All right, good morning.

I will now call the special City Council meeting of Monday, May 6th, 2026 to order.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell?

Councilmember Member Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster?

Here.

Councilmember Von Wilper.

Council President Pro Tem Lee?

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Councilmember Moreno.

President.

Councilmember Ila Rivera.

And Council President Lacava.

Present.

Also attending the meeting, our assistant city attorney, Michelle Garland, independent budget analyst Charles Monica, and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, City Clerk.

Quorum is now present.

We will begin this morning with an invocation by Clerk Fuentes, followed with a land acknowledgement and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilmember Campbell.

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

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

And today they carry their legacyai Nation connected to our past and committed to a thriving future.

Please face the flag if you're able to put your right hand over your heart and let's begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic.

Which is one nation under God.

Indivisible.

All right.

City Clerk, please go over how the public can offer their testimony today.

Thank you, Council President.

I'd like to highlight the slide on the screen that does review how the public can offer their public testimony during today's meeting.

Please note the time allocations for proclamations and consent items, which are one minute per item, maximum of three minutes for three or more items for meeting management purposes.

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

If you are in person, please complete a speaker slip, look at the entrance of chambers, and bring it to the front of the room in the clear box.

Council ambassadors are available to assist with questions and speaker slips.

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

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Clerk.

Uh, in preparation of today's budget, excuse me, in preparation of tomorrow's budget consideration and for better meeting management.

We've rearranged the order of business for today's meeting.

Today is Monday, but it's going to look and feel almost a lot like a Tuesday.

So this morning, in lieu of closed session, we will hear proclamations, consent, and a discussion item.

We will also hear non-agenda public comment at the end of this morning's session.

At 2 p.m., we will reconvene for our regular discussion agenda.

Tomorrow, we will start city council meeting at 9 a.m.

and commence the day with non-agenda public comment.

We will then hear additional discussion items throughout the course of the day in preparation for the fiscal year 2027 budget adoption.

Then at 1 p.m.

or shortly thereafter, we will reconvene here in chambers for the approval of the budget.

So Tuesday is all day all budget conversations.

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

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you.

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

Each speaker will have one minute per item per person.

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

The proclamation items being approved are items 600 through 602, 639, 643, and 644.

If I can please have Jacob Edwards, please come forward to the microphone.

After that, if I can have the following individuals, please come forward to the yellow reserve seats at the front of the room.

Max Schmidt, Joy Sunata, Senau Hagos, allegedly Audra.

If you all can please come up to the yellow reserve seats, you'll have one minute speaking on item 601.

Please proceed.

Yes, good morning.

Thank you for allowing me to stand in front of you.

I'm here today to speak of uh something of very much importance.

All of these consent items are very important.

And I would like to add of something of very concerning of importance.

It was sometimes back, the Chinese were having meetings at the convention center right here in San Diego regarding the overthrow and takeover of our government.

Uh coming here at the same time.

They emerged meetings with the deal cut with the Chinese to eliminate their trillions of dollars of debt for the overthrow of our country, taking over our government and our country.

How dare our Federal Reserve families?

Part of that deal was mass genocide was going to occur.

The Chinese did not want certain profiles of people.

That does conclude your time.

Mass genocide has occurred.

Max Schmidt, you'll also have one minute speaking on item 601.

You can proceed.

Hi, I actually put item 602 on the um paper.

I'm against the new police, having a week to honor the police.

And it's because I'm getting mentally targeted in the homeless shelter in San Diego in the public streets of San Diego, where Freemasons, including City Council, through Neurolinguistic Programming, as at council meetings, mess with me by saying my thoughts out loud, and I'm not crazy.

And the only reason I'm homeless is because I went to the police and they called me crazy in 5150 me, 5250 me, forced antipsychotics on me, forcing me to leave the state.

And that's the only reason I'm homeless, and I'm not stupid.

You guys know what you're doing.

Your Freemasons targeting me because I stand with Alex Jones, I stand of patriot groups, I stand up to people's militia, and I did grassroots activism for Donald J.

Trump.

And because I did that, everyone's targeting me.

However, in America, I deserve mental freedom.

It's worse than human trafficking.

You guys might as well be mentally human trafficking me down with the occult.

Thank you.

Your slip did say 601 and those comments were related to 601.

Next is Joy Sanyata.

If you can please come forward, you're speaking on item 601 as well.

United States, police and fire championship week.

One big responders team competing together, playing together, laughing together, established in San Diego 59 years ago.

This is a big deal.

Olympic style.

To me, all of you are Olympic stars as you serve the people of San Diego at their most vulnerable moment.

We trust you, and that is a beautiful thing.

Love to all.

Now I want to say one more thing.

All of you that are here today, I've had a chance to chat with a few of you, and you're on the list of proclamations.

A lot of you thank you because you make the world a better place, and I really appreciate that so very much.

So congratulations.

Thank you, everybody.

Have a beautiful week.

Thank you.

So now Hagos.

You're speaking on item 602.

Good morning, Council President, Council members and staff.

On behalf of the original community in San Diego, I would like to thank you for recognizing Eritrean Independence Day and for presenting this proclamation.

Although Eritrean Independence Day is celebrated annually on May 24th, we understand that the council was in recess, and we are grateful to have this opportunity to receive this recognition today.

As we accept this recognition today, we hope to continue building relationships with all of you.

Our hope is that the next time we meet, it won't be a year from now here in City Council at City Hall.

Instead, we hope to uh honor you guys and invite you to our community center uh in Elkahome Boulevard.

Um, while our community center is located in the district of you know, Councilmember Sonia Rivera, we you know, we have constituents all over, and so we welcome all of you to our community center.

Uh so just thank you guys again for this recognition for your service to the city and for your support for the Eritrean American community.

Thank you.

Allegedly, Audra, if you can please come forward.

You're speaking on items 600 601 and 602.

You'll have three minutes.

Yeah, it's interesting when we have all these proclamations and we don't really talk about what's really going on, like at the convention center.

Love when people come and say things that nobody wants to talk about, like the children that were trafficked from the convention center after a bunch of homeless were kicked out back in 2021 that you guys claim you got off to their sponsors.

Yeah, we know these unaccompanied alien children are being trafficked, and they are continuing to be trafficked.

And so I mean, would hope that as CEO wouldn't allow that kind of stuff to take place at, you know, the place that they're taking care of and supposed to be, you know, a steward of uh but it's a pretty bad stain when I've even been outside of that place talking about the child trafficking and the people within it were agreeing with me that yes, those children were trafficked, and it is embarrassing and sad when you guys try and brush it under the rug.

But that's what happens, and then here again with the United States police and fire championships week.

How about we talk about Brandon McGibbons?

You know, and this actual, like the children that he's soliciting, right?

I mean, that happens.

That was happening when I was a kid.

We'd be at the roller skate rink, and there was an officer who really liked us when we were about 11.

So, I mean, I just wonder how many other police officers.

I mean, you got Anthony Warner in there who beats the shit out of women, slams their face into the ground, and then pretends to be a victim.

And so this women, these women, you know, get charged with felonies and whatnot.

And then the way they treat the homeless.

So I'm just wondering, like, do they really need to have a whole week for their championships?

I mean, when there's such egregious things taking place within the police department, uh, how many other pedophiles are still there?

You should probably look at all the places that they're look watching, like, say a skating ring, you know, when they pretend to be security of some sort.

Uh, and then we have a retreat in independent day independence day, and I find it interesting because America claims to be independent, and we're not, we're not free country, and people come to this country acting like it's a free country, and you can tell.

I mean, all these immigrants that cross the border illegally are now, you know, wanting due process and stuff when Americans don't get that.

They don't want their children to be kidnapped and you know taken from their parents, but that happens here every day.

I don't know if you've ever witnessed that, it's pretty disturbing whether you're an immigrant or not.

But nobody seems to care if you're not, and so I feel like if these people fought for freedom, why would you leave your where you're from and come to a place that isn't free?

It's it's just sad because there's an illusion of that, and we've been fighting for freedom for a very long time, and we continue to do it, and you guys continue to encroach on our rights, so it's just sad that there is really no independence.

That does conclude public comment here in Council Chamber, starting the timer for five minutes and going to those participating remotely.

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

600, 601, and 602.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Thanks.

On the first item, a long time ago, about 20 years ago, one of the at the football game with the cops and the firemen.

One of the cops was jacked up on steroids for quite a while, and he died of a heart attack, and then he then the family like sued, and uh they sued Kaiser and Kaiser's settled, but I think they probably sued the city too.

So you might want to all those older guys they get jacked up, you know, high school football.

It never ends with guys, they want to do good even when you're 50.

So you might want to give them uh steroid tests if you haven't already instituted that because older guys thinking about the good old days, these guys get jacked up, and it could be a liability for the city if you're sponsoring the football game and stuff, but maybe not.

Maybe they're all clean and stuff.

That's cool with me.

And then the proclamations, uh I think we should do new proclamations, seeing how there's voter fraud going on right now in LA, big time voter fraud in our elections, and it's really challenging our democracy, and people ain't buying it no more.

We gotta do a proclamation to throw up the election and do a new one or something because this is crooked as hell, and then also another proclamation we could have uh we could what's it the 21st century, right?

We should do a proclamation proclaiming the greatest, what's it called?

Uh what's going on in the world today?

It's like the genocide, the biggest genocide of the 21st century goes to Israel and the Zionist Jews, and even give it to the Zionism in Christianity, is of the devil, man.

We should proclaim that Israel gets the thing for the best genocide of the 21st century, although they were victims of the 20th century genocide in the Holocaust, they were victims of that.

They don't get that proclamation, but they do get it for the 21st century, and now they're doing it to Lebanon, and now in Lebanon, we gotta adopt a Lebanese city.

We're a sister city with San Diego.

That's something we can do.

Adopt the city in Lebanon before they bomb it.

So it'll it'll be shame them to not bomb it.

It'll save a lot of young lives.

They're going from city to city now, bombing them, and there's something we can do is proclaim, pick out a city in Lebanon, and we will sister it up.

You can do it with the city council vote today.

And just look on the Google map and pick one out, man, because they're heading north bombing all the cities for whatever reason.

Just another genocide.

They're very good at that.

So they're calling it something else, but that's what it is.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

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

Hello, uh Blair Beekman.

Item 602 I'd like to speak to, please.

You'll have one minute, please proceed.

Thank you.

Uh Blair Beekman.

Um happy Monday to everyone.

Um item 602 is Eritan Independence Day 2026.

Um I'm in being from uh San Jose area originally, um they have a fairly large Eritan uh population there.

And um it was nice to see this item for that.

Uh I have good memories of of the Eritan culture and people in in the San Jose area.

They're pretty vibrant and alive and uh doing good things, and so I just wanted to mention their work and uh as a way to connect for the people uh in San Diego for this item and uh thanks a lot for it.

Thank you.

Thank you, John Stump is our next and final speaker with his hand raised.

Please let me know which item or items you wish to speak to on the proclamation agenda.

Um I'm sorry, I'm not on the proclamation agenda.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes public comment on the proclamations.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And with that, we'll now turn it over to the council members for comments and entertain a motion, and I will kick things off.

So uh I'll speak to item 600 Rip Ripto Day.

See him there in the front row.

Uh congratulations, sir, on your retirement after 10 years of service with the San Diego Convention Center.

Despite the many challenges you faced during your tenure, you persevered and you overcame continuing to serve the people and the businesses of San Diego and visitors from all over the world.

As president and CEO of the center, you oversaw it the center becoming a premier destination center and during the COVID-19 pandemic and emergency shelter.

Your work has undoubtedly shaped San Diego and made us a city where people choose to gather and connect.

Thank you for your work and your dedication to public service.

We want to wish you the best in your retirement and congratulations.

Would you like to say a couple of words?

Thank you, Council President.

It has been quite the roller coaster and a great opportunity.

It's such a great destination.

We have the best team in the country that work hard every day to build small cities inside a building for the most important week of that organization's life, and then move it out and do it all over again the next week.

So there's no one that I know that would uh be better than they are.

We could parachute drop into any city and make it better that day.

So uh to our team, thank you to my family and the support.

It's a tough industry, and uh we have persevered.

So I'm very grateful for all of you and the support you've exhibited, and thank you for the recognition today.

All right, thank you.

And with that, I'll move the proclamations and we will go next to Councilmember Hilo Rivera.

All right, thank you, Council President.

Um I will uh echo the the congratulations and appreciation and Mr.

Pateau um for your your work.

Um there's all the stuff that the convention center does on a regular basis, which is a huge and impressive operation for sure.

Um but I will um always be impressed by um the way you turned that into a humanitarian uh base and a place where um really really important work was happening in the time when people really needed it.

Um what I saw there was just incredibly impressive.

And the and um there's it's one thing, Rip to have like a willingness to do it, it.

It's another thing to lean into it, and I saw you do that, and I saw your team do that.

And um there was young people who were dealing with circumstances that would are beyond the imagination of most people.

And you made a point to make that as welcoming of the space as possible during that time.

I was very proud of San Diego for doing that.

And I am deeply appreciative for you bringing your leadership to uh to that moment in that way.

So thank you.

Again, in addition to everything else you've you've done, that certainly sticks out to me as something I will always be appreciative of you for.

And then uh Eritrean Independence Day.

Uh always very proud to to know that the um while the Eritrean community is around San Diego, uh, the epicenter is in District 9, and that's um because of a long history of a very strong and vibrant Eritrean community in District 9, in City Heights in particular.

It's certainly uh the Eritrean community is part of what makes um City Heights in San Diego what we are.

Um, always always very appreciative of not just um the contributions you make in terms of small businesses and professional uh professionalism, but the warmth uh that your community always shows everyone in San Diego.

Um so thank you for that.

I definitely had a good time um visiting um the the celebration last year.

Um hope I can make it again, and I I believe I might have this wrong.

The theme this year, our resilience, our guarantee.

Um, I think that's a really um wonderful uh message and uh theme to lean into certainly plenty of resilience has been demonstrated over the years from the Eritrean community.

Um, and that is serves as an inspiration to me and folks across the city.

So thank you.

I'll second your motion with that, Council President.

Alright, so we have a motion by myself and a second by Council Member Yelo Rivera to move the proclamations.

We'll go next to Councilmember Bon Wilbur.

Thank you, and thank you to my colleagues for bringing forth fantastic proclamations uh each week to recognize our community.

Um, with item 600.

Uh, Rip, we're gonna miss you in San Diego.

It's been a pleasure getting to know you.

Thank you for your service.

The convention center is one of the most incredible economic engines here in San Diego County.

And I, for one, am always impressed when I see the level of work that goes into Comic-Con.

It is, it is building a city inside of a convention center.

Um, and I was also deeply impressed by the work you did during the COVID-19 pandemic to ride shelter to people in need, uh, prevent the spread of disease, and to help young people who were crossing the border unaccompanied.

It was one of the most incredible efforts I've seen a city make, and thank you for being at the lead of it.

Um, we're definitely gonna miss you.

Uh San Diego's weather's amazing.

So if you have come back and visit us anytime.

Um, but we really appreciate you and all you've done.

Thank you.

Um item uh 601, the United States Police and Fire Championships Week.

Um, I'm proud to join Council Member Whitburn in recognizing June 13th through 20th as United States Police and Fire Champions Week in the City of San Diego.

Um I have the opportunity to work closely with many of our first responders as the chair of public safety and our law enforcement officers, firefighters, uh, lifeguards, EMS workers.

I know the dedication and professionalism and sacrifice their work requires, and the incredible physical strength it requires.

Um, firefighters have to pull people out of burning buildings who often cannot stand on their own two feet.

Um, so the championships are more than athletic competition, they promote fitness, wellness, resilience, and the strong sense of the community that is so important in our public safety careers.

It's an opportunity for participants and their families to experience San Diego while celebrating the men and women who serve our communities every day.

So thank you very much to the California Police Athletic Federation, the event organizers, the volunteers, the sponsors, and competitors for continuing this long-standing tradition, and congratulations to everyone who's gonna participate in this year's championships.

On item 602, Eritrean Independence Day, thank you to my colleagues for bringing forward this proclamation, recognizing Eritrean Independence Day.

Today we celebrate the courage, determination, and sacrifices that led to Eritrea's independence and continue to inspire Eritrean communities around the world.

And we're very, very glad that you're here today again to celebrate.

I would love to come to the community center and visit as well, and uh thank you for all the service that you provided in San Diego.

We are a richer community because the Eritrean community is here and providing not only civic leadership but public service, helping folks in need, and providing cultural opportunities that strengthen our civic life here in San Diego.

Um so congratulations on this recognition.

Thank you for all you do for our communities and looking forward to celebrating.

Item 644.

I'm honored and very honored to recognize my good friend Kim Very and celebrate her dedicated service to the Rancho Bernardo community.

As president of the Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary Club, of which I am a member, Kim has brought people together around our shared goal of making our community stronger and more connected.

Through her leadership, Kim has helped advance Rotary's mission of service, supporting youth leadership programs, including Ryla, built partnerships that connect local businesses, community organizations, and volunteers.

She had led with, she has led with compassion, integrity, and a genuine desire to help others.

Qualities that reflect the very best of Rotary in the spirit of public service.

Our communities are stronger because of people like Kim who step up, give back, and dedicate their time to improving the lives of those around them.

So congratulations, Kim, on a well-deserved recognition recognition.

Thank you for your year of service as our president, and thank you to my friends and colleagues at the Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary Club for all that you do to serve San Diego every day.

And I will support the proclamations.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Von Wolper.

We'll go next to Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you, Council President.

And today I'll speak on item 6643.

I want to start by congratulating Rip Rippoteau on his retirement as president and CEO of our Convention Center Corporation.

Ten successful years.

Thank you, Rip.

These past few years have not been easy for the tourism industry through the pandemic, but under Rip's leadership convention center broke records year over year.

Rip and his team at Convention Center have received many awards over the years, keeping our convention center the world-class destination that it is.

In 2023, Wall Street Journal ranked our convention center in the top five around the country.

Rip has served on numerous boards and commissions throughout his career at the city, and his retirement is certainly well-earned.

Congratulations, my friend and your lovely spouse, for a well-deserved and well-earned retirement.

Best to you guys.

And also, I'd like to speak on 643 Arts District Liberty Station.

The Arts District there was established in 2000 to support the creative community of artists, museums, performing arts venues, and small businesses in Liberty Station.

And now you can't visit Liberty Station without seeing the impact of the arts.

Liberty Station is known for its art exhibits, performances, festivals, public arts, free community events that foster access to the arts for people all across the San Diego region.

In December of last year, the California Arts Council officially designated Arts District Liberty Station as a California cultural district.

This statewide recognition of their work and contributions to our state's arts and culture community is so deserved.

And I want to congratulate Arts District Liberty Station on this achievement.

Thank them for all the work they do to support San Diego's creative community.

They're celebrating their 25th anniversary this weekend on June 13th, Saturday, with their Summer Arts Fest.

I encourage everyone to stop by and celebrate and enjoy the festivities.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

We'll go next to Councilmember Campio.

Thank you, Council President.

I'm glad to see so many great organizations and individuals being honored today.

I'd like to start by welcoming the Eritrean community here today.

Salam, my friends, for being here as we highlight Independence Day.

San Diego is home to one of the largest Eritrean communities in the entire United States.

And I'm grateful for all the many ways you contribute to our region, North and South, East and West.

And of course, whether it's small businesses, places of worship, or other civic life, we're so grateful you're here today, and of course, uh celebrating your independence day.

Moving on to Mark Larson, for 50 years, one of the most trusted and recognizable voices here in San Diego broadcasting and having a distinguished career defined by journalistic excellence and thoughtful commentary, and of course, the steadfast commitment to keeping the public informed on matters, uh issues and matters that uh matter to the public.

Of course, beyond the airwaves, Mark has dedicated countless hours to charitable causes and volunteering and strengthening our community that he's proudly served since 1976.

So, Mark Larson, thank you for your extraordinary uh broadcasting milestones, but that lasting legacy as you've helped build San Diego as a media icon, but most of all as a community leader.

And finally, my friend and one of our biggest advocates for the San Diego region and our local tourism economy, Rip Ripato.

Um, for over a decade, you've been helping us here, uh, bringing so much revenue to our uh to our region, uh, but most of all making sure that San Diego looks good on the world stage that works for our workers, that works for our residents, all leading back to supporting the community.

Of course, I'm really glad to see Leah here celebrating him as well.

Uh, they are great neighbors.

They're one of my best constituents in Mission Valley.

Uh, and I'll just say uh for for those who don't know, uh Rip brings uh decades and decades of expertise and professionalism from all over the country.

We were lucky to get him here 10 years ago to come to San Diego.

Uh, but most of all because uh more than understanding the economics and the operations, uh the moral compass that leads this man uh is strong and always pointing north.

And I don't have to tell uh him something he already knows.

Uh but as scripture teaches us, do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so, some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

If there's a man who embodies that moral hospitality, it's you, Rip.

Thank you for all you've done for San Diego.

Appreciate you.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Council Member Campia.

We'll go next to Council Member Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

I too want to congratulate all of those who are being recognized with proclamations today.

I'll speak to a handful of them on item 600 uh declaring Rip Ripito Day in the city of San Diego.

I am proud to join Mayor Gloria, Council President LaCava, Councilmember Campillo in recognizing Mr.

Ripito's exceptional career.

Uh during his tenure here at San Diego at the Convention Center.

His leadership has contributed greatly to the city's ability to fund and provide the programs and services that the city offers.

Last year alone, convention business brought in nearly 40 million dollars in direct tax revenue to the city.

I too very much appreciate that during the pandemic, Mr.

Ribito and his team turned the empty convention center into an emergency homeless shelter for thousands of people in need.

The convention center is a point of pride for our city, and certainly here in Downtown District 3.

Uh, Mr.

Ripito is a big part of the reason why.

Mr.

Ripito, you will be sincerely missed, and I too want to congratulate you on your well-deserved retirement.

On item 639, I am pleased to join my colleagues and recognizing San Diego radio icon Mark Larson.

Fifty years of keeping San Diego informed and entertained and tuned in.

A half century of broadcasting isn't just a milestone, it is a legacy.

Decades ago, when I was a radio news acre in this town, I did the top of the hour news during Mr.

Larson's show for a period of time, and more recently, uh I've had the pleasure of joining him to discuss city business.

And in a day when civility is sometimes lost, I have appreciated that Mr.

Larson has always been a gentleman.

So thank you for 50 years of service and thank you for joining us here this morning.

On item 601, I'm proud to join Councilmember Vaughn Wilper to bring a proclamation forward to recognize United States Police and Fire Championships Week in San Diego.

Uh those championships were conceived by a San Diego officer more than five decades ago, and they welcome thousands of police officers, firefighters, and emergency responders to our city for an Olympic-style athletic competition.

I want to wish all of San Diego's first responders competing in the championships the best of luck this year.

Thank you to my colleagues for bringing forward the proclamation for Eritrea Independence Day.

We honor the sacrifices made for Hardwood Sovereignty, and we celebrate the vibrant Eritrea community that riches District Three and all of San Diego.

And I want to thank Councilmember Campbell for bringing forward Arts District Liberty Station Day.

Arts District Liberty Station is a remarkable 100-acre creative hub that has transformed San Diego's historic naval trading center into a thriving home for arts, culture, and community for over 25 years.

And I will especially highlight the emerging artist residency, which provides San Diego's next generation of artists with the space support and opportunity to grow their craft right here in San Diego.

So thank you, everybody, and thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

We'll go next to Council Member Foster.

Yes, thank you, Council President, and congratulations to all of the proclamation recipients, a lot of good things on the agenda today.

Item 600, um, just with RIP, just want to say congratulations and thank you for your years of service.

It was always a pleasure to see you during the Comic Con time in those events.

And just thank you for everything you did, always opening up your doors to us and walking us through and showing us the growth of that great event.

So thank you so much for that.

Also, item 602.

Want to make sure I say thank you to my colleagues as we are here to uh recognize and celebrated celebrate Eritrea Independence Day.

I'm proud to bring this item forward.

Thank you to Councilmember Campillo, Councilmember Ilo Rivera for this recognition.

This celebration carries deep meaning for families across the globe and is an opportunity to honor the sacrifice, the courage, and history behind the fight for freedom and self-determination.

This so this here in San Diego, this community continues to show what it means to build strong families, stay connected to culture, and show up for one another.

Thank you for everything that you have done in the San Diego community for the work you do to support families, create opportunity, and make sure the next generation stays connected to where they come from.

That work matters because community is built through connection, service, and investing in people.

So thank you so much and look forward to celebrating your independence day.

What else do we have here?

Also, just for the arts district at Liberty Station, just congratulations.

Thank you, Councilmember Campbell, for bringing this item forward.

Arts and culture is always an important, important topic as we are, as you know, discussing the budget.

Um, and just congratulations on the art district uh Liberty Station Day.

Thank you, and that concludes my comments.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Foster.

Um, and with that, I don't see anybody else in the lights.

So we have a motion by myself and a second by council member Ilo Rivera to move the proclamations.

Clerk, please call the roll.

I start at the voting system.

Please cast your vote.

And that passes unanimously nine to zero.

Thank you, Council President.

Alright, thank you.

And again, congratulations everyone and every organization that was recognized in the proclamations.

With that, we will now proceed with the approval of the consent items.

So first, are there any requests to pull an item by the council?

Not seeing any.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment on the consent items.

Thank you, Council President.

Um please note each speaker will have one minute per item per person if you would like to speak on three or more items.

You will have a maximum of three minutes.

The consent agenda includes items 603 to 619, 621 through 627, 636 to 638, and 642.

We did receive comments on item 613-10 in opposition via e-comment form, which have been distributed to the council.

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

Item 624 is the potential appointment of Matthew Jolik to the Bobo Park Committee.

Item 625 is the potential appointment of Armin Harvey to the resiliency advisory board.

Item 626 are the potential reappointments to Harry Bubbins, Michael Donovan, Jeff Dossick, and Dr.

Stephen Gelb to the Mobility Board.

Item 627 is the potential appointment of Dr.

Shalamon Duke to the accessibility advisory board.

Going to those that have submitted public comment.

Gary Hewitt, if you can please come forward.

I understand that you do have a PowerPoint.

And you have time seated to you by Anthony Hewitt.

If you can please raise his hand.

Thank you so much.

You will have two minutes.

Please proceed.

Great.

Thank you.

Good morning, Council President Lakava, Council members.

My name is Gary Hewitt, Chair of the Downtown Community Planning Council.

I'm asking that you pull item 613 from the consent calendar.

Item 11 in the LDC updates would amend the sound level ordinance by adding the language you see on the screen.

You go to the first slide on this one.

Go back one.

There's two slides.

Yeah, there's two slides on here.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

So it exempts any activity authorized by a permit or agreement from the city manager from the city's noise limits.

City staff categorizes as a clarification, it is instead an extremely broad new exemption that does not exist already.

It has no guardrails, no decibel ceiling, no time limit, no geographic restriction restriction, no public notice, no required findings, and a no appeal process for affected residents.

I received the planning director's memo in response to this on Friday.

It describes an amendment with limited circumstances, findings, environmental review, and noise standards.

However, none of these are in the proposed language.

It describes the ordinance that city staff should have written, not the one before you today.

DCPC unanimously opposed this item.

The community planners committee has also changed its position to a post.

Alright, next slide.

We're asking you to pull this item and ask staff one question.

What is the impact of delaying this item by one year?

If it's truly a clarification of existing authority, the answer should be no impact.

The authority supposedly already exists as described in the memo.

Staff can take the year to put the protections described in the memo into the actual ordinance text and bring it back in the next LDC update.

But if it if delay does have an impact, then it's not a clarification.

It's a new law that changes sound limits and requires environmental review.

Many prior EIRs have found that noise impacts are significant and adopted mitigation relying on this ordinance.

Sound limits are what allows new residential development in downtown and other mixed-use communities.

Please remove item 11 and send it back to staff as part of the next LDC update.

Thank you.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Next is Jacob Lewis Edwards.

If you can please come forward, you'll have three minutes to speak on all the items that you've listed, 613 through 625, 626.

All the items.

Please proceed.

Yes, all these items are very important.

Um thank you again for uh allowing me to stand in front of you.

Um I said to a police sergeant day before yesterday, had a conversation with him.

I said, Sir, are you aware that the Chinese government is positioned to take over our government?

He said, I'm fully aware of that.

I said, Sir, are you aware that part of the deal was the elimination of certain profiles of people?

Chinese do not want in our society prior to their complete takeover, that mass genocide has occurred, that they've recruited people here to San Diego of certain profiles to have them eliminated.

He said, I'm fully aware of that.

I was kind of shocked.

I was taken back.

This is gnome.

He said, Sir, you've had your eyes open.

We all need to have our eyes open.

Mass genocide in this country, any country.

Completely unacceptable.

We stand up for ourselves, each other, and our country.

This is our country.

Not to be overthrown and not to be disrespected in such a way that mass genocide is going to occur to eliminate and good people for the Chinese to take our government over.

We need to be fully aware of this.

We need to confront it.

I say that China should be given one of two options.

One, a hand of apology, drastic hand of apology with an olive branch.

Drastic measures taken to step back.

Or I think Beijing should be put on red alert.

Because this is the biggest insult, biggest attack upon our country in U.S.

history.

We need to stand up for ourselves.

We need to stand up for others, and we need to stand up for our country.

God bless you.

God bless the city of San Diego.

God bless the United States.

I'm going to refrain from speaking at public event, public non-comment.

That's all I'm going to say.

And what I said is very important.

We need to discuss this with our friends, our families, our community.

Get it out on social media, that this is unacceptable, folks.

Who's fight for our country?

Next is Pastor Ron Edwards Sr.

He has time seated to him by Herman Collins.

Herman, if you can please, Mr.

Collins, if you can please raise your hand.

Yes, and Pastor Ron Edwards, you can come up to the microphone.

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

Aria Grossman, allegedly Audra, Joyce Anyata, Max Schmidt.

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

Good morning, Council President, to my councilman, the honorable Henry Foster, to all of the council members.

First of all, let me say that I am uh thankful to be here today for this grand and historical occasion to honor one of San Diego's living legends in the person of the Reverend Dr.

Walter G.

Wales.

Want to say to Dr.

Wales, congratulations.

And if I could just add this before I finish with my what do I have, three minutes?

A minute left.

I feel like Peter felt on the day that Jesus was transfigured when he ultimately said it's good to be here.

It is indeed good to be here.

I bring you greetings from the Greater Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in the city of San Diego, my young bride of 44 years.

And so thank you, City Council for Herman Collins was splitting time.

And may God bless you all and keep you.

Thank you.

My name is Herman Collins.

I'm here to honor a great man, Reverend Walter G.

Wells.

I've known this gentleman since I was nine years old.

I'm a son of Calvary.

There are a lot of sons and daughters of Calvary out here in the audience who are all extremely proud of him.

But I hope you can take some time.

It takes time when you water flowers.

You want to water them gently so you can see the miss, enjoy the beauty, and know the essence of what they've brought to San Diego.

You don't know Reverend Wells as much as we do, but we love him and thank you for what you're doing.

Thank you.

Aria Grossman.

Good morning.

My name is Arya Grossman.

I'm the policy manager at Circulate Planning and Policy, and I'm speaking on the RMRA funds.

I'm again gonna urge you all to amend the RMRA project list to include funding to retain the multimodal team.

As we heard last Friday from Transportation Department officials, retaining half of this team would cost the city only ten new miles of Slurry SEAL.

So that's 10 miles to ensure the remaining two fifty are made safer.

That's the trade-off.

And I believe a majority of you have made supportive statements just indicating um how important this team is to the city and meeting its vision zero goals.

This is a tough budget year, and you all have fairly asked us to identify practical solutions as we work to influence the budget.

This pot of funds is the practical solution that we have identified to help fund road safety in the city with no general fund impact and minimal impact to city infrastructure.

So again, I urge you to amend this item today or with the budget and reallocate funding to maintain at least half of this team.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Allegedly, Audra.

You're speaking on several items 604, 611, 614, 617, 618, 636, 637.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Yeah, first I wanna say don't get a twisted what happened with those children because it is very well known that they were trafficked, and many of them go to the same sponsor, and it should be concerning to people that young children are coming here unaccompanied, and that there are a bunch of programs to put them in.

But nobody's questioning that it is concerning that they're coming like that.

Yet we are just here to pick up the pieces, right?

It's so disgusting because it's like those children deserve better.

Not to be said that they were just not trafficked when that is exactly what happened.

Just like you guys wanted to say that there was no invasion on the border, there was, and now there has been a bait and a switch where it's like let's concentrate on the Mexicans that have been here for 30 years.

I'm talking about the people that would rip up their documents, the people that we should be concerned about, not a majority of them, but a minority of them have very ill intentions for our nation.

So when a man is talking about the Chinese, there was the Chinese basically cartel down at Iris Transit that were trafficking their own, and they were doing very nefarious business that you guys didn't give a shit about.

But you want to sit here and and brush it under the rug and act like these things don't happen.

It is so egregious that you do that because that is not the truth.

Then you guys engage with these software companies that we don't need an outside breach.

It's going to be an internal taking of all the data.

And it's like nobody cares that there's these monopolies on you know the software that's going in the government.

It seems convenient, but it's putting us in a very dangerous place with all this data, the data centers, the collection of it, the misuse of it.

We're gonna do biometrics at some point.

All you gotta do is look at China, and China, there are people here that have gone into the government, and other nefarious people, from Al-Qaeda, from different things like that, and it's like, but let's just pretend that it's the Mexicans that have been here for 30 years, so we can pretend that that didn't happen, pretend that these children just went off to their sponsors.

Do you know what it's like to find child documents discarded at the border?

Do you know how many BARTH certificates I found left in Hakamba, right by the rape tree?

And children's IDs that were bent and half stuck in a bush.

Where did they go?

Do you care?

Or is it just good for you to go like we did a good thing for those children?

You have children, and you're concerned like we even rip them apart from their families here in San Diego through CPS, and everybody brushes on their own, we're just here for your safety and your book.

Like, shit.

Joy Sanyana, if you can please come forward.

After that, is Mac Schmidt.

Joy, you have several items that you're speaking to as well, so you'll have three minutes.

Please proceed.

Thank you so much.

Okay, we'll start with number 609.

Excuse me a minute.

This is about turf and conservation.

PUD, MUNICODE, water code.

Not to worry, our people will come forward during an emergency water shortage.

Yet, yes, to worry about how agencies, including SDC WA, grapple with our water conservation.

Please keep an eye on that.

6-11 parking citations, processing and related services.

Is this a new elephant in the room that we really need to look at?

614.

Big yes to helping to keep our valued San Diego police department team members healthy of body, mind, and spirit.

Love to all of you and your families.

Now, yes to this one.

At the same time, I want to tell you that when Steve and E spoke to us recently on an update, um, they said something, it wasn't part of the present uh presentation, but they were speaking at the microphone later.

They said that they were following on the franchise agreement the policies of our city.

That's what guided them, and that they feel that they were aligned with that.

So I haven't had a chance to look at the policy issue, but that really concerns me that they said that.

So there you go on that.

Number 619, ENA and the seventh and market project.

Here are guiding words on that due diligence, transparency, accountability, and monitoring.

I really want this project to happen.

Number six forty-two, litigation on the solid waste management fees.

Yes, to the one million dollars to the attorney for their fees, and thank you to all the attorneys on both sides of that.

This was really big important work and very difficult, and I appreciate you so very much.

So, lastly, I think that was my last number.

Yes, a big shout out to our beautiful and our amazing Chida Warren, who is director of all these commissions that she puts together with everyone else as a team.

I am just so honored to have her and her continuing presence in coordinating all these board appointments and reappointments.

So, hey, we're all here to speak together.

We all stumble, we're doing our best.

Let's hang together love to all.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Max Schmidt, you're speaking on item 622.

You'll have one minute.

Please proceed.

Hi.

Hi, my name is Max Schmidt.

Um, I think we need some sort of system when we appoint people to certain positions.

I believe this one's for the Balboa Park Council that we know we're not appointing Freemasons because Freemasons like yourself, and I don't want to be called crazy or mentally ill or schizophrenic for this because it's common knowledge.

I'm not stupid.

I know what's going on, I know all about the occult.

Freemasons like yourself have committed human sacrifices in the Masonic Lodge and cannibalism in the Masonic Lodge.

Every single one of these city council members is drinking the blood of a human to become possessed by a demon to teleport around and reincarnate, reincarnate sometimes on their 10th act of the circle of life, meaning they were around before the start of America.

Freemasons have been reincarnating for hundreds of years, and I'm here to expose Gnosticism because that they can also teleport because that's what the NWO doesn't want me to do, and my voice won't be silenced by calling me crazy in 5150 me.

We did have two speakers, uh, two people in favor of item six nineteen that did not wish to speak.

Going to those participating remotely, we will start with John Stump.

John Stump, if you can please unmute.

Uh, please know we do have your uh your materials here and are being shown.

In order to show them, we can't put up the timer.

So I'll be doing your timer here, and we'll be giving you a 10-second warning.

This is part of your ADA accommodation.

Please proceed.

Madam Clerk, I also wanted to speak on several other items.

Okay, so as soon as you're done with this item for your one minute, then we'll bring up the timer and you can continue speaking on the other items.

What other items?

Thank you, uh, Madam Clerk.

Um, I'm speaking in opposition to one portion of item 613, and that is the doubling of the fees from one thousand dollars to two thousand three hundred and eighty dollars.

If you look at the screen, you see that I'm requesting this only deals with this portion, uh, provide a rational basis uh for the appeal fees, uh reasonable and rational basis for the different area fees, provide the appellate.

If the appellants successful, the fee be fully refunded.

Reduce the fee to no more than uh the amount of small claims or other judicial hearings.

What's the problem?

There is no rational basis for setting these fees.

All they're doing is uh taking the fees that were established in 2017 and updating them.

If you look at that chart, there's a mathematical error, and um it's not based on a judicial hearing.

Thank you for that concluding remark on this item.

What other items did you wish to speak to?

Um 636, 642, 640, 641.

You'll have an additional two minutes for those items.

Please proceed when ready.

Thank you very much.

Um the council needs to get uh IBA review of every one of these items on 613 there was no review, and there's mathematical errors.

Um 640 and 641.

We had made mistakes and now we have to reverse the position of council to um lower trash fees and to allow parking in Dalboa Park.

Of course, as the item says in six, I think it's 641, is the agreement with the San Diego Zoological Society Wildlife Alliance or whatever it's being called today, uh is not affected.

It should be affected.

I thought it was a requirement of that agreement that um paid parking had to remain in the rest of the park.

So um please um approve the items, and I agree with Joyce Sanata.

Uh her comment on these items.

And um have the IBA look at 613, please continue that item for a year just like downtown partnership suggested.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Hector.

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

Thanks a lot.

Uh 641 and then the bike lane one.

I forgot the number on it.

Okay.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

With the bike lanes, uh uh do not fund any more bike lanes for like four or five years, let the smoke settle, take the bike lane money and put it in a painting crosswalks, just repainting crosswalks, a safety thing.

And the one the crosswalk at Fiesta Island is down to one line.

The one to get into Fiesta Island, I've did the I've done the get it done app on it.

So I ride my bike and stuff, and it said we'll do in 520 days.

You know, it needs a crosswalk.

There's thousands of people that use it.

There's not even one there now.

The one right into Piesta Island.

That's that's something the city could do with the money they're doing the bike lanes with, and then the Balball Park one.

I'll pause you there.

Balboa Park is actually this afternoon as item 641, so you can call back at that time.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

All right, Blair Beekman.

I don't know if the previous person had more to say, maybe you can go back to him as necessary and as needed.

Uh Blair Beekman, I want to speak to items.

Uh, if he had other items to speak to.

Uh, I want to speak to items uh six uh eleven, six thirteen, and six fourteen.

Please please proceed.

You'll have three minutes.

Thank you.

Uh Blair Beekman.

Um to uh first comment.

Um I guess um uh uh to comment on public speaking, uh you know I the city of Oakland has been practicing a love life philosophy and do no harm in their policy making.

I hope that can uh uh can answer some of the questions of the person talking about genocide and that we have to all work on such concepts together and concepts of war and how to practice peace and not war.

And um Oakland's ideas um are really interesting.

Good luck in those sort of efforts and what you guys try to do also.

Um to comment on uh 611.

Um this parking citation things is um it's a 10-year contract.

Uh a three million dollar contract for uh uh well yeah, well, it's a large contract over 10 years and making such a uh a 10-year contract for for a parking um citation process.

Um, interesting concept.

Um I don't know, uh it's interesting.

Uh uh to do uh 10 years instead of five years.

Good luck on how that can uh we manage that.

You're doing that 10-year project idea on a number of issues.

Um, it's more of a military strategy and how to budget things.

Um interesting.

I just uh let's watch it as it's good.

And just I hope we watch it for item 613.

Um update to the coastal program things.

I hope just to say that with coastal uh planning, you know, and projects like the uh midway project, that we really want to be open and accountable on the environmental concerns of the project, and we really take into account sea level rise and make that an open conversation.

If the building can be built with those issues in mind, and we can't hide from that.

We have so many sea level rise issues that are so important in San Diego.

We have to be open and honest about our sea level rise issues.

So good luck in those efforts.

And finally, um, item 614 is um the psychological services consulting for San Diego Police Department.

This was brought to a committee uh a few weeks ago.

Thank you immensely for it.

It's really important after the George Floyd things.

It was really clear that we have if we have good psychological uh psycho um psycho psych psychological services, along with things like whistleblower protections and really learning how to build those things.

That is just it builds not only the police well, but it builds our community well, it builds our well-being.

So it's really important we work on that and good luck.

And I wanted to comment that because of the AOPR issues that we've had recently.

I think police have had there was just some social standards where they cannot more easily talk to themselves about how to uh discuss AOPR technology in real time.

We have to have those conversations openly and make sure police are practicing in good terms if when we have that conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The five-minute timer did conclude here in Council Chambers.

No additional speakers will be taken.

There were seven in the queue.

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

Uh item 605, please.

Please proceed.

You'll have one minute.

Okay.

Hi, I'm Laura Keenan, co-founder of Families for Safe Street San Diego.

I spoke on Friday about why the multimodal team matters to families like mine who have been personally impacted by traffic violence.

Today I want to focus on the solution in front of you.

The city's own transportation professionals have told us that eliminating this team will reduce San Diego's ability to deliver street safety projects.

If we believe safer streets save lives, we should take that assessment seriously.

Cities across the country are investing in dedicated street safety staff, not eliminating them.

You asked advocates to identify a practical solution for the RMR, excuse me, the RMRA amendment is that solution for families who have already lost loved ones.

It's really difficult to understand why preserving a team dedicated to making our streets safer safer would not be a priority.

The RMAR, RMRA amendment gives you the opportunity to preserve the city's ability to make streets safer.

I urge you to amend this item and restore funding to the multimodal team.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next to San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, if you can please unmute and let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Uh item 605, please.

Please proceed.

Good morning, City Council.

My name is Ian Henry, and I am the advocacy and community manager for the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition.

I'm calling in to urge you to amend the RMRA project list to fully fund the city's multimodal team for FY27.

The current MR RMRA project list includes funding for the citywide speed management plan.

This plan has been in the works for a long time.

We're excited to see it included in this flexible funding list.

Months ago, when you received the presentation from staff on the speed management plan, they acknowledge an important fact about reducing speeds, which is that changing the sign is not enough.

We need engineering and enforcement solutions to actually make a difference.

We will not be able to achieve the identified and prioritized speed reductions without the multimodal team.

This team is responsible for making the quick and easy design changes during resurfacing that slow speeds down.

We should use those flexible RMRA funds to keep the multimodal team on board so they can assist in the work outlined in the speed speed management plan section and OE for this item.

Based on the per mile quotes provided at Friday's meeting, we can fully fund this team with 12 miles worth of slurry seal.

We need this team to make the other hundreds of miles safer.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next is Tony.

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

Hello, how you doing?

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Hey, good morning.

Uh I wanted to speak to item number uh, I believe it's 617 it was.

Uh yes, 617, uh number 615.

Oh, I'm sorry, not 615, uh 6 uh 14.

And which one was the multi-uh modal?

605 is what people have been speaking to.

605 as well.

Please proceed, you'll have three minutes.

Thank you.

Um, and then I also just wanted to clarify too.

It seems like there's been a little bit of inconsistency about um about what is allowed to be spoken to in terms of uh which topics are addressed during agenda uh uh items and which ones are addressed addressed during non-agenda public comment.

Um I just want to make sure that we have some consistency because you know we did have somebody that was speaking earlier, and he was told uh for the Balboa Park thing that he would have to speak on that at a later time because that was being discussed at a later point in the day.

But I didn't see anything in the agenda about uh Freemasonry.

I didn't see anything in the agenda about um accusing council members of drinking blood.

I didn't see anything in the agenda about China invading the United States.

So I'm just curious why um some of our constituents are allowed to have just these unhinged rants, these disrespectful unhinged rants um that aren't cut off.

And uh if that's kind of if we're gonna have that sort of inconsistency, then I would like the freedom to be able to talk about Flock ALPR uh and how I'm opposed to it for the next three minutes.

But I'm not gonna do that.

I'm not gonna disrespect y'all's time like that and disrespect the rules and the decorum like that, but I would hope that it would encourage y'all to do your job and maybe stay on it a little bit better and have more consistency with that, because it's not really fair.

Um to the rest of us, and it's not fair to our council members and uh the people in council right now.

I hope I hope that you're hearing this, because uh please get it together.

It's it's you get more be you get more honey with you get more bees with honey than you do with vinegar, and accusing people making baseless accusations, accusing people of drinking blood, um, uh is like is next level wrong.

So uh get it together.

Thank you.

And uh to speak now on on the actual topics that I wanted to address.

Um, I wanted to speak to 617 um authorization to grant easement SDG and E on that property.

SDGE is a billion dollar company, uh, multi-billion dollar company.

The uh it says the city will receive 20 grand as a payment for the easement.

Uh that seems like it's way too little.

If there's a way that we can charge them way more, um, I'm sure that they can afford it.

That would be awesome.

Um for uh six uh fourteen.

Uh I I love this program.

I think it's fantastic.

I would love to see us go a step further.

I think that uh cops should not only get psychological uh help and treatment and uh as they need for PTSD, but I also think that they should um uh that we should be exploring them getting degrees in psychology so that they can make better judgment calls in the field.

Um and I uh uh applaud uh uh Blair Beekman for speaking to that earlier this morning.

Um and I also want to back uh everybody that's called in asking y'all to fully fund the multimodal team.

I support that a hundred percent.

Thank you.

Next is phone number ending in 7499.

If you can please unmute 7499, and please let me know which item or items you wish to speak to on the consent agenda.

Bob Kaziski here, I'd like to address all the items, but I'll be very brief.

First, I'd like to endorse some of the comments made by allegedly Audra and many others who continually make very good points to this council.

I'd like to speak in particular in object in objection to the ongoing increases in citizen surveillance endorsed by this council.

I read George Orwell's book 1984, back in the 70s when I was still in school.

At that time as a young person, the year 1984 seemed a long, long time in the future.

I remember thinking to myself that the citizen surveillance portrayed in that book could never be practical because for every camera in every room of every house and on every street, there would have to be a person watching it.

That would mean that you'd need at least one or two people watching every citizen.

That would be unsustainable.

But that was before AI.

AI is changing everything.

I am reminded of Jack London's opening to Call of the Wild.

He wrote, quote, Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing.

Not alone for himself, but for every tide water dog, strong of muscle and with warm long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego.

End quote.

That's where we are right now with AI.

The more general data that we give to AI, the more powerful it will become.

And the more personal data that we give to AI, the more abusive it will come become.

This council needs to be very cautious about adding new uh eyes and ears to the AI that is growing because i we won't be able to roll it back.

Thank you.

Leonard, if you'd like to unmute and please let me know which item or items you wish to speak to.

Leonard, I can't unmute for you.

All right.

There you go.

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

Hi, I'll in regards to measure B.

It's a non-agenda.

Can I speak on that, please?

Can you repeat that?

I'm sorry I didn't hear you correctly.

Uh it's on measure B.

Can't it's on a non-agenda item.

Can I speak on that?

You'll have to raise your hand during non-agenda public comment, which will be after.

Oh, I this afternoon.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Judy Strang, if you can please unmute.

Judy Strang, there you go.

Do you know which items you wish to speak to on the consent agenda?

Yes, good morning.

I'd like to speak to item 603, which were meeting notes from March, the Monday and Tuesday meeting back in March.

I spoke to AB 455 and had been thinking about it again.

And of course it's on the agenda by way of comments.

And so I just want to reiterate what a success this was for the public health community.

It was the first law in the nation that would require those who are selling their homes to disclose whether there have been third smoker vape contaminant in their property.

Third-hand smoke, as you know, is that toxic residue that lingers long after cigarettes and vaping devices are extinguished that settles into carpet walls, furniture, and it can persist there for years and then off gases back into the apartment into the condo.

And we of the public health community have always said our greatest concern are for children because they're the closest to furniture and carpet.

So we are excited about this first in the nation.

It's a collaborative process.

It passed with both parties in support.

It shows our concern for smoke.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment on the consent agenda.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Uh, and before I turn over to my council uh colleagues here, for those of you who may have noticed, I continue to look at my phone.

Uh, there's a 45-acre fire in Sorrettal Valley, uh, and there's been a number of evacuation orders uh issued to the southerly part of Torrey Hills, uh, the easterly part of Mira Mesa.

I would certainly encourage those folks, or if you know somebody who lives there, pay attention to the fire rescue folks.

They know what they're doing.

They take their job very seriously when they issue evacuation routes.

Hopefully, everybody's safe and fire rescue and everybody that supports them will be able to put this fire out.

So thank you for letting me throw that in there.

And with that, I will uh turn it over to council member Foster.

Um, thank you, Council President.

I am going to try to keep my comments as brief as I can as I would like to cede um some time, and I will say this on the front end um to um Dr.

Wells.

I want to make sure that he has an opportunity to come to the mic.

Um, okay.

Thank you for that.

Um, so with that, um, I will start with item um 638.

Today I am just so proud to bring forward this recognition for our very own Reverend Dr.

Walter G.

Wells, a man whose life and leadership have touched generations in our community.

Dr.

Wells is a proud graduate of Lincoln High School, a fellow Hornet.

And for more than five decades, and I'll say that again, five decades, he has served as pastor of the Mount Erie Baptist Church.

Fifty-three years of ministry, fifty-three years serving the Lord, had the calling, and has stepped into that gap, accepted that path, and has served consistently and has dedicated his life to our community.

Thank you so much.

But his work has always gone far beyond the walls of the church.

Under his leadership, Mount Erie has become a place where faith, education, service, and community all come together.

He helped establish the Mount Erie Christian Academy, the Infinite Toddler Center, the Charlie Daycare, and the Academy Preschool Center, creating spaces where children could learn, grow, and be cared for correctly.

I always say, no one will take better care of us than us.

So thank you so much for that.

Dr.

Wells understood early on that ministry is not only about what happens on Sunday, it's about meeting the needs of the people throughout the week, supporting families, mentoring young people, educating children, and building up the community around you.

For decades, he has poured love, wisdom, and steady leadership into Lincoln Park, District 4, and the greater San Diego community.

His legacy is seen in the lives he has helped shape the families he has supported and the generations of leaders, believers, and servants who continue to carry that work forward.

Dr.

Wells, your legacy is carried out in the lives you continue to shape, the families you support, and the community that stands stronger today because of your leadership.

This honorary street naming is one small way we can say thank you for a lifetime of service, faith, and commitment to our community.

I am honored to bring this item forward, and I respectfully ask my colleagues to support this very, very important item.

And if I can pause there quickly to allow the good uh Reverend Dr.

Walter G.

Wells to come to the mic.

Now, Councilmember Foster, I know when the good Reverend gets started, it's going to be hard to stop.

So, how much time would you uh I think I'll put five minutes on the clock.

Council President, you're you're welcome to use my.

May I ask how much time do I have?

To our Councilman, Councilman Foster, and to all of the council representatives.

Let me say um how thankful I am to be recognized in such an unusual manner.

I also want to say uh thank you for those who are here from the church where I pastor, Mount Erie Baptist Church.

Can I get you to stand?

And also let me recognize all of my pastor friends who are here and also friends just in the community who are here.

Thank you so much for uh being here and to uh let me know uh just how much you do appreciate uh what I have been trying to do and what God has called me to do.

I've had the privilege of living here in San Diego, and I really think and know that San Diego is the greatest city that you can live in.

I had the privilege of living here uh since 1949, and I just don't know what I can say, because I thought when my mom and I moved here, I was just a little nine-year-old kid, and I thought that we were making the biggest mistake that we could have made in terms of coming to San Diego.

But I found out that God had ordered my steps, and that's really why.

That's really why I'm in such a great city, because no one really can do for you or for me what God has done because God works through human instrumentality, and I just want you to know uh councilman and your staff, and then all of those who have given sanction uh to doing this for me.

I certainly appreciate it, uh, from the depths of my heart, and I will forever be uh grateful.

I'm also reminded of the fact that usually when something like this is done, the person is deceased, and here I am by the grace of God to get to see what God can do and how God moves in such a mysterious way his wonders to perform.

Thank you so much again for allowing me uh to be here, and of course, to allow me to have these words of expression.

Thank you.

Um Pastor Wells, and um for me, as I am in this seat, I felt it was important to make sure, as you say, typically this happens at another time.

I wanted to make sure that we recognize your service, your commitment, uh, so that you were able to be here in chambers and to say some words to our community.

So one other thing that I would like to say briefly um is I just want to make sure that we also recognize the first lady when you took we can give the first lady a round of applause as well because I know that our good uh Dr.

Walter G.

Wells, I'm sure could not do what he is doing without the support and the first lady allowing him to serve and to be shared with the community as he is called to do the work of the Lord.

So thank you so much for all that you have done as well.

Um so um thank you.

Um, with that, um, council president.

I have one more item that I do need to touch on.

Um that is item 604.

Um I believe that is the system that we are moving to in regards to our labor compliance system.

It looks like it is on the consent agenda as well.

I would like to register a no vote um for that item as well, as the city is moving and in ending a contract in relationship with a black women or a woman-owned firm, and we are entering into a new agreement with a non-certified firm at I believe over a hundred percent of the cost.

So we are doubling the cost, and unfortunately, I just can't uh support um removing a contract from a black woman-owned um firm that we are going to pay double the cost.

So I will register a no vote for item 604, and I will move the consent agenda.

All right, thank you, council member Foster.

So we do have a motion to move the consent items.

Second the consent items.

On 638, I happen to notice that clearly the the good Reverend lived life big, both in terms of its faith and in terms of community.

So it's certainly appropriate that you've gone big on the honorary street name.

So thank you, Councilmember Foster for that.

A lot of individuals spoke to item 605, the RMRA funds.

This is a second reading, which gives us almost no actually gives us no latitude to change it.

We have been talking about tapping into this funding source as an option to fund the multimodal team throughout our budget conversations.

So to be clear, if the council takes a budget action tomorrow that utilizes this funding source, the council will go through a second process to reallocate those funds to pick up the multimodal team and then remove some of the slurry seal that was currently in there.

So we need to take an action tomorrow on budget before we would amend our RMRA agreement.

On item 626, the mobility board, thank you to District 1 resident Harry Bobbins.

I see him in the back for your continued service in the mobility board and congratulations on a reappointment and thank you to everyone that is stepping up to serve the public.

Item 636, a resolution affirming the city's commitment to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

I brought this item to rules committee in April in response to the federal government's recent rescision of the EPA's 2009 endangerment finding.

That 2009 finding based on science curbed vehicle emissions and put greenhouse gas emission limits in place nationwide.

This resolution is a commitment to our values to science and standing up to stand up to those who deny climate change and its public health impacts on our communities.

And with that again, I will second the item.

So we have a motion by Councilmember Foster, a second by myself, and we'll go next to Councilmember Von Wolpert.

Thank you very much.

Um quickly on item 638, uh Pastor Wells, congratulations and to your first lady.

Congratulations and thank you for all you've done.

It was beautiful to see you speak today.

And on item 614, I want to thank uh the department for bringing forward the focus contract for wellness that is critically important.

We continue wellness for our first responders.

You know, our lifeguards should also get access to wellness services, and I hope that we're able to do that in the budget uh tomorrow.

And then I just I do have a question for Department of Transportation folks on item um 621.

I don't know if anyone is here from Transportation who can answer question on item 621, which is a settlement.

Uh we're paying out six hundred thousand dollars to a motorcyclist who is injured on a portion of Rancho Bernardo Road at uh Rancho or Bernardo Center Drive, which I have been telling the city for years has been a mess.

And so I know we're working on a plan to repave it, but when are we gonna repave it?

Good morning, Naomi Chavez, interim director for transportation department.

Um we are factoring that into our paving schedule for fiscal year 27, and that is something that we can prioritize for the first quarter of the year.

Can we do it in July?

We can certainly look into it.

Okay.

I just between Rancho Bernardo Road and Carl Mountain Road.

We paid 600,000 out to a motorcyclist who was injured on Carl Mountain Road last year.

We've now paid 1.2 million dollars in settlements on road injuries in my district to roads that we have been trying to tell the department are a problem.

That 1.2 million dollars could have paid for the payment of these roads, and so I just don't know how to better communicate.

We know our districts, you know.

How do we better communicate to the department before liability occurs?

And then once an accident does happen, why don't we instantly go and fix it so it doesn't happen again?

We can have that conversation offline, but it's just we need to stop the bleeding of city settlement money out the door when we're trying to raise the alarm that these roads are a mess.

Um so thank you for working on it.

But I I am gonna push to get this fixed immediately because if another plaintiff falls, they're going to be able to have a past history and the damages will be through the roof.

So I'm glad we're gonna work about I'm gonna push for July.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Um thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Von Wolper.

We'll go next to Councilmember Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh I want to join my colleagues and congratulating Pastor Wells on his well-deserved honor and thank him for his words and chamber this morning.

And I thank Councilmember Foster for bringing the item forward this morning.

I want to acknowledge the concerns uh the Dowtown residents have raised about the noise exemption language in the code update.

Noise is consistently one of the biggest issues that my office hears about from Dowtown residents.

Uh, this language was not intended to create an uncapped exemption from the noise ordinance.

Permitted activities do still have to go through an established review process that does evaluate noise impacts.

That said, uh I would like to ask our planning director, Heidi Bod Blub, who is with us as sporting if she could speak to this.

Uh good morning, Councilmember Webburn and members of the city council.

Um I did distribute a memo on Friday in response to concerns that we had received from both the downtown community planning group as well as the community planners committee on this particular item.

Um I do want to provide the additional clarification and certainty to this council and members of the public that the item is not intended to exempt uses from the noise regulations.

Noise regulations are an important part of uh our land development code um and land uses and really uh the clarification is just of existing law, and it provides um a call out for instances where the city has carefully considered the use through discretionary process where noise impacts have been evaluated.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Febblem.

Uh my office will stay engaged with residents and with city staff on how noise protections are structured going forward, uh certainly a legitimate concern.

I also appreciate those who commented uh the project list for the RMRA, the road maintenance and rehabilitation account funds, uh, as I mentioned during our budget hearing on Friday.

I share the view that we should restore the multimodal team to the budget.

Uh like Council President Ocava, I don't want to do that uh in the item that is in front of us uh as the council president mentioned this is the second reading of this item, and it includes the implementation of the speed management plan, uh, which has funding for the citywide reduction of posted speed limits, which is also very important to making streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.

And since this is the second reading of the item, if we were to change it today, we'd have to go back to the first reading, and I don't want to hold all this up.

So uh as the council president mentioned, there's still an opportunity in the budget conversation to restore the multivotal team if that is the will of my colleagues.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

And we'll go next to Councilmember Campillo.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Just want to reiterate an agreement with what you uh pointed out about the RMRA issue as well as Councilmember Whitburn in full agreement with you there.

Obviously, the the technicality of getting this done today uh has to move forward, but I'm a thousand percent behind on what you pointed out.

Furthermore, on item 642, Council President, my sincere thank you for what you've done and you too, Council Member Whitburn on 642.

That concludes my comments.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Campia.

We'll go next to Councilmember Ilo Rivera.

All right, thank you, Council President.

Um I'll start by thanking uh Councilmember Foster for bringing forward the street renaming.

I do really appreciate that you the timing.

I think about, you know, one of the street renamings that we we did in my district and how nice it would have been for that person to hear the words, and so um well deserved, um, Pastor, and and I'm glad that the timing worked out uh in this sort of way.

Thank you for having the the intentionality to do that in the way that you've done.

Um and then um I I want to express some appreciation for the advocates related to item 605.

I said it last week, I'll say it again.

You know, we're we're being pulled in a lot of directions here, and oftentimes um the tension between wanting to fund important work and um being willing to ask folks to resource that work makes it very difficult to bridge that gap.

And in this case, we've we we had some advocates and and um folks here at the city who continue to work for ways to find uh creative solutions to use existing resources to do um to do important work to keep our streets safe.

It doesn't mean it doesn't come without trade-offs, but we're being uh I think very transparent about what those trade trade-offs are.

So um council president, thank you for statements you've made.

I'm glad to hear council members whippern and campillo are also on the same page.

Um and um again, I think just a tip of the cap for the creativity there, um, and again, with the willingness to to recognize that there are some trade-offs because that's that's where we're that's where we're at.

Until we have more resources, there's going to continue to be a very challenging trade-offs.

Uh, that concludes my comments.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Ila Rivera.

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

Thank you, Council President, and uh and thank you for mentioning the the fire in Sorona Valley, as we're both um dealing with those evacuations at the moment.

Um I do want to take the moment to uh congratulate Pastor Wells, but also on the turnout of the community to help celebrate that as well.

So I imagine the uh opportunity when you actually unveil it will be a significant one in the uh community, and thanks to my uh colleague, Councilmember Foster for making this special.

Um I just briefly wanted to note on item 626, a reappointment to the mobility board of Jeff Dosick from University City, and congratulate him on his reappointment.

Um thank him for his service.

Uh, he's been a university city resident for over 30 years, uh, been a very active community member, and has really advocated for uh public transportation and mobility, and we appreciate his service on that board.

So thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Uh, not seeing anyone else in the lights.

Uh we do have a motion by council member Foster, a second by myself to move the consent items.

Clerk, please call the roll.

I've started the voting system.

Please cast your vote.

That does pass unanimously with council district four voting no on item six oh four.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Uh and with that, we will now take up our morning discussion agenda.

Clerk, please introduce item 628.

Item 628 is the pro housing designation program application.

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

And if you're 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, thank you.

I take a little moment, let the crowd.

All right, now that we've got the uh slide deck up, uh staff, please introduce yourself for the record and let us know how much time you need for your presentation.

Good morning, council members.

Um, we should only need about five minutes for our presentation.

All right, when you're ready.

Uh my name is Melissa Garcia, and I'm a senior planner with the city planning department.

Today I'm joined by Seth Lichney, Deputy Director with the City Planning Department, and Heidi Von Bloom, City Planning Director.

Today we're here to present the pro-housing designation application.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD, created a pro-housing designation program to promote housing development and acknowledge jurisdictions that go above and beyond state housing law.

The program provides incentives to cities and counties in the form of additional points and preference in the scoring of competitive housing, community development, and infrastructure programs.

Pro housing cities get additional application points for several state funding programs, including the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Grant, the Infill Infrastructure Grant, Transformative Climate Communities, Solutions for Congested Corridors, Local Partnership Program, Transit and Inner City Rail Capital Program, and the Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant Program.

SANDAC also provides benefits to pro-housing cities in their grant award process, including guaranteed points in the pro-housing section of competitive grant applications for the Smart Growth Incentive Program and the Active Transportation Grant Program.

The Pro Housing Designation is also required for certain state grants, like the upcoming seventh round of the homeless housing assistance and prevention program.

To be eligible to receive the pro housing designation, the city must have a certified general plan housing element.

The city's housing element was certified by HCD in September 2021.

The city must also submit an application to HCD explaining its programs and policies that promote home development.

The city received the Pro Housing Designation in 2022 and was one of the first cities in the state to receive the designation.

However, the city is required to reapply in order to maintain its designation.

The Pro Housing Application has four categories for pro housing policies: favorable zoning and land use, acceleration of housing production time frames, reduction of construction and development costs, and providing financial subsidies.

A total of 30 points is needed to obtain a pro housing designation.

The city's draft application contains a total of 67 points.

Points included are attributed to several of the city's pro-housing home incentive programs like Complete Communities, Affordable Homes in All Communities, and the numerous programs adopted in the housing action packages.

Additional points are awarded for streamlined approvals, parking standards, and home funding and assistance programs like the San Diego Housing Trust Fund, Affordable Housing Preservation Fund, and the Rental Assistance Programs.

The Pro Housing Designation Application requires the city to conduct public outreach as part of the process.

To fulfill this requirement, a draft web page was created to inform the public of this effort and gather input on the gap and the draft application.

An email notification was sent out.

The planning department requested input on the draft application, and the public's and this public city council hearing is also part of the required public participation.

Any comments received will be considered when drafting the final application.

The next steps in this process include collecting all public input received from this process, including any comments from this hearing, finalizing the application, submitting the application to HCD.

HCD has 60 days to review the application once it's received.

Following the 60 days, HCD will notify the city if additional edits to the application are needed or if certification is granted.

Staff's recommendation is to approve the proposed action to submit an application for a pro housing designation.

Authorize the mayor or designee to enter into, execute, and deliver all documents required to participate in the pro-housing designation program, and acknowledge that the city is in compliance with applicable state law and will refrain from taking action to inhibit or constrain housing production and will commit to affirmatively furthering fair housing.

That concludes staff's presentation.

We're available to answer questions.

Thank you.

Alright, thank you for the uh presentation.

Um clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you.

Can I have Joyce Anyata, allegedly Audra and Max Schmidt?

Max Schmidt, please come up to the yellow reserve seats.

Joy, we'll start with you.

I'll be very short.

I think it's one sentence.

Pro housing, big yes to anything in support of HAP, HHAP funding from the state.

Gotta get it.

Gotta have it in place long-term ongoing.

And a big thank you to the planning department.

Heidi, I just that Heidi, isn't she something else?

She's just, I'm adding time, but I just had to say that I'm just amazed by her brilliance.

And uh, what would we do without her, really?

So uh thank you very much.

Yes, big yes on this.

Thank you.

Allegedly, Audra.

It'd be nice if you guys really provided housing.

It's crazy, you guys will go through hoops to get funding as long as you follow policies and procedures, which looks like you're like doing the right thing, but you're failing miserably, and who's determining what's affordable?

Because I mean, people already tell you when they come in here, I mean, they're just trying to survive while you guys, you know, up the taxes on anything or fees or more parking or whatever it is, and it's like, you know, there's it that's just the way the government works, though, and it's sad because people actually think that you guys are good stewards of our money, that you're not um, you know, just trying to follow a policy.

Well, the policy should be that you provide affordable housing.

And if you like affordable housing is like being determined by somebody who's defining what a woman is, it's like, I mean, you could just say it's affordable all you want.

Doesn't mean it really has to be, but it's just sad because it's like you you have you know, you want to create your plan and you say we have this program, but then it's like you just you just go outside and you see, I mean, literally outside the chambers, you guys walk over them at night.

I mean, some people go give them food, but it's like it's kind of just like an eyesore, like oh my gosh, let's get to my car.

So I mean, that should be in itself a telltale sign that you guys are failing because it's not housing for all, all of us, all of us.

I mean, you say that, and again, they're just words that you use, but I mean, let's actually do that.

You know, I mean, instead of contracting with people like dreams for change, that people would die before they get out of 10 city.

I mean, just the way you guys treat the homeless, it's that.

I mean, again, people will die on these steps, and yet we're creating housing for all.

As long as you guys get that money right, then it can go to your friends.

Good job.

Max Schmidt.

Hi.

Um proposing to spend more tax dollars on um housing, affordable housing for the homeless and whatnot, is an extremely, extremely extremely personal issue for me because I lived in um subsidized housing.

And during that time, I kid you not, I'm here to open Pandora's box.

I was targeted by Freemasons, some call it mind control.

What exactly does that mean?

And I want to say one thing, you will not silence my voice by calling me schizophrenic or mentally ill, and that this isn't happening to American patriots because it is.

What happened when I was living in the subsidized apartments was that there was a constant, ever-present voice that was uh re saying literally antagonizing me, patronizing me, mocking me, accusing me of things constantly, nonstop in my apartment.

So the apartments are untenable.

This is a serious problem.

Liberal cities are targeting American patriots, and yes, I walk with patriot groups.

Yes, I stand with the people's militia.

They're targeting American patriots and the possessed and the demon possessed liberal politicians in San Diego are enabling it and working with them.

They're all Masonic brothers, and they have Masonic brothers abroad, and that's why they want to create a one-world government, and Satan is commanding them to do this.

So I know about a quote group rituals.

I know about teleporting.

I know about cannibalism in the Masonic Lodge.

You will not silence my voice with 5150 loss because they are communists and the First Amendment still lives in this country.

Thank you.

Going to those participating remotely.

I'm sorry, the five-minute timer.

Hector, if you can please unmute.

Currently have three speakers in the queue.

Please proceed.

Thanks a lot for thanks a lot for taking my call.

We don't need to be linked with the state anymore.

In my neighborhood in Linda Vista up the hill from uh Mission Valley, fifteen eighty news are coming on board.

They're almost finished now.

One block, two houses, they're adding fifteen ADUs under the old program that the state planned out and slipped it in there, and they haven't moved in yet, but all of a sudden there's gonna be 30 cars on one block, and there's no parking at all.

And also we've had an influx of apartment buildings being built like crazy in Mission Valley and Linda Vista up the hill where the fires were.

We might have another four thousand units that are available.

Or they're gonna be really soon, and they're building them.

They're not affordable, and they're not occupied.

You know, there's not a big rut.

There's some people in there, but there's thousands of units already available.

And maybe with the guys that built them, have them if you don't occupy the units within six months, the rent is five hundred bucks a month.

That would occupy them.

You know, that would be really legitimate.

We we don't no more state stuff.

We don't need let the builders build their own houses.

And let's do the mass deportation.

If we deported 150,000 people that live in San Diego County illegally, there'd be a lot less there'd be huge housing available.

Affordable housing.

There'd be competition for rent.

So if we mass re deportation now at the convention center, we could get paid for it.

It'll be reverse, reverse, you know, occupying.

They gotta go, man.

Let's do it.

Okay, bye.

Next is Tony.

If you can please unmute.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Please proceed.

Hey, how's it going, City Council?

Hey, I just wanted to talk about the article that was uh released yesterday by the Times of San Diego, uh, that was talking about the flock license plate reader that linked an innocent San Diego man to a violent crime that he was five miles away from.

I would hope that all of y'all uh would take a look at that article and become familiar with it and read it, uh, because there's gonna be a lot of people showing up tomorrow that are gonna be talking about it, and you'll want to have it as a reference point to uh for those of you that are gonna be defending Flock, you're gonna uh want to dissect that article so that you can have something rebut.

Um and there really is nothing.

This is the second week in a row, or rather the the second time in the last month that we've seen uh Flock has completely failed.

Um, if it was having an audition, um, it would have lost its job already, uh, because it it failed two weeks ago uh when it sent police to the shopping center, uh uh and it and they took over two hours to respond, um to the shooting that happened at the Islamic Center, and then it failed this man uh back in November of 2025, actually, just a couple of weeks before we had the big meeting about it, and if we had known that this had happened back then, um I w it probably maybe hopefully would have affected the council's decision and the choice to vote the way that it did.

Marnie Von Wilbert, you just expressed concern about the potholes and the one point five million or the the million dollar settlement uh by those roads not getting fixed.

Well, guess what?

These two gentlemen um who were falsely arrested by uh this flock uh ALPR, uh misreading by SDPD.

They're both charging the city, they're both suing the city for one and a half million each, right?

And that's more than the entire cost of the flock contract for this year, which was supposed to be two million, and uh they're gonna get it because they were falsely imprisoned.

One of them was falsely in prison for over a month.

He spent Thanksgiving in jail uh uh without his family uh uh because of this misread misread calculation by Flock.

We need to cancel the contract.

If you can please unmute after that, our final speaker is seven four nine nine.

Blair.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

Uh I wanted to comment uh thank you much for this item.

Um, I think I think there really can be a way to develop a dialogue with the federal level uh on the future of housing.

They always make it difficult.

Um, it's just the nature of uh conservative party right wing Republican practices, but there is ways that we can be working on things.

Good luck that we can and what this item can be doing.

The mayor, uh, when he just recently became president of the U.S.

mayor's conferences uh mayors or association, whatever they are.

He gave a speech.

He's he's a leader now, and he made a speech that um uh it's important that we talk with our federal agencies on housing and what we can accomplish.

And I was really impressed by that, because man, that's it's my feeling exactly.

I've been in the same place, actually.

So um, boy, good luck that uh I think there is ways that we can address the future of housing that is kind of been on the uprise, I've heard actually in California.

Um, so I hope that can bring in the concepts of middle income housing and how much I think would that really I mean there's a many ways in what that can really accomplish and uh for uh very low and extremely low income housing, how that is hopeful.

And uh as long as we're thinking of those two subjects as the base of our future of housing, then we're in a good place.

And for our federal leaders to understand that concept, um, man, that would be a lot.

And I think we can do it.

And by doing that, um, that's building our sustainable future.

Good luck on our efforts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And our final speaker is 7499.

If you can please unmute Bob Kazowski here.

I just want to endorse the earlier comments opposing surveillance and about the deportation of illegal citizens.

In particular, it's clear that our housing problem could be greatly reduced by deporting people who are here against our laws.

However, it's important for citizens to realize that the goals of this council and of this mayor are not the same as the goals of the citizens.

The council and the mayor want more population in San Diego because that makes them more important and more powerful.

They don't really care about what the citizens actually want.

Thank you.

And that concludes public comment on this item.

All right, thank you, city clerk.

With that, we'll go to the council for questions, comments, and retain a motion.

We'll start with the chair of the land use and housing committee, council president, pro tem Lee.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh, thank you to Heidi and the entire city planning department.

Uh, since our last pro housing designation in November of 2022, our annual housing report shows that we've made progress on our arena goals.

We've continued to pass how pro-housing policies and continue to affirmatively further fair housing as well.

Uh, applying from this uh continued designation from the state signifies our commitment to expand our capacity to make more homes available for our working families, students, seniors, and our most vulnerable residents.

And from there, I think we can all recognize that we continuously have more work to do in order to translate that capacity into actual housing production, as well as and continuing to find ways in which we can lower costs that ultimately lower uh whether it's rental or housing purchases and costs for residents.

Uh, as the chair of land use and housing, I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues this year to move that needle forward.

And with that, I will move the item.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Council President Pro Temp.

So we do have a motion by the Pro Tem uh to move the item, and we'll go next to council member Woodburn.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh thank you, Council President Proteb Lee for your comments.

Uh thank you to Ms.

Von Blubb and the Plighting Department for the presentation and all the work that you do for the city.

Uh this designation is important because it gives the city access to pro housing grants, uh additional points and scoring of competitive housing, community development and infrastructure applications, preference and other state grant programs.

And I am happy to second the motion.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

So we do have a motion by the Council President Pro Tem Lee and a second by Councilmember Whitburn to move the item.

And we'll go next to Councilmember Campio.

Thank you, Council President.

I want to thank our planning department for the good work on this.

This is something I really strongly support.

I've seen this designation yield how uh funding for housing that was built in Linda Vista for seniors.

That's really, really important for the communities like Linda Vista.

But just from a basic point of view, why wouldn't San Diegans want more of their tax dollars coming back down to serve the needs we have in San Diego?

At the bottom line, that is an uh a win for all of us.

So I thank them for the good work on this, and I'm happy to be in support.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Campia.

We'll go next to council member Foster.

Oh yes, thank you.

Um Council President, and I will be supportive of this item as I do feel that housing is a critical, critical need, and everyone should have a place that they call home and a place that they are proud of and um we have work to do.

Um but I just want to just say as we continue to move forward, um, I just want to make sure and touch upon the things that I have concerns about.

Um, making sure that we are continuing um to um make sure we're staying engaged with the community.

I think there's a lot of things that we can do in regards to our communication efforts, our education efforts to do a better job with um communities.

Um also I just want to make sure we got a balanced approach as we continue to move forward.

Um I want to make sure that we are not um concentrating poverty, especially in a community such as District 4.

Um I want to make sure that we get some guardrails in and that we are doing our best job to um make sure we're we're just um making sure we are achieving that that balance.

Um also um I must say um I'm also concerned just about the product that we get in District 4.

Um I received uh a call from um DSD saying that there's a project that is um potentially coming online where um units are less than 200 square feet.

Um I'm not understanding how we are um looking at allowing um that type of um product um especially in certain uh communities in certain areas.

So I just want to make sure that we're putting our best wood forward um as we are continuing to meet the call and to make sure that um folks um have a place um that they call home, that's safe, um, and that they have that um sense of pride.

Um so we definitely have work to do, but I will be supportive of this item today.

So thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Foster.

Uh, not seeing anybody else in the lights.

Um, I'll add some quick thoughts, of course.

We'll be supportive of this, and I appreciate Councilmember Campillos doing the math that says when we're sending tax dollars to Sacramento and Washington, DC, let's clause much of that back to help um uh our residents and our businesses.

So uh yeah, this is a pretty straightforward one.

Um and to the public comment, uh, you know, we're not meeting the needs of all San Diegans with our housing.

Uh I think we're pulling every lever that we have at our disposal.

Uh and some of those levers are ham tied by what Sacramento's interpretation of how housing should be delivered, but I think we're pulling every lever.

I think that's one of the reasons the city of San Diego is recognized statewide as a leader in housing going forward.

Um we are a little bit at the mercy, for lack of a better word, about what private development chooses to do and how private development chooses to advertise their products.

Uh they get to use the word affordable with lowercase A all the time.

Um I think we take it very seriously about designating housing with a capital A that is truly affordable uh with well understood uh metrics.

Are we delivering enough?

No.

We all know that.

We all recognize that.

Are we delivering enough at moderate income?

No.

We all know that.

Uh, but I know the planning department works every day to try to get creative to figure out how we can deliver more of those products uh at those price points, uh, how we do our community plan updates and trying to accelerate those uh uh community plan updates.

Uh, that I think uh, as we said at a previous meeting, uh housing is good, planning is good.

Uh, and as council member foster said, that balance is what we're I think constantly trying to do.

Private marketplace will do what the private marketplace is going to do.

Um, but to the degree that we can influence good planning, good products that meets the needs of San Diegans.

I think we are doing our job.

But yeah, we're not meeting everyone, and we're all saying if somebody have to say it out loud every once in a while.

Uh I'm happy to be the one to do that.

So, with that, we have a motion by Council President Pro Tem Lee and a second by Councilmember Whipburn.

Please call the roll.

As for the voting system, please cast your vote.

That passes unanimously nine to zero.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, City Clerk, and thank you to the planning department and the mayor's office for bringing this item forward.

So with that, we will now take up non-agenda public comment.

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.

Uh, and again, as uh a respectful request to my colleagues, it is noon.

I don't know how many folks we have lined up, but let us know.

If you're gonna leave early, let's hold the the fort with at least four of us, uh including myself that would make five uh through that um public non-agenda public comment period.

So with that clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you.

And just to know we have four in person and nine currently with their hands raised in the queue, starting with Jacob Lewis.

Jacob Lewis, I do not see him here.

Max Schmidt, if you can please come up to the microphone.

After that will be Joy Sanyata and then allegedly Audra.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Um, I just wanted I just wanted to say um a lot of people have given the ultimate sacrifice for this country.

Um, and for me not to have mental freedom is sh is an embarrassment to the United States, the American flag, and the San Diego City government.

You know who I am.

You know I walk around San Diego public streets and people stalk me constantly and they're telepathic Freemasons.

I can say my thoughts out loud and endlessly terrorize me by doing this.

You know that they do that.

You know what's going on.

And then when I naively and foolishly went to the police for help because I am kind of an innocent person where I didn't know what to do.

I felt like a prisoner of war, to be honest.

The police 515 me.

Oh, then 5250 me, and I had to leave the state to not get an antipsychotic injection and became homeless.

And you know what's going on, and I will not capitulate to the new world order.

I will continue to expose them by saying they don't like me talking about that the majority of the West Coast is reincarnating communist freemasons with Satan commanding them to form a one-world government, and that they're also literally teleporting.

These people do not drive cars.

The majority of people on the West Coast teleport around.

That's how potent or whatever you want to call it, demonic, diabolical, these occult group rituals are where in the Masonic Lodge, they're worshiping Satan to such a degree that they're doing human sacrifices.

These people are actually possessed by the devil.

They literally teleport around like demons, and my voice will not be silenced, and you're not going to call me schizophrenic or crazy again because I'm not stupid.

I know what's going on, and you know that when I walk around San Diego public streets, I'm getting harassed, and the cops are corrupt and enabling it down with the equal.

Thank you.

Next we have Joy Sanyata.

And sorry, did I note for the record that if you are online now is the time to raise your hand by pressing the raise your hand icon or calling participants star nine if you're winding on and gonna pull a general public comment virtually?

We do have some Spanish speakers on the queue.

See, stay in linea y que hablar sobre asuntos que no están en la agenda, por favor, prime estrella nueve o el icono de la manita.

Amarilla, gracias.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

A little bit ago, I left the chambers and I went around a walk around the block.

I needed that.

Guess what?

I saw the sun.

The sun was shining.

The sky was that beautiful blue.

There was a little breeze blowing.

There were people walking dogs.

There was a homeless person sitting in a wheelchair.

And suddenly I had a question for myself.

What are you fighting for?

What am I fighting for?

So the top priority is that I am fighting for our voices being heard and respected.

This is storytelling.

The TMDR Tours Marketing District said this very recently, that how they do their marketing is via storytelling.

All our work is storytelling.

And we do an ancient ritual that goes back to the beginning of people.

This is the work of all of us to tell our stories because we must remember that the miracle of life, the miracle of life, is unfolding before our very eyes.

We are it.

We are life.

And it is a miracle, and let us never forget that.

Love to all.

Thank you, allegedly, Audra.

It's interesting because everything has to do with good and evil.

That's why Ephesians 6 is so important for us to put on the full armor of God, because we fight not just against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness.

And so for things that Max is saying, those are very true things.

There are Freemasons.

There are elite, there are people in the Illuminati who sacrifice children, human beings.

They drink blood.

They do satanic abuse rituals.

San Diego is a very prominent stomping ground for that.

And the thing, the kind of technologies that he's talking about, they can't put words into your brain.

I mean, it's the voice of God.

There's many different technologies, and they do MKUltra, you know, mind control on people, so it's like he sounds like Looney Tunes, of course, but those are things that that do take place.

And it's like when we have, you know, officers like McGibbons, you know, and and the child pornography, it's like America's the biggest consumers of child porn.

I mean, Tim Tebow found 338,000 IP addresses that were uh just single ones that were transmitting this kind of data, children.

So I mean, you guys have children.

It's like nobody wants to talk about these things, and that's why they perpetuate, is because we sit here and we brush it under the rug.

That's too crazy to talk about.

But this is why the world is like it is.

Um, um Charla.

See?

Okay.

Gracias, muy amable.

Perdon.

Members del Consejo de San Diego.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Fanny Esquivel.

Stoya Kiko de la Comunidad Yuna Mamma preoccupada por la I'm here as a member of a commu of my community and as a worried mother about trash, about the state of trash.

And about tobacco shops that are within my community.

And they pick them up to play with them.

There are children that are touching nicotine, which is an active drug.

And they're uh and their hands and their clothes are full of the nicotine and the tobacco.

El consumo de tabaco y tirarestos al piso sian normalizado y eso no está bien.

The consumption of cigarettes and nicotine and discarding them on the street has become a regular has become regularly accepted, and that is not okay.

Instead of being able to relax as my kids play outside, I have to be constantly concerned that they are outside playing with a toxic substance.

My children deserve to be able to play in a space that is free and safe, free of tobacco.

We need more information and more support for the community in order to address the situation.

Gracias por su tiempo.

This is uncluyoso, we say that we are a clean and a safe and a good city, but that is not reflected in the way that our streets are taken care of.

I ask for your support in getting this address.

Tony, if you can please unmute.

That also does uh conclude the five-minute timer.

We have 11 people in the queue.

Uh 12, nobody else will be taken.

Tony, please proceed.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Hey, my apologies for the earlier comment about Flock ALPR.

I was meaning to leave that comment during this portion, and I don't mean to be a hypocrite in calling out earlier other people that uh leave comments that aren't related to the agenda topic.

So my apologies.

That was my error.

That was my mistake.

Um, but getting back to I guess that the housing element earlier, the thing that y'all were voting on.

Um, I I will I I don't think I would have been in support of it anyway, just because I don't uh know that Todd Gloria is necessarily uh somebody that I would trust with the housing development process.

Um, if if I understand correctly that's what the if that's what the issue was about, but I'm not entirely sure if uh I'm addressing that with the full subject knowledge that I should be in order to be speaking on it.

Um, uh with that said, I'd like to just finish what I was saying earlier about Flock ALPR and the article that I was referring to.

Um, I will try to send in a copy tomorrow so that y'all can see it when I'm speaking.

Um I think I think that's done through the city clerk.

Um I I I think that's what I have to do in order to send that in, but I'll I'll look it up online in just a moment.

But it would be to the article.

Um I just I just wanted to speak to the fact that um the like like I was saying, those two uh settlements, or rather the the two lawsuits, the two uh c the two suits that have been filed um are for one point five million each.

Um that's more than flock is is uh the contract costs for the entire year.

Um I know that we see it as a force multiplier.

I know that we see ourselves being a hundred police short, but I'm really questioning where those numbers come from, considering um they are statistics that are based upon comparing us to other cities that have a comparative population size, but those other cities have higher uh crime rates.

So those are uh not analogous.

Your time has concluded.

Barbara Gordon, if you can please unmute.

Um good afternoon.

As a health advocate, mental health services are vital, especially for individuals with justice involvement, many due to substance abuse.

I wanted to share with you um Sandag's 2025 juvenile arrestee drug use report.

This is a self-reported by juveniles who have been arrested.

Marijuana continues to be the most popular drug used, consistent in with previous years, marijuana at 93% was the most commonly used substance among those interviewed.

Youth were asked about recent drug use um of marijuana, and it showed that the percentage use was 73% used with in the past 30 days.

Most of those had used uh marijuana, but they perceived it as harmless.

When asked about the ease of assessing certain substances, most um described marijuana as very easy or easy to obtain.

Again, youth's perception of marijuana is that it's easier to obtain than both tobacco or alcohol.

This um report underscores the risk of the city's widespread marketing of marijuana, whether it's through billboards, storefronts, advertisement or signings.

The accessibility and availability of marijuana is unparalleled compared to other drugs in the city.

When cities leaders advocate for more pot shop, it makes our society less safe.

People do not make their best decisions when they are high or stoned.

Please stop putting profits ahead of young people's health and safety.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you, Kathleen Lippett.

If you can please unmute.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council.

I want to thank Senora Escopal for her wise comments and concerns regarding tobacco-related products and the debris and the harms that they pose for children.

But I wanted to speak about parks and recreational activities for youth that are essential.

One of those recreational resources is the surf soccer fields of Del Mar.

But the city continues to ignore its responsibility to enforce the deed restrictions adopted in 2016, when the city entered a 28-year lease with surf sports, effectively ending years of peaceful rural equestrian use.

Since 2016, the frequency and size of the activities and events on this land have grown exponentially.

Requests to the city to adhere to the restrictions of the grant deed are ignored by the city and surf, restoring the peace, tranquility, and rural character of the community and access to a local resource for passive, non-commercial, recreational use, walking, hiking, bird watching are no longer possible.

Surfs exorbitant $20 a day fees to watch children play soccer is a barrier to access for low-income families, but it also is onerous for middle income families.

The city faces a lawsuit for failing to honor these grant deed restrictions that bar large assemblies of people and cars.

2500 a day are now on event weekends and limit the use of property to 25 days a year.

Thank you to council member von Wilpert for your common sense recognition that fixing roads preventatively can stop the litigation, subsequent litigation when these roads have not been not been fixed, but they have been identified.

Thank you.

If you can please unmute.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

Uh, thanks for the morning meeting today.

Um, a real good luck that, you know, um I started coming to uh public meetings because you know I've been so I was so shocked by the events of 9-11 and the fact that we don't ever know how to talk about it more openly and accountably, what may have actually happened on that day.

Um, you know, when tech policies came around tech accountability, to me, it was a really important way to practice how we can eventually talk about peace and not war.

Good luck to the people who are talking at this time and how, you know, in the importance of their items.

Um free speech is important.

Uh believing them is important, understanding their point of view.

I think you can get a lot of support from councilpersons, but also respecting the decorum of the public meeting process and learning to balance those two things.

Uh, good luck how we all try to do that.

I have to do that with my issues.

I can go through the tear my teeth out, you know, how shocking to think the day of 9-11 was, but I try to do it working within day-to-day policies.

You guys have a little had a lot of patience with me trying to practice that and learn that, and thank you.

And I hope uh it can be good advice for the new people who are talking at this time, how they can learn uh to balance what their feelings.

Um, with that said, I'm I'm dealing a lot with the ALPR's issues right now.

I think everyone is in San Diego.

Really good luck.

The city of Oakland, after Trump first got into office, it was either the Oakland police, the Sheriff's Department, or the BART police.

They started jumping onto bus on the buses and and taking out criminals like they had the ALPR technology that allowed them to just know exactly where criminals were, and they were just plucking them out of everywhere.

And it was really questionable how they were doing that.

And that seemed illegal.

And so they stopped doing that.

And I think that's what San Diego's police and AOPRs are all trying to address.

What is legal in their work with ALPR use?

And how do we have that conversation openly and clearly to uh understand guidelines?

Your time has concluded.

Hector, if you can please unmute.

Thanks for taking my call.

I wanted to talk about the Tijuana sewer problem that's never seems to be going away.

And Mexico is not our friend.

They've imported a millions of pounds of dope into us, killed 400,000 of our young people.

Right now they're spending a billion dollars in Tijuana on an elevated highway to and they're not built taking care of their sewer treatment plant.

They're spending a billion dollars on a deep water port in uh the Gulf of California there.

They're gonna start importing a lot of stuff there.

They're building a competition to the Panama Canal with China down there in Panama to build rail lines and two deep water ports.

You're spending ten billion dollars with the Chinese, their criminal buddy who are importing all the drugs.

So we need to focus on the Tijuana River problem, build our own sewer plant, state of the art, and we'll have a tariff on Mexico.

Trump's got terrace on them, we'll take tariff money to build it.

Don't kid yourself.

Mexico is not our friend.

Quit being friends with those guys, they're polluting the young kids' lungs.

We don't need to study, no more about the Tijuana River Valley.

That's a waste of money studying it.

Anyone wants to study it?

And also uh any kind of pro-border stuff with those guys, it's over until they fix their sewer problem, or we can fix a state of the art sewer treatment plant on our side of the border, use the use the we'll do the money, and then we'll build it, we'll charge them, we'll charge them a fine of ten dollars to come across the board.

We just gotta be done with one problem at a time, and otherwise it's never gonna get solved.

Okay, bye.

Your time has concluded.

John Stump, our next speaker.

After that, is Judy Strang.

John Stump, please proceed.

I cannot.

There you go.

Hey, there I go.

Well, I was um really disappointed on item 613, and initially I thought maybe these uh speakers who are talking about uh uh the uh different conspiracies have got something right, uh that maybe maybe it is uh uh drinking blood and oast of Satan or something that guides this council.

But of course, I don't think I've gone that far.

Luckily, the other lesson of today's council meeting is if you don't do things right, and you don't get on top of it, you pay millions of dollars in court settlements, and that's the beauty of the Constitution, the U.S.

Constitution.

Um they divided the government into three parts an executive, a legislative, and a judicial, and thank God for the judicial, because it gives us an opportunity when the executive and the legislature don't listen to the citizens and the concerns of the citizens, an opportunity of where to proceed and maybe get justice so um I hope that the council uh fully funds the liability fund.

I hope the council fully funds the flood damage from 2024 during the budget hearings, and I wish you all a very good day.

I and I want to say hi to a Miss Sunata.

She supported one of the settlements and recognized the judicial system.

Sorry, your time has expired.

Judy Strang, if you can please unmute.

After that is Peggy Walker.

Judy Strang.

Yes, good afternoon.

I've been speculating on the defeat of Prop A, Measure A on the ballot, as many media outlets have.

And I would remind us all that within the city of San Diego, 24 to 25% of the voters identify as independent.

And that percentage gets considerably higher in the unincorporated area of the county, up to as much as 34-35%.

So I'm wondering if we have a good understanding of what the public wants.

You hear from a portion of the public expressing their concerns.

I'm wondering if the lack of attendance at City Council meeting is some indication that perhaps you're missing what we need to tell you and what we care about.

I often speak to public health concerns, and so I appreciated the young mother who spoke to her children picking up cigarettes in the public venue.

And many of us have spoken to you about the role of smoking and vaping, be it tobacco or marijuana.

And I would hope that you'd have some appreciation for the fact that here in our county, only nine percent of the population smokes.

It isn't a right to smoke.

So when we bring to your attention that we would like our public venues to be smoke-free and vape-free so that you would reduce the toxic waste that occurs because of it, and in an area where everything leads to the ocean, it would certainly improve the quality of the water as well.

I hope you're listening to us.

We are not choosing sides, we're just speaking for ourselves as people who want to be healthy and really hope that everyone around us has that opportunity as well and has an opportunity to live where their air and their water is cleaner and that their air is smoke-free and vape free.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Peggy Walker.

After that is 7499.

Peggy Walker, please unmute.

Good morning, and thank you.

As a public health advocate, I'd like to share important information just published by the International Journal of Drug Policy, which is warning policymakers of rising rates of cannabis hypermesis syndrome, or CHS.

CHS was brought to our attention here years ago by San Diego Addiction Specialist Dr.

Rani Love, who has served with the National Office of Drug Policy.

Dr.

Love continues to warn about rising admissions in San Diego for CHS, which is marked by intense pain, nausea, vomiting that is often uncontrollable, and screaming.

This led Dr.

Love to call the symptoms scromiting for the vomiting and screaming symptoms.

Dr.

Lev has said rising numbers and diagnoses processes take ER time away from the care of other ER patients.

Following new studies on CHS, the journal has called on policymakers to better educate constituents about it and to oppose efforts to increase access to today's high potency mind altering marijuana products.

I urge your consideration of the journal's suggestion that it's time to take a hard look at policies that result in rising cannabis hypermesis syndrome cases and the high medical and social costs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is 7499.

If you can please unmute after that will be Becky Rep.

Bob Kaziski here.

The problems at the Tory Pines Glider Port are continuing to this day.

To this very day, citizens are excluded from flying at the Tory Pines Glider port unless they are paid members of the private organization that calls itself, quote, the United States Hangliding and Paragliding Association or Yushpa.

That wouldn't be bad enough on its own, but USPA asserts that as a private organization, it has the right to expel anyone they want for any reason they see fit.

In particular, they claim that they can expel people for coming to speak to this city council and be critical of the business operating at the Tory Pines glider port.

Is anyone on this council intelligent enough to recognize the problem with that?

That's like allowing the police to jail anyone who comes to this council to be critical of the police.

That's like allowing lifeguards to ban anyone from our beaches who comes to this council to complain about the lifeguard.

How insane is that?

You may wonder why so few people speak to this council about the glider port, and you may use that as an excuse to ignore the problem.

But there are so few people speaking because no one wants to be banned from using our city park just because they dare come to this council to complain about the business operating that part.

My expulsion for speaking to this council and for testifying in court should initiate a giant whistleblower retaliation investigation by this city.

But instead, each and every one of you look the other way.

This is a big stain on each of you that should follow you throughout your careers, throughout your lives, and into whatever follows this lifetime.

It's time to fix this by reactivating the Tory Pine City Park Advisory Board and implementing a flight waiver for citizens to use our public park.

We have been hang gliding under a simple one page waiver in Los Angeles since 2017.

It's time to do the same for the people of San Diego.

Thank you.

Thank you, Becky Rep.

If you can please unmute.

After that will be Rosa.

Good morning.

My name is Becky Raff, and I'm here today to bring awareness to the illegal products being sold in our local smoke and tobacco shops all across our city, including down the street from my house.

When you walk or drive by these stores, you'll see bright signs promoting a drug called Kratum, often displayed right in the front window.

It is not hidden and it is not difficult to find.

Today I am asking the city council to direct staff to provide a public report on enforcement efforts related to Kratom, flavored vape products, and intoxicating hemp products sold within city limits.

The public deserves to know what actions are being taken, and how many inspections have been conducted, how many citations have been issued, and whether current enforcement is sufficient.

It's time to send a message that San Diego's ordinances are not suggestions, they are laws, and laws that will be enforced.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I'm here today as a member of the community.

To share with you something that has become part of our everyday lives, and it for me and my family members, and it should not be that way.

And smoke enters our in these multi-family units, smoke enters our homes through the walls, through the vents, through the door cracks.

Affecting the ability for us to feel comfortable and safe in our own homes.

But this does not help the situation.

See you.

Just like our children and our babies and people in our homes complain about how strong the smell of the smoke is within our homes.

And this is due to the constant, constant presence of the smoke.

No family should have to live in these kinds of conditions within their own home.

We are asking that you support an ordinance that makes all multi-family units free of smoke, smoke free units.

However, recent research suggests otherwise.

One national study of four thousand four hundred and seventy seven adults with asthma found that individuals who inhaled marijuana, whether by smoking, vaping, or both were significantly more likely to experience an asthma attack within one year.

Compared with non-users, people who smoked marijuana had sixty-four percent higher odds of an asthma attack, and those who vaped had eighty-one percent higher odds.

After accounting for factors such as age, smoking status, obesity, and other health conditions, marijuana users experienced substantially worse outcomes.

While research continues to study the underlying mechanisms, the message should be obvious.

As policymakers, you have a responsibility to ensure that public health information keeps pace with changing laws and social norms.

Tony had already spoken.

We got a lot of good people in the audience, so we've got the minimum five.

Okay, so let's get started.

Good afternoon.

I will now reconvene the special City Council meeting of Monday, June eighth, twenty twenty six to order.

Clerk, please call the role.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Sure.

Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Council President Pro Tim Lee.

Councilmember Campillo.

Here.

Councilmember Moreno.

Present.

Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Present.

Also attending the meeting, our assistant city attorney, Michelle Garland, independent budget analyst, Charles Monica, Council of Affairs Advisor and the Mayor's Office, Coda Seizer, and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

I did just want to make a quick comment.

The Office of the City Clerk, in coordination with the Office of the Mayor, is pleased to announce the launch of the City of San Diego's new board's, commissions, and committees website.

The upgraded site continues to provide a centralized location for information about the city's boards, commissions, and committees, including current membership, vacancies, current and upcoming expired terms, and opportunities to apply for service in a more user-friendly format and in 20 different languages, which enhances public access.

In addition to enhancing public access to information, the new service is available at approximately one-third of the cost of the prior platform.

Through negotiations, our office also secured additional features that improve efficiency, enhance reporting capabilities, provide built-in data retention, and create a more user-friendly experience for both applicants and members.

Residents interested in learning more about the city's boards, commissions, and committees or serving their community are encouraged to visit the website at boards.sandiego.gov.

We invite members of the public to explore the new site and learn about the many ways they can participate in local government through service on a city's board, commission, or committee.

Thank you, Council President, for the time.

All right.

Thank you, Clerk.

Please introduce item 629.

Item 629 is the presentation of the status of vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts per government code section 3502.3.

If you are hearing council chambers and wish to speak to this item, please be sure to submit your speaker slip to the front of the room and place your speaker slip 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, Council President.

All right.

Uh thank you, City Clerk, and because this is an item we only do once a year and it's a little bit different.

I'm going to give a little bit of a long-winded uh explanation.

California Government Code Section 3502.3 requires public agency employers to present the status of workforce vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts during the public hearing at least once per year before the public agency's governing body adopts the final budget for the year.

The stated purpose of the public hearing is to identify any necessary changes to policies, procedures, and recruitment activities that may lead to obstacles in the hiring process of future employees.

Each of the city's recognized employee organizations is entitled to make a presentation at the public hearing to discuss the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts for positions within the bargaining units represented by the recognized employee organizations.

On May 29th, 2026, the city's human resources department provided written notice that the city is complying with this requirement through today's presentation.

Now, for those of you who may remember, this item had been previously scheduled to be heard on May 18th, but the meeting was adjourned during the tragic event that took place in our city that day.

All REOs were promptly notified of the reschedule.

Two of the city's recognized employee organizations, local 145 and local 986, have requested to make a presentation, and we will hear those presentations after the staff presentation.

After the conclusion of all REO presentations, the council will have an opportunity to ask questions to staff or any representative member.

We will then take public comment for this item.

At the conclusion of public comment, I will turn back to my colleagues once more for any concluding comments.

At this point, if any other recognized employee organizations is present today and wishes to be heard, please let this city clerk know now.

With that, I see staff is seated.

Please introduce yourselves to a record and how much time you need for your presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President and Council members.

Five minutes for our presentation.

Also in attendance is the personnel department, David Dallagar Personnel Director, and Darren Keenaghan, Deputy Director in the Personnel Department, to address any questions that the council may have regarding recruitment efforts for the classified employees.

As the council president mentioned, we're here today to present on the status of vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts for California Government Code Section 3502.3.

With that, I'm going to turn it over to Brian, who will walk through our presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President, for the introduction.

Council President, Council members.

As was discussed, the government code requires the city to present on the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts during a public hearing each fiscal year prior to the adoption of the final budget.

If in addition, each recognized employee organization is entitled to make that presentation relating to positions within their bargaining unit during the hearing in which the city makes its presentation.

If the number of vacancies within a single bargaining unit meets or exceeds 20% of the total number of full-time positions within that bargaining unit, the recognized employee organization may request the inclusion of additional information in the presentation.

This requirement is not applicable this year because as of January 1st, 2026, when the vacancy data was pulled, no bargaining unit in the city had a vacancy rate at or exceeding 20%.

Regarding recruitment and retention efforts, the human resources department and personnel department have partnered in recent years to enhance hiring processes and the applicant experience.

The human resources department has focused on employee development and retention.

These and other efforts have uh resulted in voluntary separations decreasing year over year since 2022.

And in 2025, the citywide separation rate was at its lowest point in a decade at 6.3%.

Looking forward, the personnel department will continue to identify ways to enhance policies and procedures to promote efficiencies while still providing equal opportunity in the civil service classified hiring process.

Those efforts discussed related to improved employee retention and hiring processes, have led to a citywide budgeted full-time vacant uh position vacancy rate of 9.82% as of January 1st, 2026.

The next two slides identify the vacancy rates by bargaining unit as of January 1st.

The government code requires the city to identify vacancy rates by bargaining unit within each designated recognized employee organization.

We've broken this up by the general and safety groups.

For local 127 represented employees, 11.9%.

MEA has four separate bargaining units within within the representation.

That would be the administrative support and field service unit, which covers classifications series, such as the clerical assistance series.

And that vacancy rate is at 14.69%.

The professional unit covers classification series, such as the various engineer series.

That vacancy rate is at 7.14%.

The supervisory unit covers series and classifications such as the building maintenance supervisor, and that vacancy rate is at 7.09%, and the technical unit covers the series such as the administrative aid series, and that vacancy rate is at 13.85%.

For the safety groups, local 145 represents the firefighter unit, and the vacancy rate is at 7.34%.

Local 986 has two bargaining units, that would be the lifeguard unit and supervisory lifeguard unit, that would be at 5.62% and 3.23% respectively.

And then POA also has two bargaining units within their representation, the police unit and police management unit.

The police unit is at 10.66% vacancy, and the police management unit is at 3.33% vacancy.

And with that, we are available for questions.

Thank you so much.

Alright, thank you, staff for the presentation.

We will now hear from local 145, who will have up to 10 minutes for their presentation.

Hello.

Good afternoon.

I'm Mark Morrison, Vice President of San Diego City of Firefighters, Local 145.

With me today is Derek Loustelay.

He's our B Division Director.

And we're very excited about this opportunity to have this discussion.

We really appreciate your full attention because this is something that we've identified as of critical importance.

Recruitment and retention has been a real challenge, as uh we all know.

I've worked with many of you individually on different things in terms of public safety, and I know that you're all good people who want to do good things and protect this community.

I get it, and I appreciate that.

So we'll start off lighthearted.

We're all trying to bake this same cake.

We're all different chefs, we all bring different things to the kitchen.

It is my unfortunate duty, though, to tell you that local 145 is fresh out of ingredients for sugar coating.

The spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down, because the budget cuts are not available.

And the truth is the taste is much more sour.

So we've looked at ourselves, we've looked at the department, and we thought, God, what is it that has contributed to this problem to this issue with recruitment and retention when we look at it from the 50,000 foot view?

And there's a lot of things.

But one of them is something that's been highlighted by several presentations by fire department management coming in.

And it's a celebration of one of our most incredible attributes as firefighters.

Something in our culture that's wonderful.

When Sereno Valley is on fire, like many of you know, we don't have the option of kicking it over to committee and say, hey, what should we do?

We'll figure this out in a week.

When buildings are on fire, cars are wrecked, people are sick, people are gravely injured.

The time is now for action, and we have to solve it then and there.

That's what we do.

And that often leads to doing less with more because we have to.

People are counting on us.

And that is a cultural trait that I think, especially with fire management, a lot of them promoted to positions of management and they're doing a great job.

But a lot of them haven't set foot in a fire station in a long time.

They don't understand the on-the-ground impacts.

Like, for instance, hey, the bomb squad worked a certain way in 1971, maybe it'll work in 2026.

It's just not apples to apples.

The cadet program, which by the way, is responsible for almost 150 current employees, one of the strongest recruitment and retention tools that we have.

And we're cutting it.

Again, these are issues that we have identified as problematic.

And again, it's a sub it's a representation and a recognition of what some of our strongest core traits as problem solvers.

That's what we do.

So we can get into our next slide.

All of this is going to be predicated on facts.

All of these are pulled from either the San Diego joint SDFD, social media handle, or different municipalities that we compete with.

So I'd like to kick this over to Derek Loustelay.

He is a captain in the post-academy training division.

And this is an excellent opportunity for him to kind of really highlight what we're seeing in the trends that we have to address.

Good afternoon, Council.

I have the opportunity of working as a captain at PAT, our post-academy training division, where once graduating, the academy firefighters will then cycle through those PAT stations for their first year of training.

We're seeing we've seen a couple different trends in the last few academies, and I think I've been there probably close to 10 academies, is the recruits or excuse me, the firefighters are coming out.

They're a little younger, so that trend's going down, and then also we're seeing 180s in career changes going from one career to firefighting.

Now, everyone that we have been seeing go through are amazing, and I couldn't be more proud to see or to work with some of these folks and be part of their training.

But what's a common theme between the two is that they have no work experience.

They're getting their menophone qualifications, they're getting their EMT, but there's uh there's no work experience as an EMT in many of those.

So that's adding on our workload to bring them up to speed in a 9-1 system.

And uh when you talk about applicants coming through and then into the fire department, is that resume, that robust resume just isn't there with most of our folks coming through.

So they're going to our partners uh up to the north with a better compensation package.

So that's just an example of some of the little bit of changes that we're starting to see there in the training environment.

Thank you, Derek.

So to kind of shed a little bit of light on how we do business.

On a fire truck or a fire engine, you're gonna have one captain, an engineer who drives the apparatus, and two firefighters, one as a paramedic, one as an EMT.

What we've done as a stopgap is had certain calls when necessary, run by captain firefighter paramedics or engineer paramedics.

Every person has a job to do.

The supervisor's job is to look at a situation and ensure that there isn't danger looming, someone coming into the scene, a car driving in uncontrolled.

Once you take somebody and place them into patient care, now they're here.

They're not looking here.

And because of our inability to attract firefighter paramedics, because they are in high demand, low supply.

We are not competitive at all.

Can we switch slides, please?

This is the anemic salary range for a new firefighter paramedic.

You see that there.

Can we switch to the next slide?

This is in Los Angeles, your same scale.

The mathematics do not lie.

Point blank.

So this is this is our ask.

I'd like you to have a look out into this audience right now.

This is what we call our sea of red.

These are the men and women who are willing to put it on the line, operating at the brink, from all different walks of life, all different backgrounds, different skill sets, and different attributes that they bring to this department.

These are the faces that are going to suffer if we don't address this problem head on.

This problem that has plagued San Diego City firefighters for the better part of three decades.

These are the individuals whose shoulders you will stand on if you tout this as America's finest and one of America's safest cities.

Them.

Their blood sweat and tears, their divorces, marital problems, mental health issues from increased exposure to human suffering and tragedy.

That is what we deal in.

Please don't signal to local 145 and its membership that that job is only really valued in Los Angeles City or Los Angeles County or OCFA or San Francisco.

Please address the problem.

Get San Diego City firefighters off of the bottom of the compensation survey.

They are worth so much more than that.

Every single one of them.

Those are the faces.

Those are the men and women.

So I implore you, please, we want to be allies.

Things work better when we're collaborative.

We will stand.

This group, this sea of red, and this is only a fraction of what we have available because we have a massive incident going up north.

We will stand shoulder to shoulder with you against anyone or anything that is a threat to public safety, and the men and women who risk it all.

The men and women who have been injured on this job, the men and women who have to endure some of the most horrifying sounds like the loss, the loss of a loved one, and the sound of heartbreak, when a mother sees that she has lost her child, or someone sees that they've lost their house that they've worked so hard their whole life for and all of their heirlooms and belongings.

This is what they do.

They should be compensated in a fair and equitable manner.

Many of you were on the panel or on council when the compensation philosophy was adopted.

We're not even asking to be at the top.

Just please make us competitive.

Please help us address this recruitment and retention.

Make it so that we can't.

I can walk into Fire Station One across the street where I work, and I can look at my 24-year-old firefighter paramedic and say, hey, stay, stay.

They care.

They're going to do what's necessary to take care of you.

Don't go to Los Angeles.

Don't go to San Francisco.

This city council, this mayor, this city, they care about you.

Please make it possible for me to not be lying when I say that.

And again, Local 145 is always willing to be a partner.

Thank you very much.

And I want to end with just a simple question, and I hope all of you, based on your actions, will make it very clear where you stand.

Do we want the San Diego Fire Rescue Department to return to training ground status after Prop B, or do we want San Diego Fire Rescue to be a destination fire department that attracts the best talent in the world?

Thank you very much for your time, and I'll be happy to field any questions if you have.

Alright, thank you very much.

So we're gonna do the next CREO, and then we'll have the council members ask any questions they might have of you.

All right.

We will now hear from California Teamsters Local 986.

I am back.

And you sir, you will always also have up to 10 minutes.

It's working, just making sure.

Good afternoon, Council.

My name is Patrick McVan.

I'm a steward for Teamsters 986 representing the City of San Diego Lifeguards.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today regarding lifeguard recruitment and retention.

There are many factors that contribute to staffing challenges, but today I want to speak broadly to what makes San Diego Lifeguards unique, why retention matters, and what the city can do to preserve this profession for the future generations.

San Diego Lifeguards are unlike almost any other public safety profession.

In fact, at the state and the national level, lifeguards are not even represent, excuse me, not even recognized as first responders.

Very few cities in the United States even have a professional ocean lifeguard service.

Fewer still operate year-round emergency response systems at the scale of which San Diego does.

We protect miles of coastline, multiple harbors, coastal cliffs, rocky reefs, marine protected areas, and some of the busiest beaches in the nation.

But what truly makes the City of San Diego Lifeguards unique is the scope of work our members perform.

Of course, we handle what most people associate with lifeguarding: water observation, ocean rescues, medical aids, preventative safety work, and public interactions.

But beyond that, our members also perform scuba search and rescue, flood response, maritime fire fighting, boating emergencies, 911 emergency dispatching, law enforcement functions, and we offer a 24-hour emergency response.

The broad range of responsibilities makes us difficult to compare to other agencies.

But it's also what makes this profession so meaningful to the people that do it.

Our members are highly trained public safety professionals, and the city depends on them every single day.

At the same time, recruitment and retention continue to be major challenges.

Every year we lose about approximately 20% of our seasonal workforce, and this year alone we're expected to hire nearly 60 new lifeguards.

Each of those recruits are required to complete physically demanding regional academies, pass background checks, complete extensive field training, and learn to operate in one of the most dynamic emergency environments imaginable.

A tremendous amount is asked of them.

Many work weekends, holidays, fixed schedules throughout the busiest times of the years.

Most of our seasonal employees receive no health care, no pension, no paid leave, and no holiday pay.

They start at approximately 26 dollars per hour.

And while that wage may sound reasonable on paper, the reality is the cost of living in a city of San Diego has changed dramatically.

For many of the young lifeguards staying in this profession long term becomes financially unrealistic, even if they love the work.

And this is what, and this was the work that carries real emotion and physical demands.

Over the course of a summer, lifeguard may respond to hundreds of emergencies.

They will likely encounter people experiencing some of the worst moments of their lives, and in some cases, the last moments of their lives.

This profession is not for everyone.

But the people that do do it stay because they do believe in the public service and they care deeply about the community.

They know that the they know the difference that they are making.

Another major part of retention is working conditions.

Many of our facilities are in urgent need of repair or replacement.

At Ocean Beach, approximately 20 lifeguards work out of an old station that leaks when it rains and contains only a single restroom and unisex locker room.

At Mission Beach, conditions have deteriorated to the point that lifeguards will likely spend years operating out of temporary trailers.

North Pacific Beach, lifeguards have been working for decades out of what is essentially a small metal shipping container without running water or restroom facilities.

Conditions like these absolutely affect morale, professionalism, and retention.

When employees are asked to perform at a high level for public safety work while operating out of deteriorating facilities, it sends a message about how their profession is valued.

I also want to touch briefly on compensation.

As I mentioned earlier, San Diego lifeguards are difficult to compare directly to other classifications because of many of our members eventually transition into professions like firefighting, law enforcement, and health care.

Careers that share many of the same emergency response skills and responsibilities.

But one useful comparison does exist.

Los Angeles County Lifeguards are one of the old the closest comparable agencies in terms of operational spoke scope and professional responsibilities.

San Diego Lifeguards currently earn roughly 20% less than what they make in the county of San Los Angeles.

Compensation matters because it directly impacts the city's ability to recruit and retain experienced personnel.

Competitive pay helps us to maintain a professional workforce, retain institutional knowledge, and recruit employees who reflect the diverse community we serve.

Finally, I want to touch on public awareness.

One of the most important roles as a steward is to simply educate people about what San Diego lifeguards actually do.

I'm from New Jersey.

I get a lot of questions about what I do.

I've been called a pool guard.

My parents don't really understand it yet, but we're getting there.

We're gonna get to figure it out that I'm working full-time.

Um this profession gives people the opportunity to serve their community, protect lives, raise family here in San Diego, and dedicate themselves to public service.

Many people still think lifeguarding is a temporary seasonal work, but for many of us, this is a career in public safety and emergency response.

But doing that becomes increasingly difficult without sustainable wages, safe working conditions, and recognition of equal responsibilities.

Our carry or members carry.

Every year, City of San Diego lifeguards save thousands of lives.

The city should the city should continue investing in the people that make this possible.

Thank you.

All right.

Clerk, did any other recognized employee organization indicate their wish to speak during today's presentation?

I did not receive any other requests.

Okay.

That was just for the REOs.

We'll still have time for public comment.

So again, this is an information item.

But with that, I'll turn to my colleagues for any questions you might have for either the REOs or to staff.

And I don't see anybody on the line.

Council Member Yelo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, since you're here, both the REOs don't mind coming up.

Great life.

First, thank you all for coming down.

Um, thanks for bringing the members down.

And I I know that standing in front of um standing in public and making these statements isn't easy, it requires courage, and I appreciate you all doing that.

Um, I think you all mentioned it in in certain terms, but is it as simple as just bringing you all up to the point of of being on a level uh playing on a level playing field with LA?

Is it increasing wages to a certain amount?

I mean, you've got us in front of you, I mean the most explicit terms is you're willing to provide them.

I think it's important for us to hear how you think we can make this better.

Sure.

Um I would uh forgive the analogy, but I got a roofful of firefighters here, so uh it's like bodybuilding, right?

I mean, you don't get buff overnight.

It's something that takes any level of fitness, it takes time.

And we understand that we've gotten to the place where we're down here, and we don't anticipate by any stretch of the imagination that this could be fixed overnight, sure.

But we have to start digging our way out of this, and and there's a lot of great work that's been done by members of this council that helped us regain some ground over the last several contracts.

But as you can all imagine, each one of the other REOs in different cities, they continue to also gain.

So we we jumped up and then fell right back down.

So I would say the first order of business is establishing some set level of how we can keep pace, right?

I mean, we don't, we're not gonna get into this marathon race and try to win it on our first shot, but by God, we have to get to a point where we can at least figure out how we prioritize public safety.

And in that, we'll find a way to at least keep pace, at least live up to the compensation philosophy to get us to median, right?

I would say that's the biggest thing.

So how do we go about doing that?

Well, that's that's a lot of conversations.

That's a lot of very difficult decisions, but I think that's why all of us are here.

So I I hope that answers your question, but that's at least the a good starting point is to really identify how we can just get ourselves into a system that allows us to keep pace.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Um, absolutely.

I think that is a great place to start.

And it it does it's it's it's absolutely going to be one of the things that we're dealing with in the city of San Diego is dealing with the rising cost of living in the city of San Diego, particularly if we're going to continue the recruitment program that we have.

We recruit consistently from our seasonal ranks.

They are guaranteed work from essentially Memorial Day to Labor Day, and it gets increasingly more difficult to keep those guards engaged and bringing them back year after year after year, if there's going to be that nine-month period where they don't have that guaranteed income, and ensuring that the income is going to be worth it and making sure that it's able to continue living.

I'd also say on top of that, one of the biggest issues that we deal with has to do with the facilities that we're dealing with in the city of San Diego.

We, as I stated, there's three facilities just right off the top that make it very, very difficult to maintain recruitment is along those lines.

But if you go and work North PB and you're sitting in that shipping container, there's no level of privacy associated with that.

If you're working in Ocean Beach and you're there in the winter and it starts leaking and you're trying to figure out how to take care of that, that also jumps in the way of making sure that we're able to do our jobs.

We've all talked about the mission beach issue that's going on right now, and we're thankful that we're taking the steps to start to try and react and and fix and remedy that problem, but this is going to continue to happen over the next 20 30 years.

I'm young in my career, I'll be here for another 20 years.

But uh we want to make sure that um we're setting ourselves up to take care of the next generation and the generation after that, and make sure that we have the state of the art facilities that you do see in LA County and all these other agencies that are investing in their in their public safety.

I'd also like to say once again, lifeguards not being represented as public safety officials outside of the city is not something that directly affects the city, but it absolutely affects us as a profession.

And we hope that you guys will be able to support us as we start to work on that journey of making sure that lifeguards across the state and across the United States are recognized in the public safety that they represent.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And then just one more question, and I have comments to make, but I'll just save this part for questions.

The turnover component of this.

But in like terms that help us understand what that looks like for you all in your day-to-day jobs.

What does it mean when folks are leaving for other other departments?

Or different careers.

Sure.

No, and that's a that's a really great question.

I'm glad you asked it because there's two components to that to that answer.

One, obviously, there's a level of understanding.

These people have families.

They have lives, uh, and this is one of the most beautiful, i.e., most expensive places to live in America.

So uh it be it is a very strong challenge that comes with it a sense of understanding.

Uh that said, though, understand that outside of combat, this is you form bonds with people uh by virtue of what we're exposed to and what we have to carry each other through.

I mean, one of the biggest killers in our profession has just become suicide.

And I can only represent to you so much in in words, how important and valuable some of the conversations that I've had at the kitchen table and the fire station are.

And to see people that you see as a brother or a sister make that very difficult decision to leave is devastating.

These are people who are in your wedding party.

These are people who your kids call uncle and auntie.

I mean, it's just the human factor alone is devastating.

And the financial impacts, as you're well aware, they are what they are.

They're incredibly challenging, especially in this region.

So to answer your question, I mean, there's a whole gamut of different emotions and things that you have to deal with when people leave.

And obviously, the elephant in the room, the talent that you lose, the experience that you lose.

This is life and death what we do.

Not to be the hyperbole guy, but my goodness, people's lives depend on what we do, they depend on the fact that whoever's showing up is experienced.

And obviously, as Derek highlighted, these are really great people, but they're brand new who aren't bringing any experience, and experiences you can only get it one way.

And we're not attracting, we're not attractive enough to coax people away from other departments who have that experience.

So I mean, we're talking operational, we're talking on an individual level and obviously a financial aspect of it, are very challenging.

Um, as I said, I moved to the city of San Diego 11 years ago as a seasonal lifeguard one.

Um when I first moved to the city, I paid $600 a month in rent.

I shared it with the NPB, and uh the compensation for seasonal lifeguards was enough for me to make that work.

We're quickly moving towards a time where people are not going to be able to make the ends meet just based off of the pay that's associated with lifeguard once.

And obviously, as the gentleman from local 145 and people that I work with on a day-to-day basis and people that I respect and a Meyer just said, when we lose these people, it's not just one person leaves and another person steps into their place.

We're now having to replace a knowledge gap, a skill gap, and then we have to train those people up, and we're happy to bring in new people and train that, but we also want to keep the institutional knowledge that's associated with the city of San Diego lifeguards as much as humanly possible.

We're seeing significant turnover at the lifeguard two ranks.

We're a very young agency right now because we're starting to see that turnover kind of start to take place.

And the people that we're bringing in are very, very, very skilled and very high executors, but there is something to be said about losing that institutional knowledge.

Um, as the city continues to get more and more expensive, people are gonna have to make tough decisions.

We've had we've lost lifeguards in the last couple of years who just can't afford to make ends meet.

At the seasonal ranks, we have people that are very, very smart, very skilled, but they've made the realization that lifeguarding they can't do the six years as a seasonal lifeguard in order that the time that it takes to promote.

And we do end up thankfully sending a lot of our lifeguards over to the fire department working with local 145, and we're happy to be able to support those guards that end up doing that, but we also need to make sure that we're supporting our ranks as we have pretty frequent turnover right now.

I think in the next five years, we're losing 25 lifeguards, so that does take a while to for us to train them up, get them to the position where they're able to move into and replace those that knowledge.

So that would be it.

Thank you.

I appreciate those responses.

Like I said, I have got some more comments.

I want to respect the process that Council President has set up.

Um it's an unacceptable status quo.

I think that's clear.

Um, and I the one thing I do want to say is that thank you to both um both unions for showing up to support revenue when we've um when we've made those pushes, because uh growing the pie or the cake um is an important step in getting anything to where we want to go, and I I know that you all have done that um on a regular basis.

Um so I just want to say thank you.

Thanks, Council President.

All right, thank you, Council Member Ilo Rivera.

We'll go next to Council President Pro Tam.

Lee.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you all for showing up today, especially uh being that I'm in District six, we border Sereno Valley with the council president.

Um, and so thank you to all the local 145 members who are out there today actually fighting that fire currently.

Um, I I think what uh Council Member Ilo Rivera asked was was important, and Mark, I really appreciate your very honest answer to that, because I think that is the struggle that we as a city are continuing to have in terms of not just talking amongst ourselves, but also talking to the public, which is that the things that we care about in the city and we hear from residents all the time about public safety, fire management being important, brush management being important, these things don't happen without us choosing to fund it and to secure the resources necessary to do so.

And you've all watched how difficult those discussions can be with the public.

I think we have a lot of work to do as a city, not just to try to figure out how we align greater resources, but we have a lot of work to do to earn trust with constituents and voters, the public as a whole, to be willing to invest in the services that we're telling them we desperately need in the city.

And so when you mentioned that this isn't just some dream that next year we'll snap our fingers and we'll hit the median that we have all said we would uh in terms of uh our compensation philosophy, but it's something that we actually have to show that we're working towards.

And that's something I I'm very challenged with in the city as as you are all expressing today.

I think we share the same frustrations, which is we don't have a strategy right now of how we're going to get there.

And I totally get it.

I would understand why either of your members would wake up in the morning and say, Well, there's no hope and timeline and expectation of the efforts that are going to produce some change.

How do we know where we're headed?

So I think that's what's important moving forward is how we work together as a city.

Um, work with each of you, your members, but also work collectively with the public to try to earn that trust, to get some strategy moving forward and how we're gonna achieve the resources that are necessary to fund not just public safety, but tomorrow we're gonna be arguing over libraries and parks, and we've had a whole discussion of arts and culture and whether that's important to the city, and all these things continue to be lacking.

And if we don't make a concerted effort to actually turn that around, it won't change.

I'm pretty sure today and tomorrow we're gonna be hearing commentary from folks who tell us that the city should simply be tightening its belt, that we should be living within the means that we have, spending within the means that we have.

Well, spending within the means that we have means leaving you all at the same level of funding that we've left you all at year after year.

It means watching you fall further behind year after year compared to your uh your parallels, not even in the city of Los Angeles, but I'm gonna guess even within this region alone, that's a challenge.

So I don't think we're in a position where we can just live by our means.

Just watch our spending.

Because if that's all we're gonna do, we're not gonna get where we need to be.

Uh, I'm certainly committed to figuring out how we're gonna work together to to chart a better path.

I hope everyone else here feels the same.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Council President Pro Tem.

Uh we'll go next to Councilmember Von Wolpert.

Thank you, Council President.

So, we're doing comment now.

Then the public comments, then we can comment again.

Yeah, okay, thank you.

I'm sorry, I was confused about the process, but I'm getting lights.

Uh, thank you for being here.

I appreciate all of you very much.

Um, and first of all, one question I've always viewed lifeguards as part of public safety.

So you're telling me that they are not.

Is there a legal term that we need to change?

Uh, within the city of San Diego, we are recognized as public safety.

Um, it's outside of the city in the United States and at the state level, they're not recognized as public safety officers or public first responders.

There's no legal term that represents us as first responders, even though frequently we find ourselves being the first person on scene for a lot of calls.

Okay, I'd be happy to write letters to whomever in the state or federal government needs to know that because you work alongside all of our professionals in saving lives, and I appreciate what you do.

Um that baffled me.

Of course, you are.

Second, um, I mean, Mark, you're right.

We can't get continue to get into a rotating cycle of we raise enough compensation that we're not at the bottom, but then we get to the bottom again and become a training ground because it is more expensive for us to train new firefighters, give them the expertise they need, and then they leave.

And that happens over and over and over.

And I remember um a few years ago I was fighting hard to just increase the compensation for our wildfire helicopter team.

Because what's the point in buying the helicopters if we don't have the staff to actually get them off the ground and get a crew inside to actually execute rescues and and uh get the water to where we need it.

And so I'm glad that we did, and it's showing they're probably out there right now.

Actually, actually saving us uh in Serrano Valley.

But that worries me quite a bit that we've already slipped down to the bottom of the compensation study.

Um, I'm also quite worried about the fact that we continue to take money from the EMS fund out of the fire rescue department.

You know, this was set up so that we could actually have our own in-house, you know, paramedic training school and get people trained up so they could go from EMT to paramedic and stay within our department, not have to go outside.

And I'm I'm worried that we're gonna continue to do this, and so I think we need to start fighting back and saying no.

Because this is revenue that you are working hard to bring into the city that should be used for the fire department.

Um, and I know we're thinking about a different model of how we deploy our BLS, say all of that, and if we continue to do that, we need to have recruit and retrain the people who are going to be in those ambulances who might be city employees.

Um, so they also need to know that they can actually have a career here in San Diego and not be taken away by higher salaries and other jurisdictions.

Um can I ask right now, in terms of when we haven't finished negotiating the current contract for the CBAs.

I know we are in a budget deficit.

Everybody is struggling right now because our city unfortunately did not pass that the sales tax increase.

Honestly, if we had one that was just focused on public safety and infrastructure, I'll bet you that would pass.

Um just a thought out there, but uh so I'm wondering, you know, what can we do this year even to try and help?

Um you don't have any treasure maps, do you?

Yeah, no.

Um honestly, with there's been several attempts to identify revenue generations.

Councilmember Eli Rivera uh alluded to.

Um we are in a definite challenging position uh in these economic times.

Uh it's it is a very easy thing for me to stand here and say on behalf of my membership that this is a priority issue uh because obviously I'm not saddled with running the entire city.

Uh I'm simply representing my membership.

Um I obviously I'm biased.

I I know that um there's definitely different services that everybody provides.

I think a lot of them are wonderful and very important.

Um, again, biased when it comes to fire rescue because of the by virtue of what we do.

So short of having further discussions about how we do generate more interview or uh revenue, um, potentially some future initiatives.

Uh and again, doors are open.

We're we're willing to have a sit down and have a discussion about those kinds of outside the box ideas because uh there is no length that we won't go to as local 145 in service of our members and trying to right the wrongs of you know three decades.

So yeah, I'm we're very open to conversations and and think tanking some of this stuff for sure.

Okay.

Got it.

Um, thank you.

Oh, and my next question is also about infrastructure, and I know some of the facilities you're operating out of are completely substandard.

I mean, there's a whole there's a tent that one of the fire stations is now a giant camp cavillar tent um which needs to stop.

And also with the lifeguards, I've been in some of your stations, and it is pretty abysmal.

I mean, that ocean air just cracks everything apart.

Uh I do want to thank the lifeguards though for figuring out a revenue saving source by branding the vehicles.

You know, we we switched to Hyundai this year, Hyundai, and we should never be in a position where we're having to ask to put brand names on buildings to get them funded.

I mean, this is ridiculous.

Um, but given this, have we thought about doing that for the you know, the Mission Bay or the Mission Beach Lifeguard Tower?

I cannot believe the price that they wanted to quote was like with 33 million dollars for one tower, is ridiculous.

But um, I yeah, I'm I'm not privy to the uh the costs, but yeah, absolutely just to kind of second what local one forty five.

The lifeguards are willing to work with whatever we think is gonna make this the easiest transition possible.

We're we're constantly trying to work alongside all the city council members to figure out ways for us to to work together to make to fill these gaps.

As you said, the ocean air it's one of the best parts of the job, but it's also one of the worst parts of the job, because it does just destroy everything that it kind of comes in contact with.

So as you said, brand sponsorship stuff along those lines, they they can make things.

That would definitely be something that I think the city could look into.

That would be something that you guys would have to decide.

But I don't see local 145, or excuse me, local 986, excuse me, uh, fighting it too much.

Uh we're we're we're just happy and we're we're looking for solutions.

And if we can find solutions together, I think that's something that we would definitely be willing to talk about at the very least.

Okay.

Um, thank you.

Well, I'm I'm happy to reserve my questions for the rest and hear public comment, but thank you for what you do.

Like you can't outsource 9-1-1, and you can't not answer the calls, you know.

And I know you guys are all working.

When I say guys, I mean men, women, everybody.

Um, longer hours and callbacks that you have to you can't say no to, mandatory over time, and I know you have to go to the wildfires as well for strikes.

So even the time you would have off, you're you're heading wildfires and other jurisdictions, and I know that is incredibly taxing on you, on your families, and it's really been awful to see that spiral.

So, um, thank you for coming in and raising awareness of this, because we need to do better as a city.

Appreciate it.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Baumwolper.

We'll go next to Councilmember Campio.

Thank you, Council President.

I want to thank both of our uh recognized employee organizations for being here and so many folks showing up in public uh and and checking your cell phones to see how your uh colleagues are doing right now.

I know you're worried about them.

Um appreciate the dichotomy of what we're seeing from Los Angeles versus San Diego and what the difference is and uh keeping pace.

Uh I'd note that given how far ahead LA is 21,000 plus dollars a year at the starting end of the scale.

If LA increases by three percent every year, uh, we would have to increase by six percent every year to catch them in ten years.

Um, so this is uh and an LA and San Diego, give or take a few things here or there are roughly the same uh cost of living, a little bit more expensive for apartments here, a little bit more expensive for groceries and and gasoline transportation up there.

So I think the counterpart that you chose is absolutely right.

That is what we should peg ourselves to and say how are we going to get to that standard and aim for that.

Um just thinking that we have to give twice the percentage in terms of increases to catch up.

It's it's daunting.

Um, but why shouldn't we set that goal?

Why shouldn't we uh prioritize it that way?

I think we should.

I wanted to point out uh a couple things too that didn't um that came through but didn't weren't necessarily very explicit.

Uh the burnout uh of being understaffed means that the response times end up being slower, the folks leave to go somewhere else, uh that the cohesion of the units uh end up fracturing.

Um, and those are incalculable, those are invaluable things that you can't assign a dollar figure to that uh and ultimately the public just wants to know they're gonna have someone show up on time and you do it over and over and over again.

Um, but we have to quantify this.

So I'm gonna be looking at the contract and future contracts and say just how quickly are we closing in on LA to make sure that we keep people here.

The second thing, it was not brought up today, but I do want to say it uh in a public forum that uh the presumptions uh the the health care presumptions that uh the city ought to have in our MOUs with fire and with our lifeguards should be at the highest standard, recognize the most amount of ailments to take care of you in your retirements.

Um I think that what a lot of people might not know is just the severe lack of sleep that firefighters and lifeguards have to go through itself over the course of a lifetime increases your chance of cancer and a whole bunch of other ailments.

Um, and I know that that's hard to calculate in the long run, but I want every firefighter and lifeguard to know that if you get sick when you're old, city of the city of San Diego is going to take care of you.

Um those are uh things that should be recognized in the MOU as well as the dollar figure that we should be aiming for.

So I appreciate you bringing up the math and know that we're fighting for more than just dollars, but we're fighting for your families, and we're fighting for your health in retirement as well.

Thanks for always bringing those things up in private conversations with us as well.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Campio.

Uh Councilmember Foster.

Uh, yes, thank you.

Um, Council President.

Um and as my colleagues mentioned, thank you for for being here today.

Thank you to your members um for coming.

Um I am surprised and and continue to be surprised that lifeguards are not considered first responders.

Um, and I always tell the story one day when I was at the beach, my son had graduated, and I happened you go out to try and secure a fire ring, you gotta show up at five in the morning, right, and camp out of the fire ring.

But I must say it's a busy day, first day of summer, basically.

Um, and one thing that I had the um privilege to do was to actually watch our lifeguards.

And I was amazed at I I felt like a lifeguard once they entered the water, they never came out of the water.

Um, as quick as they came back to shore, as quick as they were right back in.

Um, and it was it was all day, um, and so I think it's unfortunate and something that I think does need to be addressed long term.

Um I guess just for staff, and I do appreciate the presentation, um, but I think one thing that I have not been able to uh fully get my arms around is we talk about the city budget and as we are trying to deal with the um the deficit and in trying to make sure that we are in a position to provide resources, whether that's PE or MPE.

Um, one thing is I have tried to look at our vacancies.

I'm finding some very interesting information.

Um, I'm finding that we have positions um that are being reported as vacant dating back to as late as 2017 and 2018.

Can you explain to me why we would have positions that are vacant dating back to 2017 and 2018?

Um, and what are we doing to carry those types of numbers and what impact would that have to to our current status as we are looking at um and dealing with negotiations and contract um as we look at starting salaries and things of that nature because uh I'm just lost as to why we would have a position that's been vacant since 2017.

And I'm not saying it's fire, so please don't think that I'm just in what I have seen.

Thank you, Councilmember Foster.

Each one of the vacancy information is specific for that position, so maybe that person was on leave.

If you have some examples, we can look into those specific ones.

The Department of Finance works very closely with departments to try to maintain the status of the vacancies and fill them as actively as possible.

But each and every classification is uniquely different depending on its circumstances.

Okay, I appreciate that.

And I'll give you an example as we were looking at the police department.

I have police positions, sworn officer positions that have been vacant since 2017.

My question would be if it's a budgeted position, clearly we're carrying the salary, right?

Which if that position has been vacant since 2017, what are we doing with those dollars?

I feel as if we are just dropping the dollars to the bottom and using it as a slush fund to fund whatever priority is there.

So I guess that's what I'm trying to better understand and get to the bottom of.

If that makes sense as one example, I think Councilmember Al Smith, I don't know if Rolano wants to come up, but um there are a few things to you that I want to have to have follow-up conversations with your office as well.

Um just because uh position is in the budget does not necessarily mean that it isn't and it remains unfilled, doesn't mean that we are setting aside dollars for it.

We do have what we call budgeted personal expenditure savings or a vacancy factor that we apply to all departments.

So while you may see an FTA in a budget, if it is vacant for the entire year, in many cases there are not actual dollars attached to it, with particular positions in some departments where there are several of the same classifications where you have like say five different uh say police sergeant ones or whatever the position is.

Um there's frequently turnover in positions that are also in that same classification.

So there is a chance that one of those positions that you'll see see being vacant since 2017, there would have been people being hired and people leaving from that classification of position, but that actual personnel number may not have had a person put into it.

Well, it could have if we had just used a different personnel number, it's the same classification.

But that gets into some really nitty-gritty details where probably better to spend the time uh just you and me sitting at a spreadsheet as opposed to talking about it here, but I'm happy to follow up.

And I guess I appreciate that clarity, but even as we talk about I guess the term you use was nitty gritty details.

I don't know how we fix a structural deficit if we don't spend the time to go through the nitty gritty details and to put the budget in a position to where it is transparent and we understand what is in front of us.

And I will just follow that up with unbudgeted positions.

I think there are so many things that are being moved, it is very, very difficult to understand at any given time.

Where are we truly at financially so we can make the appropriate decisions that we need to make to make sure one, we address the structural deficit, and as I said before, two, that we are providing our employees our resources to meet the obligations that they are being asked to meet.

And so I just feel until we deal with what we need to deal with, as we have a financial system that I'm sure we've spent probably a billion or so on thus far.

Um, I just think there's somehow we need to get into that detail and make sure we understand it so we can be on solid on a solid foundation, as I am a I'm a builder, always look to be on a solid foundation so we can move this city forward properly.

We'll work with you.

Those are certainly important details.

I'm stepping back a little bit just with the comparison to Los Angeles.

This is gonna get to some of the comments that council everyone, council member can't have, or sorry, council member we had.

They have a higher hotel tax rate that goes directly to their city than we do, they have a utilities user tax.

The city of San Diego does not have any, they have a parking occupancy tax, the city of San Diego does not have any, they have a documentary transfer tax that is two times or more the city of San Diego's documentary transfer tax, they have a business growth receipts tax, the city does not have a business growth receipts tax, they have an enormously larger um tax base and number of taxes and revenues that are going into them.

The city of San Diego does uh that factors into what they can afford to pay their employees, and that factors into the limited amounts that we have for the services that people are demanding.

Good council president.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Foster.

We'll go next to Council Member Campbell.

Thank you so much, Council President.

I um want to take just a little bit different tech.

First of all, I want to say that the first responsibility of government is the safety of the people, and that our first responders, which I have always felt included lifeguards, firemen and police, and all our paramedics and our medics, and our uh ambulance services.

First of all, thank you.

You are number one.

You are what we need the most of.

This is our number one responsibility as government.

Number two, when I started here eight years ago, our firemen, police, and lifeguards were paid 28th, 29th, and 30th, compared to the 30 cities with which our personnel people would compare us to.

I thought this was appalling.

I immediately went to work to raise it.

My goal was to raise it to number one position of all those 30 cities.

We got at least halfway there.

Now I'd like to ask who are the 30 that we compare to, and I haven't heard the numbers for this year, but I thought we were still at least in a median position.

Am I in correct?

Have we slipped back down to 28th, 29th, and 30th?

They're looking it up.

In the meantime, let me say lifeguards thank you.

With water rescue, especially tourists in the ocean.

And I don't think the general public in San Diego realizes how many thousands of lives you guys save.

And I want to restate that in the month of March, which, as we all remember, was very hot this year, you guys saved about 800 people from drowning.

And I also want to thank you because you do the water rescues during floods, and you have saved many lives that way.

You have gone all over this nation doing water rescues, and I so appreciate that, and I know we all do.

So I do not want you to be underpaid.

I don't think any of us want you to be underpaid, of course.

The lifeguard station in OB, that's a tin can.

When I got elected, Scott Peters came over to my house.

He was our congressman then, he had been president of the council, and he had been the head of the environment committee.

And he asked me what committee I want to be head of, and I said, environment.

So it was perfect that he was there.

He said, What can I do to help?

I said, We need a new lifeguard station in OB.

He said, I'll do what I can to help.

And he tried to get money from the federal government for us.

Now you know the problems we've had with the federal government.

Nevertheless, we should have had that done.

We should have had it built.

We went through a variety of exercises with our finance department, our police department was willing to share with the budgeting of this so that they could also have a station where they could write their reports when they were at the beaches.

But this has not come to fruition, and it was horrible eight years ago when I looked at it, and it's worse now.

So I feel for you.

I feel for you, and I think we all do.

But especially because so much of my district is beach area.

I definitely definitely feel for you, and I definitely have witnessed what you go through.

So do we have that answer?

Yes, Councilmember Campbell.

Um, based on our recent total compensation survey, which we do in preparation for negotiation, the for new hires, uh, the 145 represented overall classification is 4.9% below market median.

So, in other words, we'd have to pay 4.9% to get to market median for their overall classification.

Now, each of the individual classifications have different amounts, but that's the average for the entire bargaining unit.

But that's for fire, that's for local 145 representative places.

What about lifeguards?

Well, lifeguards are difficult because we don't have 30 we can compare with because not too many people have the beaches we have.

Not too many cities have that, so I know we don't compare to 30, but we do compare to what 10 others.

Yeah, so for local um 96, we are 1% above the market median based on that uh total compensation survey, but as you said, we're difficult to compare to other agencies, that's the closest that we have.

It's for a very small number, it's um 45 classifications are surveyed, and out of that total, there is apologies one second.

There's about five um agencies that have similar classifications that are similar in nature, so that the comparison is the one percent to that.

So out of the classes it's three.

So we're we're we're going we're backsliding a little bit on the fire, almost five percent, and we're more median on the lifeguards, but we need to we need to do better, and I still have the goal of 100%, even though this is my last year on council.

I'm sorry about that, but I I was very interested in what the IBA had to say about the various fees that Los Angeles can collect that we don't.

They have also the second largest city in America.

They have at least 10 times more population than we have.

So that makes it better.

However, I must say also, I grew up in Colorado.

I've lived in many places around the country.

I have never seen a city not have an income tax.

The city does not have an income tax.

Not smart for a politician to talk about tax.

But you know what?

Cities need income.

We get a lot of income, one fourth of it for a general fund we get from property tax.

We get 12 cents on the dollar from the county on our property tax.

Now a lot of our property tax goes to schools.

So that's good because we have to we have to help our schools.

But is this right?

I when Todd was in the legislature, and I wasn't even running for office.

I asked him about this, and he said he he had the legislative IBA get in touch with me.

And what we found out was that the legislature, the state legislature, Sacramento, decides how much percent the cities in a county are gonna get out of that county property tax.

The legislature decides, not the local people, legislature.

So that's one thing.

Now our our 12 cents was decided probably 1950 when the county provided most of the services to the people who lived in San Diego County.

We were a very small city then, but it hasn't changed since, and it's supposed to be based on the number of services provided by that governmental entity.

So we need to tell our people in Sacramento, and I'm sure every other big city in this state is going through this, although we are the second largest next to LA.

We need to tell them change that.

So that's one thing we need to do.

Another thing we need to consider is citizens, think about it.

Would it kill you to pay a half a percent of whatever it is you pay to the state income tax?

No.

Would it help your city?

Yes.

Think about that.

I know people hate to even think about taxes.

I don't blame you.

We all hate paying taxes.

But we have to.

If we want services, we have to pay for them.

And if we want to pay our people an excellent wage, we have to raise the money.

So we have to think of new and different ways, and we have to look at all those extra fees that LA gets and figure out how we can help so that we have more budget so that we can raise the wages.

And something else I'd just like to say to my colleagues to consider, and that is that there has been a big push to give something like 10.3 million dollars to the arts this year.

I believe last year I know somebody out there can tell me how much we gave to the arts last year.

Was it 4.7 million?

Do you remember Rolando?

I don't I don't recall exactly, but it was nowhere near the 10.3.

Some people want to give it this year.

Are you talking about penny for the arts?

Penny for the arts, last year?

Last year.

11.8 million.

11 point how many?

Okay, so last year was 11 million.

This year we're talking 10.3 million.

Yes.

Okay.

All right, well, we need to give money to the arts.

Why?

Because the arts bring us money.

The arts bring us revenue, and the arts feed our souls.

So we do need money for the arts.

But you know what?

Public safety is number one.

So I asked my colleagues, consider other things that you want to fund.

Is it possible?

Is it possible that we can shift some things so that our people get a decent wage?

Think about it.

We might not be able to do it this year.

But let's let's all put our heads together and think of ways that we can have more money so our city is not starving for funds.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

Uh, Councilmember Whitburn.

Thank you very much, Council President.

I'll be very brief.

My colleagues have had a lot of good comments.

I just want to take the opportunity to say thank you.

Uh you had an extraordinary number of calls in my district, which is this urban area that goes from downtown up to Mission Valley.

Uh you get a lot of medical calls for people experiencing homelessness.

You've got all the high rises with fire alarms, crashes on the freeways, uh the lifeguards respond to floods in the river, when it raids.

Uh I know you have your heads full.

Uh it's a difficult job, but I just want you to know how much it's appreciated.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

Uh not seeing anybody else in the lights.

Um, I'll offer a few uh closing thoughts myself.

Um thank you for what you all do.

I mean, just bottom line.

I just saw that the surrender fire, the forward progress on that has been stopped.

That didn't happen magically, it happened because an amazing number of individuals and pieces of equipment were out there to make that uh stand and prevent as far as I understand no structural damage out there.

Uh there's a lot of mopping up uh left to do, but um that happens because of the training, the expertise, the commitment that you all have individually and collectively uh going forward.

Um lifeguards.

I think I've told the story more than once.

Lifeguards saved my daughter and her friend from a red tide down on La Hoya shores many, many years ago.

Uh so I always felt that was personal.

Uh the couple of things.

One, I'm old enough to remember when there was proposal to put advertisements on Lifeguard Towers, and I was down there, it was my first TV appearance saying, hell no, we're not gonna do advertisements.

I think I've changed my mind.

If uh the acme company wants to sponsor the new uh mission beach lifeguard, I'm all in, let me tell you, uh, because we got to be creative.

That's how we're really gonna do the equipment side, and when we take the pressure off uh the budget on the equipment side and the facility side, then we can talk about the salary side, you know, uh, because that's incredibly uh important.

But I do want to talk about facilities a little bit because I've seen in my district amazing support by the community on the fire side.

Fire station 21, one of the better equipped fire stations.

Fire station 13 got totally rebuilt.

Um you see San Diego paid for fire station 52.

Best that's got to be the newest fire station in the entire city.

And I believe the fire station 16 is actually being remodeled as we speak through strictly private private dollars.

We got to get some of that activity on the lifeguard side.

Um lifeguard station is a whole different question, but uh I think one thank you for those folks that understand the importance of doing everything that the private sector do to can make life just a little bit easier uh for the 24 hour shifts, the long nights, etc.

etc.

Uh, but that um but we have to do better.

I think my colleagues have said it very, very well.

Uh the only other thing I'll throw out there is something that my office has been looking into, I think others.

Proposition 172.

I think it was before most of you were even born.

Just kidding, 1993.

So, which was supposed to be a safety sales tax to make up for how much money was swung over into education.

I don't think the city gets anywhere near its fair share of that safety sales tax.

That would be a big bump, very targeted there.

It's easy for me to talk about, it's a little more complicated because the county would have to give up some of their money for for it to flow to us instead.

But there's other ways in addition to the one my colleagues said.

So we have to figure it out.

We're in the middle of, I'm sure intense negotiation.

You have good representatives at the negotiating table going forward.

So uh thank you for the good work.

Thank you for the taking the time this afternoon to make your case and tell your story, which is a very personal one.

So thank you.

Again, not see anybody else in the lights.

Um, you can take a seat and we will go to public comment.

Uh there will be one more time for council members to speak on this item.

So, public comment.

We have three speakers here.

Max Schmidt, if you can please come up to the microphone.

After that, we have allegedly Audra and then Joyce Sonia.

And then let me just set your time.

You'll have a minute and a half.

Please proceed.

Hi, item 629, the presentation on the status of vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts for the fire department.

It's a very personal issue for me.

And the reason why is because when I got um 5150 um by communist for simply talking about reincarnation and teleporting on the internet, the fire department was used to try to um frame me as mentally ill as well.

And my voice would not be silenced by communist 5150 laws.

My voice would not be silenced by these communists saying that I'm mentally ill.

Also, they didn't they 5150 to me, held me in a psych ward for three months, and inside the psych ward, they abused me just as much as I'm being abused currently at the Alpha Project homeless shelter staff.

I'm being abused everywhere I go by Freemasons following me around with an omnipresent audible voice saying my thoughts out loud and criticizing me, and I'm not crazy down with the occult, I'm not crazy.

And also, I'm I don't want to say something about the city council because they're kind of antagonizing me as I sit back there and wait to speak and they're saying we're gonna 5150 you if you keep it up, we're gonna 5150 you and keep it up, and I call your bluff, you're not gonna 5150 me.

You've already done it 10 times, and look where it's got you me exposing the new world order like never been before, you're all reincarnating demon possessed teleporting, telepaths, and you know it.

Allegedly, Audra, if you can please come forward, so there's always a domino effect to everything that you guys do in 2021 and beyond when you guys were implementing your vaccine mandates, you lost quite a significant amount of public safety workers, and we've been trying to make up the difference ever since.

And it's like if you did prioritize public safety, it wouldn't be like this, and you guys always want to scapegoat like oh, it's problems with the federal government.

No, you guys have plenty of money, you get billions of our dollars, and you guys aren't good stewards of it, but yet you want to now come in and probably you're gonna bring in some kind of income tax for the people, right?

All the things that LA has, and it's like, I mean, if you guys were spending it wisely, we wouldn't have to be making cuts like this.

I mean, the people that are here should be making the kind of money that you guys make, but you sit up here on a dice, and you're the ones that are the arbiters of whether or not they're going to be able to make a decent wage, and it's like they're the ones that are on the front lines doing the work while you guys sit up here and pretend that you are significant when it's actually them and and people that are actually you know putting their lives on the line, and it's just sad because you act like there's just not enough money.

No, there's plenty of money, you're just misusing it.

And if you weren't, then people like them wouldn't be, you know, trying to figure out how to just survive while you know making sure other people survive.

So uh it's just sad because it's like I mean, you're gonna need them at some point.

I bet you're gonna wish that you paid them more when they come to you.

You have that concluding comment, Joyce and Yada.

First of all, thank you, everyone, for the presentation, and from the union speakers and uh for everyone who came out today, love all you.

So um a big question is how we care.

Thank you, Council President Pro Tim Lee.

How we care?

How we care about our employees, and how we care about living within our means.

Thank you, President Pro Tim Lee.

Policies and procedures, too many moving parts.

If one of our employees studied those policies and procedures, would they understand them?

Would they be able to speak them with us and figure them out and say what's working and what's not working?

I don't know.

Are they hindering the policies and the procedures?

Are they hindering us from caring about our employees and living within our means?

Can we even do both?

Isn't that a big question?

Let us share our stories and let us stay together on this.

Starting with Hector, if you can please unmute.

Thanks, Black, take my call.

I say give the firemen $20,000 raise for the new guys.

And then we'll instrument a sales tax program.

10% addition to all the politicians in San Diego and California who buy things at stores.

It'll be a pilot program.

We'll see if that works for you guys.

10% added to your sales tax to pay for the raise for the firemen.

And let's put ADU units on the uh thing in Mission Beach, the fire, the new uh lifeguard tower.

We'll put two ADU units on top of it and let the fire or let the uh lifeguards live in them.

It'll be great, man.

It'll be good recruiting thing.

And let the firemen and the lifeguards build it.

They can do it.

Don't don't sub it out.

Let them build it.

We'll pay them.

They know they can do the demo, they can dig.

These guys have jobs.

They've caught some of them are contractors.

I know them.

They can do it, let them do it.

Don't bid it out to some other guys.

We'll watch them, make sure they don't just gouge us, but it'll be great, man.

We could advertise in LA for uh girls to come down here to live in a to be lifeguards.

It's a no-brainer.

Any woman in LA would gladly come to San Diego to be a lifeguard.

I know some of those guys too.

That's what they did.

They don't want to stay in LA.

LA's a jungle.

They go over there.

Thank you.

Your time has concluded.

Tony, if you can please unmute.

Hey, can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

I just wanted to say, uh, been really inspired hearing what everyone's been contributing to this discussion.

Uh, thank you for the presentations by the fire department and by the firefighters.

I'm excuse me, uh, by our lifeguards.

Um, I wanted to start by thanking um council member uh president pro tem uh Kent Lee for um reconsidering your position on Flock as we're having this discussion about public safety.

Um, yes, uh uh uh council member uh Campbell, I agree with you.

Public safety is number one, but we need to also consider smart public safety.

Um lifeguarding is smart public safety, giving money to lifeguards is smart public safety, giving money to ALPRs um that are not effective that are targeting the wrong people that are uh causing us lawsuits, uh three million right now is what the claim uh that's being sought by the two people that were falsely arrested by the uh flock ALPR cameras, as was reported yesterday in the Times of San Diego.

Um, but I love what you said.

Uh Ms.

Campbell, I totally agree with you.

Uh, we do need to think about uh having if we if we want to fund these things that we want funded, we need to have uh more money coming from the state.

Um we can't just be collecting this uh one cent or half a cent.

You know, like you were saying, even collecting half a cent more would be a substantial increase uh from what we're seeing right now.

Um, so thanks everyone for your input today.

Um, very well said, thank you.

Next is John Stump.

If you can please unmute.

Uh, thank you very much, council.

You know, in the police, in the fire, in the lifeguards, they all are seeking pay from and receiving for total compensation in the area of a half million to a quarter of a million per employee.

That's the average.

You know it, I know it.

How why does that happen?

Because you've got overtime being used to boost double pay.

Now, what's the problem?

You need to find out, use equity and your equity department to find out how many employees live in District 8, District 9, and District 4.

Are employees leaving the city for greener pastures to live in because the schools are no good, or the don't they have pride in our community?

We need to find out how many are in council district four, eight, and nine.

You know, that old thing about blacks not being able to swim has been set up uh set aside by Salone Manuel and Cullen Jones.

Please give fair compensation, but don't do it with overtime so they can live in riverside.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes your time.

The five-minute timer has also concluded.

Blair Beekman is the last speaker in the queue.

Please proceed.

Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.

Thanks for the words as always from Tony.

Um to add, uh, you know, concerns of public safety with life saving and uh fire department.

They've recently moved over to uh their technology and surveillance check has moved over to Jayhawks, where the data collection goes.

I hope that's a federal agency.

Uh uh, they're separate from the police.

I hope that we can be clear and have clear conversations with Jayhawks and not be afraid of those conversations with data collection tech issues.

Um with that said, good luck that we can look for a new ALPR vendor besides walk, by the way.

Um I wanted to comment that um we are uh out of time to uh really be considering that um well that because um you know uh this item is saying that there's issues with the technology of the technology with uh community with with people leaving the San Diego community.

Do you have good ID?

You seem to have cut off.

That does conclude public comment we did drop.

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

So there's one up one additional opportunity for council to speak up again.

I know there was pretty robust conversation, but Councilmember Ilo Rivero.

Yeah, uh thank you, Council President.

It was robust.

I um I wanted to make sure that I didn't add this part.

I think I appreciate some of my colleagues' comments.

Um Council President Pro Tem in particular.

Um this is just an entirely unacceptable way for San Diego to live.

It's obviously firefighters and lifeguards essentially coming to council to beg that they be compensated enough to not have to leave a city that they love, um, or a career that they love.

Um that's unacceptable.

That should never be happening in a city with the amount of r resources.

I mean that on a kind of broad level, like the amount of money that flows through this city, the amount of money that's taken out of this city, that should never be happening.

There's a conversation that quite frankly, s some of us are playing into at times that that the the belt can be tightened enough to get to where we need to go, and it's it's just not real.

It's not real.

Not only is is that not real, the idea that the general fund is something to be uh terrified of is also not real.

This is who is paid for with the general fund.

These are the s the services that we talked about, um fire lifeguards.

Um we didn't hear from uh from MEA, but everything that folks want and need as residents uh overwhelmingly is paid for out of the general fund.

So, until we either are committed to taxing the wealthy and making corporations and tourists pay their fair share, most of this is just platitudes.

Um, and I I I these folks deserve more than platitudes.

The last thing I will say in terms of the conversation about lifeguards being public safety employees, this the city is continue to take a position that lifeguards are not entitled to uh presumptive coverage in a way that matches um police officers and and firefighters, and I've said it and others have now said it, both on the dais um in public and elsewhere, that we think that that is wrong.

This idea that they should have to prove whether or not uh the the illness that they caught from the storm uh the stormwater that they dove into or other uh ailments that they might be dealing with were caused on the job, uh it is not a good way to indicate that we actually value their profession as a public safety profession.

So I'm glad that we are consistently standing in support verbally of public safety.

What we where we have to do better is the willingness to have the conversation to resource the city well enough to actually make good on uh the requests that they're making to us.

I know we'll talk more about this tomorrow as well, Council President, but um I just it bothers me immensely because we shouldn't be living this way.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember uh Ila Rivera, we'll go back to council member von Wilburn.

Thank you.

Um I also wanted to ask some questions about recruitment.

Could have talked a bit about retention today, but you know, cutting the academy, I mean the uh cadet program is shooting us in the foot because it is such a great recruitment tool.

Same thing with the women's fire prep academy.

We've gotten many, many qualified firefighters out of that academy as well.

Um, but I guess my question is citywide.

You know, why do we leave it to each department to have to figure out how to do recruitment on their own?

We have an entire personnel department, entire HR department.

Obviously, firefighters are the best ambassadors to the public.

You should be involved in recruiting people up, that makes total sense.

But you know, you know I see David Dallagar's here.

You've done an excellent job reforming the personnel department and getting people through, but are there thoughts that you have on how we could relieve the burden on just the fire department, just the lifeguards do their own recruitment?

We as a city could help support them in their efforts.

And you have done an excellent job, sir, in reforming the personnel department, and I'm very glad that you're here.

No, thank you so much for the question.

Uh, first of all, I think it is really important to have the departments as a part of the recruitment phase because seeing these real life heroes go out there and talk to people, it really gets them in the mood and really want to join the city because they're gonna see the good they get to bring in.

Um we are working on a lot of things to lower the barriers.

Obviously, we've talked about that a lot here lately.

Um I'll give you a few examples.

We've worked with the chief's office to remove testing requirements and bringing in-house um training programs so that uh they don't have to go through our tests, the physical abilities test, stuff like that, so that they can be certified automatically to list, allowing for people who have passed our tests before to be certified as well.

So we are trying to bring down the barriers.

In addition to that, looking forward, we're gonna be doing more than one uh fire recruit academy each year.

So we're gonna be doing two recruitments now.

So we're open to any suggestions.

We work closely with the fire department and with the REOs, but we do need them a part of the process because they're our best selling point.

Agreed.

I mean, did you I'm thinking along the lines of you had that fantastic hiring fair that you guys did when tons of people came out.

Is there a way that you could help facilitate that, and they could come?

Obviously, we need firefighters to be there to be the ambassadors of the department, but they're trying to fight fires and rescue people, you know, they don't need to do all the administrative work to set these things up.

You could help with that, and then not you personally, I'm just saying your excellent department could, and then they could come.

No, absolutely.

And so we've done a couple of those hiring halls.

Uh, we are moving forward with um what we call the Chief Logan um fire recruit hiring hall.

Okay, so what we do with that is when they do have new hires, we um go to NTC, do the fingerprinting, the medical, schedule everything for them so they're at a fire facility, they don't have to come downtown, they don't have to pay for parking.

So we are definitely doing that.

Uh, one of the issues right now with hiring halls is if we aren't hiring people, we don't want to put out the false perception of hey, come on down here.

We have a whole lot of jobs available when when we may or may not.

So, but absolutely we're happy to do any of those hiring fares and whatever the chief or or either one of the chiefs need, we're always happy to help.

Okay, thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um, all right, thank you, Councilmember Von Wilpert.

Not seeing anybody else on the lights.

Um, I'll thank you all for both the presentation and all of you for turning out, both REOs taking the time to take advantage of this moment while negotiations are going underway.

I think you made your points very effectively.

Um, I think you heard some support across uh the entire dias here, to be candid how that translates into bargain or negotiating contracts remains to be seen.

But I think you guys did a great job.

I think it was worth your time to come down here and make your case.

So well done.

All right, all right.

With that uh clerk, please introduce item 641.

Item 641 is the repeal Balboa Park paid parking user fee.

If you're here for this item, please be sure to submit your speaker slip to the front of the room in the clear box.

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

Thank you, Council President.

All right, I'm gonna give a minute or two for these good folks to actually can tell who's well disciplined.

It's quite as crowd we've ever seen exit the chambers.

So, um we're gonna turn this over to council member Whitburn to introduce the item, and you can introduce your staff.

Sir, thank you very much, Council President.

I bring forward today's action to repeal paid parking in Balboa Park.

This action formally approves part of the negotiated settlement that the city council supported in closed session last month.

The settlement ends an effort to repeal the city's trash fees through a ballot measure.

If that effort had been successful, it would have cost the city nearly 150 billion dollars in revenue for two consecutive years.

To negotiate the settlement, I worked with Michael Zuquet, the general manager of the municipal employees association and we built upon earlier work by the council president.

The settlement has two main components: uh reduction of the city's trash fees, uh, the repeal of paid parking in Balboa Park.

The first item will hear this afternoon repeals paid parking in Balboa Park.

The next item will reduce the city's trash fees.

Today I have two new updates on the repeal of paid parking at Balboa Park.

First, it will apply not only to the parking lots, but also to street parking.

Uh, the city will restore free parking both in the lots and on the streets in Balboa Park.

And second, for people who bought annual parking passes, the city will refund any portion of the pass that extends beyond the end of this year.

That's because parking will be free for everybody by then.

And with that, I will turn it over to my chief of staff, Jacob O'Deal, to present the item.

Good afternoon.

This proposal comes as part of a larger negotiated compromise regarding the solid waste management fee that also incorporated this proposed repeal of the Balboa Park paid parking user fee.

Council Member Whitburn presented the negotiated compromise at City Council closed session on May 20th, 2026, where it was approved for consideration here in open session.

This item seeks approval to repeal the Balboa Park paid parking program with been within Balboa Park, making parking free for everyone effective January 1st, 2027.

There are three types of paid parking within Balboa Park where meters or kiosk will be removed.

The first is the surface lots.

Parking meter kiosk will be removed in all surface lots in the park, including a number of uh surface lots, Oregon Pavilion, Casa de Balboa, upper inspiration point, and lower inspiration point, along with a few others.

The next uh areas that will the kiosk will be removed or on park street locations.

Parking meters kiosk will be removed on all park street locations, including President's Way, Village Place, Balboa Drive, El Prado, Kinsey Drive, and Juniper Road.

And then the third portion is Park Boulevard.

There is metered parking, they're not kiosk.

There's 46 parking meters that were installed.

And Park Boulevard is subject to the Mayoral Authority under Council Policy 20-4 or 200-04.

And the mayor has agreed to remove all 46 parking meters on Park Boulevard.

The item also asked that the treasurer's office stops selling passes in order to not sell any passes that will go beyond December 31st, 2026.

Currently, there is three types of passes yearly, quarterly, and monthly.

This action asked that yearly passes stop being sold basically after today, so that there will be no refunds due after the first of the year.

So that the quarterly passes will not go beyond the first of the year, and that monthly passes stop being sold on November 30th, 2026, so that they will also be done by the end of the year.

Uh, will be refunded in a prorated portion for all purchased annual passes that remain unused as of January 1st, 2027.

So if you bought it in February of this year, it went till February of next year, you'll be refunded for the person uh the portion beyond January 1st.

Uh parking revenues for FY 2027 from park user fees were projected at 4.4 million in the mayor's proposed budget.

Working with the IBA and city staff, revenues are now projected to be higher for FY 2027.

Monthly actual revenues from March to May have been coming in much higher, and as you can see from the chart on the that the IBA has helped uh create for us, we are now projecting $3.9 million through December 31st, 2026.

And that 3.9 million will still be a little bit short of the 4.4 million that was budgeted, but you can also see the expenditures, the enhanced services for the tram will no longer be needed for the rest of the year for the final six months of uh the fiscal year.

So that would actually save 480,000 dollars, which combined with the revenues, will be basically no impact for the 2027 fiscal year that you guys will be voting on tomorrow.

So this proposed action asked to repeal the previously passed resolutions to approve the parks user fee revisions to authorize the city treasurer to discontinue issuing passes to authorize the treasurer to refund the prorated passes going beyond the uh first of the year, and also to direct the department of finance to amend the rate book to remove any mention of pro uh program in Balboa Park parking fees.

So, with that, any questions on the fiscal impacts the IBA I think is here to answer, and any questions on the settlement.

Uh Councilmember Whitburn is here to answer.

We in fact will go to the office of the IBA.

Great.

Thank you, Council President Rob.

Thank you, Jacob, for the presentation.

Um, just wanted to note as you heard, there will be limited impacts on the FY27 budget, which you're hearing tomorrow, associated with this action, provided the paid parking does remain in effect from the end of this calendar year.

Um, as you heard, that's because paid parking revenue over the last several months has significantly exceeded the projections that were included in the project or in the proposed budget.

That means that the net impact of removing half a year is largely covered by bringing in more revenue than expected during the first six months of the fiscal year.

I do want to highlight that there may be impacts on revenue from the zoo that is associated with their recent 44-year lease extension, while the zoo's minimum payment called for in the lease will go away with the termination of paid parking, the 50-50 revenue split will remain.

We are working to evaluate any potential impacts for FY27 right now.

That said, while the overall impact to the upcoming fiscal year are minor, it's also worth acknowledging that this means that there will be less revenue, around seven to ten million dollars once we hit FY28 and next year's budget cycle, we'll have to take that into account.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Charles, for that um clarification.

With that, Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

If we can have allegedly Audra and Joy Signata, please come up to the front row.

Allegedly, Audrey you can come up to the microphone.

You'll have a minute and a half.

I mean, it's ridiculous that we are here dealing with this, because obviously what you did was illegal and unconstitutional.

And the way that you guys bring about these fees is very negligent when you know that this kind of stuff can take place and all of a sudden we have to come forward and repeal what you've already put forward, like those 46 meters and all of the kiosk.

Like how much money are we losing because you decided to go down this path and we had to go into litigation that's costing us not only a million dollars for that, but how much more money did you lose in the process of this?

And then you're talking about revenue that's been lost.

Like, I mean, shit, when are we going to start doing things that are that are for the benefit of the people?

Because the people will come in here and tell you guys no, but it's like the way that things are set up, it's like, well, if you don't have like a hundred and fifty thousand people come in here, we're gonna go ahead and pass it anyway.

Like it's literally set up for failure for the people, and then we have to come back and do this kind of crap, wasting money that you guys claim that you, I mean, look, think about how much money could have gone to all of these first responders, millions of dollars that you guys have wasted, and it happens time and again, and it's just fucking ridiculous to have to like I mean, shit.

You're working, Joy Sonata.

City Clerk, uh, are we doing just the parking fees now?