All right, good morning.

I will now call the city council meeting on Monday, June twenty-ninth, twenty twenty-six to order.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Campbell.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Councilmember Campillo.

Councilmember Moreno.

Councilmember Ila Rivera.

And Council President Lacava.

Also attending the meeting, our city attorney Heather Ferber, independent budget analyst, Charles Monica, and myself your city clerk, DNF Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And with that, clerks, please go over how the public can offer their testimony.

Thank you, Council President.

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

If you are located in person, please complete a speaker slip.

Please note that no further in-person testimony will be taken once the council begins virtual testimony for better meeting management purposes.

Each speaker will have one minute per item per person.

If you're joining us remotely, please be sure to raise your hand now for closed session items by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

With that, please read the closed session item into the record.

Conference with labor negotiators pursuing to California government code section five four nine five seven point six.

CS1, city designated management team representatives.

All right, and with that, please proceed with public comment.

There is no public comment here in council chambers, going to those participating remotely.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.

Happy end of June to everyone.

Um last few days of June.

I wanted to comment with this kind of item and the many uh union city government union worker groups involved with this item.

It usually signifies some sort of uh labor talk.

But I mean, I guess for this item, you're going to speak specifically to uh police actions, uh, working with the police uh review commission things.

Um good luck what you can be deciding together.

We are really trying to build a future of the uh police review uh body as um whole and we keep uh sputtering a bit.

I keep offering that the PR, the the PAB uh in San Diego can be of some help that you know I think we're trying to reach out and develop a relationship with SDPD.

Good luck what that can mean and what you talk about in and how it can be uh an accountable process for all of us, and that we want to trust each other in what we talk and work on and work towards.

Um it has to be a two-way street.

That does uh conclude your time.

8700, if you can please unmute.

There's one item on the agenda, you'll have a minute, please proceed.

Excuse me, Joy Sanyata.

This is my opinion.

I find it interesting that the SDPD wants less surveillance, use of miscellaneous, and the public CPP wants more surveillance, use of investigations.

Therefore, in labor negotiations on proposed operating procedures, the balance, the sweet spot, will be what is enough investigating and what is enough miscellaneous.

This will build more trust on the public officer definition.

I am guided by Article V of the Charter Section 4 1.2.

So I'll say this.

It's City Council's call.

Thank you for listening.

It's gonna be a beautiful day and a beautiful week.

Love to all.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment on this closed session agenda.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And with that, we will now recess into closed session and reconvene council today at 2 p.m.

or shortly thereafter.

Well, we'll be able to do it.

All right.

Good afternoon.

I will now reconvene the city council meeting on Monday, June 29th, 2026.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Campbell?

Councilmember Whitburn.

Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Von Wolper.

Council President Pro Tem Lee?

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Councilmember Moreno.

Present.

Councilmember Ila Rivera.

And Council President Lacava.

Also attending the meeting are Assistant City Attorney Leslie Fitzgerald, independent budget analyst Charles Monica, and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

Quorum is now present.

So let's start off by asking: is there any comments from the mayor's office, city council members, city attorney, independent budget analysts or city clerk?

I don't see anything.

We'll move right along.

So clerk, please go over how the public can offer their testimony.

Thank you, Council President.

I'd like to highlight the slide on the screen that reviews how the public can offer their public testimony during this afternoon's meeting.

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

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

Council ambassadors are available near the entrance of chambers and can assist with questions and speakers.

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

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you for that.

And as you slowly make your way down, uh, we'll have our Deputy Clerk please introduce item S four oh one.

Item S401 Information Guide on Group Participation Updates and Council determination of community engagement efforts.

Thank you, Council President.

Well, good afternoon, Council President and members of the City Council, as well as those joining here in person and online.

My name is Deanna Fuentes, and I am your city clerk.

I will need 10 minutes-ish for my presentation.

All right, when you're ready.

Now, what did our residents tell us?

Their feedback fell into clear themes.

They want simpler website navigation, more visible public comment links, plain language summaries of our complex agendas, and expanded translation services.

They also noted that a simple lack of awareness and scheduling conflicts often stand in their way.

The direct community feedback is what helped shape some of the operational improvements we are presenting today.

So we took that feedback and immediately translated it into action.

On the language and digital access front, thanks to PANDA's web team, we have updated our website to be WECAG 2.1 compliant for better ADA accessibility.

We also revamped our How to Participate web page, making critical information available in not just our eight primary alternative languages, but thanks to our city's new auto translate button, 22 languages overall.

You will now see the English and Spanish language agendas featured prominently on the San Diego.gov website as well, near the top.

We have streamlined our agenda formatting using plain language principles and even added a dedicated legislative glossary directly onto the council agenda so government jargon isn't a barrier to participation.

Physically, we've distributed education materials to nearly 200 neighborhood locations, over 200 neighborhood locations, including libraries, recreation centers, cultural markets, and faith-based organizations, and other community hubs such as laundromats and Dollar Trees across all nine districts.

And looking ahead to July or just next week's agenda, the council president is launching anticipated time allotments on the agenda to help residents better plan their participated around their participation around busy schedules.

And we are officially launching our new organized presentation process on July 1st as adopted by the City Council.

So what is an organized presentation?

Let's dive into that new tool.

This is an equity improvement adopted by the City Council to empower community groups to be in comp and to be in compliance with SB 707.

Essentially, an organized presentation allows a coordinated group of two or more individuals to share a unified position to speak collectively or choose a lead speaker for an allocated block of time during a meeting.

This applies specifically to discussion or informational items listed on our agenda.

This replaces the old traditional practice of seeding time, which was restricted exclusively to those who could show up in person.

This new format equitably extends the exact same collective presentation opportunity and the ability to share PowerPoint presentations or other AV to our online and virtual participants, leveling the playing field for working families or homebound residents.

We've designed the digital submission framework to be as intuitive and streamlined as possible.

It breaks down into three simple steps for the community.

Step one is to review the agenda.

Groups must identify the specific item number or numbers that matter to them and look over the accompanying staff reports and allocated time per person for that item that is listed on the agenda.

Step two is to submit the online sign-up web form.

The group's designated lead presenter can fill out the form at San Diego.gov slash presentation.

This must be done at least 24 hours in advance of the scheduled meeting so our staff can verify the details.

Staff three is to submit materials.

If the group wants to use visual or audio aids like a PowerPoint presentation, they can upload them right along with the sign-up form or use a follow-up link emailed to them at sign up.

They must submit them no later than two hours before the meeting starts.

So for city council meetings, that would be 8 a.m.

Monday and 8 a.m.

Tuesday, depending on when that the item is scheduled for.

There is a seamless user experience, we've integrated these tools right into the active areas of the city's existing web portal.

When residents visit the main page, San Diego.gov, the council agenda portal, or the city clerk's web page, such as our main San Diego.gov/slash cityclerk or San Diego.gov/slash ledgecal for the legislative calendar, you will be able to see it prominently displayed and updated headers with direct links to public comment and organized presentations.

We have also placed comment button, public comment buttons and clear links to the dedicated group presentations portal right alongside the standard individual comment options.

This means a community member doesn't have to hunt through pages of text just to figure out how to participate.

The link is also going to be on the agenda just as public comment is today.

When the lead presenter clicks through to San Diego.gov presentation, they are brought to this dedicated sign-up interface.

The system prompts them to select the meet the specific meeting body, which can be the city council meeting or any of the committee agendas.

The system then prompts them to select the specific meeting date, which I'll just give Kevin a moment to bring up the actual website.

Here it is.

So you would see the meeting body, then pick the calendar date, and then input the exact agenda item number.

You can also input the agenda item name so that that can give us a clue as to what item you are if sometimes the item number gets misinputted.

It further has them read and check the acknowledgements to ensure everyone understands the rules of the road and we are managing expectations.

Most importantly, this is where they enter their participant roster and upload their slides.

Behind the scenes, the entire web interface features full built-in translation support to match our city's language access goal, ensuring that language is never a barrier to organizing a group presentation.

If you can go up to the top, Kevin, and then just show the language.

In the language translation, they can choose any language and it will change the form to be in any of the 22 languages there.

Thank you.

We'll go back to our PowerPoint presentation.

To keep our council meetings moving efficiently, the program relies on the lead presenter.

This individual serves as the primary operational link between the community group or group that wishes to present and the clerk's office.

The lead presenter handles the logistics.

They make sure everyone in their group understands the rules and they sign off on the formal acknowledgments during registration.

When the agenda item is finally called in the council chambers, it's the lead presenter's job to verify that all listed members are present and know how to raise their hands, either physically here in the room or digitally on the virtual meeting platform, so that the clerk can accurately verify attendance, just as we do today with seating time.

Now to ensure fairness and transparency for all speakers, there are established clear structured time rules.

First, a group must have a minimum of two individuals, and the total speaking time for any single organized presentation is capped at 15 minutes to ensure proper meeting management.

How do we calculate the time?

We multiply the number of verified present group speakers by the standard time allocated per person for that specific item on the agenda.

For example, if the item allows two minutes per person and a group has four members present, they get an eight-minute block to present.

However, there is an attendance rule.

Every person listed on the roster must all be present either physically or virtually when the item is called.

If a registered member is missing, that portion of the time is forfeited and the group's total speaking block is reduced accordingly.

Currently, all members of a group must be present in one attendance format.

If they are present in a mixed format, the way that the lead presenter is attending is how the group's time will be calculated.

For example, if there is a group before but only two are present in chambers with the lead presenter, the group will only get three minutes.

The virtual attendee will not count towards that time allocation.

Vice versa, if the lead presenter is virtual and everyone else is present in chambers, none of their time will go to them unless they attend virtually.

We do hope to continue to work through our RFP process for a new agenda system and Zoom to find a technology solution to allow for mixed attendance without meeting disruption in the future.

Now, equity means meeting our residents in the language they are most comfortable using as well.

In strict alignment, our equity objectives, all instructions and web forms for the organized presentation process, are fully available in the city's eight primary alternative languages of Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, Korean, Japanese, and Laotian.

I will note that the only required language for SB 707 is Spanish.

Such a bad clerk.

We provide full language support, and if anyone experiences technical glitches or has a question while navigating the portal, they can call or email our staff directly for real-time assistance.

A new program is only effective if people actually know it exists.

To get the word out ahead of the July rollout, we are executing a multi-channel outreach campaign.

This includes distributing physical flyers to community hubs, pushing targeted notices through diversity email listserves, and launching a dedicated social media campaign across all office city channels.

We want to ensure that the community organization, planning groups, and grassroots coalitions is fully informed and ready to leverage this tool.

In conclusion, these actions represent a sustained, proactive, and good faith commitment to lowering barriers and ensuring equitable civic access, perfectly aligning with our city's strategic core principle of equity and inclusion.

Based on the extensive community listening, the technological and language upgrades, and the deployment of the new organized presentation tool, staff confidently believe that city that the city has made reasonable efforts to efforts to invite public participation.

Therefore, we respectfully request that the council adopt a resolution finding that the city of San Diego has made reasonable efforts to encourage participation from communities that do not traditionally engage in public meetings and direct our office to continue implementing these vital outreach initiatives.

I thank you for your time, your leadership, and your partnership in making local government more accessible to all San Diegans, and a special thank you to the Panda Web team, to the Park and Rec Services Director Andy Field and Misty Jones, as well as Christina Bibler from EDD, who have all been engaging with me to ensure that we get the word out as well as each one of your offices as much as possible.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the report or the upcoming rollout of the organized presentation process.

Thank you, Council President, and apologies for the overrun.

Alright, thank you, uh City Clerk Puentes for the presentation.

Deputy Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

We received one request to speak from an individual in chambers, Paul Kruger.

Please come forward.

You'll have two minutes.

Yvonne Jones.

Okay.

Thank you.

First, let me express my and other people's uh appreciation for all the work that the city clerk did in making sure that the council is compliant with uh 707.

Yeah, I can tell it was a lot of work and those of us who participate in this project appreciate it.

Um but I wanted to use an opportunity here to focus again your attention on the importance of community planning groups.

Um, and I do understand why we're moving forward with this, but you'll hear today on the phone from Victoria Labruzzo, who's a chair of the CPC, and she's gonna speak with you again about how crucial a role community planning groups can play in this process, because one thing we know for sure is that these new rules are going to be very complicated for people to follow, and that we have already, or you have already at hand, a time-tested five-decade old process of community planning groups that are prepared and uh more than able to give you information about how members of the community who you don't hear from often, because unfortunately they don't have access to a lot of council offices and are not connected financially and politically have to say about important things that are happening in their neighborhoods.

Um I know that there has been for the last five years criticism of community planning groups, and I would like to just urge you what I think planning group members urged from the beginning, which is that the way to improve the process is not to silence or minimize community planning groups, but to continue to expand their representation within communities by making uh each council office responsible or encouraged to work with community planning groups to expand notification of vacancies to expand notification of elections so that more people participate, and to ensure, as we have done in several planning groups, that these planning groups represent the community.

The biggest split, of course, would be from those who want to see pretty much unbridled development in our residential areas and how they are contrasted with those who want to take a more measured and realistic approach, and um we can encourage those who are underrepresented if they are to run for election, to win election, and to give a very democratic voice to these meetings.

So, in closing, I would just urge you to please not forgo the opportunity to embrace the constructive work the community planning groups can do and excuse me to listen to Victoria when she calls in.

She couldn't be here in person, and I know that coming here in person and speaking to you and looking at you does have a bit more of an impact than a telephone call, but hers will only be two minutes, and uh I appreciate your attention.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

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

Currently have seven people in the queue.

Kate, Callan, if you can please unmute.

Good afternoon.

Um, when this item came before the rules committee, several of us urged that community planning groups be given a seat at the table.

Council President Lakalla responded that we were misunderstood why the council was discussing community outreach.

There was no misunderstanding.

We rarely have the chance to point out publicly that the city has failed at genuine community engagement.

That's where planning groups come in.

Their members were elected to serve the public just as all of you are.

For 50 years, they have carried out their mandate to speak for their communities.

They survived an ugly campaign by special interest that questioned their integrity and their competence.

They emerged stronger, they continue to represent San Diegans who are too often ignored.

If you care about community engagement, please adopt the seat at the table proposal that Victoria Labruzo has put before you.

It is the best way to make sure that people in communities are represented and heard and respected.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is 8700.

If you can please unmute, uh thank you so much.

Uh I support this resound on group participation and community engagement efforts.

Wow, there are 15 items in the backup, and the staff report itself was 12 pages.

What does that tell you?

Great job.

I especially appreciate the Office of the City Clerk Puente and the rest of the team for encouraging participative participation of individuals in groups that do not traditionally participate in public meeting.

Please speak up and let us hear your voices.

That's from me.

This is a stellar initiative, and so is your implementation of it.

I'm so excited about it being rolled out rolling out on July 1st, 2026, with the first real city council meeting on July 6, 2026.

I love the inclusion, inclusion public engagement guide.

That was a great idea.

Now this is uh kind of a finishing paragraph because something else came up just a few minutes ago that I want to add to it.

So uh I'll say this first.

Please keep on top of any additional funding that is needed over the FY27 budget.

Let's keep this fire burning.

So on the community planning groups, um, I really haven't looked at that, but I but I can tell there's an issue and there's passion around the item, including them.

Uh what I just wanted to say is that uh I know there's been some bumpy moments with uh the community planning groups, yet I really respect President Lacava's participation, you know, leadership.

He's been very involved with those groups, and he really is on top of kind of what's going on in the future and all of that.

So what I just wondered about.

Your time has concluded.

John, if you can please unmute.

Hi, good afternoon, council members.

Uh Ms.

Congratulations.

This is really amazing work.

Uh, it shows a lot of thought.

Uh, a lot of the changes that we've been hoping might be included in this are.

Uh, really love the ability to have a group participate, uh, particularly for those with disabilities who cannot show up in person.

Um, speaking of which, I was wondering if there was any accommodation provided.

I know we give extra time for folks that have uh language barriers or need translation.

I feel that the same courtesy might want to be extended to those who have uh challenges with speech or speech impediments uh uh that cause them to not be able to articulate effectively or as quickly as others.

Um the other thing I don't I'm not sure if I heard, but it would be nice to register to be able to register a neutral position as opposed to for or against as we sign in for these things.

Um I do have one other suggestion for you, but uh that'll take more time.

So I'll reach out to you independently.

But really great work.

We're very supportive of this.

Thank you, Francine Maxwell.

If you can please unmute, that was also the five-minute timer.

We have five speakers in the queue.

No additional speakers will be taken.

Francine Maxwell, if you can please unmute.

Francine Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego resident, thank you so much for the presentation.

Um, in full support.

Really uh want the council to pay attention to what the clerk's office staff does.

Um, you get a glimpse of it, but literally they're not supposed to work on the weekends, but some of them do their due diligence and go ahead and answer a quick question on the weekend, unlike many of your offices.

So, want to make sure that you look at the diversity of when the meetings were very inclusive.

Um you did not have to send um for counsel for someone to consult from Colorado.

I think we were doing a parking wreck or we were doing something in water area, and we had a consultant from Colorado.

So I mean, literally, you have stars right there in the building.

I mean, some stars are getting stuck in elevators, but they're still a star.

Um, and again, we want to make sure that everyone is educated, and if hopefully the council people that have newsletters, um, maybe you'll put a corner, a clerk's corner in your newsletter so that while you're showing the wonderful events that you go to, the handouts of resolutions, certificates, proclamations that you can help educate again.

Again, education is the key to everything.

And um, a clerk's corner and everybody's newsletter could give people insight on how to work this system, how to participate more in their city government, because they know that their voice really counts, and it counts more than just election season.

So again, thanks to every person that works for the clerk's office, you are absolutely seen.

We are listening to you and we appreciate your time and your talent.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

Our San Diego Civic Center elevators are starting to become infamous.

Good luck.

We can uh fix them elevators soon.

Um thanks a lot for this item.

I'm in full agreement with the public comment.

Uh stellar was used as a word.

Uh the concept that you are allowing uh over 20 plus languages uh so people can attend uh city council meetings now.

Um, I was living in San Diego in 1986 when they created English only laws that I feel were just learning to work through.

San Diego uh San Jose made really significant strides uh in these sort of efforts in the mid uh in the 2015s.

Uh you guys are coming through now.

San Diego, San Jose is practicing what you're offering now, and uh thank you immensely.

That means everyone can participate.

Uh that's an amazing concept.

We haven't grasped fully yet.

Good luck we can continue to do that.

Thank you for the idea of a neutral voice uh to vote uh to to put in your speaker card on issues.

I'm fully in favor of that idea.

Um I was a bit surprised that you know, in working with community groups, uh, a very nice speech uh earlier from the beginning public speaker that really described the importance of community groups and what our current community groups are working towards.

I mean, it's a really participatory process, it's a decency while others have money to accomplish things.

Uh, a group of community uh is trying to offer ways that people who don't have advantages can be a part of the process and help create our process.

I really hope that can be uh uh better expressed.

It seems like you cut things short a bit on the Zoom comments on how to do that even better.

Uh, good luck you can continue that work and effort on that on those issues, and uh uh San Diego County government is working on a subcommittee process.

Um, they've taken notes from 707, like the close agenda item things, but uh they need a bit of help uh in how to better understand its future that respects privacy.

Good luck in those efforts too.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Victoria Labruzo.

Hey, good afternoon, council members.

Uh, Victoria Labruzo, chair of the CPC.

First, I want to thank Paul for showing up and giving his comments this afternoon.

I also want to thank the city clerk office for all the great advancements with the distributing distributing information, but continue to encourage the city clerk and the city council to continue refining public participation, allowing time to be seated virtually is a great step forward.

However, I remain concerned about the organized presentation process.

Under the new rules, volunteers must identify speakers, gather commitments to see time, collect names, and submit those names in advance.

That adds another level of coordination for volunteers that already donate time to participate.

As for robust public engagement, I continue to advocate that the city already has an established network of community planning groups made up of more than 600 elected volunteers serving San Diego.

If you truly want to strengthen public engagement, the answer is to provide with the CPCs a seat at the table and empowering and promoting the community elected voices.

This would complement public comment, not replace it, and provide a predictable way for organized community voices to be heard.

As a planning department continues to reduce the role of CPGs, I urge the set the city council to move in the opposite direction, strengthen, not diminish the role by formally providing CPGs and CPC a seat at the table.

If the city wants stronger public engagement, it should actively promote community planning groups as the local connection between residents and city hall, not leave each CPG to create its own public awareness.

CPGs and the CPC should be the city's front door to civic participation.

Thank you again, and I appreciate the time to speak with you guys.

Wish I could have come down there, but uh Scripps Ranches is further out and takes a lot more time and a lot more money.

So I speak when I can and I appreciate you all giving attention to this matter.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next is Peggy Walker, and then our final speaker is Natalie Rashke.

Peggy, please unmute.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, and thank you for explaining this process.

All efforts to increase public participation in the governing process are good.

And in particular, allowance for seating time for virtual participants as well as in-person is a solid equity move, allowing organized virtual presentations, levels of playing field for all constituents, especially those like myself who observe and participate in these meetings from an office, finding at heart to make regular trips to council chambers and our mobile society.

Virtual participation deserves to be recognized as important as in-person participation.

It has enabled me, for example, and I'm sure others to speak to issues when I'm not in town or able to drive downtown.

And finally, I attend my planning group and strongly support the suggestions earlier of giving planning groups a greater seat at the table, including expanding council member or staff communication with PGs in their districts.

Planning groups are the best way to strengthen a community's link to the council, and they should be recognized for their importance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think it's an amazing idea.

Having people more involved and having the ability to be able to do that, I think that's the best.

So you're a little jumbled up here.

You sound a little bit.

Yes, that's better.

Please proceed.

I think it's amazing.

I think having the opportunity for the community to be more involved, the community to do that is uh the best thing moving forward in the case.

A little confused on the group and what that would be that I'm missing.

Um, and we have to remember that unhouse people are also a part of ice media, how we best remember those respect.

You are cutting out again.

Can you hear me?

You're you are cutting out again.

And we no longer hear you.

I'm sorry.

You can definitely submit comments to city clerk at Sandiego.gov, and those will be distributed to the council.

But we have um lost you.

That does conclude public comment here in council chambers regarding this item.

All right.

Uh, thank you, City Clerk.

Um, this now goes back to the council to uh ratify the community engagement process on whether it met the standards of SP 707, uh, in addition to the extraordinary training session that the city clerk gave us on how this new process will move forward.

So I'll kick things off.

So uh again, thank you to Clerk Fuentes and your team for the work and as well as the Office of the City Attorney and everybody else that engaged in this process.

And as a reminder, SB 707 requires us to put this in place by July 1st, and our very first council meeting where we'll be using this new system will be Monday, July 6th.

SB 707 has many elements, but for the public, the most obvious will be the changes to the agenda to comply with translation requirements and changes to the public comment procedures to ensure equal treatment of in-person and virtual public commenters.

Virtual Public Commerce will now allow seeding of time, a first for the City of San Diego.

Sacramento passed SB 707 with good intentions, but provided a very short timeline for implementation and no additional resources.

Nevertheless, the city clerk remained undaunted and was ready to take up the charge.

And with our current staffing levels and with technology currently available in the marketplace, it became clear that we could not fully replicate our existing in-person processes for virtual participation.

So council had a choice: either eliminate long-standing option of seating time during in-person public comment or reimagine the process.

And some jurisdictions, like Incinitas, opted to discontinue seating time.

Everyone has limited their own time and own presentation.

Under my work as council president and with collaboration from city clerk, council administration, and city attorney's office, we proposed changes to protect public participation by reimagining the process of seating time.

These changes were tested and revisited numerous times.

I first brought an information item to rules committee in February with a framework for these changes.

We listened to feedback from the public and committee members and adjusted.

We had originally had different ideas.

We proposed process only applying to groups of five to ten due to the administrative burden on the clerk's team.

However, with feedback from rules committee and the public, I proposed and council adopted organized presentation groups for just two or more people.

Additionally, we reduced the sign up time based on public feedback, and I really have to give thanks to the city clerk and her team for a willingness to do that.

As you heard in the presentation, groups can now sign up 24 hours in advance of the meeting and provide their slides or presentation material, if any, as late as two hours before the meeting.

That's a lot of scrambly by the city clerk's office to accommodate this.

Further, again, based on public feedback, we are keeping the virtual comment period open for up to five minutes once in-person comment has ended.

In March, rules committee unanimously voted on the revised proposal and forwarded to council.

The unanimously voted and forwarded it to council.

In April, council heard this item on discussion and also voted unanimously to support the changes.

Modifications to our public comment procedures were done out of a requirement to comply with state law and our commitment to preserving public participation.

This proposal strikes a good balance between what was possible with our current resources and expanding this to virtual participants.

Under these new procedures, virtual participants can't now give presentations.

And as I mentioned at the onset, we will now put this into practice after a lot of talk and a lot of discussion.

Council's July 6th hearing will be the first time we will roll this out.

It may all sound a bit complicated, and as you saw, the clerk has put out information guides and their office stands ready to help the public navigate the new processes.

In closing, the council and the city clerk has been a statewide leader in hosting public comment, both in-person and virtually.

And now we're stepping up to meet the intent of SB 707 with the resources.

Bottom line, we're expanding opportunities for public comment and input at our public hearings.

There may be some bumps in the road, but I have no doubt the clerk's team and council administration will be up to the challenge to help us all through it, as they often do, or as they always do, I should say, at every council and committee hearing.

And so to the comments of the members of the public, I certainly appreciate that.

And it's important to know that a seat at the table was not about public comment.

It was a proposal to have dedicated time during a council action.

I think that's a big change from what our past practices have been.

And I wonder about who we actually limited to.

I was a big believer in community planning groups.

I'm still a big big believer in planning groups as well as the community planners committee.

But there are so many other voices that we need to hear from when we make a decision on the variety of things that come across our dais.

And so we can continue the conversation about how we do that.

But I think this is an important step because I used to be on the other side of the dais, and I remember uh how much time it was and how tricky it was to get people to seed time.

But we see it time and time again about how it is possible.

We're going to roll this out on July 1st, see it experience in July 6th and the four meetings we have in July, and then we'll react and possibly pivot.

This is brand new, and we know there may be bumps as I said going forward.

We do appreciate the planning groups.

I know my colleagues appreciate the planning groups.

I think we all appreciate the community planners committee as well going forward.

And we want to hear from them, and we want to hear from every organized group, whether it's neighbors for a better San Diego, Lived Experience Advisors, Alliance, Mid City CAN, you name it.

They all have important voices to contribute to our decision making process.

And with that, I will move the staff recommendation and turn it over to my colleagues.

For either a second or a comment, uh Council Member Moreno has second.

And not seeing any other comment.

Oh, Councilmember Campio.

Thank you, Council President.

Just briefly appreciate the members of the public who came in and spoke as they did at rules committee a couple days ago and just reiterate my comments from rules, all continually looking for ways to improve and increase public participation.

There's no better person in our city government who does that than our city clerk at the NF Wentis.

And I just want to say hearing them loud and clear, appreciating the role that CPGs play and finding a bigger role for them moving forward.

Continue, well I'm committed to doing that further into the future.

I am in support today of the motion.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, sir.

And I forgot to mention with Andy Field in the background, the rec councils are also another voice in a lot of these conversations.

So, seeing no one else on the lights, a motion by myself and a second by Councilmember Moreno to move the staff recommendation.

Clerk, call the roll.

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

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

Thank you, Council President, and thank you for your support.

Again, thank you, City Clerk, for all the good work you and your entire team and everyone who participate in that process.

So with that, please introduce item S 400.

Item S400 is the proposed fiscal year 2027 recreation center fund budget, opportunity fund budget, and 2025 come play outside report.

If you're here in Council Chambers and would like to speak on this item, please be sure to submit your speaker slip to the front of the room in the clear box.

And if you are participating online or via phone, now's the time to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

I see as staff is settling in.

When you're ready, introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need.

Good afternoon.

Sarah Irazzo, Deputy Director for the Parks and Recreation Department.

With me today is Salome Martinez, program equity manager, as well as Andy Field Department Director.

Today we have returned to present updates to the proposed fiscal year 2027 recreation center fund and opportunity fund budgets.

We are requesting eight minutes for the presentation.

All right, when you're ready.

On June 16th, the department presented the proposed fiscal year 2027 recreation center fund and opportunity fund budgets to council, resulting in concerns raised over how the opportunity fund was being allocated and unspent recreation center fund balances.

With that, the recreation council, the council returned this item to staff requesting that the opportunity fund allocation for Council District 8 recreation centers be increased, the allocation for opportunity fund be reevaluated using the assumption that fiscal year 26 budgets were fully expended to develop a plan for the expenditure of fund balances and to evaluate improvements to the recreation center fund budget and opportunity fund allocation process in the future.

The next few slides we will review each of these recommendations.

Recreation centers are supported through a combination of funding sources, beginning with the general fund, which provides core operating support needed to maintain services and facilities.

In addition to general fund support, we have recreation center funds that capture revenues generated through recreation center operations and reinvest those funds back into recreation services.

Opportunity funds provide additional resources that are allocated to recreation centers and underserved communities for local priorities, programs, equipment, and minor maintenance projects.

We also have actively we actively pursue grants from state, federal, and private organizations to support specific projects, expand programming, and improve facilities.

Finally, donations from community members, organizations, and partners help support programs and projects beyond what traditional funding sources may provide.

Taking a closer look at recreation center funds, there are several revenue sources that make up fund balance.

Program registration fees from classes, camps, sports leagues, and other recreational activities are primary source of revenue for the recreation center fund.

Revenue is also generated through permits for use of recreation buildings, athletic fields, and park facilities for community events, leagues, and private rentals.

Annually, opportunity fund allocations are deposited into recreation center funds to support underserved communities, expanding programs, events, and projects identified at the local level.

Donations made specifically to a recreation center can also be deposited into a fund and used in accordance with the donor intent.

Together, these funding sources create a diversified funding model that allows recreation centers to maintain daily operations while also investing in programs, equipment, and facility improvements.

After running the analysis recommended in item two, the results remain similar in the original allocation disbursement, resulting in even less sites in Council District 8 receiving an allocation.

With that, the department makes the following recommendation to move the budgets forward for FY27 expenditure.

Maintain the previously proposed opportunity fund allocations of $555,000 to the 14 recreation centers originally identified in the staff report and an attachment B.

In addition, utilize 100,000 of future opportunity fund revenue to support expanding opportunity fund allocations in the fiscal year 27 budget to all eight recreation centers in council district 8.

This would provide each site an additional 12,500 for their fiscal year 27 recreation center fund budget.

This would be a one-time allocation of future revenues.

Future allocations will follow policy methodology at the time, as it exists at the time of that year's allocation.

As previously mentioned, staff assessed the opportunity fund scoring methodology, assuming fiscal year 26 recreation center fund budgets had been fully expended.

The analysis found similar results to the original scores with Council District 8 allocations changing from two eligible sites to one.

The findings suggest that broader elements of the opportunity fund scoring matrix and methodology warrant further evaluation to ensure the program effectively advances equity objectives, which the department is committed to evaluating prior to the FY28 budget cycle.

The third request of a plan to expand recreation center fund balances requires a broader discussion on why fund balances exist.

For the immediate fiscal year 27 budget proposal, the department updated all eight recreation center fund budgets in Council District 8 to fully expand fund balances less $5,000 to support expanding programs and maintenance projects.

As for the history of recreation center fund balances, these were created in 2018, with many balances starting with funds turned over by recreation councils who had been generating balances since their inception.

To date, community recreation groups continue to provide recommendations for recreation center fund expenditures and often include a reserve of funds over multiple years to support larger projects.

In addition, recreation centers require sufficient fund balances at the start of the fiscal year to continue operating busy summer month programming and events.

Also, being that annual revenues and expenditures can fluctuate throughout the year, having fund balances provides a safeguard against revenue shortfalls, preventing spending and program freezes.

In addition, fund balances may exist as a result of changes to procurement processes, specifically the implementation of AB 339, which requires a more robust contracting out review process.

For example, contracting out review process previously took 14 to 45 days to process, whereas currently, I'd say since February, the process takes 90 or more days, depending on the procurement type.

Also, the department continues to face ongoing challenges, primarily due to staffing capacity as it relates to navigating public works and maintenance contract process for facility repairs and improvements, as well as recreation program contracts.

While we have experienced delays in getting contracts in place in a timely manner, to support these activities, the department continues to work closely with various city departments to ensure compliance with these requirements and processes.

Lastly, fund balances continue to grow as the department continues to leverage nonprofit partners and grants to fund specific programs, events, and projects.

These supplemental funding sources have reduced our reliance on recreation center funds, which allows fund balances to be preserved for future community priorities, programs, and investments.

A couple of examples include the Padres Foundation donating 40,000 to Montgomery Waller to cover field renovations that were previously budgeted for Recreation Center Fund expenditure, as well as the ongoing collaboration with the San Diego Parks Foundation, the County Price Philanthropies, and the Previes Foundation to support the Parks After Dark program.

Moving on to the last recommendation of possible recreation center fund and opportunity fund reforms.

The department is committed over the upcoming year to work with the IBA Office of Race and Equity to analyze the policy and allocation process for improvements and to participate in the allocation process committee to achieve a more equitable distribution of funding.

We will meet with the Department of Finance to evaluate if the funds and both funds can be folded into the annual budget development and monitoring process.

We will improve our communication efforts with the council on the process for developing budgets for recreation center funds and the opportunity fund.

And lastly, we will boost our efforts to work closely with operational staff and the council to ensure unspent fund balances are prioritized and spent on community priorities.

The department updated attachments A, the recreation center fund budget proposals, as well as attachment B, the opportunity fund allocations, to reflect the increased opportunity fund allocations as increased and increased budgets for Council District 8.

With that, the only changes to the proposed actions includes the addition of Action 4, which authorizes the appropriation and expenditure of future revenue, which was intended for fiscal year 28 allocations as part of the fiscal year 27 budget, and expenditures specifically across all eight recreation center funds in Council District 8.

The department recommends approval of all actions as proposed to ensure the recreation center fund budgets are approved in a timely manner and are available for use beginning July 1 to ensure continuity of summer programming.

That concludes my presentation.

Happy to take questions.

Alright, thank you for the work and thank you for the presentation.

Clerk, please go to oh, excuse me, the office of the IBA has some comments.

Thank you, Council President.

Kim Desmond from our Division of RaceNek, we don't provide our comments.

Good afternoon, Tier La Cava and members of council.

Our team wanted to outline some equity implications for this item, including the opportunity fund budget.

So our team has identified a couple of equity implications in the following categories.

One, some that were mentioned by Parks and Rig, but one I want to highlight is the opportunity fund evaluation committee and scoring matrix process.

We've had several conversations with Sarah and team around this process, and our team is committed to looking at the process in ways that we can make sure that it's more equitable, and we plan to work with staff to look at those improvements in the 2028 budget cycle.

Some of the preliminary things that we saw regarding this item is improvements include increasing transparency, so that way the Rick Recenter Fund, we can make sure that the money that's being set aside and retained in the fund balance for the improvements or other areas, is that it's clear what those items are being used for and why it's set aside.

Other opportunities include looking at the actual opportunity fund scoring matrix to explore ways in which the matrix can be changed and we can examine and critique those factors.

Factors of the opportunity fund include if the location is in a community concern and or if it's adjacent to a pool.

So our team is committed to looking at those factors in partnership with Parks and RIC.

Last but not least, in this particular category, we recommend that the department determine which individuals should be present to evaluate the allocation of the opportunity fund, which is also charged with providing recommendations.

Parks and RIC has invited our team to sit on this committee, and so we wanted to just highlight that part as looking at who should be on the committee, and we accept the invite from Parks and Rick.

Two other considerations, and I'll say these really quickly, is that we know that not all rec centers are created equally.

So council may want to consider how facility limitations, including size and operating operation offers operation hours and pack access to activities for stakeholders.

So we recommend that parks and rec could identify a process to provide stakeholders with access to information if that service is not provided at their location.

So essentially, if it's not provided there, where else can they go?

Last but not least, regarding the subsidized contracts, council may want to consider and monitor the increase in programs and activities in CP2 as it pertains to working with those providers to offer more activities and services.

This includes the number of clear tangible programs and activities.

Baku from our team is online to address any questions, as well as Selena is behind me.

We look forward to answering any other questions regarding our suggestions for this fund.

Alright, thank you for those comments.

Always helpful in the conversation.

Now let's go to public comment.

Clerk.

Thank you, Council President.

Um Evelyn Smith, if you can please come forward after that is allegedly Audrey.

You will have two minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you for those comments.

Allegedly, Audra.

You guys thought I wasn't gonna show up today.

I bet would have been good.

Anywho, uh, yes, so my concern is what's happening at these rec centers and the parks and the safety of the children and really anybody that uh participates and engaging in those activities.

Um, and as you're talking about parks after dark program, like that's a little scary.

We don't have lights at parks.

Raul, people have been dying in your parks, being murdered at you know, Linda Vista skate park or being brutally assaulted by officers.

I mean, you don't really care because it doesn't really affect you.

Uh, but it's very um detrimental what's happening at these places, and these funds should be spent for safety and things like that to make sure there's lighting because people are getting raped.

These are like perfect places when you're a rapist or something like that, if they're dark and there's secluded areas to go and take advantage of somebody.

And it's like, you know, we can sit here and virtue signal like what we're really doing is um bringing forward something in the community, which you are, but if you're not ensuring that it's a safe place to go to, then it's like where is our money really being spent?

I mean, you could sit there and have swings all day long, but if children are being raped under the swings, uh, I mean, how does that help?

So I just feel like you guys need to be more uh, you know, concerned about people's public safety.

And you know, the fact that, you know, you can just be going and enjoying the park, and you know, an officer from the San Diego police department can just come up and like basically slam your face into the ground, um, you know, and brutally assault you, and then you get charged with something.

So it's just interesting the things that take place that um isn't really of concern to people who, you know, those are your constituents like Raul Campio, but you know, that's just the way the business goes.

Good job.

Susie?

Or Gonzalez Waldering.

Apologies, I can't read the first name.

Sage.

Thank you.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Hi, my name is Sage Gonzalez Walding.

I am the chair of Choice Valley Community Planning Group.

Um, I'm speaking to this in favor because obviously we all need more money uh for parks and rec.

One of the issues that our community has is that finding what the metric is for each district for parks has been uh difficult to figure out.

So I have brought you each something to look at.

This is called the Trust for Public Land.

Um this is a nationwide uh organization that that really just does a metric.

And in San Diego, we rate pretty low for equity.

Um, so you know uh the other piece is next week we're speaking over radio towers, and this is a 31-acre park.

I know this is not on the agenda, but I am in I really um all the things that are happening with the presentations, uh, this is gonna be a really big deal for our community.

So I would like you all to look at this.

Um public safety is imperative in our community.

And if you consider public safety being clean air, uh places to play, uh things for children to do and ways to invest in our children in our community.

Um, this is this is for for our community really important.

Find it interesting.

My council member isn't here today, and this is what we're talking about.

So thank you.

I'm just gonna share this here.

Thank you.

We'll pick that up.

Paul, are you speaking to this item?

Paul Kruger, are you speaking to this item?

Okay, just wanted to make sure before I went to virtual public comment.

I'm sorry, the five minute timer going to those participating virtually.

We have six speakers in the queue.

9885, if you can please unmute.

9885, I can't unmute for you.

There you go.

Hi, there I am.

Um, my name is Joanne Soquette.

I am the secretary and safety officer for Lucky Waller Little League that is uh located at Montgomery Waller Park.

I have to just say that we're really sad to hear that uh district eight is being passed up again this year, the second time.

Um it's really important for us not to leave money on the table, especially when a park with Montgomery Waller has so many things that it needs fixed.

We have a playground that is not ADA compliant.

We have uh parking lots that have no lights in them where people's cars get broken into.

We had the pondres come out last year, and yes, they donated 40,000 to have our fields flattened and leveled so that our kids could play on these fields, and this was the first time since 1969 that these fields are fixed.

Um, and we cannot depend on the charity of organizations to come in and step in to take care of what's being neglected.

And on top of that, yes, they came in and they fixed those fields for us, but then park and rec allowed football and soccer to play on those fields, and so we had to spend thousands of dollars this year to fix them again so that they could be playable for our players this spring.

And the season's almost over, and we're gonna have to hand it back over to football and soccer again, and it's just gonna happen again.

Um, the community has been stepping up to make sure that our parks look good, but it's not enough, and our kids deserve better, and we deserve the funding, and the funding that's left over the 300,000 is not even enough to start working to bring Montgomery Waller into compliance.

The playgrounds need to be fixed, the lights need to be fixed, we don't have a scoreboard for our kids, we don't have a dog park.

It's not safe, our bathrooms are not great.

It's just it's not okay that every year we get passed up, and our families deserve better.

This is something that I've lived in the community since I was born there, and this is something that we've been fighting for every year that I can remember.

My parents fought for lights in the parking lot.

I'm almost 40 years old and we still don't have them.

We cannot leave money on the table anymore, and we need to look at these parks and these organizations and these these places that kids can go and have fun in a safe manner and and give them the opportunity to improve and to grow the family.

Your time has concluded.

Becky Rapp is the next speaker, if you can please unmute.

Yes, good afternoon.

My name is Becky Rapp, and um it's unfortunate that we are to the point that we have to utilize opportunity funds to help fund parks and rec centers.

Our communities are being asked to do more with limited resources while families continue to rely on these types of recreation programs, especially now.

Um I do appreciate the city's commitment to expanding the recreational opportunities, but we also need to look at opportunities to generate additional revenue without asking taxpayers to pay more.

One opportunity is stronger enforcement of laws that already exist across San Diego.

Illegal flavor tobacco products, intoxicating hand products, and other prohibited items continue to be sold openly, often and often in storefront windows near neighborhoods and recreation centers.

These illegal sales undermine public health, increase youth exposure, and create unnecessary burdens on our communities.

Stronger enforcement would not only protect children and families, it could also generate substantial revenue through penalties, fines, and enforcement actions.

Those funds could be reinvested directly into our recreation system.

Imagine what that could mean.

Recreation centers could expand after school and summer programs.

Parks that currently lack adequate lighting could finally be lit up, making them safer and more accessible during the evening hours.

Facilities could receive long overdue maintenance, and neighborhoods with the greatest needs could benefit from additional recreational activities without relying solely on limited general fund dollars.

Um I just encourage the city to make stronger enforcement of existing laws, part of its long-term funding strategy for parks and rec.

Let's put it back into the community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.

I think this is about the third time this item has been here at council and committee in the past month and a half.

Uh thank you.

Uh it's interesting uh for items to come back.

I thought uh additional funding, it was described today that additional funding is going to be going to district eight.

So good luck how that can go to the uh park that was described as uh needing help.

Um, you know, I uh as this is the third time uh with this item, I I hope uh my ideas can be very much a part of this process in how we talk about the future of our tech accountability for the future of these rec centers and park systems uh in San Diego.

Um that sounds like there's gonna be a lot of new asks of surveillance tech uh coming up, and I think we should be well prepared that we not only ask for good surveillance tech, but that we asked for good policies with the tech.

Um I think I think we have to start moving past the euphemisms of sports utility lighting and learn to speak directly to the concept of biometric technology as an example, and that we're not afraid to have that subject be a regular talking point in our community dialogue.

We don't know how to do that yet, but yeah, biometric tech was all around us during the era of COVID and in our post-COVID era, and yet we don't know how to practice having that conversation openly yet.

It's really important to say that instead of sports utility lighting, and I hope we make the efforts to do that.

And for all the clamor to uh create new uh tech, um, we have to have we have that has to be equally balanced with the concepts of good policy practices, and that's all I asked for, you know, in this sort of uh instance.

You know, how we can limit our tech is important and it can do the serve the same purposes, but having the good policies in place just adds that we're doing things well.

We're doing it responsibly and um holistically.

I mean, that's how you build the park community future, and I hope you take to heart uh creating good tech policies with uh our future of tech in our parks.

Your time has concluded, and so has the five-minute timer.

We have three speakers in the queue with our hands raised.

No additional speakers will be taken.

8700, if you can please unmute.

Uh thank you, Joy Sanyata.

I support this movement of funds to CD8.

Councilmember Marina Roard, uh, I think it was just a week or two ago, and I listened.

So uh I I strongly support it.

Uh I really liked under the in the staff report under equal opportunity contracting info.

The way they spelled it out, the the whole the steps in the unfoldment of the process, it just got me to a big yes, real fast.

So if you haven't read that section, I highly recommend it.

So uh and then my next uh comment is on the uh CRG, the community recreation groups.

Do we now this is not a judgment?

I'm a little bit in the past with the recreation councils that that was very bumpy the way it ended up.

But uh do we have enough transparency monitoring and oversight of the uh influence on funds and so forth, the movement, the influence, the recommendations from the CRG groups and how that is all handled.

Uh thank you, uh Kim Desmond, because I'm really excited about you being called to uh do work on the spend down and the scoring metrics.

Uh, race and equity department is really, really needed on that.

And uh you're just gonna come forward with your greatness and you're gonna make it happen.

So I love the race and equity department.

I I was against it sort of at first being part of the IVA, but you're begun beginning to be even better and better and greater and greater heroes for me on this uh important item.

And then, real quick, you may have to cut me off, sweetie.

Uh no grants uh in a nine of uh no grants in nine.

Your time has concluded.

Francine Maxwell, if you can please unmute.

Francine Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego resident, thank you so much for the presentation in full support of um their request.

Um wanting to make sure that people go and make sure that the studies that were done in earlier years are pulled off the shelf before we decide to do another one, because the things that were found remain the same.

So before we spend more money on a disparity study, let's make sure that we go to the shelf and pull off the programming equity study within the park and record system.

Umy may need to expand his board, um, another seat at the table where it comes from the community voice, not people that are paid where they're going to check a box and pretty much be able to pull out what the community has been knowing for years.

We knew that there were issues with the hiring, that our panels had relatives on it.

And so given that the department knows it, we don't need to sit and continue to put committees together and put people that are going to sit there and talk about it and not change the narrative.

So again, looking forward to more transparency and oversight within our parking rector system, making sure that when people are turned out, they are um softly removed so that things can grow.

Also remember that it's the council office that directs things that they want to as well, and people that are in the areas of concern, sometimes you remain the areas of concern because you need to look at what's going on behind the doors in the council office because our park was stacked to get a um a plaza when we could have pushed harder and got a whole skate park across the street on some land that we own.

All those people are gone.

They they attended the meeting, and the park system knew that they were gonna do it, and so did the council office, and that doesn't boast well.

That includes your time, and our final speaker is Peggy Walker.

Thank you again.

As a youth mentor, I support this with a focus on safety and oversight.

It's important to provide greater availability of healthy recreational choices in a safe place for children, especially in underserved communities.

This is important at a time when youth are bombarded with so many diverse and not always healthy ways to spend their time.

One case on point, the overwhelming drop, social media, another scores of studies have shown that when kids live near dispensaries, for example, they're more likely to use marijuana and as a result have higher rates of psychosis.

There's a greater prevalence of dispensing dispensaries and higher rates of underage use, marijuana use in underserved communities.

So we need to counterbalance that with safe and equitable year-round recreational opportunities for healthy youth youth activities, interaction, and engagement.

Thank you again.

Thank you, and that concludes public comment on this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Uh I don't like this.

I would normally go to the chair or the community neighborhood services, but we're here a second time because of issues raised by district eight.

So I'm going to start out with Council Member Moreno.

Thank you.

Um I want to thank our park and rec staff and the administration for your work on this revision, and also to my colleagues for understanding my concerns on this item when it was heard last week at council.

The opportunity fund is a special revenue fund created by the park and rec department to reduce historical disparities in recreation programming, a goal that I strongly support.

In 2021, the City of San Diego released their park master plan and the performance audit of equity and recreation programming.

Both identified inequities related to park access and recreation programming across the city.

The performance audit recommendation rec recommendations six states that the park and rec department should a develop document and implement a plan for directing resources, including any equity-based funding towards specific steps to eliminate identified disparities.

The opportunity fund was correct created in direct response to that recommendation, and it's deeply troubling that the fund itself is now reproducing the disparities it was designed to fix.

Since its inception in fiscal year 24, District 8 has consistently received a disproportionately low share of opportunity fund allocations compared to other historically underserved districts.

The numbers speak for themselves.

In fiscal year 24, district 8 received 9% of the total opportunity fund allocation.

In fiscal year 25, district 8 got 24%.

Fiscal year 27, we're getting 26%.

And this is only after this revision and only with additional funds.

Over four years, District 8 has averaged roughly 18% of a fund explicitly designed to address underserved communities.

To me, that's a continuation of the same neglect these funds were created for, and it's unacceptable.

Yet the money has not been spent.

Montgomery Waller Park has $302,000 in identified needs with funds that have not been spent.

The San Diego American Memorial Park Little League plays on baseball fields that need laser leveling, clay for the bases, proper fencing to allow for landscape maintenance and additional shading.

In this revision, Memorial Park will now receive some funds, but absolutely not enough to address the full scope of what the fields need.

My residents deserve the same quality of parks and recreation programs that other oper that other communities across the city take for granted.

The opportunity funds exist precisely to close the gap, and right now it's falling short of that promise for District 8.

I disagree with the historical trajectory of priority of prioritization that has been presented because district eight deserves more.

The committee members that are sitting on the committee that gets to decide how these funds are being spent, which were two items that I brought up at the last meeting.

When are you proposing to come back to this council with your findings?

So I think we can sketch out a timeline with Parks and Rick for FY28.

As looking at some of the factors, I think it deserves some critique to make sure we're getting it right.

So we can come back with a timeline when we give a parks and rec if that suffices.

Okay.

So we don't know yet.

It could be a month, it could be seven months.

That is it's up to the administration.

Councilmember, um, I think that's fair.

The timeline is somewhat indeterminate right now.

However, we anticipate that an updated process, including members of the opportunity fund kind of committee would be in place in time for development of the FY28 budget.

So I know that you will not be sitting here next year, but whoever succeeds you should have the benefit of having some folks from the trade team sitting on that committee when they see the FY28 numbers presented to you.

Wonderful.

And so I would just like to read into the record the committee member titles.

We and these are all city of San Diego, associate manager analyst, a district manager, an area manager, a senior management analyst, supervising rec specialist, a senior park ranger, and I think recently added a philanthropic public partner into that.

Um, these are the folks that get to decide how much funding is being dispersed, and obviously the city council uh puts the parameters as to what is puts the parameters approves the parameters.

So definitely something that needs to be looked at with a finer um lens.

Um also council uh council member Foster at the last meeting brought up the fact that he would wanted to see uh the funding allocations for these park and recs at during the budget process, which I very much welcome.

Um so with that uh I would like to make an amendment to uh staff's recommendation.

If I could find it here, so in section four, um, and I'll read this.

Authorize the chief financial officer to appropriate and expend 100,000 from the Surf Cup Sports LLC percentage ground lease payment scheduled for delivery into the opportunity fund for fiscal year 2028 disbursement and redirect it to the fiscal year 2027 opportunity budget to be allocated to Montgomery Waller Little League for their scoreboard at 34,000 and allocate the remainder all across District 8.

Let me see, excuse me.

Sorry.

Once again, to allocate to Montgomery Waller Little League for their scoreboard at $34,000.

And allocate evenly.

Sorry, I can't even read my own notes.

Allocate evenly across all eight uh city rec centers and council district eight at the amount of eight thousand two hundred and fifty each, and that will be my modification to the motion.

And I I was I and I apologize.

Um I do want to thank um my colleague, uh councilmember Shawnee Lo Rivera for proposing uh the 100,000 dollars from the Surf Cup Sports LLC percentage ground lease payment.

Um thank you for that recommendation.

I will note that District 4 and District 9 are receiving two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of opportunity funds, which they one thousand percent deserve.

District eight is only getting a hundred and fifty thousand dollars this year, and that's because of the hundred thousand dollars that my colleague was able to identify.

If not, we would only be getting fifty-four thousand dollars.

My district, my community, very underserved community, and I will always fight tooth and nail to make sure that we get our fair share.

So I hope to see um if I'm I'll finish up next year.

As a uh member of the public, I hope to see the opportunity funds being dispersed across all um very much needed communities evenly and uh proportionately as well, including Linda Vista.

I will add that one.

So thank you.

Uh all right, thank you, Councilmember Moreno.

So we have a motion as amended, and we'll get that up on the screen.

I don't maybe hard copies.

We didn't get an end, so yeah, we'll get uh so that all council members know what the amended uh motion is.

So with that, we'll go to council member Campbell, the chair.

Thank you so much.

Uh thank you so much, Council President.

Uh, this $34,000 for the scoreboard, is that uh part of the $12,500 each for the eight uh rec center areas in district eight, or is that an additional funding from somewhere else?

Um thank you for the question.

I do want to clarify since you made the motion that as part of the budget revision that we did for Montgomery Waller, we did incorporate the repairs to the scoreboard as part of their budget.

So it is already included utilizing their recreation center fund budgets, just in case that helps with your amendment.

Um but the 34,000 is separate than the 12,500 that we originally recommended for each of the rec centers in council district eight.

That isn't correct.

Um council member Campbell, um, our colleague Shawnee Lo Rivera discovered that we could potentially put $100,000 of Surf Cup funding.

So out of those $100,000, the staff is proposing to divvy it up evenly into eight council into a council district eight park and recs, right?

For a total of about $12,500.

What I'm proposing is we take that $100,000, we fund the $34,000 for the so I'm not taking money out of anywhere else than what is already being proposed out of that $100,000, we take $34, and we put it towards the scoreboard at Montgomery Waller, and the remainder, which is roughly $64,000, which equates to about $8,250, divided up to the eight.

So nothing, there's no extra money coming out of anywhere.

It's the $100,000.

That clarifies it for me.

Is that your understanding?

Good afternoon, Andy Field Parks and Recreation Director.

Yes, we understand.

We would take the first portion of the $100,000 towards a scoreboard, then divide the remainder across the eight sites.

We got you, no problem.

Thank you.

Oh, okay.

Thanks, you guys.

I understand completely, and I'm happy to second the motion.

Alright, we have a motion by Council Member Moreno Moreno, which was an amendment amended to the staff recommendation and a second by council member Campbell.

We'll go next to Councilmember Ilo Rivera.

Alright, thank you, Council President.

Uh thank you, Sarah, for the presentation and all the work for Parks and Rec.

I appreciate the work that Councilmember Moreno did between last meeting and this meeting in partnership with Parks and Rec and the Mayor's Office to get to where we are today.

I think this is an important conversation about you know the way that the opportunity fund is working in practice now.

The idea behind it is incredibly important, and that it starts with recognizing that there are uh rec centers in San Diego that have not been given the opportunity to succeed, and that we had a system in place that made it more and more difficult for them to ever catch up.

That is reminiscent of the way many things work in our city, and the the opportunity fund I think is a is a really smart idea, and now it's about making sure that the idea aligns with the vision that we have for our our um our rec centers and the goals of this specific program.

So if I really do believe that if we properly frame the opportunity fund, we can figure out the ways to modify it in a way that achieves those goals.

There's gonna need to be some right sizing, some improvements, some recognition that uh the way that things are being operationalized on the ground uh impacts the ability for this fund to up to to work as intended.

Um but all of that doesn't mean that the opportunity fund itself isn't important.

I think that's important for members of the public to recognize.

I also did want to just make note note that uh Councilmember Foster um is on official business right now.

Uh he is not shy about ensuring that District 4 gets its fair share and uh was uh an important part of the conversation to ensure that district four wasn't um left out of the conversation as this opportunity fund uh the as the decisions were being made um and that they didn't get any less than what they were deserving of just because we heard some some comments and I want to make sure that was on the record as well.

Uh the the last thing I wanted to say is that I think the the hundred thousand dollars that we were able to to deploy here to address some of Councilmember Moreno's concerns are the direct result of this com this council demanding more and demanding better from those who have the ability to pay more and and treat the city better.

Um it's an example of us leaning into that and then um deploying that additional revenue in a way that serves a part of the city that's been um the most left behind over the years.

And you know, it in this case it's just at $100,000, so not transformational from a city budget perspective, but it also demonstrates that every single dollar that we get in that sort of way matters.

Um the $34,000 that'll be deployed for the scoreboard is gonna make a I would imagine a very big difference for the the families who are at Montgomery Waller, and we can't lose sight of that.

That's just my way of saying that when we are entering in negotiations with any party with the city, we need to squeeze as much out as possible because on the other end of that equation are families who will benefit from that.

And um in this case it's a hundred thousand dollars that'll feed into the opportunity fund, and those hundred thousand dollars are being deployed to benefit the residents of district eight, and in other circumstances, um there are similar positive outcomes that can be derived from us simply demanding more uh when we are uh in negotiations, especially with very wealthy entities that are making a lot of money from their from the the um agreements that they have from the city.

So I'm glad that this was being this is being able to be deployed in this way.

I'm glad we're in a better place than we were a couple weeks ago.

I appreciate the work that was done to get to this place uh and and look forward to more opportunities uh to make sure that we're we're doing by right by residents who were not done right by in the past.

Um and that will conclude my comments, Council President.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Ilo Rivero.

Um I'll just say I'll be of course be supportive of this, and I appreciate Park and Rec and everyone who pivoted uh after the uh input from uh the first meeting of this.

Uh you did an awful lot of work uh on that and have re-evaluated a lot of your processes.

There's more work to be done as you gain this input.

Um I want to focus on something that I think council member Foster uh pointed out about having this information not as a separate item after the budget is already approved, but part and parcel of the budget.

Because today we have very little room.

The opportunity fund is X dollars, and the question is how are you gonna divvy up those X dollars?

Um if count if Council Member Yolovera hadn't secured that 100,000, it would have been a much different, very painful conversation today.

So having that information about even if it's only draft in terms of the rec center funds, the opportunity fund during the budget conversations, because a few dollars, every dollar is painful that we don't give to Park and Rec given how much you have to do and how much is on your plate, but a few dollars taken from that operating budget for dedicated funds for individual rec centers and under-resourced communities could have made a heck of a lot of difference, but we didn't know.

We didn't have those tools available to us.

So one more thing to add to your list of how we do FY28 differently, and maybe have at least give us the opportunity or council the opportunity to have more flexibility and weigh the pros and cons, the the benefits and the costs of any of those decisions going forward.

So thank you for your good work.

Thank you for your that.

And again, I'll throw in a two rec centers, uh rec councils in district one threw in money towards that opportunity fund beyond the Red Agreement process.

Um, oh, and that you created the opportunity fund out of scratch.

Uh and maybe this is a good chance to kind of revisit the thinking that went into the opportunity funds uh now that we've got a few years under our belts.

So anyway, thank you, Department Rec.

Thank you to Councilmember Moreno and everybody who weighed in last uh time and weighed in this afternoon.

And so that we do have the motion.

It is now up on the screen.

I think you heard it said out loud a couple of times.

So the key being directing 34,000 directly to the Montgomery Waller Recreation Center for the Little League Scoreboard and spreading the remainder of that hundred thousand evenly across all eight recreation centers in Council District Eight, amounting to eight thousand two hundred and fifty dollars each.

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

Please call the roll.

That's right, the voting system, please cast your vote.

That passes unanimously seven to zero with council member foster and council member von Wilbert absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Clerk.

So, with that, for the next two items, uh, we're going to update the order.

We will first hear the item to establish the affordable housing preservation fund, which is item HA1 as the housing authority.

Then we will hear item S402 from the City Planning Department as the City Council.

Upon conclusion of those two items, we will return as housing authority to continue with today's business.

So, with that, we will now adjourn as the city council and convene as a special housing authority meeting.

Clerk, please introduce housing authority item HA1.

Thank you, Council.

Thank you, Council President.

Item HA1 is to establish an affordable housing preservation fund and amend the San Diego Housing Commission fiscal year 2026 budget to accept City of San Diego neighborhood enhancement fee funds for affordable housing preservation.

If you'd like to speak on this item, please be sure to submit a speaker sip to the front of the room in the clear box, or if you're participating remotely, please be sure to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh so staff, please introduce yourself for the record and let us know how much time you need.

Good afternoon, Colin Miller, Senior Vice President of Real Estate for the Senate Housing Commission.

I'd like about 10 minutes, please.

All right, when you're ready.

Thank you.

Staff is recommending that the Housing Authority of the City of San Diego authorize the San Diego Housing Commission to establish an affordable housing preservation fund and amend the Housing Commission's fiscal year 2026 budget to accept $5,913,554 in City of San Diego neighborhood enhancement fee funds.

They'll be transferred from the city of San Diego to the Housing Commission to be deposited into the Housing Commission's affordable housing preservation fund.

These are crucial crucial next steps to help preserve the affordability at rental homes citywide.

They also support the City Council approved affordable housing preservation strategy.

The Housing Commission study preserving affordable housing in the City of San Diego, released May 2020, estimated that more than 13,000 units could become unaffordable by 2040.

4,200 deed restricted units may lose protections and up to 9,250 naturally affordable homes will become unaffordable due to market pressures.

Without intervention, 35% of all new production will simply replace units that have lost affordability.

On February 3rd, 2025, City Council approved a deed restricted affordable housing preservation ordinance, spearheaded by Councilmember Vivian Moreno.

Then on April 10th, 2025, at the request of City Council, uh President Pro Tem Kent Lee, Chair of the Land Use and Housing Committee, staff presented an informational report about the potential for the creation of an affordable housing preservation fund along with the options for its implementation.

The committee asked us to return with recommendations and funding models going forward.

On September 4th, 2025, staff returned to LUNH with a range of preservation strategies to create and implement an affordable housing preservation fund.

The committee unanimously unanimously approved, recommending that the city council take the staff recommended actions to establish an affordable housing preservation fund.

The L UNH committee requested the staff take the actions shown on this slide.

Staff have researched various funding models available to create and preserve affordable housing and naturally occurring housing in San Diego.

We have spoken with industry professionals and consulted with other localities to determine the best options for the city of San Diego.

We are returning to the city council to request the approvals needed to establish the fund and transfer the neighborhood enhancement fee funds to the housing commission.

In its approval of the City of San Diego's fiscal year 2026 budget, the City Council allocated $5 million from the neighborhood enhancement fee fund to the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund.

Since that Council action, the Neighborhood Enhancement Fund has grown to $5,913,544 as new as additional new developments paid into the fund.

Housing Commission staff have worked with the City of San Diego staff to bring a companion item to the City Council to approve a transfer of funds from the City of San Diego NEF fund to the housing commission.

The fiscal year 2026 sources and uses of funds proposed for approval were not included in the housing commission's house, sorry, in the housing commission's housing authority approved fiscal year 2026 budget.

The housing commission is requesting approval from the housing authority to amend the housing commission's fiscal year 2026 budget to authorize the housing commission to accept $5,913,554 from the NEF fund for affordable housing preservation fund activities to acquire and preserve both deed restricted and naturally occurring affordable housing properties.

The Housing Commission's proposed FY26 budget amendment does not commit any funds to any specific strategy, program, or acquisition.

All individual property acquisitions, bond authorizations, and preservation fund program approvals will be brought back to the Housing Commission Board of Commissioners, the Housing Authority, and/or City Council for separate approval before any funds are expended on a specific project.

The Housing Authority or City Council will set the final policy strategies for the preservation fund at a later date.

As the fund grows and additional types of investments are sought, those proposals and any changes to the preservation fund activities will be brought to the housing authority or city council for approval.

Staff recommends that the Housing Authority of the City of San Diego take the actions detailed in the staff report and shown on the slide.

Thank you for your time.

Alright, thank you for the work and thank you for the presentation.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

If I can have Paul Kruger, please come forward.

After that, is allegedly Audra and then Anthony Ralphs.

If you can please come forward to the yellow reserve seats at the front, Anthony, that would be greatly appreciated, as well as Audra.

You will have two minutes, please proceed.

I put in a slip for this and a slip for the next one that are like almost the same.

Would it be easier if I just made one presentation for four minutes and not on the next?

The items are being taken separately, so then your comments will be separate.

But thank you.

Thank you.

I just wanted to call your attention to how significant this is in terms of the unintended consequences of programs the city council has approved and refused to modify over years of concern.

The bonus ADU programs specifically removed from our housing stock affordable starter housing, be that 750,000 or more, these homes are considered very affordable and they're in neighborhoods where housing is affordable.

This policy allowed developers to turn these homes into rental units and build multiple units in the backyards.

Were these bonus ADU units affordable?

No, they were not.

For every market rate unit the developer got, they were allowed or required to build a quote unquote affordable unit.

Those affordable units include moderate rate housing that uh rents for to people who make more than 110% of the average median income.

For five years, we urge this council to revisit these rules and require developers to build true low-income housing.

And this council did not do that.

The other issue here is what complete communities has done to existing apartment buildings that because they're older or more affordable.

Those units, examples in UTC and Golden Hill, were demolished to make room for developments that charge $2700 for a one-bedroom unit with a quote unquote affordable units costing more than $2,500.

We wouldn't be here if you would please take time to review the consequences of these programs when they're pointed out to you.

Thank you.

Thank you, allegedly, Audra.

Of course they didn't do it because they need to squeeze out as much as possible, right, Sean?

It's so interesting because you guys sit here and you do bring forward items like this, like you're really gonna preserve affordability.

You can't preserve something that doesn't exist.

So you guys sit here and act like we're providing affordable housing.

Is it?

I mean, is it really affordable even if you need some kind of voucher?

Does that mean it's still affordable?

I mean, wouldn't that mean it's not, and that you need more money to go in there?

I mean, it's like the way you guys pull wool over people's eyes to make it seem like what you're doing is beneficial to them, is so sad because it's like this $5 million.

I mean, really, what's that gonna do?

You're talking about acquiring and preserving, like, I mean, you guys sit up there with a straight face.

It's so sad.

Because people are suffering, you sit up on your dais, and you guys act like you know what that's like to try and figure out how you're gonna pay your rent and what's actually affordable.

Like when you have people that are making hundreds of thousands of dollars and talking about affordability until you guys get paid 20 bucks an hour and you're trying to make ends meet.

I don't think that you have a right to talk about that because you don't have that kind of lived experience where you would understand what it's like to stretch a dollar.

Instead, you guys come after the people time and time.

No, Sean, do you know what that's have you been homeless?

You have for how long?

Right, and and look at you now, right?

Do you care about the people you walk over at night?

You don't.

So I mean you want to sit here and act like you've been homeless.

I've been homeless too.

But I actually give a shit about the people.

I don't just walk over them and, like, oh my gosh, you're such an eyesore and let's move you down the road.

That's what's so sad, yes.

That's what you guys do.

You don't go and then personally like encounter these people, but yet you sit up here and decide what they can and what they can't afford, and that is so egregious.

Anthony Ralph, please come forward.

Well, uh good afternoon, City Council.

Uh, I thought that this, I mean, it appeared to be cut and dry to me, but after hearing some of the testimonies of some of the members of the public, uh, I'm not exactly sure.

And I think that with regard to uh what one of the gentlemen said earlier with regard to the unintended consequences, I think that we should look into that.

I think that I'm in support of this item on the contingency that we look into some of the unintended consequences that uh could happen as a result of this proposal.

Thank you.

Sorry, the five-minute timer going to those participating remotely, starting with Francine Maxwell, if you can please unmute.

Francine Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego.

NEF is required, paragraph 2 in R-2021-182 to be used solely to fund recreation amenities, active transportation, and transit infrastructure projects.

So 100%, no amenities were or ever will be constructed with NEF and Luffy.

The NEF money was not spent in any amenity in communities of concern or any infrastructure.

100% NEDF money is now being proposed to be transferred into preserving the concentration of poverty in communities of concern without needed infrastructure.

I could have sworn that my neighbors won their lawsuit against the city of San Diego in reference to the concentration of poverty.

So again, we're going to have to revisit this because it seems like people have forgotten about the win that my neighbors received.

Building projects without amenities, then using the money meant to improve the lives of most vulnerable, but instead ensuring they are without amenities.

I think that there's something wrong unless I have just completely misread this.

So I look forward to the education that I may receive from the diocese today.

And again, let's not forget about 100% is now being transferred, preserving the concentration of poverty, because district four is an area of concern, and their neighbors get together and they win lawsuits.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you.

Next is 8700, if you can please unmute.

Oh gosh, I thought I was prepared for this, and then I mixed up the items, but that's not what I need to whine about or even cry.

Thank you, Paul Kruger.

Thank you, allegedly, Audra.

Thank you, Francine Maxwell.

They all are telling us things we need to listen to.

Those statistics about what's going to happen to you know these covenants, these homes that are years ago, we looked at this.

We had a list of these things, these restricted covenant properties that were really gonna go under.

I really don't, and I have some examples, but I don't have the time.

So uh I'm just worried.

I was very, I love the word preservation.

You all know that.

And you know, I really was all for this fund, and I still am.

But are we missing something?

I think we are, and I don't know what it is.

So please help me with that, will you, so we can do better.

Thank you for listening.

Love to all.

Next is John, if you can please unmute.

Good afternoon, City Council.

It's interesting the direction this is taken.

Uh it's the same direction that I was gonna go, which is the most underserved community and most struggling is those that are living on our streets right now, uh, and we have decided to close the facility that it represents over half of the bathrooms.

The only place where you can wash your personal items and regularly get your clothes done, and the only place where you can take a break.

There isn't even a park for homeless people to go to.

So if this funding is for that for the purpose of meeting the needs of underserved communities, I suggest we start there, and then we should go over to the O lot and talk about what's going on there.

Because when we envision that, we did not envision it at the density that it currently is operating at.

We did not envision it without any ground cover to relieve you of dust and or mud when it rains.

We do not agree to a place that has no shade and no community.

Gathering places to relax.

There is it is dismal and dense beyond what we ever imagined were two to three hundred tents in one location.

We have zero adult shelters that are built for purpose or for that matter that are in place for anyone who is a single adult on our streets right now.

We've got it for specialty groups, we've got it for families, we've got it for people with disabilities, people gay, lesbian.

But if you're a single adult, you get to live in a tent, whether it's a group tent on asphalt or a tent at the OLA.

So I think we need to rethink our priorities here because honestly, we're kind of making sunbreak branch look like a good idea.

And you know how I feel about that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The five-minute timer has concluded.

We have two speakers in the queue.

No additional speakers will be taken.

Uh is Blair Beekman and Natalie Rashki.

Blair, if you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you, Blair Beekman.

Uh, thank you immensely for public comment today.

Uh, the previous public commenter has a lot of words and ideas on the concept of the future of the Neo Good Day Center.

And he is just the best, strongest voice to really talk about any possible future for the day center.

I hope his voice is really listened to and realize what we're losing in giving that up.

Um, I think we understand it's uh efficiency in giving it up.

He's stating the practicalities why we need to keep it and work on concepts like it if we if it is dependent.

Where else are we gonna go?

Um Paul Kruger also offered really interesting uh comments that was seconded by uh Anthony.

Uh, thank you very much.

I would like to third the that concept and the and the idea that uh you're hearing good public voices on this matter, and that helped.

And I guess to thank our council persons.

Uh, you know, I've been learning important lessons from uh council person lacaba that I I understand you guys do care about affordable housing at this time.

I'm better understanding that what you can be doing towards that subject, towards truly affordable housing, and with what the group's uh like PATH can do, the work that they do has been uh nothing short of miraculous, and we really have to be uh I hope those conversations become more and more clear.

I mean, it's more than just shelters that they offer, and how we build that future is important from that.

How do we again talk about the future of places like Neo Good Day Center and services for people who really need it and um good luck how this funding can be used to true for truly affordable ends and that you guys have conversations here on the dais uh in those good terms and uh good luck in listening to the public who've all of us offered really interesting comments here today?

Thank you.

Thank you, Natalie Rashke, or last speaker.

Please unmute.

Hi, Natalie Rashke.

Um, a lot a lot of this is kind of confusing.

Um, understanding the language that's being used.

As um a stakeholder, and I was un you know, looking at the definition, I consider myself a stakeholder, and I don't know that uh we are considered a stakeholder, some of us uh the voices that we have.

I think that moving forward, we have to really be intentional and conscious of what we choose and how we choose to build buildings or build anything that we're doing.

Uh I was offered a apartment at Quattro for City Heights.

I drove by there.

That whoever designed that building, it looks like a jail sale.

The side window would be the freeway of the 15.

I understand that we have to build affordable housing in areas, you know, where there's uh transits and such things, but I don't know if anybody's looked at that building or some of the other buildings that are built.

It really stands out as you're in affordable housing.

So if we're creating these um, I don't know, it it almost puts a tag on you again.

And I don't know whose intentions are or what they are when they're building these places that are supposed to include or be inclusive to our community.

And I think that there's there is definitely we need to re-uh approach how we move forward in this uh new day and age.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment on this item.

Alright, thank you, City Clerk.

With that, we'll turn it over to Council members' questions, comments, and retain a motion.

We'll start with the chair of land use and housing.

Council, President Provatian.

Thank you, Council president.

And I want to start off by thanking my colleague, Council Member Moreno, for her years of leadership and advocacy as the former chair of the land use and housing committee in bringing forward the preservation ordinance that was passed by this council earlier last year.

This item came before the land use and housing committee in the fall, and where we are doing is taking the next step in actually putting together a fund that supports our affordable housing preservation ordinance.

As we acknowledge at the time, the ordinance was really just one initial step to move the city's affordable housing preservation strategy forward, allowing for opportunities so that as affordable housing covenants expired, the city, whether through the housing commission or through partners within the community who could participate in this fund, could help and have the opportunity to preserve existing affordable housing and to renew their covenants in the years ahead.

As you've heard from the presentation, there's been over 13,000 units that have been identified with covenants that would be expiring, other nationally affordable housing, occurring affordable housing that has been at risk.

And for much time, the city has focused heavily primarily on producing new housing units.

But at the same time, we recognize that just producing new units doesn't necessarily ensure that the existing units with expirations on their covenants would actually be protected.

And that's why we're here today.

Working with the housing commission and the planning department, the neighborhood enhancement fee was established specifically with housing preservation as one of its primary areas of emphasis.

And today we're looking not just at allocating the $5.9 million to start this fund, but recognizing that the funds that were collected in that now have the opportunity to actually be utilized for the purpose they were intended, which is to provide for additional affordable housing opportunities, specifically by protecting the ones that already exist.

Something that has been identified is that the staff report and the materials here talk about the 5.9 million dollars as a part of FY26.

We're of course headed into the FY27 budget as well.

And so we've been talking about a higher number of what's anticipated to ultimately go into this fund.

Can you share about that?

Yeah, thank you for the question.

So yes, this is strictly for fiscal year 2026 for the 5.9 million.

In fiscal year 27, there's an additional 2.7 million to get bring us to a total of $8.5 million.

That budget was already approved by city council.

That's why we did not mention it in this report.

Thank you.

And let me just note that as much as we talked about the ordinance being a first step and the establishment of this fund being another step, there's a lot of work to do still.

$8.5 million is not a lot at the end of the day in terms of the number of housing units that can be impacted.

We look at some of the um developments that we've, or some of the properties in the past where on the natural affordable naturally occurring affordable side, we've seen thousands of units uh shift hands to become market rate, and we've lost that affordability to those who had the ability to act upon that.

What this establishing this fund allows the city to do is to also look at other resources, whether it's philanthropic partners, whether it's corporate and workforce partners within the region to think about how we can work collectively to have funding available so that as housing units either lose their covenants or naturally affordable occurring affordable units are identified where there's an opportunity for us to step in and preserve their existing uh cost so that homeowners, uh renters, et cetera, can stay within the housing units that they're in.

This fund is just the first step in allowing us to better be prepared to act upon that front.

Um so again, we're just taking one step today.

We're opening a door, inviting the opportunity to partner with others to expand upon uh our ability as a city to preserve affordable housing.

Again, where there's really focuses just as a starting point are the thousands of units that we have identified that have 55-year covenants for affordable housing that are expiring in the decade ahead.

There's nothing else we can do for those units if we're not ready to act upon them and to encourage others to do so.

The ordinance that was established that Councilmember Moreno helped to champion help provide the first right of refusal so that affordable housing developers and others could act before someone could come in from a market rate standpoint.

This is a next step that allows the city to partner with folks to actually put funding and capital into doing just that.

So with that, I'm proud to move the staff's recommendation on this item and look forward to the comments from my colleagues.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

So we have a motion by Council President Pro Tembly to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to Councilmember Moreno.

Thank you to the San Diego Housing Commission and city staff for bringing this item forward.

I am pleased to support the final establishment of the affordable housing preservation fund and the transfer of the neighborhood enhancement funds to build this important resource for San Diego.

The reality is simple.

San Diego doesn't have enough affordable housing.

And while we must continue building more, construction alone is not keeping up with the need.

This is why preserving the affordable homes we already have is just as important as building new ones.

When an affordable housing property is put up for sale after the 55-year covenant, it simply could be before it could be sold from an affordable housing developer to a private developer without the city ever having the opportunity to step in and preserve its affordability.

To be clear, these are affordable homes that were built using public subsidies, and it's critical that we keep them affordable.

The affordable housing preservation ordinance that was mentioned by our pro tem is an ordinance that I worked very closely with with the San Diego Housing Commission.

In 2023, as a former chair of the land use and housing committee, I requested that the San Diego Housing Commission bring the committee information on what we could do to preserve affordable homes in San Diego.

In November 2024, the land use and housing committee unanimously recommended that the city council adopt this or the or the previous ordinance, which provides a right of first offer and right of first refusal to qualified entities, including nonprofits and for-profit organizations, for profit organizations.

And I do want to take this opportunity to thank the San Diego Housing Commission for how many meetings did you guys have during that?

I know we're not talking about this, but it's good to put on record how many meetings you had.

I've lost count.

It was a lot.

Yeah, it was a lot.

It was a lot of meetings.

But in 20 uh in 20 in February of 2025, uh the affordable housing preservation ordinance was unanimously approved by the city council.

This ordinance applies when the owner of an assisted housing development intends to sell the property.

It requires the property owner to provide a notice of intent to sell to government and affordable housing entities three months before any offering to sell or listing with any real estate agent.

The affordable housing preservation ordinance prevents deed restricted affordable homes from being redeveloped into market rate or luxury housing.

Now, when a building with deed restricted affordable housing goes on the market, we will have the opportunity to preserve that.

Basically keeping San Diego from losing affordable homes that they live in.

Today we are taking the next critical step.

The neighborhood enhancement fee dollars generated by new development are now being reinvested to preserve affordable housing.

And establishing the affordable housing preservation ordinance fund, which we are doing today, will ensure we have the resources, also known as money, needed to act when these opportunities arise.

So the first ordinance gave us the right to do it.

Now this is providing us the money to do it.

So having the affordable housing preservation ordinance fund in place is an essential tool to ensure that we continue preserving exist uh existing affordable homes in San Diego.

Do we need more housing?

Yes.

Do we need more parks?

Yes.

Do we need to make our parks and keep them up to speed?

Absolutely, yes.

But we absolutely need these funds.

And I want to take this opportunity to thank Council Pro Tem Lee and his staff for your continuous work on this very important effort.

Could have just left it sitting on the shelf, and we would have never had money to actually put our money where our mouth is.

And I also want to take uh an opportunity to thank our um I'm gonna call you guys housing heroes uh to call in to Francis to Lisa.

You guys are absolutely our housing heroes.

We could have had that informational item, and you could have, you know, told me everything I wanted to hear, and we could have walked away and not had I want to say it was like it was a crazy amount of meeting like 15 or 33 meetings.

You could have never you didn't have you you didn't have to do it and you did it, and now we are seeing the fruits of your hard labor, and I want to thank you for that and second the motion.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Moreno.

So we do have a motion by Council President Pro Tem Lee, and a second by Council Member Moreno, move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to Councilmember Ilo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Um thank you, uh Colin and Francis and Lisa and the whole housing commission team.

Sometimes things are good.

That's it, they're just good.

This is good.

If we care about people being able to live in this city and stay in the communities that they live in, they love and they're pouring their hearts into, this is good.

Period.

This is making it easier for the city to actually do the things we say we want to do.

So I think some of the confusion is coming from a genuine place of not understanding exactly what the action is here in front of us.

But I also think there's some folks who just will always find an opportunity to criticize everything that happens here, to relitigate completely separate issues.

And what's in front of us right now is the result of one council member working hand in hand with the housing commission to put a law on the books to ensure that every single affordable housing, naturally occurring affordable housing complex in San Diego isn't seen as fresh meat from Wall Street investors and people who want to flip homes regardless of what the impact is on community, gives San Diego an actual chance to compete, and then Council President Pro Tem Lee, in partnership with the housing commission, is making sure that the city has a vehicle to have the funding necessary to actually act on that law.

This is good.

So I'm appreciative of the effort that's gone into this.

And there are plenty of reasons to be dissatisfied with the state of housing in San Diego.

There are plenty of reasons to be dissatisfied with the progress we've made to make San Diego more affordable.

And this is good.

So I I the last thing I will add, and I had a chance to talk about this a little bit earlier, alongside my colleagues, Councilmember Moreno and Council President Pro Tem Lee, but uh communities like City Heights and other parts of the city that were naturally occurring affordable housing exists, and just to make sure that's a technical term, so we can like define what we're actually talking about there.

Those are typically older homes that have become more affordable over time, or there's a deed-restricted affordable housing that is about to where the deed restriction is about to expire, and that is the reason why investors are seeing it as chum in the water.

And if we don't do this, what happens is a wall street investor or local developer who doesn't care about people comes in, buys a property, kicks the people out who are currently there, flips those units into air quote luxury apartments because they're not really luxury.

And the the cycle continues.

So some of the folks who've spoken kind of in opposition to this are the same people who talk about caring about community character.

And the community character that I care about comes from the people who live in those homes.

And this helps us protect those people.

So thank you again, everyone who worked on this, who put effort in.

I'm glad we're doing this.

This is good.

That's why I'm supporting it, and we'll vote yes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Yellow Rivera.

We'll go next to Councilmember Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

Yes, this is a great step forward.

Thank you to the housing commission, the planning department for all the work that's gone into it.

So many people are struggling with the cost of living in San Diego.

The biggest part of that is the cost of housing.

We need more housing that is truly affordable, and obviously, one way to address that is to build more affordable housing.

We're doing that.

Um we're doing quite a bit of that in the district I represent.

Uh here downtown Harrington Heights and the East Village opened up late last year.

Uh Jack Aranda on 9th in Cortez Hill opened up last month.

Uh we got another deed-restricted affordable housing project going in up here on 6th between Cedar and Beach that'll be opening before too long.

All of those have or will have rents uh that are restricted based on the renter's income.

But as we produce that new affordable housing, we can't afford to lose the affordable housing that we already have.

Uh lose it because an apartment's rent restriction expires, or because an apartment that simply has a low rent because of the market uh goes away or is replaced by something more expensive.

Otherwise, we're just spinning our wheels.

Uh and we're not actually adding to the overall supply of affordable housing that we so desperately need.

That is why this fund is such a big deal.

The city dedicating funding specifically for preserving affordable housing is not something that very many cities are doing.

Uh this fund as uh has been discussed, could be used to acquire naturally occurring affordable housing before a private investor snaps it up, could be used to preserve deed-restricted affordable housing, and with the city committing neighborhood enhancement fund dollars year over year.

This is a sustained investment in keeping San Diego affordable.

It's not just a one-time effort.

That's part of the beauty of this.

This is gonna help renters in my district uh who currently live in affordable housing and depend on their uh apartment to remain affordable.

Uh it means that when a landlord decides to sell an apartment building in North Park or Hillcrest or Golden Hill, a building where people have lived for years and where rents are still affordable, the housing commission could have an opportunity to step in and buy it before a private investor does, before rents go up, before people get pushed out of their homes and out of their neighborhoods.

Uh it'll protect the affordable rents that exist right now and keep them affordable going forward.

Every unit that we preserve is a family that doesn't have to move, a family that could stay in the neighborhood, a senior on fixed income who gets to stay in the neighborhood that they have called home for decades, uh a worker who could still afford to live close to where they work.

We lose thousands, thousands of affordable units in this city every year.

Not because they're necessarily torn down, but because they're sold and the rents are raised.

This fund is how we start to fight back against that.

So San Diego is doing something genuinely innovative here.

I am proud to support it, and uh I will join my colleagues, colleagues in thanking all of you who have been uh involved in this incredibly important work.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Whitburn, and we'll go next to Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you so much for all the comments from all my colleagues.

They're absolutely correct.

I remember, gosh, back just before I ran for council, we lost a large affordable housing complex because the 55 years had run out.

And it was really difficult to get them to agree with the fact that please help us figure out a way to help these folks who are now elderly and can't move.

They've been in this thing 55 years.

So at any rate, those times that's the history that led to ideas like this.

This is an excellent idea.

I want to thank all my colleagues for this as well as the housing commission again for your brilliance in trying to help us with our housing situation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Campbell.

Um, not seeing anybody else on the lights.

I'll add uh my thank you to Councilmember Moreno, Council President Pro Tem Lee, the Housing Commission, County or Excuse me, city staff that has done the very good work here going forward.

And the one thing I want to really emphasize is that nobody is standing up and sharing and saying mission accomplished.

This is a huge step towards solving a huge problem.

And we can't build fast enough, and as my colleagues have said, this is an opportunity to preserve what we have.

And there is nothing more efficient, more green, more climate action plan friendly than simply preserving the development and buildings that we have already.

So this is a huge step.

I appreciate the emphasis in getting this place locked into place, and then begin to think about what do we do next.

Can we leverage this against under funding, other grants, philanthropic philanthropy, as um council president pro team uh talked about?

So we look forward to once you start getting into the weeds and where you go.

Um, and um this is a good day.

It is a step in the right direction.

So I'll be supporting as well.

So we have a motion by Council President Pro Tem Lee and a second by Councilmember Moreno.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Sorry, the voters are still please cast your vote.

That passes unanimously unanimously six to zero with councilmember Campio, Councilmember Von Wilbert, and Councilmember Foster absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, and again, thank you to staff for the good work.

We will now adjourn as the housing authority and reconvene as the city council.

Clerk, please introduce item S402.

Item S402 is the agreement between the City of San Diego and the San Diego Housing Commission SDHC for the transfer of neighborhood enhancement fund fees to SDHC to support the affordable housing preservation fund.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, and staff, as you're settling in, when you're ready, please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need.

We should only need five minutes.

All right.

When you're ready.

All right.

Good afternoon, Council members.

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

Today I'm joined by Marlene Pangalinen, program manager with the City Planning Department.

We are here to present the agreements between the City of San Diego and the San Diego Housing Commission for the transfer of neighborhood enhancement fund fees to the San Diego Housing Commission to support the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund.

The item proposes the following actions.

Authorize the mayor or designee to enter an agreement between the City of San Diego and the San Diego Housing Commission to transfer city neighborhood enhancement fund fees to support the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund and authorize the chief financial officer or designee to appropriate and expend an amount not to exceed $8.5 million from the city's neighborhood enhancement fund to the San Diego Housing Commission for the purpose of supporting the Affordable housing preservation Fund.

The neighborhood enhancement fund consists of fees collected from developers participating in the Complete communities housing Solutions Program, which was adopted in 2020 and is a program that incentivizes housing production near transit while funding neighborhood amenities to be eligible to receive benefits under the complete communities housing solutions regulations.

Applicants must either construct on-site public amenities or pay a neighborhood enhancement in lieu fee.

50% of the NAF funds collected are to be used to fund recreation amenities, active transportation, and transit infrastructure projects, and the remaining 50% of the NEF is to be used for affordable housing preservation.

This action proposes to transfer neighborhood enhancement fees to the San Diego Housing Commission's Affordable Housing Preservation Fund, which is being established under a separate action by the Housing Authority.

The Affordable Housing Preservation Fund will acquire and preserve deed restriction, deed restricted and naturally occurring affordable housing for households earning between 30% and 150% of area meeting income.

The fund will also preserve at-risk deed-restricted affordable housing that is nearing the end of its affordability term.

It will also prevent displacement and leverage public and private investment.

Staff recommendation is to authorize the mayor or designee to enter into an agreement between the City of San Diego and the San Diego Housing Commission to transfer city neighborhood enhancement fund fees to support the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund and authorize the chief financial officer or designee to appropriate and expend an amount not to exceed $8.5 million from the city's neighborhood enhancement fund to the San Diego Housing Commission for the purpose of supporting the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund.

That concludes staff's presentation.

We're available for questions.

Alright, thank you for the uh presentation.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Paul Kruger, if you can please come forward.

After that will be allegedly Audra and then Anthony Ralphs, if you can please come to the front of the room.

Oh thank you.

First, I'd like to clarify that I don't oppose this nor the prior motion.

I spoke neutrally about them.

Secondly, I want to stress that our concerns are, as you yourselves have pointed out, the loss of quote unquote naturally occurring affordable housing could be and could have been prevented.

I'm not here to relitigate anything.

I'm here to stress to you and ask you to please moving forward, listen to those who bring a wealth of knowledge and research six years ago.

We told you that complete communities and more than that, the bonus ADU program were destroying naturally occurring affordable housing.

They were destroying market level entry purchase housing by turning those homes into rentals.

And they were destroying opportunities for truly affordable housing by allowing developers to always choose the moderate income option for their bonus.

The moderate income option was a hundred and is 110% of the area median income or more than 100,000 a year and results in rents of $2,500 for a 417 square foot apartment.

If you had only listened to us six years ago and simply took a critical look at these two programs, you would have saved a significant number of affordable homes.

Moving forward, you have the opportunity to look critically at our upcoming uh neighborhood homes for all of us program to ask yourself for viewpoints that do not reflect those with money and lobbying connections who speak with your teams.

Thank you for that concluding sentence.

And allegedly, Audrey.

Do you guys smell that?

It smells like gas.

All the gaslighting that you guys have done.

Hopefully, nobody lights a match.

This place will go up in flames.

It's so sad because it's like I still don't understand how you're literally pretending to preserve anything when 8.5 million dollars, even if you wanted to preserve those 13,000 units, it's like under 650 bucks.

I mean, and then you're talking about buying these these uh affordable housing units that the deed restrictions have gone, how you can afford that, and then who's gonna take care of it?

Dreams for change, and then people will die just like they have at 10 city, the 17 in your district, Steven.

Two last week.

How cool is that?

Thursday and Friday.

That's so exciting.

That it's just 17 in six months.

Goodness, good thing they're open, but yeah, they would be a good people to, you know, go in and take over one of these deed restricted units.

I mean, how about you guys?

What's with the 55 years?

Why do we only do it 55 years?

So we come to a place like this, we're like, oh my gosh, what are we gonna do?

Oh, dang it.

These people are gonna sell this unit, but we're gonna put in an ordinance, we're gonna get this money and tell people that if you pay a fee, you don't have to create affordable housing.

Even when we need it, and there isn't anything affordable.

Like again, you guys sit here and you say it's affordable.

How can it be affordable if you have to have a subsidy for it?

Just wondering.

Are we redefining this just like we did with a woman?

So now affordable leans that as long as you have to get all of these things to help you pay for it, that means it's affordable to you.

Like you literally get in the way of people being able to thrive in life.

It's disgusting.

Because you gaslight the people sitting here saying, like, this is good.

Trust us, this is good, right?

This is this is so good.

So good.

It's good.

That's all I can say is that it's good.

Just trust us.

It's sad for real.

People are dying at 10 City, and you guys won't even shut it down.

You won't even do anything, but yet you're in litigation with it.

Anthony Ross.

Uh, good afternoon, City Council.

I wanted to start by thanking uh Vivian Moreno for explaining exactly what the ordinance does and how one of them establishes the procedure and one of them helps fund the procedure.

Um, I want to thank Kent Lee uh for explaining that as well too.

I thought both of your explanations uh were made a really what was what it was a complicated uh issue that I didn't understand really helped it I really helps break it down so that I could understand it in terms that we're more palpable, and now it is something that I fully support.

Um I am thankful, uh Ms.

Campbell, for your input, your historical input.

I really appreciate you sharing uh that expertise with regard to the context of the covenants of the 55-year lease and how when they expire, we have to renew them and we have to have the funds to renew them.

Um, every time I come to city council, it's always humbling.

There's always stuff that I learn.

I show up uh wanting to oppose Flock, and then I learn about uh tons more issues that I had no idea existed and had no idea how to even interpret.

So I'm grateful for the work that's done here, and um I also want to acknowledge um the cynicism and um the uh lack of trust that comes from um repeated public engagement and feeling like um there is a um what's the word I'm looking for?

Oh, it was in the uh the packet that was left behind.

Somebody uh uh they were talking about the planning groups, and they were talking about how the planning groups don't feel like they have an adequate seat at the table.

Um it was the first agenda item.

Uh unfortunately, I was not here for it for that discussion.

Um, but the point that was raised, uh, they they mentioned it in the letter that was left behind.

I feel like you probably got a copy of it.

Uh, but it was mentioning how uh sometimes it feels like we don't have enough of a seat at the table to really have uh the input necessary to be qualified on the concluding.

I'm sorry, the five-minute time we're going to those participating remotely, starting with Hector.

If you can please unmute, all right, thanks.

One of these problems is gonna be the uh Supreme Court Supreme Court ruling just came down with temporary legal status has been revoked for a million people.

So anybody that's got their legal status revoked in San Diego County has got to leave.

So make sure the roles, the tenant roles of these buildings don't have any illegals in them that have to leave.

So that would that would clear up housing problems.

But that would put in more uh spaces for rent.

Like even the hundred thousand people are living here illegally, work on that problem to deport them.

That'll open up a lot of housing, affordable housing, and even some millionaire guys are here illegally.

So that'd be a good reason to do.

And then about uh I'm I'm all for the mayor of uh Barrio Logan, the uh the new mayor to uh get some Tesla uh charging stations down there by the railroad tracks and get the banana company to get those Tesla trucks, they're their electric trucks, they're flying off the shelves.

Big time companies are buying them, and the Dow guy could set up a thing down there to charge his trucks and give the revenue to Barrio, the Barrio Logan.

Don't let the city get the revenue.

Have the barrio get that revenue like maybe it'd be like maybe 500,000 a month doing the charging station down there and battery thing.

That would be, and guys could live there and watch it.

The barrio could make sure that doesn't get tagged.

They can provide uh security, like no one ever tags uh the the murals under the bridge, right?

Where they're tagging their neighborhood in District 4, but not in the barrio logo, nobody tags the murals because they provide security for their own stuff.

So that would be cool, okay.

Bye.

Thank you.

Next is John, if you can please unmute.

Hi, I just wanted to make sure that it was understood with my prior comments that we do support the effort to retain affordable housing.

The frustration that we're having is uh whether or not you know it, there's 320 households that were on EHVs that are going to see those vouchers go away, and they will not at this point, as we understand it, have a place for them or their families to go.

So that's almost a thousand people.

Um I I you've got that.

You've got the loss of food stamps where people who are living on the streets, there's some sort of insanity that people are gonna be believe that those folks are gonna be able to get a job or are volunteer for 20 hours a week.

Clearly, this is something designed by people that have no idea.

And now, on top of it, in a city where we've had multiple outbreaks amongst this population because of a lack of sanitation, we're taking half or more of the toilets offline that are available to them at a time where they're needed most, on top of a place to clean their stuff to relax and not be harassed.

Remember, we just talked about people in investing in parks.

People who are experiencing homelessness can't even go to a park without being harassed here.

And I'll say that, and now that I've experienced it, I will never again allow a stand up and help somebody who the city cannot help when they've been evicted because now my RV has been targeted, and I got one warning and now I have a hundred and seventy-five dollar ticket, and I have left that RV as needed out on the upper pass nearby my home for years.

But since it got tagged, now we're targeting.

So why don't we take some of those resources and target people that are, oh, I don't know, in illegally renting vacation homes, so we can free up some housing.

Thank you.

Next is 8700, and then our final speaker is Blair Beekman.

Uh Joy Sanyata.

First of all, Councilmember Ida Rivera and Councilmember Marino.

I'm really, I can't believe the two of you are just chatting.

Councilmember Marino, this is your big baby.

You did get it rolling.

Yet you're sitting there with Councilmember Elo Rivera, and you're checking while people are talking and telling you how they feel and what they care about.

What is this?

I can't.

It's beyond it's beyond me.

It is beyond me anymore.

I really truly believe you are.

So Wendy DeWitt, you're my hero.

You're the one that attended those 20 or 30 meetings.

You were just you're beyond beyond.

You're five-star plus into the universe.

And the preservation ordinance has exemptions.

And I wish I could talk to you about which projects are exempt from those.

They don't qualify for the ordinance.

And who said that it's brilliant?

These financial solutions are brilliant.

And why can't I understand the movement of the funds?

On both of these items, why can't I?

I look and I look and I look and I look, and I'm not good at it.

I'll say that.

But why can't I simply understand what you're doing with these funds in the past and now and where was the companion item?

I thought they were companies.

I always thought it was called a companion item.

I'm just lost in the shuffle, and I'm doing the best I can.

Please listen to us.

Love to all.

Our next speaker is Blair Beekman.

Please unmute.

Blair Weekman, I can unmute for you.

I will need to move on if you're having technical difficulties.

There you go.

Hey, Blair Beekman.

Yes, we can hear you.

Please proceed.

Awesome.

I just got a new uh phone, so thank you.

It's working now.

Um, yeah, I wanted to comment that uh I uh enjoyed uh watching Council President Marino and Ella Levera uh in their conversations over the past few months now.

Um it's been really engaging.

What they're talking about, it seems like um, but hopefully they can make the arrangements to to listen more to public comment during public comment time as well.

Um I wanted to comment that um yeah, this item uh as it can work with the previous item.

Um I thought of uh ideas.

I thought of uh community land trust ideas and how well that can be working uh these items and what the future of that can be.

Um I've always been made uh made it a really important point that with inLU fees, if we have a consistent pattern in how we fund our our uh in LU fees, developers then know what to expect.

And we can be very, very clear in the concepts of what truly affordable housing can be about, and they can be clear as well, and they'll understand the rules of the road a lot easier and be more um giving, I think.

There might be more understanding of what is good policy and good practices instead of you know the continual casino that we usually practice that I agree work sometimes, but other times we just get really overly confused and everybody gets lost and hates each other from it, you know, and then they say, I don't want to ever support affordable housing again, you know, and we can go through that whole pattern and trip instead of just having a nice steady way of just consistently uh you know doing best practices, and I hope you can be working towards that.

Uh to conclude, thank you a lot for the words of John again who mentioned affordable housing, uh, truly its importance.

And can I mention mixed income ideas as ideas?

Uh can we work towards new ideas and mixed income?

Uh that offers a lot of flexibility and choices.

Good luck in our efforts.

Thank you.

That doesn't have a public comment on this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Uh, with that, turn it over to colleagues for questions, comments, and retain a motion.

And we'll start with the chair of the landing housing committee, Council President Pro Tem Lee.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh, whereas the last item helped to establish the affordable housing preservation fund at the standing housing commission.

This item helps to allocate the funding from the neighborhood and advancement fund fees uh to the housing commission to complete the other side of it.

So with that, I will move uh the staff's recommendation.

Alright, thank you.

So we do have that motion.

Council President Pro Tem Lee to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go next to Councilmember Moreno.

Happy to second the item.

All right.

So we have a motion by Council President Pro Tembly, a second by Council Member Moreno to move the staff recommendation.

We'll go to my to say thank you.

Oh, did we get dropped?

Do you want?

Okay.

Um, I'll just add my thanks for the good work to do this.

And I appreciate that brief explanation.

Council President Pro Tem.

Maybe that helps one of the public commenters.

Uh with that, Clerk, please call the roll.

Sorry, the voting system, please cast your vote.

That passes unanimously, six to zero with Council Member Campio, Councilmember Von Wilbert, and Councilmember Foster absent.

Thank you, Council President.

Alright, again, thank you to staff for the item.

We will now adjourn as the City Council and reconvene the special housing authority meeting.

Clerk, please introduce housing authority item two.

Housing authority item two is the San Diego Housing Commission semi-annual grant report from July 1st, 2025 through December 31st, 2025.

If you'd like to speak to this item, please be sure to raise your hand by pressing star nine or the raise your hand icon.

Or if you are here in council chambers, please be sure to submit your speakership to the box in the front of the room.

Thank you.

All right, as you settle yourselves in, please indicate or excuse me.

Please state your name for the record and let us know how much time you need.

Oops.

There we go.

Good afternoon.

I'm Deborah Fisher Folk, the Senior Vice President of Community and Strategic Initiatives for the Housing Commission.

With me is Polly Toledo, the housing programs manager.

Our presentation will be six minutes or less.

All right.

Well, hang on the left.

All right, begin when you're ready.

Okay, let's go to the next.

Oops.

Not sure what I did here, but I'm gonna stop there.

I'm gonna go there.

There we go.

So this informational report is being provided in accordance with resolution number HA 1569, which granted the Housing Commission authority for a number of grant-related activities.

The report provides information on grant activities for the period of July 1st, 2025 through December 31st, 2025.

It covers competitive grants, non-competitive grants and allocations, grant funds passed through to the housing commission, and agreements and contracts executed as a result of the sources of funds.

During this reporting period, there was activity on 13 competitive funding opportunities.

This included nine new and four renewal applications.

We were notified of seven awards totaling more than 40 million dollars.

There was one grant request for more than 490,000 that didn't unfortunately didn't advance to the next step in the application process.

Finally, five applications for approximately 6.5 million dollars were pending decisions as of December 31st, 2025.

Polly will now provide you with the remaining grant activity details for this report.

The nearly 40.1 million in grant awards came from three sources.

The California Housing and Community Development Department, the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the County of San Diego.

Please note that this total does not reflect the value of a grant that was awarded, but for which the dollar amount was unknown as of December 31st, 2025.

And this total includes only the first year award amount for a grant that has two more one-year options.

Approximately 39.2 million in grant awards came from three separate programs administered by the California Housing and Community Development Department, also known as HCD.

The programs include HomeKee Plus, Cal Home, and the Local Housing Trust Fund.

These awards will help create 205 affordable rental apartments, including permanent supportive housing units for households experiencing homelessness.

Additionally, they will support up to 19 households to be assisted through the housing commission's first-time home buyer low income program and up to five households through the accessory dwelling unit finance program.

The commission received more than $727,000 in renewal funding from the federal family self-sufficiency program.

This money pays for staff to provide families receiving federal rental assistance with financial literacy, employment, and similar services to help them become more self-reliant.

The commission also was selected to continue its administration of the County of San Diego's as needed down payment and closing cost assistance program.

The program offers low interest deferred payment loans for first-time homebuyers with low income and makes funds available to moderate income first-time homebuyers in designated areas.

The final two awards during this reporting period included $10,000 from the banking institution city community investing and development to support programs of the San Diego City County Reinvestment Task Force.

Additionally, we were notified about a first-time award of a federal youth homeless demonstration program funds, which was subgranted to the housing commission by the San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness.

The exact amount of the award was unknown at the end of this reporting period, but we have since been notified that it is for more than $1.5 million.

The Commission submitted a letter of interest to the California Wellness Foundation's Economic Safety Net program, which unfortunately did not advance to the next stage.

Though our request for approximately $490,000 to provide homelessness prevention assistance did fit within the foundation strategies, there were limited funds to accommodate all the submissions.

The Housing Commission had five submissions to three separate funding opportunities that were pending decision as of December 31st, 2025.

Requests for funding for three separate projects were submitted to the Congressionally Directed Economic Development Initiative Community Project Funding through HUD.

Two of the project requests totaling approximately 4.4 million were submitted via the Office of Congressman Scott Peters to support an affordable housing prevention program, as well as an integrated recovery support program.

Another request for $2 million to support the Via Las Cumbres Redevelopment Project was submitted via the Office of Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs.

An application was submitted to the County of San Diego's Community Development Block Grant requesting annual support for the reinvestment task force for more than $121,000.

The last pending request at the end of this reporting period was to HUD for Veterans Affairs Support of Housing Vouchers, not including the budget authority for the rental housing vouchers, which is unknown until the vouchers are awarded.

The total for these pending grant requests was more than $6.5 million.

The Housing Commission submitted six eligible renewal projects worth a combined total of more than $11.7 million that provided rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing services through the Continuum of Care NOFO application.

The Housing Commission also received two awards of grant funding totaling more than $18.5 million that was passed through from other entities.

These awards will be leveraged with the Housing Commission's grant award from the Home Key Plus program for Starling Place Affordable Housing Development.

The funding includes more than 11.5 million in federal community development block grant fundraising passed through by the City of San Diego and $7 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act general purpose revenue passed through by the County of San Diego.

Next slide.

Grant funding to the Housing Commission also is reinvested into the community and positively impacts the local economy.

During the first half of FYA 2026, 23 sub recipient agreements utilized approximately 28.7 million in whole or in part from grant funding were executed.

Additionally, three contracts totaling approximately uh $122,000 and had capital fund program funding were also executed.

That concludes our informational report, and we're happy to answer any questions you may have.

Alright, thank you for the work.

Thank you for the presentation.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Just sad because I wish that you guys did all these things that you talk about.

Like you do good presentations and whatnot.

But I mean it's scary to think about where this youth homeless funding is gonna go.

Um when you give out money, you you don't ensure that it's being used properly, that people aren't being abused.

I mean, again, I'm gonna bring up Tent City and OLOT, and the fact that like I don't know the exact number, but it's close to 40 people have died at Tent City since its inception.

And Sean, you said you were even gonna look into it.

You said you care about homeless, that you've been homeless.

Why doesn't it matter that those people are dying?

Why doesn't it matter that Ciara died on Friday?

Why doesn't it matter that people are being raped there?

Like there's rats and infestations, but people are losing their lives there.

And I just I really don't understand why someone like Stephen, well, I get why he would, because he's an arrogant son of a bitch, and that's why he laughed in my face when Tammy died.

And why he doesn't give a shit that this older woman died on Thursday and a woman named Sarah died on Friday.

How many more?

I I've asked you guys this for years now.

How many people is enough that you will do something about Tent City?

For real, what's the number?

Is it a hundred?

Is it, you know, like what is is that threshold where it's like oh that death really matters where we really should do something about that.

I mean, you're in litigation, federal court for it, and you guys were supposed to bring a response today.

We'll see what what you've said, but how many is enough?

I guess if it's not your child, it doesn't matter.

Anthony Ralphs.

Afternoon, City Council.

Uh like to thank um uh our city employees for the presentation.

It's a good uh presentation.

Uh thankful for all the information that's been brought forth today.

Um, I do have concerns as a member of the public uh with some of the oversight uh with regard to some of these facilities, has but as has been mentioned by Audra.

Um I would hope that we could look into that.

Um, I'd hope that we could be more accountable with the funds, how these funds are spent and ultimately how these services are delivered to the people.

I have no problem with these funds going to these programs and helping people that need help.

Um, I would just hope that we could follow up on the oversight and the supervision and make sure that these programs are as effective in helping people as possible.

Um, with regard to the point that I was trying to make earlier, um, there's a San Diego Community Planners Committee letter that probably was left for all of y'all, and it says um these organizations exist and provide a meaningful pathway into local government.

It's talking about the importance of having members of planning groups participate in the discussions and how we serve as liaison between some of the policies that are implemented here and members of the general public understanding some of the policies that y'all implement.

I know that uh this was already discussed in item S 401, but I just wanted to address it now within the context of saying we can provide that opportunity to help some of these issues become more better known to the public, especially with regard to the housing commission, the grants, the agreements that are made.

Um, but it's in our best interest to have y'all's support um with regard to um the human rights issues, the privacy issues, the constitutional amendment issues.

This morning the Supreme Court handed down a decision with regard to all of our privacy concerns with regard to our location uh database tracking.

I will mention that in non-agenda public comment.

Thank you.

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

Hector, if you can please unmute.

After that is 8700, and then Blair Beekman.

It's great for you guys to pursue all the grants.

It's great, man.

Just get on some more grants.

It all throughout the city.

Well, there's also like been talk about taxing the rich.

So if you want to tack I'm all for taxing the rich politicians, like Scott Peters has got 600 million dollars on Google, and Sarah Jacobs got 60 million.

But she's related to Mr.

Jacobs.

Who's got like a trillion?

I wouldn't tax him.

Let's just put a tax on the wealthy politicians that are in our purview.

And maybe just a million dollars a year to go to the housing fund and see how they like it.

And we'll set the rich politician as $10 million.

So if you got 10 million, you should be able to afford not counting your house, like you got a house in Law.

That doesn't count.

But if you got 10 million somewhere, that's called rich.

And we'll just put a million dollar a year tax on the politicians.

And even some of your cronies below you, they might be sitting there talking to people.

They might be loaded, you know, kind of trust fund kids or something.

But anyway, one the housing commission, just one house at a time, target one house and try to make it work, however, the grants flow, or the people that live there, see what happens and just one house at a time.

It's it's gonna be hard to compete with uh guys with billions of dollars, and to them it's just a candy store.

They're looking at that property, and it's gonna be hard for the city to match the funds or it's gonna be a uh kind of it's gonna be hard to do.

You guys are paying them double what you guys are paying.

Anyway, good luck.

8700.

If you can please unmute uh Joy Sanyata, thank you.

Uh San Diego Housing Commission.

I love grants, and I have been concerned about grants due to the way things have been unfolding the last few years.

So it looks like you're doing better with the competitive grants, because at one point I thought we were going to form a working group and analyze what was happening on our not getting competitive grants, and that never did happen.

I don't know what happened to that working group.

But anyway, uh it looks like things are have really solidified in a very good way.

So thank you very much, San Diego Housing Commission for that, and uh keep up the work.

Uh, when we had that other item today on the opportunity fund, I was surprised to see that list.

Uh nine of the people on that list had zero grant money come in.

So um, you know, it uh I think it is it's much less, and that's sad.

So uh hopefully that'll change.

And philanthropists to me are definitely invited to the table as all income levels are invited to our table, and we can have a conversation of working together.

So thank you, Congressman Scott Peters, so very much for your work for California and for San Diego.

And thank you, Congresswoman Sarah Jake, but also for your uh help with the grants.

You are very appreciated, as are all people that work together uh to to make our city work and to make you know all levels of people work together.

That is so appreciated.

I send love to all of you.

That completes your comments.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

Blair Bakeman, if you can please unmute.

Hi, thank you.

Really nice public comment from Joy.

Thank you.

I learned a lot from what you just said.

Um grants is uh is a new process to me.

I find it an interesting process to be learning about how our government can function and find ways of uh funding.

And um, so thank you for this item and uh good luck how this can item can develop.

Thank you.

Thank you.

John, if you can please unmute.

Yes, uh, thank you for all thank you again.

Uh hello John Brady, the experience advisors, thank you again for this update.

Uh you know, I think as we are looking forward to another three years, um, we need to be planning for even more cuts.

And uh, and really, I guess where my frustrations are is I see the country and therefore our own city heading in a very dark direction when it comes to our support for people in need, our compassion for people that have been impacted by any number of life struggles, uh, and it's seemingly comfortable, I guess the comfortable way that the society at large wants to accept that it's okay to blame the victim.

And I don't know how we reverse that, but I do know that it does need a unified political voice locally, uh, here that is clearly saying we can't do this to our own people, we can't do this to our neighbors, we can't do this to our grandparents, we can't do this to our family members.

We can't do this to even the strangers we don't know.

Um, but we've got more belt tightening folks, and these decisions are gonna get even harder as we move forward.

Thank you.

That does include full of comment for this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And with that, I'll turn it over to my colleagues.

This is an information item, so no motion is required.

I'll go to council member Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

Thank you for this report.

Uh applying for these grants is critical work.

It's uh a lot of work and the effort that you put into it is very much appreciated.

Um, understanding that this report gives us the status as of the end of last year, December 31st, and there were six pending grants at that time.

Uh, do you know if we've heard on any of those pending six grants since then?

I don't know if you have that at your fingertips.

If you don't, we can follow up, but I'm curious if you've heard uh one way or the other.

Yeah, I don't have that information in my fingertips right now, but we have heard back on probably most of them.

Yeah, and we can certainly uh provide you with that information.

Thank you.

Uh, we did get some good news late on Friday.

Uh not part of this program, but that the state's HAP uh program is going to be uh fully funded.

Uh during the last budget, and this may be a question for Lisa.

Um, we were forced to cut 50 beds at the 16th and Newton shelter because there wasn't uh enough money to fund them all.

Understanding that we got this news late Friday, and you know it's the middle of the day on Monday.

Do you have any idea yet whether the full HAP funding will enable us to keep those 50 beds?

Uh no, I don't.

Uh it's wonderful to see the amount of funding that has come through and for the state to really step up.

And I think a lot of the advocacy that happened with this council and with this mayor, made that helped make that happen.

Um, shelter is definitely an eligible use for those funds, but we'll need to meet with um the city's homeless strategies and solutions department, obviously have conversations with council and the mayor about um where that funding can go.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh appreciate that and uh thank you again for all the work to bring in funding.

Uh and thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

Uh, I don't see anybody else in lights, so I'll just add my thank you for the good work, and clearly you have the secret sauce of going after grants and securing uh the wins on that.

So uh when there's too little resources, it's incredibly important to do that good work.

So thank you.

Thank you.

With that, we will now proceed with the approval of the housing authority minutes.

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you.

The public comment period for the housing authority minutes is now open.

Please note each speaker will have three minutes.

We'll have one minute per item per person up to a maximum of three minutes.

There are three minutes on the agenda.

Tuesday, May 12th, 2026, regular meeting, Tuesday, June 9th, 2026, regular meeting, and Monday, June 15, 2026, special meeting.

And allegedly, Audrey, if you can please come forward.

You'll have three minutes to speak on all three dates.

So you're talking about bonds for housing, homeless programs, litigation, and these three meetings, and um, you know, we're getting in debt to pretend to provide housing.

Um, I just find it extremely difficult to like proceed when you guys hear people have died in your programs, and it doesn't bother you enough to go, we should really look into that.

We should uh figure out why this is happening.

I mean, Steven, why why aren't you doing that?

Why is it funny to you?

Everything done in the dark will come to the light, and it does, and it's sad because it's like these people are put in like a prison there.

You guys spend money at Tent City to put up a fence that is a wire like the ones that usually have the spikes going out, like you go to a hotel and you see it because you don't want someone coming in, but at Tent City, they're facing in, like these people can't get out, and you put them in fire danger by continuing to add tents, and it's like you can't even see your way out of there, and there's no fire extinguishers if there was a fire, and fentanyl is being dealt there, and people are ODing on it on a regular basis, and yet Dreams for Change continues to get more funding, because that's your friend, Steven, and that's why you don't give a shit that these people are dying.

That's like three people a month so far this year.

And everybody just sits there like who cares, and you wonder why people don't trust you.

I'm not talking about someone taking a shit out on the sidewalk, which happens all the time, too.

You have people who come and clean it up.

I'm talking about a life lost, and you guys sit up here and act like you care about people, but this falls upon deaf ears, and we just keep giving them more money.

Make it make sense.

Why don't their lives matter enough?

To like question what's going on, to go maybe we should look into this funding, make sure it's really going somewhere that is beneficial to people.

I mean, if Teresa Smith's wants people to stay there as long as possible, I mean, that's terrifying, and literally they die before they'll ever get into housing.

How sad.

Going to those participating online, John Stump.

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

Oh, excuse me, I thought this was public comment.

They'll be next.

I'll come back to you.

John, please let me know which item or items you wish to speak to on the minutes.

I'm sorry, I thought this was public comment as well.

I'll have to.

We'll come back to you right now.

Blair Beekman on the minutes.

Well, what do you know?

Blair Beekman, I'm gonna wait too for uh public comment.

Sorry about that.

Sorry.

Okay, that does conclude public comment on the minutes.

All right, thank you, City.

Sorry.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And with that, I'm gonna make a motion to approve the minutes.

Can I get a second?

Uh Councilmember Moreno beat you out.

Uh not anybody else uh seeking to speak.

So, motion by myself and a second by council member Moreno.

Clerk, please call the roll.

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

That passes unanimously six to zero with council member campio, council member von Wilbur, and Councilmember Foster absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, we will now adjourn as a healthy authority and reconvene as the city council and take up non-agenda public comment.

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

Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President.

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

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

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

If you're 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.

So you can please come to the yellow reserve seats at the front of the room.

It's interesting I wasn't here earlier because I was in care court.

Not for myself, but hearing what they're gonna do with Andrea Ebbing.

And it's such a uh educational experience, just observing things like a board like this, being in court, and seeing how they use competency.

And then I think about how I'm telling you guys about people dying that are part of your community, and that it falls, really people don't care.

So I would think, I mean, you guys should be evaluated for competency to see.

I mean, are you you, you know, if you don't really care about human life, but you're saying that you do, I mean, perhaps you're incompetent, and perhaps you guys should be sent to one of the psychiatric facilities and medicated until you can be deemed competent, right?

And somebody like me, because this is how it goes.

Like someone like you guys would deem me incompetent because I don't go along with your ideologies.

So imagine someone like me doing that to you and saying that the way that you feel is means that you are incompetent.

It's interesting the way the world works, and if you don't just kind of capitulate and go along and conform, then you're seen as somebody who needs their behavior changed.

And it's like I I literally could say that about you guys, seeing that you don't care that people are dying, all while professing that you do.

But it's interesting the way that it's used to silence people.

And sure there's people that are incompetent potentially and need help uh and wouldn't be able to, you know, go through trial.

But when it's literally being used to silence the truth about the people that are actually engaged in this care court and whatnot, um what a smart weapon to use.

You know what I'm saying?

But imagine being that person.

Thank God it's not you guys, right?

Right, maybe it'll be one of your children.

Who knows?

We'll see who's in charge, Anthony Rose.

Yes, I will read today's reading from the Supreme Court.

Uh, but first I just wanted to acknowledge that there is an inherent conflict of interest between those that want to leave work early and can do so uh with a short work day, with which is facilitated uh by minimal public engagement and those members of the public that wish to have a robust, engaged, fully informed discussion that often requires extended hours of additional city council participation.

So when the vast majority of your constituents demand you respect our consult our constitutionally protected privacy rights over your own SDPD sponsored perception of public safety, it sends us the message that you prioritize getting off work early over doing your job.

So here's the article.

You've probably had a chance to read it, but this morning the Supreme Court ruled that when law enforcement officials used a geofense warrant, a warrant that instructed Google to provide location data for cell phone users who were near a particular place during a specified time period to obtain evidence used to convict a Virginia man of a 2019 bank robbery.

They conducted a quote search for the purposes of the Fourth Amendment.

By a vote of six to three, the justices sent Okello Chartres' case back to the lower court for it to consider whether his fourth amendment requires the search was quote reasonable.

Writing for the majority, Justice Elena Kagan emphasized that, quote, an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in records about his cell phone's location, and police intrude on that constitutionally protected interest when they demand the information, even though for only a limited time and from a third party tech company.

There we have it.

The Supreme Court decided this morning that our location data on our cell phones is not fair game for third-party applications to be utilizing to track us.

That should be a clear and cut case.

There are lawsuits all over the state of California against Flock.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

Five-minute timer going to those participating online.

We currently have nine speakers in the queue, starting with John.

If you can please unmute.

Secondly, I want to explain to you what it's like to be a target.

I have had my RB now for two years.

I have regularly parked it on the nearby hoverpass where semi-tractor trailers park, limousines, other commercial uh businesses, big vehicles, got junk trailers.

But for the moment, until the moment somebody was identified as living in there, and then I became a marked vehicle.

So now 70 members of the community policing department are out and actively aware where my vehicle is, and now I've got 175 tickets, 75 ticket with no warning for trying to help.

That's my office.

That's the place we use to do surveys.

That's the place I've never allowed anybody to live on it, at least while it was out in a public space.

So I'm a little in shock here at how quickly we're able to act on that, but we can't pick up a 911 call.

We got to figure out where our priorities are.

And right now, going into this whole budget negotiation, I thought homelessness was off the table.

And then I thought, well, we're gonna cut the Neo Good Day Center.

Not one member of the community budget alliance or any of the other people that I know that advocate for homeless individuals had any clue when that vote went through that it was going to permanently close the Neo Good Day Center.

We've been your close partner on this, and I'll tell you, I feel violated.

Our trust is gone, and that's a sad place to be.

Thank you.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

All right, thank you, Blair Beekman.

Yeah, I thought we were working on a uh six-day plan for the future of the Neal Good Data Center.

I was pretty shocked in what you decided.

I understand your decision and how it can be working, but um the previous speaker is offering a lot of good public comment, what we actually need with the Neal Good Day Center, and we have to be having that conversation more openly and regularly.

Uh, as I've been mentioning myself, I've been trying to mention John is offering the actual words.

Good luck in that effort.

What we can be talking about openly.

Um I also wanted to mention um there's been a lot of talk about um encampment issues, uh, you know, or the government-sponsored uh camp.

I've offered before here, um, you know, that uh instead of you know the two to three hundred uh person site in San Diego, San Jose's model.

They work, you know, in a much smaller frame, you know, 35 to 50, 25 to 35 uh spaces for people.

We can have one space in San Diego for say 100 people, and then uh, you know, create three or four little smaller spaces that I think we can much better manage people, and people will just not be dying the way they currently are.

Uh, this this large encampment is creating a lot of death, and we gotta really consider how different options from that.

So good luck on those efforts.

Good luck that we can be listening to Andrea Ebbing's case, what she can be doing, uh, what we can be doing for her, so she can be free uh and regular.

Uh she deserves it.

Um I thank you for the words of Anthony.

Um, he actually mentioned concepts that we're working on in 2018.

We we stopped something in 2018.

Uh, good luck we can continue what he's talking about, and from that really address ALPR issues in real time.

Um, there's a lot of subtlety in what he said, and how uh STPD can and can't work that we need to more openly address, and I'll talk about more tomorrow.

Um a lot more I need to say.

Uh good luck with our public process.

Francy Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego resident.

I want to thank the council for the education that came um when I was um miss misdirected.

Really appreciate that.

Now let's parlay that since there are so many um upcoming legislative breaks.

Let's do an educational series.

Let's go to some parking recks and let's make sure that we try to educate the community all year long.

I would like your first thing to be um educational-wise.

How can Steve Cushman be um an advisor to the city, to the mayor's office, and be on the housing uh commission?

So it would seem like that would be a conflict to me.

I completely understand that everybody is looking for their next gig.

And so Steve Cushman's not looking for his next gig because he's pretty much running our city.

But the mayor is is absolutely parlaying his DC trips, and so maybe he's looking to get a position in HUD or something.

We don't have all the receipts, but it seems like elected officials continue to hold things close to the vest.

And when somebody needs a good piece of press, things come out.

Very appreciative of District 9 sharing with my neighbors that our elected official is on official business.

Love our neighbor, National City.

Council member Mark Marcus took a picture of our council member on a bus with our board of supervisor, um, vice chair, um, just wonderful communication through social media.

So we're hoping that in the newsletter there will be a report in reference to the Baltimore official trip.

Again, all city officials take all of these official trips.

You sit on other boards and commissions.

Some of them are paid, some of them are not, but there's never an educational component component to the constituents.

So let's do better.

Let's begin to educate the next generation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

8700.

If you can please unmute 8700.

Uh City Clerk Puentes.

So I can shape my comments.

Is this H A or non-agenda public comment for the whole meeting?

For the city council meeting, yes.

There was no HA non-agenda public comment.

No, because it was a special meeting for HA.

Okay.

Um, thank you.

Uh let me just catch my breath here a minute.

Um, had two plans.

We will need to start your time.

All right, thank you.

Um I may not finish on this because I I I don't know.

I'm coming strictly from extemporaneous, and uh, but I think I need to begin to get it out.

Um, Joy Sanyata.

Uh I voted yes for the safe sleeping site, the ordinance.

I just didn't have a small minority who voted yes.

I'll never forget that day.

And here we are, that's what we're where we are now, and I want to tell you that I still believe in our safe sleeping ordinance.

And how do I pivot away from that?

I'm using a lens to look at the world.

It's different for each of us.

That's proven scientifically, and through my lens, I can't see all the ugliness I'm hearing.

I don't I've never witnessed it, yet I respect the people that are sharing their truth.

So I'm in between sort of a rock and a hard place.

I've worked with the homeless for 20 years.

David Ross was my hero, the waterman.

He lived in the trenches, not really, but he lived there as a hero, and he told me a lot, and these people suffer.

They have stories that are beyond belief.

And we transition them from the streets into an enclosed safe sleeping site to make it safe and comfortable and take care of them.

I don't know.

It's a big transition.

Let's talk more later.

What's all?

Thank you, Kathleen Lippett.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, counsel.

As a public drug policy researcher, I have followed drug research and best practices for decades.

The year-to-year data is important, but it is the long-term trending of drug use that are that are the best indicators of a city's policies, whether or not they're preventing harms or contributing to collateral damage.

The report I want to share today with counsel is from the American Society of Addiction Medicine, which followed cannabis policy changes from 2009 to 2018.

The researchers studied pediatric exposures of children under six years old to marijuana, which were stable between 2000 and 2009, but beginning in 2010, the increase of more than 6,000% in pediatric exposures to marijuana was found.

Oral ingestion was found to be responsible for the majority of exposures in young children.

A concurrent prospective cohort found that virtually all of the of the effects were from uh of hospital admissions in the US and Canada for those under 10 years old for severe toxicity from marijuana was from ingestions of edible preparations.

The negative effects on children's health, public health policy adjustments are warranted.

Please, the city should consider the manufacturers that it allows, the smoke shops that continue to sell such edible products without any oversight or regulations, and these are the products that are getting into the hands of children.

They need to be protected.

I hope you will do that.

Thank you very much.

Your time has concluded.

Thank you.

As a public health educator, concerned about the lack of smoke-free policies.

I wanted to share with you a peer review study regarding comprehensive smoke-free laws and cardiovascular disease mortality in U.S.

counties.

This was published in the Journal of American Medical Association, just June of 2026.

The research examined comprehensive smoke-free laws associated associated with long-term changes in cardiovascular disease mortality at the county level in the U.S.

The 2026 county level study found that counties adopting comprehensive smoke-free laws were associated with lower cardiovascular mortality over roughly a decade compared to similar counties that did not adopt such law.

These findings are consistent with decades of research showing that comprehensive smoke-free policies reduce exposure to second-hand smoke and are associated with improvement of cardiovascular health.

The strongest evidence supports smoke-free laws of any kind, tobacco or marijuana, indoors or outdoor public places, without exception, showed an average reduction of about 12 cardiovascular deaths per 100 people in this year.

I think for city councils and local health departments, that we can reduce exposure tobacco and marijuana's secondhand smoke by enacting comprehensive, well-enforced smoke-free ordinances, along with it, doing public health education, and it will improve the lives of all San Diego.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Ernie Casco, if you can please unmute.

Ernie Casco, there you go.

Ernie Casco, Lawyer resident, attention district attorney.

The in concern of Torrey Pine's glide report, ongoing dispute, the dear Ernie email I received from the CP is completely unacceptable.

It fails to address serious allegations made to City Council, Joe Lakava, and San Diego Police Department itself.

It completely ignores the victim and witnesses and the ongoing criminal activity and public safety concerns at Tory Pine's glide report.

My first question is where are the police reports addressing the victim and witnesses?

Residents should never be forced to sign an access pass and waiver under the threat of violence.

I received unanimous letters of support from La Jolla Town Council, La Hoy Shores Association, and the University Community Planning Group to stop this crime.

Yet the core issues remain ignored while problems continue.

Serious injuries and assaults, devastating personal loss to me and my family, poisoned with a biohazard over the commercialization of Tory Pine's glider port, dying with stage four cancer.

I want to see this public park returned to the people and protected from future abuse.

I'm asking City Council for three things.

First, where are the police reports involving victims and witnesses?

Let's see them.

Second, stop the illegal collection of public funding into private accounts with a full city audit of Tory Pine's glide report.

Where is the money going?

Third, restore lawful public access and ensure that no one is forced into signing waivers.

Time to address the victim and witnesses enforce American law, not administrative law, and stand up for a constitutional recreational rights and freedoms.

Thank you, Rooney Casco.

You could my apologies, Ernie.

Did you want to make any final comment?

I did unmute you.

I thought you were done.

My apologies.

Okay.

You're not unmuting, so we will proceed.

Madison, if you can please unmute.

Hello.

Good evening, City Council members.

With the 4th of July holiday approaching, I want to briefly highlight an important public safety concern, drug-impaired driving, especially when it comes to marijuana, because while many people think of impaired driving primarily in terms of alcohol, marijuana can also significantly affect a person's ability to drive safely.

It can slow down reaction time, impair coordination, distort perception of distance and speed, and reduce overall attention.

These effects can make it much more difficult to respond quickly to changing road conditions, pedestrians, or other drivers.

One of the challenges with marijuana impairment is that people often underestimate it.

Unlike alcohol, where there are well-known guidelines and widespread public messaging, many individuals do not fully recognize how long marijuana can impair judgment or how it can affect driving even hours after use.

This can lead to risky decisions, such as driving too soon after consumption, or assuming they are fine to drive when they are not during holiday periods like the 4th of July, when there is increased travel, social gatherings, and celebrations, the risks become even more significant.

More cars on the road combined with impaired driving creates a higher potential for preventable accidents and injuries.

Public awareness and personal responsibility can go a long way in preventing tragedies.

Thank you, and I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday.

Thank you, John Stump.

Hello, John Stump.

I want to talk about three things.

The recent election, I don't think the results in District 4, or in the um controversial districts in New York City, is a reflection that people want socialism.

I think it's more a reflection.

They want change, and they're not, they're dissatisfied with the return they're getting and response they're getting from elected officials, they want change.

Second, in today's newspaper, there was a report about the separation or um retirement of the CEO of community power.

Um community power is very fat.

There's 150 employees who make salaries much greater than the city of San Diego, and community power doesn't do anything, it's just an aggregator, it doesn't generate or distribute.

The council members that are on community power should be looking at the wages paid there.

Uh I need the city clerk to call me concerning the notice of appeals.

There's an appeal scheduled for next week, the seventh, and it completely misunderstands what is being done at an appeal.

The city council is acting as a hearing body as judges, and yet the mayor and the staff who are uh the group being appealed against are being given status in that appeal different than the appellant, so that process either needs to be re-noticed or changed.

Your time has concluded.

Hector, if you can please unmute.

Alright, thanks.

I'm just so disappointed, and uh I'm not surprised at the outcome of the uh California budget, how we didn't get millions of dollars to fix our sewer plant.

Where's our three or four hundred million to have a state of the art sewer plant at the border?

It's a joke, it's the blind leading the blind.

You end up smelling Mexican shit for another decade.

Come on, man.

We need a we need a railroad high speed from Fresno to Bakersfield, funded another couple billion.

Where's our money, man?

Come on, you guys, you gotta be embarrassed.

How could you have your kids sucked that sewer gas growing up?

You know, come on.

What are you gonna tell them?

Why don't they ask the daddy?

Oh, do you smell that daddy?

How come we live here?

What's going on?

Blame blame the Democratic Party.

You can't blame Mexico.

They don't got their shit together.

They're only like building a billion dollar highway above Tijuana.

Which is you live below that thing.

You better be a heavily into the Catholic church with your rosary means at night when the earthquake comes.

That thing going down, man.

And then there's gonna be a flood of sewer gas even more when the sewer breaks again over there.

It's it's it's frankly it's embarrassing.

And don't use the expression America's finest city until we have a in all areas of the city and county, until we have a a sewer plant that can handle Tijuana's uh sewage.

It's just disgusting, man.

It's just it's totally disgusting.

So anyway, the next I'm um I'm looking forward to next year when everyone gets deported.

It's gotta be great.

Round them up, man.

Your time is concluded, Judy String.

If you can please unmute.

Good afternoon, city council.

Thank you for this opportunity to share some thoughts.

Perhaps you saw as I did the press conference on Friday regarding legislation that's been supported by our Senator Katherine Blake Swear as well as assembly person Laurie Davis.

It's SB 936 that would prohibit the sale of nitrous oxide canisters that are larger than eight grams.

Not just oxide joins a group of other products being sold at gas stations, vape stores, smoke shops across our city that are being purchased by our young people in particular.

They join Kratom, which is another product that's illegal to sell, but we're selling it in our city nevertheless, as well as magic mushrooms and hemp products that contain over the limit, and thus we get these high concentrated THC products hiding under hemp products.

SB 936 nitrogen oxide can cause serious damage to people who are inhaling them, which tend to be our young people, particularly brain damage.

It seems to have its main effect neurologically, and in many instances, it has caused death.

If you have an opportunity as a city council to support legislation, and I know that you do when you have lobbyists, I would suggest you add SB 936 to your list.

Primarily sold in our city at gas stations, convenience stores, vape stores, and change the course of the young people's lives who are using them.

Thank you.

Thank you, Natalie Rashke, if you can please unmute.

Hi, Natalie Rashke here.

I agree with I think her name was Maxine.

There should be uh more education within the public and um educating on how the system works and how um the items work and being informed so that when they do have the opportunity to come speak, they understand what they're speaking on and about, and not just calling in and making random random statements.

I'm also uh concerned with this possibility of uh sunbreak ranch with all the things that are going on and these cuts, no backup plan.

I'm really doing some research as Maxine stated with uh Steve Cushman.

Uh now I'm starting to go down a rabbit hole.

Um because if it's not sunbreak ranch, then what is it?

Uh transparency, I think is necessary.

Uh, for me and my family, and it also seems that the county is starting to go this direction as in now reframing homelessness as mental illness and addiction, which I have neither of those, but yet I will still be in this um possible homeless category.

Uh also what's concerning to me is that I was reading our TFH's data and how many people have entered homelessness and how many people exited.

I have came to learn that they do not do statistics past 18 months of a person staying housed or unhoused.

And these are certain things that I think we should be keeping track of because if we're not keeping people housed, then we're just doing this vicious cycle, and it's causing distrust amongst our community and the unhoused people, and they don't want to have any certain.

Becky Rapp, if you can please unmute.

Good evening.

My name is Becky Rapp, and tonight I would like to share with the council what I shared with the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week, as I'm concerned for road safety and the real consequences of reducing staffing and program that support vision zero.

Traffic deaths continue to be a serious public safety issue, and nationally about one third of fatal crashes involved an impaired driver.

That includes not only alcohol but also drugs, including marijuana.

Federal data proves that many drivers involved in fatal crashes test positive for marijuana.

When we reduce staffing for safe for traffic safety, we're not simply cutting back on positions.

We're weakening education, planning, and enforcement efforts that help prevent crashes before they happen.

At the same time, California is advancing assembly bill two six nine seven, which would allow local governments to authorize drive-through marijuana sales at licensed pot shops.

The bill has already passed the assembly and continues to move through the Senate.

This proposal moves us in the opposite direction of Vision Zero.

It's also important to know that there's nothing in the bill prohibiting adults from purchasing pot products while children are sitting in the back seat of the car.

That sends the wrong message to families and undermines our efforts to protect public uh the young people.

If we're serious about eliminating traffic deaths, we should not be reducing Vision Zero resources why policies are being advanced that could increase the convenience of purchasing intoxicating products.

So I urge this council to consider the importance of transportation transportation safety, continue investing in Vision Zero, and publicly oppose AB 2697.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

With that, does the Office of the City Attorney have anything to report out from closed session?

Thank you, Council President.

There's no report out from closed session.

Alright, thank you.

We have one adjournment in memory by council member Moreno.

I respectfully request that the council adjourn today's meeting in memory of Miss Veronica Medina, a committed and influential member of the San Isidro community.

Miss Medina peacefully passed away on June 19, 2026.

Miss Vedita was a natural leader with a kind heart.

Her dedication, compassion, and humility were evident in her work with the San Isidro youth and families as the coordinator of pupil services at the San Isidro School District.

During the many years I had the privilege of knowing her through her community work and our time together in the San Isidro Women's Club, Miss Medina's presence was unforgettable.

Her laughter alone would let you know she was in the room.

The same warmth, grace, and joy guided the way she served others and reflected the hope she carried for the San Isidro community.

She made it her mission to improve the lives of students outside of the classroom.

In doing this, she provided students with the external foundation needed to be able to learn.

This commitment was reflected in her development of the Primero Homeless Program, which aimed to eliminate barriers to education for students and families experiencing homelessness.

Through her work, Miss Medina built a strong network of community partnerships that connected students, families, to mental health services, housing assistance, food resources, and other essential support for daily life.

Throughout her life, Miss Medina was recognized many times for her service and dedication.

Today we honor her contributions and ensure that her impact on the San Isidro youth families and the broader community will never be forgotten.

And with that, we will now adjourn counsel to the regularly scheduled council meeting on Tuesday, June 30th, 2026 at 10 a.m.