All right, we're gonna get started.

Good morning.

I will now call the city council meeting of Tuesday, June 16th, 2026, to order.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Von Wilper.

Council President Pro Temley.

Here.

Councilmember Campia.

Councilmember Moreno.

Present.

Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Present.

And Council President LaCava.

A quorum is now present.

We will begin this morning with the land acknowledgement and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Council Member Moreno.

Thank you.

Please stand.

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

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

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

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

Please face the flag, put your hand over your heart and repeat after me.

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 thirty through thirty-two and s five oh three.

And then after that is Joy Sanyata.

And then after that, we have Samuel Merrill, Stephen Lundy, Ronnie Gillett, and Johnny Oseda.

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

Jacob, you're speaking on item 3031 and 32, so you'll have three minutes.

Please proceed.

Good morning, men and women of uh city council and everybody in council chambers.

Thank you for allowing me standing in front of you today to speak.

Proclamation days are very important.

That uh to recognize days of recognition.

This is a city, this is a country of a melting pot for the people by the people.

I would like to address our African American friends, neighbors, loved ones, community members that uh African American folk were done horribly wrong in past history.

That needs to be recognized.

For what's going on in our country, though, is unjust for everybody.

I spoke in front of City Council a couple months back, and I posted it on YouTube.

If you look up Jacob Edwards speaks on YouTube, and you'll see that short clip.

Since that speech, what has occurred, is very concerning.

Our country had been hijacked, it was hijacked by the Italian mafia, and we allowed that in our country.

Chinese espionage was on it the entire time.

From the jump, and they have capitalized on it.

They are positioned and ready to take over our government and our country.

The deal they made with the Federal Reserve families to clear their debt to the Chinese.

It's very disturbing.

To eliminate the best of the best in our country, so their best of the best can come in.

Taking our country over, and this is being covered up.

Some are going wrong with this.

Some who are aware are too afraid to confronting and running from it.

Everybody and anybody that can, please stand up.

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

And it's time to do so, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for allowing me to speak in front of you, and God bless the city of San Diego.

God bless the United States, and I'll be speaking again.

Joy Sanyata, if you can please come forward.

You're speaking on items 30 and S503, so you'll have two minutes.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Coming from all races, backgrounds, and countries across the world.

Perhaps there is only one family tree growing on our beautiful earth.

Then we could say, one people, one family, one world.

Love to all the members of that beautiful family tree.

Perhaps the roots of the family tree that I just spoke of for the Jewish people are the roots of freedom for all peoples.

Just imagine how strong that tree would be, how beautiful that tree would be with all family members living in freedom, and that coming from the very roots of that tree.

When I Googled the movie Roots, an image of a young black boy with heavy manacles on his wrist appeared.

It wasn't the manacles that stood out to me.

It was the piercing look of struggle and suffering in his eyes that looked out at me.

And it was really, really tough for me to keep my look into his eyes.

Love all of you.

Thank you very much for coming.

Sorry for your struggles.

But we're together and we're doing it.

Okay, love to all.

Thank you, Samuel Merrill.

You have uh Johanna Hart Harrit, if you please raise your hand.

Thank you.

Oh, Jonathan.

Sorry.

You'll have two minutes on items 503.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Good morning, Council members.

I'm Samuel Merrill.

As we celebrate Juneteenth, we honor a defining moment in American history.

The day when the last enslaved African Americans learned of their freedom.

Juneteenth reminds us that freedom delay is freedom denied.

Today, as a city, we acknowledge that historical inequities help shape many of the disparities we continue to see in our communities.

We have recognized the importance of pursuing equity in our policies, our budgeting decisions, and our investments in communities that have too often been overlooked.

While progress has been made, the work is not complete.

Juneteenth is not only a celebration of black heritage, resilience and achievement, it is also a call to action.

It reminds us that justice and equity are ongoing pursuits that require commitment and accountability.

Thank you.

Next we have Stephen Lundy for item 31.

Good morning, City Council Chambers.

Highland dancing, dancers compete in classes of age and proficiency.

They perform the Highland Fling with arms up like a glorious stag.

The saw dance over cross swords to celebrate a victory in battle.

The Sean Trues and Old Trousers, another celebration kicking off them damn trousers after the act of prescription was lifted.

Thank you for that concluding sentence.

I'm sorry it is one minute, but if you have written comments, you can definitely give them to my staff and they can pass it around for the council to continue reading them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Would you like to leave here?

Uh Ronnie Gillett.

You have people seating in time.

Um stay and uh Jenny.

Yes.

I would like to call Johnny for a trusted thing for me for our large community.

And then Berlin Assembly.

Thank you.

You'll have three minutes.

Please proceed.

Good morning, distinguished guests, elected officials, community leaders, clergy, members, friends, and members of the Asian community.

On behalf of our community.

On behalf of our of our community, it is my great honor and privilege to welcome you to this special Asian Heritage Manch Celebration.

Today we gather not only to celebrate the rich history, culture, resilience, and contribution of the Asian people, but also to recognize an individual whose leadership, service, and dedication have positively impact countless lives in our community.

First, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the members of the City Council, community organization, volunteers, sponsors, and all those who work tirelessly to make this celebration possible.

Your commitment to honoring cultural heritage helps preserve the stories, traditions and values that enrich our city.

Today we are especially proud to honor Pastor Johnny Oxeda as an ambassador of the San Diego Asian community.

Pastor Johnny Oxeda has served not only as a spiritual leader, but also as a mentor, advocate and bridge builder within our community.

Yes.

He has consistently demonstrated compassion, integrity and a genuine desire to uplift others.

Perseverance, la foi, l'amour de la liberté, l'histoire d'Haiti connue d'inspiration le peuple du monde entier.

It's history continues to inspire people around the world, and today we celebrate those values through the example of leaders like Pastor Johnny Oxida.

Dr.

Axeda today, we thank you for your dedication, your vision, and your commitment to serve to serving God's people in our community.

Your work has left a lasting impact and dishonor as ambassador of the Sandiguitian community is both well deserved and deeply appreciated.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

I'll let you finish translating that concluding comment.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Merci beaucoup.

Thank you.

Next is Johnny.

Johnny.

Oh, that was you?

Oh, okay.

Maximilian Schmidt.

You are speaking on items S503, item 32, item 31, and item 30.

You'll have three minutes to speak on all of those items.

Hi, um, I just wanted to talk about um item 30, Jewish American Heritage Month.

Um, the Masonic lodges down the street have a um the Star of David on it, and um also the Seal of Solomon.

And for me, having a whole month um where this is celebrated is already impressing on me because I'm being targeted by Freemasons, and so that's hard for me as a Christian because I feel like I'm already being persecuted.

And for the Haitian flag day, um, I'm just out here making points that I think someone has to make if no one else is going to make them.

Um, Haiti is widely considered one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and their people are some of the poorest in the is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

And um I I like I'm just curious how for the we celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month and Haitian Flag Day.

I wish we could celebrate I think the people from Haiti are some of the uh friendliest people, um, some of them are my neighbors, but I wish we could separate the flag from the people instead of having Haitian flag day, maybe um Haitian Heritage Day.

And the reason why is because I used to live in a third world country uh in Namibia, Africa, and I visited the slums, and I know what it's like to um walk around that area and I volunteered there.

And I think there's people in Haiti who may feel oppressed by the Haitian flag where the government's rich and the government has all the money.

I think it's actually even considered state capture, what's going on in Haiti, and I'm just here to make the point having a flag that's that celebrates the most corrupt uh government in the world and the poorest country in the world due to government corruption where the government's sitting fine in Haiti, and they're flying the flag over their mansions.

And um, I just wanted to say I wish we could have Haitian Heritage Day, not Haitian flag day, and again separate the people from the country.

And um, I think a lot of people in Haiti may even see more freedom in the American flag than the Haitian flag of the people actually in Haiti.

And um, I just wanted to say for the other for Juneteenth day.

Um I'm I've uh no comment on that.

And for the Scottish Highland Games Day, um, when I think of Scottish uh heritage, I think of how I'm being persecuted by the uh Masonic Lodge for being a Christian, and I honestly think of the Scottish right.

And again, I have two things that resemble Freemasonry, and then a Haitian flag day resembling a corrupt government.

I'm opposed, I oppose them.

That does conclude your time.

Allegedly, Audra.

If you can please come forward, you'll have two minutes speaking on items 30 and S503.

I'll add the minute and add that to your time.

So you guys, in your proclamations, it's interesting how much time we spend on this, and then how much time we spend on doing the business that needs to be done, like with consent, throwing all these things, you know, and you know, one thing, one vote, and all that, and you know, it just feels like you guys want to get through business, you know, and make these times seem like everything is all right.

And you know, Max had a really good point about the Haitian flag, um, and celebrating that, because that could be seen by some individuals as something that is like an enslavement.

I mean, I'm starting to see the American flag as kind of an embarrassment because of all the things that happen in our nation and the enslavement that happens with the people.

Um, and that's why, even with Juneteenth, it's like, you know, nobody's free.

I mean, we can celebrate these things because nobody should be enslaved, but you know, as as a mass, as a group, as all of us, we are being enslaved because if you look at what's happening across the world, I mean, people are you know suffering.

I mean, they're just trying to survive.

And then, you know, the government's here to put you in all these programs, and it's like a prison cell that you guys put people in, and you create dependence and the need for you know, people to come and and get services, but then you don't even really provide the services that need to be.

You guys take our money and you racketeer with it, and it's really sad, and it's like, you know, behind all of these proclamations, there's so much more that needs to be talked about, and that's why Ephesians 5 11 is so important because we're in a spiritual battle, and we have been since the beginning of time.

And for those of you that believe you should really see that, and that's why we're not supposed to engage with the spiritual works of the works of spiritual darkness, but we're rather to reprove them.

And so sometimes that means saying things that people aren't going to like hearing, but I feel like when we are celebrating Jewish heritage, you know, we don't talk about the things like you know, that in the Talmud, you know, a three-year-old plus one day is able to consent to having sex.

Um, that's pedophilia that moils will go in and orally copulate, also known as rape, um, boys who have been circumcised, and that's actually a satanic ritual to suck the blood of a child like that.

And it's just sad that that can happen in so in front of so many people.

I mean, this is why the abuse of children continues because people brush stuff like this under the rug.

And Israel is a pedophile sanctuary.

It's a place where people can go and not have any, you know, uh accountability for raping children.

And again, America is the biggest consumer of child porn, it gets distributed across all over.

I mean, you guys have had officers that have um, you know, are being charged with that.

So, thank you for that.

After that, we have Jason Shanley.

If you can please come up to the yellow reserve seats, Sydney to the microphone, and Jason Shanley up to the yellow reserve seats.

Please proceed.

I just wanted to um thank you for the acknowledgement of Juneteenth, the Cooper Family Foundation.

Um, the gentleman spoke before about Juneteenth and its importance and its history.

I don't want to go over that, but I would like to say something about my mother and father and being in Southeast San Diego and wanting to celebrate Juneteenth coming from the South.

Um, there's pretty much three pillars to the celebration.

One is healing the community, bringing the community together and education.

Uh, part of that education is gonna be um honoring the people who came before us, um, that um was part of the enslaved people, the amassing proclamation, then all the way through Jim Crow and segregation and coming together as community to heal.

Uh, just wanted to thank the council for having me and my family here, uh, the acknowledgement of Juneteenth and the accomplishments of all Americans and making this day become a national day because that was really the vision of my father's making Juneteenth a national holiday.

We've been celebrating Juneteenth for over 55 years.

Ever since I was a little kid, and I went to Point Loma High.

So thank you so much.

Thank you everybody.

Thank you for the time.

Thank you.

Jason Shanley.

Yeah, I'm Jason Shanley.

I'm just speaking because I have the ability to, and I think it's important to exercise rights when we have them.

Very grateful for City Council, remembering Juneteenth.

What I was thinking about on my way down here was uh people toiling and not understanding that freedom was around the corner.

And what I was thinking to myself, and maybe to remind leaders and people that uh may be struggling for a particular cause.

I think it's important to remember that sometimes the freedom is coming, we just haven't the message hasn't been delivered yet.

And so to me, it was a silver lining in Juneteenth that freedom was always available.

It's just the people just didn't know.

And so uh I just wanted to encourage everybody to see it through.

Uh thank you for all that you do.

Thank you for continuing to remember these things, and I hope that uh we can get to the point at some point where we realize that to be little celebrations of people that are um here in America trying to enjoy what they enjoy, I think is a disservice to the things that we fought for.

So thank you for everything.

Thank you for remembering Juneteenth.

God bless.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment here in Council Chambers, going to those participating remotely.

We have one person in the queue right now, Blair Beekman.

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

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

I wanted to speak to items uh 30, 32, and uh S503.

Please proceed.

Actually, please um do not proceed.

We do have Robin Todd also that wanted to speak on this, Robin Todd.

I'll be coming back to you, Blair.

You're speaking on item S503.

You'll have one minute, please proceed.

Good morning, City Council.

My name is Robin Todd.

I'm a field representative for assembly member Dr.

Lachey Sharp Collins of the 79th Assembly District.

I'm today to thank the city San Diego City Council for recognizing Juneteenth.

June 19th is a day of reflection and celebration.

It serves as a reminder of struggles and sacrifice for our ancestors, but also a source of immersed pride in the resilience.

Let's use this opportunity to celebrate our history and strength, achievements, and contributions of our ancestors.

Thank you again for bringing this forward.

And then Lauren Cobbs.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Lauren Cobbs and the founder of SD Melanin, and I just want to say thank you for your support and providing space for national Juneteenth celebrations here in San Diego.

We've been creating experiences for community to celebrate Juneteenth in 2018.

And we're just really honored and really blessed to be able to provide this, and thank you for the support of Juneteenth.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does now conclude public comment here in Council Chambers.

So sorry, the five-minute timer, Blair Beekman, if you can.

Please unmute again, and you'll have three minutes.

Please proceed.

Hi, Blair Beekman again.

I traveled out to Jakuma this week, and I'll be uh staying here.

And so my uh Zoom may be off and on sometimes, and that would be why it's happening if it is the case.

But uh it's really nice here, by the way.

Uh uh very nice uh mineral pond they have here for swimming.

It's really interesting healing pond.

Um, I wanted to comment uh, I guess uh, three of the items.

So first start with item 32 in the middle, Haitian flag day.

Uh, an interesting um uh item to have.

Thank you.

Uh I think uh we all can very much respect uh what Haitian culture adds to our world, basically, and um thank you for public comment uh to question uh the flag day itself.

But uh interestingly, I think the flag day in the very least can be able having it here, can at least allow us to ask those questions that were asked today.

And uh in that sense uh we can have a more open broad conversation, and thanks for the conversation we had.

Um for item S503 Juneteenth uh 2026 day.

Uh thank you for this um and for uh the history lesson I learned today.

It was it was explained very nicely how to consider our sense of freedom, even when I mean there's freedoms available even when um we don't think we have them, and uh it's nice that we acknowledge that and that we can work for a sense of uh what our better selves are, and uh good luck how we can find that um and how that relates to the Jewish American Heritage Month.

Uh we're at an important time in San Diego and across the country, how to address our relationship between Israel, uh the Middle East, and uh and what's that relationship with America?

And um, I think we're learning in San Diego important lessons over things like the IRA contract that was recently um the uh the item we had yesterday at council on Somali issues.

Um people are feeling feeling fearful of their own belief systems and need help.

And I hope in San Diego we can learn to take that as not uh isolatory, but a real process of working together towards answers.

And I hope people with the IRA issues can be open to suggestions and ideas uh and that we build it as a form of democracy in San Diego.

And I know that's uncomfortable to people of the uh of uh the Jewish faith right now to work towards the concepts that are called democracy because it often involves a lot of good Muslim ideas and Muslim input.

But I hope that's that's our that's our good point here in America, what we can do together, and that I think can give great examples to Israel for the future, um, what we can do well here together in this country.

So I hope we work on IRA things, work on its language as needed as a full community.

Uh, I have concluded.

Kathleen Lippett, if you can please unmute.

And then Judy String.

Thank you.

Good morning, Council.

It's it is important to recognize all groups have members who are another.

Sorry, what items or items did you want to speak to?

Uh uh 30, 31, and S503.

Okay, thank you.

Please proceed.

It is important to recognize that all groups have members who are unethical and immoral, but there are always good people within those groups.

Jews have contributed greatly, despite contributions representing a very small number of their population.

40% of Nobel laureates in economics, 26% physiology, medicine, 24 and physics.

Dr.

Edith Eckert, though, was one of the most important, a Hungarian-born Jewish Holocaust survivor.

She became renowned psychologist, celebrated for her expertise on trauma recovery and resilience for those suffering from PTSD of all origins.

Her philosophy from which we all can benefit was that suffering is inevitable.

Victimization is a choice.

She asserted that people can heal by letting go of hatred.

She died this last April.

Her memoir, The Choice, is her journey from Auschwitz to find freedom in her mind, and it is a powerful message for all of us today.

Regarding uh S503, Juneteenth, I agree with the earlier comment that it is important to recognize the rights we have and celebrate reminders who telegraph those rights.

Sometimes we are not aware of them, sometimes we make false assumptions.

And so clarifying the record is indeed important.

And regarding item 31, five decades of Scottish heritage, tradition, music, but Scottish contributions were also philosophers, discoveries, Adam Smith, Alexander Graham Bell, James Kirk Maxwell, Robert Burns, Lois, Robert Lois Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, Alex, and James Clark Maxwell.

All of our all of our individual populations have such remarkable people like these.

We should never broad brush each other.

It is an unfair, it's very unfair.

Okay, thank you.

That's all I want to say.

Thank you, Judy Strang.

If you can please unmute.

Good morning.

I'm just speaking to item 31.

Thank you.

I felt as a strand by marriage that I had to salute also the Scottish tradition of dancing and singing and having a good time.

They're deeply known for their fierce patriotism and their rich storytelling.

And they are famous for innovation.

One was mentioned previously, but I also would add the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell, the television by John Loggy Bard, and Penicillin, my husband, the pharmacist reminds me.

Discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming, and of course, the steam engine that changed the West developed by James Watt.

Thanks for this opportunity to call attention to the mix of people we have across the United States that come from countries that had wonderful traditions that enriched us all when they brought them here to America.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude.

Public comment on the proclamations.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

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

We'll start with Council Member Campbell.

Thank you, Council President.

I would first like to make a motion that we pass all the proclamations.

I'd like to speak about item 30 S503 and Item 31.

Briefly on item 31, since I am a Campbell, a huge clan in Scotland, even though I married the name, I am just delighted with being a Campbell.

And so I want to thank you for that proclamation and enjoy the Highland Games.

I'd like to speak also on Juneteenth.

It's so important that we remember forever that day.

This reminds me of Passover.

We Jewish people celebrate our liberation from Egypt slavery back thousands of years when Moses led us out of slavery.

And I I think of the spiritual go-down Moses.

I think of the connection between black people and Jewish people, and there are many black people who actually aren't Jewish.

And I'm just so honored that we are celebrating Juneteenth.

And let us never forget that day ever.

Thousands of years from now, let us all celebrate Juneteenth.

It's so important to remember.

And I also want to speak on uh item 30.

Um Jewish American Heritage Month was last month in May, but we had so many breaks that we weren't able to give this proclamation at that time.

This is a time when we honor the Jewish American community, which has been in America since the very beginning of our nation.

Judaism teaches us nothing of what that person spoke of.

That is a lie, and that is completely anti-Semitic and wrong and incorrect.

The Jewish religion teaches us that we are all one people, all of us.

Shema Yisrael Arnoya Wainu, here, O Israel, the Lord is one.

The Jewish people brought the concept of one God to the world.

It is our responsibility as Jews and as all of us to care for our communities and to uplift each other.

When a Jewish synagogue in Powie was targeted in 2019, resulting in one woman who had died from her injuries, and three other people injured.

All the San Diego residents of all backgrounds and faiths came around the Jewish community and helped, including the Muslims.

And last month, our city, in our city, three men were murdered at the Islamic Center of San Diego in a hate crime just because they are of the Muslim religion.

This is so wrong.

And remember that Judaism is a religion, not a race.

All races contain Jewish people.

It is an ancient, ancient religion, and it is a religion that respects all of our brothers and sisters and teaches us that everyone is a brother and sister.

The golden rule, all of these things came from Judaism.

And we support our Muslim brothers and sisters.

And I want to say that you should not conflate the Jewish people of America with Israel.

We have nothing to do with the political system or the problems in Israel.

We are Americans, and we believe in the separation of church and state.

And I believe if they did that, they'd be better off.

But that's my opinion because I'm an American, and that's what we practice here.

I think I'm about sixth or seventh generation.

And we go way further back too.

So let us not forget that American Jews are American, that American blacks are American.

We are all Americans, and we are living, we are living our freedom.

So thank you so much for all of these proclamations.

Remember that hate, prejudice, hate speech has no place in this city.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember.

So we do have a motion by Council Member Campbell to move the proclamation items forward.

And we'll go next to Councilmember Campio.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll second the motion and thank the members of the public for their participation today and for coming down to City Hall.

Uh I'm proud to join my colleagues in recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month, and celebrating the countless contributions of Jewish Americans who've made our city and our country an amazing place.

Council District 7 is home to vibrant Jewish communities, particularly in Del Cerro, where we have three important congregations: Temple Emmanuel, the Chabad of East County, and Congregation Teferith Israel, and soon moving to San Carlos's Temple Beth Jacob as well.

And of course, these institutions help strengthen our neighborhoods through worship and education, community service and cultural leadership, and are just one, just four of many, many Jewish uh institutions around our city.

They're doing amazing work.

And so uh I'm very proud to bring that forward with my colleagues.

I'm also proud to join Councilmember Whiburn in recognizing San Diego's Scottish Highland Games Day, celebrate the many individuals and organizations who helped put that long-standing tradition together and make it possible here in San Diego and members of the public who said uh all of the contributions of uh Scotland and the Scottish people to the world.

Uh events like these bring people together and strengthen community connections and highlight the rich cultural diversity that makes San Diego such a special place.

So I want to thank everyone involved for their dedication and volunteerism and continued contributions to our city.

And I'd like to finally thank my colleagues for bringing forward the proclamation for Juneteenth, as we honor the resilience and achievements and enduring contributions of African Americans while reflecting on the significance of freedom and the ongoing pursuit of equality, even to today.

The members of the public who are here today said it better than I could, but I do definitely want to thank in particular the Cooper family for their longstanding recognition of this tradition, well before governments recognized it here in San Diego and across our country.

So I thank them in particular.

Finally just recognizing this day helps ensure the lessons of the history continuing to inform our efforts to build the inclusive future that I know we all want and are all trying to achieve.

So thank you very much, Council President, and that concludes my second.

All right.

Uh thank you, sir.

So we have a motion by Councilmember Campbell, second by Councilmember Capillo to move the proclamations.

And with that, we'll go to Council Member Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh thank you to Council President Protein Lee and Councilmembers Foster Moreto and Ilo Rivera for bringing forward the proclamation, recognizing Juneteenth, 2026 day.

We celebrate the resilience, contributions, and enduring legacy of Black Americans here in San Diego and across our country as we honor this important day and reflect on our history.

We also reaffirm our commitment to advancing opportunity and equity and justice for all.

And thank you to Councilmembers Foster and Ila Rivera for bringing forward the proclamation honoring Haitian Flag Day.

San Diego's Haitian community is a vital and vibrant part of the fabric of our city.

Today we celebrate not only a flag, but a legacy of resilience and pride and incredible contributions to our shared hope.

I'm pleased to join Council Members Campbell, Capillo and Ilo Rivera in recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month.

It's an opportunity not only to celebrate the Jewish community's contributions to the community, but also to reflect on the importance of protecting religious freedom, diversity, and human dignity.

At a time when anti-Semitism continues to rise, it is important that we stand with our Jewish community and against hatred in all of its forms.

And finally, happy to join Councilmember Campillo and Councilmember Campbell in bringing forward San Diego Scottish Highland Games Day.

It recognizes an organization that has spent more than five decades celebrating Scottish culture and traditions and heritage in our region since its incorporation in 1974.

The San Diego Scottish Highland Games has grown into one of the region's largest cultural festivals, bringing together an average of 17,000 attendees each year.

As we heard earlier from Stephen Lundy, the chieftain of the San Diego Scottish Highland Games, the festival celebrates many aspects of Scottish heritage and tradition.

His one minute uh ran out before he had a chance to finish his remarks, but he did provide the rest of his comments uh to us uh up here.

It goes on to say that quote for education purposes, we have whiskey tasting for education purposes, I'm sure, uh, where you will learn how the water and the peat flavors the malt barley and how aging in different previously used oak barrels changes the notes and the aromas of the grain.

So if you're interested in attending for educational purposes, this year's Highland Games will take place on Saturday, June 20th and Sunday, June 21st at Mission Valley River Park.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

Uh, not seeing anybody else.

Oh, Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Um, before I speak to some of the specific proclamations, I want to acknowledge um why a couple of them are here uh today rather than last month.

Uh Councilmember Campbell um alluded to this as well.

We postponed uh two of these uh proclamations out of respect to make room for uh the community to grieve after the shooting at the Islamic Center.

Uh and um so to our Jewish and Haitian communities.

I appreciate your patience, uh, grace and understanding.

Um, your willingness to wait so we could hold space for another group's pain uh reflects the values that we're aiming to honor here today.

And I think that there's um a thread that I see in uh in the Haitian Flag Day Proclamation, Jewish American Heritage Month Proclamation, and Juneteenth Proclamation, and that's that liberation is not given through words alone.

It's one and it takes work.

Haitian Flag Day marks the birth of a flag that was stitched together by people who refused to remain in chains.

The people who waged the only successful slave revolution to found a free nation and built the first black republic in the world, their freedom was not granted to them.

They took it.

And that same spirit, I'm proud to see it growing here in San Diego and in my district, which is home to a growing Haitian community whose faith, resilience, and contributions are making our city stronger.

I want to say thank you to leaders like Pastor Johnny, who carry that legacy forward in our neighborhoods and show so much support for other communities as well.

Jewish American Heritage Month honors a people, my people, whose own story begins with liberation and who carry an enduring commitment to repair what's broken in the world.

That part of that heritage is the part that I hold closest and take most pride in, and has demonstrated itself in multiple ways throughout the years.

From Ruth Peter Ginsburg and her long successful fight to expand the promise of equality to women, to the Freedom Summer in 1964, where two young Jewish activists, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwarner, were murdered in Mississippi alongside their black colleague, James Cheney, for the work of registering Black Americans to vote.

They died side by side in the same cause, fighting for liberation and freedom.

And Councilmember Campbell, thank you for uh your comments about making this about Jewish American Heritage Month.

That's what this is about.

Nothing else, no other country.

Um, Jews here in America and the contributions that have been made.

And finally, um, turn to Juneteenth, which might be the most powerful reminder of all of that notion that liberation's not given through words.

The Emancipation Proclamation was historic and necessary, but a proclamation is words and words on a page do not break the chains of bondage for more than two years after it was signed.

People in Texas remained enslaved until troops reached Galveston and did the work of carrying that freedom into the world and enforcing it.

Freedom declared is not the same as freedom delivered.

This is the tension woven into our nation since its founding.

Um the space between the promises that were written on paper and the freedom that people are actually living.

We declare that all people are created equal while millions were held in bondage.

Closing that uh gap has been uh an ongoing effort and has required people willing to do the work.

So with all three of these proclamations, um, they certainly are are a reason to celebrate, but they're also a reason to recommit to the work of freedom.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Council Member Elo Rivera.

We'll go next to Council Member Moreno.

Thank you.

I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate um all the recipients of proclamations today.

Um I do have comments on item S503, which is Juneteenth 2026 day.

Um, it's an honor to join um council uh member Foster, uh Councilmember Ilo Rivera, and Council Member Lee in recognizing uh an important moment in our nation's history, and also to reflect on the significance of Juneteenth.

Uh Juneteenth reminds us of the perseverance and resilience of the Black community and also the long struggle to ensure that freedom and equal rights were not only promised but actually made a reality.

We honor those who continue to advocate for justice even after emancipation was declared, recognizing that progress often requires more than the passage of a law.

One of the lessons Juneteenth teaches us is that policy is not enough.

Meaningful change requires implementation, accountability, and enforcement.

And as public servants, we have a responsibility to ensure that the commitments we make are carried out in a way that delivers real results for the communities that we serve.

I'm proud to recognize Juneteenth and the ongoing contributions of the black community to our city, to our state, and to our nation.

I did see Estee Mellon here, Women of Color Roar, and the Cooper Family Foundation.

I have been a strong supporter of the Cooper Family Foundation that will be celebrating.

It's um, did you say 50th anniversary?

55 year anniversary, June 20th at Memorial Park in District 8.

Um, I do want to tie it in with our budget that we just passed.

Um, every single year we all I allocate funding ACCF to Juneteenth celebration because I recognize the importance that that celebration has, not only to the uh to the black community, but also to the district eight community, uh, just in general.

Um, I think if Mr.

Sidney Cooper were to go out and and go out this Saturday, he would just be blown away by um by community coming together, and also by the fact that you guys still give out free lunches to kids.

That is powerful and profound in all the uh family activities that are free and are available to the residents.

So uh tying it back to the budget.

This council did restore ACCF funding, so we will be there one more year.

And thank you guys for what you do.

I know it is a um it is quite quite the event, right?

It's a lot.

So thank you for what you do and um and for what um a lot of folks in this room do.

And I'm sorry if I didn't recognize you, but um Cooper Families in D8, so I will always uplift D 8 uh events.

Uh but with that, Council President, I am happy uh to uh support the motion before us today.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Moreno.

We'll go to Council President Pro Tam Lee.

Thank you, Council President, and uh thank you to my colleagues for a number of recognitions today.

Uh starting off with uh Jewish American Heritage Month, I do want to thank my colleagues, uh especially Councilmember Ila Rivera and Council Member Campbell for uh taking a moment to move this recognition given the circumstances of the last month uh and still taking this opportunity to recognize our Jewish American uh community here in San Diego.

Um thank you for the recognition of the Haitian Flag Day as well.

Um and Council Member Whitburn, you had me at Educational.

Uh thank you for the um that and best wishes as um you put on the San Diego Scottish Highland Games.

Um I'll speak to item S503, and I'm honored to join Council Members Foster, Moreno, and Ilo Rivera to proclaim Juneteenth in the city of San Diego and recognize this important moment uh in our nation's history.

Um we all know the history of why Juneteenth has come to be and I think what it serves to this day is a reminder of the path to liberation, even when delayed, can be achieved through the enduring power of resistance and uh resilience.

And the recognition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday in 2021 certainly represented an important acknowledgement of a chapter of American history that has too often been forgotten, not forgotten, but perhaps overlooked.

Um, I I think we especially need to thank uh now County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Step for helping to bring this forward at that time to ensure that the city of San Diego also recognized Juneteenth as an official holiday.

Um to this day, Juneteenth invites us to celebrate the strength, leadership, and countless contributions of black Americans, reminds us that history has to be recognized and learned from.

And it's a challenge, I think to this day for us to grapple with the pains of that history and to also make amends uh not just as a society as a country, but also um in the ways that we can here at the city of San Diego.

Uh so certainly I look forward honoring not only to celebrating Juneteenth uh with many of you, uh, but to continue using that as an opportunity of the reminding of the continual work uh when it comes to delivering justice within our communities.

Uh thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Council President Pro Temley.

We'll go next to Councilmember Foster.

Uh yes, thank you, Council President, and um just thank you to my colleagues for all of the um proclamations and the recognition.

Um Jewish American Heritage Month.

Um just thank you for bringing this forward.

Um again, as you have heard from my colleagues, you know, with the time that we are in, um, I think we need to do everything we can to uplift and to celebrate um one's um heritage, culture, um, and things of the sort.

Um, and thank you to the Jewish American uh community for all the contributions um to the city of San Diego.

Uh Haitian Flag Day.

Um, proud to bring this proclamation forward along with my colleague, Councilmember Sean Ilo Rivera.

Um but I just want everyone to understand this is about recognizing a day rooted in freedom, rooted in unity and the belief that dignity belongs to everyone.

And I must say I'm a little appalled that we have to hear comments about bringing an item such as Haitian Flag Day to be recognized.

And so I just want to make sure that um with the Haitian uh community, just thank you for everything that you do, your contribution to the city of San Diego.

And thank you for continuing to share your culture to to share um what unity um is, how important it is to unify as a people and to make sure our uh future generations um understand the significance and understand the traditions, the practices of one's culture.

So thank you for that.

Juneteenth, 2026 day.

Thank you to the Cooper family for everything that you do.

And I'll say this they're in District 8.

There's a reason they're in District 8.

That's where we were allowed to live.

So I want to make sure everyone understands that as we talk about the significance of Juneteenth.

And I'm a young man, then I've said this before on this dais that attended Hampton University.

For five years, every day, every day, I saw the emancipation oak.

Every time I go back to this day, I go to that location.

And I remember my time at Hampton.

I remember what I learned about the importance and the significance of that oak tree.

And here we are today to continue to celebrate.

And for me, this is about resolve.

This is about taking a moment to celebrate black greatness, to celebrate that no matter what has happened to us, no matter what we continue to go through, we can take time out to celebrate us, to look at each other and say, I love you.

Things will get better.

We will make sure things get better, because no one's going to take better care of us than us.

So thank you for those continued efforts.

Thank you for continuing to reflect on the significance of the black community to the success of the city of San Diego.

It's one of the reasons we established the San Diego Black Arts and Culture District.

I truly believe there would be no San Diego if it were not for the contributions of Black Americans to the city of San Diego.

So thank you so much.

Let's continue to celebrate, but let's also make sure we have a lot of work to do.

Also, I just have to close with this, and I'm gonna need just a little more time when that alarm goes off.

The past few months have been very, very difficult.

We have seen hate, and we have seen it consistently, and one thing that we cannot do, and one thing that we must not do is fall subject to the divisiveness and the hate that is coming from the president of the United States and the White House.

We cannot allow that to happen.

That is not San Diego.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is under attack, it is under continued attack.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965.

They do not want us to vote.

Coming to this dais or coming to give comment and to have the audacity to tell a culture that they should not celebrate their flag, that is wrong.

We start every meeting in this chambers doing the Pledge of Allegiance, with all of its flaws, that the United States of America has.

We were founded on what I feel is one of the most probably the most egregious acts.

In this world, we are still feeling the impacts today.

We are 5% of the population in the city of San Diego, but we make up 30% of the homeless population.

I have our board of trustee here today, Sharon Whitehurst Payne with San Diego Unified School District.

She has to fight every day to get the resources to get the attention that our young students need to learn how to read and write.

We were told we had no business understanding how to read and write.

To this day, we just went through a six billion dollar budget, and we have to fight to keep libraries open.

Why are we fighting to keep an institution where we learn?

Learn how to read, learn how to write, learn how to prepare our young folks to be successful in this very, very challenging world that we call the United States of America.

And I know we are here to celebrate.

We're going to do a flag raising for Juneteenth.

I'm going to be out at the Cooper Family Foundation.

I invite everyone in the city of San Diego, the county of San Diego.

Come and celebrate Juneteenth.

Come and celebrate Black Independence Day.

Come and understand what it looks like when we love on one another.

When we celebrate family, when we could take all that bad and set it to the side for the day.

But some time has passed where the state of California took some time out to put together the reparations task force.

It was groundbreaking work.

It set the path forward.

But we need to make sure that we not only look at that document, that we don't only sit here and acknowledge days such as Juneteenth or the Haitian Flag Day.

We need to do more.

We need to take action and we need to actually correct the harm.

And everyone needs to understand that and hear that.

And again, we need to fight hate.

Hate has no place.

No place in the city of San Diego.

And no one should feel that they are unsafe based on the color of their skin, their religious beliefs, and who they are.

But we must be respectful.

We can agree to disagree, but we must be respectful.

And so with that, Council President, that will conclude my comments.

Again, thank you for everyone to the public for coming out.

Let's make sure we take some time out to celebrate all these significant proclamations.

And let's be the best San Diego that we can be.

Let's not fight each other.

Let's embrace our diversity.

Let's embrace our culture.

We truly want this to be the greatest city.

We must do better.

We must do better.

And we must open our arms, and we must receive our brothers and sisters, and we must celebrate each other, and we must uplift and support each other.

So thank you, Council President.

I will conclude there.

All right.

Thank you, sir.

You asked for more time, I give you three minutes.

Used used up very, very well.

Um, I'll wrap things up.

Uh, thank you my colleagues for bringing forth these proclamations that celebrate who we are as San Diegans and diversity that makes our city special.

Uh, and to those of you who showed up for the first time, perhaps the only time, uh, and spoke from the heart about a proclamation that meant something to you, whether it's your nationality, your belief, your cultural heritage.

Thank you for taking the time to come out and share your thoughts, your feelings uh with us this morning.

So, with that, we have a motion by Councilmember Campbell and a second by Council Member Campillo to move the proclamations.

Clerk, please call the role.

Thank you, Council President.

I've started the voting system, please cast your vote.

And that passes unanimously seven to zero with Councilmember Martin Von Wilper and Council Member Campbell absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

With that, we will now pause for photos, and we will start with S five oh three, Juneteenth, twenty twenty six days.

All right.

As a friendly reminder to our colleagues, we're going to go to do the consent items.

Some of the items require six votes.

I'm not telling you how to vote, but we need to hold there's only six of us left.

So if there's any, no pressure, but we do we need to have at least six votes, six individuals here with the possibility of the votes, not telling you how to vote.

So we will now proceed with the approval of the consent items.

Are there any requests to pull an item?

Yes, there are.

There is if we could get a presentation on item S five oh one, the proposed fiscal year twenty-seven rec center fund budget, opportunity fund budget, and twenty twenty-five come play outside report, please.

Okay, so we'll do the consent items and then we'll have her hear that item next.

On the remainder of the consent items.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, if I can have Jacob Lewis Edwards, please come up to the front.

After that, we have Maximilian Schmidt, allegedly Audra, and then Anthony Dang, Joyce Anata, Claudia Rodriguez, Jocelyn Estrada, and Sherry Jones.

If you can all please come forward to the front row, that would really facilitate meeting management.

Now you're speaking on three items, Jacob, so you'll have three minutes.

Fifty one hundred and one oh one.

Please proceed.

Now I'm gonna speak up upon the consent agenda items.

All these agenda items we go over are very important.

However, I think that we could put agenda items forth to confront some serious stuff.

My mom's brother Danny Tor's position at the Department of Homeland Security was hijacked by the Italian mafia.

That led to them hijacking our federal government and agencies.

Jump.

Um for what's going on now, what it's led to is genocide.

Federal Reserve families owe China a lot of money to settle their debt.

They cut a deal with China that they can't take our government and our country over.

And upon that agreement to eliminate profiles of folks, the Chinese do not want the best of the best of our country.

So their best of the best can swoop in.

It's completely unacceptable.

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

I want you to check out the YouTube clip that's posted under Jacob Edwards speaks.

What has transpired since the deal that the Federal Reserve families cut with the Chinese?

It's completely unacceptable in this country.

I think the Costa Nostra would even agree, and I think I still encourage them to step back, fight with us, and let's all work together.

Let's work together that the Chinese should not overthrow our government, take our country over.

Genocide is completely unacceptable in this country.

We stand against it.

That everybody needs to work together.

Fight for ourselves, fight for each other, and fight for our country.

I say God bless San Diego and God bless the United States of America.

I'm supposed to speak public comment, but I'm gonna refrain.

Maximilian Schmidt.

You're speaking on items 100, 106, and 107.

Hi.

And I just wanted to say that nowhere do they support maybe um Christian tourism because I know San Diego has a long history of Catholic missions and um beautiful Christian churches all across San Diego.

And I thought if you maybe if we're going to have a Jewish heritage month and a Haitian flag day and Juneteenth, maybe we could do something for Christianity.

Instead, everyone talks about hate speech.

And the truth is they're trying to tie the word Christian into the word hate speech by calling us white Christian nationalist, and I'm supposed to be, and they're gonna probably call me a nationalist just because I said I don't support Haitian flag day because it's the most corrupt country in the entire western hemisphere, thus has the poorest uh people's population in the Western Hemisphere, and then we have a whole day commemorated.

They said for thousands and thousands of years, let us commemorate the Haitian flag on this special day.

And it's also, I'm sorry, it's a communist government, too.

And I feel like there's communist elements to uh San Diego's um to San Diego, too.

For example, uh neurolinguistic programming has become a problem, and I hate to say that, but it's true.

On the San Diego trolley, every time the trolley makes an announcement and uses neurolinguistic programming to try to read my mind, and uh make me nervous.

It does that because someone who did pagan rituals and became telepathic is actually controlling the trolley.

They'll even slam on the brakes or accelerate in conjunction with my movements, and they can do that because the third eye is real.

It's called camping out in someone's consciousness, they can literally access your consciousness, and the trolley driver can drive the car, and it's called sensitization.

He can slow it down and speed it up with my movements, and in the trolley intercom.

So I'm just saying 56 million dollars that we're spending on tourism.

Meanwhile, we've got the roots of communism are starting to grow out of um San Diego from everything from public transit to walking down the street and buildings making bizarre high-pitched noises, sink to your action.

So $56 million is hard-earned money from that you're taking from property tax and cannabis tax from the people of San Diego, and you're taking that $56 million, and you're trying to say we want to increase tourism, almost no transparency to the report.

Meanwhile, there's communism going on in San Diego.

Next is allegedly Audra.

You're speaking on several items 5100, 102, 105, 108.

109, 110 and S501.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Yeah, I find it interesting that talking about pedophilia is considered anti-Semitic.

And hate speech.

And being a victim of a pedophile for nine years.

That's like me talking about it is hate speech against Bert Dickerson who did that to me.

Um, and it's like not a problem that those things happen because those are very true.

What I spoke about, they do oral suction on babies who have been circumcised.

And to have sex with a child, a little girl who is three years old and one day is they can give consent.

And so it's like hateful for me to say those things.

Yes, I hate pedophilia.

I do, as a victim, because it continues, and there is no justice because of things like this being buried and it being considered hate speech that I talk about it.

Um Jewish Americans go to Israel because it's a sanctuary for pedophilia, and there's so much pedophilia that has been exposed, but it's like acceptable.

Everybody accepts it, and it's like for people who have children, that is so concerning to me.

That you would say it's hateful for me to talk about that when I think we should to protect your children from things like that happening.

It happened to me in a daycare.

I was taken to this house every day, where this man would abuse me, and I called him on the phone at the police station when I was 12 years old and got him to admit it.

And nothing happened.

Because the judge said that if when I said he said, What do you think should happen?

I said, you know what?

I think he should go to jail for a year.

That sounded like a really long time as a 12-year-old.

And he said that he would be worse off if he went to jail.

Yeah, he'd probably be dead.

Good.

Then he won't abuse any more children, like he continues to do for the last 30 something years.

Because of shit like this.

And for those of you who have children, shame on you for calling that hate speech.

Because I feel like that is hate speech to victims who are going, why is this acceptable?

Why can people stand in a crowd of people and watch a man suck a little boy's penis and clap and celebrate it?

Our world runs off of this kind of evil.

And that is why we are supposed to reprove it, not go into it and accept it and like brush it under the rug.

Oh well, we have children, and we just basically play Russian roulette with them.

And these people run rampant because of this.

Your time is concluded.

Anthony Dang.

You're speaking on item 100.

You'll have one minute, please proceed.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Anthony Ding.

I'm a climate action campaign where we're building an affordable, 100% clean and reliable energy future.

San Diegans already pay the highest electricity rates in the nation of 45 cents per kilowatt hour, which is more than two times the national average, with a typical monthly bill of over $300 for a single family home.

Rating squeezed by the affordability crisis at every corner.

SDG needs to follow a general rate case request yesterday afternoon, requesting $3.8 billion starting in 2028.

If approved, this would add an extra $22.48 per month on the average family's gas and electric bill.

That is almost an additional $270 a year.

Every San Diegan family would be handing over to SDGE.

That's exactly.

Excuse me.

That's exactly why today's energy affordability and accountability resolution matters.

And we hope that the full council can pass this resolution.

Thank you.

Troy Sanyata, if you can please come forward, you'll have three minutes to speak on 100 104 103105 107 and S502.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Just quickly.

Thank you for the dignity of listening.

That was very beautiful.

Very beautiful.

Okay, I have a bunch of them, and they're not gonna be in order.

Sorry about that.

Most of them are.

So on 100.

Well, this is exciting.

10 bills addressing utility affordability.

I mean, is this a happy moment or what?

And for uh Dr.

Campbell, because she spoke of the CPUC and affordability on the rates, it's changing, folks.

There's an article in the UT on that.

I forgot to bring it and read it, but there's changes happening in the CPUC, which is going to really help affordability on rates.

104, the labor agreement with MEA, MEA union, the good faith negotiation process.

I love those words.

So a big thank you for the excellent leadership of my Michael Zuquette and the rest of his team.

Uh they're absolutely important, and what they do is so uh it just helps all of us.

So uh along with that labor item, there's 103 and S505, which is Deputy City Attorneys and the AFSCME.

Uh it's a long um wording there.

I want to say to everybody, the unions, I love you, we need you.

You're just a part of our the fabric of our city.

You're a powerful force.

So now that your process is coming to a close, we need you to jump on board in another way.

You need to help us with our budget in all other areas.

We really need your help to help us figure it out with our priorities and where we're heading with that.

Okay.

Thank you, thank you, and love you for that extra help.

On 107, the TMD.

The last time they presented to us and they talked about storytelling.

Uh I just loved it.

I couldn't believe that the TMB uses storytelling for their marketing tool.

So uh I really like the TMD.

We're a tourist community, and we really rely on them, so I thank them very much.

And then on five S 502, a big yes uh to the CPPS funding for C D4.

Uh that's an underserved community.

We are doing better.

Hey, folks, this is life right here, and isn't it beautiful?

And we're doing it together, and I am so honored to be here with you celebrating the miracle that life itself is.

Love to all.

Claudia Rodriguez.

Um, uh, you'll have one minute, please proceed.

Thank you.

Uh good morning, honorable council members.

Uh, my name's Claudia Rodriguez Bazanski, and I'm a resident and small business owner in Barrio Logan in District 8.

Whoo!

Um, I run Zoloca, a sustainable fashion studio on Logan Avenue where we teach sewing, celebrate local culture, and create handmade garments that tell stories of our community.

Visitors to San Diego find their way to our businesses like ours, and when they do, it matters.

Currently, I'm currently part of the 2026 cohort for the San Diego Tourism Accelerated Program, which gives us real tools to grow and connect with our wider audience.

This program exists because of TMD funding allocated to the tourism authority.

I urge the city to approve the TMD's uh proposed budget.

It supports not just the big hotels but small business communities, rooted businesses that make San Diego worth visiting.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jocelyn Estrada.

Hello, good morning, honorable councilman.

My name is Jackson Estrada, and I'm a resident and business owner in District 4.

I own a custom cake and dessert business called Vizcarras, Macarons, and more.

And investments in attracting visitors to San Diego directly benefit local businesses like mine.

Not only do we benefit from the visitors who come and spend money, we also feel supported by the tourism industry itself.

We're currently a part of the San Diego Tourism Authority Accelerator Program.

And that program, among other efforts, is made possible because of the tourism marketing district funds that are allotted to San Diego Tourism Authority.

So I hope that the city approves the TMD's proposed budget to keep bringing visitors to San Diego and supporting our local small businesses like myself.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Sherry Jones.

Also minor 107.

Good morning, Council members.

My name is Shri Jones, and I'm a resident and business owner in District 4.

I'm the Cone Valdner, co-founder of Black San Diego, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting residents and visitors with the black with black owned businesses, cultural events, and community experiences throughout San Diego County.

Over the past decade, Black San Diego has grown into a platform that reaches nearly 50,000 community members and visitors while keep helping to spotlight more than 600 black owned businesses throughout our region.

We are currently participating in the San Diego Tourism Authority Accelerator Program, which is helping us better understand how to connect visitors with rich cultural experiences, small businesses, and unique communities and make San Diego such a special destination.

Investments into attracting visitors will benefit local businesses and organizations like the ones we support.

When visitors come to our city, they spend money at local restaurants, shops, hotels, attractions, and events.

We appreciate the city and continuing partnership with San Diego Tourism and hope that you thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment here in Council Chambers.

Blair Beekman.

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

Yeah, I have several.

Thank you.

I have three minutes.

Please proceed.

Yeah, uh, thank you.

Um to the first item, uh uh Senate uh item 100, Senate bill supporting uh addressing utility affordability and accountability.

I'm hopeful this item um in all its good that it's doing can well address uh the future of community energy, and that even though uh we've had recent conversations, community energy is still about 10 years away of really functioning well in San Diego.

Can we start making the steps now and just make that a regular conversation in our energy uh dialogue?

I hope we can do that.

Uh you'll feel we'll all feel better, I think, by doing that.

Um, to go on to item 102.

Um County San Diego County detention facilities.

This was an item brought to committee a few weeks ago.

Uh Council Person Whitburn actually uh asked some pretty nice questions about the item.

I hope that's being better addressed.

Um, we there is uh a significant number of deaths happening in our county uh detention facilities each year.

What are we doing to address that?

Um it has to be worked on.

Santa Clara has been having similar problems.

Um can we put our two minds together to work on these things?

We should be able to come up with solutions and uh good luck how we can.

Uh going on to items 10 uh three through 104, these are tentative agreements with employee associations.

Um, I've said previously it may be too late now.

I hope you can still consider the idea that um you can actually take some uh very small pay cut, whatever small pay cut you take as as employees of the city and as city council persons, it just is that concept of building trust with the community and uh good faith efforts.

And I hope you guys want to consider life in those terms.

And I think it would open up uh better ways to look and view the budget issues.

Um so I hope I hope that's a consideration.

Um believe it or not, Oakland.

Uh, they're having trouble with their employee issues, uh, more than San Diego.

So they're not absolutely perfect in how they work.

Good luck and help uh in creating uh compromise with Oakland issues as well.

Uh 105.

Uh oh uh I about uh I learned in Oakland overtime issues.

If we offer uh Department of Transportation to work on traffic citation issues, that can greatly reduce the amount of effort that's put in by the police department currently in Oakland, anyway, on traffic citation things.

They put in as much a large percentage of overtime on that.

Good luck how you can work on that uh if it's in a different department of transportation, if that can help with overtime issues.

And to conclude, um, the issue about uh council person Bon Wilpert is missing a lot of council meetings like today also, and it's becoming a bit hurtful.

Uh I really missed her voice and Sean Ellero's voice at the time of the shooting issues.

I I need their voices, and good luck how you can appear more often.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is two four or four four six one, phone number ending in four four six one.

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

Hi, uh for item 107.

You'll have one minute, please proceed.

Hi, yeah, I'm a proud resident of San Diego.

My name is David, and I wanted to add my support to the approval of this year's uh work with the TMD.

Um the TMD is the sole source of funding to market San Diego and keep us as the top choice for travelers when they decide where they want to spend their vacations.

Also for events, the TMD provides all of the important marketing funds to help drive hotel room nights.

Um, so since San Diego benefits from the TMD investment through the TOT, the stronger tourism is, the stronger San Diego is.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next uh is Mark Neville.

If you can please unmute Mark Neville.

Thank you.

And this is for uh item one oh seven.

Thank you.

Please proceed.

Good morning, honorable council members.

Uh my name is Mark Neville.

I'm the CEO of Sports San Diego, the nonprofit group charged with recruiting, supporting, and hosting tourism driving sports events to our community.

On behalf of our board of directors, I respectfully urge your approval of the fiscal year 2027 TMD report of activities and the authorization of related expenditures.

As a nonprofit organization with no other city funding mechanism, TMD support is essential to everything we do.

It is what made possible this week's NASCAR San Diego weekend, and what brought Manchester United, the New Zealand All Blacks, and scores of other world-class tourism driving events to our destination.

It is also what sustains beloved annual traditions like the holiday bowl and the Ray Children's Invitational.

These events don't just fill hotel rooms, they support jobs, create tax revenues, and fuel small businesses, restaurants, local attractions, and our broader economy.

We sincerely hope the council will vote favorably.

Thank you for that concluding sentence.

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

And 50 502.

Please proceed to have two minutes.

I'm sorry, I'm burning something on the stove.

I'm gonna have to come back.

I apologize.

Okay.

Well, you are a final speaker, but you can always send in comments.

Um that does conclude public comment on the consent agenda.

Alright, I hope Ms.

Lamin is okay.

Um, so with that, I'll turn it over to my colleagues for any uh questions, comments, and entertain a motion.

And not there we go.

Council member Elohavera will start off with you.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, I will start by moving approval of the consent agenda.

Um, and just uh thank you for your partnership.

Um on our uh resolution.

Um, I'll keep it short since we're running long.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, sir.

So we have a motion by Council Member Elo Rivera to move the consent items uh except for S 501, which will be heard next.

And I'll go ahead and I guess second the motion uh to move the consent items, just a couple of uh comments on my part.

Uh I want to thank you, Council Member Yelovera for bringing the resolution on item uh number one hundred.

Uh, the city support of these bills and our collective advocacies with our nonprofit partners, including climate action campaign.

Make sure that we have a stronger voice in Sacramento.

Uh, we are further in the conversation around utility affordability and lowering the bill for San Diegans.

Uh, then item uh 102.

Um, I've always had a question in the back of my mind about Prop 172 and why we have to spend our dollars given how much uh the county gets for public safety based on the old Prop 172, but I'll leave that for another day.

So with that, not seeing anybody else in the lights.

Uh we have a motion by council member Ilo Rivera.

We have a second bar myself to move the consent items, except for S501.

Clerk, please call the vote.

I'm sorry, the voting system, please cast your vote, and that passes unanimously seven to zero with council member von Wilbert and Councilmember Campbell absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you for that.

And congratulations to our three REOs.

We got those MOUs done.

And with that, we'll invite staff to come up and make a presentation on S501.

But first, let me have the city clerk introduce that item.

Thank you, Council President.

Item S 501 was pulled from the consent agenda, and it is the proposed fiscal year 2027 recreation center fund budgets, opportunity fund budgets, and 2025 complaint outside report.

Thank you, Council President.

If you'd like to speak on this item, please raise your hand or submit a speaker slip now.

All right.

With that, please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need.

Thank you.

My name is Sarah Irazzo.

I'm the Deputy Director with the Parks and Recreation Department.

With me today is Salome Martinez, our program equity manager, and we will need eight minutes, please.

All right, when you're ready.

Thank you.

Uh good.

Good morning.

Uh today we're here to present the proposed fiscal year 2027 recreation center fund budgets as well as the opportunity fund budget and an overview of the 2025 Come Play Outside report.

The department has 62 recreation center funds, one for each recreation center, in addition to one for the therapeutic recreation services program and our age well services program.

We also establish an opportunity fund in 2022 through Council Policy 700-48.

Recreation center funds are special revenue funds.

They're designated to enhance program offerings across the communities, as well as community events and minor maintenance projects.

They supplement basic recreation services offered through the general fund.

They are developed each year in the fall by department site supervisors with input from community recreation groups or in the absence of a community recreation group.

They provide they seek input from the public attending their facilities either through programs passing by or through community events.

The proposed fiscal year 2027 budget has a range varying from 23,000 up to a high of just under one million, with our average at 154,000.

These variations occur based on the amount of activity occurring at a recreation center, the size and the amount of space they have available to permit and or program, as well as the number of parks and facilities in the community in which they are permitting.

Budget revenue generates from program registration fees, either through cost recoverable contract services or through minor fees charged for staff-led programs, in addition to the permit fees that I mentioned earlier.

In addition, they receive contributions through the opportunity fund on an annual basis and may do fundraising uh through community events.

Expenses go directly towards recreation programming, as I mentioned, contract service providers, jerseys, trophies, uh equipment, supplies, mats, etc.

Special events, they go towards vendors, uh, supplies, equipment, and again those minor maintenance projects such as gym floor resurfacing, field maintenance, renovation, et cetera.

This year we are anticipating having an ending balance in fiscal year 26 of just over 9.7 million dollars.

We project revenue in fiscal year 27 of just over 5.4 million dollars.

This year we did identify $555,000 in opportunity funds to allocate, which is a 38% increase from last year.

And we are proposing to expend just over $9.5 million collectively across all recreation center funds.

This slide shows a glimpse of how recreation center funds have bounced back from the pandemic.

You'll see on the far left, that was our pandemic year in which we didn't spend or generate much funding, and we are currently at a point where we have exceeded our pre-pandemic revenue and expenditure thresholds.

The opportunity fund allocation process, as I mentioned earlier, the fiscal year 2027 available funds for allocations, $555,000.

That's a 38% increase from FY26 and is a direct result of the fee increases that took place in April of 2025.

In addition to the donations from the Carmel Valley Recreation Center Fund of $25,000 and the Canyonside Recreation Center Fund of $10,000.

The opportunity fund, as I mentioned, is governed through Council Policy 700-48.

Each year the department nominates six department staff to form a committee, and this year we added our San Diego Parks Foundation co-chair to participate in this process.

They review the policy, the budgets, the proposal, the methodology, historical recommendations from the council, and they analyze through a scoring matrix, a scoring system based on the available funds of each recreation center, the proposed budgets, the proximity of that recreation center to a community of concern, whether it being directly in a community of concern or servicing a community of concern, and if there's an aquatic facility in the area that also shares within those recreation center funds.

This year, the opportunity fund committee was able to identify 14 sites eligible for allocation with a target of providing each of them a budget of $85,000.

This is an increase from last year, where you'll see we were able to allocate 11 sites a budget of $65,000, and the year prior, 10 sites, a budget of $50,000, and our inaugural year, six sites received $84,000.

So in total, since the opportunity fund was established, 15 sites that would be including this upcoming fiscal year, will have benefited from the opportunity funds receiving over $1.7 million.

I will add the department has taken a multi-prong approach to establishing funding sources for sites in underserved communities, whether that be through the opportunity fund, through grants, and through our philanthropic partners.

And Salome will talk more to that shortly on the Come Play Outside funding that helps support programs across the city.

Here are the 14 sites that are proposed to receive opportunity funding.

Azalea, Stockton, Caesar Solis, Penn Athletic, Willie Henderson, Kalina Del Sol, Parc de la Cruz, Skyline Hills, Mountain View, Bay Terraces, Choyus Lake, City Heights, South Crest, and Incanto.

The slide will show you their opportunity fund score.

The higher their score, the higher their financial need.

And again, those other factors, whether they are residing in a community of concern, and if they have an aquatic facility, those also boost points.

And you'll see that budget baseline of $85,000.

There are some sites here that are anticipated to receive HUD funding this fiscal year.

The committee still felt that it was important to continue providing these opportunity fund allocations to those sites in the event that the HUD funding is pulled for any reason.

And with that, these are the actions that we are requesting of the council this year.

And I will hand it over to Salome to go over the Come Play Outside report, and then we'll take any questions you may have.

Thank you.

So this year I'm just going over a quick summary of the Come Play Outside program that we offered in 2025 and our accomplishments.

This program began began as a part of the mayor for Tall Mayor Todd Gloria's Summer for All of Us initiative.

This program targets youth in historically underserved communities and aims to provide equitable access to a variety of recreational activities and events for all to attend.

Since the inception of the program, we're proud to announce that we've reached over 208,000 youth adults and seniors.

Over the past five years, programming participation and funding has fluctuated as seen on the table below.

And that's just due to the changes in programming that's being offered or the funding available year after year to be able to have those programs.

This year we had less level up camps and less deep sea fishing trips, which resulted in lower participation.

But overall, we did see an increase in funding from contributors in 2025 programming, and our goal every year is to increase participation and funding as much as possible.

I'll just ask for an additional three minutes.

Thank you.

The Come Play Outside program and events are supported through a combination of city funding, grants, and donations.

We appreciate all funders that help support this program, including the San Diego Parks Foundation, the County of San Diego Feeding San Diego, San Diego Foundation, our own local San Diego PD, Prevent Drowning Foundation, and the CEK Foundation.

In 2025, more than 2.1 million in contributions were utilized to support the Complay Outside programs, and this was across all of our historically underserved communities.

Since the inception, the department has received over 9.5 million in total contributions.

The next slides here will just go over a brief summary of what those programs look like and the attendance participation.

So so far we've expanded the programs in 2025 to 36 recreation centers and four aquatic facilities during the months of May through September, which are peak summer months, with the target investment in council districts four, eight, and nine, but we did expand to council districts three and seven as well.

The primary focus for the programming was based on documented gaps in access to recreational enrichment opportunities, and our staff actually works alongside the site supervisors to determine where the need is to enhance their programs is needed.

So overall, we've reached over 54,476 participants through 1,418 programs that were offered total.

So here you'll see, and I won't go over all of these, but you'll just see an overview of all the programs that were offered.

So kudos to all our staff that work day in and day out over the summer to put on these programs.

But you'll see high level, this is over the last five years: the attendance and participation numbers for our day camps, our specialty camps, nature camps, teenights, and left to right, you'll see the numbers from 2021 to 2022 and how the program has grown.

As mentioned, we see some of the fluctuation in the amount of specialty camps, specialty camps are these are the gymnastics, the karate, the STEM, the drone programs that you'll see that are being offered out in your communities, and we saw a reduction in the level out camps, which dropped the participation.

Nature camps are offered by the staff.

This program rotates around year after year to different communities to be able to offer every community the opportunity for nature camp-based programming and field trips.

The T Night programs are always really great thanks to the staff.

They work diligently to coordinate all of the activities for youth ages 13 to 17.

Overall, really great program in partnership with the San Diego PD or free food is offered activities, games, sports, and field trips, and we were able to increase numbers in our team participation from uh 3,500 last year to a little over 4,200 this year.

In addition, you'll see our Parks After Dark program that just kicked off this summer as well.

Again, another very successful program that we are offering at five locations.

This is every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from five to eight.

Total of ninety-nine events that were offered last year with three thousand uh over thirty six thousand participants.

Um we did go from eight weeks to seven weeks only because we had to adapt the program with the school schedule that got out earlier and ended later.

Um but overall, a very great successful event.

If you haven't been out, we encourage you to come out.

Free meals for the kids, community resources, and all kinds of youth activities and entertainment as well.

We saw an increase in aquatic programs with our free learn to swim program and free swimming that was offered at a park after dark locations, which is City Heights Memorial.

We have our beloved movie in the parks events that also kicked off this summer with a lot of great events that are being enhanced by the San Diego Parks Foundation as well.

So we appreciate their contributions, contributions.

And although I did say that we did see a reduction in deep sea fishing trips, we did uh identify other funding to be able to bring back those programs this year as well.

Um with that said, that's just a brief overview.

We invite you to read the full report to see all the great details of the programs that we've offered.

Um, but our commitment to provide equitable access to enjoyable and fulfillment recreation opportunities for all residents will continue.

Our efforts include expanding programming opportunities and types of programs, reassessing community needs through feedback, seeking uh additional funding resources and grants.

Um our community recreation needs assessment should be coming out in the next month or two, and we'll take the recommendations and the results from that assessment and be able to put those into action moving forward in this next year, including how to allocate those fundings moving forward.

So, with that, um that's the end of my presentation, and we open it up to any questions that you may have.

Thank you.

All right, thank you for the presentation.

Uh Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

I do not see any speaker slips here in council chambers.

Do you want to?

Okay, come to the microphone.

I think it was in the consent.

Yeah, another paper because it was a we'll get it from you.

We'll get it.

We need another one since it was pulled from consent.

Yeah, one minute, please.

One minute.

So I'd like to know because uh there's these camps, and children are um, you know, engaging in different things here.

I would like to know what you guys are doing to ensure that you're not hiring pedophiles because not all pedophiles are or labeled as sex offenders at this point because they have not been convicted, and they walk around in suits and look like everyday people, and they go where children are.

And so, I mean, in schools are hiring instructional aids down in San Yasidro and hiding that from the parents, and there's children, it's like happening during nap time, and uh because it's being hidden.

There's children who are scared to take naps, but yet there's no other victims.

So I just would like to know what checks and balances you guys are doing uh to make sure that you're not putting children in danger.

Again, I was at a daycare, and it was the woman's son.

That does include public comment here in Council Chambers, one of those participating remotely.

Blair Beekman, you'll have one minute to speak to item S501.

Hi, thank you.

Uh Blair Beekman.

Uh, thanks for the words of DRA.

Um, she's described her life a lot recently, uh, previous items.

So thank you for those efforts and what we can be doing to address um the issue she's talking about.

Um for this item, um I um interested.

Uh, it was originally a committee a few weeks ago.

It's now here.

Within this past month, I guess.

It's now here.

Um, I'm interested in the rec center portion and the funding ideas.

Um, I I've talked a lot about, you know, I think there's been some really heavy conversations going about on about the future of biometric tech in our rec centers, but it's been a quiet conversation.

Um, how is that conversation going?

And I just wanted to remind you: does that be a part of these funding questions?

Um, and how can we be more clear that we can talk openly about biometric tech and it shouldn't be a fearful subject?

It's a matter of fact part of our everyday lives now.

We have to be more open and clear.

Uh, good luck.

How you can be.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude your time and that concludes public comment on this item.

Alright, thank you, City Clerk.

Uh so with that, we'll turn it back to our council colleagues for questions, comments, or and entertain a motion.

And we will start with council member Moreno.

Thank you, and thank you for the presentation.

Um, I wanna start off by saying uh that park and rec is one of my most favorite departments, um, and also by saying um that we very much uh associate with the park and rec uh in all their activities.

We were just at Parks After Dark on Friday.

Uh, we got there an hour late, and my daughter didn't get to get a hand uh uh what is it called, uh wristband because they were all out, which she was sad, but this is exactly what we want, right?

Kids engaged and climbing walls, so kudos to that.

Um, can you quickly explain what the opportunity fund is and why it was created?

Yes, thank you for the question.

The opportunity fund is a special revenue fund that collects revenue via permit fees, and it was created to help expand equitable programming and access in our underserved communities.

Thank you.

Um, and how does the money get allocated?

Excuse me.

Each year the department nominates a committee of department staff.

They're nominated via their division uh deputy directors.

This year we had six department staff comprising of uh various analysts through the department, an area manager, district manager, park ranger, and we also invited our San Diego Parks Foundation co-chair to join the process this year.

Got you.

So this was the director or the deputy director who got to choose the opportunity fund committee?

Uh the deputy directors nominated staff from their division.

And who ultimately chose?

Somebody somebody was nominated, so who chose the nominees?

Uh the deputy directors and ultimately our program equity manager uh approved the slate.

Okay, approved the slate.

Um, I'm very disappointed um to see that in the list of 15 parks and rec centers that are to receive opportunity funds, only Caesar Solis and South Crest Park in District 8 are receiving funds this year.

Um in District 9, five parks are receiving a total of 243,000 this fiscal year.

Last year, uh four parks in D and D9 received 160.

Uh in District 4, seven parks uh were allocated a total of 242,000.

Uh last year they received about 157,000.

Um how much opportunity funds did district eight receive this year?

Do you want to answer that?

Sorry.

55,000 for Caesar Solis, and how much?

55,814 and 13,929.

I'll put 13,000 since I didn't get that.

So roughly around 70 something thousand dollars.

Does that sound equitable to you when district eight received about 75,000 compared to the 250,000 that D9 and D4 received this year?

And let me point to you that last year district eight only received 49,000 in opportunity funds, while D9 received 160, and D4 received 157.

So I ask you again, does that sound equitable to you?

Yeah, I appreciate your concern and bringing that to our attention.

The committee focuses on the scoring matrix and again, sites that have higher revenue fund balances.

I'm sorry, recreation center fund balances have more funding available to put towards programming.

So when they set a baseline of eighty-five thousand dollars as a budget for a recreation center fund, those were the sites that had a fund balance less than 84,000, 85,000, excuse me.

So per se it was not a council district focused decision, it was based on the available funding they had.

Got you.

And that's why I'm bringing this up.

It's not fair that my communities continue to be left behind yet again when there are programs such as the opportunity fund to help get equity back at park and rec.

So you're saying that the reason that district eight did not receive funds is because it's fund balance in each park and rec was not expended.

Why are these parks in District 8 not spending their funding?

Yeah, that's a great question.

As I mentioned earlier, we have multiple funding sources that are supporting the expansion of equitable programming across our underserved communities, and that includes the $2.1 million we just discussed in Come Play Outside funding, which about 1.8 million came from the San Diego Parks Foundation.

And so we've seen a growth in our fund balances across a lot of the underserved communities because the San Diego Parks Foundation has begun to contribute and pour so much funding into supporting a lot of the primary programming that's going on at these facilities.

So because Parks After Dark was at Silverwing, they did not receive funding.

That's what you're telling me.

They do have grant funding source as well as funding from the San Diego Parks Foundation that helps support their programs such as their day camps, their nature camps, as well as their um enhanced programs and services that are being offered as well.

I also heard you said say that there's fund balances that are not being expended, which to me was absolutely shocking.

That was extremely shocking.

Montgomery Waller, also known as Lucky Waller, has been requesting a scoreboard for their baseball field.

Lucky Waller has a very long history.

It was the first baseball league in the South Bay.

They contacted my office, and there's an invoice of $34,000 that they sent to me regarding their scoreboard.

Montgomery Waller has a total of $302,000.

And once again, I ask why was this funding not expended?

Memorial at Memorial Park, the San Diego American Memorial Little League can't play baseball because their field isn't leveled and bleachers and dugouts don't have covers and yet I'm being told that they're not these park and recs are not expending their funds.

So that to me is just mind-boggling.

Um I hear you when you say that there are other funds that are being received in these park and rec facilities, but I don't think that should be a deterrent for spending opportunity funds in this community, in the in my community, for instance.

Oftentimes, we have been left behind for many years in many administrations, and it's gonna take a lot.

And I've shared with my colleagues that it's gonna take more money for us to get back on the same track to have programming as other communities as other park and rec communities.

Um did you guys know about the Little League?

Um, Montgomery Waller requesting a scoreboard at the tune of $34,000 and with a $300,000 budget.

Why was that not spent out?

Um, I unfortunately just learned of that in the recent weeks, and we prepared these budgets several months ago.

So this is definitely something we can consider for use of the Montgomery Waller funds to support that scoreboard.

I just think that the way the process, the way that this is being handled is not equitable.

Um I haven't gotten a good explanation as to why opportunity funds are being expended at such a I don't I I can't do math as fast as as I could speak, and the percentage that district eight is receiving in in opportunity funds is just I would be doing a disservice to my constituents if I didn't stand up and say, I'm not gonna vote for this.

This is absolutely not equitable.

This is not what the intention was for these opportunity funds.

And I would call to question the committee that is being formed and how they're choosing.

Oftentimes I understand this is the process, but I will tell you on the record, this process is absolutely flawed, especially when a council member knows more about what the community, what the park and rec needs than what the director needs.

That to me is just it's shocking.

Um my residents would greatly appreciate further funding allocations to their park and recs in district eight.

Uh so residents in my community are able to enjoy more quality programming in parks near their neighborhoods.

We don't want to drive past the 94.

We don't we don't to go and have a movie, you know, to go have any type of programming, to have oil painting or whatever the case is.

Um I strongly disagree with the decision that has been presented because district eight deserves way more than what the city of San Diego is giving it with the opportunity funds, and I would urge my colleagues to send this back to staff and to fix this so it's a more equitable.

Um it's more equitable the district eight.

So thank you.

Uh Councilman Moreno, before you wrap your comments, uh Andy Fields on the line.

You might want to hear his comments and then respond.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Councilman Moreno, for your very important comments.

Yes, uh our department is aware of the issues that you've described, both at Memorial and at Lucky Waller.

We've been working with the Memorial Little League, in fact, on that very scoreboard.

The main problem with the scoreboard is that the scoreboard itself lacks a um ability to use your cell phone to activate it.

So one of the things working with the Little League on is how we can get that corrected.

We don't know if it's a full-on replacement of the entire scoreboard, but we're in the process of determining that now.

And that's where we think some of the fund balance that's available with Memorial will be very helpful to achieve that replacement.

So we are actively working on that as well.

At Lucky Waller, we understand those concerns and what a significant piece of the action there is, is that we need to actually establish some capital projects to address various issues with the existing lighting system, as well as addressing the area around the recreation center, including the play areas.

So we are aware of those issues too.

The recreation center funds are continuing to be an area of resource for us to address these long-needed repairs.

You're absolutely right about that, and you have our commitment that we'll do what we can to spend those monies down so that we can be very much more in line with the methodology.

Now, a question was raised earlier about who serves on the committee and what the committee methodology is.

The methodology is truly based on how much money is available to spend in each of the different communities that are historically underserved.

It just happens there's been more money that's been accumulated in the district eight locations when compared to the others, but that's also part of a long-term trajectory to push the opportunity fund into all of the areas and get all of them up to where they can actually achieve some of the very outcomes that you're seeking to achieve here.

So please know that we're all in as far as trying to address this and to fix this as best as we can.

And we you have our apologies on any miscommunication or misunderstanding.

We are, as uh Ms.

Arazzo mentioned, in a transitionary period.

Uh Ms.

Araza will be assuming the uh leadership role for the southern parks of San Diego in the near future, and that's as a result of some of the budgetary changes that are being implemented currently.

But we would love to be with your office and have further discussions to together solve these many problems that have been outlined today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

And I just I just want to um close by saying I heard a few things here.

I heard that my community is not receiving opportunity funds this year because one we don't have uh they get too much nonprofit funding.

And the second one that I heard was we haven't formulated, I don't want to call it a capital improvement project, but we haven't formulated a needs assessment, and that's why you guys didn't know that Montgomery Waller needs a scoreboard and it hasn't worked for years, yet they're sitting on $300,000.

So this is staff not being prepared to to spend all the funding that a park and rec has.

Once again, my issue with this is my community is very much in need.

We very much need programming at our park and recs.

That is why I fight tooth and nail every single year to make sure that we get the funding.

This is not equitable, and the way that you guys are scoring these um park and recs is not equitable either.

So like I said, I would request and I would ask my colleagues to please send this back and find them that it would be fine if it was one year.

It's one year, we messed up, that's fine.

But this is two years now that district eight has been left behind, and I'm not gonna stand for it.

So that concludes my comments.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Moreno.

Um, between Andy and Coda, June is typically budget.

We do a lot of budgets.

Um, how do we address the concern?

I don't see anybody else jumping a light, so I think there's some level of support here.

I think looking forward, we can absolutely go back to the committee that selects the opportunity fund allocations to maybe incorporate more council feedback and take it maybe outside of just the department.

I applaud uh the Parks and Rock Department for bringing in an external philanthropic partner to help score, but I think a council perspective would also be helpful.

Uh, these are the dollars that fund much of the summer programming at all rec centers in all of your districts, and so we do need to move ahead with some action um before the end of this fiscal year.

So we have maybe you know two weeks left.

I do caution against going back to the committee to reallocate the funds because I don't think that process would be able to be done in time prior to July 1 when these funds would be necessary.

Um, and council member, I completely understand your concerns here, and I realize that the dollar amount proposed in this current allocation is far less than what D4 and D9 and last year as well.

You are going into the FY27 with 1.2 million dollars in total funds, which is both which is more than both D4 and D9, hence I think the the lower allocation.

Yeah, because staff didn't spend it.

Yeah.

How do I look at a D8 residence?

How do I look at a kid at that at the Montgomery at the memorial and tell them you can't play baseball because staff didn't spend the money?

You just said we have 1.2 million dollars.

I hope the little leagues are listening to this, and I hope all the news is listening to this as well.

This is really, really, really making me angry.

There's no justification to this.

Uh is 100% of the opportunity fund allocated.

The projected amount, yes.

Okay.

Well, I see Council Member Ilo Rivera um on the lights and see what thoughts you might have.

Yeah, I mean, I I think there's a I get similarly frustrated when we don't get money out the door in the, you know.

We have this conversation all the time.

Um, if we create equity policies, and then those policies on paper don't result in equity on the ground, it makes us look like we are just full of it.

And and when we start talking to communities about you know they're talking about not having programs for their kids, and we start talking about the very cool policy that we passed, they look at us like we're on a different planet, and that's because we kind of are.

They care about what's happening in their communities, not about the paper that we're pushing around on the dais.

So there's a policy part of this conversation, there's an operations part of this conversation.

We're not going to change policy here on the fly that the quickest lever to pull is on the operation side.

And I guess what I'm trying to understand is hearing Councilmember Moreno's frustration with knowing that there's fund balance sitting in an account.

And that being the reason for the lack of investment, or at least part of the reason for the lack of investment that would come via the opportunity fund.

The most important thing to do in this moment it would seem is to get the money out in a way that provides the intended benefits of the community.

So I don't I I um I'm trying to be careful here because it's it's district eight that we're we're talking about is the is the primary impacted community.

But again, we we've had moments where in district nine similar situations and it is incredibly frustrating.

So Coda, I don't know if you have thoughts on how to speak to the immediate frustration that I'm hearing, which is uh getting the money out the door so that the community can feel that benefit.

Yeah, let's get the dollars out the door, council member.

Um and so I think the task for Park and Rec is to figure out what our work plan is to get these dollars out quickly so we don't end up in the same situation next year where you don't get the opportunity funds because you have too much fund balance.

So it looks great on paper that you're walking into FY28 next year with a high fund balance, but what does that actually mean for your residents?

And so I think the task for park and rec maybe prior to the start of the fiscal year is what the financing and work plan is to for each of the rec centers.

I think you have seven or eight in your in your district on how to spend those dollars down and what the programming um and activities look like um for so you can communicate them out to your residents.

So pen to paper, get the dollars out the door.

I'm sorry, just one one more question on that front.

There's a communication piece of this as well, whether it's whatever district is is um benefiting from opportunity fund uh resources if they're not getting out for one reason or another, we need to know that because it allows us the opportunity to work with you to say, well, here are a whole I would I would imagine that if you asked any of us on the dais ways to get dollars out the door for opportunity fund eligible expenses, we could come up with a long list very quickly.

Too long of a list very quickly.

But it we can't do that if we don't know that that's that that's happening, and so that communication piece is just incredibly important.

Um so uh I I will ask it in the future if this issue is arising uh much sooner rather than later, because the last thing it should be doing is impacting scoring in the next year, because to council member Moreno's point, that does start it it's it like pushes an inequitable domino forward.

It will end up producing inequitable results on the ground for a program that was designed to do the exact opposite.

Um thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, sir.

Uh we'll go back to Councilmember Moreno.

Thank you.

Um I would I would ask staff to go back with this opportunity fund and find a more equitable way uh to disperse the funding.

That is a request I'm making, and it was brought to my attention as we were doing the proclamations uh by the Cooper family that staff at Memorial is not allowing them to hook up to water and or and electricity for a free bubble machine.

We got 1.2 million dollars sitting in D eight coffers.

That just it's just the math is not mathing.

And so that would be my request is I think we have one more one next week's meeting, and that this be brought back and that the committee find a way, their city staff, right?

And and they work for you.

Uh we could politely ask them to come together and find a more equitable way to disperse the opportunity funds.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Moran.

I'll go back and I'll go to Councilmember Foster.

Um yes, thank you, Council President.

And I do appreciate my colleagues' um comments and concerns.

But I also do understand fund balance and continuing to receive funds where we are not deploying said funds.

And so I think what would really be, I think the main cause of the heartburn is why are we not expending funds and having an acceptable response to that because the purpose of establishing this opportunity fund was to make sure communities were able to program and have the resources and utilize the facilities for their needs.

And so I think number one, we need to make sure that we answer that question.

What is the plan moving forward?

How are we going to expend those funds, and how we are going to have the appropriate timeline associated with that?

And I think that's really at the hit at the heart of what she is indicating.

Because if we're just going to leave fund balance, if we're just going to leave fund balances, no one will get the benefit of and the intent of what the opportunity fund is.

So I think I would request that as we move forward and just even as we appreciate what comes back or potentially what could come back, I think we need to put this in as part of our budget monitoring process and highlight this specifically, because even with district four, we have a big uncertainty on HUD funding, right?

To say, hey, we don't even know if we may get it, it may get pulled, X, Y, and Z.

So I think this uncertainty, and again, I'll go back to the federal level that is creating a lot of the concern and issues that we are falling into.

And so I think if we can put this into our monitoring process and highlight this to make sure that we are truly meeting the intent that we can.

I would also ask the IBA.

I think the IBA should kind of use the if we can utilize the Department of Race and Equity to further dive into this to look at the concerns that were brought up in regards to the the panel, this elections, what's on the table is we are looking at and and having these discussions and looking to allocate the dollars accordingly.

I think accordingly, I think if we can utilize the office of the IB as well to be a part of this and to work with city staff, I think we will hopefully see some progress and be in a position to move things forward.

My concern, of course, would be just as my colleagues' concern is we have the dollars allocated, we went through our budget discussions, but making sure that we get these dollars allocated and deployed without any further delay as a whole.

So I think that's my desire.

I don't mind, you know, if we are going to bring this back next week, Council President, I think that would be your call as you you do run the docket.

Um, but I think the main question that needs to be answered is how are you going to deploy the fund balance that has been sitting?

And I don't know, I'm assuming it's been sitting for right, which I which I would agree.

That is very, very difficult to take if we are not moving those funds.

Um, and and if there are issues, just even conveying conveying the the issues to to the offices so that um folks are informed.

Um they can try to help find a resolution and know how to communicate with constituents, right?

Those are very well why is it why is it the council members' obligation to go out and explain to constituents where she's she has no signing authority on the fund balance?

She truly hasn't.

She can't put a contract in place.

She can't.

There's so much that she cannot do, but yet she needs to go out and explain to her constituents why this has been sitting for two years or whatever that case may be.

So, just think we need one of those things we need to clean up operations and uh make sure we are moving forward in meeting the intent of what the opportunity fund is.

Charles, did you want to jump?

Uh before I go to the pro tem um to Councilmember Foster's question, correct me if I'm wrong.

The opportunity fund is a zero sum.

There's X number of dollars, and you're gonna figure out how to allocate them.

So for District Eight to get more funding, districts four and nine will have to give up some.

So if there is going to be a motion to ask for a reallocation, I want that from the council members.

I want equity.

I want equity on the opportunity funds of 2027.

That's what I'm asking.

I'm just trying to figure out how we get there.

So districts four and nine would have to give up some money to get a bigger allocation for district eight.

So to bring it back for that purpose, I would need to hear from the two of you because you're the two that are gonna be affected by that.

And I hate to ask that question, but it is a zero sum, so that's how we would have to puzzle it out.

I'm sorry, Council President, but um if I may that sounds like hunger games.

That sounds like you're putting us uh in a position to um have a conversation amongst ourselves where I'll simply put I don't have a fund balance that that is as significant.

Um and so I think city staff needs to um come back and uh determine how they are going to uh be more efficient and resolve the outs any outstanding issues and um to to take care of um expending the dollars.

Um I don't I'm not in them in a position to say, hey, I'm going to give something up where I didn't create this situation, and and clearly there's dollars that need to be deployed.

Sounds like an operational concern.

And I acknowledge it was an awful thing for me to ask, but I'm thinking about what can be done in a week.

Well, we can fund might be the rest.

There's some larger questions that I'll speak to, and perhaps the pro tem will speak to.

But yes, Coda, go.

Uh we we need this done by July 1 for the start of the new fiscal year.

Um we can target maybe June 29th or June 30th, buy us a little bit more time to meet uh both the council members' concerns and then understanding that yes, it is zero sum.

Um, and so I think spending more time with uh the other offices that may be impacted, um, but trying to maybe buy us another week to put together a more holistic package.

Um so hopefully targeting the end of the month rather than next week, um, I think is is a better path if possible.

Okay, and I think uh what we saw during the budget, my apologies to the Pro Tem, but uh some of the creative thinking in terms of legal interpretations about funding where we can get funding that may make the conversation a little bit easier.

I do not know if there is any opportunity there, but uh for everybody to put their thinking caps on and look things a little bit differently.

I'll have more comments, but let me go to Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Thank you for your patience.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh I actually I thank you, Councilmore Moreno, for bringing this topic off of consent to have this discussion because I think it's easy for us to see these come and go each year without actually looking into the specifics.

Um and to Councilmember Foster's point, I I understand that I think everyone gets this as a zero sum game.

So at the end of the day, there's only a limited number of funds that are allocated into opportunity funds.

Um, but I think the feedback that's coming back isn't who needs to give up what it's that the if the calculation is based off of something that's off to begin with, then the problem is only what it is because it's now been identified.

Um if it was calculated differently, no one would be losing money, just would have been calculated differently.

And I think that's all at that that's all I think the discussion needs to be at this point, is some kind of uh understanding that fund balances just because they've been sitting there unspent shouldn't count against the community if there's a reason why those funds should be spent.

Um and I don't know what the solution to that is.

I will note that when you look at um, when you look at the rec center funds across the chart and you look at the ones based on the lowest amount of revenue that's collected from recreational programming, that sort of matches up pretty heavily with the list of rec centers that receive rec center uh opportunity fund funding as well.

There's got to be some way to correlate that and not just base it off of balances, if that would make some sense.

Um, another thing I would note is that uh this is an interesting conversation because I think in each of our communities, especially in parks surrounding rec centers, some of the older ones often have playground equipment and other things that are falling apart, and we're often scrounging for a couple thousand dollars here or there to fix a couple of things.

Um, and then yes, it is very difficult to go look at a chart like this and find that there's tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting in a fund that isn't utilized.

This spark an entire memory of mine.

I was at the Little League closing day in Mermesa where they literally have the cities get it done link on a QR code at their snack shop to remind every person buying something to report that a set of shale shades have been out of commission for the better part of the entire season, and they get everyone to submit requests, thinking that's gonna be taken care of.

Um, and those are the kinds of things where I think we're usually trying to find funding elsewhere to resolve.

So for me, beyond this discussion, I think there's an opportunity to think about how we approach this in the next year.

I also would really benefit from understanding how the actual budgets are determined per Rec Center fund and how those budgets are being allocated because they're very different.

There are some that have a huge amount in terms of programming funds that exceed the programming revenue that's being received, and so this year we're actually spending down balances across the entire city by a couple million dollars, but I don't imagine that's sustainable, and so I'm trying to understand what does that mean in a year or two when those balances aren't gonna support that level of spending.

Are we heavily subsidizing recreational programs at the moment, and we're gonna find ourselves in a tough spot in two years?

That's something that stuck out to me.

There are some rec center funds that have a huge amount being allocated towards uh maintenance, and others that have very little, and again, so and and some that have a huge amount for contingency or other expenses.

I think those kinds of details actually would help us in individual rec centers because again, we get these requests from community members, and sometimes they're simple little things, and I think we need to be able to understand where to point them towards in terms of opportunities to get things fixed in the city.

We've all talked about how wonderful it is to build new parks and playgrounds and whatnot, but there's a lot in this city and a lot in each of our districts that is in disrepair that needs to be taken care of, and that's where seeing funding sitting around does certainly hurt.

So that was my two cents.

Thank you, Council President.

Alright, thank you.

We'll go back to council member I.

Thank you, Council President.

Um so one of the things that we did during this past, this I guess current fiscal year that was meant to grow the pie for opportunity fund was require that the leaseholders of the polo fields pay a hundred thousand dollars to be used specifically for opportunity funds.

That, as I understand it, is not included in the allocations for this year.

That payment's supposed to come in January.

That's correct.

Is there a reason why we wouldn't be able to apply, and I'll look to the IBA on this, don't want to be responsible here.

But if we know we're getting a hundred thousand dollars in January, why we wouldn't be able to bank on that and use that so that we're not battling each other for uh rec centers.

I mean, I'm thinking Stockton Rec Center is the one that comes to mind for me.

Um, and that one is that's really benefited from this.

Um senior services for financial literacy, Zumba classes, youth programming, and this is in a community that that rec center was starved for resources to the point of, you know, like really kind of like barely having a pulse.

Opportunity fund has revived the rec center, and the community is it is one of the few places where they can be, where they can feel safe and enriched, they're they've gone on hikes together.

It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

And uh the idea that we're gonna be pulling funds from one program that does something like that to ensure that other kids in this city have access to the resources they should have.

If there's any way to avoid that, I'd like to do that, especially if we know that there's money coming in during the next next fiscal year.

Yeah, in response to your question, Council Member.

In general, if there's a reasonable expectation that dollars will be coming in the door, it is fine and appropriate to budget those as you are preparing your final budget, which you already have, but which CC actually allocates dollars towards that may or may not um kind of allow for cash flow needs, but those would be a specific kind of departmental questions on when dollars would be out the door, and as I understand that the issue is that dollars are not going out the door fast enough right now.

Um I would want any specific allocation to be informed by the department and the council offices' expectation of what the needs are.

But if you have a reasonable expectation that dollars will be coming in, um allocating this them at this point makes sense.

Yeah, so I I guess what I what I would say is this, because I think this is where Council President Pro Tem was going.

What would the math look like?

What would the scoring look like if the dollars have got out the door?

Like I think we all agree that they should.

Um then once we've answered that question, or either way, um, if there's resources that we know are dependable, I was really glad when that happened.

Um that was I think a really good example of again of leaning into the the the things that San Diego takes a lot of pride in, but don't necessarily isn't necessarily benefit everyone across the city and making it work for the folks who uh often um are left behind.

So if if that's if we can figure out problem one first, which is how are these dollars gonna get out the door, then we can then make sure that with the uh any reassessment of scoring that would bake in those dollars being out the door, uh that there's resources there to support it so that you know districts that have objectively been funded in an inner equitable way in the few in the past, uh, don't uh again end up in a situation where we're battling each other for those funds.

Thank you.

Um that is great point that we do have that funding coming in January.

I will caution um each year we budget uh the opportunity fund based on the uh dollars we've collected uh in the year prior.

And so if we utilize the hundred thousand dollars uh in FY27, that will be the hundred thousand less we'll have for FY28.

Granted, we haven't utilized that funding yet, but I just want to make sure that that's clear.

Um, but we could certainly look to utilizing all or part of that funding as part of uh reanalyzing the FY27 opportunity fund allocation.

And I do want to state that as Andy mentioned earlier with the merge of the Community Parks 2 division and the Citywide Recreation Services Division, there'll be more oversight and uh connectivity as an awareness of what's going on across both of those divisions now that they'll become one and there will be more oversight in the expenditure of the recreation center funds.

I will add that in the spring of this past year, uh, we established a team that is working directly with each of the center directors across the department for this exact reason is to ensure that they are looking at their budgets, they're spending their budgets, they're expanding their programming based on community feedback, and this was also an anticipation of the community recreation needs assessment that we will be receiving this summer.

We want to be as prepared as we can be to ensure that our uh very green recreation center directors are ready to launch programming based on what that community feedback was, and so you do have my commitment that we will be monitoring closely the expenditures of these funds so that they are going to the purpose that they're intended to serve, and that is programming for the community.

Thank you.

So maybe maybe we need a motion, right?

Before we do, we're gonna take a two-minute pause.

Maybe I like to avoid surprising people.

Give it a go, Councilmember Yilo Rivera.

Oh right.

Um so I'm gonna do my best here on the fly.

Um raise yourselves.

No, we can't just return this to staff.

But I I want to be specific about what we're asking for to come back.

I think that's the part um because it needs to come back.

I think the thing that we want is a plan for how fund balances will be spent.

Um a an assessment of the scoring if the fund balances were to have been spent down in the way that we agree they should have been, and then uh I I think we should be tapping into those polo fields funds.

I understand that it's it's different than the way that the other funds have flowed into um uh into the opportunity fund, but we're we're far from we're far from overflowing the coffers of of our rec centers.

Um so I think if we have those things in place when the item comes back, we'll be in a place where we can get to the resolution that I think we all want.

Uh does that work as a motion for you, Council President?

Um so I think that's direction to staff, and my suggestion is we just return this to staff and we'll redocket it probably on June 29th.

I wanted to make sure that Councilmember Marina could attend that.

But you have sufficient direction.

I don't know others may have others, but again, there's a two-week window to actually get something that can be approved and maybe not totally fixed.

I think there's a larger conversation.

I'll have some additional thoughts as well.

But I think you have enough direction.

Uh what and Councilmember Moreno, I see kind of nodding your head as well.

Um, all right.

Uh so we're not actually having a motion on the table.

We'll just return it to staff.

Can I get a verbal commitment then?

Yeah.

Yes, Councilmember, you have our commitment.

Okay.

And then Charles, do you do we is there anything else that would accompany the use of those funds that would need to be docketed adjacent to this item in order to pull the levers necessary to make that possible?

I don't believe so.

If there is, we'll certainly work with um the administration and staff to make sure.

Oh, and the council president to make sure it ends up being documented.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

Uh so we'll go to Councilmember Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

Certainly happy to go in this direction, however, districts eight, nine and four want to handle it.

Um I would say, you know, understanding that there's a broader concern around getting the expenditures out the door and perhaps taking a look at how things are scored.

Um if we do run into a challenge getting something across the finish line.

I don't see the district eight as going to go through, you know, a million plus dollars right away.

Um more power to you if you do.

But getting to getting to my point, I would I would be supportive somewhere along the way of just allocating a hundred thousand dollars in general fund uh to make up the gap from what you otherwise would have been allocated, had what's that?

Okay, well, all right.

So maybe there's a whole other issue there, but I mean we we could you know do some uh allocation for the general fund to make up the the equity gap there if we were into it.

At least I would be supportive of that.

So yeah.

All right, thank you, Councilmember.

I'm gonna go back to Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Okay, I two follow-up questions.

Uh just ask.

One is that uh in the final budget action that the council took, uh, there were restorations, of course, to a number of um rec centers.

Um, is that did that impact any of the budgets that ultimately are seen here?

Presumably the 20 hours in addition, number of rec centers would uh adjust the programming availability and expectations for revenue and expenditures.

I just don't know to the positive or to the negative.

Yes, thank you for the question.

Uh, we do have some of the sites that are saving receiving reduced hours that we are currently working with our department director on on how we can potentially utilize these funds if if at all within proposition 26 to support the operations of those locations.

But um, oh yeah, I I I don't mean that in particular.

I know that idea was brought up, and and I, for one, am not a huge fan of use utilizing the existing funding.

I mean, some rec centers across the city don't have fund balances to utilize for hours.

Others might be utilizing it for programming in other ways, etc.

So I it I yeah, I I don't think that was the goal, but in the final budget, we did restore hours at a number of rec centers, and so I assume that changes the budget assumptions because these were put together prior to the final budget being adopted, and so I think that's the question is how does that change some of these numbers at the end of the day, given that they're already a little bit out of date, I assume, because we already adjusted the hours at I believe it was like nine rec centers across the city.

Yeah, if there's sites with reduced hours, they won't be generating the revenue if they don't have the additional programming taking place because of the reduced hours, which means they won't have those expenditures going out associated with those programs.

Right.

So were these were these budgets built off of the proposed budget with reduced hours?

No, these budgets were built prior to the general fund budget season.

And council president pro chem, if I may jump in just real quick.

When it comes to the uh recreation center fund and the opportunity fund, a great deal of that money is derived from permit revenue.

Permit revenue is primarily sourced from the rental of rooms and from the rental of fields.

And honestly, most of the permit revenue that we see is focused on the field rentals.

And so, as the uh field rentals are not affected by recreation center hours of operation, we do anticipate that the recreation centers will still, or excuse me, the fields will be able to generate enough revenue to be able to keep what we think is going to occur in the opportunity fund within the same general range that it's been over the last several years.

If we uh had closures of fields and things like that, then I think we would see a bigger challenge in front of us with respect to the generation potential of permit revenue.

Thanks.

Got it.

Thank you, Andy.

And and then I assume that means what little revenue is being generated by room rentals, that was definitely impacted by closures.

That that final impact is not assumed here.

Okay.

And then my last question is around special event budgets.

Um each of these rec centers have special events uh funding budgeted.

Is that largely to support events that the rec center itself is putting on, or are they ones that they are doing at times in partnership with the community?

And I mentioned this, Andy.

If you remember at Stanley Rec Center, we had a discussion two years ago about uh an annual Octoberfest event held as a support for local schools that ultimately that was being supported as a sponsored event through the rec center for a number of years and then suddenly was not, and they canceled because permit fee suddenly went through the roof.

That's that's where I'm looking to understand how special event budgets uh fill in the gap there as well.

Don't have to answer all that now, but I just want to flag it as something that we might follow up on.

Certainly I'd be happy to have a follow-up discussion with you on that.

Thank you.

Alright, I don't see anybody else in the lights, um, so I'll be brief in my comments.

Um this is the kind of stuff I love.

A tiny red flag that opens up a conversation that everybody thinks is just kind of a routine business, and we do this every year, so let's just pass it every year.

Um I do want to thank the two of you.

I want to thank Andy for jumping in.

Uh, and as a quick reminder, opportunity fund is just a few years old.

It was built from scratch.

Um, I think some of the things that were discussed today uh, at least to me, shows that maybe it's time to relook at the opportunity fund.

I took a quick glance at the policy, and it's pretty broad in its scope when it as I compare it to 800-14 for our CIPs, that's incredibly detailed with what the matrix is and what the priorities are.

Um, and I imagine um for my colleagues that when they look at what the budget is, they don't actually know where that money's being spent.

Not that it isn't being allocated or budgeted correctly or appropriately, but I think it leaves a lot of questions and questions lead to more questions and concerns going forward.

So the department might want to think about how to communicate better of if for a recreation center this is what the funding is, what that funding is being spent on.

Because I suspect somewhere in a deeper spreadsheet, that information is actually sitting there, whether it's programming or a capital improvement or a maintenance ongoing maintenance, and that might uh answer a lot of questions in advance of an item like this coming forward.

But I do want to recognize that this is something new that we tried, it was a problem we recognized everybody leaned in to create this program.

Can the opportunity fund be expanded?

Is there more dollars that can be shifted from recreation centers and higher opportunity areas?

Are things I think we ought to be looking at in the year ahead, not in the next two weeks, but going forward.

So with that, as a reminder, this is being returned to staff.

I anticipate that we'll docket this on Monday, June 29th, to hear the feedback from the department that was offered by Council Member Moreno, Councilmember Ilo Rivera, and I think the other council members as well, so that we can meet our budgetary deadlines and get this document so July 1st, everybody knows what kind of funding they have available.

So you have a little bit of work ahead of you.

Thank you very much for your ongoing effort.

And thank you, Coda, for helping us navigate this going forward.

All right.

So that concludes S501.

Are there any mayoral council, city attorney, independent budget analysts or city clerk comments?

Not seeing anybody lights.

Thank you for that.

Given the hour, we will take non-agenda public comment for those individuals in person, and we will take uh remote um comments starting at the two o'clock session.

So just the in-person, not agenda public comment, as respect for people that sat patiently and waited.

Uh, and we'll take the remote and virtual call in at 2 p.m.

With that, 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.

Clerk, please proceed with the in-person public comment again, deferring the virtual public comment till the two o'clock session.

Thank you.

Parole 2.7 public comments.

For members that are here in chambers to speak, as noted, those will be trailed for the virtual Joy Sonata, Maximilian Schmidt, and allegedly Audra.

If you can please come forward, Joy, you'll have two minutes.

Please proceed.

There has been a lot of good fighting in these chambers lately.

Each agenda item had a purpose and a focus unique to it, whether it was budget, trash fees, parking fees, hate crimes, and more.

Yet, in my opinion, something is missing, something that brings the beautiful tapestry, thank you, Councilmember Ilo Rivera, together as one.

Yes, Council President Pro Tem Lee, words do matter.

So, in my opinion, we need the words of a new vision for San Diego, a noble vision for the great city we want to become.

This would be the kickstart we need for the boldness we need to unravel and solve what is not working at our city's structural core.

Dear public, you are all of you, all of us at the very top of our city's organization chart.

Let's work together as one to create a noble vision for our beautiful city now.

It's been an absolutely beautiful morning.

Thank you, everybody, and love to all.

Maximilian Schmidt.

Um, in California, every year, there are hundreds of suicides and thousands of overdoses.

And I'm I want to open Pandora's box that a lot of them are due to the lie that human beings cannot read another human being's mind, and that there's an underground genocide going on against um normal white Christians like myself, that's been going on since the time of Christ, and it's called Zerzit Song, where I I live in a city-owned and city um operated homeless shelter.

Then I go to a city operated library to look for jobs, and I take the city operated trolley in between places, and everywhere I go, there is something reading my mind.

For example, say like, um, you have to like I'm thinking of using the restroom right now.

Like someone will stand behind me saying that the second I think of using the restroom, they'll say, Oh, I just um checked out a book from the library or something, and they'll say, like, what book you checked out.

Uh, even if if the person can't see it, they'll say um also all sorts of disturbing things.

Basically, trying to make you subconsciously paranoid all the time.

And it's coupled with buildings making high pitched noises all the time throughout the day.

It's called a noise campaign noise harassment, and people are being depopulated under the table, underground in America, and especially patriots like myself who kind of found themselves stranded in liberal cities.

I'm from northern Kentucky, Southern Ohio.

I'm just a normal average person who was living homeless in Arizona and had to come here to try to get a job, and now I'm experiencing this modern day fifth generation warfare.

Um, I'm sorry.

Um, um, I'm not sure.

Convene the city council meeting of Tuesday, June 16th.

Excuse me, 2026.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell.

Here.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Councilmember Moreno.

Present.

Councilmember Ila Rivera.

And Council President Lacava.

Present.

Oh, sorry.

Also, I think the meeting, your assistant city attorney Leslie Fitzgerald, independent budget analyst Charles Matica, Council Affairs Advisor in the Mayor's Office, Coda Zeiser, and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you.

A quorum is now present.

We will start this afternoon session with our trailed non-agenda public comment from this morning.

As a reminder, we took in-person non-agenda public comment at the end of our morning session.

So now we will hear the trailed virtual portion.

So clerk, please proceed with virtual non-agenda public comment.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

I am starting the five-minute timer and going to those participating remotely.

As you know, please be sure to speak on items that are not on the agenda but within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council.

Becky Rapp, if you can please unmute.

Good afternoon.

My name is Becky Rapp, and today I'd like to recognize and thank City Attorney Ferbert for her off and her office for taking action against the illegal sale of marijuana products at two San Diego smoke shops.

On April 30th, the city attorney announced that her office had secured a temporary restraining order against Mira Mesa smoke, smoke and vape, and prime smoke and vape, requiring them to stop selling marijuana products without the licenses required by state law and the San Diego Municipal Code.

One of those stores, Prime Smoke and Vape, is located near my home.

And as a resident, I appreciate the city's efforts to address illegal activity in our neighborhoods.

Please send a message that our city will no longer tolerate these illegal sales.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Kathleen Lippett.

If you can please unmute.

I thought they were divisive and uh continuing to focus on ways of of reparations instead of moving forward keeps us mired in the divisiveness that we are already in.

Also blaming the city's deficits on conservatives, radicals, and this administration instead of taking responsibility and spending on things like zero carbon goals, equity, and flooding that occurred because the cities diverted maintenance, not because of climate change.

The failure to enforce public health laws such as public drinking, smoking, and drug use already on the books, continue to erode community trust and increase the city's looking more like a third world country rather than the beautiful, clean and safe city it once was.

They have way too much influence.

Unions continue to oppose school choice when parents want the choice of schools that's tailored for their children.

And despite global efforts, modern slavery is widespread and still at 167 countries.

The first country to denounce slavery was Great Britain, the second was America.

Yeah, these are the only two countries that continue to be persecuted for ever having allowed slavery in the first place.

People of color were not only the only humans trafficked, the British occupied and ruled over Ireland.

Thank you.

Your time has concluded.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

Thank you.

Yeah, I I wanted to comment from yesterday.

I am really hopeful uh about the initiative about uh, you know, working on uh uh what's happening with our uh Somali community.

And so um I'm I'm interested how we will be working together to ask people who are promoting uh a way of thinking and belief how they can limit that, how they can bring their words to a different place.

And asking questions, and um that's a real serious problem that I want to be able to address.

How do we address policy without going out each other's throats basically?

And um that takes work from all of us and um yeah, I I uh um I hope we can we can get there.

It takes a lot of practice, and I want to uh I'm just understanding how to possibly better practice those things.

It takes patience and it takes really wanting to listen to both sides.

And um to Joyce Sanata, who was thinking about ideas of real hate after the events of the uh Islamic shooting incidents.

Um I was uh amazed and impressed by the uh calmness and wisdom of the Imam from uh San Diego, and I listened to an imam from uh Texas at the same time who was speaking on the issues of the shooting, and they offered a real sense of peace and and just asked for uh patience uh how to address things, and it was really helpful for myself, and I learned uh important lessons that maybe Joy Sonata can can talk to the Imam of the San Diego Islamic Center and get his understanding on how to address such things.

Um we need that more in San Diego.

We don't need hyperbolic behavior and language, and we have to learn ways to really hear both sides and come up with progressive answers.

How do we do that?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is a phone number ending in five nine three five.

If you can press star six to unmute, five nine three five.

Brother Steve.

I'll come back to you, Peggy Walker.

If you can please unmute.

Oh, thank you.

Good afternoon.

Because this is Pride Month, I came to call attention to multiple studies showing LGBTQT youth use intoxicating substances at a high at significantly higher rates than their straight peers, and are twice as likely to use marijuana.

This high prevalence points to the susceptibility of this vulnerable population to negative substance use outcomes.

Tooth initiative research finds a higher proportion of LGBTQ young people use cigarettes and e-cigarettes, highlighting persistent disparities in tobacco use among this group as well, due in part to targeted marketing by the tobacco industry, taxis adopted by the marijuana manufacturers as well.

National substance use prevention data.

Further shows 56% of LGBTQ youth used alcohol in the past year, including 47% under age 21, and one in three used marijuana.

Disturbingly, national data shows higher substance use rates have increased the risk of suicide attempt by LGBTQUs compared with their peers.

According to research, harassment and discrimination of LGBTQ individuals increases stress, leading to higher rates of use substance use, putting them at greater risk of addiction and related mental health concerns.

This data emphasizes how widespread commercialization of marijuana and other addictive products continues to harm young people across the board, especially vulnerable youth, while promises of protection have failed.

In light of all this, I urge you to rethrink drug policies that allow widespread availability of high potency THC and harm all youth.

Your time has concluded.

Going back 5935-5935, press star six to unmute.

I think I'm reading that right now.

Yes, 5935 star six to unmute.

Fortunately, if you can't unmute, we will have to move on to other callers.

You are not unmuted, and we cannot hear you here in Council Chambers, and I can unmute for you.

More than welcome to give written comments to the council.

Madison, if you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you.

Good afternoon, City Council members.

Yesterday I spoke about California's new AI tool that helps identify marijuana packaging that may appeal to children.

I think that development highlights something important.

Technology can be used to better protect public health and safety.

If regulators are willing to use artificial intelligence to help identify problematic packaging, perhaps we should also explore how new technologies can support enforcement efforts against cannabis retailers that violate the law.

Many San Diegans have heard concerns about retailers selling unapproved or illegal products, including products that may not have undergone required testing or that are sold outside of approved channels.

Effective enforcement is essential because rules only protect the public when they are actually followed and enforced.

I encourage the city to think creatively about how technology and data can help identify patterns of noncompliance, improve inspections, support investigations, and make enforcement resources more efficient.

AI should never replace human judgment, but it may help regulators focus attention where problems are most likely to exist.

As a mother of three young children, my concern is that when products with intoxicating effects are sold in our communities, we should be doing everything we can to ensure businesses are following the rules and that youth are protected from exposure and access.

The state's new AI tool shows that innovation can be used in service of public safety.

I hope San Diego will continue looking for ways to use available technology to strengthen oversight, improve accountability, and protect young people.

Thank you.

Thank you.

7499, if you can please unmute 7499.

This council's earlier flowery speeches about Juneteenth, freedom and equal rights would indeed be admirable if this council itself wasn't denying freedom and equal rights to your own citizens right here in your own city, in your own time, and under your own noses.

Myself and dozens, maybe hundreds of others have been able to fly at that site since twenty seventeen when the County of Los Angeles reviewed Yushba's predatory expulsion practices and determined that the County of Los Angeles would not allow citizens to be arbitrarily barred from public recreational land.

So in 2017, the County of Los Angeles implemented the Docweiler waiver, which has been successfully in place for nearly a decade.

Yet what do you do in San Diego?

You make flowery speeches about Juneteenth rather than taking the actions that you could take right here in your own city.

Some of you also feel the need to grandstand and rail against our president while you don't even do your own job right here in San Diego.

This problem was solved in just a few short months by the county of Los Angeles, but it has gone completely unresolved and even ignored here in San Diego.

Shame on you, Joe La Cava.

Shame on you, Todd Gloria, and shame on this entire city council.

Your time has concluded and that concludes on agenda public comment virtually for today's meeting.

Some of you may have noticed that our s typical screens uh remain blank.

So we're going to take a couple of minutes and do a reboot of the system that hopefully will clear that problem.

So bear with us.

Thank you for your patience.

We are back online.

All right.

Just getting ready for July one.

Okay.

Thank you to the wizards that figured that out.

All right.

Uh just because today is a day, uh, we will be changing the order of uh items on today's docket.

And we will start with item three three three and PFA's FA-1.

We will then hear items S five oh four, then three thirty and three thirty-one.

And at the end, we'll come back for PFA PFA minutes and PFF non-agenda public comment at the end.

So with that, clerk, please introduce the city council and the public facilities financing authority related items.

Item three thirty through three is the authorization for the public facilities financing authority of the City of San Diego Senior Water Revenue Bonds Series Twenty Twenty Six A preliminary official statement and item FA one is the approval of the form and authorization of the distribution of the preliminary official statement and authorization of the execution delivery and distribution of the official statement in connection with the issuance and sale by the Public Facilities Financing Authority of the city of San Diego.

It's twenty twenty-six senior water revenue bonds.

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

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

I see staff is starting to settle in.

When you're ready, please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need for the combined presentation.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council President and members of the City Council.

And presenting with me today are Marusol Valdovinos, financing coordinator, and Jasmine Mallon, finance analyst from the Department of Finance, and Brett Bartelado, Chief Deputy City Attorney.

We also have Adam Jones from Public Utilities, Ed Sung from our municipal advisor, and our bond counsel, Diane Kwan from Hawkins Delphi Landwood participating remotely.

We'll need about 10 to 12 minutes.

All right.

When you're ready.

Thank you.

The City Council previously approved the issuance of the 2026 A water bonds and all relevant legal documents via ordinance in March 2026.

And the authority also took similar action in February 2026 via resolution.

Before I turn it to Marusol on the specifics of the requested actions, I'd like to note first that these bonds do not impact the city's debt ratios.

The water bonds are governed by financial metrics specific to the utility, including debt service coverage and liquidity or cash flow metrics.

Second, the water utility bonds were put on a negative outlook last year by two rating agencies, Fitch and Moody's.

Just earlier this morning, we received ratings on the 2026 senior water revenue bonds.

Moody's has downgraded the ratings of the senior water revenue bonds from AA2 to AA3 and changed the outlook from negative to stable.

They cited reduction in the water utilities liquidity and debt along with debt ratios a lot.

Sorry, they cited the water utilities liquidity and coverage ratios along with uncertain ability to raise rates to maintain adequate liquidity as reasons for this downgrade.

We expect FITCH to release their ratings later this afternoon.

Staff will distribute a detailed memorandum on the ratings, including rating actions on the outstanding water bonds and loans in the coming days.

And now I will turn it over to Marusol to go over the fiscal impact and the preliminary official statement.

Based on estimated market conditions as of May 20, 2026, the financing plan includes approximately 140 million in new money proceeds.

The estimated true interest cost for the new money bonds is approximately 4.42%.

Debt service is expected to be about $3.6 million in fiscal year 27, reflecting an interest-only payment thereafter.

The anticipated debt service is approximately $8.4 million annually through fiscal year 57.

Refinancing component, the refinancing component is expected to generate significant savings with an estimated net present value savings of 8.9% and total estimated savings of approximately 32.3 million.

The debt service coverage ratio is estimated at 1.41 times in fiscal year 26 and is projected to increase to 2.17 times in the five-year projection period.

This slide summarizes the estimated sources and uses of funds.

Overall, the transaction is expected to generate approximately 475 million in bond proceeds.

These funds will primarily be used for three purposes: repaying outstanding commercial paper, funding water system capital improvements, and refunding outstanding water revenue bonds.

A relatively small portion will cover cost of issuance.

As with all financing estimates, these figures remain subject to change based on market conditions.

Regarding the timeline, with council approval of the POS, we expect to release the documents to the market in the next few days and price the bonds about two weeks from now on July 1st.

The bonds are anticipated to close on July 14th, 2026.

These dates are estimates and may be adjusted if necessary.

The preliminary official statement is intended to provide information that an investor would consider material in making an informed investment decision and includes the terms of the bonds, the financing plan, security for repayment, financial and operational information about the water system, applicable risk factors, and expected credit ratings.

This slide lists the pertinent information contained in the preliminary official statement on the water system and the city overall that an investor would need to consider, such as water system service area, facilities, water supply, capital improvement program, financial operations, and five-year projections.

Also included is information on IT, climate change, investments, labor relations, insurance, pension, and litigation.

The POS also lists risk factors that investors may consider in their purchase of the bonds.

The POS describes risk related to the water system and risk related to the bonds themselves and other risks.

And finally, there are appendices contained in the POS document that provide additional information for the bondholder.

These include summaries of principal legal documents, the form of bond council's approving opinion, the continuing disclosure certificate, and information regarding the book entry only system used for the bonds.

The document will continue to be updated as needed until it's released to the market.

Now I'd like to turn it over to Brett to briefly describe the disclosure process.

Thank you and good afternoon.

As you all are familiar from your securities responsibility, disclosure responsibility trainings in the past, this all stems from the securities disclosure ordinance that was adopted in the mid-2000s.

It requires the establishment of the disclosure practices working group or DPWG.

The composition of that group is the COO, Director of Finance, Chief Financial Officer, City Attorney, the DCA for finance and disclosure, and then we have outside general disclosure council.

The DPWG then established as part of the disclosure ordinances requirements, the uh disclosure controls and procedures or controls, and as part of the controls and the process, the mayor, city attorney, and CFO provide certifications regarding the POS, the marketing document, that there are no material misstatements or omissions within the document.

Next slide, please.

So the beginning of the process involves solicitation from numerous departments that will contribute material information to the book, PUD, DOF, Treasurer, et cetera.

You can see the list there.

All of those directors of those departments will provide certifications as to the accuracy and completeness of the information that they provide.

We also review publicly available sources.

The POS goes through multiple iterations as it's developed to make sure that we're telling the story to the market accurately and completely, and then ultimately the financing group and each of those contributing departments will certify to DPWG that the process was followed and that the content is as it's required to be accurate and complete.

Next slide, please.

The POS that was sent to you was approved, reviewed, and approved by the DPWG.

You have received along with the disclosure responsibilities memorandum that I sent along last week, certifications from the mayor, the city attorney, and the CFO.

Along with that memorandum, it sets forth all of yours council members, your legal obligations, and it could provide some guidance as to how you're to uh meet those obligations and uh also it contains all those individual certifications from departments and as was said before uh Mayor Sall stated updates will be provided uh if and when they occur and if they are material.

And so with that, we'll go to the last slide.

This is what you're being asked to do to approve uh the form and authorize the POS here today.

Thank you.

That concludes the presentation.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you for the work in uh for the presentation.

Please uh clerk, please proceed with public comment for these two items.

Thank you.

We'll proceed with public comment on both items.

Maximilian Schmidt.

If you can please come forward.

Then after that, we'll be allegedly Audra.

You'll have two minutes for these items.

Please proceed.

Hi, I just wanted to um make my voice heard here and use my first amendment right to say that I um I know this is only an information agenda, but I want to say that I um I'm opposed to the city investing our tax dollars, period, um, no matter how they invest them, even if they get a hundred and fifty million dollars uh aggregate total of new money.

And I want to question the CFO, the mayor, and the financing group, as to um I the reason I'm opposed to them is because I believe there could be chances for collusion and market manipulation among Masonic brothers inside the market and um city council taking our tax dollars to invest to um invest with and the reason why is because I have reason to believe that the same people who are um uh running the water system and um could be Masonic Brothers with the um city council, and I believe that um is a can cause collusion, and I believe that more attention needs to be drawn towards um the city council and the people in the market um and the water system, they're not total strangers to each other.

Um they may know each other quite well, and I can see how there could be market manipulation where if I'm if I want to start investing my money, I'd feel uncomfortable if there's Masonic Brothers um playing around with the market, investing money in the market.

And I I wanted to say that maybe we should not allow uh Freemasons to invest in the market because they're telepathic and that could cause an unfair advantage.

Your time has concluded allegedly, Audra.

If you can please come forward, you'll have two minutes for both items.

I do appreciate Max.

He does have a little bit of a different way of presenting things, but what he is saying is true.

There is manipulation in the market and things like that.

So you guys want to kind of dismiss people, but if you listen to things that they're saying, you might pick up pointers that would uh bring you back over center of what the person is saying.

Um, because you know, the problem is is that it's interesting that we're always getting into debt for the basic necessities of things that need to be provided.

Um, you know, the government should have been put in place for us to have like those basic things like water, electricity, um, and you know, just the freedom of movement and things like that.

But what happens is is that you guys look at it as a business.

So you buy and you sell water, you know, and it's like we go into debt trying to provide it.

We can't even keep up with the infrastructure.

I mean, look at this storm five billion dollars that we need for storm infrastructure.

That's that's a disgrace.

And so it's like, you know, when the government gets into doing things in a business manner, they're looking at revenue and making money and not really just making sure that we have these things.

That's why it's awesome to be out in an unincorporated area where you can have your own water and you don't have the city or in some, you know, municipality or corporation coming in and and putting fluoride and chlorine and lye and all of these things like you guys do.

You know, we're able to just from the ground, drill, get the water, and be able to, you know, provide for our families in that way.

But it's like when the government weaponizes things, and that's the problem is that things should be benign and on the surface it looks that way, but when you weaponize something against the people, that's where corruption comes in.

And so it's unfortunate that we have to be in uh debt just for things like water or sewer.

I'm sorry, the five-minute time we're going to those participating remotely, starting with Christine Wellbourne, if you can please unmute.

Are you speaking on both items or just one of them?

Christine Walburn, hold on one second.

I do see that you are speaking.

We do not hear you here in Council Chambers.

Hello.

Um, you have us muted.

Um, or you're muted.

We can't hear any of the presentation.

Uh through Zoom or over the phone.

We are working on it.

If you can give your comments.

That's all I was calling about.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

Hi, Blair Beekman.

Same thing.

I was not able at all to hear the presentation.

I'm surprisingly I'm able to speak up comment time on the senior water bond issues when I couldn't hear the presentation.

Uh I can just offer um good luck in how we are and now my timer, okay.

My timer's starting.

Um, good luck how we can address um water bond issues uh clearly.

Um I think we have to yes, I understand.

I one minute, one second, please.

Uh I I'll be 10 seconds.

Um I I understand that uh we have an obligation to practice equality in our billing.

Uh I think we have to really acknowledge that for some people it's more difficult to pay for services than other people and how we work on that and consider that.

Good luck what we can be doing.

Um I'm hoping some way you're talking about that on the side of it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We are gonna do one more test before we proceed.

Test test.

Can somebody hear me on the panelist side?

Test test.

Test now, can you hear?

Test now.

We are having technical difficulties with the audio.

Test test, can you hear now?

Test test.

I see the mic working.

Testing not one, two, three.

I do see the mic going up and down.

Just getting confirmation.

Test test, test, test one, two, three.

Test test.

Now it's gone.

I don't know what else to do.

Well, we have our ten step process in place for July first that we can uh run through.

We do see the microphones going up and down.

You can hear it?

I am getting reports that it can be heard.

I'm just going to go to one of our speakers online, Kathleen Lippick.

Can you confirm if you can hear?

Kathleen Lippett, can you unmute?

Can you hear?

Test test.

I don't see it going.

You still hear it again?

I'm getting different reports for different people.

It's hard.

Kathleen Limpet, can you unmute?

Okay.

Test test one, two, three.

Test one, two, three, test one, two, three.

Test user, please unmute.

Test user, please unmute.

Perfect.

Yes, in case I can't hear you clear.

Thank you.

My apologies again for the technical difficulties.

We are ready to continue.

All right.

We're back up and operating.

So with that, we will turn it over to council member questions and comments on both items and then take separate motions for the two.

So does anybody want to kick us off, or do you want me to?

Council Member Elo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Um the downgrade that was mentioned.

What are the practical implications of that for the city?

Thank you, Councilmember.

First, the downgrade was specific to the water utility, so any impacts would be only on the water utility, not the general fund bonds or the sewer bonds.

In terms of practical impacts, typically, so in this case, are the bonds that we are selling in two weeks are still going to be in the double A category.

They were downgraded from AA2 to A3.05%.

So in that context, uh this rating downgrade qualitatively could relatively minor and potential impact.

And I just want to follow up on his question and when the thing that I think you were thinking, but didn't actually say that if there is if everything else is stable except for that five basis points, this is still the right thing for us to do at this time.

Yes, that is correct.

Okay.

Just want to double-check that, both in terms of new bonds as well as refunding the old bonds.

That is correct.

Okay.

Uh thank you for that.

So with nobody else on the lights, we do have a motion by council member Elo Rivera, and second by myself to move the staff recommendation on item 333.

Please call the roll.

I'm sorry.

The voting system, please cast your vote.

That passes unanimously eight to zero with council member Von Wilbert absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

We will now adjourn as the city council and convene it's a public facilities financing authority to vote on the public facilities financing authority item.

Uh council member, can I get your motion again?

And I will second again.

So we have a motion by council member ILO Rivera and a second by myself to move PFFA.

Item FA1.

With that clerk, please call the rule.

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

And that passes unanimously eight to zero with council member von Wilbert absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And thank you to staff for the work.

And uh taking that item early.

So with that, clerk, please introduce item S504.

Item S504 is the amendment to the salary ordinance for fiscal year 2027.

If you are here and wish to speak to that item, please submit your speaker slip to the front of the room.

And if you're here virtually, please be sure to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

So when you get a chance to settle in, uh please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need.

Good afternoon, Council President and Council members.

I am Julie Rasco, director of human resources, and with me here today is Abby Jarlveld, Deputy Director for Human Resources.

Also with us today is Coda Zeiser from the mayor's office.

Rolando Charvel, Chief Financial Officer, Tom Brady from the City Attorney's Office, Quinnell Allen from Risk Management, who will be joining us virtually.

We have Christia Davis here from Personnel, she's here in person, and then Sally Ruby and Luis Mateos from the Department of Finance who will also be joining virtually.

We are here today to present the amendment to the fiscal year 2027 salary ordinance.

Our presentation will take approximately seven minutes.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Abby Jarl Beltz who will walk you through the presentation.

Thank you.

So as a reminder, we we let you know that on May 19th, we will be returning with an amendment to the salary ordinance once we've reached agreement with our recognized employer organizations.

We have now reached agreement with our municipal employees association, our deputy city attorneys association, and local 127.

So we're going to walk you through the changes as a result of the implementation of those MOUs for fiscal year 27, and then also for the unrepresented, and then with an update for the automobile allowance.

For the successor MOUs that were reached that you approved earlier this morning for MEADCA and local 127 for fiscal year 27, there's a 2% general wage increase effective July 1 of 2026 for MEADCA and local 127.

There's also an equity adjustment, one equity adjustment of 1.5% affected July 1, 2026.

For the deputy city attorney classification, the DCA2 grade of that classification.

There are all dispatcher classifications and nine classifications within the environmental services department are excluded from the mandatory furlough program.

There's also additional 46 classifications that were permitted the opportunity to vote to opt out of the mandatory furlough program.

Any of those employees who do not participate in the mandatory furlough program in exchange of not having those 40 hours will not receive the 24 hours of discretionary leave in lieu of that.

Also, hourly non-standard employees are not are excluded from the mandatory furlough program.

We are still in good faith negotiations with our local 145, local 986, and POA recognized employer organizations.

Once we have reached agreement with those recognized employee organizations, we will return again to amend the salary ordinance to update the salary tables based on those agreements.

For our unrepresented employees, now that we have reached agreement with MEA, for the general salary and wage increase, the mayor's making a recommendation of a 2% effective the last day of the fiscal year on June 30th of 2027.

The reason for that is unrepresented employees are not participating in the mandatory furlough program.

So the 2% general salary increase, which is proposed to address compaction issues, will not go into effect until the last day of the fiscal year on 2027.

There are some exceptions for unrepresented as well.

The city attorney is recommending for unrepresented deputy city attorney classification that they receive the same salary increase consistent with those that are received by the deputy city attorney association represented employees for fiscal year 27, which means they would get the 2% July 1 of 2026.

The entering classifications, which include intern, legal intern, and senior legal intern, is not recommended to receive a general salary increase for fiscal year 27.

Also, we have unrepresented and unclassified sworn police and fire department employees.

It's recommended that their salary increases be consistent with those uh reached by any approved MOU for POA and 145 respectively.

That's based on the fact that they supervise those individuals.

Um also there's an exception for the police chief and the fire chief.

It's recommended that they receive the 2% increase with the other unrepresented on the last day of the fiscal year to be in line with the other chief officers that are unrepresented as well.

The marine safety captain is a classified unrepresented sworn lifeguard classification, and it's recommended that they receive the salary increase consistent with those received by any approved local 986 MOU, which has not occurred yet.

Those are the wages.

So another update to the salary ordinance as well as modification to the automobile allowance.

Based on input from the city council, the mayor does recommendation for an exception to exhibit F for fiscal year 27.

The mayor will not provide a monthly automobile allowance to the chief of staff and deputy chief of staff.

With that, we'd like to acknowledge the work from all the departments that participate in the salary ordinance, including the Department of Finance, Department of Information Technology, our office, the Office of the City Attorney, the Office of the IVA, the personal department, and the risk management department.

With that, that concludes our presentation, and we're available for any questions that you may have.

Thank you.

Alright, thank you for the presentation.

I believe the Office of the State Attorney has a correction for the record.

Thank you, Council President.

Our office discovered a minor minor typographical error in the ordinance, which we will correct after the meeting, and Tom Brady will explain more.

Yes, good afternoon.

On page six, section AA of the ordinance, there's a reference to the unclassified service that needs to be changed to the classified service.

That's all.

I'll leave it to my colleagues if they have any questions.

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

Thank you, Council President.

If we can have Maximilian Schmidt, please come forward.

Then after that is allegedly Audra.

Hi, um, I just wanted my first amendment right to be to speak on this item to be heard.

And I wanted to say that I'm opposed to the salary um increases, and I believe that there's problems in the city that a small salary cut from um the city employees could really help with.

I I'm homeless and I walk every day from the 12th Imperial Subway stop to the Alpha Project Bridge shelter.

And on that walk, there's so much trash where you literally have to kick through it, and this is every single day.

And you could pay someone minimum wage to just pick up that trash, and it really wouldn't be too expensive, or you could put trash cans on that street, and if we don't have enough money for it, maybe a small um maybe a decrease a small decrease in salary could allow us to get enough money for that.

And also I wanted to say something else concerning the salary increase to the environmental services department.

Um some people may call this a conspiracy, but in California, there's actually uh a 10 year plan laid out to try to subsidize subsidize green energy even more to try to increase taxes on the people of California to try to make them intentionally more poor by increasing property tax, increasing sales tax, and to intentionally take the money from the people in this giant plot to create to make Americans actually poorer.

And the tr they may say we want to subsidize green energy to try and help the planet.

We're sorry that your taxes went up.

But the truth is, what if they're over exaggerating the climate to try to raise taxes to try to bring in tyranny to try to bring in the new world order to try to create a one-world government?

Why would they do that?

Because evil exists, and if they've done a pagan ritual to make them telepathic, there could be a state and could be commanding them to make a one-world government and do that.

Allegedly, Audrey, if you can please come forward, they are over exaggerating it, Max.

Uh, you're all right about that.

Oh my gosh, I thought you guys said 27 minutes.

I was like, we're gonna listen to this for 27 minutes.

I I really was like, wow.

Um, so thank you for doing that quickly.

Anywho, with salaries, it's like, of course, everybody wants a raise, right?

And it used to be on like the merits of what you did in your job and like how you're excelling and you're going above and beyond like what you need to to make sure that you're you know doing your job well, and now it's just like in a group, you know what?

Screw it, let's just give them all a raise.

That's what happens, and it's unfortunate because people like Max or you know, whoever it's like they're homeless and they're just trying to survive, and it's like your money's gonna go to give somebody else a raise.

They're gonna be able to go get their yacht, you know, pay payment on their Ferrari, you know, or just their home, right?

That has more than just the tent size, you know, space that you gave people in tent city.

I mean, good thing for those lawsuits, right, Leslie.

I know federal lawsuits, it doesn't look good.

But anyway, um, yeah, let's give people raises, right?

And as a group, let's just do it.

Like all of you guys, like let's just go ahead and give you another $100,000, right?

I mean, because at some point it would be nice if you guys were like, listen, we really care about the people in our community, and we're willing to take a pay cut.

I'm willing to, you know, say that I don't need to go get Starbucks today, and I'm willing to give that back to the people that I represent that I'm sitting here and saying that I'm making their lives better.

Oh, will you have people come in?

And again, you guys walk over these people when you leave here at night.

I mean, not like during the day, like if we leave in the next like couple of hours, you're not gonna see them, but when it becomes nighttime and they're there, we just walk right over them, but good thing you guys got a raise or whoever in the you know city.

It's good, it's good.

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

Blair B.

Come in.

If you can please unmute all right.

Uh Blair Beacon.

Uh thank you for this item.

Yeah, I'm an experienced about uh thinking.

I don't I'm an experience in how to think and think about issues of salary ordinance issues, how how that balance can be.

Um but I I've been trying to learn, and I've I'm definitely trying to learn to respect that uh, you know, salary rate increases for uh city employees is important and it's definitely morale boosting.

Uh I've been listening to Oakland items lately, and my gosh, they uh they want to like uh have their employees pay for their own health care and retirement fund.

Can you imagine that?

I mean, I heard that and I was just like that is gonna cause a morale issue, and um I was surprised, you know.

So they really have to they're doing their things to have to tighten up their budget too, and they're asking their employees to pay the bill to put the bill.

Um wow, wow.

So uh I think that's a little strong, and I think there's ways to they're trying to figure out ways to work that out.

But guess what?

Guess why they're doing it, because they want their social services and the people of their community to have the social services they need, and um that I hope can be incentive for yourselves to understand what uh what we're really what's really being worked on in Oakland and the belief system involved, and um it really takes dedication.

I mean, we are uh we are a very slick, large, efficient city, and I I just hope we learn how to take uh practices to heart of uh how to practice the heart, and good luck how we can be doing that.

Uh, these salary ordinance items and such as the explanations I've described before.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment for this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

I'll turn it over to my colleagues for any questions, comments, and entertain a motion, and we'll go again to Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

I'll move approval.

All right.

And council president pro tem Lee's next.

I'll offer a second.

All right.

So we have a motion by council member Ilo Rivera, a second by Council President Pro Tem Lee to move the staff recommendation.

Um, I'll just thank you for the good work.

And clerk, please call the roll.

I've started the voting system.

Please cast your vote.

That passes unanimously six to zero with council uh member von Wilper, Council Member Whitburn, and Council Member Campbell absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

Thank you for the work.

And with that, please introduce item 330.

Item 330 is to authorize the award and execution of a sole source contract with Adam AI Solutions Inc.

Six votes are required pursuant to charter section 99.

If you'd like to speak on this item, please be sure to submit your speakership to the front of the room or 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.

Alright, thank you.

Uh, this is another one of those direct document items because ATI did not meet.

So, with that staff, as you settle in, please introduce yourself for the record and let us know how much time you need.

Good afternoon, Council President La Cava and members of the council.

My name is Patrick Alch, interim deputy director with the transportation department.

And with me today is Chelsea Clacius, Deputy Director with the Transportation Department.

Our presentation takes about five minutes.

All right, when you're ready.

Item 330 is a direct docket to the city council, like you just mentioned due to the adjournment of the May ATI committee, and requests the authority to award and execute a 10-year sole source of contract with Adam AI solutions inc.

Our presentation will begin with an overview of the current contract and look ahead to the proposed new 10-year agreement.

We will then discuss the factors that led to the city to pursue a sole source procurement approach before providing a deeper overview of the dot maps application, its functionality, and a critical role it plays in supporting the city's project delivery.

The current five-year agreement was executed in 2021 and is set to expire this month.

The contract has a total value of $649,000 or about $130,000 annually.

The proposed new agreement would establish a new 10-year contract with an annual cost of $125,000 for the first five years and $145,000 for the remaining five years for a total contract value of $1.35 million is shown on this table in this slide.

Dot maps is proprietary software owned and licensed exclusively by Adam AI, making it unavailable through any other vendor.

Over the past several years, the platform has become deeply integrated into the city's business processes, data structures, and connected systems, serving as a critical tool for project delivery and service coordination.

Today, approximately 1,000 city users rely on dot maps to perform the daily work.

Replacing the platform would require significant redevelopment, extensive customization, staff retraining, and complex data migration efforts resulting in substantial cost operational disruption and implementation risk.

Given the software's proven performance, mature integrations and importance to maintaining service continuity, continuing with the existing platform is the most practical and cost-effective option.

The proposed 10-year agreement also provides long-term operational stability, predictable costs, and a reduced risk for the city.

With this, I hand it over to Chelsea to go over the dot maps application in more detail.

Good afternoon.

As you all know, this is our citywide project coordination system.

It helps do project coordination as well as be a project finder.

We have internal facing application as well as a public-facing application.

Like Patrick mentioned, we integrate data from a number of city sources throughout the uh development services, engineering capital projects, transportation, public utilities, stormwater, special events, and external utilities.

The reason why this matters is because the city of San Diego has a strong commitment to both our street preservation ordinance as one as well as a one-dig policy.

From an internal perspective, this map identifies conflicts and opportunities to coordinate very early in the process.

By doing that, it saves money, time, and resources that don't end up as uh real-time conflicts while people are trying to excavate.

From a public-facing um perspective, it has improvements uh to our customer experience, including being able to see this information real time on a public-facing map if you're a resident, as well as some uh notification options that you could uh be, you know, put in your address, make a little box around it, and any project that's going to be coming up in your area, it will notify you ahead of time to minimize disruptions.

Um, so in general, uh these this is an extremely important um platform for the city, and um I will pass it back over to Patrick.

Thank you, Chelsea.

That concludes our presentations.

We are happy to answer any questions.

Alright, thank you very much for the presentation.

Uh, Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Maximilian Schmidt.

If you can please come up to the microphone after that is allegedly Audra and then Joy Sanyata.

Hi, uh, my name is Max Schmidt, and I just want to say that um I'm being persecuted by Freemasons.

I don't know if it's because I'm Catholic, if if it's because I do grassroots activism or what.

Um, but I've also done a lot of active activism against Freemasonry, you uh especially in Washington, DC.

And to give a special award to a um software company is a um hurts my feelings in a way because computer software is one of the way ways that um Freemasons target me.

Where if I'm looking at my phone, and let's just say I'm uh sending someone a text message on my phone.

As I send the message, um a voice will come out of my phone um harassing me, and it's state-sponsored harassment via AI and via computer softwares.

And free uh Freemasons can do that.

They can target people with AI, and I feel like um it just unfortunate that we're giving the special award to this software company when we don't talk about maybe nowhere in public is it even found on the internet that Freemasons used not only media and TV to try to brainwash people to be liberals, but if you do lots of grassroots activism against Freemasonry, they'll even use technology to harass you, and um it's becoming a problem.

And unfortunately, it's sad to say that communism exists in America and they're using AI to do it.

Um they're also telepathic from doing human sacrifices in the Masonic Lodge, so they also can say your thoughts out loud and mess with you uh telepathically, but AI is also being used to target patriots, and it's a problem.

Thank you.

Allegedly, Audra.

AI is definitely gonna be used for the new world order and bringing in the Antichrist.

We'll get into that later.

However, uh this is very dangerous.

Um, and I keep talking about it because of course there's a monopoly on this type of software, so it's like you have to go and get a single source procurement for it.

They're the only ones that provide it.

And you know, it's like AI is very dangerous.

The people that create it even talk about that, how it can be weaponized, how it hallucinates.

I mean, it can give you false information.

Um, and to say that the customer experience is better because of it, I highly doubt that.

Cause it's like we call you can call in and talk to AI a lot, uh, even to the police.

And it's like you could tell I need to speak to this department, and it will tell you that apartment doesn't exist.

Uh, and then you call in and then you speak to like an actual technician, and they're like, yeah, let me transfer you.

So all I'm saying is, like, let's not sugarcoat it and act like this stuff is like gonna be beneficial.

I mean, on the surface, it looks good because it's like, yeah, it makes things easier, but how many jobs are uh people losing because you are taking away their ability to um you know do that part of the job, like um whatever information that it's collecting, I'm not sure where my notes are on that.

Um, and you know, just making sure that I mean, because that's what happens.

People say, Oh, it's not gonna take any jobs, it's gonna make things easier, we're gonna save money.

No, in reality, it's gonna cost us a buttload of money, it's gonna take all our power, our fresh water, because these data centers need our fresh water while we get our sewage back.

How cool is that?

And the fact that it's we're giving our data to people like BlackRock and Vanguard again.

It's like we worry about these corporations and shit, but it's like you guys willingly are giving all of this information about very critical stuff to people that have nefarious intentions.

So, Joyce and Yata, if you can please come forward.

Okay, first of all, I want to go to work for Chelsea and transportation.

She gets five stars for helping me this afternoon, and of course I love transportation all around.

So thank you.

Okay, so yes to the Adam AI contract.

Uh 10 years is okay, yet I am sure with tech exponentially speeding up that tech services will need to be updated every moment.

That's an exaggeration, but I know you understand that.

So uh Adam AI owns the platform that the city has customized, and to be honest with you, I love this item.

It makes such a difference when you talk to the department that's handling it.

Because she got me to see just absolutely the whole big picture of it.

And it's pretty darn wonderful.

So let's see here.

Uh I don't want to miss out here.

Uh so um oh, I did that, excuse me.

Uh what it why it matters, six items.

Uh Mac um minimizes, I think that's a good minimize, uh, integrated public facing, internal facing, and saves money.

We'll take that anytime we can get it.

So uh, and they have this wonderful thing called conflict ordination.

I hope I got that right, Chelsea.

Uh, but anyway, it reminds me of when I was a therapist, and uh the pharmacies weren't gathering everything together so that everybody knew what prescriptions were going to this one person that I was handling as a client.

So now this thing, this conflict ordination brings all of it together so projects are not, you know, bouncing all over the place and not coordinating with other uh and causing conflict and risk.

So Chelsea, I think that's pretty fabulous on that.

Um, underrepresentation in Latino female in A and I science computer and sales uh no, for that kind of agreement.

But they said they filed it.

Okay, that's all.

Five minute timer has started.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

Blair Beekman, I can't unmute for you.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman, can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

Uh hi, thank you.

Um, yeah, but this item uh I noticed uh the mighty words one more time that this is a 10-year contract.

And I've just been seeing those words a lot.

It's how you've been doing the contract process lately.

Um I'm a bit concerned by that.

It's a long, long time.

And I'm just questioning um it's uh as a way to practice.

I think five years is a lot more reasonable, and it's certainly a long time as well.

A five-year contract.

Um I like the 10-year contract idea in that it it describes the concepts of planning and how we're uh ways that we really plan out our future and how we create uh ourselves.

I think it's very good for that.

And I wish that council, we talked a lot lot more in more broad terms of five to ten years and and two to five years.

We have to do everything on the fly and just at the spur of the moment, and it gets kind of tiring, and uh it makes conversations limited overall.

We lack depth of how to talk about uh how to see a larger picture in making choices and decision making.

So I I like that these contracts are at a 10-year point.

That's for some in some ways.

These types of contracts are usually uh reserved for military, it's my understanding.

And so you get a sense of its conservative value in nature and uh, you know, predictions and tendencies.

Um, so in ways, good.

I'm just a bit worried about it overall.

Um, but I I like the idea of that we can talk in more broader sense about our long-term planning for our communities.

How can we do that more here at the everyday level in council meetings?

I hope we can do that.

Boy, that's just all my thoughts and feelings on this item.

Thanks for your patience.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment on this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

We'll turn it over to council for questions, comments, entertain a motion.

We'll start with council member Kemble.

Thank you so much.

Just just um to see if I have this correctly.

I remember a few years back when we didn't coordinate these things, and we ended up having one utility tearing up the street, another coming in a week later tearing it up again.

Uh and what this does is makes it make that much better.

We coordinate all the tearing up to try to occur at one time, so that when we fix the street afterwards, it stays fixed.

So this has helped tremendously, and I really appreciate it.

Uh, unfortunately, this is the only company that provides that, but unfortunately, in that sometimes uh most of the time competition brings a decrease in price.

However, this price is very reasonable, a 1.35 million over a 10-year period for all this software.

So I am very um happy to make the motion that we accept staff's recommendation.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Council Members.

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

Not oh, Councilmember Whitburn jumps in there with a second on the motion.

Not seeing anybody on the lights.

We have a motion by Councilmember Campbell to move the staff recommendation, second by Council Member Whitburn.

Clerk, please call the roll.

That passes unanimously eight to zero with Councilmember Von Wilbert absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

Step out.

I'll do it.

Okay.

So with that, please introduce item 331.

Item 331 is the second amendment to the as needed transportation engineering services agreement with Kim Lee Horn and Associates, H186985.

Six votes are required pursuant to Charter Section 99.

If you'd like to speak to this item, please be sure to raise your hand by pressing star 9 or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And I see staff you've settled in.

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

All right.

With five minutes, should be good for us.

Um my name is Carrie Purcell.

Good afternoon, uh Council President, Council members.

We're happy to be here today.

Uh, my name is Carrie Purcell.

I'm a deputy director with Engineering Capital Projects Department, Program Project Development Division.

Um, and with me today is Michael Ramirez.

He's the senior civil engineer.

Our section is is responsible for managing the as needed engineering agreements with uh for our department.

Um we're here today to ask for council approval to be able to approve a second amendment to our as needed transportation with Kimley Horn and associates for an additional 36 months.

Um we also have staff available from the project teams if there are project specific questions related to the project tasks that are being extended for time.

So with that, I would like to turn it over to Michael Ramirez to give you the details of that request.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carrie.

My name is Michael Ramirez, senior civil engineer with the Engineering Capital Projects.

Um I will be presenting the item 331.

This is a like Carrie mentioned, is a second amendment to an ass in the transportation contract with Kimlian Horn and Associates.

This request is to authorize a second amendment to extend the contract duration for additional 36 months from the 24 months that was approved through the first amendment.

This would be a total of 16 months from the original contract execution.

It is a no cost time extension to complete two tasks out of the eight tasks that were approved from the first amendment.

A little background the original contract was executed on August 23rd, 2019 for an amount of five million dollars with a five-year duration.

There were a total of 22 tasks that were issued during those five years.

A First Amendment for a no cost time extension was executed on August 2nd, 2024, which extended the duration of eight tasks for an additional 24 months.

As previously mentioned, this contract amendment, the second amendment would add an additional 36 months needed to complete two of the tasks out of the eight tasks that were approved from the first amendment.

The new expiration would be August 2029.

So the first project is the Kensington.

During um the first part of Kingston is located in District 9, mid-city.

The scope includes a replacement of sewer and storm drains along with access way within the canyon.

During the design phase, additional environmental requirements and coordination efforts resulted in additional scope, including preparation of traffic control, revegetation plans, and additional biological survey efforts.

The project schedule is extended was extended due to an ongoing environmental review, regulatory agency permitting, easement acquisition, and cult and CalChan's encroachment permit processing.

The project requires environmental mitigation and entitlement processing that is that are associated with the impacts of sensitive upland and wetland vegetation, including the preparation of mitigated negative decoration, site development permit, updates to technical environmental studies, and completion of resource agency permitting, which is currently anticipated through June 2027.

The other project is the Black Mountain Reservoir Spillway.

It's located in District 5.

The project scope is the design and construction of an OSHA compliant access stairway, which includes a chain link fence as well as alteration to a gate and ladder.

The design was completed last year, and the project is now ready for construction.

We will need this consultant through the construction phase in as well preparation until summer 2027.

As you can see in the screen, the equal opportunity.

This was subject to a 20% voluntary, the achieved goal, the achievement we achieved the 25% participation, which is above the goal.

Just to reiterate, this request is to authorize the second amendment to extend the contract duration for additional 36 months from a twenty from the 24 months that was approved through the first amendment for a total of 60 months from the original contract duration to complete the two tasks discussed in this in this presentation.

At this time, we welcome any questions you may have.

Thank you.

All right, thank you for the presentation.

Thank you, Council President.

We will begin with in-person public comment.

Maximilian.

We'll be followed by allegedly Audra, be followed by Joyce and Yada.

I just wanted to say that I'm opposed to the second amendment as needed Transportation Engineering Services Agreement with Kimley Horn Associates.

And the reason I'm the reason I'm opposed to it is because I have reason to believe that um city council are Freemasons, and I'm opposed to Freemasons being involved with any of my tax dollars, period.

I don't I do not want Freemasons handling my tax dollars, and the reason why is because Freemasons are also persecuting me.

Um believe it or not, I'm not crazy, but when I walk down the street, um people will say my thoughts out loud, and I believe it's state sponsored because at the homeless shelter, which is owned by the city, I will also get harassed there.

Um I'm not gonna say if staff are involved at the library, where the librarians are paid um with our tax dollars.

I get harassed by librarians on the trolley where the trolley intercom is pay is uh ran with our tax dollars.

I get harassed on the trolley, and I get harassed of neurolinguistics, which is constantly reading my mind, and people are constantly holding over my head that they can read my mind.

And I came into city council, and city council exposed to me that they could read my mind and and um harassed me with it.

It's called neurolinguistics, and every everywhere I go, I seem to get harassed by people reading my mind, and it's Freemasons doing it, and I oppose um Freemasons handling um our tax our tax dollars, and maybe when everyone voted and elected the council to office, they didn't know that they're Freemasons, but I'm here to expose to the world that San Diego City Council are all Freemasons.

Thank you.

That does conclude your time, allegedly Audra.

Jennifer, did you admit that your employees are incompetent and you guys can't make sure that you're not ripping up the street twice without AI?

That is interesting because obviously your project coordinator and finder needs to be AI because we we don't need people to do that.

We need to replace their jobs with AI.

I love it.

Two uh tasks are gonna take an extra 36 months, right?

That's interesting.

How much more is gonna be needed to complete one task?

You think 48 months?

I feel like we're gonna come back and like, you know, 20 months and be like, listen, we need more time.

We need more time.

This is storm and sewer, right?

Those things are not a necessity, I don't think.

I mean, we don't treat it like it, right?

I mean, we need five billion dollars for storm stuff.

I think that's terrifying to think about.

I mean, and we have El Niño in the wings.

You guys ready for this?

What are we gonna do?

How many people are we gonna sue this time for being like you guys aren't prepared, right?

Make some money, make some revenue for the city, right?

Because we're not prepared, so fuck those people who aren't too.

I mean, they should have been, right?

Doesn't matter if you guys take this money and put it elsewhere.

I mean, because you got your environmental reviews, you know, all those things, the permits, all the things that you guys require, getting in your own way of providing what you need to provide.

How weird is that it's interesting when you see the way the government works.

It like intentionally cuts its own nose off to save its face.

It says that.

And yet we're giving people raises.

I love it.

Works so good.

I mean, if you want to make money in Racketeer, get into the government.

Thank you for those comments.

Joyce Anyatta Thank you, Kevin.

Good to see you up there.

Okay, so yes to the second amendment uh with uh Kimley Horn on the service agreement.

When I look at these EOC reports, I'm amazed when I see, as I did on this one, 14.

That's 14 sub-contracts.

Isn't that amazing to think of how many pieces are needed for a project?

So thank you for mentioning the EOC item.

I really appreciate that.

I rarely hear that.

So um, oh, just getting back real quick on the uh the many uh subcontractors, and it just amazes me when we begin to think of with a time frame, and time is so crazy.

I I'm dealing with time right now, it's crazy.

And um all these pieces that have to fall into place with transportation projects, and all projects really, but it just blows me away how we can bring those pieces together for collaboration, coordination, and and get it done.

I I don't get it.

Thank you so very much.

So on the underrepresentation, we've got Latino and female in management and financial, African American, Latino and Asian in professional.

I that was the EOC.

I could not find a workforce report, and they didn't allude to it in the EOC report.

So I couldn't find it in the backup, but it might have been buried somewhere.

But anyway, I kind of miss seeing the workforce report.

Uh anyway, it was a great day.

Thank you everybody for participating.

We're in this together, and we're getting it done one step at a time.

Love to all.

Thank you.

That concludes in-person public comment for virtual public comment.

I've started the five-minute timer in council chambers.

We will now turn to the virtual queue, in which there is one participant requesting to speak.

Blair Beekman, please begin.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

Thanks for this item.

Um it's like some honest good work for it.

Um, it's it's working on our storm drain issues, it sounds like, and we really need it, and thank you.

Um, it'll be helpful.

Um, I was really seriously reminded at budget time, you know, in people's complaints uh, you know, uh working on uh storm sewer issues, the needs of uh people power and people smarts and just um putting their heads together in coming up with solutions.

Um you have some good solutions here that will take a lot of funding dollars, and you're gonna come through and do some nice things.

Um these are big project things to me.

I'm trying to consider what are the day-to-day things that can just help facilitate, you know, a good thinking process for all of us.

And when we get stuck, uh, there can be ways to move forward.

You did that today with a few items uh earlier that you know certain practices said you couldn't move forward with things, and there was just ways to continuously ask.

Well, yeah, we can do things possibly.

Let's figure that out.

And how do we do that more regularly?

And um with for instance, stormwater issues, with and when they come up.

Um, because I know previously I would just get stuck sometimes, and like, well, we just gotta continue the same old same old.

And I felt really stupid with that.

And but you know, um, uh, you know, I I want to be figuring that better now, and um so I just thought I'd mention at this time.

What what is our day-to-day smarts to work out of our usual routines and uh uh to really do something good and good luck how we can be thinking and doing that with stormwater issues.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes public comment on item 331.

All right, thank you, Deputy Clerk.

There is no stormwater or storm drainage in this item.

So just clear it for the record.

Uh we'll turn it over to council members' questions, comments, entertain a motion.

We'll go to council member Ilo Rivera.

All right, thank you, Council President.

Um I appreciate the presentation.

I think one question that I did want to ask though is.

Um the consultant's task was executed in August 2023 and is currently set to expire on August 23rd, 2026.

The um the original project baseline anticipated completion of the design by December 2024.

Um the project schedule was delayed for a number of reasons or extended.

I'm I'm trying to understand on the front end how difficult it was to anticipate the reasons why we are extending.

Nothing here seems to say nothing, but very few of these things seem surprising.

So why not just have a timeline that better matches what we expect the timeline to actually be?

Yeah, so I I think um what happens is during design is um more information becomes available, and as you that information becomes ground truth, then the design gets more refined.

The project gets more refined.

And so some of the assumptions can move around, but I would defer to the project management team to give more detail on the specific project.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Need Saber, senior civil engineer.

As it was noted in the presentation, this project is located in the canyon, environmentally sensitive area, which is requiring extensive environmental permitting, and also we are close to I-5 that requires encroachment permit from country.

In addition to that, when we started the project, we started a high level with requiring uh various technical studies to define the scope of work, which helps us to understand what needs to be built.

That's why it took a long time to do that originally when we started the project.

Um the information that we have was enough to initiate that.

But thereafter uh we did more work, more research, and delve into the detail of the project.

That's why you're seeing more amendment thereafter, because we know more about the projects.

I I think is not five, right?

Pardon me.

You said that it's near I five.

This is year five.

Oh, year five.

The the Caltrans encroachment you mentioned.

It's the project is close to I which is requiring encroachment.

I think understood all of that.

I well I guess what I'm trying to understand is again I understand that it's complicated.

I understand that there are there that there's a lot that's going into this.

What I'm not understanding necessarily is how that was unanticipated.

We knew it was in a canyon, we knew it was environmentally sensitive, we knew that it would likely involve uh working with Cal.

Like I'm trying to understand the the the gap between what was projected to be the timeline and what is actually and and and what is actually the timeline and how much of that was actually unforeseeable because if it's foreseeable, why aren't we building that into the timeline on the front at the beginning?

That's a very good question.

And here's why this matters.

There's like one, the expectations that are set on this diet, but the expectations that are set on the dias are then a conveyed out to the community, and um it just feels like there's a better way to discuss these things on the front end, so that we're not um constantly explaining why things are taking longer than they are than they are expected to take.

I'm not necessarily expecting an uh a perfect answer to that question.

I just I think it's it's a fair question to raise.

Yeah.

Yes, I think there are assumptions made at the early phase of design, the pre-design phase, and we have time frames we assume for certain environmental reviews, permitting, mitigation.

Um, but what can happen is there's sort of accumulation of all of a sudden, not all of a sudden, but unanticipated, like now you will have this impact, so you have to define the number of what that impact is.

And so that it kind of creates a I want to say a multiplier a little bit in terms of pushing out the time.

So I don't think it happens on all projects, but in these particular projects where you have these different factors, like this, these various um natural resources and environmental reviews and and Caltrans, it they sort of all work together to add time sometimes.

It's kind of like the best way I can describe it, but it's you probably knows better.

Okay, and is there not another way to do this though?

I don't know if there's another way to do it.

I mean, um, I guess I would defer to the design teams, they um uh accept a project with certain assumptions made, right?

Here's the scope, here's where it is, and then they work out um what they anticipate to be the time frames for these different items, where it's Caltrans or environmental permitting, and um do their best to capture that, and that's part of what when you have a consultant to help refine the project and the design of the project, then you're gonna tease out some of these um elements where you're gonna have to um assume things, and then sometimes you can't always pr you just can't predict what's gonna you know the time frame sometimes.

I think that's what it comes down to.

Okay, well, I I I won't belabor the point.

I just feel like in the year 2026, with the amount of information that we have, the knowledge we have, the experience we have, we should be getting better at predicting these things, not worse.

And I'm not sure that we're getting better.

So I hope that we can find a better answer to whether or not there's other ways ways of doing things in in the future, because this is it's just it's not a good way of building trust.

Um, and it doesn't seem like a particularly good way of delivering what um residents expect.

Again, I know that there's always unforeseen issues that arise, whether or not they're unforeseeable is a different question, and whether or not we can factor at least some of that in on the front end to create realistic expectations, I think is an important thing to wrestle with the standard order of business that we just routinely extend and extend and extend, and all of us should just expect that and accept that.

I think that's the part that I'm I'm just less accepting of at this point.

I'll with that I'll I will move approval, Council President.

Thank you.

Okay, we have motion by council member Ila Rivera to move a staff recommendation, and I'm gonna jump in with my big mouth.

Uh one there are the storm drains in this.

So I spoke incorrectly.

What I'm guessing is I didn't actually hear that this project is taking longer.

You have a panel of as needed consultants on board, and as you identify projects, you decide which project gets assigned to which as needed.

The duration of that as needed consultant doesn't necessarily line up with the project need, and so someone may make a decision.

That is correct.

So we're conflating the contract of an as needed basis with this particular contract.

Now, someone did make a decision going, uh, this firm's only got a couple of years left.

Do we think this project's gonna get done the couple of years or do we like this consultant team so much, let's go ahead and give it anticipating that we probably will need a time extension.

Zero dollars.

I think council likes zero dollars going forward.

So it's that decision to award this project to this as needed or to this consultant that is the glitch as opposed to this project taking longer than one would guess, because I'm you didn't say it, so I'm assuming this project's probably taking as long as storm or excuse me, sewer projects in canyons take, is what I'm kind of kind of guessing.

So I don't know if that helps you, sir, but I think that's where the problem lies is I should we have gone with this consultant for this project.

Yeah, council president.

I just I think what's the original project baseline anticipated completion was designed by December 2024.

So there's components of this that are speak in the staff report that are speaking to when certain things should have been done.

There's so I I probably am conflating certain components certain aspects of this, but we also, you know, there's there's certain deadlines that are built into the staff report that doesn't feel like we're I call them deadlines because once I put a date down for something I considered a deadline, yeah.

And I don't disagree with that, so but I'll be happy to second.

So we have a motion by Council Member Yela Rivera and a second by myself.

So maybe my comments weren't so helpful.

So with that, I will go to Councilmember Foster.

Yes, thank you.

Um Council President, and I do appreciate your approach in trying to provide some clarification, but I think what I will add is that the utilization of the as needed contracts in this issue that we were seeing when you talk about task orders being issued and time extension, not a new conversation.

It has been going on for years.

Um I wish the city attorney would step in and uh do a full analysis and make sure that we are doing things appropriately because I think we are abusing that tool just a little excessively out of a matter of convenience, I will say.

Um the other side of this is um in and um I would agree when we talk about the items that are identified as um potential delays, I would agree that those are things that we should have known and anticipated.

Um but also if we are talking about, and I did not look up the specifics of the project, but if we were supposed to have something done in 2024, I would ask: are we monitoring and holding our consultants accountable?

Are we looking at um managing this appropriately and um using the tool of airs and omissions insurance to hold them accountable as we are doing business?

Um and so um I think those are things that we need to continue to um look at and discuss and review and make sure that um just as we are held accountable for um getting work done um I want to make sure that uh we are holding our consultants and our contractors accountable if they are to hit a date, they should have a darn good reason for not hitting that date.

And most of the folks that we do work with are very very familiar with the I'm gonna say current conditions as they go out and do the business that they do.

We tend to repeat the utilization of our consultants quite often, and so I think that's something that we need to look at, especially as we are looking at the gap with our CIP and getting done what we need to get done.

So I think there's some overall management um improvements that need to be made to drive our costs down and to hold folks accountable so we can deliver what we need to deliver.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, well said.

Uh I'm not seeing anybody else in the lights.

We have a motion by Councilmember Elo Rivera and a second by myself to move the staff recommendation.

Deputy Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

I have set up the voting system.

Please cast your vote.

The item passes unanimously with council district five absent.

All right, thank you.

Thank you to staff.

We will now adjourn as the city council and reconvene as the public facilities finance authority to vote on the public facilities finance authority item.

There is just one item.

We will proceed with the approval of the public facilities financing authority minutes.

There's just the minutes.

Tuesday, February 24th, 2026, Tuesday, April 21st, 2026.

We will begin with in-person public comment, Maximilian Schmidt.

Hi, I first came to um city council just to make my voice heard because I'm being targeted and persecuted, I believe, for being um Catholic by telepathic Freemasons who can read my mind.

And I never would have thought in a million years that the state Charlie, the state homeless shelter and the state library and the buildings downtown that are persecuting me, that my persecution would lead into city council who also um persecuted me of neurolinguistics.

And I wanted to say, um, I brought up this statement before.

I think on the minutes, by persecuting me if neurolinguistics, they exposed to me that they're Freemasons and that they're telepathic and they've done pagan rituals, and that the religion is actually um paganism and uh Freemasonry.

And I believe that they have an unfair advantage over the common man because they're telepathic and they can use the third eye to um camp out in people's consciousness and know exactly what they're thinking.

I think in the minutes there should be an asterisk on who's a Freemason, and I believe that to give a fair advantage.

Thank you for your comments.

Next up is allegedly Audra.

Holding people accountable, you guys are funny.

Um, yes, with minutes.

Sewer water, sewer bonds.

You know, I'm a little concerned that we're, you know, going into debt and wasting this money when you guys aren't keeping up with the infrastructure the way that you should.

So it's like, you know, I mean, we're just gonna continue to get further into debt uh by utilizing these bonds, and that's what's so funny.

Um I mean, for real, like with these types of things, like, let's go into debt for that, but like, you know, all the other stuff, like Todd Gloria making his music videos and stuff like that, whereas the money's there.

You know what I mean?

Like, it's just very sad to see the things that take place with, again, the bare necessities of what we need, and where, you know, we're paying to even, you know, toxify our water.

I mean, we're being given back our own sewage.

Like, these are things I never thought that would like be taking place.

And again, all while data centers and lithium mining takes our fresh water.

Make that make sense.

Thank you.

That concludes in-person public comment.

We have no speakers in the virtual queue.

That concludes public comment on the public facilities financing minutes.

Although there's nobody here, we will take uh public uh comments from the council members.

Any questions or comments?

Anybody wants to make a motion to move the minutes?

Uh council member Campillo.

Thank you, sir.

And a second by council member Campbell.

So we have a motion by Council Member Campino, second by councilmember Campbell to move approval of the public facilities finance authority minutes.

Deputy Clerk, please call the roll.

I have set up the voting system, please cast your vote.

The item passes unanimously with council district five absent.

Alright, thank you, Deputy Clerk.

We will now take up the public facilities financing authority, non-agenda public comment.

The public facilities finance authority members respect and appreciate the public's input and are fully committed to protecting every participant's free speech rights at the public facilities finance authority meetings.

Deputy Clerk, please proceed with public comment on the public facilities financing authority.

Pro Rule 2.7, non-agenda public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on items that are not on the agenda but within the subject matter jurisdiction of the public facilities financing authority.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

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

If you are joining us virtually, please raise your hand to speak by tapping the raise your hand icon, or if you are a call-in participant, star nine.

We will begin with in-person public comment.

Allegedly, Audra.

Joe, no one's here.

Oh, okay.

I was like, come on, Joe.

You know.

Anywho, uh, yes, there's a very big concern uh with public utilities and these data centers.

So community power.

Uh they couldn't hold their meeting uh because they didn't, you know, notice it properly uh this last time, but they were getting ready to talk about the you know, keeping the power on for these data centers, which I don't know what data centers are talking about.

I'm not sure if it's like the fusion center or what, need to find out more about that.

But while our power goes out as the community, we'll keep the data centers on.

Does that not concern anybody that we're gonna pay extra to keep a data center running while the people have no power?

Is that right?

That's that should be concerning, isn't it?

I mean, because this is where we're headed.

Again, taking our fresh water while we get our sewage with what you call pure water, and then taking our power.

So our power can go out in our homes.

Say somebody has like an oxygen tank.

I don't know, hopefully they have a generator because they're gonna die.

But as long as our data centers are running, we're good, right?

How much more are we gonna have to pay to make sure that happens?

And then with all these electric vehicles and whatnot, you know what I'm saying?

Like, we're already told you like you can't use your AC.

The power grid is at its max capacity, but we bring in the data centers.

So, do you guys want to sacrifice the people for data?

I would like to know.

Are you guys going to stand in the gap for the people and make sure that these data centers are not priority over the people?

I appreciate you, Joe, for actually like recognizing that this is an issue where all the rest of the robots are sitting here, like, that's not a problem.

I mean, it doesn't matter for your kids, right?

We will now adjourn as the public facilities finance authority and reconvene as a city council with that.