitement of life.

Everything has to be included, and whether we want it or not, your time has concluded.

My apologies, Hector.

If you can please unmute after that, 7499.

Thanks for thanks for taking my call.

And I want to call attention to the fact that there were 50 uh cars set on fire in Tijuana just recently for the drug dealers when we Trump took out that one drug dealer.

And uh so Tijuana is the hardcore city in the hemisphere by far.

So we're at risk with that.

Plus, the recent invasion, and I'm calling out the occupiers of our land right now in San Diego County, the people who invaded our those illegal aliens that live here now that just came here.

Those are the real occupiers of our county, and they're draining our systems.

75,000 of them are on Medi-Cal.

And Medi-Cal system is going under.

So we gotta we gotta get rid of those guys.

Trump's fighting the drug dealers now with the South American guys, all the countries, they're getting serious.

They're coming after the guys in San Diego County that hide their money.

The drug dealers have got a lot of houses here.

They're like sheltering their businesses and their stuff.

So it could get really pretty crazy, man.

Plus, we all know the mayor of Tijuana is hooked up with the drug dealers.

And uh, I know some of you guys, Mexican guys, you know that guys know that.

Even our board of supervisor lady who's who was an anchor baby.

She was born in San Diego, but was raised in Mexico.

I call that an anchor baby.

She's hooked up with the drug dealers.

So it's gonna get crazy, Matt.

Trump's gonna was gonna take over Cuba, then he's gonna come back to Cadio County and start starting doing it with us, man.

Plus, the uh we should have an uh a day commemorating uh with all the genders, there's 16 genders.

It's kind of homophobic to have a day of a woman because we don't know what a woman is.

You know, what's going on with that?

How can you have a day celebrating women when we can't define what a woman is?

Your time has concluded next to 7499.

After that is Becky Rapp.

Bob Kazuski here.

I again want to assert that this city is abusing the hang gliding and paragliding communities through your negligent oversight of the business operating the Tory Pine glider port.

The glider port is a natural treasure, just like our other beaches and open spaces throughout San Diego.

However, unlike those other parks, the glider port is exclusively leased to a private business that charges citizens to use our park.

And unlike those other parks, the business at the Tory Pines Glider Port requires citizens to be members of a private club that expels citizens for testifying in court cases against the business or even for speaking to the city council.

Joe Lacava is president.

You it is your duty to bring this matter to the council to reactivate the Tory Pine City Park Advisory Board and to implement a waiver similar to the successful Doc Weiler waiver to allow citizens to use our park without belonging to any abusive private organization.

In addition to advocating for our rights at the glider port, I feel compelled to spend some of my non-agenda time advocating for citizens who speak here.

In past years, the city clerk would list upcoming remote speakers, and she would say something to the effect of the next speaker is 1234, followed by 3456 and 5678.

The city clerk often says most of that, but she does not reliably list the upcoming speakers.

This means that speakers often have no idea when they will be called.

Speakers have no idea if they are first in the queue or tenth in the queue.

Speakers have no advanced notice of when they are expected to unmute and begin speaking.

In the best case, this is inefficient.

In the worst case, citizens are often surprised when called and unable to unmute in time to speak.

Please at least announce each speaker along with the two following speakers every time.

With regard to Mr.

Campio, your comments might be taken seriously if you weren't so hypocritical about protecting the rights of all citizens in our city.

Charity begins at home.

Shame on you for grandstanding on the national issue while ignoring the obvious local abuses.

Finally, Ms.

Saldania's spot on with regard to the disrespect that this council shows the public.

Thank you to Ms.

Saldanya.

Thank you.

Becky Rapp, you're next.

Please unmute.

After that is Madison.

Good afternoon.

My name is Becky Rapp, and I come here out of concern regarding the proposal to add 36 new pot permits for the socially equitable cannabis program.

It's important to look at neighboring cities as they have already pursued and implemented this program.

One example is Los Angeles, as their program has shown serious shortfalls.

First, the financial reality.

Hundreds of cannabis licenses were issued, including many through their social equity program, yet they're struggling.

Reports indicate that hundreds of businesses owe back taxes, and the city is facing hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid marijuana tax revenue.

When an industry cannot meet its tax obligations, it raises an important question.

Is expanding the program fiscally responsible?

Second, these programs have not reduced the illicit market, which was one of the major justifications for permitting these businesses in the first place.

Even after years of licensing and enforcement, Los Angeles still deals with numerous illegal operations.

San Diego should learn from these experiences.

Our city is already facing significant budget pressures, and we know that our permitted businesses have also struggled with paying taxes.

And we, the public, have yet to be presented with an updated auditing report showing exactly how significant our lack of back taxes is.

Now is not the time to expand programs that may require substantial oversight, administrative resources, and enforcement, while we struggle to monitor the existing businesses we already have permitted in our city.

I urge the council to carefully evaluate whether this approach approach truly meets our goals for public safety, fiscal responsibility, and community well-being.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Madison.

After Madison is 1822.

Hi, thank you.

Good afternoon, Council members.

An issue in San Diego that deserves special attention is what happens when young people begin using marijuana regularly and develop dependence.

Adolescence is a critical period for brain development.

The brain continues developing into the mid-20s, especially the areas responsible for memory, decision making, and emotional regulation.

When teenagers are repeatedly exposed to high levels of THC during this time, research shows it can interfere with those developmental processes.

According to physicians and toxicology researchers, THC spreads quickly into tissues throughout the body rather than remaining in the bloodstream where it can be easily measured.

This means that even when a drug test appears negative, THC and its biological effects may still be present in body tissues.

Young people who develop cannabis dependence are more likely to experience long-term problems with attention, learning, and mental health.

Studies have also linked frequent adolescent marijuana use to increased risks of anxiety, depression, and even psychosis.

What begins as experimentation can turn into a pattern that affects a young person's academic success, mental health, and future opportunities.

As these policies continue to evolve, I also agree that we should not be doing the socially equitable cannabis program and encourage the city to keep youth prevention and education at the center of the conversation so that we don't normalize this harmful drug and the next generation can have the healthiest possible start.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is 1822.

After that is Terry Ann Skelly, 1822.

Please proceed.

Good morning, thank you.

I feel opposed to expansion of the social equity program.

As a public health advocate and youth mentor, I wondered why concern over tobacco's adverse impact on public health hasn't extended to marijuana, which presents similar risks, but worse.

Finally, media is acknowledging this mistake.

I'd like to share a few headlines from just the past few weeks that challenge misperceptions about marijuana quote safety and commercialization.

New York Times, 20 million Americans say they're always high.

Even liberals recognize the craze has gone too far.

Wall Street Journal, high schools are losing the fight against POT, epic time, THC builds up in the body, influencing inflammation and immunity, multimedia.

Huge study links adolescent cannabis use to double the risk of psychotic and bipolar disorders.

Former White House Drugs are called marijuana massively destructive.

40% of drivers killed in crashes had active THC in their systems.

Another study revealed cannabis adverse impact on working memory.

Marijuana linked to premature cardiovascular disease.

And here's one Department of Justice makes the case.

They signal a pro-lecalization reversal by the media, now admitting they were wrong and calling for policy change to protect public health.

I hope you'll do the same.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Terry Ann Skelly.

After that is Kathleen Lippett.

Please unmute.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Okay, great.

I was having some audio problems.

Hello.

Good afternoon.

My name is Terry Ann Skelly.

I'm a parent and a planning group member and a public health educator.

At Economic Development and Government Intergovernmental Relations Committee last week, I spoke to item five entitled Establishment of a Cannabis Social Equity and Economic Development or Seed Program.

In County Public Health, we are very aware of the increase in adolescents who are experiencing health problems associated with their smoking and vaping and the effect it had on their job and their school trajectory.

So last week's item number five was very confusing to me.

Since marijuana products are most often smoked or vaped.

Their recent fact sheet states, and I quote, early and heavy marijuana use is linked to a lack of economic and social attainment for our young people.

Early and heavy marijuana use is linked to increased risk of psychiatric disorders, including psychosis, depression, anxiety, and other substance use disorders.

Frequent smoking of marijuana increases the risk of lung issues such as bronchitis.

The C program is the wrong program because it diminishes the health outcomes for young people and other vulnerable populations and communities of concern.

Thank you for hearing my concerns this afternoon.

Thank you.

Kathleen Lippard, if you can please unmute.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for letting me speak.

I'd like to address the disconnect between the city claim what the city claims to support and fund versus what it actually does in practice.

So last year, DSD sent out a news release touting how critical it was to hear from community members to best improve our communities to inform their five-year infrastructure plan.

This is a great title, but it was too bad that it bore no resemblance to actual community priorities that they identified.

They identified parks, recreation centers, places to play as top priorities, followed by safe sidewalks, open spaces, and libraries.

And void and they've voided, you've avoided.

Independent cost analysis that allow you to continue to support what you want versus what are going to be the ramifications and harmful side side effects and unintended consequences.

So the city is has also endorsed rezoning laws.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you.

That does conclude an agenda public con for today's meeting.

Alright, thank you, City Clerk.

Uh, we will now adjourn for the noon recess and reconvene.

Open session at 2 p.m.

or shortly thereafter.

Just one minute here.

I can see that she's trying to leave me and going to work.

She's going to change the world.

Change me.

Yeah.

Here is the money that I owe you.

Yes, you can pay the bill.

I will give you more when I can pay it again.

I hate those people who love to tell you.

Money is the root of all the kills.

They have never been poor.

They have never read the joy of their Christmas.

Yeah.

Oh, I know we will never look back.

Yeah.

You say you wake up crying.

Yes, and you don't know why.

You get up and you go lay down and sight my business.

Yeah, I guess I'm doing okay.

I'm happy with the strangest guy.

Can you believe he asked me things that I am?

I will buy you a garden.

Wear your flowers and blue.

I will buy you a new car.

Perfect shadow.

I will buy you that big out in the West.

I will buy you a new life.

Yes, I know all about that of the gods.

The handsome man without the letter dies.

I know all about the time before.

That upset the little bitch boys.

They might make you think you're happy.

Yeah, maybe for a minute or two.

They can't make you laugh.

No, they can't make you feel the way.

I will buy you a gun.

Where you're flowers.

Birthday shot.

I will buy you that big.

I will buy you that big house.

I will buy you a new guy.

I will buy you a car.

I will buy you that big house.

This is where our kids come to learn to grow to have foot safe fun.

And so let's have a day of service.

Let's have a day of cleanup.

And let's make sure we put our our blood, sweat, and tears into this park and make sure we make it available for the families.

As we talk about the importance of this park, I'm a proud graduate of Lincoln High School.

At that time, Lincoln High School didn't have a baseball field.

And I remember we used to have a walk down here and this is where we practice.

We're gonna be doing painting, trash pickup, brush removal, and working on this playground behind me.

We're removing weaves and import importing new sand.

This park has been in this condition for a very long time.

And these are the kinds of incremental improvements we can make to help bring it up for the next generation of ball players, whether it's soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, this park is for you, and that's what we hope to bring to all of you as part of little projects like this.

Thank you to San Diego FC for always stepping up and coming out and helping the community.

I want to thank the Harvey Family Foundation for making this their home, continuing to make this their home, to make sure that we're getting the resources and the attention that this park deserves.

Okay, good afternoon.

I will now reconvene the City Council meeting of Tuesday, March tenth, twenty twenty-six.

Clerk, please call the role.

Councilmember Campbell.

Councilmember Whipburn.

Oh thank you for letting me know.

Uh, Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Councilmember Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Here.

Council Member Moreno.

Present.

Council Member Elo Rivera.

And Council President Lacava.

Present.

Also attending the meeting are assistant city attorney, Leslie Fitzgerald, independent budget analyst Charles Monica, and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Thank you, City Clerk Quorum is now present.

So with that, please introduce item 330.

Item 330 is an informational item, City of San Diego fiscal year 2027 through 2031 five year capital infrastructure planning outlook.

If you'd like to speak to this item in our hearing chambers, 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 raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you.

All right.

Staff is making their way up through the diasp.

Now that you're settling in, introduce yourselves for the records and let us know how much time you need.

Good afternoon, Council President Lakava and distinguished council members.

My name is Karen McGriff and I am the assistant director over the project management office in the engineering and capital projects department.

We will need approximately 15 minutes for a presentation today.

All right, when you're ready.

With me today, I also have Michael Palae, who is our who is a financial operations manager, overseeing uh CIP in the Department of Finance.

And today that we will present to you the 12th annual five-year capital infrastructure planning outlook covering fiscal years 27 through 31.

Before we start, I really do want to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has contributed to this effort, many of whom are both online and in chambers today and available to help answer any questions that you may have at the end of the presentation.

Without them, we possibly could not gather all of the data needed to prepare a meaningful meaningful report for your use.

The document is a planning tool to assist all of us in long-term capital infrastructure planning.

The reports helps to monitor, project, and evaluate the availability of funding to meet long-term needs.

The report also helps to ensure alignment between the city's multiple asset managing and service providing departments to achieve the city's vision and objectives for community infrastructure.

While this report is not a budget, it does help to guide a financial guide financial decisions on infrastructure priorities and to facilitate the development of the upcoming fiscal year 27 budget.

As previously mentioned, this is the 12th report that we have prepared.

In the report, we summarize citywide capital needs and expected revenues for the reporting period.

We quantify the asset management department's needs to meet their desired levels of service.

And because we recognize that not all needs can or will be met in the five-year period.

We have also begun to quantify the high-level needs for years 2032 and beyond, which are outside of the outlook period.

The needs identified incorporate input gathered from the community via the planning department's community input survey, as well as the priority priorities identified in your council priority memos, both of which are incorporated into asset management plans developed by the AMDs themselves.

Engineering and capital projects and Department of Finance work together to forecast the eligible CIP revenues that are expected to be available to the program.

Needs are matched with revenues to help us provide the financial outlook or gap number.

Diving directly into the report results.

Over the next five years, the city CIP has an estimated 12.82 billion dollars of identified needs.

These needs are represented by the blue bars on the graph.

We estimate that just over $5 billion of funding will be available to meet the identified needs over the outlook period.

Funding availability is represented by the green bars on the graph.

There is an additional $5.96 billion of needs identified beyond the outlook period.

Shown on this slide in blue are the revenues projected to be available for the CIP program for each of the last five years.

Shown in yellow are the actual budgets that were added to the CIP program.

I'm very pleased to note that over the past five years, the funding anticipated for the CIP program has been available as projected.

Notable variances have come from windfall opportunities such as straight state or federal grants.

The green bar on this graph also shows the increased output production and project execution levels for the CIP program.

Fiscal year 26 is showing activity only through the midway through the fiscal year, and both the yellow and green bars will be growing by fiscal year end.

We do expect the positive execution trend to continue for several years as ECP continues to streamline delivery to increase cost effective production.

However, we recognize that the industry has limitations and areas are already starting to feel the strain.

Each year we look for new ways to analyze the data.

This year we separated projects that were already in process somewhere in the delivery pipeline from those projects that still needed to be initiated.

We also prioritized matching revenues to existing projects so that our five year plan emphasizes finishing what we've started.

What you see here shows the total capital program on the white lines where $12.8 billion at the top is funded with $5 billion in the middle leaving a total programmatic funding gap of $7.8 billion at the bottom existing projects are in light blue and new projects are in the darker blue.

As you can see in the first few years of the outlook needs are higher and the vast majority of funding is planned to complete existing projects new projects have a lesser funding need and also funding program at the beginning of the outlook but this ramps up significantly towards the end of the outlook period as we continue to break down the overall programmatic needs for the capital program this table identifies the three and a half billion dollars have identified needs from our enterprise funded departments.

Enterprise funds operate similarly to private businesses and set rates charged to end users.

These rates ensure that sufficient income is available to support all operations, maintenance and capital investment activity for the enterprise fund.

Shown on this table in order from highest to lowest needs are the city's enterprise funds this table shows the non-enterprise fund asset needs broken down by the various asset types they are shown from largest need to smallest with stormwater infrastructure making up the city's largest single asset type need at over five and a half billion dollars transportation pavement and parks are the city's next two largest identified needs and of the 9.3 billion dollars of identified general fund asset needs 1.5 billion dollars of funding or roughly 16% is expected to be available to meet these needs.

This leads an overall gap of $7.8 billion I'll now turn it over to Michael to discuss revenues.

Even though there's a sizable gap we have identified over 1.5 billion dollars in funding that is expected to be available for the general fund capital improvements program.

This table shows the expected funding sources for the CIP program from largest to smallest the largest funding source is expected to be general fund financing most of the $665 million in projected financing will be allocated to ensure compliance with the terms of the already executed stormwater WIFIA loan.

Based on previous general fund monitoring exercises the outlook reflects that approximately $96 million of general fund financing could be added to the CIP program each fiscal year.

Citywide diff for mobility, parks, fire and libraries are ramping up and projected to bring in nearly $230 million over the outlook period.

There is no infrastructure fund contribution planned for the CIP during the outlook period and while we do project climate equity funds to be available those funds are eligible to support infrastructure related ONM activities and may not be allocated to the CIP program as part of the upcoming budget development cycle or may be waived shown here are the needs and anticipated revenue trends for the last five outlook reporting periods including this year.

Both needs and revenues have increased over time however the increase in needs is outpacing that of revenues additional revenue sources would need to be identified to close the gap noticed a dip in the needs in the middle of the preceding slide this dip occurred in the first year that the beyond five years category was added to the outlook when we show all identified needs for both the five year period and beyond the five year period the city's current infrastructure needs outlook is 18.78 billion dollars why do we continue to see a growth in needs several factors contribute to the growth primarily the infrastructure itself in addition to the new to the need for new infrastructure that addresses growth existing infrastructure ages and goes through a cycle of rehabilitation and replacement another major contributor is the rise in the associated cost to design and construct these projects due to increased regulations replacement to higher standards and industry limitations on what can be delivered both materials and labor.

Another major contributor is the rise in the associated cost to design and construct these projects due to increased regulations, replacement to higher standards, and industry limitations on what can be delivered, both materials and labor.

There is some good news as we look beyond a five or even 10-year horizon, we see the completion of major efforts that ultimately result in lower needs in the far outer years.

I will now turn it over to the Chief of Community Services, Rania Aman for the concluding remarks.

Thank you, Michael.

Um I just want to uh closing by summarizing what Michael and Karen has presented here this afternoon.

Uh so over the next five years, the project is.

Ronia, I'm sorry to interrupt.

Can you turn your mic on and have it a little bit closer to maybe it needed closer?

I'm gonna make sure the folks remotely can hear you.

Can you hear me better now?

Yeah, perfect.

Thank you.

Um over the next five years, the projected cost increases uh really reflects several factors that cities across the country are experiencing.

Uh many of our public assets are aging, as uh the team mentioned earlier today.

And when uh maintenance is deferred due to funding limitation, the cost of repairs grows as conditions worsen.

At the same time, construction cost labors and materials has increased significantly in recent years, and there is less competition for contractors.

In addition, project today must meet evolving regulatory requirements, environmental standards, city priorities, policy directions, and service and community expectations.

Together, these factors contributed to the growing funding gap outlined in this report.

We must continue to balance funding allocations between maintaining existing assets and delivering new infrastructure.

We're also advancing long-term affordable asset management plans.

At the same time, we will continue to pursue design and construction grant, particularly for non-enterprise infrastructure.

Over the past several years, the city has made progress.

And I just want to uh acknowledge all that that progress has been made in developing CIP prioritization policies, service level standards, and completing condition assessment for some assets, such as the pavement management plan.

However, many assets remain outdated, including those for facility system.

And updating these inventories and condition data will require additional investment.

Based on current information, as was shared by the team here, the estimated uh funding gap of 7.8 billion or an average of 1.5 billion a year.

Um, this is a significant amount.

Addressing this challenge will require continued investment in a disciplined data-driven approach that strengthened asset management.

Priorities, prevention maintenance, uh, preventive maintenance is very critical, and continue shifting toward programmatic delivery so we can make strategic long-term infrastructure investments.

Ultimately, this work is about making informed strategic investments so we can protect the infrastructure we have today while responsibly planning for the city long-term needs.

With that, I will uh conclude our presentation and then we'll be more happy to take questions.

All right, thank you all for the work and the presentation this afternoon.

Uh, we will now turn it over to the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst for a presentation.

Thank you, Council President, Council members.

Thank you to staff for their presentation.

Uh, last week, my office released a review of the five-year capital uh infrastructure planning outlook as we do each year to present our officers' review of that.

You'll have Julian and Alina who will lead you through our analysis, and then we will follow that up with some additional comments from Kim Desman from our division of race and equity about using an equity lens to look at the outlook as well.

Uh so Jillian, I'll turn it over to you.

Great, thank you so much.

Thank you, Council President and Council.

I'm Jillian Andalina with the office of the IBA.

Our office released our review of the CIP outlook last week, so I'll walk you through the major points of it during this presentation.

As shown on this slide, capital needs in the gap are expected to grow significantly throughout the five-year period, while funding is expected to decline slightly.

The net increase in capital needs is also entirely almost entirely driven by stormwater, which accounts for water quality regulatory deadlines coming due in fiscal year 2031 and compounding drainage assets aging past their useful life.

The slight decline in revenue is primarily driven by declining availability of WIFIA funding for stormwater in fiscal year 2029 and a decline in water and wastewater revenues due to a three-year delay for certain CIP projects to mitigate the need for rate increases in the near term and in response to the approval of a two-year water rate increase last year.

This slide shows the projected funding gap for each asset type as shown and consistent with previous years.

The $7.8 billion funding gap is 100% attributed to general fund assets that do not have a dedicated funding source supported by rate paying customers.

This year's funding gap is an increase of $1.3 billion from last year, and again is overwhelmingly driven by stormwater, which itself saw $1.3 billion increase in funding gap and makes up 65% of the $7.8 billion funding gap.

The slide shows the makeup of the projected resources in the CIP outlook.

Projected revenue is revenue is projected to decline by 7% compared to last year's report, totaling $5 billion.

The increase, I'm sorry, the decrease is largely driven by changing wastewater and water needs, but is also related to no assumed revenue from the infrastructure fund, since requirements for deposits into the fund are not anticipated to be met over the outlook period.

Since funding availability and eligibility are key factors in determining which projects receive funding in the CIP budget, it's important to recognize that 66% of the projected funds are for wastewater and water infrastructure.

General fund financing, shaded above in gray, is the city's only funding source with minimal restrictions and is an important funding source for many general fund capital projects, such as stormwater, street lights, and upgraded fire stations.

Since they're often ineligible for other resources shown on the pie chart, that can be restricted based on the type of asset or the geographic location.

In our report, we took a closer look at two key resources for general fund capital projects, and that's general fund financing and development impact fees.

Starting with financing, the issuance of leased revenue bonds is the most significant source of flexible funding for general fund capital projects.

Out of the $531 million anticipated over the five-year period, almost half of it is for stormwater, and within that, $150 million reserved for anticipated emergencies.

Another large portion of general fund financing is expected to go to support street repaving.

Citywide DIF funds are increasingly becoming more accessible to general fund capital projects as we continue to transition from community-based DIF.

Community-based DIF logs down funding that can be only spent in certain communities, whereas citywide DIF can generally be spent citywide.

The city recently created four citywide funds the fire, library, mobility, and parks diffs.

While these are more flexible than community-based STIF, they still have restrictions on the types of projects they can support.

As the transition continues, it's expected that citywide diff revenue will continue to increase while community diff decreases.

Moving to projected capital needs, this slide shows the makeup of projected capital needs over the five-year period, totaling $12.8 billion, which is $950 million or 8% above last year's report.

As with the increase in funding gap, stormwater capital needs make up the overwhelming majority of the total increase in capital needs.

As shown on the pie chart, it now makes up 43% of all capital needs and has the highest total needs of any asset, including water and wastewater combined.

To understand what drives this billion dollars, billions of dollars of needs, our report focuses on stormwater, street pavement, and all three facility categories, which is new, expanded, and existing facilities, all of which make up nearly 80% of all general fund capital needs.

First, we will cover stormwater.

Stormwater is projected to have a $5.5 billion capital need over the five-year period, which is an increase of $1.4 billion over last year's report.

Flood resilience or flood mitigation is a major driver, making up nearly $1 billion of this increase.

As mentioned earlier, this is due to more and more drainage assets passing their useful life as well as cost increases.

As shown on the table, $30 million per year, or a total of $150 million, is included for anticipated emergency projects, which is a very inefficient and costly way to replace infrastructure.

Funding for stormwater is expected to drop after fiscal year 2028 due to the planned use of most of the remaining Wi Fi alone funds.

The remaining funds in the future years is expected to mostly go to either emergency projects or in-house repair crews.

For green infrastructure or water quality projects, it's largely driven by water quality regulatory deadlines.

Moving to street paving, total capital needs are 970 million, which is an increase of 132 million.

This is an increase despite an assumption that the city will maintain streets at a pavement condition index of 65 instead of the former 70, which was considered good.

This aligns with the pavement management plan update, indicating that maintaining streets at a PCI of 65 is more financially feasible than 70 in the context of the current budget deficit.

Although the PCI target has decreased, costs are still higher than last year's report because there's an increase in streets due to for treatment and repair within the outlook period.

Funding for streets is projected to decrease by 45% as compared to last year's report due to no infrastructure fund contributions, as well as this year's assumption that significantly less funding will support repaving.

Finally, in our report, we highlight all three categories of facilities existing, new, and expanded.

Together, needs total $890 million, which is $75 million above last year's report.

The vast majority of these needs are for new facilities, but I'll touch on existing facilities first.

There's $183 million in capital needs for existing facilities in the five year period, but an additional $661 million listed outside the five-year period is reported, which is related to prior facility condition assessments.

We note that this figure in the out years is likely understated given that the assessments were conducted between 2014 and 2016 and do not include all facilities.

But getting back to the five-year window, the $183 million showing in the outlook is an increase of $14%.

And this is driven by $44 million needed for fire rescue facilities to move away from natural gas, and $20 million for police range refurbishment phase two remediation.

And these increases are offset by about $40 million in existing facility projects not included in this year's report.

Some were left off inadvertently, while others were intentionally removed due to changes in priorities or developing alternate solutions.

There's also $78 million included for general life cycle needs that we encourage in the future outlooks that this get a little bit more fleshed out as to whether it's for specific projects, anticipated emergencies, or related to unaddressed condition assessment items.

Ultimately, we will need updated facility condition assessments to know the true needs for existing facilities and which ones are most pressing.

And turning to new and expanding facilities, demands for new facilities make up the vast majority of total needs in this category, and the largest project totals 250 million, but updated costs could be closer to $370 million, which is for a new training center to replace the one located at the Naval Training Center station that will be impacted by pure water in fiscal year 2029.

Moving on, our report also compares the CIP outlook against the city's the city council's infrastructure budget priorities, which for fiscal year 2027 were transportation and mobility, streets, including unimproved streets, stormwater, sidewalks, and facilities.

As you can see on the table, funding is anticipated for all of them except for unimproved streets.

Although there's anticipated funding for all the asset types that were priorities, there's still significant funding gap remaining.

In council's upcoming review of the proposed CIP budget, it could consider reallocating eligible funding to better align with infrastructure priorities.

But given that flexible funding is so limited, prioritizing infrastructure needs will come with difficult trade-offs and challenges.

In closing, I'll leave you with a few of our main takeaways.

The first is stormwater needs certainly dominate the CIP outlook.

It's the asset type with the largest capital needs accounting for almost all the growth in the funding gap and emergency projects are making up a growing share of the department's project portfolio.

Given the magnitude of stormwater needs, the strain in the city's limited resources and the risks that failed infrastructure presents for the city and the public, action should be taken to secure additional dedicated funding for stormwater.

And second, underinvestment and maintenance and rising cost compound capital infrastructure challenges.

Although this report talks about cities' capital needs, there's also significant funding, unfunded maintenance needs that, if left unaddressed, will lead to increased capital needs.

As new facilities come online, such as new fire stations forecasted in the CIP outlook, it's critical that maintenance plans be developed and funded.

And given limited resources on both the operating and capital sides of the budget, the city must increasingly focus on prioritizing and completing existing projects and maintenance of existing assets, which makes it difficult to support key policy goals such as providing more significant infrastructure investment in underserved communities or implementing the climate action plan.

Finally, we need new funding streams.

I'd like to note that if the city were to focus on supporting stormwater needs, this would have the largest impact on addressing the 7.8 billion dollar funding gap and could free up significant resources for other critical capital infrastructure priorities.

This concludes my presentation, and I'll now pass it to Kim Desmond from Remarks from the Division of Race and Equity.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council President Lukava and Council.

Kim Desmond here, the director for the division of race and equity.

As part of the review for the five-year capital infrastructure planning outlook process, we sound we found several equity implications.

It's important to making these comments in the context of operations.

That's the important contextual part too when applying the equity lens.

So you're gonna see some nuance or hear some nuanced information in that endeavor.

There were three significant considerations equity-wise that our team discovered.

One is the CIP data tracking process.

I will give some comments in that category.

Two is the CIP prioritization score.

If council recalls, we revise that policy 814 in 2022.

And it's important to look back to look at the outcomes of what we were trying to accomplish with that policy.

Third is five-year outlook alignment.

So those are the three categories that our team has some equity observations in.

So these are our historically disinvestment districts, which is why the policy was created to score those projects.

So in this context, out of the 504 total SIP projects that were requested for funding, only 90 were marked as being in structurally excluded communities.

So that sit let that number sit with you.

Only 90 were funded.

No, I'm sorry my my apologies.

Only 90 were requested to be in those communities, and only 45 were fully funded.

So only 45 was fully funded of the 504 requests.

That's the structurally excluded communities.

To offset that, in the non structurally excluded areas, there were 413 requests.

And of that, 151 projects were funded.

So I'm going to give you some percentages to offset those numbers.

Meaning that in structurally excluded communities, 23% of those total projects were funded.

So that's the number that I want you to sit with.

And structurally excluded communities of the 504 projects that were fully funded, 23% was in structurally excluded communities.

That in itself is an equity implication.

And then the other 77% was not instructurally excluded.

When we're doing our work operationally to apply equity lands the question is why?

Why is that so one thing we did our team shout out to my team for finding one of the whys.

One of the whys is making sure that our departments are actually reporting on when they make their request what is a structurally excluded community as it pertains to the request.

So we saw a number of requests that actually had like blank so we couldn't really ascertain that number could go up or down.

So one of the operational implications is make sure that you are coding your data correctly so we can make sure we can get an accurate percentage of the projects that are being funded in said communities.

The other why I would say we have talked about the emergency need for funding so that's a part of it as well and I know that the team is looking at ways to actually allocate more funds to address ongoing emergencies and so we're allocating 30 million dollars planfully then we still should be thinking about what is the target.

So in the policy we didn't set a target or percentage for what percentage of our SIP funds should go in structurally excluded communities.

So there is no clear target so it's hard to track around where should you go versus what you're allocating.

And so I want to make those comments purposely so that way you look at the fiscal allocation for emergencies you got to balance the fact that we don't have a clear goal or target for the percentage of projects that we should fund in structurally excluded communities that was not the policy goal.

The policy goal was to set the scoring that's why I gave you the numbers because you do still see a clear difference and so if you see a clear difference of 23% from an equity perspective it causes me to ask what should be the target although we are still budgeting for emergencies.

That's a question that we like to leave in this space for that conversation I'm hoping that you are tracking those numbers.

The other equity implications I mentioned cleaning up the data in terms of how our departments report when they are requesting a project and that they are identifying when it's in a structurally excluded community that impacts our data processes.

The third that we found is alignment with the five year outlook and the five year capital infrastructure planning outlook.

So effectively with aligning and have an axis if we were to fund a study for our levies for example you would see that funded for perhaps in our five year outlook but the work wouldn't happen until you look into your planning outlook in maybe year three or four.

So our team made the observation where you want to be planful at looking when things are funded and then be strategic around when you're planning the work that shows up in your planning outlook.

And so as we're looking at that we want to have a nexus between the two in the five year financial outlook.

And so we noted that there might need to be a clear nexus as you're reporting on that to kind of look at why you have more projects in one year the five year outlook like year five versus year one.

And so the nexus for the two we noticed a gap in the way that those two things are aligned and so our our recommendation was to look at the way in which those things communicate with each other within a five year sequence those items conclude my comments around applying an equity lens to the operations but more poignantly applying an equity lens to the percentage of projects that were funded thank you.

All right thank you for the presentations by ACP and the good work's contribution and of course the contribution of the office of the IBA Clerk please proceed with public comment.

Thank you Council President if I can have Blair Beekman come up to the microphone and Courtney Brown if you can come up to the yellow reserve seats at the front Blair you don't have you'll have two minutes.

Yes.

Thank you for this item.

Good reporting.

Good information.

Thank you.

This is the third or fourth time this item has been here in the past three, four or five months now.

Um thank you.

That I mean, we're really trying to work on it.

I'm trying to better understand it.

Uh thank you.

Really nice uh uh last public or last uh informational uh item talking about equity that is not only serving uh new uh equity goals, but in it in its goals can actually be serving best practices of the city, and how we uh can space out our projects better overall.

Um it was really nice to hear.

Um thank you.

Uh good luck in these efforts.

Um the work I do with tech accountability, um, some issues were tech were talked about.

Um I think having a good procurement process with tech, making it clear um what what our capabilities are and what we want to practice as a community uh about uh open public policies and uh sharing of information and ideas, making that clear in the procurement process for these upcoming projects.

It sets out important goals and standards of what people can expect from San Diego, and that we we do this well, people will want to come here.

A certain group of people will want to come here to better address you know practices of good reasoning and an open democracy and peace instead of war and uh it all of its misery.

And um I I think if we promote that uh it it shares something important, what our future is wanting to be about.

Um good luck how uh good communication between uh um uh I how we talk about good communication skills between us and openness.

Thank you.

Thank you, Courtney.

If you can please come forward.

Good afternoon, thank you.

Hi, my name is Courtney Brown.

I'm the staff attorney for San Diego Coast Keeper, and I'm here today to echo a message that you should be used to hearing from Coast Keeper, which is the urgent need for dedicated stormwater infrastructure funding.

Um, as we just heard from throughout the IBA's presentation and in the report, stormwater dominates the city's capital funding gap, and without belaboring points that you already know, the gap between funding needs and available and availability stretches exponentially every year.

And while this disparity is compounded by climate change and factors that are not within our control, what we can control is how we respond to it.

And um, you know, it's a direct result of funding cuts, lack of investment, and inefficient emergency spending.

Um, something I read in the report in the IBA's report is that um emergency stormwater spending has surged from $8.9 million in fiscal year 2021 to $93.6 million in fiscal year 2025.

That's nearly 200 million dollars in five years spent reactively at premium cost on in-kind repairs that often need to be redone.

Um the longer we defer action, the worse it gets.

I think you all know that.

So I really just want to emphasize three points, and that's one, we strongly support the IBA's recommendation to focus on new revenue streams for stormwater.

Two, we absolutely cannot cut any more from the stormwater budget.

Doing so would be a recipe for a catastrophic disaster.

And three, if anything, we really urge council to increase funding for public education surrounding this extremely pressing issue.

The public needs to understand how dire the situation is.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, the five minute timer going to those participating remotely.

We have four people in the queue.

John Stump, if you can please unmute.

You'll have two minutes.

Please proceed.

Uh hi.

Um, first of all, uh very good.

So we saw Ms.

Desman there.

Thank you, Ms.

Desmond.

Okay, there are a couple of things that are missing in the report or uh brought up questions.

We didn't talk about the use of the new Balball parking fund.

Um we didn't talk about the coordination with S D G E.

And really important is what should be driving this, and it relates to Ms.

Desmond, is claims.

Where has the infrastructure created liability and human claims?

And that's you know, I'm only thinking about flooding, but there's also accidents.

So that should be the next thing.

Uh can you continue to hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Okay.

The next thing is stormwater is not an imposition.

It is a result of development and urbanization costs.

You don't really need a stormwater program unless you've done development, where you've created a place where runoff is forced off the property.

The zoo is a prime example of that.

Uh, there's also a mistake in the description.

It's not the police firing range, it's the mid-city gun and pistol club.

So maybe correct that.

Finally, the listing of projects is kind of an engineer's approach.

The right approach would be Maslow's hierarchy of needs, where you're talking about housing and physical needs of people, um, food, air, water, and then you're talking about safety needs, and finally you get to these development needs.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Thank you.

Uh thank you.

Uh Joyce and uh uh CD3.

Uh thank you uh to both uh the first two presentations were excellent.

Um Director Desmond, uh I I want to tell you I love the contextual focus, and I love the nexus focus.

I'm thrilled to tell you I'm able to follow your reporting because it's it's very sophisticated in a way, it is, and and it's kind of a new language for me.

But thank you.

It it's it's doable, and I really appreciate that.

So just one thing on the reporting uh the basics.

Uh in the mitigation mitigating list, preventive maintenance is my favorite.

Preventive maintenance.

Now, I want you here's my own outlook involving only one area.

So take a deep breath right now.

I am not asking for any money which will increase the gap.

This is just a whisper, a whisper for planning, and it's this.

I hope I have time.

Infrastructure.

Cloud-based systems act as a modern digital infrastructure in a city functioning as the backbone for smart city initiatives, data storage, and public service management.

That's an end of a quote.

Can you imagine our bodies without a backbone starting in 2030?

IT will flip the switch for our new ERP SAP cloud-based system infrastructure.

It's equal to the importance of water sewage and transportation and so forth.

So I'm just putting a whisper in your ear that we need to start with the policy on AI.

We need to start planning for AI in your outlook.

And maybe we have to wait till the next one.

But I'm just put a little whisper.

Your time has conceded.

My apologies, the original, and then Hector.

Talk about a racket.

I mean, this just shows the gross willful negligence and gross malfeasance that is taking place in the city.

You guys have billions of dollars at your disposal to do the things that you're supposed to do, and you were neglect to do it.

As we can see that there's declining in the stormwater infrastructure, it's past its life, and this has been going on for a very long time.

This is like decades-long issue, just like the Tijuana River Valley, where you guys are taking money from here and putting it over there, and you're not doing what needs to be done, and yet you want more money from the people.

You're supposed to be good stewards of our money, and you're not.

And this just shows that when you've already had billions at your disposal, and look at the the state of the city, it's in disarray.

It is not looking good, even though you guys try and paint a picture as though that's the case, and you take our money and you don't do what you're supposed to, then you want to come after us and say we need more money for you to keep up with what we are supposed to be doing.

You guys are getting ahead of yourself.

You need to be finishing what you've started instead of you know having all these emergencies that come into place because you are neglecting what you're supposed to be doing.

I mean, how much money more money do you guys need and and promises are you gonna make when I mean I'm terrified to think about these billions of dollars that's gonna be at your guys' disposal when you see the world around us is is crumbling, and there are people suffering because of the choices that you guys have made.

So before you start any new projects, you need to complete the projects that you already started and not take money from here and over there and contract with people that are also wasting our money like dreams for change and downtown partnership and doing things like having people die on their watch and being raped and trying to hide it.

So you guys need to course correct because this just shows how negligent you truly your time has concluded, Hector.

If you can please unmute your final speaker, the five minute timer has concluded.

Please proceed.

Thanks for taking my call.

This is like capital infrastructure planning outlook.

In the famous words of Mike Tyson, everyone has a plan until you hit in the face.

The dam is condemned by the state.

They said it's gonna break any moment.

So anybody down uh stream from the dam in Del Mar, I hope they cancel their homeowners' insurance or up it.

I hope State Farm, that's my carrier, doesn't have any policies downstream from the dam and take them out.

The recent fires that democratic leadership has brought us here.

The fires in LA, democratic leadership, no water in the reservoir.

The things didn't even work, and then we had to state farm had to have all those claims, and it's a total nightmare.

So hopefully state farm will wake up and insurance companies will not insure houses downstream from that dam when it breaks, it's gonna be a total disaster to the city.

You're gonna get sued, you won't have any money left.

Because now you know it's condemned basically from the state.

So what can you do?

You know, I don't know what you can do, but it's a total liability now.

You've been warned.

So if you proceed without fixing it, it's it's it's everyone's you know, the money's there.

But anyway, I say divert the uh Tijuana sewer line back into Tijuana just after about 45, maybe yeah, thousand yards past the border, just divert it back into Mexico and let those guys figure it out.

Put up an earthen dam, divert the Tijuana sewage line back into them, and then rework the uh actual space in Imperial Beach and get rid of all the toxic sand that's in there.

You can use that sand to build the dam in Del Mar.

That'll save some money.

Anyway, good luck, man.

Here we go again.

That includes your time.

If you have your hand raised, we had already noted that the five-minute timer had concluded, and other speakers will be taken.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

That goes for the comment.

Thank you, City Clerk.

Again, this is an information item.

No motion is required.

I'll turn over to my colleagues for any questions and comments.

And we'll start with the chair of the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Council Member Whitburn.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Uh, thank you to uh the staff team to the IBA to Ms.

Desmond.

Uh Ms.

Desmond, I uh wanted to follow up on uh a point that you were emphasizing, which was that 23% of the funded projects uh are in structurally excluded communities.

And uh you wanted to make sure that we understood that and recognized the significance of that.

But I want to make sure I do understand uh exactly what that means.

Um so first of all, I guess my first question is you know what how are you defining a structurally excluded community?

Uh it's not a term that I personally have used a lot.

Um my understanding is it could include women, could be considered a structurally excluded community, but it I think what you're referring to is something that has more of a geographically identifiable component to it, or you could you could tell me otherwise, and then uh so that we could put the 23% in context, uh what percentage of the city is in a structure or what what percent of the city is located in structurally excluded communities?

Great question.

I'll answer that in two ways.

One, when I came to San Diego, there were several definitions for the way that we talk about a geographic area that has different factors.

And so one way is we call them climate equity index zones, and it overlays is in terms of promise zones.

Essentially, it's the same areas with different terms.

And so when we revised a policy, we named it structurally excluded to stop blaming the people who live in the neighborhood for the issues, their deficits in their neighborhood.

The second part of your question is this.

So to your question around where they located that, it's in the promise zone, climate equity zone areas.

So if you don't use structurally excluded, that's okay, they're to promise zone areas.

That's very helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

We'll go next to Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Thanks for the presentation here.

Um thank you to the IBA for your work.

Kim, thank you as always for uh what you provide us as well.

Um this is always a very important conversation.

Um the numbers, you know, they were they were startling our first year on council, and they only get more startling each year.

And those numbers, you know, represent like real tangible impacts in communities uh sidewalks that grandmothers in my district, you know, struggle to navigate um homes that are at risk from from flooding during not even catastrophic rain events, but basic rain events and you know our beaches and bays being too dirty to swim in, go on and on, and the impacts are real.

Um and I I have real concerns that that the gaps aren't distributed equally, and I appreciate Kim pointing out what she did.

The climate equity fund exists because we've acknowledged that we have these inequities in the city.

So I'm curious if you can point show us how the projects and the outlook are sequenced to address the communities with the largest deficits first, and if there are any accountability mechanisms in place to ensure that actually happens rather than simply defaulting to what's easiest or what feels politically um acceptable in the moment.

Great nuanced question, and I'll call on Ranya and Karen to help answer.

Being that race inequity was written into the resolution for the climate equity fund.

I can say the allocation of that, I mean, it was not a one-to-one in terms of the way that we do projects.

So I know that just from being a part of the process to identify projects.

So I do appreciate the nuance around that fund being used in those particular areas.

So perhaps a follow-up, but Ranya, I don't know if you have any thoughts.

Yeah, uh I mean Karen, you can uh first uh walk them through the data points that consider in compiling the report, and then I can put so much light on the 800-14 and how it's implemented.

I I do think that what one thing that I want to want to point out before I dive into all the details is this is designed to be a high-level programmatic, really forward-looking report.

Council member, I think I think the one true mechanism that we have to make sure that people stay on point, that dollars are allocated, that we're going to the highest neighborhoods first, is the budget development process, the actual budget development and adoption process.

As part of this effort, we collect the information for our structurally excluded communities.

We looked first at really funding those things that were already in the pipeline.

We wanted to finish those things if there were projects that were in construction that had new needs pop up, finishing those, uh fully funding construction for projects that were in design.

All of those things happen.

Um they're kind of they're not competing, but they are definitely overlapping and corresponding interest in that we are looking both at the stage of the project, the available funding sources where we might have community-only or park funds that are you know specific to communities of concern or not.

Um that we are allocating those restricted funding sources, really getting the most that we can out of those restricted funding sources.

We do uh take into account the 800-14 scores as well as the location of the project and the the where it is in the project delivery pipeline.

I hope that helps.

Yeah, just to shed more light on this one.

Again, this is a five years outlook.

We're looking into the future.

I think the main drivers of the data collected is the asset management um informations, understanding what is failing and what needs attentions globally across the entire uh city.

And then after that, as we take a closer look to the FY27 budget, this is where we trying to ensure that there is uh a priority scores assigned to each project where uh in 800-14 when we work collectively with council on adopting this new policy, we ensure that to your point, council member, that uh an equable outcome is coming from sustainability standpoint, from a safety standpoint, all those different factors are being accounted for as we score every project, and then uh we try to recommend project with a higher score to be funded first.

Okay.

Um we've limited time, but I I do think it's when we talked about this in other contexts as well, um, where we're being aspirational versus where we're actually setting standards in this city, and this feels like an important area to set standards.

And I appreciate that we don't want to call it competing, but it is competing when so long as we continue to allow ourselves to live in a place of scarcity rather than the abundance that we should be able to exist within here in San Diego.

But in a in a world where we're living with scarcity of resources, it ends up becoming a competing or um we can use all sorts of different words to describe it, but we're not doing it all.

Um, and so I understand that there's a system in place for making decisions, but I will also say that the budget development process, I'll be honest saying that that's the time for us to fix and reprioritize that I I don't think that's that puts us in a really tough spot.

By the time we're at at that point in the process, um I don't think it's realistic for us to reorder the entire list that's been provided to us.

And I know that we would be given enormous, enormous pushback if we if we try to do that.

If what we were presented with in the proposed budget, the council said this is not hit the mark when it comes to equity, we were to reorder it entirely, it would blow up the budget process.

And so it needs to be better baked by the time it gets to us from an equity standpoint.

Um that being said, we've got real funding gaps.

I do want to talk about how we spend, and we've talked about this before.

There's mentioned that bundling bike lane installations with street repaving and utility work has helped in terms of being more cost effective.

Um my understanding is that when we use standardized designs and bundle repetitive work, we stop treating every single curb ramp installation like a unique engineering challenge.

We can actually bring down costs, accelerate delivery.

Uh it doesn't seem like we're doing that across the system, though.

Um, you know, the the thousands of street lights that we need to install.

Um that feels like an area where we could be standardizing and pre-engineering solutions.

So can you talk to us about the extent to which we are doing more of standardizing design batching procurement and in order to reduce the soft costs?

Yeah, I mean, uh one of the policy I can think of that we were trying to implement it as we initiate project is complete street, and then exactly to your point, council member, we were trying to identify all the different assets within this uh corridor that we need to be addressed.

Uh the challenge is um the the different state that each asset within this corridor is in, and then the available funding.

So if we want to go and treat uh the lighting, the sidewalk, the curb ramps, the the paving, right?

That that present additional cost um where the priority could be mainly in this in the street light.

So we're trying to balance the available funding with all the conditions of the existing assets within that corridor, and we're trying to bundle as much as we could that making sense to advance it all together as one project.

And some of that work is uh identified to be um done by city forces while um other uh in the other areas require further design and been executed through um an outside contractor.

So we're we're trying to uh at the beginning with initiation of the project, which we uh trying to implement all of those policies that facilitate uh the opportunity to be more efficient in delivering um major assets.

I just what I don't for me, it's not just the major assets, it's it's like in fact, it might even be more important on like the medium and and and smaller scale ones to make sure that we're being more efficient there.

I just wanted to make that point.

Um so and I'll just ask for the extra three minutes now, if I may, Council President.

Yeah the structural issue in front of us in terms of the budget.

We've talked about this for years.

We were handed a multi-billion dollar deficit for infrastructure.

That's a reality.

Um and it is directly related to the insufficient amount of revenue that this city brings in.

We are not resourced well enough for a city of 1.4 million people that is sitting on rotting infrastructure that was allowed to erode over generations.

Um I I do have uh what is what is the administration's or staff's plan to start addressing that part of the equation, the the revenue side because the councils come up with ideas um via ballot measures.

I'm curious if the administration's considering anything.

We are you want to take this one.

Councilmember, I think we've always tried to explore additional revenue options to make sure that we are at structural balance so we can continue the long-term investment and planning to be able to deliver on these significant CIP backlog.

I don't think any option is off the table, and we will continue to work um towards whatever options we have to be able to make sure that we are at structural balance and that the city is well resources uh well resourced to meet our growing backlog.

Okay, I think that'll we'll have to continue that conversation.

Um we've talked a couple times I brought this up, and we haven't really drilled down too much.

Um I'm not an expert in this, and I will acknowledge that, but that's why we have the smart folks on that side of the dais.

Um environmental impact bonds, as I understand it have been used in um on the east coast, the Chesapeake Bay in particular, um, to successfully improve green stormwater infrastructure.

I I believe other cities have followed their path.

Um private investors fund infrastructure up front, the city repays based on measurable outcomes, actual flood reduction, actual water quality improvement, the risk transfer uh is is real.

Um it provides access to private capital.

We have a we have five billion dollars in stormwater needs, depleting federal loan and uh active political effort to further blow holes in our budget.

Um has there been any exploration of environmental impact bonds for stormwater infrastructure or other sort of creative financing mechanisms.

Uh all I can say that um the director of stormwater, Todd Snyder has been exploring all possible options to really address this major deficit and the infrastructure.

So I'm not sure if here if it's here in the audience.

Oh, yeah, uh thanks, council member.

Um, I can tell you I'm very familiar with those programs from my general experience in the stormwater field.

I think um the fundamental need to make that type of um environmental bond program work is you need the the revenue and the assurance to be able to pay the private sector back to deliver those outcomes, and that's where we struggle is we're relying on general fund primarily.

So without a debit uh dedicated revenue source, without a fee, bringing in consistent revenue, it's really hard to get a program like that off the ground.

Um because you need to have a payback mechanism.

And if the payback mechanism is general fund competing with police, fire libraries, parks, you know, you've got to you've got to basically earmark the funding for stormwater.

Yeah.

But the the types of projects that we need to fund, the scale of the projects we need to fund all work.

Yes, absolutely.

Green infrastructure, flood resilience, that type of work is being delivered in the Chesapeake Bay example that you brought up.

So with dedicated revenue, was is that a a mech financing mechanism that you think would be appropriate and you would want to explore?

I do.

I think it I think it's it helps to get to the type of scale that we're talking about in terms of our need.

It allows you to bundle projects, particularly on the water quality side.

It opens up the potential to do water quality improvements on private parcels and in addition to just public parcels that we have land ownership of.

So I think there's a lot of advantages to it.

It's just a real long-term financial commitment that's tough to make when you're relying on the general fund that's that's short compared to the total needs of the city.

Thanks, Todd.

Yeah.

Um, I mean, thank you for that.

Appreciate the the work that you've done.

And I we've been talking about it since we got here.

We need dedicated stormwater revenue.

We appreciate that Coast Keeper continues to remind us of that.

Um we are behind the way we're behind because of the structural budget deficit that we've experienced for decades now, the and the under-resourcing of the city.

In this moment, when we're staring at the the deficit that we just looked at, the gap that we have.

We have the Lincoln Club, the former mayor who left us billions of dollars in broken infrastructure, and MAGA aligned outside groups pursuing a ballot measure that would defund a hundred million dollars in core city services, a hundred million dollars annually in core city services, which means that all of this would get worse.

We have people who are still dealing with floods that happened a couple years ago.

There are parts of this city that have no sidewalks, unpaved streets, unpaved alleys, and we are allowing hopefully we're not going to allow this group of radicals who broke the city to try to light it on fire through the the political actions that they're they're considering right now.

Um that will not make the city leaner, it will make things much worse.

Um and so I just I I felt the necessity to say that, Council President, because to be staring at what we're staring at already and know that there are folks who are again actively attempting to defund a core city service is extremely alarming to me because the impacts we felt by less stormwater work being done, fewer sidewalks being repaired, fewer potholes being filled, and um that is not the effort of anyone who's serious about San Diego becoming a better place to live, or quite frankly, who cares at all about the people of San Diego.

So thank you again for all of the work that you have done.

Um we have a lot more work to do.

I do hope that we can build on what Kim presented to us uh and see more of a standardization in terms of how we approach the inequities in terms of infrastructure investment in this city.

Um but I do appreciate the efforts and thank you for the extra time, Council President.

I gave you two of my two of my minutes.

So uh Councilmember Foster.

Uh yes, thank you.

Um, Council President, and um thank you, staff um for the presentation.

Um thank you to to my colleagues.

Um I think council member um Ilo Rivera touched on a lot.

Um and I think um also appreciate the question of uh council member Whitburn in regards to what is a structurally excluded community or or the terms that we use.

Um for me, I'll go back in time with um I want to say um my education and training.

Um I have always used the term historically underserved communities, and I think that is a term um that is used in um quite honestly in my time stems from the um federal terminology as we um deal with um disparities in things of of the sort.

Um we also used um at some point a term of communities of concern, which I never really cared for, to be quite honest.

Um I do appreciate the work at the time of our sustainability director, um Cody Hoven, um, that came up with the climate equity um index, um, which I think um developed from a state document um that really made it specific to the city of San Diego and made sure that we were including um all of the appropriate um underserved um communities based on our um data versus um leaving it to the federal um legislators in the and the state level because I am the first to tell you that the way they drew the opportunity zone just baffles me on how you draw a line in the middle of the street, and I can take you to the section that was left out, which is the Black Arts and Culture District, um, that has not seen any true um redevelopment or or any attention since I was uh since I was a baby, to be quite honest.

Um also I'm a little troubled in regards to the reference of the five-year outlook.

Um I do agree that if we were to come to council and try to unwind the proposed CIP, I think that would be a disservice to our process and would create several challenges.

Um I think it is not the appropriate uh method that I would recommend and and um quite honestly look forward to sitting on the dias and going through that level of information.

Um I think if I recall the five-year outlook, and I'm going to refer to it as a planning document.

It is to give us the path and the vision to move the CIP forward.

And as you hear from our Department of Race and Equity, that 23% of the projects are in historically underserved communities, and 77% are in what I will just say are high to highest resource areas, is troubling to me if I am interpreting the quick points that were made here today.

Um and so I think we have more work to do.

Um I also think that I would agree with Kim that we need to look at how we're presenting this information so that we can effectively and efficiently receive the information, analyze the information, and not only for council and our staffs, um, but also the public because I will say, and I am used to the what I will call the bureaucratic dump, and where you just unload information and you just kind of look at everyone and say, catch me if you can, and I think we need to get out of that.

Um I will say um if I can have just a few more minutes, um, as I look at the council policies, and and I just want to be clear because I have since I have been on the diet, have have taken issue with our processes and how we do things.

Um I do just want to make a comment so that everyone knows that I have reached out to the city auditor, and I have asked the city auditor to add to his audit potential audit um list for FY27 as needed contracts based on our recent conversations that we have had.

I have also asked the auditor to add job order contracts, which are essentially similar methodology, um, and most importantly, emergency contracts, um, because um clearly we are changing our method and process and actually including a defined allocation within our budget process for emergency projects, um, and and and and I will continue to say this, those are done on a time and material basis, which means we are paying a premium, and we essentially, due to the emergency, waive just about every program or certain standards that we have as part of our municipal code.

Um, and and that's very troubling for me.

Um I'm also hearing that it seems that the the emergency contracts are going above what the initial emergency is, and that they're actually coming out with phase funding, which is very problematic for me, which is why I made the request.

Um I want to make sure everyone knows that.

As I was sitting here listening to the presentation of the questions, I also sent to the city auditor a request to add council policy um 800-14.

As now I think we have if based on the information that was provided.

I think we have three years worth of implementation and data, so that we should have a clear data set so that we can see just how effective that policy is.

And at the time, if you go back, that policy was developed to what I will say streamline our process to allow the engineering and capital projects and our public works team to present their CIP and to get approval for projects, so you don't have to bring every single project to city council.

And so I'm not sure if that actually served us in the best interest as we look at the city as a whole.

And so I think that's something that we also need to look at.

Um and I think what I'm seeing is that as we are talking about equity, um, I I think as we use the term nexus, as we are connecting the dots, I don't think there's one policy that will give us the proper path.

Um I think we have to use all our tools, use them together to get the outcomes that are needed.

Um and um I just want to make sure when I talk about outcome, it's about um leveling that playing field, right?

There's a reason why you hear the um dissatisfaction when folks come from district four when you look at what happened with the floods, where you look at how we have all the unimproved streets between four, eight, and nine and alleys.

This is not a this is not something that is made up, it's a reality.

And so um, I think it's time that we continue the work.

Um, Kim, I would ask, and and and maybe I'll ask the the IBA this.

Um I do appreciate your comments.

I think it would be good if the council can receive those comments in a formalized on fashion in a memorandum, um, because I think this is the start of a longer and broader conversation to continue to right the wrongs.

Um, and and again, what's really troubling is um is as oftentimes you hear at the city of San Diego, this is just the way we do things, right?

And as you look at the budget deficit, as you look at the issues that we have, and as my good friend said, Kevin Faulkner is now standing at a podium in Balboa Park where he played a major part in this deficit problem that we have, and to do what he is doing now, I think is the is such a great disservice and quite honestly a dishonor for someone who has sat in the mayoral office, and to do what he's doing to look folks in the eye, I think is just totally unacceptable and speaks to his character.

And so as long as I'm on this dais, I think we are going to continue to have these conversations and continue to push forward.

And I'm going to lean on you, Karen.

I'm going to lean on you, Ranya.

I'm going to lean on you, E.

Leaf, to get this right.

Because we can no longer do this.

Our communities can no longer suffer.

We have folks that have lost everything.

Everything.

And it is a long road.

And I don't know if they will ever get back to where they were.

And so thank you, Council President.

I'll conclude my comments there.

We have a lot of work to do.

Um, and again, Kim, thank you for your comments and your work.

Um, and I think it shows why it was so important to move the Department of Race and Equity to the IBA's office.

So thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Foster.

We'll go next to Councilmember Von Wolford.

Uh thank you, and thank you for the presentation.

We heard this at committee already, so I I won't reiterate most of my comments.

It's an important planning document, I agree, and I'm glad we are doing this.

Um I do want to again ask about our our ability to protect the city from fire.

And at the at the committee hearing, we talked about the need for another city gate type study.

It doesn't have to be City Gate itself, but so do we have that in the process when we're going to do another study about how we're going to prepare for fire with our growing housing needs?

Chief Moranis uh the audience perhaps he could speak to that if he's available.

Hi, Councilmember.

Um currently I'm not aware of any plan in place to move towards another city gate study, but I can tell you the department's open to it.

That's a discussion that we can have with Chief Logan.

Okay, what about the mayor's office?

Yes, more than happy to follow up on that.

Okay.

The last one was when, over a decade ago.

2017, I believe.

That was when it was published.

Okay.

That would be helpful.

I mean, with the more housing we approve, which we need, we need to make sure we can actually protect people from fire and respond to EMS calls and all of that.

And what about um the fire training facility?

Committee, we'd heard there was the land is there, we got the HOAVO, but what are we going to do about building the facility?

So, as mentioned at committee, the the price tag is a big concern.

Um we do have the the property off of Copley Drive.

Um, and we've been looking at a phased approach to make it more economically feasible.

Um but as of right now, I don't I'm not sure exactly when that will go into play.

We're also looking for other uh ways of funding um this facility, such as P3 or public-private partnership, and then what it can be uh a regional facilities that have been used by other um uh municipalities, and and then we can prioritize, of course, our uh fire rescue department when it comes to the usage of that facility.

So we're exploring the option as well, uh giving the high price tag of of constructing such a facility.

We we're still have time.

Uh we're working closely with public utilities departments about their scheduling for phase two, and then we're coordinated this closely, so make sure we do not run out of time.

We understand the critical operations of this facilities right now, as it's as it said, so we're ensuring that we have enough time to do the transition when the time comes.

Okay.

And do we do we have an estimate yet about the hangers for the um wildfire helicopters or three helicopters?

Uh I believe we're close to um environmental clearance.

Um, but the the plan that was in place, and this is internal meetings that I had with staff uh several months ago.

I think the the initial plan was um a little ambitious.

So I will say our number one priority is to get those helicopters out of the elements.

So however we can either scale back that project and again phase it so that future needs can be put into place later down the road.

Um we're willing to look at it differently.

And I know there was a smaller hangar and a large hangar.

If we can accomplish what we need, meet our operational uh goals and uh maintain our service to the community.

We are open to go into one hangar as long as we can accomplish that and uh save some money.

Okay, I mean, maybe the fire rescue foundation could help us source private dollars to fundraise for a project like that.

Yeah, so that's a conversation that we can have with um the foundation.

Okay.

But if I could add the uh the facility and all the environmental permitting requirements that is needed to be able to utilize that area, it will be completed.

So making it ready for any type of funding or to use is possible.

Okay.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Those copies are very expensive and very important and very useful, so I'd like to put a roof over their heads.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh thank you, Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Um I guess I'll wrap up and uh at the risk of now that I've given away all my time.

Um I want to thank you all uh for being in the hot seats uh for things that you inherited.

Um and despite your very good work, uh, it seems a challenge to actually make progress here.

Um the path ahead doesn't look very clear given the scale that you describe.

And um one thing I didn't hear that I want to highlight is I think there has been more transparency in how we talk about our infrastructure deficit than I've seen since I've been following it for the past 15-20 years.

Where, as my colleagues kind of alluded to back in the day, everybody hid behind sewer and water spending.

Look how much infrastructure dollars we're spending.

Almost all of that was sewer and water dollars.

Uh very little was going to any of the other infrastructure needs.

And as we know, when we don't invest, things age out.

Um, and I appreciate the data-driven approach.

Um, but it's so hard because it's not a static world, it's a dynamic world.

Things keep changing on you.

Uh, you don't know when a facility is going to age out.

Um, you don't know what new state mandates are going to come and hit us.

You don't know what lawsuit there's going to be that forces in the settlement discussions going forward.

And yet we strive to try to be data driven going there.

And it occurs to me that again, watching it over the many years, I think we get distracted by the next good idea.

I think I remember talking about let's have one design for fire stations.

Let's have one design for libraries.

We'll just keep repeating it.

It doesn't work out quite that way going forward.

So I'm curious, and I'll follow up with Kim on some of the data they came up that you came up with in terms of what get funded.

That's something when we updated 800-14 and even the early days of 814 over the years have proven particularly important.

But I think there is a larger conversation to be had here.

But thank you.

Thank you for bringing this forward.

I know everybody's working to do better, and we'll figure out that path.

All right.

Oh, Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you very much, Council President.

I've been on and off the lights trying to decide if I should bring something to the public's attention that has maybe slipped their viewpoint.

I've been here seven years now.

When I first came, I noticed that we had a big gap in our stormwater budget of $2 billion.

I see now it's up to probably $5 billion, maybe more.

I think the reason for this has been actually alluded to, especially by my colleagues, Councilmember Ila Rivera and Councilmember Foster, and that is I would say for probably the last 150 years, uh things have been ignored that should have been taken care of.

And I think they alluded to that, but I want to just say it out simple and plain.

The cost to the consumer for our stormwater is 98 cents a month.

98 cents a month.

Now when I first came here, I looked up other cities in California.

I remember Sacramento at that time was $13 a month for stormwater.

We're still 98 cents.

I don't know what Sacramento's up to.

I haven't looked it up lately.

But this is the problem.

The problem is that we have had people elected to office who are afraid, who have been afraid.

I'm not talking about my current colleagues.

I'm talking about the past.

To say to people plainly, you have got to pay for what you get.

Nothing is free.

Let's be honest.

You get services, they cost money.

How do you expect the city to pay for it?

We don't have a printing press, we cannot print our own money.

And so what we have to do is collect it.

So if I I wonder, I was really happy when you mentioned priorities.

I'm so glad you guys have listed in priority.

What actually really do we really have to do?

The biggest part of the gap is the stormwater.

Is that the highest priority at this time, or do we have other projects higher priority?

Stormwater and transportation assets continue to be the two highest priorities.

Okay, well, this is a horrible time to ask people to pay more.

But 98 cents ain't gonna do it, folks.

So I just want the public to be aware that they have been getting away with 98 cents for I don't God knows how many decades.

It's ridiculous.

Prices have gone up.

So just think about it.

Nobody's suggesting we do anything about that fee right at this moment, but I'm telling you, we have to do something about it.

And that one thing we can do is to increase it so that it tries to start to cover the gap.

The gap is huge, five billion.

The other thing we could do, and I'd love if the finance people would come up and explain about bonds and what we could do if we issued certain bonds to raise money, or maybe I'm not even using the right and the right words to explain what we could do.

Uh but there's certain things that governments can do to issue investment vehicles so that tax-free bonds or whatever could be issued to raise money to help fill that gap, but still five billion dollars, that's outrageous.

So if you could help us out with that.

Good afternoon, council members.

Joti Panthou, assistant director of the Department of Finance.

Like uh Mr.

Snyder indicated, primarily the issue is the dedicated revenue source.

The current methodology be issued to uh be used to issue bonds at the city, which are at least revenue bonds, rely on the existing revenues of the general fund, which has been brought to your attention, we're reaching our debt capacity limit pretty soon.

So for uh typically a lot of other cities could use general obligation bonds, but that comes with an additional tax levy.

So that's the kind of bonds that would come with its own revenue source.

Um otherwise we would need some other revenue source that we can pledge to issue bonds.

So when you say revenue source in order to issue the bonds, are we talking about a fee for stormwater that is actually somewhat realistic?

Whereas the 98 cents is like from 1850, uh, the year 1850.

If we had one that was more year than near the year 1950, we'd be better off.

But is that what you're saying as a revenue source?

In other words, if those who want to purchase these bonds, invest in these bonds, would look at the city and say, look, they're charging $20 a month for the stormwater problem, trying to fill the gap.

We can afford to take a chance on these bonds.

That's right.

We would need to uh identify a dedicated revenue source to repay the bonds.

Right.

Okay, so public, listen up.

I'm being transparent, I'm being honest.

I'm known to be down to earth, completely, maybe sometimes not so tactful, but I'm telling you, my dear public, 98 cents a month ain't gonna do it.

So get ready, because sometime in the future, hopefully sooner than later, when things are a bit bitter, we're gonna have to face this reality that we must raise our fees on stormwater.

And so I'm very sorry, and I'm sure all the politicians are turning bright red and wishing I had never brought this up, but I am bringing it up, and I'm gonna bring up some other stuff.

This city needs more revenue.

How do cities get revenue in the rest of the United States?

Several different ways.

One is the county keeps our property tax.

San Diego County gets a buck from each one of us, more than a buck, on properties, and what do they do with it?

We get 12 cents back.

This is not right.

According to state law, it's supposed to be based on services provided to the population involved.

We have I'm kind of interpreting that, but I think that's what it means.

I'm no lawyer, I'm only a doctor.

But what I see is that our city has one-third the population of this county at least, maybe a bit more than that.

So we should probably get at least one-third of our dollar back to help our city revenue.

We get 12 cents.

So when taxpayers call and say, I pay my taxes, I want this, I want that.

Guess what?

You only pay 12 cents on the dollar to the city.

So that's number one.

We need more.

How do we get it?

The state legislature has to change the rules.

The state legislature has to tell the county, and maybe other counties as well at the same time.

You've got to give more money back to the cities from the property tax you collect from the cities.

So there's one thing.

Here's another thing.

Most cities collect an income tax.

Income tax is considered very fair because it's usually graduated.

The poorer you are, the less you pay.

The richer you are, the more you pay.

The state tax is a good example, the state income tax.

I'm not going to say the federal because I think it stinks right now.

Rich people pay less, poor people, middle class pay more.

So that's not right.

That's now how it's supposed to be.

All right, so let's base it on the state income tax, which is more fair.

If we had a graduated income tax of even a half a percent in the city, that would help us tremendously.

Another thing, another thought.

Our 1% sales tax that was on the ballot two years ago didn't pass.

I don't think we would pass this year either because everybody's having a hard time even buying groceries.

But sales tax is a is like a flat tax.

Everybody pays the same on whatever they buy certain percent.

If we raised it one percent, we would have had four million dollars more income, we think.

In which case the city would be in better shape.

Still not enough.

Certainly not even a crack in the five billion dollar stormwater deficit.

So anyway, citizens, I just wanted to be open, honest.

I think I have 10 more months to serve, and I'm termed out, and I just want you to know reality and honesty from your city government.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

I think we've heard a lot of cantor this afternoon.

And I appreciate the patience of Chief Amen, the engineering capital projects, Mr.

Snyder from Stormwater, uh, the IBA, Department of Finance, for your contribution to a very robust conversation on some of the challenges we've inherited that we face going forward.

So we'll close that item again.

Thank you.

And with that, clerk, please introduce item 331.

Thank you, Council President.

Item 331 is also an informational item is City Council informational training on zero based budgeting.

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

And if you are participating remotely, now's the time to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Yeah.

All right, Mr.

Matica's gonna kick it off, and then we'll ask those making the presentation to introduce themselves and let us know about how much time you expect.

Great.

Thank you, Council President and Council members.

As you are aware, one of council's requirements is to receive budget related training each year.

Uh we provide you two different trainings.

Um, one is kind of a item of budgetary interest that has been expressed by council, and one is usually a little bit more rote disclosure practices, general debt policy, et cetera.

This is hopefully one of the ones that will be slightly more interesting to you, but we certainly do appreciate your attention regardless.

We have a presentation today to give you some background on zero-based budgeting.

This was something that was discussed pretty significantly as a request both from council committee for budget and government efficiency chair, Councilmember Foster, um, to know more about zero-based budgeting and how it can be used in the city's budgeting process as well as a mention in several council budget priority memos.

Um, we are lucky enough to be able to partner with the Department of Finance to provide you training.

Our team will talk a little bit about what zero-based budgeting is and how it works in practice, and then the Department of Finance will jump in to talk about some zero-based budgeting elements of our current budget process.

With that, I will turn this over to Jillian Andalina, so she's doing a lot of work at the staff table today.

Uh, she and Sergio Alcalde will prepare the and present the IBA section, and then we'll turn it over to Ben Batagui from the Department of Finance.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Before I dive into the today's training, I just want to provide a little bit of background on the City Council Financial Training Program that's led by our office.

It was adopted in 2006 following a report from our office that responded to a crow report recommendation that the council receive financial training.

The program calls for two trainings a year and four major areas of public finance, and that's including debt issuance and administration, financial disclosure, financial statement overview, or the AC for and current and multi-year budget planning.

Today's training will be zero-based budgeting or a ZBB, which falls under the current and multi-year budget planning subject area.

Today's training comes in response to council's fiscal year 2027 budget priorities process, where the budget committee chair foster requested our office and the Department of Finance to provide a presentation on ZBB.

Our office has actually provided training on ZBB before.

It was about 10 years ago when the city did a ZBB pilot.

That training referenced IBA report 16-16, which is called Zero Based Budgeting and Examples.

The information in that report generally still applies today, so we will be referencing information in that report.

To give you a sense of what we'll be discussing today, our office will cover an overview of ZBB and how it works in theory versus in practice, and then we'll transition to how elements of ZBB have been put into practice by looking at other jurisdictions, including the City of San Diego's pilot program in fiscal year 2017.

And Department of Finance will cover how the city incorporates ZBB elements into the budget process that exists today, and a discussion of this year's effort to zero-based external contracts for the fiscal year 2027 budget and the ongoing analysis of general fund unclassified employees.

So let's get into it.

What is zero-based budgeting?

ZBB is a process that develops a budget from the ground up, starting from zero.

This is different from the traditional incremental budgeting approach where the prior year's budget is used as the starting point.

Under ZBB, funding is allocated irrespective of what was previously budgeted.

In theory, ZBB requires every budget request to be thoroughly evaluated and approved with service levels clearly identified and prioritized.

ZBB breaks down an organization into decision units, which are the lowest level at which budget decisions are made, such as a department division or programs can also be used as well.

Each decision unit is supposed to develop a detailed overview of their activities, the resources needed to meet their goals, and alternative ways to deliver services.

These become decision packages, which outline different spending levels and their impacts on service delivery.

According to guidance from the government finance officers association or GFOA, each decision unit should prepare at least three decision packages.

The first is your bare bones package, which provides only the most essential services.

The second is current service package, which continues existing service levels.

And finally, the enhanced service package, which expands services beyond what is currently provided.

And each decision package should include detailed information on input, such as dollars and positions that are needed to provide the services described in that package, as well as specific performance measures that explain how different funding levels would affect service levels.

After all packages are developed, they are ranked from highest to lowest priority within the department.

And then management uses these rankings along with desired service outcomes to make final budget decisions.

So now I'll go into the advantages and drawbacks of again theoretical ZBB in its fullest form.

Cited advantages include when cuts are necessary.

ZBB offers a rational and comprehensive way to determine budget reductions as opposed to across the board cuts.

It requires taking a closer look at everything the city spends on so that it's more clearly it can be more clearly compared to services that provide the most value.

And finally, ZBB focuses on performance measures and results for programs.

Theoretical ZBB also presents a number of drawbacks, such as being extremely time consuming and intensive.

Developing, reviewing, and ranking numerous decision packages requires significant time commitment from staff.

Because of this, departments struggled to create multiple service level options and are rarely able to develop alternative delivery approaches.

Managers may also hesitate to propose packages that are below current spending levels.

And when there's not full buy-in for ZBB, it could lead to gaming the process, for example, by managers offering only a few packages to limit choices or assigning low rankings to popular services, knowing they are unlikely to be cut.

Decision packages also reflect can also reflect management's preferences more than the priorities of elected officials or the communities served.

And finally, ZBB doesn't address whether a government should be providing a particular service in the first place.

The drawbacks previously mentioned make it difficult to implement across all departments in a large organization.

Some jurisdictions have found that ZBB efficiencies would likely have been found through the normal budget process, or that they should only be using ZBB elements, which makes sense for them and only for areas where it can have the most uh make the most difference.

In the next few slides, Sergio will be providing examples of how elements of ZBB, again, not full ZBB, have been used by jurisdictions successfully.

Thanks, Jillian.

The state of Georgia previously implemented a non-traditional ZBB approach that review programs against their statutory responsibilities, purpose, cost to provide services, and desired performance outcomes.

In conjunction with its annual budget process, Georgia evaluated select programs for cost effectiveness relative to the targeted performance measures.

Georgia's ZBB requirement was automatically repealed in 2020.

However, a Senate bill introduced in January of this year proposes to make this approach permanent.

Montgomery County, Pennsylvania used a mission-based form of ZBB to develop its 2013 budget.

Departments evaluate how their existing activities align with their mission and outline an ideal organizational structure to accomplish that mission.

Their finance office then reviewed each department's projected budget to assess whether they were aligned with the department's mission.

In the city of Chicago, ZBB for its non-personal expenditures were was introduced in fiscal year 2015, where each NPE line item was zeroed out.

According to Chicago staff, the ZBB approach was again proposed during the fiscal year 2020 budget process, but it does not appear to have been implemented beyond that budget cycle.

From 2012 to 2019, the city of Calgary, Alberta in Canada evaluated business business units outside of the regular budget process.

With support from external consultants, Calgary conducted reviews of select business units to identify changes to service levels or delivery methods that could reduce costs or improve effectiveness.

Calgary staff said that the review process mostly improved how services were delivered, helping them to do more without spending more rather than cutting costs.

Per council's action, Calgary will be reinstating this review of the fiscal year 20, their fiscal year 2027 budget.

This slide notes some of the benefits and drawbacks that these jurisdictions have experienced with the form of ZBB they put into practice, starting with the benefits.

Several of the jurisdictions we reviewed reported that to have generated savings.

For example, Georgia's first year of implementing its ZBB approach resulted in $8.9 million in savings, and Montgomery County generated a net of approximately 20 million dollars by selling a nursing home that no longer aligned with its mission.

Jurisdictions also noted improvements in its uh fiscal transparency and oversight, and that legislators were provided with a better understanding of operations.

Moving on to noted drawbacks.

Again, ZBB requires substantial staff time and resources.

For example, Calgary noted spending approximately 8.9 million Canadian dollars on the 110-based reviews it conducted.

Jurisdictions reported having faced resistance and challenges related to department buy-in.

Georgia noted that if directors did not see the value in the process, it was difficult to get valuable information and make meaningful changes.

Next, we will cover several lessons learned by staff in these jurisdictions that in these jurisdictions that again have implemented only elements of ZBB.

First, jurisdictions emphasize the importance of developing a clear implementation plan before launching a ZBB effort and to budget enough time for the process.

Second, ZBB should emphasize program improvements and performance enhancements rather than focusing solely on cost cutting.

Third, jurisdictions should be should secure strong leadership commitment and ensure staff buy-in.

According to Montgomery County's former CFO, ZBB is only successful when leadership is committed to the process and willing to use the resulting information to make tough and politically difficult decisions.

Fourth, council should be engaged throughout the whole ZBB process.

And finally, ZBB needs to be tailored to each organization's needs and applied only where feasible.

Calgary staff noted that there is no one size fits all model for their zero-based review process.

And then Chicago staff recognized implementing ZBB for MPE could help identify savings, but using it for PE was too complicated and would not work without major modifications to their accounting system.

Moving on to how the City of San Diego has used ZBB in the past.

In 2015, two council members requested the mayor's office to implement a ZBB pilot process for the fiscal year 2017 budget.

The performance and analytics department or PANDA and the facilities division within the public works department were selected to participate with both developing developing three types of decision packages in addition to the regular budget development process.

These packages included a core decision package, reflecting only the funding funding needed to support mandatory programs or services, a current decision package, reflecting the department's existing budget levels, and an enhanced or efficiency decision package, which includes funding requests to improve programs, expand service levels, or achieve operational efficiencies.

The pilot program was structured for program or service-based budgeting rather than the organizational organization-based budgeting model that the city used at the time and still continues to use today.

We note that the pilot program did not reduce the budgets of PANA or the facilities division.

Instead, the pilot program increased them as several items from each of the department's enhanced decision packages were converted into budget additions in the fiscal year 2017 budget.

Departments were able to more clearly identify their funding needs.

The process engaged lower level management in the budgeting process, empowering department staff, and it also gave decision makers insights into the department's day-to-day operations and allowed them to select different service levels.

The report also noted some major challenges of the program.

The pilot required extensive manual tracking and analysis.

Developing multiple decision packages demanded considerable time and effort from staff.

Good performance measures were needed to assess the cost of different service level options, and lastly, it created costly, it created costly, complex, and time consuming processes.

On top of gathering the data and developing multiple decision packages, both departments still had to perform the standard budget process work.

We'll conclude our portion of the training today by providing some takeaways.

Zero-based budgeting could identify savings by performing an in-depth review of expenditures, but it also requires complex, time consuming, and potentially costly processes.

However, there are ways that an in-depth review could be part of the current budget process as the Department of Finance will cover in their presentation.

There are also alternatives to ZBB, such as conducting strategic programmatic reviews during the standard budget process or more in-depth review, more in-depth review outside the budget process that may also produce similar results to ZBB in terms of budgetary savings.

When the city piloted a ZBB program for the fiscal year 2017 budget, it resulted in budget additions for enhanced service levels.

We note that significant budget savings come from reduced service levels.

Council members could become involved in service level discussions at committee where they may consider evaluating and prioritizing individual programs and service services rather than entire departments.

Finally, the budget committee could take a deeper look into the ZBB efforts that the city is already currently using, including how the Department of Finance budgets for non-discretionary expenditures, hourly positions, as well as the ZBB of external contracts and services for the fiscal year 2027 budget.

This leads us to Dio's presentation, and I'll now hand it over to Ben Batalia.

Thank you, Sergio.

Good afternoon, Council President Lacavin.

Council members, I'm Ben Bitalia, Director of Finance.

Today I'll be discussing how the Department of Finance is incorporating zero-based budgeting principles into the city's current budget development process, and highlighting several additional areas where zero-based review is being applied to the FY 2027 budget.

The city uses various ZBB approaches in the current budget development process.

Departments are required to apply a zero-based budgeting approach to several key categories, including non-discretionary accounts for things like utilities, rent, and debt service, information technology accounts, non-standard hour positions such as interns and other hourly staff, fixed fringe benefits, including the annual pension payment, workers' compensation, long-term disability, and retiree health, as well as public liabilities uh costs.

Additionally, the Department of Finance identifies other areas that may benefit from a zero base review each year.

For example, a review of fire rescue or police overtime needs.

And finally, departments are required to assess their baseline budgets to determine if incremental adjustments are necessary to maintain or enhance existing service levels.

In these cases, departments will develop a budget adjustment proposal to be evaluated and considered during the budget development process.

Expenditure categories that are zero based each year represent about 40% of the total general fund budget.

The fiscal year 26 adopted general fund budget includes about $836 million of the $2.2 billion budget that is zero based.

The remaining budget primarily consists of budgeted positions as well as other non-personnel expenditures, such as supplies.

There was a new focus this year on a zero-based review of external contracts and services for the general fund as well as some select non-general funds.

Each department was asked to review their FY26 external contracts and services budgets and itemize how they are projected to be spent in the current fiscal year by account and contract.

Accounts that are part of this review include professional, technical, and consulting services, insurance, fees and permits, rent, training, and travel, among others.

Each expenditure was reviewed and justified individually, with projections developed for both fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27.

Departments also documented the service levels supported by the expenditures, and they identified whether the costs were either ongoing or one-time in nature.

The information prepared by departments is still being reviewed and analyzed by the Department of Finance.

However, approximately 250 million is projected to be spent on external contracts and services for fiscal year 2026.

The data shows that the 10 largest spending categories account for about 85% of all external contracts and services expenditures.

This concentration helps focus review efforts on the areas with the most significant financial impact.

The reimbursement agreements category represents about a quarter of the total projection.

This category primarily consists of the transfer to the public liability fund and transfers to the San Diego Housing Commission to support shelter operations and the eviction prevention program.

Looking at the preliminary results of the FY26 projections, approximately 15.8 million is in decreased spending was identified across 55 accounts, and approximately 20.9 million in increased spending was projected across 40 accounts.

Overall, the net projected increase of approximately 5 million is primarily driven by inflation as well as a rising cost of doing business.

This exercise has helped departments identify where cost savings measures could be implemented to help address the current year's projected budget deficit, as well as to support other under budgeted priorities.

I want to highlight a few examples.

The police department is projecting to exceed their external contracts and services budget by approximately 2 million, which includes support for core essential services that cannot be managed in-house, such as forensic medical examinations, translation services, and interagency agreements with the state and the county.

The parks and recreation department is projecting to exceed their budget by approximately $3 million, primarily as a result of contractual increases as well as non-routine joint use site repairs.

And the transportation department is projecting to increase their budget or exceed their budget by approximately a million, primarily due to increased contractual costs for concrete and asphalt.

For FY 2027 projections, about 4.4 million in decreased spending was identified across 23 accounts, and about 16 million in increased spending was projected across 48 accounts.

Similar to FY26, this net increase is largely driven by inflation and increased operating costs, which are necessary to maintain FY2026 service levels.

The results of this analysis will help determine which areas of the budget could be decreased to support other areas which are projected to be under budget to maintain current service levels.

For example, the police and parks and recreation departments are projecting to need an additional $1 million and $7 million respectively, and this is primarily due to contractual CPI increases for their contracts.

In addition to the review of external contracts and services, departments are also conducting a comprehensive review and inventory of all unclassified positions across the city.

Departments have been asked to document the programs or divisions, each of their unclassified positions oversee, the key responsibilities of each role, and the span of control for those positions.

This information will support budget decision making and organizational review as part of the broader efforts to structurally balance about the budget.

In summary, zero based budgeting is currently being applied to non-discretionary accounts, IT spending, hourly positions, fixed fringe benefits, and public liability costs citywide.

External contracts and services are being analyzed and justified as part of the FY2027 budget process.

And departments are conducting a citywide review of unclassified positions to support informed budget decisions.

As a city continues its effort to structurally balance the budget, additional components of zero-based budgeting may be incorporated in the future fiscal years, such as potentially zero basing entire budgets for specific departments pending available resources.

That concludes my presentation.

If you can fill it out, it will let us know what we are doing well and how we can improve.

And with that, we'll wrap it up.

All right, thank you, Charles, Jillian, Sergio, and Ben for this training that was requested by several individuals.

And partially meets our requirements for budget uh training.

So with that, uh Clark, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

We have one speaker here in Council Chambers.

Blair Beekman, if you can please come forward.

We currently have five people in the virtual queue.

You'll have two minutes.

Hi.

Thank you.

Boy Beekman.

Uh pretty good item.

This is the first time I've heard of these efforts and work, and so it's learning for me.

I'm a bit behind.

I'm trying to better understand.

Thank you.

I know the memo within the memo, it said uh councilperson Lee uh wants to be better understanding this issue from previous presentations.

So hopefully he's uh it'll be nice to hear his comments and questions on this uh tonight today.

Um thank you that overall you're trying to be addressing uh not just immediate issues, but uh you know, with your capital uh items previously, you're really trying to take a long-term view of how to address our issues.

It's nice to hear.

I think it's really important to do.

Thank you.

Um I know retirement board issues can have a really important way to look at more long-term forecasting and ideas of how to be budgeting that may be of help to this entire process we're going through right now.

Thank you very much.

That um Council President El Olivera seems to have very nicely described that um and and council person Campbell that revenue is simply really it is vital and to figure out those ways.

Um we can't just simply cut things and say we're caring.

Um it takes a lot of effort, and council president Elo Vera and others really want to do this decently.

And and you were working on that on the previous item.

Thank you.

Um good luck what we what we do well together, that we save our practices together and our best sells together.

That's uh it's a tough time.

Good luck how we're creative and come up with really constructive answers and not just other things.

Thank you.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

The five-minute timer has been started.

Five speakers in the queue, starting with John Stump after that, the gambler.

Uh, one of my favorite subjects, budgeting.

Uh, first I want to say again, the way the budget is arranged is not it's alphabetical.

It should be arranged based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

The things that are most essential to the needs of people like housing or uh should be on top, and then things should be in declining order.

Um zero base budgeting.

There's an opportunity to add to the list that we could zero based, and that is subsidies to activities that are costing the city money and could be reimbursed.

That you know, what I think about is when the city sends police or fire or other support services like ambulances, those organizations that require those significantly should be reimbursing the city so that we don't have to think about laying off police officers or fire workers.

Um then the third area that the zero-based budgeting could be looking at is storm water.

You know, there was a stormwater is a development cost.

So what the combination has to be is first fees to develop land that's gonna cost more stormwater uh impacts.

The fees raising taxes just on the basis of water use or something like that, um, is not the only way to do it, and it should uh no one should get a lower rate on it than common citizens.

Thank you.

Your time has concluded.

Gambler, if you can please unmute.

After that is 8700, Gambler.

I cannot unmute for you.

There you go.

You know what's so crazy?

I worked with the county of San Diego for 20 years, and I had the opportunity to help fix the budget of the San Diego Registrar of voters.

The craziest thing is are the things that we budgeted for.

Really, it's just a copy and paste job every single time.

No one at the top really knows what is actually in there.

And so I was tasked to go ahead and actually do the budget.

And it's not that hard.

My surprise is the fact that we don't do it.

We don't have supervisors making sure that each department is properly doing this, and then you come up with this whole use it or lose it.

And then when they go ahead and cut costs, then they go ahead and add costs, doing special things and all that stuff.

I find it do we actually have supervisor?

I mean, does do we have any qualified people working at the county or the city that understands money at all?

Or do you guys think that the people are just a piggy bank for you?

I mean, because that's the way that you act.

I mean, that was the way that Zynthia Paias, the Registrar voters treated it.

I mean, we tripled the cost of an election because they were lazy to and they just wanted to mail out everything without doing any security checks.

That's why we get people like Sean leading us.

These people are unqualified, no one wanted them except for the fraudsters, and this is what we're uh up to.

Now we have to teach you guys how to do budget, which you're just gonna flat out ignore, and you're gonna continue doing what you're gonna do because you know people are going to cheat for you.