All right, good morning.

I will now call the special city council meeting on Monday, July thirteenth, twenty twenty six to order.

Clerk, please call the role.

Council Member Whitburn.

Here.

Council Member Foster.

Council Member Von Wolper.

Present.

Council President Pro Tim Lee.

Here.

Council Member Campillo.

Council Member Moreno.

Council Member Elo Rivera.

And Council President Lacava.

Present.

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

Thank you, Council President.

Alright, thank you, City Clerk.

Quorum is now present.

We will begin this morning with an invocation by Clerk Fuentes, followed with a land acknowledgement and the pledge of allegiance led by Council Member Whitburn.

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

We respectfully acknowledge that the Cubia nation are the original inhabitants of the unceded land, now notice San Diego.

Despite aduring the horrors of genocide and colonization, the COBIA spirit remains unbroken.

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

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

We stand with the COBIA Nation connected to our past and committed to a thriving future.

Please face the flag.

One nation under God.

With that, City 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 today's meeting.

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.

For those that have submitted, we do not have any uh organized presentation submitted for the closed session agenda this morning.

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 up to a maximum of three minutes if there are three or more items.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you for that.

And as a reminder, when you're speaking to items on the agenda, please focus your comments on that item.

Uh, not agenda public comment is where you can speak more freely, anything under the city's purview.

So with that, clerk, please read the closed session items into the record.

Thank you, Council President.

Conference Legal Council exists in litigation pursuant to California Government Code section 54956.9 D1 is SCS1, Sarah Hazelwood versus Board of Trustees of the Cal State University et al.

SCS3, January 22nd, 2024, flooding litigation.

Conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation, initiation of litigation, pursuant to California Government Code Section 54956.9 D4, SCS4, Number of Cases 1, Conference with Legal Council existing litigation pursuant to California Government Code Section 54956.9 D1, SCS, United States of America versus City of San Diego, SES 6, Condon Johnson and Associates, Inc.

et al.

versus Flat Iron West et al.

And SCS 7, Toya Heiza Welch versus City of San Diego.

Thank you, Council President.

Alright, thank you.

Alright, thank you.

And with that, please proceed with public comment.

We have Maximilian Schmidt here in Council Chambers.

If you can please come up to the microphone, you will have three minutes.

You're speaking on all of them.

Um I wanted to say that um I am a human rights activist and also a government dissident, so I wanted to um apologize if my first amendment comes off as direct.

Um the United States District Court, district court is um hearing this um case about Americans of disabilities and SDSU, and I uh honestly believe that in my opinion, um, and with my first amendment right, the United States District Court um should suspend hearing this until um uh until um should not hear any more trials until a state of emergency, a discussion item is created and heard, um, and also public service announcement is made concerning the efficacy of the quote group rituals to read someone's mind because people um are getting harassed and becoming confused and driven to madness across the world, it's become a big problems.

So that's my opinion on that case.

For the um 57 flooding cases, um, where the city of San Diego is getting um sued concerning the rainstorms that happened on um January 22nd, 24.

Um, with my first amendment right, and in my personal opinion, I honestly believe that um the city of San Diego should put um all lawsuits on hold until a simple public service announcement, state of emergency and agenda item is created and heard, um, talking about how the efficacy of the cult group rituals to read people's minds because people are being severely harassed and confused in German to madness, and I believe there's confusion and priorities.

And for the case of the United States of America versus the city of San Diego, um in the Navy lawsuit about the um TC boat channel.

Um I honestly believe with my first amendment that this is a trial being heard by the United States district court.

I honestly uh think as a citizen of San Diego who's witnessed um the severity of the elephant in the room that um the United States district court should pause hearing trials until um a public service announcement state of emergency and um discussion agenda item is heard and created about the efficacy of the cult group rituals to read people's mind because people are getting uh harassed and confused and driven to madness in every city across the world, including San Diego, and I believe that um this could even be trying to cover that up in a way because this is such a big issue that's going on in the world.

Thank you for that concluding statement.

I'm sorry the five-minute time we're going to those participating remotely, starting with 8700.

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

Uh item one, three, five, and seven, please.

You'll have three minutes, please proceed.

Number one, alleged violation of ADA, sidewalks, crosswalks, and roadways are dangerous for all of us.

Yet the disabled are the most vulnerable.

Yet our city has a structural budget deficit that is over 20 years ongoing.

We too are vulnerable.

Where is the money going to come from to help keep our ADA people safe?

And so they too can enjoy our beautiful city.

Number three, the perfect storm flooding.

The evidence against the city is strong, yet I call it a natural disaster, nature versus people.

To settle this, you must show that you care.

Use the spirit of the law and seek the balance of give and take on both sides.

Number five, Navy and the city.

I read the gov info on this matter.

It's about 16 pages of history.

It seems like a long plain test game to me.

The MOA, the memorandum of excuse me, the MOA, the memorandum of agreement, seems to be the strongest support for the city.

The Navy says it costs them 16 million to do the work on the channel.

My direction is to keep fighting, and I pray, I pray the city has the better legal teams.

Number seven, collecting on delinquent parking tickets.

I am concerned about this case.

If it relates to a union tribune article I read not long ago.

Could it mushroom into many other cases?

It seems that the letter of the law will prevail on this one.

Blessings on all of these cases.

Have a beautiful day and love to all.

Thank you.

Next is Blair Beekman.

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

All right.

Blair Beekman, items one, three, uh five, and seven.

Please proceed.

You have three minutes.

Thank you.

Blair Beatman, hi.

Happy Monday.

Um the first item um is about um actions uh for a person uh what you trying to use it or using the disabilities act, asking about sidewalks, crosswalks, and roadways uh in the vicinity of the San Diego State area.

If tech accountability can be any help to help mediate this situation or what the future of this situation can be about, um good luck in that effort.

Uh tech may be around this item, and the policies of tech accountability maybe can be of help in some small way in helping uh decide and understand this issue better.

Good luck uh in such efforts.

Um for item number three, flooding litigation.

Um good luck in working this out together, acknowledging uh cities faults in in this concept and trying to mediate uh a middle ground between everybody.

Good luck in that effort uh for these sad events.

Um for item SC5, CS5.

Um this is uh the Department Navy and uh channel argument with um the city of San Diego that um Joy really described well.

Thank you for her description and her ideas and feelings on the matter.

Um yeah, it kind of made things clear to me.

This is an old argument.

Hopefully, um is the port of San Diego involved with this, or the Port Authority of San Diego, whatever their name is.

Uh, are they involved with this also to help mediate the process?

Um it seems like hopefully something can eventually be resolved with this, and good luck in the process of doing that.

I don't know the depth of the issue.

Um working these things out are important.

Good luck in finding the way to do that.

Possibly the Port Authority can be of help to to mediate and um uh yeah, there's new Port Authority staff.

Good luck in that sort of effort.

Um, with uh, who used to work for the city by the way, so that can be helpful.

Um for number seven, final item.

Um, working on delinquent parking tickets.

Good luck on trying to uh practice concepts of equity with these with this sort of parking uh ticket items, finding new forms of good equity practices.

The work you've done with towing in the downtown area of San Diego and overall, you've done really good work with that.

Thank you.

And that I think um could be a good model for an item such as this and our future parking issues uh parking ticket issues overall.

So uh good luck with this item.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment on closed session.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Now we will adjourn as the city council to convene for a special housing authority meeting to take public comment on the housing authority closed session item.

Clerk, please read the housing authority closed session item into the record.

Thank you, Council President.

Conference legal counsel anticipated litigation initiation of litigation pursuant to California Government Code section 54956.9 D4, special housing authority closed session one number of cases, one.

Alright, with that, for you excuse me, proceed with public comment.

Maximilian Schmidt, if you can please come forward, you'll have one minute to speak on this one item.

Um hi again.

I want to say that um I'm a human rights activist and self-proclaimed government dissident, so um, my approach may seem unorthodox, but um, I honestly believe believe with my first amendment, and in my opinion, that the housing authority um should suspend hearing any um any cases until a public service announcement, state of emergency and agenda discussion item is created and heard concerning the efficacy of the cult group rituals to read people's mind because people are getting confused and being even driven to insanity in every city across the world, and we need to help save human life and souls and um, that's all I have to say.

Concerning that, and um, again, um I am a human rights activist, and I'm going to press for this discussion item to um be heard at City Hall.

Thank you.

Sorry, the five minute time recording those participating remotely.

Eighty seven hundred.

If you can please unmute, you'll have one minute, please proceed.

I know that you're following the Brown Act on that, and I really appreciate the Brown Act and uh how that works for our city government.

So I just wanted to say that.

Blessings on this process of decision making.

I don't know what's involved, but I I just have uh sort of an unsettled feeling inside of me, and I'm hope I hope that that doesn't need to be there.

So again, blessings on this, and uh uh I appreciate all of your work so very much.

Oh, and all of you attorneys, our office of the city attorney, thank you so much for your work.

You're right there, our silent heroes all the time.

So thank you so much.

I love to all.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment on closed session.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

We will now adjourn as the Housing Authority and reconvene at the City Council.

We will now recess into closed session and reconvene council today at two PM or shortly thereafter.

Um, I'm gonna be a little bit more.

Manuel Barrera, I have unmuted you, if you can do a quick mic check.

Yes, we can hear you.

Thank you so much.

The morning session that normally ends at noon ended at one forty-five.

So it's one of the reasons that some of the of my colleagues have not shown up yet.

And because the first thing we're going to do is we're going to hear for potential candidates for appointment to the Commission on Police Practices.

I think it's a courtesy for us to wait until as many council members as possible can actually hear them firsthand.

So that's the one reason I haven't started the meeting, even though we do have a court.

Sorry.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Campbell.

Councilmember Whitburn.

Here.

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Von Wilbur.

Council President Prozem Lee?

Here.

Councilmember Campillo.

Councilmember Moreno.

Councilmember Ela Rivera and Council President LaCava.

Also attending the meeting, our assistant city attorney Leslie Fitzgerald, independent budget analyst Charles Modica, and myself, your city clerk, Deanna Fuentes.

Thank you, Council President.

All right.

Real quickly, are there any comments from the mayor's office, council members, city attorney, independent budget analyst, city clerk?

Not seeing any, we'll move along.

So the clerk will now go over how the public can offer their testimony this afternoon.

Thank you.

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

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

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

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

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

And I would like to note that we did not receive any organized presentation for any of the items on this afternoon's agenda.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

And as a reminder, uh when you're speaking to an item on the agenda, please focus your attention on that agenda item.

We will have uh non-agenda public uh comment at the end of this afternoon session.

So with that, clerk, please introduce item 601.

Thank you.

Item 601 is the consideration of appointments to the commission on police practices.

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

All right, thank you.

So prior to taking public comment per council policy zero-13, we will hear from each candidate, and each council member will have an opportunity to ask questions.

Following that, the city clerk will review the process for balloting prior to council members voting to fill the vacant seats.

Candidates that are listed on the staff report for this item will be called up by the clerk by Clerk Fuentes by name, who will also name which categories they are a candidate for.

We will now allow each candidate to make a two-minute presentation regarding their nomination.

Clerk, please proceed.

Thank you, Council President.

We will be taking the candidates in alphabetical order by first name, and each candidate as mentioned will have two minutes, which I will time, and you can see on the timer there.

We will begin with candidate Ariane Dixit, who has been nominated for the at-large and youth category seats.

Please come up to the podium.

You will have two minutes.

And just for meeting management, if I can have Crystal Van Dijk, Francisco Peralta, Vargas, Herm Hemant Kumar, D.

Chatrala, James Tyrell, Ruland, Jesus Martín, Gallegos, Munoz, Kelly Breshner, Michael Alan Falken, Scott Rodriguez, and Rashida Lamar Hamid.

Please all come up to the front row so that you can come up to the podium a little bit easier.

You will have two minutes.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Good evening, y'all.

My name is Arian Dixit.

I am a student at UC San Diego, as well as a resident of district one.

I'm here tonight to ask you all for your appointment to the youth seat as well as the at-large seat for the commission of police practices, mainly because right now, in the past couple of years, I've been a part of various organizations supporting civil liberties and police accountability in San Diego.

In the past, I was on the police accountability board for the UC San Diego Police Department, where I used to perform many of the same kinds of activities that the commission does.

I am intending to represent youth from diverse and marginalized populations from the city at as best as I can because I'm also the president and co-founder of the student civil liberties union that focuses work in districts one, three, eight, and nine, respectively.

Furthermore, I have a proven track record with engaging youth in order to get them to care about and also work with institutions such as the police and also understand whole police accountable.

I've done so with youth groups, have done so with AAPI groups through the Asian Pacific Student Alliance in the city and through the SDAPI coalition.

So I think right now, in general, I'm up I'm applying and trying to get this nomination, mainly because I'm intending to bring a sense of a greater accountability to the police system, but also to ensure that the institutions that we have are following in line with what voters wanted when they voted in Measure B.

Um I have also received the nomination from the Commission and Police Practices itself to get the seat for the youth uh youth appointment itself, and I would really uh appreciate all of your consideration for the seat tonight.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Crystal Van Dyke, if you can please come up to the podium.

Crystal Van Dyck.

All right.

Next we will go to Francisco Peralta Vargas.

City Clerk, Council President, Council members.

My name is Francisco Peralta.

The reason why I'm here today is because I'm seeking your support to serve at the Commission of Police Practices.

I have lived in call San Diego, my home for the past 26 years, and I have seen and lived many perspectives.

I lived in District 4 for seven years.

I attended Memorial Academy, District 8.

I also attended San Diego High School, San Diego City College.

I there earned a scholarship to attend UC San Diego where I landed and when I finished my bachelor's degree.

And later, most importantly, I had an opportunity and a privilege to work for the city of San Diego.

I landed an opportunity to be a community representative for Council District 9.

I was representing City Heights neighborhoods.

And more than anything, I actually got to see a lot of the challenges that the city faces every day.

It's complicated.

You have a complicated job, even you know, uh balancing a budget every year is very complicated.

So I got to see an I got an opportunity to see what the what that looks like in real life every day.

Like I mentioned at the beginning, I here seeking your support to serve in the commission.

I think between my lift experience, between my professional experience, I think I can be a good addition to the commission.

So once again, I hope I can get your support.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

We'll now hear from candidate Hemant Kumar D.

Tatralam, who has been nominated for the Council District 2 seat and the at-large category.

Please come up to the podium.

You'll have two minutes, please proceed.

Good afternoon, uh member of City Council.

Uh my name is Jaiman Chatrala, and I need to serve on the commission on police practice.

My role is to help and strengthen the trust between the community and the police department by providing independent oversight, encouraging transparency and listening to community concerns.

I lived in Point Loma for 30 years.

I appreciate the opportunity to serve our city.

And I look forward to working collaboratively with the city council, the police department, and our community to promote fairness, accountability, and the public trust.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh my name is Jim Rowan, and I've been a resident of San Diego since 2006.

I've lived in Paradise Hills in Southeast San Diego for all 20 of those years.

Worked in as a senior copywriter for various agencies and enterprises, including the Viejas Band of Cumia Indians.

And during that time, I was also involved in art and writing communities.

I served on the board of directors for San Diego Writers Inc.

and was a member of the Golandrina Arts Collective in Barrio Logan up until the pandemic shut that down.

I consider myself to be service-oriented, community-minded, and enthusiastic collaborator.

And why now is because I've now worked for myself full time and have uh in my daughter recently graduated college, so I have the opportunity to honor a full-time commitment.

I also want to mention I'm a veteran of the US Navy, which is what brought me to San Diego in 1986.

I served on the USS Meyer Court when I was stationed at Naval Station in 32nd Street.

My connection goes back even further into the 60s when my father was did a swift boat training in uh North Iowa before shipping out to Vietnam.

And at the risk of oversharing all that I was conceived in Imperial Beach during that time.

You know, and there's a wander into too much information.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll now hear from candidate Jesus Martín Gallegos Munoz, who has been nominated for the Council District 8 seat and the at large category.

Please come up to the podium.

Jesus Martín Gallegos Munoz.

Okay.

Moving on, we will hear from candidate Kelly Brusher, who has been nominated for the at large and youth category.

Please come up to the podium.

You'll have two minutes.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Kelly Brusher.

I am a graduate student at UC San Diego.

I just finished my second or my first year going into my second year of obtaining a master's in public policy with an emphasis in inequality and social justice.

After I graduate, I plan to work with and for the police in creating initiatives and policies that emphasize both trust and communication by promoting respect and transparency between police, both police and civilians.

Before coming to San Diego, I received my undergraduate degree from UC Santa Barbara in sociology with an emphasis in policing.

My research there consisted of watching videos pre-body cam videos of police interactions between civilians and the police and understanding the ways that interactions happen, creating a code book of policies and tendencies that police have when dealing with different groups of people.

I also read multiple transcriptions dealing with interviews between civilians sending complaints to Seattle PD and the responding and subsequent interviews that took place between the officers and that and those civilians.

So I would love to have the position to be on this commission because although I have my research background, I really want to be able to help the police and to be able to create a more trusting and respectful atmosphere between both police and civilians.

And I think that being able to have this hands-on experience would be very beneficial for me.

I'm also a newer resident of San Diego, and I would love the opportunity to be able to participate more in the proceedings of this city.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

We will now hear from Michael Allen Falken.

Michael Allen Falcon has been nominated for the at large category.

Please come up to the podium.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, members of the City Council, for your time today, as well as your consideration for my application.

Over the past 20 years, I've spent most of my time focused on building a career in business.

I've traveled all over the United States and lived quite a few different places.

And until I placed uh kind of my roots here in San Diego, I didn't realize the need to serve in the community.

And since then I've actually started looking actively for ways to reach out and give back since I moved so much before I really started to see the impact on community members and so forth.

So the reason for uh for me asking to be on this advisory board is because I would certainly like the opportunity to be able to listen and give thoughtful feedback and a way to be able to help make the place better our city safer and a better place.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have candidate Scott Rodriguez, who has been nominated for the low and moderate income category.

Please come up to the podium.

Scott Rodriguez.

Moving on.

We have candidate Rashida Lamar Hamid, who has been nominated for the at large and low moderate income category.

Please begin your comments when ready.

My name is great day, City Council, and thanks so much for your time.

My name is Rashida Hamid, and I am submitting my interest in serving on the commission on police Practices.

I'm a lifelong resident of San Diego's 4th district, and I'm the founder of the first community empowerment center in District 4.

I've dedicated my entire life to strengthening relationships, restoring trust, and creating safer, healthier communities.

Through my work, I've built long-standing trusted relationships and created safer, healthier communities, with real residents and community leaders as well as service providers and law enforcement, which allows me to understand the perspectives and concerns of all those involved.

I'm licensed in restorative practices as a practitioner and trainer that specializes in conflict resolution, de-escalation, and restorative dialogues.

My work focuses on helping individuals, individuals and institutions navigate difficult situations with accountability, empathy, and practical solutions.

I have also partnered with law enforcement in the past to help bridge gaps between officers and the communities that they serve, demonstrating that meaningful collaboration is possible when people are willing to listen and learn from one another.

If I'm selected, I will bring an unbiased, community-centered perspective, grounded in fairness, integrity, and restorative principles.

I believe every incident presents an opportunity to evaluate not only what occurred, but also whether a situation could have been de-escalated, handled differently, or resolved in a way that strengthens public trust while supporting officer safety and accountability.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we'll go to our virtual uh participant of Emanuel Barrera.

If you can please unmute Emanuel, and you'll have two minutes.

Actually, if you can hold on one second, can we get the timer up so you can see his two minutes?

We're gonna put a timer up on the screen so that you can see uh your timer and manage your time of two minutes.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Uh thank you to city council for um allowing me to join virtually.

I apologize for not being there in person, but I've had a few work things come up uh this morning.

Um but my name is Manuel Brown.

I live at live in San Diego for almost seven years, uh entirely in District 3, and while I am not originally from here, I do believe that made it my adopted home.

Uh I currently work in marketing uh and analytics, but I did my undergrad at University of California Santa Cruz, and I did my grad school at the University of San Francisco.

Um schools really put a lot of emphasis on social justice and community service and just trying to give back.

Um I think what I would like to bring to this commission is exactly that.

I I love it here.

Um I genuinely think of this place as my home, my adopted home, and I would really like to strengthen um bring the talents that I believe I do have, which mostly being objective, um leveraging my legal cities background to kind of bring that into this commission and provide a fair and unbiased view into the review between the interactions between the community and the San Diego PD.

Um I really believe in the core of this mission, of the core mission of this commission, and I have believed so since I have a first voter on it of Roger as any resident.

Um, I would like to humbly be considered for this commission, and I welcome any and all questions or any um any other points.

Uh, but thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude the presentations from the nominees for this seat.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

And you did verify that the three, I think that were absent, um, were not online.

They are not online.

Okay, thank you for confirming that.

So now we'll go to the council members for any questions.

Please note per council policy zero-13.

This is only an opportunity to ask questions of the candidates.

Any comments will be taken prior to balloting.

So, councilmember Von Wilpert, any questions for the candidates?

Yes, uh, thank you.

I have a a question for every candidate to answer.

The same question.

Um, when we enacted the implementing law for the commission on priest practices, section 26.1106 C4 states that commissioners need to have the ability to act impartially and independently.

And we will be appointing you to be fact-finders and adjudicate cases, adjudicate complaints against the police, adjudicate uh complaints police might have against civilians, and so you'll be acting in the role of a judge.

And we all have experience in the world, but we have to come in there with a neutral fact-finding ability.

So I'd like to know from each person how you plan to be neutral and unbiased when each case comes to you.

So why don't we start with you?

Um, Francisco, did I remember correctly, and then just kind of go down the line.

Being impartial, I would say that it's the first step to build that bridge between public institutions and the community.

So there's there's absolutely no other way around.

It's just we have to listen to the facts, and like you mentioned, we're gonna be a judge to be able to make decisions, you know, for the betterment of the community as a whole, not for an individual perspective.

So I think that's that's the only way about it.

My apologies for pointing.

Iman.

So I was uh sureing as a jury a couple of times, and I've been through there.

So I have to be honest and look at the fact.

Whatever the fact is, I have to go according to the fact.

I don't look at anything else.

Thank you.

Great day.

Uh as a licensed restorative practitioner, my date my job daily is conflict resolution, uh, whether that's in the jail setting, in the school setting, or in the community setting.

And the only way to get to a resolution is to only speak and deal with facts.

So I'm a fact-finder, I'm an investigator, I'm all of those things, but mainly I'm impartial.

Good afternoon.

So, in my current job, um, I'm a director for a restaurant group, and um I spot I find a lot of times I have to go in and help deal with um HR issues to listen to this stuff, and and a lot of times I I have to teach my managers how to do it.

And the most important thing I've learned over the years is listen first, get all the facts, don't start making collusion conclusions until you've actually listened to everything, um, and be fair, and then at that point, when you're done, then you make what's best for well for then it was the company and and what's right for the for the I'm sorry, for the company as well as for the employee and follow the rules.

So thank you.

So for right now, most of my time is spent doing research.

Um, and so every single thing that I'm able to look at, I have to find it, figure out the evidence behind it, and find every possible aspect that could counter what I'm looking at.

So I think that it's very important to spread everything out, look at everything, and take into account every perspective that could have a point and could have a possibility to influence the facts that were given.

Um with my research experience, I spent an extensive amount of time doing just that, just looking at the words on the paper, paying no attention to tonality, and then being able to take something like a transcript or uh an audio transcript, and then use each way that each side was able to communicate their part, take into account all of that, and then make a decision.

I think it's very important to look at the bigger picture and then take each part of that bigger picture, create smaller pictures, and use that to be as impartial and transparent as possible when making decisions such as this.

Thank you for the question.

Before moving to San Diego, I was an English teacher, and the backbone of that is critical thinking.

And any kind of writing assignment or analysis that we would do, you have to be able to clear-eyed look at what the text is, what the problem is, what the circumstances, and in order to bring an analysis that's free of bias and free of prejudice, um, put those facts together before you can reach a conclusion about how you think and feel and understand the material.

And I see that being no different in this case.

I wish it worked that way on social media more, but that's not the way it goes.

Thank you.

And then sorry.

Hello.

To me, I think that in the past I've served on the police accountability board for UC San Diego Police Department.

So that's something that is that comes naturally with the position.

Furthermore, a big part of working in research in my own like major at UC San Diego, which is cognitive science, is understanding what the facts are before making a conclusion.

You know, we can have a hypothesis.

We can have an idea of like where we're going, but we need to clearly understand what all the facts are.

Find out all what points go for and against an argument in order to finally make that case.

So I think that to me, fact-finding comes very naturally.

Also understanding where all these facts are coming from, so making sure we have a clear-cut procedure for investigating every single complaint and doing it fairly because we want to increase the trust in these systems rather than diminish them through manners which like cut corners in some way.

That's that's how I see it.

Thank you.

Emanuel Barrera, if you can please unmute.

Yes, uh, thank you.

I appreciate the question.

Um I would say that I would like to point to um both my professional background as well as my scholastic background.

Um, professionally, I work with a ton of data.

Um, it's I I don't really go in when I start doing analysis, I don't go in with any preconceived notion.

I kind of let the facts or in my case the numbers kind of tell me the story and I go from there.

I like to think I have a pretty strong uh grasp on this kind of removing bias and just looking at things objectively, um, as well as uh I did point out my background uh as a legal studies major um or undergrad just because um I think that really that and combined with my psychology undergrad really gave me a baseline for um looking at things through a set of rules uh and and being objective even if things uh feel like they should go a certain way or if they shouldn't.

I'd like to think that I um that training has provided a solid blueprint for me.

Um, and I'm I'm pretty strong with that.

Thank you.

That's it.

Okay.

Um I don't see any other council members on the lights.

Councilmember Woodburg.

Thank you, Council President.

I just have one question for uh Mr.

Barrera, who is on the line.

Uh Mr.

Burr, you're a constituent of mine, uh, congratulations on getting the um recommendation of the commission on police practices.

You did at one point reach out to my office uh with concerns about the flock contract and uh automated license plate readers, um, you know, and that's not inconsistent with an ability to evaluate a police matter uh independently, but I did want to at least ask you the question uh should a case come in front of you that involves the use of ALPRs in a policing situation, would you be able to um uh fairly assess the facts uh and render judgment based on those facts?

Uh, Council, excuse me, uh Councilmember Woodburn.

I appreciate the question as well.

Um I think so.

I my personal opinion on whether blockhamers should be or should or should not be in place, would not interfere with my um working on a case in which they are in place.

You know, they are here, they're currently being used by the city, and I I don't see any reason to um let that cloud my judgment on a particular case.

Thank you, Mr.

Barrera.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you for that question.

Um again, I don't see any movement from my colleagues.

So the clerk will now, yes, the clerk will now take public testimony prior to the council members' comments and balloting.

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

Thank you, Council President.

We have speakers, Armando Flores.

If you can please come forward.

After that, we'll be Maximilian Schmidt, allegedly Audra, and Yusuf Miller.

Armando, you'll have one minute.

Please proceed.

Good afternoon, Council President and members of the council.

I'm Armando Flores, Vice Chair of Strategic Planning for the Commission on Police Practices, speaking on behalf of Chair Benitas and the full commission.

With thanks to former Chair Rodriguez who led this effort along with Doug Case, who uh ran the who is the chair of the recruitment committee.

For the first time, the CPP carried out its own recruitment and nomination process from start to finish.

When the commission has a voice in who serves on it, the community has a voice in its own oversight.

Twenty-one people applied.

Every eligible candidate was interviewed and scored on the same rubric.

And every nominee before you scored well above the bar.

We are grateful to all who applied advancing these six that we put forward diminishes no one.

We nominate Emmanuel Barreta, Kelly Brucher, Harry and Dixit, Michael Falcon, James Uland, and Francisco Prado Vargas.

Together they bring the neighborhood's generations and professional experience.

This commission was built to reflect.

The final word belongs to the council as it should.

We respectfully urge your serious consideration.

Maximilian Schmidt, if you can please come forward.

And Yusuf Miller, if you can please come up to the front of the room as well, so that you will be speaking soon.

Um hi.

I just wanted to share my story of um being abused by the police.

I um I had the problem of trusting the police too much, where what happened was I was in my apartment and I lost my job and was spending a lot of time alone in my apartment, and my walls are very thin, and I could hear my neighbors uh reading my mind.

So I filed a police report um in the police station, and the police ended up um saying that I was mentally ill and taking me to a psych ward.

And in the psych ward, they actually abused me by reading my mind and held me involuntarily, and um called me mentally ill and accused me of being mentally ill.

And I was actually being harassed by my neighbors.

They were um there they the internet calls it like um other people who experience it.

They call it like um play-by-play.

It's it's like a sports broadcaster saying what you're doing.

Like my neighbors could like see through my eyes through quote quote virtuals, and saying what I was doing.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Allegedly, Audra.

Sorry, I find it interesting as I was uh setting everything up.

Um, you know, your staff came and told these individuals there would be a uh criminal background check after uh this whole process.

I'm wondering if that's putting the cart before the horse, and maybe we should do that prior.

Uh, because then what do you do when that we have to come back here and repeat this business?

And Stephen, I find it so hypocritical that you're actually asking if somebody's going to have some kind of sound judgment, um, or if they're gonna be biased if they have a you know opinion about flock when Teresa Smith is your friend, and people are dying in Tent City, who are your constituents, and you just turn a blind eye, like you are now.

Um, and this is sad because this doesn't give anybody authority.

Unfortunately, all these people are good candidates, but when there's no authority to enforce things, all they're gonna be doing is a bunch of busy work to make it seem like there's accountability with the law enforcement, and that is extremely unfortunate and a waste of their time.

Youssef Miller.

Good afternoon.

My name is Yusuf Miller.

I'm with the uh Saving Lives in Custody California and police accountability violence accountability coalition, and I want you to approve everyone to put them on and give us a full compliment of the CPP.

Us as old San Diego has had a long history of of police uh of violence against the community, all coming to a head in the 1980s when we had the issue or the case of Sagan Penn, which inspired us to have an oversight for policing in San Diego County, and that's it evolved to what it is today.

The only way it can function properly is if it has a full complement of people on those empty seats.

We I hear a lot of wonderful uh applicants that are here behind me, and I believe they will all do a great job.

And my my ask and my uh uh hope is that you approve them all.

The youth uh compliment, the every compliment that is behind me because we need to get to work and do some positive things and represent the people of the community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry, the five-minute timer.

Going to those participating remotely.

We currently have five speakers in the queue, starting with Hector.

If you can please unmute, thanks.

I would recommend the lady from District 4.

She seems to have a uh just a really good perspective of what's going on in San Diego.

I don't know if you guys can approve them all.

That sounds good to me too, but I don't know if you're looking for one or more than one, but uh due to the recent things, the one shooting of the guy.

Yeah, we're still like forming the committees and stuff, but you can approve them all, but I would lean towards a lady from District 4.

Thank you.

Thank you, Francine Maxwell.

If you can please unmute Francine Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego, given that we have multiple empty seats and some people that are going to expire.

They were um acknowledged last meeting.

So I support full um panel that has been presented here tonight.

Very supportive of Sister Hamid, because as she said, fair, impartial, nothing but the facts.

And again, we need people to stay on topic, and it's interesting that the council president said people have to stay on topic.

Talking about mind reading for every agenda item is absolutely his right, but if this is about the CPP, then everything should have been about the CPP.

So let's not be performative.

Again, the CPP needs people in the seats so that they can understand what is going on in San Diego and help build the bridge that we want from the community to the San Diego Police Department.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Blair Beekman, thank you.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

Uh, we can all have our own ideas and feelings on things uh to bring them to this sort of body and and to work towards a neutral space, uh, is an important uh concept to understand and balance.

Uh good luck in that effort.

There's a lot that's going on with Flock.

We could be um in the next year and a half.

Uh the city of Oakland is given a Blair.

Blair, this is about the CPP appointments.

Please focus on that.

Not agenda will come up later in the day.

You can unmute.

I'm doing a very good job.

You missed the point of my my speaking on this subject.

We have to learn how to be accepting of different conversations that are taking place uh in working towards a neutrality.

Good luck in those efforts.

Uh, with that said, um, I wanted to um also offer the idea that I hope uh all persons here today were considering the future and the importance of tech accountability and what that really means and what that means in working towards it's a community participation process.

Um, that it's important, it's an important uh concept of community sustainability.

Uh accountable policies are important for our future.

Good luck in that effort.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Tony.

Tony, please unmute.

I can't unmute for you.

I will have to move on to the next caller.

Yes, please proceed.

Yes, thank you.

Um, I just wanted to back the words of uh Francine and uh Yusuf Miller.

Um, I love what you said Miller said.

I agree with all the points that he made.

And I also wanted to start by um giving my own endorsement of uh the very first speaker today who was representing the student civil law uh union.

Um I've seen him and privacy advisory board meetings.

Um I've seen him at uh budget cut meetings.

Um he's super involved in the civic process, um, and he has a lot of experience.

I also really love um you dropped 8700.

If you can please unmute star six, there you go.

I'm sorry, one minute.

Yes, it's one minute.

Please proceed.

Okay, sorry about that.

Uh yes to the CPP appointment.

Uh, great batch of of people.

Um I will I'm gonna speak directly to the clients and the candidates in a minute.

But I do want to say this I do have a lot of concern over the person that involves flock.

Uh I think that's a serious concern, Councilmember Whitburn.

Uh okay.

So I have two recommendations for the candidates.

Um, number one, so if you can please listen up.

If you are not fully knowledgeable of it yet, I recommend you review qualified immunity.

It's judicially created legal rule that was established by the US Supreme Court, and this uh involves uh SDPD.

And then the other thing is number two, a dear candidate.

These are my words on the human side of your work.

We are all biased, we are all flawed, we are all wounded, and we all bleed red.

So I have to do that.

Your time has concluded your time has concluded, and so has all the public comments for this item.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

With that, we will now go to council member comments, if any.

Councilmember Elo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

I just want to say thank you for all to all the applicants for putting your name forward and your interest in in serving in this capacity.

Um regardless of how the uh the process plays out.

I do know that you already spent a lot of time uh to get to this point uh and the interest that you've shown.

I appreciate it is a very important position, and I very much respect that you all threw your name in the hat and um especially because it's such a public um process.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

We'll go next to Council Member Whitburn.

Thank you, Council President.

Since uh Ms.

Sonyata uh um uh brought it up.

Uh Ms.

Sanyata, I am going to support Mr.

Barrera as one of the candidates I vote for.

He and I have different perspectives on ALPRs, but I was uh I've had to give a good answer about his ability to look at things subjectively.

So that's what we're looking for.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Whitburn.

Um don't see anybody else on the lights.

So I'll just uh close by expressing my thanks to the candidates for the extra work you did and for those of you that had the opportunity to come down, certainly those who uh may have had a job or at school, and you know that's not a strike against you, but thank you for your willingness uh to participate.

And uh you do realize how much work there is at CPP.

I hopefully they briefed you on that.

I think your research probably gives you an indication of of once they really get up and running um that the commission on police practices will be a real definition of public service.

Um I want to thank Heidi of the Council President's Office for all the work and bringing the candidates together.

Thank you to the Commission on Police Practices for actually getting organized this year uh and making recommendations.

I think that's very helpful to the council members.

So thank you for that.

So there's probably somebody else I should thank, but uh it's it's a complicated process and I appreciate everybody's engagement uh to take the work.

There's Heidi.

So all right.

With that, clerk, uh, please outline the balloting procedures.

Thank you, Council President.

The procedures will be as follows.

We will be distributing the first ballot for districts two and district eight representatives as well as the youth category.

We will then distribute a second ballot for the other categories as well, the low and moderate income category with term ending June 30th, 2027, then a third ballot for low and moderate income category with a new term of July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2028, and then a fourth ballot for the at-large category.

So thank you for your patience as we do all of the balloting.

Once a candidate receives five affirmative votes, that seat will be filled.

I will announce the votes for each candidate at the end of each round of balloting.

Please note if no one receives at least five votes in the first round of balloting, the candidate with the lowest number of votes shall be dropped from the next round of balloting unless the lowest vote getters are in a tie situation.

This procedure includes candidates who have received zero votes.

New ballots will be distributed, and a new round of voting will be taken.

My staff has distributed paper ballots to the council members for that first round of balloting for districts two, eight, and youth category.

This will likely be somewhat of a time-intensive process with some causes pauses between submissions and tallying.

So we appreciate your patience.

Council members, please vote.

Once you have concluded voting, please fold in half and lift your ballot so staff knows that they can collect your ballot.

For the district eight representative, it is for a new term starting on July 1st, 2026 and ending on June 30th, 2028.

And for the youth category, which you can select two candidates to fill the remainder of the term ending on June 30th, 2027.

We'll just take a slight pause to tabulate the Mm-Mi-Mirium, I will now announce the results of the first round of balloting.

District two.

Hemant Kumar D.

Chatrala received zero votes.

Received nine votes.

Youth seat, Kelly Brusher received seven votes, and Ariane Dixit received five affirmative votes.

All right.

Thank you for that.

Given the outcome, let's move on to the next ballot.

Thank you.

The second round of balloting is for low and moderate income.

Staff is distributing the ballots to all council members.

Please select two nominees to fill the remainder of the term ending on June thirtieth, twenty twenty seven.

Once complete, please hold up your ballot.

We'll fold it in half and hold up your ballot so that staff member from my office can collect the ballot from you for a tabulation.

Yes, to clarify, it is two seats, uh, two nominees to fill the remainder of the term ending on June thirtieth, twenty twenty-seven.

So you select two from the list.

And then following this, there will be a separate ballot for the term ending June 30th, 2028, correct?

Correct.

So we're going to do in the 27, which is the shorter term, and then we will circle back, do the 2028.

Slightly longer term.

So just to recap again from the uh beginning instructions, there will be four rounds of balloting.

One for the twenty twenty-seven term for low and moderate, one for the twenty twenty-eight term for the low and moderate, and then for the at large as well.

These are not consecutive terms, these are concurrent terms.

We have to nominate four people.

And then once we get done with that, then we'll come back and do a separate ballot for the twenty twenty-eight seat.

Okay.

Okay.

Yes.

Got it.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Deanna said yes.

City clerk said yes.

I will announce the results of the first round of balloting for Emanuel Barrera received two votes.

Francisco.

I'm sorry, Rashida Lamar Hamid received three votes.

Scott Rodriguez received five votes.

James Tyler Rulin received four votes.

Congratulations to Scott Rodriguez as filling one of the vacant seats, another vacant seat for this term ending on June thirtieth, twenty twenty seventh remains vacant.

Would you like to proceed with another round of balloting?

Yes, let's proceed with another round.

Since he has already been appointed, and you may vote for one.

Again, as a reminder to cross off Scott Rodriguez.

Would you like me to proceed to low and moderate income with a term ending in June thirtieth, twenty twenty eight?

You will be getting a new ballot for the new term ending date from staff.

Please do not use the twenty twenty seven term ending dates.

I will now announce the results of the first round of balloting.

Emanuel Barrera received four votes.

Rashida Lamar Hamid received four votes.

Francisco Peralta Vargas received five votes.

Congratulations to Francisco Peralta Vargas for being appointed to a term ending in June thirtieth, twenty twenty-eight.

Yes, please.

Please be sure to cross off Scott Rodriguez, James Tyler Rulin, and Francisco Peralta Vargas on your ballots.

And then please let us know when you have concluded your vote.

I mean, you already have them.

As you know, please be sure to cross off.

Scott Rodriguez, James Tyler Roland, and Francisco Peralta Vargas.

Thank you.

We receive Emmanuel Barrera received two votes and Rashida Lamar Hamid receive five votes.

Rashida Lamar Hamid is appointed to the low and moderate income appointment with a term ending on June thirtieth, twenty twenty eight.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

Let's move on to the next ballot.

The next ballot is for the at large appointment.

There are several names that you will need to cross off because they were just appointed to other seats this afternoon.

Callie Brushner Brusher, sorry.

Those were all appointed to previous seats in the previous rounds.

Was appointed, so him as well.

So the options are Emanuel Barrera, Michael Allen Falcon, and Herm Hemant Kumar D.

Chatral, as well as Crystal Van Dyck.

Two open seats, please vote for two.

And the terms are starting on July first, twenty twenty six and ending on June thirtieth, twenty twenty eight.

I will now announce the results of the first round of balloting for the at large appointment term ending June thirtieth, twenty twenty eight.

Emanuel Barrera received three votes.

Hemond Kamar Di Chatral received zero votes.

Michael Allen Falken received six votes, and Crystal Van Dijk received three votes.

Congratulations to Michael Allen Falcon, who has been appointed to one seat in the at large appointment.

All right, let's go to a second ballot.

Please be sure to um remove those that we had before, which is Kellen Bushner, Arian Dixet, Jesus Martin Gallegos Munoz, Michael Allen Falcon, who was appointed in the previous round, Rashida Lamar Hamid, and Francisco Peral Tavargas.

Additionally, you may also drop the lowest vote getter, which was Hemant Kumar Chatral from future balloting in line with Council Policy Thirteen.

Nobody received five affirmative votes, so no appointment has been, no action has been taken.

Since we saw a change, let's do a third round, see if it makes a difference.

Sure.

The results of the last one were two for Emanuel Barrera and four for Crystal Van Dyke.

As a reminder, the two left on the ballot are Emanuel Barrera and Crystal Van Dyke.

All others have been removed from the ballot at this point.

Okay, that's the same boat cut on if it's the same people voting, but I'm not inclined to do a fourth one unless the council would like to do.

Okay, give it one more try.

Another round will go through.

Staff will just you have them as noted, Emanuel Barrera and Crystal Van Dyke.

Okay.

Okay.

She is now appointed to the at large appointment with a term ending on June thirtieth, twenty twenty-eight.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

Do you want to read off the list of all?

Do you want me to?

I can.

You can.

All right.

As a recap, uh, thank you to all the candidates for participating, putting your name up there, filling out the forms, showing up today.

So uh Jesus Martin Gallegos Munos is the new representative for district in the district eight seat.

Appointed to the at-large category are Michael Alan Falcon and Crystal Van Dyck, appointed to the low and moderate income category, ending in twenty twenty seven.

Yes, Scott Rodriguez and James Torrell Rulan for the low and moderate income category for the seats ending in 2028.

Rashida Lamar Hamid and for Francisco Peralta Vargas.

And for the two seats in the youth category, Kelly Brucher and Ariane Dixit have been appointed, and my apologies to both of you.

I'm sure I pronounced that incorrectly.

So again, thank you to all, even those who were not uh appointed today.

Um you certainly are welcome to either follow the um CPP seats.

Seats do become available, people do leave.

Are they they're gonna do the background check first?

Yes, background check is concluded after this.

Once the background check is completed, my office will contact you for a swearing in.

As long as everything's good with the background check.

All right, again, thank you to everybody that uh participated, and thank you to everybody that had the patience to watch the balloting procedures.

So, unless there's no other comments or questions, we will clerk please introduce item 602.

Item 602 is to amend sole source contract for open gov.

Six votes are required pursuant to charter section 99.

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

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

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you.

So we'll give staff a chance to settle in.

Now that you're settled in, please introduce yourselves for the record and let us know how much time you need for your presentation.

Good afternoon, Council President La Cava and members of the council.

My name is Patrick Auch.

I'm a deputy director with the Department of Transport with the Transportation Department, and with me today is Alex Ubaldo, Deputy Director of the Transportation Department as well.

Our presentation takes about five minutes.

All right, when you're ready.

The item before you today request council authority to amend the city's existing contract with OpenGov, the provider of the city's cartograph asset management software.

We will start our presentation with a contract overview, provide some background on what cardigraph is and what services it provides before we outline why the software is so important for the city and why a sole source amendment was recommended.

The department has used OpenGov's cartograph software under the current five-year sole source agreement since 2021.

The current contract has a value of approximately $540,000 and is scheduled to expire on September 8, 2026.

The proposed amendment would expand would extend the existing agreement for an additional five years through September 2031 and add up to approximately 659,000 for years six through 10.

This would bring the total contract value over the full 10-year period to approximately 1.2 million dollars.

Funding for the service is already included in the department's ongoing fiscal year 27 budget with approximately 119,000 budgeted for the current fiscal year.

This ongoing base budget allocation would have to be amended uh to account for any of the increases due to inflation.

With this, I hand it over to Alex.

Thank you, Patrick.

So cartograph is a transportation department's specialized payment asset management system.

Cardiograph complements the city's SAP enterprise system, and that it provides specialized payment engineering capabilities that SAP is not designed to perform.

What it does is it uses the payment condition data collected through the city, and cardiograph calculates the payment condition index, the PCI, and models how the payment conditions are expected to deteriorate over time.

These engineering analysis helps us determine the right treatment at the right time.

It allows us to maximize payment life and make the best use of limited funding for payment maintenance.

The system also supports the development of our annual slurry seal and rehabilitation programs, as well as the long-range payment investment strategies.

And finally, using specialized payment management software is consistent with the industry practice.

Many cities, counties, and state DOTs use dedicated payment management platforms because enterprise systems like SAP aren't designed to perform payment engineering analysis, such as PCI calculations, deterioration modeling, and lifestyle lifecycle forecasting.

And why is this important?

So cartograph is as much more than a database.

It serves as the engineering backbone of the city's payment management program.

It maintains all of our pavement inventory, historical condition assessments, maintenance history, and provides the analytical tools we use to support the budget development and long-term capital planning.

The platform is also integrated with uh the city's GIS environment and the public-facing application such as Streets SD.gov, allowing the residents to view payment conditions and the planned projects, the planned paving projects.

One of the key reasons we are recommending continuation of the current platform is timing.

The city's beginning its payment condition assessment this year, during which uh every street will be evaluated and updated PCI values will be loaded into cartograph.

This is one of the most data-intensive engineering uh efforts that we perform.

So transitioning to a new payment management platform during that same year would require simultaneous migrating of historical data, configuring and integrating a new system, rebuilding some of the deterioration models and the treatment decision trees that we programmed into cardigraph, as well as uh retraining staff with the new platform.

So that would introduce significant operational risk during one of the city's most critical payment management efforts.

Um, continuing with cardograph would avoid the cost, time and disruption associated with migrating more than a decade of payment data, historical records, engineering models, and system integrations, which ensures the continuity of operations during this critical condition assessment cycle.

This is our last slide, and it summarizes all the reasons why it was recommended to go with a sole source extension.

OpenGov as a proprietary computer software that has performed reliably and over the past five years, like Alex mentioned, has become deeply integrated into the department's business processes, data reporting, and downstream systems.

Replacing the platform would require significant redevelopment, customization, data migration, testing, and staff training, creating additional costs and potential disruptions to the field operations and reporting with the upcoming pavement condition assessment.

Continuity is especially important.

For these reasons, extending the existing agreement was determined to be most practical and lowest risk approach, providing service continuity and predictable costs while avoiding lengthy and complex system replacement.

This concludes our presentation, and we're happy to answer any questions.

All right, thank you for the work and thank you for the presentation this afternoon.

And I will turn it over to the office of the IBA for comments.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, so as you heard, this is an item is a request from the transportation department for the extension of a sole source agreement for pavement management software.

Um that contract is currently set to expire in early September.

Today's direct docket is being driven by a need to avoid a lapse in coverage for the software.

While the cartograph software does provide benefits to the city, our office does want to raise a few procedural concerns with this item.

First is just a concern about timing.

While this contract has been in effect for five years, our understanding is that transportation only began to evaluate looking for a replacement in January or February, roughly six months ago.

Additionally, it also appears that the request to extend the sole source agreement was only made to purchasing and contracting in late May, and that sole source was only approved in early June.

It then took an additional month before the item and its materials was sent on Wednesday of last week to our office for our own review.

This timeline, particularly for a sole source extension, really doesn't provide enough time for us to conduct a thorough review.

And to that extent, I want to stress to both staff and the administration that ample lead time to review items, particularly when they are direct docketed, is crucial to the city's oversight process and to our own ability to vet items that come before this council.

Our more significant concern, however, is really associated with this being procured through a sole source process.

During the abbreviated review that we did conduct, we asked for justification as to why a sole source extension for a software package is necessary.

As you heard, extending the contract does come with some price certainty.

It comes with some operational continuity as well.

But we believe it is also important to ensure that contract terms and amounts are also competitive.

One of the criteria that transportation used to justify extending the sole source agreement is that there is limited competition for the service, and that the department made an attempt to find a second or multiple sources to no avail.

However, we were not provided with any additional backup on this attempt, and if it was conducted, it doesn't seem to have been done through official procurement channels, such as a request for information or RFI, and that type of a process could allow the city to see if there are other vendors that exist that could meet the city's needs.

All of this puts this council in a pretty difficult position today because not approving the extension could have real consequences, and this contract currently only runs through September, but the system that it provides maintains the city's pavement management data, and that data is necessary for core city work.

At the same time, we have also not had enough time to do a full review of this item, and we have not seen that all the city's procedures for sole source contracts were fully followed, which leaves us with the item before us this afternoon.

We do recommend that if council moves to approve this extension, that you also request the transportation department to work with purchasing and contracting to conduct an RFI process for other potential pavement asset management software, and that you also consider approving an extension for only enough time as is necessary to conduct and evaluate that RFI.

This could potentially be two years, but certainly less than the five-year extension that's currently being requested.

That concludes my comments.

I'm available for questions, and at least for the next 15 minutes or so, Jordan Moore is also on the line from our office for more specific follow-up questions.

All right, thank you, Charles, for that.

With that, Clerk, please proceed with public comment.

Thank you, Council President Maximilian Schmidt.

If you can please come forward, you'll have two minutes after that.

It's allegedly Audrey.

Um, hi, I want to talk specifically about the pavement downtown.

Uh, what if for the extra $600,000 we're doing to upgrade the um pavement software?

I guess this new software has a public website, streets sd.gov where you can go and see the condition of the pavement.

I guess that's one of the things that is included in the $600,000.

What if um we took that $600,000 and downtown we pressure washed the pavement with twice the frequency?

I actually don't know if it if the pavement downtown is pressure washed.

Um, I mean like a high pressure washer with um powerful water to clean because of the lack of rain and SD powerful water to clean off the sidewalks, which are um downtown, as we know, um, could be pressure washed with twice the frequency for six hundred thousand dollars.

And um, I don't want to say it's shameful, but um hundreds of million dollars with the power lines underground.

Um, talking about pay the pavement is actually very important to me.

I think it's what makes the city the city.

I think clean sidewalks is one of the most important things.

And we need to pressure wash the pavement more downtown.

Um, it needs to be cleaned more and pressure washed more.

Um, I I propose instead of upgrading the software, um, pressure washing the pavement more and paying for water.

I truly believe that downtown the pavement could get pressure washed more, and there's a misallocation of resources regarding the actual pavement.

Um, to be frank, the pavement near City College in the East Village and some places around there, Twelfth and Imperial, is um to be frank, it's the sidewalks are disgusting, you need to be pressure washed more.

If you're gonna uh never, thank you for that concluding comment.

Allegedly, Audrey, if you can please come forward and after that will be Paul Kruger.

Can I make a point of information or a question?

How can seven of you vote and only six votes be tallied for that last item?

Someone may have declined the vote.

You can decline to vote.

Okay.

Just wondering, it's just interesting.

Wonder who switched their vote.

Anywho, uh, this is very interesting.

Because you guys always, you know, make sure your back is up against the wall when we're here pushing contracts and extending them.

Um, and I have a question as far as because if it's sole source, I mean, in San Francisco with open gov, um, there were donations being made to the mayor, the mayor's wife was making investments in this company.

So I would have kind of begged to ask the question, like what's what's going on here?

Why do you guys constantly put yourself up against the wall to uh you know approve these contracts?

I mean, it's like why, I mean, was there it as you know, Charles was saying, was there due diligence, the due process done to make sure that there aren't other companies?

So why are we picking this one and sticking with it?

I just it's very interesting the way you guys do business, and then as far as all of these companies go, and AI, and um, you know, all the data I continue to tell you guys we need to be concerned about these monopolies these companies have on government information.

And I think we should be concerned about all of our data because this data has been collected for years now, and it's something that is being weaponized against the people, and it can be weaponized against this municipality as well.

And that's what's so terrifying is that you know it gets into the wrong hands, and when you look at places like China where information is being used to keep people from living life, like even just going to get gas, going to the doctor, going wherever, I think we need to be concerned about where our information is going and not just be freely giving it out like this, ignorantly believing that it's gonna be protected in some way.

And so when the government gets brought to its knees, I'll have to tell you guys I told you so because you're ignoring the fact that this information is going into hands that it shouldn't be.

Paul Kruger, if you can please come up.

Thank you very much.

I just want to note I put a neutral uh on my slip, which I often do, and I know that was a suggestion from someone, and I think it's an interesting one, but I'm here only to thank Charles for his comments and the work that his department uh did.

I don't have any particular knowledge of this issue, but I think that the concerns that uh IBA raised are really important and really significant, and that I as a taxpayer I'm really reassured that we have an independent office and voice reviewing these processes.

Uh, if I'm not mistaken, the the uh departments that requested this contract are overseen by the mayor as the city's chief executive, and I think it's really incumbent upon you as a council to um respond to Charles's concerns and to get answers to the questions that he raised.

That's all, and thank you again, Charles, in your office for your work on this and all the work you do.

Even even the times we've disagreed with you on the trash tax estimate and such.

I think that the office has proved itself invaluable.

I see that you're gonna get an attorney, uh, either today or tomorrow.

I think there's some, or perhaps it's the auditor.

I think it's the auditor, but uh, I'm assuming you you do have legal counsel, or if you need it, you have access to it.

And I just want to thank you again.

And I want to thank the council for paying attention, listening to what uh Charles' office uh produced and pursuing it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We've got five-minute timer and going to those participating remotely, starting with 8700.

If you can please unmute, you will have two minutes.

Uh Joy Sanyata, uh, yes to the First Amendment to contract source with open gov.

Road, roads, roads, constituents dream of them.

It's a big priority of the city.

So software data is a big priority, also.

So I'm I'm for the internet and all the technology it offers us.

So I I do I'm counting on their having had a good track record, you know, of five years' work already in the contract with the city.

And yet, as Paul Kruger said, so well, and of course, IBA did, this is really important for us to listen to the Office of the IBA and Jordan Moore and everybody, because what they said is very valuable and crucial oversight is so important to contracts.

So let's do that.

But I am totally for this contract.

It's a big yes on my part.

And uh only one question yet.

Uh inflation may push it up and we may have to come back again.

But do we do data on inflation with with the uh the software?

Do we follow inflation and kind of keep uh you know on top of that?

So that's just a question.

Thank you.

It's been a good day.

I've enjoyed the uh CPP item.

Good job, Office of the City Clerk, love to all.

Thank you.

Blair Beekman, if you can please unmute.

Hi, uh Blair Beekman.

Um, yeah, thank you for the IBA report.

That offered an interesting uh information to this item.

Um, I'm uh if it can be of help, uh you've had committee items in the past week on the future of uh cybersecurity issues for San Diego, uh, and you're going to be uh our future cybersecurity policy and practices are gonna be within the city itself.

You're not going to an outside corporate source for the cybersecurity issues so much.

You're going to have someone within San Diego City government, uh, which is an interesting concept.

To simply ask, can the cybersecurity uh chief of San Diego and within city government can any ideas they work on uh towards policies and creating public policies with cybersecurity?

Can that be of help in any way to this item?

Because sometimes uh tech accountability can be a great help for other uh ideas in city departments and stuff.

So I thought I would just mention it at this time if it can be of any help to um the questions of this item.

Um good luck in the procurement process, what that can work towards, and uh and good luck to Czech Accountability can have a part in it in some way uh towards creative thinking.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Hector.

If you can please unmute.

All right, all right, I commented on this a few months ago.

I think you should let the contract expire and just do the do the road things yourself in your own district.

Like have the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts tell you what roads to do.

Or uh the schedule is probably set for another six months or in the future, so they can do those things.

And you guys could determine what road based on the community's input.

What roads should we do now?

It'd be good, it'd be good for you guys that gets the brownie points with your constituents where they live, and maybe pay instead of paying these guys a million dollars for this contract, because you already got the information.

The roads don't change that much, and it's out there, whatever they've done with computer.

And we all know that terrible roads where they are.

It's not like hydman.

And you can have community involvement, you could even pay some money to the to the boys' scouts and the girls' scouts.

Do they drive around with their parents?

And they know the roads too with their mom and stuff, and paying some uh money on the side set of pins computer guys.

You've already paid them.

They kind of waited to the end, like they're pushing it through, which doesn't look good.

And even if you don't renew the contract, it's not going to do nothing for six months.

You know the scheduling's already out there, and then we can just focus on the next roads, do it for a couple years and see how it works.

Because it's it's it would be good for everybody, and it wouldn't be uh, you know, you guys can make those decisions.

There's nine council places, and I would say you can give the guys south of eight, like twice the roads that you get north of eight.

But I don't know if you can hammer that out in your own uh council thing.

But anyway, thanks for your time.

Thanks.

Thank you.

The five-minute timer did conclude here in council chambers.

There are three speakers in the queue.

No additional speakers will be taken.

Tony, if you can please unmute.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Okay, uh good afternoon, city council.

Um, I wanted to speak and double up on the point that was made by the last gentleman that spoke in chambers.

Um, I'm not sure what his name is, but he always has really good contributions.

Um, he was thanking the independent budget analyst.

Um, and I wanted to do the same.

And uh I love the presentation given by uh the city staff.

I love the input given, and uh this is gonna sound really silly, but I actually had no idea that we could register a neutral position.

Um I don't please please uh speak to this if possible.

Please let me know if there's a I did there's not like a slip in chambers, so I'm assuming that you just express it way vocally is how it works.

Um with regard to this this particular issue, uh I think it's interesting concept, it's another thing.

I I've said it before, I'll say it again.

I I'm not gonna be done saying it anytime soon.

Uh, so important that the public attend these meetings because there's something to learn in all of these meetings.

I had no idea that we were even using uh open gov.

And I'm like Googling what it is and Googling the whole process of like, you know, storing uh government documents and storing layouts for roads and things like that, zoning, etc.

So uh anyway, just uh uh kind of a cool thing to learn about, and something that we should all know more about as members of the public.

So uh good luck with your decision.

Thanks.

Thank you, Kathleen Lippett, if you can please unmute, and then Judy String is our last speaker.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, council.

Item 601 proposes to amend their open government contract for the transportation department to manage pavement sidewalk and tree inventory, but perhaps in my limited understanding for why Caltrans isn't isn't and hasn't been the responsible party to manage pavement sidewalk and tree inventory.

Caltrans worker salaries in the US are about 106,000 per year, over 51 dollars per hour, given these lucrative salaries and the millions of dollars per year the city spends on litigation stemming from streets to management, pay managing pavement sidewalks, tree inventory.

Why is Caltrans isn't already responsible for these tests?

Additionally reporting streets, sidewalks and tree inventory should not be a reactive complaint-driven process, but a proactive one, proactively addressing infrastructure issues to repair it is a proven strategy for reducing problems, and that could increase more and more costs of reactively addressing those problems, as was learned when those jumping over turnstiles back east to avoid fees or removing graffiti within 24 hours that prevents further vandalism in the in the city.

The same holds true for the city to ensure streets, sidewalks, and public spaces are clean and free of litter and graffiti.

Because when you already have litter along the streets, people have a tendency to just throw more out there.

And I share Paul Krueger's appreciation of the far more likely less politically influenced Office of Independent Budget.

So thank you for his comments as well.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you.

Judy Strang, if you can please unmute.

Good afternoon, San Diego City Council.

As I was taking a look at the PowerPoint, I didn't at that point have the IBA report, but there seems to be some things missing that the IBA showed a spotlight on.

Is the lack of data for the whole five-year period that's ending in September?

I don't think we could go forward with the vote until we have more information.

And thing that occurred to me is a model that we might take a look at is the counties, as they call up the traffic advisory committee, that's made up of community volunteers, each representing some part of the county's five supervisorial districts.

We could do the same thing here in our city and collect it as I think it's been sort of suggested at the city council level and make quite a thorough list of what roads and sidewalks need fixing first.

And wouldn't the citizens love that opportunity?

I can't think of an area where we wouldn't care more than what our streets and sidewalks look like and more that would do that could happen to improve the safety around our walking in our streets.

So perhaps we should take a better look at this TAC as they call it, the traffic advisory commission committee that they have at the county level and see how it works and see if it has applicability to San Diego City Council and do the work ourselves, or at least give our citizens a chance to share what they know because we will try these streets.

Trust me, we could give you a list in each of our city council districts.

Thank you for letting me share my thoughts this this afternoon.

Thank you.

And that concludes will it comment on this item?

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Um, this is an action item that requires six votes.

I'm gonna kick it off.

Um thank you for the work to bring this forward.

Uh clearly the department is very happy with OpenGov.

Uh my experience using the uh online uh GIS maps have shown that it works very well.

I think it's a very powerful tool that the uh the public has access to.

Uh and I don't know if I'm the biggest fan of the operation side and the challenges that you face to do your work every day, but I'm certainly one of the biggest fans on the council here.

Um nevertheless, the words of the IBA have resonated with me, given the fact that it was a sole source uh before, and it's being proposed for a five-year sole source going forward.

So uh the question is not if the five years, but what lower amount can we actually do?

An opportunity as the as Charles said to do an RFI to see there whether there are other vendors out there that could do the work, could do the work at a better price, could give a better service, uh, could talk about migration from the open gov uh database uh to their software going forward.

So the question for staff is um as suggested by the IBA, but I'm not totally locked in to instead of extending the contract for five years to extend it for two years.

That would give you two years and about three months to do an RFI to identify whether another vendor would be a better choice, or maybe open gov is still the better choice.

Thank you for that uh question, council member.

So uh it does take a long time to migrate a lot of the information if we were to move to a different platform.

Um, you know, the the work that's been put into uh OpenGov and the payment management um software that we use, it's all the engineering work that represents years that we've invested in it.

We're still still working with OpenGov to improve some of those functionality, the streamlines, those workflows, and that's still an ongoing um thing that we're working with the vendor on.

Um it doesn't make sense to to abandon that work and start over with a different platform just because of all the the years that we've invested to it.

But uh, but certainly there are the two years would be sufficient to do the RFI check to see if there's other vendors that could perform this work, and the again the majority of the work would be making sure that the migration from uh OpenGov to the new platform would would work with all of our GIS and and all the um inventory history maintenance history and redeveloping all the the deterioration curves that comes with migrating all that information to a new platform.

Okay, I know that's that's extra work, but I think it might be well worth it, or to validate that open gov really is the best you know preferred vendor for the services that they execute.

So I'm gonna move the staff recommendation but to extend only for two years for a total of I guess seven years, and with the appropriate adjustment in the dollar amount, but uh move the staff recommendation to but only to extend it for an additional two years.

Do I need to do anything else because there's a little more information in the dollar amounts?

Yeah, we have to recalculate the dollar amounts.

I would ask Deputy City Attorney Ryan Gardy, who's been handling this matter whether anything else would need to be added to the motion.

Certainly, if this is approved, our office will revise the resolution, I believe it is.

No, it's an ordinance.

We will re we will revise the ordinance in line with council's comments, but I would ask Mr.

Gertie if anything else is needed.

Good afternoon, Council.

Uh Deputy City Attorney Ryan Gardy.

Uh, yes, council member.

Currently, the backup materials include a signed amendment from OpenGov uh under the current terms that were uh based on staff's recommendation.

In order to effectuate the two-year term, we would have to revise that amendment and have it agreed to by OpenGov.

I don't believe they've had the benefit of this current discussion.

So I don't know if I I don't know at this time if that those terms are acceptable to OpenGov, but they would have to accept them in order to revise the amendment to then incorporate the two-year term rather than a five-year term.

And that wouldn't be a problem in meeting the what is it, September September expiration of the current five-year contract.

We could revise the ordinance based on the direction today and seek to have the updated amendment document from OpenGov as soon as possible to meet council's authority.

Essentially, council is authorizing the mayor to sign an amendment for a two-year extension to the contract, and based on the dollar amounts that staff have listed in the staff report for the corresponding fiscal years.

Okay.

I appreciate that.

And I probably don't need to say it that I'm going to.

And so I don't know if my colleagues will agree to that two years, uh, but that's the motion I'm gonna put on the table uh for now.

And we'll go next to council member Ilo Rivera.

Thank you, Council President.

Um appreciate the the um flag from the IBA and the comments there.

Um I I think you I think council president got a little bit of the answer here, but am I understanding that this process wasn't started earlier because the belief that switching to a different provider would just be too too burdensome for the city?

Well, thank you for your question.

So the department's goal is to start the process usually for all contracts that expire nine to twelve months prior to their expiration date.

So in this case, we started the process in January, and we uh we worked extensively with purchasing and contracting and a vendor to determine the best course of action.

And it was the I'm gonna jump in right there because this is where I'm starting to start to get confused because there the vendor piece, and there doesn't have to be anything wrong, but but that baked into that answer sound sounds to be it seems to be a presumption that we're going to use the same vendor.

Um am I missing something there?

It might have come across this way since I summarized all of our processes, but uh we determined first that it was the best course of action to go with a sole source agreement amendment before reaching out to the vendor to discuss it in more detail.

What factors determined that it was the best course of action to go with the sole source?

I would have to get back to you on the details, but in short, it is summarized in our sole source memo that was approved by purchase and in contracting, and we can if it's not attached to this item, we can certainly provide that document.

Council President looks like our interim director of transportation would like to hop in here.

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

Um just to emphasize that this has been in collaboration with purchasing and contracting.

Got it.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think where I'm trying to what I'm trying to understand, I guess, is what keeps the process competitive after a vendor has secured a contract with us.

In other words, if we're telling the outside world, the folks who are supposed to be competing for business with the city, that if they can just get their foot in the door with us, that the city's not going to be interested in going in a different direction.

Why would they ever work to be competitive to make sure that we're happy?

And this isn't this actually has nothing to do with open gov.

What I'm I'm just I have real like I'm seeing real process flags, and uh and you know it's not the first time it's popped up, but it just everything that Charles just mentioned and some of the responses to what's been raised is making those flags fly higher and look brighter than ever before.

Thank you for the question, Councilmember Ilo Rivera, uh Claudio Barca, director of purchasing and contracting.

Uh so with every procurement, we typically, as a contract is about to sunset, each department needs to assess whether or not they need an additional contract to replace that.

When they are doing that, um typically we will put it out to bid again for instances with software.

Um because technology changes so quickly, um there is there is an opportunity to go out and see what else is in the marketplace.

At minimum, we would do a request for information.

The request for information at least allows us to see what's in the marketplace, um, and given um the needs that are identified by the department.

If there are respondents to the RFI, then we would then issue a request for proposals and do a full blown procurement process.

But we should be doing open procurement um any time a contract is due to expire.

I agree.

So, what happened here?

All right, I'll turn it over to you, Naomi.

Councilmember Ila Rivera, if I may add a staff shared earlier in the presentation, it a lot of it had to do with the timing.

Uh, this council approved the um follow-up to the payment condition assessment, which is a best market practice to do every four years.

This would be the fourth year.

It was critical to have compared comparable data to be able to really see the condition of our roads and have an apples to apples comparison from the assessment that was done in uh 2023, I believe, to the one that we're will be taking place this fiscal year, 2027.

So Naomi, just to make sure I understand that part.

In other words, if I'm hearing you right council assigned the department work, the assessment.

And with that assignment came the need for the software, but did we not need the software either way?

So the need for the software would remain.

Um however, it is beneficial to have the same provider of the of the assessment or or cartograph in this in this example to have the best uh comparison, the best data sets and the best information for the assessment that will be presented to council.

Right, which brings me back to the other point, though, of if that is the city's position, then are we incentivizing competitiveness from our vendors, especially once they get the initial contract with us.

So the the need for the departmental need um for this year, if it makes sense, or the recommendation would have been the sole source, and uh just given the um follow-up to the pavement condition assessment.

It would have been based on the challenges that that staff presented earlier, and um besides the migration and everything, it's it's it's really having the data, the continuity, the same um uh degradation of the curves and all of the assessments that we had in 2023, and using the the current um assessment of the roads for this year.

Yeah, I understand all that.

I don't I don't want to go in circles.

I just I think what I'm what I'm concerned about is again that once we have a certain contractor do an assessment, and doesn't it doesn't have to just be of roads, once they start doing work in our city.

I this is not the first time I've heard that that moving, and it's not just transportation either, that moving work to a different uh software platform or provider would be an enormous undertaking, and I I want to know what the city is doing earlier on in the processes to protect us and protect our resources so that the inconvenience of another option doesn't create an environment where we're not getting the best price possible.

So that's where I'm going with that.

I appreciate the responses.

Um Charles, thank you again for um for flagging this.

To Council President's point, not an ideal position to be in in today.

Um but I I do I do think it's important to understand what is changing in terms of um at this point.

We should and we should know which sort of contracts are most likely to end up in these sort of situations and take measures earlier on to provide the city with as many options as possible, and if the best decision is ultimately to continue with the um the provider that we're using, great, but let's make sure that's earned rather than a default out of that that's um, you know, because it seems more convenient or because the switch would be um untenable given the timeline that that's that's provided.

So um I'll second the motion, but not particularly happy about how we ended up here.

All right, thank you council members.

So we have a motion by myself that is or was displayed on the screen, uh, which is to move the staff recommendation, except to do it for two-year extension and uh second by yourself, and I'll quickly throw in because I don't like to put them in motions that this would require the department to move forward either with an RFI or RFP.

We'll leave that in your hands.

I see uh Coda there in the back is uh nodding yes.

Um so with that I will now go to council member von Wolpert.

Thank you very much.

Um I have some questions about the software itself, too.

Uh one, I'm glad that we are doing our pavement condition assessment as we should be, and we actually have a pavement management plan that did not exist before many of us were up on this dais.

Um now funding it is a different challenge, of course, where you can only do as much paving as the city budget can support, but at least we know what we're supposed to be doing.

Uh, one question I have though is that you don't have to do anything about we know our districts really well.

And I know, for example, that Carl Mountain Ranch Road in my district was an absolute disaster, and people were getting potholes.

We ended up going to closed session and paying out I think $600,000 for an injury crash on it.

That happened again.

Rancho Bernardo Road and Bernardo Center Drive.

I've been telling the mayor's staff for two years that this road is horrible, it needs to be fixed.

The contractor was a mess, and we just went to closed session, we paid another six hundred thousand dollars out with a motorcyclist who got injured.

So these roads are major thoroughfares, and they're going to have thousands of people on them.

I understand why we have to fix every road in the city, including cul-de-sacs, but the cul-de-sac is less likely to result in a major liability payout, which then reduces our ability to pave other roads.

So, how can we provide this information in a useful way to the Department of Transportation to say there's literally an accident going to happen on this road?

I am the council member of this district, I hear from my constituents all the time.

Why can't we put that in the software to prevent liability?

And then we can use the money we're not spending on lawsuits to pave the roads more.

Thank you for that question, Councilmember Von Welpert.

Um, so this the software does make recommendations for the the best value for the funding that we allocate each year to the payment program.

So it does provide and recommend those streets that are recommended for street rehabilitation um that we um either provide as AC standalone payment projects that ECP manages, or we it we put that as our our into our mill and pay program.

Um the majority of the streets do go to maintaining the roadway that are already in good conditions and maintaining those because you get more bang for your buck uh and trying to maintain those those roadways for slurry seals and cape seals and so forth.

Um, so because of the limited funding that we do have each year, of course, we don't get to address all of the recommended street segments that cartograph open gov recommends to us.

So we do make those selections based off of our field um verification.

Our engineers go out there and select those streets, do markouts.

We also coordinate uh this year with council members to let us know if there's any particular roadways that are really high priority for them that we have been incorporating and and potentially swapping in our mill and pave um streets.

So those things are things that we're incorporating um with our street selection year after year to make those types of improvements.

Got it.

Well, that had not been I I have not had that experience as a council member.

I have been bringing things, and not to you in particular, obviously to to whoever I'm supposed to talk to, to Bethany or to Eric Dargan when it's here, or or anybody.

I mean, I brought in spreadsheets.

I handed them to the mayor's office and said these are the roads we're getting the most complaints about, and they're major thoroughfares, and then two big accidents happen.

We've paid over a million dollars in liability.

I feel that I am not being listened to when I'm trying to tell you which roads could result in liability, and so I don't is it the software system that's blocking us from doing this?

Now, how can I better communicate so we don't have liability on our streets?

Thank you for the comment, Councilmember Von Wilpert.

Um, as we have shared with with council um on our overall PCI scores citywide, um we did a brief assessment of even just the single-digit streets at the city, and based on the funding that Transportation Department receives, it would take over 10 years to just address the streets in the single digits.

Um, which of course, then as we move into the 10s and the 20s, the the then all that to say is that there is a great need citywide, and as much as we try to prioritize and um select streets to prevent uh further the um deterioration, as Alex mentioned, um, just the overall need is is great, but we are more than happy to work with your office and and take any any um road selections or any anything that your constituents are are bringing and see how that would fit into the um selection on an annual basis.

And and council member, I can add on.

I feel that the coordination between offices has been successful in reallocating certain uh slurry miles to more higher higher priority areas.

I realize it's never gonna be enough.

There's always gonna be a need somewhere out there, but taking miles that are already allocated to your district to reallocate them or assign them to a different area that is a more high priority for your community is something that will continue to do, and I think we have a good successful track record of doing that together so far.

That's what I'm trying to say.

I'm not gonna vote for this.

I'm frustrated.

Thanks.

Uh, thank you, Councilmember Von Wolpert.

Um, and we should emphasize that you were the leading voice a few years ago to actually get the pavement management reinstituted, and we found the money for it back in the day.

So with that, we will go to council member Foster.

Um I this is a little difficult.

I understand um the IBA's comments, and let me see if I could just make sure I understand what's before us.

We have a contract that's going to expire soon, correct?

And when is it what what is that expiration date?

September 8.

I'm sorry, September 8.

2026, right?

2026.

Um, and so clearly staff unfortunately got behind in moving forward appropriately, right?

I guess in regards to an RFI and a subsequent RFP.

Um, but just as I look at this and and I understand the two years, but I like to think even if we made the RFI, we made the RFP, that it seems if there's another contract that is select another contractor that is selected, I would assume we would do this like any other software where there's a transition time where we have both under contract.

Is that the case or not the case in this one?

Essentially, what I'm getting at is we could do the two years to hold staff accountable, but you'll be right back here before us, either with better news that you're able to move forward or worse news that you're not.

But I'm assuming there will be a transition period to um as we go from one platform to the other, like we do with anything else, correct?

I will defer to the department on particulars for for what their needs will be, but generally, yes, we would have two under contract.

Um we also have to consider if there may be a protest period if something goes wrong and there are additional delays.

Two years may not be enough throughout the process.

Councilmember, the two years that I suggested, just trying to think of what the shortest potential time is there's also there is a potential that an RFA goes out, and there is no one else who can do the work, right?

I don't know if that's the case, but part of the issue of this being direct document in my office, only getting information on this like Wednesday through Friday of last week, is I can't answer that question right now, right?

Um, so if you end up needing to do a full RFP and switch to another one, yeah, you probably do need to build in some time to actually transition things over.

Maybe that transition time gets faster with new AI tools, I don't know, but um, our initial recommendation was just gonna be however long the RFI is plus a year or two.

Two years seemed to be something that came up when we were having conversations with staff this morning.

Okay.

Um I guess my next question would be as we went into the additional contract term is uh I'm assuming is five year it's a five-year contract, one year terms, right?

Option to renew.

Is that how you guys ran this?

This new?

Yes, that is correct.

Five-year extension with one year terms, that are renewable, correct?

When you guys establish the when you guys just went through your negotiations, was it based on CPI index, or was it did they just work up whatever their fresh numbers were?

And was there any?

Are there any guardrails that were taken into consideration?

Or were they given an open an open path to provide you with whatever numbers they wanted to?

It's a continuation of the current annual price, which incorporates a three percent annual inflation, and starting with year six, it accounts for a five percent annual inflation rate.

So it's can it continues to increase year over year, first by three years and then by three percent and then by five percent for years six through ten.

Which is that a is that in accordance with the price index?

Right, right.

I'm trying to I'm trying to understand what we did.

Did we give them an open checkbook or do we have some guardrails?

That's what I'm trying to determine.

So yes, that is correct.

Five percent is the max allowable, they still have to justify, submit a request to justify a five percent would be the maximum.

I do want to clarify the term, the additional term is a full five years that was requested by the department.

If there is um an idea to do uh one year with four one additional one-year options, that could be a change to the amendment as well.

Okay, so you guys did a straight five.

Interesting.

So you had different intentions coming here today.

Is that what we're to understand?

I guess that's okay, Daniel.

Don't worry about it.

Um I'll conclude there and uh turn it over to my colleague.

All right, thank you, Councilman Foster.

We'll go to Council President Pro Tem Lee.

This is getting difficult to um I hear you about the the needed for the software and and why it's valuable.

I think that's come across pretty easily.

I think I'm just perplexed at the timelines here, and and as council member foster just pointed out, the first five years of the sole source contract that we already approved in 2022 already allowed for 3% annual increases, but it factored in the potential that if we were to extend it, that the annual increases would jump to 5% instead of 3%.

Is that correct?

So if we if we extend this the next even two years, right now it's accounting for a five percent increase inflation factor, which was a jump over the three percent that was built into the original five-year contract, so the five percent is part of the new contract amendment negotiations and was not included in the original contract.

So you started the process to consider extending this contract in January.

That is correct.

When was the approval for the sole source given?

The official memo that was approved and signed by purchasing and contracting was June 4th, I believe.

And so it's from January to June.

I mean, it sounded like when Councilmember Eli River was asking, the decision was made somewhat early on that the preference would be the sole source.

Yes, that was a recommendation that came out on transportation working with PNC on options on how to extend services with this vendor.

Claudia, if you don't mind me asking, especially since you know this has to go through purchasing and contracting, and you know, when you go through that process, you check a number of boxes for what would justify a sole source contract.

Um, and one of those I believe is something about uh market competition and understanding whether the city would benefit from a competitive process, and that was not checked.

I mean, I would imagine if we had done an RFI or even a loose evaluation of vendors, it would not be difficult for us to come back and say the argument that you've made, which is that this is the best vendor option, we have limited options to come up with that.

But I I don't doesn't feel like that's actually been confirmed in this particular case.

A formal RFI was not requested from the department in their justification to both uh purchasing and to I believe the attorney's office, they indicated that they had done their own market research and did not find any additional firms.

That was part of their justification, department's justification.

How long does it typically take to conduct an RFI?

An RFI typically uh less than 30 days.

It can be as quick as a department would like.

So even if that was a box that we wanted to check, that would not have been a difficult box to have checked at the end of a five-year contract term for a sole source contract.

Is there a reason why we didn't do that?

I can I can perhaps answer that question, Councilmember Lee.

So the contract itself is house because it's software in our IT fiscal um division.

And so from when they start the preparation of the renewal of the contract because it's expiring, they coordinated with the engineers that actually use the software and so forth.

And based on the engineers' input, it would take a lot of work trying to, you know, migrate all of this um historical data, the inventory that we have that's been um programmed as part of the open gov cartograph into a new platform.

So they took those into considerations as far as um the length that it would take to migrate all that information because we're doing the payment condition assessment uh this year, um, and having collecting all that PCI data for the streets and putting it into cartograph and and needing to have that cartograph be available so that we can compare that with the 2023 assessment that was done that was also in cartograph, so we could do an apples-apples comparison.

So you're right that there could have been an RFI done.

Um, as far as I know, there is a competitor called Street Saber that's that could be done of actually use Street Saber working for other municipal agencies, and it's also has its ups and downs just like cardigraph does.

And so the engineers coordinating with our IT fiscal team decided that it would be best if we just had the extension for this contract because of all the work that's been invested putting everything into this cardograph.

Um, the five years we think is a sufficient time, but but certainly we can we can go out to to bid with the two-year uh extension and see what else is out there.

So when council president Lakov asked uh in the beginning um when he kicked us off about just extending it two years instead of five, whether that would be feasible.

I think I I had an immediate frustration when you asked that, Council President, because the answer was not, yes, that's possible, and here's the time frame in which we could be done.

The answer was it's really hard to make a switch, and therefore we didn't look at it, and and then now I'm hearing the actual answer to how long it takes to conduct an RFI is 30 days.

Um I don't have any more questions at the moment.

Council President, I think uh clearly there's a lot more work and information to be provided here and a little bit more due diligence on our side um to to get this across the finish line.

And so if I could request that we turn return this item to staff, redocket it the first week after returning from legislative recess, that can give us enough time to engage with PNC on a potential RFI if the if the timeline is truly 30 days, as well as to give the IBA's office enough time to finish their assessment and provide a recommendation.

Well, now that you've made that, Council Member Whitburn, you're on the lights.

Thank you.

Um, real excited.

So I'll uh just have a few questions here.

So the decision not to do an RFI was housed in IT.

So this was a joint effort between the IT team and engineering and hazard management team who use the software and PNC recommendations.

Can I maybe ask a pause?

When you say the IT team and the engineering team, you mean the teams within the transportation department?

That is correct.

Oh okay, I got you.

Okay.

Um thank you.

So I I I think you make a very compelling strong case for why it could very well make sense to stay with the same vendor because you get an apples to apples comparison that way.

But that's also going to be true in perpetuity.

You set yourself up for a situation where we can never switch platforms because to do so would inherently result in forgoing the apples to apples comparison.

Is there a cost associated with doing an RFI, or is it just you just send it out and see what you get back?

I mean, is it literally that simple?

There is no cost associated with doing an RFI, it is um just us, the city would identify um what their needs are to see who may be able to fulfill them.

It's just a very simple response.

If we get a response from interested parties that show that they may have available products, then we would have to do a full blown RFP.

Is there any reason why we can't just make it a city policy that any time we've got a contract up for renewal, we just do an RFI?

I mean, is there any downside to just doing that?

Uh typically we will do instead of doing an RFI, we will do an invitation to bid or RFP.

We will skip the step because it's not necessary.

Um in this instance, the department had indicated there were no viable um companies, and that's why that step was not taken.

But typically an RFI is just to see what's in the marketplace.

Otherwise, we will follow our regular procurement process.

Okay, so it sounds like the one instance in which we don't solicit the potential for other bidders is when we go into it thinking that it's going to be a sole source, but that's sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I mean, wouldn't even in a situation where we think there's only one qualified company.

Wouldn't it behoove us to at least do the RFI anyway because you don't know what you don't know and see what we get back?

Yes, certainly.

So is there any downside?

I mean, in your mind, from where you sit, is there any downside in just making a policy that we always, whether it's, you know, something new or a renewal, do some sort of competitive outreach?

Yes, certainly we can do that.

At minimum it would be an RFI, but for the most part it would be an invitation to bid or a request for proposal.

Um do you need something from us to effectuate that, or is that something that we could just do going forward?

No, we can do that going forward.

Okay, thank you.

I I appreciate that.

Um, last question, just in regard to the timing.

September seems, or I'm sorry, January seems a little late to have gotten started on this anyway.

Um, was there any reason why we wouldn't have started on that a little bit sooner than that anyway?

Or was it just again because we decided it was gonna be a sole source and didn't think we needed that much time?

Well, even so, but I mean, even if we did decide that it was a sole source, here we are.

I mean, so it did result in kind of a crunch time.

I believe the divisions process back then was to start the process of renewal, uh, nine to twelve months prior to the contract expiration date.

In this case, unfortunately, ended up being more towards the nine months prior to the expiration date.

Uh since then, we have um reviewed our internal process and uh updated our tracking tools, our contract dashboard to make sure that we will start any future process of contract renewal earlier to to not get into the same situation again.

Okay, good.

All right, so basically going forward, you don't anticipate this occurrence again with the timing.

Okay, well, that's that's hopeful.

Just add a little bit of context from my perspective of that side.

I think transportation, like they're usually doing goods and services contracts um that are not necessarily IT.

When we look at what contracts IT is bringing forward for whether or not they're renewing, like they're starting this process two, three years before contract expires.

Uh those contracts I assume are probably not as typically in transportations wheelhouse as they are in IT, but I imagine that might be some of the one department does nine to twelve months, that makes sense for a goods and services contract for an IT contract, which is a service, but it's a specific type, right?

Uh longer kind of time horizon for evaluating it's probably more appropriate.

Makes perfect sense to me.

I my only interest is just um, you know, doing what we can to avoid similar situations in the future.

It seems to me if we're doing um RFIs going forward on a regular basis in this sort of a situation and uh have a process in place uh so that we don't get into the time crunch like we did here, then we've addressed um the root causes of these issues.

So uh based on that, I'll be supportive of the motion if my colleagues still want to move forward with it.

Do you have a second?

Uh yeah.

Yeah, okay.

Um, so before going back to Councilmember Eloer there and um cooling off a little bit.

Uh I think Cody, your suggestion uh to return this to staff, I think there's a lot of questions, a lot of confusion, a lot of frustration on the council.

Uh that doesn't all add up to a good thoughtful informed vote.

We do need six.

Uh we may only have six here.

Um, so um it cuts it even finer by waiting till August.

So I'm gonna take the privilege of the chair and I am gonna call for a vote because we are clearly in deliberations, uh, that we simply return it to staff, and um with this to be docketed the first or second week back there, um, and that should give you enough time to a brief council members on this.

Um it should give you enough time to perhaps have a RFI on the street by then that might give us some formative answers.

Uh it may give you time to explain why the open gov bid is dated February 25th.

Um, and it might also explain why open govern the amendment on September 23rd, 1986.

Luck it up, it's real.

So those questions can be answered um, and uh with the courtesy of my colleague who's seconded the original motion, I think sending this back so that we can all build a better confidence.

It narrows it down.

We would just be returning it to staff.

Everything else that I said would be a request given what council has said.

Uh yeah, Council President.

Just to make sure I'm understanding.

So that instead of the motion in front of us, we would be voting to send it back to staff.

Correct.

Um, yeah, I'm certainly um supportive of that, and and I I appreciate the questions my colleagues have asked.

I think and Councilor Whitburn was getting to this, the general like standard approach of at minimum.

Seeing what else is out there, I just don't I don't see what the city has to lose in that situation.

And I'm gonna say it, even though it's gonna piss people off.

This is why we want someone in charge who's across the board is standardizing practices and procedures for things like this.

And there's people in the room who are bosses, but the boss is not here, and that's why we get frustrated at speak for myself.

That's why I get frustrated in the refusal to acknowledge the benefits of having a person who is solely focused on the operations of the city who can speak to and answer for the way things are done at an operational level.

So I'm very supportive of this going back.

I have no idea why this wouldn't be common practice.

And I'll just add this part, and this isn't even like set out of the heat of the moment, it's just a feeling that continues to persist.

It's the governance of this council at times feels like an inconvenience, and it can't work that way.

Because time and time again, the the council I think actually really works to make sure that we're keeping the gears turning in the way that we know they have to turn, but taking that for granted and pushing us in a corner is also it just it's not the way, and finding ways around uh us being able to govern in the way that we we need to govern uh is also not acceptable.

So I'm glad um to see this being returned.

Council President, I appreciate the attention of detail that you just uh provided.

Um I surely hope that in the future the very very basic question of who else is out there that could have offered this and could they have offered it at a similar product at a better price at a bare minimum?

That is a question that every single one of our constituents deserves an answer to, and we we should be able to provide an accurate answer to that.

Thank you.

All right, so we have motion by myself and a second by council member Ila Rivera to return this item to staff, and we'll go next to Councilmember Whitburn.

Just very briefly, what did I check and see?

I mean, does the timing does that timing work?

Uh council member, yes.

So you have our commitment that we will come back at that time frame.

We will have issued an RFI at that point, and we'll have a full understanding about what the local market will bear, and it then you'll have in front of you a determination with the full facts about whether or not the sole source is appropriate at that time.

If not, if you choose not to vote for the sole source at that time based on the information that's in front of you, we'll have a lapse in the software package at that time, but we'll have to determine the road forward at that point.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, all right.

Then Council Matt Whitburn.

Uh we'll go next to Council.

Oh, excuse me, we'll go back to Councilmember Von Wilbert.

Thank you.

I just have a question.

When did this contract expire?

September, 2026.

Or what?

And we were back from when are we back from recess?

August 24th and 25th.

Okay, so you can do it before then, yeah.

Okay, because you know I ain't voting for this if it's expired.

So thank you.

Alright, thank you, Councilmember.

We'll go to Councilmember Campbell.

Thank you, Council President.

Uh, just briefly want to make sure that I understand what this is about.

The OCI, the overall condition index for city assets.

I think I recall correctly that in 2023, what this involved was our streets in our city, throughout our city.

And I believe that it had been many, many years, much more than four.

I think even more than seven, since that kind of an assessment had been made.

Uh and I also think I recall that they used uh some kind of ultrasound to check on the streets.

And how many miles of streets do we have?

It's an incredibly large number.

It's a very large city.

About 6600 miles.

Well, I saw something in here about 6600 lanes, laneways or something.

Correct.

Was lane way the same as a mile?

Lane miles.

Lane miles.

Okay, so we're doing both sides of the streets.

It's it's a lot.

At any rate, am I correct that it was an ultrasound kind of a machine?

Yes, they do the laser when they do the assessment.

They have vans that does the laser um evaluation of the streets.

So we're bouncing the light off the street to see the depth of the holes in it, the cracks, etc.

Correct.

Okay, well, my understanding at the time was that that was kind of a new process, and that uh this was one of the few companies that did it.

Now, I am I correct in that, or at that time it seemed like that was the only people who really could do this as thoroughly.

We think there's other um the if you're referring to the payment condition assessment council member.

That one is uh we're doing the RFP for that currently.

Um we just passed that on to purchasing contracting to begin advertisement.

Um so that is in route to be advertised, okay.

So this contract is only for the software then.

The software, correct.

Um, that does our PCI um evaluation, the deterioration curve modeling, and so and then the recommendations for treatments.

It's the yeah, uh computer software.

Okay, well, I uh I agree with us.

Let's let's get it back there.

Let's do the RFI.

Let's change policy though, so that whenever something comes up, we do an RFI suggest we start at least 12 months ahead of time because if you're dealing with three different departments, as you've mentioned, it takes a lot of time for everybody to get together and get on the same page, etc.

So I think uh I think we should start earlier and uh I'm glad that we're gonna send it back and you're gonna have a lot of work to do pretty quickly here.

Uh there may be other companies that in the ensuing three, four years have come up with a method of doing it.

As I recall, it took a year or two before the actual physical assessment of the OCI took place, and then we had to put it into the computers and get it all organized, right?

So it's a long process, and it's very worthwhile, and it shows us which streets should be our priority to fix.

And uh so I think it is very important.

But I'm glad it's going back.

I'll be supportive of that, and uh I wish you luck in speeding things up and being a little bit more on top.

And I'm interested in what the new RFP will show in regard to actually measuring the problems in the streets.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Councilmember.

Okay, so the motion on the floor is to return it to staff.

Uh I made the motion, Councilmember Ila Rivera second it.

Clerk, please call the roll.

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

That passes unanimously seven to zero.

With Council Member Moreno and Council Member Campio absent.

Thank you, Council President.

All right, thank you to everybody in the transportation department and navigating these conversations and the work you do for us every day.

So with that, we will now 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.

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

Please note if there are eight or more speakers on a single topic, either in person or virtual.

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're a client participant, star nine, we can have Kate Callan.

Please come up to the microphone.

After that, we have Paul Kruger, Yusuf Miller, Maximilian Schmidt, and allegedly Audra.

If you all can please come forward to the front row for better meeting management.

Kate, you can come up to the microphone and begin when ready.

The other one's better.

Thank you.

My comments have to do with the closure of the mission bay restrooms.

On July 10th, the Union Tribune ran an editorial headlined Petulant City closes Mission Bay Bathrooms to punish tax-weary residents.

The editors wrote this.

This decision isn't just obscenely elitist, it's also dangerous on public health grounds.

It is a punishment aimed at San Diegans who are increasingly hostile to the constant push for higher fees and taxes.

And the savings are tiny.

$546,000.

You could get that amount by eliminating five vacant city positions.

It's time for residents to rise up and demand that elected leaders end their petty assault on their own constituents.

Enough is enough.

How many of you have ever been at Mission Bay Park with a four-year-old who desperately needs to use a restroom?

Anybody?

If you'd had that experience, you would know why this rather small funding cut is having such a large impact, and it seems incredibly cruel.

The Union Tribune suggests payroll cuts to restore the funding to keep the bathrooms open.

We know you won't do that.

You will not part with staff.

So let me suggest another way to pay for Mission Bay bathrooms to stay open.

You're going to spend 2.2 million to remodel a walkway near the Santa Fe Depot.

Think about that.

You can find $2 million to beautify a downtown alleyway, but you can't find a half million to keep public public beach restrooms open.

So think about this.

Get rid of some of the embellishments on the beautification of the alleyway.

Take 600,000 Alabath project and put it into the Mission Bay bathrooms and keep them open.

It's not too late.

You can do this.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Paul Kruger.

Thank you very much.

I'm also here to talk about the Mission Bay restrooms.

You've seen this map of the closures.

I don't know how you do it, but you need to reopen these restrooms.

It's vitally important.

It's a matter of public health, as you've read.

Just a personal note.

You have a comment from someone who's urging you to do whatever it takes to keep them open and said that they have a intestinal bowel disease called Crohn's disease.

I had ulcerative colitis for 12 years.

You know, there's a hundreds of thousands of people who need to use a bathroom when they need to use it.

And that would mean not going to Mission Bay for these closures.

I'm not going to make any references to motivation about punishment.

I don't care what it is or why we've done this, but they need to be reopened.

There's nine city council offices in the mayor's office that makes 10 is 54,000 from each of you.

Kate's suggestion about the alley is an excellent one.

Look, if you can't find the money, I guarantee you there are volunteer groups out there.

I ran with them.

How many 5Ks do we have out there?

There are people who will man these restaurants, I mean these restrooms.

If you can make some agreement with labor groups, if that's what it takes.

Um lastly, I just want to say that I I can I understand the budget restraints.

I hope that you at the same time understand um the skepticism and frustration of voters.

And if if a hundred thousand people could have heard what you just heard about what I will say is the incompetence of the city staff, then maybe you would understand again why people are reticent to vote for taxes.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Youssef Miller, if you can please come forward.

My name is Yussef Miller, Saving Lives in Custody California, and it is impossible for me to overstate how impactful uh Miss Kelly Davis was to the entire county of San Diego.

And I want to highlight some of the things that makes her such a giant in our county that impacted not only our county but the entire state of California and her research on in-custody deaths in San Diego County from City Beat all the way up to Union Tribune galvanized an organization of people making sure that we want to make change to that called Saving Lives in Custody campaign.

That saving lives in custody campaign inspired people to encourage the state to come in and look at San Diego County on the in-custody death rate.

That uh audit came in and decided that we have problems that we need to fix.

That sponsored a saving lives in custody act that was uh done by Dr.

Akila Weber at the time she was assembly member, and that bill made changes towards in custody deaths with the BSEC with a companion bill, SB 519.

Both of those passed into law from the background of in the foundation of the work of Kelly Davis.

When when this happened, all of the state is looking at San Diego, what's going on, impacted family members that saw how they were the family members here in San Diego were represented.

They also started doing the same things in Riverside County, LA County, Northern State, in Orange County, everybody were inspired and stood up on the foundation of Kelly Davis and Jeff McDonald.

This cannot be overstated on the value that it has to people who have lost lives in custody.

These lives are unretrievable.

But what we can do, and what we have been doing in jail and police reform is making sure that there are no more Elisa Cernas, there are no more Matthew Settles, there are no more Kevin Mills, and so on.

All of that is based on the work of Kelly Davis.

Thank you.

Thank you, Maximilian Schmidt.

If you can please please come forward.

As the price of electric bicycles, electric scooters, um electric um one-wheels, um, and electric skateboards gets cheaper.

It's projected that more and more cities are going to have complete ban on all electric powered modes of transportation on strictly the sidewalks.

That is forecasted that every American city is going to completely ban electric-powered things on sidewalks.

And San Diego is known as one of the most walkable cities, so we can spearhead the United States of America in making our sidewalks more comfortable and safer, knowing the projected um price of electric scooters, skateboards are going to just get cheaper and cheaper.

And how do we do this though?

Because this is a big change.

How do we do this without seeming almost tyrannical and how do we do this fast?

Um, I would like to um try and fast track this, and I've even almost been killed by electric scooter walking down the street, and um, it can be traumatizing.

I say to fast track this, maybe on uh local news.

We say we're going to take a vote of do you think we should ban all electric modes of transportation?

And I think it overwhelmingly people would vote yes.

And for what it's worth, if you are like a skilled at like electric skateboard or whatnot, on many streets you can ride it safely on the street with a helmet.

And also, we spend so much money on buses and the trolley and modes of transportation that people can use to keep our sidewalks peaceful, that it it's a shame that an electric um-powered um scooter or something can ruin the sidewalk when we spend so much money on the trolley or on buses that are other modes of transportation.

Thank you for that concluding comment.

Allegedly, Audra, if you can please come forward.

Talk about needing to shower being through all that dirty business that's going on.

It's so interesting to be a fly on the wall and see all these like eye raises going on, like uh oh, we're in trouble.

Uh-oh.

It's just broad waste and abuse.

So good.

And speaking of that, um, I'd like to speak of the malicious nepotism that took place last week with the Emerald Hills vote that was totally illegal because this item was not noticed properly.

And the uh fact that Monica Montgomery step got five minutes to come in and she spoke and her mother spoke, right?

And they have a construction company who is contracted to work on this contract.

So that's interesting.

And then I wonder, Henry, I mean, is your construction company too?

Or is that gonna go through the services that the Montgomerys provide, probably to hook your family up, right?

That's why you guys totally screwed over here.

Community by using them, using the black community, saying we want to get you guys into housing, which will the Montgomeries will benefit from from the real estate.

So that's interesting.

I mean, even Steve is so stupid to go online and admit to the money that's gonna be made by that family.

Like Monica probably should reel them in, you know what I mean, instead of having him being like, Well, what about all these other companies that are gonna make money off of this project?

Should we be looking at them too?

And what's sequa?

Huh?

So it's like, hmm, fraud can continue because people are gonna make money and all while you guys gaslight your own community.

How sad is that?

Waiting for 50 years for a park, and they're abhorrently against that project, and you guys put profit over people.

It's so sad, it's so sad because that was totally illegally done, and I hope the community stalls this project and to no avail because of your guys' own negligence.

Good job.

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

We currently have 16 people in the queue.

Tony, if you can please unmute.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, please proceed.

Yes, I wanted to start by thanking you, um, uh City Clerk Diana Fuentes, and I want to thank Council President Joe Lacava uh for the tremendous work that y'all did a couple weeks ago with um saving the group presentations that were potentially on the chopping block in some places due to SB 707.

Fantastic job on uh saving group presentations and not only saving them but extending them and enabling us to be able to conduct them online.

Uh, I can't tell you how beneficial that is to someone like me who juggles work in the city but resides in the backcountry, and I make a tremendous sacrifice to stay engaged both virtually and in person.

Um I think that there is some more work that we could do.

I would really love I I love that um the day that both of those items were being discussed.

Uh, there was the presentation by given by I believe her name is Victoria Bruzo.

She was uh represents the planning groups, and she was talking about the seat at the table.

Now, obviously, this is something that they've been talking about for a long time, and I don't expect y'all to want like want to share or seed power uh with these groups, but I I do think that it would be awesome if we could help facilitate uh something like what is done at um uh the the council meetings at or not, I'm sorry, the uh county board of supervisor meetings during their uh planning commission meetings where they enable uh planning group members, specifically uh uh like chairs or vice chairs to have a little bit more time to speak, um, because they you know they respect and acknowledge that we often serve as liaisons to members of the public that um don't always necessarily know about all the issues, and so they they come to us as sort of uh uh people that can help more readily and easily digest some of the I guess we're more accessible, right?

Y'all are super busy making all the decisions on everything, so uh when we get to see it, it it this enables us to be able to communicate it, and if we could have a little bit more time to speak, um, it would be really beneficial.

Uh, but outside of that, including Francine Maxwell, if you can please unmute, Francine Maxwell, Southeastern San Diego resident.

I'm hoping that um before legislative break, the same way that this is the previous items are gonna come back early, that the council decides to have something come back early that would help build trust.

As we're looking forward for you to approve the settlement for San Diego Police Department, Sergeant Art Scott, where you guys were at a committee meeting, and I spoke about something being sealed, and you're going to award him 3.1 million dollars, which is absolutely wonderful, but we need to dig deeper.

We need to go to the root cause of why the city of San Diego is about to pay Art Scott, San Diego Police Department Sergeant 3.1 million dollars.

We need to make sure that policies and procedures for the four years that he has been punished by death duty, that policies and procedures have changed.

We need to have a hearing.

We need to be shared the cultural changes that have been put into place by the leadership of San Diego Police Department, and we need to have a pre-conversation about the Layos lawsuit, because you're gonna settle with that police officer as well.

So let's get ahead of it and let's have conversation, intentional conversation, because we do want to build trust between the community and the city council, so that if you decide to come up with another tax and another fee, we could really discuss it and get to the root cause of it of why we're being asked again.

We have a lot of things that we could build and we could begin to trust each other if we would have the hard conversations.

So again, utilize the IBA, utilize race and equity while you're on legislative break.

Thank you.

Terry Ann Skelly, if you can please unmute good afternoon, San Diego City Council.

My name is Terry Ann Skelly.

I'm a planning group member, a parent, and a public health educator, adding my support for the work of street maintenance and infrastructure considered in the agenda item earlier this afternoon.

I'd like to include in the conversation that the conditions of many of our roads in this city have more rural lands adjoining them, especially need upkeep.

Also, since the number of drunk and drug-impaired traffic crashes increases during the summertime, I have been very pleased to see these signs in my neighborhoods, such as uh don't be the I in DUI, drive high, get a DUI, and especially buzzed driving is drunk driving.

These are all near my house.

Uh San Diego Police Department is constantly reminding citizens that driving under the influence doesn't just refer to alcohol.

Prescription medications, over the counter drugs, and marijuana can also impair, especially in combination with alcohol and other drugs.

Recently, the National Safety Council fact sheet repeated that, and I quote, it is unsafe to be under the influence of cannabis.

Intoxicating cannabis products can have a major impact on safety on our roadways because marijuana use slows reaction time, impacts short-term memory, and impairs skills essential to driving, end quote.

These driving skills include the ability to judge traffic lane positions and subsequent lane weaving.

For all of these reasons, my neighbors and me do not want an increase in access in marijuana sales here in San Diego.

Thank you for hearing my concerns this afternoon.

Thank you, Catherine Douglas.

If you can please unmute.

Please proceed.

Good afternoon.

I just like to say congratulations to those who were seated today on the Commission on Police Practices.

I wish them good luck.

I hope they are effective.

I would also like to ask that anyone joining the commission on police practices, as well as those who are currently sitting on the board, that they attend inside SDPD, which is put on three times a year by the San Diego Police Foundation.

I believe, I'm not sure that the date has been announced, but I believe that the next inside SDPD will be in the month of November, probably the first one of the first two Saturdays.

That information can be found on the San Diego Police Foundation website, and they will post it as soon as they have confirmed those one of those two dates.

It's enlightening, it's fun, it's educational, and it's important that people who are making decisions related to the police department attend this function.

And uh the San Diego Police Foundation would be happy to waive the normal surcharge for going.

The other thing I'd like to speak on is the restrooms at the beaches.

I have the privilege if I'm down there to whip home, but most people don't, and I'm very afraid of another hepe or whatever that disastrous thing was that cost the city tons of money.

I think that we need to find money to keep those restrooms open.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Barbara Gordon, if you can please unmute.

Driving around San Diego, it's hard to miss cannabis advertisements or billboards promoting cannabis as a treatment for virtually every condition.

We all want to reduce suffering, but medicalizing and commercializing of high potency and toxin has produced rising addiction, poisoning, premature cardiovascular disease, emergency rooms, traffic fatalities, and serious psychiatric harms, especially among our youth.

Modern medicine has better tools to release suffering, and we should use them.

Dr.

Bertha Madras, she's a Harvard medical professor of psychobiology, speaks to the rising rate of cannabis use disorder.

It's climbing potency and the research linking marijuana to psychosis and schizophrenia, which most psychiatrists agree as a contributing cause.

And the LA Times editorial confirms the reality of cannabis use, which is long predicted by experts.

The increased potency, particular daily and nearly daily consumption, addiction is real, and it affects one in ten users, and it's higher among heavy users.

What's the serious medical help existing again with psychosis and psychiatric emergencies?

The profit-driven marijuana industry, big weed, mirrors the tactics of big tobacco and big alcohol.

I urge the city to take stronger actions, limiting marijuana businesses, advertisement, and marketing.

Thank you very much for letting me speak.

Thank you.

8700, if you can please unmute.

So one word I want to point on the principles, and then we're gonna we're gonna go in a different direction, but the same topic.

The word any would be eliminated from the structural budget from the statement of budgetary principles, and so far it hasn't been.

So I I researched the word any again, and this these principles are pointing at one period, FY27.

When it's one singular item, any does not apply in my understanding.

So it it you must reconsider getting rid of that word any.

We have a structural budget deficit.

And so here's why I'm gonna switch gears just a little bit.

What we just did on that last item was fabulous, because it got me to shine a light on what we're missing on the structural budget deficit.

We're missing how to change it, how to improve it.

Do you see we have the legislative branch and we have the executive branch?

You know, we have the operational end of it.

It's apples and oranges.

And did you see how difficult it is to understand?

The resources they have, the processes they go to.

Transportation, what you did was beautiful, and what the council did was beautiful.

I just absolutely your time has concluded.

Hector, if you can please unmute.

Thanks, Hector here.

That was very political, you guys, man.

When most of you guys were dumbfounded when the city guys were saying, Well, I don't know how it happened.

He did it, you know.

That was very political, you guys.

There's so many companies that can do that job.

But any more software programs.

It's AI now, man.

You can take get all their information you've already paid for from that company.

You own the rights to the data and have them upgrade it to the day it's over.

Get the data and go to an AI guy who can do it on AI, like in 20 minutes.

It's not that much to switch the data now.

And we can go to Elon Musk and ask him, Hey, Elon, can you give us a roadmap?

All his cars roadmap all this everywhere, thousands of times a day in San Diego.

And he might just we beg him, he might give us the information.

He does it every day, potholes, everything for his cars.

So he might give it to us for nothing.

We could just ask him.

Or you guys might know somebody who knows them, or know somebody who knows them, and we could just ask them, we need help.

You know, we can't figure it out.

We're giving these no big contracts out just on like a rim, and we're just supposed to take it.

And then the EBT guys, the food stamps guys, they've got to work 20 hours a week.

We could have them clean the bathrooms.

Clean the bathrooms and clean the trash at the beaches, pick up all the trash, no more big trash trucks driving around.

Have the EBT army of guys.

We could have a thousand guys a day down there doing their four hours uh a week or twenty hours a week.

So that would be a lot of uh a lot of money, and it would it's a nice job, it's pretty easy, it's out in the open, and then uh plus when you gotta go and you're older like me, you gotta go.

There's no run, you gotta go now, man.

It's a door too.

I have concluded.

Dunny, if you can please unmute.

Uh good afternoon.

My name's Chuck Dunning.

Uh, I am a member of the Mission Bay Park Committee, but today I'm speaking as a private citizen, and everything I have to say is not reflective of any actions or opinions of the committee.

But um, I am extremely concerned of the effects going forward with half of the restrooms in Mission Bay Park being closed.

And I think that at this point it's a it's relatively recent, and you're only beginning to hear the blowback that that's gonna come from this.

The county samples Mission Bay Park and the other county beaches every week.

Well, end of last week, three beaches in Mission Bay Park were yellow flag for unhealthy levels of human waste bacteria.

Can you stop and imagine what's gonna happen when half of these restrooms are closed?

And I think it's I've I've heard other solutions.

This is not just a complaint, but there's a solution out there also.

Y'all know about the Golf enterprise Fund that sits with 5.5 million dollars right now.

It was established when the golf courses were not making money to make sure there was money for maintenance.

Well, now all three courses are making good money, and they can certainly fund their own maintenance.

Matter of fact, Mission Bay Golf course just opened a brand new restaurant, so I don't understand why the park and rec department, which covers both the Mission Bay Park and the golf courses, cannot tap the golf enterprise fund for 546,000 of that 5.5 million for a short-term loan to get these bathrooms cleaned.

I think you all ought to also ask the park and rec department at the end of the summer, just how much money was saved when you look at the extra extra maintenance that's going to occur with 13 bathrooms being open and used by the same amount of 100,000 people a day.

You know, Mission Bay Park is the front door to this city, and we've just now locked 13 of those doors.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Cynthia.

If you can please unmute Cynthia Knapp.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Cynthia Knapp.

I'm with Say San Diego's Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug Prevention Program.

I'm here today with the Policy Research Center for Tobacco and the Environment.

It's a collaboration between Say San Diego and San Diego State University.

I would like to comment on a smoke-free outdoor dining policy.

San Diego proudly and rightfully promotes itself as a healthy, outdoor-oriented city.

This is a city where people enjoy active lifestyles and vibrant public spaces.

Year-round outdoor dining is a big part of that identity.

Families and residents and visitors gather on restaurant patios across our city, expecting a clean and welcoming environment.

When speaking with community members, they are often surprised to learn that there are no policies in the city of San Diego making all outdoor dining smoke free.

And this goes beyond the well-documented dangers of secondhand smoke.

When patrons smoke or vape, they leave behind toxic residue that can linger on tables and other surfaces.

This residue contains more than 25 chemicals listed under California's Prop 65 as hazardous to human health, including nicotine and other cancer-causing chemicals.

Even after smoking stops, patrons can pick up and absorb this residue simply by touching the tables and surfaces in the outdoor dining areas.

If you've ever taken a baby or a toddler to a restaurant, you know that everything on those tables is primed for going right into their mouths.

When the table is layered in toxic residue, this innocent reflex becomes a serious health hazard.

Neighboring jurisdictions with this policy in place include, in alphabetical order, Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Coronado, Del Mar, Incinitas, Imperial Beach, La Mesa, National City, Solana Beach, and the unincorporated area.

Adopting a comprehensive smoke-free outdoor dining policy would reinforce San Diego's identity as a city that values health and safe public spaces.

It would also send a clear and consistent message that places where people gather to eat should be free from unwanted secondhand smoke and that corresponding residue.

Thank you for your time and for the attention being given to this issue.

We appreciate the opportunity to share our work and to be a resource for the community.

Thank you.

Ocean, if you can please unmute.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Eric Fletcher.

I'm a San Diego resident, open water swimmer and conservationist.

I'm here to voice my strong opposition to the pending permit for the La Jolla Bluffs Odor Abatement Program, provide evidence of a multi-year unpermitted spraying program, and request an immediate immediate city auditor investigation to the permitting gap and potential misallocation of public funds.

On May 1st, 2017, the city published its marine coastal management plan for La Jolla, pledging to comply with state and federal coastal regulations.

Yet city internal logs reveal they executed 120 spray applications between 2017 and 2023, with the first spray occurring with just three days after the publication.

Further, 112 of those runs occurred during federally protected bird nesting and marine mammal popping windows.

Via email, City Administration confirmed that they failed to obtain a coastal development permit, a waste discharge waiver, or letter of authorization from NOAA fisheries for any of these sprays, bypassing public comment and transparency.

This product is framed as environmentally friendly, but the surfactant used presents a severe threat to marine life and human health.

I've learned that sprays may be damaging our giant kelp.

These surfactants can dissolve the protected mucilage layer and prevent microscopic spore reef attachment.

I've shared this data with scientists at SIO and UCSD who confirmed that this unknown variable was not considered in their research.

They noted the geographic correlation matching canopy collapse local to localize the La Hoya's northern beds and intend to study this data further.

My public records request showed despite budget shortfalls, the city spent sixty-three thousand nine hundred and forty-six dollars and thirty-six cents in public funds on product alone to execute these harmful and unpermitted sprays, which expose the city to significant financial liability.

Now Parks and Rex wants to spend more while closing public restrooms.

I respectfully request this council deny pending permit application PRJ-1154436, order a city auditor investigation into possible violation of state and federal laws, look into potential misallocation of budget funds, and finally draft a science-based natural resources management plan as required by the city's own LCP, La Jolla's Community Plan, and the Coastal Act.

I have presented and shared this data with La Jolla Parks and Beaches.

Good evening.

My name is Becky Rapp, and I'm here tonight to encourage the city to prioritize transportation safety with more urgency when it relates to marijuana consumption.

We need to better ensure that everyone who uses our roads and transit systems gets home safely.

Federal transportation agencies and researchers have agreed that this correlation is a challenge.

Unlike alcohol, there is currently no scientifically validated test that can accurately measure real-time marijuana impairment.

And federal research has found that THC levels in blood or other bodily fluids do not accurately correlate with the person's level of driving impairment.

Because of this, determining impairment remains significantly more difficult than measuring alcohol impairment.

Transportation safety organizations representing trucking, aviation, rail, public transit, and other industries have expressed concern about this issue because their employees perform safety-sensitive jobs where impairment can have serious consequences.

These concerns show us the importance of relying on sound science and accurate data when developing public safety policies.

These same questions are relevant here in San Diego.

Are we collecting sufficient information about marijuana-related impairment in traffic crashes?

Do we know how often impairment is a contributing factor in serious or fatal collisions?

And are our first responders and law enforcement agencies collecting consistent data that can help inform future policy decisions.

I encourage the council to request information from SDPD and fire rescue departments and other appropriate agencies regarding marijuana impairment in traffic incidences.

That information can help you determine whether additional education, prevention, or enforcement efforts are warranted.

San Diego has an opportunity to lead by making evidence-based decisions and collecting airport.

Your time is concluded.

Madison, if you can please unmute.

Nearly a decade later, the opposite has happened.

Just in the last three months, Governor Newsom announced that law enforcement seized more than 63,000 pounds of illegal marijuana worth 104 million dollars, eradicated nearly 90,000 illegal cannabis plants, confiscated firearms, and made arrests at illegal grow sites.

Since 2022, California has seized and destroyed more than 841,000 pounds of illicit cannabis valued at over 1.3 billion dollars.

These aren't signs of a problem that's been solved.

They're evidence that the illegal market continues to flourish alongside the permitted one.

Illegal grows also leave behind toxic pesticides and chemicals that contaminate streams, threaten wildlife, and ultimately put consumers at risk.

These operations often exploit workers and are tied to organized criminal networks.

As San Diego considers cannabis related policies, I urge you not to assume that expanding the permitted market will eliminate illegal activity.

California's experience shows that the black market can persist and even thrive despite widespread commercial availability.

Please continue supporting strong enforcement against illegal operators and prioritize policies that protect public health, neighborhood safety, and our environment over expanding access to high potency marijuana.

Thank you.

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

Hi, thank you.

Local U.S.

communities are simply being allowed to better question long-term U.S.

international relationships and how U.S.

data companies like Flock seem to be overly developing its data within the context of supporting international policies of war and its harm.

I've been describing for months now how the city of Oakland and its county of Alameda are currently developing an 18-month process of full community input to discuss best practices in leaving PLOC and in working towards a new, better principled AOPR vendor.

This is simply a good process of community participation, the San Diego community can learn from this.

I hope the San Diego community can also be considering a yearly review process and tech redundancy and how small surveillance tech reductions reductions each year can offer more efficient strategically placed neighborhood tech practices.

In theory, this will not take away much from current San Diego neighborhood public safety, and yet we would have the ongoing good efforts towards responsibility, clarity, oversight, and consistency with tech accountability policies.

From all of this, I strongly feel San Diego City Council and City Government will simply have to make more clear and to more openly relay to the San Diego community at this time, and how better conversations and ideas are developing within the current spoken and unspoken procedures and guidelines of SDPD AOPR use in real time in our current San Diego neighborhoods.

Perhaps this can become a helpful good public meeting conversation during the 2026 fall election time and about current San Diego Tech Accountability, neighborhood public safety concerns, and its ways of neighborhood community healing and idea sharing for all sides into 2027.

These ideas are meant to be open, safe, and of good logic, and to help add to the current ongoing San Diego conversation on these subjects.

I hope we can be building trust.

These ideas are meant towards trust and can really uh take these ideas to heart.

Thank you.

Thank you, Judy Strang, if you can please unmute.

Good evening, San Diego City Council.

As most of you know, the uh UT has been publishing letters to the editor regarding the closure of the 13 bathrooms in Mission Bay area.

And as I was reading the one today about the fellow who had colitis, I was sort of overcome by my own personal experience with a child who also has colitis and the trauma that has been her life since she was six, and how much it has limited how she can navigate her world.

She's now a college student and has had much medical intervention since then, including an operation that created a stoma for her, but just, and that's had its own ramifications, as you can imagine, towards finding a bathroom.

So I'm wondering for a city who has always cared about clean air, clean water, public health and safety.

What the heck are we thinking?

We can't have something in our, we can't lack public bathrooms in our public spaces.

We just can't.

It doesn't make any sense at all.

It harms the reputation of the city of San Diego.

It undermines our goals, it goes against the rhetoric we say every day.

And my granddaughter isn't alone in this situation by any stretch of the imagination.

We need to rethink it and we need to rethink it now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Christine Wellbourne.

Christine Wellborn, I can't unmute.

Hi, sorry.

Christine Wilburne District One.

I'm calling about the disgraceful, disgusting, and unacceptable bathroom closures.

Um it's my understanding that no staff positions were eliminating, eliminated for this.

So for five hundred and fifty thousand dollars, why don't we have some sort of um drive to for so residents can donate cleaning supplies and toilet paper if that's an issue because it's not a staff issue, and residents would be much more willing to donate actual products and things than vote for more taxes because we see that our money is not being spent wisely, so that's my suggestion is doing that.

Um also I'm not sure if you're aware, but the new trash trucks require three feet clearance in order to pick them up.

They cannot get in a more narrow area.

I don't have that problem personally, but I've heard that people have not had their trash picked up for multiple weeks because of the new trucks, and they're in areas where parking is not easy to come by.

So I'm not sure what the solution is for that, but when you're you know green lighting all these ADUs and apartment complexes and everything else and not requiring ample parking, where are people supposed to put their trash cans if they're not gonna get picked up unless they're three feet apart, and that's impossible to do because there's no space.

So anyway, and also um President La Cava and Council person Whitburn, I appreciate you two paying attention when people speak in public at this non-agenda public comment.

The rest of you I don't know what games you're playing on your phone, but I'd really like to find out.

Seems like they're very entertaining.

Thank you.

You all have a good night.

Bye.

Our final speaker is Jeanette Sanchez.

Jeanette Sanchez, used to lay cortis para poder traducirle adequadamente.

Good evening or good afternoon, San Diego City Council.

My name is Janet.

My name is Jeanette Sanchez and I live in City Heights.

I am here as a concerned parent because I'm concerned about secondhand smoke as a mother.

In my communidad.

In my community.

And gave uh different advice about how to protect them.

But that was all they gave.

They didn't give me any advice about what to do when people are smoking near them.

It is very frustrating, and I feel like I am not able to take care of my children.

Because we don't have any comprehensive lays about sorry, we do not have any comprehensive laws about smoking in public.

The smoke that actually goes through all the different multi-dwellings units is very much a problem.

And for many families, multi-family dwellings is the only option for housing.

But it is very difficult to find multifamily dwellings or any dwelling that is actually um cost efficient.

Oh, that are cost efficient and that are free of smoke.

The smoke from other units comes into our house through the windows.

Through the walls and through the air ducting in the units.

A lot of people who just say, just open your window so that you can let in fresh air.

But that doesn't resolve the problem.

The smoke stays within our apartments within our furniture and within our clothing.

And that is the air that our family is breathing every day.

Our children are constantly complaining about how strong the smoke smell is.

And a lot of times they cough a lot just because of the constant smell.

No family should have to live under these conditions.

We are asking that the law and that you all put us and our children first.

For encima de las grandes tabacaleras.

In front of the big uh corporate smoking companies.

Cigarette companies.

But the politics and the policies of the city do not reflect that.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you, Council President.

That does conclude my agenda public comment.

All right, thank you, City Clerk.

Does the city attorney have anything to report out from closed session?

Yes, thank you, Council President.

Today in a special closed session meeting, the city council voted on special closed session item number four to initiate litigation.

Once litigation is formally commenced, the action, the defendants, and other particulars will be disclosed to any person upon inquiry, unless to do so would jeopardize effective service of process or settlement negotiations.

The motion passed unanimously, nine to zero.

That concludes my comment.

All right, thank you.

We will now adjourn as a city council to convene as a housing authority.

Does the city attorney have anything to report out from housing authority closed session?

Yes, thank you, Council President.

Today in a special housing authority closed session meeting.

Alright, thank you.

We will now adjourn as the Housing Authority to reconvene as the City Council.

We have one adjournment in memory, which I will read.

San Diego lost a great journalist and a great human being this month with the passing of Kelly Davis.

We honor Kelly with this adjournment and memory, which has taken a lot from Jeff McDonald's GTPs to do her justice.

Kelly was dedicated to journalism, a passion that persisted over decades and drew both the ire and the respect of elected officials across the region and the state.

Her work appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune, The Voice of San Diego, and the now shuttered San Diego City Beat, which she co-founded and edited.

Kelly was named Journalist of the Year by the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2023, recognizing her watchdog reporting on the high mortality rates in the county sheriff jails.

Perhaps more telling as to the importance of her work.

More than a dozen family members of people who had died in custody attended that a voice and brought light to their suffering when they thought no one cared her work.

Kelly's report spurred state audits and prompted Governor Gavin Dusum to sign a pair of reform bills.

Kelly was known for her policy chops and a deep understanding of complicated subjects gleaned from her arcane research.

She studied government policy manuals and took classes to broaden her knowledge so she could write with authority.

Kelly loved cats and left three at her Fletcher homes, Fletcher Hills home.

She was known for her thoughtful gift giving, often finding just the right gift for friends and family.

She played rhythm guitar and sang backing vocals for an indie band called Super Thirty One through much of the nineties, recording multiple extended play records in its heyday, Super Thirty One was a staple of the underground scene and shared stages with bands like Radio Head and Belly.

She earned a bachelor's degree in literature from Chapman University and later a master's degree from Boston College.

Kelly Lynn Davis was born on St.

Patrick's Day in 1973 and raised in Irvine.

She is survived by her husband Brian Espinoza, her father J.

Emerson Davis, and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Kelly courageously beat back cancer for nearly a dozen years while producing policy changing dispatches.

Kelly Davis rest in peace.